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SERMON II.

ISAIAH, c. xl. v. 3, 4, 5.

The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.

THE language of this sublime prophecy is exalted to the loftiness and grandeur of its subject, the approach of the Messiah to his kingdom upon earth. Enraptured with his magnificent vision, the prophet embodies and prefigures it in the pomp and circumstances of an earthly pageant, in the march of a mighty monarch, preceded by his heralds to prepare the people in his progress to receive him with correspondent acts of homage and splendour of retinue, and by pioneers to clear and level the ways, and make them easy and

commodious for his passage. Such processions are recorded in the most ancient histories, and are still customary in eastern nations. Nor can we have a more sublime idea of the entrance of the Messiah into the world than the words of the

text afford us. We may suppose the Messiah, the desire of the nations, the glory of the Lord, marching in awful triumph along this road prepared for him in the desert, while all flesh, all the collected world, stand on each side viewing with interested, pleasing astonishment the triumphant entrance of a King coming to redeem and to save.

As the appearance of the bright morning star announces the near approach of the sun to the horizon, and prepares the inhabitants of the earth to hail with joy the rising of the glorious luminary which revives and supports all nature, so to the people that walked in darkness did the illustrious Baptist first arise, a burning and a shining light indeed, but the harbinger only of that Sun of Righteousness which was about to dawn on the spiritual creation with healing in his wings. To this effect, St. John, speaking of the Baptist, says, he was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that light. Now, as the prophecy in the text is expressly applied by the

Evangelists to Christ, we are to consider it as carrying an evangelical import, and as intended to speak comfortably, not only to Jerusalem in captivity, but to the Church of Christ, detained. in the bondage of sin, by the tyranny of Satan. The voice of him that cried in the wilderness, so loftily announced by the prophet, was that of John the Baptist, the herald appointed to prepare the way before the Prince of Peace, through the wilderness of this world to the heavenly Jerusalem. The voice of the Baptist was to proclaim that the waters of salvation were broken out, by whose salutary streams the wilderness and the solitary places should be revived, and gladdened, and the desert should rejoice and blossom as the But before the Saviour of men could work this mighty change, a way must be made in the world for his reception, by the harbinger who was to "go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord."

rose.

As the way the Baptist was sent to prepare by repentance, was in the hearts of men, the prophecy in the text must be understood as designating the great moral change to be produced in

the world by the preaching of the gospel. Every valley shall be exalted. There cannot be a more just as well as beautiful description than this metaphor affords, of the humble and lowly spirit that dares not exalt itself, or glory in its own strength, and sufficiency, but conscious of its own frailty, humbles itself under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt it. "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." On the contrary, every mountain and hill shall be made low. As the lowly and fruitful valleys represent the meek and humble disciples of Christ, so do the lofty and barren mountains point out the haughty and presumptuous children of this world, that set themselves up against the Lord, and against his anointed. The high places of their idolatry and unbelief are to be broken down, and levelled, to prepare the way of the Lord, and make straight in the desert a highway for our God. To the same effect are the words of St. Paul, "The weapons of our warfare are mighty through God, to the pulling down of strong holds, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." When

our Lord declared that he that humbleth himself shall be exalted, he declared at the same time that he that exalteth himself shall be abased. And his virgin mother connected these two declarations in her divine song, "He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and hath exalted them of low degree." Lastly, the prophet Isaiah puts the explanation of this image beyond all doubt; for he speaks of the loftiness of man and the height of the mountains as the same thing. "The day of the Lord of Hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up, and he shall be brought low; and upon all the mountains and upon all the hills that are lifted up; and the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day." The plain import of these words is, that Christ only, and those who have been humble like him, shall be raised; and the high towering sons of earth laid for ever low in their original dust. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill made low. The prophet next announces that the crooked shall be made straight. Man, at his creation, was placed in the straight way to the happiness of heaven and had he kept the eye of faith steadily fixed upon

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