gnawing of conscience, nor any fearful looking for of judgment in such
remembrance, but a wholesome humility passing into thankful wonder that
such sin is pardoned, and such a sinner made God's friend.

The deep foundation of all the blessedness is finally laid bare (v. 32)
as being God's undeserved mercy. 'For Mine holy name' (v. 22) is God's
reason. He is His own motive, and He wills that the world should know
His name,--that is, His manifested character,--and understand how loving
and long-suffering He is. So He wills, not because such knowledge adds
to His glory, but because it satisfies His love, since it will make the
men who know His name blessed. The truth that God's motive is His own
name's sake may be so put as to be hideous and repellent; but it really
proclaims that He is love, and that His motive is His poor creatures'
blessing.

To this great outline of the blessings of the restored nations are
appended two subsidiary prophecies, marked by the recurring 'Thus saith
the Lord.' The former of these (vs. 33-36) deals principally with the
new beauty that was to clothe the land. The day in which the inhabitants
were cleansed from their sins was to be the day in which the land was to
be raised from its ruin. Cities are to be rebuilt, the ground that had
lain fallow and tangled with briers and thorns is to be tilled, and to
bloom like Eden, a restored paradise. How far the fulfilment has halted
behind the promise, the melancholy condition of Palestine to-day may
remind us. Whether the literal fulfilment is to be anticipated or no
seems less important than to note that the experience of forgiveness
(and of the consequent blessings described above) is the precursor of
this fair picture. Therefore, the Church's condition of growth and
prosperity is its realisation in the persons of its individual members,
of pardon, the renewal of the inner man by the indwelling Spirit,