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Expositor's Bible Commentary Isaiah 58:1 Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins. CHAPTER XXIII THE REKINDLING OF THE CIVIC CONSCIENCE Isaiah 56:9-12 ; Isaiah 57:1-21 ; Isaiah 58:1-14 ; Isaiah 59:1-21 IT was inevitable, as soon as their city was again fairly in sight, that there should re-awaken in the exiles the civic conscience; that recollections of those besetting sins of their public life, for which their city and their independence were destroyed, should throng back upon them; that in prospect of their again becoming responsible for the discharge of justice and other political duties, they should be reminded by the prophet of their national faults in these respects, and of God’s eternal laws concerning them. If we keep this in mind, we shall understand the presence in "Second Isaiah" of the group of prophecies at which we have now arrived, Isaiah 56:9-12 ; Isaiah 57:1-21 ; Isaiah 58:1-14 ; Isaiah 59:1-21 . Hitherto our prophet, in marked contrast to Isaiah himself, has said almost nothing of the social righteousness of his people. Israel’s righteousness, as we saw in our fourteenth chapter, has had the very different meaning for our prophet of her pardon and restoration to her rights. But in Isaiah 56:9-12 ; Isaiah 57:1-21 ; Isaiah 58:1-14 ; Isaiah 59:1-21 we shall find the blame of civic wrong, and of other kinds of sin of which Israel could only have been guilty in her own land; we shall listen to exhortations to social justice and mercy like those we heard from Isaiah to his generation. Yet these are mingled with voices, and concluded with promises, which speak of the Return as imminent. Undoubtedly exilic elements reveal themselves. And the total impression is that some prophet of the late Exile, and probably the one whom we have been following, collected these reminiscences of his people’s sin in the days of their freedom, in order to remind them, before they went back again to political responsibility, why it was they were punished and how apt they were to go astray. Believing this to be the true solution of a somewhat difficult problem, we have ventured to gather this mixed group of prophecies under the title of the Rekindling of the Civic Conscience. They fall into three groups: first, Isaiah 56:9-12 ; Isaiah 57:1-21 ; second, chapter 58; third, chapter 59. We shall see that, while there is no reason to doubt the exilic origin of the whole of the second, the first and third of these are mainly occupied with the description of a state of things that prevailed only before the Exile, but they contain also exilic observations and conclusions. I. A CONSCIENCE BUT NO GOD Isaiah 56:9-12 ; Isaiah 57:1-21 This is one of the sections which almost decisively place the literary unity of "Second Isaiah" past possibility of belief. If Isaiah 56:1-8 flushes with the dawn of restoration, Isaiah 56:9-12 ; Isaiah 57:1-21 is very dark with the coming of the night, which preceded that dawn. Almost none dispute that the greater part of this prophecy must have been composed before the people left Palestine for exile. The state of Israel, which it pictures, recalls the descriptions of Hosea, and of the eleventh chapter of Zechariah. God’s flock are still in charge of their own shepherds, { Isaiah 56:9-12 } -a description inapplicable to Israel in exile. The shepherds are sleepy, greedy, sensual, drunkards, -victims to the curse against which Amos and Isaiah hurled their strongest woes. That sots like them should be spared while the righteous die unnoticed deaths { Isaiah 57:1 } can only be explained by the approaching judgment. "No man considereth that the righteous is taken away from the Evil." The Evil cannot mean, as some have thought, persecution, -for while the righteous are to escape it and enter into peace, the wicked are spared for it. It must be a Divine judgment, -the Exile. But "he entereth peace, they rest in their beds, each one that hath walked straight before him,"-for the righteous there is the peace of death and the undisturbed tomb of his fathers. What an enviable fate when emigration, and dispersion through foreign lands, are the prospect of the nation! Israel shall find her pious dead when she returns! The verse recalls that summons in Isaiah 26:1-21 , in which we heard the Mother Nation calling upon the dead she had left in Palestine to rise and increase her returned numbers. Then the prophet indicts the nation for a religious and political unfaithfulness, which we know was their besetting sin in the days before they left the Holy Land. The scenery, in whose natural objects he describes them seeking their worship, is the scenery of Palestine, not of Mesopotamia, - terebinths and wadies , and clerts of the rocks , and smooth stones of the wadies . The unchaste and bloody sacrifices with which he charges them bear the appearance more of Canaanite than of Babylonian idolatry. The humiliating political suits which they paid-"thou wentest to the king with ointment, and didst increase thy perfumes, and didst send thine ambassadors afar off, and didst debase thyself even unto Sheol" ( Isaiah 57:9 )-could not be attributed to a captive people, but were the sort of degrading diplomacy that Israel earned from Ahaz. While the painful pursuit of strength ( Isaiah 57:10 ), the shabby political cowardice ( Isaiah 57:11 ), the fanatic sacrifice of manhood’s purity and childhood’s life ( Isaiah 57:5 ), and especially the evil conscience which drove their blind hearts through such pain and passion in a sincere quest for righteousness ( Isaiah 57:12 ), betray the age of idolatrous reaction from the great Puritan victory of 701, -a generation exaggerating all the old falsehood and fear, against which Isaiah had inveighed, with the new conscience of sin which his preaching had created. The dark streak of blood and lust that runs through the condemned idolatry, and the stern conscience which only deepens its darkness, are sufficient reasons for dating the prophecy after 700. The very phrases of Isaiah, which it contains, have tempted some to attribute it to himself. But it certainly does not date from such troubles as brought his old age to the grave. The evil, which it portends, is, as we have seen, no persecution of the righteous, but a Divine judgment upon the whole nation,- presumably the Exile. We may date it, therefore, some time after Isaiah’s death, but certainly-and this is the important point-before the Exile. This, then, is an unmistakably pre-exilic constituent of "Second Isaiah." Another feature corroborates this prophecy’s original independence of its context. Its style is immediately and extremely rugged. The reader of the original feels the difference at once. It is the difference between travel on the level roads of Mesopotamia, with their unchanging horizons, and the jolting carriage of the stony paths of Higher Palestine, with their glimpses rapidly shifting from gorge to peak. But the remarkable thing is that the usual style of "Second Isaiah" is resumed before the end of the prophecy. One cannot always be sure of the exact verse at which such a literary change takes place. In this case some feel it as soon as the middle of Isaiah 57:11 , with the words, "Have not I held My peace even of long time, and thou fearest Me not?" It is surely more sensible, however, after ver. 14, in which we are arrested in any case by an alteration of standpoint. In ver. 14 we are on in the Exile again-before Isaiah 57:14 I cannot recognise any exilic symptom-and the way of return is before us. "And one said,"-it is the repetition to the letter of the strange anonymous voice of Isaiah 40:6 , -" and one said, Cast ye up, Cast ye up, open up," or "sweep open, a way, lift the stumbling block from the way of My people." And now the rhythm has certainly returned to the prevailing style of "Second Isaiah," and the temper is again that of promise and comfort. These sudden shiftings of circumstance and of prospect are enough to show the thoughtful reader of Scripture how hard is the problem of the unity of "Second Isaiah." On which we make here no further remark, but pass at once to the more congenial task of studying the great prophecy, Isaiah 57:14-21 , which rises one and simple from these fragments as does some homogeneous rock from the confusing debris of several geological epochs. For let the date and original purpose of