eth, come
to the waters! Come ye, buy and eat! Yea, come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price!... Let the wicked forsake his way, and
the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and
he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly
pardon...Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save;
neither his ear heavy that it cannot hear...Though your sins be as
scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red like crimson,
they shall be as wool."

According to modern standards, we are struck with the absence of what we
call art, in the writings of Isaiah. History, woes, promises, hopes,
aspirations, and exultations are all mingled together in scarcely
logical sequence. He exhorts, he threatens, he reproaches, he promises,
often in the same chapter. The transition between preacher and prophet
is very sudden. But it is as prophet that Isaiah is most frequently
spoken of; and he is the prophet of hope and consolation, although he
denounces woes upon the nations of the earth. In his prophetic office he
predicts the future of all the people known to the Hebrews. He does not
preach to _them_: they do not hear his voice; they do not know what
tribulations shall be sent upon them. He commits his prophecies to
writing for the benefit of future ages, in which he gives reasons for
the judgments to be sent upon wicked nations, so that the great
principles seen in the moral government of God may remain of perpetual
significance. These principles centre around the great truth that
national wickedness will certainly be followed by national calamities,
which is also one of the most impressive truths that all history
teaches; and so uniform is the operation of this great law that it is
safe to make deductions from it for the guidance of statesmen and the
teachings of moralists. National effeminacy which follows luxury, great
injustices which cry to heaven for vengeance, and practical atheism and
idolatry are certain to call forth divine judgments,--sometimes in the
form of destructive wars, sometimes in pestilence and famine, and at
other times in the gradual wasting away of national resources and
political power. In conformity with this settled law in the moral
government of God, we read the fate of Nineveh, of Babylon, of Tyre, of
Jerusalem, of Carthage, of Antioch, of Corinth, of Athens, of Rome; and
I would even add of Venice, of Turkey, of Spain. Nor is there any