The Pulpit Commentary — Isaiah — Volume 2 — Section 62

peraicness of busine8s prcs.~ure, the almost bankrupt me.n presumes on bis friends e.cte wilfully, and even brings others down in his ruin. Dut circumstances of success prove even greater temptations. N ebuche.dnezzar is tho typo of the prosumors, as he stands in the midst of bis city, saying, "Is not this great llabylon, the.t I havo built?" l I. SIN OF PRESUMPTION. 1. It is sin a.go.inst man's creaturehood, Me.n ie not an independent being. He cannot stand alone. "No man can keep alivo his own soul.'' He has nothing of bis own. Then be be.s no right to presume. 2. It is a sin aoe.inst a man's childhood. Parents have to repress this spirit in their children, br,caus; it is subversive of true home-life. And so must the great Father. 3, It is especially sin in man e.s redeemed. Decause, as redeemed, man is the humbled sinner, who is me.de a. monument of grace, and ought to walk humbly with God, always coming after him, and never pressing on before. The evil of this sin.is seen in the deterioration of Christian cha.meter which 1ollows whenever it is indulged. III. PUNISHMENT OF l'RESUMl'TION. Usually this comes by the failure of the self- willed pfans; or the sad results that follow the self-willed course that is taken. In the case of Hezekiah God sends a vision of wha.t will follow out of that embassy of which the king was so proud. It was the thin end of a wedge. Driven home, by-and-by, it meant the destruction of Jerusalem, and the captil'ity of Judah, by those very Baby- lonians. Hezekiah boasted in order to get a worldly alliance. His boastings excited cupidity, which presently led to the carrying away of the exhibited treasures. "Let him that thinkctb he standeth take heed lest he fa.II" into the sin of presumption.-R. T. Vera. 6, 7.-5hadowsprojectedfrom coming trouble. Almost our worst troubles are the things we fear. They loom so lnrge and seem so terrible, like distant figures in a fog. The mind is so long occupied with them before it can do anything in relation to them. Our Saviour's life was dark,rned with the shadows of his coming woe. As he talked with heavenly visitants, he" spa.kc of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem." lie cried," Now is DlY soul troubled ... Father, save me from this hour." The shadow seemed easier to bear when it darkened down into an actual present con- flict and woe. Most men are "all their life in bondage through fear of death," and thousands of men are almost bypocbondriacal in their anxieties a.bout troubles that al ways seem to be coming, but seldom really come. I. FUTURE THINGS THA.T FLING SIIADOWS OVER THE PRESENT. 1. The fear of the young Christian that he will not hold out to the end. Often a morbid fear; always an unworthy fear, because it really means our doubting whether God can keep us safely to the end. 2. Fears horn of the difficulties of times of business depression. Parents often talk, in their homes, about the workhouse, in a joking way, which nevertheless means that the shadow of it lies upon their lives. A dread of failure and bankruptcy broods over many a busineEs man. Unworthy dread, in view of the promise," Verily thou shalt be fed." 3. Fears growing out of conditions of health. The exaggeration of this is observed in cases of religious mania or nervous depression. 'l'bon all the future is black and hopeless, and the soul immovably accepts the idea that it is for ever lost. These fears, alas! often inspire the suicide to his self-murderous deed. 4. Fears that gather about the certainty of judgment when the conscience bears testi- mony to guilt. A whole life may be shadowed by a crime. It is not the memory of the crime that flings the shadows; it is the conviction that the crime must come up again to view some day, and make its appeal for vengeance. In one way or another shadows lie on all our lives. IL PRESENT THINGS THAT BELIEVE THE SHADOWS FLUNG DY THE FUTURE. 1. Human J.ope. The most indestructible thing in human breasts. 2. Right estimate of life; as the sphere in which a great moral purpose is being wrought out : character ie being moulded by the mingled in~uence of things evil and things good. 3. The comforting prornises ef God; which assure us of Divine overcomings and overrulings. 4. And t}ii; assurance of the abiding Divine presence, which is a constant sweet light that, falling on the very shadows, touches them with golden glowing, even as dark evening clouds are kindled into glory at the after-snn.set.-R. T. Ver. 8.-0ur aubmissiona may be Bit.fish. "He said moreover, For there shall be peace and truth in my days." "Hezekiah not only e.cquiesces in the will of Jehovah, ce, XL. 1-31.J THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH. (i5