1. THE VICTORIOUS CAREER OF CYRUS. This great man has, in the prophet's thought, a vocation from God. He is the minister of the Divine righteousness (Isaiah 42:6; Isaiah 45:13). Cyrus is supported by the unseen might of Jehovah, who gives peoples into his hands, makes him tread on the necks of kings, whose swords turn to dust, whose warlike bow becomes as powerless as stubble driven before the blast. On the hero goes, in swift; pursuit, penetrating into trackless districts, or those inaccessible to the ordinary traveller, where he cannot be followed. Or the meaning may be, his passage is swift as that of eagle or vulture (Isaiah 46:11), and he leaves no trace of his feet behind. Now, "who hath produced and carried out this?" "In all religions men have found it necessary, in any great action, to engage some other agent and principle beside the man himself. The god becomes coadjutor in every noble or heroic achievement. Homer brings in Diomed and Ulysses, assisted by Mars and Pallas - one notable for acts of valour, and the other for those of counsel and wisdom; and the like is said of many others." And now which of the heathen gods has been the coadjutor of Cyrus? Why, he has come to overthrow the worshippers of the heathen gods. The deities are chiefly bound up with the futures of their peoples, and with them they fall. Who, then, can have raised up the great conqueror and destroyer, but he who alone abides - who called forth the generations from the beginning of "the vanished past and the vanishing present," who is Alpha and Omega, who preceded all, and will be self-existent in the ages to come. The expression, "I am he," briefly and suggestively conveys this idea of self-existence, of eternity (Isaiah 43:10, 13; Isaiah 46:4; Isaiah 48:12; Deuteronomy 32:39; Psalm 102:28): "Thou art he, and thy years will not come to an end." Also Psalm 44:5.

"The nameless, he whose nod is Nature's birth."

II. THE ANXIETY OF THE PEOPLES. The decision of the question is postponed; but a scene of alarm among the peoples is depicted. They have heard the news of Cyrus's conquests; the world is shuddering with apprehension. They huddle together like a frightened flock of sheep, trying to impart to one another a courage not really felt. The carpenter and the caster and the goldsmith are all busy among the Western nations, making "a particularly good and strong set of gods." A significant touch is the last - one is strengthening an idol with nails, for fear it should fall, which would be an omen full of dread, as the fall of Dagon of the Philistines may remind us. And so, even as Elijah with the worshippers of Baal, the prophet employs that irony and ridicule which is the test of truth, against the idolaters. And the scene may be regarded as a standing satire against all weak, anxious, fussy resort to human means and devices, and to idle superstitions, when the name of true religion has been paralyzed, when faith in the spiritual and eternal is extinct. - J.

I. THE REFUGE WHICH IS FALSE, AND WHICH WILL FAIL US. (Vers. 5-7.) We smile with pity, perhaps even a contemptuous pity, as we read of the carpenter and the smith joining their labour in order to produce the well-made idol, before which the offerings shall be presented, etc. But may it not be that those who watch us from above, and who are so much wiser than we, sometimes sigh, not contemptuously but sadly, as they see us putting our trust and finding our refuge in that which is little better than the carefully manufactured image? When trouble has come, or when dangers thicken, when the heart is agitated or concerned, then the foolish sometimes resort to their idols - to those things which are nearly as impotent and as untrustworthy as these.

1. To the stimulant or the drug.

2. To the social excitement or the stress of business engagement.

3. To the comfort of human affection.

But these are wholly unsatisfactory, because:

1. They are not on a level with the height of our spiritual nature; they are not worthy of us who are created in the image of God, and who are bound to find, in our sorrows and our straits, a resource which answers to the spiritual powers we have received of him.

2. They are transient in their influence; they gradually become less efficacious, and at last lose all power to soothe and to sustain.

3. They themselves are temporary; at any moment they may be removed from our sight and grasp.

II. THE REFUGE WHICH IS TRUE, AND ON WHICH WE MAY CONFIDENTLY RELY. (Vers. 2-4.) It is none other than the living God himself. "In the time of trouble he will hide us in his pavilion." There are three strong assurances of Divine succour.

1. Particular instances of Divine interposition. (Vers. 2, 8.) The God who raised up Cyrus, who constrained him to answer his own Divine ends, who empowered him to do such great things, and to triumph over such serious obstacles, is One who evidently gives heed to individual souls, and who both can and will select the very instruments which are needed to work out the redemption for which we are waiting and hoping. He who similarly raised up Luther, Zwingle, Calvin, Tyndale, Knox, etc., to take their place and do their work when such men as they were wanted, will not fail us in our emergency now.

2. His government of the whole human race. "Who hath wrought and done it, calling the generations from the beginning?' All human history attests the presence, the power, the righteousness, the providence, of the Lord.

3. His Divine nature. "I the Lord, the First, and with the last, I am he." In God, our Father and our Saviour, we have

(1) One who, whatever passes, will be always with us (Matthew 28:20); and

(2) One who, whatever changes, remains constantly the same (James 1:17; John 13:1; Hebrews 13:8). - C.

