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THE SAVIOUR.

ISAIAH L.

It is impossible to doubt that the speaker in the chapter I have read is our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. He speaks of the treatment that he should receive when he came into the world in order to redeem that world. He says the Jews were put away for their sins, and the Gentile church should be graffed in; but that the cause of the removal of the one was their sins; that the secret of the acceptance of the other was not their merit, but heavenly and distinguishing grace. And he states in the language of the past, which is always the language of prophecy for the prophetic past embosoms always the prophetic future-"When I came, was there no man? when I called, was there none to answer?" or, as he expresses it in another passage, "I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me. I looked, and there was none to help; therefore mine own arm brought salvation unto me; and my fury, it upheld me.' And yet he says that he would thus come alone into the midst of a world that knew him not, -that he would be subjected to sufferings, and tread the winepress alone; not because he wanted power, but because the world needed mercy, and he had promised to come and redeem it. He says, It is not

because I have no power, for "at my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness; I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering." And this is the answer to the exultation of the Jews: "He saved others, himself he cannot save;" he showed power, why does he not put forth that power in his own behalf? Because he loved them with an everlasting love; and not through power could he redeem them, but through that suffering in their stead, which would be the expiation of their sins. His argument here is, that the greatness of his sufferings was not because of the weakness of his power, but because of the strength and the persistency of his love to them that were perishing. He then explains what he was and would be in the world. The Lord God hath " given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary." You recollect that "three days after they found Jesus in the temple, sitting in the midst of the Rabbis, both hearing them and asking them questions;" that was a fulfilment of the prediction that is here, namely, that God had given him the tongue of the learned, that he should know the most difficult thing on earth, -how to speak the right word, at the right time, and in the right place, to him that was weary. The word here," in season," literally translated, is, the wheel;" and the idea which is used to illustrate Christ's ability to speak is that of a revolving wheel, with a hole in its periphery. A ball dropped at a certain point falls into the hole; but if that point in the rotation of the wheel is missed, then the ball does not fall into the hole, and is lost. The idea is,

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therefore, a word spoken just at the right moment gives comfort, and light, and peace, and hope; and a blessed thing it is.

Then he says: "The Lord hath opened mine ear." Now the prophecy of our Lord in the Psalm is to this effect: "Mine ears hast thou opened. Then said I, Lo, I come; in the volume of the book it is written of me, to do thy will, O God." God, therefore, has opened his ear. Then he says: "I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair." We read that one of the officers who stood by Jesus, struck him on the face with the palm of his hand, saying, "Answerest thou the high priest so?" We read in another part of the Gospels, "Then did they spit in his face, and buffetted him; and others smote him with the palms of their hands." And another prophecy is: "I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered." Yet, he says, notwithstanding all this, "the Lord God will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded." He stated throughout the Gospels, that he was sent by the Father to do his will, to accomplish his purpose, to ransom his lost sheep, and to restore a lost world. And therefore, he says, notwithstanding all this treatment, "I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed;" for in the words of a subsequent chapter, "he shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied."

Then he exclaims, "Who is among you that feareth the Lord?" that is, is there any one in the ancient church, or in modern Christendom, that feareth the Lord? that is, worshippeth God in spirit and in truth; that obeyeth the voice of his inspired servant

-for Christ was the servant of the Father as well as his Son; but in spite of this worship, notwithstanding this obedience, does he still walk in darkness? is he depressed, desponding, sorrowful? has he no light how to escape, or what road to walk in, or what course to pursue? Is all darkness above? is all perplexity around? Here we find the fact that a man may be a Christian, and yet may be sad; that a man may be a child of God, and yet may be at his wits' end. Many a son is sad; many a true servant is sorrowful. But what is the right course? To commit suicide? No; that is paganism. To plunge into the follies and vanities of the world, and take a fresh draught of them? That is to go to broken cisterns, that can hold no water. Then what is he to do? Just to trust in the name of the Lord, and to stay himself upon his God-that is the prescription; to be satisfied of this: that One is above the tidemark who will send deliverance to Israel; and that if you can, therefore, just hang on, continue to trust, and never let go that hold of God's promises, which are scattered through the Bible like stars in the firmament on a winter evening, but cling to him and believe that he is your Father, that he sees you, that he knows you, that he understands your whole condition, that there is no chance, no accident in it, and that the trouble will not be too great, nor too long, but just what is requisite and expedient for you; then you will find that at evening time it will be light; and that though you have sown in tears, you will reap in joy. The grand prescription for a world's trouble is, "Trust in God.” The safety, and the joy, and the peace of a Christian, are

not to be taken from his own heart, as the spider's web is taken from his own organism, but it is to be drawn down from God; and they that trust in him shall never be ashamed. You constantly find throughout the Bible the blessing of trust in God. Why should that be so important? Because trusting God is honouring God: whenever you cease to trust in him it implies that you trust in something else. There is not such a thing as a human being who trusts in nothing; there is not such a phenomenon as a human being that lives in vacuo; he cannot so exist; it is the very essence of the creature to draw his water from some spring or cistern; it is the very definition of a creature to lean, or trust, or depend; the very mark of a creature is dependence. It is not therefore the question, Shall you trust, or shall you not trust? the controversy is, Shall we trust in the Rock of Ages, or shall we trust in some created, broken, unsatisfying thing, which can hold no water, and can give us no support? Blessed, therefore, is that man whose trust is in the Lord, and who stays himself upon the mighty God of Jacob.

THE JEW.

ISAIAH LI.

Ir is plain, I think, to every fair and unprejudiced reader of this chapter, that the whole of its discussion or controversy, if such it may be called, is with God's ancient, at present forsaken, but not forgotten