The Pulpit Commentary — Isaiah — Volume 2 — Section 196

Ver. 8.-Manlincss in relatwn to religion. "Remember tbis, and show yourselves men." The prophet calls on the people of God to show themselves to be men, either by exercising their powers of recollection and reason in remembering the facts and arguments he has adduced, or by taking appropriate, manly action in the recollection and realization of these convincing and cons training reasons. Religion is a manly thina- in both these aspects. So far from its being the childish or effeminate thing which it~ enemies have been pleased to call it, it is a sphere of thought and of action in which the very highest and noblest attributes of our humanity have fullest scope. L As A SPHERE OF HUMAN THOUGHT. 1. It is the most elevated. All objects of creation are worthy of regard, and the study of them is full of recompense. But they differ in the degree of their worthiness; there is an ascending scale, and they culminate in the Divine. The noblest study of mankind is God-bis nature, his character, his will, his kingdom. 2. It is the most obligatory. Men, as men, should consider that which most claims their attention, should dwell on those themes which most demand their thought and care. And these are found in Divine blessings, Divine dealings, Divine messages, Divine beauties and excellences. We are never doing anything more worthy of our manhood than when we are recalling and realizing what God is, what he has doue, what he bas been to our race and to ourselves, what sov.ereign and supreme claims be has on our reverence and love. II. As A SPHERE OF HUll1A.N ACTION. If there be anything which can be said to be me.nlier than patient and earnest thought on the highest themes, it is: 1. Deliberate choice ef the wisest and ~st course-the determination, at all costs and spite of all inducements, to take that course which commends itself to our judgment as the right and the wise one. This is exactly what men do when they surrender themselves to ibe will of God, to the service of Jesus Christ. 2. Resolute and persistent pursuit of it. Where does manliness find nobler illustrations than in the persistent worship of God under cruel persecution, the immovable adherence to sacred conviction under the wearying and worrying assaults of worldly and frivolous associates, the steadfast endeavour to extend the kingdom of righteousness and to raise the condition of the degraded, notwithstanding all the discouragements that await the Christian work- man ?-C. Ver. 4.- Grace jCJf' a long life. "Even to boar hairs will I carry you.'' Reference is made more especially to the prolonged life and varied experience of the nation; but the promise and assurance are equally ~pplicable to the individual-they exactly mo.tch other assurances which are adrlressed to individuals. And Israel may always be regarded as the type of the godly man. I<'or us all life is full of changes, surprises, and calamities. We have nothing absolutely stable and unchangeable, nothing always true and trustworthy, unless God is such. In an exquisite fragment of autobiography, by Dr. Horace Bushnell, found dimly pencilled on a stray sheet of paper, is the following indication of the rest a soul finds in the permanence, the unchangeableness, of God: "My mother's loving instinct was from God, and God was in love to rno first there- OH. XLVI, 1-18.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH. 201