Divine persistency.
"He shall not fail nor be discouraged." "He shall not burn dimly nor be crushed." The figure prominent in the mind of the prophet is not the actual Israel, the ideal Israel, Cyrus, or Judas Maccabaeus, but the Messiah who, in the deepest view of him, is the manifested God. And "though be meets with hard service and much opposition, and foresees how ungrateful the world will be, yet he goes on with his part of the work, till he is able to say, 'It is finished!' and he enables his apostles and ministers to go on with theirs, too, and not to fail nor be discouraged till they also have finished their testimony." Henderson gives the connection of the passages suggestively: "Mild and gentle as he would be towards the broken-hearted and tire desponding, no power should depress his Spirit, impede his progress, obscure his glory, or thwart his purpose."
I. CHRIST HAS A GREAT END TOWARDS WHICH HE IS EVER, AND HAS BEEN EVER, WORKING. The largest view we can take of Christ regards him as God operating for high moral ends in the sphere of humanity. God's direct moral Agent, in all the ages, has been the Second Person of the sacred Trinity, the Angel-Jehovah, Jehovah ministering, or the Christ. So we link the great Incarnation with all the foreshadowing incarnations. God's end, in Christ, is
1. A preparatory work in the world. Letting men find out the value of righteousness by experiences of evil.
2. A stage of visible manifestation of the righteousness desired for the whole world, in the person of the righteous Servant of the Lord, the "Man Christ Jesus."
3. A stage, now incomplete, of the inward workings of the Holy Spirit, using agencies of human ministry and Christian influence and example.
II. CHRIST MIGHT, WE THINK, FAIL AND BE DISCOURAGED BY THE SLOW PROGRESS OF HIS KINGDOM OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. The stages are long. The progress often rather seems backward. Each stage has, indeed, been misunderstood. We are only now getting glimpses of the importance of the first preparatory stage. We say, "How long?' and wonder that Christ does not. It is long waiting lot the "travail of his soul."
III. IF CHRIST IS NOT DISCOURAGED, SURELY WE NEED NOT BE. Our imperfect knowledge, our passion for results, and our weak faith, may excuse our failing. We readily forget that the honour of God is far more truly bound up in the full redemption of the world, and the universal reign of righteousness, than ours. "It is enough for the servant that he be as his Master." Not until our living, loving Lord is disheartened and gives up his work of saving men, may we let the tools of our Christian service drop out of our hand.—R.T.