comma.nds; and "seeking Jehovah," i.e. attending to all that his mind approves and hie will comma.nde. I. THE LEBBON OF THEm ORIGIN. They had been, as it were, hewn from a rock and dug out of a pit. The allusion is to Abraham. They had sprung from one, and him RB good as dead (Heb. xi. 12). They had been as rough as unhewn materials fresh from the quarry when Jehovah took them in hanrl for his moulding. He had formed the nation out of its primary materials-had taken Abraham and Sarah from a distant land, and formed them into a nation for hie own purpose. And then the argument is that he who had done this in the past was able to do as great things in the future-to restore the people from captivity to their own land. The words may be applied more generally (cf. Matt. iii. 9, "God is able to raise up of these stones children unto .Abraham"). From the rudest material God can fashion masterpieces of grace. Tbe greatest sinner may furnish the elements of character for the greatest saint. In any true and humble view of his condition the Christian will feel that the language is apposite to himself. "He was found in his natural state as a block of marble; he was moulded and formed by the agency of the Holy Spirit; he was fitted into the spiritual temple. Christians owe all the beauty and grace of their Christian deportment to him. This is an argument to prove that they are dependent on him for all tbat they have, and that he will keep them and accomplish all his purposes by them. He who has transformed them from rough and unsightly blocks to polished stones fitted for his spiritual temple on earth, is able to keep them still, and to fit them wholly for his temple above." II. COMFORT FOB THE FUTURE. 1. External blessings. The ruined places of Zion are to be restored, the present wi\derness of J udrea to be transformed into a garden of Eden-a scene of joy, thanksgiving, and music. The iJea of a terrestrial paradise enters into the lore of other nations. .Arab legends tell of a garden in the East, on a mount of jacinth, inaccessible to man, of rich soil and equable temperature, well watered and abounding in trees and flowers of rare colours and fragrance. "In the background of man's visions lay a paradise of holy joy, secured from profanation and inaccessible to the guilty; full of objects fitted to delight the senses and elevate the mind; a paradise that granted to its tenant rich and rare immunities, and fed with its perennial ~treams, the tree of life, and immortality" (Hardwick). There is no reason why we should not think of heaven under such a figure; and every happy renewal of the soul by Divine grace may be termed a transformation of the waste and desert of the heart into the garden of God. 2. Spiritual blessings. " Enthroned anew in Israel, J ehova.h shall send forth his light and his truth among the digtant nations." His righteousness is new-which means "his consistent adherence to his revealed line of action which involves deliverance to faithful or at least repentant Israel, and destruction to those who thwart his all-wise purposes." "Mine arms shall judge the peoples" include~ "the darker side of Jehovah's righteousness" (Cheyne). Tl:.e countries "shall wait" for Jehovah, and trust upon his "arm," i.e. hie mighty help. Distant lands shall become intereste,l in the true religion, and ackuowledge and worship the true God. 3. The eternity ef God's salvation. 'l'lie order of the world is elsewhere described in Scripture as everlasting (Gen. viii. 21, 22 ; ix. 9-ll ; xlix. 26; Ps. cxlviii. 6). The heavens and the earth appear to be firm and fixed. Yet-against all appearance and probability, against all that specious constancy-they are doomed to vanish away. The most mighty and fixed of created things must disappear; but the promise of God is unfailing. 'Jhis is one of the finest passages in all poetry. 'l'he heavens are to "glide away," disappearing like wreaths of smoke in the air (cf. eh. xxxiv. 4; Heb. i. 11, 12; Ps. cii. 26; 2 Pet. iii. 10-12). The Hebrew was wont to look upon the sky as e. "firmament," e. solid overarching vault. Yet here it seems thin as a soap- bubble, which the breath of a child may blow into nothingness. There are times when the soul is sick (like Hamlet), and all the ma,,"Ilificence of the heavens seems to pall upon it-a hint that the soul feels it partakes of a life higher than that of the natural world. There are times when the soul triumphs in the trnnsiency of the natural world, conscious that it enjoys an immortality in common with the Eternal. "The earth shall fall to pieces like a garment, and the dwellers therein shall die like gnats; but my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousuess shall not bo annulled." It is not the contempt of e. self-poised soul for the material world and its dimensions. and its 266 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH. [olI. LI, 1-23.
splendours; but the joy of a trustful soul in affiance with the Saviour-God. Th!Lt this world will pass away, and that GoG. will remain, are certain. But of what comfort is this to me, unless I am united to the Eternal? He by whose will material things perish and pass awAy is he by whose will the soul is redeemed and saved for ever. 'l'o live in faith upon God is to live the life of intellect and the life of love neither of which can pass awav; for they belong to the eternal essences. In such assuranct material things may be seen evaporntiug, heaven turning to smoke, earth becoming aa a tattered robe, "ocean's self turning dry;" while we ourselves pass to him who has been and will be the Dwelling-place and the Saviour of all successive genera- tious.-J.