Chapter XXIII: Part 23

+II. Proceed to look at God removing sorrow.+ "The Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces." How great the enterprise! Yet how sufficient, though unexpected and startling, is the agency He employs: on this mission of mercy He has sent His own Son. God as His manner is, works from within outwards; He not only wipes off all tears, He removes their cause. That cause is sin. But how does He destroy sin in the human soul? 1. By revealing it, by showing its essential hideousness--one of the revelations of the cross of Christ. It is not until we perceive the costliness of the atonement of sin, that we begin to suspect its terribleness and hatefulness. 2. By showing that sin can be conquered. This is the glorious message and proclamation of the life of the Man Christ Jesus. 3. By furnishing a motive that shall stimulate us to the conflict with sin which will end in victory. That motive is found in the love for Christ which springs up in the soul when we view Him dying on the cross in our stead. 4. In the same marvellous spectacle we see that which alone can pacify conscience, and which does pacify it. Believing, our fears and our sorrows flee away; our mourning is turned into joy. The supreme need of the soul is met in reconciliation with God. A sorrowless life is begun. But that is not all. Having destroyed--_in_ destroying sin in the soul, God implants righteousness (chap. xxxii. 17). He creates as well as destroys. He introduces into our thoughts, words, actions, a Divine order, and therefore a Divine beauty and blessedness. All sorrow springs from infractions of this order; this is seen in national, social, individual life. In proportion as it is restored, tears are wiped away. The great Agent by whom this work is accomplished is His own Spirit; but He works by means, and the chief instruments He employs are those who, in various ways, are promoting the knowledge and practice of the will of God in the world. In this work we may share; this possibility is the glory of our life. By the progress of Christian truth, how many tears have been already wiped away! In spite of every obstacle, the glorious work shall proceed, with ever-accelerating triumphs. There is a better day dawning for our race (H. E. I., 3421-3423). Nothing can bring it in but the Gospel. All other agencies--commerce, education, literature, art, legislation--have been tried and have failed. He who loves humanity will consecrate himself to the furtherance of the Gospel; and he who does so shall share in that joy of redeeming the world from sin and sorrow by the hope of which Christ was sustained amid the sufferings He endured for this great end.--_Thomas Neave._

ADVENT THOUGHTS AND JOYS.

xxv. 9. _And it shall be said in that day, &c._

Isaiah is here, as he is so often, the prophet not merely of future events, but of future states of mind and feeling; not merely of God's dealings with His people, but of the way in which they would or should meet their God.

To what event does he refer?

1. First of all, to the deliverance of Hezekiah and his people from King Sennacherib.[1] That deliverance was recognised as God's work. The recognition of God's presence in the great turning-points of human history is in all ages natural to religious minds. He is with men and nations at all times, but in the great crises of history that presence is brought more vividly before the imagination. So was it when a great storm destroyed the Spanish Armada, and when the power of the first Napoleon was broken first at Leipsic and then at Waterloo. Devout minds felt that these were reappearances of God in human history, and they rejoiced in Him.

2. But beyond the immediate present, Isaiah sees, it may be indistinctly, into a distant future. The judgment of his time foreshadowed some universal judgment upon all the enemies of mankind, some deliverance final, universal, at the end of time. For that judgment and deliverance the Church, both on earth and in heaven, waits and prays (Ps. lxxiv. 10, 22, 23; Rev. vi. 9, 10). To them the answer seems to be long delayed; but it will come (Rev. vi. 12-17); and when at last it bursts upon the world, it will be welcomed by the servants of God as was the deliverance of Jerusalem from the Assyrian army.

3. But between the days of Hezekiah and the final judgment there is another event closer to the prophet's thought--the appearance of the great Deliverer in the midst of human history. All that belongs to the nearer history of Judah melts away in the future which belongs to the King Messiah. The Assyrians themselves are replaced in his thoughts by the greater enemies of humanity; the city of David and Mount Zion become the spiritual city of God, the mountain of the Lord of hosts, the Church of the Divine Redeemer. Here, as so often, the incarnation of the eternal Son of God, with its vast and incalculable consequences to the world of souls, is the keynote of Isaiah's deepest thought, and in our text he epitomises the heart-song of Christendom, which ascends day by day to the throne of the Redeemer. (1.) _"Lo, this is our God."_ Christ is not for us Christians merely or chiefly the preacher or herald of a religion of which another being, distinct from Himself, is its object. The Gospel creed does not run thus, "There is no God but God, and Christ is His prophet." When He appears to the soul of man at the crisis of its penitence, or its conversion, the greeting which meets and befits Him is not, "Lo, this is the good man sent for God to teach some high and forgotten moral truths;" no, but, "Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him; He will save us!" (H. E. I., 835-845). (2.) So might the Jews, the children of the prophets, have sung; so did some of those who entered most deeply into the meaning of the promises given to their fathers (Luke i. 46-55, 68-79; ii. 29-32). (3.) So might the noble philosophers of Greece have sung; so they did sing when, in Christ the incarnate God, of whom they had dreamed and for whom they had sought, was revealed to them. (4.) So have sung in all ages that multitude of human souls whom a profound sense of moral need has brought to the feet of the Redeemer (H. E. I., 948-971).--_H. P. Liddon, M.A.: Christian World Pulpit,_ vol. xiii. pp. 1-3.

