Isaiah 26

12. The Hebrew words give a strong sense of lofty and inaccessible towers, thus: “The inaccessibility of the height of thy walls He brings down, lays low, and causes to touch the earth, even the dust.” Such terms, so accumulated, carry our thought to the lofty walls of Babylon, as if he would say, Though Moab were to build her walls high as Babylon did hers, yet God would bring them utterly down to the dust. If we consider Moab as a representative name, standing for the embittered enemies of Zion, the prophet’s thought may naturally have been on Babylon as well. H. C.

6-12. This wonderful passage, for depth, grandeur and comprehensiveness of meaning, is not surpassed by anything in the Old Testament that pertains to the glory of the last days. It follows a prediction of the judgments of God upon the oppressors of His people, and it naturally returns, toward the close of the chapter, to the same theme, since the way for the enlargement of Zion is prepared by the overthrow of her enemies. Then follows, in the next chapter, the song of Zion in view of God’s mighty interpositions in her behalf. E. P. Barrows.

26:1 In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah: We have a strong city; 2 salvation will he appoint for walls and bulwarks. Open ye the gates, that the righteous 3 nation which keepeth truth may enter in. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind 4 is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. Trust ye in the LORD for ever: for in the 5 LORD JEHOVAH is an everlasting rock. For he hath brought down them that dwell on high, the lofty city: he layeth it low, he layeth it low even to the ground; he bringeth it even to 6 the dust. The foot shall tread it down; even the feet of the poor, and the steps of the 7 needy. The way of the just is uprightness: thou that art upright dost direct the path of the 8 just. Yea, in the way of thy judgements, O LORD, have we waited for thee; to thy name 9 and to thy memorial is the desire of our soul. With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgements are 10 in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness. Let favour be shewed to the wicked, yet with he not learn righteousness; in the land of uprightness will he deal wrong- fully, and will not behold the majesty of the LORD. 11 LORD, thy hand is lifted up, yet they see not: but they shall see thy zeal for the people, 12 and be ashamed; yea, fire shall devour thine adversaries. LORD, thou wilt ordain peace for 13 us: for thou hast also wrought all our works for us. O LORD our God, other lords beside 14 thee have had dominion over us; but by thee only will we make mention of thy name. They are dead, they shall not live; they are deceased, they shall not rise: therefore hast thou 15 visited and destroyed them, and made all their memory to perish. Thou hast increased the nation, O LORD, thou hast increased the nation; thou art glorified: thou hast enlarged all the borders of the land. 16 LORD, in trouble have they visited thee, they poured out a prayer when thy chastening 17 was upon them. Like as a woman with child, that draweth near the time of her delivery, is 18 in pain and crieth out in her pangs; so have we been before thee, O LORD. We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have as it were brought forth wind; we have not 19 wrought any deliverance in the earth; neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen. Thy dead shall live; my dead bodies shall arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast forth the dead. 20 Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself

21 for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. For, behold, the LORD cometh forth out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity : the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.

Chap. 26. The first words of this chapter show its connection with the two chapters that precede it, and also what its subject is—viz., an appropriate song of praise on occasion of the return of the Jews from their captivity in Babylon. The last two verses (20, 21) suggest beautifully and tenderly that the day of suffering and peril is not altogether past, yet will not be long protracted. H. C.

The song opens with an acknowledgment of God’s protection and an exhortation to confide therein (verses 1-4). This is founded on the exhibition of His righteousness and power in the destruction of His foes and the oppressors of His people (verses 5-11). The Church abjures the service of all other sovereigns, and vows perpetual devotion to Him by whom it has been delivered and restored (verses 12-15). Her utter incapacity to save herself is then contrasted with God’s power to restore His people to new life, with a joyful anticipation of which the song concludes (verses 16-19). The additional sentences contain a beautiful and tender intimation of the trials which must be endured before these glorious events take place, with a solemn assurance that Jehovah is about to visit both His people and their enemies with chastisement (verses 20, 21). A.

