Wherefore, when I came, was there no man? when I called, was there none to answer? Is my hand shortened at all, that it cannot redeem? or have I no power to deliver? behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness: their fish stinketh, because there is no water, and dieth for thirst. (3) I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering.

(4) The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned. (5) The Lord God hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back. (6) I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting. — Isaiah 50:2-6

THERE was no one to take up the divine challenge: no one to answer for guilty man. To the call of God for one who could save, there was no answer but the echo of his voice.

See who it is that comes to rescue man! Jehovah interposes to save; but he appears in a special manner.

1. He comes in fullness of power. "Is my hand shortened at all?"
2. His power to save is equal to that with which he destroys. Let Egypt be the instance: "I dry up the sea," etc.
3. His power is that which produces the phenomena of nature."I clothe the heavens with blackness."
4. This should excite deep gratitude, that he who rebukes the sea was himself rebuked; he who clothes the heavens with blackness was himself in darkness for our sake.
5. This should excite confidence; for he is evidently Lord of the sea and the sky, the dark and the gloom.

1. Instructed and endowed: "the Lord hath given me the tongue of the learned." He knows, and he imparts knowledge.
2. Condescending to the needy: "to him that is weary."
3. Watchful of each case: "that I should know how to speak a word in season." This is a rare gift: many speak, and perhaps speak in season, but have not learned the right manner.
4. Constantly in communion with God: "he wakeneth morning by morning.""He that hath sent me is with me."

Should we not be heartily attentive t6 his teachings? "I will hear what God the Lord will speak."

1. Prepared by grace:"he wakeneth mine ear to hear." He spoke not his own words, but those which he had heard of his Father.
2. Consecrated in due form: "hath opened mine ear," boring it to the door-post. This was publicly done in his baptism, when in outward symbol he fulfilled all righteousness.
3. Obedient in all things: "I was not rebellious." In no point did Jesus refuse the Father's will, not even in Gethsemane.
4. Persevering through all trials: "neither turned away back." He did not relinquish the hard task, but set his face as a flint to carry it through.
5. Courageous in it all: as we see in the verse following our text.

1. His entire submission; his back, his cheeks, his hair, his face.
2. His willing submission:"I gave my back to the smilers." "I hid not my face."
3. His lowly submission, bearing the felon's scourge, and the utmost of scorn: "shame and spitting."
4. His patient submission. Not a word of reproach, or resentment.

It may bring out important truths very vividly if we make combinations of the four subjects which have come before us.

• Place the first and the last together: the God and the Sufferer. What condescension! What ability to save!


• Place the two middle terms together: the Teacher and the Servant, and see how sweetly he serves by teaching, and teaches by serving.


• Put all together, and let the blended characters ensure ardent affection, obedient reverence, and devout delight.

I imagine myself placed in the world at the time when the Christ was expected, commissioned to announce to it that God was about to send his own Son, having endowed him with "the tongue of the learned." What excitement in all the schools of philosophy! What gatherings of the sages of the earth! What expectations of the discoveries with which science was about to be enriched! "Now? say they, "shall long-hidden secrets be revealed: now shall we penetrate the laboratories of nature, and observe all those processes of which, at present, we see only the results. For what purpose can the tongue of the learned have been given to a Divine Person, if not that he may expound mysteries to the world, that he may tell us what the wise have been unable to detect, and the studious labored in vain to unfold?"

But this Divine Person shall speak for himself to the assembled throng of philosophers and sages. "Yes, the Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned; and I have descended that I might speak with that tongue to every nation of the earth. But he hath not: given me the tongue that ! might tell how stars and planets roll, or settle the disputes of the wise. He hath not given me the tongue that I should know how to speak a word to you, ye disputers of this world; but simply that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary." Oh, how fallen are the expectant countenances of philosophers and sages! "Is this all?" they exclaim. "Was it only for this that the tongue of the learned was bestowed? Does this require, or can this employ, the tongue of the learned?"

Nay, men of science, turn not angrily away. With all your wisdom you have never been able to do this. The weary have sought to you in vain. They have found no "word in season? no word of comfort and sustainment; and why then should you be indignant at the province here assigned to "the tongue of the learned"?

What tongue but"the tongue of the learned" could speak"a word in season" to a world oppressed with this universal weariness? The tongue must be one which could disclose the mysteries of the Godhead, prove the immortality of the soul, and be charged with intelligence as to the pardon of sin, and the mode of reconciliation between man and his Maker: things into which angels had in vain striven to look. — Condensed from Henry Melvill