The Pulpit Commentary — Isaiah — Volume 1 — Section 438

dark days, in our heavier sorrows, we unburden our hearts to him, realize the fulnesa of his compassion, make our earnest, confident appeal for his sympathy and succour. IV. IN UPHOLDING POWER. In such a world BB this with all its allurements and its dangers, with such a nature as is ours with all its frailty, there is required great power to preserve us in our integrHy and to build us up on the foundation of our faith. But God is able to do this; he is able to "make us stand" (Rom. xiv. 4), to "keep us from falling, and present us faultless," etc. (Jude 24). We take hold of his strength when we act with such obedience and wisdom that we place ourselves in the path where that power is acting-the path of reflection, of moral safety, of Christian fellowship, of worship, of holy activity. . V. IN TRANSFORMING POWER. It is impossible for llS to make even Divine truth effectual to the regeneration of a sinful soul. But God is mightier than we; the things which are impossible to us are possible to him (Matt. xix. 26). His strength is not unequal even to the softening of the hard heart, the bending of the proud and stubborn will, even of the hardest anLl haughtiest of souls. We take hold of this his strength when we faithfully plead with our fellow-men that they should return to God, and when we earnestly plead with God that he should put into exercise that renewing and trans- forming energy.-0. Vera. 12, 13.-The return of Gorl's absent ones. In the relation of God to his people in exile, as depicted in these two verses, we may find a picture of the relation in which he stands to all his absent children. I. THE BREADTH OF HIS KINGDOM: the broad fields of the husbandman, in which he might "beat off" fruit, from the far river in the East to the far river in the West- from end to end of the known earth. God's rights and claims extend to all peoples, to all claeses, to men of every character and every temperament and every tongue, to both sexes; his empire, like his commandment, is "exceeding broad." He looks everywhere for fruit to be beaten off, to be gathered in, at the time of harvest. TI. THE NEED OF HIS INTERPOSITION. This fruit which God is seeking is spiritual; it is the reverence, the love, the worship, the obedience, of his own children. But these his sons and daughters are: 1. -4/ar ojf. They a.re outcasts, a. long way from home. It is not geographical, but moral and spiritual distance which has to be deplored. They are in the •• strange land" of doubt, of denial, of disobedience, of indifference and forget- fulneBS, of utter unlikeness to the heavenly Father. 2. Or they are at the poi"nt of ea:tinction. "Ready to perish." Those who have not " bowed the knee to Baal," who have not been fascinated and won by ruinous seductions, a.re a mere remnant, ancl even their life, like Elija.h's, is at stake. Everything cries for God's merciful interposition. III. His SUMMONS TO RETURN. The "great trumpet" is being blown; its notes are sounding far and wicle. "The voice of Jesus sounds o'er land and sea, n saying, "Return unto thy Rest;" "Come unto me, all ye that labour." From the "far cpuntry" of sin, of folly, of selfishness, of unrest, the summons calls all human hearts to leave behind them their sin, their misery, their bondage, and to cast themselves a.t the feet of the Divine Father, and beg to be taken back into that holy service which is perfect freedom. IV. His DISTINGUISHING KINDNESS. "Ye shall be gathered one by one." God does not content himself with issuing a general proclamation which each man may interpret aud apply. He comes to every human soul himself. In the Person, and by the direct influence, of his Holy Spirit, he makes his appeal to the individual heart and conscience. He says, "Come thou, my child." "Return tlwu, my daughter." "My son, give me thy heart." v. THE GATHEBIN<.l-PLAOE OF HIS RETURNED ONES. "Ye shall worship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem." All they who return unto God (1) gather at his house on earth for worship there; and (2) meet in the heavenly city, the new J erusa- lem, for "nobler worship there."-C. Vere. 2, 3.-Vineyard-k~eping. The vine is a familiar Bible figure for the pious individual; and the vineyard, or cluster of vines, an equally familiar figure of the Church. Several things make the figure specially suitable. The vine is a beautiful plant; it. is dependent, and cannot be its best when standing alone; it brings forth  THE BOOK. 011' 'l'IiE PllOPllET ISAIAH, [oH; x:.:Vlt\ t...z..HJ','