I. THE ADVENT OF JEHOVAH. "He rideth upon a swift cloud" (comp. Psalm 18:10, "He rode upon a cherub, and did fly;" comp. Psalm 104:3). To study those magnificent winged figures, which pass generally under the name of griffins, in our museums and works of art, and as they are described by Ezekiel in the land of captivity (1.), may be the best way to realize the significance of this poetry. We must throw ourselves into that mood of mind in which all life and movement in nature is symbolic of the infinite power and majesty of the Divine Being - audibly the wind, visibly the strong gathering cloud upon the horizon. This picture, then, is a hint

(1) of the majesty of Jehovah;

(2) of his ascendency in the world of spirit.

The "not gods" of Egypt shall shake before him. He comes to judge them. The God of Israel is on his way to punish the teeming multitudes of Memphis, Pharaoh, and Egypt, and their gods and kings. The idols are to be destroyed, their images are to cease; and the secular power, which has been supported by a false religion, shall be laid low (comp. Exodus 12:12; Jeremiah 46:25; Ezekiel 30:13). A striking contrast is suggested between the pure sublime religion of Jehovah and the debased worship of the Egyptians, whose reverence for cats, and bulls, and crocodiles, and onions attracted the satire of later times. How could such worshippers do other than tremble, their heart melting within them at the approach of the light that reveals and judges the voluntary darknesses and confusions of the mind? As Calvin remarks, we should behold the same thing exemplified in all revolutions of kingdoms, which proceed solely from the hand of God. If the heart melts and the strength fails in men who are usually brave, and who had formerly displayed great courage, this ought to be ascribed to the judgment of God.

II. THE JUDGMENTS DESCRIBED.

1. Internal dissension. One canton is set against another. There will be the feud of brother with brother, fellow with fellow, city with city, and kingdom with kingdom. Men's hearts are in the hand of God. Whenever we see in a nation social dissension setting in, unity and co-operation no longer possible, it is a sign that a new force is at work, that a new light has come in, that existing customs are being criticized, in short, that "God has awoke to judgment." Such times are times for self-scrutiny, for thoughtful study, for earnest prayer.

2. The sense of the hollowness of existing institutions. Terrible is it when a nation suddenly awakens to find its strongest ideals reduced to empty and mocking delusions; terrible also for the individual. The "heart made empty." Sometimes it is a "science falsely so called;" sometimes a spurious faith, which is suddenly found to be a leaking cistern, and the water of life has fled. Under these conditions there will be a feverish outbreak of old superstition. Men will resort to the "not gods" and to the "spiritualists" - the "mutterers," who pretend to give voices and messages from the other world. So men have done in our time. The history of the heart repeats itself from age to age. If men have not genuine religion, they must have the counterfeit of it; and they will love the lie and cling to the cheat when the possibility of the truth is no longer within reach.

3. Subjection to the tyrant. The land will be shut up into the hand of a hard lord, and a fierce king shall rule over them. And is not tyranny the last sign of Divine displeasure, as viewed from another side it is the last sign of degeneracy and weakness in a nation's manhood? "Hence we see how great is the folly of men who are desirous to have a powerful and wealthy king reigning over them, and how justly they are punished for their ambition, though it cannot be corrected by the experience of every day, which is everywhere to be seen in the world" (Calvin). - J.

I. THAT HIS KNOWN NEARNESS TO US AND POWER OVER US MIGHT BE EXPECTED TO PRECLUDE SUCH ALARM. Why should we be concerned to find God appearing unto us? Do we not know well that he is "not far from any one of us;" that "in him we live and move and have our being?" Do we not know that he is judging our actions and our attitude toward himself every moment, and is, moreover, expressing his judgment by Divine bestowals and inflictions day by day? Why should terror or alarm, or even apprehension, seize us because he manifests himself to us, and constrains us to feel conscious that we are standing in his near presence? But, however we may reason thus, it is the fact -

II. THAT OBSERVATION AND EXPERIENCE UNITE TO PROVE THAT HIS FELT PRESENCE DOES TROUBLE US. Both Old Testament and New Testament history show that any visitant from the unseen world causes "the heart to melt;" and if any mere messenger (angel), how much more he who reigns over all that realm - the Divine and eternal Spirit himself? And we find now that when men, in the full possession of their spiritual faculties, have believed themselves to be in, or to be about to pass into, the near presence of the Eternal, their spirit has shrunk and trembled at the thought. We ask -

III. THE EXPLANATION OF THE FACT. The explanation is found in two things.

1. In our sense of God's greatness, and the corresponding consciousness of our own littleness. Those who move in a humble social sphere are agitated when they find themselves in the near presence of human rank, especially of high rank, more especially of royalty; how much more so when men feel themselves to be (or to be about to be) before the King of kings, the infinite God!

