Sermon 2391. The Keeper of the Vineyard

(No. 2391)

A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, DECEMBER 16, 1894.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, JULY 5, 1863.

"I the LORD keep it. I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day." Isaiah 27:3.

MY discourse this evening can hardly be called a sermon. It will be just a simple talk about a few experimental Truths ofGod, but I trust that it will be useful to some of the Lord's people.

The text follows a terrible verse in which the Lord's enemies are threatened with "His sore and great and strong sword." Buteven when God has the most anger against His adversaries, He is still full of love for His people. The Church of God is herecompared to a vineyard. The vine is a tender plant, needing continual care, and if the vineyard is not well fenced and guarded,the enemies of the vine are sure to get in and destroy it. The Church is called "a vineyard of red wine," because the redgrape happened to be the best kind grown in Palestine and, in like manner, God's Church is, to Him, the best of the best,the excellent of the earth, in whom is all His delight! But what is true of the whole Church is also true of every member-thesame God who keeps the vineyard also protects every vine, no, not only so, but His care extends to every little branch, toevery spreading leaf and to every clinging tendril of that vine which He undertakes to keep night and day. Well did Topladysing-

"Upon my leaf, when parched with heat,

Refreshing de w shall drop.

The plant which Your right hand has set,

Shall never be rooted up.

Each moment watered by Your care,

And fenced with power Divine,

Fruit to eternal life shall bear

The feeblest branch of Thine." Our text mentions two much-needed mercies and upon each of these I will speak briefly. We findin the text, first, continual keeping. And then, secondly, continual watering. In these gracious Words of the Lord, we havea promise that we shall be kept from foes without and from foes within. God is both a wall and a well to His people-a wallto guard them from their adversaries-and a well to supply all their needs out of His ever living, over-flowing fullness.

I. First, then, concerning the CONTINUAL KEEPING which the Lord promises to His vineyard-"I, the Lord, keep it...lest anyhurt it, I will keep it night and day." I will talk of that keeping in an experimental way, putting the subject before youin the form of questions which may be applied either to the Church as a whole, or to each individual Believer.

The first will be, "Do I need keeping? I trust I have been called by God's Grace, that I have been washed in Jesus' bloodand that I have been made one of the Lord's children-do I need keeping?" Ah, if I know anything of myself, I shall be compelledto answer that I do, for my foes are innumerable and I, like the vine, am subject to all sorts of perils and dangers! Brothersand Sisters there is the arch-enemy-how he longs to lay the axe to the roots of God's vines! If we were in his power, youand I would not have a grain of faith or a spark of love left! He is desirous to have us, not only that he may sift us aswheat, but that he may burn us as chaff! When we think of his malice and cunning, we may well pray, "Deliver us not over untothe will of our enemy." When God's people have met Satan in a hand-to-hand conflict, they have always found it a stern anddifficult struggle, for he is ferocious, malicious and powerful-and he comes

against us, not only to worry us-but seeking whom he may devour! We need keeping, then, if it were only because of that oneadversary who would make a speedy end of us if we were left in his grip even for an hour!

Like the vine, too, we have not only to dread him who would cut us down, but there is a wild boar of the woods that wouldgladly tear us up by the roots! I mean that wild boar of unbelief that is constantly prowling around us. How does it seekwith its sharp tusks to tear our vines and fig trees! You know, dear Friends, how unbelief takes away your comforts, how itdestroys your strength and how it mars your usefulness. Perhaps some of you, at times, hardly know whether you are the Lord'speople or whether you are not His. Our friend, who addressed us last ordinance Sabbath, said that God's people ought neverto have doubts and fears. I quite admit that they ought not to have them-but that they really do have them is quite as certain!I like that good old hymn of Dr. Watts and sing it as I find it-

"When I can read my title clear

To mansions in the skies

I bid farewell to every fear

And wipe my weeping eyes."

1 am afraid, dear Brothers and Sisters, you and I cannot travel the same road if you are always confident and if you neverhave reason to look back and cry because you have lost your evidences. This I know-there are seasons with me when I do notdoubt my Lord and Master, but I do doubt my interest in Him-and I have to come to Him just as I came at first, as an empty-handedsinner and accept His Grace as He freely presents it. Yes, if the Lord did not keep us, the wild boar of unbelief would soontear us to pieces, and we would have no Grace left, but would become useless forever!