the fragments we have considered be what they may, this prophecy has been placed as their conclusion with at least some rational, not to say spiritual intention. As it suddenly issues here, it gathers up, in the usual habit of Scripture, God’s moral indictment of an evil generation, by a great manifesto of the Divine nature, and a sharp distinction of the characters and fate of men. Now, of what kind is the generation to whose indictment this prophecy comes as a conclusion? It is a generation which has lost its God, but kept its conscience. This sums up the national character which is sketched in Isaiah 57:3-13 . These Israelites had lost Jehovah and His pure law. But the religion into which they fell back was not, therefore, easy or cold. On the contrary, it was very intense and very stern. The people put energy in it, and passion, and sacrifice that went to cruel lengths. Belief, too, in its practical results kept the people from fainting under the weariness in which its fanaticism reacted. "In the length of thy way thou wast wearied, yet thou didst not say, It is hopeless; life for thy hand"-that is, real, practical strength-"didst thou find: wherefore thou didst not break down." And they practised their painful and passionate idolatry with a real conscience. They were seeking to work out righteousness for themselves ( Isaiah 57:12 should be rendered: "I will expose your righteousness," the caricature of righteousness which you attempt). The most worldly statesman among them had his sincere ideal for Israel, and intended to enable her, in the possession of her land and holy mountain, to fulfil her destiny ( Isaiah 57:13 ). The most gross idolater had a hunger and thirst after righteousness, and burnt his children or sacrificed his purity to satisfy the vague promptings of his unenlightened conscience. It was indeed a generation which had kept its conscience, but lost its God; and what we have in Isaiah 57:15-21 is just the lost and forgotten God speaking of His Nature and His Will. They have been worshipping idols, creatures of their own fears and cruel passions. But He is the "high and lofty one"-two of the simplest adjectives in the language, yet sufficient to lift Him they describe above the distorting mists of human imagination. They thought of the Deity as sheer wrath and force, scarcely to be appeased by men even through the most bloody rites and passionate self-sacrifice. But He says, "The high and the holy I dwell in, yet with him also that is contrite and humble of spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones." The rest of the chapter is to the darkened consciences a plain statement of the moral character of God’s working. God always punishes sin, and yet the sinner is not abandoned. Though he go in his own way, God "watches his ways in order to heal him. I create the fruit of the lips," that is, "thanksgivings: Peace, peace, to him that is far off and him that is near, saith Jehovah, and I will heal him." But, as in chapter 48, and chapter 50, a warning comes last, and behind the clear, forward picture of the comforted and restored of Jehovah we see the weird background of gloomy, restless wickedness. II. SOCIAL SERVICE AND THE SABBATH (chapter 58) Several critics (including Professor Cheyne) regard chapter 58 as post-exilic, because of its declarations against formal fasting and the neglect of social charity, which are akin to those of post-exilic prophets like Zechariah and Joel, and seem to imply that the people addressed are again independent and responsible for the conduct of their social duties. The question largely turns on the amount of social responsibility we conceive the Jews to have had during the Exile. Now we have seen that many of them enjoyed considerable freedom: they had their houses and households; they had their slaves; they traded and were possessed of wealth. They were, therefore, in a position to be chargeable with the duties to which chapter 58 calls them. The addresses of Ezekiel to his fellow-exiles have many features in common with chapter 58, although they do not mention fasting; and fasting itself was a characteristic habit of the exiles, in regard to which it is quite likely they should err just as is described in chapter 58. Moreover, there is a resemblance between this chapter’s comments upon the people’s enquiries of God ( Isaiah 58:2 ) and Ezekiel’s reply when certain of the elders of Israel came to enquire of Jehovah. ( Ezekiel 21:1-32 , cf. Ezekiel 33:30 f.) And again Isaiah 58:11-12 are evidently addressed to people in prospect of return to their own land and restoration of their city. We accordingly date chapter 53 from the Exile. But we see no reason to put it as early as Ewald does, who assigns it to a younger contemporary of Ezekiel. There is no linguistic evidence that it is an insertion, or from another hand than that of our prophet. Surely there were room and occasion for it in those years which followed the actual deliverance of the Jews by Cyrus, but preceded the restoration of Jerusalem, -those years in which there were no longer political problems in the way of the people’s return for our prophet to discuss, and therefore their moral defects were all the more thrust upon his attention; and especially, when in the near prospect of their political independence, their social sins roused his apprehensions. Those who have never heard an angry Oriental speak have no idea of what power of denunciation lies in the human throat. In the East, where a dry climate and large leisure bestow upon the voice a depth and suppleness prevented by our vulgar haste of life and teasing weather, men have elaborated their throat-letters to a number unknown in any Western alphabet; and upon the lowest notes they have put an edge, that comes up shrill and keen through the roar of the upper gutturals, till you feel their wrath cut as well as sweep you before it. In the Oriental throat, speech goes down deep enough to echo all the breadth of the inner man; while the possibility of expressing within so supple an organ nearly every tone of scorn or surprise preserves anger from that suspicion of spite or of exhaustion, which is conveyed by too liberal a use of the nasal or palatal letters. Hence in the Hebrew language "to call with the throat" means to call with vehemence, but with self-command; with passion, yet as a man; using every figure of satire, but earnestly; neither forgetting wrath for mere art’s sake, nor allowing wrath to escape the grip of the stronger muscles of the voice. It is "to lift the voice like a trumpet,"-an instrument, which, with whatever variety of music its upper notes may indulge our ears, never suffers its main tone of authority to drop, never slacks its imperative appeal to the wills of the hearers. This is the style of the chapter before us, which opens with the words, "Call with the throat, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet." Perhaps no subject more readily provokes to satire and sneers than the subject of the chapter, -the union of formal religion and unlovely life. And yet in the chapter there is not a sneer from first to last. The speaker suppresses the temptation to use his nasal tones, and utters, not as the satirist, but as the prophet. For his purpose is not to sport with his people’s hypocrisy, but to sweep them out of it. Before he has done, his urgent speech, that has not lingered to sneer nor exhausted itself in screaming, passes forth to spend its unchecked impetus upon final promise and gospel. It is a wise lesson from a master preacher, and half of the fruitlessness of modern preaching is clue to the neglect of it. The pulpit tempts men to be either too bold or too timid about sin; either to whisper or to scold; to euphemise or to exaggerate; to be conventional or hysterical. But two things are necessary, the facts must be stated, and the whole manhood of the preacher, and not only his scorn or only his anger or only an official temper, brought to bear upon them. "Call with the throat, spare not, like a trumpet lift up thy voice, and publish to My people their transgression, and to the house of Jacob their sin." The subject of the chapter is the habits of a religious people, -the earnestness and regularity of their religious performance contrasted with the neglect of their social relations. The second verse, "the descriptions in which are evidently drawn from life," tells