I. A CONTRAST WITH ALL MAN-MADE GODS. This is the prophet's great point. A man-made, or man-conceived, god comes second. Man, in that case is first; the god is his creature, and the creation of a being involves that it is inferior to its creator. God comes first; he is before man. Man is his creature, and set under his conditions.

II. A HOPE WHEN MAN CAN MAKE NO MORE GODS. That time comes by dissatisfaction. None of his gods bring him rest, and at last he will try to make no more. Then God lives, and may be the soul's Rest. That time comes by the ending of the earth-life; but even then God lives, and we may live in him.

III. A SATISFACTION FOR ALL BETWEEN TIMES. If he is first, and is last, then surely he covers and includes all the space between, and we may well turn from all self-trusts and idol-trusts, and seek now the rest, the joy, of his love and favour and service. "This God is our God for ever and ever; he will be our Guide unto death." - R.T.

I. HELP IS TO BE UNIVERSAL. They helped "every one." It will not do to evade our own share of toil. Work cannot be done by command or contrivance, but by the constraint of a ready mind. Socialism seems to be disturbing the Continent. It may be a destructive power, but never can be a constructive one. If human beings were machines to be set in order by one hand, it might be so; but they are not. See how Proudhon and Fourier adjust all the social arrangements to a nicety; the Phalange, or the body of associated labourers; the Phalanstere, or the habitation assigned to each, where the four great departments of nature - the material, the organic, the animal, and the social - are provided for. What a scheme! How philosophic it looks - on paper! But what madness to try and make it work, when the derangement of one part would be the derangement of the complicated whole! Who is to restrain the leaders and organizers from craft and selfishness and guile? Difficult as it is to secure good government in general functions in society, who could secure it in a ramified system? Then one will not work, and another will drink, and another will laugh, and another will sleep, and in one brief day some will be better off than others, and the perfect arrangements will fly to pieces before the touchstone of actual life. No; God meant diversity. God meant diligence to be rewarded. Riches and honour come of the Lord, and if there were no incentives to progress and culture and invention, there would be no advancing civilization. Socialism cannot make men work; it would want an army to compel them. The right way is Christ's way. Look every man also on the things of another. Use ability, genius, education, wealth, honour, well, so as to bless others. None are more despicable than those who look alone to being helped. Everything must be ready for them. The way they speak to servants is detestable. They complain if the physician does not come at once - if they are not the first considered by others. Don't they pay? Terrible neglect; they are not helped. Money does not satisfy their indebtedness. Let us see whom they help - if they are swift to speak the generous word, to perform the brave and noble deed. There are, however, some lives - and they must be dread histories - which are spent in fashionable gossip and superficial pleasure-seeking, with no care for others. We see, then,

(1) there must be mutuality;

(2) there must be energy.

Not the help which is mere gift, perhaps easy and costless, but the help which costs service and sacrifice.

II. HELP IS TO BEGIN AT THE NEAREST POINT. "His neighbour" - the nearest person to him. The gospel teaching is to begin at Jerusalem. Home, for instance, is to be a scene of help. There are occasions every day in which we can help each other's comfort, growth, education, freedom from anxiety, and increase in the pleasure of life as life. A man's character is judged of in his home, his Church, his village, his town, his neighbourhood. The eloquent assailer of public wrongs may be other than a patriot at home.

1. This is the help which only he can render; being the neighbour, he is the nearest.

2. This does not bind him by religious "views" or party spirit. He is to help in the great temple of humanity as well as the temple of the Lord God. "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them." There are charities, I find, which, not content with being Christian, wish to know what people's "views" are! What an atmosphere! No. Christ did not ask who were Samaritans, Syro-phoenicians, Greeks, or Jews. "He went about doing good."

III. HELP IS TO BE INSPIRATIONAL, That is to say, it is not to assist laziness or to excuse mere incompetence. "Every one said to his brother, Be of good courage."

1. Courage; for fear is weakness. Those who expect failure court failure. I am wonderstruck at Stanley's courage at the Falls, especially after Pocock was dead. It is marvellous! Think of that poor native who rushed from the presence of the dreadful roaring river into the wilderness.

2. Courage; for God is your Helper. Man is weak! Yes; but read the tenth verse: "Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee." That is an inspiration indeed - God in Christ working in us and with us. He who gave himself' for us, now working in and with us. What courage this inspires! "In me is thine help found." "Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help!" We shall find all worldliness to be weakness in the end.

3. Courage; for no work is so hard as it looks. There are creative times. What is the dreamer worth when difficult duties have to be done?

4. Courage; for cowards make cowards. Live with persons constantly afraid of fire, of midnight marauders, of infection, of disease, and you will become nervous yourself. If children grow up amid the timorous, they become timorous. But born in the fishing-cove on the beach, how they pull out the boat into the wild sea! accustomed to scenes of courage, they learn courage. Never dispirit others. Say not, "This sum will never be raised. These schools can never be built. This class will never prosper." But say rather, "Be of good courage."

