Does this always continue when the trouble has departed? Is not this often the history? The cloud breaks, the sun bursts out again, the man forgets that the sun was ever hid. Ship in storm. Cries, prayers, vows. Ship is saved. Prayers cease; revelry is resumed. How often on the bed of sickness are prayers and promises uttered which are forgotten with returning health. Pharaoh alarmed by the successive plagues. Besought Moses to pray. Hardened his heart again. The children of Israel repeatedly fell into idolatry. Visited with judgments. Cried to the Lord. When punishment was withdrawn returned to the sin. Conviction is not conversion; awakening not repentance. If the heart remains unchanged, a man will only pray as long as he is alarmed (H. E. I., 3877–3879).

II. Some begin to pray in trouble, and continue to pray afterwards. Many have had to thank God for trouble. Borne along the stream of prosperity towards destruction. Some obstruction. It was unwelcome. It compelled examination. It revealed the yawning falls a little way beyond. Just in time to return. Every human soul requires one such grand interruption in its career. Grace of God employs various means for its effectuation. Trouble is one (Hosea v. 15). The soul’s deep sin, danger, need, has been revealed. The cry has gone up to heaven. It was the cry of true repentance and humble faith in the Crucified One. Comes from the trouble a new man—a praying man (Manasseh, 2 Chron. xxxiii. 10–13. The prodigal son, Luke xv. 14–21).

III. Some pray habitually, but especially in trouble. Prayer is the special characteristic of a Christian. It is his “vital breath.” He cannot fail to establish stated seasons of prayer, both public and private. He endeavours to maintain the spirit of prayer. By its aid the blood of the spiritual life is kept in circulation. An important sense in which he prays “without ceasing” (H. E. I., 3866–3879; P. D., 2839). And every remarkable event is made the occasion of special prayer. Certainly trouble is one of these. Do you not go to God in your sorrows, as a child goes to his father or his mother? Bishop Reynolds says: “A Godly heart is like those flowers which shut when the sun sets, and open again when the sun returns and shines upon them. Hannah prayed silently so long as she was in bitterness of spirit; but as soon as God answered her prayer and filled her heart with joy, presently her mouth was enlarged into a song of thanksgiving.” In trouble you pray, 1. for deliverance, in submission to the Divine will. 2. More especially for a sanctified use of trouble; complete submission, faith, purification (Phil. iv. 6, 7).—J. Rawlinson.

National Revival.

xxvi. 19. Thy dead men shall live.

I. This is the language of exultation.[1] In this part of the chapter the tone changes from sorrow, failure, and abortion to life, prosperity, and joy. “Thy dead, O Zion, shall live again.” Thy people have been virtually, civilly, nationally dead, but they shall have a resurrection. Because these dead are God’s people, their resurrection from national death is certain. Then, thrilled with confidence in this truth, the prophet gives utterance to the voice of God within him, “Awake and sing, ye that lie buried in dust, awake; come forth from your (figurative) graves, and break out in song as ye come up to the light of day!”

II. This expectation involves a contrast. The resurrection of national life of God’s people stands in contrast with the denial of resurrection to the wicked rulers of Babylon (ver. 14). That Chaldean nation went down to its political grave with no hope, no possibility of being raised to national life again. On the contrary, God’s people, from being in a state of national death in Babylon, were eventually called into national life.

III. This declaration suggests a truth which nations ought to learn. No nation that seeks God and His righteousness can be permanently kept down. “Righteousness exalteth a nation;” exalteth it from depression into power. It may be brought low, but if the elements of rectitude lie within it, if public justice be a part of its political creed, and respect for the rights of others its unvarying practice, then, though apparently buried in the grave of defeat and degradation, its resurrection shall come. God rules not only amid the armies of heaven, but amongst the inhabitants of the earth, and to every nation maintaining justice, mercy, and truth, though brought ever so low, the voice of history proclaims, “Thy dead men shall live!” The bodies of English martyrs to the Tudor period perished. Under the Stuart dynasty the bones of those English patriots who defied “crowned and mitred tyranny” were dug up and dishonoured. That part of them corruptible and worthless died, but the better part of them has experienced a resurrection. Their principles live to-day. “Thy dead men shall live.”—Henry Cowles, D.D.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] This passage proves beyond a question that the idea of a resurrection from the dead was familiar to the prophet and to his first readers, for whose immediate use he wrote. Sensible writers never borrow figures from things unknown, but always from things better known than the facts they would illustrate. As no writer could draw a figure from what was unknown to himself, so, if he sought to teach, he would not draw one from what was unknown to his readers. As Isaiah could not talk about a resurrection if he had never known the idea and the words to express it, so he would not expect to be understood unless his readers were also familiar with it.—Cowles.