Vere. 1-7.-Tlrn offensiveness and the doom if sin. The passage briD!~s out in a very graphic form- " I. THE OFFENSIVENESS OF BIN. 1. .Assumption. "Walking after their own thoughts" instead of reverently inquiring God's will (ver. 2). 2. Positive disobedience in the manner of Divine worship (ver. 3), 3. Superstitious practices, implying discontent with the disclosures God had made in his holy Word ( ver. 4). 4. Irreligious self- indulgence (ver. 4). 5. Spiritual pride. "I am holier than thou" (ver. 5) All these things were hateful to the Holy One of Israel; they constituted "rebellion" in his sight (ver. 2); they amounted to a defiant provocation of bis wrath (ver. 3); they were as a continual smoke in the nostrils (ver. 5). All sin, whatever be its form or name, is "an abominable thing which God hates;" it is to his pure eyes unutterably loathsome; it is as the leprous skin to the eyes of man-he" cannot look upon" it. It draws down his righteous condemnation. II. lTs INEVITABLE DOOM. 1. We must not argue non-observance or indifference from temporary silence. "Behold, it is written before me: I will not keep silence" (ver. 6; Ps. 1. 21). 2. Guilt accumulates with time (ver. 7). God mercifully postpones punishment, thus giving opportunity for repentance and escape. But if there be impeni- tence and continuance in sin, there is an awful "treasuring up of wrath," an accumula- tion of guilt against a day of account. Nations, families, Churches, individual souls, may well take earnest heed to this solemn truth. 3. There is an absolute certainty and fulness of penalty to the obdurate. "I will recompense, even recompense," etc.; "I will measure their work," etc. 4. Those who have abused their trust must look for a humiliating displacement (ver. 1). God will remove the chosen instrument of his truth and grace, and he will find another to do his work. Let the too-confident "children of tbe kingdom" beware lest they have to make room for those whom they have been accustomed to despise.-C. Ver. 5.-The hopeless. The husbandman is often tempted to tear up the vine, or to pluck up the herb, or to plough up the crop, when patience and painstaking would result in flower and fruit. In the spiritual world, it is often found that where death seemed to prevail, there was life beneath the surface. -, I. THE APPEARANCE OF SPIBITUAL DEATH. The (Jhurch is so degenerate, that the teaching of Di vine truth is found to be ineffectual ; the nation so corrupt, that the statesman and the magistrate and the teacher are powerless; the family so depraved, that it is a pest to the community; the child so wayward, that parental authority is no restraint. Then is enterta.ined- II. THE POLIOY OF ABANDONMENT. Those who are pure, reverent,'loyal; they to whom iniquity is found to be hateful; men that are anxious to use their opportunities, so as to get some spiritual returns ;-these say, or are inclined to say," Let us leave these souls so fast imbedded in sin whom we cannot, extricate, and let us seek and save those who can be reached and rescued." Then comes- 111. THE PLEA OF FAITH AND PITY. "Destroy it not; for a blessing is in it." "Let it alone this year" (Luke xiii. 6-9). That root that looks dead is not dead, and under careful nourishment it will revive. '!'hat soul that seems dead is not dead ; there is a seed of lire iu it still; beneath all its folly, its waywardness, its vice, its guilt, there is a pos- sibility of true repentance; there is a sensibility which will respond to patient, human love; there is a spiritual capacity which the truth of God, made mighty by the Spirit of God, will touch with renewing power, and from which unsuspected b?auties and graces will arise. Within the uo-liest and most worthless souls there may lie concealed germs of real nobility. Wait lo~g, very long, before you abandon to destruction. Over them, and of them, the Divine voice may be whispering, "There is a blessing in tlwm for the loving, patient, prayerful workman."--C. Vers. 9, 10.-Jirom depresmm to prosperity. We learn here- 4-80 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH. [OH, LXV, 1-25,
I. THAT THE PEOPLE OF GoD MAY FALL INTO A STATE OF BAD DEPRESSION, "Ja.ooh" and" Judah," at the time of this prophecy, were reduced to a very low estate. It seemed as if they would produce nothing. II. THAT COMFORT MAY THEN BK FOUND IN GoD's RELATION TO THEM. They are still "mine elect;" still those whom the Divine Father pities and purposes to bless for whom the Divine Saviour died, with whom the Divine Spirit pleads. ' IlI. THAT THEY SHOULD SPBlsD THEIR STRENGTH IN SEEKING AND IN SERVING. "My servants shall dwell there . . . for my people that have sought me." In the time of difficulty and distress let good men be earnest and constant in prayer; let them be consistent in lifo and active in holy labour. Then they will fiud- IV. THAT THEY MAY LOOK FOR A RENEWED AND A NOBLE HERITAGE. From end to end of the land (from Sharon to Achor) the scenes of pastoral industry shall be witnessed, and God's servants shall dwell in the land; there shall be fulness and permanence of blessing.-O.