HOMILEl'ICS. Yers. 1-10.-111.e glory qf the Church not tempo1·al greatness, but spiritual perfection: Amid the we:ilth of motaphor which Isaiah employs to depict tho final. prosperity, glory, and ha.ppiness of the Church, it is remarkable how little use is made of any images dram1 from the conditions or circumstances of earthly grandeur. Images of natural beauty are principally employed-the shady forest, the spreading cedar tree, the rich luxuriance of arable and pasture la.nd, the choice beauty of the most lovely among flowers, the placid lake, the pellucid rill, the gushing fountain. These raise no ideas of earthly greatness or temporal dominion. They point, by what may be called th~ laws of prophetic language, to two main features of spiritual life, (1) abounding grace granted to the Church freely from above-a supply copious, unlimited, inexhaustible,, such tha.t the cry may be confidently raised, " Ho, every one that thµ-steth, come ye_ to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat" (ch. lv. 1); ~nd (2). abundant fruit borne by her members in their sevaral ste.tion~fruit of: ve.rio.U$1kinds and of various degrees of excellency, but all "good fruit," spontaneously. brought forth from ungrudging hearts, hearts desirous of showing forth their love and gratitude to their Maker and Hedeemer. Beyond these two main characteristic features of the Church of the redeemed, we descry further-first, a power of working miracles (vers. 5, 6),. physical or spiritual, or both; and secondly, a. gift of spiritual insight,. whereby tlie redeemed are enabled to penetrate through the dense veil. wherewith_ material thitig1 overfay the great realities that are behind them, and to ~~cern through· all .the "glory, and excellency" of the Most High (ver. 2). The redeemed S'eek for no external domi,nion, -their efforts are, primarily, to walk themselves in "th_e way of _holiness" (ver. 8) ;, secondarily, to "strengthen the weak hands .and confirm the feeble knees ": of tbeil' brethren (ver. 3); and, finally, to realize to themselves, by continual meditation and study of his works, the goodness and greatness, the "glory and excellency," of theii Lord and God.
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vers. 1-10.-Glories nf the ~Messianic age. This is a picture of the happy an~ glorious condition of Israel after the return from Captivity. Nature is beheld re,ioipuig with man; and the whole scene is suffused with the light of a universal spititual joi. ,: . L T1m TRANSFORMATION OF THE NA.TUB.AL wonLD. The desert will rejoice "like the. narcissus," the beautiful white flower found in abundance in sp1ing-time in the Plain of Sharon. A ringing musical cry shall break out from those solitudes. The beauty of the most favoured spots, of Carmel and Sharon, shall be diffused over the whole. .In poetic pathos a feeling is lent to Nature which does not really exist in her. .'. There is a deep truth, not of the reason, but of the heart, in this mood. Inanimate Nature is incapable either of joy or of Rorrow, of exultation or depression. 'l'his_ our ;_reason tella us. But we are all something more than cold rationalists in this matter; . We take bnck from Nature impressions which we have first Jent to her, and suppose we bavo borrowed them. This has been called the "pathetic fallacy," and there is a truth in the fallacy better than that of syllogistic reasoning. 'l'o the lover Nature looks love, and whispers of Jove; to the desponding temper her expression !s a frown, h~r tones are inspirations of !amen t; she wears a nuptial robe for the happy bn<legroom, ana a pall for the mourner i- silent and morose to the eyes of him who is caBt clown in the sense of Divine wrath, it breaks forth into jubilant song for the ears of him whose heart overflows with the sense of the wk,erning mercy of God. "There is not the least flower but seems to hold·u1) its l,ead, and look pleasantly, in the secret sense of the gooduess of its heavenly Maker. This silent rhetoric, though we cannot hear, but only see it, fa so full and expressive, c,u, xu.v, 1-10,J THE BOOK OF 'l'Bf!: PltOPllET ISAIAII 671