"Power keeps quite another road than the turnpikes of choice and will, namely, the subterranean and invisible tunnels and channels of life. Life is a series of surprises. God delights to hide from us the past and the future. 'You will not remember,' he seems to say,' and you will not expect.' Every man is an impossibility until he is bom, everything impossible until we see a success. 'l'he ardours of piety agree at !as~ with the coldest scepticism, that nothing is of onrselves or our works-that all is of God. There is nothing at last in success or failnre, but more or less of vital force supplied from the Eternal. The results of life are uncalculated and incalculable " (Emerson). IV. HUMAN INCREDULITY ABASHED. How few believed the prophecies concerning the Servant I How few hnd eyes to see "such supramundane sights, when nothing on earth seemed to suggest them"! to discern the arm of Jehovah, that mysterious Divine Power, in its secret working! They were blinded by the evidence of the senses. He was as a slight and insignificant plant-but a shoot or sucker from the root brought up out of K(ypt. Without that winning grace or imposing majesty that might have been expected, be failed to captivate men's hearts. He seemed isolated, sad sick, and men fled from hi~ presence as if he had been a leper. But the result shows bow little Providence reeks of our poor logic of appearances, our connections of cause and effect. Life is not so plain a business as it appears. "Presently comes a da_v, with its angel-whisperings, which discomfits the sooclusions of nations and of years!" \Ve boast of our common sense and experience, yet there is a Divine element ever at work to defeat our calculations and to astound us with its operations. The lesson is to be ever waiting and expecting-ever looking up for manifestations of that Divine wisdom which bides to reveal itself, that Divine power which is energizing unspent when all our resources are at an end, that Divine beauty which lurks beneath the ,iimmest forms and the meanest disguises.--J. Ver. 7.-Beautijul messengers. "How beautiful upon the mountains," etc.! Not so with the warrior. His garments are dyed in blood; his track is over desolated cornfields and ruined vineyards. Look at the footsteps of the servants of God. I. 'l'HE MESSENGERS. They are not self-inspired or self-commissioned. They are sent of God. From Jerusalem the apostles are to go forth ; over her all-surrounding mountains they go to tell the story of the angels' song, the Messiah's ministry, and the redeeming cross. How beautiful I-to publish peace I 1. Peace between man and man. 2. Peace between God aud man. 3. Pe>\ce between nation and nation. 4. Peace in a man's own soul. II. THE MESSAGE. " Good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation." Blessed word! But how often narrowed and marred through human interpretation! 1. We are saved from ourselves. And this salvation is going on within us day by day, as we grow in grace. 2. We are saved from guilt. As we can only be by an atonement where the offering is without spot. 3. We are saved from all that i., inimical in the evil that ,"s without us. For the Saviour knows our enemies, is stronger than our enemies, and will subdue them under his feet. " Thy God reigneth," and, mystery of mysteries, the cross is his sceptre. "I, if I be lifteJ up, will draw all men unto me."-W. M. S.
Ver. 1.-The strength of t/,e Church. The Zion of Old Testament Scripture is the Christian Church of the New. We have here, thereforP, a commanding summons to clothe ourselves, as Churches uf Christ, with the strength wbicb is especially our owu: " Put on thy strength, 0 Zion.'' I. IN WHAT THE STRENG1'11 OF THE CHURCH CONSISTS. Not, as we are too apt to imagine, in wealth, in territory, in builJings, in material defences of Rny kiud: all this is the strength of the world, but not of the Church. Its strength is in: 1. Steadfastness iu truth and holiness. '!'be reed by the river-side, shaken with every ripple of the water, bent with every breath of the breeze, is the type of weakness; the massive grauitu rock, against which the waves of centnrics have dashed, but which remains unmoveu. from base to summit, is the type of strength. Jesus Christ wants his Church to be strong, in that it stands fast (1) in the truth (Eph. iv. 14; 1 Cor. xvi. 3; Phil. i. 27): (2) in spiritual freedom (Gal. v. 1); _(3) in holiness. The :·e!y ~ucc_ess of the Ch~rcn h!IS occasiop.ed datiger here, There 1s much le~ of gwss 1wqu1ty 1n I11ode~ soc1l'ly 286 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH. [cu. LU. 1-16.
than in pa8t times. The distinction between the people of God and the enemies of his truth is nbt so apparent. The spirit of worldliness does not show itself in such malignant forms. Evil, by " losing all its grossness," has lost half its hideousness and is tharefore more seductive and successful than it was. The Chnrch needs to be peculiarly strong in holiness to repel the insidious attacks of our day on its purity. 2. Fru,:tjulness. The strength of the fruit-bearing tree is in bearing much and good fruit. Herein is God glorified in us, as a Church, that we "bear much fruit." What fruits does a strong Church bear? Those of pure _and gentle thoughts, of kind and generous feelings, of true aud helpful w?rds, of upright and honourable deeds, of acceptable and spiritual y,orsh1p. _ 3. Usef_mness. '.fl:te st~ongest object we know of is the sun: and its strength 1s found m mdiatrng hfe-g1vmg light and heat, century after century : it is the strength of craseless, unmeasurable beneficence. To this strength Christ is calling his people. They are to be clothed with and to exercise this benign and blessed power; they are to be distributing on every hand, to instruct the ignorant, to comfort the sorrowful, to gnide the perplexed, to reclaim the fallen, to bring into the kingdom of God them that are afar off. II. THE w AY TO SECURE IT. Physical strength cannot, indeed, be assumed at will· but it can_be attained by a sick _man ~ro_using himsc~f from his. lethargy, sloth, and folly; and adoptrng the measures which m1mster to bodily well-bemg. Let the spiritually feeble: 1. Take due spiritual nourishment. The Bread of life, the Water of life, invigo- rating privileges, are within our reach. 2. Take due spiritual erurcise. To him that liath is given, and the man who labours imperfectly at first will gain strength and skill as he puts out his power; every effort to do good is so much strength gained for future usefulness as well as so much power put forth in present activity. 3. Seek the inspiring influences which come from God: "They that wait on him shall renew their strength."-C.