ITT. TJJE EXPLANATION OF THE FAOT. The expl:\Mtlon is found in two things. l. ln 011r .•ensr q.f God's greatness, and the corresponding consciousness of our own littleness. Those who move in a bumble social sphere are &!!;ilated when they find themselves in the nt'ar presence of human r11nk, especially of high rank, more especially of royalty'; how much more so when men feel themselves to be (or to be about to be) before the King of kings, the infinite God! 2. In our sense of God's holiness _and the corre- sponding consciousness of our own imperfection and sin. (1) The Christian man may ha'l"e his reason for apprel1ension; for ha.s he not to bring his life of Christian service t-0 the judgment of his Divine Master, for his approval or his disapprovi,.l; and is he not: conscious that this his ser-dce has come short of his Lord's desire, if it hRB not been blemished or even stained by many sins? (2) The impenitent man has abundant reason for anxiety and even for alarm ; for he is tbe child of ptivilecre and opportunity; b e has knoll"n his Lord.'s will; he bas beard many times the sacred summons; be has oft-en felt the movings of the Divine Spirit in_ his heart. But he bas "judged himself unworthy of eternal life;" be has striven to silence the voices which can1e to him from heaven. Be is open to the most terrible and intolerable rebuke of God (Prov. i. 24, eic.); he lies exposed to the penalty of deliberate disobedience, of persistent rejection of the grace of God (Luke xii. 47; John iii. 18, 19, 36; Heb. x. 26-31; xii. 25).-0. •• • , Vcrs. 2-10.-.A picture of penalty. The threatened penalty of Egypt aa_ painted by the prophet here v,ill, on examination, be found to be essentially'the penalty with which God causes sin to be visited always and everywhere. :' I. STn_IFE, ~SJ?ecially internal strife (ver. ,2). _ The guil~y \n,q,tfon "'.i~l ,find i~self plunged mto c1V1l war (Egypt, Oreece, Rome, France,. ,A.menca-northern and southern states, etc.), or rent with bitter and vindictive factions; the guilty family will ba:ve its domestic harmony destroyed by petty broils and miserable_ disngreem~nts ;' the indi'IJidual soul will be compelled to expend its powers in internal strife---:conscie,nce ha'l"ing a long and perhaps desperate struggle ,with passion ; reason, which urges to immediate decision, contending with the evil spirit of procrastination; the wiU to submit to Divine demands doing stern, protracted battle with a·d.esire to conform to the good pleasure of tbe unholy and the unwise._ _ _ __ _ , , .. _. , ,. , II. DELUSION. (Ver. 3.) As the ;Egyptians, paying the penalty of d1Sobed1ence, were to abandon the counsels of human wisdom for the fancies and fooleries of tlie juggler, so will men find that sin leads dowp froiµ the guidaric~ of reason 'io' the dictates of folly and the misleadings of delusion. It is_ not long befpre the _sinner experiences "the deceitfulness of sin ; " before he finds that he doe,s not iriipose on other men half so much a.s he is imposed upon, or a.s he imposes on hi_mself. He comes to think that utterances which are earthly, or of lower origin than that, are tb~ y9ices of heaven; be "calls evil good, and good evil;" couns,~1 which he ought to abj~re as diabolical, be deems excellent and, wise; neglecting, ,truths and principle$ which would be his salvation, he falls back upon sentinients which lead down, with ~eruin path. to innermost and uttermost ruin. ,, , _ , __ , _ __ , -, Ill. BONDAGE. (Ver. 4.) It is one of the_ l)'.iost certaii;i and one of the, Raqgest penalties of sin that the wrong-doer is han<led over to the despotism of "a cruel l,ord.:' By what truer or more descriptive terms could these enemies of the_ Roni be cbara.c~ terized into whose iron grasp the transgressor falls? Is not the insatiable craving for strong drink or for the hurtful narcotic a "cruel lord"? What but cruel lords are covetousness, ambition, lasciviousness, the voracity or extreme delicacy of those" whose God is their belly "-the passion which demands and will not ~e denied, which consumes the time, which saps the energy, which steals the manhood that should be devoted to nobler ends, that should be laid on worthier altar? The victims of vice are" holden a
with the cords of their sins;" they "in t_hc hand of cruel lord," who are a w i l l 111ake
them pay "the uttermost furthincr." • • ' • IV. SHRINKAGE. (Yers. 5-10.) Egypt should'be pitiably reduced; the water, Mite life-giving river Rhould be wanting (ver. 5), its vegetation should fade and die (v!Jr. 6), its industries should be stopped (vers. 8, 9), its chief men should be ov~rthrown (ver. 10). .A.11 Egyptian life, through its length and 1:>readth, should be Eitruc~ a ruinoUJ! blow, should shriek frouf' fulness and power into feebleness and declmc. Under the dominion of sin, human life suffers a ruinous reduction. Ma.de for God, for oa. xix. 1-26.] 'I'HE BOOK OF 'rHE PROPHET ISAIAH. 323
hie likeness, for hfa fellowship, for his service, for t'he highest forms of csefulnoss and the noblest order of enjoyment, we sink into folly, into selfishness, into smallness of nim and littleness of nccompiishm1mt; our lives are narrowed, lessened, shrivelled. It is the pitiful pennlty of departure from God, of withholding our hearts from our Divine Friend. In Christ ·we realize the fair and blessed opposites of these. In him is (1) peace (John xiv. 27; xvi. 33; Eph. ii. 14); (2) enlightenment (1 Cor. xiv. 20; Eph. i. 18; Col. i. 9); freedom (John viii. 32-36; Rom. vi. 18; Gal. v. 1); enlarge- 1nent (Matt. v. 45; John xv. 14; Rom. viii. 17; Epb. ii. 6; Rev. i. 6).~C.