The Pulpit Commentary — Isaiah — Volume 2 — Section 145

and Jew, to cultivated and uncuHivated, to those who esteem themselves to be righteom and to those who know themselves to be sinners, we have to testify "repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesu~ Christ." III. THE EXPERIENCE WHICH JUSTIFIES THEIR EVIDENCE. They have experienced that which amply warrants them in commending the gospel of the grace of God. 1. A profound sense of true deliverance. Their own consciousness makes it clear and posi- tive that they have been rescued from the tyranny, the depravity, and the burden of sin, and led into the liberty, the purity, and the joy of sonship. 2. Peace and hope in regard to the future. God has revealed to them a home of rest and love-a future state where the highest and noblest aspirations of redeemed humanity will find fulfilment. In sure prospect of this they are in a position to speak freely in the presence of thos& who live without God and die without hope.-C. Vars. 22-25.-Righteousness, guilt, mercy. We notice here- I. THE REASONABLENESS OF Gon's SERVICE. "I have not caused thee to serve with an offering, nor wearied thee with incense." God's service is not a servitude, a slavery; nor is it a burdensome task, hard and heavy to be borne. Under the Mosaic Law, special provision was made for the poor, so that the sacrifices asked of them should be within their reach (Lev. v. 7; xii. 8; xiv. 21). Women and children were excepted ,from certain requirements, because of their sex or their years. Various exemptions were allowed in the spirit of considerateness. There was nothing hard, rigorous, ungracious, in the Law. Nor is there in the Divine demands now made upon us. God de;,ires-indeed, he requires of us-that we should yield to him our thought, our remembrance, our worship,-regular, willing, spiritual; our love, our filial affection; 0111 obedience to his precepts; our submigsion to his will. But there is nothing arbitrary or capricious about this demand; it is only that which grows, naturally and even neces- sarily, out of the intimate relation in which God stands to us and we to him. What is there less than this that we could rigb tly render to our Creator, our Sustainer, our bountiful Benefactor, our Father, our Redeemer? And in everything God makes full allowance for all our weakness and incapacity. He expects of us according to that which he has entrusted to us. From those to whom much is given, much will be required, etc. (see 2 Cor. viii. 12). From the very rich God will look for the talents of gold; from the very poor, small pieces of copper; from the strong man, his strength; from the weak man, his weakness. II. THE SERIOUSNESS AND THE HEINOUSNESS OF HUMAN SIN. The Divine complaint is against us all, that we have: 1. Withheld from him what is due to him. We have "not called upon" him; for we have been "weary of him." '\Ve have not brought him even our smaller offerings; we have not honoured him, as we might and should have done, in his courts. And this shortcoming is only a small part of all our sin of omission. We have all failed to render him the glory due to his Name, the reverence and the affection due to himself, the obedience and the service due to bis will and to his cause. It is also against many that they have: 2. .Added aggravalin9 offences to their shortcoming; "served him with sins," "wearied him with iniq11itie~." Many have not only refused their worship, but they ha1·e flagrantly and heiuously broken his commandments; have multiplied their i11iquities, nod made him to write down the most grievous and shameful transgressions in his book against them. UL THE FULNESS AND FREE:,-Ess OF THE DIVINE MERCY. (Ver. 25.) For his own sake, not compelled thereto by anything which they had done or should do, but impelled by his abounding and overflowing grace, he would" blot out their transgressions" from hie book of remembrance. God's pardoning love to us, revealed in the gospel: 1. Is large and free. (1) He forgives the most flagrant offences. (2) He receives those who have been longest in rebellion against bis rule, and have most pertinaciously resisted hie overtures. (3) He takes back those whom he forgives into his full favour anti treats them with unstinted kindness (Luke xv.). 2. Is granted of his own grace, and for the sake of hie own Son our Saviour. 3. Is conditional on our repentancu and faith.-C. Ver. 1.-Personal relations with God. "Thou art mine." In lhe East, to call a icrson by name is a mark of an individualizing tenderness. But so it is in all lands.  150 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHE'I' ISAIAH. [on. xtw.1-28.