2. In our sense of God's holiness and the corresponding consciousness of our own imperfection and sin.

(1) The Christian man may have his reason for apprehension; for has he not to bring his life of Christian service to the judgment of his Divine Master, for his approval or his disapproval; and is he not conscious that this his service has come short of his Lord's desire, if it has not been blemished or even stained by many sins?

(2) The impenitent man has abundant reason for anxiety and even for alarm; for he is the child of privilege and opportunity; he has known his Lord's will; he has heard many times the sacred summons; he has often felt the movings of the Divine Spirit in his heart. But he has "judged himself unworthy of eternal life;" he has striven to silence the voices which came to him from heaven. He is open to the most terrible and intolerable rebuke of God (Proverbs 1:24, etc.); he lies exposed to the penalty of deliberate disobedience, of persistent rejection of the grace of God (Luke 12:47; John 3:18, 19, 36; Hebrews 10:26-31; Hebrews 12:25). - C.

I. STRIFE, especially internal strife (ver. 2). The guilty nation will find itself plunged into civil war (Egypt, Greece, Rome, France, America - northern and southern states, etc.), or rent with bitter and vindictive factions; the guilty family will have its domestic harmony destroyed by petty broils and miserable disagreements; the individual soul will be compelled to expend its powers in internal strife - conscience having a long and perhaps desperate struggle with passion; reason, which urges to immediate decision, contending with the evil spirit of procrastination; the will to submit to Divine demands doing stern, protracted battle with a desire to conform to the good pleasure of the unholy and the unwise.

II. DELUSION. (Ver. 3.) As the, Egyptians, paying the penalty of disobedience, were to abandon the counsels of human wisdom for the fancies and fooleries of the juggler, so will men find that sin leads down from the guidance of reason to the dictates of folly and the misleadings of delusion. It is not long before the sinner experiences "the deceitfulness of sin;" before he finds that he does not impose ca other men half so much as he is imposed upon, or as he imposes on himself. He comes to think that utterances which are earthly, or of lower origin than that, are the voices of heaven; he "calls evil good, and good evil;" counsel which he ought to abjure as diabolical, he deems excellent and wise; neglecting truths and principles which would be his salvation, he falls back upon sentiments which lead down, with certain path, to innermost and uttermost ruin.

III. BONDAGE. (Ver. 4.) It is one of the most certain and one of the saddest penalties of sin that the wrong-doer is handed over to the despotism of "a cruel lord." By what truer or more descriptive terms could these enemies of the soul be characterized into whose iron grasp the transgressor falls? Is not the insatiable craving for strong drink or for the hurtful narcotic a "cruel lord?" What but cruel lords are covetousness, ambition, lasciviousness, the voracity or extreme delicacy of those "whose God is their belly" - the passion which demands and will not be denied, which consumes the time, which saps the energy, which steals the manhood that should be devoted to nobler ends, that should be laid on a worthier altar? The victims of vice are "holden with the cords of their sins;" they are "in the hand of a cruel lord," who will make them pay "the uttermost farthing."

IV. SHRINKAGE. (Vers. 5-10.) Egypt should be pitiably reduced; the waters of its life-giving river should be wanting (ver. 5), its vegetation should fade and die (ver. 6), its industries should be stopped (vers. 8, 9), its chief men should be overthrown (ver. 10). All Egyptian life, through its length and breadth, should be struck a ruinous blow, should shrink from fullness and power into feebleness and decline. Under the dominion of sin, human life suffers a ruinous reduction. Made for God, for his likeness, for his fellowship, for his service, for the highest forms of usefulness and the noblest order of enjoyment, we sink into folly, into selfishness, into smallness of aim and littleness of accomplishment; our lives are narrowed, lessened, shriveled. It is the pitiful penalty of departure from God, of withholding our hearts from our Divine Friend. In Christ we realize the fair and blessed opposites of these. In him is

(1) peace (John 14:27; John 16:33; Ephesians 2:14);

(2) enlightenment (1 Corinthians 14:20; Ephesians 1:18; Colossians 1:9); freedom (John 8:32-36; Romans 6:18; Galatians 5:1); enlargement (Matthew 5:45; John 15:14; Romans 8:17; Ephesians 2:6; Revelation 1:6). - C.