5. Courage; for hindrances will flee before faith. Say to the mountain, "Be thou cast into the sea." Strange that it should obey thee! But it does, for it was a mountain of the mind. Courage is not quixotic; it is founded on faith - on the Word, and cross, and throne of the Lord Jesus Christ. Mutual hell) is what we want. Not the sentimental grievance from some that they are not the subjects of perennial attention and ever-delicate consideration, but the help which is the spirit of all Christian life, because it was the law of his life" who came, not to be ministered unto, but to minister." - W.M.S.

I. THE CONCEPTION OF HIM IS TOO SPIRITUAL. We are not permitted to think of him through any material associations, or to image him in any creaturely shapes. He is to be to us a Spirit. But that sets him out of reach; and since men will not cultivate their spiritual faculties for the apprehension, they put him aside, and try to find what they may put in his place in art-creations, art-ideals. This is their device - let us create the "beautiful," and make it do for us instead of the spiritual God. The "beautiful" is their idol.

II. THE REQUIREMENTS OF GOD ARE TOO STRICT. He gives no chance to self-willed-ness, no opportunity for the pleasantness of doing wrong. So their device is to arrange a training of the body, a system of rules and restraints by which they may regulate themselves and their relationships. Because religion is too severe they try to be satisfied with a morality which reaches no higher than a man's idea of goodness. Morality is their idol.

III. THE ATMOSPHERE OF GOD IS TOO PURE. "Nothing entereth his presence that defileth;" and it is characteristic of him that he "desireth truth in the inward parts." There man finds the demand too great, and is set on the endeavour to satisfy himself with a ceremonial purity, which does not disturb the inward corruptions. Ceremonies may express heart-piety; but they may be put instead of heart-piety. Ceremonies and ritual too often become men's idols, whose worship is easier and more comfortable to the natural man. So men help one another to make their own idols, and shift the one true God into the background. - R.T.

I. ISRAEL IS THE SERVANT OF JEHOVAH. There can be no higher title of honour, privilege, affection, than son. Though the designation reminds us of the infinite distance between God and man, in another way it reminds us of his nearness. The Master and Lord is here the loving and protecting Patron and Friend; the servant, one who reciprocates his affection. They are the descendants of Abraham, who "loved God." The title "reminds the Jews that they had come very far short of their ideal, but at the same time inspires a well-grounded hope that Abraham's "love" will call forth the Divine mercy towards his seed."

II. THE PEOPLE IS CHOSEN OF GOD. And the choice of God is irretractable (Romans 2:29). And the election was made manifest in a wondrous history. They had been fetched from the ends of the earth. The patriarch from Ur of the Chaldees in Mesopotamia; Israel from Egypt. And what are the consequences of this Divine choice? All that is most dear and precious in the relation of marriage or in that of friendship may be called to mind. The nation is wedded to an all-powerful Husband, is linked to a faithful Protector and Friend. Then she may enjoy fearless freedom from fear; the just hand will uphold her. And all her enemies will be thrown into shame and confusion; those that strove with her be brought to nought. Held fast in the right hand of God, Israel may ever hear the assuring word, "Fear not; I do help thee." He is One "who gives salvation to kings;" with one hand giving the Law, with the other defending the obedient. Omniscience watches over the chosen, and omnipotence supports them. Among other "gifts and graces" let us recognize courage and resolution. Timidity, faint-heartedness, is a universal weakness, and the higher or sacred courage one of the rarest possessions of the soul. Perhaps, next to wisdom, it is Heaven's greatest gift. It "gives and obtains kingdoms, turns swords into sceptres, crowns the valiant with victory, and the victorious often with a diadem." Presence of mind: what can impart it like the feeling that God is ever with us, that our feeble hand is enclosed in his? "It is a kind of ecstasy and inspiration, a beam of Divine light darting in upon reason, and exalting it to a pitch of operation beyond its natural and accustomed measures. Perhaps there was never any person in the world remarkably and heroically great, without some such kind of enthusiasm - a mighty principle which at certain times raised him up to strange, unaccountable heights of wisdom and courage. He who in the strength of such a spirit can look the most menacing dangers in the face, and, when the state of all things about him seems desperate, can yet bear his great heart above despair - such a one for the most part makes fortune itself bend and lull down to him, difficulties vanish, and dangers fly before him; so much is victory the claim of the valiant, and success the birthright of the bold." - J.

