The Pulpit Commentary — Isaiah — Volume 2 — Section 309

Ver. 10.-The eternal constancy: a meditation on change. "My kindness shall not depart from thee," How much does depart in this world I There are departed sorrows, departed joys, departed friends; and in one sense, coucerning life and joy and cluty, the world is full of graves. But we have an unchanging Lord, Jesns Christ, "the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.'' "My kindness!" fa there not a comfort in the very emphasis? For much kindness does depart. Fervent, but evanescent, it has its liLtle day, and then vanishes away. "We are such stuff as dreams are made of." The nobility of our nature faild before the strains of littleness in character of others and distance of place and time. The eternal constancy is beautiful. Mark the connection of thought. The mountains may depart, Galilee's lake may embosom the surrounding hills, but the great Father's love is immutable and eternal. To take to heart these words would be to dispel our darkest fears. A faiLh strong enough to grasp this will light up every forest, and overcome every foe. There are strange mysteries of suffering in this world. Sorrow has many synonyms in human speech answering to the maRy phases of h11man experience. There are agonies of endurance, breaches of trust, sighings of solitude, sadnesses of disappointment, wailings of bereavement. To-day there are disciples terrified in the storm, Rachels mourning fur their departed, Peters dropping scalding tears over denials of the Lord. Can it be wondered at that in such a world, amid such human trials and such spiritual experiences, kindness-the Divine kindness-should be so precious a thing? Let us reca.11 the multitude of God's mercies; let us remember his ha.nd in the glacier-passes of temptation, and the nights of tribulation. The strings of our huma.n harps must sweep forth the music of love. There has been no change in Ohrist. 1. THE SURPRISE, Think of what we are 1 Fickle, irresolute, ungrateful, unfaithful. Our God is a God of insight. He searcheth the heart. He sees not only conduct, but character. No disguise can cloak from him. And what secrets there are in these hearts of ours! There are mirrors there which flash back, even to ourselves, the hidden things of darkness. Yet he loves us still I The previous chapter says, "All we like sheep have gone astray." Yet it is the stray lambs the Saviour seeks, and the poor prodigal wanderer the Father loves I 'Ihe strongest ties we know of are in our human relationships; they are images of the Divine love. Only an artificial theology has made the rectoral character of God override the paternal. Think you that on some wild Christmas, amid home's most festive scenes, with the children and the children's children about him, that father, whose hair is whiter than the winter snow, can forget the prodigal? With the ruddy fire-glow around him, and the yule logs piled high, his mind wanders over the bleak and barren moorland of the outside world; and one faint knock at the portal, one weary step, one quivering lip, brings more music to his heart than the tabret and the dance. He knows all about the squandered wealth, the profligate life, the reckless pilgrimage of vanity. But his kindness cannot depart from him, for he is a father still. I claim for God the very amplest application of that analogy. "Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, . . . we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God." "In Christ's stead I" What words I Many evil things the Church has done-Roman, Anglican, and Puritan-would look strange enough if Christ's gentle image had been thought upon, and men had inscribed above it, "We are Christ's!" God gave such tensiou and tenderness to the humau heart to make our fatherhood e. pare.hie of his own I "If we knew all I" Thus even we who love him, who have been reconciled to him, say sometimes in our darker moods. Does God know all? Then could he be kind to us still. We have served other gods. We have heen faithless stewards. We have been at heart callous and cold. Yet to us comt1s this message of the eternal constancy : "My kindness shall not depart from thee." II. THE OONTRABT. Think of what human 11atu1·e is. We make retrospect oon- cerning ourselves, We do not depreciate humanity when we say that kindness is an uncertain thing. We do not charge it upon others to the exclusion of ourselves. \Ve e.re all unstable as water. Wo :find how aifficult it is to be unselfish. And no kindness can be perpetual wlthout that. '!'here are occasions when k.iudness is lacking in us; when a feeble witticism has wounded a friend; when e. cruel Sl\rcasm has bruised n brother's sensibilities; when a personal enjoyment has inflicted deprivation on others. Kindness is easy when its me.nifestations are costless. Nay, it cannot be dignified with the name; for it 1DiDieters to our own pride and satisfac\ion. But we cannot conceal  820 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH. [on. uv. 1-17.