I. THESE TIMES OF COMMOTION SET CLASS AGAINST CLASS. It is curious to notice that political conflict is never confined to the subject about which it arose. It is opening the flood-gates and letting out all the waters of class jealousy.

II. THESE TIMES DISTURB SOCIAL ORDER. Breaking up families and friendships, and diverting men's minds and energies from their ordinary occupations.

III. THESE TIMES INTERFERE WITH BUSINESS. Which is very sensitive to disturbed conditions of the body politic. Mutual trust is essential to business development, and the sense of security gives value to property.

IV. THESE TIMES GIVE INFLUENCE TO EVIL MEN. The demagogue finds then his opportunity. The masses of society gain undue importance. Noise has more power than intelligence. Reason's voice can seldom be heard. She keeps still, for it is an evil time.

V. THESE TIMES SERIOUSLY HINDER CHRISTIAN AND CHARITABLE ENTERPRISE. Diverting both energy and money. So seasons of political commotion become agencies in executing Divine judgments, and become times of national warning and correction. - R.T.

I. THE UNIVERSAL DESIRE TO PIERCE THE UNSEEN AND THE FUTURE. On this desire rests the success of modern spiritualism. Where there is no restful confidence in God's love and lead, men try to force aside the veils that hide God and God's purposes from mortal view. Man can do so much in the present that he is fretted and annoyed because he can get no guarantees for tomorrow, and every day must act upon the uncertainty whether, for him, there will be any to-morrow. After this life, what then? Men are angry because no fellow-man has ever answered that question or ever can. Revelation from God can alone relieve the mystery. Show how in all ages men have peered into the dark future, and been compelled to confess that they could see nothing but the "folds of the wondrous veil."

II. THE MORAL REASONS WHY THE FUTURE IS HIDDEN FROM US.

1. It is necessary for our probation.

2. It prevents procrastination by impression of the supreme value of now.

3. It keeps from the self-security which nourishes free indulgence in sin. 4. It makes our life manifestly a life of faith.

III. THE REST WHICH RELIGION GIVES FROM THE CARE ABOUT THE FUTURE. Religion brings God into direct relations, and gracious relations, with the individual. Past, present, future, are all in God's control. If the soul is in right relations with God, the present is his overruling, and the future is his provision. If we are with God, all is well, here or there. - R.T.

I. THE DESCRIPTION. The Pelusiac arm of the Nile is dried. The neglected canals, dykes, and reservoirs become stagnant, the vegetation withers. The bright oasis of the Nile will melt away into the surrounding desert. The canals, first undertaken as a necessary work of civilization and culture, become naturally neglected and choked up in time of civil war.

II. THE EFFECTS ON PEACEFUL INDUSTRY. Besides agriculture there were three main sources of Egyptian wealth: the fishing, the linen manufacture, and the cotton manufacture. There was abundance of fish in the Nile, and it was a great article of food. The combed flax was prepared for the priests' clothing and for the mummy-cloths, and the cotton for dress in general. The result is universal consternation in all ranks and classes. The wealthy classes, the "pillars" of the land, and the artisan population are alike in despair.

III. THE COINCIDENCE OF THE SPIRITUAL AND THE NATURAL WORLD. A fertile land, an industrious people, peace and plenty, the favor of God, - these are ideas that He linked together in the thought of the prophet, forming one causal chain. The displeasure of Jehovah, the effect in war, and this, again, working desolation in the face of nature and cutting at the root of industry, - these form another chain of connected representations. From the sources and springs of the mighty Nile up to the seat of thought, passion, and motion in the mightier human heart, all are in the hands of Jehovah. Alike in every occupation of the industrial and of the political and intellectual world, let us own our dependence upon him. - J.

I. THE WONDERFUL WAY IN WHICH THINGS ARE LINKED TOGETHER. So that failure in one thing brings on a most varied train of evils. The prominent thing here is the failure of the Nile flood; but how many things are found to depend on that! - the basket-trade; the paper-trade; the farmer's trade; the fish-trade; the flax-trade; the net-trade; the builder's trade. So is it still. The cotton supply from America was checked a few years ago, and the consequences reached, in one way or another, all classes of society. Depressions in trade first affect one branch, but presently rise to the highest and descend to the lowest classes of society; and so it is again and again proved that, "we are members one of another."

