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diff --git a/39767-h/39767-h.htm b/39767-h/39767-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a9b9b8d --- /dev/null +++ b/39767-h/39767-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,17603 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> + <title> + The Expositor's Bible: the Book of Isaiah volume 1, by W. Robertson Nicoll, a Project Gutenberg eBook. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + h1,h2,h3,h4 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; +} + +.hanging {margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -3em;} +hr { + margin: 3em auto 3em auto; + height: 0px; + border-width: 1px 0 0 0; + border-style: solid; + border-color: #dcdcdc; + width: 500px; + clear: both; +} + +table { + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; +} + +table.toc { + margin: auto; + width: 50%; +} + +td.c1 { + text-align: right; + vertical-align: top; + padding-right: 1em; +} + +td.c2 { + text-align: left; + margin-left: 0em; + padding-left: 2em; + text-indent: -2em; + padding-right: 1em; + vertical-align: top; +} + +td.c3 { + text-align: right; + padding-left: 1em; + vertical-align: bottom; +} + +td { padding: 0em 1em; } +th { padding: 0em 1em; } + + .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + color: #999; +} /* page numbers */ + + .blockquot { + margin-left: 5%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + + .center {text-align: center;} + + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .caption {font-weight: bold;} + + .gap { margin-top: 1em; } + +/* Images */ + .figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; +} + +p.caption { + margin-top: 0; + font-size: 70%; + text-align: left; +} + +/* Transcriber Notes */ +div.tn { + background-color: #EEE; + border: dashed 1px; + color: #000; + margin-left: 20%; + margin-right: 20%; + margin-top: 5em; + margin-bottom: 5em; + padding: 1em; +} + +/* Footnotes */ +div.fn { + background-color: #EEE; + border: dashed 1px; + color: #000; + margin-left: 20%; + margin-right: 20%; + margin-top: 5em; + margin-bottom: 5em; + padding: 1em; +} + + .footnote { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + font-size: 0.9em; +} + + .footnote .label { + position: absolute; + right: 84%; + text-align: right; +} + + .fnanchor { + vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: none; +} + +/* Poetry */ + .poem { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + text-align: left; +} + + .poem br { display: none; } + + .poem .stanza { margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em; } + + .poem span.i0 { + display: block; + margin-left: 0em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + .poem span.i1 { + display: block; + margin-left: 1em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + .poem span.i2 { + display: block; + margin-left: 2em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + + .poem span.i4 { + display: block; + margin-left: 4em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + .poem span.i8 { + display: block; + margin-left: 8em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + + .poem span.i10 { + display: block; + margin-left: 10em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + .signature { + text-align: right; + margin-right: 5%; +} + +/* INDEX */ +ul.index { list-style-type: none; + width: 20em; + margin: 2em auto; +} + +ul.index2 { list-style-type: none; } + +li.pad { padding-top: 2.0%; } + + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's The Book of Isaiah, Volume I (of 2), by George Adam Smith + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Book of Isaiah, Volume I (of 2) + +Author: George Adam Smith + +Release Date: May 22, 2012 [EBook #39767] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOOK OF ISAIAH, VOLUME I *** + + + + +Produced by Colin Bell, Julia Neufeld and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive) + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + +<h1> +THE EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE</h1> + +<p class="center"><br /><br />EDITED BY THE REV.</p> + +<h3>SIR W. ROBERTSON NICOLL, M.A., LL.D.</h3> + +<p class="center"><i>Editor of "The Expositor," etc.</i></p> + + +<h1><br /><br />THE BOOK OF ISAIAH</h1> + +<p class="center"><br />BY THE REV.</p> + +<h2>GEORGE ADAM SMITH, M.A.</h2> + +<p class="center"><br /><br /><i>VOLUME 1.</i><br /> +<br /><br /> +HODDER AND STOUGHTON<br /> +LONDON. MCMX +</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<h3> +THE</h3> +<h1> +BOOK OF ISAIAH</h1> + +<p class="center">BY THE REV.</p> + +<h2>GEORGE ADAM SMITH, M.A., D.D.</h2> + +<p class="center"><i>Professor of Hebrew in the Free Church College, Glasgow</i><br /> +<br /><br /> +<i>IN TWO VOLUMES</i><br /> +VOL. I.—ISAIAH I.-XXXIX.<br /> +<br /><br /> +<i>TWENTIETH EDITION</i><br /> +<br /><br /><br /> +HODDER AND STOUGHTON<br /> +LONDON. MCMX<br /> +</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> +<p class="center"><i>Printed by Hazell, Watson & Viney, Ltd., London and Aylesbury.</i></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CONTENTS.</h2> + + + + + + +<div class="center"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Contents"> +<tr><td align="right"> </td><td align="left"> </td><td align="right"><small>PAGE</small></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Introduction</span></td><td align="left"> </td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_ix">ix</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Table of Dates</span></td><td align="left"> </td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_xvi">xvi</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td align="center">BOOK I.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td align="center"><i>ISAIAH'S PREFACE AND PROPHECIES TO</i></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td align="center"><i>THE DEATH OF AHAZ</i>, 727 <span class="smcap"><small>B.C.</small></span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><small>CHAP.</small></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">I.</td><td align="left">ISAIAH'S PREFACE—THE ARGUMENT OF THE LORD.</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_3">3</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> i.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">II.</td><td align="left">THE THREE JERUSALEMS</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_19">19</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> ii.-iv. 740-735 <span class="smcap"><small>B.C.</small></span></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">III.</td><td align="left">THE VINEYARD OF THE LORD</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_35">35</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> v.; ix. 8-x. 4. 735 <span class="smcap"><small>B.C.</small></span></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">IV.</td><td align="left">ISAIAH'S CALL AND CONSECRATION</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_57">57</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> vi. 740. <span class="smcap">Written 735 or 727 <small>B.C.</small> (?).</span></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">V.</td><td align="left">THE WORLD IN ISAIAH'S DAY AND ISRAEL'S GOD</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_91">91</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">With a Map.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">VI.</td><td align="left">KING AND MESSIAH; PEOPLE AND CHURCH</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_103">103</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> vii.-ix. 1-8. 735-732 <span class="smcap"><small>B.C.</small></span></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">VII.</td><td align="left">THE MESSIAH</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_131">131</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td align="left"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[vi]</a></span></td></tr> + + +<tr><td> </td><td align="center">BOOK II.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td align="center"><i>PROPHECIES FROM THE ACCESSION OF HEZEKIAH</i></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td align="center"><i>TO THE DEATH OF SARGON</i>,</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td align="center">727-705 <span class="smcap"><small>B.C.</small></span></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">VIII.</td><td align="left">GOD'S COMMONPLACE</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_151">151</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> xxviii. <span class="smcap">About 725 <small>B.C.</small></span></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">IX.</td><td align="left">ATHEISM OF FORCE AND ATHEISM OF FEAR</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_168">168</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> x. 5-34. <span class="smcap">About 721 <small>B.C.</small></span></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">X.</td><td align="left">THE SPIRIT OF GOD IN MAN AND THE ANIMALS</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_179">179</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> xi.; xii. <span class="smcap">About 720 <small>B.C.</small> (?).</span></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">XI.</td><td align="left">DRIFTING TO EGYPT, 720-705 B.C.</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_196">196</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> xx. (711 <span class="smcap"><small>B.C.</small></span>); xxi. 1-10 (710 <span class="smcap"><small>B.C.</small></span>); xxxviii.; xxxix.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> + +<tr><td> </td><td align="center">BOOK III.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td align="center"><i>ORATIONS ON INTRIGUES WITH EGYPT</i>,</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td align="center"><i>AND ORACLES ON FOREIGN NATIONS</i>,</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td align="center">705-702 <span class="smcap">B.C.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">XII.</td><td align="left">ARIEL, ARIEL</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_209">209</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> xxix. <span class="smcap">About 703 <small>B.C.</small></span></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">XIII.</td><td align="left">POLITICS AND FAITH</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_221">221</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> xxx. <span class="smcap">About 702 <small>B.C.</small></span></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">XIV.</td><td align="left">THREE TRUTHS ABOUT GOD</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_238">238</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> xxxi. <span class="smcap">About 702 <small>B.C.</small></span></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">XV.</td><td align="left">A MAN; OR, CHARACTER AND THE CAPACITY TO</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td align="left">DISCRIMINATE CHARACTER</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_248">248</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> xxxii. 1-8. <span class="smcap">About 702 <small>B.C.</small> (?).</span></td></tr> + +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XVI.</td><td align="left">ISAIAH TO WOMEN</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_262">262</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> xxxii. 9-20. <span class="smcap">Date Uncertain.</span></td></tr> + +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XVII.</td><td align="left">ISAIAH TO THE FOREIGN NATIONS</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_271">271</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> xiv. 24-xxi.; xxiii. <span class="smcap">Various Dates.</span></td></tr> + + +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XVIII.</td><td align="left">TYRE; OR, THE MERCENARY SPIRIT</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_288">288</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> xxiii. 702 <span class="smcap"><small>B.C.</small></span></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> + +<tr><td> </td><td align="center"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[vii]</a></span>BOOK IV.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td align="center"><i>JERUSALEM AND SENNACHERIB, 701 <span class="smcap"><small>B.C.</small></span></i></td></tr> + +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XIX.</td><td align="left">AT THE LOWEST EBB</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_306">306</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> i.; xxii. Early in 701 <span class="smcap"><small>B.C.</small></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XX.</td><td align="left">THE TURN OF THE TIDE: MORAL EFFECTS OF FORGIVENESS</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_320">320</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> xxii.; xxxiii. <span class="smcap">Later in 701 <small>B.C.</small></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XXI.</td><td align="left">OUR GOD A CONSUMING FIRE</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_331">331</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> xxxiii.</td></tr> + +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XXII.</td><td align="left">THE RABSHAKEH; OR, LAST TRIALS OF FAITH</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_343">343</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> xxxvi. 701 <span class="smcap"><small>B.C.</small></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XXIII.</td><td align="left">THIS IS THE VICTORY ... OUR FAITH</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_352">352</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> xxxvii. 701 <span class="smcap"><small>B.C.</small></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XXIV.</td><td align="left">A REVIEW OF ISAIAH'S PREDICTIONS CONCERNING</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td align="left">THE DELIVERANCE OF JERUSALEM</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_368">368</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XXV.</td><td align="left">AN OLD TESTAMENT BELIEVER'S SICK-BED; OR, THE</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td align="left">DIFFERENCE CHRIST HAS MADE</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_375">375</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> xxxviii.; xxxix. <span class="smcap">Date Uncertain.</span></td></tr> + +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XXVI.</td><td align="left">HAD ISAIAH A GOSPEL FOR THE INDIVIDUAL?</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_389">389</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right"> </td><td align="center">BOOK V.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td align="center"><i>PROPHECIES NOT RELATING TO ISAIAH'S</i></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td align="center"><i>TIME.</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XXVII.</td><td align="left">BABYLON AND LUCIFER</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_405">405</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> xii. 12-xiv. 23. <span class="smcap">Date Unknown.</span></td></tr> + +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XXVIII.</td><td align="left">THE EFFECT OF SIN ON OUR MATERIAL SURROUNDINGS</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_416">416</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> xxiv. <span class="smcap">Date Unknown.</span></td></tr> + +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XXIX.</td><td align="left">GOD'S POOR</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_428">428</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> xxv.-xxvii.; xxxiv.; xxxv. <span class="smcap">Dates Unknown.</span></td></tr> + +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XXX.</td><td align="left">THE RESURRECTION</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_444">444</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> xxvi.; xxvii.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Index of Chapters</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_453">453</a></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Index of Subjects</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_455">455</a></td></tr> +</table></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[ix]</a></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii"> </a></span></p> +<h2>INTRODUCTION.</h2> + + +<p>As the following Exposition of the Book of Isaiah +does not observe the canonical arrangement of +the chapters, a short introduction is necessary upon +the plan which has been adopted.</p> + +<p>The size and the many obscurities of the Book +of Isaiah have limited the common use of it in the +English tongue to single conspicuous passages, the +very brilliance of which has cast their context and +original circumstance into deeper shade. The intensity +of the gratitude with which men have seized upon +the more evangelical passages of Isaiah, as well as the +attention which apologists for Christianity have too +partially paid to his intimations of the Messiah, has +confirmed the neglect of the rest of the Book. But we +might as well expect to receive an adequate conception +of a great statesman's policy from the epigrams and +perorations of his speeches as to appreciate the message, +which God has sent to the world through the +Book of Isaiah, from a few lectures on isolated, and +often dislocated, texts. No book of the Bible is less +susceptible of treatment apart from the history out of +which it sprang than the Book of Isaiah; and it may +be added, that in the Old Testament at least there +is none which, when set in its original circumstance<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[x]</a></span> +and methodically considered as a whole, appeals with +greater power to the modern conscience. Patiently +to learn how these great prophecies were suggested +by, and first met, the actual occasions of human life, +is vividly to hear them speaking home to life still.</p> + +<p>I have, therefore, designed an arrangement which +embraces all the prophecies, but treats them in chronological +order. I will endeavour to render their contents +in terms which appeal to the modern conscience; but, in +order to be successful, such an endeavour presupposes +the exposition of them in relation to the history which +gave them birth. In these volumes, therefore, narrative +and historical exposition will take precedence +of practical application.</p> + +<p>Every one knows that the Book of Isaiah breaks +into two parts between chaps. xxxix. and xl. Vol. I. +of this Exposition covers chaps. i.-xxxix. Vol. II. +will treat of chaps. xl.-lxvi. Again, within chaps. +i.-xxxix. another division is apparent. The most of +these chapters evidently bear upon events within +Isaiah's own career, but some imply historical circumstances +that did not arise till long after he had +passed away. Of the five books into which I have +divided Vol. I., the first four contain the prophecies +relating to Isaiah's time (740-701 <span class="smcap"><small>B.C.</small></span>), and the fifth +the prophecies which refer to later events (chaps. xiii.-xiv. +23; xxiv.-xxvii.; xxxiv.; xxxv.).</p> + +<p>The prophecies, whose subjects fall within Isaiah's +times, I have taken in chronological order, with one +exception. This exception is chap. i., which, although +it published near the end of the prophet's life, I +treat of first, because, from its position as well as its<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[xi]</a></span> +character, it is evidently intended as a preface to the +whole book. The difficulty of grouping the rest of +Isaiah's oracles and orations is great. The plan I +have adopted is not perfect, but convenient. Isaiah's +prophesying was determined chiefly by <i>four</i> Assyrian +invasions of Palestine: the first, in 734-732 <span class="smcap"><small>B.C.</small></span>, by +Tiglath-pileser II., while Ahaz was on the throne; +the second by Salmanassar and Sargon in 725-720, +during which Samaria fell in 721; the third by +Sargon, 712-710; the fourth by Sennacherib in 701, +which last three occurred while Hezekiah was king of +Judah. But outside the Assyrian invasions there were +three other cardinal dates in Isaiah's life: 740, his call +to be a prophet; 727, the death of Ahaz, his enemy, +and the accession of his pupil, Hezekiah; and 705, the +death of Sargon, for Sargon's death led to the rebellion +of the Syrian States, and it was this rebellion which +brought on Sennacherib's invasion. Taking all these +dates into consideration, I have placed in Book I. all +the prophecies of Isaiah from his call in 740 to the +death of Ahaz in 727; they lead up to and illustrate +Tiglath-pileser's invasion; they cover what I have +ventured to call the prophet's apprenticeship, during +which the theatre of his vision was mainly the internal +life of his people, but he gained also his first outlook +upon the world beyond. Book II. deals with the prophecies +from the accession of Hezekiah in 727 to the +death of Sargon in 705—a long period, but few prophecies, +covering both Salmanassar's and Sargon's +campaigns. Book III. is filled with the prophecies +from 705 to 702, a numerous group, called forth +from Isaiah by the rebellion and political activity in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xii" id="Page_xii">[xii]</a></span> +Palestine consequent on Sargon's death and preliminary +to Sennacherib's arrival. Book IV. contains +the prophecies which refer to Sennacherib's actual +invasion of Judah and siege of Jerusalem, in 701.</p> + +<p>Of course, any chronological arrangement of Isaiah's +prophecies must be largely provisional. Only some +of the chapters are fixed to dates past possibility of +doubt. The Assyriology which has helped us with +these must yield further results before the controversies +can be settled that exist with regard to the +rest. I have explained in the course of the Exposition +my reasons for the order which I have followed, and +need only say here that I am still more uncertain +about the generally received dates of chaps x. 5-xi., +xvii. 12-14 and xxxii. The religious problems, +however, were so much the same during the whole +of Isaiah's career that uncertainties of date, <i>if they +are confined to the limits of that career</i>, make little +difference to the exposition of the book.</p> + +<p>Isaiah's doctrines, being so closely connected with the +life of his day, come up for statement at many points of +the narrative, in which this Exposition chiefly consists. +But here and there I have inserted chapters dealing +summarily with more important topics, such as The +World in Isaiah's Day; The Messiah; Isaiah's Power of +Prediction, with its evidence on the character of Inspiration; +and the question, Had Isaiah a Gospel for +the Individual? A short index will guide the student +to Isaiah's teaching on other important points of +theology and life, such as holiness, forgiveness, +monotheism, immortality, the Holy Spirit, etc.</p> + +<p>Treating Isaiah's prophecies chronologically as I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiii" id="Page_xiii">[xiii]</a></span> +have done, I have followed a method which put me on +the look-out for any traces of development that his +doctrine might exhibit. I have recorded these as they +occur, but it may be useful to collect them here. In +chaps. ii.-iv. we have the struggle of the apprentice +prophet's thoughts from the easy religious optimism +of his generation, through unrelieved convictions of +judgement for the whole people, to his final vision of +the Divine salvation of a remnant. Again, chap. vii. +following on chaps. ii.-vi. proves that Isaiah's belief +in the Divine righteousness preceded, and was the +parent of, his belief in the Divine sovereignty. Again, +his successive pictures of the Messiah grow in contents, +and become more spiritual. And again, he only gradually +arrived at a clear view of the siege and deliverance +of Jerusalem. One other fact of the same kind has +impressed me since I wrote the exposition of chap. i. +I have there stated that it is plain that Isaiah's conscience +was perfect just because it consisted of two +complementary parts: one of God the infinitely High, +exalted in righteousness, far above the thoughts of +His people, and the other of God the infinitely Near, +concerned and jealous for all the practical details of +their life. I ought to have added that Isaiah was +more under the influence of the former in his earlier +years, but that as he grew older and took a larger +share in the politics of Judah it was the latter view of +God, to which he most frequently gave expression. +Signs of a development like these may be fairly used +to correct or support the evidence which Assyriology +affords for determining the chronological order of the +chapters.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiv" id="Page_xiv">[xiv]</a></span>But these signs of development are more valuable +for the proof they give that the Book of Isaiah contains +the experience and testimony of a real life: a life that +learned and suffered and grew, and at last triumphed. +There is not a single word about the prophet's birth +or childhood, or fortune, or personal appearance, or +even of his death. But between silence on his origin +and silence on his end—and perhaps all the more +impressively because of these clouds by which it is +bounded—there shines the record of Isaiah's spiritual +life and of the unfaltering career which this sustained,—clear +and whole, from his commission by God in the +secret experience of his own heart to his vindication +in God's supreme tribunal of history. It is not only +one of the greatest, but one of the most finished +and intelligible, lives in history. My main purpose in +expounding the book is to enable English readers, not +only to follow its course, but to feel, and to be elevated +by, its Divine inspiration.</p> + +<p>I may state that this Exposition is based upon a +close study of the Hebrew text of Isaiah, and that the +translations are throughout my own, except in one or +two cases where I have quoted from the revised English +version.</p> + +<p>With regard to the Revised Version of Isaiah, which +I have had opportunities of thoroughly testing, I would +like to say that my sense of the immense service which +it renders to English readers of the Bible is only exceeded +by my wonder that the Revisers have not gone +just a very little farther, and adopted one or two simple +contrivances which are in the line of their own improvements +and would have greatly increased our<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xv" id="Page_xv">[xv]</a></span> +large debt to them. For instance, why did they not +make plain by inverted commas such undoubted +interruptions of the prophet's own speech as that of +the drunkards in chap. xxviii. 9, 10? Not to know +that these verses are spoken in mockery of Isaiah, a +mockery to which he replies in vv. 10-13, is to miss +the meaning of the whole passage. Again, when they +printed Job and the Psalms in metrical form, as +well as the Hymn of Hezekiah, why did they not +do the same with other poetical passages of Isaiah, +particularly the great Ode on the King of Babylon +in chap. xiv.? This is utterly spoiled in the form +in which the Revisers have printed it. What English +reader would guess that it was as much a piece of +metre as any of the Psalms? Again, why have they +so consistently rendered by the misleading word +"judgement" a Hebrew term that no doubt sometimes +means an act of doom, but far oftener the abstract +quality of justice? It is such defects, along with a +frequent failure to mark the proper emphasis in a +sentence, that have led me to substitute a more literal +version of my own.</p> + +<p>I have not thought it necessary to discuss the question +of the chronology of the period. This has been done +so often and so recently. See Robertson Smith's +<i>Prophets of Israel</i>, pp. 145, 402, 413, Driver's <i>Isaiah</i>, +p. 12, or any good commentary.</p> + +<p>I append a chronological table, and an index to +the canonical chapters will be found before the index +of subjects. The publishers have added a map of +Isaiah's world in illustration of chap. v.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xvi" id="Page_xvi">[xvi]</a></span></p> +<h2>TABLE OF DATES.</h2> + +<p> +<span class="smcap"><small>B.C.</small></span></p> + +<p class="hanging"> +745. Tiglath-pileser II. ascends the Assyrian Throne.</p> + +<p class="hanging"> +740. Uzziah dies. Jotham becomes sole King of Judah. Isaiah's +Inaugural Vision (Isa. vi.).</p> + +<p class="hanging">735. Jotham dies. Ahaz succeeds. League of Syria and Northern +Israel against Judah.</p> + +<p class="hanging"> +734-732. Syrian Campaign of Tiglath-pileser II. Siege and Capture +of Damascus. Invasion of Israel. Captivity of Zebulon, +Naphtali and Galilee (Isa. ix. 1). Ahaz visits Damascus. +</p> + +<p class="hanging"> +727. Salmanassar IV. succeeds Tiglath-pileser II. Hezekiah succeeds +Ahaz (or in 725?). +</p> + +<p class="hanging"> +725. Salmanassar marches on Syria.</p> + +<p class="hanging"> +722 or 721. Sargon succeeds Salmanassar. Capture of Samaria.<br /> +Captivity of all Northern Israel.</p> + +<p class="hanging"> +720 or 719. Sargon defeats Egypt at Rafia.</p> + +<p class="hanging"> +711. Sargon invades Syria (Isa. xx.). Capture of Ashdod.</p> + +<p class="hanging"> +709. Sargon takes Babylon from Merodach-baladan.</p> + +<p class="hanging"> +705. Murder of Sargon. Sennacherib succeeds. +</p> + +<p class="hanging"> +701. Sennacherib invades Syria. Capture of Coast Towns. Siege +of Ekron and Battle of Eltekeh. Invasion of Judah. Submission +of Hezekiah. Jerusalem spared. Return of +Assyrians with the Rabshakeh to Jerusalem, while Sennacherib's +Army marches on Egypt. Disaster to Sennacherib's +Army near Pelusium. Disappearance of Assyrians from +before Jerusalem—all happening in this order. +</p> + +<p class="hanging"> +697 or 696. Death of Hezekiah. Manasseh succeeds.</p> + +<p class="hanging"> +681. Death of Sennacherib.</p> + +<p class="hanging"> +607. Fall of Nineveh and Assyria. Babylon supreme. Jeremiah.</p> + +<p class="hanging"> +599. First Deportation of Jews to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar.</p> + +<p class="hanging"> +588. Jerusalem destroyed. Second Deportation of Jews.</p> + +<p class="hanging"> +538. Cyrus captures Babylon. First Return of Jewish Exiles, under +Zerubbabel, happens soon after.</p> + +<p class="hanging"> +458. Second Return of Jewish Exiles, under Ezra. +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span></p> +<h2>BOOK I</h2> + +<h3><i>PREFACE AND +PROPHECIES TO THE DEATH OF AHAZ</i>,</h3> + +<p class="center">727 <span class="smcap"><small>B.C.</small></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2"> </a></span></p> + + + +<div class="center"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Book 1"> +<tr><td align="left">ISAIAH:</td><td align="left">i. <span class="smcap">The Preface.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">" </span></td><td align="left">ii.-iv. 740-735 <span class="smcap"><small>B.C.</small></span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">" </span></td><td align="left">v., ix. 8-x. 4. 735 <span class="smcap"><small>B.C.</small></span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">" </span></td><td align="left">vi. About 735 <span class="smcap"><small>B.C.</small></span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">" </span></td><td align="left">vii.-ix. 7. 734-732 <span class="smcap"><small>B.C.</small></span></td></tr> +</table></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3"> </a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER I.</h2> + +<h3><i>THE ARGUMENT OF THE LORD AND ITS CONCLUSION.</i></h3> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> i.—<span class="smcap">His General Preface.</span></p> + + +<p>The first chapter of the Book of Isaiah owes its +position not to its date, but to its character. +It was published late in the prophet's life. The seventh +verse describes the land as overrun by foreign soldiery, +and such a calamity befell Judah only in the last two +of the four reigns over which the first verse extends +Isaiah's prophesying. In the reign of Ahaz, Judah was +invaded by Syria and Northern Israel, and some have +dated chapter i. from the year of that invasion, 734 <span class="smcap"><small>B.C.</small></span> +In the reign again of Hezekiah some have imagined, in +order to account for the chapter, a swarming of +neighbouring tribes upon Judah; and Mr. Cheyne, to +whom regarding the history of Isaiah's time we ought +to listen with the greatest deference, has supposed +an Assyrian invasion in 711, under Sargon. But +hardly of this, and certainly not of that, have we +adequate evidence, and the only other invasion of +Judah in Isaiah's lifetime took place under Sennacherib, +in 701. For many reasons this Assyrian invasion +is to be preferred to that by Syria and Ephraim in +734 as the occasion of this prophecy. But there +is really no need to be determined on the point. The +prophecy has been lifted out of its original circumstance<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span> +and placed in the front of the book, perhaps by Isaiah +himself, as a general introduction to his collected pieces. +It owes its position, as we have said, to its character. +It is a clear, complete statement of the points which +were at issue between the Lord and His own all the +time Isaiah was the Lord's prophet. It is the most +representative of Isaiah's prophecies, a summary, perhaps +better than any other single chapter of the Old +Testament, of the substance of prophetic doctrine, and +a very vivid illustration of the prophetic spirit and +method. We propose to treat it here as introductory +to the main subjects and lines of Isaiah's teaching, +leaving its historical references till we arrive in due +course at the probable year of its origin, 701 B.C.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Isaiah's preface is in the form of a Trial or Assize. +Ewald calls it "The Great Arraignment." There are +all the actors in a judicial process. It is a Crown case, +and God is at once Plaintiff and Judge. He delivers +both the Complaint in the beginning (vv. 2, 3) and +the Sentence in the end. The Assessors are Heaven +and Earth, whom the Lord's herald invokes to hear the +Lord's plea (ver. 2). The people of Judah are the +Defendants. The charge against them is one of brutish, +ingrate stupidity, breaking out into rebellion. The +Witness is the prophet himself, whose evidence on the +guilt of his people consists in recounting the misery +that has overtaken their land (vv. 4-9), along with their +civic injustice and social cruelty—sins of the upper and +ruling classes (vv. 10, 17, 21-23). The people's Plea-in-defence, +laborious worship and multiplied sacrifice, +is repelled and exposed (vv. 10-17). And the Trial +is concluded—<i>Come now, let us bring our reasoning</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span> +<i>to a close, saith the Lord</i>—by God's offer of pardon +to a people thoroughly convicted (ver. 18). On +which follow the Conditions of the Future: happiness +is sternly made dependent on repentance and righteousness +(vv. 19, 20). And a supplementary oracle +is given (vv. 24-31), announcing a time of affliction, +through which the nation shall pass as through a +furnace; rebels and sinners shall be consumed, but +God will redeem Zion, and with her a remnant of the +people.</p> + +<p>That is the plan of the chapter—a Trial at Law. +Though it disappears under the exceeding weight of +thought the prophet builds upon it, do not let us pass +hurriedly from it, as if it were only a scaffolding.</p> + +<p>That God should argue at all is the magnificent +truth on which our attention must fasten, before we +inquire what the argument is about. God reasons with +man—that is the first article of religion according to +Isaiah. Revelation is not magical, but rational and +moral. Religion is reasonable intercourse between one +intelligent Being and another. God works upon man +first through conscience.</p> + +<p>Over against the prophetic view of religion sprawls +and reeks in this same chapter the popular—religion as +smoky sacrifice, assiduous worship, and ritual. The +people to whom the chapter was addressed were not +idolaters.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> Hezekiah's reformation was over. Judah +worshipped her own God, whom the prophet introduces +not as for the first time, but by Judah's own familiar<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span> +names for Him—Jehovah, Jehovah of Hosts, the Holy +One of Israel, the Mighty One, or Hero, of Israel. +In this hour of extreme danger the people are waiting +on Jehovah with great pains and cost of sacrifice. +They pray, they sacrifice, they solemnize to perfection. +But they do not <i>know</i>, they do not <i>consider</i>; this +is the burden of their offence. To use a better +word, they do not <i>think</i>. They are God's grown-up +children (ver. 2)—<i>children</i>, that is to say, like the son +of the parable, with native instincts for their God, +and <i>grown up</i>—that is to say, with reason and conscience +developed. But they use neither, stupider than +very beasts. <i>Israel doth not know, my people doth not +consider.</i> In all their worship conscience is asleep, +and they are drenched in wickedness. Isaiah puts +their life in an epigram—<i>wickedness and worship: I +cannot away</i>, saith the Lord, <i>with wickedness and worship</i> +(ver. 13).</p> + +<p>But the pressure and stimulus of the prophecy lie in +this, that although the people have silenced conscience and +are steeped in a stupidity worse than ox or ass, God will +not leave them alone. He forces Himself upon them; +He compels them to think. In the order and calmness +of nature (ver. 2), apart from catastrophe nor seeking +to influence by any miracle, God speaks to men by the +reasonable words of His prophet. Before He will +publish salvation or intimate disaster He must rouse +and startle conscience. His controversy precedes alike +His peace and His judgements. An awakened conscience +is His prophet's first demand. Before religion +can be prayer, or sacrifice, or any acceptable worship, it +must be a <i>reasoning together</i> with God.</p> + +<p>That is what mean the arrival of the Lord, and the +opening of the assize, and the call to know and consider.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span> +It is the terrible necessity which comes back +upon men, however engrossed or drugged they may be, +to pass their lives in moral judgement before themselves; +a debate to which there is never any closure, in which +forgotten things will not be forgotten, but a man "is +compelled to repeat to himself things he desires to be +silent about, and to listen to what he does not wish to +hear, ... yielding to that mysterious power which +says to him, Think. One can no more prevent the +mind from returning to an idea than the sea from +returning to a shore. With the sailor this is called +the tide; with the guilty it is called remorse. God +upheaves the soul as well as the ocean."<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> Upon that +ever-returning and resistless tide Hebrew prophecy, +with its Divine freight of truth and comfort, rides into +the lives of men. This first chapter of Isaiah is +just the parable of the awful compulsion to think +which men call conscience. The stupidest of generations, +formal and fat-hearted, are forced to consider and +to reason. The Lord's court and controversy are +opened, and men are whipped into them from His +Temple and His altar.</p> + +<p>For even religion and religiousness, the common +man's commonest refuge from conscience—not only +in Isaiah's time—cannot exempt from this writ. +Would we be judged by our moments of worship, +by our <i>temple-treading</i>, which is Hebrew for church-going, +by the wealth of our sacrifice, by our +ecclesiastical position? This chapter drags us out +before the austerity and incorruptibleness of Nature. +The assessors of the Lord are not the Temple nor the +Law, but Heaven and Earth—not ecclesiastical conventions, +but the grand moral fundamentals of the universe,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span> +purity, order and obedience to God. Religiousness, +however, is not the only refuge from which we shall +find Isaiah startling men with the trumpet of the Lord's +assize. He is equally intolerant of the indulgent +silence and compromises of the world, that give men +courage to say, We are no worse than others. Men's +lives, it is a constant truth of his, have to be argued +out not with the world, but with God. If a man will +be silent upon shameful and uncomfortable things, he +cannot. His thoughts are not his own; God will think +them for him as God thinks them here for unthinking +Israel. Nor are the practical and intellectual distractions +of a busy life any refuge from conscience. When +the politicians of Judah seek escape from judgement by +plunging into deeper intrigue and a more bustling +policy, Isaiah is fond of pointing out to them that +they are only forcing judgement nearer. They do but +sharpen on other objects the thoughts whose edge must +some day turn upon themselves.</p> + +<p>What is this questioning nothing holds away, nothing +stills, and nothing wears out? It is the voice of God +Himself, and its insistence is therefore as irresistible as +its effect is universal. That is not mere rhetoric which +opens the Lord's controversy: <i>Hear, O heavens, and +give ear, O earth, for the Lord hath spoken</i>. All the +world changes to the man in whom conscience lifts up +her voice, and to the guilty Nature seems attentive and +aware. Conscience compels heaven and earth to act +as her assessors, because she is the voice, and they +the creatures, of God. This leads us to emphasize +another feature of the prophecy.</p> + +<p>We have called this chapter a trial-at-law; but +it is far more a <i>personal</i> than a legal controversy; of +the formally forensic there is very little about it. Some<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span> +theologies and many preachers have attempted the +conviction of the human conscience by the technicalities +of a system of law, or by appealing to this or that historical +covenant, or by the obligations of an intricate and burdensome +morality. This is not Isaiah's way. His generation +is here judged by no system of law or ancient +covenants, but by a living Person and by His treatment +of them—a Person who is a Friend and a Father. It +is not Judah and the law that are confronted; it is +Judah and Jehovah. There is no contrast between +the life of this generation and some glorious estate from +which they or their forefathers have fallen; but they +are made to hear the voice of a living and present +God: <i>I have nourished and brought up children, and +they have rebelled against Me</i>. Isaiah begins where +Saul of Tarsus began, who, though he afterwards +elaborated with wealth of detail the awful indictment +of the abstract law against man, had never been able to +do so but for that first confronting with the Personal +Deity, <i>Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?</i> Isaiah's +ministry started from the vision of the Lord; and it +was no covenant or theory, but the Lord Himself, who +remained the prophet's conscience to the end.</p> + +<p>But though the living God is Isaiah's one explanation +of conscience, it is God in two aspects, +the moral effects of which are opposite, yet complementary. +In conscience men are defective by forgetting +either the sublime or the practical, but Isaiah's strength +is to do justice to both. With him God is first the +infinitely High, and then equally the infinitely Near. +<i>The Lord is exalted in righteousness!</i> yes, and sublimely +above the people's vulgar identifications of His will with +their own safety and success, but likewise concerned +with every detail of their politics and social behaviour,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span> +not to be relegated to the Temple, where they were +wont to confine Him, but by His prophet descending to +their markets and councils, with His own opinion of +their policies, interfering in their intrigues, meeting +Ahaz at the conduit of the upper pool in the highway +of the fuller's field, and fastening <i>eyes of glory</i> on every +pin and point of the dress of the daughters of Zion. +He is no merely transcendent God. Though He be the +High and Holy One, He will discuss each habit of the +people, and argue upon its merits every one of their +policies. His constant cry to them is <i>Come and let us +reason together</i>, and to hear it is to have a conscience. +Indeed, Isaiah lays more stress on this intellectual side +of the moral sense than on the other, and the frequency +with which in this chapter he employs the expressions +<i>know</i>, and <i>consider</i>, and <i>reason</i>, is characteristic of all +his prophesying. Even the most superficial reader +must notice how much this prophet's doctrine of conscience +and repentance harmonizes with the <i>metanoia</i> of +New Testament preaching.</p> + +<p>This doctrine, that God has an interest in every +detail of practical life and will argue it out with +men, led Isaiah to a revelation of God quite peculiar +to himself. For the Psalmist it is enough that his +soul <i>come to God, the living God</i>. It is enough for +other prophets to awe the hearts of their generations +by revealing <i>the Holy One</i>; but Isaiah, with his intensely +practical genius, and sorely tried by the stupid +inconsistency of his people, bends himself to make +them understand that God is at least a <i>reasonable</i> +Being. Do not, his constant cry is, and he puts it +sometimes in almost as many words—do not act as +if there were a Fool on the throne of the universe, +which you virtually do when you take these meaningless<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span> +forms of worship as your only intercourse with +Him, and beside them practise your rank iniquities, +as if He did not see nor care. We need not here do +more than mention the passages in which, sometimes +by a word, Isaiah stings and startles self-conscious +politicians and sinners beetle-blind in sin, with the +sense that God Himself takes an interest in their +deeds and has His own working-plans for their life. +On the land question in Judah (v. 9): <i>In mine ears, +saith the Lord of hosts</i>. When the people were paralyzed +by calamity, as if it had no meaning or term +(xxviii. 29): <i>This also cometh forth from the Lord of hosts, +which is wonderful in counsel and excellent in effectual +working</i>. Again, when they were panic-stricken, and +madly sought by foolish ways their own salvation +(xxx. 18): <i>For the Lord is a God of judgement—i.e.</i>, +of principle, method, law, with His own way and time +for doing things—<i>blessed are all they that wait for +Him</i>. And again, when politicians were carried away +by the cleverness and success of their own schemes +(xxxi. 2): <i>Yet He also is wise</i>, or clever. It was only +a personal application of this Divine attribute when +Isaiah heard the word of the Lord give him the +minutest directions for his own practice—as, for +instance, at what exact point he was to meet Ahaz +(vii. 3); or that he was to take a board and write +upon it in the vulgar character (viii. 1); or that he +was to strip frock and sandals, and walk without them +for three years (xx). Where common men feel conscience +only as something vague and inarticulate, a +flavour, a sting, a foreboding, the obligation of work, +the constraint of affection, Isaiah heard the word of the +Lord, clear and decisive on matters of policy, and +definite even to the details of method and style.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span>Isaiah's conscience, then, was perfect, because it was +two-fold: <i>God is holy; God is practical</i>. If there be the +glory, the purity as of fire, of His Presence to overawe, +there is His unceasing inspection of us, there is His +interest in the smallest details of our life, there are His +fixed laws, from regard for all of which no amount +of religious sensibility may relieve us. Neither of +these halves of conscience can endure by itself. If +we forget the first we may be prudent and for a +time clever, but will also grow self-righteous, and in +time self-righteousness means stupidity too. If we +forget the second we may be very devotional, but cannot +escape becoming blindly and inconsistently immoral. +Hypocrisy is the result either way, whether we forget +how high God is or whether we forget how near.</p> + +<p>To these two great articles of conscience, however—God +is high and God is near—the Bible adds a greater +third, God is Love. This is the uniqueness and glory +of the Bible's interpretation of conscience. Other +writings may equal it in enforcing the sovereignty and +detailing the minutely practical bearings of conscience: +the Bible alone tells man how much of conscience is +nothing but God's love. It is a doctrine as plainly +laid down as the doctrine about chastisement, though +not half so much recognised—<i>Whom the Lord loveth +He chasteneth</i>. What is true of the material pains and +penalties of life is equally true of the inward convictions, +frets, threats and fears, which will not leave stupid man +alone. To men with their obscure sense of shame, and +restlessness, and servitude to sin the Bible plainly says, +"You are able to sin because you have turned your +back to the love of God; you are unhappy because you +do not take that love to your heart; the bitterness of +your remorse is that it is love against which you are<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span> +ungrateful." Conscience is not the Lord's persecution, +but His jealous pleading, and not the fierceness of His +anger, but the reproach of His love. This is the Bible's +doctrine throughout, and it is not absent from the +chapter we are considering. Love gets the first word +even in the indictment of this austere assize: <i>I have +nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled +against Me</i>. Conscience is already a Father's voice: +the recollection, as it is in the parable of the prodigal, +of a Father's mercy; the reproach, as it is with +Christ's lamentation over Jerusalem, of outraged love. +We shall find not a few passages in Isaiah, which +prove that he was in harmony with all revelation upon +this point, that conscience is the reproach of the love +of God.</p> + +<p>But when that understanding of conscience breaks +out in a sinner's heart forgiveness cannot be far away. +Certainly penitence is at hand. And therefore, because +of all books the Bible is the only one which interprets +conscience as the love of God, so is it the only one that +can combine His pardon with His reproach, and as +Isaiah now does in a single verse, proclaim His free +forgiveness as the conclusion of His bitter quarrel. +<i>Come, let us bring our reasoning to a close, saith the</i> +<span class="smcap">Lord</span>. <i>Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white +as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be +as wool.</i> Our version, <i>Come, and let us reason together</i>, +gives no meaning here. So plain an offer of pardon is +not reasoning together; it is bringing reasoning to an +end; it is the settlement of a dispute that has been in +progress. Therefore we translate, with Mr. Cheyne, <i>Let +us bring our reasoning to an end</i>. And how pardon can +be the end and logical conclusion of conscience is clear +to us, who have seen how much of conscience is love,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span> +and that the Lord's controversy is the reproach of +His Father's heart, and His jealousy to make His own +consider all His way of mercy towards them.</p> + +<p>But the prophet does not leave conscience alone with +its personal and inward results. He rouses it to its +social applications. The sins with which the Jews are +charged in this charge of the Lord are public sins. The +whole people is indicted, but it is the judges, princes +and counsellors who are denounced. Judah's disasters, +which she seeks to meet by worship, are due to civic +faults, bribery, corruption of justice, indifference to the +rights of the poor and the friendless. Conscience with +Isaiah is not what it is with so much of the religion of +to-day, a <i>cul de sac</i>, into which the Lord chases a man +and shuts him up to Himself, but it is a thoroughfare by +which the Lord drives the man out upon the world and +its manifold need of him. There is little dissection +and less study of individual character with Isaiah. He +has no time for it. Life is too much about him, +and his God too much interested in life. What may +be called the more personal sins—drunkenness, vanity of +dress, thoughtlessness, want of faith in God and patience +to wait for Him—are to Isaiah more social than individual +symptoms, and it is for their public and political effects +that he mentions them. Forgiveness is no end in itself, +but the opportunity of social service; not a sanctuary in +which Isaiah leaves men to sing its praises or form +doctrines of it, but a gateway through which he leads +God's people upon the world with the cry that rises from +him here: <i>Seek justice, relieve the oppressed, judge the +fatherless, plead for the widow</i>.</p> + +<p>Before we pass from this form in which Isaiah +figures religion we must deal with a suggestion it +raises. No modern mind can come into this ancient<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span> +court of the <span class="smcap">Lord</span>'s controversy without taking advantage +of its open forms to put a question regarding the +rights of man there. That God should descend to +argue with men, what licence does this give to men? +If religion be reasonable controversy of this kind, what +is the place of doubt in it? Is not doubt man's side +of the argument? Has he not also questions to put—the +Almighty from his side to arraign? For God has +Himself here put man on a level with Him, saying, +<i>Come, and let us reason together</i>.</p> + +<p>A temper of this kind, though not strange to the Old +Testament, lies beyond the horizon of Isaiah. The +only challenge of the Almighty which in any of his prophecies +he reports as rising from his own countrymen is +the bravado of certain drunkards (chaps. v. and xxviii.). +Here and elsewhere it is the very opposite temper from +honest doubt which he indicts—the temper that <i>does +not know</i>, that <i>does not consider</i>. Ritualism and sensualism +are to Isaiah equally false, because equally +unthinking. The formalist and the fleshly he classes +together, because of their stupidity. What does it +matter whether a man's conscience and intellect be +stifled in his own fat or under the clothes with which +he dresses himself? They are stifled, and that is the +main thing. To the formalist Isaiah says, <i>Israel doth +not know, my people doth not consider</i>; to the fleshly +(chap. v.), <i>My people are gone into captivity for want of +knowledge.</i> But <i>knowing</i> and <i>considering</i> are just that +of which doubt, in its modern sense, is the abundance, +and not the defect. The mobility of mind, the curiosity, +the moral sensitiveness, the hunger that is not satisfied +with the chaff of formal and unreal answers, the spirit +to find out truth for one's self, wrestling with God—this +is the very temper Isaiah would have welcomed in a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span> +people whose sluggishness of reason was as justly +blamed by him as the grossness of their moral sense. +And if revelation be of the form in which Isaiah so +prominently sets it, and the whole Bible bears him out +in this—if revelation be this argumentative and reasonable +process, then human doubt has its part in +revelation. It is, indeed, man's side of the argument, +and as history shows, has often helped to the elucidation +of the points at issue.</p> + +<p>Merely intellectual scepticism, however, is not within +Isaiah's horizon. He would never have employed +(nor would any other prophet) our modern habits of +doubt, except as he employs these intellectual terms, +<i>to know</i> and <i>to consider</i>—viz., as instruments of moral +search and conviction. Had he lived now he would +have been found among those few great prophets +who use the resources of the human intellect to +expose the moral state of humanity; who, like Shakespeare +and Hugo, turn man's detective and reflective +processes upon his own conduct; who make himself +stand at the bar of his conscience. And truly to have +doubt of everything in heaven and earth, and never to +doubt one's self, is to be guilty of as stiff and stupid +a piece of self-righteousness as the religious formalists +whom Isaiah exposes. But the moral of the chapter +is plainly what we have shown it to be, that a +man cannot stifle doubt and debate about his own +heart or treatment of God; whatever else he thinks +about and judges, he cannot help judging himself.</p> + +<p><i>Note on the Place of Nature in the Argument of the +Lord.</i>—The office which the Bible assigns to Nature +in the controversy of God with man is fourfold—Assessor, +Witness, Man's Fellow-Convict, and Doomster +or Executioner. Taking these backward:—1. Scripture<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span> +frequently exhibits Nature as the <i>doomster of the Lord</i>. +Nature has a terrible power of flashing back from her +vaster surfaces the guilty impressions of man's heart; +at the last day her thunders shall peal the doom of the +wicked, and her fire devour them. In those prophecies +of the book of Isaiah which relate to his own time +this use is not made of Nature, unless it be in his very +earliest prophecy in chap. ii., and in his references to +the earthquake (v. 25). To Isaiah the sentences and +scourges of God are political and historical, the threats +and arms of Assyria. He employs the violences of +Nature only as metaphors for Assyrian rage and force. +But he often promises fertility as the effect of the Lord's +pardon, and when the prophets are writing about Nature, +it is difficult to say whether they are to be understood +literally or poetically. But, at any rate, there is much +larger use made of physical catastrophes and convulsions +in those other prophecies which do not relate +to Isaiah's own time, and are now generally thought not +to be his. Compare chaps. xiii. and xiv. 2. The representation +of the earth as the <i>fellow-convict</i> of guilty man, +sharing his curse, is very vivid in Isaiah xxiv.-xxvii. +In the prophecies relating to his own time Isaiah, of +course, identifies the troubles that afflict the land with +the sin of the people, of Judah. But these are due to +political causes—viz., the Assyrian invasion. 3. In +the Lord's court of judgement the prophets sometimes +employ Nature as <i>a witness</i> against man, as, for instance, +the prophet Micah (vi. 1, <i>ff</i>). Nature is full of associations; +the enduring mountains have memories from old, +they have been constant witnesses of the dealing of +God with His people. 4. Or lastly, Nature may be +used as the great <i>assessor</i> of the conscience, sitting +to expound the principles on which God governs life.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span> +This is Isaiah's favourite use of Nature. He employs +her to corroborate his statement of the Divine law and +illustrate the ways of God to men, as in the end of +chap. xxviii., and no doubt in the opening verse of this +chapter.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER II.</h2> + +<h3><i>THE THREE JERUSALEMS.</i></h3> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> ii.-iv. (740-735 <span class="smcap"><small>B.C.</small></span>).</p> + + +<p>After the general introduction, in chap. i., to the +prophecies of Isaiah, there comes another portion +of the book, of greater length, but nearly as distinct as +the first. It covers four chapters, the second to the +sixth, all of them dating from the same earliest period +of Isaiah's ministry, before 735 <span class="smcap"><small>B.C.</small></span> They deal with +exactly the same subjects, but they differ greatly in +form. One section (chaps. ii.-iv.) consists of a +number of short utterances—evidently not all spoken +at the same time, for they conflict with one another—a +series of consecutive prophecies, that probably represent +the stages of conviction through which Isaiah +passed in his prophetic apprenticeship; a second +section (chap. v.) is a careful and artistic restatement, +in parable and oration, of the truths he has thus +attained; while a third section (chap. vi.) is narrative, +probably written subsequently to the first two, but +describing an inspiration and official call, which must +have preceded them both. The more one examines +chaps. ii.-vi., and finds that they but express the same +truths in different forms, the more one is confirmed in +some such view of them as this, which, it is believed, +the following exposition will justify. Chaps. v. and vi.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span> +are twin appendices to the long summary in ii.-iv.: +chap. v. a public vindication and enforcement of the +results of that summary, chap. vi. a private vindication +to the prophet's heart of the very same truths, +by a return to the secret moment of their original +inspiration. We may assign 735 <span class="smcap"><small>B.C.</small></span>, just before or +just after the accession of Ahaz, as the date of the +latest of these prophecies. The following is their +historical setting.</p> + +<p>For more than half a century the kingdom of Judah, +under two powerful and righteous monarchs, had enjoyed +the greatest prosperity. Uzziah strengthened +the borders, extended the supremacy and vastly increased +the resources of his little State, which, it is +well to remember, was in its own size not larger than +three average Scottish counties. He won back for +Judah the port of Elath on the Red Sea, built a navy, +and restored the commerce with the far East, which +Solomon began. He overcame, in battle or by the +mere terror of his name, the neighbouring nations—the +Philistines that dwelt in cities, and the wandering tribes +of desert Arabs. The Ammonites brought him gifts. +With the wealth, which the East by tribute or by +commerce poured into his little principality, Uzziah +fortified his borders and his capital, undertook large +works of husbandry and irrigation, organized a powerful +standing army, and supplied it with a siege artillery +capable of slinging arrows and stones. <i>His name +spread far abroad, for he was marvellously helped till he +was strong.</i> His son Jotham (740-735 <span class="smcap"><small>B.C.</small></span>) continued +his father's policy with nearly all his father's success. +He built cities and castles, quelled a rebellion among his +tributaries, and caused their riches to flow faster still +into Jerusalem. But while Jotham bequeathed to his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span> +country a sure defence and great wealth, and to his +people a strong spirit and prestige among the nations, +he left another bequest, which robbed these of their +value—the son who succeeded him. In 735 Jotham +died and Ahaz became king. He was very young, and +stepped to the throne from the hareem. He brought +to the direction of the government the petulant will +of a spoiled child, the mind of an intriguing and +superstitious woman. It was when the national policy +felt the paralysis consequent on these that Isaiah +published at least the later part of the prophecies now +marked off as chaps. ii.-iv. of his book. <i>My people</i>, +he cries—<i>my people! children are their oppressors, and +women rule over them. O my people, they which lead +thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy +paths.</i></p> + +<p>Isaiah had been born into the flourishing nation +while Uzziah was king. The great events of that +monarch's reign were his education, the still grander +hopes they prompted the passion of his virgin fancy. +He must have absorbed as the very temper of his youth +this national consciousness which swelled so proudly +in Judah under Uzziah. But the accession of such +a king as Ahaz, while it was sure to let loose the +passions and follies fostered by a period of rapid +increase in luxury, could not fail to afford to Judah's +enemies the long-deferred opportunity of attacking her. +It was an hour both of the manifestation of sin and of +the judgement of sin—an hour in which, while the +majesty of Judah, sustained through two great reigns, +was about to disappear in the follies of a third, the +majesty of Judah's God should become more conspicuous +than ever. Of this Isaiah had been privately conscious, +as we shall see, for five years. <i>In the year that king</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span> +<i>Uzziah died</i> (740), the young Jew <i>saw the Lord sitting +upon a throne, high and lifted up</i>. Startled into prophetic +consciousness by the awful contrast between an +earthly majesty that had so long fascinated men, but +now sank into a leper's grave, and the heavenly, which +rose sovereign and everlasting above it, Isaiah had +gone on to receive conviction of his people's sin and +certain punishment. With the accession of Ahaz, five +years later, his own political experience was so far +developed as to permit of his expressing in their exact +historical effects the awful principles of which he +had received foreboding when Uzziah died. What we +find in chaps. ii.-iv. is a record of the struggle of his +mind towards this expression; it is the summary, as +we have already said, of Isaiah's apprenticeship.</p> + +<p><i>The word that Isaiah, the son of Amoz, saw concerning +Judah and Jerusalem.</i> We do not know anything of +Isaiah's family or of the details of his upbringing. He +was a member of some family of Jerusalem, and in +intimate relations with the Court. It has been believed +that he was of royal blood, but it matters little whether +this be true or not. A spirit so wise and masterful as +his did not need social rank to fit it for that intimacy +with princes which has doubtless suggested the legend +of his royal descent. What does matter is Isaiah's +citizenship in Jerusalem, for this colours all his prophecy. +More than Athens to Demosthenes, Rome to Juvenal, +Florence to Dante, is Jerusalem to Isaiah. She is his +immediate and ultimate regard, the centre and return of +all his thoughts, the hinge of the history of his time, +the one thing worth preserving amidst its disasters, the +summit of those brilliant hopes with which he fills the +future. He has traced for us the main features of her +position and some of the lines of her construction, many<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span> +of the great figures of her streets, the fashions of her +women, the arrival of embassies, the effect of rumours. +He has painted her aspect in triumph, in siege, in famine +and in earthquake; war filling her valleys with chariots, +and again nature rolling tides of fruitfulness up to her +gates; her moods of worship and panic and profligacy—till +we see them all as clearly as the shadow following +the sunshine and the breeze across the cornfields +of our own summers.</p> + +<p>If he takes wider observation of mankind, Jerusalem +is his watch-tower. It is for her defence he battles +through fifty years of statesmanship, and all his +prophecy may be said to travail in anguish for her +new birth. He was never away from her walls, but +not even the psalms of the captives by the rivers of +Babylon, with the desire of exile upon them, exhibit +more beauty and pathos than the lamentations which +Isaiah poured upon Jerusalem's sufferings or the visions +in which he described her future solemnity and peace.</p> + +<p>It is not with surprise, therefore, that we find the +first prophecies of Isaiah directed upon his mother city: +<i>The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning +Judah and Jerusalem.</i> There is little about Judah +in these chapters: the country forms but a fringe to +the capital.</p> + +<p>Before we look into the subject of the prophecy, +however, a short digression is necessary on the manner +in which it is presented to us. It is not a reasoned +composition or argument we have here; it is a vision, +it is the word which Isaiah <i>saw</i>. The expression is +vague, often abused and in need of defining. Vision is +not employed here to express any magical display before +the eyes of the prophet of the very words which he +was to speak to the people, or any communication to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span> +his thoughts by dream or ecstasy. They are higher +qualities of "vision" which these chapters unfold. +There is, first of all, the power of forming an ideal, of +seeing and describing a thing in the fulfilment of all +the promise that is in it. But these prophecies are much +more remarkable for two other powers of inward vision, +to which we give the names of insight and intuition—insight +into human character, intuition of Divine +principles—<i>clear knowledge of what man is and how +God will act</i>—a keen discrimination of the present +state of affairs in Judah, and unreasoned conviction +of moral truth and the Divine will. The original +meaning of the Hebrew word <i>saw</i>, which is used in the +title to this series, is to cleave, or split; then to see +into, to see through, to get down beneath the surface +of things and discover their real nature. And what +characterizes the bulk of these visions is <i>penetrativeness</i>, +the keenness of a man who will not be deceived +by an outward show that he delights to hold up to +our scorn, but who has a conscience for the inner +worth of things and for their future consequences. To +lay stress on the moral meaning of the prophet's vision +is not to grudge, but to emphasize its inspiration by +God. Of that inspiration Isaiah was himself assured. +It was God's Spirit that enabled him to see thus keenly; +for he saw things keenly, not only as men count moral +keenness, but as God Himself sees them, in their value +in His sight and in their attractiveness for His love +and pity. In this prophecy there occurs a striking +expression—<i>the eyes of the glory of God</i>. It was the +vision of the Almighty Searcher and Judge, burning +through man's pretence, with which the prophet felt +himself endowed. This then was the second element in +his vision—to penetrate men's hearts as God Himself<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span> +penetrated them, and constantly, without squint or blur, +to see right from wrong in their eternal difference. And +the third element is the intuition of God's will, the perception +of what line of action He will take. This last, of +course, forms the distinct prerogative of Hebrew prophecy, +that power of vision which is its climax; the moral +situation being clear, to see then how God will act upon it.</p> + +<p>Under these three powers of vision Jerusalem, +the prophet's city, is presented to us—Jerusalem in +three lights, really three Jerusalems. First, there is +flashed out (chap. ii. 2-5) a vision of the ideal +city, Jerusalem idealized and glorified. Then comes +(ii. 6-iv. 1) a very realistic picture, a picture of +the actual Jerusalem. And lastly at the close of the +prophecy (iv. 2-6) we have a vision of Jerusalem as +she shall be after God has taken her in hand—very +different indeed from the ideal with which the prophet +began. Here are three successive motives or phases +of prophecy, which, as we have said, in all probability +summarize the early ministry of Isaiah, and present +him to us <i>first</i> as the idealist or visionary, <i>second</i> as +the realist or critic, and <i>third</i> as the prophet proper or +revealer of God's actual will.</p> + + +<p class="center">I. <span class="smcap">The Idealist</span> (ii. 1-5).</p> + +<p>All men who have shown our race how great things +are possible have had their inspiration in dreaming of +the impossible. Reformers, who at death were content +to have lived for the moving forward but one inch of +some of their fellow-men, began by believing themselves +able to lift the whole world at once. Isaiah +was no exception to this human fashion. His first +vision was that of a Utopia, and his first belief that his +countrymen would immediately realize it. He lifts up<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span> +to us a very grand picture of a vast commonwealth +centred in Jerusalem. Some think he borrowed it from +an older prophet; Micah has it also; it may have been +the ideal of the age. But, at any rate, if we are not to +take verse 5 in scorn, Isaiah accepted this as his own. +<i>And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the +mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the +top of the mountains, and exalted above the hills, and +all nations shall flow unto it.</i> The prophet's own Jerusalem +shall be the light of the world, the school and +temple of the earth, the seat of the judgement of the +Lord, when He shall reign over the nations, and all +mankind shall dwell in peace beneath Him. It is +a glorious destiny, and as its light shines from the far-off +horizon, <i>the latter days</i>, in which the prophet sees +it, what wonder that he is possessed and cries aloud, +<i>O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light +of the <span class="smcap">Lord</span>!</i> It seems to the young prophet's hopeful +heart as if at once that ideal would be realized, as if +by his own word he could lift his people to its +fulfilment.</p> + +<p>But that is impossible, and Isaiah perceives so as +soon as he turns from the far-off horizon to the city at +his feet, as soon as he leaves to-morrow alone and deals +with to-day. The next verses of the chapter—from +verse 6 onwards—stand in strong contrast to those which +have described Israel's ideal. There Zion is full of the +law and Jerusalem of the word of the Lord, the one +religion flowing over from this centre upon the world. +Here into the actual Jerusalem they have brought +all sorts of foreign worship and heathen prophets; <i>they +are replenished from the East, and are soothsayers like +the Philistines, and strike hands with the children of +strangers</i>. There all nations come to worship at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span> +Jerusalem; here her thought and faith are scattered +over the idolatries of all nations. The ideal Jerusalem +is full of spiritual blessings, the actual of the spoils of +trade. There the swords are beat into ploughshares +and the spears into pruning-hooks; here are vast and +novel armaments, horses and chariots. There the Lord +alone is worshipped; here the city is crowded with +idols. The real Jerusalem could not possibly be more +different from the ideal, nor its inhabitants as they are +from what their prophet had confidently called on +them to be.</p> + + +<p class="center">II. <span class="smcap">The Realist</span> (ii. 6-iv. 1).</p> + +<p>Therefore Isaiah's attitude and tone suddenly change. +The visionary becomes a realist, the enthusiast a cynic, +the seer of the glorious city of God the prophet of +God's judgement. The recoil is absolute in style, +temper and thought, down to the very figures of speech +which he uses. Before, Isaiah had seen, as it were, a +lifting process at work, <i>Jerusalem in the top of the +mountains, and exalted above the hills</i>. Now he beholds +nothing but depression. <i>For the day of the <span class="smcap">Lord</span> of +hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and haughty, +upon all that is lifted up, and it shall be brought low, and +the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.</i> Nothing in +the great civilization, which he had formerly glorified, +is worth preserving. The high towers, fenced walls, +ships of Tarshish, treasures and armour must all perish, +even the hills lifted by his imagination shall be bowed +down, and <i>the <span class="smcap">Lord</span> alone be exalted in that day</i>. +This recoil reaches its extreme in the last verse of the +chapter. The prophet, who had believed so much in +man as to think possible an immediate commonwealth +of nations, believes in man now so little that he does<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span> +not hold him worth preserving: <i>Cease ye from man, +whose breath is in his nostrils; for wherein is he to be +accounted of?</i></p> + +<p>Attached to this general denunciation are some +satiric descriptions, in the third chapter, of the anarchy, +to which society in Jerusalem is fast being reduced +under its childish and effeminate king. The scorn of +these passages is scathing; <i>the eyes of the glory of God</i> +burn through every rank, fashion and ornament in the +town. King and court are not spared; the elders and +princes are rigorously denounced. But by far the most +striking effort of the prophet's boldness is his prediction +of the overthrow of Jerusalem itself (ver. 8). +What it cost Isaiah to utter and the people to hear we +can only partly measure. To his own passionate +patriotism it must have felt like treason, to the blind +optimism of the popular religion it doubtless appeared +the rankest heresy—to aver that the holy city, inviolate +and almost unthreatened since the day David brought +to her the ark of the Lord, and destined by the voice of +her prophets, including Isaiah himself, to be established +upon the tops of the mountains, was now to fall into +ruin. But Isaiah's conscience overcomes his sense of +consistency, and he who has just proclaimed the eternal +glory of Jerusalem is provoked by his knowledge of +her citizens' sins to recall his words and intimate her +destruction. It may have been, that Isaiah was partly +emboldened to so novel a threat, by his knowledge of +the preparations which Syria and Israel were already +making for the invasion of Judah. The prospect of +Jerusalem, as the centre of a vast empire subject to +Jehovah, however natural it was under a successful +ruler like Uzziah, became, of course, unreal when every +one of Uzziah's and Jotham's tributaries had risen in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span> +revolt against their successor, Ahaz. But of these +outward movements Isaiah tells us nothing. He is +wholly engrossed with Judah's sin. It is his growing +acquaintance with the corruption of his fellow-countrymen +that has turned his back on the ideal city of +his opening ministry, and changed him into a prophet +of Jerusalem's ruin. <i>Their tongue and their doings are +against the Lord, to provoke the eyes of His glory.</i> +Judge, prophet and elder, all the upper ranks and +useful guides of the people, must perish. It is a sign +of the degradation to which society shall be reduced, +when Isaiah with keen sarcasm pictures the despairing +people choosing a certain man to be their ruler because +he alone has a coat to his back! (iii. 6).</p> + +<p>With increased scorn Isaiah turns lastly upon the +women of Jerusalem (iii. 16-iv. 2), and here perhaps +the change which has passed over him since his opening +prophecy is most striking. One likes to think of how +the citizens of Jerusalem took this alteration in their +prophet's temper. We know how popular so optimist +a prophecy as that of the mountain of the Lord's house +must have been, and can imagine how men and women +loved the young face, bright with a far-off light, and +the dream of an ideal that had no quarrel with the +present. "But what a change is this that has come +over him, who speaks not of to-morrow, but of to-day, +who has brought his gaze from those distant horizons +to our streets, who stares every man in the face (iii. 9), +and makes the women feel that no pin and trimming, no +ring and bracelet, escape his notice! Our loved prophet +has become an impudent scorner!" Ah, men and +women of Jerusalem, beware of those eyes! <i>The glory +of God</i> is burning in them; they see you through +and through, and they tell us that all your armour and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span> +the <i>show of your countenance</i>, and your foreign fashions +are as nothing, for there are corrupt hearts below. +This is your judgement, that <i>instead of sweet spices there +shall be rottenness, and instead of a girdle a rope, and +instead of well-set hair baldness, and instead of a +stomacher a girding of sackcloth, and branding instead of +beauty</i>. <i>Thy men shall fall by the sword, and thy mighty +in the war. And her gates shall lament and mourn, and +she shall be desolate and sit upon the ground!</i></p> + +<p>This was the climax of the prophet's judgement. If +the salt have lost its savour, wherewith shall it be +salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing but to be +cast out and trodden under foot. If the women are +corrupt the state is moribund.</p> + + +<p class="center">III. <i>The Prophet of the Lord</i> (iv. 2-6).</p> + +<p>Is there, then, no hope for Jerusalem? Yes, but not +where the prophet sought it at first, in herself, and not +in the way he offered it—by the mere presentation of +an ideal. There is hope, there is more—there is certain +salvation in the Lord, but it only comes after judgement. +Contrast that opening picture of the new Jerusalem with +this closing one, and we shall find their difference to lie in +two things. There the city is more prominent than the +Lord, here the Lord is more prominent than the city; +there no word of judgement, here judgement sternly +emphasized as the indispensable way towards the +blessed future. A more vivid sense of the Person of +Jehovah Himself, a deep conviction of the necessity of +chastisement: these are what Isaiah has gained during +his early ministry, without losing hope or heart for the +future. The bliss shall come only when the Lord shall +<i>have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and +shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span> +<i>thereof by the spirit of judgement and the spirit of burning</i>. +It is a corollary of all this that the participants of that +future shall be many fewer than in the first vision of +the prophet. The process of judgement must weed men +out, and in place of all nations coming to Jerusalem, to +share its peace and glory, the prophet can speak now +only of Israel—and only of a remnant of Israel. +<i>The escaped of Israel, the left in Zion, and he that +remaineth in Jerusalem.</i> This is a great change in +Isaiah's ideal, from the supremacy of Israel over all +nations to the bare survival of a remnant of his +people.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Is there not in this threefold vision a parallel and +example for our own civilisation and our thoughts +about it? All work and wisdom begin in dreams. +We must see our Utopias before we start to build our +stone and lime cities.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i8">"It takes a soul</span><br /> +<span class="i0">To move a body; it takes a high-souled man</span><br /> +<span class="i0">To move the masses even to a cleaner stye;</span><br /> +<span class="i0">It takes the ideal to blow an inch inside</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The dust of the actual."</span> +</div> + +<p>But the light of our ideals dawns upon us only to +show how poor by nature are the mortals who are +called to accomplish them. The ideal rises still as +to Isaiah only to exhibit the poverty of the real. +When we lift our eyes from the hills of vision, +and rest them on our fellow-men, hope and enthusiasm +die out of us. Isaiah's disappointment is +that of every one who brings down his gaze from +the clouds to the streets. Be our ideal ever so +desirable, be we ever so persuaded of its facility, +the moment we attempt to apply it we shall be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span> +undeceived. Society cannot be regenerated all at +once. There is an expression which Isaiah emphasizes +in his motive of cynicism: <i>The show of their +countenance doth witness against them.</i> It tells us +that when he called his countrymen to turn to the +light he lifted upon them he saw nothing but the +exhibition of their sin made plain. When we bring +light to a cavern whose inhabitants have lost their +eyes by the darkness, the light does not make them +see; we have to give them eyes again. Even so no +vision or theory of a perfect state—the mistake +which all young reformers make—can regenerate +society. It will only reveal social corruption, and +sicken the heart of the reformer himself. For the +possession of a great ideal does not mean, as so +many fondly imagine, work accomplished; it means +work revealed—work revealed so vast, often so +impossible, that faith and hope die down, and +the enthusiast of yesterday becomes the cynic of +to-morrow. <i>Cease ye from man, whose breath is in +his nostrils, for wherein is he to be accounted?</i> In +this despair, through which every worker for God +and man must pass, many a warm heart has grown +cold, many an intellect become paralyzed. There is +but one way of escape, and that is Isaiah's. It is +to believe in God Himself; it is to believe that He +is at work, that His purposes to man are saving purposes, +and that with Him there is an inexhaustible +source of mercy and virtue. So from the blackest +pessimism shall arise new hope and faith, as from +beneath Isaiah's darkest verses that glorious passage +suddenly bursts like uncontrollable spring from the +very feet of winter. <i>For that day shall the spring of +the <span class="smcap">Lord</span> be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span> +<i>the land shall be excellent and comely for them that +are escaped of Israel.</i> This is all it is possible to +say. There must be a future for man, because God +loves him, and God reigns. That future can be +reached only through judgement, because God is +righteous.</p> + +<p>To put it another way: All of us who live to +work for our fellow-men or who hope to lift them +higher by our word begin with our own visions of +a great future. These visions, though our youth +lends to them an original generosity and enthusiasm, +are, like Isaiah's, largely borrowed. The +progressive instincts of the age into which we are +born and the mellow skies of prosperity combine with +our own ardour to make our ideal one of splendour. +Persuaded of its facility, we turn to real life to apply +it. A few years pass. We not only find mankind +too stubborn to be forced into our moulds, but we +gradually become aware of Another Moulder at work +upon our subject, and we stand aside in awe to watch +His operations. Human desires and national ideals +are not always fulfilled; philosophic theories are discredited +by the evolution of fact. Uzziah does not +reign for ever; the sceptre falls to Ahaz: progress +is checked, and the summer of prosperity draws +to an end. Under duller skies ungilded judgement +comes to view, cruel and inexorable, crushing even +the peaks on which we built our future, yet purifying +men and giving earnest of a better future, too. And +so life, that mocked the control of our puny fingers, +bends groaning to the weight of an Almighty Hand. +God also, we perceive as we face facts honestly, has +His ideal for men; and though He works so slowly +towards His end that our restless eyes are too impatient<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span> +to follow His order, He yet reveals all that +shall be to the humbled heart and the soul emptied +of its own visions. Awed and chastened, we look +back from His Presence to our old ideals. We are +still able to recognize their grandeur and generous +hope for men. But we see now how utterly unconnected +they are with the present—castles in the air, +with no ladders to them from the earth. And even +if they were accessible, still to our eyes, purged by +gazing on God's own ways, they would no more +appear desirable. Look back on Isaiah's early ideal +from the light of his second vision of the future. +For all its grandeur, that picture of Jerusalem is not +wholly attractive. Is there not much national arrogance +in it? Is it not just the imperfectly idealized +reflection of an age of material prosperity such as +that of Uzziah's was? Pride is in it, a false optimism, +the highest good to be reached without moral conflict. +But here is the language of pity, rescue with difficulty, +rest only after sore struggle and stripping, salvation by +the bare arm of God. So do our imaginations for our +own future or for that of the race always contrast with +what He Himself has in store for us, promised freely +out of His great grace to our unworthy hearts, yet +granted in the end only to those who pass towards it +through discipline, tribulation and fire.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>This, then, was Isaiah's apprenticeship, and its net +result was to leave him with the remnant for his ideal: +the remnant and Jerusalem secured as its rallying-point.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER III.</h2> + +<h3><i>THE VINEYARD OF THE LORD, OR TRUE PATRIOTISM +THE CONSCIENCE OF OUR COUNTRY'S SINS.</i></h3> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> v.; ix. 8-x. 4 (735 <small>B.C.</small>).</p> + + +<p>The prophecy contained in these chapters belongs, +as we have seen, to the same early period of +Isaiah's career as chapters ii.-iv., about the time +when Ahaz ascended the throne after the long and +successful reigns of his father and grandfather, when +the kingdom of Judah seemed girt with strength and +filled with wealth, but the men were corrupt and +the women careless, and the earnest of approaching +judgement was already given in the incapacity of the +weak and woman-ridden king. Yet although this new +prophecy issues from the same circumstances as its predecessors, +it implies these circumstances a little more +developed. The same social evils are treated, but by a +hand with a firmer grasp of them. The same principles +are emphasized—the righteousness of Jehovah and +His activity in judgement—but the form of judgement +of which Isaiah had spoken before in general terms +looms nearer, and before the end of the prophecy we +get a view at close quarters of the Assyrian ranks.</p> + +<p>Besides, opposition has arisen to the prophet's teaching. +We saw that the obscurities and inconsistencies of +chapters ii.-iv. are due to the fact that that prophecy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span> +represents several stages of experience through which +Isaiah passed before he gained his final convictions. +But his countrymen, it appears, have now had time to +turn on these convictions and call them in question: it +is necessary for Isaiah to vindicate them. The difference, +then, between these two sets of prophecies, dealing +with the same things, is that in the former (chapters +ii.-iv.), we have the obscure and tortuous path of a +conviction struggling to light in the prophet's own +experience; here, in chapter v., we have its careful +array in the light and before the people.</p> + +<p>The point of Isaiah's teaching against which opposition +was directed was of course its main point, that God +was about to abandon Judah. This must have appeared +to the popular religion of the day as the rankest heresy. +To the Jews the honour of Jehovah was bound up with +the inviolability of Jerusalem and the prosperity of +Judah. But Isaiah knew Jehovah to be infinitely more +concerned for the purity of His people than for +their prosperity. He had seen the <span class="smcap">Lord</span> <i>exalted in +righteousness</i> above those national and earthly interests, +with which vulgar men exclusively identified His will. +Did the people appeal to the long time Jehovah had +graciously led them for proof that He would not +abandon them now? To Isaiah that gracious leading +was but for righteousness' sake, and that God might +make His own a holy people. Their history, so full +of the favours of the Almighty, did not teach Isaiah +as it did the common prophets of his time, the +lesson of Israel's political security, but the far different +one of their religious responsibility. To him it only +meant what Amos had already put in those startling +words, <i>You only have I known of all the families +of the earth: therefore I will visit upon you all your</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span> +<i>iniquities</i>. Now Isaiah delivered this doctrine at a time +when it brought him the hostility of men's passions +as well as of their opinions. Judah was arming for +war. Syria and Ephraim were marching upon her. +To threaten his country with ruin in such an hour +was to run the risk of suffering from popular fury as a +traitor as well as from priestly prejudice as a heretic. +The strain of the moment is felt in the strenuousness +of the prophecy. Chapter v., with its appendix, +exhibits more grasp and method than its predecessors. +Its literary form is finished, its feeling clear. There is +a tenderness in the beginning of it, an inexorableness in +the end and an eagerness all through, which stamp the +chapter as Isaiah's final appeal to his countrymen at +this period of his career.</p> + +<p>The chapter is a noble piece of patriotism—one of the +noblest of a race who, although for the greater part of +their history without a fatherland, have contributed +more brilliantly than perhaps any other to the literature +of patriotism, and that simply because, as Isaiah here +illustrates, patriotism was to their prophets identical with +religious privilege and responsibility. Isaiah carries this +to its bitter end. Other patriots have wept to sing their +country's woes; Isaiah's burden is his people's guilt. +To others an invasion of their fatherland by its enemies +has been the motive to rouse by song or speech their +countrymen to repel it. Isaiah also hears the tramp of +the invader; but to him is permitted no ardour of +defence, and his message to his countrymen is that they +must succumb, for the invasion is irresistible and of the +very judgement of God. How much it cost the prophet +to deliver such a message we may see from those few +verses of it in which his heart is not altogether silenced +by his conscience. The sweet description of Judah as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span> +a vineyard, and the touching accents that break through +the roll of denunciation with such phrases as <i>My +people are gone away into captivity unawares</i>, tell us how +the prophet's love of country is struggling with his duty +to a righteous God. The course of feeling throughout +the prophecy is very striking. The tenderness of +the opening lyric seems ready to flow into gentle +pleading with the whole people. But as the prophet +turns to particular classes and their sins his mood +changes to indignation, the voice settles down to judgement; +till when it issues upon that clear statement +of the coming of the Northern hosts every trace of +emotion has left it, and the sentences ring out as +unfaltering as the tramp of the armies they describe.</p> + + +<p class="center">I. <span class="smcap">The Parable of the Vineyard</span> (v. 1-7).</p> + +<p>Isaiah adopts the resource of every misunderstood and +unpopular teacher, and seeks to turn the flank of his +people's prejudices by an attack in parable on their +sympathies. Did they stubbornly believe it impossible +for God to abandon a State He had so long and so +carefully fostered? Let them judge from an analogous +case in which they were all experts. In a picture of +great beauty Isaiah describes a vineyard upon one of +the sunny promontories visible from Jerusalem. Every +care had been given it of which an experienced vine-dresser +could think, but it brought forth only wild +grapes. The vine-dresser himself is introduced, and +appeals to the men of Judah and Jerusalem to judge +between him and his vineyard. He gets their assent +that all had been done which could be done, and +fortified with that resolves to abandon the vineyard. +<i>I will lay it waste; it shall not be pruned nor digged, +but there shall come up briers and thorns.</i> Then the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span> +stratagem comes out, the speaker drops the tones of a +human cultivator, and in the omnipotence of the Lord +of heaven he is heard to say, <i>I will also command the +clouds that they rain no rain upon it</i>. This diversion +upon their sympathies having succeeded, the prophet +scarcely needs to charge the people's prejudices in face. +His point has been evidently carried. <i>For the vineyard +of Jehovah of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of +Judah his pleasant plant; and He looked for judgement, but +behold oppression, for righteousness, but behold a cry.</i></p> + +<p>The lesson enforced by Isaiah is just this, that in a +people's civilization there lie the deepest responsibilities, +for that is neither more nor less than their cultivation +by God; and the question for a people is not how secure +does this render them, nor what does it count for glory, +but how far is it rising towards the intentions of its +Author? Does it produce those fruits of righteousness +for which alone God cares to set apart and cultivate +the peoples? On this depends the question whether +the civilization is secure, as well as the right of the +people to enjoy and feel proud of it. There cannot +be true patriotism without sensitiveness to this, for +however rich be the elements that compose the patriot's +temper, as piety towards the past, ardour of service for +the present, love of liberty, delight in natural beauty +and gratitude for Divine favour, so rich a temper will +grow rancid without the salt of conscience; and the +richer the temper is, the greater must be the proportion +of that salt. All prophets and poets of patriotism have +been moralists and satirists as well. From Demosthenes +to Tourgenieff, from Dante to Mazzini, from Milton to +Russell Lowell, from Burns to Heine, one cannot recall +any great patriot who has not known how to use the +scourge as well as the trumpet. Many opportunities<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span> +will present themselves to us of illustrating Isaiah's +orations by the letters and speeches of Cromwell, who +of moderns most resembles the statesman-prophet of +Judah; but nowhere does the resemblance become so +close as when we lay a prophecy like this of Jehovah's +vineyard by the side of the speeches in which the Lord +Protector exhorted the Commons of England, although +it was the hour of his and their triumph, to address +themselves to their sins.</p> + +<p>So, then, the patriotism of all great men has carried +a conscience for their country's sins. But while this +is always more or less a burden to the true patriot, +there are certain periods in which his care for his +country ought to be this predominantly, and need be +little else. In a period like our own, for instance, +of political security and fashionable religion, what need +is there in patriotic displays of any other kind? but +how much for patriotism of this kind—of men who will +uncover the secret sins, however loathsome, and declare +the hypocrisies, however powerful, of the social life of +the people! These are the patriots we need in times +of peace; and as it is more difficult to rouse a torpid +people to their sins than to lead a roused one against +their enemies, and harder to face a whole people with +the support only of conscience than to defy many +nations if you but have your own at your back, so +these patriots of peace are more to be honoured than +those of war. But there is one kind of patriotism +more arduous and honourable still. It is that which +Isaiah displays here, who cannot add to his conscience +hope or even pity, who must hail his country's enemies +for his country's good, and recite the long roll of God's +favours to his nation only to emphasize the justice of +His abandonment of them.</p> + + +<p class="center"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span>II. <span class="smcap">The Wild Grapes of Judah</span> (v. 8-24).</p> + +<p>The <i>wild grapes</i> which Isaiah saw in the vineyard of +the Lord he catalogues in a series of Woes (vv. 8-24), +fruits all of them of love of money and love of wine. +They are abuse of the soil (8-10, 17<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a>), a giddy +luxury which has taken to drink (11-16), a moral +blindness and headlong audacity of sin which habitual +avarice and drunkenness soon develop (18-21), +and, again, a greed of drink and money—men's +perversion of their strength to wine, and of their +opportunities of justice to the taking of bribes (22-24). +These are the features of corrupt civilization not only +in Judah, and the voice that deplores them cannot +speak without rousing others very clamant to the +modern conscience. It is with remarkable persistence +that in every civilization the two main +passions of the human heart, love of wealth and love +of pleasure, the instinct to gather and the instinct +to squander, have sought precisely these two forms +denounced by Isaiah in which to work their social +havoc—appropriation of the soil and indulgence in +strong drink. Every civilized community develops +sooner or later its land-question and its liquor-question. +"Questions" they are called by the superficial +opinion that all difficulties may be overcome by the +cleverness of men; yet problems through which there +cries for remedy so vast a proportion of our poverty, +crime and madness, are something worse than "questions." +They are huge sins, and require not merely +the statesman's wit, but all the penitence and zeal of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span> +which a nation's conscience is capable. It is in this +that the force of Isaiah's treatment lies. We feel he is +not facing questions of State, but sins of men. He has +nothing to tell us of what he considers the best system +of land tenure, but he enforces the principle that in +the ease with which land may be absorbed by one +person the natural covetousness of the human heart +has a terrible opportunity for working ruin upon +society. <i>Woe unto them that join house to house, that +lay field to field, till there be no room, and ye be made +to dwell alone in the midst of the land.</i> We know from +Micah that the actual process which Isaiah condemns +was carried out with the most cruel evictions and disinheritances. +Isaiah does not touch on its methods, +but exposes its effects on the country—depopulation +and barrenness,—and emphasizes its religious significance. +<i>Of a truth many houses shall be desolate, even +great and fair, without an inhabitant. For ten acres of +vineyard shall yield one bath, and a homer of seed shall +yield but an ephah....</i> <i>Then shall lambs feed as in +their pasture, and strangers shall devour the ruins of +the fat ones</i>—<i>i.e.</i>, of the luxurious landowners (9, 10, +17. See note on previous page). And in one of those +elliptic statements by which he often startles us with +the sudden sense that God Himself is acquainted with +all our affairs, and takes His own interest in them, +Isaiah adds, "All this was whispered to me by Jehovah: +<i>In mine ears—the <span class="smcap">Lord</span> of hosts</i>" (ver. 9).</p> + +<p>During recent agitations in our own country one has +often seen the "land laws of the Bible" held forth by +some thoughtless demagogue as models for land +tenure among ourselves; as if a system which worked +well with a small tribe in a land they had all entered +on equal footing, and where there was no opportunity<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span> +for the industry of the people except in pasture +and tillage, could possibly be applicable to a vastly +larger and more complex population, with different +traditions and very different social circumstances. +Isaiah says nothing about the peculiar land <i>laws</i> +of his people. He lays down principles, and these +are principles valid in every civilization. God has +made the land, not to feed the pride of the few, but +the natural hunger of the many, and it is His will that +the most be got out of a country's soil for the people +of the country. Whatever be the system of land-tenure—and +while all are more or less liable to abuse, +it is the duty of a people to agitate for that which will +be least liable—if it is taken advantage of by individuals +to satisfy their own cupidity, then God will +take account of them. There is a responsibility which +the State cannot enforce, and the neglect of which +cannot be punished by any earthly law, but all the more +will God see to it. A nation's treatment of their land +is not always prominent as a question which demands +the attention of public reformers; but it ceaselessly +has interest for God, who ever holds individuals to +answer for it. The land-question is ultimately a +religious question. For the management of their land +the whole nation is responsible to God, but especially +those who own or manage estates. This is a sacred +office. When one not only remembers the nature of +land—how it is an element of life, so that if a man abuse +the soil it is as if he poisoned the air or darkened the +heavens—but appreciates also the multitude of personal +relations which the landowner or factor holds in his +hand—the peace of homes, the continuity of local +traditions, the physical health, the social fearlessness and +frankness, and the thousand delicate associations which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span> +their habitations entwine about the hearts of men—one +feels that to all who possess or manage land is granted +an opportunity of patriotism and piety open to few, a +ministry less honourable and sacred than none other +committed by God to man for his fellow-men.</p> + +<p>After the land-sin Isaiah hurls his second Woe upon +the drink-sin, and it is a heavier woe than the first. +With fatal persistence the luxury of every civilization +has taken to drink; and of all the indictments brought +by moralists against nations, that which they reserve +for drunkenness is, as here, the most heavily weighted. +The crusade against drink is not the novel thing that +many imagine who observe only its late revival among +ourselves. In ancient times there was scarcely a State +in which prohibitive legislation of the most stringent +kind was not attempted, and generally carried out with +a thoroughness more possible under despots than +where, as with us, the slow consent of public opinion +is necessary. A horror of strong drink has in every +age possessed those who from their position as +magistrates or prophets have been able to follow for +any distance the drifts of social life. Isaiah exposes as +powerfully as ever any of them did in what the peculiar +fatality of drinking lies. Wine is a mocker by nothing +more than by the moral incredulity which it produces, +enabling men to hide from themselves the spiritual and +material effects of over-indulgence in it. No one who +has had to do with persons slowly falling from moderate +to immoderate drinking can mistake Isaiah's meaning +when he says, <i>They regard not the work of the <span class="smcap">Lord</span>; +neither have they considered the operation of His hands</i>. +Nothing kills the conscience like steady drinking to +a little excess; and religion, even while the conscience +is alive, acts on it only as an opiate. It is not, however,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span> +with the symptoms of drink in individuals so +much as with its aggregate effects on the nation that +Isaiah is concerned. So prevalent is excessive drinking, +so entwined with the social customs of the country +and many powerful interests, that it is extremely +difficult to rouse public opinion to its effects. And <i>so +they go into captivity for lack of knowledge</i>. Temperance +reformers are often blamed for the strength of their language, +but they may shelter themselves behind Isaiah. +As he pictures it, the national destruction caused by +drink is complete. It is nothing less than the people's +<i>captivity</i>, and we know what that meant to an Israelite. +It affects all classes: <i>Their honourable men are famished, +and their multitude parched with thirst.... The mean +man is bowed down, and the great man is humbled.</i> But +the want and ruin of this earth are not enough to +describe it. The appetite of hell itself has to be +enlarged to suffice for the consumption of the spoils of +strong drink. <i>Therefore hell hath enlarged her desire +and opened her mouth without measure; and their glory, +and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth +among them, descend into it.</i> The very appetite of hell +has to be enlarged! Does it not truly seem as if the +wild and wanton waste of drink were preventable, +as if it were not, as many are ready to sneer, the +inevitable evil of men's hearts choosing this form of +issue, but a superfluous audacity of sin, which the +devil himself did not desire or tempt men to? It is +this feeling of the infernal gratuitousness of most of +the drink-evil—the conviction that here hell would +be quiet if only she were not stirred up by the +extraordinarily wanton provocatives that society and +the State offer to excessive drinking—which compels +temperance reformers at the present day to isolate<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span> +drunkenness and make it the object of a special crusade. +Isaiah's strong figure has lost none of its strength +to-day. When our judges tell us from the bench that +nine-tenths of pauperism and crime are caused by +drink, and our physicians that if only irregular tippling +were abolished half the current sickness of the land would +cease, and our statesmen that the ravages of strong +drink are equal to those of the historical scourges of war, +famine and pestilence combined, surely to swallow such +a glut of spoil <i>the appetite of hell must have been</i> still +more enlarged, <i>and the mouth of hell made</i> yet <i>wider</i>.</p> + +<p>The next three Woes are upon different aggravations +of that moral perversity which the prophet has already +traced to strong drink. In the first of these it is better +to read, <i>draw punishment near with cords of vanity</i>, than +<i>draw iniquity</i>. Then we have a striking antithesis—the +drunkards mocking Isaiah over their cups with the +challenge, as if it would not be taken up, <i>Let Jehovah +make speed, and hasten His work of judgement, that we may +see it</i>, while all the time they themselves were dragging +that judgement near, <i>as with cart-ropes</i>, by their persistent +diligence in evil. This figure of sinners jeering +at the approach of a calamity while they actually wear the +harness of its carriage is very striking. But the Jews +are not only unconscious of judgement, they are confused +as to the very principles of morality: <i>Who call evil good, +and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for +darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!