The Pulpit Commentary — Isaiah — Volume 2 — Section 31

"doing nothing." It may be one side of meet.iug difficulty, but it needs to be matched with another and a positive side. The earnest man WBnts to do somethin", Yet his circumsta.nccs n111y make personal action questionable and almost impossibl;, but this at least, he can always do, and this he would be wise always to do first-he' can co.rry his trouble to God; he can "cast his care on God." There is a positiveness and R definiteness of e.ction about so doing, which meets the anxiety of the earnest man, t.here is a sense of propriety in so doing which satisfies the higher feeling of the piou; man. From the conduct of Hezekiah on this occasion we learn four ways in which our troubles may be carried to God. I. BY OHERISHED MOODS OF MIND. There is a thought of God; n dependence on God; a heart-appeal to God; 11 purposed meditating on the Divine relations with the troubled; a recalling of God's ways in past experience; and an assuring of the heart - which e.re all voiceless cryings after God, which he knows and heeds. 'l'ennyson gi;es this view exquisite expression when, describing Mary of Dethe.ny, he says- "Her eyes were homes of silent prayer." There are times when we are "so troubled that we cannot speak," but at such times the trouble speaks, the afflicted soul lies open to God. II. BY ATTITUDES AND BODILY STATES. The appearance of a man may be II prayer. This is more developed in East.crn than in W estcrn l,nds. Rent clothes, neglected hair and beard, rough sackcloth, ashes cast on the person,--were signs of distress, and mute appeals for comfort and help. But we often say of persons, " His face was II prayer ; " "The miserable neglected state was an appeal." The widow's crape is a casting of trouble on God. Attitudes of body naturally express moods of mind; and dress follows suit. Even thus we can pray. III. BY SEEKING AUDIENCE OF Goo. Hezekiah made the effort to go to the place where God revealed himself. It is carrying our trouble to God simply to resolve that we will go to God's house. A psalmist, with 11. burdened heart, says, "I went into the sr1.nd.uary of God." The worshippers nre really this-companies of men and women who are rolling their bnrdenR off upon God. IV. BY UNDURDENING THE SOUL. It is often thought strange, and called foolish, for men to tell God in prayer what he well knows. But the free unburdening is the best, and often the only, relief a soul can find. Child to mother, friend to friend, creature to God,-nothing helps us so much as being permitted to tell out all that is in our souls, bad and good, worthy and unworthy.-R. T. Ver. 4.-Ruponsibility of proyer-kaders. The message sent to Isaiah, the prophet of God, was this: "Pray for us; be our leader, our intercessor." "Wherefore lift up thy prayer for the remnant that is left." Scripture singles out Samuel and Moses as ~rea.t prayer-leaders, or intercPssors, but we can add Joshua, David, our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Apostle Paul, drawing further illustrations from each of these. The Prophet Jeremiah has a very striking sentence, which indicates the power that prayer- leaders liave with God: "Then said the Lord unto me, Though Moses and Samuel ;t,x,d before me, yet my mind could not be toward this people" (Jer. xv. 1). Isaiah, iu our text, was sought by Hezekiah in bis trouble, because he was a prayer-leader, an intercessor. We note that the things about men which are really most important are not the things which most readily attract attention. We need to get the view of n,en wbich God takes, if we would get t,he true view. Some of the best gifts bestowed on the Christian Church are undervalued; the en<lowments which gil•e men public prominence are thought much more of than those spiritual powers which are men's bfst possessions. To some men God gives, in unusual measure, the power of prayer. 'fhcre is a remarkable difference between good men in this gift and power of prayer. We see the difference in our children. Some of them are able to move and persuade us so that we find it cost difficult to refuse them anything. And men and women seem to have a like power in their relations with God-a most responsible power. Some of us can never rise above the orderly habit of prayer, and treat it as a matter of duty; but others have such praying frames of mind that, at any moment, they seem alile to go in to God. There are men among us who are true prayer-leaders-whose utterance is full of petition, who are able to seize the souls of their fellow-worshippers, ~H. :u.xvn. 1-38.) THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH. 33