II. THE WONDERFUL WAY IN WHICH ALL PROSPERITY IS MADE DEPENDENT ON THE FIRST GIFTS OF GOD. Man's riches are God's gifts. Man can never add to the wealth of the world by exchanges, which only vary the possessors. Air, rain, sunshine, water, electricity, coal, increase from field and beast, are man's riches; and these are first things that are absolutely dependent on God, and out of man's control. God withholds the rains, and a nation is in misery; God tempers the air, and plague sweeps away the multitudes; God stops the flood, and Egypt pines away in its helplessness. The source of all real good is God, in whose hands are the very springs and sources of all human happiness and prosperity. - R.T.

I. THE SPIRIT OF BOASTING. The king and his priestly counselors possess sacred books, which they consult as a college in times of emergency. The priests boast of being "sons of the wise," and sons of ancient kings. The Pharaoh himself belonged to the royal stock. Boasting is ever a sign of weakness. The strong man needs not to talk of his strength; he feels it, and others feel it. Wisdom is distinguished by the absence of self-conceit, and is impressive by its silence and modesty.

II. PROOFS OF FOLLY.

1. Inability to read the signs of the times. Prediction was their favorite occupation; how is it they cannot read the thoughts of Jehovah toward the land? They resort to false methods - astrology, divination, etc. Truth may not really be loved, or it may be sought by paths that can only lead away from it. It is not by mere reading, it is not by digging in quaint and curious lore, that we can arrive at sympathy with the mind of God. All the learning of the schools is folly unless we keep the light within brightly burning, the conscience clear, the mind, if not the knees, ever bent in the attitude of uplooking and prayer.

2. Bad administration. They lead the country astray. The priestly class, that is, the intellectual and educated class, looked upon as the "corner-stone of the tribes," are themselves under an illusion, and their "light and leading" is an ignis-fastus. We are too much dazzled by the acuteness, the knowledge, the abilities, the vast grasp of facts, in our great men. Often the cleverness of such overreaches itself, and great men stumble and fall, and" run into great dangers which any peasant or artisan would have foreseen." They become inebriated by their own thoughts. But it ever sobers the mind to collect itself, so to speak, in God. "This wit, this insight, is mine, peculiarly mine" - he who speaks with himself thus - is on the brink of some fatal delusion. "It is God's peculiar gift to me; it is a talent from him, to be used for his world" - this is the thought that steadies; and "if our Wisdom rest on God, he wilt truly be a steadfast Corner-stone, which no one shall shake or overthrow."

III. JUDICIAL INFATUATIONS. These delusions are traced to the judicial act of Jehovah. It is he who has put a cup of enchantment to their lips, so that the power of discernment is suspended. The image of drunkenness fitly represents their state. It is a spirit of "perverseness," or of "subversion." And the people have imbibed the same, so that they stagger about helplessly; there is no consistency, no agreement, no firm and joint action. It is an awful thing - the being "given over to a reprobate mind." Nor dare we accuse the Almighty of injustice. We are ready enough to throw the blame of our own aberrations upon others, upon circumstances, or even upon him. But what "right" have we to anything, from the light of the sun to the light of reason in the soul? God gives and God deprives, for reasons inscrutable to us and no[, to be questioned. But, "the heart has reasons that reason knows not of;" and the heart knows that, if its choice be true, its asking will not be refused, the needed guidance will not be denied. - J.

I. THE LEADERS THAT MISLEAD. (Vers. 10-13.) These are:

1. In the nation, leading their fellow-countrymen into a false and spurious patriotism; into vain-gloriousness; into luxury and extravagance; into the ruinous error that the fascinations of military glory are preferable to the advantages of peaceful industry, etc.

2. In the Church, leading their fellow-members into theological error; into doctrine which is not a faith but only a philosophy, or which is not a faith so much as a superstition; into indulgence in emotion without the cultivation of Christian morality; or into habits of virtue that do not rest on the basis of personal attachment to God, etc.

3. In the family, leading their children into laxity of belief; into the conviction that worldly success is of greater account than the favor of God and the possession of spiritual integrity; into the practice of dubious habits which tend to immorality or irreligion, etc.

