God goes on to speak with more distinctness of His purposes of mercy: "And I will place," &c. Refers originally to what Christ would accomplish at His first appearing in Judea, and also what He would effect at His second advent. But if we confine our thoughts to what has been already effected, we have sufficient material from which to prove the accomplishment of the text. "Righteousness" is the salvation which God promises to be at hand. This is the most faithful description of the deliverance provided through the mediation of Christ, for that deliverance to righteousness which God provided for His own honour whilst providing for our rescue (Rom. ix. 30, &c.) And not only is salvation. the righteousness of all, because it provides that God shall be just while the justifier; it is emphatically "God's righteousness," inasmuch as it communicates a righteousness to man which by his own strivings he could not have attained. It does this in two ways-by imputing Christ's righteousness, and by working righteousness in us by the operation of the Holy Spirit. And this salvation God placed in Zion, for it was only by the going up of the Mediator as a victim to the altar that the curse of the law was exhausted and the honour of the Divine attributes secured. Ages have no power to weaken or remove it. Still is virtue going out from Zion mighty as when the first Atonement was made. But we look for a yet nobler and ampler accomplishment of the prophecy (Isa. xxv. 6-8, lxiii. 1). "For Israel my glory." Wonderful words! That fallen man should be His glory is an inexplicable mystery apart from Redemption. A redeemed creature is emphatically the glory of God.-H. Melvill, B.A.: Sermons, 1853, pp. 562-568. 66 1. A CALL OF GOD TO THE LISTLESS AND IMPENITENT. Hearken unto Me ye stout-hearted, that are far from righteousness." to three classes-(1.) To the spiritually deaf; (2.) To the spiritually obdurate; (3.) To the spiritually destitute-"Far from righteousness." 2. This call is entitled to our imme diate and most earnest attention. (1.) Because it concerns our eternal destiny; (2.) Because it is God's call. II. CONNECTED WITH THIS CALL IS THE GRACIOUS PROVISION AND ACCESSIBILITY OF SALVATION. "I bring near my righteousness; it shall not be far off, and my salvation shall not tarry." Of this salvation, thus provided and so easily available, we remark that 1. It is Divine in its origin and nature. "I bring;" "my salvation." 2. It is prompt in its announcement and delivery. The text signifies anything but delay, anything but cold and indifferent pauses. God makes haste to be gracious. He observes due time, and sent His Son in the fulness of time. He is slow to anger, but plenteous in mercy. As the prodigal's father ran to meet him, so does God to save man. 3. It is mercifully adapted to the sinner's condition. (1.) He deserves threatening, but obtained instead mercy's rich promise. God might justly have followed the call by threatening; but rather than this, there is a beautiful transition from the severe to the tender, from the prelude of thunder. to the sweet and gentle music of love. It is a beautiful gradation from law to grace. (2.) He deserves the loss of redemptive privileges, but is offered a near salvation. (3.) He deserves present punishment, but is offered a timely pardon. III. GOD CONSTITUTES HIS CHURCH THE TREASURY OF THIS ACCESSIBLE SALVATION. "I will place salvation in Zion, for Israel my glory." Here we see 1. That the church is the world's house of mercy. 2. That the church is entrusted with the most solemn responsibilities. 3. That the church is God's glory and object of honour. "For Israel my glory."-Thomas Colclough in the “Lay 1. This call may be said to apply Preacher," vol. iii. p. 123. I. THE DEPLORABLE CONDITION OF UNCONVERTED SINNERS. 1. "Stout-hearted"-stubborn, obdurate, hard. In Ezek. xi. 19 we have a striking and instructive figure describing the condition of unconverted sin ners: "The stony heart"—as hard, as cold, as barren, and as dead as a stone! 