SERMON XXIV.

ISAIAH XXXII. 2.

AND A MAN SHALL BE AS AN HIDING PLACE FROM THE WIND, AND A COVERT FROM THE TEMPEST; AS RIVERS OF WATER IN A DRY PLACE, AS THE SHADOW OF A GREAT ROCK IN A WEARY LAND.

NOTHING Could be more desolate than the condition of the kingdom of Judah, at the period immediately preceding the reign of Hezekiah. From the account which is given in 2 Chron. xxviii. 6. 8, 9, we learn that "Pekah, the son of Remaliah, slew in Judah, 120,000 in one day"-again, that “the children of Israel carried away captive of their brethren, 200,000 women, sons and daughters "—again, in the same chapter "the Edomites had come and smitten Judah, and carried away captives," and yet again, in the next verse," the Philistines also had invaded the cities of the low country, and of the south of Judah, and had taken several of their cities, with the villages thereof, and they dwelt there." To add to their distress,

the very refuges to which they trusted, proved "refuges of lies"-for when their king applied in his extremity" unto the kings of Assyria to help him” we are told, that "Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria, came unto him, and distressed him, but strengthened him not." Thus it will be seen, that the expressions in the first chapter of Isaiah, are forcibly descriptive of the wretchedness and degradation of this rebellious people-" your country is desolate, your cities are burnt with fire; your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate as overthrown by strangers." The reason for all this is given, when it is said, that " the Lord brought Judah low, because of Ahaz, king of Israel, for he made Judah naked, and transgressed sore against the Lord." And as with the king, so with the princes. Thy princes," says the prophet are rebellious, and companions of thieves every one loveth gifts and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow, come unto them." Under such a government, it was evident that oppressed innocence would find no shelter-godliness no encouragement. But though the Lord's people were indeed in an evil case, He would not leave them comfortless. He had not "forgotten to be gracious"-he "earnestly remembered them still "—and accordingly, whilst he sent his prophets to exhort and reprove-to "cry aloud and spare not, but shew his people their sins," he also commissioned them "to comfort Israel, and speak comfortably to Jerusalem."

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is thus that Isaiah speaks in the text and context, when he is inspired to foretel the blessings which should attend the government of Hezekiah-" Behold a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment, and a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land." For the proximate or primary fulfilment of this prediction, we are unquestionably to refer to the history of that pious king of Judah, and to the reformations, civil and religious, which he was the instrument of effecting. But it is at the same time, impossible to read this chapter in connexion with the three following, forming as they do one complete prophecy, without coming to the conclusion, that a greater than Hezekiah is here a still worthier Son of David-the "king of righteousness"-the "prince of peace." Yes, brethren, the man Christ Jesus, is the "man" more especially intended in the text, and therefore, confining ourselves for a season to this interpretation of the passage, let us consider its several terms as descriptive of the blessings which Christ affords to his Church. These, as they are here set forth, may be classed under the three heads of—

I. PROTECTION.
II. SUSTENANCE.
III. REFRESHMENT.

I. The words of the text most clearly intimate

the PROTECTION which Jesus affords to his people. This is conveyed in the two first clauses, "A man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest." Allusion is made in these terms, to the well known peculiarities of an eastern climate, in which the transitions of weather are as sudden, as they are oft-times violent and destructive. Of this fact, we have frequent intimations in scripture, and these again are confirmed by the observations of modern travellers.

One hour we read of the heavens being as brass -scorching and parching the earth with a three years' drought. The next, there ariseth" a little cloud out of the sea, like a man's hand," and on a sudden "the sky is black with clouds and wind," so that the chariot-wheels of Ahab have scarcely staid in Jezreel, before the windows of heaven are opened, and there is "the sound and the descent of abundance of rain."

Again-there is a company of brethren and sisters, banqueting in all the confidence of security, in their elder brother's house. It is the family of the patriarch of Uz. In the morning, he had seen, and blest, and "sanctified" them all. But the sun does not set, before his full cup of bitterness is made to overflow with the tidings

Thy sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house: and, behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and smote the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young men, and they are dead."

The wind and the tempest of the text, whilst they are both designed to represent distress, danger, oppression, seem to mark the succession, and the aggravation of the evils.

i. As the tempest follows the wind and is produced by it, so it often happens in life. Cloud is gathered to cloud-wave succeeds to wave— breach comes upon breach-so that the wormwood of affliction is like some bitter herb, whose seed is in itself, and seems to reproduce itself. But if we consider these figurative expressions separately, we shall the better understand the danger they denote, and the value and necessity of a "refuge." The east wind, (or as it is generally called the Simoom) is, in those countries, especially in the wilderness-districts, not only violent, but noxious. It will rise, for instance, in the parched deserts of Arabia, and gathering heat in its passage from the glowing sand, advance like a current of pestilential flame, scattering the blossoms, withering the fruits, and drying the streams. The wayfaring man, exposed to its blast, knows that the only possible hope of escape, is to lie prostrate with his face upon the ground, till its fury be over-past. The very beasts of the desert instinctively perceive its approach, and bury their heads and nostrils in the sand. To inhale its poisonous breath is certain suffocation. How precious in such a moment of exposure and peril, would be some cleft in the rock-some " hiding place from the wind," whereunto the pilgrim might