I. WHAT ARE THOSE COMINGS OF CHRIST WHICH ARE THE OCCASION OF JOY TO THE CHURCH? 1. _His coming in the flesh,_ His incarnation. To this His people had looked forward; in it they rejoiced. Good cause had they for gladness, for He came to spread the gospel feast, to remove the clouds of ignorance and error, to destroy the reign of sin and death. 2. _His coming in the Spirit,_ at the day of Pentecost; in the experience of the individual soul, in the hours of penitence, of temptation, of sorrow. His coming in the flesh was the great promise of the Old Testament; His coming in the Spirit is the great promise of the New. 3. _His coming to receive the soul to glory._ He comes unchanged. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints. 4. _His coming to bring the present dispensation to a close._ It may be heralded by many alarming and distressing events, but it will be itself a cause for joy. To the wicked it will be a day of unmixed terror, but to the righteous of gladness; for it will bring them redemption from the power of every sin, from the assault of every enemy; every fetter will be broken, every cloud dispelled.

II. WHAT IS REQUISITE TO ENABLE US TO WELCOME THE APPROACH OF CHRIST? 1. A knowledge of Him as our God and Redeemer. 2. An experience of the benefits of His salvation. 3. Love for Him. 4. Submission to His will and zeal for his glory.--_Samuel Thodey._

+I. In the day of judgment nothing will inspire us with joy and confidence but a real interest in Jesus Christ.+ The ungodly now possess many sources of present enjoyment; but in that day they will have ceased for ever. One grand, all-important idea will then fill the mind: "The solemn day of account is come; how shall I abide in it? How shall I endure the presence of the heart-searching Judge?" But whence can this assurance be obtained? Only from an interest in Jesus Christ. Those who do not possess it will then be filled with shame and terror; but, amid all its terrors, those who do possess it will be enabled to rejoice.

+II. In that day none will be found to have a real interest in Christ, nor capable of rejoicing, but those who are now waiting for His coming.+ This is a characteristic of all genuine Christians (1 Thess. i. 10; Tit. ii. 13; 1 Cor. i. 7; Luke xii. 36). Hence, in our text, we find the saints representing their conduct towards the Lord in the days of their flesh by the same term: "We have waited for Him." It may be useful, then, to point out some of the particulars implied in this general description of the Christian character. To "wait for Christ" implies--1. A FIRM BELIEF IN HIS SECOND COMING, and of the infinitely momentous consequences which will follow that event. The true Christian walks "by faith, not by sight." Unlike the profane (2 Pet. iii. 4), he lays it down in his mind as an infallible truth that "the day of the Lord _will_ come." 2. A CONSTANT ENDEAVOUR TO BE PREPARED FOR IT. How the wise virgins acted (Matt. xxv. 4). 3. A PATIENT CONTINUANCE IN WELL-DOING (Luke xii. 35-46). Are you _thus_ "waiting" for the second coming of your Lord?--_Edward Cooper: Practical and Familiar Sermons,_ vol. iv. pp. 225-240.

The chapter from which these words are taken contains a noble description of the glory and grace of God, of His glory in ruling irresistibly the nations of the earth, and in crushing the enemies of His Church, of His glory and grace in the salvation of mankind. It records by anticipation the triumphs of the Gospel, the downfall of the powers of darkness, the annihilation of death itself, the reign of perpetual peace and joy.

+I. A recognition of the birth of the Messiah.+ It is a matter of historical certainty that the people of God did wait for the coming of the Saviour from the time of the very first promise given to the woman after the fall, to the period of our Lord's appearance upon the earth, at which season there was a general expectation in all the neighbouring regions of the advent of some mighty personage who was to realise all the sublime descriptions of the ancient prophets. Anna the prophetess, Joseph of Arimathea, the aged Simeon and other devout men, were waiting for the "consolation of Israel."

+II. An assertion of His Divinity.+ "This is our God,"--not merely a prophet, a priest, a king, chosen by Jehovah from among His people, and commissioned to give laws and statutes, as Moses was, or to assert Jehovah's authority and punish idolatry, as Elijah was, or to denounce His wrath against an apostate people and at the same time to foreshadow a great deliverance to come, as Isaiah was himself, or Jeremiah or any other of those holy men who spake in old times by the Holy Ghost; but this is OUR GOD, this is Emmanuel--God with us--God manifest in the flesh.

+III. A declaration of His atoning work.+ How vast that work He took on Himself to execute,--the reconciliation in His own person of sinful man to an offended God, the overthrow of the kingdom of Satan, and the abolition of death! No man could have performed it (Ps. xlix. 7). Could any of the angels, then, have taken in hand this enterprise? Beyond the power, above the conception of any being of limited goodness, knowledge and power, it could only be accomplished by the Divine Son of God. It was God's work, devised and executed by Omnipotence.

