HOMILETICS. Vers. 1, 2.-God helps those who help themselves. It is a law of God's providence to require of men, as conditional to his assisting them, some corresponding effort. ".Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you" (Matt. vii. 7). He is always ready to give; but he will have men stretch out their hand to receive. For the careless and the apathetic, he will-perhap8 we might say, he can--1.o nothing. 'l'hus he calls men into his Church, but they must arise and obey the call; be offers them grace, but they must use the means of grace; he is willing to grant them eternal life, but upon this life they must "lay hold" (1 Tim. vi. 12). When he delivered his people out of Egypt, he required them to "rise up, anrl go forth," and make long and toilsome marches through a dreary wilderness; and only after forty years of effort did he bring them to Cana.an. So, too, when he would deliver them from Babylon, those only were delivered who braced themselves for a great exer- tion, left all that they had, affronted peril (Ezra viii. 31), undertook the difficult and wearisome journey (eh. xliii. 19) from Cha.Idea to Palestine. The reason would seem to be that God, in all his dealings with man, is disciplining him and training him, eliciting the good that is in him, and causing it to acquire strength by active exercise, thus fitting him for a higher state of existence than the present, and leading him onward toward the perfection which he designed him to reach. Ver. 11.-The special need of purity in them that bear the vessels of the Lord. It is the duty of all to a.void impurity, to "touch no unclean thing," to "perfect holiness in the fear of God." But a special purity is required of those who, by holding any sacred office, are brought nearer to God than others, and e.s it were serve continually in bis presence. Hence the numerous directions in the Jewish Law with respect to the priests-their consecration, their ablutions, their vestments, their sin offerings, and the like (Lev. viii. 2-35; ix. 1-24). Hence, moreover, such injunctions as the following: "Do not drink wine nor strong drink, thou [Aaron], nor thy sons with thee, when ye go into the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations : that ye may put difference between holy e.nd unholy, and between unclean and clean" (Lev. x. !:I, 10). "They [the priests] shall not make baldness upon their head, neither shall they shave off the corner of their beard, nor make any cuttings in their flesh. They shall be holy unto their God, and not profane the Name of their God: for the offerings of the Lord made by fire, and the bread of their• God they do offer: therefore, shall they be holy" (Lev. xxi. 5, 6). "He that is the high priest among his brethren, upon whose hee.d the anointing oil was poured, e.nd the.t is consecrated to put on the garments, shall not uncover bis head, nor rend his clothes; neither shall he go in to any dead body, nor defile himself for his father, or for his mother ; neither shall he go out of the sanctuary, nor profane the sanctuary of his God; for the crown of the anointing oil of his God is upon him: I am the Lord. And he shall take a wife in her virginity" (Lev. xxi. 10-13). Everything approaching to uncleanness is to be carefully eschewed by such as minister in holy things; they a.re to be under a law more strict than that which binds ordinary men ; they are to avoid everything at which weak brethren might take exception-to shrink from even the shadow of an impure stain. Many things are harmless in the ordinary layman which a.re not harmless in the clergyman, who is especially bound to "walk warily," to be a pattern to the flock, to abstain from even the appearance of evil, to "let not his good be evil spoken of" (Rom. xiv. 16). 282 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH. [ott. LU. 1-16.
Ver. 13.-The wisdom of Messiah's life upon earth. Perhaps nothing shows more clear~y the perfect "wisdom" of our Lord's li~e upon earth than the fact that, among all his detractors, not one has been able to pornt out any unwisdom in any part of it. Almost all men do unwise things, things which they regret to have done things which do them harm, which injure instead of promoting the objects that they'have in view. But our Lord'~ whole course was guide? by the most perfect wisdom (eh. xi. 2). Wisely he conformed ID all respects to the Jewish Law, though he was above tho Law. \Visely he led, not the ascetic life, but the life of ordinary humanity. Wisely he chose his disciples among_ those who were poor and ignonmt and powerless, so that it might be evident they did not convert the nations by their natUTal gifts, bnt by wieldina a supernatural influence. Wisely he declined to be made an earthly kina so that ambition cannot be laid to his charge. Wisely he submitted himself to tho p~'wers that be, that neither revolutionist nor anarchist might be able to make a shelter of his example. Wisely he covered himself with a cloud, hid up his glory, did his great miracles comparatively in secret (John vii. 4), let the knowledge of his true Divinity steal upon men by degrees. The wisdom wherewith he executed his mission is seen in the success of that mission. How quickly did the "little flock" grow into a Church to be counted by thousands (Acts ii. 41; iv. 4), and the thousands become tens of thousands, and the tens of thousands increase into millions, until the whole Roman empire was converted, and the "kingdoms of the world became the kingdoms of the Lord, and of his Christ" (Rev. vi. 15) ! And what but infinite wisdom could have inspired a teaching which should attract both Jew and Gentile, both civilized mau and barbarian, both haughty noble and down-trodden slave; which should, moreover, suit alike the requirements of both ancient and modem times, and be as much valued in the nineteenth century after its publication as in the first? By the wisdom- " scieuce falsely so called" (1 Tim. vi. 20)-of Greece and Rome "the world knew noi God" (1 Cor. i. 21); by the wisdom, the true wisdom, of Christ the whole civilized and much of the barbarian world now knows God. The result is the effect of that "prudent dealing," or true wisdom in act and word, which Jesus Christ, the" Servant of Jehovah," showed forth during the three and thirty years of his life upon this earth.