Then, you know, the vine is often subject to injury from various kinds of insects. Almost all plants of any value are attacked,at times, by a peculiar kind of fly which devours the leaves and prevents fruit-bearing. And the vine is specially liableto attacks of this sort. So is it with Christians-we have the fly ofpride. If the great enemy never came to knock us downand unbelief never tried to root us up, the very quietude of the atmosphere and the calmness of the soft summertime wouldbegin to breed that deadly fly which goes before destruction! I think we have even more cause to fear the effects of carnalsecurity, self-confidence and pride than the assaults of Satan, himself! I do not know how it is with you, my Brothers andSisters, but at times I feel so dead that I would almost welcome a temptation from Satan, so that I might feel a little spirituallife stirring within me in opposition to it!

There have been dark times in our experience which have caused us great sorrow of heart and yet we have come to look backupon those sad seasons almost with a sort of envy-and we have wished that we might have them over, again, so that we mightfeel at least some pulsing, some palpitations of the new life within us! Oh, that dreadful fly of pride! John Bunyan tellsus, in his Holy War, that it was Mr. Carnal-Security who drove Emmanuel from the town of Mansoul. He would have always stayedthere and have given Mansoul high holiday, but that Diabolonian, Mr. Carnal-Security, whose father was Mr. Self-Conceit, andwhose mother was Lady Fear-Nothing, filled the townspeople with such high notions of their greatness that the blessed Princewent His way in sorrow and anger!

Alas for us when we say, "My mountain stands firm, I shall never be moved." For we are then in direst peril! That cankerwormof conceit, that caterpillar of pride, that locust of carnal security would soon destroy God's vineyard if it were not written,"I the Lord keep it. I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day." This promise assures usthat the Lord will preserve us from the assaults of pride as well as from the attacks of unbelief and from the malice of thegreat adversary of our souls!

Then, dear Friends, beside the enemies I have mentioned, the vine is subject to the attacks of the little foxes that Solomonspeaks of in the Canticles-"Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines." There are plenty of little foxes ofall sorts about, nowadays. I mean false doctrine and skeptical teaching. Some of these crafty foxes come nibbling at us, tryingto make us doubt the Inspiration of Scripture. Some of them even dare to try to root up and destroy our confidence in theDivinity of Christ! Others of these little foxes are still more insidious-they seek to tempt us away from the outward meansof Grace and aim at making us forsake the assemblies of God's saints. Men pour into our ears all sorts of heresies and liestill our souls scarcely know the Truth of God from error and we are carried to and fro, and have a hard battle to fight! Ah,if the Lord did not keep His Church, she would soon become a prey to the graft of her adversaries! But He does preserve Hisvineyard from the little foxes and from the great foxes, too! His vines have tender grapes and the foxes would devour themif they could, but, blessed be the Lord, they are unable to do so! Our Lord preserves us and protects us from all the craftand cunning of our adversaries!

Besides, dear Friends, when we have a few grapes that are beginning to ripen, there are the birds that come and try to pickthe fruit-those dark-winged thoughts of worldliness and selfishness which come to us all. We begin to say, "Well done!" toourselves and then it is always ill-done. The Prophet Habakkuk tells us of those who "sacrifice unto their net, and burn incenseunto their drag." And if we ascribe our success to our own perseverance, our own zeal and so forth, we shall be like the birdswhich steal the fruit that belongs to the master, or like dishonest workmen who are set to till the garden and rob their employerof the produce. Let us never try to get our Master's money, to put it out to usury, and then, when the interest comes in,spend it on ourselves! The temptation to selfishness-to live for this world alone- or to seek to bring forth fruit merelyfor our own aggrandizement, is so strong and comes so easily upon us, that if the Lord did not keep us, we would, none ofus, retain our Christianity for a single hour-but would be wholly given up to worldliness, selfishness and every other formof sin!

I ask again the question with which I began and I pray you, each one, to ask it yourself-"Do I need keeping?" Oh, my Heart,never did the tender vine so much need the gardener's care as you need to be kept by your Lord! You are like an infant sufferingfrom a thousand diseases and unable to cure itself of any one of them! You are helplessly weak and if your Father, God, shouldleave you, there is nothing for you but to die in despair! Dear Brothers and Sisters, let us have a deep consciousness ofthe dangers to which we are exposed-not that we may live trembling lives-but that we may be weaned from all trust in selfand may be driven nearer to God and always seek to live under His Divine protection!

