Vers. 13-15.-0ontrasted lots of those who serve God and those who forsake him. This passage should be compared with Luke vi. 20-26. "The blessedness of those that serve God, and the woeful condition of those that rebel against him, a.re here set, the one over against the other, that they may serve as a foil to each other." L CONTRAST THE TWO KINDS OF LIFE. The man who lears God and sets his heart upon serving him, finds the promises fulfilled-" Verily thou shalt be filled;" "None of them that trust in him shall be desolate." He may take his place in anxious and troublous times, bnt since he is God's servant, he shall be even as Elijah, fed by ravens, or by poor widows, if need be. The man who fears not God is left to ordinary human devices, and may be left hungry and thirsty and desolate. He holds no guarantee. The Giver of all good is under no covenant-pledge to see that he wants no good thing. "God's servants shall eat and drink; they shall have the bread oflife to feed, to feast upon continually, and sball want nothing that is good for them. But those who set their hearts upon the world, and place their happiness in it, shall be hungry and thirsty, always empty, always craving. In commnnion with God and dependence upon him there is full satisfaction; but in sinful pursuits there is nothing but dissatisfaction and disappointment." IL Co1'"'TRAST THE TWO KINDS OF DISPOSITIONS. Trust in God brings peace and heart- rest. Those who know what soul-rest is, find it easy to sing and give thanks. "The joy of the Lord is their strength." Tbere is good cheer and high hope in their souls. "God's servants shall rejoice and sing for joy of heart; they have constant cause for joy, and there is nothing that may be an occasion of grief to them but may have an allay sufficient for it. B:it, on the other hand, they that forsake the Lord shut themselves out from all true joy, for they shall be ashamed of their vain confidence in themselves, and th1,ir own righteousness, and the hopes they had built thereon. When the expectll- tions of bliss, wherewith they had flattered themselves, are frustrated, oh, what con- fusion will fill their faces!" (Matthew Henry). "The joy of the world resembles a torrent. As upon a glut of rain, you shall have a torrent come rolling along with noise and violence, overflowing its banks, and bearing all before it; yet it is but muddy and impure water, and it is soon gone and dried up: such is all the joy this world can give. It makes a great noise, it is commonly immoderate, and Rwells beyond its due bounds; yet it is but a muddy and impure joy; it soon rolls away, and leaves nothing behind but a drought in the soul. Now, since the world's joy is but such a poor emI?tY thing as this, it is most gross folly for us to lay out our best love upon that wh1cb cannot repay us with the best joy" (Bishop Hopkins).-R. T. 011, LXV, 1-26.J THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH. 483
Ver. 17.-.A new earth. The idea is thRt God will be sure to take care that a ma!l's surroundings match the man himself. He will have a new earth for regenerate men. He will have heaven for those who can be "holy still." The fundamental idea of the verse is that nature itself must be transformed to be in harmony with regenerate Israel. Long life shall be one of the marked peculiarities of the" new earth." Cheyne quotes the following similar passage to ver. 20 from the Book of Enoch: "And they shall not be punished all their life long, neither shall they die by plagues and judgments; but the number of their days shall they complete, and they shall grow old in peace, and the years of their happiness shall be many, iu everlasting bliss and peace, their whole life long." Some take this text as a poetical representation of the new condition into which the returned exiles entered; and in that view we have an ideal picture of what ought to have been. We, however, take the more general principle that God makes a new earth for the new-born man; everything to him becomes new. An,l God makes a new earth for his sanctified Church-<loes make it, in a sense, now, and will make it, in a larger sense, by-and-by. In what sense, then, can we be said to want a" new earth"? I. NOT IN THE BENSE OF A CHAN(lED WORLD OF THINGS. It is not possible for us to conceive of anything better, more restful, more satisfying, than this paradise of earth, which God has made and decked for us, with its hills, and vales, and streams, and seas, and flowers, and trees, and hoar-frost, and harvest-fields, and spring-time greenery, and autumn tinting. We love our earth, fair earth, and do not want it changed. " 'Twas a fair scene--a land more bright Never did mortal eye behold I . . . 'fhose valleys and their fruits of gold Basking in heaven's serenest light; Those groups of lovely date trees bending Languidly their leaf-crown'd heads, Like youthful maids, when sleep descending Warns them to their silken beds; Those virgin lilies, all the night Bathing their beauties in the lake, That they may rise more fresh and bright When their beloved sun's awake." (T. Moore.) We can, indeed, only conceive of heaven as like earth, all of it 8.9 beautiful as some of the earth is to us. Poetry anticipates that "Th ore, on e. green and flowery mound, Our weary souls shall sit." And Scripture figures heaven as a dty in a paradise. No sense of wanting relief from the ever-exquisite associations of earth comes to us. Even earth's dark things, her night, her winds, her storms, her winter, are precious to us, and we scarce would have them otherwise. II. BUT IN THE BENSE OF A CHANGED WORLD OF BEINGS. There are lands where " . . . every prospect pleases, And only man is vile;" and it is just that "vileness of man" which has made earth so sad, life so bitter, aud death so terrible. Could we clear the human race away, as with another flood or fire, and start again the cleansed earth with a race in whom righteousness should dwell, then, verily, we should want no other heaven-earth would be heaven. Illustrate tI.ese points: 1. The good me.n makes a new earth of his sphere. 2. 'l'he good parents make a new earth of their home. 3. The holy Church helps to make a new earth of social life. 4. The well-princip!ed statesman tries to make a new earth of the nation. 6. Those who believe in God and know his redemption strive to make a new earth of the soroly smitten heathen lands. We all want that new earth in which holiness shall be every- where--holiness the glorifying sunshine that makes earth to be summer-time always; holiness she.II jingle from tho very bells of the horses. Call that now earth what you may please, it will be heaven.-R. T. THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH. [ou. txv. 1-25,