The Pulpit Commentary — Isaiah — Volume 2 — Section 41

pulling at our earthly tabernacle, but so many ministers nnd under-agents of death? What are cat~rrhs and ulcers, coughs and dropsies, but so many mementoes of a hasteniocr dissolution, so many foretastes of the grave? Add to these the consuming cares and troubles of the mind; the toil and labour and racking intention of the brain, which as re~lly, though not a.s sensibly, impair and exhaust the vitals as the most visible bodily diseases can do, and let death into the body, though by another door." But there is an instinct within us which refuses to listen to these argumentations. Some noted lines of the Roman noble Maicenas have come down to us, in which he depicts himself as shaken with palsy, ~ttacked from head to foot with disease, still Vita dum superest, bene est. Such experiences put to rout the fallacies of the pessimist, and convince us of the love we bear to life. "Whatever crazy sorrow snith, No soul that breathes with human breath Bath ever truly longed for death. 'Tis life whereof our nerves are scant; For life, and not for death, we pant; More life and fuller that we want." The experience of such a deadly sickness may be the needed lesson to teach us the worth of our days, to stir us up to the useful employment of them. II. THE PRA'i"ER. We must bear in mind that in antiquity generally death is viewed as the effect of Divine visitation, especially sudden and untimely death. The belief was that the days of the good would be prolonged, the years of the wicked would be shortened (Prov. x. 27); that men of deceit and blood would not live ont half their days (Ps. lv. 23). Hezekiah, conscious of his integrity and faithfulness, appeals to the justice of God. His heart had been "perfect" with Jehovah, in the sense in which David's had been, and Solomon's had not been (1 Kings xi. 4). He had not divided his affections with the gods of idolaters. He had been a reformer-he had done what was good in the eyes C1f Jehovah. After the manner of Oriental lamentation, he loudly weeps (cf. Jndg. xx. 23; 1 Sam. xiii. 16). There is a childlike simplicity in the scene. Whrit are we all but children in the great hours of life's trials? But we see here that calm conscience which is the result rf a pious life, and which gives confidence in prayer. "Conscience is the brreat repository and magazine of all those pleasures that can afford any solid refreshment to the soul;" and of that solace which is needed in the moments of weakness. "Vi1"l1en this is calm and serene and absolving, then properly a man enjoys all things, and, what is more, him8elf; for that he must do before he can enjoy anything else. It is only a pious life, led by the rules of religion, that can authorize a man's conscience to speak comfortably to him; it is this that must word the sentence before the conscience can pronounce it, and then it will do it with majesty and autLority; it wiJI not whisper, but proclaim, a jubilee to the mind; it will not drop, bnt pour in, oil upon the wounded heart. The pleasure of conscience is not only greatet than all other 1,lcasures, but may also serve instead of them. '£hey only please and affect the mind i"n transitu, in the pitiful narrow compass of actual fruition; whereas that of conscience entertaius and feeds it a long time after with ,lurable, lasting reflec- tions" (South). III. THE DEATH-WAnnANT CANCELLED. "And it came to pass, afore Isaiah was gone out into the middle court, that the word of the Lord came to him, saying, Turn again" (2 Kings xx. 4). The doom of death is recalled; a respite of fifteen years granted. Deliverance is promised from the Assyrian,and Jehovah will throw his protecting shield over the city; and a phyfical phenomenon is to occur as a sign or guarantee of the fulfilment. Prophecy, then, is conditional; Divine judgments are conditional. "It does not always follow," says Jerome, "that because the prophet predicts, that which he has predicted shall come to pass. For he predicted, not that it should come to pass, but that it might not come to pass." Here repentance or prayer ,may "avail much." We should hesitate, therefore, to speak of absolute decrees, and of irreversible judgments, in connection with human life. Always there is an "if" or an "unless" to break the fall of the severest sentence; and, in fact, the dealings of the merciful God with men are more lenient than they can ever be represented in words. How often has the opinion of the physician doomed the invalid, who bas nevertheless recovered I ea. mvm. 1-22.] THE BOOK OF THE :PROPHET ISAIAH. 43