1,2. No more vivid picture of peace and security could be presented to the war-harassed Israelite than the triumphant song with which the chapter begins, portraying the time when God’s salvation shall take the place of walls and bulwarks; when the gates shall stand open; when men shall go in and out without question; when there shall be no alarm by night or by day, but, trusting in Jehovah’s guard alone, all shall be kept in perfect peace. It was a dream never heretofore realized in the history of the Israelitish nation, save during the short reign of Solomon, the transient type of the Messianic kingdom of peace. To-day, in its desolation, that land, as we wander over its hills and valleys, tells the story of its past history. Every hill-top or “tell,” as it is called, is crowned with a grass-grown desolate heap, from which ragged stones protrude, or are scattered over its surface. What are these? If we dig into them, we find that they are all the ruins of walls which once encompassed the old cities of Israel and Judah, now laid low even to the ground—brought even to the dust, and trodden down by the foot of the poor and needy. No less than 2770 names of ancient sites have been recovered and laid down in the maps of the Palestine Exploration Fund, the greater part of them being those of ancient walled towns now laid low. Tristram.

3. The original expresses it still more forcibly in its Semitic simplicity, “Thou shalt keep him in peace, peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee.” It is not a promise of freedom from sorrow; it is not a promise of success or prosperity on earth; but it is a promise of that inward peace, of that heart’s-ease in the breast, with which sorrow itself is a tolerable burden, and without which prosperity itself is a questionable boon. If we be God’s true children, then we are in possession of this peace. Farrar.—Thou wilt keep him in peace, peace, in perfect peace, inward peace, outward peace, peace with God, peace of conscience, peace at all times, under all events; this peace shall be put into and kept in the possession of whose mind is stayed upon God, because it trusts in Him. It is the character of every good man, that he trust in God; puts himself under His guidance and government, and depends upon Him that it shall be greatly to his advantage to do so. They that trust in God must have their minds stayed upon Him, must trust Him at all times, under all events, must firmly and faithfully adhere to Him, with an entire satisfaction in Him. Such as do so God will keep in perpetual peace, and that peace shall keep them. When evil tidings are abroad, they shall calmly expect the event, and not be disturbed by frightful apprehensions arising from them, whose hearts are “fixed, trusting in the Lord.” H.

Confidence is the noblest exercise of faith. Looking steadily upon God in Himself, and in Christ through the promises, it raises the soul above all fears and discouragements, above all doubts and disquietments, either about the removing of evil or the obtaining of good. Hence confidence is called the rest of the soul; therefore such as attain to confidence are said to be in peace, in perfect peace. Caryl.—Peace does not dwell in outward things, but within the soul. We may preserve it in the midst of the bitterest pain, if our will remain firm and submissive. Peace in this life springs from acquiescence even in disagreeable things, not in an exemption from suffering. Fenelon.

Peace is that state in which there are no desires madly demanding an impossible gratification; that state in which there is no misery, no remorse, no sting. And there are but three things which can break that peace. The first is discord between the mind of man and the lot which he is called on to inherit; the second is discord between the affections and powers of the soul; and the third is doubt of the rectitude and justice and love, wherewith this world is ordered. The deepest want of man is not a desire for happiness, but a craving for peace; not a wish for the gratification of every desire, but a craving for the repose of acquiescence in the will of God. F. D. H.

It is a great part of the happiness of our lives to have a confidence or quietness of spirit about the things of this life; nor is anything more uncomely for or uncomfortable to a saint than distrustful thoughts and fears. To carry a troubled mind and a troubling frame of spirit about us, lest some evil should befall us, is more grievous than the present suffering of evil. Distrust is one of the worst diseases or sicknesses of the mind, and to be anxious about our earthly enjoyments is as bad as to trust upon them. As our hopes should be above the creature, so likewise should our fears be. Caryl.—Peace comes just in proportion to trust. The first lesson to learn is God—to know Him, to believe in Him, to have a child-like trust that He will do the very best for all His creatures by the very necessity of His own goodness. He is under the compulsion of His own benevolence. This trust enables us to look through dark hours and to look over trials and griefs. In enables us in the whole daily life to walk with confidence, because things must come out for the best to the loving soul. We know in prayer that what we desire is God’s desire; that we can state our wishes as to one who will of course grant all that is best. The soul must learn the way of peace, as it must reach all things, by experience. It is no wonder that peace at first is by broken glimpses, and by snatches; and that prayer goes out often into a dark void. It will take long patience and careful study and gentle teachableness to bring us to the calm, cloudless condition. Whatever else each one may hope for in the heavenly state, this is our common longing and our sure possession. The end of all our strivings and struggling is peace. E. P. Powell.