us that "the people sought God daily, and had a zeal to know His ways, as a nation that had done righteousness,"-fulfilled the legal worship, -"and had not forsaken the of their God: they ask of Me laws of righteousness,"-that is, a legal worship, the performance of which might make them righteous, -"and in drawing near to God they take delight." They had, in fact, a great greed for ordinances and functions, -for the revival of such forms as they had been accustomed to of old. Like some poor prostrate rose, whose tendrils miss the props by which they were wont to rise to the sun, the religious conscience and affections of Israel, violently torn from their immemorial supports, lay limp and wind-swept on a bare land, and longed for God to raise some substitute for those altars of Zion by which, in the dear days of old, they had lifted themselves to the light of His face. In the absence of anything better, they turned to the chill and shadowed forms of the fasts they had instituted. But they did not thereby reach the face of God. "Wherefore have we fasted," say they, "and Thou hast not seen? we have humbled our souls, and Thou takest no notice?" The answer comes swiftly: Because your fasting is a mere form! "Lo, in the very day of your fast ye find a business to do, and all your workmen you overtask." So formal is your fasting that your ordinary eager, selfish, cruel life goes on beside it just the same. Nay, it is worse than usual, for your worthless, wearisome fast but puts a sharper edge upon your temper: "Lo, for strife and contention ye fast, to smite with the fist of tyranny." And it has no religious value: "Ye fast not" like "as" you are fasting "today so as to make your voice heard on high. Is such the fast that I choose, -a day for a man to afflict himself? Is it to droop his head like a rush, and grovel on sackcloth and ashes? Is it this thou wilt call a fast and a day acceptable to Jehovah?" One of the great surprises of the human heart is that self-denial does not win merit or peace. But assuredly it does not, if love be not with it. Though I give my body to be burned and have not love, it profiteth me nothing. Self-denial without love is self-indulgence. "Is not this the fast that I choose? to loosen the bonds of tyranny, to shatter the joints of the yoke, to let the crushed go free, and that ye burst every yoke. Is it not to break to the hungry thy bread, and that thou bring home wandering poor? when thou seest one naked that thou cover him, and that from thine own flesh thou hide not thyself? Then shall break forth like the morning thy light, and thy health shall immediately spring. Yea, go before thee shall thy righteousness, the glory of Jehovah shall sweep thee on," literally, "gather thee up. Then thou shalt call, and Jehovah shall answer; thou shalt cry, and He shall say, Here am I If thou shalt put from thy midst the yoke, and the putting forth of the finger, and the speaking of naughtiness"-three degrees of the subtlety of selfishness, which when forced back from violent oppression will retreat to scorn and from open scorn to backbiting, -"and if thou draw out to the hungry thy soul,"-tear out what is dear to thee in order to fill his need, the strongest expression for self-denial which the Old Testament contains, -"and satisfy the soul that is afflicted, then shall uprise in the darkness thy light, and thy gloom shall be as the noonday. And guide thee shall Jehovah continually, and satisfy thy soul in droughts, and thy limbs make lissom; and thou shalt be like a garden well-watered, { Jeremiah 31:12 } and like a spring of water whose waters fail not. And they that are of thee shall build the ancient ruins; the foundations of generation upon generation thou shalt raise up, and they shall be calling thee Repairer-of-the-Breach, Restorer-of-Paths-for-habitation." {Cf. Job 24:13 } Thus their "righteousness" in the sense of external vindication and stability, which so prevails with our prophet, shall be due to their "righteousness" in that inward moral sense in which Amos and Isaiah use the word. And so concludes a passage which fills the earliest, if not the highest, place in the glorious succession of Scriptures of Practical Love, to which belong the sixty-first chapter of Isaiah, the twenty-fifth of Matthew and the thirteenth of First Corinthians. Its lesson is, -to go back to the figure of the draggled rose, -that no mere forms of religion, however divinely prescribed or conscientiously observed, can of themselves lift the distraught and trailing affections of man to the light and peace of Heaven; but that our fellow men, if we cling to them with love and with arms of help, are ever the strongest props by which we may rise to God; that character grows rich and life joyful, not by the performance of ordinances with the cold conscience of duty, but by acts of service with the warm heart of love. And yet such a prophecy concludes with an exhortation to the observance of one religious form, and places the keeping of the Sabbath on a level with the practice of love. "If thou turn from the Sabbath thy foot," from "doing thine own business on My holy day; { Amos 8:5 } and tallest the Sabbath Pleasure,"-the word is a strong one, "Delight, Delicacy, Luxury, -Holy of Jehovah, Honourable; and dost honour it so as not to do thine own ways, or find thine own business, or keep making talk: then thou shalt find thy pleasure," or "thy delight, in Jehovah,"-note the parallel of pleasure in the Sabbath and pleasure in Jehovah, -"and He shall cause thee to ride on the high places of the land, and make thee to feel upon the portion of Jacob thy father: yea, the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken." Our prophet, then, while exalting the practical Service of Man at the expense of certain religious forms, equally exalts the observance of Sabbath; his scorn for their formalism changes when he comes to it into a strenuous enthusiasm of defence. This remarkable fact, which is strictly analogous to the appearance of the Fourth Commandment in a code otherwise consisting of purely moral and religious laws, is easily explained. Observe that our prophet bases his plea for Sabbath-keeping, and his assurance that it must lead to prosperity, not on its physical, moral, or social benefits, but simply upon its acknowledgment of God. Not only is the Sabbath to be honoured because it is the "Holy of Jehovah" and "Honourable," but "making it one’s pleasure" is equivalent to "finding one’s pleasure in Him." The parallel between these two phrases in Isaiah 58:13 and Isaiah 58:14 is evident, and means really this: Inasmuch as ye do it unto the Sabbath, ye do it unto Me. The prophet, then, enforces the Sabbath simply on account of its religious and Godward aspect. Now, let us remember the truth, which he so often enforces, that the Service of Man, however, ardently and widely pursued, can never lead or sum up our duty; that the Service of God has, logically and practically, a prior claim, for without it the Service of Man must suffer both in obligation and in resource. God must be our first resort-must have our first homage, affection, and obedience. But this cannot well take place without some amount of definite and regular and frequent devotion to Him. In the most spiritual religion there is an irreducible minimum of formal observance. Now, in that wholesale destruction of religious forms, which took place at the overthrow of Jerusalem, there was only one institution, which was not necessarily involved. The Sabbath did not fall with the Temple and the Altar: the Sabbath was independent of all locality; the Sabbath was possible even in exile. It was the one solemn, public, and frequently regular form in which the nation could turn to God, glorify Him, and enjoy Him. Perhaps, too, through the Babylonian fashion of solemnising the seventh day, our prophet realised again the primitive institution of the Sabbath, and was reminded that, since seven days is a regular part of the natural year, the Sabbath is, so to speak, sanctioned by the statutes of Creation. An institution, which is so primitive, which is so independent of locality, which forms so natural a part of the course of time, but which, above all, has twice-in the Jewish Exile and in the passage of Judaism to Christianity-survived the abrogation and disappearance of all other forms of the religion with which it was connected, and