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EEV. JOHN URQUHART, ON 



Holy One, to him whom mau despise th, to him whom the nation 

 abhorreth, to a servant of rulers. Kings shall see and arise, 

 princes also shall worship, because of the Lord that is faithful, 

 and the Holy One of Israel, and he shall choose thee " (Isaiah 

 xlix, 5-7). Here are three outstanding facts of history 

 distinctly predicted centuries beforehand — (1) the rejection of 

 the Messiah by the Jews ; (2) His reception by the Gentiles ; 

 and (3) the kind of reception accorded to Him. 



6. Details are given of the intermediate tragedy. The 

 Messiah is to suffer a felon's death: "He was taken from 

 prison " (He had been apprehended), " and from judgment " (He 

 had been tried and condemned) ; " and who shall declare his 

 generation ? for he was cut off out of the land of the living " 

 (He was to die in His early manhood) (Isaiah liii, 8). 



7. He is to rise from the dead. The description (Isaiah liii), 

 which begins in deepest sadness, ends jubilantly : " He shall see 

 of the travail of his soul and be satisfied . . . Therefore will I 

 divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the 

 spoil with the strong" (verses 11, 12). The twenty-second 

 psalm indicates that the death assigned will be that of 

 crucifixion — " They pierced my hands and my feet. I may tell 

 all my bones : they look and stare upon me. They part my 

 garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture " (verses 

 16-18). This prediction, which opens with an exceeding bitter 

 cry, ends in the unexpectedly joyous fashion of Isaiah liii. " My 

 praise shall be of thee in the great Congregation : I will pay my 

 vows before them that fear him . . . All the ends of the world 

 shall remember and turn unto the Lord: and all the kindreds 

 of the nations shall worship before thee " (verses 25, 27). What 

 is here implied finds a distinct statement in Psalm xvi, 10 : 



For thou wilt not leave my soul in Sheol (Hades) ; neither 

 wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption." It might 

 be hard to prove that the resurrection of Christ was an actual 

 fact ; but that the work revived and went on as the predictions 

 declare it should do are facts. It is remarkable, too, that the 

 transition from overwhelming sorrow to abounding joy was 

 vividly reflected in the experience of the disciples who laid the 

 foundation of the Christian Church. 



8. It undoubtedly blunts the edge of the preceding that a 

 host of the predictions regarding the Messiah have found no 

 fulfilment. We look in vain for anything which can be 

 regarded as an accomplishment of what is foretold, for example, 

 in Psalms xlv and Ixxii. But that difficulty vanishes when it 

 is noted that there is to be a break in the earthly presence and 



