This sermon on Isaiah 9:1-7 was given at Kew Baptist Church, London.
Did you notice it? The change? The transformation? The difference? When you went to bed on Thursday night, your world was awash with uncertainty about Brexit, concern regarding the NHS and scepticism about trusting politicians. The world you awoke to on Friday morning was a very different place. With Brexit now resolved, the country is reunited again. The NHS already brought back from the brink of collapse, 50,000 (or is it 30,000) new nurses have already poured into our hospitals to provide front-line support. Given that promises have been kept to such a degree, the nation feels that it can trust in our democracy and institutions once more. The winds of change have blown through the streets of this country and brought about remarkable results. With a new government leading our nation, our worst days are behind us and we have arrived in that better future that was promised.
If you were to believe the political messaging in the run up to the election, this was the kind of transformation that you might have expected to witness on Friday morning. And yet, I doubt that any of us actually felt this way as we woke up. Depending on your political persuasion you might have let out a groan of despair or a sigh of relief, but I imagine most of us, most of our nation, after taking a look through the news, got on with the rest of their day without noticing any difference. Thursday’s election might have produced remarkable results in Parliament, but we all know that any changes coming from the House of Commons take time. There was no overnight transformation. The same old problems and divisions remain.
This is all in stark contrast with our passage this morning. In Isaiah 9 we read of a significant shift, a transition worthy of being called a transformation. Here Isaiah records the arrival of a leader, the formation of a government, that makes a definite difference to the fate of a nation. Comparing before and after this transformational event is like comparing night with day. Literally the difference between dark and light. This darkness depicted at the end of Isaiah 8 does not appear suddenly. As you walk through the first eight chapters, you can sense the light is starting to fade. There is deepening darkness that overcoming and overwhelming the people of God to that point where Isaiah informs us of the ‘distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish’ telling of those who ‘will be thrust into thick darkness’ (Isaiah 8:22). And then into this darkness, comes light. A divine intervention, a transformation, at the start of Isaiah 9 that makes all the difference. ‘The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of thick darkness, on them has light shone.’ (Isaiah 9:2) Before there is distress and darkness. Gloom and anguish. And then comes a light. Gloom turned to glory. Grief turned to gladness. Here we have a transformation worth talking about.
I want to explore this transformation this morning by considering the before and after. First, will walk through the first 8 chapters of Isaiah, seeing how he sets the scene for this transformation. We will be Walking in Deep Darkness. Then we will arrive at Isaiah 9 consider Seeing the Great Light.
1. WALKING IN DEEP DARKNESS
We don’t have the time to work through the first eight chapters in detail, but I want to walk through some of the highlights, or perhaps lowlights or dimming lights, so that you can see the development of this darkness.
A. WE WALK IN DARKNESS WHEN WE FORSAKE OUR FATHER (Isaiah 1-5)
When compared, the political systems in the UK and the USA are very different. Yes, we both have somewhat controversial (and because of that I can’t really use any other adjectives other than) blonde-haired leaders, but don’t let that similarity fool you. The political systems that these leaders must work within are fundamentally different. One difference is that at the start of every year in the USA, unlike in the UK, the President will give a speech. In this speech, the President summarises the current state of the nation, the problems that can be seen, and how he intends to solve these in the coming year. It is called the state of the union address. And it’s not just in the USA this happen, many countries around the world start their political years with an equivalent speech, the state of the nation address.
