your sins be as scarlet," to give us an-
other like page on the mystical character
of red and white to this sort of effect:
"Blood is the color of fire and therefore
of life; blood is red, because life is a fire-
process"?

No, it is not necessary; and we must
be careful not to let ourselves be lost in
excursions of this kind. Still, it is very
requisite to understand the situation with
which the book of Isaiah deals, the facts
to which it makes reference, the expres-
sions which it employs. For instance,
the mystic names of Isaiah's sons, Shear-
jashub and Maher-shalal-hash-baz, are of
the very highest significance. One of
them, the name of Shear-jashub, governs
the whole book. Yet not one in twenty
among ordinary readers or hearers of
Isaiah knows what they mean. However,
the chief drawback to our right enjoyment
of Isaiah is our ignorance of that whole
situation of things which the book sup.
poses, rather than our ignorance of the
meaning of particular expressions. Verses
and passages from Isaiah are far more
generally known, and far more present to
the minds of most of us, than passages
from the Greek and Latin classics. But
they stand isolated in our minds, without
our having any firm grasp of the facts to
which they refer, or any clear view of the
situation of things which they suppose.
Cultivated people have in general a much
clearer and more connected notion of the
important moments and situations in
Greek and Roman history of the Per-
sian war, the rise of Athens, the Pelopon-
nesian war, the Sicilian expedition, the
Roman republic, the Punic wars, Cæsar
and the empire-than they have of the
historical moment and situation with
which Isaiah had to deal. But we cannot
appreciate Isaiah unless we have before
our minds this moment and situation.

chief countries concerned are Judah, Israel, Assyria, Syria, Egypt, Ethiopia. Babylon for most of this period is as yet, though again and again rising in revolt, a vassal kingdom of Assyria. The great personages of the history are four successive kings of Assyria - Tiglath-pileser, Shalmaneser, Sargon, and Sennacherib; two successive kings of Judah, Ahaz and Hezekiah; the king of Syria, Rezin; Pekah, king of Israel; the king of Egypt, whom Isaiah calls by the general dynastic name of Pharaoh only; and Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia. The main events of our fifty years' period are the conquest of Samaria, the capital of the kingdom of Israel, by the Assyrians in 721 B.C., and the failure of Sennacherib to possess himself of Jerusalem in 701.

Of the final scope of Isaiah's ideas, so far as we can apprehend it, and of the character and grandeur of his prophetic deliverances, I may speak at more length hereafter. Here I only deal with his prophecy so far as our presentment of the historical situation requires. Isaiah's centre of action was Jerusalem. He was of noble, by some accounts of even royal birth. To his native country of Judah the long reign of Uzziah, the grandfather of Ahaz, had been a time of great power, wealth, and prosperity. The rival kingdom of Israel, under the reign of the second Jeroboam, in part contemporary with the reign of Uzziah, had likewise been conquering, rich, and prosperous. Never since the death of Solomon, and the separation of the ten tribes from Judah, had the two kingdoms enjoyed so much prosperity. But when Isaiah began his career, the tide of the northern kingdom's prosperity had long since turned. The king of Israel was now the subordi. nate ally of the king of Syria; and the two kings, fearing extinction by their Its history is well given in Professor great military neighbor on the north, AsRobertson Smith's recent work on the syria, which was pressing hard upon them, prophets; but our purpose requires a nar- desired to unite Syria, Palestine, and rative which will go into two or three Egypt in resistance to Assyria's progress, pages, not a narrative spreading itself and for this purpose to force the king of through a series of chapters. Let us try Judah into an alliance with them. At the to sketch the situation. There is some end of Uzziah's reign the design was aluncertainty in the chronology; the old re-ready formed. It was maturing during ceived dates of the Jewish kings have in some cases to be corrected from data furnished by the Assyrian inscriptions. But, at any rate, the period with which we have to deal is the last half of the eighth century before Christ. From 750 to 700 B.C. is the period of Isaiah's activity. The

Isaiah i. 18.

the reign of his son Jotham. And soon after the accession of Jotham's son, Ahaz, the kings of Syria and Israel appeared with an army in Judah, resolved to bend Ahaz to their will.

