"they refused to return."

1. God reasons with us from what we do in other cases. "Shall they fall," etc. (ver. 4). He makes us judges in our own cause. If a man slips and gets a fall, does he lie where he fell, without making any attempt to get up again? "Why, then," God saith, doth this people what no others do? Why do they fall, and rise not? stray, and return not? "Despair of pardon leads many to continue in sin. But is there cause for this despair? Is it God that is unwilling? No; "they refused to return." The Lord, as it were, saith, How often would I have gathered them together, and they would not! My outward calling you by the Word, My inward moving by me Spirit, My many benefits, My gentle chastisements, My long. suffering — all show, that I was willing for your return.

2. God reasons with us from His own anxious desire. He represents Himself to us as hearkening with patient, attentive ear, if He may catch from us the words of repentance. And what does God expect to hear from us? "What have I done?" These words, said not with the lips only, but from the deep feelings of the heart, may lead to better things. How vile was the act of sin in itself! how full is it of shame and remorse! What have I done, as in the sight of God, so fearful in power, so glorious in majesty? What have I done as for any profit derived, any passing, empty pleasure? How have I injured my body and my soul!

3. God sends us to the birds of the sky; to creatures without reason, that we, reasonable beings, may learn our duty from them. "Yea, the stork," etc. These birds have an appointed time for coming back; they know and observe it. There is an "accepted time," if we would know it; if, like the birds, we would observe, and take it; and the Scripture tells us, that that time is "now."

(E. Blencowe, M. A.)