2. "Far from righteousness"-rightness in heart, in habit, and in life. Morally wrong. Alienated from God. All are naturally wrong (Rom. iii. 10). Yet some talk of moral excellence in fallen creatures, &c. The Bible acknowledges no real excellence but what arises from a work of grace upon the soul. Sin has defaced the moral excellences of man (Jer. xvii. 9; Gen. vi. 5; Rom. viii. 7). "That which is born of the flesh is flesh "-fallen, corrupt, subject to the law of the Fall. "Ye must be born again." II. THE WONDERFUL MERCY OF GOD. Has provided a method of deliverance from this deplorable condition. "I bring near my righteousness," &c. This deliverance God brings near (Rom. x. 6-9). Your wrongness may be brought to a final end. The gospel is the grand provision for the restoration of righteousness in fallen and sinful men (2 Cor. V. 21, &c.) Though by nature "far off," you may be brought "nigh by the blood of Christ." III. THE IMPERATIVE DUTY ΤΟ WHICH SINNERS ARE SUMMONED. "Hearken unto Me." When God speaks, it behoves us to listen (Heb. ii. 2, 3). Hearken to His voice-immediately, earnestly, practically, constantly. "Hear, and your soul shall live."-Alfred Tucker. A DREADFUL MEETING. xlvii. 3. I will take vengeance, and I will not meet thee as a man. Little did Babylon think with whom she now had to contend. This was no empty threat. It was carried into full and fearful execution. Thus it has fared with other nations, and will, at last, with every impenitent sinner. There is a time of vengeance, as well as of mercy. Then God will meet His enemies, but not as a man. 1. When men are about to meet their enemies, it is generally their policy to keep up the show of peace and friendship as long as they can; and to make their preparations secretly, so that when they strike, the blow may fall without warning-without affording any time for escape. But it is not in this manner that God meets His enemies. He gives them warning upon warning. 2. God does not meet His enemies in vengeance, till He has tried every means to recover and reclaim them. The crime of rebellion is commonly visited, by earthly rulers, with immediate condign punishment. 3. God never meets His enemies in vengeance, without a just and sufficient cause. Men often do. 4. God's anger is infinitely removed from that which burns in the breasts of His fallen creatures. He has no private resentment to gratify, no byeends to answer. He acts as a moral governor, as guardian of the interests of the universe. 5. When God will meet impenitent sinners, there is no hope of resisting Him. 6. When He does meet His enemies, it is with a fixed determination to crush them. He will not spare. 7. Men sometimes, when they undertake to crush an enemy, leave the work unfinished. But it is not thus that God will deal with His enemies. Wherever His vengeance strikes, the blow will be fatal. 8. After an earthly prince has subdued his rebellious subjects, and laid them under his high displeasure, he may be moved by their entreaties and sufferings to release them from prison, and restore them to favour. But God will never show favour in another world to those who refuse submission to Him in this, and die with arms in their hands. "Behold, now is the ac cepted time." When God shall have cast the impenitent into hell, the last ray of light will be extinguished for ever. r.-Heman Humphrey, D.D.: American National Preacher, vol. iv. pp. 269 274. THE BOAST OF BABYLON. xlvii. 7. I shall be a lady for ever. The utterance of proud Babylon is identical with that of the vain and self-confident in all ages (Rev. xviii. 7). The delusion prosperity produces in such men, or nations, is always of this sort. This expression suggests that lengthened prosperity in the case of the ungodly leads to I. False security (Ps. xlix. 6; Job xxix. 18). The tendency of riches and honour is to blind the heart to the future; and too often to steel it toward God. Who is so unconcerned about death as the miser? Who is so indifferent to the claims of God, as those (like Herod) who live upon the breath of popular applause? (H. E. I. 3997-4014.) II. Presumption. "A lady for ever," i.e., in my own right, "no contingency can arise to deprive me of my title and wealth." The prosperous man is tempted to forget he is as dependent upon God now as he was in the days of his adversity (Prov. xxx. 8, 9). III. Boasting. The vernacular of pride-"a lady," superior to others. Prosperity leads its slaves to imagine they are a higher order of being. In God's sight too! IV. Self-satisfaction. "A lady." "I am that now. None will dispute it. I need