The outward and seeming prosperity of Judah had continued until the death of Jotham. On this outward prosperity the eyes of Isaiah in his early manhood

66

rested; but it exercised no illusion upon | are the names of Isaiah's two sons. The him, he discerned its unsoundness. He meaning of Shear-jashub is given in a saw his country with "an upper class ma- chapter following: "The remnant shall terialized," an upper class full of cupidity, return." Return, not in the physical hardness, insolence, dissoluteness. He sense, but in the moral: be converted, saw the lower class, the bulk of the peo- come to God. The third name, Maherple, to be better indeed and more free shalal-hash-baz, means: Spoil speedeth, from vice than the upper class; he saw it prey hasteth." attached in its way to the old religion, but understanding it ill, turning it into a superstition and a routine, admitting gross accretions and admixtures to it; a lower class, in short, fatally impaired by bad example and want of leading. Butler's profound words, so true for at any rate the old societies of the world, cannot but here rise to the mind: "The behavior of the lower rank of mankind has very little in it original or of home growth; very little which may not be traced up to the influence of others, and less which is not capable of being changed by that influence. This being their condition, consider now what influence, as well as power, their superiors must, from the nature of the case, have over them. And experience shows that they do direct and change the course of the world as they please. Not only the civil welfare but the morals and religion of their fellowcreatures greatly depend upon them.”

Spoil speedeth, prey hasteth. The kingdoms which the chosen people has made for itself, their world which now is, with its prosperities, idolatries, governing classes, oppression, pleasures, drunkards, careless women, systems of policy, strong alliances, shall pass away; nothing can save it. Strokes of statesmanship, fluctuations of fortune, cannot change the inevitable final result. The present invasion by Rezin and Pekah is nought, the kings of Syria and Israel will disappear, their plans will be frustrated, their power destroyed. But no real triumph is thus won, no continuance secured, for Judah as it is, for Judah's king and governing classes as they are. Assyria, the great and colossal power, the representative and wielder of "the kingdoms of this world" now, as Babylon and Rome became their representatives afterwards, Assyria is behind. Swiftly and irresisti bly this agent of the Eternal is moving on, to ruin and overwhelm Judah and Judah's allies. "He shall pass through Judah; he shall overflow and go over.”* Spoil speedeth, prey hasteth.

And, nevertheless, God is with us. In this Jerusalem, in this city of David, in this sanctuary of the old religion, God has been known, righteousness loved, the root of the matter reached, as they never have been in the world outside. The great world outside has nothing so indispensable to mankind, no germ so precious to mankind, as the "valley of vision" has. Therefore "he that believeth shall not take flight; " there is laid by the Eternal "in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation."† God is with us.

In his first deliverances,* soon after the year 740, Isaiah denounced as unsound the still existing outward prosperity of Judah, his country. Ahaz came to the throne; and the young king, and the governing class surrounding him, now began freely to introduce from the neighboring nations worships and rites many of which had for their vicious adopters the attraction of being also dissolute or cruel orgies. Then fell the blow of invasion. The kings of Syria and Israel overran the country of Judah; and, amid the consternation pervading Jerusalem, the famous meeting of Isaiah with Ahaz_took place "at the end of the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the fuller's field." + Three names, which are to be found in the chapter relating Isaiah's interview But it is the remnant shall return; the with Ahaz and in the chapter immediately remnant, and the remnant only. Our old following it, sum up for us the judgment world must pass away, says Isaiah to his of Isaiah upon this emergency, and in- countrymen; "God is with us for the deed upon the whole troublous future dis- making of a new world, but how few of covering itself to his thoughts. These us may take part in that making! Only three names are Immanuel, Shear-jashub, a remnant! a remnant sifted and purged Maher-shalal-hash-baz. Immanuel means, by sharp trial, and then sifted and purged as everybody knows, "God with us.' ." afresh. "Even if yet there shall be a Shear-jashub and Maher-shalal-hash-baz | tenth, it shall return and shall be burned;

