which they are Ire.veiling. They know that death is in front of them, that judgment awaits them; but they do not" lay it ro heart n-they rem em her not" the latter end of it." 3. An overweening e.,timate of their own power. "I shall be a lady fur ever. . . . I she.ll not sit as e. widow." Men "say in their heart,''" Other men have made great miata.kes, but l shall avoid them ; other men have suffered in t1eir circumstances or in. their health, but l shall e~cape; on other men judgmcnt and penalty have fallen, but I know how to avert the blow," etc. They imagine themselves to be possessed of an Ingenuity, a sagacity, a power of defeating the operation of penal laws, which does not, belong to them. No one else credits them with this extraordinary faculty; everybody else is convinced that they will be bitterly undeceived : they are iofatu;ited by their sinful folly. 4. A belief in the excellency of animal enjoyment. They are "given t0 pleasures" (ver. 8). One of the infatuations of sin is that sensuous delig11ts will satisfy a human soul. It is a complete delusion. As men yield to the temptations of the flesh th~y find that pleasure lessens as the craving grows: they eat, but are hungry still; they drink, but are thirsty as before. The lower gratifications do not fill the heart which God created for himself and for his service and friendship. 5. Afatuous infidelity. "None seeet.h me" (ver.10). III. ITS INEVITABLE DOOM. "Therefore shall evil come upon thee," etc. (ver. 11). The doom of spiritual infatuation is: I. Sometimes sudden. "Desolation comes suddenly;" when men are saying, "Peace, peace," then sudden destruction. 2. Often mysterious. Men do "not know whence it ariseth." Concealed beneath the surface are the see,ls of sorrow and of death; they are invisible, but they are there. 3. .Always inevitable. Men are "not able to put it off." Wealth cannot purchase its departure; authority cannot order it away; ingenuity cannot escape its power. A voice which none may disregard or disobey will be heard exclaiming, "Get thee into darkness" (ver. 5).-C. Vers. 1, 2.-Humi?iation the Divine fudgment on pride. The point here, accordin~ to some, is that Babylon loudly boasted about her never having been captured; so she called herself, and was called, a "virgin" city. The figure suggests all the delicacy, all the luxuriousness, all the pride, of the Eastern princess. "Pride goeth before destruc- tion, and an haughty spirit before a fall." The humiliation of Babylon is presented ii; precise accordance with the circumstances and sentiments of a grand and proud princess. The hands that were never soiled shall do menial work; the hldy who sat in state, in her lovely boudoir, shall sit on the ground and work the household haudmill; she who walked alone, attended by her rnai<ls, shall be tied to a group of captives, and dragged to foreign slavery; and the delicate dame who had been royally clothed and modestly veiled shall be exposed to the jests and sneers and rude gaze of rough and brutal men. It is a picture of crushing judgments, such as must surely, sooner or later, overtake proud persons, proud cities, and proud nations. God works by humblings, :is well as by actual sufferings. The force of the picture presented here lies in the command to the exquisite princess to "take the millstones, and grind meal." This was the most servile form of female labour, and those engaged in it are often squalid and half-clad. Poor blind peorle go from house to house to grind, an,i thus earn a pittance. ThP indignity expre~sed in the command to " uncover thy locks" can only be uTJderstood a~ it is known that Jewish women are not permitted to show their hair after marriage, and their head-dress is so contrived as completely to conceal the hair. The expression, "pass over the rivers," alludes to the demand to wade the streams o.s tile humiliated princess journeys to the place of her captivity. Illustrate- I. Tim HUMILIATION OF PROUD NATIONS. Such striking cases may be dealt with o.s the ruin of commercial Tyre; the dismantling of strong and gorgeous Baby Ion; the overthrow of imperial Rome; the discomfiture of Xerxes and his immense army; the prostration of Napoleonic France. Bushnell has a fine argument for the dignity of human nature as shown by its ruins, and he illustrates by references to the utter desolation and ruin of what were once the great cities of great nations. II. 'l'HE HUMILIATION OF PROUD CLASSES. The calamities of war, famine, pestilence, 1rade depression, most quickly and grievously affect them, because of the thousand- fold fictitious wants which their pride creates. There are no miserable creatures so miserable as those who are born to riches, and, having none or losing all, are left in their helplessness. 212 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH, [cu. XLVII. 1-15,
III. THE HUMILIATION OF PROUD INDIVIDUALS, . Show the various shapes it takes in this life, and illustrate from the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, the certainty and hopciessness or it in the next life. Of this we may be quite sure-God has woe in store, in this life and in the next, for all the proud.-R. T.