I. THE SENSE IN WHICH GOD HAS CHOSEN US. "Jacob, whom I have chosen... I have chosen thee." The way in which God's ancient people were chosen of God is familiar biblical history. Abraham was called out of Chaldea, Israel (the people) out of Egypt, the Jews out of Babylonia, in order that they might receive, retain, and reflect the truth of the living God; in other words, this nation was the recipient of those distinguishing mercies which could alone account for their national redemption and their spiritual condition. We are now the subjects of God's electing, his distinguishing grace in these respects; - in ways which are not common to the whole of our race, perhaps not even to the generality of our fellow-men, we have been

(1) acquainted with his redeeming truth, made to know and to understand it in its purity and fulness;

(2) wrought upon by kindly, helpful, winning influences, in the home or in the Church;

(3) affected by the direct and immediate influences of his Divine Spirit. Thus has God chosen and called us to himself

II. THE LIFE TO WHICH WE HAVE BEEN CALLED. A life of holy service. "Thou, Israel, art my servant." We are not called merely to enjoyment or to privilege; we are summoned to God's presence and kingdom - " called to his foot" (ver. 2), in order that we may serve. Our Christian life is that most honourable, most elevating, most useful, one of service. It is the life

(1) of sacred worship;

(2) of cheerful obedience;

(3) of active helpfulness.

III. THE INTIMATE AND HONOURABLE RELATIONSHIP IN WHICH WE ARE INVITED TO STAND. "The seed of Abraham my friend. Behold, what manner of love and of condescension is this, that we should be called the friends of God! All that Abraham was to God it is certain that we may be, - we who are brought nigh by Jesus Christ. And what his disciples were to him, we also are invited to be (see John 15:14, 15). We are God's friends, inasmuch as:

1. We have a profound sympathy with him in the principles he holds and in the work in which he is engaged.

2. We are trusted by him to do what is right and worthy, and are entrusted by him with that which is high and, arduous.

3. We are admitted to his near presence, and are invited to constant fellowship with him.

4. We are the objects of his love and his good pleasure. - C.

I. FROM THE SPHERE OF THE SACRED SCRIPTURES, These cover long spaces of the earth's history, and the most marked feature of them is the way in which individuals are set forth prominently; we are shown the precise work they did, and then it is impressed on us that these are the Lord's chosen ones. In the light of that view we read again their story, appraise their qualities and gifts, set their endowments alongside their life-mission; and then we can see clearly that they were selected because they were precisely fitted for their particular work. If we think that subtle laws of heredity have gone to the making and endowing of men, we may also think of God as watching the fitnesses of men, and taking them out for the doing of certain parts of his work. Illustration may be taken from Moses, who was characteristically patriotic and disinterested; or David, whose poetical genius sanctified song for Divine worship; or Paul, whose natural impetuosity adapted him for his service as the first Christian missionary.

II. FROM THE SPHERE OF COMMON LIFE. For Scripture is but. the illustration "in the small" of what God is ever doing "in the large." The mistake is so often made of thinking that God exhausted himself, or limited himself, to the spheres dealt with in Scripture. The true view is that God illustrated himself there. Cyrus is the man in common life of whom God says, "I girded thee, though thou hast not known me." We see God's selections in the fitting of men to places, men of genius and common men, the Tennysons and ourselves.

III. FROM THE SPHERE OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Here too there are evidently elect men and women; but we need to see that God has no "pets," only "servants" - men whose fitnesses are recognized, and who are consequently selected for office to praise, to preach, to pray, or variously to minister to the Church's needs. - R.T.

I. SOURCES OF DISQUIETUDE.

1. The strength of the forces which are against us. "All they that were incensed against thee;" "they that strive with thee;" "they that war against thee." We may say as Paul said, "There are many adversaries." There are the evil tendencies of our own nature not yet extirpated; there are the vicious, the ungodly, the half-hearted men, who act injuriously upon us; and there are the "principalities and powers" of the evil spiritual world.

2. The weight of the burden of responsibility laid upon us. We are God's servants, his children, his spokesmen, his representatives. He is our God (ver. 10), and we owe to him the faithful discharge of varied and weighty obligations.

3. Our personal feebleness. "Thou worm Jacob;" "Ye men [mortals]of Israel." Who is sufficient for all these things? With our bodily weakness, our mental poverty and our spiritual failures, with the limitations of our humanity, we look forward to the work which we have to do, to the sufferings we shall be called to bear, to the battle we shall have to fight, with serious apprehension. We are inclined to give way to "fear," to allow ourselves even to "be dismayed."

II. OUR STAY IN GOD.

1. His sympathizing presence. "I am with thee." The presence of a friend or of a parent in the time of trouble is, in itself and independently of any expectation of help, a reassuring thought. That God our Divine Father, that Christ our unfailing Brother and Friend is with us, is by our side, with purest interest and tender sympathy in his heart, - this is a strength and a stay to our trembling hearts.

2. His strengthening aid. "I am thy God: I will strengthen thee," etc. God helps his people

(1) by making their difficulties to disappear, so that "they that are against them are as nothing;" e.g. the drowning of the Egyptian host, and the slaughter of the army of Sennacherib; or, and more often,

(2) by imparting courage and strength to overcome them. He "holds our right hand;" he inspires us with skill and energy to act, with fortitude to endure, with patience to persist, with victorious strength. He "always causeth us to triumph."