aim no higher. I am rich, I am rich, increased in goods," &c. (Rev. iii. 17). How dreadful the delusion! "Thou art wretched," &c. (Rev. iii. 17). V. Abandonment to luxury. "A lady for ever," i.e., "I mean to be at ease, to enjoy life." Let us beware, if our worldly position be prosperous, lest we live on the gifts, rather than on the Giver. Let us beware lest we appropriate the talents God has given us to our own ends. That is robbery. the man who hid his Lord's money was condemned, what shall be the doom of those who use it for selfindulgence? If VI. Spiritual blindness. The certain future of man is declared. But the vain and foolish will not consider their latter end! Prosperity dazzles the eye; the future is wilfully disregarded. The cry of the world, though uttered in other dialects and in different words, is the boast of Babylon, "I shall be a lady for ever." The boast is its belief. CONCLUSION.-Remember the desolation of self-confident Babylonwidowhood, childlessness, poverty, famine, shame, disease, insanity, exile, death. Nor shall the future of those who disobey the Gospel be less dreadful or severe.-R. A. Griffin: Stems and Twigs, p. 256. THE NEGLECT OF WARNINGS. xlvii. 7. Thou didst not lay these things to heart, neither didst thou remember the latter end of it. God warns before He strikes. He forewarn His enemies as well as His gives tokens and premonitions of His approaching judgments, before He proceeds to the fulfilment of His threatenings (Amos iii. 7; Gen. xviii. 17, &c.) He would have men forewarned that they may be forearmed; :hat "that day" may not come upon them unawares. He condescends to friends. The men of the old world were warned by the preaching of Noah; the inhabitants of the cities of the plain by Lot; Babylon of her doom and desolation by Isaiah and the other prophets. It was a great enhancement of the guilt of Babylon, and the cause of a great aggravation of her doom, that these merciful warnings were despised; and woe will be unto us if we follow in the same track, and neglect the warnings that are addressed to us. I. THE COURSE OF CONDUCT CONDEMNED. "Thou didst not lay these things to heart." Though the desolation of Babylon was distinctly foretold-by Isaiah 160 years before the event; by Jeremiah fifty years; and by Daniel when the event was just at hand-yet she took no heed. Let him that is without sin cast the first stone! This insensibility to the threatened judgments of Heaven is 1. Very common. It is the miserable result of depravity that we delay to the last what we ought to seek first. Though God warns us in every possible way-by His Word, by His providence, by the death of friends, by the calamities that occur around us, by the consequences of sin in the family circles of others-we continue blind and thoughtless. We see this in the young; in the busy, the enterprising, the prosperous; in those who are troubled and tried; in the confirmed and hardened transgressor. 2. Very sinful. It arises from guilt, and leads to greater guilt. It cannot be a trivial thing that God should speak to man, and that man should refuse to hear. 3. Very foolish. To the Babylonians the fabric of their power seemed so fair and strong that no human power could shake it; and they were much too far gone in presumption to dread the divine indignation. Their arrogance and conceit of their extended dominion and invincible prowess was so great, that it never entered into their mind that there was One above them, or that it was possible for them to fall into such calamities as were here threatened. But Babylon was not the first, and will not be the last, in whom the saying will be made good, that "pride goeth before a fall" (Ps. x. 4-6, and lxxiii. 11-19). 