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I. MORAL RECTITUDE IS THE GREAT WANT OF THE WORLD. We take the words "judgment" and "law" as expressing the same generic idea — rectitude; that is, a rightness in man in all the powers and operations of his soul, and in all his relations to God and the universe. This rectitude is his want of wants. The want of it involves the want of all other good.

1. Rectitude will put an end to all the painful feelings which afflict the individual soul. Conflict of passions — fear — jealousy — envy — ambition — remorse; these, and kindred feelings which torment the individual soul, will all disappear when rectitude is established.

2. Rectitude will put an end to all the social evils which afflict the state. Monopoly — injustice — oppression — cupidity — the source of poverty and feuds — would all go were rectitude established.

3. Rectitude would put an end to all religious evils which afflict the world. Rectitude is the panacea; it will heal all the evils. Well may the "isles wait" for it. Universal conscience is crying out for rectitude. The fact that they wait for it implies —

(1)  That they have a deep belief in its existence.

(2)  That they have a capacity to receive it.

(3)  That they feel its necessity.

II. THERE IS A GLORIOUS BEING ENGAGED TO ESTABLISH RECTITUDE IN THE WORLD. "He shall not fail." Who is He? The "Servant," the "Elect" of Jehovah. Christ's work is to establish rectitude. He died, and lives again, "to put away sin."

1. His life gives the highest expression of rectitude.

2. His death gives the highest motives to rectitude.

3. His Spirit supplies the highest helps to rectitude.

III. THIS WORK OF ESTABLISHING RECTITUDE IS CARRIED ON WITH INVINCIBLE PERSEVERANCE. "He shall not fail," etc. There are four things which cause men to fail and be discouraged in an enterprise —

1. The want, at the outset, of a full appreciation of all the difficulties that would arise in the working of it out to completion. But Christ saw the end from the beginning. All the arguments of infidelity, all the efforts of persecutors, all the opposition which prejudice, craft, and depravity would ever raise in any age, He foresaw, and was prepared to meet.

2. The want of a thorough sympathy with the undertaking. Men sometimes begin a work from certain motives — gain or fame, or it may be from benevolence-but with no hearty sympathy; and the consequence is that their little interest in it gradually decreases, until at last they give it up altogether; they "fail" and are "discouraged." Will Christ never "fail or be discouraged "on this account? Never! His whole heart is in it. He has proved His interest in it by giving His life to promote it.

3. The want of a thorough acquiescence of the conscience in the undertaking. Men sometimes begin a work, and they find that it is not such that their conscience approves of. Though it may be lucrative — though it may lead them to fortune and fame — yet their conscience disapproves it; and by its constant rebukes they are forced to give it up. But Christ will never "fail nor be discouraged" on this account. It is a righteous enterprise; it is fulfilling the will of Heaven.

4. The want o f time to complete the undertaking. Men often begin a work to which they attach vast importance, and which meets the entire sympathies of their hearts and consciences, and fail in its accomplishment for the want of time. Death comes and breaks our purposes, and leaves our work undone. But Christ will never "fail nor be discouraged" on this account. He is alive to live for ever. Let us have faith in the work of establishing rectitude in the world.

(Homilist.)

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KJV: He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for his law.

WEB: He will not fail nor be discouraged, until he has set justice in the earth, and the islands will wait for his law."