Another question may occur to someone here-"Even if I have to face all these dangers, can I not keep myself if I am very watchfuland very prayerful? May I not by my own power and vigilance keep off these adversaries?" Ah, there is something wrong in thevery question, itself, for who is to keep me watchful? Who is to make me prayerful? If my watchfulness and prayerfulness dependedupon myself, I might slumber, and so I would, very soon, be destroyed! Brethren, it is a great mercy that the text puts itnot that we must keep the vineyard ourselves, but, "I, the Lord keep it." Watchfulness is our duty-it is our privilege toabide much in earnest, wrestling prayer-but still, to keep up the watchfulness and the prayerfulness, there must constantlybe the secret incoming of Divine Strength! Our watchfulness and prayerfulness are proofs of God's gracious working! The realcause of the vineyard of the Church and each individual vine being preserved must always be found in this blessed assurance-"I,the Lord keep it. I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day."

What did you say-"Cannot I keep myself?" Alas, you are your own worst enemy! Augustine was known to say, "Lord, save me fromthat evil man, myself!" And you and I have good reason to pray the same prayer. We can very soon destroy ourselves, but wecan never save ourselves. I bless the Lord that there is not even a semblance of truth in that verse in Wesley's hymn book-

"A charge to keep I have A God to glorify! A never-dying soul to save, And fit it for the sky."

It is the Lord who saves the souls of His people, and it is the Lord who fits them for the sky! If they had to do it, themselves,not a solitary soul among them would ever see His face with acceptance, or stand with joy before His Throne! "I, the Lordkeep it. I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day." It is always so put and for us toentirely get rid of all idea of carnal strength is both right and safe! It is well for us to feel that, in ourselves, we areas weak as water and as insignificant as the insects that die in a day-and that for all true strength we must look to God,and to God alone! Rest assured that you and I are never so weak as when we fancy that we are strong, and that we are neverso strong as when we are conscious of our greatest weakness! This is an enigma, but our experience has often proved it tobe true. Our supposed riches are generally the marks of deep spiritual poverty, while conscious poverty is an indication ofthe unsearchable riches which faith is enjoying. Learn to live every day, dear Brothers and Sisters, in Jesus, as having nothing,yet possessing all things!

This is how God would have you live, trusting Him for all the Grace you continually need. When you wake in the morning, youare to look forward to temptations and trials, but you are to cry to the Lord for deliverance from them- and not to thinkof keeping yourselves during the day, but to place yourselves, again, in the hands of God-to be kept and preserved by Himwho has said of the vineyard of His Church, "I, the Lord keep it. I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keepit night and day." Then, when the day is over, let this be your evening song-

"Sprinkled afresh with pardoning blood,

I lay me down to rest,

As in the embraces of my God,

Or on my Sa vior's breast."

I will mention only one other question and then we will leave this part of the subject-"Do I enjoy this keeping??" This isa question that must make you search your heart. Do you enjoy this keeping? Is it your habit and mine, every day, to lookto God to keep us? When we wake in the morning, is this our first desire, "Lord, keep me this day beneath the shadow of Yourwings"? When we go out to business, or on our Lord's service, are we conscious that we are still under the Lord's eyes andprotected by the Lord's power? When, at any time, we have slipped and erred, do we bitterly repent that we could have actedso wrongly as to wander away from the Good Shepherd? And at night, when we look back upon the engagements of the day, arewe in the habit of blessing God for as His unseen mercies? Have we learned to bless Him for preserving us from all the mysteriousspiritual dangers by which we are surrounded? Has it, in fact, become our practice to make this text experimentally our own,"I, the Lord keep it. I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day"?

Beloved, do you not think that we often live all day long as if there were no God? Do you not, sometimes, find yourselvesgoing about the world as if God and you were strangers to each other? Do you not, at least now and then, venture upon thestormy sea of another day without getting your Pilot on board? And do you not think that, at night, when you come to the temporaryhaven of your chamber, you may often have cause to say to the Lord, "Alas! Alas! My God, I have lived this day and You haveprotected me, I doubt not, but still, I have not been mindful of You, I have not looked up to You, I have not been hangingon Your breast, I have not been nestling under Your wings as the chick hides itself under the hen"? I would that, as Churchmembers, you and I, all of us, would learn the blessed lesson of this text, "I, the Lord, keep it. I will water it every moment:lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day. During My people's nights of adversity and during their days of prosperity,in their nights of soul-sorrow and in their days of hallowed rejoicing, in the nights when their spirit lies slumbering, andin the days when the sunlight of My Countenance shines upon them, and they go forth strong to labor and to do My will, I willkeep them under all circumstances. I will never leave them, I will never, no never, forsake them."

