The Pulpit Commentary — Isaiah — Volume 1 — Section 118

the Divine will nnd Uw. "The constant increaae of the power and secnrity of the realm, o.nd the profusion ot an age rendered prosperous by the development of arts and distant commerce, were accompanied by an equally vigorous growth of other things; tho craving for enjoyment and lu:tury among the people, and especially among the women of the capita); the foollsh predilection for foreign manners and foreian super- stition.a of every kind, and a wantonness of life, from which many, even of the judaes, Wero no.t altogether free, and under which the defenceless inhabitants had to suffer ~th increasing severity; all of which Isaiah, the great prophet of his age, who lived in Jerusale~,reco~nized and depicted_in the sharpest outlines.,. D_ean Stanley gives a yet more striking picture of that luxunous age. "The luxury and msolence of the nobles was in a high 'degree oppressive and scandalous. Bribery wa.s practised in the seats of judgment, and enotmous landed property was accumulated against the whole spirit of the Israelite commonwealth. With the determination and, we may add, the avarice of their race, they laid their deep schemes at night, and carried them out with their first waking. 'l'hey'" did evil with both hands;" they 11kinned the poor to the very quick ; they picked their bones and ground them to powder. The great ladies of Zion were haughty, and paced along the streets tossing their necks, and leering with their eyes, walkiQg and i;nincing as they went, covered with tinkling ornaments, chains, bracelets, mantles, veils, of. all fashions and sizes." Isaiah declares that Jehovah observed all these moral arid social evils, and that he used the agencies of nature to execute his ju<lgments on .such sinners. 'l'hey would find, when the harvest came round, that "ten acres of land would only yield one bath, and the seed of a homer would only yield an ephah." 'God would'smite them through the fields. Is Isaiah's teaching obsolete? Does God speak to tne men of this age by the voice of nature? Having found out that the world is ruled by law, have we gained the right to banish the Lawgiver? Whether men call us superstitious or not, we OD.hesitatingly say that God is in the harvest still, and its limitation is the voice of God calling on us to humble ourselves concerning our social and national iniquities. That this is a right and reasonable view to take will appear. if we consider,- !. MA,N IS BENSITl;VE ~ NATUI\E 1 AND NA TUBE TO l!UN. . If we are still thus sensitive, God c,an. use nature still as a medium by which to communicate his will to us. Nature has not yet become one of the dead languages; God can speak to us in it. We are affected by the nature-moods of each passing day. Crisp frost braces us to exertion; glowing sun.shine and clear skies are reflected in bright and cheerful feelings; cloudy, dull· days make our work drag heavily. Storm-times fill us with fear. Everybody anxiously observes the character of the seasons. -The nation alternates between hope and fear as reports ·come· of rains, or late frosts, or blight, or flood. Nature is ever bringing to 'us messages from God, gracious testimonies of his acceptance or of his reproof. ,A'nd no voices are so loud or so clear as those of the harvest, which is God's yearly replenishing of our. exhausted stores, and IO the intimation of Di vine regard or Divine disfavour. And nature is sensitive to man, and responsive to man's conditiocs and doings. Go into some parts of our land, some metal and mining districts, and notice how nature, in response to man, has changed her aspect. Her trees cannot live. Her atmosphere has become damp and chill. See her fields responding to man's draining. She now runs off her moisture in sudden and desolating floods. See the thick smoke- cloud hanging over great towns. Nature responds by breeding fatal diseases beneath it. God is ever fitting issues to actions, and in the issues revealing the character of the action. "Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death." Visit the Holy Land, now desolate and barren, once fruitful and cultivated. It has but responded to the destruction of its timber, py tne invading armies that have tramped over it again and again. The prophets seem: to have, as one great part of their mission, to show that changes in seasons, loss offruitage, bad harvests, fearful storms, locusts and caterpillars, are really the judgment-responses of nature to the doings, the wrong-doings, of men. Close up our Scriptures if it is no longer true that God speaks to men through nature; for St. Paul says, " God gave them rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling their hearts with food and gladness." Surely the invisible things of God may be clearly understood by the things that are made. II. NATURE CAN STILL BE USED AS AN AOE~'T OF DIVINE JUOOMENT ON MAN. If God is, then he cannot pass by sin. If God visits the sins of cities and of nations as such, 106 THE OOOK OF THE PROPHET l;SATAar