The hiding-place Isaiah 32:2

I. There underlies this prophecy A VERY SAD, A VERY TRUE CONCEPTION OF HUMAN LIFE. 1. We live a life defenceless and exposed to many a storm and tempest. 2. "Rivers of water in a dry place!" And what is the prose fact of that? That you and I live in the midst of a world which has no correspondence with nor capacity of satisfying our truest and deepest selves — that we bear about with us a whole set of longings and needs and weaknesses and strengths and capacities, all of which, like the climbing tendrils of some creeping plant, go feeling and putting out their green fingers to lay hold of some prop and stay — that man is so made that for his rest and blessedness he needs an external object round which his spirit may cling, on which his desires may fall and rest, by which his heart may be clasped, which shall be authority for his will, peace for his fears, sprinkling and cleansing for his conscience, light for his understanding, shall be in complete correspondence with his inward nature — the water for his thirst, and the bread for his hunger. 3. And then there is the other idea underlying these words also, yet another phase of this sad life of ours — not only danger and drought, but also weariness and languor. II. But another thought suggested by these words is, THE MYSTERIOUS HOPE WHICH SHINES THROUGH THEM — that one of ourselves shall deliver us from all this evil in life. "A man," &c. III. THE SOLUTION OF THE MYSTERY IN THE PERSON OF JESUS CHRIST. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

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