very solemn sense "God is angry with the wicked;" they abide under bis "wrath." He is compelled to withhold from them the light of his countenance; he rebukes thE>m; he sends the penalty which 1e due to sin, and which is appropriate to the par- ticular Rin which is being committed. He hides his face; he withdraws his blessing; be causes pain, disappointment, sorrow, to visit the doer, to afflict the heart. III. HUMAN RESENTMENT AND INCREASED REDELLIOUSNESS OF SPIRIT. "He went on frowardly in the way of his heart." That which is intended to draw near, sometimes drives away. Godly sorrow works repentance; but sorrow, taken ill and treated wrono-Jy, 0 works death. If the heat does not melt, it hardens. IV. THE VICTORY OF DIVINE LOVE. Still, in spite of a growing waywardness, the pity of God pursues the wandering son!. And though deceived and led astray, man travels far and wanders long, Gotl "sees his ways;" he stretches forth the hand of power and grace, and he" heals him;" he leads him home and comforts him with the priceless blessings which are under the Father's roof. These blessings are: 1. Recon- ciliation: the being spiritually healed, being restored to God after the saddest of all separations-spiritual distance from God. 2. Peace : peace offered and granted to those who were more distant and also to those less far removed from truth and righteous- ness and purity-the peace of conscious acceptance. 3. Praise: "the fruit of the lips," joyful ascription unto him that redeemed and restored; the daily song of gratitude that wells up from a heart filled with gratitude and love. V. A POWERFUL INCENTIVE TO RETURN. Perhaps it may be taken as one "fruit of the lips" that the healed and restored soul now speaks for G'Xl to mP.n ; now becomes his spokesman ; now teaches iransgressors his way (P~. Ii. 12, 13). And one convincing and impressive truth which a home-brought wanderer can enforce better than an unfalleu angel is the hardness of the transgressor's road, the weariness of the way to him who is leaving God for the far country, the restlessness of a heart that is separated from its Divine Source and Friend; the truth that the mirth of unhallowed enjoyment is very shallow and short-lived, that fast on the heels of guilty pleasure come pursuing pain of body and misery of soul; the fact that there is no peace to the wicked, no lasting joy to any one who has abandoned the fountain of living waters for the broken cisterns of earth and time. The plaintive cry which comes from the aching hearts and troubled Jives of guilt is answered by one voice alone--by that of him who stands before all generations of men, and says, in the accents of sweet antl sovereign pity "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy Ja.den, and I.will give you rest."-C.
Ver. 1.-Mercy and wrath in the death of the righteous. Possibly the good king Josiah is here prophetically referred to. His untimely death seems a strange dispensa- tion of Providence even to us now. Josiah's case may be taken as illustrating the general truth which is thus stated by Bishop Wordsworth: "Good and merciful men, who are taken away in the midst of their efforts to do good in their generation, and whose endeavours appear to be disowned by God, and to be blighted and withered by him, may perhaps seem t.o men to be cut off by a violent stroke of Divine indignation, and may be mourned by some as having died an untimely death; but the truth is-which these Scriptures reveal-they are gently gathered by God in love, and a.re in peace." The term~ used havo precise significations. The "righteous" means "those who walk straight, and stand upright." An honoured pastor lay upon his dying bed, and a member of his congregation stood beside it, whose business ways were known to be somewhat shifty. Beckoning him to bend down close to him, the pastor solemnly said these few, but searching, words, "William, go straight I " "Merciful men" are men of kindness; gracious men, who, having themselves felt the loving-kindness of God, deal kindly with their fellow-men. l. MEROY IS SHOWN IN SPARING THE RIGHTEOUS FROM COMING CALAMITIES. We have orten to notice how graciously the death of our friends is timed. At first we wonder why they were taken /ust then, but the lapse of a few months satisfies us that they were taken "from the evil to come." The widow is removed before her little estate is wrecked by some inefficient or unfaithful trustee. The honourable business man is gathered in before some wrong-doer brings aisgrace on his firm which would have broken his heart. Methuselah died the year before the Flood; Augustine a little before the sacking of Hippo. ParllUS just before the taking of Heidelberg; Luther a little beforo 368 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH. [cB, LVD. 1-21.
the wan1 broke out in Germany. We have known beloved ones who all their life long prayed that they might not be spared to become troublesome to anybody, and meroy called them away almost suddenly, ere bodily powers began to decay. Most graciously the time, the plaa, the manner, of our exit from earth are divinely arranged; and in this mlllter too we may pe,fectly trust. Il. WRATH IS SHOWN IN REMOVING THE BARRI.Ell.8 TO ONCOMING JUDGMENTS, This is one point which the prophet would enforcP. The death of good men shoulJ be regarded as a sign that calamity is at hand. Righteousness can hold back judament, as is seen in Abraham's pkading for Sodom. Prayers and intercessions cau hold back judgment. Then the removal of the righteous men and the inter~essors removes barriers and lets free the fiood.-R. T.