The Pulpit Commentary — Isaiah — Volume 2 — Section 385

As if thy love 11nd power Were vnnish'd from her sky: Yet God is there, and at his side He triumphs who for sinners died." It may suffice to answer the murmurers who remind us of the Divine delayings, and woulrl have us misunderstand them, and join them in doubtings of the Divine power or the Divine good will, that there are high and gracious ends served by this particular method of Divine dealing. These things at least we can see- I. IT lNCREABEB OUR DEPENDENCE ON GOD. It teaches us that we have not just to "ask and have," but "ask and have" in accordance with God's will, in dependence on God's wisdom, and in agreement wHh God's time and way. We should never learn that, if we were not sometimes made to wait. We teach our children to trust us by making them wait until we think best. II. IT ENHANCES THE VALtf1!: OF THE EXPE0TED BLESSING. What we wait long for becomes increasingly valuable in our eyes. What is obtained easily and at once is sure to be under-estimated. The value of a gift very constantly depends on the moral preparation of those who receive it; and delay is a cultivator of moral pre- paration. Ill. lT PRODUCES A HOBE EARNEST WATCHFULNESS AND HORE BELIEVING PBAYERFUL- NEBB FOR THE DESIRED BLESSING. It does, if we regard the delay aright. It does not, if we persist in misconceiving the purpose of the delay. Then delay will weary us, and we shall leave off to watch and be sober. Delay may be borne wisely and cheerfully when we recognize it as only the hush, the stillness, the breathlessness that ushers in the glorious showers of Divine a.wakening and Divine comforting.-R. T. Ver. 2.-Bin-douds between us and God, In a former homily it has been shown how, in judgment, and in order to awaken us to a sense of our sin, God may pass a cloud across between us and him, hiding from us his smiling face, and leaving us in the dark and the chill. Now we see how, in our heedlessness and wilfulness, we may put clouds, even little clouds, into our own sky, and hide his face. The reference of the text ie to the doubting ones, the unfaithful ones, in Babylon, who let their own sinfulness spoil their vision, and either hide God from them or distort their view of him. The prophet reminds them that they had put the clouds, and in reminding them thus he calls on them to put the clouds away. These are our two divisions. I. MEN PUT THE SIN-0LOUDS BETWEEN THEM AND Gon. 1. They may be very small clouds, yet suffice to hide. Often a cloud no bigger than a hand will keep the ligb t and warmth from us. Illustration: David Rittenhouse, of Pennsylvania, was a great astronomer. He was skilful in measuring the size of planets, and determining the position of the stars. But he found that, such was the distance of the stars, a silk thread stretched across the glass of his telescope would entirely cover a star; and, moreover, that a silk fibre, however small, placed upon the same glass, would cover so much of the heavens that the star, if a small one and near the pole, would remain obscured behind that silk fibre several seconds. So small faults, secret sins, little doubtings, can become effective fibres, dark clouds, obscuring veils, thal hide the "face." "Little foxes spoil the grapes." The psalmist puts a passion of holy feeling into his prayer, "Cleanse thou me from secret faults." 2. They may be very big clouds, and mean long hiding and deep misery for us under the dark.ness, and in the chill. Illustrate from David's open and shameless iniquity. It was right that "his bones should wax old through his roaring all the day long," while the black storm-clouds of passion, and its consequences, hid away his God. We cannot negligently sin, and hope to keep the smile; if we openly and wilfully sin we shRll not even care to keep the smile, but we shall gladly put our clouds across, and hide the "face." II. MEN JdtTBT PUT AWAY THE BIN-CLOUDS THAT ARE BETWEEN THE]I( AND GoD. And there ie only one way of doing this. Men must put away the sins that make the clouds. God will not burst through such clouds. He will not dispel such clouds, until men turn from their iniquities, their big or little sins; but then he will breathe on the cloud, as the hot Eastern sun breathes on the clouds of morning, and they shall fade away from the sky, and we Rhall see the fll,08, and live in that heaven which is the "shining of the fll,08 upon ua."-R. T.  898 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH. (oH, LI.L 1-21,