I am always afraid, whenever I preach about the security of God's people, lest you should grow carnally secure, that is tosay, lest, instead of realizing the preciousness of the doctrine and its practical bearing, you should merely be satisfiedwith the outward shell of it. I want you not only to know that God keeps you, but to feel the power of that blessed Truthin your inmost soul-to enjoy it and to live upon it. You know that it is one thing to look at honey and to be told that itis sweet to the taste. But it is a very different thing to eat of it and to prove its sweetness for yourself! Be it yours,like Jonathan, to dip your rod into the honey of this text and to eat of it abundantly, for so shall your eyes be enlightenedand every day you shall be able to say, "The Lord is my Keeper: the Lord is my Shade upon my right hand: the Lord is my Helper;I will not fear what man or even the devil, himself, may try to do to me."

II. Now, with greater brevity, let me talk to you upon the second part of the subject, the Lord's CONTINUAL WATERING. He thatkeeps, waters-"I the Lord keep it. I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day."

I was rather struck, the other day, by this remark of a somewhat eminent horticulturist-"Depend upon it," he said, "that wateringis a very essential part of a gardener's business." It is especially so in hot weather, for there is little doubt that ifthe flowers are to be kept constantly in bloom, and if the beds are to look fresh and beautiful, the watering pot must bein frequent use. In the summer, how very soon the grass looks brown and how very speedily the flowers begin to droop theirheads and shrivel up their leaves, all for lack of watering! Well, now, we have this gracious provision in the text to meetthe needs of the Lord's vines, the Keeper of the vineyard, Himself, says, "I will water it every moment."

We will handle this part of the subject as we did the other portion, in the form of questions, and the first enquiry shallbe, "Do I need watering within as well as keeping without??" The answer that must be given is-Yes, that I do, for there isnot a single Grace I have that can live an hour without being Divinely watered! Have I not seen many a professor come forwardto join the Church full of faith of a certain sort and full of zeal after a fashion? But, after a few months- and there aresome hypocrites who hold out even for years-they begin to falter! They do not care for the House of God as much as they did.They grow worldly and careless and, at last, they give up their profession altogether! What is the

reason of their failure? Just this, they were not watered-they never had the living sap to nourish their roots-they neversucked up the Living Water of God's Grace and so, having no watering from the Most High, their flowers all withered, droopedtheir heads and died. There is no wonder at this result, for he who has only the strength that is within himself will be likesnow that melts and passes away! It is only the man who derives His strength from God who will be like the sun that shinesbrighter and brighter unto the perfect day! There is no Grace I have, then, which does not need watering from above!

Beside that, the soil in which I am planted is very dry. Ask any Christian whether he ever gets any real good out of the world.Do you not find it a very dry soil where you go to business? The other day you said that you would change your employment-youwould be a fool if you did-it would only be a change of troubles! The God who gave you your present set of trials knew thatthey were the best for you. If all the crosses in the world could be laid in a heap and I were told to take my pick of them,I would choose those that I have right now, for I know what they are, and God fits my back to them! But I do not know whatthe others are and I have no proof that I could bear them. You had better not take my troubles, for they might crush you,while I can bear them through the Divine Strength that is given to me. But if I had yours, they might crush me, while youcan patiently endure them through God's Grace. This earth, however, is no very genial soil for a Christian's growth. Worldlingsmay flourish in it, but if the Christian would have Living Water, he must get it from some other place than this earth, for,spiritually, it is a dry and thirsty land where there is no water!

Then, again, the atmosphere that is round about us does not naturally yield us any water. The means of Grace, which are likeclouds hovering over our heads, are often nothing but clouds-they come and they go-but we receive no rain from them. The otherday we looked up and we said that it would rain, directly, but lo, the one black cloud was soon gone! So, you sometimes goup to the House of God and you say to yourselves, "Our minister has often cheered and comforted us, perhaps he will have agood word for us today." And when the text is announced and the sermon is begun, you think, "Here is a cloud, there will besome rain, presently," but, whether it is your fault or the minister's, we will not say, often there is not a drop of moistureto refresh your spirit! The reason is that the Lord will have you know that He, and He, alone, must water you if you are tobe effectually revived! He will teach you that you need watering, that all your Graces constantly require fresh supplies ofDivine Grace, and that you must have them directly and only from Him.

