it seems at atrnperficial glance that the tree 1s quite Rtnpped, there nevertheless remam "two or'tliree berries high up ~t the top; four, five on each or its branches." 2. Redemp- tion of the remnant. '!'his word, "The !emnant shall return,•: is _the st~ndi~g W?rd ?f promise and of hope for Israel. It con tarns the" law of Israels history. 1 '1.he _ring 1s gone but the finger remains; the tree is felled, but the root-stump may yet send out ~uck~rs; from the bared harvest-field some gleanings ma;r yet be_ gather~d •. ,And _so farael stands as the type of human life. All is not lost wlnle conscience rem:u~s, wh!lo will may still exert its energy against evil, and in the refonn;i.tion of the hnb1ts. But there must be thiB reformation, which begins with II loolring up to 0od. The state_ of tl,e eoul de1,ends on the direction of its gaze. We look where we love,an~.our lookmg may produce love. Much has Scripture to say on the moral effect of v1s10n, Some- times it i.s equivalent to enjoying: "What man is he that will see good?" And as we cli. xvrr. 1-14.] THE BOOK 01 WE PROPHET ISAIAH. 296
!lo not willingly bend our eyes and keep them fixed upon sighta which strib pain t.o the feelings, the r)l'ayer, "Turne.way mine ey~s from beholding iniquity," is equivalent to the prayer that we may have no relish in evil ways. lo the days or repentance men will look up to their Cree.tor. It is when we turn our eyes from '>Ur Maker and h th'e'ni 'ex6htsively on' 'the crcliture .that we forget our dependence. "H is he that he.th mnde us, e.nd not We ourselves;" this is the thought· which expresses the foundation of all re'v.erencc, the cluty of all worship e.nd obedience. As all idolatry means loss of self-respect, sci'regard to tho great and glorioue Creator reflects itself in veneration for the .nature be has given us, the jniage of bis own. Anll he i!r the Holy One of l11re.eL In every family, every congregation, every state, there must be an existing ideal of righteousness, of truth, of purity. : Such ideals are the shadows of the personality of th~ ho1'y,,Go<l, If tb:ey pass away from the fa.ith and religious imagination of a. people, tli~y' faH into serisuality and materialism. The first st_ep, then, towards a better life is to 'look away from self, and from the evil associations which have grown into one's habit~, ot into which one has grown, to God a~ the Supreme and the Holy. Lookilng up tu Bod vHtl mean looking awC1y from idols.· "He will n'ot look to the altars, the work of his !Janda; and what ,his fingers 1 have macle he will not regard, neither the groves nor the images." True religion 'alone can drive out superstition. Science has not and cannot do it. Men· must either be superstitious or religious; for the imaginative faculty demands, and will have, '.nourishment. The great prophets of Israel, training rri~n's minds to look up to the gr~at spiritual Source of man a~d of nature, have taught us lessons that can ,never become obsolete. But the heathen idolatry refened to ahould he mpre •closely considered.-J. ·' Ver. 8.-'-The· prophet on heathM worship. Having described in brief the true religion as a 0'lboking up to God " as Maker and Redeemer of Israel, the prophet with equal expressiveness'characterizes the heathen worship around. ' I. IT IS REVERENCE FOR THE OBJECT OF HUMAN ART, Contemptuous is the reference to uthe work. of .his ha.nd'S," e.nd "that which his fingers have made "-altars and images. When the· spiritual nerve of religion is weakened, the affections fix upon the symbol,s, forms, e.nd accessories of religion. The soul that has lost its God must have' some visible substitute, as a pet, a plaything, an idol. When the meaning of, sacrifice is '~eeply realized and ,felt, e.ny bare table will suffice for e.ltar. But as the idea •and Yee ling become extinct, all the more will men seek to supply the void by some beauty in the object. The shrine becomes more splendid as devotion becom(!s more cold. Perhaps the prophet is thinking of the case of King Abaz. He wc,nt to Daruasc,ns to meet Tigfath-Pileser of Assyria, and there saw an altar which· .so pleased him, that he serit the· pattern of it to U rij,ib the priest, who built one t,o correspond. And this we.a a king who" sacrificed and burned ince!lse in the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree" (2 Kings xvi.). And Manasseh, rejectiug the good exl).mple of Hezekiah his father, set up altars to Baal, am! ,ri;i.ade a grove, and plunged deeply into all manner of superstition (::l Kings xxi.). The Prophet Hosea pointedly speaks of the tendency in the people generally: "Because Ephraim has made many altars to sin, altars shall be unto him to sin" (viii. 2). The connection of this with luxury is pob;1ted out by our prophet in eh. ii. 7, 8. But what strikes him especially with astouishment is the addiction to" art for art's sake." This h4s been a cant and, to some extent, 11 creed in our time. When carried out, it 1riust'.iiiean the valuation of human genius and, talent reg,1rdlessly of the subjects on which, and the. en,ls for which, it is employed. · No matter how sensualiziag or others wise debasing to feeling the paiuter's or the sculptor's theme, the cleverness with whichhe treats form and colour, light and shade, is only worth attending to. These doctrines m·ay be carried into the church, which may become e. place for more ima.gina- live a,nd secsuous enjoyment; and people may find they cannot "look up to God" in n builtling whoso lines are incorrectly drawn, or where the latest fashion of ecclesiastical fopp()ry i.H ,I\ot kept up. By-aud-bf it will be discovered that the house of God has bewi' turned into a theatre, contaimng, it is true, an altar, but, like the altar in the great thcntre at Athens, serving for little more than a station of perforruer9. Spiritual worship is extinct with us if we cannot lift up eye, and heart, and haml, and voice to the Eternal with equal joy, if 'need demand, in tho barn as in the cathedral But how 206 'l'HE BOOK OF TBE fROPBET ISAIAH, [oa. xvn. 1-H,