A SERIES OF SERMONS

ON

THE SUNDAY AND FESTIVAL LESSONS.

Advent Sunday.

MORNING SERVICE.-First Lesson: Isaiah i,

Verse 1.-"The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz."

In the absence of a written Divine revelation, God was pleased to communicate with His people of old through the medium of visions and dreams, and thus He sustained the drooping hopes of His Church during its earlier ages. We have a great number of those visions recorded in the Old Testament, and some in the New. And from the visions of Abraham on the plains of Mamre to those of St. John in the Isle of Patmos, they all tended to reveal the Divine superintendence over human affairs, and the provisions made by the Almighty for the welfare of man. The visions vary according to the circumstances of the times, and according to the respective positions of the individuals who were favoured with the revelations. Some were limited to a certain nation or class, whilst others were more extended in their application. of those enlarged visions was the vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz. It seems to have taken a wider range and a more comprehensive view of general circumstances than any other recorded on the pages of the Bible. The whole circumstances

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of God's Church from his time to the advent of Christ in the flesh, and from His first advent to His second coming at the end of time, are, like a widely-spread panorama, laid open to the prophet, showing at once the conduct of God towards man, and the conduct of man towards God, together with the consequences of both.

This vision may be regarded as containing three distinct subjects, involving truths of the greatest importance to the world. First, The depth and universality of man's depravity. Secondly, The provisions made by the Almighty for the restoration of man in the advent of the Messiah. Thirdly, The subsequent results dependent upon that advent. These three points we shall briefly consider.

I. The depth and universality of man's depravity.

God attaches so much importance to this fact, that He gives it the greatest prominence in the vision. It is the first drama in the world's history as here represented. As it is necessary to probe the wound before applying the remedy, to point out the danger before shewing the way of escape, so God, in His manifestations to Isaiah, places the sinful and ruinous state of man at the very onset of His communications. So obnoxious does it appear in His estimation that heaven and earth are called upon to witness. "Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the Lord hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me."

This depravity is shown to consist in ignorance, in pollution, in disease, and in rebellion. "The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass (though regarded the most stupid of animals) his master's crib; but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider." Man, although he professes to possess a higher degree of intelligence, does neither know Him who has a right to all that he possesses, nor the hand which is extended to supply all his wants. He is so polluted that he is laden with iniquity, and his posterity are called children that are corrupters. From the sole of the foot ever

unto the head there is no soundness. The heart is spiritually diseased, and the whole system is overwhelmed with a fatal malady. He has also raised his hands against the best of parents and the kindest of friends. "I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me." Israel is here mentioned; but the complaint is not limited to that nation. It has an universal application to both nations and individuals of all ages! so that all nations, and each individual of every nation, and all parts of each individual, are alike and equally affected by the degrading position into which man has fallen.

When I meet with the thousands in the streets of a populous town or city, I am struck with the variety of character which their respective countenances indicate. Some of them appear rich, many of them appear poor. Some of them appear happy, many of them appear miserable. Some seem bent on business, others are bent on pleasure. I know not the motives which urge them forward. I know not the aims and ends which they have in view. But this I know, there is not a soul amongst them but that is guilty before God. They are all involved in the total wreck of humanity.

Oh the awful consequences of sin! Like the ponderous bombshell hurled from a powerful mortar, it has not only made a breach in the bulwarks of the ship, but has shattered the whole fabric to fragments. Oh the awful consequences of sin! It heaves the infant breast, it breaks the manly heart, it levels venerable age with the dust, and it reduces a world to a state of degradation and wickedness. Let us

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II. To a more genial portion of the "vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz," which is the provision made by God for the restoration of man from this degraded position in the advent of the Messiah.

Christ is declared in the New Testament to have come to "seek and to save that which was lost." In this vision He is shown to be fully adapted to accomplish that great

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and glorious object. If man's Saviour required to be endowed with the nature of both the offended and offending parties, we have Him here. "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace." If He was to be miraculously born to mark the difference between Him and man as a sinner, He was thus represented to the prophet—“Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." If, standing in the capacity of man's surety, it was absolute that He should in His life and in His death endure all the sufferings which Divine justice demanded as a penalty for man's transgression, we find this in the man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

How vividly were the scenes of Gethsemane and Calvary portrayed before the sight of the prophet, when he says, in the 53d chapter, "For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men: a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed." And again, in the 63d chapter he says, "Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? this that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save. Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the winefat? I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me: for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury;

and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment." In all that is stated in this book concerning the advent of the Messiah, together with His suffering in the flesh, we find it admirably coincides with the conditions required for the restoration of man.

III. We see in the vision the subsequent results dependent upon the advent of Christ. Not only were the birth, the life, the sufferings, and the death of the Saviour predicted in this vision, but also the establishment of His kingdom in the world, and the innumerable blessings connected with His spiritual reign upon earth, until His coming again. Here we may observe

1. That this kingdom was established in consequence of what He did during the period of His first advent, for it is said in chapter liii., the 10th and 11th verses, "Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities." It was but just that, having suffered, He should reign. If "God is not unrighteous to forget (our) work and labour of love," He would not suffer His only begotten Son to go unrewarded for all His work and labour which proceeded from His love to man.

2. His reign was to be universal, not only over the Jewish nation or the people of Israel, but also over the Gentile world. This promise is prominently held forth in the vision, "And he said, It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth." "And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek and his rest shall be glorious."