The Pulpit Commentary — Isaiah — Volume 2 — Section 76

must be growing WMfY and mint, and something less than God. Thie mood the prophet meets (cf. eh. xlix. 14; Job x:xvii. 2). II. TBE REPLY OF THE PROPHET. 1. He appeal., to their intelligence. "Hast thou not perceived?" Look away from self and its restriction within the bonds of present distress; look at others who are expatiating on the " large places" of J ehovah'e good- ness. Look at the silent heavens with their "goings on;" the march of the eel\Sons; the recurrence of seed-time and harvest; consider the breath which stirs the souls of men to progress in wisdom, culture, peace, civilization. Contemplate as a whole and in it!> parLs the marvellous mechanism of the human world. Divert thy thoughts from the little self-world to the immenBe universe. Listen as well o.s look-to the imme- morial tradition; to the oracles that have lived and cannot die; to tho deep voice of prophets and the music of psalmists; to the simple accents of the babes and sucklin(l's. One immense harmony starts upon the ear and the heart; the loving and eternal G~d its central theme. "Oh, my brothers, God exists; believing love will relieve us of o. load of care." Intelligence and conscience combine with the sacred unbroken traditions of the race, to assure us that he is what he was and where he was. 2. The attributes of Jehovah. An everlasting God. Mortality means fickleness and caprice. His Name means constancy, faithfulness. His covenants are irreversible. In the English Testament of the Jews, that grand Name," the Eternal," is preserved. He is" Creator of the ends of the earth; " i.e. of the "whole earth from end to end." Babylonia, then, the seat of the exile, is not beyond J ehovah'8 empire, as if he were only "tho god of the hills of Palestine" (Cheyne). Creation infers providence. If God made the world, he governs it too. Mon are dependent on him, and in their dependence is safety 11nd bliss. He bas no human infirmities: faints not, nor is weary. Ho works for his world both day and night (Gen. i. 5, etc.; Exod. xiii. 21; 1 Kings viii. 29; Ps. cxxi. 4). His 'Unfathomable intelligenre. (Cf. Job v. 9; ix.10; of. eh. xxxiv. 24; xxxvi. 26.) There- fore there was a" wise purpose" in all this present procedure of providence, so dark o.s iL seemed. We look upon the wavering ripples on the surface of the river; but the sunbeam strikes upon them with directness and certainty. And "God's hand i.R as steady as his eye." Bis seif-c01r.munication. "Man's weakness, waiting upon God, its end can never miss." For he is self-imparting; and if there be ~ :void in us, it is that he may fill it; a weaknoss in UB, that his strength may be ~n··oonsummate in it. "Unto the powerless he maketh strength to abound." S.; The wisdom of waiting. Waiting I How much is included in that word I · Faith, o.nd hope, and endurance, and strength. Take the most vivid image of strength: the youth in his athletic vigour-the agile wrestler, the nimble runner. Is he strong? Nay, he shall stumble, while the stationary, waiting one "gathers fresh force." He seems to be on the wane, to be losing the dew and brightness of his youth. 'Tis but the moulting of the old eagle of fable-he will put forth fresh feathers. With "ages on his plumes," he will still be travelling on. These waiters are tho stayers in the race. '!'hey mny appear as stationary as earth itself; they roll on by the same momentum, they are the agents of the same force. Exertion without God: what more impotent? impotence touched by God's breath, God's hand: what can it not do? " Wait, I say, on tho Lord."-J. Vera. l, 2.-Divine conaolation,. "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem." Here, after prophetic revelation of dangt'r and warning a."o.inet the Nemesis of sin, we come upon the evangel of love. For Gild delights not in°denunciation or death. All his universe testifies that he loves life, th11t he " has no pleasure in the death of the wicked." I. HEBE IS BEITEBATIO!f. "Comfort ye, comfort ye." It is an inspiration of earnest- nesd in conveying the heavenly message. li'or God is the God of comfort. Not comfort in sin, but comfort to all who seek to be delivered from it. '!'his is like the" Verily, v1orily." It gives emphasis to hope. For love deals not in cold aphorisms, but repeats itself, that the heart may be sure of the message. To convince of sin Is not enough. To expose evil may be the work of the moral dramatist. 'l'o scorn it may be tho work of the satirist. But God is more than a Judge; he is a Saviour, The Bon of man came (as bis great work), "not to condemn the world, but that the world through him migh\ be saved." • OH, XL, 1-81.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH. 79