The Pulpit Commentary — Isaiah — Volume 2 — Section 89

who can deliver UB from the very love of sinning, and "create in us a clean heart." Is, then, your path full of the stones, the crooked w~ys, the rough places, of loved sins? remember that Christ is a Saviour from sin. He is named Jesus, because he shall save his people from their sins. He will not save you at all unless you are heartily willing that he should save you from your evil self, from your loved iniquities.-R. T. Ver. 6.-CJhrist, as the Lortl's Glory. 'fhe glory of God is his forgivin~ and redeem- ing. And it is this glory that was dimly revealed in the raising up of Cyrus to deliver Israel from the bondage of Babylon, and brigbtly revealed in "raising up his Son Jesus, to bless men, by turning them from their iniquities." It may be shown that God, as the great Spirit, never can be seen or known by any creature, because all creatures are put under limitations of the senses. No creature can apprehend "esseuces ; " he is limited to" accidents." Nobody has seen the sun; it is the glory, the shining, the ray, of the sun that reveals it to us. So "no man ha.th seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he ha.th declared him." Christ is the "Image" of God, which we can see; the "Word" of God, which we can hear; the "Glory" of God, ma.king a holy warmth about us, which we can feel. He is "the Brightness of the Father's glory, the express Image of his Person." His revelation is ma.de that we might know the true God, and in the knowledge find "eternal life." This view appears to be, in a very special manner, commended and enforced by the Apostle John, in his Gospel; and from this Gospel illustrations may be taken. I. GOD REVEALED IN J OBN'B PROLOGUE. Explain the figure of the "word," as meaning the medium, or ag,•ncy, by which God communicates his thought to men's minds. It is, as it were, God translated for man's apprehension. But the " Word" is a Person, and John says, "We beheld bis glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father." II. GoD REVEALED AT CANA. Putting forth miraculous power to provide for man's need, Christ showed God's constant care of men, and led men's thoughts to the mystery of God that was in him, for John says, "This beginning of miracles did Jesus, . . . and manifested forth bis glory." III. Goo REVEALED .AT LAZARUB's GRAVE. Pleading with Martha, our Lord spake thus: "Sa.id I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God ? " IV. GoD REVEALED IN THE VOICE FROM HEAVEN. In a moment of sore trouble, Jesus exclaimed," Father, glorify thy Name;" as if he felt that his supreme work was to show the Father forth. "And there came a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorifieJ it, and will glorify it agaiu" (John xii. 28). V. GoD REVEALED .AT THE SUPPER-TABLE. When Judas left the table, and the beginning of the end had evidently come, Jesus said, in a meditative, but most revealing way, "Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him" (John xiii. 31; see also John xiv. 13). VI. Goo REVEALED IN THE HIGH-PRIESTLY PRAYER. This is our Lord's supreme desire: "Father, glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee." And this is his sublimest thought, as he looks back over his brief life: "I have glorified thee on the earth." Christ is the Glory that reveals God for us, "who by him do believe in Gou, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that our faith and hope might be in God."-R. 'f. Vere. 6-8.-The transitory and the permanent. This passage is brought to our minds, in the early summer-time, by the sight and the smell of the fields. One day th11y shine with the glory of the golden flowers, and, in a little while, the flowers are fallen, the grass is withered, and we are freshly impressed with the mutability of all eart-hly things. Man changes; God is the "same, yesterday, and to-day, and for ever." Man removes; God abides, and his dwelliug-place is as the everlasting hills. Man dies•1 God lives for ever and ever. From changing, passing, trnnsitory earth, wv may look upward to God, saying," He liveth, anti blessed be my Rock." Of this doub\a truth our text is one of the roost poetic and eloquent expressions. 'l'b.e figure i8 sufficiently impressive to us, who see the swathes lying in the path of the mower; but it. ia full of force and suggestion in the East, where sudden blasts of scorching wiuJ  92 THE BOO:lr OF TRE PROPHET ISAIAH. [OH. XL, 1-31.