Vers. 24-2S.-Tlie analogy of Divine to human methods of ~orking. Isaiah's com- parison in this chapter rests wholly upon the assumption of an analogy between God's dealings and man's, when the latter are such as are consonant with reason, Reason, the highest gift of God to man, he assumes to be au adumbration of some quality in the Divine nature, which bears a real resemblance to it, Reason "cometh forth from the Lord of hosts." It is the voice of God .speaking in the soul of man, Let man follow it, a.nd his actions are divinely guided. God's mode of action in parallel .matterii may be gathered from his. The general principle is involved in the particular al\alogy here indicated. As in human husbandry, so in God's tendance of that Church; which is his "vineyard" and "fruitful field," there are three principal processes. . I. 'l'BE PREPARATION OF THE GROUND. Isr11el was prepared by the long course .. of Egyptian affliction, by the "ploughshares " and '' h1L1Tows" of tyrannical overseers a,n,d taskmasters, which broke up and pulverized what; would other_wise have _been ~n- ungenial and unpromising soil, very unapt to bear (ruit. After this preparation bad been made for fonr hundred and thirty years, there followed- _ • ,: II. THE PUTTING IN OF THE SEED. God's revelation of himself and of his will at Sinai was the sowing of the seed of his Word in the soil of I_srael's hearts. W)len he had sufficiently prepared the soil, he scattered the seed abundantly-seed of various kinds-which all fell in its "appointed place," and did its _appointed w<>rk, "turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the. just," and !l.ilferencing the Jews from 1hcir neighbours by a higher moral tone and a purer religion than prevailed elsewhere. Finally came- IlL TnE GATHERING IN oF THE HARVEST, The seed is sown for the sake of the crop which it will produce. God is continually gathering in his crop by II process analogoo.s to that which men pursue. He needs good grain for his garner, arid to obtain this he mul!t separate the grain from the husks and chaff with which it is accompanied. As men use various methods for this object, some gentler, some severer, so God, too; in the purifying of his grain, has many varieties of treatment. To each kind of grain he applies the treatment that is fittest. Some kinds are lightly beaten, as with slender rods• others more heavily, as with stout staves; some, on the other hand, a.re threshed, as it' were, with spiked drags and rollers, to clear them of their encumbrances. No more force, however, is applied in any case than is necessary, nor is any force applied for a longer time than is needed. And even in the severest treatment th~e ill gentle- nCBII. God has a care that the good grain shall never be "bruieed."
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vers.1-6.-G'ondition of Samaria. I. DENUNCIATION oF woE. The condi_tion of Samaria we.s like that of Jerusalem. And judgment must first fall upon Samaria, and cu. xxvm. 1-29,] THE BOOK OF THE PilOPHE1' ISAIAH. 155