to meet our vast responsibilities and move our ponderous machinery. And this is what is needed to meet the wants of the great beating, surging heart of the world. This is to be its great centre of attraction. All else will be of no avail (H. E. I. 2813–2866). I. Holiness is wanted in the ministry. The priests of Zion, to be efficient, must be "clothed with righteousness as with a garment." They must be anointed and endowed with the " "spirit of holiness." It was for them primarily that the Saviour prayed in His intercessory prayer: "Sanctify them through Thy truth; Thy word is truth." There is nothing ministers need so much as holiness. How great is the need, even now, that the entire ministry of the Church should be clad in the shining vestments of holiness! What a spirit of consecration would they then exhibit! What zeal, what self-sacrifice, what sympathy, what power would they possess! It is true that this might create some opposition from worldly-minded, formal, or backslidden professors of religion; but this would not hinder the progress of the work of God. Such a mighty momentum would be given to the cause of the Redeemer, that all barriers would sooner or later be swept out of the way, and the Gospel would not only "run," but it would be "glorified." And what an impulse would this give to our missionary work! II. Holiness is wanted in the Church. The history of the Church clearly demonstrates the fact that, as spiritual vitality and power have declined, there has been an effort to substitute for them external forms and multiplied machinery. And generally, III. It is holiness which is wanted to bring in the glories of the millennial era, and which will be universal in that era. The ministry and the Church thus consecrated, bearing on every forehead and every breast, on every heart and every life, "Holiness unto the Lord," would soon bring in the brightest glories foretold on the glowing pages of Isaiah (H. E. I. 1089-1093, 1169).-Lewis R. Dunn, pp. 109-117. THE VANGUARD AND REREWARD OF THE CHURCH. God's salvation is a great salvation, because of its Divine origin, and because of the original dignity of man. It is not a rescue simply, but a deliverance; not an escape, but a victory; sin is not eluded, but destroyed. This has been the grand characteristic of all God's deliverances. I. THE ESSENTIALLY SYMBOLIC CHARACTER OF THE CAPTIVITIES AND DELIVERANCES OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE. The history of Israel is the Divine key to the history of man. The Egyptian bondage has the broadest meaning. Of Christ, of you, of each one, the words are true: "Out of Egypt have I called my son." There were two great captivities of Israel; they were born in one; the other they earned by sin. These represent our natural bondage, and the self-earned serfdom of the soul. Therefore also two deliverances. There is one Deliverer, and one deliverance from both captivities. In each case the method of His deliverance was the same, a glorious manifestation of the might of the redeeming arm of God. At first sight, there is a contrast as well as a likeness. One might feel inclined to say that the Exodus was a flight. This contrast was, no doubt, before Isaiah's mind (Deut. xvi. 3; Exod. xii. 31-39). From Babylon they went forth in orderly array, with the king's good-will, and by his royal command (Ezra i.) But under the surface the grand features are identical; in neither case did they steal away; they obeyed Jehovah's will; the angel of His presence guided them, and His judgments were on all who sought to resist their departure. Here it was that Isaiah saw and asserted the likeness, "Jehovah shall go before you," &c. (Exod. xiii. 21, 22, xiv. 19, 20). II. THE GREAT DELIVERANCE WHICH IS FREELY OFFERED IN THE GOSPEL. some 1. The reason of our protracted discipline. God will not have us "go out with haste, nor go forth by flight." Many Christians can look back to period, and say, "Would God that I had then been taken home!" Others in the hour of trial say, "Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace." Not by the short, straight way, but by the long, weary, desert path, God led His pilgrims; a band of trained veterans, they entered at length into Canaan. It is this experience which, at sore cost of pain, God is laying up within us; this patient waiting is a store of power and wisdom, the worth of which will only be manifested as we press the borders of Canaan. 2. "The Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rereward.” The Lord has gone before us; it is this which makes our progress a triumph; it is in Him we find the way to the conqueror's rest. (1.) He has gone before us in bearing to the uttermost the penalty of sin. (2.) He has gone before us in breaking the power of evil (John xiv. 27, xvi. 33). You have but to strive with a beaten foeman. (3.) He has gone before us in the way of the wilderness, through life's protracted discipline, to glory (Heb. v. 7-9). Sorrow is transfigured by the resurrection and glorification of Christ; and He has gone "to prepare a place for you." "And the God of Israel shall be your rereward;" He shall gather up the stragglers of the host (ch. xl. 10, 11); the weak ones shall not be downtrodden, nor the halting left hopelessly in the rear (chaps. xli. 10, xliii. 1-7). The cause is God's, the power His, and His shall be the glory of the everlasting victory.