That is a lawless state of society in which every man's hand is against his neighbour. Yet no observer of human life is insensible to the prevalence of enmity, rivalry, opposition of various kinds, among all communities of men. "There are many adversaries" is a complaint which every man has made in his time. Men become accustomed to this, and regard it as a natural accompaniment of social life. But it is something very different when the almighty and righteous Lord addresses a man or a community, and says, "Behold I, even I, am against thee."

I. THE STRANGENESS AND WONDER OF THIS ATTITUDE. That the heathen, who construct the character of their gods upon the lines of their own character, should depict them as hostile, seems natural enough. But that enlightened theists should be surprised at such a representation as that of the text, is a consequence of the conceptions which reason and revelation alike have taught them to form of God. Is not God on our side? Does he not represent himself as favourable to the sons of men - using his power for their protection, their deliverance, their aid? How, then, can a merciful and benevolent God be in any sense against us?

II. THE EXPLANATION AND REASONABLENESS OF THIS ATTITUDE. It is clear that the Creator and Lord of all cannot be expected to alter the principles of his government in order to accommodate himself to the follies and the caprices of his creatures. If a man throws himself into mid-ocean, or into the crater of a burning volcano, nature is against him, and he must perish. If a man by his own action contracts disease, he must suffer. Gravitation is not to be suspended because a foolhardy fanatic flings himself from a tower. Nor are chemical laws to be abolished because one ignorantly swallows poison. In all such cases, we may say with reverence, "God is against those who act in such and such a manner." Similarly in the moral realm. The spiritual universe is so constituted that men cannot violate moral law without suffering, cannot defy God with impunity. Those who sin must sooner or later learn the fact, which no reasoning of theirs can affect, that God is against them.

III. THE IMMEDIATE PURPOSE OF THIS ATTITUDE. It is evident that, if all things were made easy and pleasant for the sinner, if there were no check and no chastisement for his sin, such an arrangement would not be for the sinner's real good. On the contrary, he would be encouraged to persevere in his evil courses. But the sinner, finding that God is against him, is in many cases by this very fact led to consider his ways. His experience "gives him pause." There follows from this consciousness of punishment the state of mind known as "conviction of sin," and conviction of sin may lead to repentance and to submission. Finding that, by setting himself against God, the sinner sets God against him, he may be led to submission; he may ask himself, "Why should I not have God with me instead of against me?" The beginning of the process may partake of a selfish regard for his own interests, but he may be led on to see something better than this - to discern the justice, the propriety, the moral excellence of subjection to and harmony with the will which ever accords with perfect righteousness, wisdom, and love.

IV. THE ULTIMATE CONSEQUENCE AND RESULT OF THIS ATTITUDE. No one who reflects upon the character of the God of infinite justice and benevolence can suppose that he can take a pleasure in a posture of antagonism and hostility against anything that he has made, far less against man, whom he created in his own likeness, to show forth his own glory. His aim is ever to bring his intelligent and voluntary creatures into harmony with his own nature; to recover and restore, not to overwhelm with destruction; to bring his children to exclaim, "If God be for us, who can be against as?" - T.

Jerusalem was designed to have a good influence upon the nations and countries round about, and was set in the midst of them as a candle upon a candlestick to spread the light of Divine revelation, which she was blessed with, to all the dark corners of the neighbouring nations, that from them it might diffuse itself further, even to the ends of the earth. Jerusalem was set in the midst of the nations, to be as the heart in the body, to invigorate this dead world with a Divine life, to be an example of everything that is good.

( M. Henry.)