</i></p> + +<p>In his fifth Woe the prophet attacks a disposition +to which his scorn gives no peace throughout his ministry. +If these sensualists had only confined themselves +to their sensuality they might have been left alone; +but with that intellectual bravado which is equally +born with "Dutch courage" of drink, they interfered in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span> +the conduct of the State, and prepared arrogant policies +of alliance and war that were the distress of the sober-minded +prophet all his days. <i>Woe unto them that are +wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight.</i></p> + +<p>In his last Woe Isaiah returns to the drinking habits +of the upper classes, from which it would appear that +among the judges even of Judah there were "six-bottle +men." They sustained their extravagance by +subsidies, which we trust were unknown to the mighty +men of wine who once filled the seats of justice in our +own country. <i>They justify the wicked for a bribe, and +take away the righteousness of the righteous from him.</i> +All these sinners, dead through their rejection of the +law of Jehovah of hosts and the word of the Holy +One of Israel, shall be like to the stubble, fit only +for burning, and their blossom as the dust of the +rotten tree.</p> + + +<p class="center">III. <span class="smcap">The Anger of the Lord</span> (v. 25; ix. 8-x. 4; +v. 26-30).</p> + +<p>This indictment of the various sins of the people +occupies the whole of the second part of the +oration. But a third part is now added, in which +the prophet catalogues the judgements of the Lord +upon them, each of these closing with the weird +refrain, <i>For all this His anger is not turned away, +but His hand is stretched out still</i>. The complete +catalogue is usually obtained by inserting between +the 25th and 26th verses of chapter v. the long +passage from chapter ix., ver. 8, to chapter x., ver. 4. +It is quite true that as far as chapter v. itself is concerned +it does not need this insertion; but ix. 8-x. 4 +is decidedly out of place where it now lies. Its +paragraphs end with the same refrain as closes v. 25,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span> +which forms, besides, a natural introduction to them, +while v. 26-30 form as natural a conclusion. The +latter verses describe an Assyrian invasion, and it was +always in an Assyrian invasion that Isaiah foresaw the +final calamity of Judah. We may, then, subject to +further light on the exceedingly obscure subject of the +arrangement of Isaiah's prophecies, follow some of +the leading critics, and place ix. 8-x. 4 between verses +25-26 of chapter v.; and the more we examine them +the more we shall be satisfied with our arrangement, +for strung together in this order they form one of the +most impressive series of scenes which even an Isaiah +has given us.</p> + +<p>From these scenes Isaiah has spared nothing that +is terrible in history or nature, and it is not one of +the least of the arguments for putting them together +that their intensity increases to a climax. Earthquakes, +armed raids, a great battle and the slaughter +of a people; prairie and forest fires, civil strife and +the famine fever, that feeds upon itself; another battle-field, +with its cringing groups of captives and heaps +of slain; the resistless tide of a great invasion; and +then, for final prospect, a desolate land by the sound +of a hungry sea, and the light is darkened in the +clouds thereof. The elements of nature and the +elemental passions of man have been let loose together; +and we follow the violent floods, remembering +that it is sin which has burst the gates of the +universe, and given the tides of hell full course through +it. Over the storm and battle there comes booming like +the storm-bell the awful refrain, <i>For all this His anger +is not turned away, but His hand is stretched out still.</i> +It is poetry of the highest order, but in him who reads +it with a conscience mere literary sensations are<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span> +sobered by the awe of some of the most profound +moral phenomena of life. The persistence of Divine +wrath, the long-lingering effects of sin in a nation's +history, man's abuse of sorrow and his defiance of an +angry Providence, are the elements of this great drama. +Those who are familiar with <i>King Lear</i>, will recognize +these elements, and observe how similarly the +ways of Providence and the conduct of men are +represented there and here.</p> + +<p>What Isaiah unfolds, then, is a series of calamities +that have overtaken the people of Israel. It is impossible +for us to identify every one of them with a +particular event in Israel's history otherwise known to +us. Some it is not difficult to recognize; but the +prophet passes in a perplexing way from Judah to +Ephraim and Ephraim to Judah, and in one case, +where he represents Samaria as attacked by Syria +and the Philistines, he goes back to a period at +some distance from his own. There are also passages, +as for instance x. 1-4, in which we are unable to +decide whether he describes a present punishment or +threatens a future one. But his moral purpose, at +least, is plain. He will show how often Jehovah has +already spoken to His people by calamity, and because +they have remained hardened under these warnings, +how there now remains possible only the last, +worst blow of an Assyrian invasion. Isaiah is +justifying his threat of so unprecedented and extreme +a punishment for God's people as overthrow by this +Northern people, who had just appeared upon Judah's +political horizon. God, he tells Israel, has tried everything +short of this, and it has failed; now only this +remains, and this shall not fail. The prophet's purpose, +therefore, being not an accurate historical recital, but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span> +moral impressiveness, he gives us a more or less ideal +description of former calamities, mentioning only so +much as to allow us to recognize here and there that +it is actual facts which he uses for his purpose of condemning +Israel to captivity, and vindicating Israel's +God in bringing that captivity near. The passage thus +forms a parallel to that in Amos, with its similar +refrain: <i>Yet ye have not returned unto Me, saith the +Lord</i> (Amos iv. 6-12), and only goes farther than +that earlier prophecy in indicating that the instruments +of the Lord's final judgement are to be the Assyrians.</p> + +<p>Five great calamities, says Isaiah, have fallen on +Israel and left them hardened: 1st, earthquake (v. +25); 2nd, loss of territory (ix. 8-12); 3rd, war and a +decisive defeat (ix. 13-17); 4th, internal anarchy (ix. +18-21); 5th, the near prospect of captivity (x. 1-4).</p> + +<p>1. <span class="smcap">The Earthquake</span> (v. 25).—Amos closes his +series with an earthquake; Isaiah begins with one. It +may be the same convulsion they describe, or may not. +Although the skirts of Palestine both to the east and +west frequently tremble to these disturbances, an +earthquake in Palestine itself, up on the high central +ridge of the land, is very rare. Isaiah vividly describes +its awful simplicity and suddenness. <i>The Lord +stretched forth His hand and smote, and the hills shook, +and their carcases were like offal in the midst of the +streets.</i> More words are not needed, because there was +nothing more to describe. The Lord lifted His hand; +the hills seemed for a moment to topple over, and when +the living recovered from the shock there lay the +dead, flung like refuse about the streets.</p> + +<p>2. <span class="smcap">The Loss of Territory</span> (ix. 8-21).—So awful +a calamity, in which the dying did not die out of sight +nor fall huddled together on some far off battle-field, but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span> +the whole land was strewn with her slain, ought to have +left indelible impression on the people. But it did not. +The Lord's own word had been in it for Jacob and +Israel (ix. 8), <i>that the people might know, even Ephraim +and the inhabitants of Samaria</i>. But unhumbled they +turned in the stoutness of their hearts, saying, when +the earthquake had passed:<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> <i>The bricks are fallen, but we +will build with hewn stones;<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> the sycomores are cut down, +but we will change them into cedars</i>. Calamity did not +make this people thoughtful; they felt God only to +endeavour to forget Him. Therefore He visited them +the second time. They did not feel the Lord shaking their +land, so He sent their enemies to steal it from them: +<i>the Syrians before and the Philistines behind; and they +devour Israel with open mouth</i>. What that had been for +appalling suddenness this was for lingering and harassing—guerilla +warfare, armed raids, the land eaten away +bit by bit. <i>Yet the people do not return unto Him +that smote them, neither seek they the <span class="smcap">Lord</span> of hosts.</i></p> + +<p>3. <span class="smcap">War and Defeat</span> (ix. 13-17).—The next consequent +calamity passed from the land to the people +themselves. A great battle is described, in which the +nation is dismembered in one day. War and its horrors +are told, and the apparent want of Divine pity and +discrimination which they imply is explained. Israel +has been led into these disasters by the folly of their +leaders, whom Isaiah therefore singles out for blame. +<i>For they that lead these people cause them to err, and they +that are led of them are destroyed.</i> But the real horror<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span> +of war is that it falls not upon its authors, that its +victims are not statesmen, but the beauty of a country's +youth, the helplessness of the widow and orphan. +Some question seems to have been stirred by this in +Isaiah's heart. He asks, Why does the Lord not +rejoice in the young men of His people? Why has He +no pity for widow and orphan, that He thus sacrifices +them to the sin of the rulers? It is because the +whole nation shares the ruler's guilt; <i>every one is an +hypocrite and an evil-doer, and every mouth speaketh +folly</i>. As ruler so people, is a truth Isaiah frequently +asserts, but never with such grimness as here. War +brings out, as nothing else does, the solidarity of a +people in guilt.</p> + +<p>4. <span class="smcap">Internal Anarchy</span> (ix. 18-21).—Even yet the +people did not repent; their calamities only drove them +to further wickedness. The prophet's eyes are opened +to the awful fact that God's wrath is but the blast that +fans men's hot sins to flame. This is one of those two +or three awful scenes in history, in the conflagration +of which we cannot tell what is human sin and what +Divine judgement. There is a panic wickedness, +sin spreading like mania, as if men were possessed +by supernatural powers. The physical metaphors +of the prophet are evident: a forest or prairie fire, +and the consequent famine, whose fevered victims +feed upon themselves. And no less evident are the +political facts which the prophet employs these metaphors +to describe. It is the anarchy which has beset +more than one corrupt and unfortunate people, when their +misleaders have been overthrown: the anarchy in which +each faction seeks to slaughter out the rest. Jealousy +and distrust awake the lust for blood, rage seizes the +people as fire the forest, <i>and no man spareth his</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span> +<i>brother</i>. We have had modern instances of all this; +these scenes form a true description of some days of the +French Revolution, and are even a truer description of +the civil war that broke out in Paris after her late +siege.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i0">"If that the heavens do not their visible spirits</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Send quickly down to tame these vile offences,</span><br /> +<span class="i0">'T will come,</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Humanity must perforce prey on itself</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Like monsters of the deep."<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></span><br /> +</div> + +<p>5. <span class="smcap">The Threat of Captivity</span> (x. 1-4).—Turning +now from the past, and from the fate of Samaria, with +which it would appear he has been more particularly +engaged, the prophet addresses his own countrymen in +Judah, and paints the future for them. It is not a +future in which there is any hope. The day of their +visitation also will surely come, and the prophet sees +it close in the darkest night of which a Jewish heart +could think—the night of captivity. Where, he asks +his unjust countrymen—where <i>will ye then flee for +help? and where will you leave your glory</i>? Cringing +among the captives, lying dead beneath heaps of dead—that +is to be your fate, who will have turned so +often and then so finally from God. When exactly +the prophet thus warned his countrymen of captivity +we do not know, but the warning, though so real, +produced neither penitence in men nor pity in God. +<i>For all this His anger is not turned away, but His hand +is stretched out still.</i></p> + +<p>6. <span class="smcap">The Assyrian Invasion</span> (v. 26-30).—The prophet +is, therefore, free to explain that cloud which has +appeared far away on the northern horizon. God's hand +of judgement is still uplifted over Judah, and it is that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span> +hand which summons the cloud. The Assyrians are +coming in answer to God's signal, and they are coming +as a flood, to leave nothing but ruin and distress behind +them. No description by Isaiah is more majestic than +this one, in which Jehovah, who has exhausted every +nearer means of converting His people, lifts His undrooping +arm with a <i>flag to the nations that are far off, +and hisses</i> or whistles <i>for them from the end of the earth</i>. +<i>And, behold, they come with speed, swiftly: there is no +weary one nor straggler among them; none slumbers nor +sleeps; nor loosed is the girdle of his loins, nor broken +the latchet of his shoes; whose arrows are sharpened, +and all their bows bent; their horses' hoofs are like the flint, +and their wheels like the whirlwind; a roar have they like +the lion's, and they roar like young lions; yea, they growl +and grasp the prey, and carry it off, and there is none to +deliver. And they growl upon him that day like the growling +of the sea; and if one looks to the land, behold, dark and +distress, and the light is darkened in the cloudy heaven.</i></p> + +<p>Thus Isaiah leaves Judah to await her doom. But +the tones of his weird refrain awaken in our hearts +some thoughts which will not let his message go from +us just yet.</p> + +<p>It will ever be a question, whether men abuse more +their sorrows or their joys; but no earnest soul can +doubt, which of these abuses is the more fatal. To sin +in the one case is to yield to a temptation; to sin in the +other is to resist a Divine grace. Sorrow is God's last +message to man; it is God speaking in emphasis. He +who abuses it shows that he can shut his ears when God +speaks loudest. Therefore heartlessness or impenitence +after sorrow is more dangerous than intemperance in joy; +its results are always more tragic. Now Isaiah points +out that men's abuse of sorrow is twofold. Men abuse<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span> +sorrow by mistaking it, and they abuse sorrow by +defying it.</p> + +<p>Men abuse sorrow by mistaking it, when they see in +it nothing but a penal or expiatory force. To many men +sorrow is what his devotions were to Louis XI., which +having religiously performed, he felt the more brave to +sin. So with the Samaritans, who said in the stoutness +of their hearts, <i>The bricks are fallen down, but we will +build with hewn stones; the sycomores are cut down, but +we will change them into cedars.</i> To speak in this way is +happy, but heathenish. It is to call sorrow "bad luck;" +it is to hear no voice of God in it, saying, "Be pure; +be humble; lean upon Me." This disposition springs +from a vulgar conception of God, as of a Being of no +permanence in character, easily irritated but relieved +by a burst of passion, smartly punishing His people and +then leaving them to themselves. It is a temper which +says, "God is angry, let us wait a little; God is +appeased, let us go ahead again." Over against such +vulgar views of a Deity with a temper Isaiah unveils +the awful majesty of God in holy wrath: <i>For all this +His anger is not turned away, but His hand is stretched +out still</i>. How grim and savage does it appear to our +eyes till we understand the thoughts of the sinners to +whom it was revealed! God cannot dispel the cowardly +thought, that He is anxious only to punish, except by +letting His heavy hand abide till it purify also. The +permanence of God's wrath is thus an ennobling, not +a stupefying doctrine.</p> + +<p>Men also abuse sorrow by defying it, but the end of +this is madness. "It forms the greater part of the tragedy +of <i>King Lear</i>, that the aged monarch, though he has +given his throne away, retains his imperiousness of +heart, and continues to exhibit a senseless, if sometimes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span> +picturesque, pride and selfishness in face of misfortune. +Even when he is overthrown he must still command; +he fights against the very elements; he is determined to +be at least the master of his own sufferings and destiny. +But for this the necessary powers fail him; his life thus +disordered terminates in madness. It was only by such +an affliction that a character like his could be brought +to repentance, ... to humility, which is the parent of +true love, and that love in him could be purified. Hence +the melancholy close of that tragedy."<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> As Shakespeare +has dealt with the king, so Isaiah with the people; he +also shows us sorrow when it is defied bringing forth +madness. On so impious a height man's brain grows +dizzy, and he falls into that terrible abyss which is +not, as some imagine, hell, but God's last purgatory. +Shakespeare brings shattered Lear out of it, and Isaiah +has a remnant of the people to save.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER IV.</h2> + +<h3><i>ISAIAH'S CALL AND CONSECRATION.</i></h3> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> vi. (740 <span class="smcap"><small>B.C.</small></span>; <span class="smcap">WRITTEN</span> 735? <span class="smcap">OR</span> 725?).</p> + + +<p>It has been already remarked that in chapter vi. we +should find no other truths than those which +have been unfolded in chapters ii.-v.: the Lord exalted +in righteousness, the coming of a terrible judgement +from Him upon Judah, and the survival of a bare +remnant of the people. But chapter vi. treats the +same subjects with a difference. In chapters ii.-iv. +they gradually appear and grow to clearness in connection +with the circumstances of Judah's history; in +chapter v. they are formally and rhetorically vindicated; +in chapter vi. we are led back to the secret and solemn +moments of their first inspiration in the prophet's own +soul. It may be asked why chapter vi. comes last and +not first in this series, and why in an exposition, +attempting to deal, as far as possible, chronologically +with Isaiah's prophecies, his call should not form the +subject of the first chapter. The answer is simple, +and throws a flood of light upon the chapter. In +all probability chapter vi. was written after its +predecessors, and what Isaiah has put into it is not +only what happened in the earliest moments of his +prophetic life, but that spelt out and emphasized by his +experience since. The ideal character of the narrative,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span> +and its date some years after the events which it relates, +are now generally admitted. Of course the narrative +is all fact. No one will believe that he, whose glance +penetrated with such keenness the character of men and +movements, looked with dimmer eye into his own heart. +It is the spiritual process which the prophet actually +passed through before the opening of his ministry. +But it is that, developed by subsequent experience, and +presented to us in the language of outward vision. +Isaiah had been some years a prophet, long enough to +make clear that prophecy was not to be for him what +it had been for his predecessors in Israel, a series of +detached inspirations and occasional missions, with +short responsibilities, but a work for life, a profession +and a career, with all that this means of postponement, +failure, and fluctuation of popular feeling. Success had +not come so rapidly as the prophet in his original +enthusiasm had looked for, and his preaching had +effected little upon the people. Therefore he would go +back to the beginning, remind himself of that to which +God had really called him, and vindicate the results of +his ministry, at which people scoffed and his own heart +grew sometimes sick. In chapter vi. Isaiah acts as his +own remembrancer. If we keep in mind, that this +chapter, describing Isaiah's call and consecration to the +prophetic office, was written by a man who felt that +office to be the burden of a lifetime, and who had to +explain its nature and vindicate its results to his own +soul—grown somewhat uncertain, it may be, of her +original inspiration—we shall find light upon features +of the chapter that are otherwise most obscure.</p> + + +<p class="center">1. <span class="smcap">The Vision</span> (vv. 1-4).</p> + +<p>Several years, then, Isaiah looks back and says, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span><i>In +the year King Uzziah died.</i> There is more than a +date given here; there is a great contrast suggested. +Prophecy does not chronicle by time, but by experiences, +and we have here, as it seems, the cardinal experience +of a prophet's life.</p> + +<p>All men knew of that glorious reign with the ghastly +end—fifty years of royalty, and then a lazar-house. +There had been no king like this one since Solomon; +never, since the son of David brought the Queen of +Sheba to his feet, had the national pride stood so high +or the nation's dream of sovereignty touched such +remote borders. The people's admiration invested +Uzziah with all the graces of the ideal monarch. The +chronicler of Judah tells us <i>that God helped him and +made him to prosper, and his name spread far abroad, and +he was marvellously helped till he was strong</i>; he with the +double name—Azariah, Jehovah-his-Helper; Uzziah, +Jehovah-his-Strength. How this glory fell upon the +fancy of the future prophet, and dyed it deep, we may +imagine from those marvellous colours, with which in +later years he painted the king in his beauty. Think +of the boy, the boy that was to be an Isaiah, the boy +with the germs of this great prophecy in his heart—think +of him and such a hero as this to shine upon him, +and we may conceive how his whole nature opened out +beneath that sun of royalty and absorbed its light.</p> + +<p>Suddenly the glory was eclipsed, and Jerusalem +learned that she had seen her king for the last time: +<i>The Lord smote the king so that he was a leper unto the +day of his death, and dwelt in a several house, and he +was cut off from the house of the Lord.</i> Uzziah +had gone into the temple, and attempted with his +own hands to burn incense. Under a later dispensation +of liberty he would have been applauded as a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span> +brave Protestant, vindicating the right of every worshipper +of God to approach Him without the intervention +of a special priesthood. Under the earlier +dispensation of law his act could be regarded only as +one of presumption, the expression of a worldly and +irreverent temper, which ignored the infinite distance +between God and man. It was followed, as sins of +wilfulness in religion were always followed under the +old covenant, by swift disaster. Uzziah suffered as +Saul, Uzzah, Nadab and Abihu did. The wrath, with +which he burst out on the opposing priests, brought on, +or made evident as it is believed to have done in other +cases, an attack of leprosy. The white spot stood out +unmistakeably from the flushed forehead, and he was +thrust from the temple—<i>yea, himself also hasted to go out</i>.</p> + +<p>We can imagine how such a judgement, the moral of +which must have been plain to all, affected the most +sensitive heart in Jerusalem. Isaiah's imagination was +darkened, but he tells us that the crisis was the enfranchisement +of his faith. <i>In the year King Uzziah died</i>—it +is as if a veil had dropped, and the prophet saw beyond +what it had hidden, <i>the Lord sitting on a throne +high and lifted up</i>. That it is no mere date Isaiah +means, but a spiritual contrast which he is anxious to +impress upon us, is made clear by his emphasis of the +rank and not the name of God. It is <i>the Lord sitting +upon a throne—the Lord</i> absolutely, set over against the +human prince. The simple antithesis seems to speak +of the passing away of the young man's hero-worship +and the dawn of his faith; and so interpreted, this first +verse of chapter vi. is only a concise summary of that +development of religious experience which we have +traced through chapters ii.-iv. Had Isaiah ever +been subject to the religious temper of his time, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span> +careless optimism of a prosperous and proud people, +who entered upon their religious services without awe, +<i>trampling the courts of the Lord</i>, and used them like +Uzziah, for their <i>own honour</i>, who felt religion to be +an easy thing, and dismissed from it all thoughts of +judgement and feelings of penitence—if ever Isaiah had +been subject to that temper, then once for all he was +redeemed by this stroke upon Uzziah. And, as we +have seen, there is every reason to believe that Isaiah +did at first share the too easy public religion of his +youth. That early vision of his (ii. 2-5), the establishment +of Israel at the head of the nations, to be +immediately attained at his own word (v. 5) and without +preliminary purification, was it not simply a less +gross form of the king's own religious presumption? +Uzziah's fatal act was the expression of the besetting +sin of his people, and in that sin Isaiah himself had been +a partaker. <i>I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in +the midst of a people of unclean lips.</i> In the person +of their monarch the temper of the whole Jewish +nation had come to judgement. Seeking the ends of +religion by his own way, and ignoring the way God +had appointed, Uzziah at the very moment of his insistence +was hurled back and stamped unclean. The +prophet's eyes were opened. The king sank into a +leper's grave, but before Isaiah's vision the Divine +majesty arose in all its loftiness. <i>I saw the Lord high +and lifted up.</i> We already know what Isaiah means +by these terms. He has used them of God's supremacy +in righteousness above the low moral standards of men, +of God's occupation of a far higher throne than that of +the national deity of Judah, of God's infinite superiority +to Israel's vulgar identification of His purposes with +her material prosperity or His honour with the compromises<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span> +of her politics, and especially of God's seat as +their Judge over a people, who sought in their religion +only satisfaction for their pride and love of ease.</p> + +<p>From this contrast the whole vision expands as +follows.</p> + +<p>Under the mistaken idea that what Isaiah describes +is the temple in Jerusalem, it has been remarked, that +the place of his vision is wonderful in the case of one +who set so little store by ceremonial worship. This, +however, to which our prophet looks is no house +built with hands, but Jehovah's own heavenly <i>palace</i> +(ver. 1—not <i>temple</i>); only Isaiah describes it in terms +of the Jerusalem temple which was its symbol. It was +natural that the temple should furnish Isaiah not only +with the framework of his vision, but also with the +platform from which he saw it. For it was in the temple +that Uzziah's sin was sinned and God's holiness vindicated +upon him. It was in the temple that, when +Isaiah beheld the scrupulous religiousness of the people, +the contrast of that with their evil lives struck him, and +he summed it up in the epigram <i>wickedness and worship</i> +(i. 13). It was in the temple, in short, that the +prophet's conscience had been most roused, and just +where the conscience is most roused there is the vision +of God to be expected. Very probably it was while +brooding over Uzziah's judgement on the scene of its +occurrence that Isaiah beheld his vision. Yet for all +the vision contained the temple itself was too narrow. +The truth which was to be revealed to Isaiah, the holiness +of God, demanded a wider stage and the breaking +down of those partitions, which, while they had been +designed to impress God's presence on the worshipper, +had only succeeded in veiling Him. So while the +seer keeps his station on the threshold of the earthly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span> +building, soon to feel it rock beneath his feet, as heaven's +praise bursts like thunder on the earth, and while his +immediate neighbourhood remains the same familiar +<i>house</i>, all beyond is glorified. The veil of the temple +falls away, and everything behind it. No ark nor +mercy-seat is visible, but a throne and a court—the +palace of God in heaven, as we have it also pictured +in the eleventh and twenty-ninth Psalms. The Royal +Presence is everywhere. Isaiah describes no face, only +a Presence and a Session: <i>the Lord sitting on a throne, +and His skirts filled the palace</i>.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i0">"No face; only the sight</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Of a sweepy garment vast and white</span><br /> +<span class="i0">With a hem that I could recognize."<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a></span><br /> +</div> + +<p><i>Around</i> (not <i>above</i>, as in the English version) were +ranged the hovering courtiers, of what shape and appearance +we know not, except that they veiled their faces +and their feet before the awful Holiness,—all wings +and voice, perfect readinesses of praise and service. +The prophet heard them chant in antiphon, like the +temple choirs of priests. And the one choir cried out, +<i>Holy, holy, holy is Jehovah of hosts</i>; and the other +responded, <i>The whole earth is full of His glory</i>.</p> + +<p>It is by the familiar name Jehovah of hosts—the proper +name of Israel's national God—that the prophet hears +the choirs of heaven address the Divine Presence. +But what they ascribe to the Deity is exactly what +Israel will not ascribe, and the revelation they make +of His nature is the contradiction of Israel's thoughts +concerning Him.</p> + +<p>What, in the first place, is <span class="smcap"><small>HOLINESS</small></span>? We attach +this term to a definite standard of morality or an unusually<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span> +impressive fulness of character. To our minds +it is associated with very positive forces, as of comfort +and conviction—perhaps because we take our ideas of +it from the active operations of the Holy Ghost. The +original force of the term <i>holiness</i>, however, was not +positive but negative, and throughout the Old Testament, +whatever modifications its meaning undergoes, it +retains a negative flavour. The Hebrew word for +holiness springs from a root which means <i>to set +apart, make distinct, put at a distance from</i>. When God +is described as the Holy One in the Old Testament it +is generally with the purpose of withdrawing Him from +some presumption of men upon His majesty or of +negativing their unworthy thoughts of Him. The Holy +One is the Incomparable: <i>To whom, then, will ye liken +Me, that I should be equal to him? saith the Holy One</i> +(xl. 25). He is the Unapproachable: <i>Who is able to +stand before Jehovah, this holy God?</i> (1 Sam. vi. 20). +He is the Utter Contrast of man: <i>I am God, and not +man, the Holy One in the midst of thee</i> (Hosea xi. 9). +He is the Exalted and Sublime: <i>Thus saith the high +and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is +Holy: I dwell in the high and holy place</i> (lvii. 15). +Generally speaking, then, holiness is equivalent to +separateness, sublimity—in fact, just to that loftiness +or exaltation which Isaiah has already so often +reiterated as the principal attribute of God. In their +thrice-repeated <i>Holy</i> the seraphs are only telling +more emphatically to the prophet's ears what his +eyes have already seen, <i>the Lord high and lifted up</i>. +Better expression could not be found for the full idea +of Godhead. This little word <i>Holy</i> radiates heaven's +own breadth of meaning. Within its fundamental idea—distance +or difference from man—what spaces are there<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span> +not for every attribute of Godhead to flash? If +the Holy One be originally He who is distinct from +man and man's thoughts, and who impresses man +from the beginning with the awful sublimity of the +contrast in which He stands to him, how naturally +may holiness come to cover not only that moral purity +and intolerance of sin to which we now more strictly +apply the term, but those metaphysical conceptions as +well, which we gather up under the name "supernatural," +and so finally, by lifting the Divine nature away from +the change and vanity of this world, and emphasizing +God's independence of all beside Himself, become the +fittest expression we have for Him as the Infinite +and Self-existent. Thus the word <i>holy</i> appeals in +turn to each of the three great faculties of man's nature, +by which he can be religiously exercised—his conscience, +his affections, his reason; it covers the impressions +which God makes on man as a sinner, on man as a +worshipper, on man as a thinker. The Holy One is +not only the Sinless and Sin-abhorring, but the Sublime +and the Absolute too.</p> + +<p>But while we recognize the exhaustiveness of the +series of ideas about the Divine Nature, which develop +from the root meaning of holiness, and to express +which the word <i>holy</i> is variously used throughout +the Scriptures, we must not, if we are to appreciate the +use of the word on this occasion, miss the motive of +recoil which starts them all. If we would hear what +Isaiah heard in the seraphs' song, we must distinguish in +the three-fold ascription of holiness the intensity of +recoil from the confused religious views and low moral +temper of the prophet's generation. It is no scholastic +definition of Deity which the seraphim are giving. +Not for a moment is it to be supposed that to that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span> +age, whose representative is listening to them, they are +attempting to convey an idea of the Trinity. Their +thrice-uttered <i>Holy</i> is not theological accuracy, but +religious emphasis. This angelic revelation of the +holiness of God was intended for a generation, some of +whom were idol-worshippers, confounding the Godhead +with the work of their own hands or with natural +objects, and none of whom were free from a confusion +in principle of the Divine with the human and worldly, +for which now sheer mental slovenliness, now a dull +moral sense, and now positive pride was to blame. +To worshippers who <i>trampled</i> the courts of the +Lord with the careless feet, and looked up the temple +with the unabashed faces, of routine, the cry of +the seraphs, as they veiled their faces and their feet, +travailed to restore that shuddering sense of the +sublimity of the Divine Presence, which in the impressible +youth of the race first impelled man, bowing +low beneath the awful heavens, to name God by the +name of the Holy. To men, again, careful of the +legal forms of worship, but lawless and careless in +their lives, the song of the seraphs revealed not the +hard truth, against which they had already rubbed +conscience trite, that God's law was inexorable, but the +fiery fact that His whole nature burned with wrath +towards sin. To men, once more, proud of their +prestige and material prosperity, and presuming in their +pride to take their own way with God, and to employ +like Uzziah the exercises of religion for their own +honour, this vision presented the real sovereignty of +God: the Lord Himself seated on a throne <i>there</i>—just +where they felt only a theatre for the display of their +pride, or machinery for the attainment of their +private ends. Thus did the three-fold cry of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span> +angels meet the three-fold sinfulness of that generation +of men.</p> + +<p>But the first line of the seraph's song serves more +than a temporary end. The Trisagion rings, and has +need to ring, for ever down the Church. Everywhere +and at all times these are the three besetting sins of +religious people—callousness in worship, carelessness +in life, and the temper which employs the forms of +religion simply for self-indulgence or self-aggrandisement. +These sins are induced by the same habit of +contentment with mere form; they can be corrected +only by the vision of the Personal Presence who is +behind all form. Our organization, ritual, law and +sacrament—we must be able to see them fall away, +as Isaiah saw the sanctuary itself disappear, before +God Himself, if we are to remain heartily moral and +fervently religious. The Church of God has to learn +that no mere multiplication of forms, nor a more +æsthetic arrangement of them, will redeem her worshippers +from callousness. Callousness is but the shell +which the feelings develop in self-defence when left by +the sluggish and impenetrative soul to beat upon the +hard outsides of form. And nothing will fuse this +shell of callousness but that ardent flame, which is +kindled at the touching of the Divine and human spirits, +when forms have fallen away and the soul beholds +with open face the Eternal Himself. As with worship, +so with morality. Holiness is secured not by ceremonial, +but by a reverence for a holy Being. We +shall rub our consciences trite against moral maxims +or religious rites. It is the effluence of a Presence, +which alone can create in us, and keep in us, a clean heart. +And if any object that we thus make light of ritual and +religious law, of Church and sacrament, the reply is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span> +obvious. Ritual and sacrament are to the living God +but as the wick of a candle to the light thereof. They +are given to reveal Him, and the process is not perfect +unless they themselves perish from the thoughts to +which they convey Him. If God is not felt to be +present, as Isaiah felt Him to be, to the exclusion of +all forms, then these will be certain to be employed, as +Uzziah employed them, for the sake of the only other +spiritual being of whom the worshipper is conscious—himself. +Unless we are able to forget our ritual in +spiritual communion with the very God, and to become +unconscious of our organization in devout consciousness +of our personal relation to Him, then ritual will be only +a means of sensuous indulgence, organization only a +machinery for selfish or sectarian ends. The vision +of God—this is the one thing needful for worship +and for conduct.</p> + +<p>But while the one verse of the antiphon reiterates +what Jehovah of hosts is in Himself, the other describes +what He is in revelation. <i>The whole earth is full of +His glory.</i> Glory is the correlative of holiness. Glory +is that in which holiness comes to expression. Glory +is the expression of holiness, as beauty is the expression +of health. If holiness be as deep as we have seen, so +varied then will glory be. There is nothing in the +earth but it is the glory of God. <i>The fulness of the +whole earth is His glory</i>, is the proper grammatical +rendering of the song. For Jehovah of hosts is not +the God only of Israel, but the Maker of heaven and +earth, and not the victory of Israel alone, but the +wealth and the beauty of all the world is His glory. +So universal an ascription of glory is the proper parallel +to that of absolute Godhead, which is implied in +holiness.</p> + + +<p class="center"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span>II. <span class="smcap">The Call</span> (vv. 4-8).</p> + +<p>Thus, then, Isaiah, standing on earth, on the place +of a great sin, with the conscience of his people's evil +in his heart, and himself not without the feeling of +guilt, looked into heaven, and beholding the glory of +God, heard also with what pure praise and readiness +of service the heavenly hosts surround His throne. +No wonder the prophet felt the polluted threshold rock +beneath him, or that as where fire and water mingle +there should be the rising of a great smoke. For the +smoke described is not, as some have imagined, that +of acceptable incense, thick billows swelling through +the temple to express the completion and satisfaction +of the seraphs' worship; but it is the mist which +ever arises where holiness and sin touch each other. +It has been described both as the obscurity that +envelops a weak mind in presence of a truth too great +for it, and the darkness that falls upon a diseased eye +when exposed to the mid-day sun. These are only +analogies, and may mislead us. What Isaiah actually +felt was the dim-eyed shame, the distraction, the +embarrassment, the blinding shock of a personal encounter +with One whom he was utterly unfit to +meet. For this was a personal encounter. We +have spelt out the revelation sentence by sentence in +gradual argument; but Isaiah did not reach it through +argument or brooding. It was not to the prophet what +it is to his expositors, a pregnant thought, that his +intellect might gradually unfold, but a Personal Presence, +which apprehended and overwhelmed him. God and +he were there face to face. <i>Then said I, Woe is me, for +I am undone, because a man unclean of lips am I, and +in the midst of a people unclean of lips do I dwell; +for the King, Jehovah of hosts, mine eyes have beheld.</i></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span>The form of the prophet's confession, <i>uncleanness of +lips</i>, will not surprise us as far as he makes it for +himself. As with the disease of the body, so with the +sin of the soul; each often gathers to one point of pain. +Every man, though wholly sinful by nature, has his own +particular consciousness of guilt. Isaiah being a prophet +felt his mortal weakness most upon his lips. The +inclusion of the people, however, along with himself +under this form of guilt, suggests a wider interpretation +of it. The lips are, as it were, the blossom of a man. +<i>Grace is poured upon thy lips, therefore God hath blessed +thee for ever. If any man offend not in word, the same is +a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body also.</i> It is in +the blossom of a plant that the plant's defects become +conspicuous; it is when all a man's faculties combine +for the complex and delicate office of expression that +any fault which is in him will come to the surface. +Isaiah had been listening to the perfect praise of sinless +beings, and it brought into startling relief the defects of +his own people's worship. Unclean of lips these were +indeed when brought against that heavenly choir. +Their social and political sin—sin of heart and home +and market—came to a head in their worship, and +what should have been the blossom of their life fell +to the ground like a rotten leaf beneath the stainless +beauty of the seraphs' praise.</p> + +<p>While the prophet thus passionately gathered his +guilt upon his lips, a sacrament was preparing +on which God concentrated His mercy to meet it. +Sacrament and lips, applied mercy and presented +sin, now come together. <i>Then flew unto me one +of the seraphim, and in his hand a glowing stone—with +tongs had he taken it off the altar—and he +touched my mouth and said, Lo, this hath touched thy</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span> +<i>lips, and so thy iniquity passeth away and thy sin is +atoned for.</i></p> + +<p>The idea of this function is very evident, and a +scholar who has said that it "would perhaps be quite +intelligible to the contemporaries of the prophet, but is +undoubtedly obscure to us," appears to have said just +the reverse of what is right; for so simple a process +of atonement leaves out the most characteristic details +of the Jewish ritual of sacrifice, while it anticipates in +an unmistakeable manner the essence of the Christian +sacrament. In a scene of expiation laid under the old +covenant, we are struck by the absence of oblation or +sacrificial act on the part of the sinner himself. There +is here no victim slain, no blood sprinkled; an altar is +only parenthetically suggested, and even then in its +simplest form, of a hearth on which the Divine fire is +continually burning. The <i>glowing stone</i>, not <i>live +coal</i> as in the English version, was no part of the +temple furniture, but the ordinary means of conveying +heat or applying fire in the various purposes of household +life. There was, it is true, a carrying of fire in +some of the temple services, as, for example, on the +great Day of Atonement, but then it was effected by a +small grate filled with living embers. In the household, +on the other hand, when cakes had to be baked, or milk +boiled, or water warmed, or in fifty similar applications +of fire, a glowing stone taken from off the hearth was +the invariable instrument. It is this swift and simple +domestic process which Isaiah now sees substituted +for the slow and intricate ceremonial of the temple—a +seraph with a glowing stone in his hand, +<i>with tongs had he taken it off the altar</i>. And yet the +prophet feels this only as a more direct expression of +the very same idea, with which the elaborate ritual was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span> +inspired—for which the victim was slain, and the flesh +consumed in fire, and the blood sprinkled. Isaiah +desires nothing else, and receives no more, than the +ceremonial law was intended to assure to the sinner—pardon +of his sin and reconciliation to God. But our +prophet will have conviction of these immediately, and +with a force which the ordinary ritual is incapable of +expressing. The feelings of this Jew are too intense +and spiritual to be satisfied with the slow pageant +of the earthly temple, whose performances to a man +in his horror could only have appeared so indifferent +and far away from himself as not to be really his +own nor to effect what he passionately desired. +Instead therefore of laying his guilt in the shape of +some victim on the altar, Isaiah, with a keener sense +of its inseparableness from himself, presents it to God +upon his own lips. Instead of being satisfied with +beholding the fire of God consume it on another body +than his own, at a distance from himself, he feels +that fire visit the very threshold of his nature, where +he has gathered the guilt, and consume it there. The +whole secret of this startling nonconformity to the law, +on the very floor of the temple, is that for a man who +has penetrated to the presence of God the legal forms +are left far behind, and he stands face to face with the +truth by which they are inspired. In that Divine +Presence Isaiah is his own altar; he acts his guilt +in his own person, and so he feels the expiatory fire +come to his very self directly from the heavenly hearth. +It is a replica of the fifty-first Psalm: <i>For Thou +delightest not in sacrifice, else would I give it; Thou hast +no pleasure in burnt offering.</i> The sacrifices of God are +a broken spirit. This is my sacrifice, my sense of guilt +gathered here upon my lips: my <i>broken and contrite</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span> +<i>heart</i>, who feel myself undone before Thee, <i>Lord, +Thou wilt not despise</i>.</p> + +<p>It has always been remarked as one of the most +powerful proofs of the originality and Divine force of +Christianity, that from man's worship of God, and +especially from those parts in which the forgiveness +of sin is sought and assured, it did away with the +necessity of a physical rite of sacrifice; that it broke the +universal and immemorial habit by which man presented +to God a material offering for the guilt of his +soul. By remembering this fact we may measure the +religious significance of the scene we now contemplate. +Nearly eight centuries before there was accomplished +upon Calvary that Divine Sacrifice for sin, which +abrogated a rite of expiation, hitherto universally +adopted by the conscience of humanity, we find a Jew, +in the dispensation where such a rite was most religiously +enforced, trembling under the conviction of sin, +and upon a floor crowded with suggestions of physical +sacrifice; yet the only sacrifice he offers is the purely +spiritual one of confession. It is most notable. Look +at it from a human point of view, and we can estimate +Isaiah's immense spiritual originality; look at it from a +Divine, and we cannot help perceiving a distinct foreshadow +of what was to take place by the blood of Jesus +under the new covenant. To this man, as to some others +of his dispensation, whose experience our Christian sympathy +recognizes so readily in the Psalms, there was +granted aforetime boldness to enter into the holiest. +For this is the explanation of Isaiah's marvellous disregard +of the temple ritual. It is all behind him. This +man has passed within the veil. Forms are all behind +him, and he is face to face with God. But between two +beings in that position, intercourse by the far off and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span> +uncertain signals of sacrifice is inconceivable. It can +only take place by the simple unfolding of the heart. +It must be rational, intelligent and by speech. When +man is at such close quarters with God what sacrifice +is possible but the sacrifice of the lips? Form for the +Divine reply there must be some, for even Christianity +has its sacraments, but like them this sacrament is of the +very simplest form, and like them it is accompanied by +the explanatory word. As Christ under the new covenant +took bread and wine, and made the homely action of +feeding upon them the sign and seal to His disciples +of the forgiveness of their sins, so His angel under the +old and sterner covenant took the more severe, but +as simple and domestic form of fire to express the +same to His prophet. And we do well to emphasize +that the experimental value of this sacrament of fire is +bestowed by the word attached to it. It is not a dumb +sacrament, with a magical efficacy. But the prophet's +mind is persuaded and his conscience set at peace by +the intelligible words of the minister of the sacrament.</p> + +<p>Isaiah's sin being taken away, he is able to discern +the voice of God Himself. It is in the most beautiful +accordance with what has already happened that he +hears this not as command, but request, and answers +not of compulsion, but of freedom. <i>And I heard the +voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send? and who +will go for us? And I said, Here am I; send me.</i> +What spiritual understanding alike of the will of God +and the responsibility of man, what evangelic liberty +and boldness, are here! Here we touch the spring of +that high flight Isaiah takes both in prophecy and in +active service for the State. Here we have the secret +of the filial freedom, the life-long sense of responsibility, +the regal power of initiative, the sustained<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span> +and unfaltering career, which distinguish Isaiah among +the ministers of the old covenant, and stamp him +prophet by the heart and for the life, as many of +them are only by the office and for the occasion. +Other prophets are the servants of the God of heaven; +Isaiah stands next the Son Himself. On others the +hand of the Lord is laid in irresistible compulsion; +the greatest of them are often ignorant, by turns +headstrong and craven, deserving correction, and +generally in need of supplementary calls and inspirations. +But of such scourges and such doles Isaiah's +royal career is absolutely without a trace. His course, +begun in freedom, is pursued without hesitation or +anxiety; begun in utter self-sacrifice, it knows henceforth +no moment of grudging or disobedience. <i>Esaias is +very bold</i>, because he is so free and so fully devoted. +In the presence of mind with which he meets each +sudden change of politics during that bewildering half-century +of Judah's history, we seem to hear his calm +voice repeating its first, <i>Here am I</i>. Presence of mind +he always had. The kaleidoscope shifts: it is now +Egyptian intrigue, now Assyrian force; now a false +king requiring threat of displacement by God's own +hero, now a true king, but helpless and in need of +consolation; now a rebellious people to be condemned, +and now an oppressed and penitent one to be encouraged:—different +dangers, with different sorts of +salvation possible, obliging the prophet to promise +different futures, and to say things inconsistent with +what he had already said. Yet Isaiah never hesitates; +he can always say, <i>Here am I</i>. We hear that +voice again in the spontaneousness and versatility +of his style. Isaiah is one of the great kings of +literature, with every variety of style under his sway,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span> +passing with perfect readiness, as subject or occasion +calls, from one to another of the tones of a superbly +endowed nature. Everywhere this man impresses us +with his personality, with the wealth of his nature and +the perfection of his control of it. But the personality +is consecrated. The <i>Here am I</i> is followed by the +<i>send me</i>. And its health, harmony and boldness, +are derived, Isaiah being his own witness, from this +early sense of pardon and purification at the Divine +hands. Isaiah is indeed a king and a priest unto God—a +king with all his powers at his own command, a priest +with them all consecrated to the service of Heaven.</p> + +<p>One cannot pass away from these verses without +observing the plain answer which they give to the +question, What is a call to the ministry of God? In +these days of dust and distraction, full of party cries, +with so many side issues of doctrine and duty presenting +themselves, and the solid attractions of so many other +services insensibly leading men to look for the same +sort of attractiveness in the ministry, it may prove +a relief to some to ponder the simple elements of +Isaiah's call to be a professional and life-long prophet. +Isaiah got no "call" in our conventional sense of the +word, no compulsion that he must go, no articulate +voice describing him as the sort of man needed for the +work, nor any of those similar "calls" which sluggish +and craven spirits so often desire to relieve them of +the responsibility or the strenuous effort needed in +deciding for a profession which their conscience will +not permit them to refuse. Isaiah got no such call. +After passing through the fundamental religious +experiences of forgiveness and cleansing, which are +in every case the indispensable premises of life with +God, Isaiah was left to himself. No direct summons<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span> +was addressed to him, no compulsion was laid on him; +but he heard the voice of God asking generally for +messengers, and he on his own responsibility answered +it for himself in particular. He heard from the Divine +lips of the Divine need for messengers, and he was +immediately full of the mind that he was the man for +the mission, and of the heart to give himself to it. So +great an example cannot be too closely studied by +candidates for the ministry in our own day. Sacrifice +is not the half-sleepy, half-reluctant submission to the +force of circumstance or opinion, in which shape it is +so often travestied among us, but the resolute self-surrender +and willing resignation of a free and +reasonable soul. There are many in our day who +look for an irresistible compulsion into the ministry +of the Church; sensitive as they are to the material +bias by which men roll off into other professions, they +pray for something of a similar kind to prevail with +them in this direction also. There are men who pass +into the ministry by social pressure or the opinion of +the circles they belong to, and there are men who +adopt the profession simply because it is on the line of +least resistance. From which false beginnings rise the +spent force, the premature stoppages, the stagnancy, +the aimlessness and heartlessness, which are the +scandals of the professional ministry and the weakness +of the Christian Church in our day. Men who drift +into the ministry, as it is certain so many do, become +mere ecclesiastical flotsam and jetsam, incapable of +giving carriage to any soul across the waters of this +life, uncertain of their own arrival anywhere, and of all +the waste of their generation, the most patent and disgraceful. +God will have no drift-wood for His sacrifices, +no drift-men for His ministers. Self-consecration is the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span> +beginning of His service, and a sense of our own freedom +and our own responsibility is an indispensable element +in the act of self-consecration. <i>We</i>—not God—have +to make the decision. We are not to be dead, but +living, sacrifices, and everything which renders us less +than fully alive both mars at the time the sincerity of +our surrender and reacts for evil upon the whole of +our subsequent ministry.</p> + + +<p class="center">III. <span class="smcap">The Commission</span> (vv. 9-13).</p> + +<p>A heart so resolutely devoted as we have seen Isaiah's +to be was surely prepared against any degree of discouragement, +but probably never did man receive so +awful a commission as he describes himself to have +done. Not that we are to suppose that this fell upon +Isaiah all at once, in the suddenness and distinctness +with which he here records it. Our sense of its awfulness +will only be increased when we realize that +Isaiah became aware of it, not in the shock of a +single discovery, sufficiently great to have carried +its own anæsthetic along with it, but through a +prolonged process of disillusion, and at the pain +of those repeated disappointments, which are all the +more painful that none singly is great enough to +stupefy. It is just at this point of our chapter, +that we feel most the need of supposing it to have +been written some years after the consecration of +Isaiah, when his experience had grown long enough +to articulate the dim forebodings of that solemn +moment. <i>Go and say to this people, Hearing, hear ye, +but understand not; seeing, see ye, but know not. Make +fat the heart of this people, and its ears make heavy, and +its eyes smear, lest it see with its eyes, and hear with its +ears, and its heart understand, and it turn again and +be healed.</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span> No prophet, we may be sure, would be +asked by God to go and tell his audiences that in +so many words, at the beginning of his career. It +is only by experience that a man understands that +kind of a commission,<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> and for the required experience +Isaiah had not long to wait after entering on his +ministry. Ahaz himself, in whose death-year it is +supposed by many that Isaiah wrote this account of +his consecration—the conduct of Ahaz himself was +sufficient to have brought out the convictions of the +prophet's heart in this startling form, in which he +has stated his commission. By the word of the Lord +and an offer of a sign from Him, Isaiah did make fat +that monarch's heart and smear his eyes. And perverse +as the rulers of Judah were in the examples +and policies they set, the people were as blindly bent +on following them to destruction. <i>Every one</i>, said +Isaiah, when he must have been for some time a +prophet—<i>every one is a hypocrite and an evildoer, and +every mouth speaketh folly</i>.</p> + +<p>But if that clear, bitter way of putting the matter +can have come to Isaiah only with the experience of +some years, why does he place it upon the lips of God, +as they give him his commission? Because Isaiah is +stating not merely his own singular experience, but a +truth always true of the preaching of the word of +God, and of which no prophet at the time of his +consecration to that ministry can be without at least +a foreboding. We have not exhausted the meaning +of this awful commission when we say that it is only<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span> +a forcible anticipation of the prophet's actual experience. +There is more here than one man's experience. +Over and over again are these words quoted in the +New Testament, till we learn to find them true always +and everywhere that the Word of God is preached to +men,—the description of what would seem to be its +necessary effect upon many souls. Both Jesus and +Paul use Isaiah's commission of themselves. They +do so like Isaiah at an advanced stage in their +ministry, when the shock of misunderstanding and +rejection has been repeatedly felt, but then not +solely as an apt description of their own experience. +They quote God's words to Isaiah as a +prophecy fulfilled in their own case—that is to say, +as the statement of a great principle or truth of +which their own ministry is only another instance. +Their own disappointments have roused them to +the fact, that this is always an effect of the word +of God upon numbers of men—to deaden their +spiritual faculties. While Matthew and the book of +Acts adopt the milder Greek version of Isaiah's commission, +John gives a rendering that is even stronger +than the original. <i>He hath blinded</i>, he says of God +Himself, <i>their eyes and hardened their hearts, lest they +should see with their eyes and perceive with their hearts</i>. +In Mark's narrative Christ says that He speaks to them +that are outside in parables, <i>for the purpose that seeing +they may see, and not perceive, and hearing they may hear, +and not understand, lest haply they should turn again +and it should be forgiven them</i>. We may suspect, in +an utterance so strange to the lips of the Lord of +salvation, merely the irony of His baffled love. But it +is rather the statement of what He believed to be +the necessary effect of a ministry like His own. It<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span> +marks the direction, not of His desire, but of natural +sequence.</p> + +<p>With these instances we can go back to Isaiah and +understand why he should have described the bitter +fruits of experience as an imperative laid upon him by +God. <i>Make fat the heart of this people, and its ears make +heavy, and its eyes do thou smear.</i> It is the fashion of +the prophet's grammar, when it would state a principle +or necessary effect, to put it in the form of a command. +What God expresses to Isaiah so imperatively +as almost to take our breath away; what Christ +uttered with such abruptness that we ask, Does He +speak in irony? what Paul laid down as the conviction +of a long and patient ministry, is the great +truth that the Word of God has not only a saving +power, but that even in its gentlest pleadings and its +purest Gospel, even by the mouth of Him who came, +not to condemn, but to save the world, it has a power +that is judicial and condemnatory.</p> + +<p>It is frequently remarked by us as perhaps the +most deplorable fact of our experience, that there +exists in human nature an accursed facility for turning +God's gifts to precisely the opposite ends from +those for which He gave them. So common is +man's misunderstanding of the plainest signs, and +so frequent his abuse of the most evident favours +of Heaven, that a spectator of the drama of human +history might imagine its Author to have been a Cynic +or Comedian, portraying for His own amusement the +loss of the erring at the very moment of what might +have been their recovery, the frustration of love at the +point of its greatest warmth and expectancy. Let him +look closer, however, and he will perceive, not a comedy, +but a tragedy, for neither chance nor cruel sport is here<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span> +at work, but free will and the laws of habit, with retribution +and penalty. These actors are not puppets in +the hand of a Power that moves them at will; each of +them plays his own part, and the abuse and contradiction, +of which he is guilty, are but the prerogative of his +freedom. They are free beings who thus reject the +gift of Divine assistance, and so piteously misunderstand +Divine truth. Look closer still, and you will see +that the way they talk, the impression they accept of +God's goodness, the effect of His judgements upon them, +is determined not at the moment of their choice, and +not by a single act of their will, but by the whole tenor +of their previous life. In the sudden flash of some +gift or opportunity, men reveal the stuff of which they +are made, the disposition they have bred in themselves. +Opportunity in human life is as often judgement as it +is salvation. When we perceive these things, we +understand that life is not a comedy, where chance +governs or incongruous situations are invented by an +Almighty Satirist for his own sport, but a tragedy, +with all tragedy's pathetic elements of royal wills +contending in freedom with each other, of men's wills +clashing with God's: men the makers of their own +destinies, and Nemesis not directing, but following +their actions. We go back to the very fundamentals +of our nature on this dread question. To understand +what has been called "a great law in human degeneracy," +that "the evil heart can assimilate good to itself +and convert it to its nature," we must understand what +free will means, and take into account the terrible +influence of habit.</p> + +<p>Now there is no more conspicuous instance of this +law, than that which is afforded by the preaching of the +Gospel of God. God's Word, as Christ reminds us,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span> +does not fall on virgin soil; it falls on soil already holding +other seed. When a preacher stands up with the +Word of God in a great congregation, vast as Scripture +warrants us for believing his power to be, his is not the +only power that is operative. Each man present has a +life behind that hour and place, lying away in the +darkness, silent and dead as far as the congregation are +concerned, but in his own heart as vivid and loud as +the voice of the preacher, though he be preaching +never so forcibly. The prophet is not the only power +in the delivery of God's Word, nor is the Holy Spirit +the only power. That would make all preaching of the +Word a mere display. But the Bible represents it as a +strife. And now it is said of men themselves that they +harden their hearts against the Word, and now—because +such hardening is the result of previous sinning, +and has therefore a judicial character—that God +hardens their hearts. <i>Simon, Simon</i>, said Christ to a +face that spread out to His own all the ardour of +worship, <i>Satan is desiring to have you, but I have prayed +that your faith fail not</i>. God sends His Word into +our hearts; the Mediator stands by, and prays that +it make us His own. But there are other factors in +the operation, and the result depends on our own will; +it depends on our own will, and it is dreadfully determined +by our habits.</p> + +<p>Now this is one of the first facts to which a young +reformer or prophet awakes. Such an awakening +is a necessary element in his education and apprenticeship. +He has seen the Lord high and lifted +up. His lips have been touched by the coal from off +the altar. His first feeling is that nothing can withstand +that power, nothing gainsay this inspiration. Is +he a Nehemiah, and the hand of the Lord has been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span> +mighty upon him? Then he feels that he has but to tell +his fellows of it to make them as enthusiastic in the +Lord's work as himself. Is he a Mazzini, aflame from +his boyhood with aspirations for his country, consecrated +from his birth to the cause of duty? Then +he leaps with joy upon his mission; he has but to show +himself, to speak, to lead the way, and his country is +free. Is he—to descend to a lower degree of prophecy—a +Fourier, sensitive more than most to how anarchic +society is, and righteously eager to settle it upon stable +foundations? Then he draws his plans for reconstruction, +he projects his phalanges and phalansteres, and +believes that he has solved the social problem. Is he—to +come back to the heights—an Isaiah, with the +Word of God in him like fire? Then he sees his +vision of the perfect state; he thinks to lift his people +to it by a word. <i>O house of Jacob</i>, he says, <i>come ye, +and let us walk in the light of the Lord</i>!</p> + +<p>For all of whom the next necessary stage of experience +is one of disappointment, with the hard commission, +<i>Make the heart of this people fat</i>. They must learn that, +if God has caught themselves young, and when it +was possible to make them entirely His own, the +human race to whom He sends them is old, too old +for them to effect much upon the mass of it beyond +the hardening and perpetuation of evil. Fourier finds +that to produce his perfect State he would need to +re-create mankind, to cut down the tree to the very +roots, and begin again. After the first rush of patriotic +fervour, which carried so many of his countrymen with +him, Mazzini discovers himself in "a moral desert," +confesses that the struggle to liberate his fatherland, +which has only quickened him to further devotion in so +great a cause, has been productive of scepticism in his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span> +followers, and has left them withered and hardened of +heart, whom it had found so capable of heroic impulses. +He tells us how they upbraided and scorned him, left him +in exile, and returned to their homes, from which they +had set out with vows to die for their country, doubting +now whether there was anything at all worth living or +dying for outside themselves. Mazzini's description of +the first passage of his career is invaluable for the +light which it throws upon this commission of Isaiah. +History does not contain a more dramatic representation +of the entirely opposite effects of the same Divine +movement upon different natures. While the first +efforts for the liberty of Italy materialized the greater +number of his countrymen, whom Mazzini had persuaded +to embark upon it, the failure and their consequent +defection only served to strip this heroic soul of the +last rags of selfishness, and consecrate it more utterly +to the will of God and the duty that lay before it.</p> + +<p>A few sentences from the confessions of the Italian +patriot may be quoted, with benefit to our appreciation +of what the Hebrew prophet must have passed through.</p> + +<blockquote><p>"It was the tempest of doubt, which I believe all who devote their +lives to a great enterprise, yet have not dried and withered up their +soul—like Robespierre—beneath some barren intellectual formula, +but have retained a loving heart, are doomed, once at least, to battle +through. My heart was overflowing with and greedy of affection, +as fresh and eager to unfold to joy as in the days when sustained by +my mother's smile, as full of fervid hope for others, at least, if not +for myself. But during these fatal months there darkened round me +such a hurricane of sorrow, disillusion and deception as to bring +before my eyes, in all its ghastly nakedness, a foreshadowing of the +old age of my soul, solitary in a desert world, wherein no comfort in +the struggle was vouchsafed to me. It was not only the overthrow +for an indefinite period of every Italian hope, ... it was the +falling to pieces of that moral edifice of faith and love from which +alone I had derived strength for the combat; the scepticism I saw +arising round me on every side; the failure of faith in those who had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span> +solemnly bound themselves to pursue unshaken the path we had +known at the outset to be choked with sorrows; the distrust I detected +in those most dear to me, as to the motives and intentions +which sustained and urged me onward in the evidently unequal +struggle.... When I felt that I was indeed alone in the world, +I drew back in terror at the void before me. There, in that moral +desert, doubt came upon me. Perhaps I was wrong, and the world +right? Perhaps my idea was indeed a dream?... One morning +I awoke to find my mind tranquil and my spirit calmed, as one who +has passed through a great danger. The first thought that passed +across my spirit was, <i>Your sufferings are the temptations of egotism, +and arise from a misconception of life</i>.... I perceived that although +every instinct of my heart rebelled against that fatal and ignoble +definition of life which makes it to be a <i>search after happiness</i>, yet +I had not completely freed myself from the dominating influence +exercised by it upon the age.... I had been unable to realize the +true ideal of love—love without earthly hope.... Life is a mission, +duty therefore its highest law. From the idea of God I descended +to faith in a mission and its logical consequence—duty the supreme +rule of life; and having reached that faith, I swore to myself that +nothing in this world should again make me doubt or forsake it. +It was, as Dante says, passing through martyrdom to peace—'a +forced and desperate peace.' I do not deny, for I fraternized with +sorrow, and wrapped myself in it as in a mantle; but yet it was +peace, for I learned to suffer without rebellion, and to live calmly and +in harmony with my own spirit. I reverently bless God the Father +for what consolations of affection—I can conceive of no other—He +has vouchsafed to me in my later years; and in them I gather +strength to struggle with the occasional return of weariness of existence. +But even were these consolations denied me, I believe I +should still be what I am. Whether the sun shine with the serene +splendour of an Italian noon, or the leaden, corpse-like hue of the +northern mist be above us, I cannot see that it changes our duty. +God dwells above the earthly heaven, and the holy stars of faith and +the future still shine within our souls, even though their light consume +itself unreflected as the sepulchral lamp."</p></blockquote> + +<p>Such sentences are the best commentary we can +offer on our text. The cases of the Hebrew and +Italian prophets are wonderfully alike. We who +have read Isaiah's fifth chapter know how his heart +also was "overflowing with and greedy of affection,"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span> +and in the second and third chapters we have seen +"the hurricane of sorrow, disillusion and deception +darken round him." "The falling to pieces of the +moral edifice of faith and love," "scepticism rising on +every side," "failure of faith in those who had solemnly +bound themselves," "distrust detected in those most +dear to me"—and all felt by the prophet as the +effect of the sacred movement God had inspired him +to begin:—how exact a counterpart it is to the cumulative +process of brutalizing which Isaiah heard God lay +upon him, with the imperative <i>Make the heart of this +people fat!</i> In such a morally blind, deaf and dead-hearted +world Isaiah's faith was indeed "to consume +itself unreflected like the sepulchral lamp." The +glimpse into his heart given us by Mazzini enables +us to realize with what terror Isaiah faced such a void. +<i>O Lord, how long?</i> This, too, breathes the air of +"a forced and desperate peace," the spirit of one +who, having realized life as a mission, has made the +much more rare recognition that the logical consequence +is neither the promise of success nor the assurance +of sympathy, but simply the acceptance of +duty, with whatever results and under whatever skies +it pleases God to bring over him.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i0"><i>Until cities fall into ruin without an inhabitant,</i></span><br /> +<span class="i0"><i>And houses without a man,</i></span><br /> +<span class="i0"><i>And the land be left desolately waste,</i></span><br /> +<span class="i0"><i>And Jehovah have removed man far away,</i></span><br /> +<span class="i0"><i>And great be the desert in the midst of the land;</i></span><br /> +<span class="i0"><i>And still if there be a tenth in it,</i></span><br /> +<span class="i0"><i>Even it shall be again for consuming.</i></span><br /> +<span class="i0"><i>Like the terebinth, and like the oak,</i></span><br /> +<span class="i0"><i>Whose stock when they are felled remaineth in them,</i></span><br /> +<span class="i0"><i>The holy seed shall be its stock.</i></span> +</div> + + + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span></p> +<p>The meaning of these words is too plain to require +exposition, but we can hardly over-emphasize them. +This is to be Isaiah's one text throughout his career. +"Judgement shall pass through; a remnant shall +remain." All the politics of his day, the movement of +the world's forces, the devastation of the holy land, +the first captivities of the holy people, the reiterated +defeats and disappointments of the next fifty years—all +shall be clear and tolerable to Isaiah as the fulfilling +of the sentence to which he listened in such "forced +and desperate peace" on the day of his consecration. +He has had the worst branded into him; henceforth +no man nor thing may trouble him. He has seen the +worst, and knows there is a beginning beyond. So +when the wickedness of Judah and the violence of +Assyria alike seem most unrestrained—Assyria most +bent on destroying Judah, and Judah least worthy to live—Isaiah +will yet cling to this, that a remnant must +remain. All his prophecies will be variations of this +text; it is the key to his apparent paradoxes. He +will proclaim the Assyrians to be God's instrument, +yet devote them to destruction. He will hail their +advance on Judah, and yet as exultingly mark its limit, +because of the determination in which he asked the +question, <i>O Lord, how long?</i> and the clearness with +which he understood the <i>until</i>, that came in answer +to it. Every prediction he makes, every turn he seeks +to give to the practical politics of Judah, are simply +due to his grasp of these two facts—a withering and +repeated devastation, in the end a bare survival. He has, +indeed, prophecies which travel farther; occasionally he +is permitted to indulge in visions of a new dispensation. +Like Moses, he climbs his Pisgah, but he is like Moses +also in this, that his lifetime is exhausted with the attainment<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span> +of the margin of a long period of judgement and +struggle, and then he passes from our sight, and no +man knoweth his sepulchre unto this day. As abruptly +as this vision closes with the announcement of <i>the +remnant</i>, so abruptly does Isaiah disappear on the +fulfilment of the announcement—some forty years subsequent +to this vision—in the sudden rescue of the +holy seed from the grasp of Sennacherib.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>We have now finished the first period of Isaiah's +career. Let us catalogue what are his leading doctrines +up to this point. High above a very sinful people, and +beyond all their conceptions of Him, Jehovah, the +national God, rises holy, exalted in righteousness. +From such a God to such a people it can only be +judgement and affliction that pass; and these shall not +be averted by the fact that He is the national God, +and they His worshippers. Of this affliction the +Assyrians gathering far off upon the horizon are +evidently to be the instruments. The affliction shall +be very sweeping; again and again shall it come; but +the Lord will finally save a remnant of His people. +Three elements compose this preaching—a very keen +and practical conscience of sin; an overpowering vision +of God, in whose immediate intimacy the prophet +believes himself to be; and a very sharp perception of +the politics of the day.</p> + +<p>One question rises. In this part of Isaiah's ministry +there is no trace of that Figure whom we chiefly +identify with his preaching, the Messiah. Let us have +patience; it is not time for him; but the following is +his connection with the prophet's present doctrines.</p> + +<p>Isaiah's great result at present is the certainty of +a remnant. That remnant will require two things—they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span> +will require a rallying-point, and they will require +a leader. Henceforth Isaiah's prophesying will be +bent to one or other of these. The two grand purposes +of his word and work will be, for the sake of the +remnant, the inviolateness of Zion, and the coming +of the Messiah. The former he has, indeed, already +intimated (chap. iv.); the latter is now to share with +it his hope and eloquence.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/image_map.jpg" width="600" height="349" alt="(Map) Isaiah's World" title="(Map) Isaiah's World" /> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER V.</h2> + +<h3><i>THE WORLD IN ISAIAH'S DAY AND ISRAEL'S GOD.</i></h3> + +<p class="center">735-730 <span class="smcap"><small>B.C.</small></span></p> + + +<p>Up to this point we have been acquainted with +Isaiah as a prophet of general principles, preaching +to his countrymen the elements of righteousness and +judgement, and tracing the main lines of fate along +which their evil conduct was rapidly forcing them. We +are now to observe him applying these principles to the +executive politics of the time, and following Judah's +conduct to the issues he had predicted for it in the +world outside herself. Hitherto he has been concerned +with the inner morals of Jewish society; he is now to +engage himself with the effect of these on the fortunes of +the Jewish State. In his seventh chapter Isaiah begins +that career of practical statesmanship, which not only +made him "the greatest political power in Israel since +David," but placed him, far above his importance to his +own people, upon a position of influence over all ages. +To this eminence Isaiah was raised, as we shall see, +by two things. First, there was the occasion of his +times, for he lived at a juncture at which the vision of +the <i>World</i>, as distinguished from the <i>Nation</i>, opened to +his people's eyes. Second, he had the faith which +enabled him to realize the government of the World by +the One God, whom he has already beheld exalted<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span> +and sovereign within the Nation. In the Nation we +have seen Isaiah led to emphasize very absolutely +the righteousness of God; applying this to the whole +World, he is now to speak as the prophet of what +we call Providence. He has seen Jehovah ruling in +righteousness in Judah; he is now to take possession of +the nations of the World in Jehovah's name. But we +mistake Isaiah if we think it is any abstract doctrine +of providence which he is about to inculcate. For +him God's providence has in the meantime but one end: +the preservation of a remnant of the holy people. +Afterwards we shall find him expecting besides, the conversion +of the whole World to faith in Israel's God.</p> + +<p>The World in Isaiah's day was practically Western +Asia. History had not long dawned upon Europe; over +Western Asia it was still noon. Draw a line from the +Caspian to the mouth of the Persian Gulf; between +that line and another crossing the Levant to the west of +Cyprus, and continuing along the Libyan border of +Egypt, lay the highest forms of religion and civilisation +which our race had by that period achieved. This was +the World on which Isaiah looked out from Jerusalem, +the furthest borders of which he has described in his +prophecies, and in the political history of which he +illustrated his great principles. How was it composed?</p> + +<p>There were, first of all, at either end of it, north-east +and south-west, the two great empires of <span class="smcap">Assyria</span> and +<span class="smcap">Egypt</span>, in many respects wonderful counterparts of each +other. No one will understand the history of Palestine, +who has not grasped its geographical position relative +to these similar empires. Syria, shut up between the +Mediterranean sea and the Arabian desert, has its outlets +north and south into two great river-plains, each of them +ending in a delta. Territories of that kind exert a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span> +double force on the world with which they are connected, +now drawing across their boundaries the hungry races +of neighbouring highlands and deserts, and again sending +them forth, compact and resistless armies. This double +action summarises the histories of both Egypt and +Assyria from the earliest times to the period which we +are now treating, and was the cause of the constant +circulation, by which, as the Bible bears witness, the life +of Syria was stirred from the Tower of Babel downwards. +Mesopotamia and the Nile valley drew races as beggars +to their rich pasture grounds, only to send them forth +in subsequent centuries as conquerors. The century of +Isaiah fell in a period of forward movement. Assyria +and Egypt were afraid to leave each other in peace; +and the wealth of Phœnicia, grown large enough to +excite their cupidity, lay between them. In each of +these empires, however, there was something to +hamper this aggressive impulse. Neither Assyria nor +Egypt was a homogeneous State. The valleys of the +Euphrates and the Nile were, each of them the home +of two nations. Beside Assyria lay Babylonia, once +Assyria's mistress, and now of all the Assyrian +provinces by far the hardest to hold in subjection, +although it lay the nearest to home. In Isaiah's time, +when an Assyrian monarch is unable to come into +Palestine, Babylon is generally the reason; and it is by +intriguing with Babylon that a king of Judah attempts +to keep Assyria away from his own neighbourhood. +But Babylon only delayed the Assyrian conquest. +In Egypt, on the other hand, power was more equally +balanced between the hardier people up the Nile and +the wealthier people down the Nile—between the +Ethiopians and the Egyptians proper. It was the +repeated and undecisive contests between these two<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span> +during the whole of Isaiah's day, which kept Egypt +from being an effective force in the politics of Western +Asia. In Isaiah's day no Egyptian army advanced +more than a few leagues beyond its own frontier.</p> + +<p>Next in this world of Western Asia come the +<span class="smcap">Phœnicians</span>. We may say that they connected Egypt +and Assyria, for although Phœnicia proper meant only +the hundred and fifty miles of coast between Carmel +and the bay of Antioch, the Phœnicians had large +colonies on the delta of the Nile and trading posts upon +the Euphrates. They were gathered into independent +but more or less confederate cities, the chief of them +Tyre and Sidon; which, while they attempted the offensive +only in trade, were by their wealth and maritime +advantages capable of offering at once a stronger attraction +and a more stubborn resistance to the Assyrian +arms, than any other power of the time. Between +Phœnicia proper and the mouths of the Nile, the coast +was held by groups of <span class="smcap">Philistine</span> cities, whose nearness +to Egypt rather than their own strength was the source +of a frequent audacity against Assyria, and the reason +why they appear in the history of this period oftener +than any other State as the object of Assyrian campaigns.</p> + +<p>Behind Phœnicia and the Philistines lay a number of +inland territories: the sister-States of Judah and Northern +Israel, with their cousins Edom, Moab, and Aram or +Syria. Of which <span class="smcap">Judah</span> and <span class="smcap">Israel</span> were together about +the size of Wales; <span class="smcap">Edom</span> a mountain range the size and +shape of Cornwall; <span class="smcap">Moab</span>, on its north, a broken tableland, +about a Devonshire; and <span class="smcap">Aram</span>, or <span class="smcap">Syria</span>, a territory +round Damascus, of uncertain size, but considerable +enough to have resisted Assyria for a hundred and +twenty years. Beyond Aram, again, to the north, lay +the smaller State of <span class="smcap">Hamath</span>, in the mouth of the pass<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span> +between the Lebanons, with nothing from it to the +Euphrates. And then, hovering upon the east of these +settled States, were a variety of more or less <span class="smcap">Nomadic +Tribes</span>, whose refuges were the vast deserts of which +so large a part of Western Asia consists.</p> + +<p>Here was a world, with some of its constituents +wedged pretty firmly by mutual pressure, but in the +main broken and restless—a political surface that was +always changing. The whole was subject to the movements +of the two empires at its extremes. One of them +could not move without sending a thrill through to the +borders of the other. The approximate distances were +these:—from Egypt's border to Jerusalem, about one +hundred miles; from Jerusalem to Samaria, forty-five; +from Samaria to Damascus, one hundred and fifteen; from +Damascus to Hamath, one hundred and thirty; and from +Hamath to the Euphrates, one hundred; in all from the +border of Egypt to the border of Assyria four hundred +and ninety English statute miles. The main line of war +and traffic, coming up from Egypt, kept the coast +to the plain of Esdraelon, which it crossed towards +Damascus, travelling by the north of the sea of Galilee, +<i>the way of the sea</i>. Northern Israel was bound to +fall an early prey to armies, whose easiest path thus +traversed her richest provinces. Judah, on the other +hand, occupied a position so elevated and apart, that it +was likely to be the last that either Assyria or Egypt +would achieve in their subjugation of the States between +them.</p> + +<p>Thus, then, Western Asia spread itself out in Isaiah's +day. Let us take one more rapid glance across it. +Assyria to the north, powerful and on the offensive, but +hampered by Babylon; Egypt on the south, weakened +and in reserve; all the cities and States between turning<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span> +their faces desperately northwards, but each with +an ear bent back for the promises of the laggard southern +power, and occasionally supported by its subsidies; +Hamath, their advanced guard at the mouth of the +pass between the Lebanons, looking out towards the +Euphrates; Tyre and Sidon attractive to the Assyrian +king, whose policy is ultimately commercial, by their +wealth, both they and the Philistine cities obstructing +his path by the coast to his great rival of Egypt; Israel +bulwarked against Assyria by Hamath and Damascus, +but in danger, as soon as they fall, of seeing her richest +provinces overrun; Judah unlikely in the general restlessness +to retain her hold upon Edom, but within her +own borders tolerably secure, neither lying in the +Assyrian's path to Egypt, nor wealthy enough to attract +him out of it; safe, therefore, in the neutrality which +Isaiah ceaselessly urges her to preserve, and in danger +of suction into the whirlpool of the approach of the two +empires only through the foolish desire of her rulers +to secure an utterly unnecessary alliance with the one +or the other of them.</p> + +<p>For a hundred and twenty years before the advent of +Isaiah, the annals of the Assyrian kings record periodical +campaigns against the cities of "the land of the +west," but these isolated incursions were followed by no +permanent results. In 745, however, five years before +King Uzziah died, a soldier ascended the throne of +Assyria, under the title of Tiglath-pileser II.,<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> who was +determined to achieve the conquest of the whole world +and its organization as his empire. Where his armies +came, it was not simply to chastise or demand tribute,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span> +but to annex countries, carry away their populations +and exploit their resources. It was no longer kings +who were threatened; peoples found themselves in +danger of extinction. This terrible purpose of the +Assyrian was pursued with vast means and the utmost +ferocity. He has been called the Roman of the East, +and up to a certain degree we may imagine his policy +by remembering all that is familiar to us of its execution +by Rome: its relentlessness, impetus and mysterious +action from one centre; the discipline, the speed, +the strange appearance, of his armies. But there was +an Oriental savagery about Assyria, from which Rome +was free. The Assyrian kings moved in the power of +their brutish and stormy gods—gods that were in the +shape of bulls and had the wings as of the tempest. +The annals of these kings, in which they describe their +campaigns, are full of talk about trampling down their +enemies; about showering tempests of clubs upon them, +and raining a deluge of arrows; about overwhelming +them, and sweeping them off the face of the land, and +strewing them like chaff on the sea; about chariots +with scythes, and wheels clogged with blood; about +great baskets stuffed with the salted heads of their foes. +It is a mixture of the Roman and Red Indian.</p> + +<p>Picture the effect of the onward movement of such a +force upon the imaginations and policies of those +little States that clustered round Judah and Israel. +Settling their own immemorial feuds, they sought +alliance with one another against this common foe. +Tribes, that for centuries had stained their borders +with one another's blood, came together in unions, the +only reason for which was that their common fear had +grown stronger than their mutual hate. Now and then +a king would be found unwilling to enter such an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span> +alliance or eager to withdraw from it, in the hope of +securing by his exceptional conduct the favour of +the Assyrian, whom he sought further to ingratiate +by voluntary tribute. The shifting attitudes of the +petty kings towards Assyria bewilder the reader of +the Assyrian annals. The foes of one year are the +tributaries of the next; the State, that has called for +help this campaign, appears as the rebel of that. In +742, Uzziah of Judah is cursed by Tiglath-pileser as +an arch-enemy; Samaria and Damascus are recorded +as faithful tributaries. Seven years later Ahaz of +Judah offers tribute to the Assyrian king, and Damascus +and Samaria are invaded by the Assyrian armies. +What a world it was, and what politics! A world of +petty clans, with no idea of a common humanity, and +with no motive for union except fear; politics without a +noble thought or long purpose in them, the politics of +peoples at bay—the last flicker of dying nationalities,—<i>stumps +of smoking firebrands</i>, as Isaiah described +two of them.</p> + +<p>When we turn to the little we know of the religions +of these tribes, we find nothing to arrest their restlessness +or broaden their thoughts. These nations +had their religions, and called on their gods, but their +gods were made in their own image, their religion was +the reflex of their life. Each of them employed, rather +than worshipped, its deity. No nation believed in its +god except as one among many, with his sovereignty +limited to its own territory, and his ability to help it +conditioned by the power of the other gods, against +whose peoples he was fighting. There was no belief +in "Providence," no idea of unity or of progress in +history, no place in these religions for the great world-force +that was advancing upon their peoples.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span>From this condemnation we cannot except the people +of Jehovah. It is undeniable that the mass of them +occupied at this time pretty much the same low religious +level as their neighbours. We have already +seen (chap. i.) their mean estimate of what God +required from themselves; with that corresponded +their view of His position towards the world. To the +majority of the Israelites their God was but one out of +many, with His own battles to fight and have fought +for Him, a Patron sometimes to be ashamed of, and by +no means a Saviour in whom to place an absolute +trust. When Ahaz is beaten by Syria, he says: +<i>Because the gods of the kings of Syria helped them, therefore +will I sacrifice to them, that they may help me</i> +(2 Chron. xxviii. 23). Religion to Ahaz was only +another kind of diplomacy. He was not a fanatic, +but a diplomat, who made his son to pass through the +fire to Moloch, and burnt incense in the high places +and on the hills, and under every green tree. He was +more a political than a religious eclectic, who brought +back the pattern of the Damascus altar to Jerusalem. +The Temple, in which Isaiah saw the Lord high and +lifted up, became under Ahaz, and by the help of the +priesthood, the shelter of various idols; in every corner +of Jerusalem altars were erected to other gods. This +religious hospitality was the outcome neither of +imagination nor of liberal thought; it was prompted +only by political fear. Ahaz has been mistaken in the +same way as Charles I. was—for a bigot, and one who +subjected the welfare of his kingdom to a superstitious +regard for religion. But beneath the cloak of religious +scrupulousness and false reverence,<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> there was in Ahaz +the same selfish fear for the safety of his crown and his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span> +dynasty, as those who best knew the English monarch +tell us, was the real cause of his ceaseless intrigue and +stupid obstinacy.</p> + +<p>Now that we have surveyed this world, its politics and +its religion, we can estimate the strength and originality +of the Hebrew prophets. Where others saw the conflicts +of nations, aided by deities as doubtfully matched +as themselves, they perceived all things working together +by the will of one supreme God and serving His +ends of righteousness. It would be wrong to say, that +before the eighth century the Hebrew conception of +God had been simply that of a national deity, for this +would be to ignore the remarkable emphasis placed by +the Hebrews from very early times upon Jehovah's +righteousness. But till the eighth century the horizon +of the Hebrew mind had been the border of their territory; +the historical theatre on which it saw God working +was the national life. Now, however, the Hebrews +were drawn into the world; they felt movements of +which their own history was but an eddy; they saw +the advance of forces against which their own armies, +though inspired by Jehovah, had no chance of material +success. The perspective was entirely changed; +their native land took to most of them the aspect of a +petty and worthless province, their God the rank of a +mere provincial deity; they refused the waters of +Shiloah, that go softly, and rejoiced in the glory of the +king of Assyria, the king of the great River and the +hosts that moved with the strength of its floods. It +was at this moment that the prophets of Israel performed +their supreme religious service. While Ahaz +and the mass of the people illustrated the impotence of +the popular religion, by admitting to an equal place in +the national temple the gods of their victorious foes,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span> +the prophets boldly took possession of the whole world +in the name of Jehovah of hosts, and exalted Him to +the throne of the supreme Providence. Now they +could do this only by emphasizing and developing the +element of righteousness in the old conception of Him. +This attribute of Jehovah took absolute possession of +the prophets; and in the strength of its inspiration +they were enabled, at a time when it would have +been the sheerest folly to promise Israel victory +against a foe like Assyria, to asseverate that even that +supreme world-power was in the hand of Jehovah, +and that He must be trusted to lead up all the movements +of which the Assyrians were the main force to +the ends He had so plainly revealed to His chosen +Israel. Even before Isaiah's time such principles +had been proclaimed by Amos and Hosea, but it was +Isaiah, who both gave to them their loftiest expression, +and applied them with the utmost detail and persistence +to the practical politics of Judah. We have seen him, +in the preliminary stages of his ministry under Uzziah +and Jotham, reaching most exalted convictions of the +righteousness of Jehovah, as contrasted with the +people's view of their God's "nationalism." But we +are now to follow him boldly applying this faith—won +within the life of Judah, won, as he tells us, by the +personal inspiration of Judah's God—to the problems +and movements of the whole world as they bear upon +Israel's fate. The God, who is supreme in Judah +through righteousness, cannot but be supreme everywhere +else, for there is nothing in the world higher than +righteousness. Isaiah's faith in a Divine Providence +is a close corollary to his faith in Jehovah's righteousness; +and of one part of that Providence he +had already received conviction—<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span><i>A remnant shall +remain</i>. Ahaz may crowd Jerusalem with foreign +altars and idols, so as to be able to say: "We have +with us, on our side, Moloch and Chemosh and +Rimmon and the gods of Damascus and Assyria." +Isaiah, in the face of this folly, lifts up his simple +gospel: "Immanu-El. We have with us, in our own +Jehovah of hosts, El, the one supreme God, Ruler of +heaven and earth."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER VI.</h2> + +<h3><i>KING AND MESSIAH; PEOPLE AND CHURCH.</i></h3> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> vii., viii., ix. 1-8.</p> + +<p class="center">735-732 <span class="smcap"><small>B.C.</small></span></p> + + +<p>This section of the book of Isaiah (vii.-ix. 7) consists +of a number of separate prophecies uttered +during a period of at least three years: 735-732 <span class="smcap"><small>B.C.</small></span> +By 735 Ahaz had ascended the throne; Tiglath-pileser +had been occupied in the far east for two years. +Taking advantage of the weakness of the former and the +distance of the latter, Rezin, king of Damascus, and +Pekah, king of Samaria, planned an invasion of Judah. +It was a venture they would not have dared had Uzziah +been alive. While Rezin marched down the east of the +Jordan and overturned the Jewish supremacy in Edom, +Pekah threw himself into Judah, defeated the armies of +Ahaz in one great battle, and besieged Jerusalem, with +the object of deposing Ahaz and setting a Syrian, Ben-Tabeel, +in his stead. Simultaneously the Philistines +attacked Judah from the south-west. The motive of +the confederates was in all probability anger with Ahaz +for refusing to enter with them into a Pan-Syrian +alliance against Assyria. In his distress Ahaz appealed +to Tiglath-pileser, and the Assyrian swiftly responded. +In 734—it must have been less than a year since +Ahaz was attacked—the hosts of the north had overrun<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span> +Samaria and swept as far south as the cities of the +Philistines. Then, withdrawing his troops again, +Tiglath-pileser left Hoshea as his vassal on Pekah's +throne, and sending the population of Israel east of the +Jordan into distant captivity, completed a two years' +siege of Damascus (734-732) by its capture. At +Damascus Ahaz met the conqueror, and having paid +him tribute, took out a further policy of insurance in the +altar-pattern, which he brought back with him to Jerusalem. +Such were the three years, whose rapid changes +unfolded themselves in parallel with these prophecies of +Isaiah. The details are not given by the prophet, but +we must keep in touch with them while we listen to +him. Especially must we remember their central point, +<i>the decision of Ahaz to call in the help of Assyria</i>, a +decision which affected the whole course of politics for +the next thirty years. Some of the oracles of this section +were plainly delivered by Isaiah before that event, and +simply seek to inspire Ahaz with a courage which +should feel Assyrian help to be needless; others, again, +imply that Ahaz has already called in the Assyrian: +they taunt him with hankering after foreign strength, +and depict the woes which the Assyrian will bring +upon the land; while others (for example, the passage +ix. 1-7) mean that the Assyrian has already come, +and that the Galilean provinces of Israel have been +depopulated, and promise a Deliverer. If we do not +keep in mind the decision of Ahaz, we shall not understand +these seemingly contradictory utterances, which +it thoroughly explains. Let us now begin at the beginning +of chapter vii. It opens with a bare statement, by +way of title, of the invasion of Judah and the futile +result; and then proceeds to tell us how Isaiah acted +from the first rumour of the confederacy onward.</p> + + +<p class="center"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span>I. <span class="smcap">The King</span> (chap. vii.).</p> + +<p><i>And it came to pass in the days of Ahaz, the son of +Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin, the +king of Syria, and Pekah, the son of Remaliah, king of +Israel, went up to Jerusalem to war against it, but could +not prevail against it.</i> This is a summary of the whole +adventure and issue of the war, given by way of introduction. +The narrative proper begins in verse 2, with +the effect of the first news of the league upon Ahaz and +his people. Their hearts were moved, like the trees of +the forest before the wind. The league was aimed so +evidently against the two things most essential to the +national existence and the honour of Jehovah; the +dynasty of David, namely, and the inviolability of Jerusalem. +Judah had frequently before suffered the loss of +her territory; never till now were the throne and city +of David in actual peril. But that, which bent both king +and people by its novel terror, was the test Isaiah expected +for the prophecies he had already uttered. Taking +with him, as a summary of them, his boy with the name +Shear-Jashub—<i>A-remnant-shall-return</i>—Isaiah faced +Ahaz and his court in the midst of their preparation for +the siege. They were examining—but more in panic than +in prudence—the water supply of the city, when Isaiah +delivered to them a message from the Lord, which may +be paraphrased as follows: <i>Take heed and be quiet</i>, keep +your eyes open and your heart still; <i>fear not, neither be +faint-hearted, for the fierce anger of Rezin and Remaliah's +son</i>. They have no power to set you on fire. They are +<i>but stumps of expiring firebrands</i>, almost burnt out. +While you wisely look after your water supply, do so +in hope. This purpose of deposing you is vain. <i>Thus +saith the Lord Jehovah: It shall not stand, neither shall it +come to pass.</i> Of whom are you afraid? Look those<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span> +foes of yours in the face. <i>The head of Syria is Damascus, +and Damascus' head is Rezin</i>: is he worth fearing? +<i>The head of Ephraim is Samaria, and Samaria's head is +Remaliah's son</i>: is he worth fearing? Within a few +years they will certainly be destroyed. But whatever +estimate you make of your foes, whatever their future +may be, for yourself have faith in God; for you that +is the essential thing. <i>If ye will not believe, surely ye +shall not be established.</i><a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a></p> + +<p>This paraphrase seeks to bring out the meaning +of a passage confessedly obscure. It seems as if we +had only bits of Isaiah's speech to Ahaz and must +supply the gaps. No one need hesitate, however, to +recognize the conspicuous personal qualities—the combination +of political sagacity with religious fear, of +common-sense and courage rooted in faith. In a word, +this is what Isaiah will say to the king, clever in his +alliances, religious and secular, and busy about his +material defences: "Take unto you the shield of faith. +You have lost your head among all these things. Hold +it up like a man behind that shield; take a rational view +of affairs. Rate your enemies at their proper value. +But for this you must believe in God. Faith in Him is +the essential condition of a calm mind and a rational +appreciation of affairs."</p> + +<p>It is, no doubt, difficult for us to realize that the +truth which Isaiah thus enforced on King Ahaz—the +government of the world and human history by one +supreme God—was ever a truth of which the race stood +in ignorance. A generation like ours cannot be expected +to put its mind in the attitude of those of Isaiah's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span> +contemporaries who believed in the real existence of +many gods with limited sovereignties. To us, who are +full of the instincts of Divine Providence and of the +presence in history of law and progress, it is extremely +hard even to admit the fact—far less fully to realize +what it means—that our race had ever to receive these +truths as fresh additions to their stock of intellectual +ideas. Yet, without prejudice to the claims of earlier +prophets, this may be confidently affirmed: that Isaiah +where we now meet him stood on one side believing +in one supreme God, Lord of heaven and earth, and +his generation stood on the other side, believing that +there were many gods. Isaiah, however, does not +pose as the discoverer of the truth he preaches; he +does not present it as a new revelation, nor put it in +a formula. He takes it for granted, and proceeds to +bring its moral influence to bear. He will infect men +with his own utter conviction of it, in order that he may +strengthen their character and guide them by paths of +safety. His speech to Ahaz is an exhibition of the +moral and rational effects of believing in Providence. +Ahaz is a sample of the <i>character</i> polytheism produced; +the state of mind and heart to which Isaiah +exhorts him is that induced by belief in one righteous +and almighty God. We can make the contrast clear to +ourselves by a very definite figure.