ances have dereived. Even untoward heal,th and untoward fortune. 3. A stay. This is an old English word. I cannot stay myself on myself-<Jannot anchor a boat to itself._ ~ ca_n and do sf,ay upon that _which I see not. I can rely upon a God whose promise invites me. I may refuse to give up that rest, and say, amid human disappoint- ments, "Beautiful tree, under whose shadow I pasture I Blessed rock, where I have refuge fr<>m the heat l" We love to feel that we are in him that is" true."-W. M. S. , Vers. 1--3.-.&planation ef ea:;ile. The Lord would impress on his exiled people that their calamities found their explanation not in him but in themselves; and we shall find, when we look, that this is the account of our estrangement and distance from God. I. WHAT ACCOUNTED FOR lsRAEL's EXII,E? 1. It was not any fickleness in God. He had not acted toward Israel as a husband often acted tuward the wife of whom he was weary; there had been no changeableness on his part. 2. It was not hii necessity. The father might sell his son when hard pressed by pecuniary straits; but God could never, by any supposition, be reduced to such uecessiLies. He who can say," Every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills," the generous Donor of all gifts, and bountiful Source of all treasures, cannot be in want of anything. 3. It is not h-is inability to protect or to redeem. There was abundance of Divine power to preserve from captivity or to rescue from it. He who could "dry up the [Red] sea," and in whose hand are the storms and tempests of the sky, could defeat any armies of the invader, or could bring out of bondage, if he chose. 4. It was their own disobedience which accounted for it-their iniquities, their transgressions (ver. 1); it was their heedlessness and disobedience when the voice of the Lord was heard rebuking and inviting (ver. :l). II. WHAT A0COU:!."'TS FOR oUR ALIENATION FROM Goo? 1. Nothing in him. He is not 11,nwilling that we should return and be reconciled; he does not weary of his children; he has been obliged to condemn us, but he "earnestly remembers us still." His attitude is one of gracious invitation: all the days of our life long he "stretches out his hands" toward us. He ia not unable. The power which God shows in nature, in his control of the elements, in regulating the tides of the sea, and directing the tempest in the sky, is small and slight in comparison with that he shows in redeeming a fallen race; mechanical or miraculous power is of a far inferior kind to that which is moral and spiritual. And the Author of nature is the Redeemer of man; he has completed a glorious work of mercy and restoration. He has made it possible for the most guilty to be forgiven, for the foulest to be cleansed, for the most distant to return. There is no obstacle to our restoration in God. 2. Everyt1iing in us. We "will not come unto him that we may have life." (1) We do not listen when he speaks; we go on our way, regardless of the fact that God is speaking in his Word, in the sanctuary by Jesus Christ, in his providence. (2) Or we do not reflect when we hear. We may :ome and listen and understand, but go away" hearers only, and not doers;" we are the "people that do not consider." (3) Or we do not decide. We feel and we entertain the question of returning; we may say," I will arise," but we do not; conviction loses the name of action; we defer, and remain in exile.---C.
Ver. 4.-The hearing ear and the helpful tongue. The whole passage (vers. 4-9) is strikingly appropriate to the spirit and the work of the Messiah; and this verse a8 much as the rest. For it was true in no small measure: 1. That Jesus received con- tinual communications from the Divine Father. "The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise" (John v. 19; see also John iii. 11; v. 30; viii. 28, 40). 2. That he spoke many words of cheer and succour (Matt. xi. 28; John xiv. 1-4, 16-18, 27, ttc.). Many and rnauifold were "the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth." But we will take the text as applicable to the faithful servant of Christ now-more particularly to him who is ihe minister of Christ. And thus regarded, we infer- I. TH.AT WE SHOULD HAVB AN OPEN EAR TO WELCOME ALL THE TlllJTH GoD BAB TO TEA0H us. Between the man who k.nowH enough to find admission into the kingdom of Christ and the man who has been beet instructed in that kingdom, there is a very OH, L, 1-11,] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH.