loathsome, thing in God's eight: how much more eo those aggravated forms of it in which man wantonly injures and ruins hie fellow-man I III. TnAT IT IB 0EBTAIN TO MEET WITH BETBIBUTION ANRWERmG TO THE OFFENCE. We know: 1. '!'bat impenitent sin will be followed by tbejudgments of a righteous God. '!'he Divine "woe" points to severe punishment-to loss, sorrow, ruin, death (Exod. xxxiv. 7; Prov. xi. 21; Rom. ii. 6, etc.). 2. 'rhat retribution will be proportionate to the magnitude of the offence (Luke xii. 47, 48; John ix. 41; xv. 22; Rom. ii. 12). 3, That retribution is likely to take a form which corresponds to the offence. "When tbou.shalt cease to spoil, thou ehalt be spoiled," etc. (1) Violence provokes violence; they tbe.t take the sword do commonly perish with the sword (Matt. xxvi. 52). (2) Ore.ft will be undermined; against the subtle schemer men will combine and use their ingenuity to overturn him. (3) Avarice finds its own wealth an insupportable hnrden. (4) The rejection of the supernatural ends in the acceptance of the superstitious, etc. "With wbe.t measure we mete, it is measured to us again."--C. Ver. 2.-The lesser and th6 larger mercies. This prayer includes the striking request, "Be thou their arm every morning, our salvation also in the time of trouble." The words suggeHt the pertinent and not unprofitable question-Are we laid under greater obligation by the lesser mercies of God which we a.re continually receiving, or by the larger ones which we occasionally receive at his hands? We look at both- I. THE LESSER MERCIES WE ARE CONTINUALLY RECEIVING. God is to us" our Arm every morning;" he is our support from day to day, from hour to hour; "in him we live e.nd move and have our being." We may pass many days in which no striking or impressive mercy is bestowed upon us; but we pass no single hour, we spend no fleeting minute, in which some kindnesses do not come from his bountiful hand. Our indebtedness arising from these may be estimated when we consider: 1. Their regularity. The nature of God's kindnesses is commonly missed by reason of their regularity; they a.re referred to "law," as if law had any power, in itself, to originate or to sustain. Con- sequently, they are not traced, as they certainly should be, to tho love and care of :i. Heavenly Father. But their value is immeasurably enhanced by their regularity. How much more " gracious unto us" is our God in that he is "onr arm every morning"! in that we can confidently reckon on the merning light, on the evening shadows, on the incoming and outgoing tides, on the returning seasons, and can arrange and act acwrdingly, than if the Author ofnature gave us his blessings irregularly, spasmodically, at such uncertain intervals that we could make no arrangements, and hold no permanent offices, and be in constant doubt as to whether or when our agency would be required I 2. Their constancy. We are leaning on God's arm continually. It is not merely e. matter of frequency ; it is not by a permissible hyperbole that the psalmist says, "the goodness of God endureth continually" (Ps. Iii. 1); nor is it without reason that he asks of God "that his loving-kindness and his truth me.y continually preserve him" (Ps. xl. 11). Every year God is crowning with his goodness; he "daily loadeth us with benefits ; " he is our e.rm every morning of our life; each night he lays his hand upon us in sleep and "restores our sou1" We ma.y well join in singing- " The wings of every honr shall bear Some thankful tribute to thine ear.• For on the wings of every passing hour come many mercies to our hearts and to onr homes from the protecting and providing love of God; and we may go yet further and say, or sing, "Minutes came fast, but mercies were more fast and fleet than they." God's creative power gives us our life, and his constant visitation preserves our spirit, (Job x.12). IL THE LARGER MERCIES WE SOMETIMES RE0EIVE. God is" our salvation 11.lso in the time of trouble." '.L'he greatness of our indebtedness to him for these his larger, his especial e.nd peculiar loving-kindnesses, we may estimate if we consider : 1. Thei·r frequency. Th~ugh infrequent_ as compared with his con_etant favou1:5, ret they 9.re 0
not infrequent m themselves, 1f we count them all-national, eccles1ast1cal, family, individual, 2. Their nceeding preciousness to us who receive them. Who can reckon the worth of one single deliverance from (1) the gulf of hie.ck disbelief; or from (2) the power of some unholy passion-avarice, or lust, or revenll;e; or from (3) the misery 550 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHE'l' ISAIAH. [orr. xxxm.1-24.
of some threatened loneline98 or (what is far wone than that) some entangling and ruinous alliance; or from (4) the dark shadow of some false and cruel slander? Only they who have been thus saved in the time of trouble, who have been lifted up and placed on the solid rock of safety, and made to walk again in the sunshine of peace and hope, can say bow great is that mercy from the baud of God. 3. Their costliness to tlu, Divine Giver. (1) If in all human sympathy there is an expenditure of self, which, though most willingly rendered, is yet painful and oppressive to the spirit, ~hall we not think that there is this element also in him whose sympathy is so much stronger, and whose sensibility is so much finer than ours (see ch. lxiii. 9; Luke li:ix. 41; John xi. 35; Heb. iv. 15)? (2) One great redemptive act-the salvation which is in Christ Jesus-was wrought at the cost of a Divine inoarnation, of sorrow, of shame, of death. He gave himself for w. We conclude that, (a) taking this last thought into account, the special mercies of God do incalculably outweigh the constant ones; (b) that together they constitute an overwhelming reason for worship, for obedience,.for consecration; (c) that we do well to appeal to God in earnest prayer for the special mercies we need, and to wait expectantly for them. "0 Lord, be thou gracious unto us; we have waited for thee."-C.