READINGS ON THE PROPHETS.

[ISAIAH.]

THE writer believes that this series of plain and illustrative comments on the prophetic scriptures will prove instructive and interesting to Christian people.

Isaiah especially predicts, in no ordinary language, the sufferings of the Messiah, and the glory that is to follow. From his pen we have also the most brilliant delineations of the return of the Jews, the restoration of their land, and the scenes that are to accompany or precede these grand events. Intermingled with, and interpenetrating these, are rays of glory that lighten the hearts of the people of God, and shed sunshine on life's darkest and dreariest passages, "to which we do well to take

heed."

In former volumes, duties and privileges have been often urged on the mind of the reader. In this, hopes and joys and rich expectancies will find soil deep enough for their roots, and ample enough for their expansion.

Life, even on its highest plane, is not all sun

B

shine. We are made meet for our destiny "through

much tribulation."

"Life is not as idle ore,
But iron dug from central gloom,
And heated hot with burning fears,
And dipped in baths of hissing tears,
And battered by the shocks of doom
To shape and use."

The writer covets the honour and the pleasure of lightening what it is not his to remove, and cheering hearts heavy with life's burden, and weary with its struggles. If his words be feeble, his prayers are alike fervent and frequent that the Comforter may be pleased to bless his earnest efforts. His aim would take in all. His exertions must be the best available.

Not a few have been gladdened by these expositions in the sanctuary. May some find them not wholly unfruitful elsewhere. To save space, the chapter expounded is referred to, not transcribed. Extracts from able writers are occasionally introduced, which, it is hoped, will not be unacceptable or uninteresting.

The writer is desirous of seeing these comments extensively circulated in numbers, and will be happy to furnish the publisher with the names and addresses of any persons who may prefer to have them regularly sent.

SINS, JUDGMENTS, AND PROMISES.

ISAIAH I.

WE have read in the course of our expository remarks on the First and Second Books of Kings the annals of the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. We have also read the minute historical details of those tremendous judgments which fell in succession upon Israel and Judah, ending in the deportation of the tribes to Babylon, where they spent seventy years in sore punishment for the conscious sins they keenly felt, and by which they were stained as a nation. Not the least flagrant of these were the idolatrous practices to which they had almost universally apostatized. Isaiah prophesied before the immediate deportation of the tribes. The kings under whom he prophesied reigned in the years that extended from 810 B.C. to 608 B.C.; and in the midst of that period Isaiah, the son of Amos, prophesied.

It is important to notice here, that the word prophet in Scripture does not mean one predicting events to come; though certainly this book contains predictions of the most striking and interesting character, stretching into futurity. A prophet was raised up in ancient times not only to predict, strictly so called, but to warn, to judge, to rebuke, to exhort, and to proclaim to a rebellious race what

were the judgments that awaited it, and to a loyal and Christian people what were the blessings and the promises that would overtake, and cheer, and sustain them.

Isaiah has been called by the early fathers the fifth evangelist. So rich in gospel truth is this ancient prophecy, so inlaid is almost every chapter with the cross, that those who have longest and most laboriously studied it have been most deeply persuaded that Isaiah, instead of being called a prophet, though he lived before the days of Christ, that is, before Christ was born in the flesh, ought rather to be regarded as an evangelist proclaiming the gospel of glad tidings, or sketching the life, the death, the sacrifice, the intercession, the approaching glory of Him who was the Wonderful, the Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of peace.

This sublime prophet, the sublimest of all the prophets, standing up amidst the ruins of his beloved land, amidst the utter desolation of that magnificent edifice consecrated by the descending glory in the days of Solomon with so great pomp, and splendour, and solemnity-living at a period also when Assyria was beginning to wane, and Babylon to wax great, and when Carthage and Rome were in their cradles-portrays the desolation of his country with a graphic and impartial pen. He also points out to his people what were the springs of their sufferings as a nation, namely, their unfaithfulness and disloyalty to God, and disobedience to his holy will. We shall find in the reading of this prophet much to interest, much to instruct, much to

cheer, and always and everywhere gleams of light flashing through the darkest clouds that lie upon the mystic page, pointing to a cross and a crown-the suffering and the glory.

In this chapter, God, in condescending goodness, speaks to Israel by the prophet; for the prophet is merely the vehicle of what God wills, and says, and feels, and designs; and appeals to the heavens to look down if ever they saw so sad a spectacle, and to the dumb earth to look up from its lowliness, and attest if what he describes was not an almost unprecedented fact-namely, "I," says God, "have nourished and I have brought up children;" I have fed and educated a chosen nation as a nurse her children; and all the recompense they have returned me for ceaseless blessings, paternal and munificent, is, they have rebelled against me. God's relationship to them, and their relationship to him, aggravated their sins and increased their guilt to prove their ingratitude and wickedness. He appeals to the brute creation, and he says, "The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib;" but rational, responsible men, men that have been the recipients of blessings, the monuments of sparing mercy, do not even know me; and "my people "—what a touching expression!" my people doth not even consider."

"The first chapter of the prophet rebukes severely the Jews for the national desertion of Jehovah. But the pathetic appeal, that the ox knew its owner, and the most stupid of animals his master's crib, yet that Israel 'knew not Him,' applies in its fullest force to the Jews' rejection of Jesus, by whom they were created, and for whose pleasure they were made.