+IV. A recognition of the second coming of Christ.+ We are admonished by the Church that there is a Second Coming of Christ, for which the Church is waiting, and for which we, with every member of the Church, ought to be looking with earnest and anxious expectation. Is our language, "How long, O Lord?" Our answer is, How long the final triumph of the Saviour may be deferred, how long a period may elapse before the world is ripe for judgment, is one of those secrets which God has reserved to Himself (Acts i. 7). The end of all things, it may be not in the literal sense of the word, at hand, is every year and every day and every moment drawing nearer to each of us. We are all in silent but unceasing movement towards the judgment-hall of Christ. In this point of view, the moment of our death may be regarded as placing us at once before His awful tribunal, for the space between the two, as it affects our eternal destination, will be to us as nothing. When the judgment is set, the books opened, we shall suddenly stand before the Judge, precisely in that state of preparation in which we were found at the moment of our departure out of life. Those who have lived as children of God, as servants of Jesus Christ, under the solemn, yet not fearful, expectation of that day, will then be able to lift up their heads and raise the song of joyful recognition.

_Application._--If ever there was a great practical truth, this is one. If we do not wait for the great day of the Lord in such a spirit of carefulness and circumspection as to refer to it all our actions, words, and thoughts, then it is perfectly certain that we shall be surprised at its coming and be taken utterly unprepared. It will come on us as a thief in the night, and we shall sink into everlasting perdition; not for the want of means and opportunities of being saved, but for want of common prudence and forethought in the most momentous of all concerns. What, then is the conclusion? Live like men that are waiting for their Lord, then when He arrives, He may be welcomed. Accustom yourselves to His presence, in His sanctuary, at His table, in His word, in secret communings with Him in the temple of a purified heart. So when this solemn day shall have come the glad response may be, "Lo, this is our God, we have waited for Him; He will come and save us!"--_C. J. Blomfield, D.D._

FOOTNOTES:

[1] It was no ordinary day that saw the discomfiture of the
Assyrian host before the walls of Jerusalem. We can
scarcely understand the terror and dismay with which a
religious Jew must have watched the growth of those mighty
Oriental despotisms which, rising one after the other in
the valley of the Euphrates and of the Tigris, aspired to
nothing less than the conquest of the known world. The
victory of a conqueror like Sennacherib meant the
extinction of national life and of personal liberty in the
conquered people; it meant often enough violent
transportation from their homes, separation from their
families, with all the degrading and penal accompaniments
of complete subjugation. It meant this to the conquered
pagan cities; for Jerusalem it meant this and more. The
knowledge and worship of God, by institutions of Divine
appointment, maintained only in that little corner of the
wide world, were linked on to the fortunes of the Jewish
state, and in the victory of Sennacherib would be involved
not merely political humiliation, but religious darkness.
When, then, his armies advanced across the continent again
and again, making of a city a heap, and of a fenced city a
ruin, and at last appeared before Jerusalem, when the blast
of the terrible men was as a storm against the wall, there
was natural dismay in every religious and patriotic soul.
It seemed as though a veil or covering, like that which was
spread over the holy things in the Jewish ritual, was being
spread more and more completely over all nations at each
step of the Assyrian monarch's advance, and in those hours
of darkness all true-hearted men in Jerusalem waited for
God. He had delivered them from Egyptian slavery; He had
given them the realm of David and Solomon. He who had done
so much for them would not desert them now. In His own way
He would rebuke this insolent enemy of his truth and His
people, and this passionate longing for His intervention
quickened the eye and welled the heart of Jerusalem when at
last it came. The destruction of Sennacherib's host was one
of those supreme moments in the history of a people which
can never be lived over again by posterity. The sense of
deliverance was proportioned to the agony which had
preceded it. To Isaiah and his contemporaries it seemed as
though a canopy of thick darkness was lifted from the face
of the world, as though the recollections of slaughter and
of death were entirely swallowed up in the absorbing sense
of deliverance, as though the tears of the city had been
wiped away and the rebuke of God's people was taken from
earth, and therefore from the heart of Israel there burst
forth a welcome proportioned to the anxious longing that
had preceded it, "Lo, this is our God; we have waited for
Him; He will save us."--_Liddon._

THE PROTECTING HAND.

xxv. 10. _For in this mountain shall the hand of the Lord
rest._

"Rest!" As a father's hand on the head of his first-born, blessing and protecting his child. That mountain is impregnable which rests under the shadow of God's hand.

+I. Of every enterprise we should ask, "Is it right?"+ If wickedness be in "the mountain," God's protecting hand will not rest upon it. A just cause creates a good conscience, and hence inspires strength. It is only the just man who feels that God "teaches his hands to war and his fingers to fight, so that a bow of steel is broken by his arms." "The righteous is bold as a lion." The good man can patiently wait and confidently expect God's blessing (James v. 7).

+II. Material force allied with injustice will eventually become weak as straw, vile as a dung-heap.+ The strong places of Moab had no inherent lastingness, because built in a godless spirit (Ps. cxxvii. 1).

+III. Forts and castles, ironclads and armies, can never save an unrighteous nation from decay.+ National selfishness, oppressive enterprises, weaken the strongest defences, corrupt the richest treasurers. Babylon became a marsh, Nineveh a forsaken mound, Tyre a deserted rock. In the Colosseum at Rome where martyrs bled, the fox, the bat, and the owl now make their home. The walls of Moab were levelled with the dust. By justice only can peoples be strong. If God be in the city, its walls will be lasting as the hills.--_William Parkes._

DAYS OF DELIVERANCE.

xxvi. 1-2. _In that day shall this song be sung, &c._

There are days in the history of God's people when they specially need His interposing power. This is their prayer (Ps. xxx. 10). This their glad confession (Ps. xc. 17). As such seasons of direct deliverance the natural expression of the heart is one of gladness. If the poetic faculty be strong within them, as in the case of the king of Israel, they sing in lyric splendour, as in Psalm xviii.

