God of.oqe of the little ate.tee which, they would be obliged to overrun. Assyria and He. proud king were only Jehovah'e rod and staff, executing for him the fierceness of his indignation. AsRyria was now as much the servant of God judging and punishing Syria and Israel, as the Hebrews had been the servants of God in exterminating the Canae.nites, whose cup o( iniquity had become full, and was running over. God makes "the wrath of man praise him, and the remainder of wrath he restrains." III. THERE 18 EVER CONSOLATION FOR Goo's PEOPLE IN Goo's OVERRUJ,INGS. We should always try to look beyond man's little plan, and see how things fit into God's greo.t plan. We may never be satisfied with what things look lilce, we should a.sk God to tieach us what they are. There. are no forces working in the moral or intellectual world of to-day which are out of God's range. We need never be despondent. The purposes of grace are overmastering purposes. It is always true that" man proposes, and God disposes." As practical appeal, show how important for us it is that we should be kin with God, fit into his purposes, and do his. will, not just by his overruling and ma,stery, but by our own spirit of surrender, submission, and joyous service; never saying, " What $hall I do?" but ever looking up to God and saying, "Lord what wilt thou have me to do? "-R, T. Vere. 12-14.-God's :judgments on pride. "These are the sentiments and boastings of Siinnacherib, a proud Assyrian monarch, who viewed and treated cities just as we in Africa viewed and treated ostrich-nests, when they fell in our way; we seized the eggs as if thev had been our own, because we had found them, and because there was no power t)lat could prevent us. So did Sennacherib seize and plunder cities with as little compunction as we seized the. eggs of the absent ostrich; never thinking of the misery for life which he thereby brought on many peaceable families, who had done nothing to injure or offend him'' (Campbell). Assyria did more than other conqnering king- doms in mergiag indepeadent nationalities into one great empire. To be a "remover of boundaries and landmarks" was the title in which an Assyrian king most exulted. I. THE PEBIL 01' so:ccESS IN LIFE IS PRIDE. Illnstrated in Nebuchadnezzar, Solomon, etc. See the boastings in this passage. II. PBIDE, J!:EPT WITHIN.LIMITS, MAY BE CORRECTED BY OBDmABY AGENCIES. Such as failur.e, disappointment, falls into temptation, seasons of affliction. There is some measure of pride .in ,us all, bringing us under God's chastening hand. Ill. WHEN PRIDE COMES TO TAKE THE HONOUR THAT IS DUE TO Goo ALONE, IT KOST BE OPENLY HUMlll,ED. As in the cases of Nebuchadnezzar, Herod at Tyre, etc. And if God seems to delay in his humbliags, we may be sure it is only that the proud man may get finished the work which, all unknown to himselt~ God is making him d,o. .Then we may well learn ~o be always thankful for grace received, talents entrusted, opportunities given, and achievements won; but never boast, never either think or say, "I have done it;"" My arm hath gotten me this victory." Boast, if you must boast, like Paul, of what God has wrought in you and by you; but never boast of what you have wrought, for it is an ever-working and necessary law that "pride must have a fall," and the" Lord alone shall be exalted in that day."-R. T,
Ver. 15.-Man, the instrumtnt of God. This passage is most humbling to that pride of man which leads him to say, " I am my own; I can do as I please with my own powers and life." That pride it breaks down by saying," Not so; yon are not your own; you are God's; he made you; he gives you all; he uses you for his own high purposes." The proudest, wealthiest, mightiest man on earth may seem to be something. In reality, what is he? An axe, a saw, a staff in the hands of God, to work out his will. How foolish for the axe to boast against the workman, or the staff to resist the living man who .uses it I 'l'he truth which we propose to illustrate is, that man can never be other than the instrument of God, used by him for the accom- plishment of his Divine purposes. We can find nothing else that God has created which is without a purpose and end for its being. Winds and waters, metals and rocks, flowers and trees, sunshine and showers, summer and winter, day and night, disease and death, all are God's tools. Not one iusect hums in the summer evening but has received its commission from the Lord of heaven and earth. Not l\ flower opens its tinted bosom in the hedgerow but is obeying the voice of Gc,d. :Not a 200 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH. [oil. x.1-84-.