</p> + +<p>The difference, which is made to the character and +habits of men if the country they live in has a powerful +government or not, is well known. If there be no such +central authority, it is a case of every man's hand +against his neighbour. Men walk armed to the teeth. +A constant attitude of fear and suspicion warps the +whole nature. The passions are excited and magnified; +the intelligence and judgement are dwarfed.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span> +Just the same after its kind is life to the man or tribe, +who believe, that the world in which they dwell and the +life they share with others have no central authority. +They walk armed with prejudices, superstitions and +selfishnesses. They create, like Ahaz, their own providences, +and still, like him, feel insecure. Everything +is exaggerated by them; in each evil there lurks to +their imagination unlimited hostility. They are without +breadth of view or length of patience. But let men +believe that life has a central authority, that God is +supreme, and they will fling their prejudices and superstitions +to the winds, now no more needed than the antiquated +fortresses and weapons by which our forefathers, +in days when the government was weak, were forced +to defend their private interests. When we know that +God reigns, how quiet and free it makes us! When +things and men are part of His scheme and working +out His ends, when we understand that they are not +monsters but ministers, how reasonably we can look at +them! Were we afraid of Syria and Ephraim? Why, +the head of Syria is this fellow Rezin, the head of +Ephraim this son of Remaliah! They cannot last long; +God's engine stands behind to smite them. By the +reasonable government of God, let us be reasonable! +Let us take heed and be quiet. Have faith in God, and to +faith will come her proper consequent of commonsense.</p> + +<p>For the higher a man looks, the farther he sees: to +us that is the practical lesson of these first nine verses +of the seventh chapter. The very gesture of faith +bestows upon the mind a breadth of view. The man, +who lifts his face to God in heaven, is he whose eyes +sweep simultaneously the farthest prospect of earth, +and bring to him a sense of the proportion of things. +Ahaz, facing his nearest enemies, does not see over their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span> +heads, and in his consternation at their appearance prepares +to embark upon any policy that suggests itself, +even though it be so rash as the summoning of the +Assyrian. Isaiah, on the other hand, with his vision +fixed on God as the Governor of the world, is enabled +to overlook the dust that darkens Judah's frontier, to +see behind it the inevitable advance of the Assyrians, +and to be assured that, whether Ahaz calls them to his +quarrel or no, they will very soon of their own motion +overwhelm both of his enemies. From these <i>two smoking +firebrands</i> there is then no real danger. But from the +Assyrian, if once Judah entangle herself in his toils, +there is the most extreme danger. Isaiah's advice is +therefore not mere religious quietism; it is prudent +policy. It is the best political advice that could have +been offered at that crisis, as we have already been +able to gather from a survey of the geographical +and political dispositions of Western Asia,<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> apart altogether +from religious considerations. But to Isaiah +the calmness requisite for this sagacity sprang from his +faith. Mr. Bagehot might have appealed to Isaiah's +whole policy in illustration of what he has so well +described as the military and political benefits of +religion. Monotheism is of advantage to men not only +by reason of "the high concentration of steady feeling" +which it produces, but also for the mental calmness and +sagacity, which surely spring from a pure and vivid +conviction that the Lord reigneth.<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span></p><p>One other thing it is well we should emphasize, +before we pass from Isaiah's speech to Ahaz. Nothing +can be plainer than that Isaiah, though advocating so +absolutely a quiescent belief in God, <i>is no fatalist</i>. +Now other prophets there have been, insisting just +as absolutely as Isaiah upon resignation to God the +supreme, and the evident practical effect of their +doctrine of the Divine sovereignty has been to +make their followers, not shrewd political observers, +but blind and apathetic fatalists. The difference +between them and Isaiah has lain in the kind of +character, which they and he have respectively attributed +to the Deity, before exalting Him to the +throne of absolute power and resigning themselves +to His will. Isaiah, though as disciplined a believer +in God's sovereignty and man's duty of obedience +as any prophet that ever preached these doctrines, +was preserved from the fatalism to which they so +often lead by the conviction he had previously +received of God's righteousness. Fatalism means +resignation to fate, and fate means an omnipotence +either without character, or (which is the same thing) +of whose character we are ignorant. Fate is God +<i>minus</i> character, and fatalism is the characterless condition +to which belief in such a God reduces man. +History presents it to our view amid the most<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span> +diverse surroundings. The Greek mind, so free +and sunny, was bewildered and benumbed by belief +in an inscrutable Nemesis. In the East how frequently +is a temper of apathy or despair bred in +men, to whom God is nothing but a despot! Even +within Christianity we have had fanatics, so inordinately +possessed with belief in God's sovereignty +of election, to the exclusion of all other Divine +truths, as to profess themselves, with impious +audacity, willing to be damned for His glory. Such +instances are enough to prove to us the extreme +danger of making the sovereignty of God the <i>first</i> +article of our creed. It is not safe for men to +exalt a deity to the throne of the supreme providence, +till they are certified of his character. The vision +of mere power intoxicates and brutalizes, no less +when it is hallowed by the name of religion, than +when, as in modern materialism, it is blindly interpreted +as physical force. Only the people who have +first learned to know their Deity intimately in the +private matters of life, where heart touches heart, +and the delicate arguments of conscience are not +overborne by the presence of vast natural forces +or the intricate movements of the world's history, +can be trusted afterwards to enter these larger +theatres of religion, without risk of losing their +faith, their sensibility or their conscience.</p> + +<p>The whole course of revelation has been bent +upon this: to render men familiarly and experimentally +acquainted with the character of God, before +laying upon them the duty of homage to His creative +power or submission to His will. In the Old +Testament God is the Friend, the Guide, the Redeemer +of men, or ever He is their Monarch and Lawgiver.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span> +The Divine name which the Hebrew sees <i>excellent +through all the earth</i> is the name that he has learned to +know at home as <i>Jehovah, our Lord</i> (Ps. viii.). Jehovah +trains His people to trust His personal troth and lovingkindness +within their own courts, before He tests their +allegiance and discipline upon the high places of the +world. And when, amid the strange terrors of these +and the novel magnitudes with which Israel, facing +the world, had to reckon, the people lost their presence +of mind, His elegy over them was, <i>My people are +destroyed for lack of knowledge.</i> Even when their +temple is full and their sacrifices of homage to His +power most frequent, it is still their want of moral +acquaintance with Himself of which He complains: +<i>Israel doth not know; My people doth not consider.</i> +What else was the tragedy in which Jewish history +closed, than just the failure to perceive this lesson: that +to have and to communicate the knowledge of the +Almighty's character is of infinitely more value than +the attempt to vindicate in any outward fashion +Jehovah's supremacy over the world? This latter, this +forlorn, hope was what Israel exhausted the evening of +their day in attempting. The former—to communicate +to the lives and philosophies of mankind a knowledge of +the Divine heart and will, gained throughout a history +of unique grace and miracle—was the destiny which +they resigned to the followers of the crucified +Messiah.</p> + +<p>For under the New Testament this also is the +method of revelation. What our King desires before +He ascends the throne of the world is that the +world should know Him; and so He comes down +among us, to be heard, and seen, and handled of us, +that our hearts may learn His heart and know His<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span> +love, unbewildered by His majesty. And for our part, +when we ascribe to our King the glory and the dominion, +it is as unto Him that loved us and washed us from our +sins in His blood. For the chief thing for individuals, +as for nations, is not to believe that God reigneth so +much as to know what kind of God He is who +reigneth.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>But Ahaz would not be persuaded. He had a policy +of his own, and was determined to pursue it. He +insisted on appealing to Assyria. Before he did so, +Isaiah made one more attempt on his obduracy. +With a vehemence, which reveals how critical he felt +the king's decision to be, the prophet returned as if +this time the very voice of Jehovah. <i>And Jehovah +spake to Ahaz, saying, Ask thee a sign of Jehovah thy +God; ask it either in Sheol below or in the height +above. But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I +tempt the Lord.</i></p> + +<p>Isaiah's offer of a sign was one which the prophets +of Israel used to make when some crisis demanded the +immediate acceptance of their word by men, and men +were more than usually hard to convince—a miracle +such as the thunder that Samuel called out of a clear +sky to impress Israel with God's opinion of their folly +in asking for a king;<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> or as the rending of the altar +which the man of God brought to pass to convict the +sullen Jeroboam;<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> or as the regress of the shadow +on the sun-dial, which Isaiah himself gave in assurance +of recovery to the sick Hezekiah.<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> Such signs are +offered only to weak or prejudiced persons. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span> +most real faith, as Isaiah himself tells us, is unforced, +the purest natures those which need no signs and +wonders. But there are certain crises at which faith +must be immediately forced, and Ahaz stood now at +such a crisis; and there are certain characters who, +unable to read a writ from the court of conscience and +reason, must be served with one from a court—even +though it be inferior—whose language they understand; +and Ahaz was such a character. Isaiah knew +his man, and prepared a pretty dilemma for him. By +offering him whatever sign he chose to ask, Isaiah +knew that the king would be committed before his +own honour and the public conscience to refrain from +calling in the Assyrians, and so Judah would be +saved; or if the king refused the sign, the refusal +would unmask him. Ahaz refused, and at once Isaiah +denounced him and all his house. They were mere shufflers, +playing fast and loose with God as well as men. +<i>Hear ye now, O house of David. Is it a small thing for +you to weary men, that ye must weary my God also?</i> +You have evaded God; therefore God Himself will +take you in hand: <i>the Lord Himself shall give you a +sign</i>.</p> + +<p>In order to follow intelligently the rest of Isaiah's +address, we must clearly understand how the sign which +he now promises differs in nature from the sign he had +implored Ahaz to select, of whatever sort he may have +expected that selection to be. The king's determination +to call in Assyria has come between. Therefore, +while the sign Isaiah first offered upon the spot was +intended for an immediate pledge that God would +establish Ahaz, if only he did not appeal to the +foreigner, the sign Isaiah now offers shall come as a +future proof of how criminal and disastrous the appeal<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span> +to the foreigner has been. The first sign would have +been an earnest of salvation; the second is to be an +exposure of the fatal evil of Ahaz's choice. The first +would have given some assurance of the swift overthrow +of Ephraim and Syria; the second shall be +some painful illustration of the fact that not only Syria +and Ephraim, but Judah herself, shall be overwhelmed +by the advance of the northern power. This second +sign is one, therefore, which only time can bring +round. Isaiah identifies it with a life not yet born.</p> + +<p>A Child, he says, shall shortly be born to whom his +mother shall give the name Immanu-El—<i>God-with-us</i>. +By the time this Child comes to years of discretion, <i>he +shall eat butter and honey</i>. Isaiah then explains the +riddle. He does not, however, explain who the mother +is, having described her vaguely as <i>a</i> or <i>the young woman +of marriageable age</i>; for that is not necessary to the +sign, which is to consist in the Child's own experience. +To this latter he limits his explanation. Butter and +honey are the food of privation, the food of a people, +whose land, depopulated by the enemy, has been turned +into pasture. Before this Child shall arrive at years of +discretion not only shall Syria and Ephraim be laid +waste, but the Lord Himself will have laid waste +Judah. <i>Jehovah shall bring upon thee, and upon thy +people and upon thy father's house days, that have not +come, from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah; +even the king of Assyria.</i> Nothing more is said of +Immanuel, but the rest of the chapter is taken up with +the details of Judah's devastation.</p> + +<p>Now this sign and its explanation would have presented +little difficulty but for the name of the Child—Immanuel. +Erase that, and the passage reads forcibly +enough. Before a certain Child, whose birth is vaguely<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span> +but solemnly intimated in the near future, shall have +come to years of discretion, the results of the choice +of Ahaz shall be manifest. Judah shall be devastated, +and her people have sunk to the most rudimentary +means of living. All this is plain. It is a form which +Isaiah used more than once to measure the near +future. And in other literatures, too, we have felt +the pathos of realizing the future results of crime and +the length to which disaster lingers, by their effect +upon the lives of another generation:—</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i0">"The child that is unborn shall rue</span><br /> +<span class="i2">The hunting of that day!"</span> +</div> + +<p>But why call the Child Immanuel? The name is +evidently part of the sign, and has to be explained in +connection with it. Why call a Child <i>God-with-us</i> who +is not going to act greatly or to be highly honoured, +who is only going to suffer, for whom to come to +years of intelligence shall only be to come to a sense +of his country's disaster and his people's poverty? +This Child who is used so pathetically to measure the +flow of time and the return of its revenges, about +whom we are told neither how he shall behave himself +in the period of privation, nor whether he shall +survive it—why is he called Immanuel? or why, being +called Immanuel, has he so sordid a fate to contrast +with so splendid a name?</p> + +<p>It seems to the present expositor quite impossible +to dissociate so solemn an announcement by Jehovah to +the house of David of the birth of a Child, so highly +named, from that expectation of the coming of a +glorious Prince which was current in this royal family +since the days of its founder. Mysterious and abrupt +as the intimation of Immanuel's birth may seem to us<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span> +at this juncture, we cannot forget that it fell from +Isaiah's lips on hearts which cherished as their dearest +hope the appearance of a glorious descendant of David, +and were just now the more sensitive to this hope that +both David's city and David's dynasty were in peril. +Could Ahaz possibly understand by Immanuel any +other child than that Prince whose coming was the +inalienable hope of his house? But if we are right in +supposing that Ahaz made this identification, or had +even the dimmest presage of it, then we understand +the full force of the sign. Ahaz by his unbelief had +not only disestablished himself (ver. 9): he had +mortgaged the hope of Israel. In the flood of disaster, +which his fatal resolution would bring upon the land, +it mattered little what was to happen to himself. +Isaiah does not trouble now to mention any penalty +for Ahaz. But his resolve's exceeding pregnancy +of peril is borne home to the king by the assurance +that it will devastate all the golden future, and must +disinherit the promised King. The Child, who is +Israel's hope, is born; he receives the Divine name, +and that is all of salvation or glory suggested. He +grows up not to a throne or the majesty which the +seventy-second Psalm pictures—the offerings of Sheba's +and Seba's kings, the corn of his land shaking like +the fruit of Lebanon, while they of the city flourish +like the grass of the earth—but to the food of privation, +to the sight of his country razed by his +enemies into one vast common fit only for pasture, +to loneliness and suffering. Amid the general desolation +his figure vanishes from our sight, and only his +name remains to haunt, with its infinite melancholy of +what might have been, the thorn-choked vineyards and +grass-grown courts of Judah.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span>But even if it were to prove too fine a point, to identify +Immanuel with the promised Messiah of David's house, +and we had to fall back on some vaguer theory of him, +finding him to be a personification,—either a representative +of the coming generation of God's people, or a type +of the promised to-morrow,—the moral effect of the sign +would remain the same; and it is with this alone that we +have here to do. Be this an individual, or a generation, +or an age,—by the Name bestowed upon it, it was to +have been a glorious, God-inhabited age, generation, or +individual, and Ahaz has prematurely spoiled everything +about it but the Name. The future shall be like a boy +cursed by his fathers, brought into the world with +glorious rights that are stamped in his title, but only +to find his kingdom and estates no longer in existence, +and all the circumstances dissipated, in which he might +have realized the glorious meaning of his name. Type +of innocent suffering, he is born to an empty title, +his name the vestige of a great opportunity, the +ironical monument of an irreparable crime.</p> + +<p>If Ahaz had any conscience left, we can imagine the +effect of this upon him. To be punished for sin in +one's own body and fortune, this is sore enough; but +to see heaven itself blackened and all the gracious +future frustrate, this is unspeakably terrible.</p> + +<p>Ahaz is thus the Judas of the Old Testament, if that +conception of Judas' character be the right one which +makes his wilful desire to bring about the kingdom of +God in his own violent fashion the motive of his betrayal +of Jesus. Of his own obduracy Ahaz has betrayed the +Messiah and Deliverer of his people. The assurance of +this betrayal is the sign of his obduracy, a signal and +terrible proof of his irretrievable sin in calling upon the +Assyrians. The king has been found wanting.</p> + + +<p class="center"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span>II. <span class="smcap">The People</span> (chap. viii.).</p> + +<p>The king has been found wanting; but Isaiah will +appeal to the people. Chap. viii. is a collection of +addresses to them, as chap. vii. was an expostulation +with their sovereign. The two chapters are contemporary. +In chap. viii. ver. 1, the narrative goes +back upon itself, and returns to the situation as it +was before Ahaz made his final resolution of reliance +on Assyria. Vv. 1-4 of chap. viii. imply that the +Assyrian has not yet been summoned by Ahaz to his +assistance, and therefore run parallel to chap. vii. +vv. 3-9; but chap. viii. ver. 5 and following verses +sketch the evils that are to come upon Judah and +Israel, consequent upon the arrival of the Assyrians +in Palestine, in answer to the appeal of Ahaz. These +evils for land and nation are threatened as absolutely +to the people, as they had been to the king. And then +the people are thrown over (viii. 14), as the king +had been; and Isaiah limits himself to his disciples +(ver. 16)—the <i>remnant</i> that was foretold in chap. vi.</p> + +<p>This appeal from monarch to people is one of the +most characteristic features of Isaiah's ministry. Whatever +be the matter committed to him, Isaiah is not +allowed to rest till he has brought it home to the +popular conscience; and however much he may be +able to charge national disaster upon the folly of +politicians or the obduracy of a king, it is the people +whom he holds ultimately responsible. The statesman, +according to Isaiah, cannot rise far above the level of +his generation; the people set the fashion to their +most autocratic rulers. This instinct for the popular +conscience, this belief in the moral solidarity of a nation +and their governors, was the motive of the most +picturesque passages in Isaiah's career, and inspired<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span> +some of the keenest epigrams in which he conveyed the +Divine truth. We have here a case in illustration. +Isaiah had met Ahaz and his court <i>at the conduit of +the upper pool, in the highway of the fuller's field</i>, +preparing for the expected siege of the city, and had +delivered to them the Lord's message not to fear, for that +Syria-Ephraim would certainly be destroyed. But that +was not enough. It was now laid upon the prophet to +make public and popular advertisement of the same truth.</p> + +<p>Isaiah was told to take a large, smooth board, and +write thereon in the character used by the common +people—<i>with the pen of a man</i>—as if it were the +title to a prophecy, the compound word "Maher-shalal-hash-baz." +This was not only an intelligibly written, but +a significantly sonorous, word—one of those popular +cries in which the liveliest sensations are struck forth +by the crowded, clashing letters, full to the dullest +ears of rumours of war: <i>speed-spoil-hurry-prey</i>. The +interpretation of it was postponed, the prophet meantime +taking two faithful witnesses to its publication. +In a little a son was born to Isaiah, and to this child he +transferred the noisy name. Then its explanation was +given. The double word was the alarm of a couple of +invasions. <i>Before the boy shall have knowledge to cry, +My father, my mother, the riches of Damascus and the +spoil of Samaria shall be carried away before the king +of Assyria.</i> So far nothing was told the people that +had not been told their king; only the time of the +overthrow of their two enemies was fixed with greater +precision. At the most in a year, Damascus and +Samaria would have fallen. The ground was already +vibrating to the footfall of the northern hosts.</p> + +<p>The rapid political changes, which ensued in Palestine, +are reflected on the broken surface of this eighth chapter.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span> +We shall not understand these abrupt and dislocated +oracles, uttered at short intervals during the two years +of the Assyrian campaign, unless we realize that northern +shadow passing and repassing over Judah and Israel, +and the quick alternations of pride and penitence in the +peoples beneath it. We need not try to thread the +verses on any line of thought. Logical connection +among them there is none. Let us at once get down +into the currents of popular feeling, in which Isaiah, +having left Ahaz, is now labouring, and casting forth +these cries.</p> + +<p>It is a period of powerful currents, a people wholly +in drift, and the strongest man of them arrested only +by a firm pressure of the Lord's hand. <i>For Jehovah +spake thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me, +that I should not walk in the way of this people.</i> The +character of the popular movement, <i>the way of this +people</i>, which nearly lifted Isaiah off his feet, is evident. +It is that into which every nation drifts, who have just +been loosened from a primitive faith in God, and by fear +or ambition have been brought under the fascination of +the great world. On the one hand, such a generation +is apt to seek the security of its outward life in things +materially large and splendid, to despise as paltry its +old religious forms, national aspirations and achievements, +and be very desirous to follow foreign fashion +and rival foreign wealth. On the other hand, the +religious spirit of such an age, withdrawn from its +legitimate objects, seeks satisfaction in petty and +puerile practices, demeaning itself spiritually, in a +way that absurdly contrasts with the grandeur of its +material ambitions. Such a stage in the life of a people +has its analogy in the growth of the individual, when +the boy, new to the world, by affecting the grandest<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span> +companions and models, assumes an ambitious manner, +with contempt for his former circumstances, yet inwardly +remains credulous, timid and liable to panic. Isaiah +reveals that it was such a stage, which both the kingdoms +of Israel had now reached. <i>This people hath refused +the waters of Shiloah, that go softly, and rejoice in Rezin +and Remaliah's son.</i></p> + +<p>It was natural, that when the people of Judah contrasted +their own estate with that of Assyria, or even +of Damascus, they should despise themselves. For +what was Judah? A petty principality, no larger than +three of our own counties. And what was Jerusalem? +A mere mountain village, some sixty or seventy acres +of barren rock, cut into tongues by three insignificant +valleys, down which there sometimes struggled tiny +threads of water, though the beds were oftener dry, +giving the town a withered and squalid look—no great +river to nourish, ennoble or protect. What were +such a country and capital to compare with the empire +of Assyria?—the empire of the two rivers, whose +powerful streams washed the ramparts, wharves, and +palace stairs of mighty cities! What was Jerusalem +even to the capital of Rezin? Were not Abana and +Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the +waters of Israel, let alone these waterless wâdys, +whose bleached beds made the Jewish capital so +squalid? It was the Assyrian's vast water system—canals, +embankments, sluices, and the wealth of water +moving through them—that most impressed the poor +Jew, whose streams failed him in summer, and who +had to treasure up his scanty stores of rainwater in +the cisterns, with which the rocky surface of his +territory is still so thickly indented. There had, +indeed, been at Jerusalem some attempt to conduct<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span> +water. It was called <i>The Shiloah</i>—<i>conduit</i> or <i>aqueduct</i>, +literally <i>emissary</i> in the old sense of the word—a +rough, narrow tunnel of some thousand feet in +length, hewn through the living rock from the only +considerable spring on the east side of Jerusalem, +to a reservoir within the walls. To this day <i>The +Shiloah</i> presents itself as not by any means a first-class +piece of engineering. Ahaz had either just made +the tunnel or repaired it; but if the water went no +faster than it travels now, the results were indeed +ridiculous. Well might <i>this people despise the waters +of the Shiloah, that go trickling</i>, when they thought upon +the rivers of Damascus or the broad streams of +Mesopotamia. Certainly it was enough to dry up +the patriotism of the Judean, if he was capable of +appreciating only material value, to look upon this +bare, riverless capital, with its bungled aqueduct and +trickling water supply. On merely material grounds, +Judah was about the last country at that time, in +which her inhabitants might be expected to show pride +or confidence.</p> + +<p>But woe to the people, whose attachment to their +land is based upon its material advantages, who have +lost their sense for those spiritual presences, from an +appreciation of which springs all true love of country, +with warrior's courage in her defence and statesman's +faith in her destiny! The greatest calamity, which +can befall any people, is to forfeit their enthusiasm for +the soil, on which their history has been achieved and +their hearths and altars lie, by suffering their faith in +the presence of God, of which these are but the tokens, +to pass away. With this loss Isaiah now reproaches +Judah. The people are utterly materialized; their +delights have been in gold and silver, chariots and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span> +horses, fenced cities and broad streams, and their faith +has now followed their delights. But these things to +which they flee will only prove their destruction. The +great foreign river, whose waters they covet, will overflow +them: <i>even the king of Assyria and all his glory, +and he shall come up over all his channels and go over +all his banks; and he shall sweep onward into Judah; +he shall overflow and pass through; he shall reach even +to the neck; and the stretching out of his wings shall +fill the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel</i>, thou who art +<i>God-with-us</i>. At the sound of the Name, which +floats in upon the floods of invasion like the Ark on +the waters of old, Isaiah pulls together his distraught +faith in his country, and forgetting her faults, flings +defiance at her foes. <i>Associate yourselves, ye peoples, +and ye shall be broken in pieces; and give ear, all ye of +far-off countries, gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken +in pieces. Take counsel together, and it shall be brought +to nought; speak the word, and it shall not stand: for +Immanu-El</i>—"With us is God." The challenge was +made good. The prophet's faith prevailed over the +people's materialism, and Jerusalem remained inviolable +till Isaiah's death.</p> + +<p>Meantime the Assyrian came on. But the infatuated +people of Judah continued to tremble rather before the +doomed conspirators, Rezin and Pekah. It must have +been a time of huge excitement. The prophet tells us +how he was steadied by the pressure of the Lord's +hand, and how, being steadied, the meaning of the word +"Immanuel" was opened out to him. <i>God-with-us</i> is +the one great fact of life. Amid all the possible alliances +and all the possible fears of a complex political situation, +He remains the one certain alliance, the one real +fear. <i>Say ye not, A conspiracy, concerning all whereof</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span> +<i>this people say, A conspiracy; neither fear ye their fear, +nor be in dread thereof. Jehovah of hosts, Him shall ye +sanctify; and let Him be your fear, and let Him be your +dread.</i> God is the one great fact of life, but what a +double-edged fact—<i>a sanctuary to all who put their trust +in Him, but a rock of offence to both houses of Israel!</i> +The figure is very picturesque. An altar, a common +stone on steps, one of those which covered the land +in large numbers—it is easy to see what a double +purpose that might serve. What a joy the sight would +be to the weary wanderer or refugee who sought it, +what a comfort as he leant his weariness upon it, and +knew he was safe! But those who were flying over +the land, not seeking Jehovah, not knowing indeed +what they sought, blind and panic-stricken—for them +what could that altar do but trip them up like any +other common rock in their way? "In fact, Divine +justice is something which is either observed, desired, +or attained, and is then man's weal, or, on the other +hand, is overlooked, rejected, or sought after in a wild, +unintelligent spirit, and only in the hour of need, and +is then their lasting ruin."<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a></p> + +<p>The Assyrian came on, and the temper of the +Jews grew worse. Samaria was indeed doomed +from the first, but for some time Isaiah had been +excepting Judah from a judgement for which the guilt of +Northern Israel was certainly riper. He foresaw, of +course, that the impetus of invasion might sweep the +Assyrians into Judah, but he had triumphed in this: +that Judah was Immanuel's land, and that all who +arrayed themselves against her must certainly come to +nought. But now his ideas have changed, as Judah has<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span> +persisted in evil. He knows now that God is for +a stumbling-block to <i>both</i> houses of Israel; nay, that +upon Jerusalem herself He will fall as a gin and a +snare. Only for a little group of individuals, separate +from both States, and gathered round the prophet and +the word of God given to him, is salvation certain. +People, as well as king, have been found wanting. +There remains only this <i>remnant</i>.</p> + +<p>Isaiah then at last sees his <i>remnant</i>. But the +point we have reached is significant for more than the +fulfilment of his expectations. This is the first appearance +in history of a religious community, apart from the +forms of domestic or national life. "Till then no one +had dreamed of a fellowship of faith dissociated from +all national forms, bound together by faith in the +Divine word alone. It was the birth of a new era in +religion, for it was the birth of the conception of the +Church, the first step in the emancipation of spiritual +religion from the forms of political life."<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a></p> + +<p>The plan of the seventh and eighth chapters is now +fully disclosed. As the king for his unworthiness has +to give place to the Messiah, so the nation for theirs +have to give place to the Church. In the seventh +chapter the king was found wanting, and the Messiah +promised. In the eighth chapter the people are found +wanting; and the prophet, turning from them, proceeds +to form the Church among those who accept the Word, +which king and people have refused. <i>Bind thou up +the testimony, and seal the teaching<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> among my disciples. +And I will wait on Jehovah, who hideth His face from</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span> +<i>the house of Jacob, and I will look for Him. Behold, +I and the children Jehovah hath given me are for signs +and wonders in Israel from Jehovah of hosts, Him that +dwelleth in Mount Zion.</i></p> + +<p>This, then, is the situation: revelation concluded, +the Church formed upon it, and the nation abandoned. +But is that situation final? The words just quoted +betray the prophet's hope that it is not. He says: <i>I +will wait.</i> He says again: The <span class="smcap">Lord</span> is only <i>hiding +His face from the house of Jacob</i>. I will expect again +the shining of His countenance. I will hope for Divine +grace and the nation being once more conterminous. +The rest of the section (to ix. 7) is the development of +this hope, which stirs in the prophet's heart after he has +closed the record of revelation.</p> + +<p>The darkness deepened across Israel. The Assyrian +had come. The northern floods kept surging among +the little States of Palestine, and none knew what might +be left standing. We can well understand Isaiah +pausing, as he did, in face of such rapid and incontrollable +movements. When Tiglath-pileser swept over the +plain of Esdraelon, casting down the king of Samaria and +the Philistine cities, and then swept back again, carrying +off upon his ebb the populations east of the Jordan, +it looked very like as if both the houses of Israel should +fall. In their panic, the people betook themselves to +morbid forms of religion; and at first Isaiah was obliged +to quench the hope and pity he had betrayed for them +in indignation at the utter contrariety of their religious +practices to the word of God. There can be no Divine +grace for the people as long as they <i>seek unto them +that have familiar spirits, and unto the wizards that +chirp and that mutter</i>. For such a disposition the +prophet has nothing but scorn, <i>Should not a people</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span> +<i>seek unto their God? On behalf of the living should +they seek unto the dead?</i> They must come back to +the prophet's own word before hope may dawn. <i>To the +revelation and the testimony! If they speak not according +to this word, surely there is no morning for them.</i></p> + +<p>The night, however, grew too awful for scorn. +There had been no part of the land so given to the +idolatrous practices, which the prophet scathed, as +<i>the land of Zebulon and the land of Naphtali, by the +sea beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles</i>. But all +the horrors of captivity had now fallen upon it, and it +had received at the Lord's hand double for all its sins. +The night had been torn enough by lightning; was +there no dawn? The darkness of these provinces fills +the prophet's silenced thoughts. He sees a people +<i>hardly bestead and hungry, fretting themselves, cursing +their king</i>, who had betrayed them, <i>and their God</i>, who +had abandoned them, <i>turning their faces upwards</i> to +heaven and <i>downwards</i> to the sacred soil from which +they were being dragged, <i>but, behold, distress and +darkness, the gloom of anguish; and into thick darkness +they are driven away</i>. It is a murky picture, yet +through the smoke of it we are able to discern a weird +procession of Israelites departing into captivity. We +date it, therefore, about 732 <span class="smcap"><small>B.C.</small></span>, the night of Israel's first +great captivity. The shock and the pity of this rouse +the prophet's great heart. He cannot continue to say +that there is no morning for those benighted provinces. +He will venture a great hope for their people.</p> + +<p>Over how many months the crowded verses, viii. +21-ix. 7, must be spread, it is useless now to +inquire—whether the revulsion they mark arose all at +once in the prophet's mind, or hope grew gradually +brighter as the smoke of war died away on Israel's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span> +northern frontier during 731 <span class="smcap"><small>B.C.</small></span> It is enough that we +can mark the change. The prophet's tones pass from +sarcasm to pity (viii. 20, 21); from pity to hope +(viii. 22-ix. 1); from hope to triumph in the +vision of salvation actually achieved (ix. 2). <i>The +people that walked in darkness have seen a great light; +they that dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, on them +hath the light shined.</i> For a mutilated, we see a multiplied, +nation; for the fret of hunger and the curses of +defeat, we hear the joy of harvest and of spoil after +victory. <i>For the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his +shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, Thou hast broken as in +the day of Midian.</i> War has rolled away for ever over +that northern horizon, and all the relics of war in the +land are swept together into the fire. <i>For all the +armour of the armed man in the tumult, and the garments +rolled in blood, shall even be for burning, and for fuel of +fire.</i> In the midday splendour of this peace, which, +after the fashion of Hebrew prophecy, is described as +already realized, Isaiah hails the Author of it all in that +gracious and marvellous Child whose birth he had already +intimated, Heir to the throne of David, but entitled by a +fourfold name, too generous, perhaps, for a mere mortal, +<i>Wonderful-Counsellor</i>, <i>Hero-God</i>, <i>Father-Everlasting</i>, +<i>Prince-of-peace</i>, who shall redeem the realms of his +great forerunner and maintain <i>Israel with justice and +righteousness from henceforth, even for ever</i>.</p> + +<p>When, finally, the prophet inquires what has led his +thoughts through this rapid change from satisfaction +(chap. viii. 16) with the salvation of a small <i>remnant</i> +of believers in the word of God—a little kernel of +patience in the midst of a godless and abandoned +people—to the daring vision of a whole nation redeemed +and established in peace under a Godlike King,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span> +he says: <i>The zeal of the Lord of hosts hath performed +this.</i></p> + +<p><i>The zeal</i>, translates our English version, but no +one English word will give it. It is that mixture of +hot honour and affection to which "jealousy" in its +good sense comes near. It is that overflow of the love +that cannot keep still, which, when men think God has +surely done all He will or can do for an ungrateful +race, visits them in their distress, and carries them +forward into unconceived dispensations of grace and +glory. It is the Spirit of God, which yearns after the +lost, speaks to the self-despairing of hope, and surprises +rebel and prophet alike with new revelations of love. +We have our systems representing God's work up to +the limits of our experience, and we settle upon them; +but the Almighty is ever greater than His promise or +than His revelation of Himself.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER VII.</h2> + +<h3><i>THE MESSIAH.</i></h3> + + +<p>We have now reached that point of Isaiah's prophesying +at which the Messiah becomes the +most conspicuous figure on his horizon. Let us take +advantage of it, to gather into one statement all that the +prophet told his generation concerning that exalted and +mysterious Person.<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a></p> + +<p>When Isaiah began to prophesy, there was current +among the people of Judah the expectation of a glorious +King. How far the expectation was defined it is impossible +to ascertain; but this at least is historically +certain. A promise had been made to David (2 Sam. vii. +4-17) by which the permanence of his dynasty was +assured. His offspring, it was said, should succeed +him, yet eternity was promised not to any individual +descendant, but to the dynasty. Prophets earlier than +Isaiah emphasized this establishment of the house of +David, even in the days of Israel's greatest distress; +but they said nothing of a single monarch with whom +the fortunes of the house were to be identified. It is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span> +clear, however, even without the evidence of the +Messianic Psalms, that the hope of such a hero was +quick in Israel. Besides the documentary proof of +David's own last words (2 Sam. xxiii.), there is the +manifest impossibility of dreaming of an ideal kingdom +apart from the ideal king. Orientals, and especially +Orientals of that period, were incapable of realizing the +triumph of an idea or an institution without connecting +it with a personality. So that we may be perfectly +sure, that when Isaiah began to prophesy the people +not only counted upon the continuance of David's +dynasty, as they counted upon the presence of Jehovah +Himself, but were familiar with the ideal of a monarch, +and lived in hope of its realization.</p> + +<p>In the first stage of his prophecy, it is remarkable, +Isaiah makes no use of this tradition, although he gives +more than one representation of Israel's future in which +it might naturally have appeared. No word is spoken +of a Messiah even in the awful conversation, in which +Isaiah received from the Eternal the fundamentals of +his teaching. The only hope there permitted to him +is the survival of a bare, leaderless few of the people, +or, to use his own word, <i>a stump</i>, with no sign of a +prominent sprout upon it. In connection, however, +with the survival of a remnant, as we have said on +chap. vi. (p. 89), it is plain that there were two indispensable +conditions, which the prophet could not help +having to state sooner or later. Indeed, one of them he +had mentioned already. It was indispensable that the +people should have a leader, and that they should have +a rallying-point. They must have their King, and they +must have their City. Every reader of Isaiah knows +that it is on these two themes the prophet rises to the +height of his eloquence—Jerusalem shall remain inviolable;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span> +a glorious King shall be given unto her. But +it has not been so generally remarked, that Isaiah is far +more concerned and consistent about the secure city than +about the ideal monarch. From first to last the establishment +and peace of Jerusalem are never out of his +thoughts, but he speaks only now and then of the King +to come. Through long periods of his ministry, though +frequently describing the blessed future, he is silent +about the Messiah, and even sometimes so groups the +inhabitants of that future, as to leave no room for Him +among them. Indeed, the silences of Isaiah upon this +Person are as remarkable as the brilliant passages, in +which he paints His endowments and His work.</p> + +<p>If we consider the moment, chosen by Isaiah for +announcing the Messiah and adding his seal to the +national belief in the advent of a glorious Son of David, +we find some significance in the fact that it was a +moment, when the throne of David was unworthily filled +and David's dynasty was for the first time seriously +threatened. It is impossible to dissociate the birth of +a boy called <i>Immanuel</i>, and afterwards so closely identified +with the fortunes of the whole land (vii. 8), +from the public expectation of a King of glory; and +critics are almost unanimous in recognizing Immanuel +again in the Prince-of-the-Four-Names in chap. ix. +Immanuel, therefore, is the Messiah, the promised King +of Israel. But Isaiah makes his own first intimation of +Him, not when the throne was worthily filled by an +Uzziah or a Jotham, but when a fool and traitor to God +abused its power, and the foreign conspiracy to set up +a Syrian prince in Jerusalem imperilled the whole +dynasty. Perhaps we ought not to overlook the fact, +that Isaiah does not here designate Immanuel as a +descendant of David. The vagueness with which the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span> +mother is described has given rise to a vast amount of +speculation as to what particular person the prophet +meant by her. But may not Isaiah's vagueness be the +only intention he had in mentioning a mother at all? +The whole house of David shared at that moment +the sin of the king (vii. 13); and it is not presuming +too much upon the freedom of our prophet to suppose, +that he shook himself loose from the tradition, which +entailed the Messiah upon the royal family of Judah, +and at least left it an open question, whether Immanuel +might not, in consequence of their sin, spring from some +other stock.</p> + +<p>It is, however, far less with the origin, than with the +experience, of Immanuel that Isaiah is concerned; and +those who embark upon curious inquiries, as to who +exactly the mother might be, are busying themselves +with what the prophet had no interest in, while neglecting +that in which really lay the significance of the sign +that he offered.</p> + +<p>Ahaz by his wilfulness has made a Substitute necessary. +But Isaiah is far more taken up with this: that he +has actually mortgaged the prospects of that Substitute. +The Messiah comes, but the wilfulness of Ahaz has +rendered His reign impossible. He, whose advent has +hitherto not been foretold except as the beginning of +an era of prosperity, and whose person has not been +painted but with honour and power, is represented as a +helpless and innocent Sufferer—His prospects dissipated +by the sins of others, and Himself born only to share +His people's indigence (p. 115). Such a representation +of the Hero's fate is of the very highest interest. We +are accustomed to associate the conception of a suffering +Messiah only with a much later development of prophecy, +when Israel went into exile; but the conception<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span> +meets us already here. It is another proof that <i>Esaias +is very bold</i>. He calls his Messiah Immanuel, and yet +dares to present Him as nothing but a Sufferer—a Sufferer +for the sins of others. Born only to suffer with +His people, who should have inherited their throne—that +is Isaiah's first doctrine of the Messiah.</p> + +<p>Through the rest of the prophecies published during +the Syro-Ephraitic troubles the Sufferer is slowly +transformed into a Deliverer. The stages of this +transformation are obscure. In chap. viii. Immanuel +is no more defined than in chap. vii. He is still only a +Name of hope upon an unbroken prospect of devastation. +<i>The stretching out of his wings</i>—<i>i.e.</i>, the floods +of the Assyrian—<i>shall fill the breadth of Thy land, O +Immanuel</i>. But this time that the prophet utters the +Name, he feels inspired by new courage. He grasps +at Immanuel as the pledge of ultimate salvation. Let +the enemies of Judah work their worst; it shall be in +vain, <i>for Immanuel, God is with us</i>. And then, to our +astonishment, while Isaiah is telling us how he arrived +at the convictions embodied in this Name, the personality +of Immanuel fades away altogether, and Jehovah +of hosts Himself is set forth as the sole sanctuary of +those who fear Him. There is indeed a double displacement +here. Immanuel dissolves in two directions. +As a Refuge, He is displaced by Jehovah; as a Sufferer +and a Symbol of the sufferings of the land, by a little +community of disciples, the first embodiment of the +Church, who now, with Isaiah, can do nothing except +wait for the Lord (pp. 124-126).</p> + +<p>Then, when the prophet's yearning thoughts, that +will not rest upon so dark a closure, struggle once +more, and struggling pass from despair to pity, and from +pity to hope, and from hope to triumph in a salvation<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span> +actually achieved, they hail all at once as the Hero of +it the Son whose birth was promised. With an +emphasis, which vividly reveals the sense of exhaustion +in the living generation and the conviction that only +something fresh, and sent straight from God Himself, +can now avail Israel, the prophet cries: <i>Unto us a +Child is born; unto us a Son is given</i>. The Messiah +appears in a glory that floods His origin out of sight. +We cannot see whether He springs from the house of +David; but <i>the government is to be upon His shoulder</i>, +and He shall reign <i>on David's throne with righteousness +for ever</i>. His title shall be fourfold: <i>Wonderful-Counsellor</i>, +<i>God-Hero</i>, <i>Father-Everlasting</i>, <i>Prince-of-Peace</i>.</p> + +<p>These Four Names do certainly not invite us to +grudge them meaning, and they have been claimed as +incontrovertible proofs, that the prophet had an absolutely +Divine Person in view. Some distinguished +scholars insist that the promised Deliverer is nothing +less than a God in the metaphysical sense of the +word.<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> There are serious reasons, however, which +make us doubt this conclusion, and, though we firmly +hold that Jesus Christ was God, prevent us from recognizing +these names as prophecies of His Divinity. +Two of the names are capable of being used of an +earthly monarch: <i>Wonderful-Counsellor</i> and <i>Prince-of-Peace</i>, +which are, within the range of human virtue, +in evident contrast to Ahaz, at once foolish in the conception +of his policy and warlike in its results. It +will be more difficult to get Western minds to see how +<i>Father-Everlasting</i> may be applied to a mere man, +but the ascription of eternity is not unusual in Oriental<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span> +titles, and in the Old Testament is sometimes rendered +to things that perish. When Hebrews speak of any +one as everlasting, that does not necessarily imply +Divinity. The second name, which we render <i>God-Hero</i>, +is, it is true, used of Jehovah Himself in the +very next chapter to this, but in the plural it is also +used of men by Ezekiel (xxxii. 21). The part of it +translated <i>God</i> is a frequent name of the Divine Being +in the Old Testament, but literally means only <i>mighty</i>, +and is by Ezekiel (xxxi. 11) applied to Nebuchadnezzar. +We should hesitate, therefore, to understand +by these names "a God in the metaphysical sense +of the word."</p> + +<p>We fall back with greater confidence on other +arguments of a more general kind, which apply to all +Isaiah's prophecies of the Messiah. If Isaiah had one +revelation rather than another to make, it was the +revelation of the unity of God. Against king and +people, who crowded their temple with the shrines of +many deities, Isaiah presented Jehovah as the one only +God. It would simply have nullified the force of his +message, and confused the generation to which he +brought it, if either he or they had conceived of the +Messiah, with the conceiving of Christian theology, as +a separate Divine personality.</p> + +<p>Again, as Mr. Robertson Smith has very clearly +explained,<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> the functions assigned by Isaiah to the +King of the future are simply the ordinary duties +of the monarchy, for which He is equipped by +the indwelling of that Spirit of God, that makes all +wise men wise and valorous men valorous. "We +believe in a Divine and eternal Saviour, because the +work of salvation as we understand it in the light of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span> +New Testament is essentially different from the work of +the wisest and best earthly king." But such an earthly +king's work is all Isaiah looks for. So that, so far +from its being derogatory to Christ to grudge the sense +of Divinity to these names, it is a fact that the more +spiritual our notions are of the saving work of Jesus, +the less inclined shall we be to claim the prophecies +of Isaiah in proof of His Deity.</p> + +<p>There is a third argument in the same direction, the +force of which we appreciate only when we come to +discover how very little from this point onwards Isaiah +had to say about the promised king. In chaps. i.-xxxix. +only three other passages are interpreted as describing +the Messiah. The first of these, xi. 1-5, dating perhaps +from about 720, when Hezekiah was king, tells us, for +the first and only time by Isaiah's lips, that the Messiah +is to be a scion of David's house, and confirms what we +have said: that His duties, however perfectly they were +to be discharged, were the usual duties of Judah's +monarchy.<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a> The second passage, xxxii. 1 ff., which dates +probably from after 705, when Hezekiah was still king, +is, if indeed it refers at all to the Messiah, a still fainter, +though sweeter, echo of previous descriptions. While +the third passage, xxxiii. 17: <i>Thou shalt see thy king in +his beauty</i>, does not refer to the Messiah at all, but to +Hezekiah, then prostrate and in sackcloth, with Assyria +thundering at the gate of Jerusalem (701). The +mass of Isaiah's predictions of the Messiah thus fall +within the reign of Ahaz, and just at the point at +which Ahaz proved an unworthy representative of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span> +Jehovah, and Judah and Israel were threatened with +complete devastation. There is a repetition when +Hezekiah has come to the throne. But in the remaining +seventeen years, except perhaps for one +allusion, Isaiah is silent on the ideal king, although +he continued throughout that time to unfold pictures +of the blessed future which contained every other +Messianic feature, and the realization of which he +placed where he had placed his Prince-of-the-Four-Names—in +connection, that is, with the approaching +defeat of the Assyrians. Ignoring the Messiah, during +these years Isaiah lays all the stress of his prophecy +on the inviolability of Jerusalem; and while he promises +the recovery of the actually reigning monarch from the +distress of the Assyrian invasion,—as if that were what +the people chiefly desired to see, and not a brighter, +stronger substitute,—he hails Jehovah Himself, in solitary +and undeputed sovereignty, as Judge, Lawgiver, +Monarch and Saviour (xxxiii. 22). Between Hezekiah, +thus restored to his beauty, and Jehovah's own +presence, there is surely no room left for another royal +personage. But these very facts—that Isaiah felt most +compelled to predict an ideal king when the actual +king was unworthy, and that, on the contrary, when +the reigning king proved worthy, approximating to the +ideal, Isaiah felt no need for another, and indeed +in his prophecies left no room for another—form surely +a powerful proof that the king he expected was not +a supernatural being, but a human personality, extraordinarily +endowed by God, one of the descendants +of David by ordinary succession, but fulfilling the ideal +which his forerunners had missed. Even if we allow +that the four names contain among them the predicate +of Divinity, we must not overlook the fact that the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span> +Prince is only called by them. It is not that <i>He is</i>, +but that He shall be called, <i>Wonderful-Counsellor</i>, <i>God-Hero</i>, +<i>Father-Everlasting</i>, <i>Prince-of-Peace</i>. Nowhere is +there a dogmatic statement that He is Divine. Besides, +it is inconceivable that if Isaiah, the prophet of +the unity of God, had at any time a second Divine +Person in his hope, he should have afterwards remained +so silent about Him. To interpret the ascription of +the Four Names as a conscious definition of Divinity, +at all like the Christian conception of Jesus Christ, is to +render the silence of Isaiah's later life and the silence +of subsequent prophets utterly inexplicable.</p> + +<p>On these grounds, then, we decline to believe that +Isaiah saw in the king of the future "a God in the +metaphysical sense of the word." Just because we +know the proofs of the Divinity of Jesus to be so +spiritual, do we feel the uselessness of looking for them +to prophecies, that manifestly describe purely earthly +and civil functions.</p> + +<p>But such a conclusion by no means shuts us out +from tracing a relation between these prophecies and +the appearance of Jesus. The fact, that Isaiah allowed +them to go down to posterity, proves that he himself +did not count them to have been exhausted in Hezekiah. +And this fact of their preservation is ever so much the +more significant, that their literal truth was discredited +by events. Isaiah had evidently foretold the birth and +bitter youth of Immanuel for the <i>near</i> future. Immanuel's +childhood was to begin with the devastation +of Ephraim and Syria, and to be passed in circumstances +consequent on the devastation of Judah, which was to +follow close upon that of her two enemies. But although +Ephraim and Syria were immediately spoiled, as Isaiah +foresaw, Judah lay in peace all the reign of Ahaz and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span> +many years after his death. So that had Immanuel +been born in the next twenty-five years after the announcement +of His birth, He would not have found in +His own land the circumstances which Isaiah foretold +as the discipline of His boyhood. Isaiah's forecast of +Judah's fate was, therefore, falsified by events. That +the prophet or his disciples should have allowed it to +remain, is proof that they believed it to have contents, +which the history they had lived through neither exhausted +nor discredited. In the prophecies of the +Messiah there was something ideal, which was as +permanent and valid for the future as the prophecy of +the Remnant or that of the visible majesty of Jehovah. +If the attachment, at which the prophet aimed when he +launched these prophecies on the stream of time, was +denied them by their own age, that did not mean their +submersion, but only their freedom to float further +down the future and seek attachment there.</p> + +<p>This boldness, to entrust to future ages a prophecy +discredited by contemporary history, argues a +profound belief in its moral meaning and eternal +significance; and it is this boldness, in face of disappointment +continued from generation to generation in +Israel, that constitutes the uniqueness of the Messianic +hope among that people. To sublimate this permanent +meaning of the prophecies from the contemporary +material, with which it is mixed, is not difficult. +Isaiah foretells his Prince on the supposition that +certain things are fulfilled. When the people are +reduced to the last extreme, when there is no more a +king to rally or to rule them, when the land is in +captivity, when revelation is closed, when, in despair +of the darkness of the Lord's face, men have taken +to them that have familiar spirits and wizards that peep<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span> +and mutter, then, in that last sinful, hopeless estate +of man, a Deliverer shall appear. <i>The zeal of the Lord +of hosts will perform it.</i> This is the first article of +Isaiah's Messianic creed, and stands back behind the +Messiah and all Messianic blessings, their exhaustless +origin. Whatsoever man's sin and darkness be, the +Almighty lives, and His zeal is infinite. Therefore +it is a fact eternally true, that whatsoever Deliverer +His people need and can receive shall be sent to them, +and shall be styled by whatsoever names their hearts can +best appreciate. Titles shall be given Him to attract +their hope and their homage, and not a definition of His +nature, of which their theological vocabulary would +be incapable. This is the vital kernel of Messianic +prophecy in Isaiah. The <i>zeal of the Lord</i>, kindling +the dark thoughts of the prophet as he broods +over his people's need of salvation, suddenly makes a +Saviour visible—visible just as He is needed there and +then. Isaiah hears Him hailed by titles that satisfy the +particular wants of the age, and express men's thoughts +as far up the idea of salvation and majesty as they of that +age can rise. But the prophet has also perceived that +sin and disaster will so accumulate before the Messiah +comes, that, though innocent, He shall have to bear +tribulation and pass to His prime through suffering. +No one with open mind can deny, that in this moderate +estimate of the prophet's meaning there is a very great +deal of the essence of the Gospel as it has been fulfilled +in the personal consciousness and saving work of +Jesus Christ,—as much of that essence, indeed, as it was +possible to communicate to so early a generation, and +one whose religious needs were so largely what we call +temporal. But if we grant this, and if at the same +time we appreciate the uniqueness of such a hope as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span> +this of Israel, then surely it must be allowed to have +the appearance of a special preparation for Christ's life +and work; and so, to use very moderate words which +have been applied to Messianic prophecy in general, it +may be taken "as a proof of its true connection with +the Gospel dispensation as part of one grand scheme in +the counsels of Providence."<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a></p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Men do not ask when they drink of a streamlet high +up on the hills, "Is this going to be a great river?" +They are satisfied if it is water enough to quench their +thirst. And so it was enough for Old Testament +believers if they found in Isaiah's prophecy of a +Deliverer—as they did find—what satisfied their own +religious needs, without convincing them to what +volumes it should swell. But this does not mean that +in using these Old Testament prophecies we Christians +should limit our enjoyment of them to the measure of +the generation to whom they were addressed. To +have known Christ must make the predictions of the +Messiah different to a man. You cannot bring so +infinite an ocean of blessing into historic connection +with these generous, expansive intimations of the Old +Testament without its passing into them. If we may +use a rough figure, the Messianic prophecies of the +Old Testament are tidal rivers. They not only run, as +we have seen, to their sea, which is Christ; they feel +His reflex influence. It is not enough for a Christian +to have followed the historical direction of the prophecies, +or to have proved their connection with the New +Testament as parts of one Divine harmony. Forced +back by the fulness of meaning to which he has found<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span> +their courses open, he returns to find the savour of the +New Testament upon them, and that where he descended +shallow and tortuous channels, with all the difficulties +of historical exploration, he is borne back on full tides +of worship. To use the appropriate words of Isaiah, +<i>the Lord is with him there, a place of broad rivers and +streams</i>.</p> + +<p>With all this, however, we must not forget that, beside +these prophecies of a great earthly ruler, there runs +another stream of desire and promise, in which we see +a much stronger premonition of the fact that a Divine +Being shall some day dwell among men. We mean the +Scriptures in which it is foretold that Jehovah Himself +shall visibly visit Jerusalem. This line of prophecy, +taken along with the powerful anthropomorphic representations +of God,—astonishing in a people like the +Jews, who so abhorred the making of an image of the +Deity upon the likeness of anything in heaven and +earth,—we hold to be the proper Old Testament +instinct that the Divine should take human form and +tabernacle amongst men. But this side of our subject—the +relation of the anthropomorphism of the Old Testament +to the Incarnation—we postpone till we come to +the second part of the book of Isaiah, in which the +anthropomorphic figures are more frequent and daring +than they are here.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span></p> +<h2>BOOK II.</h2> + +<h3><i>PROPHECIES FROM THE ACCESSION OF +HEZEKIAH TO THE DEATH OF +SARGON,</i> 727-705 <span class="smcap"><small>B.C.</small></span></h3> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span></p> + + + +<div class="center"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Book 2"> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Isaiah</span>:—</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">xxviii. 725 <span class="smcap"><small>B.C.</small></span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">x. 5-34. 721 <span class="smcap"><small>B.C.</small></span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">xi., xii. About 720 <span class="smcap"><small>B.C.</small></span>?</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">xx. 711 <span class="smcap"><small>B.C.</small></span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">xxi. 1-10. 710 <span class="smcap"><small>B.C.</small></span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">xxxviii., xxxix. Between 712 and 705 <span class="smcap"><small>B.C.</small></span></td></tr> +</table></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span></p> +<h2>BOOK II.</h2> + + +<p>The prophecies with which we have been engaged +(chaps. ii.-x. 4) fall either before or during +the great Assyrian invasion of Syria, undertaken in +734-732 by Tiglath-pileser II., at the invitation of +King Ahaz. Nobody has any doubt about that. But +when we ask what prophecies of Isaiah come next in +chronological order, we raise a storm of answers. We +are no longer on the sure ground we have been +enjoying.</p> + +<p>Under the canonical arrangement the next prophecy +is "The Woe upon the Assyrian" (x. 5-34). In +the course of this the Assyrian is made to boast of +having overthrown Samaria (vv. 9-11): <i>Is not Samaria +as Damascus?... Shall I not, as I have done unto +Samaria and her idols, so do to Jerusalem and her idols?</i> +If <i>Samaria</i> mean the capital city of Northern Israel—and +the name is never used in these parts of Scripture +for anything else—and if the prophet be quoting a boast +which the Assyrian was actually in a position to make, +and not merely imagining a boast, which he would be +likely to make some years afterwards (an entirely +improbable view, though held by one great scholar<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a>), +then an event is here described as past and over which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span> +did not happen during Tiglath-pileser's campaign, nor +indeed till twelve years after it. Tiglath-pileser did not +require to besiege Samaria in the campaign of 734-732. +The king, Pekah, was slain by a conspiracy of his +own subjects; and Hoshea, the ringleader, who succeeded, +willingly purchased the stability of a usurped +throne by homage and tribute to the king of kings. +So Tiglath-pileser went home again, satisfied to have +punished Israel by carrying away with him the population +of Galilee. During his reign there was no further +appearance of the Assyrians in Palestine, but at his +death in 727 Hoshea, after the fashion of Assyrian +vassals when the throne at Nineveh changed occupants, +attempted to throw off the yoke of the new king, +Salmanassar IV. Along with the Phœnician and +Philistine cities, Hoshea negotiated an alliance with +So, or Seve, the Ethiopian, a usurper who had just +succeeded in establishing his supremacy over the land +of the Pharaohs. In a year Salmanassar marched +south upon the rebels. He took Hoshea prisoner on +the borders of his territory (725), but, not content, as +his predecessor had been, with the submission of the +king, <i>he came up throughout all the land, and went up +to Samaria, and besieged it three years</i>.<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a> He did not live +to see the end of the siege, and Samaria was taken in +722 by Sargon, his successor. Sargon overthrew the +kingdom and uprooted the people. The northern tribes +were carried away into a captivity, from which as tribes +they never returned.</p> + +<p>It was evidently this complete overthrow of Samaria +by Sargon in 722-721, which Isaiah had behind him +when he wrote x. 9-11. We must, therefore, date the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span> +prophecy after 721, when nothing was left as a bulwark +between Judah and the Assyrian. We do so with +reluctance. There is much in x. 5-34 which suits +the circumstances of Tiglath-pileser's invasion. There +are phrases and catch-words coinciding with those in +vii.-ix. 7; and the whole oration is simply a more +elaborate expression of that defiance of Assyria, which +inspires such of the previous prophecies as viii. 9, 10. +Besides, with the exception of Samaria, all the names +in the Assyrian's boastful catalogue—Carchemish, Calno, +Arpad, Hamath and Damascus—might as justly have +been vaunted by the lips of Tiglath-pileser as by +those of Sargon. But in spite of these things, which +seem to vindicate the close relation of x. 5-34 to the +prophecies which precede it in the canon, the mention +of Samaria as being already destroyed justifies us in +divorcing it from them. While they remain dated from +before 732, we place it subsequent to 722.</p> + +<p>Was Isaiah, then, silent these ten years? Is there +no prophecy lying farther on in his book that treats of +Samaria as still standing? Besides an address to the +fallen Damascus in xvii. 1-11, which we shall take later +with the rest of Isaiah's oracles on foreign states, there +is one large prophecy, chap. xxviii., which opens with +a description of the magnates of Samaria lolling in +drunken security on their vine-crowned hill, but God's +storms are ready to break. Samaria has not yet fallen, +but is threatened and shall fall soon. The first part +of chap. xxviii. can only refer to the year, in which +Salmanassar advanced upon Samaria—726 or 725. +There is nothing in the rest of it to corroborate this +date; but the fact, that there are several turns of +thought and speech very similar to turns of thought +and speech in x. 5-34, makes us the bolder to take<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span> +away xxviii. from its present connection with xxix.-xxxii., +and place it just before x. 5-34.</p> + +<p>Here then is our next group of prophecies, all dating +from the first seven years of the reign of Hezekiah: +xxviii., a warning addressed to the politicians of Jerusalem +from the impending fate of those of Samaria +(date 725); x. 5-34, a woe upon the Assyrian (date +about 720), describing his boasts and his progress in +conquest till his sudden crash by the walls of Jerusalem; +xi., of date uncertain, for it reflects no historical circumstance, +but standing in such artistic contrast to x. +that the two must be treated together; and xii., a +hymn of salvation, which forms a fitting conclusion +to xi. With these we shall take the few fragments +of the book of Isaiah which belong to the fifteen years +720-705, and are as straws to show how Judah all +that time was drifting down to alliance with Egypt—xx., +xxi. 1-10, and xxxviii.-xxxix. This will bring us +to 705, and the beginning of a new series of prophecies, +the richest of Isaiah's life, and the subject of our third +book.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER VIII.</h2> + +<h3><i>GOD'S COMMONPLACE.</i></h3> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> xxviii. (<span class="smcap"><small>ABOUT 725 B.C.</small></span>)</p> + + +<p>The twenty-eighth chapter of the Book of Isaiah +is one of the greatest of his prophecies. It is +distinguished by that regal versatility of style, which +places its author at the head of Hebrew writers. Keen +analyses of character, realistic contrasts between sin +and judgement, clever retorts and epigrams, rapids of +scorn, and "a spate" of judgement, but for final issue +a placid stream of argument banked by sweet parable—such +are the literary charms of the chapter, which +derives its moral grandeur from the force with which +its currents set towards faith and reason, as together +the salvation of states, politicians and private men. The +style mirrors life about ourselves, and still tastes fresh +to thirsty men. The truths are relevant to every day in +which luxury and intemperance abound, in which there +are eyes too fevered by sin to see beauty in simple +purity, and minds so surfeited with knowledge or +intoxicated with their own cleverness, that they call +the maxims of moral reason commonplace and scorn +religious instruction as food for babes.</p> + +<p>Some time when the big, black cloud was gathering +again on the north, Isaiah raised his voice to the +magnates of Jerusalem: "Lift your heads from your<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span> +wine-bowls; look north. The sunshine is still on +Samaria, and your fellow-drinkers there are revelling +in security. But the storm creeps up behind. They +shall certainty perish soon; even you cannot help seeing +that. Let it scare you, for their sin is yours, and that +storm will not exhaust itself on Samaria. Do not +think that your clever policies, alliance with Egypt or +the treaty with Assyria herself, shall save you. Men +are never saved from death and hell by making covenants +with them. Scorners of religion and righteousness, +except ye cease being sceptical and drunken, and +come back from your diplomacy to faith and reason, ye +shall not be saved! This destruction that looms is +going to cover the whole earth. So stop your running +to and fro across it in search of alliances. <i>He that +believeth shall not make haste.</i> Stay at home and trust +in the God of Zion, for Zion is the one thing that shall +survive." In the parable, which closes the prophecy, +Isaiah offers some relief to this dark prospect: "Do +not think of God as a mere disaster-monger, maker of +terrors for men. He has a plan, even in catastrophe, +and this deluge, which looks like destruction for all of +us, has its method, term and fruits, just as much as +the husbandman's harrowing of the earth or threshing +of the corn."</p> + +<p>The chapter with this argument falls into four +divisions.</p> + + +<p class="center">I. <span class="smcap">The Warning from Samaria</span> (vv. 1-6).</p> + +<p>They had always been hard drinkers in North Israel. +Fifty years before, Amos flashed judgement on those +who trusted in the mount of Samaria, <i>lolling upon their +couches and gulping their wine out of basons</i>, women as +well as men. Upon these same drunkards of Ephraim,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span> +now soaked and <i>stunned with wine</i>, Isaiah fastens his +Woe. Sunny the sky and balmy the air in which they +lie, stretched upon flowers by the heads of their fat +valleys—a land that tempts its inhabitants with the +security of perpetual summer. But God's swift storm +drives up the valley—hail, rain and violent streams +from every gorge. Flowers, wreaths and pampered +bodies are trampled in the mire. The glory of sunny +Ephraim is as the first ripe fig a man findeth, and +<i>while it is yet in his hand, he eateth it up</i>. But while +drunken magnates and the flowers of a rich land +are swept away, there is a residue who can and do +abide even that storm, to whom the Lord Himself shall +be for a crown, <i>a spirit of justice to him that sitteth for +justice, and for strength to them that turn back the battle at +the gate</i>.</p> + +<p>Isaiah's intention is manifest, and his effort a great +one. It is to rob passion of its magic and change +men's temptations to their disgusts, by exhibiting +how squalid passion shows beneath disaster, and +how gloriously purity shines surviving it. It is to +strip luxury and indulgence of their attractiveness by +drenching them with the storm of judgement, and then +not to leave them stunned, but to rouse in them a moral +admiration and envy by the presentation of certain +grand survivals of the storm—unstained justice and +victorious valour. Isaiah first sweeps the atmosphere, +hot from infective passion, with the cold tempest from +the north. Then in the clear shining after rain he points +to two figures, which have preserved through temptation +and disaster, and now lift against a smiling sky, the +ideal that those corrupt judges and drunken warriors +have dragged into the mire—<i>him that sitteth for justice +and him that turneth back the battle at the gate</i>. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span> +escape from sensuality, this passage suggests, is two-fold. +There is the exposure to nature where God's +judgements sweep their irresistible way; and then from +the despair, which the unrelieved spectacle of judgement +produces, there is the recovery to moral effort through +the admiration of those purities and heroisms, that by +God's Spirit have survived.</p> + +<p>When God has put a conscience into the art or +literature of any generation, they have followed this +method of Isaiah, but not always to the healthy end +which he reaches. To show the slaves of Circe the +physical disaster impending—which you must begin +by doing if you are to impress their brutalized minds—is +not enough. The lesson of Tennyson's "Vision of +Sin" and of Arnold's "New Sirens," that night and +frost, decay and death, come down at last on pampered +sense, is necessary, but not enough. Who stops there +remains a defective and morbid moralist. When you +have made the sensual shiver before the disease that +inevitably awaits them, you must go on to show that +there are men who have the secret of surviving the most +terrible judgements of God, and lift their figures calm +and victorious against the storm-washed sky. Preach +the depravity of men, but never apart from the possibilities +that remain in them. It is Isaiah's health as a +moralist that he combines the two. No prophet ever +threatened judgement more inexorable and complete +than he. Yet he never failed to tell the sinner, how +possible it was for him to be different. If it were +necessary to crush men in the mud, Isaiah would not +leave them there with the hearts of swine. But he put +conscience in them, and the envy of what was pure, +and the admiration of what was victorious. Even as +they wallowed, he pointed them to the figures of men<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span> +like themselves, who had survived and overcome by +the Spirit of God. Here we perceive the ethical possibilities, +that lay in his fundamental doctrine of a +remnant. Isaiah never crushed men beneath the fear +of judgement, without revealing to them the possibility +and beauty of victorious virtue. Had we lived in those +great days, what a help he had been to us—what +a help he may be still!—not only firm to declare that +the wages of sin is death, but careful to effect that our +humiliation shall not be despair, and that even when +we feel our shame and irretrievableness the most, we +shall have the opportunity to behold our humanity +crowned and seated on the throne from which we had +fallen, our humanity driving back the battle from the +gate against which we had been hopelessly driven! +That seventh verse sounds like a trumpet in the ears +of enervated and despairing men.</p> + + +<p class="center">II. <span class="smcap">God's Commonplace</span> (vv. 7-13).</p> + +<p>But Isaiah has cast his pearls before swine. The +men of Jerusalem, whom he addresses, are too deep in +sensuality to be roused by his noble words. <i>Even +priest and prophet stagger through strong drink</i>; and the +class that should have been the conscience of the city, +responding immediately to the word of God, <i>reel in +vision and stumble in judgement</i>. They turn upon Isaiah's +earnest message with tipsy men's insolence. Verses +9 and 10 should be within inverted commas, for they +are the mocking reply of drunkards over their cups. +<i>Whom is he going to teach knowledge, and upon whom is +he trying to force "the Message,"</i> as he calls it? <i>Them +that are weaned from the milk and drawn from the +breasts?</i> Are we school-children, that he treats us with +his endless platitudes and repetitions—<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span><i>precept upon +precept and precept upon precept, line upon line and line +upon line, here a little and there a little?</i> So did these +bibulous prophets, priests and politicians mock Isaiah's +messages of judgement, wagging their heads in mimicry +of his simple, earnest tones. "We must conceive +the abrupt, intentionally short, reiterated and almost +childish words of verse 10 as spoken in mimicry, with +a mocking motion of the head, and in a childish, +stammering, taunting tone."<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a></p> + +<p>But Isaiah turns upon them with their own words: +"You call me, Stammerer! I tell you that God, Who +speaks through me, and Whom in me you mock, will +one day speak again to you in a tongue that shall indeed +sound stammering to you. When those far-off barbarians +have reached your walls, and over them taunt +you in uncouth tones, then shall you hear how God can +stammer. For these shall be the very voice of Him, +and as He threatens you with captivity it shall be your +bitterness to remember how by me He once offered +you <i>a rest and refreshing</i>, which you refused. I tell +you more. God will not only speak in words, but in +deeds, and then truly your nickname for His message +shall be fulfilled to you. Then shall the word of the +Lord be unto you <i>precept upon precept, precept upon +precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little and +there a little</i>. For God shall speak with the terrible +simplicity and slowness of deeds, with the gradual +growth of fate, with the monotonous stages of decay, +till step by step you <i>go, and stumble backward, and +be broken, and snared, and taken</i>. You have scorned +my instruction as monosyllables fit for children! By<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span> +irritating monosyllables of gradual penalty shall God +instruct you the second time."</p> + +<p>This is not only a very clever and cynical retort, +but the statement of a moral principle. We gather +from Isaiah that God speaks twice to men, first in +words and then by deeds, but both times very simply and +plainly. And if men deride and abuse the simplicity of +the former, if they ignore moral and religious truths +because they are elementary, and rebel against the +quiet reiteration of simple voices, with which God sees +it most healthy to conduct their education, then they shall +be stunned by the commonplace pertinacity, with which +the effects of their insolence work themselves out in life. +God's ways with men are mostly commonplace; that is +the hardest lesson we have to learn. The tongue of +conscience speaks like the tongue of time, prevailingly +by ticks and moments; not in undue excitement of +soul and body, not in the stirring up of our passions +nor by enlisting our ambitions, not in thunder nor in +startling visions, but by everyday precepts of faithfulness, +honour and purity, to which conscience has to rise +unwinged by fancy or ambition, and dreadfully weighted +with the dreariness of life. If we, carried away upon the +rushing interests of the world, and with our appetite +spoiled by the wealth and piquancy of intellectual knowledge, +despise the simple monitions of conscience and +Scripture, as uninteresting and childish, this is the risk +we run,—that God will speak to us in another, and +this time unshirkable, kind of commonplace. What that +is we shall understand, when a career of dissipation or +unscrupulous ambition has bereft life of all interest and +joy, when one enthusiasm after another grows dull, and +one pleasure after another tasteless, when all the little +things of life preach to us of judgement, and <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span><i>the grasshopper +becometh a burden</i>, and we, slowly descending +through the drab and monotony of decay, suffer the last +great commonplace, death. There can be no greater +irony than for the soul, which has sinned by too greedily +seeking for sensation, to find sensation absent even +from the judgements she has brought upon herself. +Poor Heine's <i>Confessions</i> acknowledge, at once with +the appreciation of an artist and the pain of a victim, +the satire, with which the Almighty inflicts, in the way +that Isaiah describes, His penalties upon sins of sense.</p> + + +<p class="center">III. <span class="smcap">Covenants with Death and Hell</span> (vv. 14-22).</p> + +<p>To Isaiah's threats of destruction, the politicians of +Jerusalem replied, We have bought destruction off! +They meant some treaty with a foreign power. Diplomacy +is always obscure, and at that distance its details +are buried for us in impenetrable darkness. But we +may safely conclude that it was either the treaty of +Ahaz with Assyria, or some counter-treaty executed +with Egypt since this power began again to rise into +pretentiousness, or more probably still it was a secret +agreement with the southern power, while the open +treaty with the northern was yet in force. Isaiah, from +the way in which he speaks, seems to have been in +ignorance of all, except that the politician's boast was +an unhallowed, underhand intrigue, accomplished by +much swindling and false conceit of cleverness. This +wretched subterfuge Isaiah exposes in some of the +most powerful sentences he ever uttered. A faithless +diplomacy was never more thoroughly laid bare, in its +miserable mixture of political pedantry and falsehood.</p> + +<p><i>Therefore hear the word of Jehovah, ye men of scorn, +rulers of this people, which is in Jerusalem!</i></p> + +<p><i>Because ye have said, We have entered into a covenant</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span> +<i>with Death, and with Hell have we made a bargain; the +"Overflowing Scourge,"</i> a current phrase of Isaiah's +which they fling back in his teeth, <i>when it passeth +along, shall not come unto us, for we have set lies as +our refuge, and in falsehood have we hidden ourselves</i> +[the prophet's penetrating scorn drags up into their +boast the secret conscience of their hearts, that after +all lies did form the basis of this political arrangement], +<i>therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I lay in +Zion for foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious +corner-stone of sure foundation; he that believeth shall +not make haste.</i> No need of swift couriers to Egypt, +and fret and fever of poor political brains in Jerusalem! +The word <i>make haste</i> is onomatopoetic, like our <i>fuss</i>, +and, if fuss may be applied to the conduct of high +affairs of state, its exact equivalent in meaning.</p> + +<p><i>And I will set justice for a line, and righteousness for +a plummet, and hail shall sweep away the subterfuge of +lies, and the secrecy shall waters overflow. And cancelled +shall be your covenant with Death, and your bargain with +Hell shall not stand.</i></p> + +<p>"<i>The Overflowing Scourge</i>," indeed! <i>When it passeth +over, then ye shall be unto it for trampling. As often as +it passeth over, it shall take you away, for morning by +morning shall it pass over, by day and by night. Then +shall it be sheer terror to realize "the Message"!</i> Too +late then for anything else. Had you realized "the +Message" now, what rest and refreshing! But then +only terror.</p> + +<p><i>For the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch +himself upon it, and the covering narrower than that he +can wrap himself in it.</i> This proverb seems to be +struck out of the prophet by the belief of the politicians, +that they are creating a stable and restful policy for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span> +Judah. It flashes an aspect of hopeless uneasiness +over the whole political situation. However they +make their bed, with Egypt's or Assyria's help, they +shall not find it comfortable. No cleverness of theirs +can create a satisfactory condition of affairs, no +political arrangement, nothing short of faith, of absolute +reliance on that bare foundation-stone laid in +Zion,—God's assurance that Jerusalem is inviolable.</p> + +<p><i>For Jehovah shall arise as on Mount Peratsim; He +shall be stirred as in the valley of Gibeon, to do His deed—strange +is this deed of His, and to bring to pass His +act—strange is His act.</i></p> + +<p><i>Now, therefore, play no more the scorner, lest your bands +be made tight, for a consumption, and that determined, +have I heard from the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, upon the +whole earth.</i> This finishes the matter. Possibility of +alliance there is for sane men nowhere in this world +of Western Asia, so evidently near convulsion. Only +the foundation-stone in Zion shall be left. Cling to that!</p> + +<p>When the pedantic members of the General Assembly +of the Kirk of Scotland, in the year 1650, were clinging +with all the grip of their hard logic, but with very little +heart, to the "Divine right of kings," and attempting +an impossible state, whose statute-book was to be the +Westminster Confession, and its chief executive officer +King Charles II., Cromwell, then encamped at Musselburgh, +sent them that letter in which the famous +sentence occurs: "I beseech you in the bowels of +Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken. Precept +may be upon precept, line may be upon line," he goes +on to say, "and yet the Word of the Lord may be to +some a word of Judgement; that they may fall backward, +and be broken, and be snared, and be taken! +There may be a spiritual fulness, which the world may<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span> +call drunkenness; as in the second Chapter of the <i>Acts</i>. +There may be, as well, a carnal confidence upon misunderstood +and misapplied precepts, which may be +called spiritual drunkenness. There may be a <i>Covenant</i> +made with Death and Hell! I will not say yours was +so. But judge if such things have a politic aim: To +avoid the overflowing scourge; or, To accomplish +worldly interests? And if therein you have confederated +with wicked and carnal men, and have respect for +them, or otherwise have drawn them in to associate +with us, Whether this be a covenant of God and +spiritual? Bethink yourselves; we hope we do.</p> + +<p>"I pray you read the Twenty-eighth of Isaiah, from +the fifth to the fifteenth verse. And do not scorn to +know that it is the Spirit that quickens and giveth +life."<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a></p> + +<p>Cromwell, as we have said, is the best commentator +Isaiah has ever had, and that by an instinct born, not +only of the same faith, but of experience in tackling +similar sorts of character. In this letter he is dealing, +like Isaiah, with stubborn pedants, who are endeavouring +to fasten the national fortunes upon a Procrustean +policy. The diplomacy of Jerusalem was very clever; +the Covenanting ecclesiasticism of Edinburgh was +logical and consistent. But a Jewish alliance with +Assyria and the attempt of Scotsmen to force their +covenant upon the whole United Kingdom were +equally sheer impossibilities. In either case <i>the bed +was shorter than that a man could stretch himself on it, +and the covering narrower than that he could wrap himself +in it</i>. Both, too, were covenants with Death and Hell; +for if the attempt of the Scots to secure Charles II.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span> +by the Covenant was free from the falsehood of Jewish +diplomacy, it was fatally certain if successful to have +led to the subversion of their highest religious interests; +and history has proved that Cromwell was no more +than just in applying to it the strong expressions, which +Isaiah uses of Judah's ominous treaties with the +unscrupulous heathen. Over against so pedantic an +idea, as that of forcing the life of the three nations into +the mould of the one Covenant, and so fatal a folly +as the attempt to commit the interests of religion to the +keeping of the dissolute and perjured king, Cromwell +stands in his great toleration of everything but unrighteousness +and his strong conviction of three truths:—that +the religious life of Great Britain and Ireland was +too rich and varied for the Covenant: that national and +religious interests so complicated and precious could +be decided only upon the plainest principles of faith +and justice: and that, tested by these principles, +Charles II. and his crew were as utterly without worth +to the nation and as pregnant with destruction, as +Isaiah felt Assyria and Egypt to be to Judah. The +battle-cries of the two parties at Dunbar are significant +of the spiritual difference between them. That of the +Scots was "The Covenant!" Cromwell's was Isaiah's +own, "The Lord of hosts!" However logical, religious +and sincere theirs might be, it was at the best a +scheme of men too narrow for events, and fatally +compromised by its association with Charles II. But +Cromwell's battle-cry required only a moderately sincere +faith from those who adopted it, to ensure their +victory. For to them it meant just what it had meant +to Isaiah, loyalty to a Divine providence, supreme in +righteousness, the willingness to be guided by events, +interpreting them by no tradition or scheme, but only<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span> +by conscience. He who understands this will be able +to see which side was right in that strange civil war, +where both so sincerely claimed to be Scriptural.</p> + +<p>It may be wondered why we spend so much argument +on comparing the attempt to force Charles II. into the +Solemn League and Covenant with the impious treaty of +Judah with the heathen. But the argument has not been +wasted, if it have shown how even sincere and religious +men may make covenants with death, and even Church +creeds and constitutions become beds too short that a +man may lie upon them, coverings narrower than that he +can wrap himself in them. Not once or twice has +it happened that an old and hallowed constitution has +become, in the providence of God, unfit for the larger +life of a people or of a Church, and yet is clung to +by parties in that Church or people from motives +of theological pedantry or ecclesiastical cowardice. +Sooner or later a crisis is sure to arrive, in which the +defective creed has to match itself against some interest +of justice; and then endless compromises have to be +entertained, that discover themselves perilously like <i>bargains +with hell</i>. If we of this generation have to make a +public application of the twenty-eighth chapter of Isaiah, +it lies in this direction. There are few things, to which +his famous proverb of the short bed can be applied +more aptly, than to the attempt to fasten down the +religious life and thought of the present age too +rigorously upon a creed of the fashion of two or three +hundred years ago.</p> + +<p>But Isaiah's words have wider application. Short of +faith as he exemplified it, there is no possibility for the +spirit of man to be free from uneasiness. It is so all +along the scale of human endeavour. No power of +patience or of hope is his, who cannot imagine possibilities<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span> +of truth outside his own opinions, nor trust a +justice larger than his private rights. It is here very +often that the real test of our faith meets us. If we +seek to fit life solely to the conception of our privileges, +if in the preaching of our opinions no mystery of higher +truth awe us at least into reverence and caution; then, +whatever religious creeds we profess, we are not men +of faith, but shall surely inherit the bitterness and +turmoil that are the portion of unbelievers. If we +make it the chief aim of our politics to drive cheap +bargains for our trade or to be consistent to party or +class interests; if we trim our conscience to popular +opinion; if we sell our honesty in business or our love +in marriage, that we may be comfortable in the world; +then, however firmly we be established in reputation or +in welfare, we have given our spiritual nature a support +utterly inadequate to its needs, and we shall never +find rest. Sooner or later, a man must feel the pinch +of having cut his life short of the demands of conscience. +Only a generous loyalty to her decrees will leave him +freedom of heart and room for his arm to swing. Nor +will any philosophy, however comprehensive, nor poetic +fancy, however elastic, be able without the complement +of faith to arrange, to account for, or to console us for, +the actual facts of experience. It is only belief in the +God of Isaiah, a true and loving God, omnipotent Ruler +of our life, that can bring us peace. There was never +a sorrow, that did not find explanation in that, never a +tired thought, that would not cling to it. There are no +interests so scattered nor energies so far-reaching that +there is not return and rest for them under the shadow +of His wings. <i>He that believeth shall not make haste.</i> +<i>Be still</i>, says a psalm of the same date as Isaiah—<i>Be +still, and know that I am God</i>.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span></p> + + +<p class="center">IV. <span class="smcap">The Almighty the All-methodical</span> (vv. 23-29).</p> + +<p>The patience of faith, which Isaiah has so nobly +preached, he now proceeds to vindicate by reason. But +the vindication implies that his audience are already in +another mood. From confidence in their clever diplomacy, +heedless of the fact that God has His own purposes +concerning them, they have swung round to despair +before His judgements. Their despair, however, is +due to the same fault as their careless confidence—the +forgetfulness that God works by counsel and +method. Even a calamity, so universal and extreme as +that, of whose certainty the prophet has now convinced +them, has its measure and its term. To persuade the +crushed and superstitious Jews of this, Isaiah employs +a parable. "You know," he says, "the husbandman. +Have you ever seen him keep on <i>harrowing and breaking +the clods of his land</i> for mere sport, and without +farther intention? Does not the harrowing time lead +to the sowing time? Or again, when he threshes his +crops, does he thresh for ever? Is threshing the end +he has in view? Look, how he varies the rigour of his +instrument by the kind of plant he threshes. For +delicate plants, like fitches and cummin, he does not +use the <i>threshing sledge</i> with the sharp teeth, or the +lumbering <i>roller, but the fitches are beaten out with a +staff and the cummin with a rod</i>. And in the case of +<i>bread corn</i>, which needs <i>his roller and horses</i>, he does +not use these upon it till it is all <i>crushed to dust</i>." +The application of this parable is very evident. If +the husbandman be so methodical and careful, shall +the God who taught him not also be so? If the +violent treatment of land and fruits be so measured +and adapted for their greater fruitfulness and purity, +ought we not to trust God to have the same intentions<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span> +in His violent treatment of His people? Isaiah +here returns to his fundamental gospel: that the +Almighty is the All-methodical, too. Men forget this. +In their times of activity they think God indifferent; +they are too occupied with their own schemes for shaping +life, to imagine that He has any. In days of suffering, +again, when disaster bursts, they conceive of God +only as force and vengeance. Yet, says Isaiah, <i>Jehovah +of hosts is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in that sort +of wisdom which causes things to succeed</i>. This last word +of the chapter is very expressive. It literally means +<i>furtherance, help, salvation</i>, and then <i>the true wisdom +or insight which ensures these: the wisdom which carries +things through</i>. It splendidly sums up Isaiah's gospel to +the Jews, cowering like dogs before the coming calamity: +God is not mere force or vengeance. His judgements +are not chaos. But <i>He is wonderful in counsel</i>, and all +His ways have <i>furtherance</i> or <i>salvation</i> for their end.</p> + +<p>We have said this is one of the finest prophecies of +Isaiah. His political foresight was admirable, when he +alone of his countrymen predicted the visitation of +Assyria upon Judah. But now, when all are convinced +of it, how still more wonderful does he seem facing that +novel disaster, with the whole world's force behind it, and +declaring its limit. He has not the temptation, so +strong in prophets of judgement, to be a mere disaster-monger, +and leave judgement on the horizon unrelieved. +Nor is he afraid, as other predicters of evil have been, +of the monster he has summoned to the land. The +secret of this is that from the first he predicted the +Assyrian invasion, not out of any private malice nor +merely by superior political foresight, but because he +knew—and knew, as he tells us, by the inspiration of +God's own Spirit—that God required such an instrument<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span> +to punish the unrighteousness of Judah. If the +enemy was summoned by God at the first, surely till +the last the enemy shall be in God's hand.</p> + +<p>To this enemy we are now to see Isaiah turn with +the same message he has delivered to the men of +Jerusalem.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER IX.</h2> + +<h3><i>ATHEISM OF FORCE AND ATHEISM OF FEAR.</i></h3> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> x. 5-34 (<span class="smcap"><small>ABOUT 721 B.C.</small></span>).</p> + + +<p>In chap. xxviii. Isaiah, speaking in the year 725 when +Salmanassar IV. was marching on Samaria, had +explained to the politicians of Jerusalem how entirely +the Assyrian host was in the hand of Jehovah for the +punishment of Samaria and the punishment and purification +of Judah. The invasion which in that year +loomed so awful was not unbridled force of destruction, +implying the utter annihilation of God's people, as +Damascus, Arpad and Hamath had been annihilated. +It was Jehovah's instrument for purifying His people, +with its appointed term and its glorious intentions of +fruitfulness and peace.</p> + +<p>In the tenth chapter Isaiah turns with this truth to +defy the Assyrian himself. It is four years later. +Samaria has fallen. The judgement, which the prophet +spoke upon the luxurious capital, has been fulfilled. All +Ephraim is an Assyrian province. Judah stands for +the first time face to face with Assyria. From Samaria +to the borders of Judah is not quite two days' march, +to the walls of Jerusalem a little over two. Now shall +the Jews be able to put to the test their prophet's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span> +promise! What can possibly prevent Sargon from +making Zion as Samaria, and carrying her people away +in the track of the northern tribes to captivity?</p> + +<p>There was a very fallacious human reason, and there +was a very sound Divine one.</p> + +<p>The fallacious human reason was the alliance which +Ahaz had made with Assyria. In what state that alliance +now was, does not clearly appear, but the most +optimist of the Assyrian party at Jerusalem could not, +after all that had happened, be feeling quite comfortable +about it. The Assyrian was as unscrupulous as themselves. +There was too much impetus in the rush of +his northern floods to respect a tiny province like +Judah, treaty or no treaty. Besides, Sargon had as +good reason to suspect Jerusalem of intriguing with +Egypt, as he had against Samaria or the Philistine +cities; and the Assyrian kings had already shown their +meaning of the covenant with Ahaz by stripping Judah +of enormous tribute.</p> + +<p>So Isaiah discounts in this prophecy Judah's treaty +with Assyria. He speaks as if nothing was likely to prevent +the Assyrian's immediate march upon Jerusalem. +He puts into Sargon's mouth the intention of this, and +makes him boast of the ease with which it can be +accomplished (vv. 7-11). In the end of the prophecy +he even describes the probable itinerary of the invader +from the borders of Judah to his arrival on the heights, +over against the Holy City (vv. 27 last clause to 32).<a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a></p> + +<p><i>Cometh up from the North the Destroyer.</i></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span><i>He is come upon Ai; marcheth through Migron; at +Michmash musters his baggage.</i></p> + +<p><i>They have passed through the Pass; "Let Geba be +our bivouac."</i></p> + +<p><i>Terror-struck is Ramah; Gibeah of Saul hath fled.</i></p> + +<p><i>Make shrill thy voice, O daughter of Gallim! Listen, +Laishah! Answer her, Anathoth!</i></p> + +<p><i>In mad flight is Madmenah; the dwellers in Gebim +gather their stuff to flee.</i></p> + +<p><i>This very day he halteth at Nob; he waveth his hand +at the Mount of the Daughter of Zion, the Hill of +Jerusalem.</i></p> + +<p>This is not actual fact; but it is vision of what may +take place to-day or to-morrow. For there is nothing—not +even that miserable treaty—to prevent such a +violation of Jewish territory, within which, it ought to +be kept in mind, lie all the places named by the prophet.</p> + +<p>But the invasion of Judah and the arrival of the +Assyrian on the heights over against Jerusalem does +not mean that the Holy City and the shrine of Jehovah +of hosts are to be destroyed; does not mean that all +the prophecies of Isaiah about the security of this rallying-place +for the remnant of God's people are to be +annulled, and Israel annihilated. For just at the +moment of the Assyrian's triumph, when he brandishes +his hand over Jerusalem, as if he would harry it like a +bird's nest, Isaiah beholds him struck down, and crash +like the fall of a whole Lebanon of cedars (vv. 33, 34).</p> + +<p><i>Behold the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, lopping the topmost +boughs with a sudden crash,</i></p> + +<p><i>And the high ones of stature hewn down, and the lofty +are brought low!</i></p> + +<p><i>Yea, He moweth down the thickets of the forest with +iron, and Lebanon by a Mighty One falleth.</i></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span>All this is poetry. We are not to suppose that the +prophet actually expected the Assyrian to take the route, +which he has laid down for him with so much detail. As a +matter of fact, Sargon did not advance across the Jewish +frontier, but turned away by the coast-land of Philistia +to meet his enemy of Egypt, whom he defeated at +Rafia, and then went home to Nineveh, leaving Judah +alone. And, although some twenty years later the +Assyrian did appear before Jerusalem, as threatening +as Isaiah describes, and was cut down in as sudden and +miraculous a manner, yet it was not by the itinerary +Isaiah here marked for him that he came, but in quite +another direction: from the south-west. What Isaiah +merely insists upon is that there is nothing in that +wretched treaty of Ahaz—that fallacious <i>human</i> reason—to +keep Sargon from overrunning Judah to the very +walls of Jerusalem, but that, even though he does so, +there is a most sure <i>Divine</i> reason for the Holy City +remaining inviolate.