II. THEIR LAMENTABLE RELIGIOUS IGNORANCE. (Ver. 12.) The "wise men" of Egypt could not tell "what the Lord of hosts had purposed; "they did not know his mind. What availed all their other knowledge, all their political sagacity, all their pretentious skill, it they were utterly ignorant of what was in the mind of God? Our leaders of to-day, in whatever sphere they may preside, are useless and worse than useless if they cannot propose those measures, if they cannot commend those doctrines, if they cannot foster those habits and instill those principles, which are according to the mind of God, which contain the will of Jesus Christ. To advise the policy, to repeat the phrases, to build up the character which they themselves received of their fathers, may be wholly inadequate, utterly inapplicable, entirely wrong; what is wanted in our leaders is the power to perceive the mind of God, to especially understand what is "his will concerning us in Christ Jesus," to guide and teach and train so that their disciples shall live in the light of his truth and the enjoyment of his friendship.

III. THE MISCHIEF WHICH THEY WORK. (Vers. 13, 14.) These men seduced Egypt from the true path, and they led her to err and stagger in false paths. The immensity of the evil which is wrought by False leaders, whether in the nation, the Church, or the home, is seen by regarding it on the negative and on the positive side.

1. They seduce from the saving truth. (1 John 2:26.) They lead men from the fear of the living God; from the faith and love of Jesus Christ; from the produce of the heavenlier graces, and therefore from living the nobler and worthier life; from the possession of a peace which no distractions can disturb, and of a treasure which no thief can steal, and of a hope which triumphs over death.

2. They lead into the saddest and even the grossest evils. Their disciples "err... as a drunken man staggereth in his vomit." A painful but graphic picture of those who are led astray into evil paths, into beliefs which are not only false but shocking, into companionships and alliances which are not only unsatisfactory but demoralizing, into habits which are not only wrong but shameful. It is the duty of the community, in view of the fact that false and foolish leaders have always abounded, and that their influence is disastrous,

(1) to be sedulously on guard lest these should be appointed;

(2) to depose those that are found unworthy of their charge,

(3) to realize that every individual man is responsible to God for the faith he holds and the life he lives (Luke 12:57; Galatians 6:4, 5), - C.

I. GOD HAS CONTROL OVER MAN'S CIRCUMSTANCES. These are, undoubtedly, the usual spheres of Divine operation. Life in the midst of varying circumstances, arid subject to the influence of circumstances, is our present lot. God's providence we assume to have its sphere in things and events; and too easily we may come to limit God's working to the incidents of life, and keep him entirely in the external spheres, reaching us only through our senses. So we need to have set before us the further and more searching truth, that -

II. GOD HAS CONTROL OVER MAN'S MIND AND HEART. This may be difficult to harmonize with our notions of man's free-will and independence. But man's free-will is not an absolute thing; it is set within careful and precise limitations. Man has liberty within a tether; and he cannot be trusted beyond the tether. God never looses his hold on him. The point, however, which especially cans for illustration and enforcement here is, that God may execute his judgments on man in the sphere of his mini. A state of stubbornness, perversity, and hardening may be traced by man as the natural response of certain minds to certain circumstances. We are taught to look deeper, and see in bad mental states and moods not Divine permissions only, but Divine operations and Divine judgments. The mental blindness and deafness, the narrow-mindedness, the skeptical tendency, of a particular age, we view aright when we regard as Divine judgment working towards humility. - R.T.

I. THE EFFECT OF JUDGMENT. The hind will be like timid and trembling women, for the mighty hand of Jehovah will be brandished aloft in judgment. Whenever it is felt that Divine power is working on the side of the foe, the most warlike nations lose heart. "God with us!" - a watchword that nerves the feeblest arm, and fills the faintest heart with courage. "God against us!" - the hand of the bravest hangs down, the knees of the stoutest tremble. Judah, Jehovah's seat of empire, will be a terror to the proud land of Egypt. The seeming weakest community, the most insignificant individual, will be a power if the truth is operating through it. It is not magnitude that is appalling; it is spiritual force. Men will shudder at the Name of Judah; it will be a symbol of a purpose never successfully resisted. But when thus the prospect is at its darkest for Egypt, a light of hope glimmers.

