And if we never understand at all--
what matter, provided the thing be true?
XXXIV--CHRISTMAS-DAY
For unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the
government shall be on His shoulder: and His name shall be called
Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty God, The Father of an Everlasting
age, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and
peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his
kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with
justice henceforth even forever.--ISAIAH ix. 6, 7.
In the time when the prophet Isaiah wrote this prophecy, everything
round him was exactly opposite to his words. The king of Judaea, the
prophet's country, was not reigning in righteousness. He was an
unrighteous and wicked governor. The princes and great men were not
ruling in judgment. They were unjust and covetous; they took bribes,
and sold justice for money. They were oppressors, grinding down the
poor, and defrauding those below them. So that the weak, and poor,
and needy had no one to right them, no one to take their part. There
was no man to feel for them, and defend them, and be a hiding-place
and a covert for them from their cruel tyrants; no man to comfort and
refresh them as rivers of water refresh a dry place, or the shadow of
a great rock comforts the sunburnt traveller in the weary deserts.
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