cruel the sway of the fallen robber city was; and now they march across
its site; and its broken columns and ruined palaces strew the ground
below their feet. 'The righteous nation' of the one picture are 'the
poor and needy' of the other. No doubt the prophecy has had partial
accomplishments more than once or twice, when the oppressed church has
triumphed, and some hoary iniquity been levelled at a blow, or toppled
over by slow decay. But the complete accomplishment is yet future, and
not to be realised till that last act, when all antagonism shall be
ended, and the net result of the weary history of the world be found to
be just these two pictures of Isaiah's--the strong city of God with its
happy inhabitants, and the everlasting desolations of the fallen city of
confusion.

The triumphant hurry of the song pauses for a moment to gaze upon the
crash, and in verse 7 gathers its lessons into a kind of proverbial
saying, which is perhaps best translated 'The path of the just is smooth
(or "plain"); Thou levellest smooth the path of the just.' To render
'upright' instead of 'smooth' seems to make the statement almost an
identical proposition, and is tame. What is meant is, that, in the light
of the end, the path which often seemed rough is vindicated. The
judgment has showed that the righteous man's course had no unnecessary
difficulties. The goal explains the road. The good man's path is smooth,
not because of its own nature, but because God makes it so. We are to
look for the clearing of our road, not to ourselves, nor to
circumstances, but to Him; and even when it is engineered through rocks
and roughnesses, to believe that He will make the rough places plain, or
give us shoes of iron and brass to encounter them. Trust that when the
journey is over the road will be explained, and that this reflection,
which breaks the current of the swift song of the prophet, will be the
abiding, happy conviction of heaven.