Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-02-14

some carriages, QecKeQ out Win g0lQ anC
| silver and all manner of luxurious adorn-
| ment At once the preacher flames out
against them. On account of such as these
the church and the state are alike in peril.
For their sins the lofty towers of the great
city shall be laid low.
The sermon which is contained in these
four chapters falls into three divisions:
OThe ideal OF the kingdom of God, ~
the hindrances to its fulfllment, and (3)
the sure punishment that awaits the him
derers.
Progressive Ideas of Jehovah.
The ideal of the kingdom is the absolute
reign over it of the God of Sion. 1t is the
God of Sion, of the holy city, of the tenn
pie, God the father of His people; not the
God of Sinai, of the bleak desert, of the
law, the terror of the nation; who is to rule
over the ideal kingdom. All religion is
progressive. God changes not, but our
ideal of God grows wider and higher and
truer, as we grow. Isaiah knew more Of
God than Moses. We know more of God,
ought to know more of God, than Isaiah.
The God of Sion is to rule some day over
all the nations of the earth. Isaiah looked
forward to that day; Jesus looked forward
to that day, and taught us to pray for 1t.
We are looking toward it still. John Fiske,
speaking as the prophet of our most modern
philosophy, closes the pages of his paper on
"The Destiny of Man" with a look into the
future such as Isaiah dimly had in the old
time. 1t is this old chapter translated over
again, with all the wisdom of the ages since
brought into it.
at shall come to pass in the last days"
says Isaiah, "that the mountain OF the
Lords house shall be established in the
top of the mountains and shall be exalted
ol L. Ill cnatI Hnu
into it. And many people shall go and
say, come We and let us go up to the mount
ain of the Lord, to the house of the God OF
Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways, and
we will walk in His paths; for out OF Sion
shall 60 forth the law, and the word OF the
Lord from Jerusalem. And He shall judge
among the nations, and shall rebuke many
people; and they shall beat their swords
into ploughshares, and their spears into
pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up
sword against nation, neither shall they
learn war any more"
The Promise of the Future.
=. 'The future" says Fiske, sis lighted for
us with the radiant colors of hope Strife
and sorrow shall disappear Peace and love
shall reign supreme. The dream of poets,
the lesson of priest and prophet, the inspira-
tion of the great musician, is confirmed in
the light of modern knowledge; and as we
yield ourselves up to the work of life, we
may look forward to the time when in the
truest sense the kingdoms of the world shall
become the kingdom of Christ, and He
shall reign forever and ever, king of kings,
and lord of lords"
The realization of the Fatherhood of God,
as Isaiah family saw it, as Christ plainly
saw it, will be the supreme charac-
teristic of the ideal kingdom. God is our
Father, the Father of the meanest, the
obscurcst, the poorest, even the most de-
praved of human kind, and all we are
brethren. Even now we are but beginning
to realize the blessedness, the desirability,
the supreme necessity of that old ideal.
Isaiah SAYS that that day'of the Lord will
come not by force, by conquest, by the
sword, not by insistance upon uniformity
nor by prosecutions for heresy, not by
strikes nor by lockouts; no, by instruction,
by teaching, by the persuasiveness OF the
simple truth.
No War In Isaiah's future.
Isaiah says that when the day of the Lord
comes all unbrotherliness will stink away
,ut of its glorious light And he singles
,ut for illustration that most unbrotherly
IF all our instituticns-war. All disputes
will then be settled, he says, by arbitration.
Sod will be the Judge; that is, all troubles
will be adjusted by reference to the eternal
avs of God. The military establishments
which exist in the nations of Europe will |
,e exchanged for industrial conditions; |
words will be converted into ploughshares. |
Nor will there ever be any further instruc-
ion given in the art of war.
The two chief characteristics of the ideal |
,ingdom, then, are truth and love; truth in
Ioctrine, for God will be the teacher; and
owe in conduct, for God will be the judge.
Now, in Isaiah's time, what hindered the
oming of this ideal kingdom? The
in his sermon, gives an abundance
# plain answers. In the second chapter,
lie says that the hindrances are the sooth-
AYERS and the worshipers of idols, and
he possessors of inordinate riches In the
hird chapter he says that the hindrances
re the elders and the princes who oppress
he poor, and the aristocratic ladies who
hink only of their fine apparel. In the
fifth chapter he describes the hindrances
nder the headings of six woes: woe to the
reat landlords, woe to the luxurious livers,
roe to- open sinners and sacrificing un-
elievers, woe to the teachers of false
morality, who persuade people that stealing
nd lying are all right when they are car
led on upon large scale in business. and
hat murder is commendable when it is done
v large army in war, woe to the self
onceited politicians who oppose reform,
zoe to the unjust judges who oppress the
oor.
The Root of All Evil.
That is, the root of all real hindrance to
ne coming of the ideal kingdom was the
we of money. That is to be read between
le lines, and in the lines themselves, of
lese stern chapters. The love of money,
hich even vet is not extinct.
Then follows the declaration of punish
ent. Isaiah says two things about this
certain punishment. It is q
,nsequence. Really, we punish ourselves
7e set in motion the great inevitable laws
hich visit our transgressions on our own
eads. Sin is cause which always has
unishment for a consequence. There is no
cape from punishment. And punishment
remedial God has set this consequence
ith this cause, not In anger, but in mercy,
II our good. All punishmentint in this world,
I'd in the world to come must be remedial
r else, God is not as good as we are.
Finally, it is worth noticing that in all
ese utterances of Isaiah, he addresses not
e individual but the nation. We need
eat increase of national religion. We
led to bring the Creed, the Lords Prayer /
ID the Ten Commandments into our ,,
.tional politics; especially, as recent in
ances remind us, into our dealings with !
her nations. We need to learn that what !!
er is wrong for an individual is wrong
so for a nation. GEORGE HODGES.
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