hie Name. And this is equivalent to tbe spread of one reliioon throughout the earth. 2. There is to be unity of worBhip. Jerusalem and the sacred hill of Zion are to form the great centre. From all quarters, and by different modes of conveyance, the dispersed ones are to come thronging thither. There will be a renewed ccnsecration of the chosen people to its God; they will be like the sacred meal offering. 3. Exclusiveness wi1l be broken down, The strict Levitical system, it seems, will give way; and Gentile converts as well a~ Jews will be admitted to share in the s:icred ministry of the temple. For the Jewish priestly system was only for a time, was pmvisional; and the people were one day to be, as a whole," priests of Jehovah" ( eh. lxi. 6), 4. 'The permanence of true religion, The seed and the name of the people shall stand, even so the new heavens and the new earth. No more of the old order changing and giving place to the new, the successive efforts of men after frivolity in religion being successively defeated; but at last fixity and rest. 5. Simplicity of true religion. "'l'he old forms of reldon have been reduced to the utmost; new moons and sabbaths alone remain." Fur the multitude of times and seasons and of ceremonies is burdensome to flesh and blood, and they tend to obscure the spiritu:ility of true religion. We are reminded of the first chapter, where it is said that" Jehovah cannot away with them." 6. Universrility of true religion. We take the language as poetical, symbolic, to be understood in the ideal and inward sense. Wliere is the true seat of worship? Not on Mount Gerizim, nor even on Mount Zion (John iv. 21). The spirit of man is the true temple. And who, in best and most loving moments of worship, do~s not foe\ that the heart of humanity beats with one pulse, is stirred by one faith, is secretly gathering around one spiritual centre? Let us cease with this verse, which we are told the Jewish readers repeated to correct the sad impression of the last.-J. Ver. 13.-Tender condition, "As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I com- fort you." These are the analogies of truth that reach the heart through the life- experience when mere intellectual disquisition is vain. I. THE MOTHER-IDEAL CREATES THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF TENDERNESS. God is the great Mother as well as tl1e great Father of all flesh. 'l'herefore Christ, who came to reveal the Father, was perfect humanity. In taking, as the Divine Son of the Father, our flesh, he revealed in "humanity" not only perfect manhood, but, perfect wonvmnood too. II. THE MOTHER-IDEAL REVEALS WHAT TRUE COMFORT MEANS. 1. Sympathy with our frailties and mistalces, 2. Succour at supre11Ml sel,f-cost. a. Hopefulness even to the last.- W. M. S.
Vers. 1, 2.-(Vide homily on eh. lvii. 15, 16.)-C. Vera. 3, 4.-The rebuke of unrigJ.teousnes.,. We have- I. Fotra OFFENCES SPECIALLY HATEFUL TO THE HOLY ONE. 1. Insincerity. These worshippers who brought their bullock~, their lambs, their prescribed oblations, were as guilty in the judgment of God as if they brought to his altar that which was an abomination in his sight. Their guilt lay in their insincerity; their heart was far from God when their feet were nigh his house. 2. Heedlessness. When God cnlls and we pay no heed to his voice, we commit an aggravated offence against him. 3. Wilful- ness. The" choosing of our own ways," instead of submitting to the Divine will, is a perpetual disobedience, 11 sustained disloyalty. 4. .Arrogance. "Doing evil before mine eyes," though conscious of the presence and the obsorvation of God. II. Gon's GRAVE REBUKE OF THIS UNRIGHTEOUSNESS. 1. He will make the/ears ofthll guilty to befuljilled-will "briag their fears upon them." The apprehensions of guilt may safely be taken as prophecies of evil. Sin is at lenst as mischievous as it seems to the siuner. If men who are living in obdurate rebellion against God have impres- sions or intimations of evil consequences, they may be sure that ruin is on the road, and will before long confront them. 2. He will visit with unexpected sorrow. "I will choose their delusions [calamities]." Not that God ever arbitrarily punishes his children, but that he does often bring down upon the guilty sorrows and calamities which they did not apprehend-from which, indeed, they imngined themselves to be secure. No man cnn possibly foresee where a sinful course will lead bin1, and in what it will land him.-C. 496 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH, [cH, LXVI. 1-24,