ment of the great conqueror who was to deliver captive Israel from the grasp of the most potent nation then in the world. "Who raised up" (or awakened) "the righteous man* from the East-called him to his foot" (the Hebrew expression for servitude or vassalage), "subdued nations at his presence, and gave him dominion over kings? He gave them as dust to his sword, and as driven stubble to his bow. He pursued them, and passed in safety, even by a way never before trodden with his feet. Who hath performed and done these things?" (ver. 2-4). Is it Cyrus? this hero-prince from the land of the sun-rising, with his mailed legions, whose name carried terror among the nations? It is a Greater far. He was but the vicegerent of the King of kings. It is one Mightier than the mightiest. He who "calleth the

Cyrus, "the righteous man," or minister of God's "righteousness," was one to whose noble nature the term Just or Righteous might, among the other tyrants of the world, be exceptionally applied.

generations of men from the beginning; I Jehovah, the first, and with the last; I am He!" (ver. 4).

The nations listen to God's challenge. They are mute. They give no response, as He claims to Himself the sole glory of the deliverer and the deliverance. We may imagine a momentary pause; but it is only to introduce a new scene in the sacred drama.

Among these Islands-these nations-there is stir and consternation. They have seen the wondrous interposition-they have seen "Bel bowing low, and Nebo stooping" (xlvi. 1)— Babylon the great has fallen;-Cyrus, God's predicted viceroy and minister, has conquered, and His people are free! What are they to do? Are they to look on, unconcerned spectators, on this second Hebrew exodus, and, without a struggle or remonstrance, to acknowledge the supremacy of the Hebrew Jehovah?

No! the aid of their idols and tutelary deities must in the crisis-hour be invoked, and their

wrath propitiated. Accordingly, like the sailors of Jonah's vessel in the midst of the storm, “every man cried unto his god."

Vers. 5, 6, "The Isles" (the maritime countries) "saw," (saw the victorious march of Cyrus) "and feared; the remotest parts of the earth trembled and were terrified-they drew near; they came together; they helped every one his neighbour." Hostile and divided nations forgot their mutual jealousies and hates, that they might be confederate on an occasion like this, when their altars as well as their thrones were in peril. Their policy, priestcraft, and credulity are graphically described. A vivid picture is given of the desperate efforts which superstition makes in a moment of common terror; the eagerness with which the varied artificers hastened forward the fabrication of the dumb idol-the idol itself thus dependent on the most trivial efforts of handicraft. Ver. 6, "Every one said to his brother" (stimulating him), "Be of good courage; so the carver" (the artificer in

metal or wood) "encouraged the smith, the hammer-smoother encouraged him that smiteth on the anvil, saying of the soldering, 'It is good,' and he made the idol firm with nails that it should not move." It is a repetition of the sarcasm of ver. 20 in previous chapter,-" He made the idol fast, that it should not 'rock' or 'shake' on its pedestal." What a true delineation, we may remark in passing, does the wild excitement of these terror-struck nations give of the consternation which seizes sinners still in the hour of appalling judgment, imminent peril, impending death! However the verities of the spiritual world may be despised and scouted on ordinary occasions; in the day of calamity—at the crash of the ship on the sunken rock-or at the cry of fire in the midnight sea-or when dear life is "balanced in a breath" amid the ravings of fever-then atheism, the bold, defiant atheism dominant at other times, takes wings. Prayerless knees are then bent, which were never bent before, on the vessel's deck, or at the

fevered bedside, and a living God is invoked for help and mercy. Realities, previously undreamt of, confront face to face, and extort from the stricken conscience the wail of anguish and despair," What then shall I do when God riseth up? and when He visiteth, what shall I answer Him?" (Job xxxi. 14.)

But to return. Ver. 8, Jehovah has waited on the summoned nations for an answer to His challenge. There being, however, no reply, He delivers, in the verses which head this exposition, an address to Israel, His own covenant people, giving the assurance of protection and safety, in words, "every one of which breathe the deepest affection” (Delitzsch), and which are intended for the comfort of His Church in

every age. Ver. 8, "But thou, Israel, my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend, fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with my faithful