Ver. 4,_:.Tlie future for haughty follc. "The haughty people of the earth do languish." 'fhe proud are an offence unto God. It is not the rich who find it so ilifficult to enter the kingdom of God; it is they who "trust in riches," who boast of their riches, who make their riche_s the occasion for despising others. I. THE FUTURE 18 AGAINST THE HAUGHTY NATURALLY. Fortune tells upou pre- cisely those things in which they pride themselves. The picture of trembling, suffering old age, given in the Book of Ecclesiastes, is designed as a warning to the proud. See ,~hat you are certainly coming to who admired your fine persons, wade so much of your independence, and pampered your appetites and passions. The picture of old age is not .that of the .ordinary man, but of the haughty, masterful sensualist, the sinner of the high places of society, whose iniquity comes back upon him. It is enough for haughty folk to live; life becomes their humbling and their chastisement. II. THE FUTURE IS AGAINST THE HAUGHTY PROVIDENTIALLY. For they cannot win lov.e. Everybody serves them in fear or for pay; and so, oftentimes, their very grandeur is undermined by those about them, their riches takes wings and fly away, their dependehts take advantage of 'their times of weakness, and all are glad to see the haughty humbled. Striking illustration may be foun,i in the career of Squire Beckford, of Fo:nthill. An insufferably austere and haughty man, the providences were against him. His mansion fell with a crash. His projects failed. He was humbled to the dust, and died almost a beggar. III. THE 'FUTURE IS AGAINST THE HAUGHTY JUDICIALLY. For God mnst punish pride. It cannot be allowed to lift Up its head. The Lord bath a controversy with it. Nebuchadnezzar eats grass like an ox. "Babylon is fallen, is fallen "-Babylon, the type of tho haughty. Belshazzar sees the recording finger write the judgment of the proud. God 'will bring into contempt all the proud of the earth. "God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble." Time is on the side of the meek. Time is against the. haughty. The judgments of God gather, like black thunder-clouds, against those whose hearts are lifted up. The storm will burst in the ever-nearing future. 'l'he haughty mau's prosperity may blossom as a garden of delights; but God will breathe his blight upon it, and behold, as in our text, "the haughty people of the earth do languish." 'l'hen, with a true fear, let us "humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God."-R. T.
Vers. 5, 6.-The necessary connection of suffering with sin. "Because they have transgressed the laws . . . therefore hath the curse devoured the earth." The great Eastern empires had no staying power. In a few generations dynasties, even empires, were swept clean away. And the reason is not far to seek. 'l'bo great Eastern king• doms were founded on blood-shedding; and for the sin of violence God keeps the curse of destruction. A lesson which he taught the worhl once for all when he swept away the old violent humanity with a flood: "The earth never spues out its inhabitants until they have defiled it by their sin." This sul,ject is presented to us under a variety of aspects, and with au nbundancc of illustration. It is one of the great messages of the Dible. We clo but give it hPre a little freshness of form and setting. L Sm COMES FIBBT. God always begins with Eden. 'l'he Eden of bright happy 896 THE BOOK OF TH~ PROPHt'l' ISAIAH. [011. xxrv, 1-28.
youth in every man's Ure. There ia no auffering where there la no ain, Thorns and briers come when man has acted in wilfulness. Suffering has no mission save as the corrective of 8in and sin's consequences. Our first parents disobey, and then suffering comes. Man follows the "devices and desires of hie own heart," and then the corrective Divine judgments come. And suffering has always this justificatiou, that sin has come fil'l!t. Illustrate in the case of King Saul. II. Sm KAY HAVE A LONG TETHER. This often creates confusion in men's minds. They think the sin cannot be evil because the punishment is so long delayed. So the uncleanness of cities goes on ~• ,r years, imd seems to be no serious evil ; but presently the plague comes and sweeps its thousands away. Israel presumed on the holding over of its national judgments, but presently overwhelming destruction came. We can often sin on for years with apparent impunity, never with real impunity. Storms are gatherii;g, though they wait their time for bursting. III. SUFFERING KEEPS SlN OOMPANY ON ITS WAY. It is always present; always ready to give signs of its presence; always making monitions. It is held back only in the long-suffering of God's mercy, the "goodness of God thus leading men to repentance." IV. SuFFEBING PLAINLY STAMPS THE EVIL OF BIN IN THE END. As in the case of the drunkard, the sensualist, the dishonest. You can tell the value of a thing by its wage, and the "wages of sin is death." You can estimate a thing by its issues, and •• sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death." This lesson the history of indi- viduals and of nations, ancient and modern, teaches, but teaches in vain to the sons of men. We say, " Ah, yes I It may be true of sin, but it is not true of our sin."-R. T.