The Pulpit Commentary — Isaiah — Volume 1 — Section 425

fulfilment of t-his ass11rance, "The meek will he guide In judgment, and the meek will be teaoh his v.•ay." When the exiles went bl\ck to a Jerusalem that was without walls or defences, God k~pt them safe by helping them to act prudently, and to avoid giving offence to those around them. Looked at in this light, how full all our lives are of Di vine salvations ! Every circumstance of difficulty and trial ; every time of perplexity, when decisions, on which the most serious consequences deponded, had to be made, is seen to be a time, or a circumstance, in which God saved us by giving grace, wisdom, guidance, prudence, or good judgment, Either by help within us or without us, God will surely prove a" strong Salvation" to all who put their trust in him.-R. T. Ver. 3.-Pe,:fed peace out of trust. Litemlly, "Peaoe, peace;" the Hebrew super- lative form meaning the " greatest, or perfect peace "-inward peace, outward peace, peace with God, peace of conscience, peace at all times, under all events, God's own peace, the peace which God's own Son knew, and left as bis legacy to his disciples. These two last expressions give us two divisions for our subject. . I. GOD GIVES THOSE WHO TRUST mM HIS OWN PEACE. 1. God's peace is.the result of his inward harrrwny. There are no conflicts within him. And this- seems an amazing thing to us, who never do the right save after a fight with the wrong in which we have come off conquerors. As a living Being-a Person-we must think of God as having mind, will, affections, emotions, attributes, and relations to others, outside himself. He is One. But in our idea of the unity of God we include the manifold aomprehe.nsiveness of God ; and we understand that in him is perfect peace, because there is harmony; judgment never conflicts with feeling, will never struggles against desire. Every line tends to the focus of Divine purpose; every power combines to execute the Divine thought. Sometimes our idea of the Divine peace is spoiled by representations that a.re made of the work of redemption, as if, in connection with it, his justice was in antagonism with his mercy, and his Law made hard terms with his love. Surely that redemption is the work of Divine peace; it is the outgoing of his whole being towards us in the harmony of pitying love. "Still hushedly, huahedly, mowed down the thought Divine, And in a voice of most ex!'.eeding peace, the Lord said (While against the bree.st Divine the waters of life leapt, gleaming, gladdeJ;ting), ' Let the man enter in.'" • (R. Buchanan.) 2. God's peaoe follovJs on his aboveness. A word has to be coined to express thi■ thought. We feel that we should be at peace if we could get abO'IJe. God is· above: not in the conflict which we know, but calm in the vision of it all; calm in seeing the end from the beginning; peaceful as the doctor is when, above the patient, he reads the issue of the disease; peaceful as the teacher, who is above the child, and knows perfectly what is ea.using it so much care and toil. A littl~ picture in· the Leeds Exhibition showed us how man may feel God's peace out of his aboveness. An old farm-labourer, dreBSed in his long patched brown smock and clouted boots, and grasping tremblingly his stick, was looking up at a little opening that appeared in a dull, heavy, leaden sky. A grand old face, seamed and lined with years of poverty, toil, and care, but full of the peace which God alone can give ; tears were glistening in the eyes, and standin<> ready to drop; but smiles were breaking through, as, remembering sorrows in the ho~e and weary burdens on the heart, he sweetly said, "Up beyant is the blue sky." Peace and God, he knew, were up above; over there. 3. God's peace attends on his rightllownes, and love. Not~ing can disturb the 1?8ace of him. w~o alwe.y doeth right, and is love. Peace and Righteousness go hand-rn-hand-twm s1sters---through all creation. They live anrl toil and die together. And in the heart and home of God they have dwelt together from everlasting, before the earth and the world were formed, So he is the God of peace. II. Goo GIVES TBOBE WHO TRUST BIM BIB SoN's PEACE, It is one thing to admire the peace of God, but quite another thing to feel that it may become ours, that it co.n ever be the possession and the power of a man. '!'he contrasts, God, man, 6trike us as too &evere. The step of descent is too vast. We want a Mediator. We ask for some instance in which God's peace can be seen in a man. And that iii one of the revelatioua mi. xxv1. 1-21.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH. 429