3. His faithful, redeeming word. When he is not actually interposing on our behalf we may rest on his sure promise. He has assured. us of our ultimate triumph, not only for ourselves, but for the cause of truth and righteousness in which we are engaged. On this word we may absolutely build.

(1) It is a Divine word; "he is our God" (vers. 10, 13).

(2) It is the word of one whose faithfulness cannot fail; it comes from him whose hand is "the right hand of his righteousness."

(3) It is the word of One whose compassion is well proved. He is "the Lord, our Redeemer." - C.

I. HE KNOWS US. We often distinguish between the outside person, who is interested in us and knows about us, and the friend in intimate personal relations, who knows us. We are permitted to think of God as the Friend in close fellowship, from whom none of our secrets are hid. He is the safe Friend, of whose wise help we are always assured, and in whom we may fully trust, because of the knowledge which his love brings.

II. HE PROVIDES FOR US. This is the work of him who is our God, and on whom we are dependent. But it is precious to be assured that he is in gracious relations with us, and will do for us his good work.

III. HE DEFENDS US. If with us, then "greater is he who is with us than all who can be against us." "What terror can confound me, with God at my right hand?"

IV. HE CORRECTS US. When we know ourselves, and our own frailties and inability to walk alone, we find that God, who can chasten and will chasten, who "corrects in measure," and "scourges every son whom he receives," is the God in whose constant presence we can rejoice.

V. HE GUIDES US. If with us, he must go first, for he is our God. And the darkness does not matter if he is first - on before, only just before. It must be a plain path, and a safe path, when we simply follow his footsteps.

VI. HE REDEEMS US. This is the large word which embraces all the material and spiritual needs we can know. Israel wanted redemption from captivity: God gave that. Israel wanted redemption from idolatry: God gave that. Israel even wanted redemption from "bad self," and, it they would have it so, God would give even that. - R.T.

I. PRAYER NEVER REACHES ITS FULL INTENSITY WHILE IT CAN BE SET IN HUMAN WORDS. We say the same of grief. It never hurts, or imperils reason or life, while it can find expression. Silent grief hurts. A man is not utterly broken down while he can make a prayer and express his wants.

II. PRAYER REACHES ITS INTENSITY WHEN IT CAN BE NO MORE THAN A VOICELESS CRY. A simple "Lord, help me." When the soul is quite full there can be no utterance. A man must go into the presence of God, and leave him to read heart, thought, and desire. Such experiences only come at times into any life. Yet they are the times when we are most really, most wholly, cast on God. Here is a sacred paradox - our best times of prayer are the times when we cannot pray. - R.T.

I. HUMILITY THE CONDITION OF STRENGTH. Jacob is a worm, Israel a "petty folk." This was, we know, a clear historic fact. It was not by armies or by navies, by numerous fortresses and serried ranks, and an impregnable land, that she was strong. She was "diminutive Israel," as the LXX. render. At this moment she might well be thought of as a poor, trembling, defenceless woman. In that one simple oracle, "I will help thee, saith Jehovah," realized, lay her might; and all possible might was there. It is not in human nature to depend where it can stand alone. It is when we feel "what worthless worms are we," that the contrast of God's almightiness comes upon us, and the sense that we may connect ourselves with it. Thrown upon our own resources, and finding them at an end, we "catch at God's skirts, and pray." Then it is no longer we, but our enemies, who fear. We cannot have too low an opinion of ourselves, nor too high an opinion of God. He is here described as the Goel, the Defender of the right, the Avenger of the wrongs of his people. He is the redeeming God (Isaiah 47:3, 4; Jeremiah 50:33, 34). The verbal root means to ransom by the payment of a price, and to deliver from danger, distress, captivity.

II. WEAKNESS MADE STRONG. This petty nation shall become a power against which nothing can stand. Israel becomes as a threshing-roller, sharp, new, and double-edged, which shall crush the mountains, and make the hills as chaff; he shall winnow the nations, and they shall be scattered. With the two-edged sword in their hand, they will execute vengeance on the heathen, and punishments on the people, binding their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron (Psalm 149.). Perhaps the allusion is to the Maccabean period, and to the glorious wars of the Jews under the priests Simon and Hyrcanus, against the kings of Syria. The oracle which begins by touching the chord of humility ends with the note of boasting: "Thou shalt exult in Jehovah, and in Israel's Holy One shalt make thy boast" Thus the spirit of the true Israel is the spirit of true religion, the spirit of Christ exemplified in St. Paul: "I will glory in infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me." - J.

I. THE MOUNTAINOUS OBSTACLES THAT HAVE TO BE OVERCOME. These are not kingdoms, military forces, or fortifications, but things which are far mightier than they - error, prejudice, passion, pride, habit of life, materialism, self-will. These are high hills, massive mountains in the way of the world's welfare.