The beauty of the text seems to me to lie in the last two words-"I will water it every moment." There is no plant except aplant of Grace that needs to be watered every moment-but we do. I do not know to what object I can compare a Christian betterthan to one of those gas lights yonder. The Believer is not a candle, for a candle can burn of itself when it is once lightedbecause it carries its own burning materials. Neither is he a lamp that is supplied with a store of oil, except in a certainsense, but he is just like one of these gas lights. Turn the tap, cut off the connection with the gas meter, and out goesthe light at once! There must be a stream of gas continually flowing to keep up the burning-and so is it with the Christian'sspiritual life-it must be perpetually streaming in from his Lord! He cannot live even a tithe of a second unless life flowsto him from God! Look at your hand. I suspect that if, for a moment, you could altogether suspend the circulation of yourblood. If you could utterly cut off the life floods so as to dissever your hand from the rest of your body, though it werebut for a second, yet vitality would be gone! And so, if the Christian could be for one instant without union to Christ, withoutreceiving supplies of Divine Grace, he would at once expire!

I will not talk to you much longer, for we need to gather around the Communion Table, but I will just put this one question-"Havewe all realized, as a matter of experience, that the Lord waters us every moment?" Brothers and Sisters, I am very much afraidthat there are but few of us who have ever learned the full meaning of this gracious promise. You can, perhaps, say, "TheLord waters me every Sabbath and on Monday and Thursday nights." Possibly you can go even farther, and say, "He waters meevery morning, and every evening," but to be watered every moment-to have continually such a conscious connection with Christas to be really receiving His Grace-you ask, "Is this experience attainable? It may be possible for a minister, for he hastime to think of these things, but it is not possible for us working people who have to earn our bread by the sweat of ourbrows! Nor for us business men who have to be all day long occupied with accounts."

Oh, but, Beloved, there are some of the Lord's people who have proved that this blessing can be obtained and that it is possibleto be in the world and yet to be living near God, and every moment to be watered by Him! Have you never heard of that poorservant girl who expounded the meaning of the passage, "Pray without ceasing"? Some person could

not understand how anyone could pray without ceasing, but Mary said, "Why, when I dress myself in the morning, my heart praysthat I may be robed in my Savior's righteousness. When I light the fire, I pray the Holy Spirit to kindle a flame of sacredlove in my heart. When I spread the cloth for breakfast, I ask God to feed me with the Bread of Heaven and whatever I do,all day long, I try to turn it into something that will make me live near to my God!" Do you not see, dear Friends, that astirring life may yet be a spiritual life? There are some people, you know, who, when they get hold of some hobby, can attendto business and yet ride their hobby as well. It may be that they have taken to working out some mathematical problem-if so,you will see them attending to the shop, but all the while they are thinking about that problem-and the first opportunitythey get, they begin figuring away on a scrap of paper, trying to work it out. Whatever takes place during the day, the manis always thinking of that problem! And when he is on his way home, as he is riding along, he is still thinking of that onething because his heart is full of it. Thus it may be with you, so that while you are engaged in business and in the lawfulaffairs of your daily life, your heart may still be always going out towards

God.

I was struck by a remark of a dear friend, the other day, who said that Mr. So-and-So was so fond of everything Gothic thathe had his chairs Gothic, his bedstead Gothic and all the furniture of his house Gothic. I think that a Christian should haveeverything full of Christ, so that whether he eats, or drinks, or whatever he does, he does all to the Glory of God! It wassaid of Ambrose that he used to eat, drink and sleep eternal life-so may it be said of each of us! Why, sometimes, when wehave some dear one upon our hearts, we may go and attend to fifty thousand things, but we do not forget that beloved objectof our affection! A mother may have to go on an errand and she may be compelled to stay away a long while, but her sick childat home is on her heart all the time! So I want that we should have Christ and have the Holy Spirit, and have our Father whois in Heaven continually upon our minds! And in that way shall we learn the meaning of this passage, "I, the Lord keep it.I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day."

