The Pulpit Commentary — Isaiah — Volume 2 — Section 213

waters. Ite name would have heen imperishable. It ie, then, the "hearing ear" and the" perceiving heart" which above all are needed as conditions of true temporal and epirituel well-being. To hear so as to be pricked in heart; to hear so as to follow and prosecute the things we hear ;-this alone is to hear in the Scripture sense. And here we are reminded of the need of the Holy Spirit's influence, without:which we may see and never perceive, and hear and never understand, There must be an aptness between the object and thP faculty. Things sensible must be known by sense; things mental by the mind; and things spiritual by some principle infused into the soul from above. "'l'wo sit together and bear the same sermon. One finds a hidden spiritual virtue in the Word, by which he lives and grows and thrives. Another finds no such virtue in it; perhaps it pleases his reason, and there is an end, This proceeds from the want of the spiritual, perceiving heart. Why is it that a man is so affected with music that all his passions are moved by it, while brutes are not at all pleased? Because there is in man a principle of reason concurring with his sense, which discovers the sweetness and harmony of the sounds that bare sense is not able to discern." And so of the things of God. Open thou mine eyes and mine ears; let my noblest faculties be ever in communion with the noblest, my spiritual nature be awakened by the Spirit, and again respond to his influence !-this should be our prayer. We will hearken unto and obey him who hath the words of eternal life: this should be our resolve.-J. Ver. 4.-The revealing truth. "I knew that thou art obstinate." We blame this in a child. We sometimes falsely call it firmness in a man. This is a mistake, Firmness is only in a moral sense such, when it is infused by faith, governed by reason, approved by conscience, and consecrated to some noble and godlike end. I. HERE IS A REVELATION OF BUMAN POWER. Man can stand out against God. This is marvellous, but it is at the basis of all moral freedom and responsibility. The original Hebrew means "bard "-so hard that the tenderest revelations of Di vine love cannot melt the heart; so hard that the spectacle of the ruin and misery which rebellion everywhere brings does not create repentance and "returning." II. HERE IS A RBVELATION OF DIVINE KNOWLEDGE, "I knew." Man cannot see his brother'H inner coiintenance. God can. "Thy neck is an iron sinew, and thy brow brass." Let not man say that e.ny law of necessity has compelled his defiant course. Let him not say that it has been demanded of him by the idols of fashion and custom. "Before it came to pass I showed it thee, lest thou shouldest se.y, Mine idol bath done them, and my graven image, and my molten image, hath co=anded them." God knows that the soul has stood out against all Divine warnings, invitations, rebukes, and inter- positions, "0 Israel, thou hast destroyed thyselfl"-W. M. S. Ver. 6.-Hidden things. " Hidden things." The earth is full of latent forces. 'l'hese are concealed. Te.ke heat, for instance: how it hides in the secret places more stealthily than the panther I '1.'ake electricity: here it is quite close to us-within us; and what a masterful power it is I-how it can rend the rock and lay low the lofty palaces I These are beneficent forces, though, and do their work well, for the security, health, e.nd comfort of man. There are hidden forces that are baneful. The latent seeds of disease lie hidden behind that pearly skin-that pure e.nd radiant complexion. And when we have to speak of sin, what a latent force that is hidden in the breast of a child I -concealing itself under the cloak of outward respectability in manhood, and by its manifestations here and there like the volcano, telling us what depths of evil there are in the human heart, which only Christ and bis cross ce.n overcome. Men understand much, but they do not understand themselves. I. WE HAVE HIDDEN FORCES OF JOY IN us. In a human sense it is so, Look e.t those children, all eager for their own little possession, their own way; they know not now what love will do: bow for that bright little maiden yonder, presently, in a fe\V brief years, one human heart will give up time and thought, e.nd all that earnest love can give I Whe.t e. force I but hidden yet. So in marriage ; that young wife cannot be informed, or instructed, or inspired by others to feel what me.tornal love is; but when the cry is beard, e.nd e. child is burn into the world, the latent instinct leaps into life in the heart, a.ml she knows for the first time what that slumbering force really is. So there 11,re iq our soulu hidden forcen, We have le.tent fa<iulties of faith in us which the  222 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH. [en. xLvm. 1-22,