"O happy peasant! O unhappy bard!

His the mere tinsel, hers the rich reward;
He, praised perhaps for ages yet to come;
She, never heard of half a mile from home; *
He, lost in errors, his vain heart prefers;
She, safe in the simplicity of hers."

May every one of us, "by patient continuance. in well-doing, seek for glory, and honour, and immortality" (Rom. ii. 7), and obtain "eternal life" through the possession and enjoyment of that righteousness of Christ which endureth for ever (Dan. ix. 24). Amen.

K

XV.

THE RECEPTION OF THE GOSPEL INTO THE HEART IS UNIFORMLY FOLLOWED BY PIETY TOWARD GOD AND RIGHTEOUSNESS TOWARD MEN.

"Thus saith the LORD, Keep ye judgment, and do justice for my salvation is near to come, and my righteousness to be revealed."-ISA. LVI. 1.

In the conclusion of the chapter immediately preceding, there is a glorious prediction of both temporal and spiritual felicity, at once in relation to the Jews, and also in relation to the Gentiles : "For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir-tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtletree; and it shall be to the LORD for a name, for

:

an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off" (ch. lv. 12, 13). And now, in anticipation of those great and glorious changes, the LORD sounds a note of preparation, addressed to all people: "Thus saith the LORD, Keep ye judgment, and do justice for my salvation is near to come, and my righteousness to be revealed." As much as to say, in the language of an ancient Jewish commentator, "Since ye know that God will redeem you, and do for you all those good things, keep ye his judgments; for the salvation is near, and, behold, this is for a testimony, that your transgressions delay the coming of the Messiah.” So speaks Aben Ezra. The Messiah has indeed come in the flesh; but the transgression of Israel, their unbelief, delays his coming into their heart. For " even unto this day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart. Nevertheless, when it shall turn to the LORD, the veil shall be taken away" (2 Cor. iii. 15, 16).

May the Spirit of all grace be with us; may we all keep judgment, preserving within our minds a fixed principle of action at once toward

God and toward man, according to the Word of God, that perfect rule of faith and manners; may we all do justice, working righteousness as in the sight of God, and exercising equity, and generosity, and kindness, in all the duties of life, between man and man; and may we be induced all the more to maintain and cultivate holy principles and holy actions from the consideration that God's salvation, already come in grace, is near to come in glory; and that the righteousness of God in Christ, already revealed from faith to faith, is sure to produce all the peaceable fruits of righteousness when received into the heart, in the truth, and in the love of it.

"Thus saith the LORD, Keep ye judgment." Judgment" is closely connected with "justice or righteousness. We are commanded to "keep” the one, and to "do" the other. "Judgment" refers to the inward principle; "justice" refers to the outward act. These are two expressions that are often joined together in the Word of God: they are applied to God in the administration of his providence; and they are applied to men, as to their conduct in life. For example, we read

of God, "He loveth righteousness and judgment" (Ps. xxxiii. 5); and "justice and judgment are the habitation," or basis, " of his throne" (Ps. lxxxix. 14). And so, in like manner, in relation to men, who ought to be imitators of God. The Psalmist David says of himself, "I have done judgment and justice" (Ps. cxix. 121). And King Solomon tells us that "to do justice and judgment is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice" (Prov. xxi. 3). It is on the same principle that the LORD now speaks to us all: “Keep ye judgment, and do justice." The great God, the immutable Jehovah, is a law unto himself; "a God of truth, and without iniquity, just and right is he" (Deut. xxxii. 4). He cannot do wrong. man's judgment is weak, his principle is unstable, and therefore he needs a fixed standard of judgment, a perfect rule of duty; he must come "tó the law and to the testimony" (Isa. viii. 20), the eternal criterion of right and wrong, and observe and keep that grand statute of "judgment." And so God promises that he will do, not to the Jews only, but also to the Gentiles, by the mission of his Son in the flesh: "A bruised reed shall he

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