habit of saying false things disable the mind from seeing the ~rue. South has some powerful sermons from this text, 1=11tit,led "'The fatal force and imposture ot,.words." Tl'hongh an absolute falsehood cannot live, adulterntions of the truth may and do .QbttLin n wide currency,just as adulterations of meat and drink in the.bn:lf-dishonestfes ,ot t~l\dP., E,·ery truth comes to us in a c~rtain guise of falsehood; nci form ot laµ.guage. or other expression is adequate to clothe it. Dy insisting ou the fo~m as if it were the conten't, the out.side as if it were identical with the inside, the part as if ,it were the whole, we commit ourselves to falsehood rather than to truth. The essence of secial fo.lsehoods ~eems to be in maxims which make the spiritual subordinate to the material. In times of physical comfort and prosperity this Ls always our danger. Wo mistake the means of Ii ,·iug for the ends. We rest in pleasure, _comfort, wealth, instead of makirig these the temporary standing ground of the spirit, wbimco it may proceed to higher levels and nobler ends. . • . • . • IlI. SELF-CONCEITED FOLLY. We never see the full effect of, sin, of heart~untT)lth, until it works itself out in the imagination, filling the mind with a fatuous. se)!~coni- placency in its own weakness and blindness. The man thinks himself "wise;:• "inteliigent," who, to the. pierciug gaze of th~ prophet, is clearly a fool.. 'He thiriks himself a hero, whose best e:x:pluit is to shine at a drinking-bout,,and' a mighty man hecause he can play his part at the wassail, says the prophet with l,teenJreny. Mean- while they are deep in bribery. They would rob the pocir of his honesty, and ta].,e a\\"ay the righteousness of the righteous from tl1em. There are towns and ·vi_Hages where we may now see on a small scale all those evils ,wllieh the prophet exposed .in Jerusalem. Eril examples, old ar.d bad cust-01u~, h,wo so long had their way that a triJe staudard of living seems .no longer to be visible. Yet the moral tone may be restor11d, if there be but one m:I.Il who will live like the prophet, like a Christian, salting the co=unity by a quiet and conti.nuous witness for rectitude, for the truth of God, and the soul , . IV. TllE El\"D OF TIIE 'CNGODLY .um THE STh"NER. In a powerful .p_ictui-e ,the Cl!:\~ is depicted ~ tLe end to which a.ll that is. empty aud wor~hlessl refuse .mist~o111e, Th~y are like stubble before the devouring tongue of fire, like blazmg hay smlnng down m light ashes, like a root wnck with d~cay and rottenness,. like.flying_ _powdery b~osso?J, Evil is nO'U!Jli.t, and ends in nought. Thos~. whose "honour ha.:i been ,rooted m d.1/!- honour" must perish with the perishing of their root. The. decline ofconce grea~ nations and cities historically proves the prophetic truth. A "name and a sha,,~" is 1eft of Assyria, Egypt, Israel, Greece, and Horn_e. But o·. ne_ thiu_g ea.Ilp(!t. pc,i:i13..h :_, J_t i.~. ~h? "doctrine of Jehovah,_ the Word of the ~o~y OneA>Osraelr"_ A~d p;i.s,~1119 .,remnan~.' that Word ever does live, to breed new life in other scenes an4 .ages... 'I.he t111th, whu11 it slays the rebels, gives i=ortality to the faithful; ".bo_rn agaiii, not of corruptible, but of incorruptible seed."---J. Ver. 25.-The unappeasable wrath of. Jeh~~h. L "Oun GoD,,IS A :coNsu::r.u~o FIRE-" Whether to burn and. destroy the moral refuse of a peo_ple, ,to chasten. and refine its remnant and elect, he is i:evealed as the pure Flame. The Gen~ile~ ~ad a deep sense of the national significance of fire, as the pure eleIJien_t not to be nillted with aught foreign to itself. In their simple way, the hymns of the Veda. to Agni, the crod of fire, betray this feelincr; and, again, the idea, in Greek.and.Roman religion, of Hestia or Vesta, on whose altar the fire was kept ever burning, who "refused to wed," whose priestesses must be virgins. , IL W AB THE SCOURGE OF GOD. Deep has been the sense also of this truth. The.re is au obscure perception in the minds of men that war, with its atte~dant horrors, comes as a retribution. Attila the Ilun was spoken of a.s the" scourg~ of: God." _'l'o have seen a fair city black 1vith smoking rll,j:r;ts, and corpses lying in ita streets, is. to. have read with ineffaceable impressions the lesson t!iat "it iB a foiirfu! t~ing f p fall _into tQ./l bands of the living God." There are moments wh,cn tho, soli4 base 01 th,ings. i;eelllll treI?:1bliDg beneath our feet, the "eternal hills" as floors tremqlipg beneath tlie awful tread of the Eternal a, he "o)meth to jndl!,e the earth." . . III. THE DURATION OF PUNISHHE~T. It Jle(?ms as if it could not be exhausted, ,BO vast it; the mass of guilt to be purged.a.way, .A protracte.4 war,$ dragging famine, a probnged season of ruin, 1,eew, as we rpay in. common ·speech, "interminable." 'l'ho 'J'HE BOOJt or 'l'ttE PROPHET lSAIAii. 91
brood blue heaven, that seemed in aunny days as a benignant hand outspread above tnankind, wears tho expression or a ·stern and relentless frown. Long scores must be followed by long payment. The guilt of centuries cannot be wiped out in a day. Divine ju<lgment moy require even the obliteration of a whole people. But the intl\vi'due.l• may be saved.· .At .no time are Jehovah's "mercies clean forgotten." In the saddest; times, the repentant heart pierces through the gloom to the sanctuary and hcart/.o( liim- who slay& to make alive, who by means of war reconciles to himself in Christ Jesus.-J.