something. But they c.1nnot. "They are of nothing, and their work of nought" (see 1 Cor. viii. 4). Cheyne says," The Divine Speaker waives the question of foreknowledge, and makes the least requirement I?Ossible. 'Prove that you nro alive, by performing some act whether good (for your fncnds) or bad (for your foes).' Or, we may empty the rerms 'good' and 'evil' of their moral meaning, an,l suppose them to be used proverbially to express the one simple notion of anythin_g, exactly as the two words • right and left' merely conveyed the idea of anywhere." Matthew Henry p,uaphrasee thus: "Let them do, if they can, anything extraordinary, that people may admire 11nu he affected with. Let them eith<'r bless or curse, with power. Let us see them inflict such plagues as God brought on Egypt, or bestow such blessings as God bestowed on Israel. Let them do some great thing, and we shall be amazed when we see it, and frightened illto a veneration of them, as many have been into a veneration of the true God." The point sugg~sted for illustration is that it would be well to put nineteeuth- century idols also to the test, and see whether they are worthy of confidence because they ha,e power to do either good or evil. What may be regarded as idols must be decided by each teacher of men for himself. We can only venture to hint tbnt the following may come under the denomination. Indeed, an idol is anything which so occupies the inrerest of man as to push God out of his supreme place in man's affection a□ d service. I. THE IDOL OF SCIENCE. Worshipped by many in our day. What can it do? What can it do towards meeting the spiritual need, the sense of sin, the soul-cry, of man? And it can do nothing if it can bear no relation to them. II. THE IDOL OF LUXURY. Pleasure has numberless votaries, who delight in her service. Yet is she but the syren, who floats on, j nst a little in front, luring her wor- shippers into heedlessness of the black storms that are gathering in the sky. What can sbe do in the day of calamity? Then her votaries find she is "all vanity, and her works are nothing." Ill. THE IDOL OF SELF. Taking often very interesting shapes, as socialistic theories of man's regeneration by man. Very attractive is the notion that all earth-woes would fade away if only men would bind themselves together in a universal" Help-M_vself" Society. And yet the story of the ages is the ever-fresh illustration of the fact th11t it is not, and it never has been, in "man that walketh to direct his steps." Ask "Self" what it can do for our best and highest interests, and it is as dumb as any idol-block. None hear, and there is no one to answer. Only when the claims of idol Self had been thoroughly worked out, and" man by his wisdom evidently knew not God," did Divine love interv"ne and send the Son. The "fulness of times" was precisely the time when helpless "Self" was proved to be of nothing, and his works of nought. And yet round these and other idol-shrines men crowd to-d!!.y, and need to hear the solemn appeal of the last of Christ's apostles, "Little children, keep yourselves from idols.''-R. T.
EXPOSITION. only be the future Christ" (Delitzsch). U CHAPTER XLII. may be added that St. Matthew (xii. 17-21) Vere. 1-8.-ANNOtJNCEMENT OF TRE SER- distinctly applies the passo.ge to our Lord. VANT OF Tm,: LORD, AND THE WORK WHIOH Ver. I. - llehold. "I.lehold," o.s Mr. BE WILL PEilFOIIM, There 11.l'e comparatively Cheyne says, "invites the attention of the few who deny that, in this place at any rate, world-both of the Jews and of the nations the " Servant of the Lord" is the Messiah. -to a new revelation." It looks back to the similo.r expression of vers. 24 o.nd 29 (So the Targum on the passage; so Abar- of the preceding chapter, which draw ,!own barnel; so, among modems, Oehler, De- the curtain upon the idol-gods, wbilo this litzsch, and Mr. Cheyne.) The portraiture ••behold" reveo.ls One who is to occupy their has "so strong an individuality and such place, o.nd to be a worthy object of the wor- marked personal features, that it cannot ship of mankind. My Servant i i.e. my true and perfect servant, utrerly obedient (John possibly be a mere personified collective;" iv. 34; Heb. iii. 2); not, like 1aro.el, my and it goes so "infinirely beyond anything robellioUB and fo.ithless servant; not, even, of which " man w-9 ever oapable t~t U can like 1111 prophets, yieldilig an hnperfeot obe• 011. x.r.n. 1-26.J THE BOOK OF THE PROPHE1' ISAIAH. 117