has twice been affirmed by prophecy or practice to be an essential part of spiritual religion and the equal of social morality, -has amply proved its Divine origin and its indispensableness to man. III. SOCIAL CRIMES (Chapter 59) Chapter 59 is, at first sight, the most difficult of all of "Second Isaiah" to assign to a date. For it evidently contains both pre-exilic and exilic elements. On the one hand, its charges of guilt imply that the people addressed by it are responsible for civic justice to a degree which could hardly be imputed to the Jews in Babylon. We saw that the Jews in the Exile had an amount of social freedom and domestic responsibility which amply accounts for the kind of sins they are charged with in chapter 58. But ver. 14 of chapter 59 ( Isaiah 59:14 ) reproaches them with the collapse of justice in the very seat and public office of justice, of which it was not possible they could have been guilty except in their own land and in the days of their independence. On the other hand, the promises of deliverance in chapter 59 read very much as if they were exilic. "Judgment" and "righteousness" are employed in Isaiah 59:9 in their exilic sense, and God is pictured exactly as we have seen Him in other chapters of our prophet. Are we then left with a mystery? On the contrary, the solution is clear. Israel is followed into exile by her old conscience. The charges of Isaiah and Ezekiel against Jerusalem, while Jerusalem was still a " civitas, " ring in her memory. She repeats the very words. With truth she says that her present state, so vividly described in Isaiah 59:9-11 , is due to sins of old, of which, though perhaps she can no longer commit them, she still feels the guilt. Conscience always crowds the years together; there is no difference of time in the eyes of God the Judge. And it was natural, as we have said already, that the nation should remember her besetting sins at this time; that her civic conscience should awake again, just as she was again about to become a civitas . The whole of this chapter is simply the expansion and enforcement of the first two verses, that keep clanging like the clangour of a great high bell: "Behold, Jehovah’s hand is not shortened that it cannot save, neither is His ear heavy that it cannot hear; but your iniquities have been separators between you and your God, and your sins have hidden" His "face from you, that He will not hear." There is but one thing that comes between the human heart and the Real Presence and Infinite Power of God; and that one thing is Sin. The chapter labours to show how real God is. Its opening verses talk of "His Hand, His Ear, His Face." And the closing verses paint Him with the passions and the armour of a man, -a Hero in such solitude and with such forward force, that no imagination can fail to see the Vivid, Lonely Figure. "And He saw that there was no man, and He wondered that there was none to interpose; therefore His own right arm brought salvation unto Him, and His righteousness it upheld Him. And He put on righteousness like a breastplate and salvation" for "a helmet upon His head; and He put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and wrapped Himself in zeal like a robe." Do not let us suppose this is mere poetry. Conceive what inspires it, -the great truth that in the Infinite there is a heart to throb for men and a will to strike for them. This is what the writer desires to proclaim, and what we believe the Spirit of God moved his poor human lips to give their own shape to, -the simple truth that there is One, however hidden He may be to men’s eyes, who feels for men, who feels hotly for men, and whose will is quick and urgent to save them. Such a One tells His people that the only thing which prevents them from knowing how real His heart and will are-the only thing which prevents them from seeing His work in their midst-is their sin. The roll of sins to which the prophet attributes the delay of the people’s deliverance is an awful one; and the man who reads it with conscience asleep might conclude that it was meant only for a period of extraordinary violence and bloodshed. Yet the chapter implies that society exists, and that at least the forms of civilisation are in force. Men sue one another before the usual courts. But none "sueth in righteousness or goeth to the law in truth. They trust in vanity and speak lies." All these charges might be true of a society as outwardly respectable as our own. Nor is the charge of bloodshed to be taken literally. The Old Testament has so great a regard for the spiritual nature of man, that to deny the individual his rights or to take away the peace of God from his heart, it calls the shedding of innocent blood. Isaiah reminds us of many kinds of this moral murder when he says, "your hands are full of blood: seek justice, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow." Ezekiel reminds us of others when he tells how God spake to him, that if he "warn not the wicked, and the same wicked shall die in his iniquity, his blood will I require at thy hand." And again a Psalm reminds us of the time "when the Lord maketh inquisition for blood, He forgetteth not the cry of the poor." { Isaiah 1:17 ; Psalm 9:12 } This is what the Bible calls murder and lays its burning words upon, -not such acts of bloody violence as now and then make all humanity thrill to discover that in the heart of civilisation there exist men with the passions of the ape and the tiger, but such oppression of the poor, such cowardice to rebuke evil, such negligence to restore the falling, such abuse of the characters of the young and innocent, such fraud and oppression of the weak, as often exist under the most respectable life, and employ the weapons of a Christian civilisation in order to fulfil themselves. We have need to take the bold, violent standards of the prophets and lay them to our own lives, -the prophets that call the man who sells his honesty for gain, "a harlot," and hold him "blood-guilty" who has wronged, tempted, or neglected his brother. Do not let us suppose that these crimson verses of the Bible may be passed over by us as not applicable to ourselves. They do not refer to murderers or maniacs: they refer to social crimes, to which we all are in perpetual temptation, and of which we all are more or less guilty, -the neglect of the weak, the exploitation of the poor for our own profit, the soiling of children’s minds, the multiplying of temptation in the way of God’s little ones, the malice that leads us to blast another’s character, or to impute to his action evil motives for which we have absolutely no grounds save the envy and sordidness of our own hearts. Do not let us fail to read all such verses in the clear light which John the Apostle throws on them when he says: "He that loveth not abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer." The Expositor's Bible Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.

Cry aloud, spare not. Isaiah 58:1-4 "Cry aloud J. A. Alexander. "Cry with the throat." Crying with the throat or from the lungs is here opposed to a simple motion of the lips and tongue ( 1 Samuel 1:13 ). The common version, "Cry aloud," is therefore substantially correct, though somewhat vague. The LXX in like manner paraphrases it ?? ????? . J.D. Michaelis reads, "as loud as thou canst." The positive command is enforced by the negative one, "spare not," as in Isaiah 54:2 . The loudness of the call is intended to suggest the importance of the subject, and, perhaps, the insensibility of those to be convinced. The prophet here seems to turn away from avowed apostates to hypocritical professors of the truth. ( J. A. Alexander. ) Conviction before comfort When our Lord Jesus, promised to send the Comforter, He added, "When He is come, He shall convince;" for conviction must prepare for comfort, and must also separate between the precious and the vile, and mark out those to whom comfort doth not belong. God had appointed this prophet to comfort His people ( Isaiah 40:1 ); here He appoints him to convince them, and show them their sins. ( M. Henry . ) The minister must be faithful He must be vehement and in good earnest, must cry aloud, and not spare. Not spare them, nor touch them with his reproofs as if he were afraid of hurting them, but search the wound to the bottom; lay it bare to the bone; not spare himself, or his own pains, but cry as loud as he can. Though he spend his strength, and waste his spirits; though he get their ill-will by it, and get himself into an ill-name; yet he must not spare. The trumpet doth not give an uncertain sound, but, though loud and shrill, is intelligible. So must his alarms be, giving them warning of the fatal consequences of sin ( Ezekiel 33:3, 4 ). ( M. Henry . ) National sins protested against R. Shittier. I. TESTIFY AGAINST SOME OF THE PREVAILING SINS AND CRYING ABOMINATIONS OF THIS LAND. 1. Pride. 