Now, as I close my discourse, I fear that there are some of you who are not saved-and to you I have to put a personal question-"Whyshould not this night be the time of your salvation?" Why did you come into the Tabernacle tonight? Some of you have beeninconvenienced, for you have had to stand all through the service. I hope you have not come here for nothing. I trust thatthe Lord meant to bless you when He induced you to come up those steps and between those pillars. Remember that the righteousGod must punish sin, but that His Son, Jesus Christ, was punished in the place of all those who will believe on Him! To believeon Him is to trust Him. Have you done that? Then, though your sins were as scarlet, they are now whiter than snow! If youhave trusted Jesus, your iniquities, which were like a black cloud, have all been rolled away and you are so completely savedthat there is, now, no condemnation to you, for you are in Christ Jesus! God bring you to trust in Christ, for believing inHim, you are saved!

May we, who are about to gather around the Communion Table, have our Master's special Presence and blessing! Amen.

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: Isaiah 64.

Verse 1. Oh that You would rend the heavens. God's ancient people were in great trouble and the Prophet saw no way out oftheir perplexity. But God can make a way of escape where there is not one, He can rend even Heaven, itself, if need be, inorder to deliver His saints. Therefore, the Prophet, or the people, pray, "Oh that You would rend the heavens"-

1. That You would come down. "Come down, Yourself, great God, in all the majesty of Your Glory! Burst through the firmamentand appear in Divine splendor!"

1. That the mountains might bow down at Your Presence. The eternal hills are made to melt at the touch of God's feet. Mountainsare the things that are last to move, but God moves them when He once comes near! How often we forget Omnipotence! That isa factor we are too apt to leave out of our calculations and yet, my Brothers and Sisters, Omnipotence is at the back of allour feebleness when that feebleness is with the truth and the right, and is engaged in the service of God! If the Lord's Presenceis manifested, even the mountains will flow down, as we read in Micah's prophecy, "For, behold, the Lord comes forth out ofHis place and will come down, and tread upon the high places of the earth. And the

mountains shall be molten under Him and the valleys shall be cleft, as wax before the fire, and as the waters that are poureddown a steep place."

2, 3. As when the melting fire burns, the fire causes the waters to boil, to make Your name known to Your adversaries, thatthe nations may tremble at Your Presence! When You did terrible things which we looked not for, You came down, the mountainsflowed down at Your Presence. Where God is, everything begins to melt. He touches the mountains and makes them boil over withlava, like volcanoes in action! At His touch the very sea begins to boil with the fervent heat of Divine Power. Then, whenthese wonderful results are perceived, even God's enemies are compelled to say, "This is the finger of God," and they trembleat His Presence. We never know, Brothers and Sisters, what great things God will do, as we do not know all that He can do,but we do believe that all things are possible to the Omnipotent Jehovah! When He brings His reserve forces into the field,the battle is a short one. "When You did terrible things which we looked not for, You came down, the mountains flowed downat Your Presence." It was so when Sennacherib, in Isaiah's day, besieged the city of Jerusalem. There was, apparently, noway of escape from the stupendous hordes of the mighty monarch, but the Angel of the Lord killed a 185,000 of them in onenight and utterly overthrew them! God has but to appear in His terrible power and His adversaries tremble at His Presence,or are destroyed in an instant!

4. For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither has the eye seen, O God, besideYou, what He has prepared for him that waits for Him. The unexpected is always happening! God interposes in a way which wenever thought of. Even if we have been listening for His footstep, we have not heard the sound of it-if we have been watchingfor His coming, we have not seen His approach. God alone knows all that He will do-

"He in the thickest darkness dwells," but out of that darkness He brings forth purposes of light and brightness to completelyamaze His servants. "Ah," says one, "but is He not long in doing it?" No, no, it is our impatience that makes us think so,but the Lord never really delays.

5. You meet him that rejoices and works righteousness. God comes to meet us before we get to Him and then there is a blessedmeeting. "You meet him that rejoices and works righteousness." If you do right, God will meet you. But He will meet you muchsooner if you can rejoice at the same time, for there is no service for God that is so acceptable to Him as the service thatis done with delight! "You meet him that rejoices and works righteousness." When we are glad to serve God. When we take adelight in suffering for His name's sake, then God will come and meet us for certain. We need not think that, under such circumstances,He will let us stand alone-"You meet him that rejoices and works righteousness."

