The Pulpit Commentary — Isaiah — Volume 2 — Section 217

of his beloved child is likely to he.ve the truest insight into the grief of God when he witnesses our rejection of his truth and grace. But as "God only knows the love of God," so he only knows the depth and fulness of his grief. IV. 'l'HAT WE MAY BECOVER ALL II!' WE LISTEN WHEN Goo SPEAKS AGADI'. The Holy One is our Redeemer: he "teaches us to profit;" he "leads us in the way," etc. (ver, 17), He comes in holy discipline, in fatherly correction, to call us from our folly, to save us from our sin. If we wil 1 only know the profitableness of his redeeming truth, we may be restored and reinstated; we may yet wear the robe and the ring of sonship, and sit down at the Father's board.-C. Ver. 22.-Peace: appearance and reality. "There is no peace, saith the Lord, unto the wicked." We may look at- I. THE ANTECEDJ,;NT LIKELIHOOD that there would be none. For the wicked are: ]. In rebellion against the Lord of all righteousness and power; i.e. against one who is bound to visit sin with penalty and who is able to do so. 2. In an element of dis- turbance and disorder. They are in a wrong and false position; they are in a sphere which is unnatural and unlawful; they stand where storms may be anticipated, where calms are things to be surprised at and suspected. II. THE DELUSIVE APPEARANCE of peace in the case of the unrighteous. It is con- tinually happening that ungodly men, that unbelieving men, that even vicious men, spend lives of domestic comfort, prosper in the calling in which they are engage,l, are untroubled in their conscience for considerable periods of time, die without great alarm or even serious apprehension. It often appears as if there were peace to the wicked. These facts, however, are consistent with- III. THE ABSOLUTE CEBTAINTY that guilt and peace a.re never found together. It is not only true: 1. That crime is almost always attended with a haunting dread of exposure and penalty. 2. That vice and irreligion are commonly associated with a sense of guilt and with the rebukings of conscience. But it is also true: 3. That no guilty soul can poss{bly have that in his heart which deserves the name of peace. He may have insensibility or false security ; but these are not peace. Peace is the blessed calm which belongs to e. consciousness of rectitude before God; it is the possession of those alone who are right with God, and who believe that they are so. No hardihood, no delusion, can confer this. A man who is living apart from God, unreconciled to him, unaccepted by him, must be destitute of the peace of God-of the peace which Christ gives to his own.-C. Vers, 1, 2.-Tl,e offence of insincerity. "Not in truth, nor in righteousness." The prophet men lions the usual outward marks of the true Israelite; but, in t.he case of those whom he addressed, these were mere formalities, they were disconnected from a personal and liviug faith in God, These people said they were Jews, but they were not. '!'heir professions could not stand the examinations of the Heart-searcher. To the good man-and how'much more to tbe great and holy God I-insincerity is absolutely offonsive; we have scarcely even pity for the man who has no reality of lire aud feeling to match his professions, whose words do not represent his heart. Unspeakably painful to the prophet must have been the condition of the many Jews in his day, and in his pleading the ideal attributes of Israel are pressed in contrast with their actual state of hypocrisy and unrighteousness. "How high their profession soared I what a fair show they made in the flesh! and how far they went towards heaven I what a good livery they wore I and whata good face they put upon a. very bad heart I" (Matthew Henry). Ou the subjects of insincerity and hypocrisy there is much familiar teaching, which needs constant repetition, We only suggest two points. I. illSINOERITY IS SOMETIMES A DRIFT. We get into it, and it becomes e. confirmed condition we scarcely know how; we are not conscious of having exercised any will in the matter. With some there is a great idea of "keeping up appearances," aud the effort to do this tends to uourish insincere he.bits and ways. And sometimes we are carried into expressions of religious feeling and experience that are quite beyond us, by surroundings of religious excitement; and the pleasure of the insincere fascinates us. We drift into this evil by the use of sens.,tional hymns, and by listening to ecstatic religious experiences; and there is no gre.ver danger besetting the Church of our day IBAIAH-ll, Q  226 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH. [oH, XLvm. 1-2!,