Ver. 11.-Wrong thoughts of God keep menfrom repentance. God pleads, saying, " Who filled thee with dread, or of whom wast thou afraid, when thou provedst false.,, and didst not remember me?" Some mental creation of God, or some false teachino- concerning God, occupied the thought and the heart, and kept the men of Israel fro~ feeling all those persuasions to repentance which come from the full and the worthy knowledge of him. Compare the expressions, "Not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance;" "This is life eternal, to know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." Some think that the allusion is to the help- less idols in whose aid the people vainly trusted. Matthew Arnold paraphrases thus: "How could thy calamities, and the fear of thy Babylonian tyrant, make thee so superstitious and forgetful?" Illustrating the earlier method of interpreting the verse, it may be shown how wrong and imperfect thoughts of God are still the great hin- drances in men's way. These wrong thoughts come either as- L CREATIONS OF MEN'S OWN FEARS. God too often is not to men what he really is, but what Le seems to be when seen through their fears and conscience of sin. So a revelation was needed which could assure men of God's pitying mercy and forgiving love. When men, conscious of transgression and fearing judgment, try to paint God, we cannot wonder that their picture should be untrue and unworthy, The thing of which it is so difficult to persuade sinners is that there is forgiveness with God, and that Le delighteth in mercy. IL MrscoNCEPTIONS OF THEOLOGICAL TEACHINGS. There is always the danger to be guarded against that the exigencies of a system make UR fashion a suitable God, rather than try to recognize in all simplicity the God who has been revealed. Therefore, in our day, so many resist the teachings that are known as Calvinistic.. The hard, legal Deity of that system is felt to represent most imperfectly and unworthily the Father of Jesus, &11d Saviour of the world. But we must understand that the false representations are more often found in the statements of those who attempt to expound a system than in the system i t,elf. Ill. As ONE-SIDIW VISIONS OF TRUTH WHICH NEEDS TO BE BEEN AS A WHOLE. This mistake is often pointed out in connection with t~e two attributes of "_m_ercy" 11nd "justice." The modern tendency to dwell on the milder features of the D1vme nature, and to exclude the sterner ones, is perilously keeping men from that repentanctJ which is the only open highway to the eternal life.-R. 'f.
Ver. 15.-Tl,e new test of religion. "I dwell . . . also in him that is contrite! and of a lowly spirit." The t:arlier test of religion had been formal, and prec~se obedience to all the claima and conditious of the Jehovah-covenant; the exact keeping of ever, cu. LVII, 1-21.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH. 371