4. Very dangerous. Dangerous because it hardens the man in sin, closes the heart to all heavenly influences, and opens it to those that are earthly and carnal: commits the man to the downward road, all his habits, pursuits, and tendencies impelling him in the one direction; does the work of Satan in the soul; darkens the light of reason and conscience; paves the way for greater departures from God, and blocks up the avenues of return (H.E.I. 1446-1456, 4232-4252). Dangerous because it grieves the Holy Spirit, and provokes Him utterly to depart from us. The business of salvation must be done in God's time. Where has He given any man leave to put off repentance for a single day? He who bids you repent at all, bids you repent to-day. Those who put off repentance for another day, have a day more to repent of, and a day less to repent in. II. THE FEARFUL JUDGMENT DENOUNCED-a type on a large scale of the overthrow of sinners. "Therefore 1. The certainty of it. hear now this. . these two things shall come to thee." As certainly as she was guilty, careless, and impenitent, so certainly should the wrath of Heaven fall upon her, and fall the more heavily by reason cf her hardened impiety and presumption. Impenitent sinner, think of the certainty of your overthrow! It is not more certain that he that believeth shall be saved, than that he that believeth not shall be damned; that the righteous shall go away into life eternal, than that the wicked shall go away into everlasting punishment. "Those two 2. The suddenness of it. things shall come to thee in a moment, in one day." Your ruin may come from the quarter least expected: from the treachery of an accomplice; from your nearest and dearest friend; from an unguarded word from your own lip (ver. 11). Nothing heightens ruin like unexpectedness. The foolish virgins left in the outer darkness; Haman overthrown at the banquet of Esther; Belshazzar feasting with his nobles when his doom was written upon the wall; the Philistines triumphing when Samson pulled down the pillars of the temple; the man without the wedding PRACTICAL ATHEISM AND GENUINE PIETY. xlvii. 10. Thou hast said, None seeth me. Gen. xvi. 13. And she called the name of the Lord that spake unto her, Thou God seest me. Here is I. PRACTICAL ATHEISM. "Thou hast said, None seeth me," i.e., God is indifferent to our conduct. This is the practical denial of Divine Omniscience (Ps. x. 11, xciv. 7). That the selfexistent and eternal God should not see is a palpable absurdity (Ps. xciv. 8-10). This haughty language suggests a sad tendency in human nature. "This practical atheism is very prevalent and pernicious at the present time. Immense numbers utter the 'Apostles' Creed' regularly, who exclude God from almost every province of their life. In the formation of their plans, in the management of their business, in their relations to society, &c., 'God is not in all their thoughts.' They act as if God did not see them. They are no more restrained in their conduct than they would be if this was their deliberate conviction, or than if they had settled it in their minds that God is regardless of human actions. "The causes of this tendency are not inherent in human nature, but are (1.) Dislike of God. (2.) Dread of God." II. GENUINE PIETY. "Thou God seest me." Heb.: "Thou (art a) God of seeing-of vision." God sees as well as hears (Jacobus). This pious utterance suggests a solemn fact in human history-that God sees us. 1. The very nature of God implies this. The supposition that there is anything that God does not see involves a contradiction. 2. The Bible teaches this (Job xxxiv. 21, 22; Ps. cxxxix. 1-4, 11, 12, 15, 16; Jer. xxiii. 24; Amos ix. 2, 3; Acts xvii. 27, 28; Heb. iv. 13). The case of Hagar is a remarkable illustration-a sudden and surprising conviction that God sees and knows all (Gen. xvi. 13, 14). III. GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS WHICH THIS SUBJECT CONVEYS. Such as these : 1. It warns the wicked. Secret as their sins may seem, they are all discerned and known by Him who is their Judge (Job xxxiv. 21, 22). 2. It should restrain us from evil. "The eye of a child will effectually check the execution of some evil purposes; more the eye of man or woman; yet more the eye of a holy man or woman. But God's eye sees all things everywhere. And He is perfectly holy!" 3. It should incite us to a beautiful and useful life-beautiful in its spirit, and useful in its moral influence. "The athletes of Greece and Rome were inspired to run or wrestle by the knowledge of the fact that they were surrounded by a vast assembly of spectators (Heb. xii. 1). Oh! if we but realised God's presence, our life would become brave and beautiful and holy. God is not only present everywhere, but everywhere present to inspire, and aid, and bless." 4. It should comfort and strengthen the people of God amid the duties and con |