THE GRACIOUS INVITATION.

(Isaiah lv:1-13.)

I. The Analysis.

1. An invitation to perfect satisfaction (verses 12). 2. An invitation to prosperity and power (verses 3-5). 3. An invitation to pardon (verses 6, 7). 4. The assurance of the Lord (verses 8-11). 5. The promise of peace and joy (verses 12, 13).

II. The Heart of the Lesson.

But for the 53d of Isaiah, the 55th could never have been written. God can sell wine and milk without money and without price because another has paid the price. If God forgave sin with no vindication of his holy law, he would be an accomplice in the violation of that law. A law commanding what is right, and forbidding what is wrong, with no penalty for its violation would be the jest of the criminal, and if so it were with the law of God it would be the derision of devils. Sin is the most awful fact in the universe. The word awful and its synonyms would have no place nor use in the vocabularies of men if sin had never been. Sin is even a more awful fact than hell, for hell is but a consequent and inevitable corollary of sin. Without sin there could be no hell, for hell is but eternal sinning.

It suits the "liberal" churches, apparently, to forget the fifty-third of Isaiah, with its suffering Servant of Jehovah, and to call the fifty-fifth chapter the "Gospel." No. The fifty-fifth of Isaiah is not the Gospel—it is but the Gospel invitation. A dinner and an invitation to dinner are two different things.

And this Gospel feast of wine and milk is the costliest feast this universe ever saw or ever will see. It cost the agonizing death of the Son of God. The Gospel is the glad tidings that God himself has undertaken to do, and has done, everything needful for the salvation of the greatest of sinners, and that now God can be just and the justifier of him that believeth.

But the emphasis of this lesson certainly falls on the freeness of Gospel salvation. There is absolutely nothing to apply. Any "Gospel" that leaves one single atom of salvation to be wrought out by the sinner is that "other" Gospel upon the preaching of which rests the solemn anathema of God (Gal. i:6-9). If the true Gospel is preached the hearer may indeed reject it, but, also, he may accept it some other day. But if the false Gospel is preached he is left with nothing to accept. He is led astray by a false guide-post.

'Without money and without price." That is the mark of the true message. If there are some pains to be borne by the believer to complete his salvation, whether here or in purgatory; if there is some work of righteousness which rests upon the believer as part of the redemption price, then it is the false Gospel.

"Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price."

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

"And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely."

The heart of this lesson lies, I think, in two solemn facts.

The first is that this very freeness of the Gospel leaves every man's salvation wholly in his own power. God has done all that is required whether by his holy law or by the sinner's extreme need. Both have been considered. If some were too great sinners to be reached by the mercy of God, or if the Gospel required of man any other act but faith in order to his salvation, then, indeed, for many there would be excuse.

And the second part of the matter is that it is an urgent affair. No call is made to consider or to promise. "Seek the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near."