The Pulpit Commentary — Isaiah — Volume 2 — Section 75

smith overlays with gold, and for which he forges chains of silver I Let art be honoured; let artiste strive their best to give distinctneEs to thoughts that must otherwise wander in the vague. But if the concrete thing be thrust into the place of that spiritual reality it can but faintly suggest, it becomes an object of scorn instead of admiration. Have the great traditions of our fathers ended in this, What has that thing of your poor manufacture to do with the great scheme of things? II. THE ETERNAL REVELATION. The prophet is astonished that men are blind and deaf to that eternal truth which has been announced from the beginning of the creation -the speech poured out from day to day, the declarations of every starry night. The works of God are the shadows of himself. " The whole system of the world is but a standing copy and representation of the Divine goodness, writing little images of itself upon every the least portion of this great body." "The night itself cannot conceal the glories of the heaven; but the moon and stare, those lesser lights, then show forth their lesser beauties. While the labourer lies down for his rest, the astronomer sits up and watches for his pleasure." When men were talking atheism around Napoleon on the passage to Africa., the great man exclaimed, pointing to the starry sky, "It is all very well for you to talk, gentlemen ; but who made all that?" .Again the prophet rises to that conception of the sublimity of Jehovah and the insignificance of man's power in contrast with him, which may be called contrast in Hebrew thought . .A series of" admiring exclamations" follows. Jehovah sits above the eircle that over- arches the earth (Job xxii. 14; Prov. viii. 27); and men seem e.s insignificant insects in comparison (cf. Numb. xiii. 33). His vast hand he.s spread. out the heavens like a curtain of fine c)oth; they resemble e. habitable tent-also an idea. frequent in Hebrew poetry (eh. xlii. 5; xliv. 24; xiv. 12; Ii. 13; Job ix. 8; Zech. xii. 1). Thus the dimensions of nature suggest the 11U1,jesty and infinitude of God. So the revolutions of the nations suggest the sovereignty and spiritual might of God. Men of weight are by him brought to nothing, and the judges of the earth become as worthless chaos. .A magnificent city, with the tombs of departed and the pa.laces of living kings, is an imposing monument of human passion e.nd human intelligence. Nineveh and Babylon "seemed planted for eternity, firmly rooted in the soil; but to the prophets, regarding them from the point of view of the future, they seemed as though they had never been." Profound faith in the Eteme.l fills the mind with contempt for the gloria mundi, which seems to be withering in the very hour it most proudly flourishes. The prophet falls back upon the thought of the holy and incomparable One, who marshals the starry hosts, who is Lord of the physical universe ano. of the world of man's spirits. We need to rest our thought upon the infinite power of God. Weak our- selves, we need to lean upon that which is strong and endw·ing. And here we are liable to many illusions-the illusion of the permanence of physical systems, the illusion of the permanence of human customs and institutions. God can cause the heavens to be shrivelled like a scroll, can efface the cities of the nation as if they were so many rubbish-heaps from the face of the earth. He and the soul alone abide.-J. Vers. 27-31.-Despc,ndency reproved. I. THE COMPLAINT OF THE PEOPLE. They feel themselves, or are tempted to feel themselves, forsaken of God. Their "way" seems to be hidden from him. 'fhe "way" is a figure for the course and condition of life. And is it not said in the first Psalm, "The Lord knoweth the way of the righteous''? There are times when this cannot be realized. The truth of a providence over tho national and the personal life-what more consoling? "Thou art with me;" "Thou God seest me:" what might is there not in such thoughts to "warn, to comfort, to command" ? There are other moods, and thoughts of another complexion. We suffer, and God seems indifferent. There is a sense of the injustice of the world, and God does not defend us. " Our right has been let 8!ip by our God." He has living oracles for other~, not for us. Wo gaze into his words; luminous to others, they radiate not their meaning upon us. Who and what is that God in whom wo lrnvo been taught to believe? A name, and nothing more? 'l'hese 11ro, indeed, dark moments. " Pe.~ed 1md passed my turn i~," says a modem poet, in describing the "fe11rs and scruples" of the drooping and despondent soul. The worst is that the weakness which is sub- jective, in ourselves, we are tempted to throw out of ourselves-to project on God. He  'i8 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH. [oB. XL. 1-31,