</p> + +<p>The Assyrian expected to take Jerusalem. But he +is not his own master. Though he knows it not, and +his only instinct is that of destruction (ver. 7), he +is the rod in God's hand. And when God shall have +used him for the needed punishment of Judah, then will +God visit upon him his arrogance and brutality. This +man, who says he will exploit the whole earth as +he harries a bird's nest (ver. 14), who believes +in nothing but himself, saying, <i>By the strength of my +hand I have done it, and by my wisdom, for I am prudent</i>, +is but the instrument of God, and all his boasting is +that of <i>the axe against him that heweth therewith and of +the saw against him that wieldeth it</i>. <i>As if</i>, says the +prophet, with a scorn still fresh for those who make +material force the ultimate power in the universe—<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span><i>As +if a rod should shake them that lift it up, or as if a staff +should lift up him that is not wood</i>. By the way, Isaiah +has a word for his countrymen. What folly is theirs, +who now put all their trust in this world-force, and at +another time cower in abject fear before it! Must he +again bid them look higher, and see that Assyria is +only the agent in God's work of first punishing the +whole land, but afterwards redeeming His people! In +the midst of denunciation the prophet's stern voice breaks +into the promise of this later hope (vv. 24-27<i>a</i>); and at +last the crash of the fallen Assyrian is scarcely still, +before Isaiah has begun to declare a most glorious +future of grace for Israel. But this carries us over into +the eleventh chapter, and we had better first of all +gather up the lessons of the tenth.</p> + +<p>This prophecy of Isaiah contains a great Gospel and +two great Protests, which the prophet was enabled to +make in the strength of it: one against the Atheism of +Force, and one against the Atheism of Fear.</p> + +<p>The Gospel of the chapter is just that which we have +already emphasized as the gospel <i>par excellence</i> of +Isaiah: the Lord exalted in righteousness, God +supreme over the supremest men and forces of the +world. But we now see it carried to a height of daring +not reached before. This was the first time that +any man faced the sovereign force of the world in the +full sweep of victory, and told himself and his fellow-men: +"This is not travelling in the greatness of its own +strength, but is simply a dead, unconscious instrument +in the hand of God." Let us, at the cost of a little +repetition, get at the heart of this. We shall find it +wonderfully modern.</p> + +<p>Belief in God had hitherto been local and circumscribed. +Each nation, as Isaiah tells us, had walked in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span> +the name of its god, and limited his power and prevision +to its own life and territory. We do not +blame the peoples for this. Their conception of God +was narrow, because their life was narrow, and they +confined the power of their deity to their own borders +because, in fact, their thoughts seldom strayed beyond. +But now the barriers, that had so long enclosed +mankind in narrow circles, were being broken down. +Men's thoughts travelled through the breaches, and +learned that outside their fatherland there lay the +world. Their lives thereupon widened immensely, but +their theologies stood still. They felt the great forces +which shook the world, but their gods remained the +same petty, provincial deities. Then came this great +Assyrian power, hurtling through the nations, laughing +at their gods as idols, boasting that it was by his own +strength he overcame them, and to simple eyes making +good his boast as he harried the whole earth like a +bird's nest. No wonder that men's hearts were +drawn from the unseen spiritualities to this very visible +brutality! No wonder all real faith in the gods seemed +to be dying out, and that men made it the business of +their lives to seek peace with this world-force, that was +carrying everything, including the gods themselves, +before it! Mankind was in danger of practical +atheism: of placing, as Isaiah tells us, the ultimate +faith which belongs to a righteous God in this brute +force: of substituting embassies for prayers, tribute +for sacrifice, and the tricks and compromises of +diplomacy for the endeavour to live a holy and +righteous life. Behold, what questions were at issue: +questions that have come up again and again in the +history of human thought, and that are tugging at us +to-day harder than ever!—whether the visible, sensible<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span> +forces of the universe, that break so rudely in upon our +primitive theologies, are what we men have to make +our peace with, or whether there is behind them a +Being, who wields them for purposes, far transcending +them, of justice and of love; whether, in short, we +are to be materialists or believers in God. It is the +same old, ever-new debate. The factors of it have +only changed a little as we have become more learned. +Where Isaiah felt the Assyrians, we are confronted by +the evolution of nature and history, and the material +forces into which it sometimes looks ominously like as +if these could be analysed. Everything that has come +forcibly and gloriously to the front of things, every +drift that appears to dominate history, all that asserts +its claim on our wonder, and offers its own simple and +strong solution of our life—is our Assyria. It is precisely +now, as then, a rush of new powers across the +horizon of our knowledge, which makes the God, who +was sufficient for the narrower knowledge of yesterday, +seem petty and old-fashioned to-day. This problem no +generation can escape, whose vision of the world has +become wider than that of its predecessors. But +Isaiah's greatness lay in this: that it was given to him +to attack the problem the first time it presented itself +to humanity with any serious force, and that he applied +to it the only sure solution—a more lofty and spiritual +view of God than the one which it had found wanting. +We may thus paraphrase his argument: "Give me a God +who is more than a national patron, give me a God +who cares only for righteousness, and I say that every +material force the world exhibits is nothing but subordinate +to Him. Brute force cannot be anything but +an instrument, <i>an axe</i>, <i>a saw</i>, something essentially +mechanical and in need of an arm to lift it. Postulate<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span> +a supreme and righteous Ruler of the world, and +you not only have all its movements explained, but +may rest assured, that it shall only be permitted to +execute justice and purify men. The world cannot +prevent their salvation, if God have willed this."</p> + +<p>Isaiah's problem was thus the fundamental one +between faith and atheism; but we must notice that +it did not arise theoretically, nor did he meet it by +an abstract proposition. This fundamental religious +question—whether men are to trust in the visible +forces of the world or in the invisible God—came up as +a bit of practical politics. It was not to Isaiah a +philosophical or theological question. It was an affair +in the foreign policy of Judah.</p> + +<p>Except to a few thinkers, the question between +materialism and faith never does present itself as one +of abstract argument. To the mass of men it is always +a question of practical life. Statesmen meet it in their +policies, private persons in the conduct of their fortunes. +Few of us trouble our heads about an intellectual +atheism, but the temptations to practical atheism abound +unto us all day by day. Materialism never presents +itself as a mere <i>ism</i>; it always takes some concrete +form. Our Assyria may be the world in Christ's sense, +that flood of successful, heartless, unscrupulous, scornful +forces which burst on our innocence, with their challenge +to make terms and pay tribute, or go down +straightway in the struggle for existence. Beside their +frank and forceful demands, how commonplace and +irrelevant do the simple precepts of religion often seem; +and how the great brazen laugh of the world seems to +bleach the beauty out of purity and honour! According +to our temper, we either cower before its insolence, whining +that character and energy of struggle and religious<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span> +peace are impossible against it; and that is the Atheism +of Fear, with which Isaiah charged the men of Jerusalem, +when they were paralysed before Assyria. Or we seek +to ensure ourselves against disaster by alliance with +the world. We make ourselves one with it, its subjects +and imitators. We absorb the world's temper, get to +believe in nothing but success, regard men only as they +can be useful to us, and think so exclusively of ourselves +as to lose the faculty of imagining about us any +other right or need or pity. And all that is the Atheism +of Force, with which Isaiah charged the Assyrian. It is +useless to think, that we common men cannot possibly +sin after the grand manner of this imperial monster. +In our measure we fatally can. In this commercial age +private persons very easily rise to a position of influence, +which gives almost as vast a stage for egotism to display +itself as the Assyrian boasted. But after all the +human Ego needs very little room to develop the +possibilities of atheism that are in it. An idol is an idol, +whether you put it on a small or a large pedestal. A +little man with a little work may as easily stand +between himself and God, as an emperor with the world +at his feet. Forgetfulness that he is a servant, a +trader on graciously entrusted capital—and then at the +best an unprofitable one—is not less sinful in a small +egoist than in a great one; it is only very much more +ridiculous, than Isaiah, with his scorn, has made it to +appear in the Assyrian.</p> + +<p>Or our Assyria may be the forces of nature, which +have swept upon the knowledge of this generation with +the novelty and impetus, with which the northern hosts +burst across the horizon of Israel. Men to-day, in the +course of their education, become acquainted with laws +and forces, which dwarf the simpler theologies of their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span> +boyhood, pretty much as the primitive beliefs of Israel +dwindled before the arrogant face of Assyria. The +alternative confronts them either to retain, with a +narrowed and fearful heart, their old conceptions of +God, or to find their enthusiasm in studying, and their +duty in relating themselves to, the forces of nature +alone. If this be the only alternative, there can be no +doubt but that most men will take the latter course. +We ought as little to wonder at men of to-day abandoning +certain theologies and forms of religion for a downright +naturalism—for the study of powers that appeal +so much to the curiosity and reverence of man—as we +wonder at the poor Jews of the eighth century before +Christ forsaking their provincial conceptions of God +as a tribal Deity for homage to this great Assyrian, who +handled the nations and their gods as his playthings. +But is such the only alternative? Is there no higher +and sovereign conception of God, in which even these +natural forces may find their explanation and term? +Isaiah found such a conception for his problem, and his +problem was very similar to ours. Beneath his idea of +God, exalted and spiritual, even the imperial Assyrian, +in all his arrogance, fell subordinate and serviceable. +The prophet's faith never wavered, and in the end was +vindicated by history. Shall we not at least attempt +his method of solution? We could not do better than +by taking his factors. Isaiah got a God more powerful +than Assyria, by simply <i>exalting</i> the old God of his +nation <i>in righteousness</i>. This Hebrew was saved from +the terrible conclusion, that the selfish, cruel force which +in his day carried all before it was the highest power +in life, simply by believing righteousness to be more +exalted still. But have twenty-five centuries made any +change upon this power, by which Isaiah interpreted<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span> +history and overcame the world? Is righteousness less +sovereign now than then, or was conscience more imperative +when it spoke in Hebrew than when it speaks +in English? Among the decrees of nature, at last +interpreted for us in all their scope and reiterated +upon our imaginations by the ablest men of the age, +truth, purity and civic justice as confidently assert +their ultimate victory, as when they were threatened +merely by the arrogance of a human despot. The +discipline of science and the glories of the worship of +nature are indeed justly vaunted over the childish and +narrow-minded ideas of God, that prevail in much of +our average Christianity. But more glorious than anything +in earth or heaven is character, and the adoration +of a holy and loving will makes more for "victory +and law" than the discipline or the enthusiasm of +science. Therefore, if our conceptions of God are +overwhelmed by what we know of nature, let us seek +to enlarge and spiritualize them. Let us insist, as Isaiah +did, upon His righteousness, until our God once more +appear indubitably supreme.</p> + +<p>Otherwise we are left with the intolerable paradox, +that truth and honesty, patience and the love of man to +man, are after all but the playthings and victims of +force; that, to adapt the words of Isaiah, the rod really +shakes him who lifts it up, and the staff is wielding that +which is not wood.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER X.</h2> + +<h3><i>THE SPIRIT OF GOD IN MAN AND THE ANIMALS.</i></h3> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> xi., xii. (<span class="smcap"><small>ABOUT 720 B.C.</small>?</span>)</p> + + +<p>Beneath the crash of the Assyrian with which +the tenth chapter closes, we pass out into the +eleventh upon a glorious prospect of Israel's future. +The Assyrian when he falls shall fall for ever like the +cedars of Lebanon, that send no fresh sprout forth +from their broken stumps. But out of the trunk of +the Judæan oak, also brought down by these terrible +storms, Isaiah sees springing a fair and powerful +Branch. Assyria, he would tell us, has no future. +Judah has a future, and at first the prophet sees it +in a scion of her royal house. The nation shall be +almost exterminated, the dynasty of David hewn to +a stump; <i>yet there shall spring a shoot from the stock of +Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit</i>.</p> + +<p>The picture of this future, which fills the eleventh +chapter, is one of the most extensive that Isaiah has +drawn. Three great prospects are unfolded in it: a +prospect of mind, a prospect of nature and a prospect +of history. To begin with, there is (vv. 2-5) the +geography of a royal mind in its stretches of character, +knowledge and achievement. We have next (vv. 5-9) +a vision of the restitution of nature, Paradise regained. +And, thirdly (vv. 9-16), there is the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span> +geography of Israel's redemption, the coasts and +highways along which the hosts of the dispersion +sweep up from captivity to a station of supremacy +over the world. To this third prospect chapter xii. +forms a fitting conclusion, a hymn of praise in the +mouth of returning exiles.<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a> The human mind, nature +and history are the three dimensions of life, and across +them all the prophet tells us that the Spirit of the Lord +will fill the future with His marvels of righteousness, +wisdom and peace. He presents to us three great +ideals: the perfect indwelling of our humanity by the +Spirit of God; the peace and communion of all +nature, covered with the knowledge of God; the +traversing of all history by the Divine purposes of +redemption.</p> + + +<p class="center">I. <span class="smcap">The Messiah and the Spirit of the Lord</span> +(xi. 1-5).</p> + +<p>The first form, in which Isaiah sees Israel's longed-for +future realised, is that which he so often exalts and +makes glistering upon the threshold of the future—the +form of a king. It is a peculiarity, which we cannot +fail to remark about Isaiah's scattered representations +of this brilliant figure, that they have no connecting +link. They do not allude to one another, nor employ a +common terminology, even the word <i>king</i> dropping +out of some of them. The earliest of the series +bestows a name on the Messiah, which none of the +others repeat, nor does Isaiah say in any of them, +This is He of whom I have spoken before. Perhaps +the disconnectedness of these oracles is as strong a +proof as is necessary of the view we have formed that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span> +throughout his ministry our prophet had before him +no distinct, identical individual, but rather an ideal of +virtue and kinghood, whose features varied according +to the conditions of the time. In this chapter Isaiah +recalls nothing of Immanuel, or of the Prince-of-the-Four-Names. +Nevertheless (besides for the first time +deriving the Messiah from the house of David), he +carries his description forward to a stage which lies +beyond and to some extent implies his two previous +portraits. Immanuel was only a Sufferer with His +people in the day of their oppression. The Prince-of-the-Four-Names +was the Redeemer of his people from +their captivity, and stepped to his throne not only +after victory, but with the promise of a long and just +government shining from the titles by which He was +proclaimed. But now Isaiah not only speaks at length +of this peaceful reign—a chronological advance—but +describes his hero so inwardly that we also feel a +certain spiritual advance. The Messiah is no more a +mere experience, as Immanuel was, nor only outward +deed and promise, like the Prince-of-the-Four-Names, +but at last, and very strongly, <i>a character</i>. The +second verse is the definition of this character; the +third describes the atmosphere in which it lives. <i>And +there shall rest upon him the Spirit of Jehovah, the spirit +of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and +might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of Jehovah; +and he shall draw breath in the fear of Jehovah</i>—in +other words, ripeness but also sharpness of mind; +moral decision and heroic energy; piety in its two +forms of knowing the will of God and feeling the +constraint to perform it. We could not have a more +concise summary of the strong elements of a ruling +mind. But it is only as Judge and Ruler that Isaiah<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span> +cares here to think of his hero. Nothing is said of +the tender virtues, and we feel that the prophet still +stands in the days of the need of inflexible government +and purgation in Judah.</p> + +<p>Dean Plumptre has plausibly suggested, that these +verses may represent the programme which Isaiah set +before his pupil Hezekiah on his accession to the charge +of a nation, whom his weak predecessor had suffered to +lapse into such abuse of justice and laxity of morals.<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a> +The acts of government described are all of a punitive +and repressive character. The hero speaks only to +make the land tremble: <i>And He shall smite the land<a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a> +with the rod of His mouth</i> [what need, after the +whispering, indecisive Ahaz!], <i>and with the breath of +His lips shall He slay the wicked</i>.</p> + +<p>This, though a fuller and more ethical picture of the +Messiah than even the ninth chapter, is evidently +wanting in many of the traits of a perfect man. +Isaiah has to grow in his conception of his Hero, +and will grow as the years go on, in tenderness. His +thirty-second chapter is a much richer, a more gracious +and humane picture of the Messiah. There the +Victor of the ninth and righteous Judge of the +eleventh chapters is represented as <i>a Man</i>, who shall +not only punish but protect, and not only reign but +inspire, who shall be life as well as victory and justice +to His people—<i>an hiding-place from the wind and a</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span> +<i>covert from the tempest, as rivers of water in a dry place, +as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land</i>.</p> + +<p>A conception so limited to the qualifications of an +earthly monarch, as this of chap. xi., gives us no ground +for departing from our previous conclusion, that Isaiah +had not a "supernatural" personality in his view. The +Christian Church, however, has not confined the application +of the passage to earthly kings and magistrates, but +has seen its perfect fulfilment in the indwelling of Christ's +human nature by the Holy Ghost. But it is remarkable, +that for this exegesis she has not made use of the most +"supernatural" of the details of character here +portrayed. If the Old Testament has a phrase for +sinlessness, that phrase occurs here, in the beginning +of the third verse. In the authorized English version +it is translated, <i>and shall make him of quick understanding +in the fear of the Lord</i>, and in the Revised +Version, <i>His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord</i>, and on +the margin the literal meaning of <i>delight</i> is given as <i>scent</i>. +But the phrase may as well mean, <i>He shall draw his +breath in the fear of the Lord</i>; and it is a great pity, that +our revisers have not even on the margin given to English +readers any suggestion of so picturesque, and probably +so correct, a rendering. It is a most expressive definition +of sinlessness—sinlessness which was the attribute of +Christ alone. We, however purely intentioned we be, are +compassed about by an atmosphere of sin. We cannot +help breathing what now inflames our passions, now +chills our warmest feelings, and makes our throats +incapable of honest testimony or glorious praise. As +oxygen to a dying fire, so the worldliness we breathe is +to the sin within us. We cannot help it; it is the atmosphere +into which we are born. But from this Christ +alone of men was free. He was His own atmosphere,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span> +<i>drawing breath in the fear of the Lord</i>. Of Him alone +is it recorded, that, though living in the world, He +was never infected with the world's sin. The blast of +no man's cruelty ever kindled unholy wrath within His +breast; nor did men's unbelief carry to His soul its +deadly chill. Not even when He was led of the devil +into the atmosphere of temptation, did His heart throb +with one rebellious ambition. Christ <i>drew breath in the +fear of the Lord</i>.</p> + +<p>But draughts of this atmosphere are possible to us +also, to whom the Holy Spirit is granted. We too, +who sicken with the tainted breath of society, and see +the characters of children about us fall away and the +hidden evil within leap to swift flame before the blasts +of the world—we too may, by Christ's grace, <i>draw +breath</i>, like Him, <i>in the fear of the Lord</i>. Recall some +day when, leaving your close room and the smoky +city, you breasted the hills of God, and into opened +lungs drew deep draughts of the fresh air of heaven. +What strength it gave your body, and with what a +glow of happiness your mind was filled! What that +is physically, Christ has made possible for us men +morally. He has revealed stretches and eminences of +life, where, following in His footsteps, we also shall +draw for our breath the fear of God. This air is +inspired up every steep hill of effort, and upon all +summits of worship. In the most passion-haunted air, +prayer will immediately bring this atmosphere about +a man, and on the wings of praise the poorest soul +may rise from the miasma of temptation, and sing forth +her song into the azure with as clear a throat as the +lark's.</p> + +<p>And what else is heaven to be, if not this? God, we +are told, shall be its Sun; but its atmosphere shall be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span> +His fear, <i>which is clean and endureth for ever</i>. Heaven +seems most real as a moral open-air, where every +breath is an inspiration, and every pulse a healthy joy, +where no thoughts from within us find breath but +those of obedience and praise, and all our passions +and aspirations are of the will of God. He that lives +near to Christ, and by Christ often seeks God in +prayer, may create for himself even on earth such a +heaven, <i>perfecting holiness in the fear of God</i>.</p> + + +<p class="center">II. <span class="smcap">The Seven Spirits of God</span> (xi. 2, 3).</p> + +<p>This passage, which suggests so much of Christ, is +also for Christian Theology and Art a classical passage +on the Third Person of the Trinity. If the texts +in the book of Revelation (chaps. i. 4; iii. 1; iv. 5; +v. 6) upon the Seven Spirits of God were not themselves +founded on this text of Isaiah, it is certain that +the Church immediately began to interpret them by its +details. While there are only six spirits of God named +here—three pairs—yet, in order to complete the perfect +number, the exegesis of early Christianity sometimes +added <i>the Spirit of the Lord</i> at the beginning of verse 2 +as the central branch of a seven-branched candlestick; +or sometimes <i>the quick understanding in the fear of the +Lord</i> in the beginning of verse 3 was attached as the +seventh branch. (Compare Zech. iv. 6.)</p> + +<p>It is remarkable that there is almost no single text of +Scripture, which has more impressed itself upon Christian +doctrine and symbol than this second verse of the +eleventh chapter, interpreted as a definition of the +Seven Spirits of God. In the theology, art and +worship of the Middle Ages it dominated the expression +of the work of the Holy Ghost. First, and most native +to its origin, arose the employment of this text at the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span> +coronation of kings and the fencing of tribunals of +justice. What Isaiah wrote for Hezekiah of Judah +became the official prayer, song or ensample of the +earliest Christian kings in Europe. It is evidently the +model of that royal hymn—not by Charlemagne, as +usually supposed, but by his grandson Charles the +Bald—the <i>Veni Creator Spiritus</i>. In a Greek miniature +of the tenth century, the Holy Spirit, as a dove, is seen +hovering over King David, who displays the prayer: +<i>Give the king Thy judgements, O God, and Thy righteousness +to the king's son</i>, while there stand on either side +of him the figures of Wisdom and Prophecy.<a name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a> Henry +III.'s order of knighthood, "Du Saint Esprit," was restricted +to political men, and particularly to magistrates. +But perhaps the most interesting identification of the +Holy Spirit with the rigorous virtues of our passage +occurs in a story of St. Dunstan, who, just before mass +on the day of Pentecost, discovered that three coiners, +who had been sentenced to death, were being respited +till the Festival of the Holy Ghost should be over. +"It shall not be thus," cried the indignant saint, and +gave orders for their immediate execution. There was +remonstrance, but he, no doubt with the eleventh of +Isaiah in mind, insisted, and was obeyed. "I now +hope," he said, resuming the mass, "that God will be +pleased to accept the sacrifice I am about to offer." +"Whereupon," says the veracious <i>Acts of the Saints</i>, +"a snow-white dove did, in the vision of many, descend +from heaven, and until the sacrifice was completed +remain above his head in silence, with wings extended +and motionless." Which may be as much legend +as we have the heart to make it, but nevertheless<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span> +remains a sure proof of the association, by discerning +mediævals who could read their Scriptures, of the +Holy Spirit with the decisiveness and rigorous justice +of Isaiah's "mirror for magistrates."<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id="FNanchor_36_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a></p> + +<p>But the influence of our passage may be followed to +that wider definition of the Spirit's work, which made +Him the Fountain of all intelligence. The Spirits of the +Lord mentioned by Isaiah are prevailingly intellectual; +and the mediæval Church, using the details of this passage +to interpret Christ's own intimation of the Paraclete as +the Spirit of truth,—remembering also the story of +Pentecost, when the Spirit bestowed the gifts of +tongues, and the case of Stephen, who, in the triumph +of his eloquence and learning, was said to be full of +the Holy Ghost,—did regard, as Gregory of Tours +expressly declared, the Holy Spirit as the "God of the +intellect more than of the heart." All Councils were +opened by a mass to the Holy Ghost, and few, who +have examined with care the windows of mediæval +churches, will have failed to be struck with the frequency +with which the Dove is seen descending upon +the heads of miraculously learned persons, or presiding +at discussions, or hovering over groups of figures representing +the sciences.<a name="FNanchor_37_37" id="FNanchor_37_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a> To the mediæval Church, then, +the Holy Spirit was the Author of the intellect, more +especially of the governing and political intellect; and +there can be little doubt, after a study of the variations +of this doctrine, that the first five verses of the eleventh +of Isaiah formed upon it the classical text of appeal. +To Christians, who have been accustomed by the use of +the word <i>Comforter</i> to associate the Spirit only with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span> +the gentle and consoling influences of heaven, it may +seem strange to find His energy identified with the stern +rigour of the magistrate. But in its practical, intelligent +and reasonable uses the mediæval doctrine is greatly to +be preferred, on grounds both of Scripture and common-sense, +to those two comparatively modern corruptions +of it, one of which emphasizes the Spirit's influence in +the exclusive operation of the grace of orders, and the +other, driving to an opposite extreme, dissipates it into +the vaguest religiosity. It is one of the curiosities of +Christian theology, that a Divine influence, asserted by +Scripture and believed by the early Church to manifest +itself in the successful conduct of civil offices and the +fulness of intellectual learning, should in these latter +days be so often set up in a sort of "supernatural" +opposition to practical wisdom and the results of +science. But we may go back to Isaiah for the same +kind of correction on this doctrine, as he has given +us on the doctrine of faith; and while we do not forget +the richer meaning the New Testament bestows on the +operation of the Divine Spirit, we may learn from the +Hebrew prophet to seek the inspiration of the Holy +Ghost in all the endeavours of science, and not to +forget that it is His guidance alone which enables us +to succeed in the conduct of our offices and fortunes.</p> + + +<p class="center">III. <span class="smcap">The Redemption of Nature</span> (xi. 6-9).</p> + +<p>But Isaiah will not be satisfied with the establishment +of a strong government in the land and the +redemption of human society from chaos. He prophesies +the redemption of all nature as well. It is one of +those errors, which distort both the poetry and truth of +the Bible, to suppose that by the bears, lions and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span> +reptiles which the prophet now sees tamed in the time +of the regeneration, he intends the violent human +characters which he so often attacks. When Isaiah +here talks of the beasts, he means the beasts. The +passage is not allegorical, but direct, and forms a +parallel to the well-known passage in the eighth of +Romans. Isaiah and Paul, chief apostles of the two +covenants, both interrupt their magnificent odes upon +the outpouring of the Spirit, to remind us that the benefits +of this will be shared by the brute and unintelligent +creation. And, perhaps, there is no finer contrast in the +Scriptures than here, where beside so majestic a description +of the intellectual faculties of humanity Isaiah +places so charming a picture of the docility and sportfulness +of wild animals,—<i>And a little child shall lead +them</i>.</p> + +<p>We, who live in countries, from which wild beasts +have been exterminated, cannot understand the insecurity +and terror, that they cause in regions where +they abound. A modern seer of the times of regeneration +would leave the wild animals out of his +vision. They do not impress any more the human +conscience or imagination. But they once did so most +terribly. The hostility between man and the beasts +not only formed once upon a time the chief material +obstacle in the progress of the race, but remains still +to the religious thinker the most pathetic portion of that +groaning and travailing of all creation, which is so heavy +a burden on his heart. Isaiah, from his ancient point of +view, is in thorough accord with the order of civilisation, +when he represents the subjugation of wild animals +as the first problem of man, after he has established a +strong government in the land. So far from rhetorizing +or allegorizing—above which literary forms it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span> +would appear to be impossible for the appreciation of +some of his commentators to follow him—Isaiah is +earnestly celebrating a very real moment in the laborious +progress of mankind. Isaiah stands where Hercules +stood, and Theseus, and Arthur when</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i2">"There grew great tracts of wilderness,</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Wherein the beast was ever more and more,</span><br /> +<span class="i0">But man was less and less till Arthur came.</span><br /> +<span class="i10">And he drave</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The heathen, and he slew the beast, and felled</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The forest, and let in the sun, and made</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Broad pathways for the hunter and the knight,</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And so returned."</span> +</div> + +<p>But Isaiah would solve the grim problem of the warfare +between man and his lower fellow-creatures in a +very different way from that, of which these heroes +have set the example to humanity. Isaiah would not +have the wild beasts exterminated, but tamed. There +our Western and modern imagination may fail to follow +him, especially when he includes reptiles in the regeneration, +and prophesies of adders and lizards as the playthings +of children. But surely there is no genial man, +who has watched the varied forms of life that sport in the +Southern sunshine, who will not sympathize with the prophet +in his joyous vision. Upon a warm spring day in +Palestine, to sit upon the grass, beside some old dyke +or ruin with its face to the south, is indeed to obtain a +rapturous view of the wealth of life, with which the +bountiful God has blessed and made merry man's +dwelling-place. How the lizards come and go among +the grey stones, and flash like jewels in the dust! And +the timid snake rippling quickly past through the grass, +and the leisurely tortoise, with his shiny back, and the +chameleon, shivering into new colour as he passes from +twig to stone and stone to straw,—all the air the while<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span> +alive with the music of the cricket and the bee! You feel +that the ideal is not to destroy these pretty things as +vermin. What a loss of colour the lizards alone would +imply! But, as Isaiah declares,—whom we may imagine +walking with his children up the steep vineyard paths, +to watch the creatures come and go upon the dry dykes +on either hand,—the ideal is to bring them into sympathy +with ourselves, make pets of them and playthings +for children, who indeed stretch out their hands in joy +to the pretty toys. Why should we need to fight with, +or destroy, any of the happy life the Lord has created? +Why have we this loathing to it, and need to defend +ourselves from it, when there is so much suffering we +could cure, and so much childlikeness we could amuse +and be amused by, and yet it will not let us near? +To these questions there is not another answer but the +answer of the Bible: that this curse of conflict and distrust +between man and his fellow-creatures is due to man's +sin, and shall only be done away by man's redemption.</p> + +<p>Nor is this Bible answer,—of which the book of Genesis +gives us the one end, and this text of Isaiah the other,—a +mere pious opinion, which the true history of man's +dealing with wild beasts by extermination proves to be +impracticable. We may take on scientific authority a +few facts as hints from nature, that after all man is to +blame for the wildness of the beasts, and that through +his sanctification they may be restored to sympathy with +himself. Charles Darwin says: "It deserves notice, +that at an extremely ancient period, when man first +entered any country the animals living there would +have felt no instinctive or inherited fear of him, and +would consequently have been tamed far more easily +than at present." And he gives some very instructive +facts in proof of this with regard to dogs, antelopes,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span> +manatees and hawks. "Quadrupeds and birds which +have seldom been disturbed by man dread him no more +than do our English birds the cows or horses grazing +in the fields."<a name="FNanchor_38_38" id="FNanchor_38_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a> Darwin's details are peculiarly pathetic +in their revelation of the brutes' utter trustfulness in +man, before they get to know him. Persons, who have +had to do with individual animals of a species that +has never been thoroughly tamed, are aware that the +difficulty of training them lies in convincing them of +our sincerity and good-heartedness, and that when this +is got over they will learn almost any trick or habit. +The well-known lines of Burns to the field-mouse gather +up the cause of all this in a fashion very similar to the +Bible's.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i0">"I'm truly sorry man's dominion</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Has broken nature's social union,</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And justifies that ill opinion,</span><br /> +<span class="i2">Which makes thee startle</span><br /> +<span class="i0">At me, thy poor earth-born companion</span><br /> +<span class="i2">And fellow-mortal."</span> +</div> + +<p>How much the appeal of suffering animals to man—the +look of a wounded horse or dog with a meaning +which speech would only spoil, the tales of beasts of +prey that in pain have turned to man as their physician, +the approach of the wildest birds in winter to our feet +as their Providence—how much all these prove Paul's +saying that the <i>earnest expectation of the creature waiteth +for the manifestation of the sons of God</i>. And we have +other signals, than those afforded by the pain and +pressure of the beasts themselves, of the time when +they and man shall sympathize. The natural history +of many of our breeds of domesticated animals teaches<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span> +us the lesson that their growth in skill and character—no +one who has enjoyed the friendship of several dogs will +dispute the possibility of character in the lower animals—has +been proportionate to man's own. Though savages +are fond of keeping and taming animals, they fail to +advance them to the stages of cunning and discipline, +which animals reach under the influence of civilised +man.<a name="FNanchor_39_39" id="FNanchor_39_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_39_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a> "No instance is on record," says Darwin, "of +such dogs as bloodhounds, spaniels or true greyhounds +having been kept by savages; they are the products +of long-continued civilisation."</p> + +<p>These facts, if few, certainly bear in the direction of +Isaiah's prophecy, that not by extermination of the +beasts, but by the influence upon them of man's greater +force of character, may that warfare be brought to an +end, of which man's sin, according to the Bible, is the +original cause.</p> + +<p>The practical "uses" of such a passage of Scripture +as this are plain. Some of them are the awful responsibility +of man's position as the keystone of +creation, the material effects of sin, and especially the +religiousness of our relation to the lower animals. +More than once do the Hebrew prophets liken the +Almighty's dealings with man to merciful man's +dealings with his beasts.<a name="FNanchor_40_40" id="FNanchor_40_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_40_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a> Both Isaiah and Paul +virtually declare that man discharges to the lower +creatures a mediatorial office. To say so will of course +seem an exaggeration to some people, but not to +those who, besides being grateful to remember what +help in labour and cheer in dreariness we owe our +humble fellow-creatures, have been fortunate enough to +enjoy the affection and trust of a dumb friend. Men<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span> +who abuse the lower animals sin very grievously against +God; men who neglect them lose some of the religious +possibilities of life. If it is our business in life to have +the charge of animals, we should magnify our calling. +Every coachman and carter ought to feel something of +the priest about him; he should think no amount of +skill and patience too heavy if it enables him to gain +insight into the nature of creatures of God, all of +whose hope, by Scripture and his own experience, is +towards himself.</p> + +<p>Our relation to the lower animals is one of the three +great relations of our nature. For God our worship; +for man our service; for the beasts our providence, +and according both to Isaiah and Paul, the mediation +of our holiness.</p> + + +<p class="center">IV. <span class="smcap">The Return and Sovereignty of Israel</span> +(xi. 10-16).</p> + +<p>In passing from the second to the third part of this +prophecy, we cannot but feel that we descend to a +lower point of view and a less pure atmosphere of +spiritual ambition. Isaiah, who has just declared +peace between man and beast, finds that Judah must +clear off certain scores against her neighbours before +there can be peace between man and man. It is +an interesting psychological study. The prophet, who +has been able to shake off man's primeval distrust and +loathing of wild animals, cannot divest himself of the +political tempers of his age. He admits, indeed, the +reconciliation of Ephraim and Judah; but the first act +of the reconciled brethren, he prophesies with exultation, +will be to <i>swoop down upon</i> their cousins Edom, +Moab and Ammon, and their neighbours the Philistines.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span> +We need not longer dwell on this remarkable limitation +of the prophet's spirit, except to point out that while +Isaiah clearly saw that Israel's own purity would not +be perfected except by her political debasement, he +could not as yet perceive any way for the conversion +of the rest of the world except through Israel's political +supremacy.</p> + +<p>The prophet, however, is more occupied with an +event preliminary to Israel's sovereignty, namely the +return from exile. His large and emphatic assertions +remind the not yet captive Judah through how much +captivity she has to pass before she can see the margin +of the blessed future which he has been describing to +her. Isaiah's words imply a much more general captivity +than had taken place by the time he spoke them, +and we see that he is still keeping steadily in view that +thorough reduction of his people, to the prospect of +which he was forced in his inaugural vision. Judah +has to be dispersed, even as Ephraim has been, before +the glories of this chapter shall be realized.</p> + +<p>We postpone further treatment of this prophecy, +along with the hymn (chap. xii.), which is attached to it, +to a separate chapter, dealing with all the representations, +which the first half of the book of Isaiah contains, +of the return from exile.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XI.</h2> + +<h3><i>DRIFTING TO EGYPT.</i></h3> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> xx.; xxi. 1-10; xxxviii.; xxxix.</p> + +<p class="center">(720-705 <span class="smcap"><small>B.C.</small></span>).</p> + + +<p>From 720, when chap. xi. may have been published, +to 705—or, by rough reckoning, from +the fortieth to the fifty-fifth year of Isaiah's life—we +cannot be sure that we have more than one prophecy +from him; but two narratives have found a place in his +book which relate events that must have taken place +between 712 and 705. These narratives are chap. xx.: +How Isaiah Walked Stripped and Barefoot for a Sign +against Egypt, and chaps. xxxviii. and xxxix.: The +Sickness of Hezekiah, with the Hymn he wrote, and +his Behaviour before the Envoys from Babylon. The +single prophecy belonging to this period is chap. xxi. +1-10, <i>Oracle of the Wilderness of the Sea</i>, which +announces the fall of Babylon. There has been considerable +debate about the authorship of this oracle, +but Cheyne, mainly following Dr. Kleinert, gives +substantial reasons for leaving it with Isaiah. We postpone +the full exposition of chaps. xxxviii., xxxix., to a +later stage, as here it would only interrupt the history. +But we will make use of chaps. xx. and xxi. 1-10 in +the course of the following historical sketch, which is +intended to connect the first great period of Isaiah's +prophesying, 740-720, with the second, 705-701.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span>All these fifteen years, 720-705, Jerusalem was +drifting to the refuge into which she plunged at the +end of them—drifting to Egypt. Ahaz had firmly bound +his people to Assyria, and in his reign there was no +talk of an Egyptian alliance. But in 725, when the +<i>overflowing scourge</i> of Assyrian invasion threatened +to sweep into Judah as well as Samaria, Isaiah's +words give us some hint of a recoil in the politics of +Jerusalem towards the southern power. The <i>covenants +with death and hell</i>, which the men of scorn flaunted in +his face as he harped on the danger from Assyria, may +only have been the old treaties with Assyria herself, +but the <i>falsehood and lies</i> that went with them were +most probably intrigues with Egypt. Any Egyptian +policy, however, that may have formed in Jerusalem +before 719, was entirely discredited by the crushing +defeat, which in that year Sargon inflicted upon the +empire of the Nile, almost on her own borders, at +Rafia.</p> + +<p>Years of quietness for Palestine followed this +decisive battle. Sargon, whose annals engraved on +the great halls of Khorsabad enable us to read the +history of the period year by year, tells us that his +next campaigns were to the north of his empire, and +till 711 he alludes to Palestine only to say that +tribute was coming in regularly, or to mention the +deportation to Hamath or Samaria of some tribe he +had conquered far away. Egypt, however, was everywhere +busy among his feudatories. Intrigue was +Egypt's <i>forte</i>. She is always represented in Isaiah's +pages as the talkative power of many promises. Her +fair speech was very sweet to men groaning beneath +the military pressure of Assyria. Her splendid past, +in conjunction with the largeness of her promise,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span> +excited the popular imagination. Centres of her +influence gathered in every state. An Egyptian party +formed in Jerusalem. Their intrigue pushed mines +in all directions, and before the century was out the +Assyrian peace in Western Asia was broken by two +great Explosions. The first of these, in 711, was local +and abortive; the second, in 705, was universal, and +for a time entirely destroyed the Assyrian supremacy.</p> + +<p>The centre of the Explosion of 711 was Ashdod, +a city of the Philistines. The king had suddenly +refused to continue the Assyrian tribute, and Sargon +had put another king in his place. But the people—in +Ashdod, as everywhere else, it was the people who +were fascinated by Egypt—pulled down the Assyrian +puppet and elevated Iaman, a friend to Pharaoh. The +other cities of the Philistines, with Moab, Edom and +Judah, were prepared by Egyptian promise to throw +in their lot with the rebels. Sargon gave them no +time. "In the wrath of my heart, I did not divide +my army, and I did not diminish the ranks, but I +marched against Asdod with my warriors, who did +not separate themselves from the traces of my sandals. +I besieged, I took, Asdod and Gunt-Asdodim.... +I then made again these towns. I placed the people +whom my arm had conquered. I put over them my +lieutenant as governor. I considered them like +Assyrians, and they practised obedience."<a name="FNanchor_41_41" id="FNanchor_41_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_41_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a> It is +upon this campaign of Sargon that Mr. Cheyne argues +for the invasion of Judah, to which he assigns so +many of Isaiah's prophecies, as, <i>e.g.</i>, chaps. i. and x. +5-34. Some day Assyriology may give us proof +of this supposition. We are without it just now.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span> +Sargon speaks no word of invading Judah, and the +only part of the book of Isaiah that unmistakably +refers to this time is the picturesque narrative of +chap. xx.</p> + +<p>In this we are told that <i>in the year</i> the <i>Tartan</i>, the +Assyrian commander-in-chief, <i>came to Ashdod when +Sargon king of Assyria sent him</i> [that is to be +supposed the year of the first revolt in Ashdod, to +which Sargon himself did not come], <i>and he fought +against Ashdod and took it:—in that time Jehovah had +spoken by the hand of Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, +Go and loose the sackcloth</i>, the prophet's robe, <i>from off +thy loins, and thy sandal strip from off thy foot; and he +did so, walking naked</i>, that is unfrocked, <i>and barefoot</i>. +For Egyptian intrigue was already busy; the temporary +success of the Tartan at Ashdod did not discourage it, +and it needed a protest. <i>And Jehovah said, As My +servant Isaiah hath walked unfrocked and barefoot three +years for a sign and a portent against Egypt and against +Ethiopia</i> [note the double name, for the country was +now divided between two rulers, the secret of her +impotence to interfere forcibly in Palestine] <i>so shall +the king of Assyria lead away the captives of Egypt and +exiles of Ethiopia, young and old, stripped and barefoot, +and with buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt. +And they shall be dismayed and ashamed, because of +Ethiopia their expectation and because of Egypt their +boast. And the inhabitant of this coastland</i> [that is, all +Palestine, and a name for it remarkably similar to the +phrase used by Sargon, "the people of Philistia, Judah, +Edom and Moab, dwelling by the sea"<a name="FNanchor_42_42" id="FNanchor_42_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_42_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a>] <i>shall say in +that day, Behold, such is our expectation, whither we had</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span> +<i>fled for help to deliver ourselves from the king of +Assyria, and how shall we escape—we?</i></p> + +<p>This parade of Isaiah for three years, unfrocked and +barefoot, is another instance of that habit on which we +remarked in connection with chap. viii. 1: the habit +of finally carrying everything committed to him before +the bar of the whole nation. It was to the mass of the +people God said, <i>Come and let us reason together.</i> Let +us not despise Isaiah in his shirt any more than we do +Diogenes in his tub, or with a lantern in his hand, +seeking for a man by its rays at noonday. He was +bent on startling the popular conscience, because he +held it true that a people's own morals have greater +influence on their destinies than the policies of their +statesmen. But especially anxious was Isaiah, as we +shall again see from chap. xxxi., to bring this Egyptian +policy home to the popular conscience. Egypt was a +big-mouthed, blustering power, believed in by the mob: +to expose her required public, picturesque and persistent +advertisement. So Isaiah continued his walk +for three years. The fall of Ashdod, left by Egypt to +itself, did not disillusion the Jews, and the rapid disappearance +of Sargon to another part of his empire +where there was trouble, gave the Egyptians audacity +to continue their intrigues against him.<a name="FNanchor_43_43" id="FNanchor_43_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_43_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a></p> + +<p>Sargon's new trouble had broken out in Babylon, +and was much more serious than any revolt in Syria. +Merodach Baladan, king of Chaldea, was no ordinary +vassal, but as dangerous a rival as Egypt. When he +rose, it meant a contest between Babylon and Nineveh +for the sovereignty of the world. He had long been +preparing for war. He had an alliance with Elam, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span> +the tribes of Mesopotamia were prepared for his signal +of revolt. Among the charges brought against him by +Sargon is that, "against the will of the gods of Babylon, +he had sent during twelve years ambassadors." One +of these embassies may have been that which came to +Hezekiah after his great sickness (chap. xxxix.). <i>And +Hezekiah was glad of them, and showed them the house of +his spicery, the silver, and the gold, and the spices, and the +precious oil, and all the house of his armour and all that +was found in his treasures; there was nothing in his house +nor in all his dominion that Hezekiah showed them not.</i> +Isaiah was indignant. He had hitherto kept the king +from formally closing with Egypt; now he found him +eager for an alliance with another of the powers of +man. But instead of predicting the captivity of Babylon, +as he predicted the captivity of Egypt, by the hand of +Assyria, Isaiah declared, according to chap. xxxix., +that Babylon would some day take Israel captive; and +Hezekiah had to content himself with the prospect that +this calamity was not to happen in his time.</p> + +<p>Isaiah's prediction of the exile of Israel to Babylon +is a matter of difficulty. The difficulty, however, is +not that of conceiving how he could have foreseen +an event which took place more than a century later. +Even in 711 Babylon was not an unlikely competitor +for the supremacy of the nations. Sargon himself felt +that it was a crisis to meet her. Very little might have +transferred the seat of power from the Tigris to the +Euphrates. What, therefore, more probable than that +when Hezekiah disclosed to these envoys the whole +state of his resources, and excused himself by saying +<i>that they were come from a far country, even Babylon</i>, +Isaiah, seized by a strong sense of how near Babylon +stood to the throne of the nations, should laugh to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span> +scorn the excuse of distance, and tell the king that his +anxiety to secure an alliance had only led him to place +the temptation to rob him in the face of a power that +was certainly on the way to be able to do it? No, +the difficulty is not that the prophet foretold a captivity +of the Jews in Babylon, but that we cannot +reconcile what he says of that captivity with his +intimation of the immediate destruction of Babylon, +which has come down to us in chap. xxi. 1-10.</p> + +<p>In this prophecy Isaiah regards Babylon as he has +been regarding Egypt—certain to go down before +Assyria, and therefore wholly unprofitable to Judah. +If the Jews still thought of returning to Egypt when +Sargon hurried back from completing her discomfiture +in order to beset Babylon, Isaiah would tell them it was +no use. Assyria has brought her full power to bear on +the Babylonians; Elam and Media are with her. He +travails with pain for the result. Babylon is not expecting +a siege; but <i>preparing the table, eating and drinking</i>, +when suddenly the cry rings through her, "<i>Arise, ye +princes; anoint the shield.</i> The enemy is upon us." So +terrible and so sudden a warrior is this Sargon! At +his words nations move; when he saith, <i>Go up, O Elam! +Besiege, O Media!</i> it is done. And he falls upon his +foes before their weapons are ready. Then the prophet +shrinks back from the result of his imagination of how +it happened—for that is too painful—upon the simple +certainty, which God revealed to him, that it must +happen. As surely as Sargon's columns went against +Babylon, so surely must the message return that +Babylon has fallen. Isaiah puts it this way. The +Lord bade him get on his watchtower—that is his +phrase for observing the signs of the times—and speak +whatever he saw. And he saw a military column on the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span> +march: <i>a troop of horsemen by pairs, a troop of asses, +a troop of camels</i>. It passed him out of sight, <i>and he +hearkened very diligently</i> for news. But none came. It +was a long campaign. <i>And he cried like a lion</i> for +impatience, <i>O my Lord, I stand continually upon the +watchtower by day, and am set in my ward every night</i>. +Till at last, <i>behold, there came a troop of men, horsemen +in pairs, and</i> now <i>one answered and said, Fallen, fallen is +Babylon, and all the images of her gods he hath broken to +the ground</i>. The meaning of this very elliptical passage +is just this: as surely as the prophet saw Sargon's +columns go out against Babylon, so sure was he of +her fall. Turning to his Jerusalem, he says, <i>My own +threshed one, son of my floor, that which I have heard +from Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, have I declared +unto you</i>. How gladly would I have told you otherwise! +But this is His message and His will. Everything +must go down before this Assyrian.</p> + +<p>Sargon entered Babylon before the year was out, and +with her conquest established his fear once more down +to the borders of Egypt. In his lifetime neither Judah +nor her neighbours attempted again to revolt. But +Egypt's intrigue did not cease. Her mines were once +more laid, and the feudatories of Assyria only waited +for their favourite opportunity, a change of tyrants on +the throne at Nineveh. This came very soon. In the +fifteenth year of his reign, having finally established his +empire, Sargon inscribed on the palace at Khorsabad +the following prayer to Assur: "May it be that I, +Sargon, who inhabit this palace, may be preserved by +destiny during long years for a long life, for the happiness +of my body, for the satisfaction of my heart, and +may I arrive to my end! May I accumulate in this +palace immense treasures, the booties of all countries,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span> +the products of mountains and valleys!" The god did +not hear. A few months later, in 705, Sargon was +murdered; and before Sennacherib, his successor, +sat down on the throne, the whole of Assyrian +supremacy in the south-west of Asia went up in the air. +It was the second of the great Explosions we spoke of, +and the rest of Isaiah's prophecies are concerned with +its results.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span></p> +<h2>BOOK III.</h2> + +<h3>ORATIONS ON THE EGYPTIAN INTRIGUES +AND ORACLES ON +FOREIGN NATIONS, 705-702 <span class="smcap"><small>B.C.</small></span></h3> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="center"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Book 3"> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Isaiah</span>:—</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">xxix. About 703.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">xxx. A little later.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">xxxi. " "</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">xxxii. 1-8.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">xxxii. 9-20. Date uncertain.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> —————</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">xiv. 28-xxi. 736-702.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">xxiii. About 703.</td></tr> +</table></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span></p> +<h2>BOOK III.</h2> + + +<p>We now enter the prophecies of Isaiah's old age, +those which he published after 705, when +his ministry had lasted for at least thirty-five years. +They cover the years between 705, the date of Sennacherib's +accession to the Assyrian throne, and 701, +when his army suddenly disappeared from before +Jerusalem.</p> + +<p>They fall into three groups:—</p> + +<p>1. Chaps. xxix.-xxxii., dealing with Jewish politics +while Sennacherib is still far from Palestine, 704-702, +and having Egypt for their chief interest, Assyria +lowering in the background.</p> + +<p>2. Chaps. xiv. 28-xxi. and xxiii., a group of +oracles on foreign nations, threatened, like Judah, by +Assyria.</p> + +<p>3. Chaps. i., xxii., and xxxiii., and the historical +narrative in xxxvi., and xxxvii., dealing with Sennacherib's +invasion of Judah and siege of Jerusalem in +701; Egypt and every foreign nation now fallen out of +sight, and the storm about the Holy City too thick +for the prophet to see beyond his immediate neighbourhood.</p> + +<p>The <i>first and second</i> of these groups—orations on +the intrigues with Egypt and oracles on the foreign +nations—delivered while Sennacherib was still far<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span> +from Syria, form the subject of this Third Book of +our exposition.</p> + +<p>The prophecies on the siege of Jerusalem are +sufficiently numerous and distinctive to be put by +themselves, along with their appendix (xxxviii., xxxix.), +in our Fourth Book.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XII.</h2> + +<h3><i>ARIEL, ARIEL.</i></h3> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> xxix. (about 703 <span class="smcap"><small>B.C.</small></span>).</p> + + +<p>In 705 Sargon, King of Assyria, was murdered, +and Sennacherib, his second son, succeeded him. +Before the new ruler mounted the throne, the vast +empire, which his father had consolidated, broke into +rebellion, and down to the borders of Egypt cities and +tribes declared themselves again independent. Sennacherib +attacked his problem with Assyrian promptitude. +There were two forces, to subdue which at the +beginning made the reduction of the rest certain: +Assyria's vassal kingdom and future rival for the +supremacy of the world, Babylon; and her present +rival, Egypt. Sennacherib marched on Babylon first.</p> + +<p>While he did so the smaller States prepared to +resist him. Too small to rely on their own resources, +they looked to Egypt, and among others who sought +help in that quarter was Judah. There had always +been, as we have seen, an Egyptian party among the +politicians of Jerusalem; and Assyria's difficulties now +naturally increased its influence. Most of the prophecies +in chaps. xxix.-xxxii. are forward to condemn +the alliance with Egypt and the irreligious politics of +which it was the fruit.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span>At the beginning, however, other facts claim Isaiah's +attention. After the first excitement, consequent on +the threats of Sennacherib, the politicians do not seem +to have been specially active. Sennacherib found the +reduction of Babylon a harder task than he expected, +and in the end it turned out to be three years before +he was free to march upon Syria. As one winter after +another left the work of the Assyrian army in Mesopotamia +still unfinished, the political tension in Judah +must have relaxed. The Government—for King +Hezekiah seems at last to have been brought round +to believe in Egypt—pursued their negotiations no +longer with that decision and real patriotism, which +the sense of near danger rouses in even the most +selfish and mistaken of politicians, but rather with the +heedlessness of principle, the desire to show their +own cleverness and the passion for intrigue which run +riot among statesmen, when danger is near enough to +give an excuse for doing something, but too far away +to oblige anything to be done in earnest. Into this +false ease, and the meaningless, faithless politics, which +swarmed in it, Isaiah hurled his strong prophecy of +chap. xxix. Before he exposes in chaps. xxx., xxxi., +the folly of trusting to Egypt in the hour of danger, he +has here the prior task of proving that hour to be near +and very terrible. It is but one instance of the +ignorance and fickleness of the people, that their +prophet has first to rouse them to a sense of their +peril, and then to restrain their excitement under it +from rushing headlong for help to Egypt.</p> + +<p>Chap. xxix. is an obscure oracle, but its obscurity is +designed. Isaiah was dealing with a people, in whom +political security and religious formalism had stifled +both reason and conscience. He sought to rouse them<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span> +by a startling message in a mysterious form. He +addressed the city by an enigma:—</p> + +<p><i>Ho! Ari-El, Ari-El! City David beleaguered! Add +a year to a year, let the feasts run their round, then will I +bring straitness upon Ari-El, and there shall be moaning +and bemoaning,<a name="FNanchor_44_44" id="FNanchor_44_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_44_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a> and yet she shall be unto Me as an +Ari-El.</i></p> + +<p>The general bearing of this enigma became plain +enough after the sore siege and sudden deliverance of +Jerusalem in 701. But we are unable to make out one +or two of its points. <i>Ari-El</i> may mean either <i>The +Lion of God</i> (2 Sam. xxiii. 20), or <i>The Hearth of God</i> +(Ezek. xliii. 15, 16). If the same sense is to be given +to the four utterances of the name, then <i>God's-Lion</i> suits +better the description of ver. 4; but <i>God's-Hearth</i> seems +suggested by the feminine pronoun in ver. 1, and is a +conception to which Isaiah returns in this same group +of prophecies (xxxi. 9). It is possible that this +ambiguity was part of the prophet's design; but if he +uses the name in both senses, some of the force of his +enigma is lost to us. In any case, however, we get a +picturesque form for a plain meaning. In a year after +the present year is out, says Isaiah, God Himself will +straiten the city, whose inhabitants are now so careless, +and she shall be full of mourning and lamentation. +Nevertheless in the end she shall be a true Ari-El: be +it a true <i>God's-Lion</i>, victor and hero; or a true <i>God's-Hearth</i>, +His own inviolate shrine and sanctuary.</p> + +<p>The next few verses (3-8) expand this warning. In +plain words, Jerusalem is to undergo a siege. God +Himself shall <i>encamp against thee—round about</i> reads +our English version, but more probably, as with the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span> +change of a letter, the Septuagint reads it—<i>like David</i>. +If we take this second reading, the reference to David +in the enigma itself (ver. 1) becomes clear. The prophet +has a very startling message to deliver: that God will +besiege His own city, the city of David! Before God +can make her in truth His own, make her verify her +name, He will have to beleaguer and reduce her. For +so novel and startling an intimation the prophet pleads +a precedent: "<i>City which David</i> himself <i>beleaguered</i>! +Once before in thy history, ere the first time thou wast +made God's own hearth, thou hadst to be besieged. As +then, so now. Before thou canst again be a true Ari-El +I must <i>beleaguer thee like David</i>." This reading and +interpretation gives to the enigma a reason and a force +which it does not otherwise possess.</p> + +<p>Jerusalem, then, shall be reduced to the very dust, +and whine and whimper in it (like a sick <i>lion</i>, if this be +the figure the prophet is pursuing), when suddenly it +is <i>the surge of</i> her foes—literally <i>thy strangers</i>—whom the +prophet sees as <i>small dust, and as passing chaff shall +the surge of tyrants be; yea, it shall be in the twinkling +of an eye, suddenly</i>. <i>From Jehovah of hosts shall she be +visited with thunder and with earthquake and a great +noise,—storm-wind, and tempest and the flame of fire +devouring. And it shall be as a dream, a vision of +the night, the surge of all the nations that war against +Ariel, yea all that war against her and her stronghold, +and they that press in upon her. And it shall be as if +the hungry had been dreaming, and lo! he was eating; +but he hath awaked, and his soul is empty: and as if the +thirsty had been dreaming, and lo! he was drinking; but +he hath awaked, and lo! he is faint, and his soul is +ravenous: thus shall be the surge of all the nations +that war against Mount Zion.</i> Now that is a very<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span> +definite prediction, and in its essentials was fulfilled. +In the end Jerusalem was invested by Sennacherib, and +reduced to sore straits, when very suddenly—it would +appear from other records, in a single night—the +beleaguering force disappeared. This actually happened; +and although the main business of a prophet, +as we now clearly understand, was not to predict +definite events, yet, since the result here predicted was +one on which Isaiah staked his prophetic reputation +and pledged the honour of Jehovah and the continuance +of the true religion among men, it will be profitable for +us to look at it for a little.</p> + +<p>Isaiah foretells a great event and some details. The +event is a double one: the reduction of Jerusalem to the +direst straits by siege and her deliverance by the sudden +disappearance of the besieging army. The details are +that the siege will take place after a year (though the +prophet's statement of time is perhaps too vague to +be treated as a prediction), and that the deliverance +will come as a great natural convulsion—thunder, earthquake +and fire—which it certainly did not do. The +double event, however, stripped of these details, did +essentially happen.</p> + +<p>Now it is plain that any one with a considerable +knowledge of the world at that day must easily have +been able to assert the probability of a siege of Jerusalem +by the mixed nations who composed Sennacherib's +armies. Isaiah's orations are full of proofs of his close +acquaintance with the peoples of the world, and Assyria, +who was above them. Moreover, his political advice, +given at certain crises of Judah's history, was conspicuous +not only for its religiousness, but for what we +should call its "worldly-wisdom:" it was vindicated by +events. Isaiah, however, would not have understood<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span> +the distinction we have just made. To him political +prudence was part of religion. <i>The <span class="smcap">Lord</span> of hosts is for +a spirit of judgement to him that sitteth in judgement, and +for strength to them that turn back the battle to the gate.</i> +Knowledge of men, experience of nations, the mental +strength which never forgets history, and is quick to +mark new movements as they rise, Isaiah would have +called the direct inspiration of God. And it was certainly +these qualities in this Hebrew, which provided him +with the materials for his prediction of the siege of +Jerusalem.</p> + +<p>But it has not been found that such talents by themselves +enable statesmen calmly to face the future, or +clearly to predict it. Such knowledge of the past, +such vigilance for the present, by themselves only +embarrass, and often deceive. They are the materials +for prediction, but a ruling principle is required to +arrange them. A general may have a strong and well-drilled +force under him, and a miserably weak foe in +front; but if the sun is not going to rise to-morrow, if +the laws of nature are not going to hold, his familiarity +with his soldiers and expertness in handling them will +not give him confidence to offer battle. He takes +certain principles for granted, and on these his soldiers +become of use to him, and he makes his venture. +Even so Isaiah handled his mass of information by the +grasp which he had of certain principles, and his facts +fell clear into order before his confident eyes. He +believed in the real government of God. <i>I also saw +the Lord sitting, high and lifted up.</i> He felt that +God had even this Assyria in His hands. He knew +that all God's ends were righteousness, and he was +still of the conviction that Judah for her wickedness +required punishment at the Lord's hands. Grant<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span> +these convictions to him in the superhuman strength +in which he tells us he was conscious of receiving +them from God, and it is easy to see how Isaiah could +not help predicting a speedy siege of Jerusalem, how +he already beheld the valleys around her bristling with +barbarian spears.</p> + +<p>The prediction of the sudden raising of this siege +was the equally natural corollary to another religious +conviction, which held the prophet with as much +intensity, as that which possessed him with the +need of Judah's punishment. Isaiah never slacked his +hold on the truth that in the end God would save +Zion, and keep her for Himself. Through whatever +destruction, a root and remnant of the Jewish people +must survive. Zion is impregnable because God is in +her, and because her inviolateness is necessary for the +continuance of true religion in the world. Therefore +as confident as his prediction of the siege of Jerusalem +is Isaiah's prediction of her delivery. And while the +prophet wraps the fact in vague circumstance, while he +masks, as it were, his ignorance of how in detail it +will actually take place by calling up a great natural +convulsion, yet he makes it abundantly clear—as, +with his religious convictions and his knowledge of +the Assyrian power, he cannot help doing—that the +deliverance will be unexpected and unexplainable by +the natural circumstances of the Jews themselves, that +it will be evident as the immediate deed of God.</p> + +<p>It is well for us to understand this. We shall get +rid of the mechanical idea of prophecy, according to +which prophets made exact predictions of fact by some +particular and purely official endowment. We shall feel +that prediction of this kind was due to the most unmistakeable +inspiration, the influence upon the prophet's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span> +knowledge of affairs of two powerful religious convictions, +for which he himself was strongly sure that he +had the warrant of the Spirit of God.</p> + +<p>Into the easy, selfish politics of Jerusalem, then, +Isaiah sent this thunderbolt, this definite prediction: +that in a year or more Jerusalem would be besieged +and reduced to the direst straits. He tells us that +it simply dazed the people. They were like men +suddenly startled from sleep, who are too stupid to read +a message pushed into their hands (vv. 9-12).</p> + +<p>Then Isaiah gives God's own explanation of this +stupidity. The cause of it is simply religious formalism. +<i>This people draw nigh unto Me with their mouth, and +with their lips do they honour Me, but their heart is far +from Me, and their fear of Me is a mere commandment +of men, a thing learned by rote.</i> This was what Israel +called religion—bare ritual and doctrine, a round of +sacrifices and prayers in adherence to the tradition of +the fathers. But in life they never thought of God. +It did not occur to these citizens of Jerusalem that He +cared about their politics, their conduct of justice, or +their discussions and bargains with one another. Of +these they said, taking their own way, <i>Who seeth us, +and who knoweth us?</i> Only in the Temple did they +feel God's fear, and there merely in imitation of one +another. None had an original vision of God in real +life; they learned other men's thoughts about Him, and +took other men's words upon their lips, while their +heart was far away. In fact, speaking words and +listening to words had wearied the spirit and stifled the +conscience of them.</p> + +<p>For such a disposition Isaiah says there is only one +cure. It is a new edition of his old gospel, that God +speaks to us in facts, not forms. Worship and a lifeless<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span> +doctrine have demoralized this people. God shall +make Himself so felt in real life that even their dull +senses shall not be able to mistake Him. <i>Therefore, +behold, I am proceeding to work marvellously upon this +people, a marvellous work and a wonder! and the wisdom +of their wise men shall perish, and the cleverness of their +clever ones shall be obscured.</i> This is not the promise +of what we call a miracle. It is a historical event on +the same theatre as the politicians are showing their +cleverness, but it shall put them all to shame, and by +its force make the dullest feel that God's own hand is +in it. What the people had ceased to attribute to +Jehovah was ordinary intelligence; they had virtually +said, <i>He hath no understanding</i>. The <i>marvellous work</i>, +therefore, which He threatens shall be a work of +wisdom, not some convulsion of nature to cow their +spirits, but a wonderful political result, that shall shame +their conceit of cleverness, and teach them reverence +for the will and skill of God. Are the politicians trying +to change the surface of the world, thinking that they <i>are +turning things upside down</i>, and supposing that they can +keep God out of account: <i>Who seeth us, and who knoweth +us?</i> God Himself is the real Arranger and Politician. +He will turn things upside down! Compared with +their attempt, how vast His results shall be! As if the +whole surface of the earth were altered, <i>Lebanon changed +into garden-land, and garden-land counted as forest</i>! +But this, of course, is metaphor. The intent of the +miracle is to show that God hath understanding; therefore +it must be a work, the prudence and intellectual +force of which politicians can appreciate, and it shall +take place in their politics. But not for mere astonishment's +sake is <i>the wonder</i> to be done. For blessing and +morality shall it be: to cure the deaf and blind; to give<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span> +to the meek and the poor a new joy; to confound the +tyrant and the scorner; to make Israel worthy of God +and her own great fathers. <i>Therefore thus saith Jehovah +to the house of Jacob, He that redeemed Abraham: Not +now ashamed shall Jacob be, and not now shall his countenance +blanch.</i> So unworthy hitherto have this stupid +people been of so great ancestors! <i>But now when his</i> +(Jacob's) <i>children behold the work of My hand in the midst +of him, they shall hallow My name, yea, they shall hallow +the Holy One of Jacob, and the God of Israel shall they +make their fear. They also that err in spirit shall know +understanding, and they that are unsettled shall learn to +accept doctrine</i>.</p> + +<p>Such is the meaning of this strong chapter. It is +instructive in two ways.</p> + +<p><i>First</i>, it very clearly declares Isaiah's view of the +method of God's revelation. Isaiah says nothing of +the Temple, the Shechinah, the Altar, or the Scripture; +but he points out how much the exclusive confinement +of religion to forms and texts has deadened the hearts +of his countrymen towards God. In your real life, he +says to them, you are to seek, and you shall find, Him. +There He is evident in miracles,—not physical interruptions +and convulsions, but social mercies and moral +providences. The quickening of conscience, the dispersion +of ignorance, poor men awakening to the fact +that God is with them, the overthrow of the social +tyrant, history's plain refutation of the atheist, the +growth of civic justice and charity—In these, said the +Hebrew prophet to the Old Testament believer, +Behold your God!</p> + +<p>Wherefore, <i>secondly</i>, we also are to look for God in +events and deeds. We are to know that nothing can +compensate us for the loss of the open vision of God's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span> +working in history and in life about us,—not ecstasy of +worship nor orthodoxy of doctrine. To confine our +religion to these latter things is to become dull towards +God even in them, and to forget Him everywhere +else. And this is a fault of our day, just as it was of +Isaiah's. So much of our fear of God is conventional, +orthodox and not original, a trick caught from men's +words or fashions, not a part of ourselves, nor won, like +all that is real in us, from contact with real life. In +our politics, in our conduct with men, in the struggle +of our own hearts for knowledge and for temperance, +and in service—there we are to learn to fear God. But +there, and wherever else we are busy, self comes too +much in the way; we are fascinated with our own +cleverness; we ignore God, saying, <i>Who seeth us? +who knoweth us?</i> We get to expect Him only in the +Temple and on the Sabbath, and then only to influence +our emotions. But it is in deeds, and where we feel +life most real, that we are to look for Him. He makes +Himself evident to us by wonderful works.</p> + +<p>For these He has given us three theatres—the Bible, +our country's history, and for each man his own life.</p> + +<p>We have to take the Bible, and especially the life of +Christ, and to tell ourselves that these wonderful events +did really take place. In Christ God did dwell; by +Christ He spoke to man; man was converted, redeemed, +sanctified, beyond all doubt. These were real events. +To be convinced of their reality were worth a hundred +prayers.</p> + +<p>Then let us follow the example of the Hebrew +prophets, and search the history of our own people +for the realities of God. Carlyle says in a note to +Cromwell's fourth speech to Parliament, that "the Bible +of every nation is its own history." This note is drawn<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span> +from Carlyle by Cromwell's frequent insistence, that +we must ever be turning from forms and rituals to +study God's will and ways in history. And that speech +of Cromwell is perhaps the best sermon ever delivered +on the subject of this chapter. For he said: "What +are all our histories but God manifesting Himself, that +He hath shaken, and tumbled down and trampled upon +everything that He hath not planted!" And again, +speaking of our own history, he said to the House of +Commons: "We are a people with the stamp of God +upon us, ... whose appearances and providences +among us were not to be outmatched by any story." +Truly this is national religion:—the reverential acknowledgment +of God's hand in history; the admiration and +effort of moral progress; the stirring of conscience when +we see wrong; the expectation, when evil abounds, that +God will bring justice and purity to us if we labour +with Him for them.</p> + +<p>But for each man there is the final duty of turning to +himself.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i8">"My soul repairs its fault</span><br /> +<span class="i0">When, sharpening sense's hebetude,</span><br /> +<span class="i0">She turns on my own life! So viewed,</span><br /> +<span class="i0">No mere mote's breadth but teems immense</span><br /> +<span class="i0">With witnessings of providence:</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And woe to me if when I look</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Upon that record, the sole book</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Unsealed to me, I take no heed</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Of any warning that I read!"<a name="FNanchor_45_45" id="FNanchor_45_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_45_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a></span> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XIII.</h2> + +<h3><i>POLITICS AND FAITH.</i></h3> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> xxx. (<span class="smcap"><small>ABOUT</small></span> 702 <span class="smcap"><small>B.C.</small></span>).</p> + + +<p>This prophecy of Isaiah rises out of circumstances +a little more developed than those in which +chap. xxix. was composed. Sennacherib is still engaged +with Babylon, and it seems that it will yet be long before +he marches his armies upon Syria. But Isaiah's warning +has at last roused the politicians of Judah from +their carelessness. We need not suppose that they +believed all that Isaiah predicted about the dire siege +which Jerusalem should shortly undergo and her sudden +deliverance at the hand of the Lord. Without the two +strong religious convictions, in the strength of which, +as we have seen, he made the prediction, it was impossible +to believe that this siege and deliverance must +certainly happen. But the politicians were at least +startled into doing something. They did not betake +themselves to God, to whom it had been the purpose +of Isaiah's last oration to shut them up. They only +flung themselves with more haste into their intrigues +with Egypt. But in truth haste and business were all +that was in their politics: these were devoid both of +intelligence and faith. Where the sole motive of conduct +is fear, whether uneasiness or panic, force may<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span> +be displayed, but neither sagacity nor any moral +quality. This was the case with Judah's Egyptian +policy, and Isaiah now spends two chapters in denouncing +it. His condemnation is twofold. The negotiations +with Egypt, he says, are bad politics and bad +religion; but the bad religion is the root and source +of the other. Yet while he vents all his scorn on the +politics, he uses pity and sweet persuasiveness when +he comes to speak of the eternal significance of the +religion. The two chapters are also instructive, beyond +most others of the Old Testament, in the light they +cast on revelation—its scope and methods.</p> + +<p>Isaiah begins with the bad politics. In order to +understand how bad they were, we must turn for a +little to this Egypt, with whom Judah was now seeking +an alliance.</p> + +<p>In our late campaign on the Upper Nile we heard a +great deal of the Mudir of Dongola. His province +covers part of the ancient kingdom of Ethiopia; and in +Meirawi, the village whose name appeared in so many +telegrams, we can still discover Meroe, the capital of +Ethiopia. Now in Isaiah's day the king of Ethiopia +was, what the Mudir of Dongola was at the time of our +war, an ambitious person of no small energy; and the +ruler of Egypt proper was, what the Khedive was, a +person of little influence or resource. Consequently +there happened what might have happened a few years +ago but for the presence of the British army in Egypt. +The Ethiopian came down the Nile, defeated Pharaoh +and burned him alive. But he died, and his son died +after him; and before their successor could also come +down the Nile, the legitimate heir to Pharaoh had regained +part of his power. Some years ensued of uncertainty +as to who was the real ruler of Egypt.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span>It was in this time of unsettlement that Judah sought +Egypt's help. The ignorance of the policy was +manifest to all who were not blinded by fear of Assyria +or party feeling. To Isaiah the Egyptian alliance is a +folly and fatality that deserve all his scorn (vv. 1-8).</p> + +<p><i>Woe to the rebellious children, saith the Lord, executing +a policy, but it is not from Me; and weaving a web, but +not of My spirit, that they may heap sin upon sin; who +set themselves on the way to go down to Egypt, and at +My mouth they have not inquired, to flee to the refuge of +Pharaoh, and to hide themselves in the shadow of Egypt. +But the refuge of Pharaoh shall be unto you for shame, +and the hiding in the shadow of Egypt for confusion!</i> +How can a broken Egypt help you? <i>When his princes +are at Zoan, and his ambassadors are come to Hanes, +they shall all be ashamed of a people that cannot profit +them, that are not for help nor for profit, but for shame, +and also for reproach.</i></p> + +<p>Then Isaiah pictures the useless caravan which Judah +has sent with tribute to Egypt, strings of asses and +camels struggling through the desert, <i>land of trouble +and anguish</i>, amid lions and serpents, and all for <i>a +people that shall not profit them</i> (ver. 6).</p> + +<p>What tempted Judah to this profitless expenditure of +time and money? Egypt had a great reputation, and +was a mighty promiser. Her brilliant antiquity had +given her a habit of generous promise, and dazzled +other nations into trusting her. Indeed, so full were +Egyptian politics of bluster and big language, that the +Hebrews had a nickname for Egypt. They called her +Rahab—<i>Stormy-speech</i>, <i>Blusterer</i>, <i>Braggart</i>. It was the +term also for the crocodile, as being a <i>monster</i>, so that +there was a picturesqueness as well as moral aptness in +the name. Ay, says Isaiah, catching at the old name<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span> +and putting to it another which describes Egyptian +helplessness and inactivity, I call her <i>Rahab Sit-still</i>, +<i>Braggart-that-sitteth-still</i>, <i>Stormy-speech Stay-at-home</i>. +<i>Blustering and inactivity, blustering and sitting still</i>, that +is her character; <i>for Egypt helpeth in vain and to no +purpose</i>.</p> + +<p>Knowing how sometimes the fate of a Government is +affected by a happy speech or epigram, we can understand +the effect of this cry upon the politicians of Jerusalem. +But that he might impress it on the popular +imagination and memory as well, Isaiah wrote his +epigram on a tablet, and put it in a book. We must +remind ourselves here of chap. xx., and remember +how it tells us that Isaiah had already some years +before this endeavoured to impress the popular imagination +with the folly of an Egyptian alliance, <i>walking +unfrocked and barefoot three years for a sign and a portent +upon Egypt and upon Ethiopia</i> (see p. 199).</p> + +<p>So that already Isaiah had appealed from politicians +to people on this Egyptian question, just as he appealed +thirty years ago from court to market-place on the +question of Ephraim and Damascus.<a name="FNanchor_46_46" id="FNanchor_46_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_46_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a> It is another +instance of that prophetic habit of his, on which we +remarked in expounding chap. viii.; and we must +again emphasize the habit, for chap. xxx. here swings +round upon it. Whatever be the matter committed to +him, Isaiah is not allowed to rest till he brings it home +to the popular conscience; and however much he may +be able to charge national disaster upon the folly of +politicians or the obduracy of a king, it is the people +whom he holds ultimately responsible. To Isaiah a +nation's politics are not arbitrary; they are not dependent<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span> +on the will of kings or the management of parties. +They are the natural outcome of the nation's character. +What the people are, that will their politics be. If you +wish to reform the politics, you must first regenerate +the people; and it is no use to inveigh against a senseless +policy, like this Egyptian one, unless you go farther +and expose the national temper which has made it +possible. A people's own morals have greater influence +on their destinies than their despots or legislators. +Statesmen are what the State makes them. No Government +will attempt a policy for which the nation behind +it has not a conscience; and for the greater number of +errors committed by their rulers, the blame must be +laid on the people's own want of character or intelligence.</p> + +<p>This is what Isaiah now drives home (xxx. 9 ff.). +He tracks the bad politics to their source in bad +religion, the Egyptian policy to its roots in the prevailing +tempers of the people. The Egyptian policy +was doubly stamped. It was disobedience to the word +of God; it was satisfaction with falsehood. The +statesmen of Judah shut their ears to God's spoken +word; they allowed themselves to be duped by the +Egyptian Pretence. But these, says Isaiah, are +precisely the characteristics of the whole Jewish people. +<i>For it is a rebellious people, lying children, children that +will not hear the revelation of the <span class="smcap">Lord</span></i>. It was these +national failings—the want of virtues which are the +very substance of a nation: truth and reverence or +obedience—that had culminated in the senseless and +suicidal alliance with Egypt. Isaiah fastens on their +falsehood first: <i>Which say to the seers, Ye shall not see, +and to the prophets, Ye shall not prophesy unto us right +things; speak to us smooth things: prophesy deceits</i>. No +wonder such a character had been fascinated by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span> +"Rahab"! It was a natural Nemesis, that a people +who desired from their teachers fair speech rather than +true vision should be betrayed by the confidence their +statesmen placed in the Blusterer, <i>that blustered and +sat still</i>. Truth is what this people first require, and +therefore the <i>revelation of the <span class="smcap">Lord</span></i> will in the first +instance be the revealing of the truth. Men who will +strip pretence off the reality of things; men who will +call things by their right names, as Isaiah had set himself +to do; honest satirists and epigrammatists—these +are the bearers of God's revelation. For it is one +of the means of Divine salvation to call things by +their right names, and here in God's revelation also +epigrams have their place. So much for truth.</p> + +<p>But reverence is truth's other self, for reverence is +simply loyalty to the supremest truth. And it is +against the truth that the Jews have chiefly sinned. +They had shut their eyes to Egypt's real character, but +that was a small sin beside this: that they turned +their backs on the greatest reality of all—God +Himself. <i>Get you out of the way</i>, they said to +the prophets, <i>turn out of the path; keep quiet in +our presence about the Holy One of Israel</i>. Isaiah's +effort rises to its culmination when he seeks to +restore the sense of this Reality to his people. His +spirit is kindled at the words <i>the Holy One of Israel</i>, +and to the end of chap. xxxi. leaps up in a series +of brilliant and sometimes scorching descriptions of +the name, the majesty and the love of God. Isaiah +is not content to have used his power of revelation +to unveil the political truth about Egypt. He will +make God Himself visible to this people. Passionately +does he proceed to enforce upon the Jews what God +thinks about their own condition (vv. 12-14), then to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span> +persuade them to rely upon Him alone, and wait for +the working of His reasonable laws (vv. 15-18). +Rising higher, he purges with pity their eyes to +see God's very presence, their ears to hear His voice, +their wounds to feel His touch (vv. 19-26). Then +he remembers the cloud of invasion on the horizon, +and bids them spell, in its uncouth masses, the articulate +name of the Lord (vv. 27-33). And he closes with +another series of figures by which God's wisdom, and +His jealousy and His tenderness are made very bright +to them (chap. xxxi.).</p> + +<p>These brilliant prophecies may not have been given +all at the same time: each is complete in itself. They +do not all mention the negotiations with Egypt, but +they are all dark with the shadow of Assyria. Chap. +xxx. vv. 19-26 almost seem to have been written in a +time of actual siege; but vv. 27-33 represent Assyria +still upon the horizon. In this, however, these passages +are fitly strung together: that they equally strain +to impress a blind and hardened people with the will, +the majesty and the love of God their Saviour.</p> + + +<p class="center">I. <span class="smcap">The Bulging Wall</span> (vv. 12-14).</p> + +<p>Starting from their unwillingness to listen to the +voice of the Lord in their Egyptian policy, Isaiah tells +the people that if they refused to hear His word for +guidance, they must now listen to it for judgement. +<i>Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel: Because +ye look down on this word, and trust in perverseness +and crookedness, and lean thereon, therefore this iniquity +shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, bulging +out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly at +an instant.</i> <i>This iniquity</i>, of course, is the embassy +to Egypt. But that, as we have seen, is only the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span> +people's own evil character coming to a head; and by +the breaking of the wall, we are therefore to suppose +that the prophet means the collapse not only of this +Egyptian policy, but of the whole estate and substance +of the Jewish people. It will not be your enemy that +will cause a breach in the nation, but your teeming +iniquity shall cause the breach—to wit, this Egyptian +folly. Judah will burst her bulwarks from the inside. +You may build the strongest form of government +round a people, you may buttress it with foreign +alliances, but these shall simply prove occasions for the +internal wickedness to break forth. Your supposed +buttresses will prove real breaches; and of all your +social structure there will not be left as much as will +make the fragments of a single home, not <i>a sherd</i> big +enough <i>to carry fire from the hearth, or to hold water +from the cistern</i>.</p> + + +<p class="center">II. <span class="smcap">Not Alliances, but Reliance</span> (vv. 15-18).</p> + +<p>At this point, either Isaiah was stung by the demands +of the politicians for an alternative to their restless +Egyptian policy which he condemned, or more likely +he rose, unaided by external influence, on the prophet's +native instinct to find some purely religious ground on +which to base his political advice. The result is one +of the grandest of all his oracles. <i>For thus saith the +Lord Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel: In returning and +rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall +be your strength; and ye would not. But ye said, No, for +upon horses will we flee; wherefore ye shall flee: and upon +the swift will we ride; wherefore swift shall be they that +pursue you! One thousand at the rebuke of one—at the +rebuke of five shall ye flee: till ye be left as a bare pole +on the top of a mountain, and as a standard on an hill.</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span> +<i>And therefore will the <span class="smcap">Lord</span> wait that He may be gracious +unto you, and therefore will He hold aloof that He may +have mercy upon you, for a God of judgement is the +<span class="smcap">Lord</span>; blessed are all they that wait for Him.</i> The +words of this passage are their own interpretation and +enforcement, all but one; and as this one is obscure in +its English guise, and the passage really swings from +it, we may devote a paragraph to its meaning.</p> + +<p><i>A God of judgement is the <span class="smcap">Lord</span></i> is an unfortunately +ambiguous translation. We must not take <i>judgement</i> +here in our familiar sense of the word. It is not a +sudden deed of doom, but a long process of law. It +means <i>manner</i>, <i>method</i>, <i>design</i>, <i>order</i>, <i>system</i>, the ideas, +in short, which we sum up under the word "law." Just +as we say of a man, <i>He is a man of judgement</i>, and mean +thereby not that by office he is a doomster, but that by +character he is a man of discernment and prudence, so +simply does Isaiah say here that <i>Jehovah is a God of +judgement</i>, and mean thereby not that He is One, whose +habit is sudden and awful deeds of penalty or salvation, +but, on the contrary, that, having laid down His lines +according to righteousness and established His laws +in wisdom, He remains in His dealings with men +consistent with these.</p> + +<p>Now it is a great truth that the All-mighty and +All-merciful is the All-methodical too; and no religion +is complete in its creed or healthy in its influence, which +does not insist equally on all these. It was just the want +of this third article of faith which perverted the souls +of the Jews in Isaiah's day, which (as we have seen +under Chapter I.) allowed them to make their worship +so mechanical and material—for how could they have +been satisfied with mere forms if they had but once +conceived of God as having even ordinary intelligence?—and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span> +which turned their political life into such a mass of +intrigue, conceit and falsehood, for how could they have +dared to suppose that they would get their own way, or +have been so sure of their own cleverness, if only they had +had a glimpse of the perception, that God, the Ruler of +the world, had also His policy regarding them? They +believed He was the Mighty, they believed He was the +Merciful, but because they forgot that He was the Wise +and the Worker by law, their faith in His might too often +turned into superstitious terror, their faith in His mercy +oscillated between the sleepy satisfaction that He was +an indulgent God and the fretful impatience that He +was an indifferent one. Therefore Isaiah persisted +from first to last in this: that God worked by law; +that He had His plan for Judah, as well as these +politicians; and, as we shall shortly find him reminding +them when intoxicated with their own cleverness, <i>that +He also is wise</i> (xxxi. 2). Here by the same thought +he bids them be at peace, and upon the rushing tides of +politics, drawing them to that or the other mad venture, +to swing by this anchor: that God has His own law +and time for everything. No man could bring the +charge of fatalism against such a policy of quietness. +For it thrilled with intelligent appreciation of the Divine +method. When Isaiah said, <i>In returning and rest shall +ye be saved; in quietness and confidence shall be your +strength</i>, he did not ask his restless countrymen to +yield sullenly to an infinite force or to bow in stupidity +beneath the inscrutable will of an arbitrary despot, but +to bring their conduct into harmony with a reasonable +and gracious plan, which might be read in the historical +events of the time, and was vindicated by the loftiest +religious convictions. Isaiah preached no submission +to fate, but reverence for an all-wise Ruler, whose<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span> +method was plain to every clear-sighted observer of +the fortunes of the nations of the world, and whose +purpose could only be love and peace to His own +people (cf. p. 110).</p> + + +<p class="center">III. <span class="smcap">God's Table in the Midst of the Enemies</span> +(vv. 19-26).</p> + +<p>This patient purpose of God Isaiah now proceeds to +describe in its details. Every line of his description +has its loveliness, and is to be separately appreciated. +There is perhaps no fairer prospect from our prophet's +many windows. It is not argument nor a programme, +but a series of rapid glimpses, struck out by language, +which often wants logical connection, but never fails to +make us see.</p> + +<p>To begin with, one thing is sure: the continuance of +the national existence. Isaiah is true to his original +vision—the survival of a remnant. <i>For a people in +Zion—there shall be abiding in Jerusalem.</i> So the brief +essential is flashed forth. <i>Thou shalt surely weep no +more; surely He will be gracious unto thee at the voice +of thy crying; with His hearing of thee He will answer +thee.</i> Thus much of general promise had been already +given. Now upon the vagueness of the Lord's delay +Isaiah paints realistic details, only, however, that he +may make more vivid the real presence of the Lord. +The siege shall surely come, with its sorely concrete +privations, but the <i>Lord</i> will be there, equally distinct. +<i>And though the Lord give you the bread of penury and +the water of tribulation</i>—perhaps the technical name for +siege rations—<i>yet shall not thy Teacher hide Himself any +more, but thine eyes shall ever be seeing thy Teacher; and +thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is +the way: walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand or</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span> +<i>when ye turn to the left.</i> Real, concrete sorrows, these +are they that make the heavenly Teacher real! It is +linguistically possible, and more in harmony with the +rest of the passage, to turn <i>teachers</i>, as the English +version has it, into the singular, and to render it by +<i>Revealer</i>. The word is an active participle, "Moreh," +from the same verb as the noun "Torah," which is constantly +translated "Law" in our version, but is, in the +Prophets at least, more nearly equivalent to "instruction," +or to our modern term "revelation" (cf. ver. 9). +Looking thus to the One Revealer, and hearkening to +the One Voice, <i>the lying and rebellious children</i> shall at +last be restored to that capacity for truth and obedience +the loss of which has been their ruin. Devoted to the +Holy One of Israel, they shall scatter their idols as loathsome +(ver. 22). But thereupon a wonder is to happen. +As the besieged people, conscious of the One Great +Presence in the midst of their encompassed city, cast +their idols through the gates and over the walls, a marvellous +vision of space and light and fulness of fresh food +bursts upon their starved and straitened souls (ver. 23). +Promise more sympathetic was never uttered to a +besieged and famished city. Mark that all down the +passage there is no mention of the noise or instruments +of battle. The prophet has not spoken of the besiegers, +who they may be, how they may come, nor of the fashion +of their war, but only of the effects of the siege on those +within: confinement, scant and bitter rations. And now +he is almost wholly silent about the breaking up of the +investing army and the trail of their slaughter. No +battle breaks this siege, but a vision of openness and +plenty dawns noiselessly over its famine and closeness. +It is not vengeance or blood that an exhausted and +penitent people thirst after. But as they have been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span> +caged in a fortress, narrow, dark and stony, so they +thirst for the sight of the sower, and the drop of the +rain on the broken, brown earth, and the juicy corn, +and the meadow for their cribbed cattle, and the noise +of brooks and waterfalls, and above and about it all +fulness of light. <i>And He shall give the rain of thy seed, +that thou shalt sow the ground withal, and bread, even the +increase of the ground, and it shall be juicy and fat; thy +cattle shall feed that day in a broad meadow. And the oxen +and the young asses that till the ground shall eat savoury +provender, winnowed with the shovel and with the fan. +And there shall be upon every lofty mountain and upon +every lifted hill rivers, streams of water, in the day of the +great slaughter, when the towers fall. And the light of the +moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the +sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the +day that the <span class="smcap">Lord</span> bindeth up the hurt of His people and +healeth the stroke of their wound.</i> It is one of Isaiah's +fairest visions, and he is very much to be blamed who +forces its beauty of nature into an allegory of spiritual +things. Here literally God spreads His people a table +in the midst of their enemies.</p> + + +<p class="center">IV. <span class="smcap">The Name of the Lord</span> (vv. 27-33).</p> + +<p>But Isaiah lays down "the oaten pipe" and lifts +again a brazen trumpet to his lips. Between him and +that sunny landscape of the future, of whose pastoral +details he has so sweetly sung, roll up now the uncouth +masses of the Assyrian invasion, not yet fully gathered, +far less broken. We are back in the present again, +and the whole horizon is clouded.</p> + +<p>The passage does not look like one from which +comfort or edification can be derived, but it is of +extreme interest. The first two verses, for instance,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span> +only require a little analysis to open a most instructive +glimpse into the prophet's inner thoughts about the +Assyrian progress, and show us how they work towards +the expression of its full meaning. <i>Behold, the Name of +Jehovah cometh from afar—burning His anger and awful +the uplifting smoke; His lips are full of wrath, and His +tongue as fire that devoureth; and His breath is as an +overflowing torrent—even unto the neck it reacheth—to +shake the nations in a sieve of destruction, and a bridle +that leadeth astray on the jaws of the peoples.</i></p> + +<p><i>The Name of Jehovah</i> is the phrase the prophets use +when they wish to tell us of the personal presence of +God. When we hear a name cried out, we understand +immediately that a person is there. So when the +prophet calls, <i>Behold, the Name of Jehovah</i>, in face of +the prodigious advance of Assyria, we understand that +he has caught some intuition of God's presence in +that uplifting of the nations of the north at the word +of the great King and their resistless sweep southward +upon Palestine. In that movement God is personally +present. The Divine presence Isaiah then describes in +curiously mingled metaphor, which proves how gradually +it was that he struggled to a knowledge of its purpose +there. First of all he describes the advance of +Assyria as a thunderstorm, heavy clouds and darting, +devouring fire. His imagination pictures a great face +of wrath. The thick curtains of cloud as they roll +over one another suggest the heavy lips, and the +lightnings the fiery tongue. Then the figure passes +from heaven to earth. The thunderstorm has burst, and +becomes the <i>mountain torrent</i>, which speedily <i>reaches the +necks</i> of those who are caught in its bed. But then +the prophet's conscience suggests something more than +sudden and sheer force in this invasion, and the <i>tossing</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span> +of the torrent naturally leads him to express this new +element in the figure of <i>a sieve</i>. His thought about the +Assyrian flood thus passes from one of simple force +and rush to one of judgement and being well kept in +hand. He sees its ultimate check at Jerusalem, and so +his last figure of it is the figure of <i>a bridle</i>, or <i>lasso</i>, +such as is thrown upon the jaws of a wild animal +when you wish to catch and tame him.</p> + +<p>This gradual progress from the sense of sheer wild +force, through that of personal wrath, to discipline +and sparing is very interesting. Vague and chaotic +that disaster rolled up the horizon upon Judah. <i>It +cometh from afar.