Ver. 16.-The life r:f our life. This verse is pregnant with suggestive truth, and finds fulfilment in Christian as well as in Jewish experience. I. THAT THE LIFE OF OUR SPIRIT IS THE VERY LIFE OF OURSELVES. It is no uncommon thing for ungodly men, wl,en they are pressed to give attention to the claims of their spirit, to excuse their negligence by contending that" they must live." By this they mean that the necessities of the body will excuse their want of concern for the state or their spirit. On wl,at a hollow and vain assumption do these thus build! "As if to breathe were life I " As if to eat, and drink, and sleep, and clothe the body and minister to its cravings constituted the life of man I No; "man does not live by bread alone," and, when he has supplied himself with abundance of such things, he has not begun to live. The life of man is in the life of his spirit; it is that life in which he (1) appre- hends and appreciates Divine truth; (2) approaches unto and communes with the Divine Father; (3) engages voluntarily and happily in bis holy service; (4) grows into bis likeness as he manifests bis spirit and illustrates bis principles; (5) serves the creatures he has made and the children be has fashioned in bis own image. By these things, and in such things as these, does the life of his life consist. II. 'l'HAT DIVINE ACTS AND WORDS ABE THE SUSTENANCE OF OUR SPIRIT'S LIFE. "These things" refer primarily to the promise and the providential agency of God (see ver. 15); the Divine word and deed. i'or us, we find this in: I. TM truth spoken by Jesus Ghrist. All that he has told us concerning God, ourselves, bnman life, the way back to the he•venly Father and the heavenly l1ome. 2. The life and death of the Saviour. His life devout, conrageous, generous, sympathetic; his sorrows borne in patience and resignation; his death undergone for us. "In all these things," in their apprehension, in their study, in their 11.ppropriation, is the life of our spirit.-C.
Ver. 19.-Parental obligati()'TI,. "The father to the children shall m11.ke known thy truth." I. THAT TRUTH 18 THE COMMON HERITAGE OF THE RACE. Of 11.ll open and common things truth is that to which our right is most indisputable. The air, the light, the sea, the sky, the beauty of the landscape, etc., 11.re open to us all; but truth, above all these things, is common property. II. 'l'HAT REVEALED TRUTII IB PECULIARLY PRECJIOUB TO MANKIND. All truth m11.y be Bflid to be "thine "-to be God's. l!'or it would never find illustration or 11.pprebension without his action. But the truth which he has specially revealed is more peculiarly his-the truth which is contained in his Word, and, most especially, that which w11.s reve11.led in (and by) hie Son. This is the truth which is our very life (ver. 16), raising the fallen, bringing peace to the penitent, calling man into fellowship with God, com- forting the afilicted, arming against temptation, preparing for the battle of life and for the hour of death and the requirements of the eternal world. III. THAT IT IS THE PART OF EVERY PARENT TO COMMUNICATE AND TO ENFORCE THIS TRUTH OF GoD. "'l'he father to the children shall make known," etc. 1. To com- municate Divine truth to the young is the parent's work; for (1) he has 11.Ccess to his children which no one else can gain, in the time when they are docile nod responsive; (2) he can exert an influence npon them which no one else c~n acquire; (3) he bas n responsibility laid upon him by God of which no one else can relieve him; (4) he has nn interest in their well-being which no one clsr. possesses,-the joy or the sc.rrow of his later years will clopend very largely on the choices they make 11.nd the courses they pursue. 2. To instil Divine truth into their minds should be his daily.effort. This is tu be effected by instruction, by example, by pr11.yer.-C.
Ver. 1.-The strain of notice to die. Satan is represented in the Ilook of Job as pocticelly describing man's clinging to life thus: "Skin for skin, yen, nil that 11. man h11.th will he give for his lire." Usually denth creeps on us with so slow 11.nd silent o. tre11.d that we grow familiar with it; our powers fade, 11.ud passing becomes easy. But eometimee the 11.rrest comes in the very midst of life, when hope smiles, when the future makes 111.rge promises, and the claims upon us seem so great thll.t we cannot DAl4Jl-Jl. i 50 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET IS.A.IA.II. [cH, xxxvm. 1-22.