II. PROMISES OF GOOD.

1. A view of Egypt's conversion to the true religion here opens. There will be five cities speaking the tongue of Canaan, or Hebrew, the language of the worship of Jehovah. They will take the oath of loyalty to him. And it seems that the city known as "city of the sun" shall be called" city of the breaking down of idolatrous altars." And an altar of the true religion, with the pillar marking the holy place, will be seen, visibly witnessing to the Lord of hosts in the land. There is now a covenant between Jehovah and the repentant and restored land. He will no longer be their Foe, but their Friend; and when they cry to him, in the midst of distress and oppression, he will hearken, and send a Helper and Deliverer. The people will sacrifice to him, and he will make himself known; Whether in the land or at Jerusalem (comp. Zechariah 14:16-19) is not stated.

2. This cannot be without previous suffering. Never does conversion from evil, from obstinate persistence in it, occur without suffering. But the suffering is beneficent, inflicted by love. God smites to heal. It is a thought echoed back from many a page: "I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and heal; He has torn, and he will heal us; hath smitten, and will bind us up;" "He wounds, and his hands make whole" (Deuteronomy 32:39; Hosea 6:1; Job 5:18). The fire of his wrath consumes, but purifies. "Then will I turn to the people a pure language, that they may call upon the Name of Jehovah, to serve him with one consent" (Zephaniah 3:8, 9). There lives a fund of pity in the heart and constitution of nature - compassion in Jehovah, the Hebrew prophet said (Jeremiah 12:14, 15). "God does not punish that he may punish, but that he may humble; wherefore, when humility is produced, his punishments proceed no further. God is of too great mercy to triumph over a prostrate soul" (South).

III. THE HAPPY RESULT. Peace replacing war, trust substituted for mutual hate. There is to be intercourse between Egypt and Assyria, a free highway between the two lands. Nay, there shall be a triple alliance, Israel being the third, and blessing is thus to be diffused over all the earth. Where Jehovah's blessing is, there is and must be prosperity. Thus have the clouds dispersed, and the golden year seems to have begun, "peace lying like a lane of beams across the sea, like a shaft of light athwart the land." PERSONAL APPLICATION. To avoid national judgment, to secure the Divine favor, let each inquire into his own sins. Personal sins bring down national judgments. If there were no personal, there could be no national sin. In punishing the many, God does not overlook the individual. There is no suffering of a nation without the suffering of its members, no repentance which is not that of men one by one, no prosperity and favor which is not reflected from a million faces and hearts. There is infinite ground of hope from the promises of God, and from their actual fulfillment. - J.

I. THAT THE BLOWS WHICH WE SURFER IN OUR ORDINARY EXPERIENCE COME FROM THE HAND OF GOD. No doubt the various calamities by which Egypt was afflicted came to her in the ordinary ways, and appeared to her citizens as the result of common causes. They accounted for them by reference to general laws, to visible human powers, to known processes and current events. Yet we know them to have been distinctly and decidedly of God, by whatever instrumentalities they may have been brought about. "The Lord shall smite Egypt" (ver. 22). So now with us; the evils which overtake us - sickness, separation, disappointment, losses, bereavement, etc. - may occur as the result of causes which we can discover and name; nevertheless they may be regarded as visitations, as chastisement, as discipline, from the hand of God.

II. THAT THESE WOUNDS OF GOD'S CAUSING ARE INTENDED BY HIM TO ABOUND UNTO THE HEALTH OF THE WOUNDED SPIRIT. "He shall smite and heal." God's main purpose in smiting was to bring about a far healthier condition than existed before. Afterwards the chastening would "yield the peaceable fruits of righteousness;" and for this end chiefly, if not wholly, it was sent. We are to consider that this is always God's design in sending affliction to his children. He smites that he may heal, and that the new health may be much better than the old - that the blessing gained may greatly outweigh the loss endured (2 Corinthians 4:17). To part with bodily health and to obtain spiritual soundness, to lose material possessions and secure treasures which make "rich toward God," - this is to be enlarged indeed.

III. THAT THE RESTORATION OF THE SMITTEN SPIRIT IS ATTENDED AND FOLLOWED BY VARIOUS BLESSINGS.

1. The soul addressing itself to God in earnest prayer. "They shall cry unto the Lord" (ver. 20); "He shall be entreated of them" (ver. 22). This is an act of returning from folly and forgetfulness unto the God who has been forsaken: "They shall return," etc. (ver. 22; see also ver. 21).

2. The soul seeking God's acceptance in his appointed way. "There shall be an altar to the Lord" (ver. 19). However interpreted, this passage points to the special means appointed by God through Moses for obtaining forgiveness of sin, and suggests to us the one way - repentance and faith - by which we must seek and may find the Divine mercy.

