it is increased. All this, unless God's ways are forsaken, goes on to the last. New springs of consolation burst open in every stage of our progress, old sources of comfort become richer and sweeter; our peace constantly flows deeper and deeper, till it ends in an ocean of peace, the boundless, fathomless ocean of everlasting joy.—Charles Bradley: Practical Sermons, vol. i. pp.

276-278.

It is from simple natural imagery that the mind is put into a fitting frame for catching the spirit of the text. The good and gracious God addresses this tender language of expostulation to those who have forgotten H's laws.

I. Our heavenly Father is continually speaking to us by His Word, &c. Sometimes His voice is heard in thunder tones, as on the smoking top of Sinai. Sometimes its gracious accents are those of gentleness and love. It is the duty of all to "hearken," however and whenever God speaks. To "hearken" implies

1. A reverent and careful attention to God's message. 2. That we consider God's commandments as binding upon us, and as pointing out certain particulars which we are required to attend to. God is a lawgiver, and the sceptre of dominion is held firmly in His grasp (Rev. xxii. 14).

II. The blessing promised, as the reward of such obedience, is peacepeace of mind and heart; peace with God through Christ Jesus. Peace may be compared to a river, 1. In its origin: small, joyous, sparkling, vigorous, rapid. 2. In its progress: widening and deepening; receiving new tributories on the right and left, from the various means of grace, as they are supplied with the dew of heaven and showers of blessings; sweeping away as it rolls on in its strength the obstacles of unsanctified affections and unconquered lusts. 3. In its overflowing abundance. It is not a scanty, fluctuating, failing stream, but a full tide of peace, both wide and deep, and supplying to the utmost every longing of the soul. 4.

In its perpetuity. A river differs from

a mountain torrent or summer brook in this the river flows on with a comparatively steady current-sometimes broader and deeper than at others, it is true, but never exhausted, never dry— while the very existence of the brook and the torrent depends upon uncertain showers. The Christian who hearkens diligently to the laws of the Lord shall enjoy perpetual peace. It is not uniform, indeed, any more than the course of the river. 5. In its increase. Peace shall not only dwell perpetually with God's children, but it shall grow stronger and more pervading.

If you saw a man trying all his life to satisfy his thirst by holding an empty cup to his lips, you would smile at his folly or pity his ignorance. Not more deplorable folly and ignorance, however, than when immortal spirits persist in seeking peace everywhere except from its true and only source. "There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked," and yet each one of those who will be condemned at the last day might have enjoyed "peace as a river." —J. N. Norton: Sermons for the Christian Year.

1. Like a river in its commencement-trickling from some fissure in the heart, singing its own song as it drops from leaf to leaf, from ledge to ledge-now gathering itself up in a little pool, saying to its joyous waters, "Here we rest,"-anon rushing on again to fulfil its purpose, and gain its parent sea.

2. Like a river in its progress, ever widening and deepening, from the ankles to the knees, from the knees to the loins, from the loins to waters to swim in, a river that cannot be passed over, passed over, receiving new tributaries on the right and left, sweeping away as it rolls on its healthful stream the dead and dying remains of past affections and former lusts, and bearing on its bosom a thousand newly launched hopes.

3. Like a river in its influenceholy, healthy, generating-causing a

wide expanse of "living green" to spread out on either side making even the desert of the soul "rejoice and blossom as the rose."

4. Like a river in its terminationrolling into and mingling with the shoreless, blessed sea of perfect peace, where undulating waves never roll in strife, or break in death, but where the people of God are "ever with the Lord."

Away among the Alleghanies there is a spring so small, that a single ox in a summer day could drain it dry. It steals its unobtrusive way among the hills, till it spreads out in the beautiful Ohio. Thence it stretches away a thousand miles, leaving on its banks, cities, villages, and cultivated farms, and bearing on its bosom more than half a thousand steamboats. Beautiful representation of a Christian's peace! Peace "as a river."

