Isaiah 57:18-19 I have seen his ways, and will heal him: I will lead him also, and restore comforts to him and to his mourners.… There are a few objects in nature which never cease to astonish the beholder. I think Humboldt said he could never look upon the rolling prairies without astonishment: and I suppose some of us will never be able to look upon the ocean, or to see the sun rise or set, without feeling that we have before us something always fresh and always new. Now, I have been, not only for the love of it, but because of my calling of preaching it, a constant reader of Holy Scripture, and yet after these five-and-twenty years and more I frequently alight upon well-known passages which astonish me as much as ever. As if I had never heard them before, they come upon me, not merely with freshness, but even so as to cause amazement in my soul. This is one of those portions of Scripture. When I read the chapter describing the horrible wickedness of Israel — when I notice the strong terms which inspiration uses, and none of them too strong, to set forth the horrible wickedness of the nation — it staggers me. And then to see mercy following instead of judgment! It overwhelms me! "I have seen his ways, and" — it is not added, " I will destroy him; I will sweep him away," but, " I will heal him." Verily God's grace, like the great mountains, cannot be scaled; like the deeps of the sea, it can never be fathomed, and, like space, it cannot be measured. It is, like God Himself, matchless, boundless. " Oh, the depths! Oh, the depths!" ( C. H. Spurgeon.) Parallel Verses KJV: I have seen his ways, and will heal him: I will lead him also, and restore comforts unto him and to his mourners. |
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