</i> The politicians fled from it to their +refuge behind the Egyptian Pretence. But Isaiah bids +them face it. The longer they look, the more will conscience +tell them that the unavoidable wrath of God is +in it; no blustering Rahab will be able to hide them +from the anger of the Face that lowers there. But let +them look longer still, and the unrelieved features of +destruction will change to a hand that sifts and checks, +the torrent will become a sieve, and the disaster show +itself well held in by the power of their own God.</p> + +<p>So wildly and impersonally still do the storms of +sorrow and disaster roll up the horizon on men's eyes, +and we fly in vague terror from them to our Egyptian +refuges. So still does conscience tell us it is futile to +flee from the anger of God, and we crouch hopeless +beneath the rush of imaginations of unchecked wrath, +blackening the heavens and turning every path of life +to a tossing torrent. May it then be granted us to +have some prophet at our side to bid us face our +disaster once more, and see the discipline and judgement +of the Lord, the tossing only of His careful sieve, +in the wild and cruel waves! We may not be poets like<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span> +Isaiah nor able to put the processes of our faith into such +splendid metaphors as he, but faith is given us to follow +the same course as his thoughts did, and to struggle +till she arrives at the consciousness of God in the most +uncouth judgements that darken her horizon—the +consciousness of God present not only to smite, but +to sift, and in the end to spare.</p> + +<p>Of the angel who led Israel to the land of promise, +God said, <i>My Name is in him</i>. Our faith is not perfect +till we can, like Isaiah, feel the same of the blackest +angel, the heaviest disaster, God can send us, and be +able to spell it out articulately: <i>The <span class="smcap">Lord</span>, the <span class="smcap">Lord</span>, +a God merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant +in goodness and truth</i>.</p> + +<p>For delivery, says Isaiah, shall come to the people of +God in the crisis, as sudden and as startling into song +as the delivery from Egypt was. <i>Ye shall have a song +as in the night when a holy feast is kept, and gladness +of heart, as when one goeth with a pipe to come into the +mountain of the <span class="smcap">Lord</span>, to the Rock of Israel.</i></p> + +<p>After this interval of solemn gladness, the storm and +fire break out afresh, and rage again through the passage. +But their direction is reversed, and whereas they had +been shown rolling up the horizon as towards Judah, +they are now shown rolling down the horizon in pursuit +of the baffled Assyrian. The music of the verses +is crashing. <i>And the <span class="smcap">Lord</span> shall cause the peal<a name="FNanchor_47_47" id="FNanchor_47_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_47_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a> of His +voice to be heard, and the lighting down of His arm to be +seen in the fury of anger, yea flame of devouring fire—bursting +and torrent and hailstones. For from the voice +of the <span class="smcap">Lord</span> shall the Assyrian be scattered when He shall +smite with the rod. And every passage of the rod of fate +which the <span class="smcap">Lord</span> bringeth down upon him shall be with</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span> +<i>tabrets and harps, and in battles of waving shall he be +fought against.</i> The meaning is obscure, but palpable. +Probably the verse describes the ritual of the sacrifice +to Moloch, to which there is no doubt the next +verse alludes. To sympathize with the prophet's +figure, we need of course an amount of information +about the details of that ritual which we are +very far from possessing. But Isaiah's meaning is +evidently this. The destruction of the Assyrian host +will be liker a holocaust than a battle, like one of those +fatal sacrifices to Moloch which are directed by the +solemn waving of a staff, and accompanied by the +music, not of war, but of festival. <i>Battles of waving</i> is a +very obscure phrase, but the word translated <i>waving</i> is +the technical term for the waving of the victim before +the sacrifice to signify its dedication to the deity; "and +these <i>battles of waving</i> may perhaps have taken place +in the fashion in which single victims were thrown from +one spear to another till death ensued."<a name="FNanchor_48_48" id="FNanchor_48_48"></a><a href="#Footnote_48_48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a> At all events, it +is evident that Isaiah means to suggest that the Assyrian +dispersion is a religious act, a solemn holocaust rather +than one of this earth's ordinary battles, and directed by +Jehovah Himself from heaven. This becomes clear +enough in the next verse: <i>For a Topheth hath been set +in order beforehand; yea, for Moloch is it arranged; He +hath made it deep and broad; the pile thereof is fire and +much wood; the breath of the <span class="smcap">Lord</span>, like a torrent of +brimstone, shall kindle it</i>. So the Assyrian power was +in the end to go up in flame.</p> + +<p>We postpone remarks on Isaiah's sense of the fierceness +of the Divine righteousness till we reach his even +finer expression of it in chap. xxxiii.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XIV.</h2> + +<h3><i>THREE TRUTHS ABOUT GOD.</i></h3> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> xxxi. (<span class="smcap"><small>ABOUT</small></span> 702 <span class="smcap"><small>B.C.</small></span>).</p> + + +<p>Chap. xxxi., which forms an appendage to +chaps. xxix. and xxx., can scarcely be reckoned +among the more important prophecies of Isaiah. It +is a repetition of the principles which the prophet +has already proclaimed in connection with the faithless +intrigues of Judah for an alliance with Egypt, and it +was published at a time when the statesmen of Judah +were further involved in these intrigues, when events +were moving faster, and the prophet had to speak +with more hurried words. Truths now familiar to +us are expressed in less powerful language. But +the chapter has its own value; it is remarkable for +three very unusual descriptions of God, which govern +the following exposition of it. They rise in climax, +enforcing three truths:—that in the government of +life we must take into account God's wisdom; we +must be prepared to find many of His providences +grim and savage-looking; but we must also believe that +He is most tender and jealous for His people.</p> + + +<p class="center">I. <span class="smcap">Yet He also is Wise</span> (vv. 1-3).</p> + +<p>We must suppose the negotiations with Egypt to +have taken for the moment a favourable turn, and the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span> +statesmen who advocated them to be congratulating themselves +upon some consequent addition to the fighting +strength of Judah. They could point to many chariots +and a strong body of cavalry in proof of their own +wisdom and refutation of the prophet's maxim, <i>In +quietness and in confidence shall be your strength; in +returning and rest shall ye be saved</i>.</p> + +<p>Isaiah simply answers their self-congratulation with +the utterance of a new Woe, and it is in this that +the first of the three extraordinary descriptions of +God is placed. <i>Woe unto them that go down to Egypt +for help; upon horses do they stay, and trust in chariots +because they are many, and in horsemen because they +are very strong: but they look not unto the Holy One of +Israel, and Jehovah they do not seek. Yet He also is wise.</i> +You have been clever and successful, but have you +forgotten that <i>God also is wise</i>, that He too has His +policy, and acts reasonably and consistently? You +think you have been making history; but God also +works in history, and surely, to put it on the lowest +ground, with as much cleverness and persistence as +you do. <i>Yet He also is wise, and will bring evil, and +will not call back His words, but will arise against +the house of the evil-doers, and against the help of them +that work iniquity.</i></p> + +<p>This satire was the shaft best fitted to pierce the +folly of the rulers of Judah. Wisdom, a reasonable +plan for their aims and prudence in carrying it out, +was the last thing they thought of associating with +God, whom they relegated to what they called their +religion—their temples, worship and poetry. When +their emotions were stirred by solemn services, or +under great disaster, or in the hour of death, they +remembered God and it seemed natural to them<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span> +that in these great exceptions of life He should +interfere; but in their politics and their trade, in +the common course and conduct of life, they ignored +Him and put their trust in their own wisdom. They +limited God to the ceremonies and exceptional occasions +of life, when they looked for His glory or +miraculous assistance, but they never thought that in +their ordinary ways He had any interest or design.</p> + +<p>The forgetfulness, against which Isaiah directs this +shaft of satire, is the besetting sin of very religious +people, of very successful people, and of very clever +people.</p> + +<p>It is the temptation of an ordinary Christian, +church-going people, like ourselves, with a religion +so full of marvellous mercies, and so blessed with +regular opportunities of worship, to think of God +only in connection with these, and practically to +ignore that along the far greater stretches of life He +has any interest or purpose regarding us. Formally-religious +people treat God as if He were simply a +constitutional sovereign, to step in at emergencies, +and for the rest to play a nominal and ceremonial +part in the conduct of their lives. Ignoring +the Divine wisdom and ceaseless providence of God, +and couching their hearts upon easy views of His +benevolence, they have no other thought of Him, than +as a philanthropic magician, whose power is reserved +to extricate men when they have got past helping +themselves. From the earliest times that way of +regarding God has been prevalent, and religious +teachers have never failed to stigmatize it with the +hardest name for folly. <i>Fools</i>, says the Psalmist, <i>are +afflicted when they draw near unto the gates of death; +then</i>, only then, <i>do they cry unto the Lord in their trouble</i>.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span> +<i>Thou fool!</i> says Christ of the man who kept God +out of the account of his life. God is not mocked, +although we ignore half His being and confine our +religion to such facile views of His nature. With +this sarcasm, Isaiah reminds us that it is not a Fool +who is on the throne of the universe; yet is the Being +whom the imaginations of some men place there any +better? O wise men, <i>God also is wise</i>. Not by +fits and starts of a benevolence similar to that of our +own foolish and inconsistent hearts does He work. +Consistency, reason and law are the methods of His +action; and they apply closely, irretrievably, to all +of our life. Hath He promised evil? Then evil will +proceed. Let us believe that God keeps His word; +that He is thoroughly attentive to all we do; that +His will concerns the whole of our life.</p> + +<p>But the temptation to refuse to God even ordinary +wisdom is also the temptation of very successful and +very clever people, such as these Jewish politicians +fancied themselves to be, or such as the Rich Fool in +the parable. They have overcome all they have +matched themselves against, and feel as if they were +to be masters of their own future. Now the Bible +and the testimony of men invariably declare that +God has one way of meeting such fools—the way +Isaiah suggests here. God meets them with their +own weapons; He outmatches them in their own +fashion. In the eighteenth Psalm it is written, <i>With +the pure Thou wilt show Thyself pure, and with the +perverse Thou wilt show Thyself froward</i>. The Rich +Fool congratulates himself that his soul is his own; +says God, <i>This night thy soul shall be required of thee</i>. +The Jewish politicians pride themselves on their +wisdom; <i>Yet God also is wise</i>, says Isaiah significantly.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span> +After Moscow Napoleon is reported to have +exclaimed, "The Almighty is too strong for me." +But perhaps the most striking analogy to this satire +of Isaiah is to be found in the "Confessions" of that +Jew, from whose living sepulchre we are so often +startled with weird echoes of the laughter of the +ancient prophets of his race. When Heine, Germany's +greatest satirist, lay upon a bed to which his evil +living had brought him before his time, and the pride +of art, which had been, as he says, his god, was at +last crushed, he tells us what it was that crushed him. +They were singing his songs in every street of his +native land, and his fame had gone out through the +world, while he lay an exile and paralysed upon his +"mattress-grave." "Alas!" he cries, "the irony of +Heaven weighs heavily upon me. The great Author +of the universe, the celestial Aristophanes, wished to +show me, the petty, earthly, German Aristophanes, +how my most trenchant satires are only clumsy patchwork +compared with His, and how immeasurably He +excels me in humour and colossal wit." That is just +a soul writing in its own heart's blood this terrible +warning of Isaiah: <i>Yet God also is wise</i>.</p> + +<p><i>Yea, the Egyptians are men, and not God, and their +horses flesh, and not spirit; and when Jehovah shall stretch +out His hand, both he that helpeth shall stumble, and he +that is holpen shall fall, and they all shall perish together.</i></p> + + +<p class="center">II. <span class="smcap">The Lion and his Prey</span> (ver. 4).</p> + +<p>But notwithstanding what he has said about God +destroying men who trust in their own cleverness, Isaiah +goes on to assert that God is always ready to save what +is worth saving. The people, the city, His own city—God +will save that. To express God's persistent grace<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span> +towards Jerusalem, Isaiah uses two figures borrowed +from the beasts. Both of them are truly Homeric, +and fire the imagination at once; but the first is not +one we should have expected to find as a figure of the +saving grace of God. Yet Isaiah knows it is not +enough for men to remember how wise God always is. +They need also to be reminded how grim and cruel +He must sometimes appear, even in His saving providences.</p> + + +<p><i>For thus saith Jehovah unto me: Like as when the +lion growleth, and the young lion over his prey, if a mob of +shepherds be called forth against him, from their voice he +will not shrink in dismay, nor for their noise abase himself; +so shall Jehovah of hosts come down to fight for +Mount Zion and the hill thereof.</i> A lion with a lamb in +his claws, growling over it, while a crowd of shepherds +come up against him; afraid to go near enough to kill +him, they try to frighten him away by shouting at him. +But he holds his prey unshrinking.</p> + +<p>It is a figure that startles at first. To liken God with +a saving hold upon His own to a wild lion with his +claws in the prey! But horror plays the part of a good +emphasis; while if we look into the figure, we shall feel +our horror change to appreciation. There is something +majestic in that picture of the lion with the +shouting shepherds, too afraid to strike him. <i>He will +not be dismayed at their voice, nor abase himself for the +noise of them.</i> Is it, after all, an unworthy figure of the +Divine Claimant for this city, who kept unceasing +hold upon her after His own manner, mysterious and +lionlike to men, undisturbed by the screams, formulas, +and prayers of her mob of politicians and treaty-mongers? +For these are the <i>shepherds</i> Isaiah means—sham +shepherds, the shrieking crew of politicians,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span> +with their treaties and military display. God will save +and carry Jerusalem His own way, paying no heed to +such. <i>He will not be dismayed at their voice, nor abase +Himself for the noise of them.</i></p> + +<p>There is more than the unyielding persistency of +Divine grace taught here. There is that to begin with. +God will never let go what He has made His own: the +souls He has redeemed from sin, the societies He has +redeemed from barbarism, the characters He has hold +of, the lives He has laid His hand upon. Persistency +of saving grace—let us learn that confidently in the +parable. But that is only half of what it is meant to +teach. Look at the shepherds: shepherds shouting +round a lion; why does Isaiah put it that way, and not +as David did—lions growling round a brave shepherd, +with the lamb in his arms? Because it so appeared +then in the life Isaiah was picturing, because it often +looks the same in real life still. These politicians—they +seemed, they played the part of, shepherds; and Jehovah, +who persistently frustrated their plans for the salvation +of the State—He looked the lion, delivering Jerusalem +to destruction. And very often to men does this +arrangement of the parts repeat itself; and while human +friends are anxious and energetic about them, God +Himself appears in providences more lionlike than +shepherdly. He grasps with the savage paw of death +some one as dear to us as that city was to Isaiah. He +rends our body or soul or estate. And friends and +our own thoughts gather round the cruel bereavement +or disaster with remonstrance and complaint. Our +hearts cry out, doing, like shepherds, their best to +scare by prayer and cries the foe they are too weak to +kill. We all know the scene, and how shabby and +mean that mob of human remonstrances looks in face of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span> +the great Foe, majestic though inarticulate, that with +sullen persistence carries off its prey. All we can say +in such times is that if it is God who is the lion, then it +is for the best. For <i>though He slay me, yet will I trust +Him</i>; and, after all, it is safer to rely on the mercies of +God, lionlike though they be, than on the weak benevolences +and officious pities of the best of human advisers. +"Thy will be done"—let perfect reverence teach us to +feel that, even when providence seems as savage as men +that day thought God's will towards Jerusalem.</p> + +<p>In addition then to remembering, when men seem by +their cleverness and success to rule life, that God is +wiser and His plans more powerful than theirs, we +are not to forget, when men seem more anxious and +merciful than His dark providence, that for all their +argument and action His will shall not alter. But now +we are to hear that this will, so hard and mysterious, +is as merciful and tender as a mother's.</p> + + +<p class="center">III. <span class="smcap">The Mother-bird and her Nest</span> (ver. 5).</p> + +<p><i>As birds hovering, so will Jehovah of hosts cover +Jerusalem, He will cover and deliver it: He will pass +over and preserve it.</i> At last we are through dark +providence, to the very heart of the Almighty. The +meaning is familiar from its natural simplicity and +frequent use in Scripture. Two features of it our +version has not reproduced. The word <i>birds</i> means +the smaller kind of feathered creatures, and the word +<i>hovering</i> is feminine in the original: <i>As little mother-birds +hovering, so will Jehovah of hosts protect Jerusalem</i>. +We have been watching in spring the hedge where we +know is a nest. Suddenly the mother-bird, who has +been sitting on a branch close by, flutters off her perch, +passes backwards and forwards, with flapping wings<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[246]</a></span> +that droop nervously towards the nest over her young. +A hawk is in the sky, and till he disappears she will +hover—the incarnation of motherly anxiety. This is +Isaiah's figure. His native city, on which he poured so +much of his heart in lyrics and parables, was again in +danger. Sennacherib was descending upon her; and +the pity of Isaiah's own heart for her, evil though she +was, suggested to him a motherhood of pity in the +breast of God. The suggestion God Himself approved. +Centuries after, when He assumed our flesh and spoke +our language, when He put His love into parables lowly +and familiar to our affections, there were none of them +more beautiful than that which He uttered of this same +city, weeping as He spake: <i>O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, +how often would I have gathered thy children together, +as a hen gathereth her brood under her wings, and ye +would not!</i></p> + +<p>With such fountains in Scripture, we need not, as +some have done, exalt the Virgin, or virtually make a +fourth person in the Godhead, and that a woman, in +order to satisfy those natural longings of the heart +which the widespread worship of the mother of Jesus +tells us are so peremptory. For all fulness dwelleth in +God Himself. Not only may we rejoice in that pity and +wise provision for our wants, in that pardon and generosity, +which we associate with the name of father, but +also in the wakefulness, the patience, the love, lovelier +with fear, which make a mother's heart so dear and +indispensable. We cannot tell along what wakened +nerve the grace of God may reach our hearts; but +Scripture has a medicine for every pain. And if any +feel their weakness as little children feel it, let them +know that the Spirit of God broods over them, as a +mother over her babe; and if any are in pain or anxiety,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[247]</a></span> +and there is no human heart to suffer with them, let +them know that as closely as a mother may come to +suffer with her child, and as sensitive as she is to its +danger, so sensitive is God Almighty to theirs, and +that He gives them proof of their preciousness to +Him by suffering with them.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>How these three descriptions meet the three failings +of our faith! We forget that God is ceaselessly at +work in wisdom in our lives. We forget that God +must sometimes, even when He is saving us, seem +lionlike and cruel. We forget that "the heart of the +Eternal is most wonderfully kind."</p> + +<p>Having thus made vivid the presence of their Lord +to the purged eyes of His people, patient, powerful +in order, wise in counsel, persistent in grace, and, +last of all, very tender, Isaiah concludes with a cry +to the people to turn to this Lord, from whom they +have so deeply revolted. Let them cast away their +idols, and there shall be no fear of the result of the +Assyrian invasion. The Assyrian shall fall, not by the +sword of man, but the immediate stroke of God. <i>And +his rock shall pass away by reason of terror, and his +princes shall be dismayed at the ensign, saith the Lord, +whose fire is in Zion, and His furnace in Jerusalem.</i> And +so Isaiah closes this series of prophecies on the keynote +with which it opened in the first verse of chap. xxix.: +that Jerusalem is Ariel—<i>the hearth and altar, the dwelling-place +and sanctuary, of God</i>.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XV.</h2> + +<h3><i>A MAN: CHARACTER AND THE CAPACITY TO +DISCRIMINATE CHARACTER.</i></h3> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> xxxii. 1-8 (<span class="smcap"><small>ABOUT</small></span> 702 <span class="smcap"><small>B.C.</small></span>?).</p> + + +<p>The Assyrians being thus disposed of, Isaiah turns +to a prospect, on which we have scarcely heard +him speak these twenty years, since Assyria appeared +on the frontier of Judah—the religious future and +social progress of his own people. This he paints in +a small prophecy of eight verses, the first eight of +chap. xxxii.—verses 9-20 of that chapter apparently +springing from somewhat different conditions.</p> + +<p>The first eight verses of chap. xxxii. belong to a class +of prophecies which we may call Isaiah's "escapes." +Like St. Paul, Isaiah, when he has finished some +exposition of God's dealings with His people or +argument with the sinners among them, bursts upon +an unencumbered vision of the future, and with roused +conscience, and voice resonant from long debate, takes +his loftiest flights of eloquence. In Isaiah's book we +have several of these visions, and each bears a +character of its own according to the sort of sinners +from whom the prophet shook himself loose to describe +it and the kind of indignation that filled his heart at +the time. We have already seen, how in some of +Isaiah's visions the Messiah has the chief place, while<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span> +from others He is altogether absent. But here we +come upon another inconsistency. Sometimes, as in +chap. xi., Isaiah is content with nothing but a new +dispensation—the entire transformation of nature, when +there shall be no more desert or storm, but to the wild +animals docility shall come, and among men an end +to sorrow, fraud and war. But again he limits his prophetic +soul and promises less. As if, overcome by the +spectacle of the more clamant needs and horrible vices +of society, he had said, we must first get rid of these, +we must supply those, before we can begin to dream +of heaven. Such is Isaiah's feeling here. This prophecy +is not a vision of society glorified, but of society +established and reformed, with its foundation firmly +settled (ver. 1), with its fountain forces in full operation +(ver. 2), and with an absolute check laid upon its worst +habits, as, for instance, the moral grossness, lying +and pretence which the prophet has been denouncing +for several chapters (vv. 3-8). This moderation of +the prophecy brings it within the range of practical +morals; while the humanity of it, its freedom from +Jewish or Oriental peculiarities, renders it thoroughly +modern. If every unfulfilled prophecy ought to be +an accusing conscience in the breast of the Christian +Church, there will be none more clamant and practical +than this one. Its demands are essential to the social +interests of to-day.</p> + +<p>In ver. 1 we have the presupposition of the whole +prophecy: <i>Behold, in righteousness shall a king reign, +and princes—according to justice shall they rule</i>. A just +government is always the basis of Isaiah's vision of the +future. Here he defines it with greater abstractness +than he has been wont to do. It is remarkable, that +a writer, whose pen has already described the figure<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</a></span> +of the coming King so concretely and with so much +detail, should here content himself with a general +promise of a righteous government, regarding, as he +seems to do, rather the office of kinghood, than any +single eminent occupier of it. That the prophet of +Immanuel, and still more the prophet of the Prince-of-the-Four-Names +(chap. ix. 7), and of the Son of +Jesse (chap. xi. 1), should be able to paint the ideal +future, and speak of the just government that was to +prevail in it, without at the same time referring to his +previous very explicit promises of a royal Individual, +is a fact which we cannot overlook in support of the +opinion we have expressed on pp. 180 and 181 concerning +the object of Isaiah's Messianic hopes.</p> + +<p>Nor is the vagueness of the first verse corrected by +the terms of the second: <i>And a man shall be as an +hiding-place from the wind</i>, etc. We have already +spoken of this verse as an ethical advance upon +Isaiah's previous picture of the Messiah (see p. 182). +But while, of course, the Messiah was to Isaiah the +ideal of human character, and therefore shared whatsoever +features he might foresee in its perfect development, +it is evident that in this verse Isaiah is not +thinking of the Messiah alone or particularly. When +he says with such simplicity <i>a</i> man, he means any man, +he means the ideal for every man. Having in ver. 1 +laid down the foundation for social life, he tells us in +ver. 2 what the shelter and fountain force of society +are to be: not science nor material wealth, but personal +influence, the strength and freshness of the human +personality. <i>A man shall be as an hiding-place from the +wind and a covert from the tempest, as rivers of water +in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary +land.</i> After just government (ver. 1) great characters<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</a></span> +are the prophet's first demand (ver. 2), and then +(vv. 3-8) he will ask for the capacity to discriminate +character. "Character and the capacity to discriminate +character" indeed summarizes this prophecy.</p> + + +<p class="center">I. <span class="smcap">A Man</span> (ver. 2).</p> + +<p>Isaiah has described personal influence on so grand +a scale that it is not surprising that the Church has +leapt to his words as a direct prophecy of Jesus Christ. +They are indeed a description of Him, out of whose +shadow advancing time has not been able to carry the +children of men, who has been the shelter and fertility +of every generation since He was lifted up, and to +whom the affections of individual hearts never rise +higher than when they sing—</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i0">"Rock of ages, cleft for me,</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Let me hide myself in Thee."</span> +</div> + +<p>Such a rock was Christ indeed; but, in accordance +with what we have said above, the prophet here has +no individual specially in his view, but is rather laying +down a general description of the influence of individual +character, of which Christ Jesus was the highest +instance. Taken in this sense, his famous words +present us, <i>first</i>, with a philosophy of history, at the +heart of which there is, <i>secondly</i>, a great gospel, and +in the application of which there is, <i>thirdly</i>, a great +ideal and duty for ourselves.</p> + +<p>1. Isaiah gives us in this verse a <span class="smcap">Philosophy of +History</span>. Great men are not the whole of life, but +they are the condition of all the rest; if it were not +for the big men, the little ones could scarcely live. +The first requisites of religion and civilisation are +outstanding characters.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span>In the East the following phenomenon is often +observed. Where the desert touches a river-valley +or oasis, the sand is in a continual state of drift from +the wind, and it is this drift which is the real cause +of the barrenness of such portions of the desert at +least as abut upon the fertile land. For under the +rain, or by infiltration of the river, plants often spring +up through the sand, and there is sometimes promise +of considerable fertility. It never lasts. Down comes +the periodic drift, and life is stunted or choked out. +But set down a rock on the sand, and see the difference +its presence makes. After a few showers, to the leeward +side of this some blades will spring up; if you +have patience, you will see in time a garden. How has +the boulder produced this? Simply by arresting the +drift.</p> + +<p>Now that is exactly how great men benefit human +life. A great man serves his generation, serves the +whole race, by arresting the drift. Deadly forces, +blind and fatal as the desert wind, sweep down human +history. In the beginning it was the dread of Nature, +the cold blast which blows from every quarter on the +barbarian, and might have stunted men to animals. +But into some soul God breathed a great breath of +freedom, and the man defied Nature. Nature has had +her revenge by burying the rebel in oblivion. On the +distant horizon of history we can see, merely in some +old legend, the evidence of his audacity. But the drift +was arrested; behind the event men took shelter, in +the shelter grew free, and learned to think out what +the first great resister felt.</p> + +<p>When history had left this rock behind, and the drift +had again space to grow, the same thing happened; and +the hero this time was Abraham. He laid his back to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[253]</a></span> +the practice of his forefathers, and lifting his brow to +heaven, was the first to worship the One Unseen God. +Abraham believed; and in the shadow of his faith, and +sheltered by his example, his descendants learned to +believe too. To-day from within the three great +spiritual religions men look back to him as the father +of the faithful.</p> + +<p>When Isaiah, while all his countrymen were rushing +down the mad, steep ways of politics, carried off by the +only powers that were as yet known in these ways, +fear of death and greed to be on the side of the strongest—when +Isaiah stood still amid that panic rush, and +uttered the memorable words, <i>In quietness and in confidence +shall be your strength; in returning and rest shall ye +be saved</i>, he stopped one of the most dangerous drifts in +history, and created in its despite a shelter for those +spiritual graces, which have always been the beauty of +the State, and are now coming to be recognized as its +strength.</p> + +<p>When, in the early critical days of the Church, that +dark drift of Jewish custom, which had overflown the +barriers set to the old dispensation, threatened to spread +its barrenness upon the fields of the Gentile world, +already white to the harvest of Christ, and Peter and +Barnabas and all the Apostles were carried away by it, +what was it that saved Christianity? Under God, it +was this: that Paul got up and, as he tells us, withstood +Peter to the face.</p> + +<p>And, again, when the powers of the Roman Church +and the Roman Empire, checked for a little by the +efforts which began the Reformation, gathered themselves +together and rose in one awful front of emperor, +cardinals, and princes at the Diet of Worms, what was +it that stood fast against that drift of centuries, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[254]</a></span> +proved the rock, under whose shelter men dared to +read God's pure word again, and preach His Gospel? +It was the word of a lonely monk: "Here stand I. I +cannot otherwise. So help me, God."</p> + +<p>So that Isaiah is right. A single man has been as <i>an +hiding-place from the wind and a covert from the tempest</i>. +History is swept by drifts: superstition, error, poisonous +custom, dust-laden controversy. What has saved +humanity has been the upraising of some great man to +resist those drifts, to set his will, strong through faith, +against the prevailing tendency, and be the shelter of +the weaker, but not less desirous, souls of his brethren. +"The history of what man has accomplished in the +world is at bottom the history of the great men who +have worked there." Under God, personal human power +is the highest force, and God has ever used it as His +chief instrument.</p> + +<p>2. But in this philosophy of history there is a +<span class="smcap"><small>GOSPEL</small></span>. Isaiah's words are not only man's ideal; +they are God's promise, and that promise has been +fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the most +conspicuous example—none others are near Him—of +this personal influence in which Isaiah places all +the shelter and revival of society. God has set His +seal to the truth, that the greatest power in shaping +human destiny is man himself, by becoming one with +man, by using a human soul to be the Saviour of the +race. <i>A man</i>, says Isaiah, <i>shall be as an hiding-place +from the wind, as the shadow of a great rock in a +weary land</i>; and the Rock of ages was a Man. The +world indeed knew that personal character could go +higher than all else in the world, but they never knew +how high till they saw Jesus Christ, or how often till +they numbered His followers.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[255]</a></span>This figure of a rock, a rock resisting drift, gives +us some idea, not only of the commanding influence of +Christ's person, but of that special office from which all +the glory of His person and of His name arises: that +<i>He saves His people from their sins</i>.</p> + +<p>For what is sin? Sin is simply the longest, heaviest +drift in human history. It arose in the beginning, and +has carried everything before it since. "The oldest +custom of the race," it is the most powerful habit of +the individual. Men have reared against it government, +education, philosophy, system after system of religion. +But sin overwhelmed them all.</p> + +<p>Only Christ resisted, and His resistance saves the +world. Alone among human lives presented to our +view, that of Christ is sinless. What is so prevalent in +human nature that we cannot think of a human individual +without it never stained Christ's life. Sin was +about Him; it was not that He belonged to another +sphere of things which lay above it. Sin was about +Him. He rose from its midst with the same frailty as +other men, encompassed by the same temptations; +but where they rose to fall, He rose to stand, and +standing, became the world's Saviour. The great +tradition was broken; the drift was arrested. Sin never +could be the same again after the sinless manhood of +Christ. The old world's sins and cruel customs were +shut out from the world that came after. Some of +them ceased so absolutely as scarcely to be afterwards +named; and the rest were so curbed that no +civilised society suffered them to pass from its constraint, +and no public conscience tolerated them as +natural or necessary evils.</p> + +<p>What the surface of the world's life bears so deeply, +that does every individual, who puts his trust in Jesus,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[256]</a></span> +feel to the core. Of Jesus the believer can truly say +that life on <i>this</i> side of Him is very different from life +on <i>that</i>. Temptations keep far away from the heart that +keeps near to Christ. Under the shadow of our Rock, +for us the evil of the present loses all its suggestiveness, +the evil of the past its awful surge of habit and guilty +fear.</p> + +<p>3. But there is not only a philosophy of history +and a gospel in this promise of <i>a man</i>. There is a +great <span class="smcap"><small>DUTY</small></span> and <span class="smcap"><small>IDEAL</small></span> for every one. If this prophecy +distinctly reaches forward to Jesus Christ as its only +perfect fulfilment, the vagueness of its expression +permits of its application to all, and through Him its +fulfilment by all becomes a possibility. Now each of +us may be a rock, a shelter and a source of fertility to +the life around him in three modes of constant influence. +We can be like Christ, the Rock, in shutting out from our +neighbours the knowledge and infection of sin, in keeping +our conversation so unsuggestive and unprovocative +of evil, that, though sin drift upon us, it shall never drift +through us. And we may be like Christ, the Rock, in +shutting out blame from other men; in sheltering them +from the east wind of pitiless prejudice, quarrel or controversy; +in stopping the unclean and bitter drifts of +scandal and gossip. How many lives have lost their +fertility for the want of a little silence and a little +shadow! Some righteous people have a terribly north-eastern +exposure; children do not play about their +doors, nor the prodigal stop there. And again, as +there are a number of men and women who fall in +struggling for virtue simply because they never see it +successful in others, and the spectacle of one pure, +heroic character would be their salvation, here is another +way in which each servant of God may be a rock. Of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[257]</a></span> +the late Clerk Maxwell it was said, "He made faith +in goodness easy to other men." <i>A man shall be as +streams of water in a desert place.</i></p> + + +<p class="center">II. <span class="smcap">Capacity to Distinguish Character</span> (vv. 3-8).</p> + +<p>But after the coming of this ideal, it is not paradise +that is regained. Paradise is farther off. We must +have truth to begin with: truth and the capacity +to discriminate character. The sternness with which +Isaiah thus postpones his earlier vision shows us how +sore his heart was about the <i>lying</i> temper of his people. +We have heard him deploring the fascination of their +false minds by the Egyptian Pretence. Their falseness, +however, had not only shown itself in their foreign politics, +but in their treatment of one another, in their social +fashions, judgements and worships. In society there +prevailed a want of moral insight and of moral courage. +At home also the Jews had failed to call things by their +right names (cf. p. 226). Therefore next in their future +Isaiah desires the cure of moral blindness, haste and +cowardice (vv. 3, 4), with the explosion of all social +lies (ver. 5). Men shall stand out for what they are, +whether they be bad—for the bad shall not be wanting +(vv. 6, 7)—or good (ver. 8). On righteous government +(ver. 1) and influence of strong men (ver. 2) must follow +social truthfulness (vv. 3-8). Such is the line of +the prophet's demands. The details of vv. 3-8 are +exceedingly interesting.</p> + +<p><i>And not closed shall be the eyes of them that see, and +the ears of them that hear shall be pricked up.</i> The context +makes it clear that this is spoken, not of intellectual, +but of moral, insight and alertness. <i>And the heart of +the hasty shall learn how to know, and the tongue of the +stammerer be quick</i> (the verb is the same as the <i>hasty</i> of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[258]</a></span> +the previous clause) <i>to speak plain things</i>. <i>Startlingly +plain things</i>—for the word literally means <i>blinding-white</i>, +and is so used of the sun—<i>startlingly plain</i>, like that +scorching epigram upon Egypt. The morally rash and +the morally timid are equal fathers of lies.</p> + +<p>In illustration Isaiah takes the conventional abuse of +certain moral terms, exposes it and declares it shall +cease: <i>The vile person shall no more be called liberal, nor +the churl said to be bountiful</i>. <i>Liberal</i> and <i>bountiful</i> were +conventional names. The Hebrew word for <i>liberal</i> +originally meant exactly that—<i>open-hearted</i>, <i>generous</i>, +<i>magnanimous</i>. In the East it is the character which +above all they call princely. So like our words +"noble" and "nobility," it became a term of rank, +<i>lord</i> or <i>prince</i>, and was often applied to men who were +not at all great-hearted, but the very opposite—even to +the <i>vile person</i>. <i>Vile person</i> is literally the <i>faded</i> or the +<i>exhausted</i>, whether mentally or morally—the last kind of +character that could be princely. The other conventional +term used by Isaiah refers to wealth rather than rank. +The Hebrew for <i>bountiful</i> literally means <i>abundant</i>, a man +blessed with plenty, and is used in the Old Testament +both for the rich and the fortunate. Its nearest English +equivalent is perhaps <i>the successful man</i>. To this Isaiah +fitly opposes a name, wrongly rendered in our version +<i>churl</i>, but corrected in the margin to <i>crafty</i>—<i>the fraudulent</i>, +<i>the knave</i>. When moral discrimination comes, says +Isaiah, men will not apply the term <i>princely</i> to <i>worn-out</i> +characters, nor grant them the social respect implied by +the term. They will not call the <i>fraudulent</i> the <i>fortunate</i>, +nor canonise him as successful, who has gotten his wealth +by underhand means. <i>The worthless character shall no +more be called princely, nor the knave hailed as the successful.</i> +But men's characters shall stand out true in their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[259]</a></span> +actions, and by their fruits ye shall know them. In +those magic days the heart shall come to the lips, and +its effects be unmistakeable. <i>For the worthless person, +worthlessness shall he speak</i>—what else can he?—<i>and +his heart shall do iniquity, to practise profaneness +and to utter against the <span class="smcap">Lord</span> rank error, to make empty +the soul of the hungry, and he will cause the drink of the +thirsty to fail</i>. <i>The tools, too, of the knave</i> (a play upon +words here—"Keli Kelav," <i>the knave his knives</i>) <i>are evil; +he! low tricks he deviseth to destroy the poor with words +of falsehood, even when the poor speaks justice</i> (that is, +has justice as well as poverty to plead for him). <i>But +the princely things deviseth, and he upon princely +things shall stand</i>—not upon conventional titles or +rank, or the respect of insincere hearts, but upon +actual deeds of generosity and sacrifice.</p> + +<p>After great characters, then, what society needs is +capacity to discern character, and the chief obstacle +in the way of this discernment is the substitution of a +conventional morality for a true morality, and of some +distinctions of man's making for the eternal difference +which God has set between right and wrong.</p> + +<p>Human progress consists, according to Isaiah, of +getting rid of these conventions; and in this history +bears him out. The abolition of slavery, the recognition +of the essential nobility of labour, the abolition of infanticide, +the emancipation of woman—all these are due +to the release of men's minds from purely conventional +notions, and the courageous application in their place +of the fundamental laws of righteousness and love. If +progress is still to continue, it must be by the same +method. In many directions it is still a false conventionalism,—sometimes +the relic of barbarism, sometimes +the fruit of civilisation,—that blocks the way. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[260]</a></span> +savage notions which obstruct the enforcement of +masculine purity have to be exposed. Nor shall we ever +get true commercial prosperity, or the sense of security +which is indispensable to that, till men begin to cease +calling transactions all right merely because they are +the custom of the trade and the means to which its +members look for profits.</p> + +<p>But, above all, as Isaiah tells us, we need to look +to our use of language. It is one of the standing +necessities of pure science to revise the terminology, to +reserve for each object a special name, and see that all +men understand the same object by the same name. +Otherwise confusion comes in, and science is impossible. +The necessity, though not so faithfully recognized, +is as imperative in morals. If we consider the disgraceful +mistakes in popular morals which have been +produced by the transference and degradation of names, +we shall feel it to be a religious duty to preserve +for these their proper meaning. In the interests of +morality, we must not be careless in our use of moral +terms. As Socrates says in the <i>Phædo</i>: "To use +words wrongly and indefinitely is not merely an error +in itself; it also creates evil in the soul."<a name="FNanchor_49_49" id="FNanchor_49_49"></a><a href="#Footnote_49_49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a> What +noxious misconceptions, what mistaken ideals of life, are +due to the abuse of these four words alone: "noble," +"gentleman," "honour" and "Christian"! By applying +these, in flattery or deceit, to persons unworthy of them, +men have not only deprived them of the virtue which +originally the mere utterance of them was enough to instil +into the heart, but have sent forth to the world under +their attractiveness second-rate types of character and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[261]</a></span> +ideals. The word "gentleman"! How the heart sickens +as it thinks what a number of people have been satisfied +to aim at a shoddy and superficial life because it was +labelled with this gracious name. Conventionalism has +deprived the English language of some of its most +powerful sermons by devoting terms of singular moral +expressiveness to do duty as mere labels upon characters +that are dead, or on ranks and offices, for the designation +of which mere cyphers might have sufficed.</p> + +<p>We must not forget, however, Isaiah's chief means +for the abolition of this conventionalism and the substitution +of a true moral vision and terminology. These +results are to follow from the presence of the great +character, <i>A Man</i>, whom he has already lifted up. +Conventionalism is another of the drifts which that +<i>Rock</i> has to arrest. Setting ourselves to revise our dictionaries +or to restore to our words their original meanings +out of our memories is never enough. The +rising of a conspicuous character alone can dissipate +the moral haze; the sense of his influence will alone +fill emptied forms with meaning. So Christ Jesus +judged and judges the world by His simple presence; +men fall to His right hand and to His left. He calls +things by their right names, and restores to each term +of religion and morals its original ideal, which the +vulgar use of the world had worn away.<a name="FNanchor_50_50" id="FNanchor_50_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_50_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[262]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XVI.</h2> + +<h3><i>ISAIAH TO WOMEN.</i></h3> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> xxxii. 9-20 (<span class="smcap"><small>DATE UNCERTAIN</small></span>).</p> + + +<p>The date of this prophecy, which has been appended +to those spoken by Isaiah during the Egyptian +intrigues (704-702), is not certain. It is addressed to +women, and there is no reason why the prophet, when +he was upbraiding the men of Judah for their false +optimism, should not also have sought to awaken the +conscience of their wives and daughters on what is +the besetting sin rather of women than of men. The +chief evidence for dissociating the prophecy from +its immediate predecessors is that it predicts, or +apparently predicts (vv. 13-14), the ruin of Jerusalem, +whereas in these years Isaiah was careful to exempt +the Holy City from the fate which he saw falling on the +rest of the land. But otherwise the argument of the +prophecy is almost exactly that of chaps. xxix.-xxx. +By using the same words when he blames the women +for <i>ease</i> and <i>carelessness</i> in vv. 9-11, as he does +when he promises <i>confidence</i> and <i>quiet resting-places</i> in +vv. 17, 18, Isaiah makes clear that his purpose is to +contrast the false optimism of society during the postponement +of the Assyrian invasion with that confidence +and stability upon righteousness which the Spirit of +God can alone create. The prophecy, too, has the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[263]</a></span> +usual three stages: sin in the present, judgement in +the immediate future, and a state of blessedness in +the latter days. The near date at which judgement is +threatened—<i>days beyond a year</i>—ought to be compared +with chap. xxix. 1: <i>Add ye a year to a year; let the +feasts come round</i>.</p> + +<p>The new points are—that it is the women who are +threatened, that Jerusalem itself is pictured in ruin, +and that the pouring out of the Spirit is promised as +the cause of the blessed future.</p> + + +<p class="center">I. <span class="smcap">The Charge to the Women</span> (vv. 9-12)</p> + +<p>is especially interesting, not merely for its own terms, +but because it is only part of a treatment of women +which runs through the whole of Scripture.</p> + +<p>Isaiah had already delivered against the women of +Jerusalem a severe diatribe (chap. iii.), the burden +of which was their vanity and haughtiness. With +the satiric temper, which distinguishes his earlier prophecies, +he had mimicked their ogling and mincing +gait, and described pin by pin their fashions and +ornaments, promising them instead of these things +<i>rottenness</i> and <i>baldness</i>, and <i>a girdle of sackcloth and +branding for beauty</i>. But he has grown older, and +penetrating below their outward fashion and gait, he +charges them with thoughtlessness as the besetting sin +of their sex. <i>Ye women that are at ease, rise up, and +hear my voice; ye careless daughters, give ear to my speech. +For days beyond a year shall ye be troubled, O careless +women, for the vintage shall fail; the ingathering shall +not come. Tremble, ye women that are at ease; be troubled, +ye careless ones.</i> By a pair of epithets he describes +their fault; and almost thrice does he repeat the pair, +as if he would emphasize it past all doubt. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[264]</a></span> +besetting sin of women, as he dins into them, is ease; +an ignorant and unthinking contentment with things as +they are; thoughtlessness with regard to the deeper +mysteries of life; disbelief in the possibility of change.</p> + +<p>But Isaiah more than hints that these besetting sins +of women are but the defects of their virtues. The +literal meaning of the two adjectives he uses, <i>at ease</i> and +<i>careless</i>, is <i>restful</i> and <i>trustful</i>. Scripture throughout +employs these words both in a good and a bad sense. +Isaiah does so himself in this very chapter (compare +these verses with vv. 17, 18). In the next chapter he +describes the state of Jerusalem after redemption as a +state of <i>ease</i> or <i>restfulness</i>, and we know that he never +ceased urging the people to <i>trustfulness</i>. For such +truly religious conditions he uses exactly the same +names as for the shallow optimism with which he now +charges his countrywomen. And so doing, he reminds +us of an important law of character. The besetting +sins of either sex are its virtues prostituted. A man's +greatest temptations proceed from his strength; but +the glory of the feminine nature is repose, and trust +is the strength of the feminine character, in which +very things, however, lies all the possibility of woman's +degradation. Woman's faith amounts at times to real +intuition; but what risks are attached to this prophetic +power—of impatience, of contentment with the first +glance at things, "the inclination," as a great moralist +has put it, "to take too easily the knowledge of the +problems of life, and to rest content with what lies +nearest her, instead of penetrating to a deeper foundation." +Women are full of indulgence and hope; but +what possibilities lie there of deception, false optimism, +and want of that anxiety which alone makes progress +possible. Women are more inclined than men to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[265]</a></span> +believe all things; but how certain is such a temper to +sacrifice the claims of truth and honour. Women are +full of tact, the just favourites of success, with infinite +power to plead and please; but if they are aware of this, +how certain is such a self-consciousness to produce +negligence and the fatal sleep of the foolish virgins.</p> + +<p>Scripture insists repeatedly on this truth of Isaiah's +about the besetting sin of women. The prophet Amos +has engraved it in one of his sharpest epigrams, declaring +that thoughtlessness is capable of turning women +into very brutes, and their homes into desolate ruins: +<i>Hear this word, ye kine of Bashan, that are in the mountain +of Samaria, which oppress the poor, which crush the +needy, which say unto their lords, Bring and let us drink. +The Lord Jehovah hath sworn by His holiness that, lo, the +days shall come upon you that they shall take you away +with hooks, and your residue with fish-hooks, and ye shall +go out at the breaches, every one straight before her, and +ye shall cast yourselves into Harmon, saith Jehovah.</i> +It is a cowherd's picture of women: a troop of cows, +heavy, heedless animals, trampling in their anxiety for +food upon every frail and lowly object in the way. +There is a cowherd's coarseness in it, but a prophet's +insight into character. Not of Jezebels, or Messalinas, +or Lady-Macbeths is it spoken, but of the ordinary +matrons of Samaria. Thoughtlessness is able to make +brutes out of women of gentle nurture, with homes and +a religion. For thoughtlessness when joined to luxury +or beauty plays with cruel weapons. It means greed, +arrogance, indifference to suffering, wantonness, pride +of conquest, dissimulation in love, and revenge for +little slights; and there is no waste, unkind sport, insolence, +brutality, or hysterical violence to which it will +not lead. Such women are known, as Amos pictured<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[266]</a></span> +them, through many degrees of this thoughtlessness: +interrupters of conversation, an offence to the wise; +devourers of many of the little ones of God's creation +for the sake of their own ornament; tormentors of servants +and subordinates for the sake of their own ease; +out of the enjoyment of power or for admiration's +sake breakers of hearts. And are not all such +victims of thoughtlessness best compared, with Amos, +to a cow—an animal that rushes at its grass careless +of the many daisies and ferns it tramples, that +will destroy the beauty of a whole country lane for a +few mouthfuls of herbage? Thoughtlessness, says Amos—<i>and +the Lord GOD hath sworn it by His holiness</i>—is +the very negation of womanhood, the ruin of homes.</p> + +<p>But when we turn from the degradation of woman +as thus exposed by the prophets to her glory as lifted +up in the New Testament, we find that the same note +is struck. Woman in the New Testament is gracious +according as she is thoughtful; she offends even when +otherwise beautiful by her feeling overpowering her +thought. Martha spoils a most estimable character by +one moment of unthinking passion, in which she accuses +the Master of carelessness. Mary chooses the better +part in close attention to her Master's words. The +Ten Virgins are divided into five wise and five foolish. +Paul seems to have been struck, as Isaiah was, with the +natural tendency of the female character, for the first +duty he lays upon the old women is to <i>teach the young +women to think discreetly</i>, and he repeats the injunction, +putting it before chastity and industry—<i>Teach them</i>, he +says, <i>teach them discretion</i> (Titus ii. 4, 5). In Mary +herself, the mother of our Lord, we see two graces of +character, to the honour of which Scripture gives equal +place—faith and thoughtfulness. The few sentences,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[267]</a></span> +which are all that he devotes to Mary's character, the +Evangelist divides equally between these two. She +was called <i>blessed</i> because she believed the word of +the Lord. But trustfulness did not mean in her, as in +other women, neglect to think. Twice, at an interval of +twelve years, we are shown thoughtfulness and carefulness +of memory as the habitual grace of this first among +women. <i>Mary kept all these things and pondered them +in her heart. His mother kept all these sayings in her +heart.</i><a name="FNanchor_51_51" id="FNanchor_51_51"></a><a href="#Footnote_51_51" class="fnanchor">[51]</a> What was Mary's glory was other women's +salvation. By her own logic the sufferer of Capernaum, +whom many physicians failed to benefit, found her +cure; by her persistent argument the Syrophenician +woman received her daughter to health again. And +when our Lord met that flippant descendant of the <i>kine +of Bashan, that are in the mount of Samaria</i>, how did +He treat her that He might save her but by giving her +matter to think about, by speaking to her in riddles, +by exploding her superficial knowledge, and scattering +her easy optimism?</p> + +<p>So does all Scripture declare, in harmony with the +oracle of Isaiah, that thoughtlessness and easy contentment +with things as they be, are the besetting sins of +woman. But her glory is discretion.</p> + +<p>II. The next new point in this prophecy is the</p> + + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Destruction of Jerusalem</span> (vv. 13-15).</p> + +<p><i>Upon the land of my people shall come up thorns and +briers; yea, upon all the houses of joy in the joyous city: +for the palace shall be forsaken; the populous city shall be +deserted; Ophel and the Watch-tower shall be for dens +for ever, a joy of wild asses, a pasture of flocks.</i> The +attempt has been made to confine this reference to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[268]</a></span> +outskirts of the sacred city, but it is hardly a just one. +The prophet, though he does not name the city, +evidently means Jerusalem, and means the whole of it. +Some therefore deny the authenticity of the prophecy. +Certainly it is almost impossible to suppose, that so +definite a sentence of ruin can have been published at +the same time as the assurances of Jerusalem's inviolability +in the preceding orations. But that does not +prevent the hypothesis that it was uttered by Isaiah at +an earlier period, when, as in chaps. ii. and iii., he +did say extreme things about the destruction of his +city. It must be noticed, however, that Isaiah speaks +with some vagueness; that at the present moment +he is not concerned with any religious truth or will +of the Almighty, but simply desires to contrast the +careless gaiety of the women of Jerusalem with the fate +hanging over them. How could he do this more +forcibly than by turning the streets and gardens of +their delights into ruins and the haunts of the wild ass, +even though it should seem inconsistent with his +declaration that Zion was inviolable? Licence for a +certain amount of inconsistency is absolutely necessary +in the case of a prophet who had so many divers truths +to utter to so many opposite interests and tempers. +Besides, at this time he had already reduced Jerusalem +very low (xxix. 4).</p> + + +<p class="center">III. <span class="smcap">The Spirit Outpoured</span> (vv. 15-20).</p> + +<p>The rest of the prophecy is luminous rather than +lucid, full of suffused rather than distinct meanings. +The date of the future regeneration is indefinite—another +feature more in harmony with Isaiah's earlier +prophecies than his later. The cause of the blessing is +the outpouring of the Spirit of God (ver. 15). Righteousness<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[269]</a></span> +and peace are to come to earth by a distinct creative +act of God. Isaiah adds his voice to the invariable +testimony of prophets and apostles, who, whether +they speak of society or the heart of individual man, +place their hope in new life from above by the Spirit +of the living God. Victor Hugo says, "There are +no weeds in society, only bad cultivators;" and places +all hope of progress towards perfection in proper +methods of social culture. These are needed, as much +as the corn, which will not spring from the sunshine +alone, requires the hand of the sower, and the harrow. +And Isaiah, too, speaks here of human conduct and +effort as required to fill up the blessedness of the +future: righteousness and labour. But first, and indispensably, +he, with all the prophets, places the +Spirit of God.</p> + +<p>It appears that Isaiah looked for the fruits of +the Spirit both as material and moral. He bases the +quiet resting-places and regular labours of the future +not on righteousness only, but on fertility and righteousness. +<i>The wilderness shall become a fruitful field</i>, and +<i>what is</i> to-day <i>a fruitful field shall be counted as a forest</i>. +That this proverb, used by Isaiah more than once, is +not merely a metaphor for the moral revolution he +describes in the next verse, is proved by his having +already declared the unfruitfulness of their soil as part +of his people's punishment. Fertility is promised for +itself, and as the accompaniment of moral bountifulness. +<i>And there shall dwell in the wilderness justice, and +righteousness shall abide in the fruitful field. And the +work of righteousness shall be peace, and the effect, or +service, of righteousness, quietness and confidence for +ever. And my people shall abide in a peaceable habitation, +and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting-places.</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[270]</a></span>... +<i>Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters, that send +forth the feet of the ox and the ass!</i></p> + +<p>There is not a prophecy more characteristic of Isaiah. +It unfolds what for him were the two essential and +equal contents of the will of God: a secure land and a +righteous people, the fertility of nature and the purity +of society. But in those years (705-702) he did +not forget that something must come between him and +that paradise. Across the very middle of his vision +of felicity there dashes a cruel storm. In the gap +indicated above Isaiah wrote, <i>But it shall hail in +the downfall of the forest, and the city shall be utterly +laid low.</i> A hailstorm between the promise and fulfilment +of summer! Isaiah could only mean the Assyrian +invasion, which was now lowering so dark. Before it +bursts we must follow him to the survey which he +made, during these years before the siege of Jerusalem, +of the foreign nations on whom, equally with Jerusalem, +that storm was to sweep.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[271]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XVII.</h2> + +<h3><i>ISAIAH TO THE FOREIGN NATIONS.</i></h3> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> xiv. 24-32, xv.-xxi., and xxiii. (736-702 <span class="smcap"><small>B.C.</small></span>).</p> + + +<p>The centre of the Book of Isaiah (chaps. xiii. to +xxiii.) is occupied by a number of long and short +prophecies which are a fertile source of perplexity to +the conscientious reader of the Bible. With the exhilaration +of one who traverses plain roads and beholds +vast prospects, he has passed through the opening +chapters of the book as far as the end of the twelfth; +and he may look forward to enjoying a similar experience +when he reaches those other clear stretches of vision +from the twenty-fourth to the twenty-seventh and from +the thirtieth to the thirty-second. But here he loses himself +among a series of prophecies obscure in themselves +and without obvious relation to one another. The subjects +of them are the nations, tribes and cities with +which in Isaiah's day, by war or treaty or common fear +in face of the Assyrian conquest, Judah was being +brought into contact. There are none of the familiar +names of the land and tribes of Israel which meet the +reader in other obscure prophecies and lighten their +darkness with the face of a friend. The names and +allusions are foreign, some of them the names of tribes +long since extinct, and of places which it is no more +possible to identify. It is a very jungle of prophecy, in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[272]</a></span> +which, without much Gospel or geographical light, we +have to grope our way, thankful for an occasional gleam +of the picturesque—a sandstorm in the desert, the +forsaken ruins of Babylon haunted by wild beasts, a +view of Egypt's canals or Phœnicia's harbours, a +glimpse of an Arab raid or of a grave Ethiopian +embassy.</p> + +<p>But in order to understand the Book of Isaiah, in order +to understand Isaiah himself in some of the largest of his +activities and hopes, we must traverse this thicket. It +would be tedious and unprofitable to search every corner +of it. We propose, therefore, to give a list of the +various oracles, with their dates and titles, for the +guidance of Bible-readers, then to take three representative +texts and gather the meaning of all the oracles +round them.</p> + +<p>First, however, two of the prophecies must be put +aside. The twenty-second chapter does not refer to a +foreign State, but to Jerusalem itself; and the large +prophecy which opens the series (chaps. xiii.-xiv. 23) +deals with the overthrow of Babylon in circumstances +that did not arise till long after Isaiah's time, and so +falls to be considered by us along with similar prophecies +at the close of this volume. (See Book V.)</p> + +<p>All the rest of these chapters—xiv.-xxi. and xxiii.—refer +to Isaiah's own day. They were delivered by the +prophet at various times throughout his career; but the +most of them evidently date from immediately after the +year 705, when, on the death of Sargon, there was a +general rebellion of the Assyrian vassals.</p> + +<p>1. xiv. 24-27. <span class="smcap">Oath Of Jehovah</span> that the Assyrian +shall be broken. Probable date, towards 701.</p> + +<p>2. xiv. 28-32. <span class="smcap">Oracle For Philistia.</span> Warning +to Philistia not to rejoice because one Assyrian king is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[273]</a></span> +dead, for a worse one shall arise: <i>Out of the serpent's +root shall come forth a basilisk</i>. Philistia shall be melted +away, but Zion shall stand. The inscription to this +oracle (ver. 28) is not genuine. The oracle plainly +speaks of the death and accession of Assyrian, not +Judæan, kings. It may be ascribed to 705, the date of +the death of Sargon and accession of Sennacherib. But +some hold that it refers to the previous change on the +Assyrian throne—the death of Salmanassar and the +accession of Sargon.</p> + +<p>3. xv.-xvi. 12. <span class="smcap">Oracle for Moab.</span> A long +prophecy against Moab. This oracle, whether originally +by himself at an earlier period of his life, or more +probably by an older prophet, Isaiah adopts and ratifies, +and intimates its immediate fulfilment, in xvi. 13, 14. +<i>This is the word which Jehovah spake concerning Moab +long ago. But now Jehovah hath spoken, saying, Within +three years, as the years of an hireling, and the glory of +Moab shall be brought into contempt with all the great +multitude, and the remnant shall be very small and of no +account.</i> The dates both of the original publication +of this prophecy and of its reissue with the appendix +are quite uncertain. The latter may fall about 711, +when Moab was threatened by Sargon for complicity in +the Ashdod conspiracy (p. 198), or in 704, when, with +other States, Moab came under the cloud of Sennacherib's +invasion. The main prophecy is remarkable +for its vivid picture of the disaster that has overtaken +Moab and for the sympathy with her which the Jewish +prophet expresses; for the mention of a <i>remnant</i> of +Moab; for the exhortation to her to send tribute in her +adversity <i>to the mount of the daughter of Zion</i> (xvi. 1); +for an appeal to Zion to shelter the outcasts of Moab +and to take up her cause: <i>Bring counsel, make a decision,</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[274]</a></span> +<i>make thy shadow as the night in the midst of the noonday; +hide the outcasts, bewray not the wanderer</i>; for a +statement of the Messiah similar to those in chaps. ix. +and xi.; and for the offer to the oppressed Moabites of +the security of Judah in Messianic times (vv. 4, 5). +But there is one great obstacle to this prospect of Moab +lying down in the shadow of Judah—Moab's arrogance. +<i>We have heard of the pride of Moab, that he is very proud</i> +(ver. 6, cf. Jer. xlviii. 29, 42; Zeph. ii. 10), which pride +shall not only keep this country in ruin, but prevent +the Moabites prevailing in prayer at their own sanctuary +(ver. 12)—a very remarkable admission about the +worship of another god than Jehovah.</p> + +<p>4. xvii. 1-11. <span class="smcap">Oracle for Damascus.</span> One of the +earliest and most crisp of Isaiah's prophecies. Of the +time of Syria's and Ephraim's league against Judah, +somewhere between 736 and 732.</p> + +<p>5. xvii. 12-14. <span class="smcap">Untitled.</span> The crash of the peoples +upon Jerusalem and their dispersion. This magnificent +piece of sound, which we analyse below, is +usually understood of Sennacherib's rush upon Jerusalem. +Verse 14 is an accurate summary of the +sudden break-up and "retreat from Moscow" of his +army. The Assyrian hosts are described as <i>nations</i>, as +they are elsewhere more than once by Isaiah (xxii. 6, +xxix. 7). But in all this there is no final reason for +referring the oracle to Sennacherib's invasion, and it +may just as well be interpreted of Isaiah's confidence +of the defeat of Syria and Ephraim (734-723). Its +proximity to the oracle against Damascus would then +be very natural, and it would stand as a parallel +prophecy to viii. 9: <i>Make an uproar, O ye peoples, and +ye shall be broken in pieces; and give ear, all ye of the +distances of the earth: gird yourselves, and ye shall be</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[275]</a></span> +<i>broken in pieces; gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken +in pieces</i>—a prophecy which we know belongs to the +period of the Syro-Ephraimitic league.</p> + +<p>6. xviii. <i>Untitled.</i> An address to Ethiopia, <i>land +of a rustling of wings, land of many sails, whose messengers +dart to and fro upon the rivers in their skiffs of +reed</i>. The prophet tells Ethiopia, cast into excitement +by the news of the Assyrian advance, how Jehovah is +resting quietly till the Assyrian be ripe for destruction. +When the Ethiopians shall see His sudden miracle, +they shall send their tribute to Jehovah, <i>to the place of +the name of Jehovah of hosts, Mount Zion</i>. It is difficult +to know to which southward march of Assyria to +ascribe this prophecy—Sargon's or Sennacherib's? +For at the time of both of these an Ethiopian ruled +Egypt.</p> + +<p>7. xix. <i>Oracle for Egypt.</i> The first fifteen verses +describe judgement as ready to fall on the land of the +Pharaohs. The last ten speak of the religious results +to Egypt of that judgement, and they form the +most universal and "missionary" of all Isaiah's prophecies. +Although doubts have been expressed of the +Isaian authorship of the second half of this chapter on +the score of its universalism, as well as of its literary +style, which is judged to be "a pale reflection" of +Isaiah's own, there is no final reason for declining the +credit of it to Isaiah, while there are insuperable +difficulties against relegating it to the late date which is +sometimes demanded for it. On the date and authenticity +of this prophecy, which are of great importance +for the question of Isaiah's "missionary" opinions, see +Cheyne's introduction to the chapter and Robertson +Smith's notes in <i>The Prophets of Israel</i> (p. 433). The +latter puts it in 703, during Sennacherib's advance<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[276]</a></span> +upon the south. The former suggests that the second +half may have been written by the prophet much later +than the first, and justly says, "We can hardly imagine +a more 'swan-like end' for the dying prophet."</p> + +<p>8. xx. <span class="smcap">Untitled.</span> Also upon Egypt, but in narrative +and of an earlier date than at least the latter half +of xix. Tells how Isaiah walked naked and barefoot in +the streets of Jerusalem for a sign against Egypt and +against the help Judah hoped to get from her in the years +711-709, when the Tartan, or Assyrian commander-in-chief, +came south to subdue Ashdod. See pp. 198-200.</p> + +<p>9. xxi. 1-10. <span class="smcap">Oracle for the Wilderness of the +Sea</span>, announcing but lamenting the fall of Babylon. +Probably 709. See pp. 202, 203.</p> + +<p>10. xxi. 11, 12. <span class="smcap">Oracle for Dumah.</span> Dumah, or +<i>Silence</i>—in Ps. xciv. 17, cxv. 17, <i>the land of the silence of +death</i>, the grave—is probably used as an anagram for +Edom and an enigmatic sign to the wise Edomites, +in their own fashion, of the kind of silence their +land is lying under—the silence of rapid decay. The +prophet hears this silence at last broken by a cry. +Edom cannot bear the darkness any more. <i>Unto me +one is calling from Seir, Watchman, how much off the +night? how much off the night?<a name="FNanchor_52_52" id="FNanchor_52_52"></a><a href="#Footnote_52_52" class="fnanchor">[52]</a> Said the watchman, +Cometh the morning, and also the night: if ye will +inquire, inquire, come back again.</i> What other answer +is possible for a land on which the silence of decay +seems to have settled down? He may, however,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[277]</a></span> +give them an answer later on, if they will come back. +Date uncertain, perhaps between 704 and 701.</p> + +<p>11. xxi. 13-17. <span class="smcap">Oracle For Arabia.</span> From +Edom the prophet passes to their neighbours the +Dedanites, travelling merchants. And as he saw night +upon Edom, so, by a play upon words, he speaks of +evening upon Arabia: <i>in the forest, in Arabia</i>, or with +the same consonants, <i>in the evening</i>. In the time of +the insecurity of the Assyrian invasion the travelling +merchants have to go aside from their great trading +roads <i>in the evening to lodge in the thickets</i>. There +they entertain fugitives, or (for the sense is not quite +clear) are themselves as fugitives entertained. It is a +picture of the <i>grievousness of war</i>, which was now upon +the world, flowing down even those distant, desert +roads. But things have not yet reached the worst. The +fugitives are but the heralds of armies, that <i>within a +year</i> shall waste the <i>children of Kedar</i>, for Jehovah, the +God of Israel, hath spoken it. So did the prophet +of little Jerusalem take possession of even the far +deserts in the name of his nation's God.</p> + +<p>12. xxiii. <span class="smcap">Oracle For Tyre</span>. Elegy over its fall, +probably as Sennacherib came south upon it in 703 or +702. To be further considered by us (pp. 288 ff.).</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>These then are Isaiah's oracles for the Nations, who +tremble, intrigue and go down before the might of +Assyria.</p> + +<p>We have promised to gather the circumstances and +meaning of these prophecies round three representative +texts. These are—</p> + +<p>1. <i>Ah! the booming of the peoples, the multitudes, like +the booming of the seas they boom; and the rushing of the</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[278]</a></span> +<i>nations, like the rushing of mighty waters they rush; +nations, like the rushing of many waters they rush. +But He rebuketh it, and it fleeth afar off, and is chased +like the chaff on the mountains before the wind and like +whirling dust before the whirlwind</i> (xvii. 12, 13).</p> + +<p>2. <i>What then shall one answer the messengers of a +nation? That Jehovah hath founded Zion, and in her +shall find refuge the afflicted of His people</i> (xiv. 32).</p> + +<p>3. <i>In that day shall Israel be a third to Egypt and to +Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, for that +Jehovah of hosts hath blessed them, saying, Blessed be My +people Egypt, and the work of My hands Assyria, and +Mine inheritance Israel</i> (xix. 24, 25).</p> + +<p>1. The first of these texts shows all the prophet's +prospect filled with storm, the second of them the +solitary rock and lighthouse in the midst of the storm: +Zion, his own watchtower and his people's refuge; +while the third of them, looking far into the future, tells +us, as it were, of the firm continent which shall rise out +of the waters—Israel no longer a solitary lighthouse, <i>but +in that day shall Israel be a third to Egypt and to Assyria, +a blessing in the midst of the earth</i>. These three texts +give us a summary of the meaning of all Isaiah's obscure +prophecies to the foreign nations—a stormy ocean, a +solitary rock in the midst of it, and the new continent +that shall rise out of the waters about the rock.</p> + +<p>The restlessness of Western Asia beneath the +Assyrian rule (from 719, when Sargon's victory at +Rafia extended that rule to the borders of Egypt) +found vent, as we saw (p. 198), in two great Explosions, +for both of which the mine was laid by Egyptian +intrigue. The first Explosion happened in 711, and +was confined to Ashdod. The second took place +on Sargon's death in 705, and was universal. Till<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[279]</a></span> +Sennacherib marched south on Palestine in 701, there +were all over Western Asia hurryings to and fro, +consultations and intrigues, embassies and engineerings +from Babylon to Meroe in far Ethiopia, and from the +tents of Kedar to the cities of the Philistines. For +these Jerusalem the one inviolate capital from the +Euphrates to the river of Egypt, was the natural centre. +And the one far-seeing, steady-hearted man in Jerusalem +was Isaiah. We have already seen that there was +enough within the city to occupy Isaiah's attention, +especially from 705 onward; but for Isaiah the walls +of Jerusalem, dear as they were and thronged with duty, +neither limited his sympathies nor marked the scope +of the gospel he had to preach. Jerusalem is simply +his watchtower. His field—and this is the peculiar +glory of the prophet's later life—his field is the world.</p> + +<p>How well fitted Jerusalem then was to be the world's +watchtower, the traveller may see to this day. The +city lies upon the great central ridge of Palestine, +at an elevation of two thousand five hundred feet +above the level of the sea. If you ascend the hill +behind the city, you stand upon one of the great +view-points of the earth. It is a forepost of Asia. To +the east rise the red hills of Moab and the uplands +of Gilead and Bashan, on to which wandering tribes of +the Arabian deserts beyond still push their foremost +camps. Just beyond the horizon lie the immemorial +paths from Northern Syria into Arabia. Within a few +hours' walk along the same central ridge, and still +within the territory of Judah, you may see to the +north, over a wilderness of blue hills, Hermon's +snowy crest; you know that Damascus is lying just +beyond, and that through it and round the base of +Hermon swings one of the longest of the old world's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[280]</a></span> +highways—the main caravan road from the Euphrates +to the Nile. Stand at gaze for a little, while down that +road there sweep into your mind thoughts of the great +empire, whose troops and commerce it used to carry. +Then, bearing these thoughts with you, follow the line of +the road across the hills to the western coastland, and +so out upon the great Egyptian desert, where you may +wait till it has brought you imagination of the southern +empire to which it travels. Then, lifting your eyes a +little further, let them sweep back again from south to +north, and you have the whole of the west, the new world, +open to you, across the fringe of yellow haze that +marks the sands of the Mediterranean. It is even now +one of the most comprehensive prospects in the world. +But in Isaiah's day, when the world was smaller, the +high places of Judah either revealed or suggested the +whole of it.</p> + +<p>But Isaiah was more than a spectator of this vast +theatre. He was an actor upon it. The court of Judah, +of which during Hezekiah's reign he was the most +prominent member, stood in more or less close connection +with the courts of all the kingdoms of Western Asia; and +in those days when the nations were busy with intrigue +against their common enemy this little highland town +and fortress became a gathering place of peoples. From +Babylon, from far-off Ethiopia, from Edom, from +Philistia, and no doubt from many other places also, +embassies came to King Hezekiah, or to inquire of his +prophet. The appearance of some of them lives for +us still in Isaiah's descriptions: <i>tall and shiny</i> figures +of Ethiopians (xviii. 2), with whom we are able to +identify the lithe, silky-skinned, shining-black bodies +of the present tribes of the Upper Nile. Now the +prophet must have talked much with these strangers,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[281]</a></span> +for he displays a knowledge of their several countries +and ways of life that is full and accurate. The agricultural +conditions of Egypt; her social ranks and her +industries (xix.); the harbours and markets of Tyre +(xxiii.); the caravans of the Arab nomads as in +times of war they shun the open desert and seek +the thickets (xxi. 14)—Isaiah paints these for us with +a vivid realism. We see how this statesman of the +least of States, this prophet of a religion which was +confessed over only a few square miles, was aware of +the wide world, and how he loved the life that filled it. +They are no mere geographical terms with which Isaiah +thickly studs these prophecies. He looks out upon, +and paints for us, lands and cities surging with men—their +trades, their castes, their religions, their besetting +tempers and sins, their social structures and national +policies, all quick and bending to the breeze and the +shadow of the coming storm from the north.</p> + +<p>We have said that in nothing is the regal power of +our prophet's style so manifest as in the vast horizons, +which, by the use of a few words, he calls up before us. +Some of the finest of these revelations are made in this +part of his book, so obscure and unknown to most. +Who can ever forget those descriptions of Ethiopia in +the eighteenth chapter?—"<i>Ah! the land of the rustling of +wings, which borders on the rivers of Cush, which sendeth +heralds on the sea, and in vessels of reed on the face of +the waters! Travel, fleet messengers, to a people lithe and +shining, to a nation feared from ever it began to be, a +people strong, strong and trampling, whose land the rivers +divide</i>; or of Tyre in chapter xxiii.?—"<i>And on great +waters the seed of Shihor, the harvest of the Nile, was her +revenue; and she was the mart of nations.</i> What expanses +of sea! what fleets of ships! what floating loads<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[282]</a></span> +of grain! what concourse of merchants moving on stately +wharves beneath high warehouses!</p> + +<p>Yet these are only segments of horizons, and perhaps +the prophet reaches the height of his power of +expression in the first of the three texts, which we +have given as representative of his prophecies on +foreign nations (p. 278). Here three or four lines of +marvellous sound repeat the effect of the rage of the +restless world as it rises, storms and breaks upon the +steadfast will of God. The phonetics of the passage +are wonderful. The general impression is that of a +stormy ocean booming in to the shore and then crashing +itself out into one long hiss of spray and foam upon +its barriers. The details are noteworthy. In ver. 12 +we have thirteen heavy M-sounds, besides two heavy +B's, to five N's, five H's, and four sibilants. But in +ver. 13 the sibilants predominate; and before the +sharp rebuke of the Lord the great, booming sound of +ver. 12 scatters out into a long <i>yish-shā 'oon</i>. The +occasional use of a prolonged vowel amid so many +hurrying consonants produces exactly the effect now +of the lift of a storm swell out at sea and now of the +pause of a great wave before it crashes on the shore. +"<i>Ah, the booming of the peoples, the multitudes, like the +booming of the seas they boom; and the rushing of the +nations, like the rushing of the mighty waters they rush: +nations, like the rushing of many waters they rush. But He +checketh it</i>—a short, sharp word with a choke and a +snort in it—<i>and it fleeth far away, and is chased like chaff +on mountains before wind, and like swirling dust before a +whirlwind</i>."</p> + +<p>So did the rage of the world sound to Isaiah as +it crashed into pieces upon the steadfast providence +of God. To those who can feel the force of such<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[283]</a></span> +language nothing need be added upon the prophet's +view of the politics of the outside world these twenty +years, whether portions of it threatened Judah in their +own strength, or the whole power of storm that was +in it rose with the Assyrian, as in all his flood he rushed +upon Zion in the year 701.</p> + +<p>2. But amid this storm Zion stands immovable. It +is upon Zion that the storm crashes itself into impotence. +This becomes explicit in the second of our representative +texts: <i>What then shall one answer the messengers +of a nation? That Jehovah hath founded Zion, and in +her shall find a refuge the afflicted of His people</i> (xiv. 32). +This oracle was drawn from Isaiah by an embassy of +the Philistines. Stricken with panic at the Assyrian advance, +they had sent messengers to Jerusalem, as other +tribes did, with questions and proposals of defences, +escapes and alliances. They got their answer. Alliances +are useless. Everything human is going down. Here, +here alone, is safety, because the <span class="smcap">Lord</span> hath decreed it.</p> + +<p>With what light and peace do Isaiah's words break +out across that unquiet, hungry sea! How they tell +the world for the first time, and have been telling it +ever since, that, apart from all the struggle and strife of +history, there is a refuge and security of men, which +God Himself has assured. The troubled surface of +life, nations heaving uneasily, kings of Assyria and +their armies carrying the world before them—these +are not all. The world and her powers are not all. +Religion, in the very teeth of life, builds her refuge for +the afflicted.</p> + +<p>The world seems wholly divided between force and +fear. Isaiah says, It is not true. Faith has her +abiding citadel in the midst, a house of God, which +neither force can harm nor fear enter.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[284]</a></span></p> + +<p>This then was Isaiah's Interim-Answer to the Nations—Zion +at least is secure for the people of Jehovah.</p> + +<p>3. Isaiah could not remain content, however, with so +narrow an interim-answer: Zion at least is secure, +whatever happens to the rest of you. The world was +there, and had to be dealt with and accounted for—had +even to be saved. As we have already seen, this was +the problem of Isaiah's generation; and to have shirked +it would have meant the failure of his faith to rank as +universal.</p> + +<p>Isaiah did not shirk it. He said boldly to his people, +and to the nations: "The faith we have covers this +vaster life. Jehovah is not only God of Israel. He +rules the world." These prophecies to the foreign +nations are full of revelations of the sovereignty and +providence of God. The Assyrian may seem to be +growing in glory; but Jehovah is watching from the +heavens, till he be ripe for cutting down (xviii. 4). +Egypt's statesmen may be perverse and wilful; but +Jehovah of hosts swingeth His hand against the land: +<i>they shall tremble and shudder</i> (xix. 16). Egypt shall +obey His purposes (17). Confusion may reign for a +time, but a signal and a centre shall be lifted up, and +the world gather itself in order round the revealed will +of God. The audacity of such a claim for his God +becomes more striking when we remember that Isaiah's +faith was not the faith of a majestic or a conquering +people. When he made his claim, Judah was still tributary +to Assyria, a petty highland principality, that could +not hope to stand by material means against the forces +which had thrown down her more powerful neighbours. +It was no experience of success, no mere instinct of +being on the side of fate, which led Isaiah so resolutely +to pronounce that not only should his people be secure,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[285]</a></span> +but that his God would vindicate His purposes upon +empires like Egypt and Assyria. It was simply his +sense that Jehovah was exalted in righteousness. +Therefore, while inside Judah only the remnant that +took the side of righteousness would be saved, outside +Judah wherever there was unrighteousness, it would +be rebuked, and wherever righteousness, it would be +vindicated. This is the supremacy which Isaiah proclaimed +for Jehovah over the whole world.</p> + +<p>How spiritual this faith of Isaiah was, is seen from +the next step the prophet took. Looking out on the +troubled world, he did not merely assert that his God +ruled it, but he emphatically said, what was a far more +difficult thing to say, that it would all be consciously +and willingly God's. God rules this, not to restrain it +only, but to make it His own. The knowledge of Him, +which is to-day our privilege, shall be to-morrow the +blessing of the whole world.</p> + +<p>When we point to the Jewish desire, so often expressed +in the Old Testament, of making the whole +world subject to Jehovah, we are told that it is +simply a proof of religious ambition and jealousy. +We are told that this wish to convert the world no +more stamps the Jewish religion as being a universal, +and therefore presumably a Divine, religion than +the Mohammedans' zeal to force their tenets on men +at the point of the sword is a proof of the truth of +Islam.</p> + +<p>Now we need not be concerned to defend the Jewish +religion in its every particular, even as propounded by +an Isaiah. It is an article of the Christian creed that +Judaism was a minor and imperfect dispensation, where +truth was only half revealed and virtue half developed. +But at least let us do the Jewish religion justice; and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[286]</a></span> +we shall never do it justice till we pay attention to what +its greatest prophets thought of the outside world, how +they sympathized with this, and <i>in what way</i> they +proposed to make it subject to their own faith.</p> + +<p><i>Firstly</i> then, there is something in the very manner +of Isaiah's treatment of foreign nations, which causes +the old charges of religious exclusiveness to sink in our +throats. Isaiah treats these foreigners at least as men. +Take his prophecies on Egypt or on Tyre or on Babylon—nations +which were the hereditary enemies of his +nation—and you find him speaking of their natural misfortunes, +their social decays, their national follies and +disasters, with the same pity and with the same purely +moral considerations, with which he has treated his +own land. When news of those far-away sorrows +comes to Jerusalem, it moves this large-hearted prophet +to mourning and tears. He breathes out to distant +lands elegies as beautiful as he has poured upon Jerusalem. +He shows as intelligent an interest in their +social evolutions as he does in those of the Jewish State. +He gives a picture of the industry and politics of Egypt +as careful as his pictures of the fashions and statecraft +of Judah. In short, as you read his prophecies upon +foreign nations, you perceive that before the eyes of this +man humanity, broken and scattered in his days as it +was, rose up one great whole, every part of which was +subject to the same laws of righteousness, and deserved +from the prophet of God the same love and pity. To +some few tribes he says decisively that they shall +certainly be wiped out, but even them he does not +address in contempt or in hatred. The large empire +of Egypt, the great commercial power of Tyre, he +speaks of in language of respect and admiration; but +that does not prevent him from putting the plain issue<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[287]</a></span> +to them which he put to his own countrymen: If you +are unrighteous, intemperate, impure—lying diplomats +and dishonest rulers, you shall certainly perish before +Assyria. If you are righteous, temperate, pure, if you +do trust in truth and God, nothing can move you.</p> + +<p>But, <i>secondly</i>, he, who thus treated all nations with the +same strict measures of justice and the same fulness of +pity with which he treated his own, was surely not far +from extending to the world the religious privileges, +which he has so frequently identified with Jerusalem. +In his old age, at least Isaiah looked forward to the +time when the particular religious opportunities of the +Jew should be the inheritance of humanity. For their +old oppressor Egypt, for their new enemy Assyria, he +anticipates the same experience and education, which +has made Israel the firstborn of God. Speaking to +Egypt, Isaiah concludes a missionary sermon, fit to take +its place beside that which Paul uttered on the Areopagus +to the younger Greek civilisation, with the words, <i>In +that day shall Israel be a third to Egypt and to Assyria, +a blessing in the midst of the earth, for that Jehovah of +hosts hath blessed them, saying, Blessed be Egypt My +people, and Assyria the work of My hands and Israel +Mine inheritance</i>.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[288]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XVIII.</h2> + +<h3><i>TYRE; OR, THE MERCENARY SPIRIT.</i></h3> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> xxiii. (702 <span class="smcap"><small>B.C.</small></span>).</p> + + +<p>The task, which was laid upon the religion of Israel +while Isaiah was its prophet, was the task, as +we have often told ourselves, of facing the world's forces, +and of explaining how they were to be led captive and +contributory to the religion of the true God. And we +have already seen Isaiah accounting for the largest of +these forces: the Assyrian. But besides Assyria, that +military empire, there was another power in the world, +also novel to Israel's experience and also in Isaiah's +day grown large enough to demand from Israel's faith +explanation and criticism. This was Commerce, represented +by the Phœnicians, with their chief seats at +Tyre and Sidon, and their colonies across the seas. +Not even Egypt exercised such influence on Isaiah's +generation as Phœnicia did; and Phœnician influence, +though less visible and painful than Assyrian, was just +as much more subtle and penetrating as in these +respects the influence of trade exceeds that of war. +Assyria herself was fascinated by the glories of +Phœnician commerce. The ambition of her kings, +who had in that century pushed south to the Mediterranean, +was to found a commercial empire. The +mercenary spirit, as we learn from prophets earlier +than Isaiah, had begun also to leaven the life of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[289]</a></span> +agricultural and shepherd tribes of Western Asia. +For good or for evil commerce had established itself as +a moral force in the world. Isaiah's chapter on Tyre +is, therefore, of the greatest interest. It contains the +prophet's vision of commerce the first time commerce +had grown vast enough to impress his people's imagination, +as well as a criticism of the temper of commerce +from the standpoint of the religion of the God of righteousness. +Whether as a historical study or a message +addressed to the mercantile tempers of our own day, +the chapter is worthy of close attention.</p> + +<p>But we must first impress ourselves with the utter +contrast between Phœnicia and Judah in the matter of +commercial experience, or we shall not feel the full +force of this excursion which the prophet of a high, +inland tribe of shepherds makes among the wharves +and warehouses of the great merchant city on the +sea.</p> + +<p>The Phœnician empire, it has often been remarked, +presents a very close analogy to that of Great Britain; +but even more entirely than in the case of Great +Britain the glory of that empire was the wealth of its +trade, and the character of the people was the result +of their mercantile habits. A little strip of land, one +hundred and forty miles long, and never more than +fifteen broad, with the sea upon one side and the +mountains upon the other, compelled its inhabitants to +become miners and seamen. The hills shut off the +narrow coast from the continent to which it belongs, +and drove the increasing populations to seek their +destiny by way of the sea. These took to it kindly, +for they had the Semite's born instinct for trading. +Planting their colonies all round the Mediterranean, +exploiting every mine within reach of the coastland,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[290]</a></span> +establishing great trading depôts both on the Nile and +the Euphrates, with fleets that passed the Straits of +Gibraltar into the Atlantic and the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb +into the Indian Ocean, the Phœnicians constructed +a system of trade, which was not exceeded +in range or influence till, more than two thousand +years later, Portugal made the discovery of America +and accomplished the passage of the Cape of Good +Hope. From the coasts of Britain to those of Northwest +India, and probably to Madagascar, was the extent +of Phœnician credit and currency. Their trade tapped +river basins so far apart as those of the Indus, the +Euphrates, probably the Zambesi, the Nile, the Rhone, +the Guadalquivir. They built ships and harbours for +the Pharaohs and for Solomon. They carried Egyptian +art and Babylonian knowledge to the Grecian archipelago, +and brought back the metals of Spain and +Britain. No wonder the prophet breaks into enthusiasm +as he surveys Phœnician enterprise! <i>And on great +waters the seed of Shihor, the harvest of the Nile, was her +revenue; and she was the mart of nations.</i></p> + +<p>But upon trade the Phœnicians had built an empire. +At home their political life enjoyed the freedom, energy +and resources which are supplied by long habits of +an extended commerce with other peoples. The constitution +of the different Phœnician cities was not, as is +sometimes supposed, republican, but monarchical; and +the land belonged to the king. Yet the large number +of wealthy families at once limited the power of the +throne, and saved the commonwealth from being +dependent upon the fortunes of a single dynasty. The +colonies in close relation with the mother country +assured an empire with its life in better circulation +and with more reserve of power than either Egypt or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[291]</a></span> +Assyria. Tyre and Sidon were frequently overthrown, +but they rose again oftener than the other great cities +of antiquity, and were still places of importance when +Babylon and Nineveh lay in irreparable ruin. Besides +their native families of royal wealth and influence and +their flourishing colonies, each with its prince, these +commercial States kept foreign monarchs in their pay, +and sometimes determined the fate of a dynasty. +Isaiah entitles Tyre <i>the giver of crowns, the maker of +kings, whose merchants are princes, and her traffickers are +the honourable of the earth</i>.</p> + +<p>But trade with political results so splendid had +an evil effect upon the character and spiritual temper +of the people. By the indiscriminating ancients the +Phœnicians were praised as inventors; the rudiments +of most of the arts and sciences, of the alphabet and +of money have been ascribed to them. But modern +research has proved that of none of the many elements +of civilisation which they introduced to the West were +they the actual authors. The Phœnicians were simply +carriers and middlemen. In all time there is no instance +of a nation so wholly given over to buying and selling, +who frequented even the battlefields of the world that +they might strip the dead and purchase the captive. +Phœnician history—though we must always do the +people the justice to remember that we have their history +only in fragments—affords few signs of the consciousness +that there are things which a nation may strive +after for their own sake, and not for the money they +bring in. The world, which other peoples, still in the +reverence of the religious youth of the race, regarded +as a house of prayer, the Phœnicians had already +turned into a den of thieves. They trafficked even with +the mysteries and intelligences; and their own religion<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[292]</a></span> +is largely a mixture of the religions of the other peoples, +with whom they came into contact. The national spirit +was venal and mercenary—the heart of an hireling, +or, as Isaiah by a baser name describes it, the heart +of <i>an harlot</i>. There is not throughout history a more +perfect incarnation of the mercenary spirit than the +Phœnician nation.</p> + +<p>Now let us turn to the experience of the Jews, whose +faith had to face and account for this world-force.</p> + +<p>The history of the Jews in Europe has so identified +them with trade that it is difficult for us to imagine a +Jew free from its spirit or ignorant of its methods. But +the fact is that in the time of Isaiah Israel was as little +acquainted with commerce as it is possible for a civilised +nation to be. Israel's was an inland territory. Till +Solomon's reign the people had neither navy nor harbour. +Their land was not abundant in materials for trade—it +contained almost no minerals, and did not produce a +greater supply of food than was necessary for the consumption +of its inhabitants. It is true that the ambition of +Solomon had brought the people within the temptations +of commerce. He established trading cities, annexed +harbours and hired a navy. But even then, and again +in the reign of Uzziah, which reflects much of Solomon's +commercial glory, Israel traded by deputies, and the +mass of the people remained innocent of mercantile +habits. Perhaps to moderns the most impressive proof +of how little Israel had to do with trade is to be found +in their laws of money-lending and of interest. The +absolute prohibition which Moses placed upon the +charging of interest could only have been possible +among a people with the most insignificant commerce. +To Isaiah himself commerce must have appeared alien. +Human life, as he pictures it, is composed of war,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[293]</a></span> +politics and agriculture; his ideals for society are +those of the shepherd and the farmer. We moderns +cannot dissociate the future welfare of humanity from +the triumphs of trade.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i0">"For I dipt into the future, far as human eye could see,</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Saw the vision of the world and all the wonder that would be;</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Saw the heavens fill with commerce, argosies of magic sails,</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Pilots of the purple twilight, dropping down with costly bales."</span> +</div> + +<p>But all Isaiah's future is full of gardens and busy +fields, of irrigating rivers and canals:—</p> + +<p><i>Until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high, and +the wilderness become a fruitful field, and the fruitful field +be counted for a forest.... Blessed are ye, that sow beside +all waters, that send forth the feet of the ox and the ass.</i></p> + +<p><i>And He shall give the rain of thy seed, that thou shalt +sow the ground withal, and bread-corn, the increase of +the ground; and it shall be juicy and fat: in that day +shall thy cattle feed in large pastures.</i></p> + +<p>Conceive how trade looked to eyes which dwelt +with enthusiasm upon scenes like these! It must have +seemed to blast the future, to disturb the regularity of +life with such violence as to shake religion herself! +With all our convictions of the benefits of trade, even +we feel no greater regret or alarm than when we observe +the invasion by the rude forces of trade of some scene +of rural felicity: blackening of sky and earth and +stream; increasing complexity and entanglement of life; +enormous growth of new problems and temptations; +strange knowledge, ambitions and passions, that throb +through life and strain the tissue of its simple constitution, +like novel engines, which shake the ground and +the strong walls, accustomed once to re-echo only the +simple music of the mill-wheel and the weaver's shuttle. +Isaiah did not fear an invasion of Judah by the habits<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[294]</a></span> +and the machines of trade. There is no foreboding in +this chapter of the day when his own people were to +take the place of the Phœnicians as the commercial +<i>harlots</i> of the world, and a Jew was to be synonymous +with usurer and <i>publican</i>. Yet we may employ our +feelings to imagine his, and understand what this +prophet—seated in the sanctuary of a pastoral and +agricultural tribe, with its simple offerings of doves, +and lambs and sheaves of corn, telling how their +homes, and fields and whole rustic manner of life were +subject to God—thought, and feared, and hoped of the +vast commerce of Phœnicia, wondering how it also +should be sanctified to Jehovah.</p> + +<p>First of all, Isaiah, as we might have expected from +his large faith and broad sympathies, accepts and +acknowledges this great world-force. His noble spirit +shows neither timidity nor jealousy before it. Before +his view what an unblemished prospect of it spreads! +His descriptions tell more of his appreciation than long +laudations would have done. He grows enthusiastic +upon the grandeur of Tyre; and even when he prophesies +that Assyria shall destroy it, it is with the feeling +that such a destruction is really a desecration, and as if +there lived essential glory in great commercial enterprise. +Certainly from such a spirit we have much to learn. +How often has religion, when brought face to face with +the new forces of a generation—commerce, democracy +or science—shown either a base timidity or baser +jealousy, and met the innovations with cries of detraction +or despair! Isaiah reads a lesson to the modern +Church in the preliminary spirit with which she should +meet the novel experiences of Providence. Whatever +judgement may afterwards have to be passed, there is +the immediate duty of frankly recognising greatness wherever<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[295]</a></span> +it may occur. This is an essential principle, from +the forgetfulness of which modern religion has suffered +much. Nothing is gained by attempting to minimise +new departures in the world's history; but everything +is lost if we sit down in fear of them. It is a duty +we owe to ourselves, and a worship which Providence +demands from us, that we ungrudgingly appreciate every +magnitude of which history brings us the knowledge.</p> + +<p>It is almost an unnecessary task to apply Isaiah's +meaning to the commerce of our own day. But let us +not miss his example in this: that the right to criticise +the habits of trade and the ability to criticise them +healthily are alone won by a just appreciation of trade's +world-wide glory and serviceableness. There is no use +preaching against the venal spirit and manifold temptations +and degradations of trade, until we have realised +the indispensableness of trade and its capacity for disciplining +and exalting its ministers. The only way to correct +the abuses of "the commercial spirit," against which +many in our day are loud with indiscriminate rebuke, +is to impress its victims, having first impressed yourself, +with the opportunities and the ideals of commerce. A +thing is great partly by its traditions and partly by its +opportunities—partly by what it has accomplished and +partly by the doors of serviceableness of which it holds +the key. By either of these standards the magnitude +of commerce is simply overwhelming. Having discovered +the world-forces, commerce has built thereon +the most powerful of our modern empires. Its exigencies +compel peace; its resources are the sinews of +war. If it has not always preceded religion and science +in the conquest of the globe, it has shared with them +their triumphs. Commerce has recast the modern world, +so that we hardly think of the old national divisions in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[296]</a></span> +the greater social classes which have been its direct +creation. Commerce determines national policies; its +markets are among the schools of statesmen; its +merchants <i>are</i> still <i>princes, and its traffickers the honourable +of the earth</i>.