How little do we know of this peace of God! We deem ourselves happy if we have one serene hour out of the twenty-four; and if now and then there comes a Sabbath which is balm at morning, and sweetness through the still noon, and benediction at evening, we count it a rare and blessed experience.-H. W. Beecher.

I. Their peace would have been like a river. 1. It has a source. It begins at the fountain of Christ's blood. 2. It is fed from above. Rains and showers feed the rivers. The shower of grace swells the rivers of peace. 3. It has inundations, as

the Nile. An awakening providence often makes an overflow. Afflictions and the consolations under them always, if the sufferings are the sufferings of Christ. ferings of Christ. Sacramental times also; hence the desirableness of frequency in the administration of the Lord's Supper. 4. It gets broader and broader to the sea. The Tay. (Prov. iv. 18.) Try yourselves by this test. 5. It is fertilising. It conveys nourishment. Egypt owes all its fertility to the Nile. The peace of Christ makes every grace grow. Holiness always grows out of a peaceful breast.

II. Their righteousness would have been as the waves of the sea. (a) Because-1. It covers over the highest sins. 2. It covers again and again. It is infinite righteousness. You cannot count the waves of the sea.

Inference. God wishes men to be saved. God sometimes pleads with men to be saved for His own pleasure: it would be pleasant to Him, it would make Him glad, as in the parable of the lost sheep. Sometimes He pleads for His own glory (Jer. xiii. 16; Mal. ii. 1). But here it is for the happiness of sinners themselves (so Ps. lxxxi. 13). Once more, He pleads with men, because unwilling that any should perish (2 Pet. iii. 9).—R. M. M'Cheyne: Memoirs und Remains, p.

467.

(a) The ideas suggested by the figure of a river are abundance, perpetuity, and freshness, to which the waves of the sea add those of vastness, depth, and continual succession.Alexander.

Isaiah had prophesied that his fellowcountrymen would be led captive into Babylon; but he was able to look forward to the termination of their captivity, and could speak thus confidently because he knew-1, that God, who was about to consign them for a time, and for corrective purposes, into bondage,

also purposed to deliver them therefrom; and 2, that every purpose which God has formed is certain to be accomplished. Assured of these facts, there rises before his prophetic vision two others -1. He sees the gates of the prison-city thrown open; yea, the prison-city itself falling; and, standing

in spirit before them, he bids them flee from the peril involved in its destruction, into the freedom which the mighty change had once more rendered possible for them. "Go forth from Babylon! Flee ye from the Chaldeans!" 2. He sees the flight accomplished, the pilgrimage from the land of captivity completed safely, and his fellow-countrymen settled down peaceably in the good land promised to their fathers, and he exhorts them to proclaim to the whole world what God has done for them, "With the voice of joy," &c.

His exhortations are in themselves prophecies of what would happen to them, and the terms of those predictions as to what God would do for His people in the future were suggested by the history of what God had done for them in the past.

Those pro

phecies must not be too literally interpreted; there is no record that God wrought any such miracles for His people during their march from Babylon homewards. What Isaiah wished to impress upon them was, that God would do everything necessary to perfect His deliverance of them, and to sustain them throughout it; and he did this in terms which reminded them how in all the trials through which their fathers had passed they had found God able to deliver them. How terrible was the difficulty to which he refers, and how marvellous the deliverance therefrom (Exod. xvii. 1-6; Num. xx. 1-11).

Isaiah was enabled thus to instruct and cheer them, because he knew how to make a right use of the history of God's dealings with His people. He remembered that that history is more than a history; that it is also a revelation and a prophecy-a revelation of what God will always be found to be; a prophecy of what He will always do for His people.

