or conversions. 2. Renewals of religious life; or sanctification, 3. Enlargement of religious feelings, This, however, may be spurious, or it may be sound. 4. Recon- secration to religious work. II. 'l'BE CONDITIONS ON WBIOB THE FULFILMENTS OF THIS PROMISE DEPEND, Onr moral attitudes. We must be set for the blessing. The Church that woukl have the spiritual presence of God must be (1) maintair,ing the Christian spirit; (2) living the Christian life; (3) upholding the Christian worship; (4) working the Christian work. Then there is much preparing and fitting work for us to do, if God is to "make the place of his feet glorious" where we unite in bis worsbip.-R. T. Ver. 16.-" The Mighty One of Jacob." "And thou shalt know that I the Lord am thy Saviour, and thy Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob." It is singular and significant that Jehovah should here be so closely identified with Jacob, and not, as usual, with the three great patriarchs. We are to get our ideas of him as a Saviour and Redeemer precisely from what he was to Jacob, and what be did for Jacob. Now, the striking thing in the life of Jacob is that he had much more trouble with himself than with his circumstances. The cursory view might make much of the changeable- ness and the hardships of Jacob's checkered life; but he easily mastered his circum- stances. The deeper view sees throughout the career a constant struggle with the bad self, which never gets more than a partial victory, until life draws near to its close, and then the hero of a thousand fights with the bad self is enabled to speak of" the angel tha.t redeemed me from a.11 evil." Tha.t angel the prophet suggestively ea.II~ the" Mighty One of Ja.cob." This, then, is our point. The glory of God our Redeemer is that he can redeem us from our bad selves. Show what is meant by and included in the" bad self." I. THE STRUGGLE WITH THE BAD SELF IS A SECRET STRUGGLE. We do not talk about it. We do not put forth a.ny signs of it. Men think our earthly troubles are our great troubles, but the truth is tha.t no cry goes forth from us with such intensity of paRsion as the cry which no fellow-creature hears, "0 wretched man tha.t I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" Nobody knows how hard we are trying to put a.way the "old ma.n with his corruptions." II. THE STRUGGLE WITH THE BAD SELF IS A HOPELESS STRUGGLE. It is if we carry it Jn in our own strength. "Who can sa.y, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?" Wha.t Jacob-like ma.nor woman ever yet sang a victory-song over bis own giant self, a.nd praised the weapons and the skill that gained the triumph? Jacobs that try to get quit of the bad self in their own strength end in the dust, under giant Self's foot. Ill. 'l'HE STRUGGLE WITH THE BAD SELF IS JUST THE STilUGGLE IN WnICH WE MAY HAVE, AND SHOULD REJOICE TO HAVE, A DIVINE HELPER. He, the "Mighty One of Jacob," ha.s access to souls, and influence on souls. He" strengtheoeth us with strength in the soul." He will not cease bis gracious working until his people are "all glorious within." Of this we may be sure, in this we may ha.ve supreme consolation--over the secret inner strife of our souls, the Lord, the Saviour, the Redeemer, graciously presides. -R.T. Ver. 19.-Our everlasting Light. Contrasts are suggested with brief da.ys that darken into night, a.nd cloudy days that hide the sunshining. It passes our compre- hension, indeed, but it kindles our imagination, to conceive of a day that knows no ending, and a. sunrising that never reaches its meridian. Yet we often feel as if we wanted life to be all sunshine; it shall be when we are altogether good. While we ll.l'e encompassed with infirmities, and must be under discipline, God cannot be to us an "everlasting Light;" there must be clouds coming betwixt, which our fearing, trembling souls fashion into his forms. In the white heavens, white souls need no ~= moon to shine upon them, for the glory of God doth lighten them. But this is ideal and no glory, and the question for us is-How near oan we get to it now? I. FoR us GoD MAY DE THE LIGHT OF THE MATERIAL WORLD. To let ourselves be so engrossed with business affairs that there is no room for God in thought, or heart, or life, is to lose the everlasting light-to be unable to see God in common everyday things. H iij hardl1 conceivable that e.ny man could wish to have this foir 011rth with its vales 414 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH, [on, LXI. 1-11.
and bills, without the gilding beautifying sunshine. 0 poor earth, dull and dead, like sunless winter in Arctic climes I And yet thousands are willing to have this earth of material relationships without the sunshine of God. Exactly what men want., but do not know that they want, is God their everlasting Light. Common life, with him, ia lived in the sunshine. II. FoB us GoD MAY BE THE LIGHT OF THE INTELLEOTUAL WORLD, In our day he is only allowed to shine intermittently in thi,s world, and there are many who would blot him out of this sky if they could. Others, who would not go so far as that, would gladly make a thick, foggy atmosphere of their own wisdom, through which he can only shine dimly. We shall never get the full glory of the treasures of the intellectual world until we let the revealing rays of the "everlasting light" fall everywhere upon them. Ill. FoR us Gon MAY BE THE LIGHT OF THE SPffiITUAL WORLD. Indeed, there is no light at all in the spiritual world if be does not shine. And the one thing above all others which they crave after who dwell in that spiritual world ia the full, constant, unshaded, glowing, life-renewing power of the everlasting Light.-R. T.
Ver. 21.-The heaven of universal righteo'US11ess. "Thy people also shall be all righteous." "There are no people on earth that are all righteous; there is a mixture of some bad in the best societies on this side of heaven; but there are no mixtures there. They shall be 'all righteous,' that is, they shall be entirely righteous; as there shall be none corrupt among them, so there shall be no cnrruption among them ; the spirit of just men shall there be made perfect" (Matthew Henry). Universal righteous- ness includes the following things. I. THAT EVERY MAN RAS WON HIS OWN WILL WHOLLY FOB GoD. lL THAT EVERY MAN HAS WON HIS OWN LIFE AND C0NDUOT FOB GOD, ITL THAT EVEBY MAN HAS WON HIS OWN RELATIONSHIPS FOB Gon. IV. THAT EVERY MAN RAS WON ALL ms OWN SURROUNDINGS FOB Gon. No picture of a material heaven can be so inspiring to us as this sublime picture of a moral state, in which everybody tries to do the right, and finds triumphant grace given to him for the doing.-R. T.
SECTION VIII. SoLILOQUY OP THE SEBVANT OP THE LORD, WHO PROMISES GLORY AND PROSPERITY TO JERUSALEM (OH, LXI., LXII.).
EXPOSITION.