1. _That historic period referred to by the prophet Isaiah in this chapter was such a day._ They had been marvellously protected from the invading Assyrian. His host had been smitten as by the blast of the Lord. When from the city walls they saw the thin relics of that grand army hasten away, then would this song of salvation be echoed through the city. When under the imperial protection of Cyrus the exiles returned to their own land, that was another day of deliverance. They rebuilt the temple and renewed the temple service. Then they sang in their own land, the land of Judah, the songs of Zion.

2. _But the first great event in their history,_ the birthday of their nation, their deliverance from Egyptian bondage, was specially memorable as "that day." And in every subsequent national deliverance from the times of the Judges, all through the splendid leadership of David and the heroic days of the Maccabean brothers, that first deliverance seemed to be renewed, and the old song from the Red Sea shore was again chanted (Ex. xv. 6).

3. _In the infant days of the Primitive Church,_ meeting then in the upper room in Jerusalem, when its two leaders, Peter and John, were seized and confronted with "their rulers, and elders, and scribes," and sternly threatened "not to speak at all or teach in the name of Jesus." That was a day of deliverance. Then was seen how gloriously transformed were these two Galilean fishermen under the inspiration of the Kingdom of Christ, how sublimely fit they were to lead the forlorn hope of the Church through the breach of Judaism and heathenism on to the conquest of the world. See Acts iv. 19, 20, 23, 24. How deeply and rapturously impressed was that little church with the conviction that the power of Him who had made heaven and earth was then resting on their own chiefs, and making them bold to speak _"His name."_ They shook the very walls of the room with the volume of their song: "We have a strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks."

4. Another day of deliverance came to the early Church, _when the cry of the primitive martyrs was heard_ (Rev. vi. 9, 10). That "little season" soon passed, and their cry was answered; rest came to the martyred Church. No more holy men were thrown to the lions, no more delicate women thrust into caldrons of boiling pitch; the sword slept in its scabbard, and crucifixions were ended. Then the churches had rest, and this hymn was joyously sung. Since those early centuries, God's Church has passed through many a fiery furnace, and has come out all the purer and all the stronger. And many a song of deliverance has floated up to heaven.

5. This season of gladness has been realised by God's people individually. (1.) _When a consciousness of the forgiveness of sins has come._ When in the temple of the soul this voice has been heard: "Thy sins are forgiven thee; go in peace." (2.) _When the child of God has been delivered from some dark calamity, so threatening that no human help could deliver._ (3.) _But the grandest deliverance is the final one._ The best wine is kept for the last cup. When the death-river is crossed, and the crystal gates respond to the command, "Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in." Then when this corruption has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, when standing within that city where the wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at rest, will the redeemed of the Lord shout this song as never before: "We have a strong city, salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks."--_William Parkes._

PERFECT PEACE.

xxvi. 3-4. _Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, &c._

Our text points to the infallible remedy for the worst of all forms of human ills, a burdened and disconsolate spirit--"perfect peace."

+I. The Author of this peace is none other than God Himself.+ The mind of man is too active and capacious ever to find rest, unless it be in its Maker. This is the testimony of experience as well as of Scripture. Earthly honours, riches, friendships, leave the heart devoid of enduring peace, because they can do nothing to dispel the sense of guilt and the consequent apprehensions of the future which ever and anon disturb those who possess them most abundantly. We cannot have peace unless we have God for our portion. But how can God, the righteous governor of the universe, be at peace with us sinners? To this question a complete and glorious answer is found in the Gospel, and there only. God Himself, at infinite cost, has opened a way of peace by which we may return to Him. Peace is offered to all who will receive it as His gift, through our Lord Jesus Christ; but only from Him and thus can it be obtained.

+II. The peace which God imparts to His people is "perfect."+ 1. In its _source._ This determines its quality. The laws of the human mind are such that our happiness will partake of the character of the object from which it is derived. If it be from an uncertain and unsatisfying world, _it_ will be just as uncertain and unsatisfying; if from the eternal and immutable God, _it_ will be undisturbable. As to both his temporal and eternal necessities, the believer's Helper is omnipresent and all-merciful. What, then, can he fear (Ps. xxvii. 1)? 2. In its _measure._ It rises like a river, and swells and rolls onward until it bears sin and sorrow away into the land of forgetfulness. 3. In its _adaptation to our needs._ These do but afford the occasions for its triumphs. It comes in when all other joys go out, and erects its brightest monuments on the ruins of earthly hopes. There is no trial which it cannot enable us to endure.[1] No wonder that Jesus calls it His peace (John xiv. 27), and bequeaths it to His disciples as the best legacy which it is in His power to bestow. That very repose in God which so filled and cheered His own bosom He delights to share with all who love Him.

