The Pulpit Commentary — Isaiah — Volume 2 — Section 324

ness. .And be is 'Tlear t.o us by day and by night j in a revival of religion, or when a pious friend pleads with us, God is near to us then, and is calling us to his favour. These are favourable times for salvation-times which, if unimproved, return no more." • Let the ungodly forsake his way, and the man of iniquity his thoughts." To seek Jehovah must involve the renouncing of all other gods; the calling upon him, tho cessation of prayer in heathen temples; and, with this, all the "thoughts," the habits and feelings, of impure heathen life. It is to renounce corruption and destruction for blessedness and peace, which are contained in the thoughts of Jehovah (Ps. xxxvi. 5, 6; Jer. xxix. 11). "He bas plans for accomplishing his purposes which are different from ours, and he secures our welfare by schemes that cross our own. He disappoints our hopes, foils our expectations, crosses our designs, removes our property or our friends, and thwarts our purposes in life. He leads us in a path we had not intended, and secures our ultimate happiness in modes which we should not have thought of, and which are contrary to all our designs and desires." II. .A.ssuRANCE OF FUTURE FELICITY. 1. The certainty. God's purposes fulfil themselves. They are as certain as the law of gravitation, as the falling of rain and snow. In poetic religious thought these elements of nature are his angels (cf. Ps. cxhiii. 8 ; cii. 4). They fo.lfil bis purpose in inanimate nature; so shall bis Word fulfil his purpose in the moral world-it shall not return empty, nor until it has don£ its work. (On truth compared to rain or dew, see Deut. xxxii. 2; Ps. lxxii. 6; 2 Sam. ixxiii. 4; eh. v. 6.) 2. Its glory and foy. The exode from Babylon is not only meant, but the glorious condition of Israel after the return. It is compared t.o the transition from the wilderness (the misery of the exile), with its monotonous dwarf shrubs, to a park of beautiful trees (eh. xli. 18, 19), in the midst of which Israel is to walk "in solemn troops and sweet societies" (so in eh. xxxv. 9). 3. The sympathy of nature. (For similar views, see eh. xiv. 8; xxxv. 1, 2, 10; xiii. 10, 11; xliv. 23. So in Virgil, 'EcL,' v. 62; and in Oriental poetry generally.) When the god Rama was going t.o the desert, it was said to him, "'l'he trees will watch for you; they will say, 'He is come! he is come!' and the white flowers will clap their hands. The leaves as they shake will say, 'Come! come! ' and the thorny places will be changed into gardens of flowers." .A. change will be produced in the moral condition of the world, as great as if the useless thorn should be succeeded by beautiful and useful trees. It is of the very soul of poetry that it hints and presages spiritual events which cannot be made clear to the senses nor certain t.o the understaniling.-J. Ver. L-The sO".d's thirst satisfied. "Ho, every one that thirsteth I" This is a Divine invitation, and as such shows us the nature of God, which is in itself a healing and a satisfying nature, finding expression in the incarnation and redemption of our Lord Jesus Christ. I. THE AWAKENING SOUL. "Thirsteth." When the soul is quickened and feels new life, then is conscioumess of need-need of God. New thirsts are sometimes awakened in human nature-thirsts for Jove and friendship; and in the intellectual nature, thirsts for knowledge and mental light. 'l'his is the highest thirst-soul-thirst -which God by his Spirit alone can satisfy. IL TBE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE so UL. "Come ye." We must seek for friendship, seek for knowledge, and so we must be searchers after God. Finding Christ, we must also follow him, and come t.o the waters of forgiveness, of purity, and of immortal blessedness. III. THE CHARITY OF GoD. "God is love." .A.mazing, free, boundless love. Having made provision for our salvation, God says, '' .A.II things aro now ready; come." The marriage--Lanquet is open to us all. The spread table is God's own table, and we are to be receivers of his fulness of grace, "without money and without price."-W. M. S. Ver. 2.-Foolish investments. "Wherefore do yo spend money for that which is .lot bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not?" 'fhis is man's great misery, that he has the" deceived heart" which leads him to false investments. I. Sour.-sATIBFACTION. The soul is made for God, and there is no bread that will satisfy man but God himself. "I am the living Bread," says Christ. Bread of fortune, bread of gold, bread of 188thetic beauty, bread of worldly bonour,-tbese only satisfy the on. LV, 1-13.J THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH. 335