-J. Baldwin Brown, B.A.: Sermons, pp. 419-427. The Church of Christ is continually represented under the figure of an army; yet its Captain is the Prince of Peace; its object is the establishment of peace, and its soldiers are men of a peaceful disposition. The spirit of war is at the extremely opposite point to the spirit of the Gospel. Nevertheless, the Church on earth has, and until the second advent must be, the Church militant, the Church armed, warring, conquering. It is in the very order of things that so it must be. Truth could not be truth in this world if it were not a warring thing, and we should at once suspect that it were not true if error were friends with it. It is but a rule of nature that holiness must be at enmity with sin. And every child of God proveth by experience that this is the land of war. Now, how comforting is this text to the believer who recognises himself as a soldier, and the whole Church as an army! I. The whole Church of God may trust in this great twofold promise. 1. Jehovah will go before you. Has He not gone before His Church in act and deed? Perilous has been the journey of the Church from the day when first it left Paradise even until now. I see the Church going out from Ur of the Chaldees; afterwards going down to the land of the cruel Pharaohs. But now the Church has to come up out of Egypt, and God goes before her still. But why need I go through all the pages of the history of the Church of God in the days of the old dispensation? Hath it not been true from the days of John the Baptist until now? If you read the history of the Church, you will be compelled to confess that whenever she went forward she could discern the footsteps of Jehovah leading the way. 2. "The God of Israel will be your rereward." The original Hebrew is, "God of Israel shall gather you up.' Armies in the time of war diminish by reason of stragglers, some of whom desert, and others of whom are overcome by fatigue; but the army of God is gathered up; none desert from it if they be real soldiers of the cross, and none drop down upon the road. The Church of Christ has been frequently attacked in the rear. It often happens that the enemy, tired of opposing the onward march by open persecution, attempt to malign the Church concerning something that has either been. taught, or revealed, or done in past ages. Now the God of Israel is our rereward. I am never at trouble about the attacks of infidels or heretics, however vigorously they may assault the doctrines of the Gospel. If they must attack the rear, let them fight with Jehovah Himself. Perhaps the later trials of the Church may represent the rereward. It always has been so with the Church-a time of prosperity and then a period of persecution. Can you now conceive the last great day when Jehovah the rereward will gather up His people? II. The individual believer should lay hold upon this great twofold promise. We are now come to the last Sabbath of the year. Two troubles present themselves, the future and the past. We shall soon launch into another year, and hitherto we have found our years years of trouble, &c. Perhaps we are trembling to go forward. Foreseeing trouble, we know not how we shall be able to endure to the end, &c. Let this sweet morsel now cheer you. The Lord Jehovah will go before you. He has gone before you already. Your future path has all been marked out,-1. In the great decrees of His predestination. Remember, you are not a child of chance. If you were, you might indeed fear. 2. In the actual preparations of His providence. God always makes a providence beforehand, ready for His people when they get to the place. We do not know how the future lies in the bowels of the past, and how what is to be is the child of that which is. As all men spring from their progenitors, so the providence of to-day springs from the providence of a hundred years past. The events of next year have been forestalled by God in what He has done this year and years before. I am certain of this, that on the road I am to travel during the next year, everything is ready for me. You are not going through a land that God has not prepared for you. As 3. In the experience of Christ. to our future troubles for next year, and the remnant of our days, Jesus Christ has borne them all before. He has conquered every foe. Now I hear one say, "The future seldom troubles me; it is the pastwhat I have done and what I have not done; how I have sinned, and how I have not served my Master as I ought, &c. Oh! it is the rereward that is most unsafe. I dread most the sins of the past." "The God of Israel shall be your rereward." Notice the different titles. The first is "The Lord," or properly, JEHOVAH JEHOVAH will go before you. That is the I AM, full of omniscience and omnipotence. The second title is "the God of Israel," that is to say, the God of the Covenant. We want the God of the Covenant behind, because it is not in the capacity of the I AM, the Omnipotent. that we require Him to pardon sin, to accept our person, to blot out the past, and to remove iniquity by the blood of Christ. Now let me always think that I have God behind me as well as before me, let not the memories of the past, though they cause me grief, cause me despair. CONCLUSION.-Are there any here to-day whose hearts God hath touched, who desire to join this great army? The past shall all be blotted out; God shall be thy rereward. And as for the future, thou chief of sinners, if now thou enlistest into the army of Christ by faith, thou shalt find the future shall be strewn with the gold of God's grace, and the silver of His temporal mercies; thou shalt have enough and to spare from this day forth even to the end, and at the last thou shalt be gathered in by the great arms of God, that constitute the rear-guard of His heavenly army.