2. Luxury. 3. Pleasure. 4. Gluttony. 5. Drunkenness. 6. Swearing. 7. Sabbath-breaking. 8. Lying. 9. Avarice. 10. Adultery and fornication. 11. Profane contempt of holy things. 12. The evil passions which agitate the bosoms of men, and which receive the sanction of a large portion of the community — not as casual evils, but as principles of action, and tests of what is called highmindedness and honour. Some of the most prevailing of these, when stripped of their specious coverings, and exhibited in their proper character, are — ambition, envy, malice, and revenge. 13. Flagrant insincerity., and wicked abuse of professed acts of public worship. 14. Hardened impenitence. II. URGE WITH FAITHFULNESS AND IMPARTIALITY THE SENTENCE OF GOD DENOUNCED UPON EACH. ( R. Shittier. ) Selfish piety Homilist. is the popular piety of this age and land. I. IT IS VERY EARNEST. The piety', of Israel at this time seems to have been anything but a dull and inactive power; it was very busy. 1. It was earnest in study. "They seek Me daily," etc. (ver. 2). 2. It is earnest in prayer. "They ask of Me the ordinances of justice," etc. 3. It is earnest in its self-sacrifice. It endures lastings and self-mortifications (ver. 3). 4. It is earnest in its churchism. "Ye fast for strife and debate," etc. It would seem that the Israelites were divided into religious parties or factions, some professing to be more orthodox than others. There was a rivalry, therefore, in their devotion; one tried to excel the other, and the competition ran so high that they began to "smite each other with the fist." 5. It is earnest in its professions. They made "their voice to be heard on high." II. IT IS TERRIBLY REPREHENSIBLE. The prophet is here called upon to "Cry aloud, spare not," etc. 1. It is an insult to God. "He abhors the sacrifice where not the heart is found." This selfish piety is the most abhorrent of all impieties. 2. It is pernicious to souls. This selfish piety inflicts incalculable injury upon its possessor: it warps the judgment, it deadens the conscience, it awakens false hopes generates diseased affections and dehumanizes the man. Nor is the injury confined to the possessor himself. ( Homilist. ) Yet they seek Me daily. Isaiah 58:2 Hypocitical religion When the prophet went about to show them their transgressions, they pleaded they could see no transgressions they were guilty of; for they were diligent in attending God's worship, and what more would he have of them? Now, 1. He owns the matter of fact to be true. As far as hypocrites do that which is good, they shall not be denied the praise of it; let them make their best of it. It is owned that they have the form of godliness.(1) They go to church, and observe their hours of prayer. "They seek Me daily."(2) They love to hear good preaching. "They delight to know My ways," as Herod, who heard John gladly, and the stony ground, that received the seed of the Word with joy; it is to them as a lovely song ( Ezekiel 33:32 ).(3) They seem to take a great pleasure in the exercises of religion, and to be in their element when they are at their devotions. "They delight in approaching to God," not for His sake to whom they approach, but for the sake of some pleasing circumstance — the company or the festival(4) They are inquisitive concerning their duty, and seem desirous only to know it, making no. question,, but that then they should do it." "They ask of Me the ordinances of justice, the rules of piety in the worship of God, the rules of equity in their dealings with men, both which are ordinances of justice.(5) They appear to the eyes of the world as if they made conscience of doing their duty. They are "as a nation that did righteousness and forsook not the ordinances of their God. But, 2. He intimates that this was so far from being a cover or excuse for their sin, that really it was an aggravation of it. Show them their sins that they go on in, notwithstanding their knowledge of good and evil, sin and duty, and the convictions of their consciences concerning it. ( M. Henry . ) Religious, but unsaved Men may go a great way towards heaven, and yet come short; nay, may go to hell with a good reputation. ( M. Henry . ) Two great problems D. Moore, M. A. The prophet and the world may be considered as engaged in two opposite problems. The problem which the world is ever seeking to discover is to find out what is the least religion they may have, and yet be saved; the problem which the prophet is here endeavoring to solve, is what is the most religion you may have, and yet be lost. ( D. Moore, M. A. ) Forms of religion There are four distinct forms of Gospel service, all of which, if accompanied by right affections towards God, afford just and scriptural evidence of an accepted or reconciled state. These four forms of service are — the habit of daily prayer, a love for the preached Word, an open profession of Christ, and an apparent earnestness in inquiring after the ways and will of God. These, however, are not in themselves decisive tests of spiritual character; causes may operate to induce these outward observances, wholly distinct from the love of God in its governing and ruling power. Education may prompt a man to acts of daily worship; by local sympathies, or by the power of fashion, a man may be induced to make a religious profession; and he may with much apparent earnestness be inquiring which is the way to life eternal, when he has a secret mental reservation to keep the joys, the comforts, and the forbidden delights of the present world. ( M. Henry . ) Formalism I. WHY MEN GO SO FAR. 1. It is a sentiment of moral uneasiness which makes the formalist of every grade and character. 2. But in estimating the causes which induce men to go certain lengths in a religious life, we should not entirely omit the expectation of a considerable degree of credit in the world; a secret pride at being numbered among the people of God — an indefinite notion of outward prosperity as usually following on a bold religious profession. II. WHY IT IS THAT THEY WILL NOT GO FURTHER, For this I shall assign two reasons. 1. Defective knowledge — an imperfect acquaintance with the way of salvation. Men know not the end of Christ's work, they know not the jealousy with which He regards any interference with that work. 2. Defective obedience — they stop short of some form of Gospel requirement with which they should comply. III. APPLY SOME TESTS OF SPIRITUAL SINCERITY. ( M. Henry . ) Wherefore have we fasted? Isaiah 58:3-7 Fasts Prof. S. R. Driver, D. D. were a common feature of the old Israelitish religion ( 1 Kings 21:9, 12 ; Jeremiah 36:9 ). In Zechariah 8:19 we learn expressly that during the exile four days were observed annually as fasts, in commemoration of dates connected with the fall of Jerusalem. ( Prof. S. R. Driver, D. D. ) Fasting Bp. Talbot. I. CONSIDER IN GENERAL THE DUTY OF FASTING, ITS NATURE, ENDS AND USES. As to the meaning of the word, fasting is only an abstinence from food. Whether this abstinence should be total or partial, and how long it should be continued, cannot be determined by any general rule that can reach all persons; but the constitutions and strength of particular persons must be considered, and such abstinence used by them respectively as will best answer in each the ends and uses of fasting. We are not to look upon fasting in itself as a thing that recommends us to God. But there are good ends for which fasting is appointed, and which are promoted by it, that make it acceptable to God . regard, therefore, must ever be had to those ends, and such measures taken as may be most conducive to them, and they are chiefly these — 1. For subduing and mortifying the sinful appetites of the body. 2. For the better disposing the mind to prayer and other spiritual exercises. The corruptible body is too apt to press down the immortal soul. 3. For the testifying our shame and sorrow; our anger at ourselves for our sins. We have God's express command for it to His people the Jews. The prophet Joel frequently and earnestly presses them to this duty. Holy men of old practised it, as we find in the instances of Ezra, David, Daniel, etc. And that we may not think this to be such a Jewish rite, as concerned only those that lived under their dispensation, we read that when the prophet Jonah denounced God's judgment against Nineveh, those Gentiles proclaimed a fast, and observed it universally from the greatest to the least. And to put this matter out of all doubt, the blessed Author of our holy roll,on, in His Sermon on the Mount, though He does not directly command fasting yet supposes it a duty to be practised by Christians, gives directions for the right performance of it, and upon such a performance assures us of a blessing from our Father in heaven. II. REFLECT UPON THOSE FAULTS OF THE JEWS RECORDED IN MY TEXT, WHICH MADE THEIR FASTS UNACCEPTABLE TO GOD. 1. Though they used great outward austerity, and severe discipline towards the body, there was no inward change. 