eelf-indulgenco, and find in it excuse for vicio111 practices. Infidelity never lnya foundntione for virtue to build on. It Is ever the substratum of vice. Illustrate from the French Revolution. II. REBELLIOUS DEEDS A OALL FOR JUDGMENT, The bad deeds are the proper fruitage of bad speech. Illustrate by the evil work of the demagogue. Break down the sacred restraints of faith in God, and evils rush in like a flood. When man feels free to do what he likes, his likes are sure to be bad ones. Impress that no account of a man's ruin, or a nation's ruin, will suffice which deals only with his circumstances. Nobody was ever ruined by accident. Man's tongue and doings will always provide the expla- nation of his extreme calamities.-R. T. Vere. 10, 11.-Messagea to the righteou, and the 'IDicked. These verses a.re ~ - thetical. " They assert the doctrine of ' future rewards and punishment' in a spiritual and not a mechanical sense. Good deeds ripen into happiness, as evil deeds into misery" (Cheyne). The point of impression may be stated thus- I. 'l'o THE RIGHTEOUB-GoD'B JUDGMENTS ABE NOT INDISCRIMINATE. II. To THE WICKEn--GoD'B JUDGMENTB ARE INEVITABLE. "The piollS are gracioualy assured, that in the worst of times, and under the most trying ciraumstances, God wtll be their Friend and Rewarder; while the ungodly are equally auured that they shall suffer merited punishment" (Henderson). Compare the Divine pleadings with Cain (Gen. iv. 7), and Abraham's pleading over guilty Sodom (Gen. xvili. 25). See .Asaph's perplexity because it was so often ill with the righteous, and well with the wicked (Ps. l.x.xiil.). How can God answer those who, looking cursorily upon life, say that the earthly lot of the righteous and of the wicked is very much the same? His answer may be set forth under the following divisions. 1. God cares for the righteous, and haa some kind purpose towards them in letting them IIWfer. 2. The righteous should be willing to accept of a share of suffering, which aims at the correction and salvation of the many. 3. God keeps the conscience of the righteous quiet under suffering, and so he does not feel its real bitterness. 4. God can keep the righteous from sharing suffering if it pleases him so to do, just as he saved Israel in Goshen from the plagues that smote the rest of Egypt. To the wicked God's judgmente have a. bitter sting, for they are conscious of the connection between their sins and their judgments, unless conscience is utterly dead, and then there must come for them an awful day of awakening. And if the wicked do escape calamities here, there is the inevitable day coming when he mus'. receive "according ~ the deeds done in hie body,"-R. T. Ver. 15.-Grindingthefaces of the poO'I'. Two figures are here employed~ .. Beat my people to pieces; " " Grind the faces of the poor." One of these may help to the under- standing of the other. Both deal with the tyrannies of masters, and may be illustrated by the cruel treatment of slaves in the old slave-holding times. J. A. Alexander explains the figures thus:" Crush my people is a common figure for severe oppression (Job v. 4; Prov. xxii. 22). Grind the faces upon the ground, by trampling on their prostrate bodies, is also another strong figure for contemptuous and oppressive violence." Ewald thinks blows or wounds in the face may be referred to. The figure may be taken from the threshing-sled, a cart without wheels, having pieces of flint and iron on the under side, which was drawn by oxen over the heap of wheat, grinding the grains. So the exactions and forced labours to which the poor were subject was making lines and furrows in their faces by their grinding influence. The figure may be illustrated by the condition of the wretched fellahin in Egypt, who are ground with taxation until life has become a burden. Matthew Henry gives two suggestions by way of explanation. " You put them to as much pain and terror as if they were ground in a mill, and as certainly reduce them to dust by one act of oppression after another." "Their faces are bruised and crushed with the blows you have given them; you have not only ruined their estates, but have given them personal abuses." Roberts gives specimens of similar proverbial expressions current in India. " Ah I my lord, do not thus crush my face. Alas I alas I my nose and other features will soon be rubbed away. Is my face to be made quite flat with grinding?" "That head man has been grinding the faces of all his people." The opposite figure to this is to "smooth the face," meaning to "court 01 flatter." JU.JAB, 86 ~HB BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH [ CH. III, 1-26,
I. MAN's CRUELTY TO THE POOB, Illustrate the condition of poor pei;,plo in Eastern l&nds. They arc the first to suffer in times of national cnhunity, pestilence, famine, 0 1• war. The selfishness induced by national distress is seen in the neglect l\nd ill treat- ment of the poor. Woa'k :governments make cruel exactions from the ,poor•... Lordly and rich men too often crush the poor. Slave countries have'awful records of oruelty to the sla."". poor. Forced labour has, in many lands, cmbit~ered the lot of the poor. Now t~e evil 1s ~.b.er ~lnsh neglect than open cruelty. _Rich ;'Ind _poor o.re separated by wide class d1stmct10ns, and the poor a.re too often left m thcllr misery to·perish. , ll. Gem's OARE FUR '!'BE rooa. Seen in his counsels respecting the treatment .0 f them, in his own wondrous ways of providing for. theni,. and in, the relation of his manifostC'd Son to them. . Of him this was the characteristic, " Blessed are the poor; " "To the poor-the gospel 1s .preached." • • . ., , m. liiAN'S CONCERN FOB THE POOR WHEN HE BECOMES Goo-LIKE. Then he strives to feel as Christ felt, and to act as Christiacts. See the spirit of pious Job (Job xxix.), and compare Barnabas and Dorcas. The regenerate man cannot fail to interest himself in those w_ho are needy, or in trouble. T~e good ~'!I deals justly and kindly and thought- fully with the lowly folk who serve him. Grmding the face of the poor is an absolute impossibility to any man who has "the mind of Christ."-R. T. , r Ver. 16.-.Dnss and chara,ct,er. The Word of God has sometimes thina-s to say which it '?8-I1_not be ~timed to address ge~ernlly to mankind; it requires a mo~ d4-ect super- scnpt1on for Jt.s message,· a.nd wntes to men, to women, , even sometrmes to wives • maidens, mothers, widows, children. In the effort of Isaiah to produce a deep and 0