The Pulpit Commentary — Isaiah — Volume 2 — Section 186

to their own land because, like them, he believed in but one supreme god-tho Ormazd, or good spirit, of the Zoroastrian creed-must be abandoned. God consecrated Cyrus to be his instrument in r~storing his chosen people to their land, not because the King of Elam was a monotheist, but because the period of Jewish trial and punishment had come to au end." It bas been thought by some that this prophecy of I~11iah concern- ing Cyrus was brou•!ht to that king's notice, and so helped to secure its own fulfilment. It is agreed that this Cyrus was a singularly just and noble monarch. Dr. H. Bushnell says, "So beautiful is the character and history of Cyrus, the person here addressed, that many have doubted whether the sketch given by Xenophon was not intended as an idealizing or merely romantic picture.... Aud what should he bo but a model of all princely beauty, of bravery, of justice, of impartial honour to the lowly, of great- ness and true magnanimity in every form, when God has girded him, unseen, to be the minister of his own great and sovereign purposes to the nations of his time?" Dean Stanley S11ys, " Though we know but little of the individual character of Cyrus, he first of the ancient conquerors, appears in other than a merely despotic and destructive aspect. It can hardly be without foundation that both in Greek and Hebrew literature be is represented as the type of a just and gentle prince." Three subjects are suggested. I. THE DISTINCT ENDOWMESTS OF MEN Il>"DICATE DIVINE CALL TO DIVINE WORK. In the Divine sovereignty and wisdom there is a proportionate distribution of gifts among men. In the figure of our Lord's parable, we may say, the master of the house calls together bis servants, and delivers to each one some portion of bis goods in trust. Very marked are the varieties of endowment and ability in a single family. We are often made to feel that God bas given special gifts to some of our children; but we should see that these cases are only prominent illustrati,ms of the truth that he bas given some gifts to all. We all have some special work to do for God in the world, and so we all have some special endowments for the doing of it. Every man is called of God, girded by God, surnamed by God, and the moment when be clearly sees what his life- work is, is the moment when he becomes conscious of his call. Bushnell says, "What do the Scriptures show us but that God has a particular care for every man, a personal interest in him, and a sympathy with him and his trials, watching for the uses of his one talent as attentively and kindly, and approving him as heartily in the right employment of it, as if he had given him ten? and what is the giving out of the talents itself but an exhibition of the fact that God has a definite purpose, charge, and work, be it this or that, for every man?" "Every human soul has a complete and perfect plan cherished for it in the heart of God-a Divine biography marked out, which it enters into life to live." The point on which we dwell is that the senso of power, the consciousness of power, is the witness to God's call ; and the responsibility of using the power to do God's work comes with the consciousness. To say "I can" is to affirm that there is something God wants me to do. Il. THE PRECISE TIME IN WBIOH A MAN HAS TO LIVE INDICATES DIVINE OALL AND WORK. Each one comes into being at the "fulness of time" for him. It is sometimes said that great preachers and thought-leaders of tho past would do little if they lived now. The sayiag is a foolish one, They belonged to their age, and were endowed for their age. The Divine lead was as marked in the time of their appearing as in the gifts with which they were endowed. In rncb age God wants men (1) who can represent the age, and find expression for the average thought of the age; (2) men who are before the age, 11nd can lead the age up towards the thoughts and things that are to be; and (3) men who are behind the age, and zealously preserve the good things of the past that may ~eem to be imperilled. A man may say," God has called me to live just now; then I may be quite sure that there is something which he wants me to do for him, and which he has fitted me to do, just now." Thus viewed, life grows solemn and holy for us all. We have our own work to do. III. THE PROVIDENTIAL CULTURE OF MEN FITS THEM FOR DOING Goo's PRECISE WORK FOR THEM. This is often imperfectly apprehended. We are precisely endowed, and set f.,rth in the world at just the right time; but it is important that we further trace bow God cultures the gifts by the influences with which he surrounds us, and the provi- dences he arranges for us. Often when men have found out what their life-work is. to be, they gain the key to the meaning of the scenes and circumstances through which they have been led,-R. T. OH, XLV, 1-26.J THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH. 191