2. Their divisions and contentions. "Ye fast for strife and debate," etc. 3. Their want of compassion and charity to those that were in affliction (ver. 7). A like thread of hypocrisy ran through their fasts, and prayers, and alms, and all their services in our Saviour's time. III. INQUIRE WHETHER WE OF THIS NATION ARE NOT JUSTLY CHARGEABLE WITH THE SAME SINS WHICH THEY COMMITTED, and so severely smarted for; and whether we have not too much reason to fear that God may expostulate with us about our public fasts, as He did with them, " Are they such fasts as I have chosen?" IV. PRESS YOU TO THE PRACTICE OF SUCH THINGS AS MAY MAKE THIS DAY OF HUMILIATION AN ACCEPTABLE DAY UNTO THE LORD. And what can do this but our careful avoiding those sins which the Jews are here reproved for, and practising their contrary duties? 1. We must be sure to avoid that foolish and provoking sin of hypocrisy. 2. Also all strife and division. S. Let us take heed of unmercifulness and hard-heartedness to those that are in want and misery; for, with what face can we ask, with what reason can we expect from God, supplies for our wants, or succour in our distress, if we refuse such help as we can give to our poor brethren in their affliction? ( Bp. Talbot. ) Incipient Pharisaism Prof. J. Skinner, D. D. There is an incipient Pharisaism in their evident expectation that by external works of righteousness they would hasten the coming of the Messianic salvation. ( Prof. J. Skinner, D. D. ) Ye fast for strife J. A. Alexander. J. D. Michaelis tells a story of a lady who was never known to scold her servants so severely as on fast days, which he says agrees well with physiological principles and facts! ( J. A. Alexander. ) Is it such a fast that I have chosen? Isaiah 58:5-9 The fast which God has chosen H. Linton, M. A. I. GOD'S PURPOSE IN COMMANDING MEN TO FAST. 1. To lead us to prayer (ver. 4), prayer so real that our voices are "heard on high," that God will hear and answer. 2. To aid us in realizing communion with Him (ver. 9); that His voice be heard by us as truly as ours by Him; our voice to Him (ver. 8), His to us. 3. To aid in repressing self in all its forms. In John 3:30 , we have the general principle, also in Philippians 2:8 . II. THE NATURE OR CHARACTER OF TRUE ABSTINENCE. 1. To loose our bands ( Luke 13:16 ), "whom Satan hath bound" ( Luke 11:21, 22 ; Matthew 5:29, 30 ). 2. To undo our burdens ( Psalm 55:22 ; Matthew 11:28-30 ). 3. To break every yoke, every habit that enslaves ( Romans 14:21 ; 1 Corinthians 6:12-18 ). "I will not be brought under the power of any." 4. To bring the flesh into subjection to the spirit ( Galatians 5:17 ). III. THE EFFECT OF TRUE ABSTINENCE. 1. "Then" thy light shall break forth like morning ( Philippians 2:15, 16 ; Matthew 5:16 ). 2. "Thy righteousness shall go before thee ' as a leader to higher grace and glory ( 2 Corinthians 3:18 ). 3. Thy prayer shall be heard (ver. 9). 4. There shall be light from on high, and His guidance for ever (ver. 10; Psalm 32:8 ; Exodus 33:14 ).Conclusion: To keep this season properly, we must be ourselves "free" as now creatures in Him. We must act habitually in the spirit of freedom ( Galatians 5:1 ). We must do what in us lies to make others free ( Numbers 10:29 ). ( H. Linton, M. A. ) Philanthropic piety Homilist. In these verses you have the religious instinct working, not through selfishness, but through love, not in formal religious devotions, but in earnest philanthropic services. I. ITS RITUAL IS PHILANTHROPIC SERVICE. "Pure religion and undefiled is this, to visit the widow and fatherless," etc. II. ITS INFLUENCE IS GLORIOUSLY BENEFICENT. What is it? "Light." "Then shall thy light break forth as the morning. Prosperity will come on them as the genial dawning of a long and blessed day. "Health." "Thine health shall spring forth speedily.' All weakness and disease will depart, and healthful vigour will come into the soul. "Righteousness." "Thy righteousness shall go before thee." The eternal law of rectitude — not expediency, not caprice, not passion, not morbid sentiment, will guide the footsteps as a leader through the winding path of life.' "Glory. "The glory of the Lord shall be thy rereward" (margin, "shall gather thee up, that ye shall bring up the rear'). III. ITS SPIRIT IS ACCEPTABLE TO GOD. "Then shalt thou call and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and He shall say, Here I am." The idea is that if men would only be real in their religion, show their love to Him by labouring earnestly for the good of suffering humanity, then He would respond to their prayers, and grant them their request. ( Homilist. ) Is not this the fast that I have chosen? Isaiah 58:6, 7 Practical fasting J. A. Alexander. In reply to the question, how the acts here mentioned could be described as fasting, J. D. Michaelis says that they are all to be considered as involving acts of conscientious self-denial, which he illustrates by the case of an American slaveholder brought by stress of conscience to emancipate his slaves. ( J. A. Alexander. ) Oppression R. Macculloch. People may be oppressed in their reputation by unmerited reproaches. ( R. Macculloch. ) A foretokening of Gospel morality W. Archer Butler. This passage is one of those in which the holiness peculiar to the Gospel seems to be foretokened in the morality of the prophetic canon. The twilight clouds were red with the coming Sun. 1. Isaiah and his brother-prophets were holier and heavenlier and richer in the works of love upon an anticipated Christ than we are in a Christ already our crucified Example. These men of God knew no divorce between belief and love, between living perpetually in the presence of a benevolent Lord and imitating His benevolence to their "fellow-creatures. As it is the spirit of truth that has solemnized the union of the principle of faith with the works of charity, so it is, and in all ages has been, the master policy of the spirit of evil to effect their separation. 2. The whole religious providence towards man in every age has been a system operating by the combined influence of faith and love — both directed towards His own perfect essence. In our existing condition, what is faith but love relying on support? What is love but faith forgetting the support in the Supporter? Every progressive step in attaining habits of compassion and kindness upon earth must necessarily be a step towards estimating and loving Him who is the essential Spirit of benevolence. The love of man is the type and shadow of the love of God. The people of God are here engaged with the rudiments and images of those affections which are to be the duty and happiness of their eternity. ( W. Archer Butler. ) Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry? Isaiah 58:7 Almsgiving J. Logan, F. R. S. Why there are so many evils in the world is a question that has been agitated ever since man felt them. It becomes not us, with too presumptuous a curiosity, to assign the causes of the Divine conduct, or, with too daring a hand, to draw aside the veil which covers the councils of the Almighty. But from this state of things we see many good effects arise. The enjoyments of life are grafted upon its wants; from natural evil arises moral good, and the sufferings of some contribute to the happiness of all. Such being the state of human affairs, charity, or that disposition which leads us to supply the wants, and alleviate the sufferings, of unhappy men, as well as bear with their infirmities, must be a duty of capital importance. Accordingly, it is enjoined in our holy religion as being the chief of the virtues. It is assigned as the test and criterion by which we are to distinguish the disciples of Jesus, and it will be selected at the great day as being that part of the character which is most decisive of the life, and according to which the last sentence is to turn. Charity, in its most, comprehensive sense, signifies that disposition of mind which, from a regard and gratitude to God, leads to do all the good in our power to man. But all that I intend at present is, to consider that branch of charity which is called almsgiving. I. WHAT IS THE MOST PROPER METHOD OF BESTOWING CHARITY. 