catechize and call to account Jehovah. "Are ye children of God? Then is it well with you; and to murmur against me is as if ye should renounce your sonship." II. THE ABSURDITY OF MUilMURING. To criticize the Creator is to a,sume a know- ledge we have not got. We should be creators ourselves before we could say whether this or that part of the great world-work could have l,een otherwise exeo.:uted. It i~ also to assume a knowledge or the clues of history, the springs of •udden events, which is not ours. And Jehovah reminds man again of his providential relation to Cyrus. His absolute unquestionable domiuion and sovereignty ,,ver all things ia the great argument for our suhmission to him. His dominion is founded on an inalienable title- Creation and Providence. It is reasonable that the first cause should be the Supreme Governor; and what ever has been made by God should also be commanded by hi rn. He might have chosen whether he would have made the world ,,r nu; lor he had no need of it to complete or add to his happiness, "hich was infinitely perfect within the compass of his own glorious being. Yet lie was 1,leascd, by tlie free motion of his will, to communicate and diffuse some little shadow of those perfections upon the creatures, and more especially upon his nearer rese11, blances, men and angels. A bei11g essentially wise cannot do anything but wisely. Our ignorance of Go<l's acti"ns cann"t make them or argue them to be unreasonable. He is m•,re bonoure<l by our admiration th.m by our inquiries. Hence the necessity, the prU<lence, and the becomingness of submission, without murmuring to his allotmeuts.-J. Vers. 14-17.-The conversion of Egypt. In this conversion of the nations to true religion the Divine goodness and providence will be at last recognized. They are represented as going over to Israel of their own accord, and surrendering to her their wealth. And they will be brought at last to the great confession, "Of a truth God is in thee, and there is none beside-no Godhead at all." I. HISTORY AS THE CONCEALMENT OF Gon. So it often appears. The weak are down-trodden; the proud and tyrannical are in the ascendant. Israel in her prostrate condition and ingip_nificance seemed to imply a God impotent to save. And so it is in the personal life and history. There are sufferings which obscure the light of faith, and seem to give the lie to the most deep-seated religious hopes. But Goel is where he was, though our view pierces not to him. "He's in his heaven; all's right with the world!" II. HISTORY THE UNVEILING OF Goo. "Now we are forced to own that Israel's God is the absolutely Strong One, able and willing to deliver all who trust in him." Then in a moment they who have trusted in idols are covered with confu~ion, together with the artificers of them. And Israel is saved with an everbstin~ salvation. "'l'ime, like a dome of many-coloured glass, stains the white radiance of eternity." What is all life and time, nature aud human fashion, but a. veiling of God? How can we s,·e him except "through a glass darkly"? What is thinking but dreaming, and dreams what but pictured screem, concealing and revealing the truth? We are in bondage to sense, to belief, to fancy. But our deliverance draws near; and no confusion will await them that have believed to the end.-J.
Vars. 18-25.-God, Israel, and the world. Again, with solemn iteration, Jehovah cleclares that he is Creator and Goel alone. The earth was framed and fitted to be the habitation of man, and the theatre of providential manifestations. I. THE REALITY OF THE ETERNAL, The truth is open, and may be published to all; it is no thing of mystery, secrecy, like heathen esoteric rites or knowledge. "J ehovuh's Law is not to be obtained by any occult arts from the under-world." He bas not been n wilderness unto Israel or a. land of darkness (Jer. ii. 31; cf. ii. 6). The seeking of his people after him is not to end in chaos. Here, again, may be an nllusion to the dark sayings of the heathen oracles-ambiguous, oblique, or fallacious. His speech is direct, upright, and true. Let those who have escaped from the judgment upon the nations hear witness, How foolish they who carry the woo,len image in processions, and pray to it (cf. eh. xlvi. 1; Jer. x. 6; Am. v. 26) I Whnt argument can be produced for the divinity of idols? Which of them can pretend to the prophetic and predictive power of Jehovah? Goel is the only Reality, the only Truth, the only faithful Principle in e world of idolatrous unrealities, pretences, e.nd shams. 182 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAII, (cu. xtv. 1-25,