bright with Messianic hopes, but around him the shadows lie dark and
heavy.

It was his destiny to speak to a people whose ears were dull of hearing
and their hearts without understanding; but he never lost the conviction
that the holy seed of God's spirit was alive in them. Amidst all present
discouragement he lived in the hope of a brighter and better day, when
the eyes of those around him would be opened, and their hearts changed,
and a new spirit would take hold of them, and righteousness, peace,
prosperity, and gladness would prevail. And no man's life is worth much
which is not inspired by some such hope.

What Isaiah saw immediately around him was sin and moral blindness. What
he saw immediately in front of him was the consequence of these in woe
and desolation. "Year upon year," he cries, "shall ye be troubled, ye
careless ones: thorns and briers shall come upon the land of my people:
until the spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness shall
become a planted field." But in the day of that outpouring, the heart of
the people would turn and be uplifted, renewed, and purified, the
wilderness would become a planted field. And this thought brings him to
the final outburst of the text I have just read to you, which is a
blessing on those true Israelites who realised the high calling of God's
people, and were inspired to fulfil it, sowing everywhere and always the
seeds of Divine influence. The whole vision is highly instructive, for
it is the vision of what occurs again and again in all human history; but
it is of this blessing with which it closes that I desire to say a word
or two to-day.

Amidst all the threatening and discouraging symptoms of the national
life, Isaiah turned to the bright vision of those servants of God whose