II. THE INSTRUMENT BY WHICH THEY ARE TO BE SURMOUNTED. This is none other than a living Church. "I will make thee," etc. The Israel which is to "thresh" these mountains is "the Israel of God," the Church of Jesus Christ; not, indeed, any one organization so called or calling itself by that name, but the whole "host of God's elect " - the unnumbered multitude of souls that, under every sky, accept his truth, trust in his Name, love his appearing, toil in his vineyard.

III. THE TRIUMPH OF THE TRUTH. This is twofold.

1. The disappearance of all that is evil, the scattering of the chaff (ver. 16).

2. The exaltation of Christ: "Thou shelf glory in the Holy One of Israel." In the day of redemption men will glory in no one and in nothing but in the Lord that redeemed them; they will enthrone him in their hearts and in the world.

IV. THE PRIZE OF VICTORY. "And thou shalt rejoice in the Lord." The Church will not be filled with a perilous complacency; it will rejoice in the Lord its God - in the honor in which he is universally held; in the love with which all hearts are filled toward him; in the service which every human life is paying him. These ingredients will fill to the brim its pure cup of joy. - C.

I. LIFE AS A WHOLE OFTEN SEEMS BEYOND US; out Of our control; we fear to enter on it - we fed we cannot make the best of it. It is so with only such expectations as we can form, on the basis of what is known or other men's lives. It would indeed be so, if God were to show us beforehand the scenes through which we were to be led. Yet let us but lay hold of the strength of God, and our whole life shall be a mountain which we shall thresh and beat small. It shall not master us; we will master it, and make it yield its best.

II. THE SPECIAL DEMANDS OF LIFE OFTEN SEEM BEYOND US. Face to face with duty, we anxiously say, "Who is sufficient for these things?" For us to undertake these duties seems as absurd as for a mowrej to think of threshing a mountain. And yet experience abundantly confirms the fact that, when a man is called of God to do anything, God surely gives him strength for the doing, What is "impossible with men is possible with God," and with all those whom God aids. For things that are right there is no such word as "impossible" in a Christian's vocabulary. Compare Jonathan defeating the Philistines, David overcoming Goliath, and the Apostle Paul saying, "I can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth me." We have often seen the marvel of God's overcomings when the pressure of circumstances was extreme, and the thwarting of enemies painful. "Who art thou, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel [the God-helped man] thou shalt become a plain." - R.T.

I. HIS MERCIFUL DEALINGS WITH HIS PEOPLE. The scene and state of exile is brought before us. They are dwelling in the "tents of Kedar." They are in the midst of a flourishing commercial empire; yet it is to them as a desert where no water is (cf. Psalm 63:1). The true desert is the soul without the sense of God's presence. But God is not limited by place; and why, in lands of exile, should not the spiritual be as near as at home? The mind is its own place, and can be made happy if it only possesses God. This highest happiness is figured as abundance of streams among the bare hills and the highland plains. In the Orient, water is synonymous with relief from intense suffering, deliverance from death - in a word, with gladness, salvation, life itself; and the sight of lovely Paradises as they were called, i.e. parks of trees - the stately cedar, and the brilliant plane and others. Such scenery enters into pictures of the Greek Elysium, and probably of the happiness of the future life among other nations, and doubtless with a correspondence to the truth. Trees and living water: what more beautiful parable can Nature offer of the eternal energy of the living God? what better hint of the future state reserved for his chosen? The design of all these merciful and wonderful deliverances is that Jehovah's nature may be unveiled, and that the nations may contemplate it with reverence and joy - "that they may at once see, and acknowledge, and consider, and understand, that Jehovah's hand hath performed this, and Israel's Holy One hath created it."

II. JEHOVAH'S CHALLENGE. Let the gods of the heathen bring forward their cause; let them point out the bulwarks of argument behind which they entrench themselves. The "King of Jacob" calls these daemonic patrons and kings of other peoples to confront him. Have they insight into the future? Can they predict the coming event? Can they "declare the roots of the future in the past, or give a direct forecast of the future? God alone can reveal the secrets of the past. If the idols can do this, they are Jehovah's equals, and may be trusted for their ability to predict the future" (according to some, this is the meaning). Or let them do some signal deed, whether of good or evil, and prove at least that they are alive. Some wonder should be performed, at which. mankind may gaze, and by which they may be convinced. But judgment must go by default. The gods "can show no prophecies, cannot so much as speak, are dumb, not gods (Habakkuk 2:18)." And they must be known for what they are - "nothing in the world."