but as a terebinth tree, and as an oak, | ently, when its turn came. The neigh
whose substance is in them when they are boring countries - Phoenicia on the north,
cut down, so the stock of that burned Moab, Ammon, and the Arabian nations
tenth shall be a holy seed."* Against on the east, Philistia on the west, Egypt
this seed the kingdoms of the world, the and Ethiopia on the south-shared Ju-
hosts of self-seeking and unrighteous dah's apprehensions. There were ris-
power, shall not finally prevail; they shall ings, and they were sternly quelled; Ju-
fail in their attacks upon it, they shall dah, however, remained tranquil. But
founder. It shall see a king of its own, the scheme of an anti-Assyrian alliance
who shall reign not as Ahaz, but "shall was gradually becoming popular. Egypt
reign in righteousness;" it shall see a was the great pillar of hope. By its size,
governing class, not like the ministers wealth, resources, pretensions, and fame,
and nobles of the court of Ahaz, but of Egypt seemed a possible rival to Assyria.
whom "a man shall be as an hiding-place Time went on. Sargon was murdered in
from the wind and a covert from the tem-705; Sennacherib succeeded him. Then
pest;" where "the vile person shall no on all sides there was an explosion of
more be called noble, nor the worker of revolts against the Assyrian rule. The
mischief said to be worthy." It shall see first years of Sennacherib's reign were
the lower people with a religion no longer spent by him in quelling a formidable
blind and gross;
"the tongue of the stam-rising of Merodach-baladan, king of Bab-
merers shall be ready to speak plainly." ylon. The court and ministers of Heze-
Amidst such a society it "shall see the kiah seized this opportunity for detaching
king in his beauty, shall behold the land their master from Assyria, for joining in
spreading very far forth." The remnant the movement of the insurgent states of
shall return.
Palestine and its borders, and for allying
themselves with Egypt.

The final scope of these ideas of Isaiah, and what is really their significance and their greatness, I for the present, as I bave said, do not attempt to discuss. But they give us, just as they stand, the clue to his whole book and to all his prophecy. Let us pursue our summary of the historical situation with their aid. They will enable us to make very brief what remains to be said.

All this time Isaiah never changed his view of the situation. The risings were vain, the Egyptian alliance could not profit. Of his three great notes he kept reiterating the sternest one, and insisting upon it: Spoil speedeth, prey hasteth. He repeated it to Moab and Arabia, to Tyre and Philistia, to Egypt and Ethiopia. The great stream of Assyrian conquest will assuredly submerge you, he said, and you cannot escape from it. But of what avail, then, could Egypt and Ethiopia be, to help Judah?

Ahaz heard, but was not convinced. He had a more short and easy way than Isaiah's. He put himself into the hands of the king of Assyria. In 734 B.C. Tig. lath-pileser, after chastising the kingdom Nay, and the stream must overflow of Israel, crushed the kingdom of Syria, Judah also. In 701 Sennacherib, victoand received the homage of Ahaz at Da- rious in Babylonia, marched upon Palesmascus. Shalmaneser, Tiglath-pileser's tine. For Judah also was now the note successor, determined to make an end of true: Spoil speedeth, prey hasteth. But the subjected but ever restless kingdom for Judah Isaiah had those two other of Israel, and formed the siege of Sama- notes besides, constantly alternating with ria, which was taken by his successor the darker one: the notes of God with us Sargon in 721. Three years before this and of The remnant shall return. Higher destruction of the northern kingdom, still those notes/rose when the invader apHezekiah had succeeded his father Ahaz peared in Judah, confident, overbearing, upon the throne of Jerusalem. Hezekiah unscrupulous, perfidious, and demanded was a man of piety; but the governing the surrender of Jerusalem. Jerusalem, class remained as before, and controlled so Isaiah prophesied, the invader should the policy of their country. Judah was never enter; a disaster should befall him; tributary to Assyria, and owed to Assyria he should return in discomfiture to his its deliverance from a great danger. But own land. the deliverer and his designs were extremely dangerous, and made Judah apprehensive of being swallowed up pres

Isaiah vi. 13.

+ Ibid. xxxii. 1, 2, 5, 4.
Ibid. xxxiii. 17.