Though a prophet not a President, Isaiah starts his book with what is essentially an ancient state of the nation address. For five chapters Isaiah outlines the problems with the nation of Israel and their disastrous consequences. We can get a flavour of his summary by looking at the start and the end of the section. The section opens, ‘Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the LORD has spoken: "Children have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me. The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's crib, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand. Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the LORD, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are utterly estranged."’ (Isaiah 1:2–4) Israel has forsaken their father, walked away from their God, they have become a sinful nation, children of corruption. Isaiah will continue with this assessment over the coming chapters. There are momentary shafts of light in Isaiah 2 and 4, glimpses given of a glorious future, a golden age that will come in the latter days. However, this distant future is always contrasted with the immediate danger facing them. These glimmers of future hope only increase the sense of current despair. Isaiah closes his state of the nation address in chapter 5 by summarising all that he has said in a love song. This love song allegorises the relationship between God and the nation. ‘Let me sing for my beloved my love song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; and he looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes. And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more was there to do for my vineyard, that I have not done in it? When I looked for it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes? And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. I will make it a waste; it shall not be pruned or hoed, and briers and thorns shall grow up; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant planting; and he looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold, an outcry!’ (Isaiah 5:1–7) Despite all the effort expended by God throughout their history, despite the care he had shown towards the nation of Israel, the results have been the exact opposite than what he looked for. He has reared them as children, but they have rebelled against him. He has nurtured them like animals, but they do not know him. He has tended them like a precious plant, but they have produced rotten fruit. And so, as a result of their wickedness, Isaiah warns them of the coming judgement. The hedge will be removed, the wall broken down. No longer will God protect them, deliver them from their enemies. God will use the nations to judge his nation. At the end of Isaiah 5, we see the nations depicted as lions circling their prey, waiting to pounce and carry them off beyond rescue. As Isaiah zooms out to finish and looks over the whole nation, he says that ‘if one looks to the land, behold, darkness and distress, and the light is darkened by its clouds.’ (Isaiah 5:30) They are children who have forsaken their Father and so darkness as descended upon them. We walk in darkness when we forsake our Father.
In the run up to Christmas, Mike was almost as excited as his two kids. He had worked hard in the City for the last few years and would finally be able to put the deposit down on the detached property beside them. They could knock that building down and extend out their east wing as planned. Less neighbours and more rooms, that’s what Mike wanted for Christmas. Natalie was looking forward to Christmas as well. Christmas time meant Christmas parties. And Natalie loved to party, ever since her time at University, she was known for it. She didn’t get her dream job after finishing her degree, and so her dreams now rested on clubbing every weekend. She woke up each morning looking forward to drinking with friends and letting off steam together. Christmas really just gave Natalie another opportunity to do that. Judy’s Christmas was pretty traditional. She looked forward to the grandchildren coming round on Christmas Eve and staying over with her. They would all be up on Christmas morning opening presents together and getting the dinner started. Then it would be off to her nearest church. She didn’t really go to church at other times of the year, she didn’t think of herself as religious. But at Christmas she had always went as a child and thought it provided a good moral influence for the grandchildren. It didn’t really matter if the Christmas story was true or not, whether there was a really a God or not. Judy thought the idea of being kind and loving one another was a good rule to live by. Though Josh was brought up going to church at Christmas, he hadn’t been to a service in years. He didn’t intend to ever go to another one again. He was once told that Christians didn’t agree with his sexual identity, and so he had no desire to spend any time them. Who were they to tell him what was right or wrong? He could make his own choices, live his own life the way that he thought best for him. He could decide his own right and wrong.
If you were to read through the rest of Isaiah 5, you would see that Mike, Natalie, Judy and Josh could all be living in Isaiah’s day. The actions and attitudes we have just described, their broken relationships with God and neighbour, are the exact examples that Isaiah gives of Israel’s unfaithfulness. And yet, the very same actions and attitudes are seen all around us in our society today, are found within each of us if we take the time to look. While Isaiah is speaking about Israel, summarising the state of that nation at a particular point in its history, ultimately the state of that nation reflects the state of all nations. The storyline in Isaiah 1-5 is the same as in Genesis 1-3. Placed by a creator in a perfect paradise and given everything we needed to bear fruit, flourish and fill the earth, humanity failed, we were unfaithful. When creating Adam and Eve, God looked for obedience, but found disobedience. He was looking for devotion. Yet instead, there was rebellion. Adam and Eve, like Israel in the early chapters of Isaiah, forsook their Father and so darkness descended. Ever since then, each baby born has done the same. Each one of us, even if we are not a Mike, Natalie, Judy or Josh, have failed to be faithful to our Father, to our Creator. You have not produced the fruit you were planted on this planet to bear. As Isaiah would later explain in Isaiah 53:6, ‘All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned – every one – to his own way.’ Like Israel, each one of us have forsaken our Father and find ourselves in the dark.