+III. If this perfect peace is to be ours, we must link ourselves on to God by a simple, earnest, childlike faith.+ As sinners we must begin by the exercise of a personal faith in His Son as our Saviour. 1. This is _essential._ Nothing else will answer the purpose. Whatsoever was the strength of the ark built by Noah, or its fitness to float on the water, it could save from the deluge those only who entered it; and so Christ's death on the cross to procure peace for us will avail us nothing unless through Him we seek reconciliation with God. 2. This is _sufficient._ Let this be done in the first instance, and be repeated as often as clouds overcast the mind and doubts arise in the heart, and there can be nothing to hinder the enjoyment of peace. Nothing more is needed. Once let a simple trust in the merits of the Saviour take possession of the bosom, and it will go further to produce abiding tranquillity than all the tears and vigils of the most perfect devotee. The peace thus coming to us will never end. Let the penitent sinner but stay himself on the Lord and trust in God of his salvation, and though he "walk in darkness, and see no light," he is just as safe for both worlds as the power and grace of God can make him.

+IV. We have to acknowledge that many who hope for salvation through Christ are not possessed of "perfect peace."+ Many believers are "in heaviness through manifold temptations," and their peace is more like an uncertain brook than a perpetual river moving calmly into the ocean. Why is this? 1. Sometimes, though rarely, because God has been pleased to withdraw the blessed feeling of undisturbed tranquillity, in order that He may produce a deeper sense of dependence on Him. In such cases, peace will be reached again through humble submission to the Divine will concerning us, and trust in the unchangeableness of the Divine love. We must not give way to despondency. We must be on the alert to hear God speaking comfort to us through His Word. 2. Sometimes the believer's peace is interrupted by a derangement of the physical or mental system. Let us remember that while we are in the flesh we are liable to such trials, and that our salvation does not depend on our feelings, which are changeable as the clouds, but on the Rock of Ages. 3. Sometimes we permit our attention to be turned away from God and engrossed by our trials. It is with us as with Peter (Matt. xiv. 30). But then, like him, let us cry to the Lord, let us obey the exhortation of our text, and we shall find that He can give us both deliverance and peace. 4. Sometimes, alas! we forget that the faith to which peace is promised is a faith that shows itself in "patient continuance in well-doing" (Rom. ii. 7; James ii. 26). Let us not be surprised if, then, our peace departs. Let us return unto the Lord, and beseech Him to heal our backslidings. Restored to the paths of righteousness, we shall find that they, and they alone, are "paths of peace."

+V. It is the duty, as it is the privilege, of all believers to seek for "perfect peace."+ With any lower measure of this blessing, we should not be content. 1. Without it, we cannot possess the comfort which God desires that all His people should enjoy. 2. Without it, we cannot help our fellow-men as we ought. It is our duty to reveal to them the power of the grace of God; and in few ways can we so effectually stimulate our fellow-men to seek Him whom they need, as by manifesting that tranquillity they so much desire, and can find only in Him. 3. Without it, we cannot glorify God as we ought. What we _are_ should move onlookers to praise Him, as a lovely landscape uplifts the thoughts of beholders to the Creator of all; but this can be only when the purposes of God in regard to us are fulfilled, and we are rejoicing in the possession of purity and "perfect peace."--_David Magie, D.D.: American National Preacher,_ vol. xxv. pp. 221-231.

+I. All true spiritual peace originates in reconciliation with God.+ The grand object of the Gospel is to bring about this peace (Luke ii. 14). Jesus Christ is designated "the Prince of peace;" the Father, "the God of peace." God is really reconciled, _i.e.,_ is peaceably disposed towards us, "waiting to be gracious;" but men are not reconciled, not willing to renounce their rebellion and yield themselves to Him. They can have no true peace until they cast away their sins and cast themselves on the Divine mercy, as it is offered to us in and through Jesus Christ. But doing this, it and all other spiritual blessings shall be theirs (Isa. lv. 7; Rom. v. 1).

+II. We attain to true spiritual peace precisely in proportion as we attain to perfect harmony with the Divine will.+ When we first become at peace with one with whom we have previously been at variance, it does not follow that we can at once fall in with all that is required of his household, however justly. So the peace of the regenerated man is not at first perfect, because his submission to the Divine will is only partial. Afterwards, when he can truly say of all God's proceedings, "Thy will be done," and his mind is fully "stayed on God," even when perils threaten and sharp sacrifices are demanded, then his peace "flows like a river," and grows into "the peace of God which passeth all understanding."

+III. All true spiritual peace is supernatural in its origin.+ To grant this deep and abiding peace is the prerogative of the Divine Saviour. Friends may leave us houses, lands, gold, but only Christ can give us peace (John xiv. 27). "My peace!" What is Christ's peace? Not the peace of reconciliation, for with God He never was at variance (Heb. iv. 15; 1 Pet. ii. 22). "My peace" could only mean that mental peace which flows from perfect harmony with the Divine will. Such peace can come to us only through the educational power of Christ. The more we obey the Master, the more implicit will be our submission to God, and the deeper our peace. Only then shall we know "perfect peace." Such peace, like every Christian grace and holy virtue, being beyond the reach of nature, is supernatural (James i. 17). The child of God, calm amid a tempest of trouble, often excites the wonder of the world. Such quietness of soul is not the result of temperament or of training. It is God's work: "_Thou_ wilt keep," &c.