3. Profession of attachment to God. These five cities should "swear to the Lord of hosts" (ver. 18), The pillar at the border would perhaps be an obelisk, making mention of his Name as the One that was worthy of human adoration.

4. The service of the lip. They would "speak the language of Canaan" - the language spoken by the people of God. Language is far from being everything, but it is far from being nothing (Psalm 19:4; Matthew 12:37; Romans 10:10). By truthful, kindly, helpful speech, and in sacred song, we may do much in serving and in pleasing God.

5. Consecration. "They shall vow a vow unto the Lord, and shall perform it;" the solemn presentation of self unto a Divine Savior and a lifelong redemption of the vow. - C.

I. THE MISSION OF ALL NATIONAL DISTRESS IS CONVINCEMENT OF THE CLAIMS OF GOD.

II. THE PRESSURE OF NATIONAL DISTRESS IS A PERSUASION TO CALL UPON GOD. III. THE ARRANGEMENTS OF GOD'S PROVIDENCE ALWAYS HELP MEN'S DESIRE TO SEEK GOD. Illustrated in the fact that Jews were settled in Egypt, and witnessing for Jehovah, when the people's hearts were turning towards him. From this we may proceed to show how our establishing missions in various parts of heathendom proves to be providential help afforded to peoples who have begun to cry after God. Our "altar" and our "pillar" are thus for "a sign and for a witness unto the Lord of hosts." - R.T.

I. THESE TWO THINGS - SMITING AND HEALING - ARE OFTEN SEVERED IN MAN.

1. Some smite for others to heal.

2. Some smite in malice, and do not want us to be healed.

3. Some smite in willfulness, and do not care whether we are healed.

4. Some smite in kindness, but are unable to heal the wounds they make.

And so often men do not know how to smite, though they mean well, and so the wounds they make are mischievous, and only wounds, not really corrective agencies. Man's bungling ways in smiting and healing, make us say, after David, "Let me fall into the hands of the Lord, and not into the hands of man."

II. THESE TWO THINGS - SMITING AND HEALING - ARE ALWAYS UNITED IN GOD.

1. In God's thought.

2. In God's arrangement.

3. Given time enough, also in God's action.

Because of the union God's smitings can always be severe enough to be efficient. He can venture to smite harder than any man can ever do, But God's wounds never go beyond his healing power. The most striking illustration is perhaps that set before us in the story of Job. In dealing with him we know not which to admire most - God's wonderful smitings, God's wonderful healings, or the gracious way in which the smitings and the healings fitted in together. - R.T.

I. ITS UNDOUBTED EXISTENCE. There are "elect" nations and individuals; it is not only a truth written in the pages of Scripture, but a fact confirmed by all testimony and observation, that God has conferred on some much more than he has allotted to others. To one nation (man) he gives one talent, to another two, and to another five. Physical strength, intellectual capacity, force of character, material wealth and natural advantages, knowledge, revealed truth, - these are some of the privileges by which 'men and nations are favored.

II. ITS PERIL. The great danger attending the possession of privilege is that of entirely mistaking the object of the Creator in conferring it; of assuming that he bestowed it simply for the gratification or the exaltation of its recipients. This was the disastrous mistake which the Jews made: hence their spiritual arrogance, their selfishness, their pitiable exclusiveness, their misreading of Scripture, their maltreatment of their Messiah. It is a mistake we are all tempted to make; it is one against which we do welt to guard with the utmost vigilance; for it is a sinful one, and one that carries ruin in its train.

III. ITS CROWN. This is to be "a blessing in the midst of the land;" to be a bond of union between other powers - a "third" to the Egypt and Assyria by which we may be surrounded. Privileged lands, like England, find their crown, not in military successes, nor in annexations, nor even in well-filled banks or well-fitted vessels; but in giving free institutions to neighboring or even distant nations, in conveying the message of Divine mercy to heathen lands, "in being a blessing in the midst of the earth." Privileged men find the crown of their life, not in possession, nor in enjoyment, nor in conscious superiority to others "that are without;" but in distributing, in imparting, in making others partakers of the peace and joy and hope that fill their own hearts, in broadening the belt of light on which they stand, in sowing the seed of the kingdom in land which now bears only briers and thorns, in being "a blessing in the midst of the land." - C.