God Himself communicates that peace of mind which flows from a sense of pardon and acceptance. He reveals to the soul in His own way and time, by His own spirit, the love He bears toward it, the mercy He has prepared for it, perhaps the work He has wrought in it. He shows it in the blood of Christ, its freedom from condemnation; in the obedience of Christ, its “robe of righteousness;” in the purifying spirit, the gifts and graces of Christ, its “garment of salvation;” and in the promises and life of Christ, its safety. He unfolds, as it were, the book of life; He shows to the wondering sinner his own poor, despised name shining there; and the consequence is—and how can it be otherwise?—he is “filled with all joy and peace in believing;” he “abounds in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost;” “the peace of God rules,” presides and reigns “in his heart.” C. Bradley.

4. Trust ye in the Lord forever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength.** We may depend upon Him, for His arm is never dried up, nor does His strength fail. There is no wrinkle upon the brow of Eternity. God is where He was at first; He continues forever a God of infinite power, able to save those that trust in Him. Manton.—“For in the Lord Jehovah is a rock of ages.” So the Hebrew has it, including under the figure of a rock the two ideas of a refuge and of a sure foundation. The original makes this special name of God emphatic by repetition, “For in Jah Jehovah”—Jah being a contraction for Jehovah. It should be borne in mind that while all the names of God are significant, each of some one attribute, the special significance of this name is, God as faithful to His promises, ever true to those who trust Him. Immatability is perhaps the primary idea, He who changes never; but the practical and ultimate result is, one who, being changeless, never forgets His promises—experiences no change in the state of mind which gave the promises; one who continues evermore the same, and therefore is ever true and faithful. This is His memorial name, a name to be remembered through all the interval, however long, between promise and fulfilment, till you see the promise verified. (See Hos. 12:5 and Ex. 3:13-15.) H. C.—The double name Jah Jehovah is most emphatic, to denote God’s unchangeableness in His love to His people. “Everlasting Strength” is literally “a rock of ages.” In Him a sure and eternal support, firm as a rock, lasting as eternity, will be found by His people. Birks.—Therefore the song breaks into triumphant fervor of summons to all who hear it (verse 4) to “trust in Jah Jehovah forever.” Such settled, perpetual trust is the only attitude corresponding to

His mighty name, and to the realities found in His character. He is the “rock of ages,” the grand figure which Moses learned beneath the cliffs of Sinai and wove into his last song, and which tells us of the unchanging strength that makes a sure hiding-place for all generations, and the ample space which will hold all the souls of men, and be for a shadow from the heat, a covert from the tempest, a shelter from the foe, and a home for the homeless, with many a springing fountain in its clefts. A. M.

Trust. If you would understand the doctrine of faith and its relations to the cross, you must study it in both Testaments. You must follow its growth through the twilight of earliest ages, when types and ceremonies were the trellis that sustained it, forward to the time when it wreathed itself round the cross. You will first see it in the lives of men who through darkness stretched their hands unto God, and to whom the whole of salvation was in one word, trust. As revelation progresses you will see its vital character passing into such words as come, receive, look and rest. The idea grows with the growth of the Bible. Side lights of Christian lives, of history and prophecy, play upon it all the way along, until, where the apostle exclaims, “now abideth faith, hope and charity,” it stands out with its two companions like three graces divinely clear and fair. And so with any religious subject. The Bible development of it makes the most beautiful study of it. C. L. Thompson.

If you look into the Old Testament, you will find constantly, “Trust ye in the Lord forever;” “Put thy trust in Jehovah!” There, too, faith was the seed and germ of all religion. There, too, though under the hard husk of apparently external obedience and ceremonial sacrifices, the just lived by faith. The object was the Jehovah of that ancient covenant. Religion has always been the same in every dispensation. At every time, that which made a man a devout man has been identically the same thing. It has always been true that it has been faith which has bound man to God, and given man hope. But when we come to the New Testament, the centre is shifted, as it would seem. What has become of the grand old words, “Trust ye in the Lord Jehovah”? Look! Christ stands there, and says, “Believe upon Me!” With calm, simple, profound dignity, He lays His hand upon all the ancient and consecrated words, upon all the ancient and hallowed emotions that used to set to the unseen God between the cherubim, throned above judgment and resting upon mercy; and He says, They are Mine—give them to Me! That ancient trust, I claim the right to have it. That old obedience, it belongs to Me. I am He to whom in all time the loving hearts of them that loved God have set. I am the Angel of the Covenant, in whom whoever trusteth shall never be confounded! Christ thus steps, in the New Testament—in so far as the direction of the religious emotions of faith and love is concerned—into the place filled by the Jehovah of the Old. Christ was our brother and a man, but He was the Son of God, the Divine Redeemer. The object of faith is Christ; and as object of faith He must needs be Divine. A. M.