+IV. All true spiritual peace is practical in its results.+ Though in its Divine creation it is "past finding out," it is not a mystical rapture, a thing in the clouds; it is a reality, a living principle arousing itself for the battle, and standing on the watchtower amid the struggles and trials of daily life (Phil. iv. 7; R. V.) As a garrison seizes and retains a stronghold, so "the peace of God" takes military possession of the soul, and beats off all outside assailants. It has an active as well as a passive side, like a staff which we can draw forth for a fight as well as lean on for rest. 1. It protects the _mind._ Sceptical thoughts, atheistic objects, may invade the mind and perplex the reason, but then we fall back on this peace. We _know_ that we are never so calm and strong as when we obey the will of God, and keep conscience on our side. Rectitude bringing peace, is an evidence of the divinity of our religion stronger than any sceptical objection that can be brought against it. 2. It protects the _heart._ Affection allures it; joy and sorrow, hope and fear assail it; but the Christian can withstand these assaults, because he opposes higher things to lower; Divine pleasures to human, riches to riches, honours to honours. He can realise the meaning of the Master's words (Matt. xix. 29). Resting on such promises as these, he is "kept in perfect peace."--_G. R. Miall._

I. Peace is at once a blessing, and a mother of blessings. How many spring from her! How the poets have sung of her! Peace is needed by every man; every man is conscious of disturbing influences without and within. Peace is earnestly sought by most men. What sanguinary wars have been waged to obtain peace!

II. The idea of "perfect peace," presented in the text, seems to most men at the most a beautiful dream; in proportion to their experience of life is their disbelief that it can be theirs. But it is declared here that God bestows it on every man whose mind is stayed on Him.

What interpretation are we to put upon this declaration? The experience of God's people must be our guide in answering this question. This makes it abundantly clear that the peace which God secures for His people does not consist in freedom from assault. This is sometimes vouchsafed them; their foes are scattered, and songs of triumph are given them, such as this chapter. But their experience, taken as a whole, may be said to be a continuous verification of our Saviour's declaration: "In the world ye have tribulation."

Instead of caring to secure for His people freedom from assault, He seems rather often to prefer to expose them to it (Matt. iii. 16; iv. 1). He prefers rather to teach them to fight and to conquer; to develop and discipline their virtues by struggles in which they are tried up to the very last point of endurance. For this end, He turns a deaf ear to their prayer, "Lead us not into temptation;" and lets loose upon the foes bent upon their destruction.

Notwithstanding, they may have "perfect peace." "In the world ye have tribulation: in Me ye have peace." Not merely that the peace is to succeed the tribulation; the two may co-exist. It is quite possible for peace to dwell in the heart of the chief ruler of a nation waging a terrible war;[2] or in the heart of the captain of a vessel storm-driven; or in the heart of a merchant in the midst of a commercial panic, because he knows that the struggle will for him end in victory. So in the midst of all the conflicts of life, a Christian may have "perfect peace."

III. A Christian; he, and no other! Not every profound peace is "perfect peace." The contemporaries of Noah and of Lot; Belshazzar and his court were in "perfect peace," as far as their feelings were concerned, in the very hour that destruction came upon them. But however much the feelings may be soothed, there is no "perfect peace" that has not a sure basis of _fact._ For the peace of the wicked there can be no such basis; God and all the forces of the universe are arrayed against the wicked, and their ultimate destruction is sure (Isa. xlviii. 22; Rom. ii. 8, 9). Repentance and reconciliation with God through Christ are the essential preliminary conditions of "perfect peace."

IV. But is "perfect peace" the possession of all who have complied with these conditions? No. Why? Because they have not yet learned to stay their minds on God. They have faith, but it is yet in the germ, and they have not yet been trained in the exercise (Matt. xiv. 31; xvi. 8). Not upon God exclusively are their hopes set (Ps. xlii. 5); it is but seldom that they do look up to Him, and hence their faith is imperfect and intermittent. It remains in the power of their foes to distress them; anxieties as to their temporal necessities, and forebodings as to their external welfare, harass and weaken them. (For other reasons, see preceding outlines.)

But there are those who have passed through and beyond these elementary stages of Christian experience, and, steadily pursuing the paths of righteousness, they have "perfect peace." Their circumstances may be adverse and threatening, but they possess a tranquillity of soul that is undisturbable (2 Cor. iv. 8-10); nay, is even triumphant (Rom. v. 3; Acts xvi. 25; Hab. iii. 17-19).

V. In this "perfect peace" these rare souls rest, because they are kept in it, by God Himself: "_Thou_ wilt keep," &c.

1. _How?_ (1.) By the means of the deliverances which from time to time He works for them. Memory becomes a treasury-house of Divine faithfulness and mercy, and out of it their souls are fed and sustained when a season of famine and danger has befallen them. Then they know that He who has delivered will deliver, and they wait upon Him with calm, joyful expectation. (2.) To these souls the records of God's deliverances of His people in ancient days become prophetic of deliverances He will still work for His people right on to the end of time. By His Spirit He works in them an immovable, soul-inspiring confidence in His own unchangeableness. To them He is "the living God," acting to-day precisely as He did in the days of old. (3.) But, above all, He produces in their souls, as the chief safeguard of their tranquillity, a childlike confidence in His personal love for them. There is nothing they are so sure of as that God loves them, and being sure of this, all the rest follows as a matter of course. They never forget what proof God has given of His love for them, and hence they reason precisely as St. Paul did (Rom. viii. 31-39). This priceless revelation He makes to many who are "babes" in this world's wisdom (Matt. xi. 25), and to others also who know all that science has to teach them of the vastness of the universe and of their own relative insignificance.

