THE SUCKER FROM THE FELLED OAK

'And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch
shall grow out of his roots: 2. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest
upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel
and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord; 3. And
shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord: and he
shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the
hearing of his ears: 4. But with righteousness shall he judge the poor,
and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite
the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips
shall he slay the wicked. 5. And righteousness shall be the girdle of
his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins. 6. The wolf also
shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid;
and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little
child shall lead them. 7. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their
young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like
the ox. 8. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and
the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice's den. 9. They
shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall
be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. 10.
And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an
ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall
be glorious.'--ISAIAH xi. 1-10.


The hopeless fall of Assyria is magnificently pictured in the close of
chapter x., as the felling of the cedars of Lebanon by the axe swung by
Jehovah's own hand. A cedar once cut down puts out no new shoots; and so
the Assyrian power, when it falls, will fall for ever. The metaphor is