From beginning to end a Christian life is a life of faith. The word “trust” is the keyword of Old Testament theology, and the word “believe” is the keyword in the New. They both mean the same thing. Cuyler.—We are apt to lose ourselves in the labyrinths of theology, until we learn that Christian faith is essentially personal trust in Christ and the Father. This trust may be sublime even if it cannot solve the Divine mysteries; it can be perfect peace without knowing exactly how God’s mercy performs its wonders. What more does love need than the apprehension of God as love? Stuckenberg.—Faith and obedience turn a man into the likeness of that in which he trusts. If we trust Jesus we open our hearts to Him; and if we open our hearts to Him He will come in. Faith and obedience will mould us, by their natural effect, into the resemblance of that on which we lean. As one of the old German mystics said, “What thou lovest, that thou dost become.” And it is blessedly true. A. M.

The apostle says, “By faith ye stand.” He does not say, by patience, or by hope, or the like. They are drawn from faith. Strengthen that, and strengthen all other that are infused from it. As a tree, we cast not water on the branches, but on the root. So strengthen faith. We strengthen love, and hope, and all, if we strengthen faith and assurance of God’s love in Christ. Sibbes.—As we put trust in Him and receive the blessing and find Him to be faithful, we come to believe in Him; not merely because of His Word, but because of what we have experienced. Out of all these comes patience under trial, and “patience worketh experience, and experience hope which maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts.” Out of a fixed confidence groweth contentment, and we find godliness with contentment to be great gain. Kindred graces come to adorn the character, even “the ornament of a meek and a quiet spirit, which in Christ’s sight is of great price.” Out of the whole arises fruit ever becoming richer and mellower—in good works, in almsgiving, in self-sacrifice, in abundant labors for the good of mankind. These react on faith, and by works faith is made perfect. Thus the Christian, by addition, grows up into the measure of the stature of Christ. McCosh.

In prayer, it is faith that must make us successful; in obedience, it is faith that must make us cheerful; in afflictions, it is faith that must make us patient; in trials, it is faith that must make us resolute; in desertions, it is faith that must make us comfortable; in life, it is faith which must make us fruitful; and in death, it is faith which must make us victorious. Clarke.—Its nature and office is most simple, as much so as the confidence of a prat-tling child in his father’s kindness and wisdom; yet at the same time as expansive in its views as the loftiest science that ever tasked the powers of a created intellect. It is but a hearty assent to the whole testimony of God—a submission of the entire soul, not of the intellect only, but also of the affections and the imagination, to the testimony of God; whether that testimony be employed in prescribing a duty or in establishing a privilege. It is the acknowledgment of human ignorance, united with confidence in Divine wisdom and subjection to Divine authority. Making no reservations, prescribing no terms of limitation, claiming no power of revoking or abridging its grant, it is a surrender of the intelligent spirit to the word of God as its rule and its stay; in conformity to it as the one standard of human conduct, and in dependence upon it as the only fitting nutriment of the spiritual life. W. R. W.

While it is a great thing to be an earnest worker in Christ’s service, yet the Christian life is not mainly a life of action, but of trust; not of independent exertion, but of self-abandonment to the working of a mightier agency than ours. Even at its outset it is not work, but faith. The beginning of true religion is not the setting out on a new course in the consciousness of unexhausted strength and resolution, but rather the casting of the spirit worn with the burden, soiled with the dust of life’s friendless journey, on One who has offered, and is infinitely able to sustain it. And so in its subsequent progress, while there is an aspect in which religion may be contemplated as a life of strenuous work, there is another and higher in which it must be viewed as a life of resignation and of rest. Calmly as the midnight voyager sleeps, while under watchful guidance the vessel bears him onward, so calmly, with such trustful humility, does the believer commit himself and his fates for time and eternity to the unslumbering providence of God. Staying his hand, indeed, from no duty, withholding from no work of self-improvement or of beneficent activity, yielding never to that spurious humility which is but the disguise of indolent fatalism, he yet ever retains in his spirit the unanxious quietness of one who knows that results are not in his hand, but God’s. It is little, at best, that he can do to help on the world’s progress or his own; but whether he work, or forbear from working, he knows that “the Father worketh hitherto, and will work.” In the strife with sin, in the contemplation of moral evil withstanding God’s work in the world, there may be much to discourage an earnest mind; but ever when doubts harass, or abortive efforts distress the spirit, and the sense of our human weakness becomes most oppressive, what relief to pass out of self into God, and to stay our feebleness on the everlasting arms. Caird.