2. _Why?_ (1.) Because it is a state of soul in which He delights. "The God of peace" desires that in this, as in all respects, His people--His _children_--should be like Him. (2.) Because they trust in Him. Devoting themselves to His service, and putting themselves into His care, His honour is pledged to the defence and maintenance of their welfare. Will he forfeit it? _Men_ are far gone in depravity when they willingly disappoint those who trust in them: guides of the blind, lawyers and their clients, doctors and their patients, widows and their business advisors.[3] What sacrifices we make to fulfil the expectations we have encouraged our children to form! Will it be otherwise with our Father in heaven? Never!

VI. What then? 1. "Trust ye in the Lord for ever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength." There is more than "strength;" but there _is_ the "strength to carry out His wise and loving purposes towards His people." He can do more than pity. 2. Let us cultivate the habit of trusting IN THE LORD, and of doing this in all the vicissitudes of our lot, "for ever." 3. And that this habit may become to us invariable and its exercise easy, let us accept with all simplicity the revelation which He has been pleased to make of Himself as our Father in heaven. Precisely in proportion as we do this we shall stay our mind on Him, and we shall enter into that "perfect peace" which He desires should be the inheritance of all His children.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Can we turn aside and see what light this peace of God can
diffuse through the chamber of disease; how it can
tranquilise the bosom of the poor widow surrounded with her
helpless babes; what serenity it can shed around the
tottering steps of some aged saint; and how it can
irradiate the gloom even of the grave itself, and not feel
that it is rightly called "perfect?" True, it might often
be more folly possessed on earth, and it will be more fully
possessed in heaven. But if we remember what it has
actually done in ten thousand instances, when the dearest
friends have died, and property has taken wings and flown
away, and one pall of sadness has seemed to overspread the
entire world, we shall feel that it is impossible to give
it too high a name or attach to it too high a
value.--_Magie._

[2] In the darkest period of the American civil war, as Mr.
George William Curtis was taking leave of President
Lincoln, the President placed his hand on his shoulder, and
said with deep feeling: "Don't fear, my son; we shall beat
them."

[3] Sir William Napier describes, in his "History of the
Peninsular War," that at the battle of Busaco in Portugal
how affecting it was to see a beautiful Portuguese orphan
girl coming down the mountain, driving an ass loaded with
all her property through the midst of the armies. She
passed over the field of battle with a childish simplicity,
scarcely understanding which were French and which were
English, and no one on either side was so hard-hearted as
to touch her. Sir William Napier once in his walks met with
a little girl of five years old, sobbing over a pitcher she
had broken. She, in her innocence, asked him to mend it. He
told her that he could not mend it, but that he would meet
her trouble by giving her sixpence to buy a new one, if she
would meet him there at the same hour the next evening, as
he had no money in his purse that day. When he returned
home he found that there was an invitation waiting for him,
which he particularly wished to accept. But he could not
then have met the little girl at the time stated, and he
gave up the invitation, saying, "I could not disappoint
her; she trusted in me so implicitly." That was the true
Christian English gentleman and soldier.--_Dean Stanley._

THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD AND HIS PEOPLE.

xxvi. 7. _The way of the just, &c._

Isaiah foretold the captivity of Judah to Babylon, also its termination. This chapter is a song ready for the occasion. It related the story, and it unfolds the principles that underlie the events.

Our text is thoroughly practical. It reminds us--

+I. That righteousness is the personal characteristic of God and of His redeemed people.+ 1. _God is righteous._ "Thou most upright." He is perfectly righteous. It is essential to the Divine nature; the contrary cannot be supposed; as heat is natural to fire. God Himself, His laws, His providential government, even His redeeming mercy, all are characterised by perfect rectitude. So prominent is this idea that we are taught to exercise simple faith in God, and assume that we are imperfectly informed if we are unable to reconcile anything in our experience with His perfect righteousness. 2. _His people also are righteous_--here called "the just." It is suggestive when God's people are thus called by a name similar to His own. They share in the same righteousness, although in different degrees. More is intended than that they are in a justified state. That is implied. They are justified by the grace of God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. But the text refers to the righteousness which assimilates them to the Divine nature. The grace of God produces a new nature. Saul of Tarsus became a new man on his conversion. A savage adopts the habits and forms the tastes of civilised Christian life. It is a new nature. 1 John iv. 4: "Ye are of God." As children partake the nature of their parents, His nature is in them, though not yet perfected. Their sympathies are with Him. In so far as they are unrighteous, they are inconsistent with their true selves. The life of God in the regenerated soul is a principle ever tending toward the perfect righteousness of the Divine nature from which it comes.

