give phtce, and 'self-interests have fashioned the ambitions which have inspired men to heroic and peM!evering deeds, in all the various spheres of life. Illustrate, from oom• merce, science, travel, literature, and extension of kingdoms. Ambition has been the source of achievement and the spirit of progress. It may be shown how fat it ·lu\ti thus proved an element in the well-being of the race. Without ambition the worl.d could never have been won for man. · II. IT 18 ALSO .! CONDITION OF INDIVIDUAL GROWTH. Without it a man 'remains in the educational 1md intellectual range of his class, and the social sphere in which he w:lS born: IDustraoo from the farm-labourer, who, through a long life, plods 'on hie simple way, attaining nothing, because utterly lackihg the inspiration of mnbition. The spread of education is chiefly important for thi-s-it shows higher levels, and starts ambition. A man ceases to grow when he ceases to aspire. And the infinite perfection of God is the sublime height set before us. We may all grow on until we have become like him. • •• .' • III. IT IS THE sPittIT IN MAN TO WHICH RELIGION APPEALS. Religion findli H crushed down into hopelessness, and it touches it, quickening it into new vigour and hope. Religion nnds it diverted to base and merely self-seeking ends, and it brings it back to the right lines, and makes it noble and self-denying. Man, made in the image of God, and made for God, must want to reach God. Religion sets God 'before him- so attractively in the person of the Lord Jesus'---that the ambitions are drawn in, and: become one ;supreme ambition to be worthy sbns and devoted servants of the .Lord God Almighty. The Christian ought to be the most anibiti9us of, all meri. ' A Christian without his sacred ambitions docs no honour to his name. IV. IT IS THE SPffilT lN MAN WHICH' MUST· BE XEPT UNDER 'sTRICT LIMITATIONS! Because ambition so soon and so easily. gets beyond self-contfrol-'-the control of the sanctified self-'11.nd becomes self-willed; self-seeking; a mere striving to attnin; whether God will have us attain or not. Then ambition is like that of the King of Babylon; and it must bring us under Divine arrestings; eheckings, and judgments. The law of limitation is, .. Seek ye first ihc kingdom of God, and his righteousness." 'l'here fa·no: fear for the influence of any ambitions that come after this first and supreme one. - Tlie Bin and folly of men's usual ambitions lie in their putting God last. It is with: them "all ·of self, and none of thee.''-R. T. • ' • • ,
Ver. 2I.-Ghi1dren suffering for the fathers. The idea finding, poetical expression here is, that the judgments of God necessarily fall on the last meml:lers----the·•chfldr_en_: of a corrupt and wicked dynasty. It is in the public and open administrations, of providence, it is in the events and -circmnstances and history of this world, and not in the secret dealings of God with each individual soul, that· the law of this text applies. For the sake of moral influence upon the whole race, children are seen to suffer·for their J>&rents' wrong-doing. But no children can bear, before God, the burden of their parents' guilt. The law of tb.ll chrldren suffering, generation after generation, belongs to the solidarity of the race. But that is a purely material conception. Souls are individual, and every soul must bear entirely its own burden. It may ,share, it can share, no one else's. "So, -then, each one of us mnst give account of himself to God." This truth may be folly Illustrated along the following line. . • L CHILDREN SUFFERING FOR THE FATHERS 19 A PHYSICAL LAW. Much has recently been discovered concerning the law of heredity, but only the fringe of a great subject has yet been touched. No greater calamity rests on men than' the bodily bias and tendency given by diseased or: degraded pa.rentage. Tl).e familiar illustration is drunkenness; the fact equally applies to other sins. . , II. CHILDREN BUFFERING FOil THE FATHERS IS A MORAL CONDITION. That is, as an established and recognized fact it is designed to be a moral power oa parents. It is e persuasion to righteousness for the children's sake, No higher moral force on affectionate natures can be provided than this consideration, "You· 'physically' injµro those whom you love best, if you arc self-indulgent." • ,, • . • III. CHn.DREN BUFFERING FOil THE FATHERS IS A DmNE JUDGMENT.• ·Striking men in one of their tendere~t places. Men would bear an extreme of suffering, if they might bear it all themselves; but it is Uimble to think that they drag their children u1.Jder, and the weight will crush them. Only let UB see quite clearly, that it is the TB'E B0OK OF •THE PROPHET ISAIAIJ. 2G1
disability and the RUfferin!f of siri, btii not the g1J,iU of it; which thus passes from generation to generBLion......:.R. T. 1 . • ( 1: / ,f, ' 1·,;·
Ver. ,24.~The security of the Divine Word. Cheyne translates, "Sworn ·hns Jehovl!'h Sabt,~h, ,e,ay_ing, 'Surely, according a8 I have planned, so shall it be; and accordmg 1,1s I have purpose<l, that Rhall stand." God here declares that it is his fixed and unalt~rable purpose to destroy Assyria. And who can stop the fulfilment of the Di,vine W9rd? In answer to this question, we say- ' I. CAN' NATURAL FORCES? , No, for that was settled when the Red Sea parted asunder, nnd made a highwdy for God's people. ·, IL t CAN NATURAL EVENTS? No, for -that· was settled in the wilderness. Such ctimino11place things as m~rmui'ings- and • rebellions could destroy a particular generation, but could not keep Israel out of Canaan. • -~'III. _OAN INDIVIDUAL MEN? • No,for that was settled in Nebuchadnezzar, who bad to learn, by humiliation, that God's. will would ha¥~- to be done. IV. 'CAN ;cpM!)WED MAN? , 'No, for th~t was settled when the kings of Canaan jqine~ to oppi:ise; 9-<>~'s adv;rncing liq~!s, and were swept away, before them, like a summer clol)d; ~fore the sun. Nobody and nothing can stop. the fulfilment of God's Word. We may go with it, the flood, :will-carry us with it, like· helpless logs, if wo struggle to oppose. But the Word. and will of God are always rightooua, beneficent, 11,nd good; so it is well that they should abide.---R.-T. • •
• Ver. .32.-,:..Zion a safety for tf.e poor.· 'l'ake Zion as a type of Christ's Church in all the·agea. ' It should be a, she\'ter for the poor in the. following five sen;;es which may be atfached to the word. , .. •• .. I. 'In the sense of t)le ignorant, .. II.· In ,the sense -of .the meek. • III. In the sense.of the young. IV., In the sense of the pe1·seculed. ·,V. -In. the: sense of, the clC/Ubting. Every age is, i~ one forut o~ another, a trou~lous age for all earnest Bouls. The Church' is ever tM :abiding eartlic/!helter, type ·and suggestion of that soul-rest in God ~_hich th,~ poor-iti everj /l,ensec--1:?ay ahvays}i.nd.-R. 'l'.