Sennacherib's enterprise against Jerusalem presently failed. His own account of the failure is not the same as the Jewish account; any more than the account of the battle of Albuera in Napier's history is the same as the account of it in the

"Victoires et Conquêtes de l'Armée Fran- from Jerusalem, but Napoleon withdrawçaise." But from the Assyrian account ing baffled from Moscow? Egypt, of itself it is sufficiently manifest that the grand appearance but not of real force enterprise failed, and that Sennacherib and vigor answering to it, Egypt august, returned to his own land unsuccessful. proud, unwieldy, dilatory, ineffectual, is It was a great triumph for Isaiah. And the Austrian Empire. The youthful Ahaz, undoubtedly it gave him for the moment vain, sensual, and false, is the Prince John a commanding influence, and contributed of "Ivanhoe." The pious Hezekiah, with not a little to the final accomplishment of his zeal for strictness in public worship, religious reforms which were dear to his with his turn for hymnody and for reliheart. Shall we ask whether it enabled gious literature, with his want of insight him to behold a king reigning in _right- and greatness, his errors in policy and eousness, and a governing class like the his bad ministers, Hezekiah brings always shadow of a great rock in a weary land? to my mind Mr. Perceval, George the Shall we ask whether he even expected it Third's favorite minister; Mr. Perceval, to enable him to do this? No; we will a man exemplary and strictly religious, not now pursue further his own concep- but narrow and unequal to the situation; tions as to the fulfilment of his own capable of pursuing the most deplorable prophecies - prophecies "impatient," as policy and of employing the most unfit Davison says, "for the larger scope." men. And as I have formerly likened to We will not interrogate him as to his own Sancho Panza the great Times newspaper, views, as years rolled on with him, of his following with sighs, shrugs, and remon splendid promises of Immanuel and of strances that arrant adventurer, the modthe remnant. We may touch upon this ern spirit, so, without offence to the matter later. At present we do but give excellent proprietor of the Times, let me a summary of the historical situation say that I never can help thinking of him which ought to be ever present to our when I read Isaiah's invectives against minds in reading Isaiah. We will con- Hezekiah's mayor of the palace, Shebna. clude our summary by saying that he lived Not a word is alleged against Shebna's on into the reign of Hezekiah's son Ma- character; but, like the Times, Shebna is nasseh, and that he is said to have been the organ of the governing class, the put to death by Manasseh. One tradition | friend and upholder of the established attributes his death to offence given to fact—and Isaiah is their mortal enemy. the fanaticism of a narrow religiosity by And he sees this Shebna in great pros his large and free language. Whether perity, buying land, building right and his death was caused by the hatred of a left, founding a family. "What hast thou religious party, or by the hatred of that here and whom hast thou here?" he cries; governing class which in former reigns "I will drive thee from thy station, and I he had so unsparingly assailed, we shall will call my servant Eliakim, and I will never know. A Puritan terror, an aris- commit thy government into his hand, tocratical terror, a Jacobin terror- -a and he shall be a father to the inhabitants great soul may easily become an object of of Jerusalem!"* It is as if a revolution. fear and hatred to each and all of them; ary prophet were to see in power the proby any one of them he may easily perish. prietor of the Times and maintainer of In one or the other of them, probably, the established fact, and to predict his Isaiah sank. having to give place to Mr. Samuel Smith, the newly elected member for Liverpool, a Christian Socialist. And we find that, as to the ministers of King Hezekiah and as to the government of Judah, Isaiah carried his point or nearly carried it; for when Sennacherib's envoys came to Jeru salem, Shebna was no longer mayor of the palace; Eliakim filled the post instead of him. Shebna, nevertheless, was scribe; † that is to say, Isaiah had been allowed to have his way in part, but only in part. A compromise had been arranged, there had been a shuffling of the cards; Eliakim

The events and personages of the historical situation of which I have thus given the rapid summary should be as familiar to us, if we are ever rightly to enjoy Isaiah, as the events and personages of those passages of history with which we are most conversant. For my part, I often gladly allow myself to employ parallels from such passages, in order to bring out for my own mind the events and personages of Isaiah's time more vividly. What is Assyria but the French empire as it presented itself to the eyes of our fathers conquering, rapacious, aggressive, insolent, unscrupulous, unrighteous? What is Sennacherib withdrawing baffled

