The Pulpit Commentary — Isaiah — Volume 2 — Section 237

preaoher must deal with according to the notions he has of God's Law and God's righteousness. He has demands; acceptance must be hindered until they are reason- ably met. IV. WHEN Goo AND MAN AGREE TO PUT THE HINDRANCES AWAY, THE ACCEPT.ADU; TIME BAB COME. Man must put away his sinfulness in penitence. God will put away his claims in mercy ; and righteousness and peace can kiss each other. Christ bears mediatorial relations both to God and man.-R. T. Ver. 10,-The ideal state. The return journey of the exiles is here compared to that of a well-tended flock, which has no temptation to roam, for every need is supplied and every possible danger is averted from them. Prophetic figures can never be read aright, unless we carefully distinguish between the pictured i<leals of poet-'! and prophets, an,\ their realization in actual life. The actual never comes up to the ideal. The ideal is the best possible under the best of circumstances; the actual is the best pos~ible under circumstances that come far short of the best possible. Ideals have their mission in keeping up our standards, and making us "aim high.'' Utopias are never found, but the world everywhere is the better because some of the human race have conceived Utopias, and presented their conceptions to their fellows. The absence of all elements of evil from the ideal state is figured by the removal of all sources of physical distress. This applies to the prophetic descriptions in the passage before us, and to the pictures of the heavenly given us in the Book of Revelation, "They shall hun:i;er no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat." The points which may be profitably treated are these two. L DISABILITIES ARE NEEDED WfilLE MORAL CULTURE BAS TO BE CARRIED ON. If any proof were required of that fallen and deteriorated condition of man which is a matter of universal experience and conviction and really requires no proof, it would be found in the fact that man now will only learn his best moral lessons through suffer- ing. We so readily think of suffering as arranged in the sovereign will of God; it is a sovereign necessity in meeting man's fallen condition. ·why will we not learn without these disabilities? It is clear that we do not, and we will not. It is evident that we are biasserl towards wrong, towards self-willeclness. Bodily pain, life-distresses, are necessary to the culture of moral creatures who have become enslaved to self-will. Sorrow is graciously linked with sin, lest sin should come to be loved. II. DISABILITIES MAY BE REMOVED WHEN MORAL CHARA':TER IS ESTABLISHED, When men are all holy, then their surroundings may be all beautifal. There is no smiting heat, no chilling cold, no lack of food, no biting hunger, no raging thirst, no wearing pain, no blinding tears, no separating sea, no remorseless death, in heaven, because all who dwell there are established in goodness, and so there is no mission for disabilities to accomplish; their "occupation's gone." And just so far as we win goodness un earth we rise above all our disabilities, heaven is begun below; as with everything, 20 with love, "perfect love casteth out fear."-R. T. Ver. 14.-Ever-recurring doubts. What God has to complain of in every age is our "little faith." "He cannot do many mighty works among us because of our unbelief." The reproach here is of the great proportion of the Jewish people, who had become utterly despondent under their long captivity, and even began to complain, not to God, that would be right, but of God, which was wrong, saying, "The Lord bath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me." Consider- I. TRI: RUMAN REASONABLENESS OF DOUBT. Daye went on for those captives, tht1 days maJ.a_years, the years passed by the score, and with the utmost straining not ou,, gleam of light could be seen in the nation's sky. Indeed, the political conditions a11,l combinations made the hope of return more vain than ever. From the human poii:.\ of view it was time indeed to doubt. "See how deplorable the case of God's people may be sometimes, such that they may seem to be forsaken and forgotten of their God ; and at such times their temptations may be alarmingly violent. ,veak believers, in their despondency, are ready to say, 'God has forsaken his Church, and forgotten the sorrows of his people'" (Malthew Henry). 'l'his text is "not an expression of absolute unbelief; it is the pain of seemingly unreturned affection, which borrows the language of 11C8pticism. The highest act of faith is to see God with the heart when all outw:ml  246 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH. [on. xux. 1-26.