"He was led as a sheep to the slaughter;
And like a lamb dumb before his shearer,
So opened He not His mouth;
In His humiliation
His judgment was taken away;
And who shall declare His generation?
For His life is taken from the earth."
"Of whom speaketh the prophet this?" was the question of the eunuch to Philip. And the question has gone on from mouth to mouth, from land to land, from "the way which goeth down from Jerusalem to Gaza, which is desert," to the smiling isles that wait for His law; from the days when a great light shined in the world to the days when the gates are about to swing back before the onrushing glory of the second coming.
Go over into Egypt, and ask her Pharaohs and her magicians for information concerning the One of whom the prophet speaks. Go down into the great desert, and into the regions beyond, and ask the weather-beaten Arab and the dark dweller in a darker land if ever there dwelt such an One among them. Visit the Acropolis and the Forum, and ask the philosophers and sages and senators to point to the shrine or tablet that commemorates the One of whom this remarkable language is spoken. Call again from the shifting dust of ages the glory and the learning of the far East,—Assyria, and Babylonia, and Media, and Persia, and Ind,—and the ancients of the land of Sinim. Surely they can tell you if the prophet spoke of One of peculiar repute who had once lived among them, of whom this language and the accompanying words were true.
Do they listen curiously and wonderingly to your question? Perhaps they would wish to know more about this One upon whom was heaped such evident indignities. The prophet can give them further information:—
"But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement of our peace was upon Him;
And with His stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned every one to his own way;
And the Lord hath made the iniquity of us all
to meet on Him.
Because He had done no violence,
Neither was any deceit in His mouth.
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And He bare the sin of many,
And made intercession for the transgressors."
"So shall He sprinkle many nations."
No, they do not know Him. This Man, they say, is more than human; His character is divine. Since the beginning of the world, they admit, no man like this had appeared. No, search the world through and through, and in all its generations there is the one only2Man. Not in royal courts do we look for Him; not in the seat of the philosopher or sage or learned of any age, who are reputed wise. And yet He is the wisest of the wise, the source of the true science and philosophy. Should not, then, all men be attracted unto Him?—Yes, without question. But here is an astonishing thing: the wisdom and the science that proceed from Him are to the wise ones of earth foolishness. Why?—Because their own wisdom and righteousness of self have blinded their perception of the true. When they saw Him, they saw no outward glory. And so in their eyes He had no "comeliness," and there was no beauty that they should desire Him.
THE "righteous servant," the bearer of iniquities, the justifier of many, the intercessor for transgressors! A day is coming when the chiefest object before all eyes will be a great white throne and One who sits upon it. Before Him will be gathered all nations. The wisdom of the East and the West will be there, and the giant intellects of every age. Kings of the earth, and princes, and nobles, and priests, and magicians, and astrologers, and soothsayers, and necromancers, and every idolater, will stand among the vast throng. The rich and the poor, the refined and the base, the scientist, the scholar, the atheist, the agnostic and the gnostic, the infidel and the professor, and of others an unnumbered multitude, will be there. And as they look upon Him who is the source of their being, the source of truth and wisdom and righteousness and purity, sin will be unmasked, the vail will be torn from all eyes, the mists and the fogs of error will flee away, and a great light will illumine every mind. Then will the wisdom of the world, and the false philosophies and sciences, and the pernicious learning, and the pride and pomp and glory and riches and poverty of the world, appear in their true measure, and inexpressibly little will they appear. At that time the things of time and earth, the things of sense, and the purely intellectual without God, will assume their proper proportions, when face to face with eternity. And then, with the intense keenness of remorse over a priceless treasure lost through neglect, will be realized the beauty and loveliness and desirability of the spiritual life and the things that endure. And more than tongue or pen can tell will flood the souls that stand before the One of whom the prophet speaks, at that day.
OF whom speaketh the prophet?—Of the One who is the world’s hope and salvation, of the chiefest among ten thousand. Altho He is "despised and rejected of men" because He does not meet their standard of pomp and glitter, and even "we hid as it were our faces from Him; . . . and we esteemed Him not," yet through His holy life, and suffering, and death, an infinite power came among men, and is drawing here one, there one to His great heart of love. Now is the time, not hereafter, to consider eternal things and their relative worth as compared with things of time. The world is spiritually asleep—dead—and realizes not, unless it be awakened, that it needs a Saviour. Concerning the eunuch, Philip "preached unto him Jesus." Concerning the great, needy world, let there be preached unto them Jesus.
IN the midst of the bustle and clang of earth’s occupations and pursuits, and the unrest of nations, there is a quiet spot, a place of a great calm. It is in the kingdom of the soul, the eternal and spiritual kingdom of Him of whom the prophet speaks. There dwell they who have been washed and made clean. Do you see aught in His character that attracts you? Have you felt the drawing of His matchless love? Then enter the fuller life, the life with a boundless horizon.