-C. H. Spurgeon: The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, No. 230. THE PREDICTED CHARACTER AND TRIUMPH OF CHRIST. Our text is a distinct subject from that discussed in the previous parts of the chapter, and evidently ought to have formed a part of chapter liii. It is most clearly a prophecy concerning the Messiah. It relates both to His official character, sufferings, exaltation, and conquests; and, as such, is replete with deeply interesting matter for our profitable meditation. I. THE OFFICE OF CHRIST. God's servant. "My servant" (ch. xlii. 1). Christ, in His mediatorial character, was God's servant, while in His essential glory He was God blessed for evermore (see pp. 80-92). Hearken to His own declarations (Matt. xx. 28; John ix. 4, v. 30). His feeling at the beginning of life (Luke ii. 49). His declarations at its end (John xvii. 4). He ever recognised Himself as God's servant. Observe how he discharged the office of servant. (1.) His fidelity. He was faithful in all things-never omitted one of the requirements of His Father; did all His will, and that perfectly. (2.) His zeal. His Father's honour and glory ever melted His ardent soul. This feeling consumed His sacred spirit. How it burst forth in the Temple (John ii. 11-17). (3.) His perseverance. He held on His course with undeviating constancy; never turned aside; was faithful unto death. (4.) The text refers to His prudence. The word in the margin is "prosper," but our translation would II. HIS SUFFERINGS. were astonished." Astonishing-that a personage so illustrious should be so abased (Ps. xxii. 6; Isa. liii. 3, 4). How bitterly was He calumniated! How maliciously He was persecuted! III. HIS EXALTATION. "He shall be exalted," &c. Christ was exalted, 1. In His resurrection from the dead. 2. By His elevation to the right hand of the throne of God. IV. HIS GLORIFICATION. "He shall be extolled." That is, praised, His character celebrated, &c. Angels extolled Him as their Lord, heralded Him back again to His kingdom and glory (Ps. xxiv. 7-10). John heard all the celestial hosts of heaven extolling Him in their anthems of praise (Rev. v. 11-14). His ministering servants and people extol Him on earth. He shall be extolled by His redeemed saints for ever. V. HIS GRACIOUS CONQUESTS. 1. "He shall sprinkle," &c. He does so, (1.) By His doctrines. His blessed word falls as the rain, distils as the dew, &c. (2.) By His blood. When these doctrines are received, then man partakes of the merits of His death, and the cleansing virtues of His blood. The blood of Christ is called the blood of sprinkling. (3.) By His spiritual blessings. The outpouring of His Holy Spirit, and the rich communications of His mercy and love. 2. He shall silence the opposition of kings. These shall oppose the Gospel, and employ worldly power and authority against it. But He shall overturn, &c. (Ps. ii. 12, lxxii. 10). 3. His achievements shall be unprecedented and wonderful. Two things shall particularly astonish. (1.) The simplicity of His means. Not by carnal weapons, not by human power, not by armies, &c., nor by science, but by the word of grace, and the messengers of salvation (1 Cor. i. 21). (2.) The completeness of the results. Effective, deep, and universal changes. Men renovated-society altered. Ignorance banished-crime annihilated-misery extinguished. Purity, joy, and bliss diffused. The days of heaven upon earth. APPLICATION. 1. Are we the friends or enemies of the Saviour? Do we despise, reject, deride, reproach, &c., or do we hail, receive, and delight in Him? All men act now as His friends or foes. 2. Has He sprinkled your hearts with the blessings of His grace -His word-His blood-Spirit? 3. Are you aiding Christ in His triumphal career? Accelerating the conversion of the world? The soldiers of His cross? 4. What bright visions are yet to distinguish the cause of the Saviour ! "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel," &c.-The Pulpit Encyclopædia: vol. i. pp. 156-160. I. The work of Christ on earth, as this prophecy presents it. 1. He is called the "Servant of the Lord." 2. He is a servant "dealing prudently." 3. Yet was His visage marred more than any man. II. The glory of Christ upon His media torial throne. 1. He shall be exalted. This relates to His authority and power. 2. He shall be extolled. 3. He shall be very high (Phil. ii. 9-11). III. The works of mercy which the Saviour is accomplishing in His exalted state. 1. He sets forth His Gospel according to His promise. 2. He shall sprinkle many nations. This denotes the priestly office of Christ. The kings shall shut their mouths at Him, &c.-J. Stratten: The Pulpit, vol. iii. pp. 117-124. Modern Jewish writers refuse to see the Messiah in this passage, but their predecessors were not so blind. The Targum and the ancient Rabbins interpreted it of the Messiah, and indeed all attempts to explain it apart from Him are palpable failures. Christian commentators in all ages have seen the Lord Jesus here. 66 I. THE CHARACTER OF OUR LORD'S DEALINGS. He is called in the text, My servant," a title as honourable as it is condescending. Jesus has deigned to become the great servant of God under the present economy; He conducts the affairs of the household of God, and it is said that He deals prudently. He who took upon Him the form of a servant acts as a wise servant in everything. This prudence was manifest in the days of His flesh, from His childhood among the doctors in the Temple on to His confession before Pontius Pilate. Our Lord was enthusiastic (John ii. 17); but that enthusiasm never carried Him into rashness; He was as wise and prudent as the most cool-hearted calculator could have been. He was full of love, and that love made Him frank and open-hearted; but for all that He "committed Himself unto no man, for He knew what was in man.' Too many who aspire to be leaders of the people study policy, craft, and diplomacy. The Friend of sinners had not a fraction of that thing about Him; and yet you see His wisdom when He baffles His adversaries; and when He deals with His friends (John xvi. 12). |