</p> + +<p>Therefore let all merchants and their apprentices +believe, "Here is something worth putting our manhood +into, worth living for, not with our brains only +or our appetites, but with our conscience, with our +imagination, with every curiosity and sympathy of our +nature. Here is a calling with a healthy discipline, +with a free spirit, with unrivalled opportunities of +service, with an ancient and essential dignity." The +reproach which is so largely imagined upon trade is the +relic of a barbarous age. Do not tolerate it, for under +its shadow, as under other artificial and unhealthy +contempts of society, there are apt to grow up those +sordid and slavish tempers, which soon make men +deserve the reproach that was at first unjustly cast upon +them. Dissipate the base influence of this reproach by +lifting the imagination upon the antiquity and world-wide +opportunities of trade—trade, <i>whose origin</i>, as +Isaiah so finely puts it, <i>is of ancient days; and her feet +carry her afar off to sojourn</i>.</p> + +<p>So generous an appreciation of the grandeur of +commerce does not prevent Isaiah from exposing its +besetting sin and degradation.</p> + +<p>The vocation of a merchant differs from others in this, +that there is no inherent nor instinctive obligation in it +to ends higher than those of financial profit—emphasized +in our days into the more dangerous constraint of +<i>immediate</i> financial profit. No profession is of course +absolutely free from the risk of this servitude; but other +professions offer escapes, or at least mitigations, which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[297]</a></span> +are not possible to nearly the same extent in trade. +Artist, artisan, preacher and statesman have ideals +which generally act contrary to the compulsion of profit +and tend to create a nobility of mind strong enough to +defy it. They have given, so to speak, hostages to +heaven—ideals of beauty, of accurate scholarship or of +moral influence, which they dare not risk by abandoning +themselves to the hunt for gain. But the calling +of a merchant is not thus safeguarded. It does not afford +those visions, those occasions of being caught away to the +heavens, which are the inherent glories of other lives. +The habits of trade make this the first thought—not what +things of beauty are in themselves, not what men are as +brothers, not what life is as God's discipline, but what +things of beauty, and men and opportunities are worth to +us—and in these times what they are <i>immediately</i> worth—as +measured by money. In such an absorption art, +humanity, morals and religion become matters of growing +indifference.</p> + +<p>To this spirit, which treats all things and men, high +or low, as matters simply of profit, Isaiah gives a very +ugly name. We call it the mercenary or venal spirit. +Isaiah says it is the spirit of <i>the harlot</i>.</p> + +<p>The history of Phœnicia justified his words. To-day +we remember her by nothing that is great, by nothing +that is original. She left no art nor literature, and her +once brave and skilful populations degenerated till we +know them only as the slave-dealers, panders and prostitutes +of the Roman empire. If we desire to find +Phœnicia's influence on the religion of the world, we have +to seek for it among the most sensual of Greek myths and +the abominable practices of Corinthian worship. With +such terrible literalness was Isaiah's harlot-curse fulfilled.</p> + +<p>What is true of Phœnicia may become true of Britain,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[298]</a></span> +and what has been seen on the large scale of a nation +is exemplified every day in individual lives. The man +who is entirely eaten up with the zeal of gain is no +better than what Isaiah called Tyre. He has prostituted +himself to covetousness. If day and night our thoughts +are of profit, and the habit, so easily engendered in these +times, of asking only, "What can I make of this?" is +allowed to grow upon us, it shall surely come to pass that +we are found sacrificing, like the poor unfortunate, the +most sacred of our endowments and affections for gain, +demeaning our natures at the feet of the world for the +sake of the world's gold. A woman sacrifices her purity +for coin, and the world casts her out. But some who +would not touch her have sacrificed honour and love +and pity for the same base wage, and in God's sight are +no better than she. Ah, how much need is there for +these bold, brutal standards of the Hebrew prophet to +correct our own social misappreciations!</p> + +<p>Now for a very vain delusion upon this subject! It +is often imagined in our day that if a man seek atonement +for the venal spirit through the study of art, +through the practice of philanthropy or through the +cultivation of religion, he shall surely find it. This is +false—plausible and often practised but utterly false. +Unless a man see and reverence beauty in the very +workshop and office of his business, unless he feel those +whom he meets there, his employés and customers, +as his brethren, unless he keep his business methods +free from fraud, and honestly recognise his gains +as a trust from the Lord, then no amount of devotion +elsewhere to the fine arts, nor perseverance in +philanthropy, nor fondness for the Church evinced by +ever so large subscriptions, will deliver him from the +devil of mercenariness. That is a plea of <i>alibi</i> that shall<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[299]</a></span> +not prevail on the judgement day. He is only living +a double life, whereof his art, philanthropy or religion +is the occasional and dilettante portion, with not nearly +so much influence on his character as the other, his +calling and business, in which he still sacrifices love +to gain. His real world—the world in which God +set him, to buy and sell indeed, but also to serve and +glorify his God—he is treating only as a big warehouse +and exchange. And so much is this the case +at the present day, in spite of all the worship of art +and religion which is fashionable in mercantile circles, +that we do not go too far when we say that if Jesus +were now to visit our large markets and manufactories, +in which the close intercourse of numbers +of human persons renders the opportunities of service +and testimony to God so frequent, He would scourge +men from them, as He scourged the traffickers of the +Temple, for that they had forgotten that <i>here</i> was their +Father's house, where their brethren had to be owned +and helped, and their Father's glory revealed to the world.</p> + +<p>A nation with such a spirit was of course foredoomed +to destruction. Isaiah predicts the absolute disappearance +of Tyre from the attention of the world. <i>Tyre +shall be forgotten seventy years.</i> <i>Then</i>, like some poor +unfortunate whose day of beauty is past, she shall in +vain practise her old advertisements on men. <i>After the +end of seventy years it shall be unto Tyre as in the song +of the harlot: Take an harp, go about the city, thou +harlot that hast been forgotten; make sweet melody, sing +many songs, that thou mayest be remembered.</i></p> + +<p>But Commerce is essential to the world. Tyre must +revive; and the prophet sees her revive as the minister +of Religion, the purveyor of the food of the servants of +the Lord, and of the accessories of their worship. It<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[300]</a></span> +must be confessed, that we are not a little shocked when +we find Isaiah continuing to apply to Commerce his +metaphor of a harlot, even after Commerce has entered +the service of the true religion. He speaks of her +wages being devoted to Jehovah, just in the same +manner as those of certain notorious women of heathen +temples were devoted to the idol of the temple. This +is even against the directions of the Mosaic law. Isaiah, +however, was a poet; and in his flights we must not +expect him to carry the whole Law on his back. He +was a poet, and probably no analogy would have more +vividly appealed to his Oriental audience. It will be +foolish to allow our natural prejudice against what we may +feel to be the unhealthiness of the metaphor to blind us +to the magnificence of the thought which he clothes in it.</p> + +<p>All this is another proof of the sanity and far sight +of our prophet. Again we find that his conviction +that judgement is coming does not render his spirit +morbid, nor disturb his eye for things of beauty and +profit in the world. Commerce, with all her faults, +is essential, and must endure, nay shall prove in the days +to come Religion's most profitable minister. The generosity +and wisdom of this passage are the more striking +when we remember the extremity of unrelieved denunciation +to which other great teachers of religion have +allowed themselves to be hurled by their rage against the +sins of trade. But Isaiah, in the largest sense of the +expression, is a man of the world—a man of the world +because God made the world and rules it. Yet even +from his far sight was hidden the length to which in the +last days Commerce would carry her services to man +and God, proving as she has done, under the flag of +another Phœnicia, to all the extent of Isaiah's longing, +one of Religion's most sincere and profitable handmaids.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[301]</a></span></p> +<h2>BOOK IV.</h2> + +<h3><i>JERUSALEM AND SENNACHERIB</i>, 701 <span class="smcap"><small>B.C.</small></span></h3> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[302]</a></span></p> + + + +<div class="center"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Book 4"> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Isaiah</span>:—</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">xxxvi. 1.</td><td align="left">Early in 701.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">i.</td><td align="left"> " "</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">xxii.</td><td align="left"> " "</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">xxxiii.</td><td align="left">A little later.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">xxxvi. 2-xxxvii.</td><td align="left"> " "</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> ——</td><td align="left"> ——</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">xxxviii.-xxxix.</td><td align="left">Date uncertain.</td></tr> +</table></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[303]</a></span></p> +<h2>BOOK IV.</h2> + + +<p>Into this fourth book we put all the rest of the prophecies +of the Book of Isaiah, that have to do with +the prophet's own time: chaps. i., xxii. and xxxiii., with +the narrative in xxxvi., xxxvii. All these refer to the +only Assyrian invasion of Judah and siege of Jerusalem: +that undertaken by Sennacherib in 701.</p> + +<p>It is, however, right to remember once more, that +many authorities maintain that there were two Assyrian +invasions of Judah—one by Sargon in 711, the other by +Sennacherib in 701—and that chaps. i. and xxii. (as well +as x. 5-34) belong to the former of these. The theory +is ingenious and tempting; but, in the silence of the +Assyrian annals about any invasion of Judah by Sargon, +it is impossible to adopt it. And although chaps. i. +and xxii. differ very greatly in tone from chap. xxxiii., +yet to account for the difference it is not necessary to +suppose two different invasions, with a considerable +period between them. Virtually, as will appear in the +course of our exposition, Sennacherib's invasion of +Judah was a double one.</p> + +<p>1. The first time Sennacherib's army invaded Judah +they took all the fenced cities, and probably invested +Jerusalem, but withdrew on payment of tribute and the +surrender of the <i>casus belli</i>, the Assyrian vassal Padi, +whom the Ekronites had deposed and given over to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[304]</a></span> +keeping of Hezekiah. To this invasion refer Isa. i., +xxii. and the first verse of xxxvi.: <i>Now it came to pass +in the fourteenth<a name="FNanchor_53_53" id="FNanchor_53_53"></a><a href="#Footnote_53_53" class="fnanchor">[53]</a> year of King Hezekiah that Sennacherib, +King of Assyria, came up against all the fenced cities of +Judah and took them.</i> This verse is the same as +2 Kings xviii. 13, to which, however, there is added in +vv. 14-16 an account of the tribute sent by Hezekiah +to Sennacherib at Lachish, that is not included in the +narrative in Isaiah. Compare 2 Chron. xxxii. 1.</p> + +<p>2. But scarcely had the tribute been paid when +Sennacherib, himself advancing to meet Egypt, sent +back upon Jerusalem a second army of investment, with +which was the Rabshakeh; and this was the army +that so mysteriously disappeared from the eyes of the +besieged. To the treacherous return of the Assyrians +and the sudden deliverance of Jerusalem from their +grasp refer Isa. xxxiii., xxxvi. 2-xxxvii., with the +fuller and evidently original narrative in 2 Kings xviii. +17-xix. Compare 2 Chron. xxxii. 9-23.</p> + +<p>To the history of this double attempt upon Jerusalem +in 701—xxxvi. and xxxvii.—there has been appended in +xxxviii. and xxxix. an account of Hezekiah's illness and +of an embassy to him from Babylon. These events +probably happened some years before Sennacherib's +invasion. But it will be most convenient for us to take<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[305]</a></span> +them in the order in which they stand in the canon. +They will naturally lead us up to a question that it is +necessary we should discuss before taking leave of +Isaiah—whether this great prophet of the endurance of +the kingdom of God upon earth had any gospel for the +individual who dropped away from it into death.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[306]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XIX.</h2> + +<h3><i>AT THE LOWEST EBB.</i></h3> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> i. and xxii. (701 <span class="smcap"><small>B.C.</small></span>).</p> + + +<p>In the drama of Isaiah's life we have now arrived +at the final act—a short and sharp one of a few +months. The time is 701 <span class="smcap"><small>B.C.</small></span>, the fortieth year +of Isaiah's ministry, and about the twenty-sixth of +Hezekiah's reign. The background is the invasion +of Palestine by Sennacherib. The stage itself is the +city of Jerusalem. In the clear atmosphere before +the bursting of the storm Isaiah has looked round +the whole world—his world—uttering oracles on the +nations from Tyre to Egypt and from Ethiopia to +Babylon. But now the Assyrian storm has burst, and +all except the immediate neighbourhood of the prophet +is obscured. From Jerusalem Isaiah will not again lift +his eyes.</p> + +<p>The stage is thus narrow and the time short, but the +action one of the most critical in the history of Israel, +taking rank with the Exodus from Egypt and the Return +from Babylon. To Isaiah himself it marks the summit +of his career. For half a century Zion has been preparing +for, forgetting and again preparing for, her first +and final struggle with the Assyrian. Now she is to +meet her foe, face to face across her own walls. For +forty years Isaiah has predicted for the Assyrian an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[307]</a></span> +uninterrupted path of conquest to the very gates of +Jerusalem, but certain check and confusion there. +Sennacherib has overrun the world, and leaps upon +Zion. The Jewish nation await their fate, Isaiah his +vindication, and the credit of Israel's religion, one of +the most extraordinary tests to which a spiritual faith +was ever subjected.</p> + +<p>In the end, by the mysterious disappearance of the +Assyrian, Jerusalem was saved, the prophet was left +with his remnant and the future still open for Israel. +But at the beginning of the end such an issue was by +no means probable. Jewish panic and profligacy +almost prevented the Divine purpose, and Isaiah went +near to breaking his heart over the city, for whose redemption +he had travailed for a lifetime. He was as sure +as ever that this redemption must come, but a collapse +of the people's faith and patriotism at the eleventh hour +made its coming seem worthless. Jerusalem appeared +bent on forestalling her deliverance by moral suicide. +Despair, not of God but of the city, settled on Isaiah's +heart; and in such a mood he wrote chap. xxii. We +may entitle it therefore, though written at a time when +the tide should have been running to the full, "At the +Lowest Ebb."</p> + +<p>We have thus stated at the outset the motive of this +chapter, because it is one of the most unexpected and +startling of all Isaiah's prophecies. In it "we can +discern precipices." Beneath our eyes, long lifted by the +prophet to behold a future <i>stretching very far forth</i>, this +chapter suddenly yawns, a pit of blackness. For utterness +of despair and the absolute sentence which it passes +on the citizens of Zion we have had nothing like it +from Isaiah since the evil days of Ahaz. The historical +portions of the Bible which cover this period are not cleft<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[308]</a></span> +by such a crevasse, and of course the official Assyrian +annals, full as they are of the details of Sennacherib's +campaign in Palestine, know nothing of the moral +condition of Jerusalem.<a name="FNanchor_54_54" id="FNanchor_54_54"></a><a href="#Footnote_54_54" class="fnanchor">[54]</a> Yet if we put the Hebrew +and Assyrian narratives together, and compare them +with chaps. i. and xxii. of Isaiah, we may be sure +that the following was something like the course of +events which led down to this woeful depth in Judah's +experience.</p> + +<p>In a Syrian campaign Sennacherib's path was plain—to +begin with the Phœnician cities, march quickly +south by the level coastland, subduing the petty +chieftains upon it, meet Egypt at its southern end, +and then, when he had rid himself of his only formidable +foe, turn to the more delicate task of warfare +among the hills of Judah—a campaign which he could +scarcely undertake with a hostile force like Egypt on +his flank. This course, he tells us, he followed. "In +my third campaign, to the land of Syria I went. +Luliah (Elulæus), King of Sidon—for the fearful splendour +of my majesty overwhelmed him—fled to a +distant spot in the midst of the sea. His land I +entered." City after city fell to the invader. The +princes of Aradus, Byblus and Ashdod, by the coast, +and even Moab and Edom, far inland, sent him +their submission. He attacked Ascalon, and captured +its king. He went on, and took the Philistine cities of +Beth-dagon, Joppa, Barka and Azor, all of them +within forty miles of Jerusalem, and some even visible +from her neighbourhood. South of this group, and a little +over twenty-five miles from Jerusalem, lay Ekron; and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[309]</a></span> +here Sennacherib had so good a reason for anger, that +the inhabitants, expecting no mercy at his hands, prepared +a stubborn defence.</p> + +<p>Ten years before this Sargon had set Padi, a vassal +of his own, as king over Ekron; but the Ekronites had +risen against Padi, put him in chains, and sent him to +their ally Hezekiah, who now held him in Jerusalem. +"These men," says Sennacherib, "were now terrified +in their hearts; the shadows of death overwhelmed +them."<a name="FNanchor_55_55" id="FNanchor_55_55"></a><a href="#Footnote_55_55" class="fnanchor">[55]</a> Before Ekron was reduced, however, the +Egyptian army arrived in Philistia, and Sennacherib +had to abandon the siege for these arch-enemies. He +defeated them in the neighbourhood, at Eltekeh, returned +to Ekron, and completed its siege. Then, while +he himself advanced southwards in pursuit of the +Egyptians, he detached a corps, which, marching eastwards +through the mountain passes, overran all Judah +and threatened Jerusalem. "And Hezekiah, King of +Judah, who had not bowed down at my feet, forty-six +of his strong cities, his castles and the smaller towns +in their neighbourhood beyond number, by casting +down ramparts and by open attack, by battle—<i>zuk</i>, of +the feet; <i>nisi</i>, hewing to pieces and casting down (?)—I +besieged, I captured.... He himself, like a bird in a +cage, inside Jerusalem, his royal city, I shut him up; +siege-towers against him I constructed, for he had +given command to renew the bulwarks of the great +gate of his city."<a name="FNanchor_56_56" id="FNanchor_56_56"></a><a href="#Footnote_56_56" class="fnanchor">[56]</a> But Sennacherib does not say that +he took Jerusalem, and simply closes the narrative of +his campaign with the account of large tribute which +Hezekiah sent after him to Nineveh.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[310]</a></span></p><p>Here, then, we have material for a graphic picture of +Jerusalem and her populace, when chaps. i. and xxii. +were uttered by Isaiah.</p> + +<p>At Jerusalem we are within a day's journey of any +part of the territory of Judah. We feel the kingdom +throb to its centre at Assyria's first footfall on the +border. The nation's life is shuddering in upon its +capital, couriers dashing up with the first news; +fugitives hard upon them; palace, arsenal, market and +temple thrown into commotion; the politicians busy; +the engineers hard at work completing the fortifications, +leading the suburban wells to a reservoir within +the walls, levelling every house and tree outside which +could give shelter to the besiegers, and heaping up the +material on the ramparts, till there lies nothing but +a great, bare, waterless circle round a high-banked +fortress. Across this bareness the lines of fugitives +streaming to the gates; provincial officials and their +retinues; soldiers whom Hezekiah had sent out to +meet the foe, returning without even the dignity of +defeat upon them; husbandmen, with cattle and remnants +of grain in disorder; women and children; the +knaves, cowards and helpless of the whole kingdom +pouring their fear, dissoluteness and disease into the +already-unsettled populace of Jerusalem. Inside the +walls opposing political factions and a weak king; +idle crowds, swaying to every rumour and intrigue; +the ordinary restraints and regularities of life suspended, +even patriotism gone with counsel and courage, +but in their place fear and shame and greed of life. +Such was the state in which Jerusalem faced the hour +of her visitation.</p> + +<p>Gradually the Visitant came near over the thirty +miles which lay between the capital and the border.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[311]</a></span> +Signs of the Assyrian advance were given in the sky, +and night after night the watchers on Mount Zion, +seeing the glare in the west, must have speculated +which of the cities of Judah was being burned. +Clouds of smoke across the heavens from prairie and +forest fires told how war, even if it passed, would leave +a trail of famine; and men thought with breaking +hearts of the villages and fields, heritage of the tribes +of old, that were now bare to the foot and the fire +of the foreigner. <i>Your country is desolate; your cities +are burned with fire; your land, strangers devour it in +your presence, and it is desolate as the overthrow of +strangers. And the daughter of Zion is left as a booth +in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers. +Except Jehovah of hosts had left unto us a very small +remnant, we should have been as Sodom, we should have +been like unto Gomorrah.</i><a name="FNanchor_57_57" id="FNanchor_57_57"></a><a href="#Footnote_57_57" class="fnanchor">[57]</a> Then came touch of the +enemy, the appearance of armed bands, vistas down +Jerusalem's favourite valleys of chariots, squadrons +of horsemen emerging upon the plateaus to north and +west of the city, heavy siege-towers and swarms of +men innumerable. <i>And Elam bare the quiver, with +troops of men and horsemen; and Kir uncovered the +shield.</i> At last they saw their fears of fifty years face +to face! Far-away names were standing by their +gates, actual bowmen and flashing shields! As +Jerusalem gazed upon the terrible Assyrian armaments, +how many of her inhabitants remembered Isaiah's +words delivered a generation before!—<i>Behold, they shall +come with speed swiftly; none shall be weary or stumble +among them; neither shall the string of their loins be lax +nor the latchet of their shoes be broken; whose arrows</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[312]</a></span> +<i>are sharp, and all their bows bent; their horses' hoofs +shall be counted like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind; +their roaring shall be like a lion: they shall roar +like young lions. For all this His anger is not turned +away, but His hand is stretched out still.</i></p> + +<p>There were, however, two supports, on which that +distracted populace within the walls still steadied +themselves. The one was the Temple-worship, the +other the Egyptian alliance.</p> + +<p>History has many remarkable instances of peoples +betaking themselves in the hour of calamity to the +energetic discharge of the public rites of religion. +But such a resort is seldom, if ever, a real moral +conversion. It is merely physical nervousness, apprehension +for life, clutching at the one thing within reach +that feels solid, which it abandons as soon as panic has +passed. When the crowds in Jerusalem betook themselves +to the Temple, with unwonted wealth of sacrifice, +Isaiah denounced this as hypocrisy and futility. <i>To +what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto Me? +saith Jehovah.... I am weary to bear them. And +when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide Mine eyes +from you; yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not +hear</i> (i. 11-15).</p> + +<p>Isaiah might have spared his scornful orders to the +people to desist from worship. Soon afterwards they +abandoned it of their own will, but from motives very +different from those urged by him. The second +support to which Jerusalem clung was the Egyptian +alliance—the pet project of the party then in power. +They had carried it to a successful issue, taunting +Isaiah with their success.<a name="FNanchor_58_58" id="FNanchor_58_58"></a><a href="#Footnote_58_58" class="fnanchor">[58]</a> He had continued to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[313]</a></span> +denounce it, and now the hour was approaching when +their cleverness and confidence were to be put to the +test. It was known in Jerusalem that an Egyptian +army was advancing to Sennacherib, and politicians +and people awaited the encounter with anxiety.</p> + +<p>We are aware what happened. Egypt was beaten +at Eltekeh; the alliance was stamped a failure; Jerusalem's +last worldly hope was taken from her. +When the news reached the city, something took place, +of which our moral judgement tells us more than any +actual record of facts. The Government of Hezekiah +gave way; the rulers, whose courage and patriotism +had been identified with the Egyptian alliance, lost all +hope for their country, and fled, as Isaiah puts it, <i>en +masse</i> (xxii. 3). There was no battle, no defeat at +arms (<i>id.</i> 2, 3); but the Jewish State collapsed.</p> + +<p>Then, when the last material hope of Judah fell, fell +her religion too. The Egyptian disappointment, while +it drove the rulers out of their false policies, drove the +people out of their unreal worship. What had been a +city of devotees became in a moment a city of revellers. +Formerly all had been sacrifices and worship, but now +feasting and blasphemy. <i>Behold, joy and gladness, +slaying oxen and killing sheep, eating flesh and drinking +wine: Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die</i> +(<i>id.</i> 13. The reference of ver. 12 is probably to chap. i.).</p> + +<p>Now all Isaiah's ministry had been directed just against +these two things: the Egyptian alliance and the purely +formal observance of religion—trust in the world and +trust in religiousness. And together both of these +had given way, and the Assyrian was at the gates. +Truly it was the hour of Isaiah's vindication. Yet—and +this is the tragedy—it had come too late. The +prophet could not use it. The two things he said<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[314]</a></span> +would collapse had collapsed, but for the people there +seemed now no help to be justified from the thing which +he said would remain. What was the use of the city's +deliverance, when the people themselves had failed! +The feelings of triumph, which the prophet might have +expressed, were swallowed up in unselfish grief over +the fate of his wayward and abandoned Jerusalem.</p> + +<p><i>What aileth thee now</i>—and in these words we can +hear the old man addressing his fickle child, whose +changefulness by this time he knew so well—<i>what +aileth thee now that thou art wholly gone up to the housetops</i>—we +see him standing at his door watching this +ghastly holiday—<i>O thou that art full of shoutings, a +tumultuous city, a joyous town?</i> What are you rejoicing +at in such an hour as this, when you have not even the +bravery of your soldiers to celebrate, when you are +without that pride which has brought songs from the +lips of a defeated people as they learned that their sons +had fallen with their faces to the foe, and has made +even the wounds of the dead borne through the gate +lips of triumph, calling to festival! <i>For thy slain are +not slain with the sword, neither are they dead in battle.</i></p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i0"><i>All thy chiefs fled in heaps;</i></span><br /> +<span class="i1"><i>Without bow they were taken:</i></span><br /> +<span class="i0"><i>All thine that were found were taken in heaps;</i></span><br /> +<span class="i1"><i>From far had they run.</i></span><br /> +<span class="i0"><i>Wherefore I say, Look away from me;</i></span><br /> +<span class="i1"><i>Let me make bitterness bitterer by weeping.</i></span><br /> +<span class="i0"><i>Press not to comfort me</i></span><br /> +<span class="i1"><i>For the ruin of the daughter of my people.</i></span> +</div> + +<p>Urge not your mad holiday upon me! <i>For a day +of discomfiture and of breaking and of perplexity hath +the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, in the valley of vision, a</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[315]</a></span> +<i>breaking down of the wall and a crying to the mountain.</i> +These few words of prose, which follow the pathetic +elegy, have a finer pathos still. The cumulative force +of the successive clauses is very impressive: <i>disappointment</i> +at the eleventh hour; the sense of a being +<i>trampled</i> and overborne by sheer brute force; the counsels, +courage, hope and faith of fifty years crushed to blank +<i>perplexity</i>, and all this from Himself—<i>the Lord, Jehovah of +hosts</i>—in the very <i>valley of vision</i>, the home of prophecy; +as if He had meant of purpose to destroy these long +confidences of the past on the floor where they had +been wrestled for and asserted, and not by the force of +the foe, but by the folly of His own people, to make them +ashamed. The last clause crashes out the effect of it +all; every spiritual rampart and refuge torn down, there +is nothing left but an appeal to the hills to fall and +cover us—<i>a breaking down of the wall and a crying to +the mountain</i>.</p> + +<p>On the brink of the precipice, Isaiah draws back for +a moment, to describe with some of his old fire the +appearance of the besiegers (vv. 6-8<i>a</i>). And this +suggests what kind of preparation Jerusalem had made +for her foe—every kind, says Isaiah, but the supreme +one. The arsenal, Solomon's <i>forest-house</i>, with its cedar +pillars, had been looked to (ver. 8), the fortifications inspected +and increased, and the suburban waters brought +within them (vv. 9-11<i>a</i>). <i>But ye looked not unto Him +that had done this</i>, who had brought this providence +upon you; <i>neither had ye respect unto Him that fashioned +it long ago</i>, whose own plan it had been. To your +alliances and fortifications you fled in the hour of +calamity, but not to Him in whose guidance the course +of calamity lay. And therefore, when your engineering +and diplomacy failed you, your religion vanished with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[316]</a></span> +them. <i>In that day did the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, call to +weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding +with sackcloth; but, behold, joy and gladness, slaying oxen +and killing sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine: Let us +eat and drink, for to-morrow we shall die.</i> It was the +dropping of the mask. For half a century this people +had worshipped God, but they had never trusted Him +beyond the limits of their treaties and their bulwarks. +And so when their allies were defeated, and their walls +began to tremble, their religion, bound up with these +things, collapsed also; they ceased even to be men, +crying like beasts, <i>Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow +we die</i>. For such a state of mind Isaiah will hold out +no promise; it is the sin against the Holy Ghost, and +for it there is no forgiveness. <i>And Jehovah of hosts +revealed Himself in mine ears. Surely this iniquity shall +not be purged from you till ye die, saith the Lord, Jehovah +of hosts.</i></p> + +<p>Back forty years the word had been, <i>Go and tell this +people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye +indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, +and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes, lest they +see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand +with their heart, and turn again and be healed.</i> What +happened now was only what was foretold then: <i>And +if there be yet a tenth in it, it shall again be for consumption.</i> +That radical revision of judgement was now being +literally fulfilled, when Isaiah, sure at last of his remnant +within the walls of Jerusalem, was forced for their sin +to condemn even them to death.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Nevertheless, Isaiah had still respect to the ultimate +survival of a remnant. How firmly he believed in it +could not be more clearly illustrated than by the fact<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[317]</a></span> +that when he had so absolutely devoted his fellow-citizens +to destruction he also took the most practical +means for securing a better political future. If there is +any reason, it can only be this, for putting the second +section of chap. xxii., which advocates a change of +ministry in the city (vv. 15-22), so close to the first, +which sees ahead nothing but destruction for the State +(vv. 1-14).</p> + +<p>The <i>mayor of the palace</i> at this time was one Shebna, +also called <i>minister</i> or <i>deputy</i> (lit. <i>friend</i> of the king). +That his father is not named implies perhaps that +Shebna was a foreigner; his own name betrays a Syrian +origin; and he has been justly supposed to be the leader +of the party then in power, whose policy was the +Egyptian alliance, and whom in these latter years Isaiah +had so frequently denounced as the root of Judah's +bitterness. To this unfamilied intruder, who had sought +to establish himself in Jerusalem, after the manner of +those days, by hewing himself a great sepulchre, Isaiah +brought sentence of violent banishment: <i>Behold, Jehovah +will be hurling, hurling thee away, thou big man, and +crumpling, crumpling thee together. He will roll, roll thee +on, thou rolling-stone, like a ball</i> thrown out <i>on broad +level ground; there shall thou die, and there shall be the +chariots of thy glory, thou shame of the house of thy lord. +And I thrust thee from thy post, and from thy station do +they pull thee down</i>. This vagabond was not to die in +his bed, nor to be gathered in his big tomb to the people +on whom he had foisted himself. He should continue +a <i>rolling-stone</i>. For him, like Cain, there was a land +of Nod; and upon it he was to find a vagabond's +death.</p> + +<p>To fill this upstart's place, Isaiah solemnly designated +a man with a father: Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[318]</a></span> +formulas he uses are perhaps the official ones customary +upon induction to an office. But it may be +also, that Isaiah has woven into these some expressions +of even greater promise than usual. For this change +of office-bearers was critical, and the overthrow of the +"party of action" meant to Isaiah the beginning of +the blessed future. <i>And it shall come to pass that in +that day I will call My servant Eliakim, the son of +Hilkiah; and I will clothe him with thy robe, and with +thy girdle will I strengthen him, and thine administration +will I give into his hand, and he shall be for +a father to the inhabitant of Jerusalem and to the +house of Judah. And I will set the key of the house of +David upon his shoulder; and he shall open, and none +shut: and he shall shut, and none open. And I will +hammer him in, a nail in a firm place, and he shall be +for a throne of glory to his father's house.</i> Thus to the +last Isaiah will not allow Shebna to forget that he is +without root among the people of God, that he has +neither father nor family.</p> + +<p>But a family is a temptation, and the weight of +it may drag even the man of the Lord's own hammering +out of his place. This very year we find +Eliakim in Shebna's post,<a name="FNanchor_59_59" id="FNanchor_59_59"></a><a href="#Footnote_59_59" class="fnanchor">[59]</a> and Shebna reduced to +be secretary; but Eliakim's family seem to have taken +advantage of their relative's position, and either at +the time he was designated, or more probably later, +Isaiah wrote two sentences of warning upon the +dangers of nepotism. Catching at the figure, with +which his designation of Eliakim closed, that Eliakim +would be a peg in a solid wall, a throne on which the +glory of his father's house might settle, Isaiah reminds<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[319]</a></span> +the much-encumbered statesman that the firmest peg +will give way if you hang too much on it, the strongest +man be pulled down by his dependent and indolent +family. <i>They shall hang upon him all the weight of his +father's house, the scions and the offspring</i> (terms contrasted +as degrees of worth), <i>all the little vessels, from +the vessels of cups to all the vessels of flagons</i>. <i>In +that day, saith Jehovah of hosts, shall the peg that was +knocked into a firm place give way, and it shall be knocked +out and fall, and down shall be cut the burden that was +upon it, for Jehovah hath spoken.</i></p> + +<p>So we have not one, but a couple of tragedies. +Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, follows Shebna, the son +of Nobody. The fate of the overburdened nail is as +grievous as that of the rolling stone. It is easy to pass +this prophecy over as a trivial incident; but when we +have carefully analysed each verse, restored to the +words their exact shade of signification, and set them +in their proper contrasts, we perceive the outlines of +two social dramas, which it requires very little imagination +to invest with engrossing moral interest.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[320]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XX.</h2> + +<h3><i>THE TURN OF THE TIDE: MORAL EFFECTS OF +FORGIVENESS.</i></h3> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> xxii., contrasted with xxxiii. (701 <span class="smcap"><small>B.C.</small></span>).</p> + +<p>The collapse of Jewish faith and patriotism in the +face of the enemy was complete. Final and +absolute did Isaiah's sentence ring out: <i>Surely this +iniquity shall not be purged from you till ye die, saith +Jehovah of hosts.</i> So we learn from chap. xxii., +written, as we conceive, in 701, when the Assyrian +armies had at last invested Jerusalem. But in chap. +xxxiii., which critics unite in placing a few months later +in the same year, Isaiah's tone is entirely changed. +He hurls the woe of the Lord upon the Assyrians; +confidently announces their immediate destruction; +turns, while the whole city's faith hangs upon him, in +supplication to the Lord; and announces the stability +of Jerusalem, her peace, her glory and the forgiveness +of all her sins. It is this great moral difference +between chaps. xxii. and xxxiii.—prophecies that must +have been delivered within a few months of each other—which +this chapter seeks to expound.</p> + +<p>In spite of her collapse, as pictured in chap. xxii., Jerusalem +was not taken. Her rulers fled; her people, as if +death were certain, betook themselves to dissipation; and +yet the city did not fall into the hands of the Assyrian. +Sennacherib himself does not pretend to have taken<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[321]</a></span> +Jerusalem. He tells us how closely he invested Jerusalem, +but he does not add that he took it, a silence which is +the more significant that he records the capture of every +other town which his armies attempted. He says that +Hezekiah offered him tribute, and details the amount he +received. He adds that the tribute was not paid at +Jerusalem (as it would have been had Jerusalem been +conquered), but that for "the payment of the tribute and +the performance of homage" Hezekiah "despatched his +envoy"<a name="FNanchor_60_60" id="FNanchor_60_60"></a><a href="#Footnote_60_60" class="fnanchor">[60]</a> to him when he was at some distance from Jerusalem. +All this agrees with the Bible narrative. In the +book of Kings we are told how Hezekiah sent to the +King of Assyria at Lachish, saying, <i>I have offended; +return from me; that which thou puttest upon me I will +bear</i>. <i>And the King of Assyria appointed unto Hezekiah, +King of Judah, three hundred talents of silver and thirty +talents of gold. And Hezekiah gave him all the silver +that was found in the house of Jehovah and in the treasures +of the king's house. At the same time did Hezekiah cut +off the gold from the doors of the temple of Jehovah, and +from the pillars which Hezekiah, King of Judah, had +overlaid, and gave it to the King of Assyria.</i><a name="FNanchor_61_61" id="FNanchor_61_61"></a><a href="#Footnote_61_61" class="fnanchor">[61]</a> It was +indeed a sore submission, when even the Temple of the +Lord had to be stripped of its gold. But it purchased +the relief of the city; and no price was too high to pay +for that at such a moment as the present, when the +populace was demoralised. We may even see Isaiah's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[322]</a></span> +hand in the submission. The integrity of Jerusalem +was the one fact on which the word of the Lord had +been pledged, on which the promised remnant could be +rallied. The Assyrian must not be able to say that he +has made Zion's God like the gods of the heathen, +and her people must see that even when they have +given her up Jehovah can hold her for Himself, though +in holding He tear and wound (xxxi. 4). The Temple +is greater than the gold of the Temple; let even the +latter be stripped off and sold to the heathen if it can +purchase the integrity of the former. So Jerusalem +remained inviolate; she was still <i>the virgin, the daughter +of Zion</i>.</p> + +<p>And now upon the redeemed city Isaiah could proceed +to rebuild the shattered faith and morals of her people. +He could say to them, "Everything has turned out as, +by the word of the Lord, I said it should. The Assyrian +has come down; Egypt has failed you. Your politicians, +with their scorn of religion and their confidence in their +cleverness, have deserted you. I told you that your +numberless sacrifices and pomp of unreal religion would +avail you nothing in your day of disaster, and lo! when +this came, your religion collapsed. Your abounding +wickedness, I said, could only close in your ruin and desertion +by God. But one promise I kept steadfast: that +Jerusalem would not fall; and to your penitence, whenever +it should be real, I assured forgiveness. Jerusalem +stands to-day, according to my word; and I repeat my +gospel. History has vindicated my word, but <i>Come now, +let us bring our reasoning to a close, saith the Lord; +though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow: +though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool</i>. I +call upon you to build again on your redeemed city, and +by the grace of this pardon, the fallen ruins of your life."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[323]</a></span>Some such sermon—if indeed not actually part of +chap. i.—we must conceive Isaiah to have delivered +to the people when Hezekiah had bought off Sennacherib, +for we find the state of Jerusalem suddenly +altered. Instead of the panic, which imagined the +daily capture of the city, and rushed in hectic holiday to +the housetops, crying, <i>Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow +we die</i>, we see the citizens back upon the walls, trembling +yet trusting. Instead of sweeping past Isaiah in their +revelry and leaving him to feel that after forty years +of travail he had lost all his influence with them, we +see them gathering round about him as their single +hope and confidence (xxxvii.). King and people look +to Isaiah as their counsellor, and cannot answer the +enemy without consulting him. What a change from +the days of the Egyptian alliance, embassies sent off +against his remonstrance, and intrigues developed without +his knowledge; when Ahaz insulted him, and the +drunken magnates mimicked him, and, in order to rouse +an indolent people, he had to walk about the streets +of Jerusalem for three years, stripped like a captive! +Truly this was the day of Isaiah's triumph, when God +by events vindicated his prophecy, and all the people +acknowledged his leadership.</p> + +<p>It was the hour of the prophet's triumph, but the +nation had as yet only trials before it. God has not done +with nations or men when He has forgiven them. +This people, whom of His grace, and in spite of +themselves, God had saved from destruction, stood on +the brink of another trial. God had given them a +new lease of life, but it was immediately to pass through +the furnace. They had bought off Sennacherib, but +Sennacherib came back.</p> + +<p>When Sennacherib got the tribute, he repented of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[324]</a></span> +the treaty he had made with Hezekiah. He may have +felt that it was a mistake to leave in his rear so +powerful a fortress, while he had still to complete +the overthrow of the Egyptians. So, in spite of the +tribute, he sent a force back to Jerusalem to demand +her surrender. We can imagine the moral effect upon +King Hezekiah and his people. It was enough to +sting the most demoralised into courage. Sennacherib +had doubtless expected so pliant a king and so +crushed a people to yield at once. But we may +confidently picture the joy of Isaiah, as he felt the +return of the Assyrians to be the very thing required +to restore spirit to his demoralised countrymen. Here +was a foe, whom they could face with a sense of +justice, and not, as they had met him before, in carnal +confidence and the pride of their own cleverness. +Now was to be a war not, like former wars, undertaken +merely for party glory, but with the purest feelings of +patriotism and the firmest sanctions of religion, a +campaign to be entered upon, not with Pharaoh's +support and the strength of Egyptian chariots, but +with God Himself as an ally—of which it could be +said to Judah, <i>Thy righteousness shall go before thee, and +the glory of the Lord shall be thy rereward</i>.</p> + +<p>On what free, exultant wings the spirit of Isaiah +must have risen to the sublime occasion! We know +him as by nature an ardent patriot and passionate +lover of his city, but through circumstance her pitiless +critic and unsparing judge. In all the literature of +patriotism there are no finer odes and orations than +those which it owes to him; from no lips came +stronger songs of war, and no heart rejoiced more in +the valour that turns the battle from the gate. But till +now Isaiah's patriotism had been chiefly a conscience<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[325]</a></span> +of his country's sins, his passionate love for Jerusalem +repressed by as stern a loyalty to righteousness, and +all his eloquence and courage spent in holding his +people from war and persuading them <i>to returning +and rest</i>. At last this conflict is at an end. The +stubbornness of Judah, which has divided like some +rock the current of her prophet's energies, and forced +it back writhing and eddying upon itself, is removed. +Isaiah's faith and his patriotism run free with the force +of twin-tides in one channel, and we hear the fulness +of their roar as they leap together upon the enemies +of God and the fatherland. <i>Woe to thee, thou spoiler, +and thou wast not spoiled, thou treacherous dealer, and +they did not deal treacherously with thee! Whenever thou +ceasest to spoil, thou shall be spoiled; and whenever thou +hast made an end to deal treacherously, they shall deal +treacherously with thee. O Jehovah, be gracious unto +us; for Thee have we waited: be Thou their arm every +morning, our salvation also in the time of trouble. +From the noise of a surging the peoples have fled; from +the lifting up of Thyself the nations are scattered. And +gathered is your spoil, the gathering of the caterpillar; like +the leaping of locusts, they are leaping upon it. Exalted +is Jehovah; yea, He dwelleth on high: He hath filled Zion +with justice and righteousness. And there shall be stability +of thy times, wealth of salvation, wisdom and knowledge; +the fear of Jehovah, it shall be his treasure</i> (xxxiii. 1-6).</p> + +<p>Thus, then, do we propose to bridge the gulf which +lies between chaps. i. and xxii. on the one hand +and chap. xxxiii. on the other. If they are all to be +dated from the year 701, some such bridge is necessary. +And the one we have traced is both morally sufficient and +in harmony with what we know to have been the course +of events.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[326]</a></span>What do we learn from it all? We learn a great deal +upon that truth which chap. xxxiii. closes by announcing—the +truth of Divine forgiveness.</p> + +<p>The forgiveness of God is the foundation of every +bridge from a hopeless past to a courageous present. +That God can make the past be for guilt as though +it had not been is always to Isaiah the assurance +of the future. An old Greek miniature<a name="FNanchor_62_62" id="FNanchor_62_62"></a><a href="#Footnote_62_62" class="fnanchor">[62]</a> represents +him with Night behind him, veiled and sullen and +holding a reversed torch. But before him stands +Dawn and Innocence, a little child, with bright face +and forward step and torch erect and burning. From +above a hand pours light upon the face of the +prophet, turned upwards. It is the message of a +Divine pardon. Never did prophet more wearily feel +the moral continuity of the generations, the lingering +and ineradicable effects of crime. Only faith in a +pardoning God could have enabled him, with such +conviction of the inseparableness of yesterday and +to-morrow, to make divorce between them, and turning +his back on the past, as this miniature represents, +hail the future as Immanuel, a child of infinite promise. +From exposing and scourging the past, from proving +it corrupt and pregnant with poison for all the future, +Isaiah will turn on a single verse, and give us a +future without war, sorrow or fraud. His pivot is +ever the pardon of God. But nowhere is his faith +in this so powerful, his turning upon it so swift, as +at this period of Jerusalem's collapse, when, having +sentenced the people to death for their iniquity—<i>It +was revealed in mine ears by Jehovah of hosts, +Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till ye</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[327]</a></span> +<i>die, saith the Lord, Jehovah of hosts</i> (xxii. 14)—he +swings round on his promise of a little before—<i>Though +your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow</i>—and +to the people's penitence pronounces in the last verse +of chap. xxxiii. a final absolution: <i>The inhabitant shall +not say, I am sick; the people that dwell therein are +forgiven their iniquity</i>. If chap. xxxiii. be, as many think, +Isaiah's latest oracle, then we have the literal crown +of all his prophesying in these two words: <i>forgiven +iniquity</i>. It is as he put it early that same year: +<i>Come now and let us bring our reasoning to a close; +though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white +as snow: though they be red like crimson, they shall +be as wool</i>. If man is to have a future, this must be +the conclusion of all his past.</p> + +<p>But the absoluteness of God's pardon, making the +past as though it had not been, is not the only lesson +which the spiritual experience of Jerusalem in that +awful year of 701 has for us. Isaiah's gospel of +forgiveness is nothing less than this: that when God +gives pardon He gives Himself. The name of the +blessed future, which is entered through pardon—as +in that miniature, a child—is Immanuel: <i>God-with-us</i>. +And if it be correct that we owe the forty-sixth Psalm +to these months when the Assyrian came back upon +Jerusalem, then we see how the city, that had +abandoned God, is yet able to sing when she is pardoned, +<i>God is our refuge and our strength, a very present help +in the midst of troubles</i>. And this gospel of forgiveness +is not only Isaiah's. According to the whole Bible, +there is but one thing which separates man from God—that +is sin, and when sin is done away with, God +cannot be kept from man. In giving pardon to man, +God gives back to man Himself. How gloriously<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[328]</a></span> +evident this truth becomes in the New Testament! +Christ, who is set before us as the Lamb of God, who +beareth the sins of the world, is also Immanuel—God-with-us. +The Sacrament, which most plainly seals to +the believer the value of the One Sacrifice for sin, is the +Sacrament in which the believer feeds upon Christ and +appropriates Him. The sinner, who comes to Christ, +not only receives pardon for Christ's sake, but receives +Christ. Forgiveness means nothing less than this: +that in giving pardon God gives Himself.</p> + +<p>But if forgiveness mean all this, then the objections +frequently brought against a conveyance of it so unconditioned +as that of Isaiah fall to the ground. +Forgiveness of such a kind cannot be either unjust +or demoralising. On the contrary, we see Jerusalem +permoralised by it. At first, it is true, the sense of +weakness and fear abounds, as we learn from the +narrative in chaps. xxxvi. and xxxvii. But where +there was vanity, recklessness and despair, giving way +to dissipation, there is now humility, discipline and a +leaning upon God, that are led up to confidence and +exultation. Jerusalem's experience is just another proof +that any moral results are possible to so great a process +as the return of God to the soul. Awful is the +responsibility of them who receive such a Gift and +such a Guest; but the sense of that awfulness is the +atmosphere, in which obedience and holiness and the +courage that is born of both love best to grow. One +can understand men scoffing at messages of pardon so +unconditioned as Isaiah's, who think they "mean no +more than a clean slate." Taken in this sense, the +gospel of forgiveness must prove a savour of death +unto death. But just as Jerusalem interpreted the +message of her pardon to mean that <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[329]</a></span><i>God is in the midst +of her; she shall not be moved</i>, and straightway obedience +was in all her hearts, and courage upon all her walls, +so neither to us can be futile the New Testament form +of the same gospel, which makes our pardoned soul the +friend of God, accepted in the Beloved, and our body +His holy temple.</p> + +<p>Upon one other point connected with the forgiveness +of sins we get instruction from the experience of Jerusalem. +A man has difficulty in squaring his sense of +forgiveness with the return on the back of it of his old +temptations and trials, with the hostility of fortune and +with the inexorableness of nature. Grace has spoken to +his heart, but Providence bears more hard upon him +than ever. Pardon does not change the outside of life; +it does not immediately modify the movements of history, +or suspend the laws of nature. Although God has +forgiven Jerusalem, Assyria comes back to besiege her. +Although the penitent be truly reconciled to God, the +constitutional results of his fall remain: the frequency +of temptation, the power of habit, the bias and facility +downwards, the physical and social consequences. +Pardon changes none of these things. It does not +keep off the Assyrians.</p> + +<p>But if pardon means the return of God to the soul, +then in this we have the secret of the return of the +foe. Men could not try nor develop a sense of the +former except by their experience of the latter. We +have seen why Isaiah must have welcomed the perfidious +reappearance of the Assyrians after he had +helped to buy them off. Nothing could better test the +sincerity of Jerusalem's repentance, or rally her dissipated +forces. Had the Assyrians not returned, the +Jews would have had no experimental proof of God's +restored presence, and the great miracle would never<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[330]</a></span> +have happened that rang through human history for +evermore—a trumpet-call to faith in the God of Israel. +And so still <i>the Lord scourgeth every son whom He receiveth</i>, +because He would put our penitence to the test; +because He would discipline our disorganised affections, +and give conscience and will a chance of wiping out +defeat by victory; because He would baptize us with +the most powerful baptism possible—the sense of being +trusted once more to face the enemy upon the fields of +our disgrace.</p> + +<p>That is why the Assyrians came back to Jerusalem, +and that is why temptations and penalties still pursue +the penitent and forgiven.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[331]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXI.</h2> + +<h3><i>OUR GOD A CONSUMING FIRE.</i></h3> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> xxxiii. (701 <span class="smcap"><small>B.C.</small></span>).</p> + + +<p>We have seen how the sense of forgiveness +and the exultant confidence, which fill +chap. xxxiii., were brought about within a few +months after the sentence of death, that cast so deep +a gloom on chap. xxii. We have expounded some +of the contents of chap. xxxiii., but have not exhausted +the chapter; and in particular we have not touched one +of Isaiah's principles, which there finds perhaps its +finest expression: the consuming righteousness of +God.</p> + +<p>There is no doubt that chap. xxxiii. refers to the +sudden disappearance of the Assyrian from the walls +of Jerusalem. It was written, part perhaps on the eve +of that deliverance, part immediately after morning +broke upon the vanished host. Before those verses +which picture the disappearance of the investing army, +we ought in strict chronological order to take the +narrative in chaps. xxxvi. and xxxvii.—the return of +the besiegers, the insolence of the Rabshakeh, the +prostration of Hezekiah, Isaiah's solitary faith, and +the sudden disappearance of the Assyrian. It will be +more convenient, however, since we have already +entered chap. xxxiii., to finish it, and then to take the +narrative of the events which led up to it.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[332]</a></span>The opening verses of chap. xxxiii. fit the very +moment of the crisis, as if Isaiah had flung them +across the walls in the teeth of the Rabshakeh and the +second embassy from Sennacherib, who had returned +to demand the surrender of the city in spite of +Hezekiah's tribute for her integrity: <i>Woe to thee, thou +spoiler, and thou wast not spoiled, thou treacherous dealer, +and they did not deal treacherously with thee</i>! <i>When +thou ceasest to spoil, thou shalt be spoiled; and when thou +makest an end to deal treacherously, they shall deal +treacherously with thee.</i> Then follows the prayer, as +already quoted, and the confidence in the security +of Jerusalem (ver. 2). A new paragraph (vv. 7-12) +describes Rabshakeh and his company demanding the +surrender of the city; the disappointment of the +ambassadors who had been sent to treat with Sennacherib +(ver. 7); the perfidy of the great king, who +had broken the covenant they had made with him and +swept his armies back upon Judah (ver. 8); the disheartening +of the land under this new shock (ver. 9); +and the resolution of the Lord now to rise and scatter +the invaders: <i>Now will I arise, saith Jehovah; now will +I lift up Myself; now will I be exalted</i>. <i>Ye shall conceive +chaff; ye shall bring forth stubble; your breath is +a fire, that shall devour you. And the peoples shall be +as the burnings of lime, as thorns cut down that are +burned in the fire</i> (vv. 10-12).</p> + +<p>After an application of this same fire of God's +righteousness to the sinners <i>within</i> Jerusalem, to which +we shall presently return, the rest of the chapter +pictures the stunned populace awaking to the fact that +they are free. Is the Assyrian really gone, or do the +Jews dream as they crowd the walls, and see no trace +of him? Have they all vanished—the Rabshakeh, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[333]</a></span><i>by the +conduit of the upper pool, with his loud voice</i> and insults; +the scribes to whom they handed the tribute, and who +prolonged the agony by counting it under their eyes; +the scouts and engineers insolently walking about Zion +and mapping out her walls for the assault; the close +investment of barbarian hordes, with their awesome +speech and uncouth looks! <i>Where is he that counted? +where is he that weighed the tribute? where is he that +counted the towers? Thou shall not see the fierce people, a +people of a deep speech that thou canst not perceive, of a +strange tongue that thou canst not understand.</i> They +have vanished. Hezekiah may lift his head again. O +people—sore at heart to see thy king in sackcloth and +ashes<a name="FNanchor_63_63" id="FNanchor_63_63"></a><a href="#Footnote_63_63" class="fnanchor">[63]</a> as the enemy devoured province after province +of thy land and cooped thee up within the narrow +walls, thou scarcely didst dare to peep across—take +courage, the terror is gone! <i>A king in his beauty +thine eyes shall see; they shall behold the land spreading +very far forth</i> (ver. 17). We had thought to die in the +restlessness and horror of war, never again to know +what stable life and regular worship were, our Temple +services interrupted, our home a battlefield. But <i>look +upon Zion</i>; behold again <i>she is the city of our solemn +diets; thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, +a tent that shall not be removed, the stakes whereof shall +never be plucked up, neither shall the cords thereof be +broken. But there Jehovah</i>, whom we have known +only for affliction, <i>shall be in majesty for us</i>. Other +peoples have their natural defences, Assyria and +Egypt their Euphrates and Nile; but God Himself +shall be for us <i>a place of rivers, streams, broad on both +hands, on which never a galley shall go, nor gallant ship</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[334]</a></span> +<i>shall pass upon it</i>. Without sign of battle, God shall +be our refuge and our strength. It was that marvellous +deliverance of Jerusalem by the hand of God, +with no effort of human war, which caused Isaiah to +invest with such majesty the meagre rock, its squalid +surroundings and paltry defences. The insignificant +and waterless city was glorious to the prophet +because God was in her. One of the richest imaginations +which patriot ever poured upon his fatherland +was inspired by the simplest faith saint ever breathed. +Isaiah strikes again the old keynote (chap. viii.) +about the waterlessness of Jerusalem. We have to +keep in mind the Jews' complaints of this, in order +to understand what the forty-sixth Psalm means when +it says, <i>There is a river the streams whereof make glad +the city of our God, the holy place of the tabernacles of +the Most High</i>—or what Isaiah means when he says, +<i>Glorious shall Jehovah be unto us, a place of broad +rivers and streams</i>. Yea, he adds, Jehovah is everything +to us: Jehovah is our Judge; Jehovah is our Lawgiver; +Jehovah is our King: He will save us.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Such were the feelings aroused in Jerusalem by the +sudden relief of the city. Some of the verses, which +we have scarcely touched, we will now consider more +fully as the expression of a doctrine which runs +throughout Isaiah, and indeed is one of his two or +three fundamental truths—that the righteousness of +God is an all-pervading atmosphere, an atmosphere +that wears and burns.</p> + +<p>For forty years the prophet had been preaching to +the Jews his gospel, <i>God-with-us</i>; but they never +awakened to the reality of the Divine presence till they +saw it in the dispersion of the Assyrian army. Then<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[335]</a></span> +God became real to them (ver. 14). The justice of God, +preached so long by Isaiah, had always seemed something +abstract. Now they saw how concrete it was. +It was not only a doctrine: it was a fact. It was a fact +that was a fire. Isaiah had often called it a fire; they +thought this was rhetoric. But now they saw the +actual burning—<i>the peoples as the burning of lime, as +thorns cut down that are burned in the fire</i>. And when +they felt the fire so near, each sinner of them awoke to +the fact that he had something burnable in himself, +something which could as little stand the fire as the +Assyrians could. There was no difference in this fire +outside and inside the walls. What it burned there +it would burn here. Nay, was not Jerusalem the +dwelling-place of God, and Ariel the very hearth and +furnace of the fire which they saw consume the +Assyrians? <i>Who</i>, they cried in their terror—<i>Who +among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who +among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?</i></p> + +<p>We are familiar with Isaiah's fundamental God-with-us, +and how it was spoken not for mercy only, but for +judgement (chap. viii.). If <i>God-with-us</i> meant love with +us, salvation with us, it meant also holiness with us, +judgement with us, the jealousy of God breathing upon +what is impure, false and proud. Isaiah felt this so +hotly, that his sense of it has broken out into some of +the fieriest words in all prophecy. In his younger days +he told the citizens not <i>to provoke the eyes of God's +glory</i>, as if Heaven had fastened on their life two +gleaming orbs, not only to pierce them with its vision, +but to consume them with its wrath. Again, in the +lowering cloud of calamity he had seen <i>lips of indignation, +a tongue as a devouring fire</i>, and in the overflowing +stream which finally issued from it the hot<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[336]</a></span> +<i>breath of the Almighty</i>. These are unforgettable descriptions +of the ceaseless activity of Divine righteousness +in the life of man. They set our imaginations on +fire with the prophet's burning belief in this. But they +are excelled by another, more frequently used by Isaiah, +wherein he likens the holiness of God to an universal +and constant fire. To Isaiah life was so penetrated by +the active justice of God, that he described it as bathed +in fire, as blown through with fire. Righteousness was +no mere doctrine to this prophet: it was the most real +thing in history; it was the presence which pervaded +and explained all phenomena. We shall understand +the difference between Isaiah and his people if we have +ever for our eyes' sake looked at a great conflagration +through a coloured glass which allowed us to see the +solid materials—stone, wood and iron—but prevented us +from perceiving the flames and shimmering heat. To +look thus is to see pillars, lintels and cross-beams +twist and fall, crumble and fade; but how inexplicable +the process seems! Take away the glass, and everything +is clear. The fiery element is filling all the +interstices, that were blank to us before, and beating +upon the solid material. The heat becomes visible, +shimmering even where there is no flame. Just so had +it been with the sinners in Judah these forty years. +Their society and politics, individual fortunes and +careers, personal and national habits—the home, the +Church, the State—common outlines and shapes of life—were +patent to every eye, but no man could explain the +constant decay and diminution, because all were looking +at life through a glass darkly. Isaiah alone faced life +with open vision, which filled up for him the interstices +of experience and gave terrible explanation to fate. +It was a vision that nearly scorched the eyes out of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[337]</a></span> +him. Life as he saw it was steeped in flame—the +glowing righteousness of God. Jerusalem was full <i>of +the spirit of justice, the spirit of burning. The light of +Israel is for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame.</i> The +Assyrian empire, that vast erection which the strong +hands of kings had reared, was simply their pyre, made +ready for the burning. <i>For a Topheth is prepared of +old; yea, for the king it is made ready; He hath made it +deep and large; the pile thereof is fire and much wood; +the breath of Jehovah, like a stream of brimstone, doth +kindle it.</i><a name="FNanchor_64_64" id="FNanchor_64_64"></a><a href="#Footnote_64_64" class="fnanchor">[64]</a> So Isaiah saw life, and flashed it on his +countrymen. At last the glass fell from their eyes +also, and they cried aloud, <i>Who among us shall dwell +with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with +everlasting burnings?</i> Isaiah replied that there is +one thing which can survive the universal flame, +and that is character: <i>He that walketh righteously and +speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of fraud, +that shaketh his hands from the holding of bribes, that +stoppeth his ears from the hearing of blood, and shutteth +his eyes from looking on evil, he shall dwell on high: his +place of defence shall be the munitions of rocks: his bread +shall be given him: his water shall be sure.</i></p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Isaiah's Vision of Fire suggests two thoughts to us.</p> + +<p>1. Have we done well to confine our horror of the +consuming fires of righteousness to the next life? If we +would but use the eyes which Scripture lends us, the rifts +of prophetic vision and awakened conscience by which +the fogs of this world and of our own hearts are rent, we +should see fires as fierce, a consumption as pitiless, +about us here as ever the conscience of a startled<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[338]</a></span> +sinner fearfully looked for across the grave. Nay, +have not the fires, with which the darkness of eternity +has been made lurid, themselves been kindled at the +burnings of this life? Is it not because men have felt +how hot this world was being made for sin that they +have had a <i>certain fearful expectation of judgement and +the fierceness of fire</i>? We shudder at the horrible +pictures of hell which some older theologians and poets +have painted for us; but it was not morbid fancy, +nor the barbarism of their age nor their own heart's +cruelty that inspired these men. It was their hot +honour for the Divine holiness; it was their experience +of how pitiless to sin Providence is already in this life; it +was their own scorched senses and affections—brands, as +many honest men among them felt themselves, plucked +from the burning. Our God <i>is</i> a consuming fire—here +as well as yonder. Hell has borrowed her glare from +the imagination of men aflame with the real fieriness +of life, and may be—more truly than of old—pictured as +the dead and hollow cinder left by those fires, of which, +as every true man's conscience is aware, this life is full. +It was not hell that created conscience; it was conscience +that created hell, and conscience was fired by the vision +which fired Isaiah—of all life aglow with the righteousness +of God—<i>God with us</i>, as He was with Jerusalem, +<i>a spirit of burning and a spirit of justice</i>. This is the +pantheism of conscience, and it stands to reason. God is +the one power of life. What can exist beside Him except +what is like Him? Nothing—sooner or later nothing +but what is like Him. The will that is as His will, the +heart that is pure, the character that is transparent—only +these dwell with the everlasting fire, and burning +with God, as the bush which Moses saw, are nevertheless +not consumed. Let us lay it to heart—Isaiah has<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[339]</a></span> +nothing to tell us about hell-fire, but a great deal about +the pitiless justice of God in this life.</p> + +<p>2. The second thought suggested by Isaiah's Vision of +Life is a comparison of it with the theory of life which +is fashionable to-day. Isaiah's figure for life was a burning. +Ours is a battle, and at first sight ours looks the +truer. Seen through a formula which has become +everywhere fashionable, life is a fierce and fascinating +warfare. Civilised thought, when asked to describe +any form of life or to account for a death or survival, +most monotonously replies, "The struggle for existence." +The sociologist has borrowed the phrase from the +biologist, and it is on everybody's lips to describe their +idea of human life. It is uttered by the historian when +he would explain the disappearance of this national type, +the prevalence of that one. The economist traces depression +and failures, the fatal fevers of speculation, the +cruelties and bad humours of commercial life, to the +same source. A merchant with profits lessening and +failure before him relieves his despair and apologizes to +his pride with the words, "It is all due to competition." +Even character and the spiritual graces are sometimes +set down as results of the same material process. Some +have sought to deduce from it all intelligence, others +more audaciously all ethics; and it is certain that in +the silence of men's hearts after a moral defeat there +is no excuse more frequently offered to conscience by +will than that the battle was too hot.</p> + +<p>But fascinating as life is when seen through this +formula, does not the formula act on our vision +precisely as the glass we supposed, which when we +look through it on a conflagration shows us the solid +matter and the changes through which this passes, +but hides from us the real agent? One need not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[340]</a></span> +deny the reality of the struggle for existence, or that +its results are enormous. We struggle with each other, +and affect each other for good and for evil, sometimes +past all calculation. But we do not fight in a vacuum. +Let Isaiah's vision be the complement of our own feeling. +We fight in an atmosphere that affects every one of +us far more powerfully than the opposing wits or wills +of our fellow-men. Around us and through us, within +and without as we fight, is the all-pervading righteousness +of God; and it is far oftener the effects of this +which we see in the falls and the changes of life than +the effects of our struggle with each other, enormous +though these may be. On this point there is an exact +parallel between our days and the days of Isaiah. Then +the politicians of Judah, looking through their darkened +glass at life, said, Life is simply a war in which the +strongest prevail, a game which the most cunning win. +So they made fast their alliances, and were ready to +meet the Assyrian, or they fled in panic before him, +according as Egypt or he seemed the stronger. Isaiah +saw that with Assyrian and Jew another Power was +present—the real reason of every change in politics, +collapse or crash in either of the empires—the active +righteousness of God. Assyrian and Jew had not +only to contend with each other. They were at +strife with Him. We now see plainly that Isaiah was +right. Far more operative than the intrigues of +politicians or the pride of Assyria, because it used +these simply as its mines and its fuel, was the law of +righteousness, the spiritual force which is as impalpable +as the atmosphere, yet strong to burn and try as a furnace +seven times heated. And Isaiah is equally right for to-day. +As we look at life through our fashionable formula +it does seem a mass of struggle, in which we catch<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[341]</a></span> +only now and then a glimpse of the decisions of righteousness, +but the prevailing lawlessness of which we +do not hesitate to make the reason of all that happens, +and in particular the excuse of our own defeats. We +are wrong. Righteousness is not an occasional spark; +righteousness is the atmosphere. Though our dull eyes +see it only now and then strike into flame in the battle +of life, and take for granted that it is but the flash of +meeting wits or of steel on steel, God's justice is everywhere, +pervasive and pitiless, affecting the combatants +far more than they have power to affect one another.</p> + +<p>We shall best learn the truth of this in the way the +sinners in Jerusalem learned it—each man first looking +into himself. <i>Who among us shall dwell with the everlasting +burnings?</i> Can we attribute all our defeats to +the opposition that was upon us at the moment they +occurred? When our temper failed, when our charity +relaxed, when our resoluteness gave way, was it the +hotness of debate, was it the pressure of the crowd, +was it the sneer of the scorner, that was to blame? +We all know that these were only the occasions of our +defeats. Conscience tells us that the cause lay in a +slothful or self-indulgent heart, which the corrosive +atmosphere of Divine righteousness had been consuming, +and which, sapped and hollow by its effect, +gave way at every material shock.</p> + +<p>With the knowledge that conscience gives us, let us +now look at a kind of figure which must be within the +horizon of all of us. Once it was the most commanding +stature among its fellows, the straight back and +broad brow of a king of men. But now what is the +last sight of him that will remain with us, flung out +there against the evening skies of his life? A bent back +(we speak of character), a stooping face, the shrinking<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[342]</a></span> +outlines of a man ready to collapse. It was not the +struggle for existence that killed him, for he was born +to prevail in it. It was the atmosphere that told on +him. He carried in him that on which the atmosphere +could not but tell. A low selfishness or passion inhabited +him, and became the predominant part of him, +so that his outward life was only its shell; and when +the fire of God at last pierced this, he was as thorns +cut down, that are burned in the fire.</p> + +<p>We can explain much with the outward eye, but the +most of the explanation lies beyond. Where our knowledge +of a man's life ends, the great meaning of it often +only begins. All the vacancy beyond the outline we see +is full of that meaning. God is there, and <i>God is a +consuming fire</i>. Let us not seek to explain lives only +by what we see of them, the visible strife of man with +man and nature. It is the invisible that contains the +secret of what is seen. We see the shoulders stoop, +but not the burden upon them; the face darken, but +look in vain for what casts the shadow; the light sparkle +in the eye, but cannot tell what star of hope its glance +has caught. And even so when we behold fortune and +character go down in the warfare of this world, we ought +to remember that it is not always the things we see that +are to blame for the fall, but that awful flame which, +unseen by common man, has been revealed to the +prophets of God.</p> + +<p>Righteousness and retribution, then, are an atmosphere—not +lines or laws that we may happen to stumble +upon, not explosives, that, being touched, burst out on +us, but the atmosphere—always about us and always +at work, invisible and yet more mighty than aught we +see. <i>God, in whom we live and move and have our being, +is a consuming fire.</i></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[343]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXII.</h2> + +<h3><i>THE RABSHAKEH; OR, LAST TEMPTATIONS OF FAITH.</i></h3> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> xxxvi. (701 <span class="smcap"><small>B.C.</small></span>).</p> + + +<p>It remains for us now to follow in chaps. xxxvi., +xxxvii., the historical narrative of the events, the +moral results of which we have seen so vivid in chap. +xxxiii.—the perfidious return of the Assyrians to Jerusalem +after Hezekiah had bought them off and their +final disappearance from the Holy Land.</p> + +<p>This historical narrative has also its moral. It is not +annals, but drama. The whole moral of Isaiah's prophesying +is here flung into a duel between champions of +the two tempers, which we have seen in perpetual conflict +throughout his book. The two tempers are—on Isaiah's +side an absolute and unselfish faith in God, Sovereign of +the world and Saviour of His people; on the side of +the Assyrians a bare, brutal confidence in themselves, in +human cleverness and success, a vaunting contempt of +righteousness and of pity. The main interest of Isaiah's +book has consisted in the way these tempers oppose each +other, and alternately influence the feeling of the Jewish +community. That interest is now to culminate in the +scene which brings near such thorough representatives +of the two tempers as Isaiah and the Rabshakeh, with +the crowd of wavering Jews between. Most strikingly, +Assyria's last assault is not of force, but of speech, delivering +upon faith the subtle arguments of the worldly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[344]</a></span> +temper; and as strikingly, while all official religion and +power of State stand helpless against them, these arguments +are met by the bare word of God. In this mere +statement of the situation, however, we perceive that +much more than the quarrel of a single generation is +being decided. This scene is a parable of the everlasting +struggle between faith and force, with doubt +and despair between them. In the clever, self-confident, +persuasive personage with two languages on his tongue +and an army at his back; in the fluttered representatives +of official religion who meet him and are afraid of the +effect of his speech on the common people; in the ranks +of dispirited men who hear the dialogue from the wall; +in the sensitive king so aware of faith, and yet so helpless +to bring faith forth to peace and triumph; and, in +the background of the whole situation, the serene prophet +of God, grasping only God's word, and by his own steadfastness +carrying the city over the crisis and proving +that faith indeed can be <i>the substance of things hoped +for</i>—we have a phase of the struggle ordained unto every +generation of men, and which is as fresh to-day as when +Rabshakeh played the cynic and the scribes and elders +filled the part of nervous defenders of the faith, under +the walls of faith's fortress, two thousand five hundred +years ago.</p> + + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Rabshakeh.</span></p> + +<p>This word is a Hebrew transliteration of the Assyrian +Rab-sak, <i>chief of the officers</i>. Though there is some +doubt on the point, we may naturally presume from the +duties he here discharges that the Rabshakeh was a +civilian—probably the civil commissioner or political +officer attached to the Assyrian army, which was commanded,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[345]</a></span> +according to 2 Kings xviii. 16, by the Tartan +or commander-in-chief himself.</p> + +<p>In all the Bible there is not a personage more clever +than this Rabshakeh, nor more typical. He was an +able deputy of the king who sent him, but he represented +still more thoroughly the temper of the civilisation +to which he belonged. There is no word of this man +which is not characteristic. A clever, fluent diplomatist, +with the traveller's knowledge of men and the conqueror's +contempt for them, the Rabshakeh is the +product of a victorious empire like the Assyrian, or, +say, like the British. Our services sometimes turn out +the like of him—a creature able to speak to natives +in their own language, full and ready of information, +mastering the surface of affairs at a glance, but always +baffled by the deeper tides which sway nations; a deft +player upon party interests and the superficial human +passions, but unfit to touch the deep springs of men's +religion and patriotism. Let us speak, however, with +respect of the Rabshakeh. From his rank (Sayce calls +him the Vizier), as well as from the cleverness with which +he explains what we know to have been the policy +of Sennacherib towards the populations of Syria, he +may well have been the inspiring mind at this time +of the great Assyrian empire—Sennacherib's Bismarck.</p> + +<p>The Rabshakeh had strutted down from the great +centre of civilisation, with its temper upon him, and all +its great resources at his back, confident to twist these +poor provincial tribes round his little finger. How +petty he conceived them we infer from his never styling +Hezekiah <i>the king</i>. This was to be an occasion for +the Rabshakeh's own glorification. Jerusalem was to +fall to his clever speeches. He had indeed the army<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[346]</a></span> +behind him, but the work to be done was not the rough +work of soldiers. All was to be managed by him, the +civilian and orator. This fellow, with his two languages +and clever address, was to step out in front of the +army and finish the whole business.</p> + +<p>The Rabshakeh spoke extremely well. With his +first words he touched the sore point of Judah's policy: +her trust in Egypt. On this he spoke like a very Isaiah. +But he showed a deeper knowledge of Judah's internal +affairs, and a subtler deftness in using it, when he +referred to the matter of the altars. Hezekiah had +abolished the high places in all parts of the land, and +gathered the people to the central sanctuary in Jerusalem. +The Assyrian knew that a number of Jews must look +upon this disestablishment of religion in the provinces +as likely to incur Jehovah's displeasure and turn Him +against them. Therefore he said, <i>But if thou say unto +me, We trust in Jehovah our God, is not that He whose +high places and whose altars Hezekiah hath taken away, and +hath said to Judah and to Jerusalem, Ye shall worship +before this altar?</i> And then, having shaken their religious +confidence, he made sport of their military strength. And +finally he boldly asserted, <i>Jehovah said unto me, Go up +against this land and destroy it</i>. All this shows a master +in diplomacy, a most clever demagogue. The scribes +and elders felt the edge, and begged him to sheathe it +in a language unknown to the common people. But he, +conscious of his power, spoke the more boldly, addressing +himself directly to the poorer sort of the garrison, on +whom the siege would press most heavily. His second +speech to them is a good illustration of the policy pursued +by Assyria at this time towards the cities of Palestine. +We know from the annals of Sennacherib that his customary +policy, to seduce the populations of a hostile State<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[347]</a></span> +from allegiance to their rulers, had succeeded in other +cases; and it was so plausibly uttered in this case, that +it seemed likely to succeed again. To the common soldiers +on the walls, with the prospect of being reduced to the +foul rations of a prolonged siege (ver. 12), Sennacherib's +ambassador offers rich and equal property and enjoyment. +<i>Make a treaty with me, and come out to me, and +eat every one of his vine and every one of his fig +tree, and drink ye every one of the water of his cistern, until +I come and take you away to a land like your own land, +a land of corn and grapes, a land of bread-corn and +orchards. Every one</i>!—it is a most subtle assault upon +the discipline, comradeship and patriotism of the common +soldiers by the promises of a selfish, sensuous equality +and individualism. But then the speaker's native +cynicism gets the better of him—it is not possible for +an Assyrian long to play the part of clemency—and, +with a flash of scorn, he asks the sad men upon the walls +whether they really believe that Jehovah can save them: +<i>Hath any of the gods of the nations delivered his land out +of the hand of the King of Assyria, ... that Jehovah +should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?</i> All the range +of their feelings does he thus run through, seeking +with sharp words to snap each cord of faith in God, +of honour to the king and love of country. Had the +Jews heart to answer him, they might point out the +inconsistency between his claim to have been sent by +Jehovah and the contempt he now pours upon their +God. But the inconsistency is characteristic. The +Assyrian has some acquaintance with the Jewish faith; +he makes use of its articles when they serve his +purpose, but his ultimatum is to tear them to shreds in +their believers' faces. He treats the Jews as men of +culture still sometimes treat barbarians, first scornfully<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[348]</a></span> +humouring their faith and then savagely trampling it +under foot.</p> + +<p>So clever were the speeches of the Rabshakeh. We +see why he was appointed to this mission. He was an +expert both in the language and religion of this tribe, +perched on its rock in the remote Judæan highlands. +For a foreigner he showed marvellous familiarity with the +temper and internal jealousies of the Jewish religion. He +turned these on each other almost as adroitly as Paul +himself did in the disputes between Sadducees and +Pharisees. How the fellow knew his cleverness, strutting +there betwixt army and town! He would show his +soldier friends the proper way of dealing with stubborn +barbarians. He would astonish those faith-proud highlanders +by exhibiting how much he was aware of the life +behind their thick walls and silent faces, <i>for the king's +commandment was, Answer him not</i>.</p> + +<p>And yet did the Rabshakeh, with all his raking, +know the heart of Judah? No, truly. The whole +interest of this man is the incongruity of the expertness +and surface-knowledge, which he spattered on +Jerusalem's walls, with the deep secret of God, that, as +some inexhaustible well, the fortress of the faith carried +within her. Ah, Assyrian, there is more in starved +Jerusalem than thou canst put in thy speeches! Suppose +Heaven were to give those sharp eyes of thine +power to look through the next thousand years, and see +this race and this religion thou puffest at, the highest-honoured, +hottest-hated of the world, centre of mankind's +regard and debate, but thou, and thy king and +all the glory of your empire wrapped deep in oblivion. +To this little fortress of highland men shall the heart of +great peoples turn: kings for its nursing-fathers and +queens for its nursing-mothers, the forces of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[349]</a></span> +Gentiles shall come to it, and from it new civilisations +take their laws; while thou and all thy paraphernalia +disappear into blackness, haunted only by the +antiquary, the world taking an interest in thee just +in so far as thou didst once hopelessly attempt to +understand Jerusalem and capture her faith by thine +own interpretation of it. Curious pigmy, very grand +thou thinkest thyself, and surely with some right +as delegate of the king of kings, parading thy cleverness +and thy bribes before these poor barbarians; +but the world, called to look upon you both from this +eminence of history, grants thee to be a very good +head of an intelligence department, with a couple of +languages on thy glib tongue's end, but adjudges that +with the starved and speechless men before thee lies +the secret of all that is worth living and dying for in +this world.</p> + +<p>The Rabshakeh's plausible futility and Jerusalem's +faith, greatly distressed before him, are typical. Still as +men hang moodily over the bulwarks of Zion, doubtful +whether life is worth living within the narrow limits +which religion prescribes, or righteousness worth fighting +for with such privations and hope deferred, comes +upon them some elegant and plausible temptation, loudly +calling to give the whole thing up. Disregarding the +official arguments and evidences that push forward to +parley, it speaks home in practical tones to men's real +selves—their appetites and selfishnesses. "You are +foolish fellows," it says, "to confine yourselves to such +narrowness of life and self-denial! The fall of your +faith is only a matter of time: other creeds have gone; +yours must follow. And why fight the world for the +sake of an idea, or from the habits of a discipline? +Such things only starve the human spirit; and the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[350]</a></span> +world is so generous, so free to every one, so tolerant +of each enjoying his own, unhampered by authority +or religion."</p> + +<p>In our day what has the greatest effect on the faith +of many men is just this mixture, that pervades the +Rabshakeh's address,—of a superior culture pretending +to expose religion, with the easy generosity, which +offers to the individual a selfish life, unchecked by +any discipline or religious fear. That modern Rabshakeh, +Ernest Rénan, with the forces of historical +criticism at his back, but confident rather in his own +skill of address, speaking to us believers as poor +picturesque provincials, patronising our Deity, and +telling us that he knows His intentions better than +we do ourselves, is a very good representative of +the enemies of the Faith, who owe their impressiveness +upon common men to the familiarity they display +with the contents of the Faith, and the independent, easy +life they offer to the man who throws his strict faith off. +Superior knowledge, with the offer on its lips of a life +on good terms with the rich and tolerant world—pretence +of science promising selfishness—that is to-day, +as then under the walls of Jerusalem, the typical +enemy of the Faith. But if faith be held simply as +the silent garrison of Jerusalem held it, faith in a +Lord God of righteousness, who has given us a conscience +to serve Him, and has spoken to us in plain explanation +of this by those whom we can see, understand +and trust—not only by an Isaiah, but by a Jesus—then +neither mere cleverness nor the ability to promise +comfort can avail against our faith. A simple +conscience of God and of duty may not be able to answer +subtle arguments word for word, but she can feel the +incongruity of their cleverness with her own precious<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[351]</a></span> +secret; she can at least expose the fallacy of their +sensuous promises of an untroubled life. No man, who +tempts us from a good conscience with God in the discipline +of our religion and the comradeship of His people, +can ensure that there will be no starvation in the pride +of life, no captivity in the easy tolerance of the world. +To the heart of man there will always be captivity in +selfishness; there will always be exile in unbelief. +Even where the romance and sentiment of faith are +retained, after the manner of Rénan, it is only to mock +us with mirage. <i>As in a dry and thirsty land, where no +water is, our heart and flesh shall cry out for the living +God, as we have aforetime seen Him in the sanctuary.</i> +The land, in which the tempter promises a life undisturbed +by religious restraints, is not our home, neither is +it freedom. By the conscience that is in us, God has set +us on the walls of faith, with His law to observe, with +His people to stand by; and against us are the world and +its tempters, with all their wiles to be defied. If we go +down from the charge and shelter of so simple a religion, +then, whatever enjoyment we have, we shall enjoy it only +with the fears of the deserter and the greed of the slave.</p> + +<p>In spite of scorn and sensuous promise from Rabshakeh +to Rénan, let us lift the hymn which these +silent Jews at last lifted from the walls of their delivered +city: <i>Walk about Zion and go round about her; tell ye +the towers thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks, and consider +her palaces, that ye may tell it to the generation to +come. For this God is our God for ever and ever. He +will be our Guide even unto death.</i></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[352]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXIII.</h2> + +<h3><i>THIS IS THE VICTORY.... OUR FAITH.</i></h3> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> xxxvii. (701 <span class="smcap"><small>B.C.</small></span>).</p> + + +<p>Within the fortress of the faith there is only +silence and embarrassment. We pass from +the Rabshakeh, posing outside the walls of Zion, to +Hezekiah, prostrate within them. We pass with the +distracted councillors, by the walls crowded with moody +and silent soldiers, many of them—if this be the +meaning of the king's command that they should not +parley—only too ready to yield to the plausible infidel. +We are astonished. Has faith nothing to say for +herself? Have this people of so long Divine inspiration +no habit of self-possession, no argument in +answer to the irrelevant attacks of their enemy? +Where are the traditions of Moses and Joshua, the +songs of Deborah and David? Can men walk about +Zion, and their very footsteps on her walls ring out no +defiance?</p> + +<p>Hezekiah's complaint reminds us that in this silence +and distress we have no occasional perplexity of +faith, but her perpetual burden. Faith is inarticulate +because of her greatness. Faith is courageous and +imaginative; but can she convert her confidence and +visions into fact? Said Hezekiah, <i>This is a day of +trouble, and rebuke and contumely, for the children are</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[353]</a></span> +<i>come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring +them forth</i>. These words are not a mere metaphor +for anguish. They are the definition of a real miscarriage. +In Isaiah's contemporaries faith has at last +engendered courage, zeal for God's house and strong +assurance of victory; but she, that has proved fertile +to conceive and carry these confidences, is powerless to +bring them forth into real life, to transform them to +actual fact. Faith, complains Hezekiah, is not the +substance of things hoped for. At the moment when +her subjective assurances ought to be realized as facts, +she is powerless to bring them to the birth.</p> + +<p>It is a miscarriage we are always deploring. Wordsworth +has said, "Through love, through hope, through +faith's transcendent dower, we feel that we are greater +than we know." Yes, greater than we can articulate, +greater than we can tell to men like the Rabshakeh, even +though he talk the language of the Jews; and therefore, +on the whole, it is best to be silent in face of his +argument. But greater also, we sometimes fear, than +we can realise to ourselves in actual character and +victory. All life thrills with the pangs of inability to +bring the children of faith to the birth of experience. +The man, who has lost his faith or who takes his faith +easily, never knows, of course, this anguish of Hezekiah. +But the more we have fed on the promises of the Bible, +the more that the Spirit of God has engendered in our +pure hearts assurances of justice and of peace, the more +we shall sometimes tremble with the fear that in outward +fact there is no life for these beautiful conceptions +of the soul. Do we really believe in the Fatherhood +of God—believe in it till it has changed us +inwardly, and we carry a new sense of destiny, a new +conscience of justice, a new disgust of sin, a new pity<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[354]</a></span> +for pain? Then how full of the anguish of impotence +must our souls feel when they consciously survey one +day of common life about us, or when we honestly look +back on a year of our own conduct! Does it not seem +as if upon one or two hideous streets in some centre of +our civilisation all Christianity, with its eighteen hundred +years of promise and impetus, had gone to wreck? +Is God only for the imagination of man? Is there no +God outwardly to control and grant victory? Is He +only a Voice, and not the Creator? Is Christ only a +Prophet, and not the King?</p> + +<p>And then over these disappointments there faces us +all the great miscarriage itself—black, inevitable death. +Hezekiah cried from despair that the Divine assurance +of the permanence of God's people in the world was +about to be wrecked on fact. But often by a deathbed +we utter the same lament about the individual's +immortality. There is everything to prove a future +life except the fact of it within human experience. +This life is big with hopes, instincts, convictions of immortality; +and yet where within our sight have these +ever passed to the birth of fact?<a name="FNanchor_65_65" id="FNanchor_65_65"></a><a href="#Footnote_65_65" class="fnanchor">[65]</a> Death is a great +miscarriage. <i>The children have come to the birth, and +there is not strength to bring them forth.</i></p> + +<p>And yet within the horizon of this life at least—the +latter part of the difficulty we postpone to another +chapter—<i>faith is the substance of things hoped for</i>, as +Isaiah did now most brilliantly prove. For the miracle +of Jerusalem's deliverance, to which the narrative +proceeds, was not that by faith the prophet foretold +it, but that by faith he did actually himself succeed in +bringing it to pass. The miracle, we say, was not that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[355]</a></span> +Isaiah made accurate prediction of the city's speedy +relief from the Assyrian, but far more that upon his +solitary steadfastness, without aid of battle, he did +carry her disheartened citizens through this crisis of +temptation, and kept them, though silent, to their walls +till the futile Assyrian drifted away. The prediction, +indeed, was not, although its terms appear exact, so +very marvellous for a prophet to make, who had Isaiah's +religious conviction that Jerusalem must survive and +Isaiah's practical acquaintance with the politics of the +day. <i>Behold, I am setting in him a spirit; and he shall +hear a rumour, and shall return into his own land.</i> We +may recall the parallel case of Charlemagne in his campaign +against the Moors in Spain, from which he was +suddenly and unseasonably hastened north on a disastrous +retreat by news of the revolt of the Saxons.<a name="FNanchor_66_66" id="FNanchor_66_66"></a><a href="#Footnote_66_66" class="fnanchor">[66]</a> +In the vast Assyrian territories rebellions were constantly +occurring, that demanded the swift appearance +of the king himself; and God's Spirit, to whose inspiration +Isaiah traced all political perception, suggested +to him the possibility of one of these. In the end, +the Bible story implies that it was not a rumour from +some far-away quarter so much as a disaster here in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[356]</a></span> +Syria, which compelled Sennacherib's "retreat from +Moscow." But it is possible that both causes were at +work, and that as Napoleon offered the receipt of news +from Paris as his reason for hurriedly abandoning the +unfortunate Spanish campaign of 1808, so Sennacherib +made the rumour of some news from his capital or the +north the occasion for turning his troops from a theatre +of war, where they had not met with unequivocal +success, and had at last been half destroyed by the +plague. Isaiah's further prediction of Sennacherib's +death must also be taken in a general sense, for it was +not till twenty years later that the Assyrian tyrant met +this violent end: <i>I will cause him to fall by the sword in +his own land</i>. But do not let us waste our attention +on the altogether minor point of the prediction of Jerusalem's +deliverance, when the great wonder, of which +the prediction is but an episode, lies lengthened and +manifest before us—that Isaiah, when all the defenders +of Jerusalem were distracted and her king prostrate, +did by the single steadfastness of his spirit sustain her +inviolate, and procure for her people a safe and glorious +future.</p> + +<p>The baffled Rabshakeh returned to his master, +whom he found at Libnah, <i>for he had heard that he +had broken up from Lachish</i>. Sennacherib, the +narrative would seem to imply, did not trouble +himself further about Jerusalem till he learned that +Tirhakah, the Ethiopian ruler of Egypt, was marching +to meet him with probably a stronger force than that +which Sennacherib had defeated at Eltekeh. Then, +feeling the danger of leaving so strong a fortress as +Jerusalem in his rear, Sennacherib sent to Hezekiah one +more demand for surrender. Hezekiah spread his +enemy's letter before the Lord. His prayer that follows<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[357]</a></span> +is remarkable for two features, which enable us to see how +pure and elevated a monotheism God's Spirit had at last +developed from the national faith of Israel. The Being +whom the king now seeks he addresses by the familiar +name <i>Jehovah of hosts, God of Israel</i>, and describes by +the physical figure—<i>who art enthroned upon the cherubim</i>. +But he conceives of this God with the utmost loftiness +and purity, ascribing to Him not only sovereignty and +creatorship, but absolute singularity of Godhead. We +have but to compare Hezekiah's prayer with the utterances +of his predecessor Ahaz, to whom many gods +were real, and none absolutely sovereign, or with the +utterances of Israelites far purer than Ahaz, to whom +the gods of the nations, though inferior to Jehovah, +were yet real existences, in order to mark the spiritual +advance made by Israel under Isaiah. It is a tribute to +the prophet's force, which speaks volumes, when the +deputation from Hezekiah talk to him of <i>thy God</i> (ver. 4). +For Isaiah by his ministry had made Israel's God to be +new in Israel's eyes.</p> + +<p>Hezekiah's lofty prayer drew forth through the prophet +an answer from Jehovah (vv. 21-32). This is one of +the most brilliant of Isaiah's oracles. It is full of much, +with which we are now familiar: the triumph of the +inviolable fortress, <i>the virgin daughter of Zion</i>, and her +scorn of the arrogant foe; the prophet's appreciation of +Asshur's power and impetus, which only heightens his +conviction that Asshur is but an instrument in the hand +of God; the old figure of the enemy's sudden check as +of a wild animal by hook and bridle; his inevitable +retreat to the north. But these familiar ideas are flung +off with a terseness and vivacity, which bear out the +opinion that here we have a prophecy of Isaiah, not +revised and elaborated for subsequent publication, like<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[358]</a></span> +the rest of his book, but in its original form, struck quickly +forth to meet the city's sudden and urgent prayer.</p> + +<p>The new feature of this prophecy is the sign added to +it (ver. 30). This sign reminds us of that which in +opposite terms described to Ahaz the devastation of +Judah by the approaching Assyrians (chap. vii.). The +wave of Assyrian war is about to roll away again, and +Judah to resume her neglected agriculture, but not quite +immediately. During this year of 701 it has been +impossible, with the Assyrians in the land, to sow the +seed, and the Jews have been dependent on the precarious +crop of what had fallen from the harvest of the +previous year and sown itself—<i>saphîah</i>, or <i>aftergrowth</i>. +Next year, it being now too late to sow for next year's +harvest, they must be content with the <i>shahîs—wild corn, +that which springs of itself. But the third year sow ye, +and reap, and plant vineyards and eat the fruit thereof.</i> +Perhaps we ought not to interpret these numbers +literally. The use of three gives the statement a formal +and general aspect, as if the prophet only meant, It may +be not quite at once that we get rid of the Assyrians; +but when they do go, then they go for good, and you +may till your land again without fear of their return. +Then rings out the old promise, so soon now to be +accomplished, about <i>the escaped</i> and <i>the remnant</i>; and +the great pledge of the promise is once more repeated: +<i>The zeal of Jehovah of hosts will perform this</i>. With +this exclamation, as in ix. 7, the prophecy reaches a +natural conclusion; and vv. 33-35 may have been +uttered by Isaiah a little later, when he was quite sure +that the Assyrian would not even attempt to repeat his +abandoned blockade of Jerusalem.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>At last in a single night the deliverance miraculously<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[359]</a></span> +came. It is implied by the scattered accounts of those +days of salvation, that an Assyrian corps continued to +sit before Jerusalem even after the Rabshakeh had returned +to the headquarters of Sennacherib. The thirty-third +of Isaiah, as well as those Psalms which celebrate +the Assyrian's disappearance from Judah, describe it as +having taken place from under the walls of Jerusalem +and the astonished eyes of her guardians. It was not, +however, upon this force—perhaps little more than a +brigade of observation (xxxiii. 