Vers. 11, 12.-Ha'lf-hearted turni11g to God of no avail. There are many who, in the hour of distress, turn to God and bis ministers with the question," Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?" They are anxious to be assured that the dark time of their trouble is well-nigh over, and light about to dawn upon their horizon. And they so far believe in God's ministers as to think that they can, better than others, give them an answer to their question. Accordingly, they impor- tune their clergymen with such inquiries as these: " Will this sickness, or the effect of this accident, or this time of slack work, last long? Is there likely to be much more of it? Or may we look to be free from our trouble speedily ? " To such the "watchman" had best answer with some reserve, or even with some obscurity, so far as he gives any direct answer at all to their questions. "The trouble will no doubt pass in time-it may be sooner, it may be later ; God only knows the times and the seasons which he has put in his own power." But he may take the opportunity of the inquiry to give a very clear lesson. "If ye will inquire, inquire ye: return, come;" Lhat is to say, "Be not half-hearted, beat not about the bush. If ye throw yourselves upon God for one purpose, do so for every purpose; look to him, not for an answer to one inquiry only, but for everything. Return to him-come." "The Spirit and the Bride" are always saying, " Come" (Rev. x.xil. 17). Christ himself has said, most emphatica.lly, "Come" (Matt. xi. 28). If they" return" and" come," they will be no longer Edom, but Israel ; no longer aliens and strangers, but "fellow-citizens with the saints and of the household of God" (Eph. ii. 19). Let the cry, then, be sounded in their ears nnceasingly, "Return, come." Ver. 15.-The grievousnus of war. The grievousness of war is especially felt in defeat. Kedar was the most turbulent of the sons of Ishmael (Gen. xxv. 13). "His hand," like that of his father, " was against every man, and every man's band against him" (Gen. xvi 12). So long as his "mighty men," armed with their formidable bows, could ravage and plunder the inhabitants of more peaceable districts at their pleasure, and carry off plenty of spoil to their fastnesses in the rocky pa.rte of the desert (eh. x.lii. 11), the "grievousness of war" was not felt. Rather, "the inhabitants of the rock sang, and shouted from the top of the mountain" (eh. xlii. 11). But at length the tide of battle had turned. Kedar was itself attacked, invaded, plundered. The "drawn sword" and the "bent bow" of the men of Asshur were seen in the recesses of .Arabia itself, and the assailants, becoming the assailed, discovered, apparently to their surprise, that war was a "grievous" thing. Does not history " repeat itself" ? Have we not heard in our own day aggressive nations, that have carried the flames of war over half Europe or half Asia, complain bitterly, when their turn to be attacked came, of the "grievousness" of invasion? The Greeks said," To suffer that which one has done, is strictest, straitest right;" but this is not often distinctly perceived by the su1ferers. It is only "God's ways" that are "equal;" man's are apt always to be" unequal" (Ezek. xviii. 25).
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vere. 1-10.-Fall of Babylon. It is thought, by some recent commentators, that the dei,cription refers to the siege of Babylon in B.o. 710 by Sargon the Assyrian. The King of Babylon at that time was Merodach-Baladan, wbo sent letters and a present en. ltXJ. 1-11.] THE BOOtr or THJll PROPHET ISAiAlt. 341