The Pulpit Commentary — Micah — Section 128

Jerusalem established on earth, what a magnificent city it will be I The words may be ust'd to illustrate another thing concerning the good time coming. IT. IT '\TILL BE A TIME Fon REGATHERING THE HOATTERED, "In that day also he !!ball come even to thee from Assyria, and from the fortified cities, and from the fortresses even to the river, and from sea to sea, and from mountain to mountain." "All," says an old writer, "that belong to the land of Israel, whithersoevor dispersed and however distressed, far and wide over the face of the whole earth, shall come fl0cking to it again. He shall come even to thee, having liberty to return and a heart to return from Assyria, whither the ten tribes were carried away, though it lay remote from the fortified cities and from the fortress-those strongholds in which they thought they had them fast; for when God's time comes, though Pharaoh will not let the people go, God will fetch them out with a high hand. They shall come from all the remote parts, from sea to sea, and mountain to mountain, not turning back for fear of your discouragements, but they shall go from strength to strength, till they come w Zion." The human family, which Heaven intended to live as one grand brotherhood, has been riven into moral sections, antagonistic to each other, and scattered all over the world. The time will come when they shall be gathered together, not of course in a local sense, but in a spiritual-in unity of sentiment, sympathy, alro; soul. Ali shall be one in Christ, They will be gathered in spirit together from the four winds of heaven. CONCLUSION. Haste this good time I May the chariot-wheels of Providence revolve with greater speed I "One song employs all nations; and all cry, •Worthy the La.m b, for he was slain for us I • The dwellers in the vales and on the rocks Shout to each other, e.nd the mount.a.in-tops From distant mountains catch the flying joy: Till, nation e.fter nation taught the strain, Ee.rth rolls the rapturous Hosanna. round." (Cowper.) D.T. Ver. 13.-Man', ro,in the fruit of his own conduct. "Notwithstanding the land shall be desolate because of them that dwell therein, for the fruit of their doings." Here is a prediction of what would take place before the advent of those glorious events pointed out in the preceding verses. There will be a dark night before the morning, a great storm before the calm. The subject here is-Man's roin the fruit of his own conduct. The reason why the la.nd should be "desolate" before the coming of the glorious times is here stated-" for the fruit of their doings." That man's ruin springs from his conduct is demonstrated by universal experience as well as by the Word of God. '' 0 Israel. thou hast destroyed thyself ... 0 Israel, return unto the Lord thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity" (Hoe. xiii. 9; xiv. 1). It is the man who heareth the sayings of C,'hrist and doeth , them not that will be ruined at last. '' Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." Assuming it to be e. fact that man's ruin is evermore the fruit of his own conduct, four things follow. I. Tiu T BIS llUSEBY WILL BE IDENTIFIED WITH BEMOBSE. More.Uy it is impossible for e. man to aecribe his ruin to his organization, to circumstances, or to any force· over which he has no control. He must feel that he has brought it on himself; e.nd this feeling it is that makes bis miserable condition a very hell. The suffering of remorse is the soul of suffering. "A wounded spirit who can bear?" I1 THAT IN HIS SUFFERINGS HE MUST VINDICATE THE Drvnra 'OIIABACTEB. Forced to see and feel that all his sin and miseries spring from his own conduct, he will be compelled to say, "Just and right art thou," etc. (Rev. xv. 8). Into the deepest heart of such God speaks the words, "They hated knowledge, they despised all my reproof; therefore shall they eat the fruit of their own way, and he filled with their own devices" (Prov. i. 29). All their misery is but the ea.ting of the fruit of their own doings; they reap that which they have sown. As fruit answers to seed, as echoes to sound, their calamities answer to their conduct. III. THAT lilB SALVATION FROM RUIN REQUIRES A CHANGE OF LIFE. Men's Cll, VII. 1-20.] THE BOOK OF MICAH. 1:n