18)—that the calamity +fell which drove Sennacherib so suddenly from Syria. +<i>And there went forth</i> (<i>that night</i>, adds the book of Kings) +<i>the angel of Jehovah; and he smote in the camp of Assyria +one hundred and eighty-five thousand; and when the camp +arose in the morning, behold all of them were corpses, dead +men. And Sennacherib, King of Assyria, broke up, and +returned and dwelt in Nineveh.</i> Had this pestilence +dispersed the camp that lay before Jerusalem, and left +beneath the walls so considerable a number of corpses, +the exclamations of surprise at the sudden disappearance +of Assyria, which occur in Isa. xxxiii. and in Psalms +xlviii. and lxxvi., could hardly have failed to betray the +fact. But these simply speak of vague <i>trouble</i> coming +<i>upon them that were assembled about Zion</i>, and of their +swift decampment. The trouble was the news of the +calamity, whose victims were the main body of the +Assyrian army, who had been making for the borders +of Egypt, but were now scattered northwards like chaff.</p> + +<p>For details of this disaster we look in vain, of course, +to the Assyrian annals, which only record Sennacherib's +abrupt return to Nineveh. But it is remarkable that +the histories of both of his chief rivals in this campaign, +Judah and Egypt, should contain independent reminiscences +of so sudden and miraculous a disaster to his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[360]</a></span> +host. From Egyptian sources there has come down +through Herodotus (ii. 14), a story that a king of Egypt, +being deserted by the military caste, when "Sennacherib +King of the Arabs and Assyrians" invaded his country, +entered his sanctuary and appealed with weeping to his +god; that the god appeared and cheered him, that +he raised an army of artisans and marched to meet +Sennacherib in Pelusium; that by night a multitude of +field-mice ate up the quivers, bow-strings and shield-straps +of the Assyrians; and that, as these fled on the +morrow, very many of them fell. A stone statue of the +king, adds Herodotus, stood in the temple of Hephæstus, +having a mouse in the hand. Now, since the mouse +was a symbol of sudden destruction, and even of the +plague, this story of Herodotus seems to be merely +a picturesque form of a tradition that pestilence broke +out in the Assyrian camp. The parallel with the Bible +narrative is close. In both accounts it is a prayer of +the king that prevails. In both the Deity sends His +agent—in the grotesque Egyptian an army of mice, +in the sublime Jewish His angel. In both the effects +are sudden, happening in a single night. From the +Assyrian side we have this corroboration: that Sennacherib +did abruptly return to Nineveh without taking +Jerusalem or meeting with Tirhakah, and that, though +he reigned for twenty years more, he never again made +a Syrian campaign. Sennacherib's convenient story of +his return may be compared to the ambiguous account +which Cæsar gives of his first withdrawal from Britain, +laying emphasis on the submission of the tribes as his +reason for a swift return to France—a return which was +rather due to the destruction of his fleet by storm and +the consequent uneasiness of his army. Or, as we have +already said, Sennacherib's account may be compared<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[361]</a></span> +to Napoleon's professed reason for his sudden abandonment +of his Spanish campaign and his quick return to +Paris in 1808.</p> + +<p>The neighbourhood in which the Assyrian army +suffered this great disaster<a name="FNanchor_67_67" id="FNanchor_67_67"></a><a href="#Footnote_67_67" class="fnanchor">[67]</a> was notorious in antiquity +for its power of pestilence. Making every +allowance for the untutored imagination of the ancients, +we must admit the Serbonian bog, between Syria and +Egypt, to have been a place terrible for filth and +miasma. The noxious vapours travelled far; but the +plagues, with which this swamp several times desolated +the world, were first engendered among the diseased +and demoralised populations, whose villages festered +upon its margin. A Persian army was decimated +here in the middle of the fourth century before Christ. +"The fatal disease which depopulated the earth in the +time of Justinian and his successors first appeared in +the neighbourhood of Pelusium, between the Serbonian +bog and the eastern channel of the Nile."<a name="FNanchor_68_68" id="FNanchor_68_68"></a><a href="#Footnote_68_68" class="fnanchor">[68]</a> To the +north of the bog the Crusaders also suffered from the +infection. It is, therefore, very probable that the moral +terror of this notorious neighbourhood, as well as its +malaria, acting upon an exhausted and disappointed +army in a devastated land, was the secondary cause in +the great disaster, by which the Almighty humbled the +arrogance of Asshur. The swiftness, with which +Sennacherib's retreat is said to have begun, has been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[362]</a></span> +equalled by the turning-points of other historical campaigns. +Alexander the Great's decision to withdraw +from India was, after victories as many as Sennacherib's, +made in three days. Attila vanished out of Italy as +suddenly as Sennacherib, and from a motive less evident. +In the famous War of the Fosse the Meccan army +broke off from their siege of Mohammed in a single +stormy night. Napoleon's career went back upon +itself with just as sharp a bend no less than thrice—in +1799, on Sennacherib's own ground in Syria; in 1808, +in Spain; and in 1812, when he turned from Moscow +upon "one memorable night of frost, in which twenty +thousand horses perished, and the strength of the French +army was utterly broken."<a name="FNanchor_69_69" id="FNanchor_69_69"></a><a href="#Footnote_69_69" class="fnanchor">[69]</a></p> + +<p>The amount of the Assyrian loss is enormous, and +implies of course a much higher figure for the army +which was vast enough to suffer it; but here are some +instances for comparison. In the early German invasions +of Italy whole armies and camps were swept away +by the pestilential climate. The losses of the First +Crusade were over three hundred thousand. The soldiers +of the Third Crusade, upon the scene of Sennacherib's +war, were reckoned at more than half a million, and their +losses by disease alone at over one hundred thousand.<a name="FNanchor_70_70" id="FNanchor_70_70"></a><a href="#Footnote_70_70" class="fnanchor">[70]</a> +The Grand Army of Napoleon entered Russia two +hundred and fifty thousand, but came out, having +suffered no decisive defeat, only twelve thousand; on the +retreat from Moscow alone ninety thousand perished.</p> + +<p>What we are concerned with, however, is neither +the immediate occasion nor the exact amount of +Sennacherib's loss, but the bare fact, so certainly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[363]</a></span> +established, that, having devastated Judah to the very +walls of Jerusalem, the Assyrian was compelled by +some calamity apart from human war to withdraw +before the sacred city itself was taken. For this was +the essential part of Isaiah's prediction; upon this he +had staked the credit of the pure monotheism, whose +prophet he was to the world. If we keep before us +these two simple certainties about the great Deliverance: +<i>first</i>, that it had been foretold by Jehovah's +word, and <i>second</i>, that it had been now achieved, despite +all human probability, by Jehovah's own arm, we shall +understand the enormous spiritual impression which it +left upon Israel. The religion of the one supreme God, +supreme in might because supreme in righteousness, +received a most emphatic historical vindication, a signal +and glorious triumph. Well might Isaiah exclaim, on +the morning of the night during which that Assyrian +host had drifted away from Jerusalem, <i>Jehovah is our +Judge</i>; <i>Jehovah is our Lawgiver</i>; <i>Jehovah is our King</i>: +<i>He saveth us</i>. No other god for the present had any +chance in Judah. Idolatry was discredited, not by the +political victory of a puritan faction, not even by the +distinctive genius or valour of a nation, but by an +evident act of Providence, to which no human aid had +been contributory. It was nothing less than the baptism +of Israel in spiritual religion, the grace of which +was never wholly undone.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, the story of Jehovah's triumph cannot +be justly recounted without including the reaction +which followed upon it within the same generation. +Before twenty years had passed from the day, on which +Jerusalem, with the forty-sixth Psalm on her lips, +sought with all her heart the God of Isaiah, she relapsed +into an idolatry, that wore only this sign of the uncompromising<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[364]</a></span> +puritanism it had displaced: that it was +gloomy, and filled with a sense of sin unknown to +Israel's idolatries previous to the age of Isaiah. The +change would be almost incomprehensible to us, who +have realized the spiritual effects of Sennacherib's +disappearance, if we had not within our own history +a somewhat analogous experience. Puritanism was +as gloriously accredited by event and seemed to be +as generally accepted by England under Cromwell as +faith in the spiritual religion of Isaiah was vindicated +by the deliverance of Jerusalem and the peace of Judah +under Hezekiah. But swiftly as the ruling temper +in England changed after Cromwell's death, and Puritanism +was laid under the ban, and persecution and +licentiousness broke out, so quickly when Hezekiah +died did Manasseh his son—no change of dynasty +here—<i>do evil in the sight of Jehovah, and make Judah to +sin, building again the high places and rearing up altars for +Baal and altars in the house of Jehovah, whereof Jehovah +had said, In Jerusalem will I put My name</i>. Idolatry was +never so rampant in Judah. <i>Moreover, Manasseh shed +innocent blood till he filled Jerusalem from one end to +another.</i> It is in this carnage that tradition has placed +the death of Isaiah. He, who had been Judah's best +counsellor through five reigns, on whom the whole +nation had gathered in the day of her distress, and by +whose faith her long-hoped-for salvation had at last become +substantive, was violently put to death by the son +of Hezekiah. It is said that he was <i>sawn asunder</i>.<a name="FNanchor_71_71" id="FNanchor_71_71"></a><a href="#Footnote_71_71" class="fnanchor">[71]</a></p> + +<p>The parallel, which we are pursuing, does not, however, +close here. "As soon," says an English historian, +"as the wild orgy of the Restoration was over, men began<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[365]</a></span> +to see that nothing that was really worthy in the work +of Puritanism had been undone. The whole history of +English progress since the Restoration, on its moral +and spiritual sides, has been the history of Puritanism."</p> + +<p>For the principles of Isaiah and their victory we may +make a claim as much larger than this claim, as Israel's +influence on the world has been greater than England's. +Israel never wholly lost the grace of the baptism wherewith +she was baptized in 701. Even in her history there +was no event in which the unaided interposition of God +was more conspicuous. It is from an appreciation of +the meaning of such a Providence that Israel derives +her character—that character which marks her off so +distinctively from her great rival in the education of the +human race, and endows her ministry with its peculiar +value to the world. If we are asked for the characteristics +of the Hellenic genius, we point to the august +temples and images of beauty in which the wealth and +art of man have evolved in human features most +glorious suggestions of divinity, or we point to Thermopylæ, +where human valour and devotion seem grander +even in unavailing sacrifice than the almighty Fate, that +renders them the prey of the barbarian. In Greece +the human is greater than the divine. But if we are +asked to define the spirit of Israel, we remember the +worship which Isaiah has enjoined in his opening +chapter, a worship that dispenses even with temple and +with sacrifice, but, from the first strivings of conscience +to the most certain enjoyment of peace, ascribes all +man's experience to the word of God. In contrast with +Thermopylæ, we recall Jerusalem's Deliverance, effected +apart from human war by the direct stroke of Heaven. +In Judah man is great simply as he rests on God. The +rocks of Thermopylæ, how imperishably beautiful do<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[366]</a></span> +they shine to latest ages with the comradeship, the +valour, the sacrificial blood of human heroes! It is +another beauty which Isaiah saw upon the bare, dry +rocks of Zion, and which has drawn to them the admiration +of the world. <i>There</i>, he said, <i>Jehovah is glory +for us, a place of broad rivers and streams</i>.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><i>In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness +and in confidence is your strength.</i> How divine Isaiah's +message is, may be proved by the length of time mankind +is taking to learn it. The remarkable thing is, that he +staked so lofty a principle, and the pure religion of +which it was the temper, upon a political result, that he +staked them upon, and vindicated them by, a purely local +and material success—the relief of Jerusalem from the +infidel. Centuries passed, and Christ came. He did +not—for even He could not—preach a more spiritual +religion than that which He had committed to His +greatest forerunner, but He released this religion, and +the temper of faith which Isaiah had so divinely expressed, +from the local associations and merely national +victories, with which even Isaiah had been forced to identify +them. The destruction of Jerusalem by the heathen +formed a large part of Christ's prediction of the immediate +future; and He comforted the remnant of faith with +these words, to some of which Isaiah's lips had first given +their meaning: <i>Ye shall neither in this mountain nor yet +in Jerusalem worship the Father. God is a Spirit, and they +that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.</i></p> + +<p>Again centuries passed—no less than eighteen from +Isaiah—and we find Christendom, though Christ had +come between, returning to Isaiah's superseded problem, +and, while reviving its material conditions, unable to +apply to them the prophet's spiritual temper. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[367]</a></span> +Christianity of the Crusades fell back upon Isaiah's +position without his spirit. Like him, it staked the +credit of religion upon the relief of the holy city from +the grasp of the infidel; but, in ghastly contrast to that +pure faith and serene confidence with which a single +Jew maintained the inviolateness of Mount Zion in the +face of Assyria, with what pride and fraud, with what +blood and cruelty, with what impious invention of +miracle and parody of Divine testimony, did countless +armies of Christendom, excited by their most fervent +prophets and blessed by their high-priest, attempt +in vain the recovery of Jerusalem from the Saracen! +The Crusades are a gigantic proof of how easy it is to +adopt the external forms of heroic ages, how difficult to +repeat their inward temper. We could not have more +impressive witness borne to the fact that humanity—though +obedient to the orthodox Church, though led by +the strongest spirits of the age, though hallowed by the +presence of its greatest saints, though enduring all +trials, though exhibiting an unrivalled power of self-sacrifice +and enthusiasm, though beautified by courtesy +and chivalry, and though doing and suffering all +for Christ's sake—may yet fail to understand the old +precept that <i>in returning and rest men are saved, in quietness +and in confidence is their strength</i>. Nothing could +more emphatically prove the loftiness of Isaiah's teaching +than this failure of Christendom even to come within +sight of it.</p> + +<p>Have we learned this lesson yet? O God of Israel, God +of Isaiah, in returning to whom and resting upon whom +alone we are saved, purge us of self and of the pride of +life, of the fever and the falsehood they breed. Teach +us that in quietness and in confidence is our strength. +Help us to be still and know that Thou art God.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[368]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXIV.</h2> + +<h3><i>A REVIEW OF ISAIAH'S PREDICTIONS CONCERNING +THE DELIVERANCE OF JERUSALEM.</i></h3> + + +<p>As we have gathered together all that Isaiah +prophesied concerning the Messiah, so it may +be useful for closer students of his book if we now +summarise (even at the risk of a little repetition) +the facts of his marvellous prediction of the siege and +delivery of Jerusalem. Such a review, besides being +historically interesting, ought to prove of edification +in so far as it instructs us in the kind of faith by +which the Holy Ghost inspired a prophet to foretell the +future.</p> + +<p>1. The primary conviction with which Isaiah felt +himself inspired by the Spirit of Jehovah was a purely +moral one—that a devastation of Judah was necessary +for her people's sin, to which he shortly added a religious +one: that a remnant would be saved. He had this +double conviction as early as 740 <span class="smcap"><small>B.C.</small></span> (vi. 11-13).</p> + +<p>2. Looking round the horizon for some phenomenon +with which to identify this promised judgement, Isaiah +described the latter at first without naming any single +people as the invaders of Judah (v. 26 ff.). It may have +been that for a moment he hesitated between Assyria +and Egypt. Once he named them together as +equally the Lord's instruments upon Judah (vii. 18),<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[369]</a></span> +but only once. When Ahaz resolved to call Assyria into +the Syrian quarrels, Isaiah exclusively designated the +northern power as the scourge he had predicted; and +when in 732 the Assyrian armies had overrun Samaria, +he graphically described their necessary overflow into +Judah also (viii.). This invasion did not spread to +Judah, but Isaiah's combined moral and political conviction, +for both elements of which he claimed the +inspiration of God's Spirit, seized him with renewed +strength in 725, when Salmanassar marched south upon +Israel (xxviii.); and in 721, when Sargon captured +Samaria, Isaiah uttered a vivid description of his speedy +arrival before Jerusalem (x. 28 ff.). This prediction +was again disappointed. But Sargon's departure without +invading Judah, and her second escape from him on his +return to Syria in 711, did not in the least induce Isaiah +to relax either of his two convictions. Judah he proclaimed +to be as much in need of punishment as ever +(xxix.-xxxii.); and, though on Sargon's death all +Palestine revolted from Assyria to Egypt, he persisted +that this would not save her from Sennacherib (xiv. +29 ff.; xxix.-xxx.). The "dourness" with which his +countrymen believed in Egypt naturally caused the prophet +to fill his orations at this time with the <i>political</i> side +of his conviction that Assyria was stronger than Egypt; +but because Jerusalem's Egyptian policy springs from a +deceitful temper (xxx. 1, 9, 10) he is as earnest as ever +with his <i>moral</i> conviction that judgement is coming. +After 705 his pictures of a siege of Jerusalem grow +more definite (xxix.; xxx.). He seems scorched by the +nearness of the Assyrian conflagration (xxx. 27 ff.). +At last in 701, when Sennacherib comes to Palestine, +the siege is pictured as immediate—chaps. i. and xx., +which also show at its height the prophet's moral conviction<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[370]</a></span> +of the necessity of the siege for punishing his +people.</p> + +<p>3. But over against this <i>moral</i> conviction, that Judah +must be devastated for her sin, and this <i>political</i>, that +Assyria is to be the instrument, even to the extreme of +a siege of Jerusalem, the prophet still holds strongly to +the <i>religious</i> assurance that God cannot allow His +shrine to be violated or His people to be exterminated. +At first it is only of the people that Isaiah speaks—<i>the +remnant</i> (vi.; viii. 18). Jerusalem is not mentioned in +the verses that describe the overflowing of all Judah +by Assyria (viii. 7). It is only when at last, in 721, +the prophet realizes how near a siege of Jerusalem may +be (x. 11, 28-32), that he also pictures the sudden +destruction of the Assyrian on his arrival within sight +of her walls (x. 33). In 705, when the siege of the +sacred city once more becomes imminent, the prophet +again reiterates to the heathen that Zion alone shall +stand among the cities of Syria (xiv. 32). To herself +he says that, though she shall be besieged and brought +very low, she shall finally be delivered (xxix. 1-8; +xxx. 19-26; xxxi. 1, 4, 5). It is true, this conviction +seems to be broken—once by a prophecy of uncertain +date (xxxii. 14), which indicates a desolation of the +buildings of Jerusalem, and once by the prophet's sentence +of death upon the inhabitants in the hour of their +profligacy (xxii.)—but when the city has repented, and +the enemy have perfidiously come back to demand her +surrender, Isaiah again asseverates, though all are hopeless, +that she shall not fall (xxxvii.).</p> + +<p>4. Now, with regard to the method of Jerusalem's +deliverance, Isaiah has uniformly described this as happening +not by human battle. From the beginning he +said that Israel should be delivered in the last extremity<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">[371]</a></span> +of their weakness (vi. 13). On the Assyrian's arrival +over against the city, Jehovah is to lop him off (x. 33). +When her enemies have invested Jerusalem, Jehovah +is to come down in thunder and a hurricane and sweep +them away (after 705, xxix. 5-8). They are to be +suddenly disappointed, like a hungry man waking from +a dream of food. A beautiful promise is given of the +raising of the siege without mention of struggle or +any weapon (xxx. 20-26). The Assyrian is to be +checked as a wild bull is checked <i>with a lasso</i>, is to be +slain <i>by the lighting down of the Lord's arm, by the voice +of the Lord</i>, through a judgement that shall be like +a solemn holocaust to God than a human battle +(xxx. 30-33). When the Assyrian comes back, and +Hezekiah is crushed by the new demand for surrender, +Isaiah says that, by a Divinely inspired impulse, Sennacherib, +hearing bad news, shall suddenly return to his +own land (xxxviii. 7).</p> + +<p>It is only in very little details that these predictions +differ. The thunderstorm and torrents of fire are, of +course, but poetic variations. In 721, however, the +prophet hardly anticipates the very close siege, which +he pictures after 705; and while from 705 to 702 he +identifies the relief of Jerusalem with a great calamity +to the Assyrian army about to invade Judah, yet in 701, +when the Assyrians are actually on the spot, he suggests +that nothing but a rumour shall cause their retreat and +so leave Jerusalem free of them.</p> + +<p>5. In all this we see a certain <span class="smcap"><small>FIXITY</small></span> and a certain +<span class="smcap"><small>FREEDOM</small></span>. The freedom, the changes and inconsistencies +in the prediction, are entirely limited to those +of Isaiah's convictions which we have called political, +and which the prophet evidently gathered from his +observation of political circumstances as these developed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">[372]</a></span> +before his eyes from year to year. But what was fixed +and unalterable to Isaiah, he drew from the moral and +religious convictions to which his political observation +was subservient; viz., Judah's very sore punishment +for sin, the survival of a people of God in the world, +and their deliverance by His own act.</p> + +<p>6. This "Bible-reading" in Isaiah's predictive prophecies +reveals very clearly the nature of inspiration +under the old covenant. To Isaiah inspiration was +nothing more nor less than the possession of certain +strong moral and religious convictions, which he felt he +owed to the communication of the Spirit of God, and +according to which he interpreted, and even dared to +foretell, the history of his people and the world. Our +study completely dispels, on the evidence of the Bible +itself, that view of inspiration and prediction, so long +held in the Church, which it is difficult to define, but +which means something like this: that the prophet +beheld a vision of the future in its actual detail and +read this off as a man may read the history of the +past out of a book or a clear memory. This is a very +simple view, but too simple either to meet the facts +of the Bible, or to afford to men any of that intellectual +and spiritual satisfaction which the discovery +of the Divine methods is sure to afford. The literal +view of inspiration is too simple to be true, and too +simple to be edifying. On the other hand, how +profitable, how edifying, is the Bible's own account +of its inspiration! To know that men interpreted, +predicted and controlled history in the power of the +purest moral and religious convictions—in the knowledge +of, and the loyalty to, certain fundamental laws of God—is +to receive an account of inspiration, which is not +only as satisfying to the reason as it is true to the facts<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">[373]</a></span> +of the Bible, but is spiritually very helpful by the lofty +example and reward it sets before our own faith. By +faith differing in degree, but not in kind, from ours, +<i>faith which is the substance of things hoped for</i>, these men +became prophets of God, and received the testimony of +history that they spoke from Him. Isaiah prophesied +and predicted all he did from loyalty to two simple +truths, which he tells us he received from God Himself: +that sin must be punished, and that the people of +God must be saved. This simple faith, acting along with +a wonderful knowledge of human nature and ceaseless +vigilance of affairs, constituted inspiration for Isaiah.</p> + +<p>There is thus, with great modifications, an analogy +between the prophet and the scientific observer of the +present day. Men of science are able to affirm the +certainty of natural phenomena by their knowledge of +the laws and principles of nature. Certain forces being +present, certain results must come to pass. The +Old Testament prophets, working in history, a sphere +where the problems were infinitely more complicated by +the presence and powerful operation of man's free-will, +seized hold of principles as conspicuous and certain +to them as the laws of nature are to the scientist; and +out of their conviction of these they proclaimed the +necessity of certain events. God is inflexibly righteous, +He cannot utterly destroy His people or the witness of +Himself among men: these were the laws. Judah shall +be punished, Israel shall continue to exist: these were +the certainties deduced from the laws. But for the exact +conditions and forms both of the punishment and its +relief the prophets depended upon their knowledge of +the world, of which, as these pages testify, they were the +keenest and largest-hearted observers that ever appeared.</p> + +<p>This account of prophecy may be offered with advantage<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">[374]</a></span> +to those who are prejudiced against prophecy +as full of materials, which are inexplicable to minds +accustomed to find a law and reason for everything. +Grant the truths of the spiritual doctrines, which the +prophets made their premises, and you must admit that +their predictions are neither arbitrary nor bewildering. +Or begin at the other end: verify that these facts took +place, and that the prophets actually predicted them; +and if you are true to your own scientific methods, you +will not be able to resist the conclusion that the spiritual +laws and principles, by which the predictions were made, +are as real as those by which in the realm of nature you +proclaim the necessity of certain physical phenomena—and +all this in spite of there being at work in the prophets' +sphere a force, the free-will of man, which cannot +interfere with the laws you work by, as it can with those +on which they depend.</p> + +<p>But, to turn from the apologetic value of this account +of prophecy to the experimental, we maintain that it +brings out a new sacredness upon common life. If it +be true that Isaiah had no magical means for foretelling +the future, but simply his own spiritual convictions +and his observation of history, that may, of course, +deprive some eyes of a light which they fancied they +saw bursting from heaven. But, on the other hand, +does it not cast a greater glory upon daily life and +history, to have seen in Isaiah this close connection +between spiritual conviction and political event? Does +it not teach us that life is governed by faith; that the +truths we profess are the things that make history; +that we carry the future in our hearts; that not an +event happens but is to be used by us as meaning the +effect of some law of God, and not a fact appears but +is the symbol and sacrament of His truth?</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">[375]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXV.</h2> + +<h3><i>AN OLD TESTAMENT BELIEVER'S SICK-BED; OR, THE +DIFFERENCE CHRIST HAS MADE.</i></h3> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> xxxviii.; xxxix. (<span class="smcap"><small>DATE UNCERTAIN</small>)</span>.</p> + + +<p>To the great national drama of Jerusalem's deliverance, +there have been added two scenes of a +personal kind, relating to her king. Chaps. xxxviii. +and xxxix. are the narrative of the sore sickness +and recovery of King Hezekiah, and of the embassy +which Merodach-baladan sent him, and how he received +the embassy. The date of these events is difficult +to determine. If, with Canon Cheyne, we believe in +an invasion of Judah by Sargon in 711, we shall +be tempted to refer them, as he does, to that date—the +more so that the promise of fifteen additional +years made to Hezekiah in 711, the fifteenth year of +his reign, would bring it up to the twenty-nine, at +which it is set in 2 Kings xviii. 2. That, however, would +flatly contradict the statement both of Isaiah xxxviii. 1 +and 2 Kings xx. 1 that Hezekiah's sickness fell in the +days of the invasion of Judah by Sennacherib; that +is, after 705. But to place the promise of fifteen +additional years to Hezekiah after 705, when we know +he had been reigning for at least twenty years, would +be to contradict the verse, just cited, which sums up +the years of his reign as twenty-nine. This is, in fact,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">[376]</a></span> +one of the instances, in which we must admit our +present inability to elucidate the chronology of this +portion of the book of Isaiah. Mr. Cheyne thinks the +editor mistook the siege by Sennacherib for the siege +by Sargon. But as the fact of a siege by Sargon has +never been satisfactorily established, it seems safer to +trust the statement that Hezekiah's sickness occurred +in the reign of Sennacherib, and to allow that there has +been an error somewhere in the numbering of the years. +It is remarkable that the name of Merodach-baladan +does not help us to decide between the two dates. There +was a Merodach-baladan in rebellion against Sargon in +710, and there was one in rebellion against Sennacherib +in 705. It has not yet been put past doubt as to +whether these two are the same. The essential is that +there was a Merodach-baladan alive, real or only +claimant king of Babylon, about 705, and that he was +likely at that date to treat with Hezekiah, being himself +in revolt against Assyria. Unable to come to any +decision about the conflicting numbers, we leave +uncertain the date of the events recounted in +chaps. xxxviii., xxxix. The original form of the +narrative, but wanting Hezekiah's hymn, is given in +2 Kings xx.<a name="FNanchor_72_72" id="FNanchor_72_72"></a><a href="#Footnote_72_72" class="fnanchor">[72]</a></p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>We have given to this chapter the title "An Old +Testament Believer's Deathbed; or, The Difference +Christ has made," not because this is the only spiritual +suggestion of the story, but because it seems to the +present expositor as if this were the predominant feeling<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">[377]</a></span> +left in Christian minds after reading for us the story. +In Hezekiah's conduct there is much of courage for us +to admire, as there are other elements to warn us; but +when we have read the whole story, we find ourselves +saying, What a difference Christ has made to me! +Take Hezekiah from two points of view, and then let +the narrative itself bring out this difference.</p> + +<p>Here is a man, who, although he lived more than +twenty-five centuries ago is brought quite close to our +side. Death, who herds all men into his narrow fold, +has crushed this Hebrew king so close to us that we +can feel his very heart beat. Hezekiah's hymn gives +us entrance into the fellowship of his sufferings. By +the figures he so skilfully uses he makes us feel that +pain, the shortness of life, the suddenness of death +and the utter blackness beyond were to him just what +they are to us. And yet this kinship in pain, and +fear and ignorance only makes us the more aware of +something else which we have and he has not.</p> + +<p>Again, here is a man to whom religion gave all it +could give without the help of Christ; a believer in +the religion out of which Christianity sprang, perhaps +the most representative Old Testament believer we could +find, for Hezekiah was at once the collector of what was +best in its literature and the reformer of what was +worst in its worship; a man permeated by the past +piety of his Church, and enjoying as his guide and +philosopher the boldest prophet who ever preached the +future developments of its spirit. Yet when we put +Hezekiah and all that Isaiah can give him on one side, +we shall again feel for ourselves on the other what a +difference Christ has made.</p> + +<p>This difference a simple study of the narrative will +make clear.</p> + + +<p class="center"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">[378]</a></span>I.</p> + +<p><i>In those days Hezekiah became sick unto death.</i> They +were critical days for Judah—no son born to the king +(2 Kings xxi. 1), the work of reformation in Judah not +yet consolidated, the big world tossing in revolution all +around. Under God, everything depended on an experienced +ruler; and this one, without a son to succeed +him, was drawing near to death. We will therefore +judge Hezekiah's strong passion for life to have been +patriotic as well as selfish. He stood in the midtime of +his days, with a faithfully executed work behind him +and so good an example of kinghood that for years +Isaiah had not expressed his old longing for the +Messiah. The Lord had counted Hezekiah righteous; +that twin-sign had been given him which more than any +other assured an Israelite of Jehovah's favour—a good +conscience and success in his work. Well, therefore, +might he cry when Isaiah brought him the sentence of +death, <i>Ah, now, Jehovah, remember, I beseech Thee, how I +have walked before Thee in truth and with a perfect heart, +and have done that which is good in Thine eyes. And +Hezekiah wept with a great weeping.</i></p> + +<p>There is difficulty in the strange story which follows. +The dial was probably a pyramid of steps on the top of +which stood a short pillar or obelisk. When the sun +rose in the morning, the shadow cast by the pillar would +fall right down the western side of the pyramid to the +bottom of the lowest step. As the sun ascended the +shadow would shorten, and creep up inch by inch to the +foot of the pillar. After noon, as the sun began to +descend to the west, the shadow would creep down +the eastern steps; and the steps were so measured that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">[379]</a></span> +each one marked a certain degree of time. It was +probably afternoon when Isaiah visited the king. The +shadow was <i>going down</i> according to the regular law; +the sign consisted in causing the shadow to shrink up +the steps again. Such a reversal of the ordinary progress +of the shadow may have been caused in either of +two ways: by the whole earth being thrown back on its +axis, which we may dismiss as impossible, or by the +occurrence of the phenomenon known as refraction. +Refraction is a disturbance in the atmosphere by which +the rays of the sun are bent or deflected from their +natural course into an angular one. In this case, +instead of shooting straight over the top of the +obelisk, the rays of the sun had been bent down +and inward, so that the shadow fled up to the foot of +the obelisk. There are many things in the air which +might cause this; it is a phenomenon often observed; +and the Scriptural narratives imply that on this occasion +it was purely local (2 Chron. xxxii. 31). Had we only +the narrative in the book of Isaiah, the explanation +would have been easy. Isaiah, having given the sentence +of death, passed the dial in the palace courtyard, and +saw the shadow lying ten degrees farther up than it +should have done, the sight of which coincided with +the inspiration that the king would not die; and Isaiah +went back to announce to Hezekiah his reprieve, and +naturally call his attention to this as a sign, to which a +weak and desponding man would be glad to cling. But +the original narrative in the book of Kings tells us +that Isaiah offered Hezekiah a choice of signs: that +the shadow should either advance or retreat, and that +the king chose the latter. The sign came in answer to +Isaiah's prayer, and is narrated to us as a special Divine +interposition. But a medicine accompanied it, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">[380]</a></span> +Hezekiah recovered through a poultice of figs laid on +the boil from which he suffered.</p> + +<p>While recognising for our own faith the uselessness +of a discussion on this sign offered to a sick man, let +us not miss the moral lessons of so touching a narrative, +nor the sympathy with the sick king which it is fitted to +produce, and which is our best introduction to the study +of his hymn.</p> + +<p>Isaiah had performed that most awful duty of doctor +or minister the telling of a friend that he must die. +Few men have not in their personal experience a key +to the prophet's feelings on this occasion. The leaving +of a dear friend for the last time; the coming out into +the sunlight which he will nevermore share with us; +the passing by the dial; the observation of the creeping +shadow; the feeling that it is only a question of time, +the passion of prayer into which that feeling throws us +that God may be pleased to put off the hour and spare +our friend; the invention, that is born, like prayer, of +necessity: a cure we suddenly remember; the confidence +which prayer and invention bring between them; the +return with the joyful news; the giving of the order +about the remedy—cannot many in their degree rejoice +with Isaiah in such an experience? But he has, too, a +conscience of God and God's work to which none of us +may pretend: he knows how indispensable to that work +his royal pupil is, and out of this inspiration he prophesies +the will of the Lord that Hezekiah shall recover.</p> + +<p>Then the king, with a sick man's sacramental longing, +asks a sign. Out through the window the courtyard is +visible; there stands the same step-dial of Ahaz, the +long pillar on the top of the steps, the shadow creeping +down them through the warm afternoon sunshine. +To the sick man it must have been like the finger<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">[381]</a></span> +of death coming nearer. <i>Shall the shadow</i>, asks +the prophet, <i>go forward ten steps or go back ten +steps? It is easy</i>, says the king, alarmed, <i>for the +shadow to go down ten steps</i>. Easy for it to go +down! Has he not been feeling that all the afternoon? +"Do not," we can fancy him saying, with the gasp of a +man who has been watching its irresistible descent—"do +not let that black thing come farther; but <i>let the +shadow go backward ten steps</i>."</p> + +<p>The shadow returned, and Hezekiah got his sign. +But when he was well, he used it for more than a sign. +He read a great spiritual lesson in it. The time, which +upon the dial had been apparently thrown back, had in +his life been really thrown back; and God had given +him his years to live over again. The past was to be as +if it had never been, its guilt and weakness wiped out. +<i>Thou hast cast behind Thy back all my sins.</i> As a newborn +child Hezekiah felt himself uncommitted by the +past, not a sin's-doubt nor a sin's-cowardice in him, +with the heart of a little child, but yet with the +strength and dignity of a grown man, for it is the +magic of tribulation to bring innocence with experience. +<i>I shall go softly</i>, or literally, <i>with dignity or caution, as +in a procession, all my years because of the bitterness of +my soul. O Lord, upon such things do men live; and +altogether in them is the life of my spirit.... Behold, +for perfection was it bitter to me,</i> so <i>bitter</i>. And through +it all there breaks a new impression of God. <i>What +shall I say? He hath both spoken with me, and Himself +hath done it.</i> As if afraid to impute his profits to the +mere experience itself, <i>In them is the life of my spirit</i>, +he breaks in with <i>Yea, Thou hast recovered me; yea, +Thou hast made me to live</i>. And then, by a very +pregnant construction, he adds, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">[382]</a></span><i>Thou hast loved my +soul out of the pit of destruction; that is, of course, +loved, and by Thy love lifted</i>, but he uses the one word +loved, and gives it the active force of <i>drawing</i> or +<i>lifting</i>. In this lay the head and glory of Hezekiah's +experience. He was a religious man, an enthusiast +for the Temple services, and had all his days as +his friend the prophet whose heart was with the +heart of God; but it was not through any of these +means God came near him, not till he lay sick and had +turned his face to the wall. Then indeed he cried, +<i>What shall I say? He hath both spoken with me, and +Himself hath done it!</i></p> + +<p>Forgiveness, a new peace, a new dignity and a visit +from the living God! Well might Hezekiah exclaim that +it was only through a near sense of death that men +rightly learned to live. <i>Ah, Lord, it is upon these things +that men live; and wholly therein is the life of my spirit.</i> +It is by these things men live, and therein I have +learned for the first time what life is!</p> + +<p>In all this at least we cannot go beyond Hezekiah, +and he stands an example to the best Christian among +us. Never did a man bring richer harvest from the +fields of death. Everything that renders life really life—peace, +dignity, a new sense of God and of His forgiveness—these +were the spoils which Hezekiah won in +his struggle with the grim enemy. He had snatched +from death a new meaning for life; he had robbed +death of its awful pomp, and bestowed this on careless +life. Hereafter he should walk with the step and the +mien of a conqueror—<i>I shall go in solemn procession +all my years because of the bitterness of my soul</i>—or with +the carefulness of a worshipper, who sees at the end of +his course the throne of the Most High God, and makes +all his life an ascent thither.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">[383]</a></span>This is the effect which every great sorrow and struggle +has upon a noble soul. Come to the streets of the +living. Who are these, whom we can so easily distinguish +from the crowd by their firmness of step and look +of peace, walking softly where some spurt and some +halt, holding, without rest or haste, the tenor of their +way, as if they marched to music heard by their ears +alone? These are they which have come out of great +tribulation. They have brought back into time the +sense of eternity. They know how near the invisible +worlds lie to this one, and the sense of the vast silences +stills all idle laughter in their hearts. The life that is +to other men chance or sport, strife or hurried flight, has +for them its allotted distance; is for them a measured +march, a constant worship. <i>For the bitterness of their +soul they go in procession all their years.</i> Sorrow's +subjects, they are our kings; wrestlers with death, our +veterans: and to the rabble armies of society they set +the step of a nobler life.</p> + +<p>Count especially the young man blessed, who has +looked into the grave before he has faced the great +temptations of the world, and has not entered the race of +life till he has learned his stride in the race with death. +They tell us that on the outside of civilisation, where men +carry their lives in their hands, a most thorough politeness +and dignity are bred, in spite of the want of settled +habits, by the sense of danger alone; and we know how +battle and a deadly climate, pestilence or the perils of +the sea have sent back to us the most careless of our +youth with a self-possession and regularity of mind, +that it would have been hopeless to expect them to +develop amid the trivial trials of village life.</p> + +<p>But the greatest duty of us men is not to seek nor to +pray for such combats with death. It is when God has<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">[384]</a></span> +found these for us to remain true to our memories of +them. The hardest duty of life is to remain true to our +psalms of deliverance, as it is certainly life's greatest +temptation to fall away from the sanctity of sorrow, +and suffer the stately style of one who knows how +near death hovers to his line of march to degenerate +into the broken step of a wanton life. This was +Hezekiah's temptation, and this is why the story of +his fall in the thirty-ninth chapter is placed beside his +vows in the thirty-eighth—to warn us how easy it is +for those who have come conquerors out of a struggle +with death to fall a prey to common life. He had said, +<i>I will walk softly all my years</i>; but how arrogantly and +rashly he carried himself when Merodach-baladan sent +the embassy to congratulate him on his recovery. It +was not with the dignity of the veteran, but with a +childish love of display, perhaps also with the too restless +desire to secure an alliance, that he showed the +envoys <i>his storehouse, the silver, and the gold, and the +spices, and the precious oil, and all the house of his armour +and all that was found in his treasures. There was +nothing which Hezekiah did not show them in his house +nor in all his dominion.</i> In this behaviour there was +neither caution nor sobriety, and we cannot doubt but +that Hezekiah felt the shame of it when Isaiah sternly +rebuked him and threw upon all his house the dark +shadow of captivity.</p> + +<p>It is easier to win spoils from death than to keep +them untarnished by life. Shame burns warm in a +soldier's heart when he sees the arms he risked life to +win rusting for want of a little care. Ours will not burn +less if we discover that the strength of character we +brought with us out of some great tribulation has been +slowly weakened by subsequent self-indulgence of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385">[385]</a></span> +vanity. How awful to have fought for character with +death only to squander it upon life! It is well to keep +praying, "My God, suffer me not to forget my bonds +and my bitterness. In my hours of wealth and ease, +and health and peace, by the memory of Thy judgements +deliver me, good Lord."</p> + + +<p class="center">II.</p> + +<p>So far then Hezekiah is an example and warning to +us all. With all our faith in Christ, none of us, in the +things mentioned, may hope to excel this Old Testament +believer. But notice very particularly that Hezekiah's +faith and fortitude are profitable only for this life. It +is when we begin to think, What of the life to come? +that we perceive the infinite difference Christ has made.</p> + +<p>We know what Hezekiah felt when his back was +turned on death, and he came up to life again. But +what did he feel when he faced the other way, and his +back was to life? With his back to life and facing deathwards, +Hezekiah saw nothing, that was worth hoping +for. To him to die was to leave God behind him, +to leave the face of God as surely as he was leaving +the face of man. <i>I said, I shall not see Jah, Jah in +the land of the living; I shall gaze upon man no more +with the inhabitants of the world.</i> The beyond was +not to Hezekiah absolute nothingness, for he had his +conceptions, the popular conceptions of his time, of a +sort of existence that was passed by those who had +been men upon earth. The imagination of his people +figured the gloomy portals of a nether world—<i>Sheol</i>, +the <i>Hollow</i> (Dante's "hollow realm"), or perhaps the +<i>Craving</i>—into which death herds the shades of men, +bloodless, voiceless, without love or hope or aught that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386">[386]</a></span> +makes life worth living. With such an existence beyond, +to die to life here was to Hezekiah like as when +a weaver rolls up the finished web. My life may be a +pattern for others to copy, a banner for others to fight +under, but for me it is finished. Death has cut it from +the loom. Or it was like going into captivity. <i>Mine +age is removed and is carried away from me into exile, like +a shepherd's tent</i>—exile which to a Jew was the extreme +of despair, implying as it did absence from God, and +salvation and the possibility of worship. <i>Sheol cannot +praise Thee; death cannot celebrate Thee: they that go +down into the pit cannot hope for Thy faithfulness.</i></p> + +<p>Of this then at the best Hezekiah was sure: a +respite of fifteen years—nothing beyond. Then the +shadow would not return upon the dial; and as the +king's eyes closed upon the dear faces of his friends, +his sense of the countenance of God would die too, +and his soul slip into the abyss, hopeless of God's +faithfulness.</p> + +<p>It is this awful anticlimax, which makes us feel the +difference Christ has made. This saint stood in almost +the clearest light that revelation cast before Jesus. He +was able to perceive in suffering a meaning and derive +from it a strength not to be exceeded by any Christian. +Yet his faith is profitable for this life alone. For him +character may wrestle with death over and over again, +and grow the stronger for every grapple, but death +wins the last throw.</p> + +<p>It may be said that Hezekiah's despair of the future +is simply the morbid thoughts of a sick man or the +exaggerated fancies of a poet. "We must not," it is +urged, "define a poet's language with the strictness of a +theology." True, and we must also make some allowance +for a man dying prematurely in the midst of his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387">[387]</a></span> +days. But if this hymn is only poetry, it would have +been as easy to poetise on the opposite possibilities +across the grave. So quick an imagination as Hezekiah's +could not have failed to take advantage of the slightest +scintilla of glory that pierced the cloud. It must be +that his eye saw none, for all his poetry droops the +other way. We seek in heaven for praise in its fulness; +there we know God's servants shall see Him face +to face. But of this Hezekiah had not the slightest +imagination; he anxiously prayed that he might recover +<i>to strike the stringed instruments all the days of his life +in the house of Jehovah. The living, the living, he +praiseth thee, as I do this day; the father to the children +shall make known Thy truth.</i> But <i>they that go down into +the pit cannot hope for Thy faithfulness</i>.</p> + +<p>Now compare all this with the Psalms of Christian +hope; with the faith that fills Paul; with his ardour +who says, <i>To me to depart is far better</i>; with the glory +which John beholds with open face: the hosts of the +redeemed praising God and walking in the light of +His face, all the geography of that country laid down, +and the plan of the new Jerusalem declared to the +very fashion of her stones; with the audacity since of +Christian art and song: the rapture of Watts' hymns +and the exhilaration of Wesley's praise as they contemplate +death; and with the joyful and exact anticipations +of so many millions of common men as they turn their +faces to the wall. In all these, in even the Book of the +Revelation, there is of course a great deal of pure fancy. +But imagination never bursts in anywhither till fact +has preceded. And it is just because there is a great +fact standing between us and Hezekiah that the pureness +of our faith and the richness of our imagination +of immortality differ so much from his. That fact is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388">[388]</a></span> +Jesus Christ, His resurrection and ascension. It is +He who has made all the difference and brought life +and immortality to light.</p> + +<p>And we shall know the difference if we lose our faith +in that fact. For <i>except Christ be risen from the dead</i> and +gone before to a country which derives all its reality and +light for our imagination from that Presence, which once +walked with us in the flesh, there remains for us only +Hezekiah's courage to make the best of a short reprieve, +only Hezekiah's outlook into Hades when at last we +turn our faces to the wall. But to be stronger and +purer for having met with death, as he was, only +that we must afterwards succumb, with our purity +and our strength, to death—this is surely to be, as Paul +said, <i>of all men the most miserable</i>.</p> + +<p>Better far to own the power of an endless life, which +Christ has sealed to us, and translate Hezekiah's +experience into the new calculus of immortality. If to +have faced death as he did was to inherit dignity and +peace and sense of power, what glory of kingship and +queenship must sit upon those faces in the other world +who have been at closer quarters still with the King of +terrors, and through Christ their strength have spoiled +him of his sting and victory! To have felt the worst +of death and to have triumphed—this is the secret of +the peaceful hearts, unfaltering looks and faces of glory, +<i>which pass in solemn procession of worship</i> through all +eternity before the throne of God.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>We shall consider the Old Testament views of a +future life and resurrection more fully in chaps. xxvii. +and xxx. of this volume.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389">[389]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXVI.</h2> + +<h3><i>HAD ISAIAH A GOSPEL FOR THE INDIVIDUAL?</i></h3> + + +<p>The two narratives, in which Isaiah's career culminates—that +of the Deliverance of Jerusalem +(xxxvi.; xxxvii.) and that of the Recovery of Hezekiah +(xxxviii.; xxxix.)—cannot fail, coming together as they +do, to suggest to thoughtful readers a striking contrast +between Isaiah's treatment of the community and his +treatment of the individual, between his treatment of +the Church and his treatment of single members. For +in the first of these narratives we are told how an +illimitable future, elsewhere so gloriously described by +the prophet, was secured for the Church upon earth; +but the whole result of the second is the gain for a +representative member of the Church of a respite of +fifteen years. Nothing, as we have seen, is promised +to the dying Hezekiah of a future life; no scintilla of +the light of eternity sparkles either in Isaiah's promise +or in Hezekiah's prayer. The net result of the incident +is a reprieve of fifteen years: fifteen years of a character +strengthened, indeed, by having met with death, but, +it would sadly seem, only in order to become again the +prey of the vanities of this world (chap. xxxix.). So +meagre a result for the individual stands strangely out +against the perpetual glory and peace assured to the +community. And it suggests this question: Had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390">[390]</a></span> +Isaiah any real gospel for the individual? If so, what +was it?</p> + +<p>First of all, we must remember that God in His +providence seldom gives to one prophet or generation +more than a single main problem for solution. In +Isaiah's day undoubtedly the most urgent problem—and +Divine problems are ever practical, not philosophical—was +the continuance of the Church upon +earth. It had really got to be a matter of doubt +whether a body of people possessing the knowledge +of the true God, and able to transfuse and transmit it, +could possibly survive among the political convulsions +of the world, and in consequence of its own sin. +Isaiah's problem was the reformation and survival of the +Church. In accordance with this, we notice how many +of his terms are collective, and how he almost never +addresses the individual. It is the <i>people</i>, upon whom +he calls—<i>the nation, Israel, the house of Jacob My vineyard, +the men of Judah His pleasant plantation</i>. To these +we may add the apostrophes to the city of Jerusalem, +under many personifications: <i>Ariel, Ariel, inhabitress of +Zion, daughter of Zion</i>. When Isaiah denounces sin, the +sinner is either the whole community or a class in the +community, very seldom an individual, though there are +some instances of the latter, as Ahaz and Shebna. It is +<i>This people hath rejected</i>, or <i>The people would not</i>. When +Jerusalem collapsed, although there must have been +many righteous men still within her, Isaiah said, <i>What +aileth thee that all belonging to thee have gone up to the +housetops?</i> (xxii. 1). His language is wholesale. When +he is not attacking society, he attacks classes or groups: +<i>the rulers</i>, the land-grabbers, the drunkards, <i>the sinners</i>, +<i>the judges</i>, <i>the house of David</i>, <i>the priests and the prophets</i>, +<i>the women</i>. And the sins of these he describes in their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391">[391]</a></span> +social effects, or in their results upon the fate of the +whole people; but he never, except in two cases, gives +us their individual results. He does not make evident, +like Jesus or Paul, the eternal damage a man's sin +inflicts on his own soul.</p> + +<p>Similarly when Isaiah speaks of God's grace and +salvation the objects of these are again collective—<i>the +remnant; the escaped</i> (also a collective noun); a <i>holy +seed</i>; a <i>stock</i> or <i>stump</i>. It is a <i>restored nation</i> whom he +sees under the Messiah, the perpetuity and glory of a +<i>city</i> and <i>a State</i>. What we consider to be a most personal +and particularly individual matter—the forgiveness +of sin—he promises, with two exceptions, only +to the community: <i>This people that dwelleth therein hath +its iniquity forgiven</i>. We can understand all this social, +collective and wholesale character of his language +only if we keep in mind his Divinely appointed work—the +substance and perpetuity of a purified and secure +Church of God.</p> + +<p>Had Isaiah then no gospel for the individual? +This will indeed seem impossible to us if we keep in +view the following considerations:—</p> + +<p>1. <span class="smcap">Isaiah himself</span> had passed through a powerfully +individual experience. He had not only felt the solidarity +of the people's sin—<i>I dwell among a people of unclean +lips</i>—he had first felt his own particular guilt: <i>I +am a man of unclean lips</i>. One who suffered the private +experiences which are recounted in chap. vi.; whose +<i>own eyes</i> had <i>seen</i> the <i>King, Jehovah of hosts</i>; who had +gathered on his own lips his guilt and felt the fire come +from heaven's altar by an angelic messenger specially to +purify him; who had further devoted himself to God's +service with so thrilling a sense of his own responsibility, +and had so thereby felt his solitary and individual<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392">[392]</a></span> +mission—he surely was not behind the very greatest of +Christian saints in the experience of guilt, of personal +obligation to grace and of personal responsibility. +Though the record of Isaiah's ministry contains no +narratives, such as fill the ministries of Jesus and Paul, +of anxious care for individuals, could he who wrote of +himself that sixth chapter have failed to deal with men +as Jesus dealt with Nicodemus, or Paul with the Philippian +gaoler? It is not picturesque fancy, nor merely a +reflection of the New Testament temper, if we realize +Isaiah's intervals of relief from political labour and religious +reform occupied with an attention to individual +interests, which necessarily would not obtain the permanent +record of his public ministry. But whether this be +so or not, the sixth chapter teaches that for Isaiah all +public conscience and public labour found its necessary +preparation in personal religion.</p> + +<p>2. But, again, Isaiah had an <span class="smcap">Individual for his +ideal</span>. To him the future was not only an established +State; it was equally, it was first, a glorious king. +Isaiah was an Oriental. We moderns of the West +place our reliance upon institutions; we go forward upon +ideas. In the East it is personal influence that tells, +persons who are expected, followed and fought for. +The history of the West is the history of the advance +of thought, of the rise and decay of institutions, to +which the greatest individuals are more or less subordinate. +The history of the East is the annals of +personalities; justice and energy in a ruler, not political +principles, are what impress the Oriental imagination. +Isaiah has carried this Oriental hope to a distinct and +lofty pitch. The Hero whom he exalts on the margin +of the future, as its Author, is not only a person of +great majesty, but a character of considerable decision.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393">[393]</a></span> +At first only the rigorous virtues of the ruler are attributed +to Him (chap. xi. 1 ff.), but afterwards the graces +and influence of a much broader and sweeter humanity +(xxxii. 2). Indeed, in this latter oracle we saw that +Isaiah spoke not so much of his great Hero, as of what +any individual might become. <i>A man</i>, he says, <i>shall be +as an hiding-place from the wind</i>. Personal influence +is the spring of social progress, the shelter and fountain +force of the community. In the following verses the +effect of so pure and inspiring a presence is traced +in the discrimination of individual character—each +man standing out for what he is—which Isaiah defines +as his second requisite for social progress. In all this +there is much for the individual to ponder, much to +inspire him with a sense of the value and responsibility +of his own character, and with the certainty that by +himself he shall be judged and by himself stand or fall. +<i>The worthless person shall be no more called princely, nor +the knave said to be bountiful.</i></p> + +<p>3. If any details of character are wanting in the +picture of Isaiah's Hero, they are supplied by <span class="smcap">Hezekiah's +Self-analysis</span> (chap. xxxviii.). We need not repeat +what we have said in the previous chapter of the king's +appreciation of what is the strength of a man's character, +and particularly of how character grows by grappling +with death. In this matter the most experienced of +Christian saints may learn from Isaiah's pupil.</p> + +<p>Isaiah had then, without doubt, a gospel for the +individual; and to this day the individual may plainly +read it in his book, may truly, strongly, joyfully live +by it—so deeply does it begin, so much does it help to +self-knowledge and self-analysis, so lofty are the ideals +and responsibilities which it presents. But is it true +that Isaiah's gospel is for this life only?</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_394" id="Page_394">[394]</a></span>Was Isaiah's silence on the immortality of the individual +due wholly to the cause we have suggested in +the beginning of this chapter—that God gives to each +prophet his single problem, and that the problem of +Isaiah was the endurance of the Church upon earth? +There is no doubt that this is only partly the explanation.</p> + +<p>The Hebrew belonged to a branch of humanity—the +Semitic—which, as its history proves, was unable +to develop any strong imagination of, or practical +interest in, a future life apart from foreign influence +or Divine revelation. The pagan Arabs laughed at +Mahommed when he preached to them of the Resurrection; +and even to-day, after twelve centuries of +Moslem influence, their descendants in the centre of +Arabia, according to the most recent authority,<a name="FNanchor_73_73" id="FNanchor_73_73"></a><a href="#Footnote_73_73" class="fnanchor">[73]</a> fail to +form a clear conception of, or indeed to take almost any +practical interest in, another world. The northern +branch of the race, to which the Hebrews belonged, +derived from an older civilisation a prospect of Hades, +that their own fancy developed with great elaboration. +This prospect, however, which we shall describe fully +in connection with chaps. xiv. and xxvi., was one +absolutely hostile to the interests of character in +this life. It brought all men, whatever their life +had been on earth, at last to a dead level of unsubstantial +and hopeless existence. Good and evil, strong +and weak, pious and infidel, alike became shades, joyless +and hopeless, without even the power to praise God. +We have seen in Hezekiah's case how such a prospect +unnerved the most pious souls, and that revelation, even +though represented at his bedside by an Isaiah, offered +him no hope of an issue from it. The strength<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_395" id="Page_395">[395]</a></span> +of character, however, which Hezekiah professes to +have won in grappling with death, added to the +closeness of communion with God which he enjoyed +in this life, only brings out the absurdity of such +a conclusion to life as the prospect of Sheol offered to +the individual. If he was a pious man, if he was a +man who had never felt himself deserted by God in +this life, he was bound to revolt from so God-forsaken +an existence after death. This was actually +the line along which the Hebrew spirit went out to +victory over those gloomy conceptions of death, that +were yet unbroken by a risen Christ. <i>Thou wilt not</i>, +the saint triumphantly cried, <i>leave my soul in Sheol, nor +wilt Thou suffer Thine holy one to see corruption</i>. It was +faith in the almightiness and reasonableness of God's +ways, it was conviction of personal righteousness, it +was the sense that the Lord would not desert His own +in death, which sustained the believer in face of that +awful shadow through which no light of revelation had +yet broken.</p> + +<p>If these, then, were the wings by which a believing +soul under the Old Testament soared over the grave, +Isaiah may be said to have contributed to the hope of +personal immortality just in so far as he strengthened +them. By enhancing as he did the value and beauty of +individual character, by emphasizing the indwelling of +God's Spirit, he was bringing life and immortality to light, +even though he spoke no word to the dying about the +fact of a glorious life beyond the grave. By assisting to +create in the individual that character and sense of God, +which alone could assure him he would never die, but +pass from the praise of the Lord in this life to a nearer +enjoyment of His presence beyond, Isaiah was working +along the only line by which the Spirit of God seems to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_396" id="Page_396">[396]</a></span> +have assisted the Hebrew mind to an assurance of +heaven.</p> + +<p>But further in his favourite gospel of the <span class="smcap">Reasonableness +of God</span>—that God does not work fruitlessly, nor +create and cultivate with a view to judgement and destruction—Isaiah +was furnishing an argument for personal +immortality, the force of which has not been exhausted. +In a recent work on <i>The Destiny of Man</i><a name="FNanchor_74_74" id="FNanchor_74_74"></a><a href="#Footnote_74_74" class="fnanchor">[74]</a> the +philosophic author maintains the reasonableness of the +Divine methods as a ground of belief both in the continued +progress of the race upon earth and in the +immortality of the individual. "From the first dawning +of life we see all things working together towards one +mighty goal—the evolution of the most exalted and +spiritual faculties which characterize humanity. Has +all this work been done for nothing? Is it all +ephemeral, all a bubble that bursts, a vision that fades? +On such a view the riddle of the universe becomes a +riddle without a meaning. The more thoroughly we +comprehend the process of evolution by which things +have come to be what they are, the more we are likely +to feel that to deny the everlasting persistence of the +spiritual element in man is to rob the whole process of +its meaning. It goes far towards putting us to permanent +intellectual confusion. For my own part, I +believe in the immortality of the soul, not in the sense +in which I accept demonstrable truths of science, but +as a supreme act of faith in the reasonableness of God's +work."</p> + +<p>From the same argument Isaiah drew only the +former of these two conclusions. To him the certainty +that God's people would survive the impending deluge<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_397" id="Page_397">[397]</a></span> +of Assyria's brute force was based on his faith that the +Lord is <i>a God of judgement</i>, of reasonable law and +method, and could not have created or fostered so +spiritual a people only to destroy them. The progress +of religion upon earth was certain. But does not +Isaiah's method equally make for the immortality of +the individual? He did not draw this conclusion, but +he laid down its premises with a confidence and richness +of illustration that have never been excelled.</p> + +<p>We, therefore, answer the question we put at the +beginning of the chapter thus:—Isaiah had a gospel for +the individual for this life, and all the necessary premises +of a gospel for the individual for the life to come.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_398" id="Page_398"></a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_399" id="Page_399">[399]</a></span></p> +<h2>BOOK V.</h2> + +<h3><i>PROPHECIES NOT RELATING TO +ISAIAH'S TIME.</i></h3> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_400" id="Page_400">[400]</a></span></p> + + + +<div class="center"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Book 5"> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Isaiah</span>:—</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">xiii.-xiv. 23</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">xxiv.-xxvii.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">xxxiv.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">xxxv.</td></tr> +</table></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_401" id="Page_401">[401]</a></span></p> +<h2>BOOK V.</h2> + + +<p>In the first thirty-nine chapters of the Book of +Isaiah—the half which refers to the prophet's +own career and the politics contemporary with that—we +find four or five prophecies containing no +reference to Isaiah himself nor to any Jewish king +under whom he laboured, and painting both Israel and +the foreign world in quite a different state from that in +which they lay during his lifetime. These prophecies +are chap. xiii., an Oracle announcing the Fall of +Babylon, with its appendix, chap. xiv. 1-23, the +Promise of Israel's Deliverance and an Ode upon the +Fall of the Babylonian Tyrant; chaps. xxiv.-xxvii., +a series of Visions of the breaking up of the universe, +of restoration from exile, and even of resurrection from +the dead; chap. xxxiv., the Vengeance of the Lord upon +Edom; and chap. xxxv., a Song of Return from Exile.</p> + +<p>In these prophecies Assyria is no longer the dominant +world-force, nor Jerusalem the inviolate fortress of God +and His people. If Assyria or Egypt is mentioned, it +is but as one of the three classical enemies of Israel; +and Babylon is represented as the head and front of +the hostile world. The Jews are no longer in political +freedom and possession of their own land; they are +either in exile or just returned from it to a depopulated +country. With these altered circumstances come +another temper and new doctrine. The horizon is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_402" id="Page_402">[402]</a></span> +different, and the hopes that flush in dawn upon it are +not quite the same as those which we have contemplated +with Isaiah in his immediate future. It is no longer the +repulse of the heathen invader; the inviolateness of +the sacred city; the recovery of the people from the +shock of attack, and of the land from the trampling of +armies. But it is the people in exile, the overthrow +of the tyrant in his own home, the opening of prison +doors, the laying down of a highway through the +wilderness, the triumph of return and the resumption +of worship. There is, besides, a promise of the resurrection, +which we have not found in the prophecies +we have considered.</p> + +<p>With such differences, it is not wonderful that many +have denied the authorship of these few prophecies to +Isaiah. This is a question that can be looked at calmly. +It touches no dogma of the Christian faith. Especially +it does not involve the other question, so often—and, +we venture to say, so unjustly—started on this point, +Could not the Spirit of God have inspired Isaiah to +foresee all that the prophecies in question foretell, even +though he lived more than a century before the people +were in circumstances to understand them? Certainly, +God is almighty. The question is not, Could He have +done this? but one somewhat different: Did He do +it? and to this an answer can be had only from the +prophecies themselves. If these mark the Babylonian +hostility or captivity as already upon Israel, this is +a testimony of Scripture itself, which we cannot overlook, +and beside which even unquestionable traces of +similarity to Isaiah's style or the fact that these oracles +are bound up with Isaiah's own undoubted prophecies +have little weight. "Facts" of style will be regarded +with suspicion by any one who knows how they are<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_403" id="Page_403">[403]</a></span> +employed by both sides in such a question as this; +while the certainty that the Book of Isaiah was put +into its present form subsequently to his life will +permit of,—and the evident purpose of Scripture to +secure moral impressiveness rather than historical +consecutiveness will account for,—later oracles being +bound up with unquestioned utterances of Isaiah.</p> + +<p>Only one of the prophecies in question confirms the +tradition that it is by Isaiah, viz., chap. xiii., which bears +the title <i>Oracle of Babylon which Isaiah, son of Amoz, +did see</i>; but titles are themselves so much the report of +tradition, being of a later date than the rest of the text, +that it is best to argue the question apart from them.</p> + +<p>On the other hand, Isaiah's authorship of these prophecies, +or at least the possibility of his having written +them, is usually defended by appealing to his promise +of the return from exile in chap. xi. and his threat of +a Babylonish captivity in chap. xxxix. This is an argument +that has not been fairly met by those who deny +the Isaianic authorship of chaps. xiii.-xiv. 23, xxiv.-xxvii., +and xxxv. It is a strong argument, for while, as +we have seen (p. 201), there are good grounds for believing +Isaiah to have been likely to make such a prediction +of a Babylonish captivity as is attributed to him in chap. +xxxix. 6, almost all the critics agree in leaving chap. xi. +to him. But if chap. xi. is Isaiah's, then he undoubtedly +spoke of an exile much more extensive than had taken +place by his own day. Nevertheless, even this ability +in xi. to foretell an exile so vast does not account for +passages in xiii.-xiv. 23, xxiv.-xxvii., which represent +the Exile either as present or as actually over. No one +who reads these chapters without prejudice can fail to +feel the force of such passages in leading him to decide +for an exilic or post-exilic authorship (see pp. <a href="#Page_429">429 ff.</a>)</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_404" id="Page_404">[404]</a></span>Another argument against attributing these prophecies +to Isaiah is that their visions of the last +things, representing as they do a judgement on the +whole world, and even the destruction of the whole +material universe, are incompatible with Isaiah's loftiest +and final hope of an inviolate Zion at last relieved and +secure, of a land freed from invasion and wondrously +fertile, with all the converted world, Assyria and Egypt, +gathered round it as a centre. This question, however, +is seriously complicated by the fact that in his youth +Isaiah did undoubtedly prophesy a shaking of the whole +world and the destruction of its inhabitants, and by the +probability that his old age survived into a period, whose +abounding sin would again make natural such wholesale +predictions of judgement as we find in chap. xxiv.</p> + +<p>Still, let the question of the eschatology be as obscure +as we have shown, there remains this clear issue. In +some chapters of the Book of Isaiah, which, from our +knowledge of the circumstances of his times, we know +must have been published while he was alive, we learn +that the Jewish people has never left its land, nor lost +its independence under Jehovah's anointed, and that +the inviolateness of Zion and the retreat of the Assyrian +invaders of Judah, without effecting the captivity of the +Jews, are absolutely essential to the endurance of +God's kingdom on earth. In other chapters we find +that the Jews have left their land, have been long in +exile (or from other passages have just returned), and +that the religious essential is no more the independence +of the Jewish State under a theocratic king, but +only the resumption of the Temple worship. Is it +possible for one man to have written both these sets of +chapters? Is it possible for one age to have produced +them? That is the whole question.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_405" id="Page_405">[405]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXVII.</h2> + +<h3>BABYLON AND LUCIFER.</h3> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> xiii. 2-xiv. 23 (<span class="smcap"><small>DATE UNCERTAIN</small></span>).</p> + + +<p>This double oracle is against the City (xiii. 2-xiv. +2) and the Tyrant (xiv. 3-23) of Babylon.</p> + + +<p class="center">I. <span class="smcap">The Wicked City</span> (xiii. 2-xiv. 23).</p> + +<p>The first part is a series of hurried and vanishing +scenes—glimpses of ruin and deliverance caught +through the smoke and turmoil of a Divine war. The +drama opens with the erection of a gathering <i>standard +upon a bare mountain</i> (ver. 2). He who gives the order +explains it (ver. 3), but is immediately interrupted by +<i>Hark! a tumult on the mountains, like a great people. +Hark! the surge of the kingdoms of nations gathering +together. Jehovah of hosts is mustering the host of war.</i> +It is the <i>day of Jehovah</i> that is <i>near</i>, the day of His +war and of His judgement upon the world.</p> + +<p>This Old Testament expression, <i>the day of the <span class="smcap">Lord</span></i>, +starts so many ideas that it is difficult to seize any one +of them and say this is just what is meant. For <i>day</i> +with a possessive pronoun suggests what has been appointed +aforehand, or what must come round in its +turn; means also opportunity and triumph, and also swift +performance after long delay. All these thoughts are +excited when we couple <i>a day</i> with any person's name. +And therefore as with every dawn some one awakes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_406" id="Page_406">[406]</a></span> +saying, This is my day; as with every dawn comes +some one's chance, some soul gets its wish, some will +shows what it can do, some passion or principle issues +into fact: so God also shall have His day, on which +His justice and power shall find their full scope and +triumph. Suddenly and simply, like any dawn that +takes its turn on the round of time, the great decision +and victory of Divine justice shall at last break out +of the long delay of ages. <i>Howl ye, for the day of +Jehovah is near; as destruction from the Destructive +does it come.</i> Very savage and quite universal is its +punishment. <i>Every human heart melteth.</i> Countless +faces, white with terror, light up its darkness like +flames. Sinners are <i>to be exterminated out of the earth; +the world is to be punished for its iniquity</i>. Heaven, +the stars, sun and moon aid the horror and the +darkness, heaven shivering above, the earth quaking +beneath; and between, the peoples like shepherdless +sheep drive to and fro through awful carnage.</p> + +<p>From ver. 17 the mist lifts a little. The vague turmoil +clears up into a siege of Babylon by the Medians, and +then settles down into Babylon's ruin and abandonment +to wild beasts. Finally (xiv. 1) comes the religious +reason of so much convulsion: <i>For Jehovah will have +compassion upon Jacob, and choose again Israel, and +settle them upon their own ground; and the foreign +sojourner shall join himself to them, and they shall associate +themselves to the house of Jacob</i>.</p> + +<p>This prophecy evidently came to a people already +in captivity—a very different circumstance of the +Church of God from that in which we have seen her +under Isaiah. But upon this new stage it is still the +same old conquest. Assyria has fallen, but Babylon +has taken her place. The old spirit of cruelty and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_407" id="Page_407">[407]</a></span> +covetousness has entered a new body; the only change +is that it has become wealth and luxury instead of +brute force and military glory. It is still selfishness +and pride and atheism. At this, our first introduction +to Babylon, it might have been proper to explain why +throughout the Bible from Genesis to Revelation this +one city should remain in fact or symbol the enemy of +God and the stronghold of darkness. But we postpone +what may be said of her singular reputation, +till we come to the second part of the Book of Isaiah +where Babylon plays a larger and more distinct role. +Here her destruction is simply the most striking +episode of the Divine judgement upon the whole earth. +Babylon represents civilisation; she is the brow of +the world's pride and enmity to God. One distinctively +Babylonian characteristic, however, must not be passed +over. With a ring of irony in his voice, the prophet +declares, <i>Behold, I stir up the Medes against thee, who +regard not silver and take no pleasure in gold</i>. The +worst terror that can assail us is the terror of forces, +whose character we cannot fathom, who will not +stop to parley, who do not understand our language +nor our bribes. It was such a power, with which +the resourceful and luxurious Babylon was threatened. +With money the Babylonians did all they wished to +do, and believed everything else to be possible. They +had subsidised kings, bought over enemies, seduced +the peoples of the earth. The foe whom God now sent +them was impervious to this influence. From their +pure highlands came down upon corrupt civilisation +a simple people, whose banner was a leathern apron, +whose goal was not booty nor ease but power and +mastery, who came not to rob but to displace.</p> + +<p>The lessons of the passage are two: that the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_408" id="Page_408">[408]</a></span> +people of God are something distinct from civilisation, +though this be universal and absorbent as a very +Babylon; and that the resources of civilisation are +not even in material strength the highest in the +universe, but God has in His armoury weapons heedless +of men's cunning, and in His armies agents +impervious to men's bribes. Every civilisation needs +to be told, according to its temper, one of these two +things. Is it hypocritical? Then it needs to be told +that civilisation is not one with the people of God. +Is it arrogant? Then it needs to be told that the +resources of civilisation are not the strongest forces in +God's universe. Man talks of the triumph of mind +over matter, of the power of culture, of the elasticity +of civilisation; but God has natural forces, to which +all these are as the worm beneath the hoof of the +horse: and if moral need arise, He will call His brute +forces into requisition. <i>Howl ye, for the day of Jehovah +is near; as destruction from the Destructive does it come.</i> +There may be periods in man's history when, in opposition +to man's unholy art and godless civilisation, God +can reveal Himself only as destruction.</p> + + +<p class="center">II. <span class="smcap">The Tyrant</span> (xiv. 3-23).</p> + +<p>To the prophecy of the overthrow of Babylon there +is annexed, in order to be sung by Israel in the +hour of her deliverance, a <i>satiric ode</i> or <i>taunt-song</i> +(Heb. <i>mashal</i>, Eng. ver. <i>parable</i>) upon the King of +Babylon. A translation of this spirited poem in the +form of its verse (in which, it is to be regretted, it +has not been rendered by the English revisers) will +be more instructive than a full commentary. But the +following remarks of introduction are necessary. The +word <i>mashal</i>, by which this ode is entitled, means<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_409" id="Page_409">[409]</a></span> +comparison, <i>similitude</i> or <i>parable</i>, and was applicable to +every sentence composed of at least two members that +compared or contrasted their subjects. As the great +bulk of Hebrew poetry is sententious, and largely depends +for rhythm upon its parallelism, <i>mashal</i> received +a general application; and while another term—<i>shîr</i>—more +properly denotes lyric poetry, <i>mashal</i> is applied +to rhythmical passages in the Old Testament of almost +all tempers: to mere predictions, proverbs, orations, +satires or taunt-songs, as here, and to didactic pieces. +The parallelism of the verses in our ode is too evident to +need an index. But the parallel verses are next grouped +into strophes. In Hebrew poetry this division is +frequently effected by the use of a refrain. In our ode +there is no refrain, but the strophes are easily distinguished +by difference of subject-matter. Hebrew poetry +does not employ rhyme, but makes use of assonance, +and to a much less extent of alliteration—a form which +is more frequent in Hebrew prose. In our ode there is +not much either of assonance or alliteration. But, on +the other hand, the ode has but to be read to break into +a certain rough and swinging rhythm. This is produced +by long verses rising alternate with short ones falling. +Hebrew verse at no time relied for a metrical effect upon +the modern device of an equal or proportionate number +of syllables. The longer verses of this ode are sometimes +too short, the shorter too long, variations to which +a rude chant could readily adapt itself. But the alternation +of long and short is sustained throughout, except +for a break at ver. 10 by the introduction of the formula +<i>And they answered and said</i>, which evidently ought to +stand for a long and a short verse if the number of double +verses in the second strophe is to be the same as it is—seven—in +the first and in the third.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_410" id="Page_410">[410]</a></span>The scene of the poem, the Underworld and abode of +the shades of the dead, is one on which some of the +most splendid imagination and music of humanity has +been expended. But we must not be disappointed if we +do not here find the rich detail and glowing fancy of +Virgil's or of Dante's vision. This simple and even +rude piece of metre, liker ballad than epic, ought to +excite our wonder not so much for what it has failed to +imagine as for what, being at its disposal, it has resolutely +stinted itself in employing. For it is evident +that the author of these lines had within his reach the +rich, fantastic materials of Semitic mythology, which +are familiar to us in the Babylonian remains. With an +austerity, that must strike every one who is acquainted +with these, he uses only so much of them as to enable +him to render with dramatic force his simple theme—the +vanity of human arrogance.<a name="FNanchor_75_75" id="FNanchor_75_75"></a><a href="#Footnote_75_75" class="fnanchor">[75]</a></p> + +<p>For this purpose he employs the idea of the Underworld +which was prevalent among the northern Semitic +peoples. Sheol—the <i>gaping</i> or <i>craving</i> place—which we +shall have occasion to describe in detail when we come +to speak of belief in the resurrection,<a name="FNanchor_76_76" id="FNanchor_76_76"></a><a href="#Footnote_76_76" class="fnanchor">[76]</a> is the state +after death that craves and swallows all living. There +dwell the shades of men amid some unsubstantial +reflection of their earthly state (ver. 9), and with consciousness +and passion only sufficient to greet the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_411" id="Page_411">[411]</a></span> +arrival of the new-comer and express satiric wonder at +his fall (ver. 9). With the arrogance of the Babylonian +kings, this tyrant thought to scale the heavens to set his +throne in the <i>mount of assembly</i> of the immortals, <i>to +match the Most High</i>.<a name="FNanchor_77_77" id="FNanchor_77_77"></a><a href="#Footnote_77_77" class="fnanchor">[77]</a> But his fate is the fate of all +mortals—to go down to the weakness and emptiness of +Sheol. Here, let us carefully observe, there is no trace +of a judgement for reward or punishment. The new +victim of death simply passes to his place among his +equals. There was enough of contrast between the +arrogance of a tyrant claiming Divinity and his fall +into the common receptacle of mortality to point the +prophet's moral without the addition of infernal torment. +Do we wish to know the actual punishment of +his pride and cruelty? It is visible above ground +(strophe 4); not with his spirit, but with his corpse; +not with himself, but with his wretched family. His +corpse is unburied, his family exterminated; his name +disappears from the earth.<a name="FNanchor_78_78" id="FNanchor_78_78"></a><a href="#Footnote_78_78" class="fnanchor">[78]</a></p> + +<p>Thus, by the help of only a few fragments from the +popular mythology, the sacred satirist achieves his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_412" id="Page_412">[412]</a></span> +purpose. His severe monotheism is remarkable in +its contrast to Babylonian poems upon similar subjects. +He will know none of the gods of the underworld. +In place of the great goddess, whom a Babylonian +would certainly have seen presiding, with her minions, +over the shades, he personifies—it is a frequent +figure of Hebrew poetry—the abyss itself. <i>Sheol +shuddereth at thee.</i> It is the same when he speaks +(ver. 13) of the deep's great opposite, that <i>mount of +assembly</i> of the gods, which the northern Semites +believed to soar to a silver sky <i>in the recesses of the +north</i> (ver. 14), upon the great range which in that +direction bounded the Babylonian plain. This Hebrew +knows of no gods there but One, whose are the +stars, who is the Most High. Man's arrogance and +cruelty are attempts upon His majesty. He inevitably +overwhelms them. Death is their penalty: blood and +squalor on earth, the concourse of shuddering ghosts +below.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i0"><i>The kings of the earth set themselves,</i></span><br /> +<span class="i0"><i>And the rulers take counsel together,</i></span><br /> +<span class="i0"><i>Against the Lord and against His Anointed.</i></span><br /> +<span class="i0"><i>He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh;</i></span><br /> +<span class="i0"><i>The Lord shall have them in derision.</i></span> +</div> + +<p>He who has heard that laughter sees no comedy in +aught else. This is the one unfailing subject of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_413" id="Page_413">[413]</a></span> +Hebrew satire, and it forms the irony and the rigour +of the following ode.<a name="FNanchor_79_79" id="FNanchor_79_79"></a><a href="#Footnote_79_79" class="fnanchor">[79]</a></p> + +<p>The only other remarks necessary are these. In +ver. 9 the Authorized Version has not attempted to +reproduce the humour of the original satire, which +styles them that were chief men on earth <i>chief-goats</i> +of the herd, bell-wethers. The phrase <i>they that go +down to the stones of the pit</i> should be transferred from +ver. 19 to ver. 20.</p> + +<p><i>And thou shalt lift up this proverb upon the King of +Babylon, and shalt say,</i>—</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i4">I.</span></div> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i0">Ah! stilled is the tyrant,</span><br /> +<span class="i1">And stilled is the fury!</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Broke hath Jehovah the rod of the wicked,</span><br /> +<span class="i1">Sceptre of despots:</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Stroke of (the) peoples with passion,</span><br /> +<span class="i1">Stroke unremitting,</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Treading in wrath (the) nations,</span><br /> +<span class="i1">Trampling unceasing.</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Quiet, at rest, is the whole earth,</span><br /> +<span class="i1">They break into singing;</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Even the pines are jubilant for thee,</span><br /> +<span class="i1">Lebanon's cedars!</span><br /> +<span class="i0">"Since thou liest low, cometh not up</span><br /> +<span class="i1">Feller against us."</span> +</div> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i4">II.</span></div> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i0">Sheol from under shuddereth at thee</span><br /> +<span class="i1">To meet thine arrival,</span><br /> +<span class="i0"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_414" id="Page_414">[414]</a></span>Stirring up for thee the shades,</span><br /> +<span class="i1">All great-goats of earth!</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Lifteth erect from their thrones</span><br /> +<span class="i1">All kings of peoples.</span> +</div> + +<p>10. <i>All of them answer and say to thee,</i>—</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i0">"Thou, too, made flaccid like us,</span><br /> +<span class="i1">To us hast been levelled!</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Hurled to Sheol is the pride of thee,</span><br /> +<span class="i1">Clang of the harps of thee;</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Under thee strewn are (the) maggots</span><br /> +<span class="i1">Thy coverlet worms."</span><br /> +</div> + +<div class="poem"><br /> +<span class="i4">III.</span></div> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i0">How art thou fallen from heaven</span><br /> +<span class="i1">Daystar, son of the dawn</span><br /> +<span class="i0">(How) art thou hewn down to earth,</span><br /> +<span class="i1">Hurtler at nations.</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And thou, thou didst say in thine heart,</span><br /> +<span class="i1">"The heavens will I scale,</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Far up to the stars of God</span><br /> +<span class="i1">Lift high my throne,</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And sit on the mount of assembly,</span><br /> +<span class="i1">Far back of the north,</span><br /> +<span class="i0">I will climb on the heights of (the) cloud,</span><br /> +<span class="i1">I will match the Most High!"</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Ah! to Sheol thou art hurled,</span><br /> +<span class="i1">Far back of the pit!</span><br /> +</div> + +<div class="poem"><br /> +<span class="i4">IV.</span></div> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i0">Who see thee at thee are gazing;</span><br /> +<span class="i1">Upon thee they muse:</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Is this the man that staggered the earth,</span><br /> +<span class="i1">Shaker of kingdoms?</span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_415" id="Page_415">[415]</a></span><br /> +<span class="i0">Setting the world like the desert,</span><br /> +<span class="i1">Its cities he tore down;</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Its prisoners he loosed not</span><br /> +<span class="i1">(Each of them) homeward.</span><br /> +<span class="i0">All kings of peoples, yes all,</span><br /> +<span class="i1">Are lying in their state;</span><br /> +<span class="i0">But thou! thou art flung from thy grave,</span><br /> +<span class="i1">Like a stick that is loathsome.</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Beshrouded with slain, the pierced of the sword,</span><br /> +<span class="i1">Like a corpse that is trampled.</span><br /> +<span class="i0">They that go down to the stones of a crypt,</span><br /> +<span class="i1">Shalt not be with them in burial.</span><br /> +<span class="i0">For thy land thou hast ruined,</span><br /> +<span class="i1">Thy people hast slaughtered.</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Shall not be mentioned for aye</span><br /> +<span class="i1">Seed of the wicked!</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Set for his children a shambles,</span><br /> +<span class="i1">For guilt of their fathers!</span><br /> +<span class="i0">They shall not rise, nor inherit (the) earth,</span><br /> +<span class="i1">Nor fill the face of the world with cities.</span><br /> +</div> + +<div class="poem"><br /> +<span class="i4">V.</span></div> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i0">But I will arise upon them,</span><br /> +<span class="i1">Sayeth Jehovah of hosts;</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And I will cut off from Babel</span><br /> +<span class="i1">Record and remnant,</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And scion and seed,</span><br /> +<span class="i1">Saith Jehovah:</span><br /> +<span class="i0">Yea, I will make it the bittern's heritage,</span><br /> +<span class="i1">Marshes of water!</span><br /> +<span class="i0">And I will sweep it with sweeps of destruction,</span><br /> +<span class="i1">Sayeth Jehovah of hosts.</span> + +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_416" id="Page_416">[416]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXVIII.</h2> + +<h3><i>THE EFFECT OF SIN ON OUR MATERIAL +CIRCUMSTANCE.</i></h3> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> xxiv. (<span class="smcap"><small>DATE UNCERTAIN</small></span>).</p> + + +<p>The twenty-fourth of Isaiah is one of those +chapters, which almost convince the most +persevering reader of Scripture that a consecutive +reading of the Authorized Version is an impossibility. +For what does he get from it but a weary and unintelligent +impression of destruction, from which he +gladly escapes to the nearest clear utterance of gospel +or judgement? Criticism affords little help. It cannot +clearly identify the chapter with any historical situation. +For a moment there is a gleam of a company standing +outside the convulsion, and to the west of the prophet, +while the prophet himself suffers captivity.<a name="FNanchor_80_80" id="FNanchor_80_80"></a><a href="#Footnote_80_80" class="fnanchor">[80]</a> But even +this fades before we make it out; and all the rest of the +chapter has too universal an application—the language +is too imaginative, enigmatic and even paradoxical—to +be applied to an actual historical situation, or to its<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_417" id="Page_417">[417]</a></span> +development in the immediate future. This is an ideal +description, the apocalyptic vision of a last, great day +of judgement upon the whole world; and perhaps the +moral truths are all the more impressive that the reader +is not distracted by temporary or local references.</p> + +<p>With the very first verse the prophecy leaps far +beyond all particular or national conditions: <i>Behold, +Jehovah shall be emptying the earth and rifling it; and He +shall turn it upside down and scatter its inhabitants</i>. +This is expressive and thorough; the words are those +which were used for cleaning a dirty dish. To the +completeness of this opening verse there is really +nothing in the chapter to add. All the rest of the +verses only illustrate this upturning and scouring of +the material universe. For it is with the material +universe that the chapter is concerned. Nothing is +said of the spiritual nature of man—little, indeed, about +man at all. He is simply called <i>the inhabitant of the +earth</i>, and the structure of society (ver. 2) is introduced +only to make more complete the effect of the +convulsion of the earth itself. Man cannot escape +those judgements which shatter his material habitation. +It is like one of Dante's visions. <i>Terror, and Pit and +Snare upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth! And it shall +come to pass that he who fleeth from the noise of the Terror +shall fall into the Pit, and he who cometh up out of the +midst of the Pit shall be taken in the Snare. For the +windows on high are opened, and the foundations of the +earth do shake. Broken, utterly broken, is the earth; +shattered, utterly shattered, the earth; staggering, very +staggering, the earth; reeling, the earth reeleth like a +drunken man: she swingeth to and fro like a hammock.</i> +And so through the rest of the chapter it is the +material life of man that is cursed: <i>the new wine</i>, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_418" id="Page_418">[418]</a></span><i>the +vine</i>, <i>the tabrets</i>, <i>the harp</i>, <i>the song</i>, and the merriness in +men's hearts which these call forth. Nor does the +chapter confine itself to the earth. The closing verses +carry the effect of judgement to the heavens and far +limits of the material universe. <i>The host of the high +ones on high</i> (ver. 21) are not spiritual beings, the +angels. They are material bodies, the stars. <i>Then, +too, shall the moon be confounded, and the stars ashamed</i>, +when the Lord's kingdom is established and His righteousness +made gloriously clear.</p> + +<p>What awful truth is this for illustration of which we +see not man, but his habitation, the world and all its +surroundings, lifted up by the hand of the Lord, broken +open, wiped out and shaken, while man himself, as if +only to heighten the effect, staggers hopelessly like +some broken insect on the quaking ruins? What +judgement is this, in which not only one city or one +kingdom is concerned, as in the last prophecy of which +we treated, but the whole earth is convulsed, and moon +and sun confounded?</p> + +<p>The judgement is the visitation of man's sins on his +material surroundings—<i>The earth's transgression shall +be heavy upon it; and it shall rise, and not fall</i>. The +truth on which this judgement rests is that between +man and his material circumstance—the earth he +inhabits, the seasons which bear him company through +time and the stars to which he looks high up in +heaven—there is a moral sympathy. <i>The earth also is +profaned under the inhabitants thereof, because they have +transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the +everlasting covenant.</i></p> + +<p>The Bible gives no support to the theory that matter +itself is evil. God created all things; <i>and God saw +everything that He had made; and, behold, it was very good</i>.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_419" id="Page_419">[419]</a></span> +When, therefore, we read in the Bible that the earth +is cursed, we read that it is cursed for man's sake; +when we read of its desolation, it is as the effect of man's +crime. The Flood, the destruction of Sodom and +Gomorrah, the plagues of Egypt and other great physical +catastrophes happened because men were stubborn or +men were foul. We cannot help noticing, however, that +matter was thus convulsed or destroyed, not only for +the purpose of punishing the moral agent, but because +of some poison which had passed from him into the +unconscious instruments, stage and circumstance of +his crime. According to the Bible, there would appear +to be some mysterious sympathy between man and +Nature. Man not only governs Nature; he infects and +informs her. As the moral life of the soul expresses +itself in the physical life of the body for the latter's +health or corruption, so the conduct of the human +race affects the physical life of the universe to its +farthest limits in space. When man is reconciled to +God, the wilderness blossoms like a rose; but the guilt +of man sullies, infects and corrupts the place he +inhabits and the articles he employs; and their destruction +becomes necessary, not for his punishment so much +as because of the infection and pollution that is in them.</p> + +<p>The Old Testament is not contented with a general +statement of this great principle, but pursues it to all +sorts of particular and private applications. The curses +of the Lord fell, not only on the sinner, but on his +dwelling, on his property and even on the bit of ground +these occupied. This was especially the case with regard +to idolatry. When Israel put a pagan population to the +sword, they were commanded to raze the city, gather +its wealth together, burn all that was burnable and put +the rest into the temple of the Lord as a thing <i>devoted</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_420" id="Page_420">[420]</a></span> +or <i>accursed</i>, which it would harm themselves to share +(Deut. vii. 25, 26; xiii. 7). The very site of Jericho was +cursed, and men were forbidden to build upon its +horrid waste. The story of Achan illustrates the same +principle.</p> + +<p>It is just this principle which chap. xxiv. extends +to the whole universe. What happened in Jericho +because of its inhabitants' idolatry is now to happen to +the whole earth because of man's sin. <i>The earth also +is profane under her inhabitants, because they have +transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the +everlasting covenant.</i> In these words the prophet takes +us away back to the covenant with Noah, which he +properly emphasizes as a covenant with all mankind. +With a noble universalism, for which his race and their +literature get too little credit, this Hebrew recognises +that once all mankind were holy unto God, who had +included them under His grace, that promised the fixedness +and fertility of nature. But that covenant, though +of grace, had its conditions for man. These had been +broken. The race had grown wicked, as it was before +the Flood; and therefore, in terms which vividly recall +that former judgement of God—<i>the windows on high are +opened</i>—the prophet foretells a new and more awful +catastrophe. One word which he employs betrays how +close he feels the moral sympathy to be between man +and his world. <i>The earth</i>, he says, <i>is profane</i>. This is a +word, whose root meaning is <i>that which has fallen away</i> +or <i>separated itself</i>, which is <i>delinquent</i>. Sometimes, perhaps, +it has a purely moral significance, like our word +"abandoned" in the common acceptance: he who has +fallen far and utterly into sin, <i>the reckless sinner</i>. But +mostly it has rather the religious meaning of one who +has fallen out of the covenant relation with God and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_421" id="Page_421">[421]</a></span> +the relevant benefits and privileges. Into this covenant +not only Israel and their land, but humanity and the +whole world, have been brought. Is man under covenant +grace? The world is also. Does man fall? So +does the world, becoming with him <i>profane</i>. The consequence +of breaking the covenant oath was expressed +in Hebrew by a technical word; and it is this word +which, translated <i>curse</i>, is applied in ver. 6 to the +earth.</p> + +<p>The whole earth is to be broken up and dissolved. +What then is to become of the people of God—the indestructible +remnant? Where are they to settle? In +this new deluge is there a new ark? For answer the +prophet presents us with an old paradise (ver. 23). He +has wrecked the universe; but he says now, <i>Jehovah of +hosts shall dwell in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem</i>. It would +be impossible to find a better instance of the limitations +of Old Testament prophecy than this return to the old +dispensation after the old dispensation has been committed +to the flames. At such a crisis as the conflagration +of the universe for the sin of man, the hope of +the New Testament looks for the creation of a new +heaven and a new earth, but there is no scintilla of +such a hope in this prediction. The imagination of +the Hebrew seer is beaten back upon the theatre his +conscience has abandoned. He knows "the old is out +of date," but for him "the new is not yet born;" and, +therefore, convinced as he is that the old must pass +away, he is forced to borrow from its ruins a provisional +abode for God's people, a figure for the truth +which grips him so firmly, that, in spite of the death of +all the universe for man's sin, there must be a visibleness +and locality of the Divine majesty, a place where +the people of God may gather to bless His holy name.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_422" id="Page_422">[422]</a></span>In this contrast of the power of spiritual imagination +possessed respectively by the Old and New Testaments +we must not, however, lose the ethical interest which +the main lesson of this chapter has for the individual +conscience. A breaking universe, the great day of +judgement, may be too large and too far off to impress +our conscience. But each of us has his own world—body, +property and environment—which is as much +and as evidently affected by his own sins as our chapter +represents the universe to be by the sins of the +race.