The Pulpit Commentary — Isaiah — Volume 1 — Section 87

fr9J!l .Jude.h's rnlere (eh. iii. 14; cpmp. eh, i. 25; vi.13; Mau. iii.11). Then,11nd then on)y, can the glorious day come fo :t~e visiqn..of which the prophet exults. I. NATIONAL .ooNDITIONB OF PROSPERITY.. UThe shoot of Jehovah will be for adom- ·ment an<l honour." Erit germen IJomini wi, magnificentia et gloria. 'l'he rich fertility ,q( the land is compared to a .new sprquting gi:owth, caused by the creative energy of God. When the Spirit of God is felt to be operative in the life o( a people, then, and .~h~n only, c~n ,its life be bot\!: str!),ng and beautiful., ,See, again, this thought in eh. x:r.viii. 5: h.e will be as a "crown of glory and diadem of beauty" to the residue of his peqple. " Then. shall be give the rain of thy seed, that thou shalt sow the gronnd wi,thal; and bre.ad of the increase of the earth, and it shall be,fat and plenteous: in that day shall. t)iy, cattle feed in large pastures " ( eh. XXL 23). " In that day the mountains shall c;lrop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the rivers of Judah. sj:iall ,fiow with wati:rs, and a fountain shall come forth out of the house of Jehovah, and shall water the valley of Shittim" (Joel iii. 18). "Behold, the days C()171e, sa.ith Jehoy~h, that the ploughman shall overtake the. reaper, and the treader of grapes him, that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the }iill,s shall melt.,.• .. They sh,all plant vineyai·ds, and drink the wine thereof; they shal), also make gardens, and eat the fruit of. them. And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith Jehovah. thy God" (Amos ix. 13-15). " I will sow her unto me i.n th,e earth," , (Hos. ii. 23). Glowing pictures! Israel's golden age ever is in the future. And for all who" hope in God," the" good old times,'' the "Satumian reign," ~s ,coining again. Ma_qnus ab integro sreclorum nascitur ordo. The hard oaks sh:.11 a.gain sweat with, the. dewy honey ; our sweetest dreams become a solid fact. " From me .is thy fruit foun4" (Hos. xiv. 8). .IL PEnSONAL CONDITIONS OF PROSPERITY. The one condilion is personal holiness. "E.very relict .in Zion, and every one remaining in Jerusalem, will be called a saint; every one ,who hits been written among the living in Jerusalem." Profound thought! t!ie holy man alone is the li,ving man. Matter is death ; spirit is exemption from the rule of matter. Holiness is victory over matter-in its lower form, ftesl1\y cleanliness; in its higher, the purity of self-consistent truth that will not mix with what is alien to.its.elf.. ; ., . ... _ . III. VI/!IBLE GLORIES, Upon every home on Mount Zfon, and every place of prayer, there will be the.cloud by day,.and .the fume and splendour of flaming fire by night; over all the glo'ry a protection. " Wherever there is true spiritual exaltation and lllajesty, there. is around it,a covering and protection which keeps the world away from it." .. "There's a di vj.nity doth hedge a king." We cannot constantly bear the splen- dour; we need. th.~ cool· calm common places of life to resort to when our eyes are wearied with. the glare o( highest truth. And we may find the "calm retreat, the silent 8hade," of religious life no less welcome than the mount of glory and of vision. From the storm and rain we may find a refuge in the "secret place of the Most High."-J. .. Ver.1.-Depopulationand its doctrine. This passage btlongs to the two concluding verses of the last chapter; ·but us it is the most striking of the three, we may allow it to be our starting-point in gleaning the thoughts which the whole scene suggests. These are- Li EXTREME DESOLATION WROUGHT IN THE .. RIGIITEOUSNESS OF GOD. The lnnd is atripped by war of its male populat.ion (eh. iii. 25); those who gather at the gates bewail the humiliation under which they smart, the privation to which they are reduced. "Her gates shall lament," etc. (eh. iii. 26). Jerusalem can no longer stand in her \ltrength and honour; she is prostrate in weakness and in her shame ; desolate, she sits upon the ground. Sltch is the havoc which war hns made, that the virgin daughters of the land, instend of waiting modestly to be addressed, go out in numbers to 1).nd themselves husbands under any unnatural condition, ~o that the reproach of perpetual virginity and childlessness may be somehow removed (text). In the righteous ru\e-uf God, sin ends in utter desolation. It may be the history (If the nution,as in this instance, Its stages are those: departure from the will uud Word of God; luxury anrl corruption· e[eminacy and weakness; strife and defeat; exile, poverty, loneliness, attcmiits t.; gratify hope and ambition by unnatural and pitiable methods. But thi::i  72 THE BOO:K OF TH:E PROPlIET tsAIAi1. [on. tv. 1-8,