I. The use that Isaiah made of that history, we also ought to make. Two ways of reading the Bible-with a literary interest, with a personal interest. Geology-what it means to an earnest student; what it means to the intelligent owner of a vast estate. With like personal interests we should read the Bible, remembering that God is unchangeable, and that the laws on which He has made human welfare and happiness to depend are the same in every age. Reading the Bible thus, 1. we shall love it more and more, for the fullness of its treasures will become more and more clear to us (H. E. I. 613). 2. Fears suggested to us by the difficulties of the Christian pilgrimage, and that otherwise might greatly trouble us, will be driven away; for the history will convey to us the prophetic assurance that in every stage of our pilgrim age, and in every emergency that may arise therein, the grace of God will prove sufficient for us.

II. We are reminded also of our duty in regard to our own experience of God's dealings with His people. Isaiah here teaches that it would be the duty of redeemed "Jacob" to make known to the whole world what God had done for them. This is the duty of God's redeemed ones in every age; collectively, and hence the necessity of mission work of various kinds; individually. Let us not forget this (Ps. lxvi. 16). 1. Gratitude should move us to do this. 2. Compassion for our fellow-men should teach us to do this.

Heaven will be eternally the realm of song, because there the redeemed of the Lord will never grow weary of making known what He has done for them. "Go forth from Babylon! Flee ye from the Chaldeans! With the voice of joy tell this," &c.

Narrate the instructive fact recorded in Exodus xvii.

This wonderful fact suggests

I. That human life has its great emergencies. Abraham, Jacob, David, Paul, &c. So with us. Christianity does

not exempt us from the sorest trials. Sooner or later, every Christian has his Rephidim in his way to Canaan. Secular misfortunes, family trials, personal spiritual conflicts, &c. Such emergencies are needful for the testing of our principles, and the maintenance and increase of our spiritual vigour.

"We need as much the cross we bear,
As air we breathe, or light we see:
It draws us to Thy side in prayer,

It binds us to our strength in Thee."

II. That deliverance often comes from most unlikely and unexpected__ sources. Water from a flinty rock. Redemption from the carpenter's son at Nazareth. The promulgation of the gospel by fishermen and tentmakers, and in modern times by Carey, the shoemaker; Williams and Thomas, the blacksmiths; and Moffat, the gardener, &c. (a)

Learn To confide in God in the

greatest emergency. He can help you,

whatever it is however dire. He has promised to support and deliver. Let your trust be determined, heroic, constant.-Alfred Tucker.

(a) "God can bring good to His people from the most unlikely sources. Nothing seemed more unlikely to yield water than the barren rock of Horeb. So God often brings refreshing streams of comfort to His people out of hard circumstances. Paul and Silas could sing in the dungeon, and their imprisonment was made the means of adding to their converts in Philippi. The lot of John in Patmos seemed hard and dreary indeed, but at the bidding of Christ, streams of living water gushed forth there, which refreshed the soul of the Apostle at the time, and have followed the Church until the present. Out of the sufferings of the martyrs came joy to themselves and blessings to their descendants. Above all, out of the hard circumstances of the crucified Lord of glory, God has brought forth waters of everlasting life."

I. THE SOURCE OF THE WATERS. 1. Its durability and unchangeableness. It was a rock, and one of peculiar solidity and strength. Time has not been able either to destroy or materially alter it. So the Rock of Ages (Heb. xiii. 8). 2. It was chosen by God Himself. So Jesus is a Saviour of His appoint

ment.

VOL. II.

3. It was opened according to Divine appointment by the hand of man. It was a smitten rock. So Jesus " gave His back to the smiters." And man gave the blow.

II. THE STREAM THAT FLOWED FROM THE ROCK.

1. It saved Israel from perishing. This was its chief use. And it saved them when nothing else could save them. So with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

2. It did more than save. Enabling them to wash away the defilement of the desert, it cleansed the Israelites. Sin pollutes while it destroys. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all

sin, because by it He obtained for His church the gift of the Holy Ghost.

3. It refreshed them. Their strength was so renewed that they rose up, and after fighting a whole day with the Amalekites, they overcame them, and passed on with fresh vigour to Canaan. In like manner the waters of life refresh the people of God.-C. Bradley.