(1) God's unity and

(2) God's spirituality,

for the whole world, and that they are yet to be the great agents in the conversion of the world to God, as revealed in Jesus Christ; and perhaps no race is so widely scattered over the earth, or so efficiently represented in all lands, as the Jews. They may be a "blessing" indeed, when the veil is taken away, and they see in Jesus of Nazareth the world's Messiah and Savior. We, however, for the purpose of this homily, think of the Jew in the world as representing the godly man set in various circumstances, and exercising a gracious influence in his circle, whatever it may be. He is a source of blessing, a means of blessing, and an object of blessing.

I. HE IS A SOURCE OF BLESSING. This term brings up for consideration his unconscious influence - the blessing which flows from the good man, by virtue of what he is, rather than of what he does. A beautiful picture, a work of perfect art, a gracious and gentle-mannered person, exert power for good apart from conscious intention. And so the pure are the "salt of the earth."

II. HE IS A MEANS OF BLESSING. This term brings to view his conscious influence. For the good man lies under trust, and wants to be faithful. And the good man, by virtue of his goodness, is full of concern for the well-being of others; so his life must be an active charity. Like his Master, he is "ever going about, doing good," inventing ways in which he can become a blessing.

III. HE IS AN OBJECT TO BE BLESSED. By God, whoso work he is doing, whose Name he is honoring, and whose service he is commending. God never forgets our work of faith and labor of love, but ensures that all who are a blessing are blessed. - R.T.

I. LIGHTS IN WHICH GOD REGARDS US.

1. As those to whom he is nearly related. Egypt in her hour of obedience has become "my people," i.e. closely connected with God, and having, therefore, serious claims upon him. God does regard his own as those who are most closely, most intimately, most tenderly related to him, standing in such close relation that they may confidently reckon on the continuance of his kindness, on the protection and interposition of his strong arm.

2. As those who are the product of his Divine energy. "Assyria the work of my hands." We who are trusting and rejoicing in him and walking in his truth are frequently to remind ourselves that we are not the product of our own wisdom and effort, but are "his workmanship created in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:10; and see 1 Corinthians 3:9; 2 Corinthians 5:5). God has expended on us Divine thought, Divine love, Divine sorrow, Divine patience, Divine discipline.

3. As those in whom he finds a Divine delight. "Israel mine inheritance." In Israel, when that people was faithful to his rule, God found his portion, his inheritance. In us, when we are attentive to his voice, responsive to his love, obedient to his commands, submissive to his will, he finds a Divine satisfaction (John 15:11).

4. As those on whom he can confer blessedness. "Whom the Lord shall bless;" "Whom God blesses, they are blessed indeed." Theirs is not mere physical excitement, or temporary gratification, or dubious delight, but true, abiding, elevating joy.

II. RECIPROCAL VIEWS WE SHOULD TAKE OF HIM. We should consider God:

1. As One to whom we are most intimately related more closely, indeed, than to any human kindred.

2. As One to whom we owe everything we are, as well as everything we have.

3. As that One in whom, in whose friendship, service, presence, we find (and hope to find) our true and lasting heritage. - C.

I. AS INDIVIDUALS, COMPOSING NATIONS, ALL MEN ARE GOD'S CREATION. So he has natural rights in them all. "It is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves;" then "Come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our Maker."

II. AS LOCATED IN PARTICULAR POSITIONS, NATIONS HAVE THE BOUNDS OF THEIR HABITATIONS APPOINTED BY GOD. See St. Paul's argument in Acts 17:26.

III. AS ENDOWED WITH NATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS, ALL NATIONS ARE CALLED TO THE SERVICE OF GOD. For nations have special gifts, as truly as individuals; and wherever there are gifts there must be responsibility. The genius of every nation is its special ability to witness for and work for God. It has been well said that Israel, Greece, and Rome were three countries of God's election; Israel called to witness for religion, Greece for art, and Rome for law. But a similar statement might be made concerning every nation.

IV. AS UNDER MORAL TRIAL, ALL NATIONS ARE WITHIN THE SUPERVISION OF GOD. The true way to regard national history and experiences is this: In them, God's dealings with individuals find open and public illustration; and so individuals may learn moral lessons that have personal application to themselves.

V. AS NEEDING A REDEEMER, ALL NATIONS SHARE IN THE ONE PROVISION MADE BY GOD. God loves the world. All have sinned. There is only one Name, but by it all men everywhere may be saved. - R.T.