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JERUSALEM.

ISAIAH LII.

THE whole of the chapter I have read seems to be an appeal to Jerusalem, in the day of her captivity and bondage, to arise, to put on her beautiful garments, to shake herself from the dust. The picture is that of Jerusalem, like a female seated in the dust, despised, neglected, uncared for; then it seems as if a voice came from the heavens that the day of her restoration and her coronation is come; and this day being come, she is summoned by him who tells her the glad tidings to awake from the stupor of a thousand years; to lay aside her ashen and her lenten garments, and put on her beautiful and her bridal robes; to shake herself from the dust that has fallen upon her, and to loose herself from the chains with which she has been bound for many generations as the captive daughter of Zion. The appeal is exquisitely poetical, the imagery is very beautiful, and it seems in some degree to have its parallel in such passages as these in the Book of Revelation : "Let us be glad, and rejoice, and give honour to the Lamb; for his marriage is come; and the bride hath made herself ready." "And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white; for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints."

Then he proceeds to explain to the captive daughter

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of Zion, summoned to rise from her bondage, and to shake herself from the dust, what is her story, what is the secret of her captivity. There is no suffering without an antecedent sin; there is no bondage unless there has been some crime to necessitate that bondage. And therefore he says, "For thus saith the Lord, Ye have sold yourselves for nought;" you have been made captives, but you have got nothing for it; your sins have carried you into captivity, you have had no recompence, you have had no reward; you have subjected yourselves to the captivity of many years, even eighteen hundred years; but you stipulated for no return or reward for so great sufferings, for so stupendous sacrifices. And therefore God says, "My people went down aforetime into Egypt "attracted by its splendour and its riches— "and the Assyrian oppressed them without cause;" you went down seeking your own gain, and you found suffering you did not anticipate. Now, therefore, what have I here, saith the Lord, that my people is taken away for nought; they that rule over them make them to howl, saith the Lord; and my name continually every day is blasphemed." This is simply a picture of the suffering of the Jews, that has lasted from that day when Jerusalem was trodden under foot of the Gentiles, and will last till the hour of her emancipation and deliverance comes. And God predicts: "Therefore my people," mine by covenant, mine by an affection to them that does not falter, weary, nor exhaust itself; mine, though they have renounced me, and broken my laws, and forgotten my claims, and darkened my glory, yet they are mine: "Therefore my people shall know my

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name." That name is: "The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long suffering, abundant in goodness and truth; keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin.”

Then he represents the messenger coming upon the mountains, bringing the good tidings of Zion's deliverance, and proclaiming especially the burden of those good tidings: "Thy God reigneth."

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After this the prophet tells them, "Thy watchmen," that is, thy priests, thy ministering servants, "shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing; for they shall see eye to eye, when the Lord shall bring again Zion." It has been a dispute what is the precise meaning of this phrase, They shall see eye to eye." Some think that it means they shall be perfectly agreed; they shall have no differences. At present the various sections of the church universal do differ in ceremonial, ecclesiastical, and ritual details; though there be no substantial difference about the essential truths of our common Christianity. In other words, those things in which all Christians of all denominations agree vastly outweigh in importance, in precionsness, in duration, the various things in which they differ. If it be in this sense that we are to understand the words, then it means that a day comes when all shall see the same truths in the same light, at the same angle; and when those disputes, more originating in temper than in essential difference, that have often rent Christendom, shall all be resolved into lasting and glorious harmony. But others think that the expression, "shall see eye to eye," means, not unity of opinion or unity of senti

ment, but that they shall see clearly, shall see perfectly; in other words, when we shall no longer see through a glass darkly, but face to face. What is the law of our being now? That the greatest truths we see imperfectly. And it is a great law, too, in all progression in the spiritual and the moral world, that the more we see, the more we find remains to be seen. It is the greatest mountains that cast round them the greatest shadows; and so the grandest truths seem to have round them a penumbra of the greatest darkness. We always find, in investigating truth, that the higher we rise, not the nearer, but the more distant we observe the heavenly brightness, perfection, and glory to be. The more we know, the more we see is yet to be known. And perhaps it is now well that we see through a glass darkly. Probably once Adam and Eve could look at the noonday sun, and the eye not suffer; and could look clearly at all great truths, and not be overwhelmed. But in

our present condition, as we read in the case of Saul, when the first flash of celestial glory burst upon his sight he was struck blind; so the seer in the Apocalypse, when the Saviour revealed himself in the glory that he had with the Father before the world was, he says, "I fell down at his feet as dead." Our sight has been dimmed; our hearing has been deadened; our sensibilities have been blunted; the whole tone of our nature has been lowered, in consequence of that primal sin that brought death into the world and all our woe; and I believe we have at this moment a very faint and feeble apprehension of what a magnificent creature man will be when he, like Jerusalem, shakes himself from the dust of the

grave, puts on his beautiful, his resurrection robes, and becomes the companion, as he ever will be the worshipper, of Him who is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

Then we read in the 11th verse the command addressed to Jerusalem, or rather to those that are in Jerusalem: "Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing"-do not hamper yourselves with this world's good things-" go ye out of the midst of her; be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord." It represents the Jewish priests escaping from captivity, carrying the sacred vessels; pictures of which are now upon the arch of Titus at Rome, a memorial of the captivity of Judah. It represents the priests carrying the sacred golden vessels, escaping from the midst of their captivity as fast as they can, and bearing them to that temple where they shall be enshrined and stored for ever and ever. The idea conveyed by it is, that when they hear these words-when God's ancient people, the children of Zion, hear this summons, "Depart, depart "they shall leave behind them all that ham-. pers them; they shall entangle themselves with. nothing that belongs to the Gentiles; they shall rush forth like streams from a thousand lands, brightening and converging as they rush, till they meet in the midst of Jerusalem, which shall again become the beauty, the joy, and the glory of the whole earth.

In the 13th verse he begins a prophecy which really belongs to the 53rd chapter. I need not tell you that the chapters in our Bible are not all wisely divided; they were divided originally, some say, by a learned Romish divine; others say, by a printer