This fact reminds us that Jehovah is the God of providence, working even miracles for the accomplishment of His purposes; while the great Apostle of the Gentiles directs us to Jehovah as the God of grace, when, pointing to it, he exclaims, "that rock was Christ." View the occurrence

I. As a seasonable, providential interposition. 1. A period of great distress; myriads of men and women and much cattle without water. 2. An instance of the omnipotence of God-a flinty rock yields water at His command. 3. Encouragement to hope in God, though we see no prospect or way of supply.

II. As an illustration of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. 1. The rock is an emblem of Christ, in solidity, strength, shelter, and duration. 2. The smiting of the rock prefigures Christ's sufferings. He was stricken, smitten of God, that He might bear our sins and carry our sorrows. body of Christ was indeed smitten, His soul was made an offering for sin. 317

The

3. The waters that flowed from the smitten rock represent the benefits we derive from Christ's atoning sacrifice. How suitable was this supply, how abundant, how lasting! Let there be grateful remembrance of the smitten rock, vigorous prosecution of our journey; we drink to be refreshed and press on. Invite, and bring, our children and friends. Come sinner, thou !

"See from the Rock a fountain rise!
For you in healing streams it rolls;
Money ye need not bring, nor price,
Ye labouring, burdened, sin-sick souls.

Nothing ye in exchange shall give,

Leave all you have and are behind; Frankly the gift of God receive, Pardon and peace in Jesus find."

-John Hirst:

The New Evangelist, p. 185.

among

them-let them not expect to come in shares. What have they to do with peace that are enemies to God? Their false prophets cried peace to them to whom it did not belong; but God tells them that there shall be no peace to the wicked."

Whatever the reason for its introduction here, this verse contains a most important truth which demands universal attention.

I. WHAT THE TEXT ASSERTS-that there is no peace to the wicked (H. E. I. 2296-2301).

1. Who are the wicked? (1.) Enemies of God (Ps. xxxvii. 20, lxxxvii. 15; Rom. i. 30; Jas. iv. 4). (2.) Enemies. of the Cross of Christ (Phil. iii. 18). (3.) Evil-doers (Ps. xxviii. 3, xxxvi. 12, xxxvii. 1; 1 Pet. ii. 14). (4.) Men of the world (Ps. xvii. 14). The wicked are "not only all who think and feel and do wrong, but all who have not the right spirit within them— supreme sympathy with the supremely good. There are degrees in wickedness as well as in goodness. All bad men are not equally bad. Sin has its blade, its ear, its full corn in the ear."

2. The wicked have no true peace. They may have the semblance, but even that is transient and vain (Job xx. 5; Luke xii. 20; Ecc. ii. 1, vii. 6). They have no real peace—

(1.) In the act of wickedness. There can be no happiness in sin-simply the gratification of bad passions.

(2.) In the business or pleasures of life. The world in none of its forms or modifications can afford solid, substantial, elevated peace. 'Pleasures pall upon the sense; "riches take wings; disappointment comes, and the highest earthly and sensual pleasure leaves a sad sense of want a feeling that there is something in the capacities and wants of the undying mind which has not been filled (H. E. I. 4969-4974).

(3.) Of conscience-no conviction that they are right. Indeed there is often the reverse of peace care, distress, alarm, apprehension. "They and their consciences are ever and anon at drawn daggers; . . . their consciences are still galling and terrifying them for imprisoning their convictions" (Flavel). This world can furnish nothing which will give peace to the heart that is agitated with a sense of unforgiven sin (ch. lvii. 20; H. E. I. 1321-1324).

(4.) In death. There may be cal lousness, insensibility, freedom from alarm, but that is not peace, any more than sterility is fruitfulness, &c. Often, however, the mind is filled with alarm, and the death-bed is a scene of blank despair (H. E. I. 1567, 1568, 1590-1593; P. D. 684).

(5.) Beyond the grave. "A sinner can have no peace at the judgment bar of God-no peace in hell. In all the future world there is no place where he can find repose."