7. The way for the righteous is level; Thou most upright wilt level the path of the righteous. A man’s way is a common scriptural figure for his course of life. A straight or level way is a prosperous life. It is here declared that the course of the righteous is a prosperous one, because God makes it so.

8. Also in the way of Thy judgments, oh Jehovah, we have waited for Thee; to Thy name and Thy remembrance (was our) soul’s desire. For this manifestation of Thy righteousness and goodness we have long been waiting in the way of Thy judgments—i.e., to see Thee come forth as a judge, for the vindication of Thy people and the destruction of their enemies. Name and remembrance or memorial denote the manifestation of God’s attributes in His works. A.

8,9. By often thinking of God, the heart will be enticed into desires after Him. “The desire of our soul is to Thy name, and to the remembrance of Thee;” and see what follows, verse 9: “With my soul have I desired Thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek Thee early.” Love sets the soul on musing, and from musing to praying. Meditation is prayer in bullion, prayer in the ore—soon melted and run into holy desires. The laden cloud soon drops into rain; the piece charged soon goes off when fire is put to it. A meditating soul is in proxima potentia to prayer. William Gurnall.

9. In the night. Only in the sacredness of inward silence does the soul truly meet the secret, hiding God. The strength of resolve, which afterward shapes life and mixes itself with action, is the fruit of these sacred solitary moments. There is a Divine depth in silence; we meet God alone! F. W. Robertson.

Have I desired Thee, . . . will I seek Thee. A devotional spirit cultivates the habit of seeing God in everything. To such a spirit the earth and the heavens are a temple, the only temple worthy of God. To it the succession of day and night and the march of the seasons are constant hymns. To it, not the heavens alone, but the whole framework and structure of nature with its ongoings “declare the glory of God.” This is the spirit which it is the duty and happiness of man to cultivate. The highest use of nature is not the support of man, but to lead him to God. A devotional spirit may also be cultivated by observing the providence of God as it respects nations, individuals and particularly ourselves. Here, as in nature, it is possible for men to substitute something else, as chance, or fate, for God; but those who believe in Him will nowhere find more striking evidence of a Divine hand, and “he who will observe the providence of God will have providences to observe.” But the main nutriment of a devotional spirit must be found in the Scriptures. Whatever may be said of the truth of the Scriptures, it is demonstrable that the God whom they reveal must call forth the highest possible adoration, and hence that the knowledge of God as revealed in them must, more than anything else can, quicken intelligent devotion. The attributes and character of God as made known in the Scriptures hold the same relation to devotion that the infinity of space, and the awful force that sustains and moves in it the array of suns and planets, holds to the emotion of sublimity; and as nothing can supersede infinite space in that relation, so nothing can supersede the God of the Bible as the ground and stimulus of the highest possible devotion. Thus recognizing God in the three great modes in which He is revealed—in nature, in providence and in revelation—we shall cultivate a devotional spirit. Mark Hopkins.

When Thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness. God does not punish for the sake of punishment merely; even His severities are the effects of goodness, and always directed to the advantage of those who feel them, or at least of others, “that they may hear, and fear, and do no more wickedness.” The great comprehensive lesson which He intends to teach by every judgment is, an awful regard to Himself as the moral governor of the world and the practice of religion. Abp. Secker.

The only power which is absolutely necessary to the world’s good is that of righteousness. This unites a people. This gives clear heads, strong frames, valiant hearts. A nation whose heart is soundly righteous will not fight unless it must; but if it must, it will fight grandly and for a righteous aim. The great God of nations will set His seal of approval on peoples that cleave to the right by giving again and again the victory to that which, humanly speaking, is the weaker side. Scripture cases of this abound: Israel and Pharaoh; Gideon and the Midianites; Hezekiah and Sennacherib; Jehoshaphat and the Ammonites; and (in another sense) Elijah and the priests and prophets of Baal. The Word of God is continually showing us that power is not always where it seems to be, but very often where it seems not to be: Joseph, Daniel, Peter, etc. From all these considerations, there may be drawn out an earnest appeal to men, even if they aim at nought higher than to be the true lovers and guardians of their country and nation, to seek for the sake of their own dear land, to love and to practise righteousness. C. C.

