Isaiah 61:11 For as the earth brings forth her bud, and as the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth… It is a great act that God performs before our eyes during the spring and summer. I. It is a MANIFESTATION that we see. A mystery hidden during the winter months is being revealed. As Nature hides and then reveals, "So the Lord will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth." 1. It is a great manifestation of power that we see. We more readily associate God's power with vast convulsions; but this is the continuously working and gentle power of the Most High. Mark the consummate case with which all is done. Yet not a sheath is split, not a flower starts from the earth, but it is moved to do so by some power. 2. Is not this putting forth of leaves a great manifestation of mind? Suppose we discard the word "design ' and accept the word "adaptation," do we escape from the suggestion of mental action? It is not possible to describe the facts as they appear to us without using language that implies adjustment by means of mind. 3. It is something more than mind that is manifested in the beauty of nature. Beauty is only visible to reason, indeed to the higher kind of reason. Your horse sees nothing of the beauty of the landscape; your dog despises your flowers. The images of all these things are reflected on their eyes as on yours, but they produce no emotion. So that in nature, it seems, special provision is made for the peculiar gratification of the higher mind of man. Surely it must be reason that thus addresses itself to reason, and if reason, then benevolence. II. The prophet sees in this THE PARABLE OF ANOTHER MANIFESTATION — a great moral and spiritual manifestation. "So the Lord God," etc. It is pathetic that he should maintain this faith through the "winter of his discontent." All spiritual influences are treasured up, and there is a conservation of spiritual force as of natural. But the preparation is long, as the winter that precedes the spring. How great the joy of knowing that we may help to provide or strengthen the forces of the world's true vernal hour. III. Remember that WE SHALL BE MANIFESTED (2 Corinthians 5:10). Forces arc gathering within us. When we "awake, may our surprise, even in respect to ourselves, be like that with which we look upon the new heavens and the new earth! (A. H. Vine.) Parallel Verses KJV: For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations. |
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