that in another world it can no longer be exercised, what then?

Evil deeds are the occasion of the divine retribution. They are 'a
spark.' It is they who light the pyre, not God. The prophet here
protests in God's name against the notion that He is to be blamed for
punishing. Men are their own self-tormentors. The sinful man immolates
himself. Like Isaac, he carries the wood and lays the pile for his own
burning.

Christ severs the connection between us and our evil. He restores beauty
and freshness to the blighted tree, planting it as 'by the river of
water,' so that it 'bringeth forth its fruit in its season,' and its
'leaf also doth not wither.'




THE PERPETUAL PILLAR OF CLOUD AND FIRE

'And the Lord will create over the whole habitation of Mount Zion, and
over her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a
flaming fire by night.'--ISAIAH iv. 5.


The pillar of cloud and fire in the Exodus was one: there are to be as
many pillars as there are 'assemblies' in the new era. Is it straining
the language too much to find significance in that difference? Instead
of the formal unity of the Old Covenant, there is a variety which yet is
a more vital unity. Is there not a hint here of the same lesson that is
taught by the change of the one golden lamp-stand into the seven, which