12-19. The prophet, in these verses, looks back upon what God had done with them, both in mercy and judgment, and sings unto God of both; and then looks forward upon what he hoped God would do for them. H. 12. Jehovah, Thou wilt give us peace, for even all our works Thou hast wrought for us. This is an expression of strong confidence and hope, founded on what has already been experienced. God certainly would favor them in future, for He had done so already. A. 13. The grand corruption of the heart of man, the great root-sin which sets itself against Christ as a Lord, is that lord of all misrule, SELF; that is the lord that lords it over you; and all other sins are but under-servants to this great lord of self-love, self-pride and self-righteousness. Now a true believer is righteous by the righteousness of another; he lives by the life of another; he is acted on by the spirit of another; and, therefore, he, of any man in the world, should have least of self in him; because Christ, as Lord, doth absolutely set Himself against this great corruption. And therefore, if you would know one excellent way of judging of Jesus Christ the Lord, His being in you, it is by the breaking and casting down of self; for the more full that a man is of self, the more empty is he of Christ; and the more full he is of Christ, the more empty he is of self; for the lord-self, and the Lord-Christ, cannot stand together; the lordship of Christ and the lordship of self are inconsistent; when you receive the Lord-Christ, then the lord-self is unthroned and thrown down. Erskine.

14. Those whom we lately served are now no more; Thou hast destroyed them and consigned them to oblivion, for the very purpose of securing our freedom and devotion to Thy service. A.

15. The prophet repeats the cherished thought: Thou hast increased Thine own people, and in doing this hast glorified Thyself. “Thou hast enlarged all the borders of the land,” is the proper rendering. The sense is that God had moved back the borders of their land on every side to enlarge their territory. The new Zion is to be on a larger scale, filling far more territory. This enlargement (as is shown fully in many other prophecies) contemplates the addition not only of restored Jews, but of converted Gentiles. H. C.

16,17. The song passes now from the past to the future. Israel’s national rejection of idols, their increase in number, and their wide dispersion are followed by sore troubles, that prepare the way, in the last times, for their full and final recovery to the covenant and favor of God. Their own efforts will wholly fail. God Himself will then mightily interfere; and Zion, according to the later promise (66: 7-9), will travail not in vain, and will bring forth children. Birks.

16. It was not merely after their deliverance that they turned from idols unto God. Their deliverance itself was owing to their humble prayers. Visit is here used in the unusual but natural sense of seeking God in supplication. It is implied, though not expressed, that their prayer was humble and submissive because they felt that what they suffered was a chastisement from God.

19. Thy dead shall live, my corpses shall arise; (awake and sing ye that dwell in the dust!) for the dew of herbs is Thy dew, and (on) the earth, (on) the dead, Thou wilt cause it to fall. This verse is in the strongest contrast with the one before it. To the ineffectual efforts of the people to save themselves, he now opposes their actual deliverance by God. They shall rise because they are Thy dead—i.e., Thy dead people.

Awake, etc., is a joyful apostrophe to the dead, after which the address to Jehovah is resumed. The reference to the dew is intended to illustrate the vivifying power of God. The obvious meaning of the words is an expression of strong confidence and hope, or rather of prophetic foresight, that God will raise the dead, that His live-giving power will be exerted. A.

Here the tone changes from sorrow, failure, to life, prosperity and exultant joy. Those who chant this song are themselves of Zion, and speak for her as well as for themselves. “Thy dead, O Zion, shall live again.” Thy people have been virtually, civilly, nationally dead; but they shall have a resurrection. “Being My dead body”—the dead of Zion—“they shall rise again.” Because these dead are God’s people, members of His own Zion, their resurrection from this death is certain. Then, thrilled with the blessed thought, the prophet gives utterance to the voice of God within him, “Awake and sing, ye that lie buried in dust; awake; come forth from your (figurative) graves, and break out in song as ye come up to the light of day and of this new life. For the dew that fell on thy dead body was like the dew of heaven upon vegetation—vivifying, restoring the withered and almost dying plants to life.” The last clause will bear this appropriate and beautiful translation, “And on the earth, on the dead thou wilt make it fall.” Naturally, the song turns to address Jehovah, who sends down the dew from the lower heavens, and much more His life-giving word of power to raise the dead. This resurrection of God’s people stands in contrast with the denial of resurrection to the wicked rulers of Babylon in verse 14. This passage proves beyond a question that the idea of a resurrection from the dead was familiar to the prophet and to his first readers for whose immediate use he wrote. As no writer could draw a figure from what was unknown to himself, so, if he sought to teach, he would not draw one from what was unknown to his readers. As Isaiah could not talk about a resurrection if he had never known the idea and the words to express it, so he would not expect to be understood unless his readers were also familiar with it. H. C.

