held from the Divine Father of our spirits the willing and practical allegiance for which he has looked. 11. HUMAN DISLOYALTY IN ITB DEPl'll, There are tnaay degrees of rebelliousness. Only he who searches the hearts and knows the real nature of righteouimess and iniquity can accumtely measure them, but we can form aa approximate idea. Men may be deeply disloyal by going far in the direction of (1) npen and flagrant transgression-the commission of baneful vices or cruel and devastating crimes; (2) distinct and formal denial of God's existence-the avowal and advocacy of blank a.theism; (3) the public denial of the Divine claims-the representation of the cardinal error that God is indif- ferent to the character of his human children, and does not ask for their worship or service; ( 4) deliberate and persistent disregard of his will as revealed in his W ord-tho turning a deaf ear to his inviting voice. III. THE DIVINE SUMMONS TO BETUBN. "Turn ye unto him.n 1. God's message through inspired men. At sundry times God spake by the prophets. Then and thus he spoke in very clear and in very gracious tones; he said emphatically and repeatedly, "Return unto men (see text; eh. i. 16-18; lv. 6-9; Jer. iii. 12-16; Ezek. xviii. 30-32; Hos. xiv. 1, 2, etc.). 2. God's invitation through his Son, onr Saviour. (1) That the disloyal hearts of men should return to their allegiance and become the holy and rejoicing citizens of his heavenly kingdom was the very end for which Jesus ea.me. (2) To accomplish this he lived, wrought, spoke, suffered, died. (3) This is the spirit and the scope of the message he has left behind him, and of the work in which he is now engaged, (4) The way of return through Christ is the heart's accept- ance of him as its Divine Lord and Redeemer. The voice which comes from the Man of sorrows, from the ascended Lord, is "Come unto me;" "Believe in me;" "Abide in me." IV. THE SPIRITUAL CONSEQUENCE OF RETURN, "In that day every man shall cast away his idols." Return to the service of Jehovah and to a sincere trust in him cer- tainly meant the utter o.bandonment of idolatry. Our restoration to the favour and friendship of God in Jesus Christ must also mean the putting away of every form of idolatry; e.g. (1) the worship of pleasure or indulgence in any unholy or injurious gratification; (2) covetousness, "which is idolatry" (Col. iii. 5); (3) the worship of mammon, or absorption in the struggles and ambitions of this earthly life (Matt. vi. 24). (4) Such a devotion to any human object of love as leaves no room, or ao sufficient room, for attention to the highest duties and the most sacred claims. It may be that not once nor twice, but again and again, the Christian man may find himself called on to" cast away his idols," to put them out of his heart, and therefore out of his life.--0. Vers. B, 9.-Fl,eeing away. Here is a prophetic vision of flight, which may suggest olher kinds and instances of "fleeing away." Sennacherib comes up vain-gloriously against Jerusalem, confidently reckoning on complete success, thinking to swallow up Judah as a pleasant morsel; and, behold I be is found hurrying homewards as one that is pursued by overtaking legions, not staying at bis first fortification, but, in bis terror and humiliation, "passing on beyond his stronghold" for fear, his princes" frightened away by the flags" of the enemy that was to have been so easily and so utterly sub- dued. Our thoughts may be directed to- I. TBE VANQUISHED FLEEING FROM THE VICTORIOUS. The annals of human history, which have hitherto been principally the record of human strife, are only too full of heart-rending illustrations (see, among others, Erckmann-Chatrian's 'Waterloo'). II. CRIME FLEEmG FBOlll THE FEET OF JUSTICE. Both fact and fiction will supply abundant illustrations of the intolerable wretchedness of those who, pursued by the officers of law, are dogged by apprehension and alarm at every step they take. "Let no man talk of murderers escaping justice, and hint that Providence must sleep : there were twenty score of violent deaths in one long minute of that agony of fear." Ill. WRONG FLEEING FROM REVENGE. See the vivid picture of Carker fleeing from Dombey (Dickens): "Shame, disappointment,~nd Jiscomfilure gnawing at his heart, a constant apprehension of beiog overtaken : the same intolerable awe and dread that hnd come upon him in the night returned unweakened in the day: . . . rolling on o.nd on, alwoys postponing thought, and o.lways racked with thinking . . . pressing on 618 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAlAEt. (att. :txn.1-9,
••• change upon change • , , long roads and dread of night , , , Blld still tlie old mnnotony of bells and wheels and horses' feet, and no rest." . ' • IV. GuILT FLEEING FBoH THE FAOE oF Goo. Guilt fleeing: 1, W6aklg and tJamlg. Long before Jonah, in the hour of self-reproach that followed his aot of disobedience, "fled from the presence of the Lord," men had tried to put a distance between their sin and its rightful Judge. Aud long since then have they tried to escape his eye and hie ha~d. &ddes~ of all vain endeavours is the thrice-guilty deed of the suicide, who acts as 1f, by enterrng another world, he could flee from the face of the Omnipresent One. 2. But there is a sense in which guilt flies away from the face of God really and mod ble,ssedly. When God's conditions of penitence and faith have been fulfilled, th~n is our guilt '' purged away," our transgressions are" removed from us as far as the east is fro~ the west," our sins are "hidden from his face," they are "cast into the depths of the sea" (Ps. In. 3; ciii. 12; li. 9; Micah vii. 19). Moreover, we look forward· to the time whep. there shall be a glorious fulfilment of the Divine promises, :and -we shall have- • V. ETTL DISAPPEARING FROM THE FACE OF MAN; when "sorrow and sighing shall flee away," when" death and hell shall be cast into the lake· of'fire," when" thete'sha.11 be uo more death, neither sorrow nor crying .•• for the former things are passed away" (eh. x:i.xv. 10; Rev. xx. 14; x:xi. 4).-C. • , •.