SERMON V. "When Jesus then lifted up His eyes and saw a great company come unto Him, He saith unto Philip: SERMON XII. And this is life eternal: that they might know Thee, the SERMON XIII. SERMON XVI. SERMON XVII. Therefore, my brethren dearly beloved and longed for, SERMON XVIII. SERMON XIX. "Unto Timothy, my own son in the faith: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord" (1 Tim. i. 2). "For I am now ready to be SERMON XX. SERMON XXIV. SERMON XXV. 66 THE SPIRITUAL MAN. 'Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not, and nations which know not thee shall run unto thee, because of the Lord thy God and the Holy One of Israel; for He hath glorified thee." -ISAIAH lv. 5. ISAIAH, the poet of prophets, was the great patriot of the Jews. Every truest and best patriot must have something of the poet and prophet in him. He must be something of a poet, because he must look below the surface of his country's prosperity or disaster, and see wherein the real soul of her blessings and her sorrows lies. He must be something of a prophet that he may take in all his country's long life, and not be misled by too narrow a study of her present condition. Such a patriot was Christ. He could not be deluded by enormous stores and stately structures so long as the heart of Jerusalem was selfish and corrupt. He could not be satisfied with the peace and quiet of the moment while His ears heard afar off the thunder of the coming storm. It was the poet and the prophet in His soul that loved His city, and so He could upbraid her as no other of her children could. And He could look abroad, and tell in saddened tones how from the east and west and north and south the citizens of other lands would come and take the places of which His own beloved city had proved herself unworthy. We need far more than we possess of the lofty patriotism of Isaiah and of Jesus. Plenty of pride in our city and our nation, plenty of boasting there is about their wealth and greatness; but of that fullest patriotism which corresponds to the fullest friendship we have far too little. That fullest patriotism is on one side the extension of the personal life, keeping its vigour and distinctness, and on the other side it is the specialising of the enthusiasm of humanity, keeping its largeness and inspiration. May it not truly be said that he who would be a patriot with such a patriotism as that must be both poet and prophet, like Isaiah or like Christ? It would seem as if Judea must have been a country peculiarly adapted to call out the best kind of spiritual patriotism. Her children firmly believed that she was consecrated to the highest purposes of God. She was full of the idea of spirituality. She lay there between her mighty neighbours, with Assyria on one side of her and Egypt on the other, and while they represented wealth and power she distinctly stood for spirituality and holiness. Very interesting always is this representative character of nations. The nations stand in history each with its nature shining in its face-Greece with its passion for knowledge, Rome |