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people, discharged the varied offices of prophet and seer, w riter and states man, in a most critical and eventful period of his nation ’s history. To his devoted loyalty to th e God who loved Israel, to his unswerving faith, to his splendid patriotism , was owing the great moral revolution which was re warded by th e golden reign of th e great H e:ekiah and the strang a spectacle of the comparatively little kingdom of J idah successfully defying th e m ighty power of th e g reatest nation of the E astern world. Though to human eyes, Isaiah and his work seemed a failure, and his words as though traced only in th e sand, th e words and the work, th e one dictated and th e other inspired by th e God of hosts, meh now see pos sess a deathless power which increases as th e centuries roll on in th e ir solemn course. L ike so many bf e a rth ’s g reat ones, th e prophet-statesm an passed through pain and agony to his rest. Now in the bosom of God he sees the fru it of his long and noble, though, as far as earth was concerned, ill-reputed toils— sees th e souls of unnumbered harassed ones finding in his story of Messiah new and ever new bulw arks for the faith which m ust save them ; reading in his sweet and, com fortable promises g reat and fresh assurances of th e per fect peace which passeth understand ing.-—Spence. Among th e other prophets, each of th e more im po rtan t ones is distin- ugished by some one p articu lar excel lence and some one peculiar talent. In Isaiah, all kinds of ta len t and all beauties of prophetic discourse meet together so as m utually to tem per and qualify each other. In th e sentim ents which he expresses, in th e topics of his discourses, and in th e m anner of ex pression, Isaiah uniform ly reveals him self as th e kingly prophet.— Ewald. When we th ink of him during those sixty years discharging so many varied
offices— prophet, apostle, psalm ist, in structo r, intercessor, evangelist, apoca lyptic seer, expostulating, reproving, expounding, com forting, doing all w ith deepest self-resignation and unfaltering faith toward God, and w ith serene dignity tow ard men, we seem to be contemplating one who, while reta in ing all hum an sympathies, has had a portion of seraphic n atu re communi cated to him ; one who was fitted not only to bear w itness to th e perfect “ ser v an t of th e Lord’’ in prophecy, but even, in some degree, to foreshadow His character in actual life.-S-Kay. I EM• I Isaiah, Who Was Ready. Isa. 6:1-8. Memory Verse.— “Here am I; send me.” Isa. 6:8. Approach.— I knew a little girl who did not always obey mother. One th ing mother had asked her to do was always to come rig h t home from school and not stop to play or go BEGINNERS to any on^’s home. AND PRIMARY There were times Mabel L. M errill when mother was w illing for her to go and play a t th e hpme of other little girls, but she wanted th e little girl to come home first and ask if she m ight go. One day she stopped a t a little g irl’s house to play, bu t did not ask her mother. On th a t very afternoon th is little g irl’s uncle drove over to her home to take th em for a nice ride out into th e beautiful country. The uncle was in a h u rry to sta rt so they could get back before dark. They drove by th e school, thinking perhaps the little girl was still a t th e play ground, bu t she was no t there. Then they drove back and asked th e neigh bor lady to watch for th e little g irl and to tak e her into her house un til they came back from the drive. In a little while she came back, and she felt so badly because she did not get to go th a t she cried and cried, bu t th e crying did not give her the drive. If she had
TO HELP. (See Page 458)
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