The Pulpit Commentary — Isaiah — Volume 1 — Section 57

Ver, 8,-Real religiOVB revival, "Many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob." Here is the tide of national feeling, no longer on the ebb, but on the flow. God ia "to teach them hie ways, and they are to walk in hie paths;" for they have found out that pleasure gained by sin is peace bartered. Elevation of the truest kind is to be theirs now. This is the image of their uplifted state. They are to go up to the mountain of the Lord's house-the consecrated height of holiness and peace. I. THERE 18 SPONTANEITY OF LIFE. "Come, let 118 go." It is no mere fashion, or custom, or compulsion of obedience. Life always says, "Come." I read delight here. For what wo enjoy we invite others to see. When we ascend to the mountain-top, and see the winding river, like a streak of silver, and the village-dotted plains, we cry "Come I " to others, that they too may delight in the loveliness of the scene. So an earnest Christian not only Hays" Come!" because of the urgency of the salvation, but also because of the beauty and blessedness of religion. " Oh taste and see," he says, "that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him." II. THERE IS SACRED FELLOWSHIP. "Let 118 go up." For religion is intensified in its experiences by mutual faith and joy. The interaction of mind on mind and heart upon heart in a great congregation is wonderful. "Let us go up." And beautiful were those spectacles in Hebrew history, when the pilgrims went to tabernacle or temple. "Thither the tribes go up." The festal caravans met each other from distant parts, as they merged o.t last into one common road to time-beloved Jerusalem. At the Feasts of Pentecost and Passover, as in the days of our Saviour, the interest felt in these upgoings to Jerusalem was both human and Divine. Old friends met again, whilst youths and maidens set eyes for the first time on the city and temple of their fathers. On their way they sang the songs of Zion, till in noblest worship the gathered tribes lifted up their praise to the Lord God of Israel. III. THERE IS SUBLIME PROPHECY. "Many shall go." Yes, and in these Christian dayJI, Greek and Jew, bond and free, have been united in one common song of deliverance. Missionary eocieties have founded Churches and schools on well-nigh every shore. "Many shall come." Verily, unto Christ shall the gathering of the people be. "All nations shall call him blessed." How verified the words have been! "For out of Zion shall go forth the Law, and the Word of the Lord from Jer118alem."- W. M. S. Vere. 1-5.-The promised future: a missionary sermoa. I. THAT Drvnra TRUTH WILL KNOW A TIME OF GLORIOUS ELEVATION. The "last days" (ver. 2) may be distant days, may be "a.far off" still, but they are coming; we are steadily advancing to them. The "mountain of the Lord's house" may be low down to-day, but it will rise ; it may be but as a hill of sacred truth obscured among the mountains of error. But God'~ high purpose shall surely be fulfilled in time; the day will dawn when they who gaze upon the spiritual scenery of the world will see Zion lifting up its bead far and high above all those little hills into which the proud peaks of falsehood will have diminished. There is a power that can raise the bills and that can "thresh the mountains" ( eh. xii. 15). II. THAT ITS POWER SHALL HAVE THE WIDEST POSSIBLE EXTENSION. u All nations shall flow unto it." The river of human thought, faith, hope, shall set in a strong current to this high mountain. Divine truth shall not only gain a formal triumph over the idolatries, superstitions, infidelities of the world, but human hearts everywhere will rejoice in its salvation. Ill. THAT ONE SIGN OF ITS EXALTA'tION AND EXTENSION WILL BE A PREVALENT SPIRIT OF RELIGIOUS INQUIRY. (Ver. 3.) Men will be convinced of the hollowness of their old faiths ; of the nnsatisfying character of their present pleasures ; of the insufficiency of the light in which they have been walking to lead them into wisdom and blessedness. And they will turn to the one and only source of illumination and joy ; they will say, "Let us go up," etc. (ver. 3). 'l'he hungry heart will cry out for the Bread of life ; the tbiretin" soul will pant for the living streams. When men have found-and are they not findincr ~ore and more largely ?-that the errors into which they have wandered are but asb8':I in their mouth, they will seek and they will accept the bountiful provision which awaits them in the " Father's house," in the gospel of the grace of God.  THE BOOK' OF TRE PROPHET ISAIAH.