The Pulpit Commentary — Isaiah — Volume 1 — Section 458

their faculties were unclouded, would perceive truth, and have spiritual insight, and gain the guidance which Heaven grants to them that seek it, are so weakened in mental power, or so bereft of spirHual strength, that they grope in darkness when they might walk in the light of the Lord. V. INFLUENCE 18 F0Rli'El'rED DY IT. "The priest and the prophet have erred." Even those who, but for guilty excess, might have led the people in every good way, are caught in the toils, are numbered among the victims, and their power is gone, their influence is forfeited. A drunken prophet is one whom all unite to spurn, and hi11 word is worth less than nothing to the cause he plead.'!. VI. IT LEADS ON AND DOWN TO THAT WHICH 18 LOATHSOME. (Ver. 8.) VII. IT CONSUMES ITS CONSUMER. (Vers. 4, 7.) Man may say that they swallow their wine, but it is truer to say of many that their wine "swallows" them; for it devours their substance, their character, their reputation, their prospects. Everything is" eaten up" like the" hasty fruit before the summer," speedily and utterly. VIII. Goo IS DECIDEDLY AND EMPHATICALLY AGAINST IT. (Ver. 2.) He has pro- nounced ngainst it in strong terms, and he brings down a heavy hand upon it; the enemy which he calls against those guilty of excess is "a mighty and strong one : " poverty, shame, remorse, loneliness, early death, and final exclusion from bis presence (1 Cor. vi. 10).-C. Vers. 5, 6.-Goa our Glory, Beauty, de. "In that day," i.e. in the day when God shall reign over his people, either the day of their return to him in loyal obedience, or the day of their return to their own land under his delivering power-in that day God would be everything to his chosen people; he would be the Object and the Source of their glory, their beauty, their righteousness, their strength. We may see how God in Christ is the same to us. I. OuR GLORY. "The Lord of hosts shall be for a Crown of glory." We glory in our God as the Lord of all power and might, as the One whose right band is full of righteous- ness, as the faithful Creator, etc.; but we glory most in him as the God and Father cf our Lord Jesus Christ, in him who so pitied a rebellious race" that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believetb," etc. In Christ Jesus the glories auc!. grandeurs of the Divine character are most brilliantly illustrated. II. OuB BEAUTY. "For a Diadem of beauty." In the gospel God has (1) revealed the beauties of his own character to us; for in the life, in the spirit of Jesus Christ, we behold transcendent moral loveliness, all imaginable graces perfectly blended and inter- mingled. A.nd in it he has (2) called forth the utmost possible beauty in human character. There are produced in Christian lands and by Christian processes not one or two exquisite human characters here and there, but multitudes of them beneath every sky and in every age; such that it is not enough to say that they are good or that they are useful; it must be added that they are exceedingly beautiful-they are diadema, attracting the eye, delighting the soul. III. OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. "For a Spirit of judgment." The man who bas" learned Christ" is a man of integrity; to him injustice, unrighteousness, dishonesty, the with- holding of that which is due, of whatever kind, is not only distasteful, but impossibl~: "the spirit of judgment," the spirit of equity and truth is in him, gained from Christ, implanted by the Divine Spirit. If this spirit, which is the Spirit of Christ, be not in him, he is none of Christ's (Rom. viii. 12). IV. Ou& STRENGTH. " And for Strength to them that turn the battlo to the gate." They who truly know God in Christ are " strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might." God communicates to them something of the "exceeding greatness of his power." In Divine strength they are strong (1) to discharge duty; (2) to bear burdens; (3) to work in the field of holy service; (4) to resist spiritual adver~aries, to" turn the battle to the gate."-O. Vere. 9-13.-Indocility. When God speaks man may well listen, whatsoever strains the Divine Teacher may employ. But man is often found lo be, not only an inapt, but even an unwilling, scholar. Such were they who are here terribly rebuked. I. 'fHE DESIGN OF Gon's TEAOBING. God bad been saying, "This is the rest," etc. (vor.12). The end of 1111 God's instruction is to give rest to bis human scholars. Peac•  rn2 THE BOOK OF THE PROPRE'I' ISAIAH. [orr. xxvin.1-29,