</p> + +<p>To grant that the moral and physical universes are +from the same hand is to affirm a sympathy and mutual +reaction between them. This affirmation is confirmed by +experience, and this experience is of two kinds. To the +guilty man Nature seems aware, and flashes back from her +larger surfaces the magnified reflection of his own self-contempt +and terror. But, besides, men are also unable +to escape attributing to the material instruments or surroundings +of their sin a certain infection, a certain power +of recommunicating to their imaginations and memories +the desire for sin, as well as of inflicting upon them the +pain and penalty of the disorder it has produced among +themselves. Sin, though born, as Christ said, in the +heart, has immediately a material expression; and we +may follow this outwards through man's mind, body and +estate, not only to find it "hindering, disturbing, complicating +all," but reinfecting with the lust and odour +of sin the will which gave it birth. As sin is put forth +by the will, or is cherished in the heart, so we find +error cloud the mind, impurity the imagination, misery +the feelings, and pain and weariness infect the flesh and +bone. God, who modelled it, alone knows how far man's +physical form has been degraded by the sinful thoughts<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_423" id="Page_423">[423]</a></span> +and habits of which for ages it has been the tool and +expression; but even our eyes may sometimes trace +the despoiler, and that not only in the case of what are +preferably named sins of the flesh, but even with lusts +that do not require for their gratification the abuse of +the body. Pride, as one might think the least fleshly +of all the vices, leaves yet in time her damning signature, +and will mark the strongest faces with the sad +symptoms of that mental break-down, for which unrestrained +pride is so often to blame. If sin thus +disfigures the body, we know that sin also infects the +body. The habituated flesh becomes the suggester of +crime to the will which first constrained it to sin, and +now wearily, but in vain, rebels against the habits of its +instrument. But we recall all this about the body only +to say that what is true of the body is true of the soul's +greater material surroundings. With the sentence <i>Thou +shalt surely die</i>, God connects this other: <i>Cursed is the +ground for thy sake</i>.</p> + +<p>When we pass from a man's body, the wrapping we +find next nearest to his soul is his property. It has +always been an instinct of the race, that there is nothing +a man may so infect with the sin of his heart as his +handiwork and the gains of his toil. And that is a true +instinct, for, in the first place, the making of property +perpetuates a man's own habits. If he is successful in +business, then every bit of wealth he gathers is a confirmation +of the motives and tempers in which he conducted +his business. A man deceives himself as to +this, saying, Wait till I have made enough; then I will +put away the meanness, the harshness and the dishonesty +with which I made it. He shall not be able. +Just because he has been successful, he will continue in +his habit without thinking; just because there has been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_424" id="Page_424">[424]</a></span> +no break-down to convict of folly and suggest penitence, +so he becomes hardened. Property is a bridge on +which our passions cross from one part of our life to +another. The Germans have an ironical proverb: "The +man who has stolen a hundred thousand dollars <i>can +afford</i> to live honestly." The emphasis of the irony +falls on the words in italics: he can afford, but never +does. His property hardens his heart, and keeps him +from repentance.</p> + +<p>But the instinct of humanity has also been quick to +this: that the curse of ill-gotten wealth passes like bad +blood from father to child. What is the truth in this +matter? A glance at history will tell us. The accumulation +of property is the result of certain customs, habits +and laws. In its own powerful interest property perpetuates +these down the ages, and infects the fresh air +of each new generation with their temper. How often in +the history of mankind has it been property gained under +unjust laws or cruel monopolies which has prevented the +abolition of these, and carried into gentler, freer times +the pride and exclusiveness of the age, by whose rude +habits it was gathered. This moral transference, which +we see on so large a scale in public history, is repeated +to some extent in every private bequest. A curse does +not necessarily follow an estate from the sinful producer +of it to his heir; but the latter is, <i>by the bequest itself</i> +generally brought into so close a contact with his predecessor +as to share his conscience and be in sympathy +with his temper. And the case is common where an +heir, though absolutely up to the date of his succession +separate from him who made and has left the property, +nevertheless finds himself unable to alter the methods, +or to escape the temper, in which the property has been +managed. In nine cases out of ten property carries<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_425" id="Page_425">[425]</a></span> +conscience and transfers habit; if the guilt does not +descend, the infection does.</p> + +<p>When we pass from the effect of sin upon property +to its effect upon circumstance, we pass to what we +can affirm with even greater conscience. Man has +the power of permanently soaking and staining his +surroundings with the effect of sins in themselves +momentary and transient. Sin increases terribly by +the mental law of association. It is not the gin-shop +and the face of wanton beauty that alone tempt men +to sin. Far more subtle seductions are about every +one of us. That we have the power of inflicting our +character upon the scenes of our conduct is proved +by some of the dreariest experiences of life. A failure +in duty renders the place of it distasteful and enervating. +Are we irritable and selfish at home? Then home +is certain to be depressing, and little helpful to our +spiritual growth. Are we selfish and niggardly in the +interest we take in others? Then the congregation +we go to, the suburb we dwell in, will appear insipid +and unprofitable; we shall be past the possibility +of gaining character or happiness from the ground +where God planted us and meant us to grow. +Students have been idle in their studies till every +time they enter them a reflex languor comes down +like stale smoke, and the room they desecrated takes +its revenge on them. We have it in our power to make +our workshops, our laboratories and our studies places +of magnificent inspiration, to enter which is to receive +a baptism of industry and hope; and we have power +to make it impossible ever to work in them again at +full pitch. The pulpit, the pew, the very communion-table, +come under this law. If a minister of God have +made up his mind to say nothing from his accustomed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_426" id="Page_426">[426]</a></span> +place, which has not cost him toil, to feel nothing but +a dependence on God and a desire for souls, then he +will never set foot there but the power of the Lord +shall be upon him. But there are men who would +rather set foot anywhere than in their pulpit—men +who out of it are full of fellowship, information, +and infective health, but there they are paralysed +with the curse of their idle past. How history shows +us that the most sacred shelters and institutions of +man become tainted with sin, and are destroyed in +revolution or abandoned to decay by the intolerant +conscience of younger generations! How the hidden +life of each man feels his past sins possessing his +home and hearth, his pew, and even his place at the +Sacrament, till it is sometimes better for his soul's +health to avoid these!</p> + +<p>Such considerations give a great moral force to the +doctrine of the Old Testament that man's sin has +rendered necessary the destruction of his material circumstances, +and that the Divine judgement includes +a broken and a rifled universe.</p> + +<p>The New Testament has borrowed this vision from +the Old, but added, as we have seen, with greater +distinctness, the hope of new heavens and a new earth. +We have not concluded the subject, however, when we +have pointed this out, for the New Testament has +another gospel. The grace of God affects even the +material results of sin; the Divine pardon that converts +the sinner converts his circumstance also; Christ Jesus +sanctifies even the flesh, and is the Physician of the body +as well as the Saviour of the soul. To Him physical +evil abounds only that He may show forth His glory +in curing it. <i>Neither did this man sin nor his parents, +but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_427" id="Page_427">[427]</a></span> +To Paul the <i>whole creation groaneth and +travaileth with</i> the sinner <i>till now</i>, the hour of the +sinner's redemption. The Gospel bestows an evangelic +liberty which permits the strong Christian to +partake of meats offered to idols. And, finally, <i>all things +work together for good to them that love God</i>, for although +to the converted and forgiven sinner the material +pains which his sins have brought on him may continue +into his new life, they are experienced by him +no more as the just penalties of an angry God, but +as the loving, sanctifying chastisements of his Father +in heaven.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_428" id="Page_428">[428]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXIX.</h2> + +<h3><i>GOD'S POOR.</i></h3> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> xxv.-xxvii. (<span class="smcap"><small>DATE UNCERTAIN</small></span>).</p> + + +<p>We have seen that no more than the faintest +gleam of historical reflection brightens the +obscurity of chap. xxiv., and that the disaster which +lowers there is upon too world-wide a scale to be +forced within the conditions of any single period in the +fortunes of Israel. In chaps. xxv.-xxvii., which may +naturally be held to be a continuation of chap. xxiv., +the historical allusions are more numerous. Indeed, it +might be said they are too numerous, for they contradict +one another to the perplexity of the most acute +critics. They imply historical circumstances for the +prophecy both before and after the exile. On the one +hand, the blame of idolatry in Judah (xxvii. 9), the +mention of Assyria and Egypt (xxvii. 12, 13), and the +absence of the name of Babylon are indicative of a +pre-exilic date.<a name="FNanchor_81_81" id="FNanchor_81_81"></a><a href="#Footnote_81_81" class="fnanchor">[81]</a> Arguments from style are always +precarious; but it is striking that some critics, who +deny that chaps. xxiv.-xxvii. can have come as a whole +from Isaiah's time, profess to see his hand in certain +passages.<a name="FNanchor_82_82" id="FNanchor_82_82"></a><a href="#Footnote_82_82" class="fnanchor">[82]</a> Then, secondly, through these verses<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_429" id="Page_429">[429]</a></span> +which point to a pre-exilic date there are woven, +almost inextricably, phrases of actual exile: expressions +of the sense of living on a level and in contact +with the heathen (xxvi. 9, 10); a request to God's people +to withdraw from the midst of a heathen public to +the privacy of their chambers (20, 21); prayers and +promises of deliverance from the oppressor (<i>passim</i>); +hopes of the establishment of Zion, and of the repopulation +of the Holy Land. And, thirdly, some +verses imply that the speaker has already returned to +Zion itself: he says more than once, <i>in this mountain</i>; +there are hymns celebrating a deliverance actually +achieved, as—God <i>has done a marvel. For Thou hast +made a citadel into a heap, a fortified city into a ruin, a +castle of strangers to be no city, not to be built again.</i> +Such phrases do not read as if the prophet were +creating for the lips of his people a psalm of triumph +against a far future deliverance; they have in them the +ring of what has already happened.</p> + +<p>This bare statement of the allusions of the prophecy +will give the ordinary reader some idea of the difficulties +of Biblical criticism. What is to be made of a +prophecy uttering the catch-words and breathing the +experience of three distinct periods? One solution of +the difficulty may be that we have here the composition +of a Jew already returned from exile to a desecrated +sanctuary and depopulated land, who has woven +through his original utterances of complaint and hope +the experience of earlier oppressions and deliverances, +using even the names of earlier tyrants. In his immediate +past a great city that oppressed the Jews has +fallen, though, if this is Babylon, it is strange that +he nowhere names it. But his intention is rather +religious than historical; he seeks to give a general<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_430" id="Page_430">[430]</a></span> +representation of the attitude of the world to the +people of God, and of the judgement which God brings +on the world. This view of the composition is supported +by either of two possible interpretations of +that difficult verse xxvii. 1: <i>In that day Jehovah with +His sword, the hard and the great and the strong, shall +perform visitation upon Leviathan, Serpent Elusive, and +upon Leviathan, Serpent Tortuous; and He shall slay the +Dragon that is in the sea.</i> Cheyne treats these monsters +as mythic personifications of the clouds, the darkness +and the powers of the air, so that the verse means that, +just as Jehovah is supreme in the physical world, He +shall be in the moral. But it is more probable that +the two Leviathans mean Assyria and Babylon—the +<i>Elusive</i> one, Assyria on the swift-shooting Tigris; the +<i>Tortuous</i> one, Babylon on the winding Euphrates—while +<i>the Dragon that is in the sea</i> or <i>the west</i> is +Egypt. But if the prophet speaks of a victory over +Israel's three great enemies all at once, that means that +he is talking universally or ideally; and this impression +is further heightened by the mythic names he gives +them. Such arguments, along with the undoubted +post-exilic fragments in the prophecy, point to a late +date, so that even a very conservative critic, who is +satisfied that Isaiah is the author, admits that "the +<i>possibility</i> of exilic authorship does not allow itself to +be denied."</p> + +<p>If this character which we attribute to the prophecy +be correct—viz., that it is a summary or ideal account +of the attitude of the alien world to Israel, and of +the judgement God has ready for the world—then, +though itself be exilic, its place in the Book of Isaiah +is intelligible. Chaps. xxiv.-xxvii. fitly crown the +long list of Isaiah's oracles upon the foreign nations;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_431" id="Page_431">[431]</a></span> +they finally formulate the purposes of God towards the +nations and towards Israel, whom the nations have +oppressed. Our opinions must not be final or dogmatic +about this matter of authorship; the obscurities are +not nearly cleared up. But if it be ultimately found +certain that this prophecy, which lies in the heart of +the Book of Isaiah, is not by Isaiah himself, that +need neither startle nor unsettle us. No doctrinal +question is stirred by such a discovery, not even that +of the accuracy of the Scriptures. For that a book is +entitled by Isaiah's name does not necessarily mean +that it is all by Isaiah; and we shall feel still less +compelled to believe that these chapters are his when +we find other chapters called by his name while these +are not said to be by him. In truth there is a difficulty +here, only because it is supposed that a book entitled +by Isaiah's name must necessarily contain nothing but +what is Isaiah's own. Tradition may have come to say +so; but the Scripture itself, bearing as it does unmistakable +marks of another age than Isaiah's, tells us that +tradition is wrong: and the testimony of Scripture is +surely to be preferred, especially when it betrays, as we +have seen, sufficient reasons why a prophecy, though +not Isaiah's, was attached to his genuine and undoubted +oracles. In any case, however, as even the conservative +critic whom we have quoted admits, "for the +religious value" of the prophecy "the question" of +the authorship "is thoroughly irrelevant."</p> + +<p>We shall perceive this at once as we now turn +to see what is the religious value of our prophecy. +Chaps. xxv.-xxvii. stand in the front rank of evangelical +prophecy. In their experience of religion, their +characterisations of God's people, their expressions of +faith, their missionary hopes and hopes of immortality,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_432" id="Page_432">[432]</a></span> +they are very rich and edifying. Perhaps their most +signal feature is their designation of the people of God. +In this collection of prayers and hymns the people of +God are not regarded as a political body. They are +only once called the <i>nation</i> and spoken of in connection +with a territory (xxvi. 15). Only twice are they named +with the national names of Israel and Jacob (xxvii. 6, 9, +12). We miss Isaiah's promised king, his pictures of +righteous government, his emphasis upon social justice +and purity, his interest in the foreign politics of his +State, his hopes of national grandeur and agricultural +felicity. In these chapters God's people are described +by adjectives signifying spiritual qualities. Their +nationality is no more pleaded, only their suffering +estate and their hunger and thirst after God. The +ideals that are presented for the future are neither +political nor social, but ecclesiastical. We saw how +closely Isaiah's prophesying was connected with the +history of his time. The people of this prophecy seem +to have done with history, and to be interested only in +worship. And along with the assurance of the continued +establishment of Zion as the centre for a secure +and holy people, filling a secure and fertile land,—with +which, as we have seen, the undoubted visions of Isaiah +content themselves, while silent as to the fate of the +individuals who drop from this future through death,—we +have the most abrupt and thrilling hopes expressed +for the resurrection of these latter to share in the glory +of the redeemed and restored community.</p> + +<p>Among the names applied to God's people there are +three which were destined to play an enormous part in +the history of religion. In the English version these +appear as two: <i>poor and needy</i>; but in the original +they are three. In chap. xxv. 4: <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_433" id="Page_433">[433]</a></span><i>Thou hast been a +stronghold to the poor and a stronghold to the needy, poor</i> +renders a Hebrew word, "dāl," literally <i>wavering</i>, +<i>tottering</i>, <i>infirm</i>, then <i>slender</i> or <i>lean</i>, then <i>poor</i> in +fortune and estate; <i>needy</i> literally renders the Hebrew +"'ebhyôn," Latin <i>egenus</i>. In chap. xxvi. 6: <i>the foot of +the poor and the steps of the needy, needy</i> renders "dāl," +while <i>poor</i> renders "'ānî," a passive form—<i>forced</i>, +<i>afflicted</i>, <i>oppressed</i>, then <i>wretched</i>, whether under persecution, +poverty, loneliness or exile, and so <i>tamed</i>, +<i>mild</i>, <i>meek</i>. These three words, in their root ideas +of <i>infirmity</i>, <i>need</i> and positive <i>affliction</i>, cover among +them every aspect of physical poverty and distress. +Let us see how they came also to be the expression of +the highest moral and evangelical virtues.</p> + +<p>If there is one thing which distinguishes the people +of the revelation from other historical nations, it is the +evidence afforded by their dictionaries of the power to +transmute the most afflicting experiences of life into +virtuous disposition and effectual desire for God. We +see this most clearly if we contrast the Hebrews' use of +their words for <i>poor</i> with that of the first language which +was employed to translate these words—the Greek in +the Septuagint version of the Old Testament. In +the Greek temper there was a noble pity for the unfortunate; +the earliest Greeks regarded beggars as +the peculiar protegés of Heaven. Greek philosophy +developed a capacity for enriching the soul in misfortune; +Stoicism gave imperishable proof of how +bravely a man could hold poverty and pain to be things +indifferent, and how much gain from such indifference +he could bring to his soul. But in the vulgar opinion +of Greece penury and sickness were always disgraceful; +and Greek dictionaries mark the degradation of terms, +which at first merely noted physical disadvantage, into<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_434" id="Page_434">[434]</a></span> +epithets of contempt or hopelessness. It is very striking +that it was not till they were employed to translate the +Old Testament ideas of poverty that the Greek words +for "poor" and "lowly" came to bear an honourable +significance. And in the case of the Stoic, who endured +poverty or pain with such indifference, was it not just +this indifference that prevented him from discovering +in his tribulations the rich evangelical experience which, +as we shall see, fell to the quick conscience and sensitive +nerves of the Hebrew?</p> + +<p>Let us see how this conscience was developed. In +the East poverty scarcely ever means physical disadvantage +alone: in its train there follow higher +disabilities. A poor Eastern cannot be certain of +fair play in the courts of the land. He is very often a +wronged man, with a fire of righteous anger burning in +his breast. Again, and more important, misfortune is +to the quick religious instinct of the Oriental a sign of +God's estrangement. With us misfortune is so often +only the cruelty, sometimes real sometimes imagined, +of the rich; the unemployed vents his wrath at the +capitalist, the tramp shakes his fist after the carriage +on the highway. In the East they do not forget to +curse the rich, but they remember as well to humble +themselves beneath the hand of God. With an unfortunate +Oriental the conviction is supreme, God +is angry with me; I have lost His favour. His soul +eagerly longs for God.</p> + +<p>A poor man in the East has, therefore, not only +a hunger for food: he has the hotter hunger for justice, +the deeper hunger for God. Poverty in itself, without +extraneous teaching, develops nobler appetites. The +physical, becomes the moral, pauper; poor in substance, +he grows poor in spirit. It was by developing, with the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_435" id="Page_435">[435]</a></span> +aid of God's Spirit, this quick conscience and this deep +desire for God, which in the East are the very soul of +physical poverty, that the Jews advanced to that sense +of evangelical poverty of heart, blessed by Jesus in +the first of His Beatitudes as the possession of the +kingdom of heaven.</p> + +<p>Till the Exile, however, the poor were only a portion +of the people. In the Exile the whole nation became +poor, and henceforth "God's poor" might become +synonymous with "God's people." This was the time +when the words received their spiritual baptism. +Israel felt the physical curse of poverty to its extreme +of famine. The pains, privations and terrors, which +the glib tongues of our comfortable middle classes, as +they sing the psalms of Israel, roll off so easily for +symbols of their own spiritual experience, were felt +by the captive Hebrews in all their concrete physical +effects. The noble and the saintly, the gentle and the +cultured, priest, soldier and citizen, woman, youth and +child, were torn from home and estate, were deprived +of civil standing, were imprisoned, fettered, flogged +and starved to death. We learn something of what +it must have been from the words which Jeremiah +addressed to Baruch, a youth of good family and +fine culture: <i>Seekest thou great things for thyself? +Seek them not, for, behold, I will bring evil upon all +flesh, saith the <span class="smcap">Lord</span>; only thy life will I give unto thee +for a prey in all places whither thou goest.</i> Imagine +a whole nation plunged into poverty of this degree—not +born into it having known no better things, nor +stunted into it with sensibility and the power of expression +sapped out of them, but plunged into it, with +the unimpaired culture, conscience and memories of the +flower of the people. When God's own hand sent<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_436" id="Page_436">[436]</a></span> +fresh from Himself a poet's soul into "the clay biggin'" +of an Ayrshire ploughman, what a revelation we received +of the distress, the discipline and the graces of +poverty! But in the Jewish nation as it passed into +exile there were a score of hearts with as unimpaired +an appetite for life as Robert Burns; and, worse than he, +they went to feel its pangs away from home. Genius, +conscience and pride drank to the dregs in a foreign +land the bitter cup of the poor. The Psalms and +Lamentations show us how they bore their poison. A +Greek Stoic might sneer at the complaint and sobbing, +the self-abasement so strangely mixed with fierce cries +for vengeance. But the Jew had within him the +conscience that will not allow a man to be a Stoic. He +never forgot that it was for his sin he suffered, and +therefore to him suffering could not be a thing indifferent. +With this, his native hunger for justice +reached in captivity a famine pitch; his sense of guilt +was equalled by as sincere an indignation at the tyrant +who held him in his brutal grasp. The feeling of +estrangement from God increased to a degree that +only the exile of a Jew could excite: the longing for +God's house and the worship lawful only there; the +longing for the relief which only the sacrifices of the +Temple could bestow; the longing for God's own +presence and the light of His face. <i>My soul thirsteth +for Thee, my flesh longeth after Thee, in a dry and thirsty +land, where no water is, as I have looked upon Thee +in the sanctuary, to see Thy power and Thy glory. For +Thy lovingkindness is better than life!</i></p> + +<p><i>Thy lovingkindness is better than life!</i>—is the secret +of it all. There is that which excites a deeper hunger +in the soul than the hunger for life, and for the food +and money that give life. This spiritual poverty is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_437" id="Page_437">[437]</a></span> +most richly bred in physical penury, it is strong +enough to displace what feeds it. The physical +poverty of Israel which had awakened these other +hungers of the soul—hunger for forgiveness, hunger +for justice, hunger for God—was absorbed by +them; and when Israel came out of exile, <i>to be poor</i> +meant, not so much to be indigent in this world's +substance as to feel the need of pardon, the absence +of righteousness, the want of God.</p> + +<p>It is at this time, as we have seen, that Isa. xxiv.-xxvii. +was written; and it is in the temper of this time +that the three Hebrew words for "poor" and "needy" +are used in chaps. xxv. and xxvi. The returned exiles +were still politically dependent and abjectly poor. Their +discipline therefore continued, and did not allow them +to forget their new lessons. In fact, they developed +the results of these further, till in this prophecy we +find no fewer than five different aspects of spiritual +poverty.</p> + +<p>1. We have already seen how strong the sense of sin +is in chap. xxiv. This <span class="smcap"><small>POVERTY</small></span> of <span class="smcap"><small>PEACE</small></span> is not so fully +expressed in the following chapters, and indeed seems +crowded out by the sense of the <i>iniquity of the inhabitants +of the earth</i> and the desire for their judgement (xxvi. 21).</p> + +<p>2. The feeling of the <span class="smcap"><small>POVERTY</small></span> of <span class="smcap"><small>JUSTICE</small></span> is very +strong in this prophecy. But it is to be satisfied; in +part it has been satisfied (xxv. 1-4). <i>A strong city</i>, +probably Babylon, has fallen. <i>Moab shall be trodden +down in his place, even as straw is trodden down in the +water of the dunghill.</i> The complete judgement is to come +when the Lord shall destroy the two <i>Leviathans</i> and the +great <i>Dragon of the west</i> (xxvii. 1). It is followed by the +restoration of Israel to the state in which Isaiah (chap. +v. 1) sang so sweetly of her. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_438" id="Page_438">[438]</a></span><i>A pleasant vineyard, sing ye of +her. I, Jehovah, her Keeper, moment by moment do I water +her; lest any make a raid upon her, night and day will I +keep her.</i> The Hebrew text then reads, <i>Fury is not in +Me</i>; but probably the Septuagint version has preserved +the original meaning: <i>I have no walls</i>. If this be +correct, then Jehovah is describing the present state of +Jerusalem, the fulfilment of Isaiah's threat, chap. v. 6: +<i>Walls I have not; let there but be briers and thorns +before me! With war will I stride against them; I will +burn them together.</i> But then there breaks the softer +alternative of the reconciliation of Judah's enemies: <i>Or +else let him seize hold of My strength; let him make peace +with Me—peace let him make with Me</i>. In such a peace +Israel shall spread, and his fulness become the riches of +the Gentiles. <i>In that by-and-bye Jacob shall take root, +Israel blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with +fruit.</i></p> + +<p>Perhaps the wildest cries that rose from Israel's +famine of justice were those which found expression in +chap. xxxiv. This chapter is so largely a repetition of +feelings we have already met with elsewhere in the +Book of Isaiah, that it is necessary now only to mention +its original features. The subject is, as in chap. +xiii., the Lord's judgement upon all the nations; and +as chap. xiii. singled out Babylon for special doom, +so chap. xxxiv. singles out Edom. The reason of this +distinction will be very plain to the reader of the Old +Testament. From the day the twins struggled in their +mother Rebekah's womb, Israel and Edom were either at +open war or burned towards each other with a hate, which +was the more intense for wanting opportunities of gratification. +It is an Eastern edition of the worst chapters +in the history of England and Ireland. No bloodier +massacres stained Jewish hands than those which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_439" id="Page_439">[439]</a></span> +attended their invasions of Edom, and Jewish psalms of +vengeance are never more flagrant than when they touch +the name of the children of Esau. The only gentle +utterance of the Old Testament upon Israel's hereditary +foe is a comfortless enigma. Isaiah's <i>Oracle for +Dumah</i> (xxii. 11 f.), shows that even that large-hearted +prophet, in face of his people's age-long resentment at +Edom's total want of appreciation of Israel's spiritual +superiority, could offer Edom, though for the moment +submissive and inquiring, nothing but a sad, ambiguous +answer. Edom and Israel, each after his fashion, +exulted in the other's misfortunes: Israel by bitter +satire when Edom's impregnable mountain-range was +treacherously seized and overrun by his allies (Obadiah +4-9); Edom, with the harassing, pillaging habits of a +highland tribe, hanging on to the skirts of Judah's +great enemies, and cutting off Jewish fugitives, or selling +them into slavery, or malignantly completing the +ruin of Jerusalem's walls after her overthrow by the +Chaldeans (Obadiah 10-14; Ezek. xxxv. 10-15; +Ps. cxxxi. 7). In <i>the quarrel of Zion</i> with the nations of +the world Edom had taken the wrong side,—his profane, +earthy nature incapable of understanding his brother's +spiritual claims, and therefore envious of him, with the +brutal malice of ignorance, and spitefully glad to assist +in disappointing such claims. This is what we must +remember when we read the indignant verses of +chap. xxxiv. Israel, conscious of his spiritual calling +in the world, felt bitter resentment that his own +brother should be so vulgarly hostile to his attempts to +carry it out. It is not our wish to defend the temper +of Israel towards Edom. The silence of Christ before +the Edomite Herod and his men of war has taught the +spiritual servants of God what is their proper attitude<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_440" id="Page_440">[440]</a></span> +towards the malignant and obscene treatment of their +claims by vulgar men. But at least let us remember +that chap. xxxiv., for all its fierceness, is inspired by +Israel's conviction of a spiritual destiny and service for +God, and by the natural resentment that his own kith +and kin should be doing their best to render these futile. +That a famine of bread makes its victims delirious does +not tempt us to doubt the genuineness of their need and +suffering. As little ought we to doubt or to ignore +the reality or the purity of those spiritual convictions, +the prolonged starvation of which bred in Israel such +feverish hate against his twin-brother Esau. Chap. +xxxiv., with all its proud prophecy of judgement, is, +therefore, also a symptom of that aspect of Israel's +poverty of heart, which we have called a hunger for the +Divine justice.</p> + +<p>3. <span class="smcap">Poverty of the Exile.</span> But as fair flowers +bloom upon rough stalks, so from Israel's stern challenges +of justice there break sweet prayers for home. +Chap. xxxiv., the effusion of vengeance on Edom, is +followed by chap. xxxv., the going forth of hope to the +return from exile and the establishment of the ransomed +of the Lord in Zion.<a name="FNanchor_83_83" id="FNanchor_83_83"></a><a href="#Footnote_83_83" class="fnanchor">[83]</a> Chap. xxxv. opens with a prospect +beyond the return, but after the first two verses +addresses itself to the people still in a foreign captivity, +speaking of their salvation (vv. 3, 4), of the miracles +that will take place in themselves (vv. 5, 6) and in the +desert between them and their home (vv. 6, 7), of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_441" id="Page_441">[441]</a></span> +highway which God shall build, evident and secure +(vv. 8, 9), and of the final arrival in Zion (ver. 10). In +that march the usual disappointments and illusions of +desert life shall disappear. <i>The mirage shall become a +pool</i>; and the clump of vegetation which afar off the +hasty traveller hails for a sign of water, but which on +his approach he discovers to be the withered grass of a +<i>jackal's lair</i>, shall indeed be <i>reeds and rushes</i>, standing +green in fresh water. Out of this exuberant fertility +there emerges in the prophet's thoughts a great highway, +on which the poetry of the chapter gathers and +reaches its climax. Have we of this nineteenth century, +with our more rapid means of passage, not forgotten +the poetry of the road? Are we able to appreciate +either the intrinsic usefulness or the gracious symbolism +of the king's highway? How can we know it as the +Bible-writers or our forefathers knew it when they made +the road the main line of their allegories and parables +of life? Let us listen to these verses as they strike the +three great notes in the music of the road: <i>And an highway +shall be there, and a way; yea, The Way of Holiness +shall it be called, for the unclean shall not pass over it</i>—that +is what is to distinguish this road from all other +roads. But here is what it is as being a road. First, +it shall be unmistakably plain: <i>The wayfaring man, +yea fools, shall not err therein</i>. Second, it shall be +perfectly secure: <i>No lion shall be there, nor shall any +ravenous beast go up thereon; they shall not be met with +there</i>. Third, it shall bring to a safe arrival and ensure +a complete overtaking: <i>And the ransomed of the Lord +shall return and come with singing unto Zion, and everlasting +joy shall be upon their heads; they shall overtake +gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away</i>.</p> + +<p>4. So Israel was to come home. But to Israel<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_442" id="Page_442">[442]</a></span> +home meant the Temple, and the Temple meant God. +The poverty of the Exile was, in the essence of it, +<span class="smcap">Poverty of God, Poverty of love</span>. The prayers which +express this are very beautiful,—that trail like wounded +animals to the feet of their master, and look up in His +face with large eyes of pain. <i>And they shall say in that +day, Lo, this is our God: we have waited for Him, that +He should save us; this is the LORD: we have waited for +Him; we will rejoice and be glad in His salvation.... +Yea, in the way of Thy ordinances, O LORD, have we +waited for Thee; to Thy name and to Thy Memorial was +the desire of our soul. With my soul have I desired Thee +in the night; yea, by my spirit within me do I seek Thee +with dawn</i> (chaps. xxv. 9; xxvi. 8).</p> + +<p>An Arctic explorer was once asked, whether during +eight months of slow starvation which he and his +comrades endured they suffered much from the pangs +of hunger. No, he answered, we lost them in the +sense of abandonment, in the feeling that our countrymen +had forgotten us and were not coming to +the rescue. It was not till we were rescued and +looked in human faces that we felt how hungry we +were. So is it ever with God's poor. They forget +all other need, as Israel did, in their need of God. Their +outward poverty is only the weeds of their heart's +widowhood. <i>But Jehovah of hosts shall make to all the +peoples in this mountain a banquet of fat things, a banquet +of wines on the lees, fat things bemarrowed, wines on +the lees refined.</i></p> + +<p>We need only note here—for it will come up for +detailed treatment in connection with the second half +of Isaiah—that the centre of Israel's restored life is to +be the Temple, not, as in Isaiah's day, the king; that her +dispersed are to gather from all parts of the world at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_443" id="Page_443">[443]</a></span> +the sound of the Temple <i>trumpet</i>; and that her national +life is to consist in worship (cf. xxvii. 13).</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>These then were four aspects of Israel's poverty of +heart: a hunger for pardon, a hunger for justice, a +hunger for home, and a hunger for God. For the +returning Jews these wants were satisfied only to reveal +a deeper poverty still, the complaint and comfort of +which we must reserve to another chapter.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_444" id="Page_444">[444]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXX.</h2> + +<h3><i>THE RESURRECTION.</i></h3> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Isaiah</span> xxvi. 14-19; xxv. 6-9.</p> + + +<p>Granted the pardon, the justice, the Temple and +the God, which the returning exiles now enjoyed, +the possession of these only makes more painful +the shortness of life itself. This life is too shallow and +too frail a vessel to hold peace and righteousness and +worship and the love of God. St. Paul has said, <i>If in +this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men +most miserable</i>. What avails it to have been pardoned, +to have regained the Holy Land and the face of God, if +the dear dead are left behind in graves of exile, and +all the living must soon pass into that captivity,<a name="FNanchor_84_84" id="FNanchor_84_84"></a><a href="#Footnote_84_84" class="fnanchor">[84]</a> from +which there is no return?</p> + +<p>It must have been thoughts like these, which led to +the expression of one of the most abrupt and powerful +of the few hopes of the resurrection which the Old +Testament contains. This hope, which lightens chap. +xxv. 7, 8, bursts through again—without logical connection +with the context—in vv. 14-19 of chap. xxvi.</p> + +<p>The English version makes ver. 14 to continue the +reference to the lords, whom in ver. 13 Israel confesses +to have served instead of Jehovah. "They are <i>dead; +they shall not live</i>: they are <i>deceased; they shall not rise</i>."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_445" id="Page_445">[445]</a></span> +Our translators have thus intruded into their version +the verb "they are," of which the original is without a +trace. In the original, <i>dead</i> and <i>deceased</i> (literally <i>shades</i>) +are themselves the subject of the sentence—a new subject +and without logical connection with what has gone +before. The literal translation of ver. 14 therefore runs: +<i>Dead men do not live; shades do not rise: wherefore Thou +visitest them and destroyest them, and perisheth all +memory of them</i>. The prophet states a fact, and draws +an inference. The fact is, that no one has ever returned +from the dead; the inference, that it is God's own <i>visitation</i> +or <i>sentence</i> which has gone forth upon them, and +they have really ceased to exist. But how intolerable +a thought is this in presence of the other fact that God +has here on earth above gloriously enlarged and established +His people (ver. 15). <i>Thou hast increased the +nation, Jehovah; Thou hast increased the nation. Thou +hast covered Thyself with glory; Thou hast expanded all +the boundaries of the land.</i> To this follows a verse (16), +the sense of which is obscure, but palpable. It "feels" +to mean that the contrast which the prophet has just +painted between the absolute perishing of the dead and +the glory of the Church above ground is the cause of +great despair and groaning: <i>O Jehovah, in The Trouble +they supplicate Thee; they pour out incantations when +Thy discipline is upon them</i>.<a name="FNanchor_85_85" id="FNanchor_85_85"></a><a href="#Footnote_85_85" class="fnanchor">[85]</a> In face of <i>The</i> Trouble<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_446" id="Page_446">[446]</a></span> +and <i>The</i> Discipline <i>par excellence</i> of God, what else can +man do but betake himself to God? God sent death; in +death He is the only resource. Israel's feelings in presence +of The Trouble are now expressed in ver. 17: <i>Like +as a woman with child that draweth near the time of her +delivery writheth and crieth out in her pangs, so have we +been before Thee, O Jehovah</i>. Thy Church on earth is +pregnant with a life, which death does not allow to come +to the birth. <i>We have been with child; we have been in +the pangs, as it were; we have brought forth wind; we +make not the earth</i>, in spite of all we have really accomplished +upon it in our return, our restoration and our +enjoyment of Thy presence—<i>we make not the earth salvation, +neither are the inhabitants of the world born</i>.<a name="FNanchor_86_86" id="FNanchor_86_86"></a><a href="#Footnote_86_86" class="fnanchor">[86]</a></p> + +<p>The figures are bold. Israel achieves, through +God's grace, everything but the recovery of her dead; +this, which alone is worth calling <i>salvation</i>, remains +wanting to her great record of deliverances. The living +Israel is restored, but how meagre a proportion of the +people it is! The graves of home and of exile do not +give up their dead. These are not born again to be +inhabitants of the upper world.</p> + +<p>The figures are bold, but bolder is the hope that +breaks from them. Like as when the Trumpet shall<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_447" id="Page_447">[447]</a></span> +sound, ver. 19 peals forth the promise of the resurrection—peals +the promise forth, in spite of all experience, +unsupported by any argument, and upon the strength of +its own inherent music. <i>Thy dead shall live! my dead +bodies shall arise!</i> The change of the personal pronoun is +singularly dramatic. Returned Israel is the speaker, first +speaking to herself: <i>thy dead</i>, as if upon the depopulated +land, in face of all its homes in ruin, and only the +sepulchres of ages standing grim and steadfast, she +addressed some despairing double of herself; and +secondly speaking <i>of</i> herself: <i>my dead bodies</i>, as if all the +inhabitants of these tombs, though dead, were still her +own, still part of her, the living Israel, and able to arise +and bless with their numbers their bereaved mother. +These she now addresses: <i>Awake and sing, ye dwellers +in the dust, for a dew of lights is Thy dew, and the land +bringeth forth the dead</i>.<a name="FNanchor_87_87" id="FNanchor_87_87"></a><a href="#Footnote_87_87" class="fnanchor">[87]</a></p> + +<p>If one has seen a place of graves in the East, he will +appreciate the elements of this figure, which takes <i>dust</i> +for death and <i>dew</i> for life. With our damp graveyards +mould has become the traditional trappings of death; +but where under the hot Eastern sun things do not rot +into lower forms of life, but crumble into sapless powder, +that will not keep a worm in life, <i>dust</i> is the natural +symbol of death. When they die, men go not to feed +fat the mould, but <i>down into the dust</i>; and there the +foot of the living falls silent, and his voice is choked, and +the light is thickened and in retreat, as if it were +creeping away to die. The only creatures the visitor +starts are timid, unclean bats, that flutter and whisper +about him like the ghosts of the dead. There are no<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_448" id="Page_448">[448]</a></span> +flowers in an Eastern cemetery; and the withered +branches and other ornaments are thickly powdered +with the same dust that chokes, and silences and +darkens all.</p> + +<p>Hence the Semitic conception of the underworld was +dominated by dust. It was not water nor fire nor +frost nor altogether darkness, which made the infernal +prison horrible, but that upon its floor and rafters, +hewn from the roots and ribs of the primeval mountains, +dust lay deep and choking. Amid all the horrors he +imagined for the dead, Dante did not include one more +awful than the horror of dust. The picture which the +northern Semites had before them when they turned +their faces to the wall was of this kind.<a name="FNanchor_88_88" id="FNanchor_88_88"></a><a href="#Footnote_88_88" class="fnanchor">[88]</a></p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i0">The house of darkness....</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The house men enter, but cannot depart from.</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The road men go, but cannot return.</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The house from whose dwellers the light is withdrawn.</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The place where dust is their food, their nourishment clay.</span><br /> +<span class="i0">The light they behold not; in darkness they dwell.</span><br /> +<span class="i0">They are clothed like birds, all fluttering wings.</span><br /> +<span class="i0">On the door and the gateposts, the dust lieth deep.</span> +</div> + +<p>Either, then, an Eastern sepulchre, or this its infernal +double, was gaping before the prophet's eyes. What +more final and hopeless than the dust and the dark of it?</p> + +<p>But for dust there is dew, and even to graveyards +the morning comes that brings dew and light together. +The wonder of dew is that it is given from a clear +heaven, and that it comes to sight with the dawn. If the +Oriental looks up when dew is falling, he sees nothing +to thank for it between him and the stars. If he sees +dew in the morning, it is equal liquid and lustre; it +seems to distil from the beams of the sun—<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_449" id="Page_449">[449]</a></span><i>the sun, +which riseth with healing under his wings</i>. The dew +is thus doubly "dew of light." But our prophet ascribes +the dew of God, that is to raise the dead, neither to +stars nor dawn, but, because of its Divine power, to that +higher supernal glory which the Hebrews conceived to +have existed before the sun, and which they styled, as +they styled their God, by the plural of majesty: <i>A dew +of lights is Thy dew</i>.<a name="FNanchor_89_89" id="FNanchor_89_89"></a><a href="#Footnote_89_89" class="fnanchor">[89]</a> As, when the dawn comes, the +drooping flowers of yesterday are seen erect and +lustrous with the dew, every spike a crown of glory, +so also shall be the resurrection of the dead. There +is no shadow of a reason for limiting this promise to +that to which some other passages of resurrection in +the Old Testament have to be limited: a corporate +restoration of the holy State or Church. This is the +resurrection of its individual members to a community +which is already restored, the recovery by Israel of her +dead men and women from their separate graves, each +with his own freshness and beauty, in that glorious +morning when the Sun of righteousness shall arise, +with healing under His wings—<i>Thy dew</i>, O Jehovah!</p> + +<p>Attempts are so often made to trace the hopes of +resurrection, which break the prevailing silence of the +Old Testament on a future life, to foreign influences +experienced in the Exile, that it is well to emphasize +the origin and occasion of the hopes that utter themselves +so abruptly in this passage. Surely nothing +could be more inextricably woven with the national +fortunes of Israel, as nothing could be more native and +original to Israel's temper, than the verses just expounded. +We need not deny that their residence among +a people, accustomed as the Babylonians were to belief +in the resurrection, may have thawed in the Jews<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_450" id="Page_450">[450]</a></span> +that reserve which the Old Testament clearly shows that +they exhibited towards a future life. The Babylonians +themselves had received most of their suggestions of +the next world from a non-Semitic race; and therefore +it would not be to imagine anything alien to the +ascertained methods of Providence if we were to +suppose that the Hebrews, who showed what we have +already called the Semitic want of interest in a future +life, were intellectually tempered by their foreign +associations to a readiness to receive any suggestions +of immortality, which the Spirit of God might offer them +through their own religious experience. That it was +this last, which was the effective cause of Israel's hopes +for the resurrection of her dead, our passage puts beyond +doubt. Chap. xxvi. shows us that the occasion of these +hopes was what is not often noticed: the returned +exiles' disappointment with the meagre repopulation of +the holy territory. A restoration of the State or community +was not enough: the heart of Israel wanted +back in their numbers her dead sons and daughters.</p> + +<p>If the occasion of these hopes was thus an event in +Israel's own national history, and if the impulse to them +was given by so natural an instinct of her own heart, +Israel was equally indebted to herself for the convictions +that the instinct was not in vain. Nothing is more +clear in our passage than that Israel's first ground of +hope in a future life was her simple, untaught reflection +upon the power of her God. Death was <i>His chastening</i>. +Death came from Him, and remained in His power. +Surely He would deliver from it. This was a very old +belief in Israel. <i>The Lord killeth and maketh alive; +He bringeth down to Sheol and bringeth up.</i> Such words, +of course, might be only an extreme figure for recovery +from disease, and the silence of so great a saint as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_451" id="Page_451">[451]</a></span> +Hezekiah about any other issue into life than by +convalescence from mortal sickness staggers us into +doubt whether an Israelite ever did think of a resurrection. +But still there was Jehovah's almightiness; a +man could rest his future on that, even if he had not +light to think out what sort of a future it would be. So +mark in our passage, how confidence is chiefly derived +from the simple utterance of the name of Jehovah, and +how He is hailed as <i>our God</i>. It seems enough to +the prophet to connect life with Him and to say merely, +<i>Thy dew</i>. As death is God's own discipline, so life, <i>Thy +dew</i>, is with Him also.</p> + +<p>Thus in its foundation the Old Testament doctrine of +the resurrection is but the conviction of the sufficiency +of God Himself, a conviction which Christ turned +upon Himself when He said, <i>I am the Resurrection +and the Life. Because I live, ye shall live also.</i></p> + +<p>If any object that in this picture of a resurrection we +have no real persuasion of immortality, but simply the +natural, though impossible, wish of a bereaved people +that their dead should to-day rise from their graves to +share to-day's return and glory—a revival as special and +extraordinary as that appearing of the dead in the streets +of Jerusalem when the Atonement was accomplished, +but by no means that general resurrection at the last +day which is an article of the Christian faith—if any +one should bring this objection, then let him be referred +to the previous promise of immortality in chap. xxv. +The universal and final character of the promise made +there is as evident as of that for which Paul borrowed +its terms in order to utter the absolute consequences of +the resurrection of the Son of God: <i>Death is swallowed +up in victory</i>. For the prophet, having in ver. 6 described +the restoration of the people, whom exile had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_452" id="Page_452">[452]</a></span> +starved with a famine of ordinances, to <i>a feast in Zion +of fat things and wines on the lees well refined</i>, intimates +that as certainly as exile has been abolished, with its +dearth of spiritual intercourse, so certainly shall God +Himself destroy death: <i>And He shall swallow up in this +mountain</i>—perhaps it is imagined, as the sun devours +the morning mist on the hills—<i>the mask of the veil, the +veil that is upon all the peoples, and the film spun upon +all the nations. He hath swallowed up death for ever, +and the Lord Jehovah shall wipe away tears from off all +faces, and the reproach of His people shall He remove +from off all the earth, for Jehovah hath spoken it. And they +shall say in that day, Behold, this is our God: we have +waited for Him, and He shall save us; this is Jehovah: we +have waited for Him; we will rejoice and be glad in His +salvation.</i> Thus over all doubts, and in spite of universal +human experience, the prophet depends for +immortality on God Himself. In chap. xxvi. 3 our +version beautifully renders, <i>Thou wilt keep</i> him <i>in +perfect peace</i> whose <i>mind</i> is <i>stayed</i> on Thee, <i>because he +trusteth in Thee</i>. This is a confidence valid for the next +life as well as for this. <i>Therefore trust ye in the <span class="smcap">Lord</span></i> +for ever. Amen.</p> + +<p>Almighty God, we praise Thee that, in the weakness +of all our love and the darkness of all our knowledge +before death, Thou hast placed assurance of eternal +life in simple faith upon Thyself. Let this faith be +richly ours. By Thine omnipotence, by Thy righteousness, +by the love Thou hast vouchsafed, we lift ourselves +and rest upon Thy word. <i>Because I live, ye shall +live also.</i> Oh keep us steadfast in union with Thyself, +through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_453" id="Page_453">[453]</a></span></p> +<h2>INDEX TO CHAPS. I.-XXXIX.</h2> + + + +<div class="center"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Index"> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Chapters of</span></td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Date b.c.</span></td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Chapters of the</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="center"><span class="smcap">Isaiah.</span></td><td align="left"> </td><td align="center"><span class="smcap">Exposition.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">i.</td><td align="left">701</td><td align="left">I., XIX., p. 311 ff.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">ii.-iv.</td><td align="left">740-735</td><td align="left">II.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">v.</td><td align="left">735</td><td align="left">III.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">vi.</td><td align="left">740; written 735 or 727</td><td align="left">IV., XXVI., 391 f.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">vii.-ix. 7</td><td align="left">734-732</td><td align="left">VI.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">vii. 14 ff.</td><td align="left">734</td><td align="left">VII. 133</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">viii.</td><td align="left">734-733</td><td align="left">VII. 135</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">ix. 1-7</td><td align="left">732</td><td align="left">VII. 136</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">ix. 8-x. 4</td><td align="left">735</td><td align="left">III. 47 ff.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">x. 5-34</td><td align="left">About 721</td><td align="left">IX. 147</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">xi. [xii.]</td><td align="left">About 720?</td><td align="left">X.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">xi. 1-6</td><td align="left"> </td><td align="left">VII. 138</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">xiii.-xiv. 23</td><td align="left">?</td><td align="left">XXVII.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">xiv. 24-27</td><td align="left">Towards 701</td><td align="left">XVII. 272</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">xiv. 28-32</td><td align="left">705</td><td align="left">XVII. 272</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">xv.-xvi. 12</td><td align="left">?</td><td align="left">XVII. 273</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">xvi. 13, 14</td><td align="left">711 or 704?</td><td align="left">XVII. 273</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">xvii. 1-11</td><td align="left">Between 736 and 732</td><td align="left">XVII. 274</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">xvii. 12-14</td><td align="left">?</td><td align="left">XVII. 274, 277, 281 f.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">xviii.</td><td align="left">711 or towards 701?</td><td align="left">XVII. 275</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">xix.</td><td align="left">703 or after 700?</td><td align="left">XVII. 275, 278, 284 ff.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">xx.</td><td align="left">711-709</td><td align="left">XI. 198-200, XVII. 276</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">xxi. 1-10</td><td align="left">Probably 709</td><td align="left">XI. 201, XVII. 276</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">xxi. 11, 12</td><td align="left">Between 704 and 701</td><td align="left">XVII. 276</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">xxi. 13, 17</td><td align="left"> </td><td align="left">XVII. 277</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">xxii.</td><td align="left">701</td><td align="left">XIX., XX.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">xxiii.</td><td align="left">703 or 702</td><td align="left">XVII. 277, XVIII.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">xxiv.</td><td align="left">?</td><td align="left">XXVIII.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">xxv.-xxvii.</td><td align="left">?</td><td align="left">XXIX.-XXX.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">xxviii.</td><td align="left">About 725</td><td align="left">VIII. 149</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">xxix.-xxxii.</td><td align="left"> </td><td align="left">p. 207</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_454" id="Page_454">[454]</a></span>xxix.</td><td align="left">About 703</td><td align="left">XII.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">xxx.</td><td align="left">About 702</td><td align="left">XIII.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">xxxi.</td><td align="left">About 702</td><td align="left">XIV.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">xxxii. 1-8</td><td align="left">About 702?</td><td align="left">XV.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">xxxii. 9-20</td><td align="left">Date uncertain</td><td align="left">XVI.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">xxxiii.</td><td align="left">701</td><td align="left">XX., XXI., 207, 304</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">xxxiv.</td><td align="left">?</td><td align="left">XXIX. 438 ff.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">xxxv.</td><td align="left">?</td><td align="left">XXIX. 440 f.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">xxxvi. 1</td><td align="left">701</td><td align="left">303 f.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">xxxvi. 2-xxxvii.</td><td align="left">701</td><td align="left">303 f.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">xxxvi. 2-22</td><td align="left">701</td><td align="left">XXII. 303 f.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">xxxvii.</td><td align="left">701</td><td align="left">XXIII.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">xxxviii.-xxxix.</td><td align="left">Date uncertain</td><td align="left">XXV. 304</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">xxxviii.</td><td> </td><td align="left">XXVI. 393</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">xxxix.</td><td> </td><td align="left">XI. 201</td></tr> +</table></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_455" id="Page_455">[455]</a></span></p> +<h2>SHORT INDEX OF SUBJECTS.</h2> +<div> +Ahaz, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">compared with Charles I., <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a> ff., <a href="#Page_113">113</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Judas of Old Testament, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Animals, the lower, <a href="#Page_190">190</a> ff.;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">our mediatorship to, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Anthropomorphism, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Arabia, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Aram, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a> ff.<br /> +<br /> +Ashdod, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Assyria and Assyrians, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a> f., <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a> f., <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, and <i>passim</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Atheism, two kinds of, <a href="#Page_172">172</a> ff.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Babylon, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>, <a href="#Page_405">405</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Babylonian captivity, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>, <a href="#Page_402">402</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Bribery, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Captivity of Israel, first, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">second, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Christ, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a> ff., <a href="#Page_254">254</a> ff., <a href="#Page_328">328</a>, <a href="#Page_426">426</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Church, origin of idea of, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Commerce, <a href="#Page_296">296</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Conscience, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its threefold character, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">simplicity, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Cromwell, <a href="#Page_160">160</a> ff., <a href="#Page_220">220</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Damascus, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Drunkenness, <a href="#Page_44">44</a> f., <a href="#Page_152">152</a> ff.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Earthquake, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Edom, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>, <a href="#Page_438">438</a> ff.<br /> +<br /> +Egypt, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a> ff., <a href="#Page_222">222</a> ff., <i>passim</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Ekron, <a href="#Page_308">308</a> f.<br /> +<br /> +Eliakim, <a href="#Page_317">317</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Ethiopia, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Faith, moral results of, <a href="#Page_106">106</a> f., <a href="#Page_163">163</a> f.;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">power to shape history, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_352">352</a> ff.</span><br /> +<br /> +Fatalism, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Forgiveness of sin, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a> ff., <a href="#Page_326">326</a> ff., <a href="#Page_361">361</a>, <a href="#Page_381">381</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Formalism, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Free-will, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Glory, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Hamath, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Heine, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>, <a href="#Page_413">413</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Hezekiah, <a href="#Page_352">352</a>, <a href="#Page_378">378</a> ff., <i>passim</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Holiness, <a href="#Page_63">63</a> ff.<br /> +<br /> +Holy Spirit, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>-<a href="#Page_188">188</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Immanuel, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a> ff., <a href="#Page_133">133</a> ff.<br /> +<br /> +Immortality, <a href="#Page_385">385</a> ff., <a href="#Page_394">394</a> ff., <a href="#Page_410">410</a>, <a href="#Page_444">444</a> ff.<br /> +<br /> +Individual, the, and the community, <a href="#Page_389">389</a> ff.<br /> +<br /> +Inspiration, <a href="#Page_23">23</a> ff., <a href="#Page_213">213</a>, <a href="#Page_372">372</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Isaiah:<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">apprenticeship, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">youth, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">a son of Jerusalem, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">threefold vision, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>-<a href="#Page_25">25</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">idealist, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">realist, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">prophet, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">patriotism, a conscience of his country's sins, <a href="#Page_30">30</a> f.;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">call and consecration, <a href="#Page_57">57</a> ff.;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">personality, <a href="#Page_75">75</a> f., <a href="#Page_253">253</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">comp. with Mazzini, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>-<a href="#Page_87">87</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">with Moses, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">contribution to religious development of Israel, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">no fatalist, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">habit of appealing to the people, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">saved from the popular drift, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">scorn, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sanity, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a> f., <a href="#Page_166">166</a>, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">comp. with Cromwell, <a href="#Page_160">160</a> ff., <a href="#Page_220">220</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">self-control, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">regard for animals, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>;</span><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_456" id="Page_456">[456]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">walks stripped for a sign, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">inspiration, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>, <a href="#Page_372">372</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">working of his imagination, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">style, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">humanity, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">triumph, <a href="#Page_323">323</a> ff.;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">imagination and conscience, <a href="#Page_335">335</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">lesson for all time, <a href="#Page_366">366</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">contrasted with Crusaders, <a href="#Page_367">367</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">personal religion, <a href="#Page_391">391</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">ideal, <a href="#Page_392">392</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">satire, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Israel, religious condition, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and Greece, <a href="#Page_365">365</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Jerusalem, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a> ff., <a href="#Page_169">169</a> f., <a href="#Page_211">211</a> f., <a href="#Page_231">231</a> f., <a href="#Page_243">243</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a> f., <a href="#Page_279">279</a>, Book IV., <i>passim</i>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +"King Lear," 49, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Land question, <a href="#Page_41">41</a> ff.<br /> +<br /> +Language, abuse of, <a href="#Page_260">260</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Maher-shalal-hash-baz, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Mazzini, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>-<a href="#Page_86">86</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Merodach-baladan, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_376">376</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Messiah, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a> ff., <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>-<a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a> ff., <a href="#Page_249">249</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Moab, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Monotheism, moral and political advantages, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>-<a href="#Page_110">110</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">growth in Israel, <a href="#Page_357">357</a>, <a href="#Page_363">363</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Name of the <span class="smcap">Lord</span>, <a href="#Page_233">233</a> ff.<br /> +<br /> +Nature, fourfold use of by the prophets, <a href="#Page_16">16</a> f.;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">redemption of, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">destruction of, <a href="#Page_417">417</a> ff.</span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Palestine, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>.<br /> +<br /> +People, the, ultimately responsible, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a> ff.<br /> +<br /> +Philistines, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Phœnicia, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_288">288</a> ff.<br /> +<br /> +Poetry, Hebrew, <a href="#Page_411">411</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Polytheism, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Preaching the word, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Prophecy, its power of vision, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>-<a href="#Page_25">25</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its service to religion, <a href="#Page_100">100</a> f.</span><br /> +<br /> +Providence, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Rabshakeh, the, <a href="#Page_343">343</a> ff.<br /> +<br /> +Remnant, the, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, and <i>passim</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Resurrection, <a href="#Page_387">387</a>, <a href="#Page_444">444</a> ff.<br /> +<br /> +Return from exile, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>, <a href="#Page_401">401</a> ff., <a href="#Page_429">429</a>, <a href="#Page_440">440</a> f., <a href="#Page_450">450</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Righteousness, Isaiah's doctrine of, <a href="#Page_334">334</a> ff.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Sacrament, an Old Testament, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Samaria, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a> ff.<br /> +<br /> +Sargon, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>, <a href="#Page_198">198</a> ff.<br /> +<br /> +Scepticism, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Sennacherib, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_302">302</a>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a> ff., <a href="#Page_355">355</a> ff.<br /> +<br /> +Serbonian bog, <a href="#Page_361">361</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Shebna, <a href="#Page_317">317</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Sheol, <a href="#Page_385">385</a>, <a href="#Page_410">410</a>, <a href="#Page_447">447</a> ff.<br /> +<br /> +Shiloah, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Sin, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <i>passim</i>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">effect on man's material circumstance, <a href="#Page_416">416</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Sorrow, man's abuse of, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Tiglath-pileser II., <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a> f.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Uzziah, <a href="#Page_59">59</a> f., <a href="#Page_98">98</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +War, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Women, Isaiah to, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Wrath of God, <a href="#Page_47">47</a> f., <a href="#Page_55">55</a>.<br /> +</div> + +<p class="center"> +<i>Printed by Hazell, Watson & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury.</i><br /> +</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + + +<h2>THE EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE.</h2> + +<p class="center"><i>Crown 8vo, 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Vol. III.<br /> +</p> + +<p><span class="smcap"><br />Eighth Series.</span></p> + +<p> +Daniel.<br /> +By the Very Rev. <span class="smcap">F. W. Farrar</span>, F.R.S.<br /> +<br /> +The Book of Jeremiah.<br /> +By Prof. <span class="smcap">W. H. Bennett</span>, D.D., D.Lit.<br /> +<br /> +Deuteronomy.<br /> +By Prof. <span class="smcap">Andrew Harper</span>, B.D.<br /> +<br /> +The Song of Solomon and Lamentations.<br /> +By Prof. <span class="smcap">W. F. Adeney</span>, M.A.<br /> +<br /> +Ezekiel.<br /> +By Prof. <span class="smcap">John Skinner</span>, M.A.<br /> +<br /> +The Books of the Twelve Prophets.<br /> +By Prin. <span class="smcap">G. A. Smith</span>, D.D. Two Vols.<br /> +</p> + + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4>WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR.</h4> + +<p class="center"><i>Crown 8vo, cloth, price 7s. 6d.</i></p> + + +<p class="center">VOLUME II.</p> + +<h3>THE BOOK OF ISAIAH.</h3> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Chaps. XL.-LXVI.</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rev. Dr. Marcus Dods</span>, in <i>The British Weekly</i>, says: "That criticism +so keen and so well principled should co-exist with a historical sense +so fully developed as Mr. Smith's, is perhaps not so wonderful as +that both these high and useful faculties should seem not to overwhelm +and smother, but rather to stimulate and find opportunity for the +faculty of dramatic presentation, for the magical English style, and, +above all, for the singular spiritual insight which this volume exhibits."</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rev. Dr. Beet</span> says: "The first volume of Smith's <i>Isaiah</i> took +us all by surprise, and revealed the advent of an expositor of the +first rank. The high standard thus set up is fully maintained in the +second volume. Indeed, as dealing with more difficult topics it +increases greatly our respect for the author. We have accurate +Hebrew scholarship, keen insight into the life and thought of Isaiah's +day, and devout appreciation of the abiding spiritual worth of this +ancient prophecy presented in a form intelligible and attractive to all."</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">The Record.</span> "Mr. Smith is a sound and thoroughly capable +Hebrew scholar, and he has written in these volumes an exposition +of Isaiah which every scholarly teacher and every conscientious +expounder of the evangelical prophet, even though he may differ from +Mr. Smith upon occasion, ought to possess."</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">The Academy.</span> "It is needless to mention the literary merits +which in reviews of the first volume of this work were so abundantly +recognised. This is, indeed, one of the few theological books which +it is a pure pleasure to read; nor need one, in the case of the present +volume, add the qualifying remark that the homiletical element is +somewhat unduly large. The scholarship too, is still as accurate as +might be expected from Mr. Smith's excellent training."</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">The Independent</span>: "It is in every way a notable book, and will +even add to the now established reputation of its author among Old +Testament students. The two volumes taken together constitute one +of the most successful attempts ever made to expound an Old Testament +book in the light of modern research. Mr. Smith has here +shown something of the power of criticism to do constructive work, +and has made it abundantly evident that some, at least, of the recent +critical results may be used with most illuminating and inspiring +effect."</p> +<hr style="width: 15%;" /> + + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">London: HODDER & STOUGHTON.</span></p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<h4>WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR.</h4> + +<p class="center"><i>Crown 8vo, cloth, price 7s. 6d.</i></p> + +<h3>THE HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY<br /> +OF THE HOLY LAND.</h3> + +<p class="center">Especially in Relation to the History of Israel and of +the Early Church.</p> + +<p>"In some respects the book is the most comprehensive and complete +contribution to Palestinian literature of the last twenty years.... +In English, at least, there is no book from which the reader can +carry away in his mind's eye so clear, connected, and permanent a +picture of Palestine as from Dr. Smith's."—<i>Daily News.</i></p> + +<p>"A very noteworthy contribution to the study of sacred history, +based upon the three indispensable conditions of personal acquaintance +with the land, a study of the explorations, discoveries, and decipherments, +especially of the last twenty years, and the employment of +the results of Biblical criticism during the same period. The necessity +and importance of such an undertaking need no demonstration, and +the results as set forth in Dr. Smith's learned and laborious work +will be appreciated by all competent scholars."—<i>Times.</i></p> + +<p>"It is not often that we have to review a book so thorough and so +masterly, and, at the same time, written in a style which commands +attention as well as admiration.... It contains and 'uses' the +important parts of all the immense mass of modern research and +discovery, enriched and illuminated by a mind of imagination and +poetry, as well as scholarship."—<i>Saturday Review.</i></p> + +<p>"This is really a great book. A subject of fascinating interest has +been treated with an ability and a fulness which leave nothing to be +desired."—<i>Westminster Gazette.</i></p> +<hr style="width: 15%;" /> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">London: HODDER & STOUGHTON.</span></p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h4>WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR.</h4> + + +<h3>FOUR PSALMS.</h3> + +<p class="center"><i>Cloth, 1s. 6d.</i></p> + +<p>"These expositions are in every way admirable, and worthy of the +highest admiration."—<i>Aberdeen Free Press.</i></p> + +<p>"Very choice expositions in a deeply spiritual vein. 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Crown 8vo, cloth, 7s. 6d. each.</i><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Vol. I.—Amos, Hosea and Micah.</span></p> + +<p class="hanging"><span class="smcap">Vol. II.—Zephaniah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Obadiah, Haggai, +Zechariah I.-VIII., "Malachi," Joel, "Zechariah" +IX.-XIV., and Jonah.</span></p> + +<p>"In Dr. Smith's volumes we have much more than a popular +exposition of the minor Prophets. We have that which will satisfy +the scholar and the student quite as much as the person who reads for +pleasure and for edification.... If the minor Prophets do not become +popular reading it is not because anything more can be done to make +them attractive. Dr. Smith's volumes present this part of Scripture in +what is at once the most attractive and the most profitable form."—<span class="smcap">Dr. +Marcus Dods</span> in the <i>British Weekly</i>.</p> + +<p>"By his two volumes on Isaiah, and that preceding the present one +of the Prophets, Professor Smith gave abundant evidence both of his +Hebrew scholarship and his capacity as an expositor of Scripture, ... +and he has now put us under fresh obligations by publishing this +volume, which in no respect falls behind its predecessors."—<i>Scotsman.</i></p> + +<p>"The volume which completes the great enterprise is one of the +best."—<i>Methodist Times.</i></p> + +<p>"The volume altogether, in its accurate scholarship, its vivid +descriptions, its bold and candid treatment of difficulties, and its +fulness of reference to the labours of other critics of every school, +forms not only one of the most brilliant of the series, but one of the +foremost of British contributions to the literature of its special subject."—<i>Christian +World.</i></p> +<hr style="width: 15%;" /> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">London: HODDER & STOUGHTON.</span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<h4>THE SECOND VOLUME</h4> +<p class="center">OF</p> +<h3>THE EXPOSITOR'S GREEK<br /> +TESTAMENT.</h3> + +<p class="center">EDITED BY THE REV. W. ROBERTSON NICOLL,<br /> +M.A., LL.D.<br /> + +Editor of the <i>Expositor</i>, <i>Expositor's Bible</i>, <i>etc.</i><br /> +<br /> + + +<i>CONTAINING</i></p> + +<h4>THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES.</h4> + +<p class="center">By the Rev. Professor <span class="smcap">R. J. Knowling</span>, D.D., Vice-Principal of<br /> +King's College, London.</p> + + +<h4>THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.</h4> + +<p class="center">By the Rev. Professor <span class="smcap">James Denney</span>, D.D.</p> + + +<h4>THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE<br /> +CORINTHIANS.</h4> + +<p class="center">By the Rev. Professor <span class="smcap">G. G. Findlay</span>, B.A., D.D.</p> + + +<p class="center">THE THIRD VOLUME, CONTAINING</p> + +<h4>THE SECOND EPISTLE TO THE +CORINTHIANS.</h4> + +<p class="center">By the Very Rev. 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M. RAMSAY, D.C.L., LL.D.,</p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Professor of Humanity in the University of Aberdeen, and<br /> +Hon. Fellow of Exeter and Lincoln Colleges, Oxford.</span><br /> +<br /> + +8<i>vo, cloth, with Map, 10s. 6d.</i></p> + +<h3>ST. PAUL THE TRAVELLER AND<br /> +THE ROMAN CITIZEN.</h3> + +<p>"Professor Ramsay brings not only his great experience as a +traveller and archæologist, but the resources of an ingenious mind, +and a lively style. The book is, like everything Professor Ramsay +does, extraordinarily alive. It shows everywhere personal learning, +personal impression; it has the sharp touch of the traveller and +the eye-witness."—<i>Times.</i></p> + + +<p class="center"><i>With Maps and Illustrations, 8vo, cloth, 12s.</i></p> + +<h3>THE CHURCH IN THE ROMAN<br /> +EMPIRE BEFORE A.D. 170.</h3> + +<p>"The whole volume is full of freshness and originality.... I lay +down his book with warm and sincere admiration. 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Sanday</span>, in <i>The Expositor</i>.</p> + + +<p class="center"><i>Crown</i> 8<i>vo</i>, <i>cloth</i>, 5<i>s</i>.</p> + +<h3>WAS CHRIST BORN AT<br /> +BETHLEHEM?</h3> + +<p class="center">A Study in the Credibility of St. Luke.</p> + +<p>"The work is characterised by great earnestness as well as ability, +while the learning which it displays is such as may be expected +from one who has long made the topics discussed matter of special +study, for the pursuit of which he has also had special opportunities."—<i>Scotsman.</i></p> + +<p>"There is much interesting matter on allied topics in this learned +and informing work, which will sustain Professor Ramsay's reputation +as an accomplished and courageous scholar."—<i>Christian World.</i></p> +<hr style="width: 15%;" /> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">London: HODDER & STOUGHTON.</span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> See p. 343.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> At least those to whom the first twenty-three verses were +addressed. There is distinct blame of worshipping in the groves of +Asherah in the appended oracle (vv. 24-31), which is proof that this +oracle was given at an earlier period than the rest of the chapter—a +fair instance of the very great difficulty we have in determining the +dates of the various prophecies of Isaiah.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> <i>Les Misérables</i>: "a Tempest in a Brain."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> Ewald happily suggests that verse 17 has dropped out of, and +should be restored to, its proper position at the end of the first "woe," +where it contributes to the development of the meaning far more +than from where it stands in the text.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> Read past tenses, as in the margin of Revised Version, for all the +future tenses, or better, the historical present, down to the end of the +chapter.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> It is part of the argument for connecting ix. 8 with v. 25 that +this phrase would be very natural after the earthquake described +in v. 25.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> <i>King Lear</i>, act iv., sc. 2.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> Ulrici: <i>Shakespeare's Dramatic Art</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> A Browning's "Christmas Eve."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> Even Calvin, though in order to prove that Isaiah had been +prophesying for some time before his inaugural vision, says that +his commission implies some years' actual experience of the obstinacy +of the people.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> The Pul of 2 Kings xv. 19 and the Tiglath-pileser of 2 Kings xvi. +are the same.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> Isa. vii. 12.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> There is a play upon words here, which may be reproduced in +English by the help of a North-England term: If ye have not <i>faith</i>, +ye cannot have <i>staith</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> Page 96.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> <i>Physics and Politics</i> (International Scientific Series), pp. 75 +ff. One of the finest modern illustrations of the connection between +faith and common-sense is found in the <i>Letters of General +Gordon to His Sister</i>. Gordon's coolness in face of the slave trade, +the just survey he makes of it, and the sensible advice which +he gives about meeting it stand well in contrast to the haste and rash +proposals of philanthropists at home, and are evidently due to his +conviction that the slave trade, like everything else in the world, is in +the hands of God, and so may be calmly studied and wisely checkmated. +Gordon's letters make very clear how much of his shrewdness +in dealing with men was due to the same source. It is instructive +to observe throughout, how his complete resignation to the will of God +and his perfect obedience delivered him from prejudices and partialities, +from distractions and desires, that make sober judgement impossible +in other men.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> 1 Sam. xii. 17.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> 1 Kings xiii. 3.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> Chap. xxxviii.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> Ewald.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> Robertson Smith, <i>Prophets of Israel</i>, p. 275.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> English Version, "law," but not the law of Moses. Isaiah refers +to the word that has come by himself.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> The Messiah, or <i>Anointed</i>, is used in the Old Testament of many +agents of God: high-priest (Lev. iv. 3); ministers of the Word +(Ps. cv. 15); Cyrus (Isa. xlv. 1); but mostly of God's king, actual +(1 Sam. xxiv. 7), or expected (Dan. ix. 25). So it became in Jewish +theology the technical term for the coming King and the Captain +of salvation.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> I regret very much that in previous editions I should have +erroneously imputed this opinion to Dr. Hermann Schultz—through +a mistranslation of his words on pp. 726, 727 of his <i>A. T. Theologie</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> <i>Prophets of Israel</i>, p. 306.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> See further on this passage pp. 180-183. As is there pointed +out, while these passages on the Messiah are indeed infrequent +and unconnected, there is a very evident progress through them of +Isaiah's conception of his Hero's character.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> Stanton: <i>The Jewish and Christian Messiah</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> Delitzsch, who fancies that the fall of Samaria is a completed +affair only in the vision of the prophet, not in reality.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> 2 Kings xvii. 5.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> Ewald. The original runs thus: "Ki tsav la-tsav, tsav la-tsav +qav la-qav, qav la-qav; z'eir sham z'eir sham."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> <i>Cromwell's Letters and Speeches</i>, Letter cxxxvi.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> It will be noticed that in the above version a different reading +is adopted from the meaningless clause at the end of verse 27 in +the English version, out of which a proper heading for the subsequent +itinerary has been obtained by Robertson Smith (<i>Journal of Philology</i>, +1884, p. 62).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> The authenticity of this hymn has been called in question.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_33_33" id="Footnote_33_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> Dean Plumptre notes the identity of the ethical terminology of +this passage with that of the book of Proverbs, and conjectures that +the additions to the original nucleus, chaps. x.-xxiv., and therefore +the whole form, of the book of Proverbs, may be due to the editorship +of Isaiah, and perhaps was the manual of ethics, on which he sought +to mould the character of Hezekiah (<i>Expositor</i>, series ii., v., p. 213).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_34_34" id="Footnote_34_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> Perhaps for <i>land—'arets</i>—we ought, with Lagarde, to read <i>tyrant—'arits</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_35_35" id="Footnote_35_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> Didron, <i>Christian Iconography</i>, Engl. trans., i., 432.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_36_36" id="Footnote_36_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> Didron, <i>Christian Iconography</i>, Engl. trans., i., 426.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_37_37" id="Footnote_37_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> See Didron for numerous interesting instances of this.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_38_38" id="Footnote_38_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> Darwin, <i>Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication</i>, +pp. 20, 21.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_39_39" id="Footnote_39_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> Galton, quoted by Darwin.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_40_40" id="Footnote_40_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> Isa. lxiii. 13, 14; Hos. xi. 4.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_41_41" id="Footnote_41_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_41_41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> <i>Records of the Past</i>, vii., 40.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_42_42" id="Footnote_42_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42_42"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> Cheyne.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_43_43" id="Footnote_43_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_43_43"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> W. R. Smith, <i>Prophets of Israel</i>, p. 282.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_44_44" id="Footnote_44_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_44_44"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> Cheyne.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_45_45" id="Footnote_45_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_45_45"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> Browning's <i>Christmas Eve</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_46_46" id="Footnote_46_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor_46_46"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> Chap. viii. 1 (p. 119).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_47_47" id="Footnote_47_47"></a><a href="#FNanchor_47_47"><span class="label">[47]</span></a> So Dr. B. Davis, quoted by Cheyne.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_48_48" id="Footnote_48_48"></a><a href="#FNanchor_48_48"><span class="label">[48]</span></a> So Bredenkamp in his recent commentary on Isaiah.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_49_49" id="Footnote_49_49"></a><a href="#FNanchor_49_49"><span class="label">[49]</span></a> Cf. further with this passage F. J. Church, <i>Trial and Death of +Socrates</i>, Introd. xli. ff.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_50_50" id="Footnote_50_50"></a><a href="#FNanchor_50_50"><span class="label">[50]</span></a> Cf. with the fifth and sixth verses of chap. xxxii. the forcible +passage in the introduction to Carlyle's <i>Cromwell's Letters</i>, beginning, +"Sure enough, in the Heroic Century, as in the Unheroic, knaves +and cowards ... were not wanting. But the question always +remains, Did they lie chained?" etc.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_51_51" id="Footnote_51_51"></a><a href="#FNanchor_51_51"><span class="label">[51]</span></a> Cf. Newman, <i>Oxford University Sermons</i>, xv.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_52_52" id="Footnote_52_52"></a><a href="#FNanchor_52_52"><span class="label">[52]</span></a> Our translation, though picturesque, is misleading. The +voice does not inquire, "What of the night?" <i>i.e.</i>, whether it be fair +or foul weather, but "How much of the night is passed?" literally +"What from off the night?" This brings out a pathos that our +English version has disguised. Edom feels that her night is lasting +terribly long.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_53_53" id="Footnote_53_53"></a><a href="#FNanchor_53_53"><span class="label">[53]</span></a> It is confusing to find this date attached to Sennacherib's invasion +of 701, unless, with one or two critics, we place Hezekiah's accession +in 715. But Hezekiah acceded in 728 or 727, and 701 would therefore +be his twenty-sixth or twenty-seventh year. Mr. Cheyne, who takes +727 as the year of Hezekiah's accession, gets out of the difficulty by +reading "Sargon" for "Sennacherib" in this verse and in 2 Kings +xiii., and thus secures another reference to that invasion of Judah, +which he supposes to have taken place under Sargon between 712 +and 710. By the change of a letter some would read <i>twenty-fourth</i> for +<i>fourteenth</i>. But in any case this date is confusing.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_54_54" id="Footnote_54_54"></a><a href="#FNanchor_54_54"><span class="label">[54]</span></a> <i>Records of the Past</i>, i. 33 ff. vii.; Schrader's <i>Cuneiform Inscriptions +and the Old Testament</i> (Whitehouse's translation).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_55_55" id="Footnote_55_55"></a><a href="#FNanchor_55_55"><span class="label">[55]</span></a> <i>Records of the Past</i>, i. 38; vii. 62.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_56_56" id="Footnote_56_56"></a><a href="#FNanchor_56_56"><span class="label">[56]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, i., 40; Schrader, i., 286.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_57_57" id="Footnote_57_57"></a><a href="#FNanchor_57_57"><span class="label">[57]</span></a> Chap. i. 7-9.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_58_58" id="Footnote_58_58"></a><a href="#FNanchor_58_58"><span class="label">[58]</span></a> See p. 238.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_59_59" id="Footnote_59_59"></a><a href="#FNanchor_59_59"><span class="label">[59]</span></a> Isa. xxxvi. 3.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_60_60" id="Footnote_60_60"></a><a href="#FNanchor_60_60"><span class="label">[60]</span></a> Schrader, <i>Cuneiform Inscriptions</i>, <i>O.T.</i>, i., p. 286.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_61_61" id="Footnote_61_61"></a><a href="#FNanchor_61_61"><span class="label">[61]</span></a> 2 Kings xviii. 13-16. Here closes a paragraph. Ver. 17 begins +to describe what Sennacherib did, in spite of Hezekiah's submission. +He had withdrawn the army that had invested Jerusalem, +for Hezekiah purchased its withdrawal by the tribute he sent. But +Sennacherib, in spite of this, sent another corps of war against +Jerusalem, which second attack is described in ver. 17 and onwards.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_62_62" id="Footnote_62_62"></a><a href="#FNanchor_62_62"><span class="label">[62]</span></a> Didron <i>Christian Iconography</i>, fig. 52.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_63_63" id="Footnote_63_63"></a><a href="#FNanchor_63_63"><span class="label">[63]</span></a> Chap. xxxvii.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_64_64" id="Footnote_64_64"></a><a href="#FNanchor_64_64"><span class="label">[64]</span></a> Chaps. iv. 4; xxx. 33.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_65_65" id="Footnote_65_65"></a><a href="#FNanchor_65_65"><span class="label">[65]</span></a> Cf. Browning's <i>La Saisiaz</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_66_66" id="Footnote_66_66"></a><a href="#FNanchor_66_66"><span class="label">[66]</span></a> A still more striking analogy may be found in the case of +Napoleon I. when in the East in 1799. He had just achieved a +small victory which partly masked the previous failure of his +campaign, when "Sir Sydney Smith now contrived that he should +receive a packet of journals, by which he was informed of all that +had passed recently in Europe and the disasters that France had +suffered. His resolution was immediately taken. On August 22nd +he wrote to Kleber announcing that he transferred to him the +command of the expedition, and that he himself would return to +Europe.... After carefully spreading false accounts of his intentions, +he set sail on the night of the same day" (Professor Seeley, article +"Napoleon" in the <i>Ency. Brit.</i>).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_67_67" id="Footnote_67_67"></a><a href="#FNanchor_67_67"><span class="label">[67]</span></a> The statement of the Egyptian legend, that it was from a point +in the neighbourhood of Pelusium that Sennacherib's army commenced +its retreat, is not contradicted by anything in the Jewish +records, which leave the locality of the disaster very vague, but, +on the contrary, receives some support from what Isaiah expresses +as at least the intention of Sennacherib (chap. xxxvii. 25).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_68_68" id="Footnote_68_68"></a><a href="#FNanchor_68_68"><span class="label">[68]</span></a> Gibbon, <i>Decline and Fall</i>, xliii.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_69_69" id="Footnote_69_69"></a><a href="#FNanchor_69_69"><span class="label">[69]</span></a> Arnold, <i>Lectures on Modern History</i>, 177, quoted by Stanley.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_70_70" id="Footnote_70_70"></a><a href="#FNanchor_70_70"><span class="label">[70]</span></a> Gibbon, xlii.; lix.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_71_71" id="Footnote_71_71"></a><a href="#FNanchor_71_71"><span class="label">[71]</span></a> Heb. xi.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_72_72" id="Footnote_72_72"></a><a href="#FNanchor_72_72"><span class="label">[72]</span></a> Isa. xxxviii., xxxix., has evidently been abridged from 2 Kings xx. +and in some points has to be corrected by the latter. Chap. xxxviii. +21, 22, of course, must be brought forward before ver. 7.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_73_73" id="Footnote_73_73"></a><a href="#FNanchor_73_73"><span class="label">[73]</span></a> Doughty's <i>Arabia Deserta: Travels in Northern Arabia</i>, 1876-1878.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_74_74" id="Footnote_74_74"></a><a href="#FNanchor_74_74"><span class="label">[74]</span></a> By Professor Fiske.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_75_75" id="Footnote_75_75"></a><a href="#FNanchor_75_75"><span class="label">[75]</span></a> "Those principles of natural philosophy which smothered the +religions of the East with their rank and injurious growth are almost +entirely absent from the religion of the Hebrews. Here the motive-power +of development is to be found in ethical ideas, which, though +not indeed alien to the life of other nations, were not the source from +which their religious notions were derived."—(Lotze's <i>Microcosmos</i>, +Eng. Transl., il., 466.)</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_76_76" id="Footnote_76_76"></a><a href="#FNanchor_76_76"><span class="label">[76]</span></a> P. 447 ff.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_77_77" id="Footnote_77_77"></a><a href="#FNanchor_77_77"><span class="label">[77]</span></a> It is, however, only just to add that, as Mr. Sayce has pointed out +in the Hibbert Lectures for 1887 (p. 365), the claims of Babylonian +kings and heroes for a seat on the mountain of the gods were not +always mere arrogance, but the first efforts of the Babylonian mind to +emancipate itself from the gloomy conceptions of Hades and provide a +worthy immortality for virtue. Still most of the kings who pray +for an entrance among the gods do so on the plea that they have been +successful tyrants—a considerable difference from such an assurance +as that of the sixteenth Psalm.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_78_78" id="Footnote_78_78"></a><a href="#FNanchor_78_78"><span class="label">[78]</span></a> The popular Semitic conception of Hades contained within it +neither grades of condition, according to the merits of men, nor any +trace of an infernal torment in aggravation of the unsubstantial state +to which all are equally reduced. This statement is true of the +Old Testament till at least the Book of Daniel. Sheol is lit by no +lurid fires, such as made the later Christian hell intolerable to the lost. +That life is unsubstantial; that darkness and dust abound; above all, +that God is not there, and that it is impossible to praise Him, is all +the punishment which is given in Sheol. Extraordinary vice is +punished above ground, in the name and family of the sinner. Sheol, +with its monotony, is for average men; but extraordinary piety can +break away from it (Ps. xvi.).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_79_79" id="Footnote_79_79"></a><a href="#FNanchor_79_79"><span class="label">[79]</span></a> Readers will remember a parallel to this ode in Carlyle's famous +chapter on Louis the Unforgotten. No modern has rivalled Carlyle +in his inheritance of this satire, except it be he whom Carlyle called +"that Jew blackguard Heine."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_80_80" id="Footnote_80_80"></a><a href="#FNanchor_80_80"><span class="label">[80]</span></a> vv. 14-16, which are very perplexing. In 14 a company +is introduced to us very vaguely as <i>those</i> or <i>yonder ones</i>, who are +represented as seeing the bright side of the convulsion which is +the subject of the chapter. <i>They cry aloud from the sea</i>; that is, <i>from +the west</i> of the prophet. He is therefore in the east, and in +captivity, in the centre of the convulsion. The problem is to find +any actual historical situation, in which part of Israel was in the +east in captivity, and part in the west free and full of reasons for +praising God for the calamity, out of which their brethren saw no +escape for themselves.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_81_81" id="Footnote_81_81"></a><a href="#FNanchor_81_81"><span class="label">[81]</span></a> The mention of Moab (xxv. 10, 11) is also consistent with a pre-exilic +date, but does not necessarily imply it.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_82_82" id="Footnote_82_82"></a><a href="#FNanchor_82_82"><span class="label">[82]</span></a> <i>E.g.</i>, xxv. 6-8, 10, 11; xxvii. 10, 11, 9, 12, 13.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_83_83" id="Footnote_83_83"></a><a href="#FNanchor_83_83"><span class="label">[83]</span></a> Even at the risk of incurring Canon Cheyne's charge of "ineradicable +error," I feel I must keep to the older view of chap. xxxv. +which makes it refer to the return from exile. No doubt the chapter +covers more than the mere return, and includes "the glorious condition +of Israel after the return;" but vv. 4 and 10 are undoubtedly +addressed to Jews still in exile and undelivered.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_84_84" id="Footnote_84_84"></a><a href="#FNanchor_84_84"><span class="label">[84]</span></a> Hezekiah's expression for death, xxxviii. 12.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_85_85" id="Footnote_85_85"></a><a href="#FNanchor_85_85"><span class="label">[85]</span></a> I think this must be the meaning of ver. 16, if we are to allow +that it has any sympathy with vv. 14 and 15. Bredenkamp suggests +that the persons meant are themselves the dead. Jehovah has glorified +the Church on earth; but the dead below are still in trouble, and +<i>pour out prayers</i> (Virgil's "preces fundunt," <i>Æneid</i>, vi., 55), beneath this +punishment which God causes to pass on all men (ver. 14). Bredenkamp +bases this exegesis chiefly on the word for "prayer," which means +<i>chirping</i> or <i>whispering</i>, a kind of voice imputed to the shades by the +Hebrews and other ancient peoples. But while this word does +originally mean <i>whispering</i>, it is never in Scripture applied to the +dead, but, on the other hand, is a frequent name for <i>divining</i> or <i>incantation</i>. +I therefore have felt compelled to understand it as used in +this passage of the living, whose only resource in face of death—<i>Goa's +discipline par excellence</i>—is to pour out incantations. If it be objected +that the prophet would scarcely parallel the ordinary incantations on +behalf of the dead with supplications to Jehovah, the answer is that +he is talking poetically or popularly.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_86_86" id="Footnote_86_86"></a><a href="#FNanchor_86_86"><span class="label">[86]</span></a> English version, <i>fallen; i.e.</i>, like our expression for the birth of +animals, <i>dropped</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_87_87" id="Footnote_87_87"></a><a href="#FNanchor_87_87"><span class="label">[87]</span></a> Technical Hebrew word for the inhabitants of the underworld—<i>the +shades</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_88_88" id="Footnote_88_88"></a><a href="#FNanchor_88_88"><span class="label">[88]</span></a> Extracted from the Assyrian <i>Descent of Istar to Hades</i> (Dr. +Jeremias' German translation, p. 11, and <i>Records of the Past</i>, i., 145).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_89_89" id="Footnote_89_89"></a><a href="#FNanchor_89_89"><span class="label">[89]</span></a> Cf. James i. 17.</p></div> + +</div> + +<div class="tn"> +<h3>Transcriber's note:</h3> +<p>Variations in spelling and hyphenation have been preserved except in +obvious cases of typographical error.</p> + +<p>All advertising has been moved to the end of the book.</p> + +</div> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Book of Isaiah, Volume I (of 2), by +George Adam Smith + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOOK OF ISAIAH, VOLUME I *** + +***** This file should be named 39767-h.htm or 39767-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/9/7/6/39767/ + +Produced by Colin Bell, Julia Neufeld and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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