righteousness. 10. Let favour be shewed to the wicked, yet will he not
learn righteousness: in the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly,
and will not behold the majesty of the Lord.'--ISAIAH xxvi. 1-10.'


'This song' is to be interpreted as a song, not with the cold-blooded
accuracy proper to a scientific treatise. The logic of emotion is as
sound as that of cool intellect, but it has its own laws and links of
connection. First, the song sets in sharp contrast the two cities,
describing, in verses 1-4, the city of God, its strength defences,
conditions of citizenship, and the peace which reigns within its walls;
and in verses 5 and 6 the fall and utter ruin of the robber city, its
antagonist Jerusalem, on its rocky peninsula, supplies the form of
Isaiah's thought; but it is only a symbol of the true city of God, the
stable, invisible, but most real, polity and order of things to which
men, even while wandering lonely and pilgrims, do come, if they will. It
is possible even here and now to have our citizenship in the heavens,
and to feel that we belong to a great community beyond the sea of time,
though our feet have never trodden its golden pavements, nor our eyes
seen its happy glories.

In one aspect, it is ideal, but in truth it is more real than the
intrusive and false things of this fleeting present, which call
themselves realities. 'The things which are' are the things above. The
things here are but shows and shadows.

The city's walls are salvation. There is no need to name the architect
of these fortifications. One hand only can pile their strength. God
appoints salvation in lieu of all visible defences. Whom He purposes to
save are saved. Whom He wills to keep safe are kept safe. They who can