The Pulpit Commentary — Isaiah — Volume 2 — Section 452

day lives; the things that make our happine~s and success are not prominent thin as that happen occasionally, but the ten thousand little things that pass almost unheed;d, and t.hat seem to us ~ small to hold God. It is true of our spiritual life. Living in the warmth of the smile of God does more for us than any special times of manifestation. It is true of the kingdom of God in the world. It cometh on secretly, no man knoweth how. II. SuOH PRAYER SOMETIMES SHOWS THAT WE WANT GoD TO WORK BY JUDGMENTS RATHER THAN BY MERCIES. It means," Appear, 0 Lord, to overthrow our adversaries." That, indeed, seems to be the tone of the prophet's pray<lr in the text. He at least wants the hinderers and enemies forcibly persuaded, if, indeed, he does not pray for them to be taken out of the way. But it is never consistent with the Christian spirit to take prayers to God for the judgment of anybody. That is not the way in which to pray for hinderers, slanderers, or enemies. \Ve a.re properly taught to pray that God would " baffle their designs and turn their hearts." If we rightly felt God's presence with us now, we should not want to ask for any coming of his from heaven.-R. T. Ver. 4.-Man's ignorance of God's goodness to him. "For from of old men have no\ beard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen a. God beside thee, which worketh for him that waiteth for him" (Revised Version). A very old weakness of humanity it is to try and find somebody who may be preferred to God, a.ud this comes out of the fact that God is so very imperfectly known, or else is so very strangely misunderstood. A hint is here given us of the renson why there is so much misunder- standing of God-he has to be waited for. It is quite true of him that he is always working for us; but it is also true that he is often a long time in the working out of his purposes. Then, because men cannot get what they want done done quick, they foolishly begin to think that God cannot do it for them, or will not do it for them. They fail to see the Lord's goodness. '.rhe point of impression may be, that in all the reviews wr can ta.ke of the past, God has surely wrought good things, even if he has been loni; nt the working. We may, therefore, cherish trustful thoughts concerning him, and be quite willing to leave the unfoldings of all the future in his supreme control. 1. REVIEW Gon's WAYB OF EDUCATING THE WORLD. What a long time of prepara- tion before he could manifest his Son, and, through him, teach the world the Divine fatherhood! II. REVIEW GoD's WAYS oF TRAINING TRE JEWS. Their good things were always long in coming. Canaan was forty years away from Egypt. Restoration was seventy years away from judgment. IIL REVIEW GoD's wAys OF SANCTIFYING RIB CHURCH. Our hardest work nowa- days is to hold fast the conviction that the Church is sanctifying, for the process seems so long, and the waiting-time is so trying. IV. REVIEW GoD's DEALINGS IN PERSONAL LIVES. Who of us has not had to learn the lesson of the goodness of God in what he holds off, out of our reach, and makes us wait for and work for long? Do not let us, then, ever mistake Go~. ~t is our~ to wait (or him, and to wait on him, but we may hold the good cheer of this faith-he is surely "working for every one that can wait for him."-R. T. Ver. 6.-The sincere man's estimate of himself. " For we are all become as one that is unclean, and all our righteousnesses are as a polluted garment: and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away." This is the language indeed of an intercessor, of one who speaks e.s representing the nation, and tries to spe9:k_ as the nation should speak. But such a man must get at the knowledge of the condition of the nation by a deep and true estimate of bis own real self. '!'here is no sign of conscious separation of himself from his people. Right reading of his own life alone enables him to read theirs. And this is true for us also. No man who fails to appre- hend the "plague of his own heart" will ever properly realize the evils of his own times. Pharisee-souls can never know the real sins of their age. Sincere and humble souls find themselves-as they know themselves-the measure of the men around them, e.s they stand in God's sight. I. THE Bm<$BE IU-N FINDS JOI GOODNESS IS BEAB0~ED. A man's own goodness is Ott. t,XV. 1-25.] TllE :tlOoK or TilE PROPHET ISAIAH, 469