III. SUMMARY OF EVIDENCE. Jehovah raised up Cyrus. When called from the north, he came; and from the east, he shall proclaim Jehovah's Name, and diffuse his worship. Some see (combining this oracle with that in Isaiah 65:3-7) the announcement of a spiritual change in Cyrus. He is made to say that Jehovah gave him all the kingdoms of the earth, and charged him to build a house at Jerusalem (Ezra 1:2). He may have come to believe in the God of the Jews, and so to be their brother. The Persians were monotheists, and held a missionary religion. And the Jews may have recognized such a religion as that of Jehovah (cf. Malachi 1:11; Acts 10:35; Acts 17:23). And projecting themselves to the time of the fulfilment of the prediction, Jehovah and his worshippers point to it as evidence of the truth of the religion. And while Jehovah announces the good news of his return to Zion, that is, of Israel's redemption, the idols are dumb. They have no help, no counsel, to give; for they are vanity, nothingness, wind and chaos. Compare with this nothingness the sentences of Jehovah in Isaiah 10:12; Jeremiah 25:12. Such is the conclusion of the trial. The idols are utterly destitute of strength to aid their friends or distress their foes. Jehovah alone is worthy of confidence and regard, as the true God, Protector, and Guide. In times of deepest distress be can raise up a deliverer like Cyrus, and in his own way and time rescue his people from all their calamities. - J.

I. A POOR AND NEEDY WORLD ATHIRST FOR THE TRUTH AND LOVE OF GOD.

1. We think of those multitudes of our race, beneath every sky, of every hue, of every clime and tongue, who are utterly dissatisfied with their life, their creed, or their character; the many millions who are the victims of human oppression, of intolerable tyranny, or of heartless cruelty (social or domestic), or abject slavery; those who are the heirs of grinding poverty, seeking for the bare sufficiency or the comfort or the success which they never gain, which perpetually eludes them; those who are vain seekers after happiness, the voice of whose life is this, "Who will show us any good?" whose experience is one long sad heart-ache; those who are unsuccessful inquirers after God, after truth and righteousness, who say, not in sarcasm, but in sadness, "What is truth?" "Oh that we knew where we might find him!" "What shall we do that we may inherit eternal life?" and to whom no answer comes from the deep void, who have to go groping on in the darkness. These are the poor and needy, seeking water and there is none, "whose tongue faileth for thirst."

2. We include in our view that other multitude who lack the water of life, but who are not conscious of their need. Did it enfeeble the argument for emancipation that so many of the slaves, before their liberty was given them, were content to wear their bonds and to be deprived of the rights of manhood, the claims of womanhood? Or did it not, on the other hand, immeasurably strengthen the case of the emancipators and the cause of the slave? And does it relieve the situation that millions of Chinese are content to live the sordid, selfish, godless lives they are living, and to die the hopeless deaths they are dying? Does it make less pitiful and pathetic the fact that millions of our fellow-subjects in India are content to bow down before images their own hands have carved, and to worship gods and goddesses to honour whom is to be dishonoured and degraded in and by the very act of devotion? Surely this fact only multiplies the reasons for regret and for sympathy. The very muteness of the appeal is the most eloquent plea on their behalf.

II. THE PITY AND THE PURPOSE OF CHRIST ON ITS BEHALF. "When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none,... I the Lord will hear them I will not forsake them.! will open rivers... I will plant trees," etc. If this be primarily applicable to the Israelites in captivity (or on their way home), it must be true of all God's children. He who pitied the thousands of bodily sufferers will much more pity the millions of his sons and daughters who are in the last extremity of spiritual destitution. When Christ "saw the multitude," hungry and weary, he was "moved with compassion" for them. With what profounder pity and intenser feeling does he look down on these far greater multitudes, who are pining and perishing in the famine of the soul! And then does the Church of Christ enter into his spirit and rise toward his stature when it also is stirred to strong, deep sympathy with these poor and needy ones, hungering and athirst for the truth and love of God. And as Christ's purpose answered to his pity, and he came, by the sacrifice of himself, to put away our sin and to take away our sorrow, so must ours also. Pity must end in.provision, in causing the rivers to flow and the fountains to spring and the trees to bear their fruit. Such sources and springs of health and life are our mission Churches. Heathenism is a desert place, a wild waste, where there is no provision for human need. But our Christian Churches, planted in the midst of the ignorant and idolatrous, are rivers in the high places, fountains in the valleys, trees in the desert; there is bread for the hungering, water for those who are perishing with thirst, life for dying souls. - C.

I. SPRINGS IN THE DRY LAND OF SIN. What depth of meaning there is in the promise, "The Seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head"! All seemed lost; and yet at his very feet there sprang up for man "a fountain opened for sin and uncleanness." This is God's revelation fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Often revelations are left to human discovery. There have been hidden beauties in the universe - unknown continents which man must search out and explore. There are hidden adaptations in nature to the need of man, which will reward his enterprise - medicaments for disease, ministrants of alleviation. And there are yet "hidden fountains," which the discovering hand of man will lay bare in the wilderness. But sin must be met by grace at once, that man may be saved - that the child may yet say, "Father."

II. SPRINGS IN THE DRY LAND OF SORROW. Hagar flies. Not the first, nor the last, that the east wind of bitter hatred has driven from the protecting doors. The newspapers record crime. We shudder. But blows at the heart, deeds never reported, never known, borne in the silence of suffering, are often the worst.