+II. When righteousness characterises a person, it will dictate his conduct.+ 1. _The conduct of the righteous man._ "The way of the just is uprightness;" his course of life. He is erect in his moral manhood, as contrasted with one who is bent and crooked. Men's ideas of uprightness are apt to become partial and one-sided. Some seem to imagine that all demands of righteousness are met by the acceptance of Christ and the experience of spiritual feeling, while they overlook the demands of human relationships. Others confine their view to men. They imagine all demands are met, when they are fair and honourable in their dealings with men, while God is left out of consideration. The Divine idea of righteousness is not thus partial. It takes in the whole of our moral relations our relations both to God and an. And the good man strives to bring his whole life into conformity to it. [Work this out in detail: "The way of the just is uprightness" (1), in regard to God; (2), in regard to man.]

2. _The conduct of the righteous God._ "Thou most upright dost weigh the path of the just." At first sight like confusion of metaphor. It means to ponder it. The heathen symbol of Divine righteousness is that of justice holding the scales (Dan. v. 27). The conduct of the righteous is weighed. God observes it; His honour is concerned in it. He will eventually pronounce upon it (2 Cor. v. 10).

Examine, then:--1. Are you among the just? Have you experienced a change of heart? 2. Are you pursuing the path of the just? This applies to your actual dealing with God and with man. Consider how far imperfection may be consistent with reality. Do not try how far you may go safely. There comes a point at which a man must be condemned, at which he must condemn himself. At that point he will either repent or harden himself. Let us cultivate the highest measure of practical uprightness.--_J. Rawlinson._

THE JUST MAN'S SECURITY.

xxvi. 7. _Thou most upright, dost weigh the path of the
just._

We can scarcely find anywhere a more touching description of the God of our salvation than that furnished by Job (Job xxxv. 10). God has always given His people songs in the night, and in the night-time of affliction He has furnished them with songs of consolation and confidence. Our text is a part of one of those songs. The Chaldean power threatened God's people. They were instructed to cherish a firm faith in God. Not a breath of despair was to reach the camp of the enemy; rather they were taught a scornful defiance of that proud king who had defied the armies of the living God (Isa. xxxvii. 22).

"In that day shall this song be sung." The connection may teach us that it is wisdom to treasure up a source of consolation against the day of adversity. It is in spring that we are to prepare for winter; in the morning of life to prepare for old age. The oil must be ready for the midnight hour. No good soldier will run for his armour "when the enemy comes in like a flood."

The text suggests _the Christian's reasons for security and repose under the various events of life._ These are--

+I. The perfect wisdom and rectitude which marks God's universal government.+ "Thou most upright, dost weigh," &c. This world is not a neglected province of the Divine Dominions. That impression of the Divine supremacy which inspires the songs of seraphs quickens the joy of frail humanity. While thrones, principalities, and powers exclaim as with the voice of many waters, "Alleluia, for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth," the inhabitants of the earth roll back the response, "The Lord reigneth: let the earth rejoice."

The Christian knows no such Deity as Chance or Fate. This is God's world, nor has He left it like an ocean weed to float at random on the dark and shoreless ocean of uncertainty. What was worthy His creation must be worth His control. God's method of government partakes of His own perfections, and is therefore infinitely wise and good. We rejoice that God ruleth over _all,_ and keeps the dominion of the world in His own hands. The remotest consequences of things are all seen by Him; whatever evil occurs He permits; whatever good arises He originates; whatever series of causes come to a final issue, the train was laid by His wisdom, conducted by His power, controlled by His goodness. The topic, therefore, furnishes a ground of security and repose to the Christian. Amidst the shakings of the nations and the storms of life, it is delightful to know that the sceptre of universal power is in the hand of Infinite Love. He reigneth, be the earth ever so unquiet.

+II. The minute attention which God pays to the individual interests of His people.+ This comes out whichever interpretation you put upon the word here translated "weigh." It may mean, to weigh as in scales or a balance (Ps. lviii. 2); but it may also mean, and does usually, to make straight, or smooth, or level (Ps. lxxviii. 50, "He leveled a path for his anger," [NAS], &c.) (_Barnes_). "He 'weighs' or 'ponders' (_s. w. a._ in Prov. iv. 26, v. 21) the path, with a view to keeping it straight and level" (_Kay_). 1. The idea of "weighing" implies careful impression. The balance is held with a careful hand, and a keen eye is on both the scales. This is a source of comfort to the just, and to them alone. 2. The same minute, condescending observance is implied in the other interpretation. God will make a plain, level way for His people to walk in. All obstacles to their progress shall be removed. They never have any need to turn aside from the well-constructed road of God's commandments into "crooked ways" of man's devising (Ps. xvii. 3-5). They shall reach their destination in the better world.--_Samuel Thodey._

THE WAY OF GOD'S JUDGMENTS.

xxvi. 8. _Yea, in the way of Thy judgments, O Lord, have we
waited for Thee._

+I. Observe what God's judgments are.+ They are simply the expression of His thoughts. His final judgment is the declaration of His thoughts of a man's character; His judgments here are also His declaration of what He thinks of our conduct and ways. One special thing for which psalmists and prophets adore Him is that men can see that His judgments are true and righteous (Ps. xix. 9; cxix. 75, &c.) Their tendency and aim is to teach men what righteousness is (ver. 9).

+II. The way of God's judgments is the way of His laws.+ The calamities which men call "judgments" are generally the results of infraction by them of the laws by which He governs the universe.