The Pulpit Commentary — Isaiah — Volume 1 — Section 207

terrible fMturus close beside it, as may be illustrated from the great and rich European cities of our day. Wealth has a tendency to go in the direction of classes; it drains away from some classes, and so alienates and embitters them, especially as the result of Relf- irnlulgcnce is to harden a. man's heart against his neighbour, 'l'be condition of widows in the East is an extremely painful one, because they have no rights in their husband'~ property, no sccial status, and are the prey or designing and wicked men. The retired li le they !~ad unfits them for contending on behalf of their own rights, or those of their children. The picture of a national life in which the wronged have no judge, the poor no helpers, and the widows no friends, is an exceedingly painful one. Self-seeking, luxury, and class prejudice must have eaten the heart out of such a kingdom. II. IN SUCH A STATE OF SOCIETY THE POOR HAVE HELP IN GoD. 'l'his may be illustrated along the following lines. God will help them by: 1. 'l.'he working of hi, jtuigment-laws. In Greece despised helots multiply, and become at last 11, destructive fo~ce, for a time breaking up society. Slaves learn at last to coml:Jine, and take their own avcngements on their persecutors. Down-trodden races .heave awhile, like slum- bering earthquakes, and presently burst forth in revolutions that are, in reality, Divine judgmcnts. 2. By the orderings of Divine providence, which bring the nati!]n, into such a condition that reformation of its wrongs becomes imme.diately _ne(!essary. to secure its continued existence. 3. By tire raising up of hu1TJ,an, help~rs., ;Men.'\Vh.q 1ilead the cause of the poor, and mak~ their voice and their condition to be h~ard ,even in the high places of a land. At once thought turns to such men _as Wilberforce,, the friend of the slave, and Howard, the friend of the prisoner. 4 .. By special Divine ~011- solations. The poor have their ameliorations, and even their superior. advantages; and not the least of them is this-they have little prejudice hindering the reception o( Diviz:e truth. To "the poor the gospel is preached," and in every age it is found trne that "the common people beard Christ," and hea.r of Christ, "gladly/'-R. T. Vers. 5-7.-The Divine overruli11gs. The ngure of Assyria as. 1m aggrandiziqg power is here set before us. "About B.C. 1100, the rule of Assyria, under Tiglath.. Pileser I., had stretched from Kurdistan to the Grecian Archipelago, including the whole of Lebanon and Phrenicia. But a strong league of the Hittite kings of Syria had effectually humbled it, and torn away from the successors of the great .king all his dominions on this side the Euphrates. After a hundred and fifty years of obscurity, Assyria once more, in the middle of the ninth century B.C., under its warlike king, A£sur-Nazirhabal, entered on a career of conquest, and cleared its home territories of their Babylonish garrisons. He was succeeded by bis son, Sbalmaneser IL, who proved the Napoleon of his day. After conquering Babylonia, he marched fµ. triumph to the shores of the Persian Gulf, and exacred tribute from the petty kings of Chaldma. But these triumphs only kindled his military ardour. He now dete~mined to extend his empire to the ancient grandeur it had obtained under Tiglath-Pileser I. , .The.kingdom of Damascus and the states of Palestine were thus in imminent danger. A new era of mo:-ta.l struggle had come to them--a struggle only to end, after an agony of more than a hundred years, in the destruction of Damasc.us and Samaria, ll!ld the degrading vas• salage of all the nations from the Euphrates to the Levant. Henceforth all Western Asia trembled at the name of Assyria. The heavens were black with tempests, driving, with only momentary lulls, across the whole sweep of Syria and Palestine". (Dr. Geikie), Fixing attention on Assyria, we observe- , L SELF-WILLED AesYRIA,· CARRYING OUT ITS OWN l'LANS, Describe the historical facts. The poet seems to be watching this aggrandizing king determine<! to push h.i~ conquests to the Medirerranean, and become master of the world. The CJLreer and spirit of the first Napoleon are full of effective comparisons. The lust of conquest ever grows with success, and the Assyrian king had no more thought of God than Napoleon had. He simply meant to serve his own ends. These great world-conquerors are pro111inent examples of" taking life into our own ordering, and resolutely fashioning it to our own ends ; " and they are examples, too, of the curse to all around, aud the ruin to the man himself, or every self-willed life. II. OvERRCLED AssYRIA o.&.BRYING OUT Goo's PLANS, What a supreme humilia- tion for conquering Assyria was this prophetic declaration I Assyria was, in actual fact, only carrying out the purpose of Jehovah, who was known to the Assyrians but as the en. x. 1-34.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH. 199