OUR STRONG CITY

'In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah; We have a
strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks. Open ye
the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter
in.'--ISAIAH xxvi 1-2.


What day is 'that day'? The answer carries us back a couple of chapters,
to the great picture drawn by the prophet of a world-wide judgment,
which is followed by a burst of song from the ransomed people of
Jehovah, like Miriam's chant by the shores of the Red Sea. The 'city of
confusion,' the centre of the power hostile to God and man, falls; and
its fall is welcomed by a chorus of praises. The words of my text are
the beginning of one of these songs. Whether or not there were any
historical event which floated before the prophet's mind is wholly
uncertain. If there were a smaller judgment upon some city of the enemy,
it passes in his view into a world-wide judgment; and my text is purely
ideal, imaginative, and apocalyptic. Its nearest ally is the similar
vision of the Book of the Revelation, where, when Babylon sank with a
splash like a millstone in the stream, the ransomed people raised their
praises.

So, then, whatever may have been the immediate horizon of the prophet,
and though, there may have stood on it some historical event, the city
which he sees falling is other than any material Babylon, and the strong
city in which he rejoices is other than the material Jerusalem, though