1. The best method of bestowing charity upon the healthy and strong is to give them employment. One half of the vices of men take their orion from idleness. To support the indolent, therefore, to keep those idle who are able to work, is acting contrary to the intention of God; is doing an injury to society, which claims a right to the services of all its members; is defrauding real objects of charity of that which is their proper due,. and is fostering a race of. sluggards to prey upon the vitals of a State. But he is a valuable member of society, and merits well of mankind, who, by devising means of employment for the industrious, delivers the public from a useless incumbrance, and makes those who would otherwise be the pests of society, useful subjects of the Commonwealth. 2. Another act of charity, of equal importance, is to supply the wants of the really indigent and necessitous. If the industrious, with all their efforts, are not able to earn a competent livelihood; if the produce of their labour be not proportionable to the demands of a numerous family; then they arc proper objects of your charity. 3. Another class of men that demand our charity is the aged and feeble, who, after a life of hard labour, are grown unfit for further business, and who add poverty to the other miseries of old age. 4. Children also bereft of their parents, orphans cast upon the care of Providence, are signal objects of compassion. 5. But there is a class of the unfortunate who are the greatest objects of all; those who, after having been accustomed to ease and plenty, are by some unavoidable reverse of fortune condemned to bear, what they are least able to bear, the galling load of poverty; who, after having been perhaps fathers to the fatherless in the day of their prosperity, are now become the objects of that charity which they were wont so liberally to dispense. II. EXHORTATIONS TO THE PRACTICE OF THIS DUTY. This duty is so agreeable to the common notions of mankind, that every one condemns the mean and sordid spirit of that wretch whom God has blessed with abundance, and consequently with the power of blessing others, and who is yet relentless to the cries of the poor and miserable. The practice of this duty is incumbent upon all. 1. To the performance of it you are drawn by that pity and compassion which are implanted in the heart. 2. Consider the pleasure derived from benevolence. ( J. Logan, F. R. S. ) Dealing bread to the hungry J. Trapp. Thine "own bread it must be, and that especially whereof thou hast on the fast-day abridged thyself; for what the rich spare on such a day the poor should spend. Hereby, 1. Men's prayers shall speed the better ( Acts 10:4 ). 2. They shall make God their debtor ( Proverbs 19:17 ). 3. That is best and most pleasing alms to God that is given in Church assemblies; for, (1) it is an ordinance of God, and a Sabbath duty ( 1 Corinthians 16:1, 2 ); (2) Christ there sitteth, and seeth the gift and mind of every almsgiver ( Luke 21:1, 2 ), setting it down in His book of remembrance ( Malachi 3:16 ). ( J. Trapp. ) "To break bread J. A. Alexander. meaning to distribute, from the Oriental practice of baking bread in thin flat cakes. ( J. A. Alexander. ) Breaking bread to the hungry Not only to give them that which is already broken meat, but break bread on purpose for them; give them loaves and do not put them off with scraps. ( M. Henry . ) Then shall thy light break forth. Isaiah 58:8-14 The secret of prosperity to nations, churches, and men R. Paisley. (vers. 8, 9, 10, 14, "Then," "then," "then," "then "): — I. MEN AND CHURCHES CHARGE GOD FOOLISHLY, AND COMPLAIN WITHOUT CAUSE OF THEIR OWN LOW ESTATE. II. GOD REBUTS THEIR BLASPHEMOUS CHARGE, AND ASSERTS THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF HIS DEALINGS IN AN APPEAL TO THEIR OWN CONSCIENCES AND COMMON-SENSE. III. GOD RETURNS THE CHARGE AGAINST HIMSELF ON THE SINNERS' OWN HEADS, AND REVEALS HIS SECRET, IF MEN WILL HAVE EARS TO HEAR. "Then" is the secret of light and darkness; of health and sickness, or want of spiritual vigour and vitality; of covenant righteousness in the enjoyment of covenant blessings, or apparent breach of covenant in the withholding of what is good; of glory, such as that of Israel in the wilderness, when the glory of the Lord was "their rereward," when the pillar of cloud and fire was in the midst of them by day and night, or shame, as when the ark was in the hands of the Philistines, or the Assyrian or Babylonian invaded God's heritage and profaned His temple; of prayers answered, or unanswered; of God's presence manifested in undeniable! tokens, or denied, undiscerned, apparently withdrawn; of power to be God's witnesses and workmen in doing good to others, or impotence, conscious inability to be fellow-labourers with God and for God, want of spiritual life and energy. "Then" is the secret — then, and not till then — then, and not otherwise — then certainly-then according to the promise of the covenant, and in the way of the covenant and kingdom. In further application of the text to ourselves learn such lessons as the following — 1. The salvation of the Gospel is salvation from sin itself. 2. In the Gospel, accordingly, blessedness and righteousness go together, and so also sin and misery. 3. There is under the Gospel no substitute for repentance. 4. Man, in all the work of salvation, from beginning to end, must co-operate with God. ( R. Paisley. ) God the rewarder If a person, a family, a people be thus disposed to everything that is good, let them know for their comfort that they shall find God their bountiful rewarder. 1. God shall surprise them with the return of mercy after great affliction, which shall be as welcome as the light of the morning after a long and dark night (vers. 8, 10). They that arc cheerful in doing good, God will make them cheerful in enjoying good. They that have showed mercy shall find mercy. Those that have helped others out of trouble, God will help them when it is their turn. 2. God will put honour upon them. Good works shall be recompensed with a good name. This is included in that light which riseth out of obscurity. 3. They shall always be safe under the Divine protection. "Thy righteousness shall go before thee," as the vanguard, to secure thee from enemies that charge thee in the front; and "the glory of the Lord shall be thy rearward," the gathering, host to bring up those of thee that are weary and are left behind, and to secure thee from the enemies that, like Amalek, fall upon thy rear. 4. God will be always nigh unto them to hear their prayers (ver. 9). As, on the one hand, "he that shuts his ears to the cry of the poor shall himself cry and God will not hear him," so on the other hand, he that is liberal to the poor, his prayers shall come up, with his alms, for a memorial before God ( Acts 10:4 ). 5. God will direct them in all difficult and doubtful cases (ver. 11). 6. God will give them abundance of satisfaction in their own minds (ver. 11). 7. They and their families shall be public blessings (ver. 12). ( M. Henry . ) "Break forth as the dawn Prof. J. Skinner,D. D. "Break forth" is the verb used in Isaiah 35:6 ; Genesis 7:11 ; Psalm 74:15 , of the bursting of waters through a fissure in the earth's surface; by a vivid metaphor the dawn was conceived as "splitting" the heavens and flooding the world with light The same word occurs on the Moaite Stone in the phrase "from the splitting of the dawn." ( Prof. J. Skinner,D. D. ) Thine health shall spring forth speedily. A healthy Church J. Williams. I. ESSENTIALS OF A HEALTHY CHURCH. 