This was undoubtedly one of those texts upon which the ancient Jews grounded their belief of the resurrection, the hope of which was founded on “the law and the prophets,” as Paul tells them (Acts 24: 14). W. Lowth.—The ancient Jews understood this passage so; the prophet speaks of the figurative and typical resurrection of the Jewish State and

Church, but the phraseology is taken from the resurrection of the last day, and to it is our attention intended to be directed. Vitringa.

“Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust, for thy dew is as the dew of herbs”—i.e., as dew revives the herbage, so does the power of God revive thee, and the earth brings forth the shades (the dead). Till then the people are to wait quietly. On the day of the final judgment for which the Lord arises (verse 21), the earth discloses her blood, and no more covers her slain; these being, according to the most probable explanation, awakened to new life, obtain their justification. That the resurrection (verse 19) must not here be regarded as typical (as though only the deliverance of the people of God from their troubles were intended) is evident from the contrast in verse 12 and the whole context. O.—This (as Ezekiel’s vision, which is a comment upon it) may be fitly accommodated: 1. To the spiritual resurrection of those that were dead in sin, by the power of Christ’s Gospel and grace. So Dr. Lightfoot applies it. The Gentiles shall live, with My body shall they arise; they shall be called in after Christ’s resurrection, shall rise with Him, and sit with Him in heavenly places; nay, they shall arise My body (says He); they shall become the mystical body of Christ, and shall rise as part of Him. 2. To the last resurrection; when dead saints shall live and rise together with Christ’s dead body; for He rose as the firstfruits, and believers shall rise by virtue of their union with Him, and their communion in His resurrection. H.

Awake. The act of dying is but a laying one’s self down to rest, and a dropping out of consciousness of the surrounding world. It is very remarkable and very beautiful that the New Testament scarcely ever employs the words dying and death for the act of separating body and spirit, or for the condition either of the spirit parted from the body, or of the body parted from the spirit. It keeps those grim words for the reality, the separation of the soul from God; and it only exceptionally uses them for the shadow and the symbol, the physical fact of the parting of the man from the house which here he has dwelt in. But the reason why Christianity uses these periphrases or metaphors, these euphemisms, for death, is the opposite of the reason why the world uses them. The world is so afraid of dying that it durst not name the grim, ugly thing. The Christian, or, at least, the Christian faith, is so little afraid of death, that it does not think such a trivial matter worth calling ing by the name, but only names it “falling asleep.” The sweet emblem suggests repose, and that in that sleep there are folded around the sleepers the arms of the Christ on whose bosom they rest, as an infant does on its first and happiest home, its mother’s breast.

Besides that, the emblem suggests the idea of continuous and conscious existence. And it suggests the idea of waking. Sleep is a parenthesis. If the night comes, the morning comes. “If winter comes, can spring be far behind?” They that sleep will awake, and be satisfied when they awake with Thy likeness. And so these three things—repose, conscious, continuous existence, and the certainty of awaking—all lie in that metaphor. Now, then, the risen Christ is the only ground of such hope, and faith in Him is the only state of mind which is entitled to cherish it. Nothing proves immortality except that open grave.

Though we know that much will be changed, that new powers will come and old wants and weaknesses fall away with new environment, still the essential self will be unchanged, and the life will run on without a break. There is no magic in the act of death which changes the set of a character, or the tendencies and desires of a nature. As you die, so you live after your death the same man and woman that you were when the blow fell. A. M.

