The Pulpit Commentary — Isaiah — Volume 2 — Section 30

bis power soon wither away, Speech without knowledge, action without thought, outward activity without inward growth, will soon reach its limit and disappear. o. It leaves a lar,qe part of sacred duty undone, (1) To the meditative man who has oxlmusted his time and strength in self-culture, and left his brethren's state uncared for, will be presented the solemn and startling question-What have you done 1 And he will have to confess that he has hidden his talent in the earth. (2) Of the man who allowed his powers of usefulness to run out and be lost in precocious activities, or exhausting excitements, it will be required-Why did you negler,t yourself1 And he will have to lament that he was content with being a short-lived gourd instead of a long-lived tree in the garden of the Lord. III. COMPLETENESS OF CHARACTER MAY BE AND SHOULD BE ATTAINED, Assuming that we are bound to employ our powers in the direction in which our own preferences lead us, antl granting that it is well for human character to partake of much variety, it remains true that we should make an earneat effort to attain to some completeness of character by attention to those elements which we are tempted to neglect. In every department of human action we recognize the duty of bestowing special care on the weakest point-the candidate for literary honours on the subject with which he is least familiar; the builder on that part of the ground where the foundation is least substan- tial; the general on that outpost which is least defensible, etc. The defects of character are subject to repair; earnest effort is sure to be rewarded. They who have "the root of the matter in them" can bring forth fruits of usefulness by patient, prayerful endea- vour. They who are quick to bear fruit upward can stiike their root d01vnward and enrich their spiritual resources by study, by thought, by painstaking acquisition, by prayer.-C. Ver. 34.-Returning on our way. "By the way that he came, by the same shall he return." I. THE BETO'JIN WHICH IS IMPOSSIDLE. Our departure from this world is often spoken of as a return, We "return to the grave." We ascend and descend the hill of life; but we go down that hill on the other side. Old age is indeed "a secood childhood;" but how different a childhood it is !-with the experience, and the carefulness, and the sad consciousness of failure which childhood has not, but without the eager-heartedness, buoyancy, simplicity, trustfulness, which childhood has. It may be said of every part and passage of our huml\n experience," Thou hast not gone this way heretofore." We never live over again even a single day of our life. II. THE BETURN WITH WHICH WE ARE THREATENED. God, in his holy and wise pro- vidence, may defeat our purpose, as he did that of Sennacherib, and in this sense may cause us to return on our way. Again and again is this the case with: 1. Unrighteous aggression, or some other design which is positively sinful. 2. Unhallowed ambition; when men set themselves to achieve some great thing for their own ernichment or aggrandizement, and God breaks their schemes. He sends them back to the starting- point of emptiness or poverty from which they set out. When God thus interposes, men may well ask what it is that he means them to learn. 3. Unwise endeavour; as when men offer themselves for the work of teaching, or preaching, or labouring in the field of foreign missions, when they are- unfitted tor the past. III. THE RETURN WHICH 1:. 0011 DUTY. 1. That which awaits the Christian man, (1) when he has enteretl on a business which he fintls he cannot conu.uct with a clear conscience; (2) when he has adopted a course of training his family or directing his establishment which he finds inefficient and disappointing; (3) when he has associate,! himself with a company of men, or with a Church of Christ, which he finds uagenial and unsatisfactory. 2. That which belongs to the unchristinn man. 'l'o him, in the "far country" of estrangement, comes ever the co=anding, but yet the ea treating voice of the heavenly Father, saying, "Return unto mo, and I will return unto you." Well is it, indeed, when the heart's response is fountl in the heaven-gladdening wort.L!, " I will arise, and go to my Fathor."-C. Ver, 1.-0arrying troubles to God. The silence which Hezekiah kept, and oom- manded, represents only the ne!J!Ltive side of his dealin_g with ~ho Assyrian insul~s and tbreatening11. The earnest man cau seldom be s11t1sfied with the weak policy of  32 'l'HE BOOK OF THE PROPHE'l' ISAIAH. [ou. xxxvn.1-88.