have, after thou hast lost the other; lit.erally, children as me.y be entrusted to their onre. the children of thy bere,avement; i.e. the They shall bow down. They shnll not seek Gentiles who shall replace those me.ny to lord it over the Church, but slmll aclrnow- fe.ithlces lsre.elites who refused to return ledge in the officers ol the Church a spiritual when Cyrus issued his edict, and became authority superior to their own, befol'e which lost to the Church of God. The ple.oe is too they shall "bow down," as Theodosius did. strait for me (se.e tbe con,ment on ver. HI). They shall even be willing, when they ore Ver. 21.-Who bath begotten me these1 conscious of guilt, to "lick the dust" under The Jewish Church is astounded at the the Church's feet, or subject themselves to influx of the Gentiles, and asks, "Where deep humiliatic-n, that they may be restored. did thev come from? Who bas me.de them They shall not be ashamed that we.it for me, rnv chi\Jren? Who has trained them?'' Such as wait patiently nnd trust in the ful- That they are not her natural children filment of all these gracious promises shall she is sure, since she kuows that she ho.s escape she.me, for the promises will assuredly been for R long time "bereaved und unfruit- be fulfilled. ful" (Cheyne)-a CRptive, and e. "wanderer" Ver. 24.-Shall the prey be taken, etc.? (Kny). It is certain that tbe Jewish Church The incredulous among the exiles thought did not at first Rltogether welcome the in- it well-nigh impossible that Babylon should coming of the Gentiles (Acts xi. 1-3; be forced to disgorge her prey-the captives xv. 1-11; Gal. ii 11-14, etc.). Ilut the whose labours were so valuable to her. guidance of the Holy Spirit surmounted Babylon was mighty. By the laws of war the difficulty (Acts xv. 28). she had a rightful claim to her captives. Ver. 22.-I will lift up mine he.nd to the How was she to be induced or compelled to Gentiles. The new children-the new con- give them up? verts-are to come from the Gentiles ; Ver. 25.-The captives of the mighty shall the fresh "sons" and "daughters" will be be taken away, The answer to the questions carried by the nations in their arms, and of ver. 24 is that, if Babylon is mighty, God by the peoples upon their shoulders. It is is mightier. God will "take away" the usual to expound this and parallel passages captives, and " eave" his •• children." ( eh. Ix. 4; I.xvi 20) of the return of the Ver. 26.-I will feed them that oppress Jews to their own land by favour _of the thee with their own fiesh (comp. eh. ix. 20). Gentiles, either \>hen the decree of Cyrus Civil disunion is intenued, which will break went forth, or at some still future period. the power of Babylon, and render her an But perhaps the children intended e.re easy prey to the Persians. The recently foster-children, actual Gentiles, whom their discovered inscriptions clearly show that parents will bring to baptism. In the this was the case. Nabonidus had alienated Assyrian sculptoxe.s, mothers are constantly the affections of his subjects by changes in represented as carrying their children upon the religion of the country, and during the their shoulders (' Ancient Mone.rchiee,' vol. i. course of the war with Cyrus, many Baby- p. 480). lonian tribes went over to the invaders, and Ver. 23.-Xingsshall bethynuraingfathers, fouaht O against their own countrymen (see and their queens thy nnr&ing mothers ; the ' Cylinder of Naboniclue;' and comp. or, thy foster-jathera . . . thy foater-mothers. Sayce, 'Ancient Empires of the East,' p, Kings and queens (sultanas) shall put them- 387). The mighty One of J'e.oob (see the seh·es at the disposal of the Church, to comment on oh. i. 24). nourish and cherish such of the Church's
HOMILETICS, Vere. 6-12.-The lou·est humiliation and the ltighe8t glory meet in (J!wist. The Messiah was to be "glorio\18 in the eyes of the Lord" (ver, 5); God was to be "his Stren,,.th ·" "kings" were to" see him and arise;" "princes also" were to "worship" (ver. 7); '1e wa6 to "raise up the earth;" to "cause to inherit the ~~solate heritages" (ver. 8); he was to loose the prisoners (ver. 9), to "restore Israel (ver. 6), and to carry salvation to the ends of the world (ver. 6); yet, at the same time, he was to be "despised of men, an object of abhorrence to the nations, a servant [or, 'slave'] of rulers" (ver. 7). That such opposites should meet in one person must ha~e seemed, anterior to the event, most improbable; yet the pmphet utters no "unc~rtam sound.-'.' He proclaims alike, with the greatest distinctness, both the glory (eh. 1x. 6, 7; x_lu. 1-8; xlix. 1-6) and the humiliation (eh. xlix. 7; liii. 2-12), both the exalt11t10n and the depression, of the Redeemer. And the event justified him, in both respect& alike, ea. XLU:. 1-26.] THE BOOK OF 'I.'llE PRO1'l:1E'l' ISAIAH. 235