1. A Scriptural constitution. 2. Nutritious food. 3. Pure air. 4. Regular exercise. II. CHARACTERISTICS OF A HEALTHY CHURCH 1. Health is sometimes known by outward appearances. The rosy cheeks, the sparkling eyes, the sonorous voice, all testify to health. A healthy Church may be known by its prayer-meetings, contributions, missionary spirit, etc. 2. Health is known by tastes. A sickly man's taste is bad. Unwholesome dainties are preferred to strong meat. So with regard to an unhealthy Church. Silly anecdotes are preferred to good scriptural teaching. Thinks much of forms and ceremonies. 3. Contentment of mind. An unhealthy man is querulous and difficult to please. So an unhealthy Church. It is a fault-finding Church. 4. Work. Sickness disables a man for labour. Health stimulates to work. A healthy Church may be known by its labour. III. THE DESIRABILITY OF A HEALTHY CHURCH. A healthy Church — 1. Is one of great comfort to itself. 2. Will survive through many trials. The healthy man is heedless of east winds, etc. So a healthy Church survives persecutions, etc. 3. Is attractive. People shun unhealthy Churches as they do fever dens. 4. Is one likely to live.Lessons: 1. A morally sick Church is a great curse to a neighbourhood. 2. The sooner the better that many a Church should apply to the great Physician for spiritual healing. 3. The Church will by and by become perfectly whole. 4. When perfectly whole, diseased persons will no longer be admitted into its fellowship ( Revelation 21:27 ). ( J. Williams. ) Then shalt thou call. Isaiah 58:9-11 God's wonderful response to His people's prayers When God calls to us by His Word, it becomes us to say, "Here we are; what saith our Lord unto His servants?" But that God should say to us, "Behold Me, here I am," is strange. When we cry to Him, as if He were at a distance, He will let us know that He is near, even at our right hand, nearer than we thought He was. "It is I, be not afraid." When danger is near, our Protector is nearer, a very present help. "Here I am," ready to give you what you want, and do for you what you desire. What have you to say to Me? God is attentive to the prayers of the upright ( Psalm 130:2 ). No sooner do they call to Him, but He answers, Ready, ready. Wherever they are praying, God saith, Here I am hearing; I am in the midst of you, nigh unto them in all things ( Deuteronomy 4:7 ). ( M. Henry . ) If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke. One path to prosperity S. Martin. In the figures implied the prophet represents extreme adversity; and by metaphors which he distinctly puts forth he describes renewed prosperity; and he connects the marvellous change from the deepest adversity to the highest prosperity with the avoidance or laying aside of three sins which then beset the people of God, and with the performance of two ordinary duties. 1. The besetting sins.(1) Oppression "If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke," i.e. oppression.(2) Scorn and contempt. "The putting forth of the finger" is the spirit that speaks in the, "Thou fool!"(3) "And speaking vanity" — evil speaking generally. 2. The duties.(1) "And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul" — i.e. give, serve, minister, according as men about you have need, and according as you have ability and opportunity.(2) "And satisfy the afflicted soul" — i.e. visit the widow and fatherless in their affliction — comfort those that mourn — endeavour according to your power to wipe away the tears from the eyes of all the sorrowful. ( S. Martin. ) Oppression S. Martin. The oppression of others is an early sin, a sin which you often see rampant among children — among very little children. Oppression is a household sin, it will be found more or less in almost every family. There may be some cases where it is not, but they are decided exceptions. And it is a sin in connection with all family relations. The godly husband is charged to love the wife even as himself, and even as Christ loveth the Church; but there are many husbands — some: professing. . to be Christ's disciples — who are the wretched oppressors of wives. Oppression Is a household sin — seen in parents — seen in brothers and sisters — seen in the husband. And it is a social sin — seen in all the walks of life. 1. Especially where men employ each other, and take advantage of each other's skill, and of each other's strength. It is a national sin — seen more or less in all rulers; and an international sin — seen in the conduct of nations to each other. Manifestly, therefore, a very common sin is this putting on of the yoke — seen where men have no right to put on the yoke at all; and seen in a heavy yoke where men have only the right to put on a light yoke, and they impose a heavy yoke; and seen in thus keeping on of the yoke after the yoke should be removed. ( S. Martin. ) Creed and outward ordinances not the supreme things S. Martin. 1. Nothing is here said about this people having declined from religious belief, or in this case from the observance of religious rites. God had to find fault with them on these grounds, but what I want you to notice is, that God is not speaking of such declension here. What does this show? It shows that a man, so far as the creed on his lip is concerned, may maintain his orthodoxy, and that a man, so far as religious ordinances are concerned, may maintain his devoutness, and yet have a heart thoroughly declining from God's statutes. 2. There is an eternal connection between righteousness and blessedness. 3. The true state of individual saints and of congregations of saints is light, not obscurity; brightness, not dulness; happiness, not misery; spiritual health, not moral sickness; usefulness, not sterility and barrenness; continuance, not declension. ( S. Martin. ) "Putting forth of the finger J. A. Alexander. A gesture of derision. Hence the middle finger is called by Persius, digitus infami

58:1,2 The Holy Spirit had hypocrites of every age in view. Self-love and timid Christians may say, Spare thyself; dislike to the cross and other motives will say, Spare the rich and powerful; but God says, Spare not: and we must obey God, not men. We all need earnestly to pray for God's assistance in examining ourselves. Men may go far toward heaven, yet come short; and they may go to hell with a good reputation. 58:3-12 A fast is a day to afflict the soul; if it does not express true sorrow for sin, and does not promote the putting away of sin, it is not a fast. These professors had shown sorrow on stated or occasioned fasts. But they indulged pride, covetousness, and malignant passions. To be liberal and merciful is more acceptable to God than mere fasting, which, without them, is vain and hypocritical. Many who seem humble in God's house, are hard at home, and harass their families. But no man's faith justifies, which does not work by love. Yet persons, families, neighbourhoods, churches, or nations, show repentance and sorrow for sin, by keeping a fast sincerely, and, from right motives, repenting, and doing good works. The heavy yoke of sin and oppression must be removed. As sin and sorrow dry the bones and weaken the strongest human constitution; so the duties of kindness and charity strengthen and refresh both body and mind. Those who do justly and love mercy, shall have the comfort, even in this world. Good works will bring the blessing of God, provided they are done from love to God and man, and wrought in the soul by the Holy Spirit. 58:13,14 The sabbath is a sign between God and his professing people; his appointing it is a sign of his favour to them; and their observing it is a sign of their obedience to him. We must turn from travelling on that day; from doing our pleasure on that holy day, without the control and restraint of conscience; or from indulging in the pleasures of sense. On sabbath days we must not follow our callings, or our pleasures. In all we say and do, we must put a difference between this day and other days. Even in Old Testament times the sabbath was called the Lord's day, and is fitly called so still; and for a further reason, it is the Lord Christ's day, Re 1:10. If we thus remember the sabbath day to keep it holy, we shall have the comfort and profit of it, and have reason to say, It is good to draw near to God.