The Pulpit Commentary — Isaiah — Volume 2 — Section 352

But first defeat bas made many a true general, has quickened many inventors, like Watt, Stephenson, and Brunel, and the vanquished one has become the victor iu after- llours. Still, weariness comes-to student, explorer, scientist, and missionary, to philanthropist saddened with ingratitude, and to disciple following the Lord. But this is not the weariness of sin; that not only exhausts, but destroys. II. WEARINESS COMES WITH SELF-DISCOVERY. We become more revealed to our- selves. The volcano tells what is in the earth. The lightning reveals the latent electricity in the air. Passions and lusts reveal terrible possibilities in good men. David said, "I am weary with my groaning; all the night make I my bed to swim;" and again, "I am weary of my crying; my throat is dried: mine eyes fail while J wait for my God." Conflict with sin in all its forms is weary, weary work. 1. The roots are so hidden. Like some !!arden weeds, they have roots that never seem uprooted, long white threads that interlace the earth and strangle other plants. 2. The battle is so varied. Like Stanley's passage of the falls, enemies on both banks and on the island mid-stream-cannibals who cry, "Meat, meat I" Scripture speaks of enemies who devour our souls. "Their sleep is taken away, unless they cause some t,, fall." 3. The avengements are so real. There is ~o escaping the voice I " Thou art the man I" And the soul cannot pretend not to hear. It turns pale. Scepticism says, "It is not a real voice I" How does scepticism know? The induction is so wide and comprehensive. .A.II men feel it after sin. Talte Divine advice. "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man sowetb, that shall he also reap." Weariness, you say, then, is to be expected. Yes; think of the cry of St. Paul. "Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" 'l'he answer is, "Christ-Christ alone." " We are more than conquerors through him that loved us." More',,.than conquerors! Yes, because we do not leave a desolate province. The gospel is a creator as well as a conqueror. "The desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose." III. WEARINESS COMES WITH UN11ELIEF. It was so in the old world, and so it will be in the new. 'l'he Greeks had an underlying sadness in their outwardly beautiful life, as Lutbardt so well shows in his volume on the Christian evidences. It is faith which gives life and zest. Thomas Carlyle says in his essay on Diderot, "All epochs, wherein unbelief, under whatever form soever, maintains its sorry victory, should they ever for a moment glitter with a sham splendour, vanish from the eyes of posterity; because no one chooses to burden himself with study of the unfruitful." So he shows us bow French philosophism vanished into non-entity. Yes, that is it; there is non-entity, no-being in unbelief. What a glorious creed is the Christian creed -meeting all deepest necessities of sin, and want, and sorrow, and immortal instinct, by its doctrines of Divine atonement, fat.herhood, sympathetic brotherhood, and eternal life I Who can be weary when he believes in One who is himself the revela.tion of the Father? Bringing life and immortality to light, Christ has made this world more beautiful. There is a deeper life even in human love. As Esther Lyon says, in 'Felix Holt,'" One likes a beyond everywhere." Men must be weary who have lost fa.ith. 1. Round of same duties without a goal. 2. Growth a mockery merging into weakness. 3. Health into pain. Vision into dimness. Thought into blank! If this age becomes an unbelieving age, its joy-bells will all be muflled, its fruit will all wither. It is faith that foresees, foretastes, and forestores. IV. WEARINESS COMES FROM SOLITUDE. 'l'he regiment is thinning, thinning, in which you started. You have seen many arms of the soldiers "dip below the downs" into the valley. You are beginning in a human sense to feel solitary. Yes; it is not enough to give help even to the poor; you must visit the fatherless and widows in their afflic- tions. Show them a face. An old woman was once speaking to me of a young visitor who was timid and shy, aud could not pray with her I " What did she do then ? " I said. "Oh, she looked at me, and it did me good!" Yes; the face is a revelation. The Master was weary iu solitude : "What I could ye not watch with me one hour? n So was St. Paul: "At Athens alone." We cannot take the poet's recipe- "Bury our dead joys, And live above them with a loving world." No; It is ignoble to forget them. But the Christian is never alone. The Saviour ia near, "I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you." God grant that 364 THE BOOK OF THE PROPRET ISAIAB. [dH. L\rll, 1-21.