empire, but upon every kingdom, does the sword fall: that sword of vengeance is satiated with blood. The scene is awful in the extreme. But just in this way does God in every age work His sovereign will. He plants "His footstep on the sea, and rides upon the storm." Thebes, Nineveh, Tyre, Babylon-all to be ruined! The habitations of kings and mighty emperors are now the possession of pelicans and porcupines. Every age has its own empire -its own hero: how seldom is God alone honoured! And see the wrecks of human glory all along the shore of time. We have mentioned four mighty wrecks to them may be added Persia, Macedonia, Antioch, Rome-these with their Cyrus, their Alexander, their Seleucidae, their Cæsars-all gone! To day Germany, Great Britain, the United States, and so on, remain. Will they learn wisdom, and shape their counsels according to that righteousness. that alone exalteth a nation, or shall they too perish in the awful avalanche that destroys the nations who obey not God?

The prophet has seen the wonderful works of God, as great cities had been made heaps, even strongly fortified towns a ruin. God had proved Himself His people's stronghold. Perhaps some very recent intervention on their behalf is before his mind. He bursts out into a hymn of sublime confidence in Jehovah, and calls upon all to trust in God only. But he is manifestly distressed at the prevailing unbelief. Men are so blind and wilful: they see not God's Hand, the prophet complains, even though it is so manifestly stretched out. There is need for prayer, and patience, and hope: for no great results have yet been accomplished by Zion: they have wrought no deliverance in the earth. But there is to be a resurrec

tion of a nation so dead, even as Ezekiel saw in his vision in the valley of dry bones. This is the prophetic hope. There shall be, he clearly foretells, a gathering of the people from all the regions into which they have been carried captive. The Lord shall come out of His place, and punish Egypt and Babylon: He will show Himself the keeper and protector of His own chosen vineyard. But a people who would enjoy such protection must be a purified people: idolatry in every shape and form must cease out of the land. Then would come in fullest glory the day of the Lord's deliverance. The people, restored and purified, would then celebrate once more the Feast of Tabernacles with great joy-a joy even greater than that which characterised its first establishment at the Exodus. The festive procession would again carry forth the water from the Pool of Siloam in golden basins to the courts of the Temple, amid the shouts of a people deeply conscious of deliverance once more achieved. The inhabitant of Zion would make his boast alone in Jehovah, the source of every victory, and the God of Salvation.

DIVISION III.

PART I.

THE RELIGIOUS CONCEPTIONS OF ISAIAH.

A PROPHECY Contains the application of the religious principles, held by a prophet, to the conditions of the time in which he lived. These principles are presented in the clothing of the practical application; they were the possession of the prophet, perhaps more or less systematised by himself, but certainly not stated in any abstract or theological manner by themselves. Their value to him was in this, that they were living principles, capable of application, and easily understood. Now Isaiah was the man he was, because of his clear apprehension of certain outstanding conceptions of God, and Providence, and because of his forcible expression of them. But it is not easy to state them in a form that would be clearly his, and not partly ours; for interpreting his statements in the light of fuller revelation, we are apt to see more in them than he actually purposed to express.

An attempt is here made to gather together in brief space the leading religious conceptions of Isaiah.

And first of all, as to God. Jehovah, the Lord of Hosts, is the term under which the prophet speaks of God. The first term tells of a God in relation to a people: the second speaks of a universal divine supremacy. It was as a supreme King on a heavenly throne, ruling over all, that Isaiah first thought of God. But this King had not merely the natural

attributes of power and wisdom-His glory not only filled the earth; but He had moral attributes. He was supreme holiness and grace. His majesty filled the heavens.

He

was far above and beyond man in His divine perfections, but yet a God who could come into touch with a purified people, and speak to them. Essentially a God of righteousness, viewed in its ethical fulness, He was a God ever making for righteousness by the workings of His providence. Nor did He concern Himself with one people alone, or exclusively. He was no tribal deity only, as Chemosh in Moab was no national appropriation, as Asshur was to Nineveh. This God speaks to all nations, and is supremely interested in them; because He purposes the vindication of righteousness, the establishment of a righteous kingdom. The divine relationship to His people is not conceived in any arbitrary or indiscriminate way. Jerusalem, with her covenant, her sacrifices, and her temple, was apt to regard the divine relationship as a fixed thing, whatever might be the conditions of life and conduct. Not so taught Isaiah. He valued much these outward guarantees of spiritual realities but he valued much more the spiritual realities themselves.

Hence God is conceived as having a Purpose. And this purpose the Zeal of Jehovah performs. Faith in this purpose marks Isaiah. To him Jerusalem and her temple may be the centre of religion, provided Jerusalem be a pure people. But in full view of a partial repentance, or a repentance by only a part of the people, the prophet grasps the idea of a chosen people, a remnant, who should be saved as the result of the spirit of burning, and the spirit of justice. The divine Purpose then is not so much to have a people, as to have a people conformed to the divine image. As the author

of salvation, God works only on the lines of righteousness, and for those who love and practise righteousness.

Repentance was taught as that which must always come before Forgiveness. Repentance meant much to Isaiah: it meant the beginning of a life according to God. Already spiritual and personal qualifications, rather than outward and national privileges, were being emphasised. A doctrine of a Church was evolving itself: not all being Israel who are of Israel: a church, a visible body indeed, but distinct from the political whole, in which it exists. Isaiah had not advanced, however, as far as Jeremiah on this point: for by the time of Jeremiah, much of what Isaiah depended on was being broken up. The doctrine of the Remnant-of a purged few, leads the way. The worth of individuality begins to appear. Faith and character, rather than birth and location, are being seen to be the conditions of membership in a true Jerusalem. Some of the notes of the Church are also declared. It is a tenth, a divine vine

yard, a witnessing body, a remnant.

The prophet's religious conception here was wrought out in an experience through which he himself had passed. He himself had as a man, before receiving his commission as a prophet, experienced the crisis of all that is involved in the Vision of God. He had himself come into personal relationship with a living God, and this by the way of a divine revelation and a genuine repentance. He had got beyond all local, national, and ceremonial rites into the fellowship of the Heavenlies. Thus the doctrine of Sacrifice as held by the prophet, becomes clear. To him it was an aid only, where true faith already existed in itself it was void of value. The individual man, by seeing God and abandoning sin, must be touched by God: this is repentance, and

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