I. GoD ABSORBS IN HIMSELF ALL THE IDEAS WHICR IDOLA'n\Y SEEKS TO EMBODY, Poetically conceived, the fo:ures of Baal or Jupiter are only representations of certain powers---of life, warmth, rule, wisdom, etc., which are living, unseen beinga. Our God says there are no ~uch beings. Every one of these powers is in himself. He is Zeus, an,i Baal, and Venus, and Diana, and Molocb, so far as any of these represen~ necessary ]'Owers belonging to Dt>ity. \Ve must not divide him into many beings; he is only One. So far as idols are mere creations of men, there is nothing existing that corresponds to them. So far as they represent real powers, these powers all meet in the 011e God- our Go,l ! JI, Gon DEMANDS ALL TRE WORSIIIP WRICH IDOLATRY DISTRIBUTES OVER MANY GODS. True worship is both word and work, profession and service. Men who divide God into gods have their favourite deity. Gori cannot be divided. And the law for every creature made in his image is, "Thon shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and all thy mind, and all thy soul, and all thy strength."-R. T. Yer. 20.-Tlw ill-fed soul. The expression, "ho feedeth on ashes," is proverbial in the East for that which is done to no purpose-that which is vain, unsatisfying, disap- pointing. Hugh Macmillan gives some accounts of depraved and perverted appetite in the use of earth for food. He says, "'I'his propensity is not an occasional freak, but a common custom, and is found among so large a number and variety of tribes, that it may be regarded as coextensive with the human race. From time immemorial the Chinese have been in the habit of using various kinds of edible earths as substitutes for bread in time of scarcity; and their imperial annals have always religiously noticed the discovery of such bread-stonPs, or stone-meal, as they are called. On the western coast of .Africa a yellowish kind of earth, called caovac, is so highly relished, and so constantly consumed by the negroes, that it has become to them a necessary of life. In the island of Java, and in various parts of the hill country of India, a reddish earth is baked into cakes, and sold in the village markets for food." But such food cannot give due nourishment to the body. It is unnatural, uusatisfying. Our souls need healthy and satisfying food as truly as our bodies do; and men's folly in respect of their bodies only illustrates their much greater folly in respect of their souls. So many of us are ill fed, inj ndiciously fed. After showing what is the propP.r nutrimeot for a renewed soul, leading up to the mystical expre~sion of our Lord, as recorded by John, "My flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed," it may be shown that food for the soul is insufficient and injurious when it is- L ILL SELECTED. It must be good, but it must also be appropriate and adapted. The word of the preacher must be such as "ministers grace to the bearers." The supreme question for each one is-Do the means of grace minister grace to me? I mny be at the feast, yet be ill fed. II. !Lt PREPARED. Foor! that is in itself good is often made unsuitable for us in the cooking. Teachings may be spoiled by the vanity or the over-adornment ~f. the teachers. Especially teachings may be ill prepared as they lack the true spmtual flavour. Then they come to us as the word of man rather than as the word of God. III. ILL PROPORTIONED. Sometimes in excess; at other times deficient. We may at times be starved, and at others surfeitcil. We may have the false appetite, ~vhicb feeds voraciously at times. We may, in religious things, run too bard along particular lines, interest ourselves only in sides and aspects of truth, and so become ill-fed souls. IV. ILL SUSTAINED. In respect of soul-feeding the law for the body applies. Little and often. Plain and regular. Therefore are we taught to pray, " Give us day by day our daily bread." And to teach us that we want food, not luxuries, Christ said of himself, "I am the Bread of life."-R. T.
Ver. 22.-God's way of pleading with 11,en. Put in other words, the statement of this text is, "A1J a cloud is blotted out of the heavens, so have I blotted out thy trans- gressions." But it is difficult for us to realize what is meant by "blotting out a cloud." So far as we have to do with clouds, we cannot speak of them as "blotted out." Some 11wiftly hurry by; others move majestically along,-they go out of sight into some other quarter of the heavens; but we do not see them vanish from their.place iu mid-sky, and become "blotted out." Sometimes the cloud sends down showers upon the earth, and OU, XLIV, 1-28,J THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH. 171
so it exhausts itself; but that cannot be the image of our text, because it intimates a putting away or our Hins, so that they shall not shower down upon us the tribulation and anguish that is gathered up in all transgression. But the image which our damp climate cannot furnish is given in the sunny lands c,f the East. There, in the morning, will often be seen dull heavy masses or clouds, a[Jd there is every indication of a showery day. But as the sun rises and gathers strength, these clouds all vanish and disappear; they do not drift away, or pass into another part of the heavens; they just vanish on the spot, they die away, they are" blotted out." Understood thus, it is a striking and impressive figure. Even thns the thick clouds of our ~ins darken the sky, and those sin-clouds bear manifest tokens or punishment and wrath. But thus also God's love, the sun of his forgiving love, arise~, shines out full, and the sin-cloud is dispelled, it vanishes away. It is not driven i11to the future, to await us there; it is just" blotted out," forgiven and forgotten. With other most impressive figures God endeavours to convince us of the fulness or his forgi1·ing. He makes his servant say," As far as the east is from the west, so far bath he removed our transgressions from us." vVhere is the cast? Where is the west? Is it yonder ridge or hill, behind which we saw the suu set yesterday? Nay, did you stand on that very spot, the west would be still away, away, in the dim dislance. The more you hurry toward the east, the further you get away from the west. Go east, and try to find your forgiven sins; behold God has put them in the utmost west. Elsewhere we read of God's "casting our sins behind his back." He not merely puts them behind his back, he casts them there; his love refuses to look on them, his forgiving restoring love will not treasure them up against us; they l\re flung away; they are done with; tb< y are bonds cancelled, debts settled for ever. 0