Isaiah xxii. 15-25. ↑ Ibid, xxxvi. 3.

was now prime minister, but Shebna was
secretary of state. Ah, these politicians!
The third requisite for a full enjoyment
of Isaiah is to have the book so arranged
that we can read his prophecies in their
right order and in their right connection.
It is demonstrable that it is not so ar-
ranged now; and although in re-arranging
it there is danger of being fantastic and
rash, and many critics have succumbed to
this danger, yet some re-arrangement is
absolutely necessary, and, if made with
sobriety, fairness, moderation, and cau-
tion, must be of signal benefit. I have no
space left, however, to open this question
now; to this question, and to other points
still requiring some notice, I may return
hereafter.

At the noise of the tumult the peoples fled; at the lifting up of thyself the nations were scattered.

And your spoil shall be gathered like the gathering of the caterpillar, as the running to and fro of locusts shall men run upon them.

The Lord is exalted; for he dwelleth on high; he hath filled Zion with judgment and righteousness.

And the stability of thy times † shall be wisdom, and knowledge, and strength of salvation; the fear of the Lord is his treasure.

But then recurs the note of Mahershalal-hash-baz: ·

Behold, their valiant ones § cry without; the ambassadors of peace weep bitterly.

The highways lie waste, the wayfaring man ceaseth; he hath broken the covenant, he hath despised the cities, he regardeth no man.

The land mourneth and languisheth; Lebanon is ashamed and hewn down; Sharon is like a wilderness, and Bashan and Carmel shake off their leaves.

Now sounds again the note of Imman

Now will I rise, saith the Lord, now will I be exalted, now will I lift up myself. stubble; your breath, as fire, shall devour you. Ye I shall conceive chaff, ye shall bring forth

But I will not end, even for the present,
without seeking to act up to my own doc-
trine that the right thing for us to do
with the book of Isaiah is to enjoy it.
To enjoy even a chapter of him is in truth
better than to read a thousand pages of
comment on him. After all my comment, | uel :-
let me then refresh my readers with at
least one chapter from Isaiah himself.
It shall be a very noble and characteristic
a chapter which ought proba-
chapter;
bly, if the collection of his prophecies
which we possess were to be properly ar-
ranged, to stand the last, and to conclude
them. It admirably illustrates his use
of the three notes which I have mentioned
as governing his prophecy; and more-
over it exhibits the astonishing rapidity
of transition, the splendid variety, the
unequalled force, of his mode of employ.
ing them.

And the peoples shall be as the burnings of lime; as thorns cut up shall they be burned in the fire.

Hear, ye that are far off, what I have done!

Yes, let Assyria and the nations hear! but then the prophet turns homeward with the note of Shear-jashub, of "Only the remnant.”

And ye that are near, acknowledge my might!

We are at the moment when the fierce Assyrian giant, the aggressor, conqueror, The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness and scourge, with Spoil speedeth, prey hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among hasteth written on his forehead, is en-us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who camped in Judah, ravaging its lands, taking its towns one after the other, threatening Jerusalem. Him the prophet addresses:

Woe to thee that spoilest and thou wast not spoiled, and dealest injuriously and they dealt not injuriously with thee !

When thou shalt cease to spoil, thou shalt be spoiled; and when thou shalt make an end to deal injuriously, they shall deal injuriously with thee!

Then he strikes the note of Immanuel:

O Lord, be gracious unto us! we have waited for thee, be thou their † arm every morning, our salvation also in the time of trouble!

* Chapter xxxiii.

↑ Judah's.

among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?

He that walketh righteously and speaketh uprightly, he that despiseth the gain of oppressions and averteth his bands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil.

He shall dwell on high; his place of defence shall be the munitions of rocks; bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure.

Thine eyes **shall see the king in his beauty; they shall behold the land spreading very far forth.

Thine heart shall meditate the terror.ft

• To Assyria.
↑ To Judah.
Judah's.
Judah's.
Sennacherib.
To Assyria.

To the remnant.

tt Of Assyria and its conquests.