Immediately after death the souls of believers are present with the person of Christ, and enjoy bright revelations of God and the society of the holy angels. . . . Nevertheless, as the complete man consists both of soul and body, the souls of the blessed during the interval between their death and the resurrection, although with Christ and inconceivably happy, have not attained to the perfection of either glory or blessedness, which is designed for them in Christ. The highest state of all must await the redemption of their bodies and of their purchased possession, and of the restitution of all things. A. A. Hodge.—That this is the teaching of the Holy Scriptures is evident from Christ’s promise to His disciples at the supper in Jerusalem: “I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, ye may be also” (John 14:3); from the promise to the dying thief: “to-day shalt thou be with Me in paradise” (Luke 23:43); from the parable of Dives and Lazarus (Luke 16:23, 24); from the prayer of Stephen, who said that he saw heaven opened and Jesus standing in full view, and then cried: “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Paul did not believe in any intermediate place, or in any sleep of the soul between death and the resurrection. He writes to the Philippians that he has a desire to depart and be with Christ. He tells the Corinthians that dying is like going out of a tent into a building of God. He adds that “mortality is swallowed up of life”—not of slumber and sweet dreams. He speaks in Eph. 3 : 15 of the Church as one family, partly on earth and partly in heaven. John tells us that, when he was in the spirit on Patmos, he saw a great multitude before the throne of God and the Lamb who had “washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb,” and who are, “therefore, before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His Temple.” These are the spirits of “the redeemed from the earth,” and they are in heaven. And in the fourteenth chapter we have a vision of the Lamb, with a hundred and forty-four thousand who sang before the throne a new song. These singers, we are expressly told, were redeemed from the earth. C. E. Babb.

It is the connection with Christ that gives the safety and the glory. They died with Him; they rose with Him; they suffered with Him; they shall be glorified with Him. The wish of all believers in this world has been, We would see Jesus! Then they shall see Him surrounded by all who have loved Him. “We know not what we shall be; but we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” This is the Apostle John’s idea of heaven, “We shall see Him as He is.” This will be enough. Here we have seen by glimpses, cloudily, in an enigma, “through a glass darkly;” but then, clearly, nearly, fully, “face to face.” And the object so seen is of all in the universe the most worthy of being contemplated. God shines in Him. “In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” To see Him, in the fulness of His unveiled excellence, will be a celestial pleasure, well worth dying for. J. W. A.

The perfect life of the dead in Christ is growth without a limit and without decline. To say that they are ever young is the same thing as to say that their being never reaches its climax, that it is ever but entering on its glory. That is, as we have said, the true conception of their life is that of eternal progress toward infinite perfection. For what is the goal to which they tend? The likeness of God in Christ—all His wisdom, His love, His holiness. He is all theirs, and all that He is to be transfused into their growing greatness. “He is made unto them of God, wisdom, and righteousness, and salvation and redemption,” nor can they cease to grow till they have outgrown Jesus and exhausted God. On the one hand is infinite perfection, destined to be imparted to the redeemed spirit. On the other hand is a capability of indefinite assimilation to, by reception of that infinite perfection. We have no reason to set bounds to the possible expansion of the human spirit. If only there be fitting circumstances and an adequate impulse, it may have an endless growth. Such circumstances and such impulse are given in the loving presence of Christ in glory. Therefore we look for an eternal life which shall never reach a point, beyond which no advance is possible.

Peter speaks of the believer’s departure as “an entrance ministered abundantly.” The going out is a going in; looked at from this side, it is a going out; looked at from the other side, it is a coming in. So, when we see a life of which Christian faith has been the underlying motive, and in which many Christian graces have been plainly manifested, passing from among us, let not our love look only at the empty place on earth, but let our faith rise to the thought of the filled place in heaven. Let us not dwell on the departure, but on the abundant entrance. A. M.

The old familiar love that blessed us here will greet us in the realms beyond. The daughter of Jairus was restored to the family circle. When she opened her eyes she found father and mother around her bed, as they had been when she fell asleep. We can see in this fact an earnest and type of what shall be the mode of life in the world beyond; an assurance that God will begin our resurrection life, as He began our life here on earth, among those we have known and loved, and in the bosom of the family circle. The “Talitha cumi” of the wonderful miracle teaches us that it is love that quickens the dead soul; that it is love that quickens the mortal body. It is love that builds the earthly home; it is love that builds the heavenly home. And the highest conception we can form of heaven is glorified affection. The sympathies and affections are the primal and the most indestructible elements of our nature, that which we have nearest God and likest God. God is love; and love is love forevermore. Hugh Macmillan.

20. Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers.** The prophet appears here in the person of God to confirm the hopes and expectations contained in the preceding hymn of the faithful, by an exhortation to patience and promise of support and deliverance from all the judgments and persecutions which might in aftertimes befall the people of God, or Church of Christ; to terminate with those terrible but short calamities, which shall be in the days of Antichrist emphatically so called. Vitringa.—The prophet by an exquisite transition intimates that this relief from the effects of God’s displeasure with His people must be preceded by the experience of the displeasure itself, that it is still a time of indignation, and that till this is elapsed the promise cannot be fulfilled. This painful postponement of the promised resurrection could not be more tenderly or beautifully intimated than in this fine apostrophe. A.