The Pulpit Commentary — Isaiah — Volume 1 — Section 392

of hia Name, A cleansed and purified Ohurch will be a miaaioaary Church, through whose instrumentality the grace of the Lord Jesll8 Christ will be known and sung on every hand. IY. THAT THE REOOGNITION OP THE DIVINE BIGHTEOUBNEBB IS THE FOUNDATION OF .ALL RELIGIOUS BERVIOE, "Glory to the Righteous One" (ver. 16). Ill indeed would it be for the land in which the piety of the people lost its hold on the righteouene&B of God. In the absence of righteousness from his character, there would be nothing worth calling goodness or mercy on his part and nothing worth calling reverence or devotion on ours. .All religion worthy of the name rests on the righteousness of God. The wave of sentiment that would weaken our sense of it is one that washes against our deepest and highest interests, and should be steadfastly opposed. .Above and beneath all other things God is the Righteous One, at the remembrance of whose holineBB we do , well to give thanks (Ps. xx.x. 4), in whose purity and perfection we do well to glory.-(]. Vers. 16-22.-Five fruits of transgressicm. The key-note of this passage is found in the. twentieth verse: "The transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it." .All these dire evils are the consequences of national transgression. They a.re fivefold. I. IT IMPOVERISHES. The prophet, speaking not only for himself, but for his country, exclaims, "My leanness, my leanness, woe unto me!" (ver. 16). The violation of Divine Law not only (1) reduces a man's bodily strength, causing him to waste away, and bringing the pale cheek and the trembling nerve; bnt it (2) cuts down a man's resources, changing the princely revenue into a beggar's dole; moreover, it (3) im- poverishes the mind, ea.using it to starve on empty folly while it might be nourished with heavenly truth; and (4) it despoils the soul, ma.king it barren of those noble virtues and those exquisite graces which elevate and beautify human character. II. IT DELUDES. It is full of treachery (ver. 16); its victims delude themselves with the notion that they are escaping, but they only flee from the noise to fall into the pit, or escape from the pit to be entangled in the net (vers. 17, 18). This is" the deceit- fulness of sin." Men think they will shake themselves free from their iniquity a little further on, but. they find that temptation awaits them at every point, that one sin paves the way for another: indulgence leads down to dishonesty, and dishonesty conducts to falsehood; superstition ends in scepticism, and scepticism in utter unbelief. There is no escape from the consequences of folly but by entering the path of wisdom, from the penalty of sin but by penitence and purity. They who look to time and cha.nee for deliverance are only deluding themselves with a hope which will ceriainly "make ashamed " those that cherish it. III. IT AGITATES. "The foundations of the earth do shake ... the earth is moved exceedingly . . . (it) shall reel to and fro" (vers. 18-20). There often comes a time in the history of folly, or of crime, or of transgression, when the subject of it-individual or collectiv-flnds everything unsettled, shaking beneath his (its) feet; it is to him as if the very ground were rocking; friends fall away, kindred disown, confidence is lost, obligations are pressed against him, the last measures are taken, liberty itself is threatened, the blackest clouds overhang; behind is folly and before is ruin, while within are agitation and alarm. IV. IT OPPRESSES AND EVEN CRUSHES. "The transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again " ( ver. 20). Sin lies with a heavy weight upon the soul. The sense of guilt, the wearing weight of wrong-doing, oppresses the spirit, takes away its elasticity, its freshness, its vigour. Sometimes it dues much more tban that-it crushes the soul; it makes it incapable of attempting anything better; it gives way to a fatal despondency, and pursues the evil path even to the bitter end. One of the very worst penalties of sin iij the dead weight which it lays on the spirit of the sinner, killing his hope and dooming him to despair and death. V. IT IMPRISONS. The" high ones" were to be" shut up in the prison" (vers. 21, 2~)- 'l'here is no dungeon, however dark and strong, in which the bodies of men have bceu confined that is so dark and so deplorable as "the pit" or" prison" in which sin shut:; up its victims, 'l'he children of iniquity are slaves; they wear bonds which are more firmly riveted than the closest iron fetters on human limbs; they are bondmen indeed; their pitiable thraldom is slavery itself, of which the imprisonment of the body is only the type and picture.  THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAII. [oH. nxv, 1.....aa,.