th,m he must find. some instruments of chastiaeme~t whioh will dirccLly affect oliles and oat.ions. His instruments m11y be the destructiveforc'es of n11ture~famine, peslilcncc, fear, ancl war-which directly r~h corp!)rllte au_d natio11al feeling. .Herein is !'I cllri?ll!I thing. Men 11,e ready enough to hear the voice of. God when he ecncls a bountiful harrnst. 'l'be ,~hole land r-ings with the harvest-song,,and me.n, do not mind ,our sayin~ that God sent the llnrvest. But how blind and deaf men become wheu harvest fails 1 Our blessings come from G-od; but how we ,ry to make out t~~t ·ou'c.disa.sters are only consequences of some unwisdom, or some neglect of social or agricultural laws.!. We need not see God's hand in them. Let us not, however, be afraid of either sid11 of the grea~ truth. If God would recognize our ,faithfulness to him, he can find ~ich golden corn, and stmny autumn for its ripening and its ingathering. If he Q.e!lds _to_ chastise, and awaken in us th~ sense of sin, thea he can make withered ears iitan,d in the fields, summer floods damage the shocks, and sunless autumn hinder th~ ripei;iing. C,111 it ever take away from tlle judg;mcnt-aspect of national calamity t)lat we are.able to explllin how the earth, in its movements through space, l1as come into a dt\lUP region, or .into a cold region; how certain atmospheric conditions have deve)pped the blight; and how: the current of certain winds pas broµght the locusts; and how a distui:'!:,~pee of nature's limiting agencies has developed unduly the cateq_>illar? But i.f God speak11 to us iri judgment, let us never forget that he really speaks to us. in mercy. He ever blend~ mercy with judgment; and the respons~ he asks from our hearts ,vill go into the ol~ wor,ls .: " Come, let us return unto the Lord: for he hath tom, and he w.ill heal us ; h~ hath smitten, and he :will bind us up. A~ two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight.": "To the J,ord our G9i;l belongeth. mercies .and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him.OJ~R, T_.
f!ECTION III. lsAUB~S VISIO~ OF Gon UPON ms TnnoNE (en. VI.). •F.,XJ'O$ITION. ting upon a throne, Jilgh and lifted up. The CHAPTEB'Vl. imageryie, ot course, taken from the prac- Yers. 1-4.-THE VISION OF Gon SEEN _BY tice of earthly kingd. Elaborate thrnneil IsAUJL It is thought by some that this Egypt e,'lfected were by the great monarchs of e,nd Assyrie, (LE,psiue, i Dautma.ler,' 'l'isi.io, and its sequel, constitute the original pt. iii. pls. 2, 76, 100, 121; .Layard, 'Nine- c.ill of Isaiah to the prophetical office, and . veh and Babylon,' p.· 150). Solomon's throne in order of time precede all the other con- was perhaps even. gran\fer than. any of thesf! tents of the book. But the position of the (see l. Kings L 18~20). _It W(!,8 placed at " 'l'ision" in the book is strongly against the summit of "six stepfl'," so.that its occu- pau t was "high •. and lifted up " 11bove all tLis view. Prophets who relate their- his courtiers. llis tram. Not his train· of original call naturally pla.ce it- in the fore-, attendants, bnt. " the skirts of . his robe.'' front of their narrati'l'e (Jer. i. 10; Ezek. j. ; Flowing tobes'were' homQJo'nlr WOl'D !:>y great 1). It is quite possilile, 1LB Dishop Lowth mone.r<ihs. Filled the temple; or, the palace. says, that thio was u'a new designo.tion, to The snme word ·is used in• !Hebrew for both, Dr. Kay supposes the prophet to. be "in introduce more sol~mnly a general dec~a: ,-vision geziog on -the, actual temple-to see tioo of tlie whole course of God's dispensa- its veils drawn asid!l, and instead. of the tions in regard to his people, and the fates Shechinah enthroned on. the cherub\m, to of the nations." The vision itself may pro- behold tLe. •King of glory,. enthroned on fitably be compared with Ezekiel's first high, the fringes of his r,oye.1 r~be filling the temple, so that no '.l/.µm·11-n pnest could vision. which it mnch resem\Jlea (Ezek. i. minister there." But, fi"s Mr. Cheyne ob- 4-28). 'servcs, "palace is •more in 'harmony with Ver. 1.-In the year that Xing Uzziah the picture' than temple.I' It is the heavenly died. 'I'he year B,c. 759, probably. We palace of the King of kinga in'to which the cannot deterwine from the phrase used prophet's gaze is ollowed to-penetrate . whether the vision was seen before or aft.er . Ver. ·2..--Above it .stood the 1eraphim1; 1Jzzie.h'B dee.th. I nw alao; rather, then it rather, abO'lle Mm.were ',tanding lll!f'aphim, iva• that I ,aw (comp. Exod. xvi. 6). The The "ser~phirn '!•. are intl'O\i11ted, not as/ Lord. Not "Jehove.h.'' 11,11 in -ver,. '3 au4 5, well k11own, ,withJ,he ~rti_i;lo, but without it, but "Adooe.y," for gr_eate, revereu,;:e, lit- as llllk11own. ,.{f~ wo~d me•ll.lj '.' fiery OJW~'; on. vr. 1-13.~ THE, BOOK OF T,~E PROPHET ISAIAH. 107