A SUBLIME APOCALYPSE.

ISAIAH LXIII.

THIS chapter divides itself into two great and comprehensive sections; one section the announcement of judgment upon all the enemies of God, and the other the deliverance of his redeemed and his believing people, and their pleading with him in prayer in relation to that covenant which he entered into with them and with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, their great forefathers. First of all, one is seen marching at the head or van of a victorious procession, bearing the traces of a great slaughter in which he has been engaged; and the question is asked by those that witness the strange but sublime spectacle, “Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah ?" The answer that he gives is contained in the last half of the verse: I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save;" I am the person thus clad, thus approaching in victorious procession. Then the people are represented as asking the question, "Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the wine-press?” He gives the answer, "I have trodden the wine-press alone; and of the people there was none with me.” Now the explanation of this is simply that in ancient times the wine was pressed from the grapes by a person treading on them with his bare feet, and the

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juice flowed from the cask into vats prepared to receive it. The parties who were thus employed in treading grapes-purple, or blue, or coloured grapesfrequently sprinkled their robes with the juice, and bore of course, as they could not avoid it, traces of what they had been doing. The idea here is that of a great slaughter; and he that was chiefly concerned. in that slaughter bears upon his robes the blood that has been sprinkled upon them; it is a symbolical expression, denoting the slaughter or the severity of the conflict through which he has passed.

In the 5th verse the same speaker introduces himself: "I looked, and there was none to help" my people; "I wondered that there was none to uphold" them; then he says, "therefore mine own arm brought salvation unto me; and my fury, it upheld me," in the punishment of their oppressors and their enemies. Then he says that the day comes when he will tread down the people. One should always recollect that the word translated in Isaiah and in the Prophets "the people," is in the original Goim, the plural of a word that means "the gentiles," the heathen, the pagan nations; all outside the people Israel. "I will tread down the Gentile nations in mine anger, and make them drunk in my fury;" that is, punish them; "and I will bring down their strength to the earth." Here, then, is the proclamation of those judgments in the midst of which his own people shall be extricated; whilst those that have blasphemed his name shall be punished, to use the apostolic words, with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord. Then the believer breaks in on this sublime and awful scene by falling back

upon other traits in the character of the Redeemer, more delightful to him as a Christian, and more worthy in his judgment of commemoration and song. He says, Whilst he is telling me these awful things, and bringing this dread tragedy in which this dispensation shall close before my eyes, I will turn aside for a moment and hide me in the clefts of the rock and in the chamber of his presence; and "I will” there "mention the loving-kindness of the Lord,” which I am tasting fresh every morning, and renewed every evening; I will sing also "the praises of the Lord, according to all that the Lord hath bestowed on us, and the great goodness toward the house of Israel, which he hath bestowed on them according to his mercies, and according to the multitude of his loving-kindnesses." Then he quotes, as one of the instances and illustrations of his lovingkindness, “ he said, Surely they are my people, children that will not lie; so he was their Saviour;" in the language of the apostle, "a just God, and yet a Saviour." Then he gives a beautiful trait in his character: In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them." If we refer this back to historic events, we find it illustrated in what he says in Exodus: "I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows;" or as the apostle says, "We have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” And again we read in Exodus: "The angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, removed and

went behind them; and the pillar of the cloud went from before their face, and stood behind them; and it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel; and it was a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light by night to these." "Behold, I set an angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared thee." Thus he collects all the instances and evidences of his sympathy to his people of old, in order to set forth that yet deeper and intenser sympathy that he feels with them still. What a grand thought is contained in these simple words, "In all their affliction he was afflicted!" "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me ?" Saul might have answered, "Thee! I never persecuted thee." But the answer of the Saviour would have been, had Saul so replied, "Inasmuch as ye did it unto the least of these my brethren ye did it unto me;" whether it was good or evil, whether it was injury or blessing. Believers are represented as the members of Christ's body, and what they suffer he suffers, or rather sympathizes with; so that in words exquisitely expressive, ," he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye."

But after he has thus spoken of his care of and his sympathy with his people, he says, " But they rebelled." What a strange creature is man! in his best material estate vanity; in his best moral, weakness and infirmity. After this expression of his sympathy with them, after this enumeration of his loving-kindness towards them, it is said, " But they rebelled, and vexed his holy Spirit; therefore he was turned to be their enemy, and he fought against

them." Throughout the whole New Testament, grieving the Spirit, vexing the Spirit, is always specified as a grievous sin, a sin that provokes, to use a human phrase for a divine feeling, the anger of God. But even in the midst of this, what do we read? "He remembered the days of old, Moses and his people, saying, Where is he that brought them up out of the sea with the shepherd of his flock? where is he that put his holy Spirit within him? that led them by the right hand of Moses with his glorious arm ?" that is to say, instead of executing just judgments upon them that thus grieved and vexed his holy Spirit, and rebelled against him, he falls back on memory, as if God were suddenly recollecting; or he falls back upon those sublime interpositions which he had manifested to them of old; and argues, as it were, with himself, If I have done this for them in the past, shall I forsake them now? if I have carried them through six troubles, shall I leave them in seven? if I have borne with so many sins, and forgiven them so often, and forgotten them again and again, shall I give them up now? He cannot do it. It is God represented within the limits of human nature. All this language is not absolutely, and, if I may use the word without being misunderstood, philosophically true: it is God clothing himself in the language of man, that man may see what a loving, merciful, and gracious God he has to deal with, and be drawn by a sense of his loving-kindness to love and serve him. Among the things that he mentions he says, He led them by the right hand of Moses with his glorious arm, dividing the water." The Red Sea was cloven in twain, so that the water stood up

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