1. In solitude Hagar finds an angel. In earliest times they were ministering spirits, and we are distinctly told that they not only were, but are. We lose much comfort from forgetting that they are ministers to us! How? That is what the inquisitive mind is always asking. It is the "how?" which makes such piles on piles of useless divinity. The Word of God is inspired! How? The atonement is made! How? The dead shall arise! How?

2. In want she finds refreshment. Weary and worn and sad, God does not allow her to lack refreshment. Sarah dealt hardly with her, and she fled front her face. But another face was looking down upon her. How kind and considerate ought those to be who have others under them! Often far away from home and friends, there should ever be in our relationships all that we mean by kind consideration.

3. In misery she found peace. The mind filled with tumultuous thoughts was calmed! The angel tells her that "the Lord hath heard her affliction." What a sermon in a sentence! Teach and preach this, brethren. No eloquent words! No explanatory sentences! Sorrow itself has a voice, and God hears that. What rest comes to the heart that feels God has seen and knows all! "She called the Name of the Lord that spake unto her, Thou God seest me; for she said, Have I also here looked after him that seeth me? Wherefore the well was called Beer-laha-roi;" that is, "the well of him that liveth and seeth me."

III. SPRINGS IN THE DRY LAND OF SOLITUDE. What shall I do? Where shall I go? Am I to leave home? Am I to enter a wilderness that I know not? Yes; anywhere, everywhere; but remember God is there. "Whither shall I go from thy presence?" What will to-morrow bring? A Father. Whence will come my supply? Do not know - the fountain is hidden. But it is there. What is needful for me to do is to drink and live - to taste the living waters. Many analyze them - admit their purity, but do not drink! Our solicitudes are natural. Especially so when life is, like Hagar's, dependent on others. Some here may be driven out into the wilderness at any time. True; but Christ is there! You will, perhaps, never know how precious this fountain is tilt you are away from the old home.

IV. SPRINGS IN THE DRY LAND OF SEPARATION. Alas! other fountains dry up. That is to say, they are sealed to us for a time. But in the hours of bereavement and desolation I call on you to witness:

1. What hidden fountains there are in the Bible. How its histories live when we read our own experiences into them! How its psalms pulse with life when we too are panting after the water-brooks!

2. What hidden revelations in Christ. We know him as a Saviour. But how little we know yet! "In him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." We "grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." Some persons we need to know less of to preserve our respect and love. Jesus our Lord is infinite in all beauty, purity, and glory; and the more we know of him the more intense will be our devotion, the more complete our trust, the more fervent our love. Let the hidden fountains be not only rejoiced in by us, but let our voice be heard, "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters!" We think little of water till we are feverish with thirst on shipboard or in an Eastern wilderness. Some of you perchance may have known what thirst is, and how much less precious is the jewelled cup than the water it contains. Yet from the beginning God has sent the rivers through the deserts one day to be peopled, and the springs as at Damascus run through the valleys. Every nation under heaven can bless God for the rain from heaven and for the water-springs! Soon may all tribes and peoples surround "the fountain." We drink of earthly fountains, and thirst again. But whoso drinketh of the water which Christ will give them shall never thirst again. Within, in the wilderness of these poor hearts, he strikes the fountain that is to lift up its pure springs through the immortal ages. - W.M.S.

I. THE ORIGIN, SUSTENANCE, AND GOVERNMENT OF THE WORLD.

II. OUR HUMAN NATURE. That it is not what it was when it came forth from his creative hand; that it has fallen through sin; that there is a way back which is a way up, toward himself and his favour.

III. HIMSELF - HIS NATURE, CHARACTER, AND WILL.

IV. THE FUTURE.

1. Future things here.

2. The great future - the fact of another life, of a day of account - eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ. - C.

I. THE IDOL OF SCIENCE. Worshipped by many in our day. What can it do? What can it do towards meeting the spiritual need, the sense of sin, the soul-cry, of man? And it can do nothing if it can bear no relation to them.

II. THE IDOL OF LUXURY. Pleasure has numberless votaries, who delight in her service. Yet is she but the syren, who floats on, just a little in front, luring her worshippers into headlessness of the black storms that are gathering in the sky. What can she do in the day of calamity? Then her votaries find she is "all vanity, and her works are nothing."

III. THE IDOL OF SELF. Taking often very interesting shapes, as socialistic theories of man's regeneration by man. Very attractive is the notion that all earth-woes would fade away if only men would bind themselves together in a universal "Help-Myself" Society. And yet the story of the ages is the ever-fresh illustration of the fact that it is not, and it never has been, in "man that walketh to direct his steps." Ask "Self" what it can do for our best and highest interests, and it is as dumb as any idol-block. None hear, and there is no one to answer. Only when the claims of idol Self had been thoroughly worked out, and "man by his wisdom evidently knew not God," did Divine love intervene and send the Son. The "fulness of times" was precisely the time when helpless "Self" was proved to be of nothing, and his works of nought. And yet round these and other idol-shrines men crowd to-day, and need to heat' the solemn appeal of the last of Christ's apostles, "Little children, keep yourselves from idols. - R.T.