Bacon, "It wns prettily devised of lEeop; the fly sat upon the axletree of the chariot- wbeel, and snid, 'What a dust do I raise I' So there are some vain persons, that what- soever goeth alone or moveth upon greater means, if they have ever so little hand in it, .they think It ia they that carry it." But " All service ranks the same with God- With God, whose puppets, best and worst, .Are we : there is no last nor first." 1. Ven.16-23.-Judg-e and conversion. I. FIGURES OF JUDGMENT. The Assyrian is viewed under the image of a stout, well-fed body, into which a wasting disease comes by Divine judgment. Again, that judgment is depicted as a flaming fire, kindling and devpuring thorns and making a swift end to the towering beauty of the forest trees, the smiling pleasantness of the fruitful field. The remnant of the host will soon be counted "on one's fingers," as a boy might count the still stanrling stems in a wood <levastated by the fiery element. The decline of a sick man, lastly, may represent the falling away of a notion's power. •At best, what is hu:ina.nity but a flower fading in its pride? As we read in the 'Prometheus' of lEschylus, "Its strength, is it ~trong; its beauty, is ii fair? What hope have they, these dying briers, living one da.y long? How like a dream they go, this poor blind manhood, drifted from its end!" And in the light of moral disapproval, of Divine judgment, a. declining nation seems to be under a blight, whose ravages cannot .be checked. Where a.re the ancient civilizations, Assyria., Babylonia, Egypt, Greece, Rome? Their root wa.s long a.go cankered, a.nd their blossom went up a.s dWlt. The explorer, digging out a. statue here, or there deciphering a.n inscription, helps us to construct the picture of cities that were magnificent poems in stone, of a. life to which no secret of pleasure or of power wa.s denied. Were such heights in vain reached for mankind? Were yonder works of mighty kings the efforts of giants who fought a.ga.inst God? Rather let us say that it is he who both raises up and sets down-raises up .to illustrate the greatness of the spirit of man, his breath ; casts down to show the bitter- ness of human pride and the vanity of human ambitions. As we survey the remains of the " cloud-ca.pp'd towers a.nd gorgeous palaces " of Nineveh a.nd Persepolis, we a.re reminded that all earth's splendour is but a. dream, from which we must again and again a.wake anew, to find in the spiritual the only eternal; in the right the only enduring throne of potentates; in the sweet happiness of millions, not in the multitude of armed men, the mirror of God's will on earth. II. CONVERSION THROUGH .JUDGMENT. It was false reliances that corrupted Judah and Israel. As faith in the true objects of faith is nothing but strength, so the illusion which tempts us to trust where there. is nothing in reality to lean on, must betray us. Men under such illusions will confide in their deadly enemy as a bosom friend ; will invite the point of the weapon aimed at the heart; will "stay themselves upon them that smite them." We are limp, drooping creatures. Ra.re is he who walks with head quite erect, with eye undauntedly fixed on the unseen, with heart bound up in principle alone. If we crave countenance in our foibles, much more in our serious projects. And nover was there craze, weakness, silliness, or sin, for which abettors may not be found. Never have we so sought confirmation in views that should never have been entertained, but the hour of disenchantment has come, soon or late. The reed breaks, the cistern leaks; the soft foundation gives, and the ominous crack appears in our dwelling. And then we return to "stay ourselves on the Holy One of Israel with faithfulnes8." Or so the prophet forecasts the effect of his people's disenchantment. "The remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob to the Hero-God." He the only Head, the only Battle-leader, as the only Prince of Peace, will be found again in the da.y of adversity, at least by a few. As in the olden lime but a few were saved in the ark from the great flood, so from these overflowing judgments which are to descend, a few, though only a few, will be able to escape. A public end and decision of these controversies between Jehovah and his people is to be made, and it cannot be delayed nor averted. 1. To the prophetic consciousness it seems,4t any epoch, that "the whole world lies in wickeJness," and that the righteous aro but a very small remnant. 2. Historically, such a view seems to hold good. At critical epochs, England has probably been saved by the virtuous, lSUAII, O 194 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH, [ OH, X. 1..:34,
the Chrisli1m, the self-denying few. 3. But history is t.oo profound for any mortal reading or rendering. If n,\tione have passed away .notwithstanding that they hnd· a core of true hearts among them ; if Israel still remains, though her lamp has been reruo'l"ed from its stand, there is, doubLless, a deeper meaning in ~he prophet's words. It is the "remnant" which has gi'l"en us our Hebrew Scriptures. From the caldron of suffering, exile, external sorrow, came forth the fine gold of the great prophet of the Capti'l"ity, and of many of the psalmists. Every oat.ion that leaves noble and Divine thoughts for the pos~ession of mankind for ever; every individual who, out of the wreck of life's mistakes, bequeaths some legacy of truth to posterity, fulfils in a way the prophecies of the recovery of the remnant.----,1".