5. Those that remember You in Your ways. If you remember God, He will certainly remember you! The fact that you are thinkingof Him is proof positive that the Lord has thoughts of love towards you!

5. Behold, You are angry; for we have sinned: in those is continuance, and we shall be saved. God's wrath has no continuancein it towards His own people. He soon makes it to pass away from them. His anger may endure for a night, but His mercy comesin the morning. His own Word is, "For a small moment have I forsaken you, but with great mercies will I gather you. In a littlewrath I hid My face from you for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on you, says the Lord, Your Redeemer."The Lord has a rod in His hand, but the scourging of His own children does not last long. It is a rod, mark you, not an axethat brings death. But His mercy, His goodness, the purposes of His Grace are perpetual-"In those is continuance, and we shallbe saved." Now comes a very mournful passage. You have read some of the lamentations of Jeremiah. Here is one of the lamentationsof Isaiah. He lived to see his country in a very sad condition. Perhaps this was the state of affairs when Sennacherib invadedthe land.

6. But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness are as filthy rags. If this is true of our righteousnesses,what must our sins be? If even our righteousnesses are as filthy rags, where shall we find a metaphor to describe our sins?

6. And we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. This does not allude to our mortality,but to our sin-"We all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away." We are not like the greenleaf on the tree-we may seem to be so for a moment, but very soon our righteousness fades like a withered leaf and, in consequence,our iniquities, like the wind which bears the withered leaves from the bough, carry us away. This is what we all are by nature.This is what the people were in Isaiah's day-the whole nation seemed to be unholy-its outwardly righteous men were not reallyrighteous, its ministers were not truthful, its magistrates were not honest and even the professors of purity were, at heart,immoral!

7. And there is none that calls upon Your name, that stirs up himself to take hold of You. We have not come quite to thatcondition, yet. There are still some who stir themselves up to take hold upon God and who call upon His name. We are not leftin so sad a state as the favored nation was in in Isaiah's days. It is a terrible thing when intercession fails! Perhaps thedark day that will mark the world's final doom will be a day unwhitened by prayer. Certainly, while prayer remains, the worldis blessed, but when prayer shall cease, when that Divine disinfectant is taken away from this poor leper house, then thepestilence of sin will rage and destroy most terribly! It was so in the Prophet's day-"There is none that calls upon Yourname, that stirs up himself to take hold of You."

7, 8. For You have hid Your face from us, and have consumed us, because of our iniquities. But now, O LORD, You are our Father.The Prophet, himself, begins to plead with God. Jehovah was known as the God of the children of Abraham. He was not recognizedas the God of the Assyrian, Sennacherib worshipped Nisroch as his God-"But now, O Jehovah, You are our Father."

8, 9. We are the clay, and You our potter; and we all are the work of Your hands. Do not be furious, O LORD, neither rememberiniquity forever! Behold, see, we beseech You, we are all Your people. Isaiah could plead that, in a certain way, they werenominally the people of God. But if we can plead this truly and spiritually on the behalf of any man. If we can plead it forourselves, what a mighty plea it is! "Lord, You have made us. You have new-made us and You can keep us. We are the clay andYou are our potter; we belong to You. Oh, break not the vessels that You have made! Cast not away the people You have chosen.Be merciful to us, O God, for we are Your people!" Then the Prophet gives a pitiful description of the condition unto whichthe land of Judah was reduced.

10, 11. Your holy cities are a wilderness, Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation. Our holy and our beautiful house,where our fathers praised You, is burned up with fire: and all our pleasant things are laid waste. Their houses and God'sHouse went together to destruction. When their houses were burnt, God's House did not escape. This is the most bitter partof the trial to a genuine Believer-when his own estate is impoverished, he can bear it, but when the Kingdom of God suffersdamage-this cuts him to the quick! God's House is our house, the Prophet thus speaks of it-"Our holy and our beautiful house,where our fathers praised You, is burned up with fire: and all our pleasant things are laid waste."

12. Will you refrain Yourself for these things, O LORD? "Can You stand still and see all this?" This is the kind of pleadingfor the people of God to use when sin abounds. When the Truth of God is trampled like mire in the street, we may come beforethe Lord and say, "Will You refrain Yourself for these things, O Jehovah?"

12. Will You hold Your peace and afflict us very severely? May God teach us how to plead for His people and make us greatintercessors on behalf of His Church and His cause in these evil days! Amen.