B. WE WALK IN DARKNESS IF WE REJECT GOD’S REVELATION (Isaiah 6-8)
As you can imagine, the President popularity would drop slightly if in his state of the union address all he did was identify problems, tell the nation how messed up they are. The most important part of the President speech is when he proposes solutions to those problems he identifies. If he is to regain office, he needs to show that he is addresses the issue facing the nation. And so around halfway through the speech he will turn to proposing solutions, and pressing Congress and the Senate to get moving on them.
After summarising the state of the nation in Isaiah 1-5, Isaiah does something similar, for he turns to a solution. Isaiah 5 closes by looking over the land. Isaiah 6 opens by looking to the Lord. ‘If one looks to the land, behold, darkness and distress…In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord…’ (Isaiah 5:30-6:1). Even before the divine intervention of Isaiah 9, Isaiah 6 speaks of a holy God reaching out to sinful humanity. We have forsaken our father, and yet he has not forsaken us. That truth is the heart of the gospel, the good news of Christianity. That after we turned away from God, walked away into darkness and distress, God intervened. And in Isaiah 6 his intervention comes in the form of sending a prophet to his people. Isaiah 6 records the calling of Isaiah himself. Though a sinful man, from a sinful people, his sins are forgiven and his lips are cleansed. He is sent out to speak on God’s behalf, to address the problems that he has already identified in the nation. In a largely indifferent society, who appear to be less and less interested in the claims of Christianity, the ministry of Isaiah can provide Christians today with comfort and courage. As DA Carson explains, Isaiah came at a point in history where his ministry was to be faithful even though it would not be fruitful. If you were left in any doubt of that by the end of Isaiah 6, where God explains to Isaiah that his messages would fall on dull hearts and deaf ears, all doubt is gone by the time you get halfway through Isaiah 7.
For while in Isaiah 6 a prophet is graciously sent. In Isaiah 7 that prophet is completely rejected. Though Isaiah clearly had a long ministry bringing messages to God’s people, he draws our attention to a single message in that he brings to Ahaz, the King of Judah, the southern kingdom of God’s people, in Isaiah 7. This single incident summarises the people’s reaction to, their rejection of Isaiah. A number of years have passed since Isaiah’s calling and by this stage the nation’s circumstances are starting to reflect his previous predictions of judgement. The King of Syria, one of the nations surrounding God’s people, is preparing to attack. The lions are circling their prey. The Ahaz the King of Judah, along with his people, is terrified. Isaiah records their hearts shook ‘as the trees of the forest shake before the wind’ (Isaiah 7:2). And as a result, Isaiah is sent by God to speak to Ahaz to strengthen him for the future. Isaiah pleads for Ahaz not to fear this coming invasion, but to trust God to deliver them. He promises that God will not allow Judah’s enemies to succeed but will use this conflict to destroy them. All Ahaz had to do is remain firm in his faith that God would save them. In order to strengthen Ahaz’s faith, God even offers to perform a sign, a miracle, of Ahaz’s choosing to demonstrate that he is powerful enough to save them. Ahaz’s response is a polite rejection. He doesn’t want God to perform a sign, he doesn’t need God to show him how reliable or powerful he is. Ahaz has no intention of relying on the Lord. He doesn’t need this message of salvation. Despite his fear, he is determined to deliver himself.
The great question that Isaiah presents to us in chapters 6-8, is the question that Ahaz had to answer in that moment. God has sent a prophet to speak to you, to reveal his plan of salvation and his power to save. What will you do in response? God has spoken, how will you respond? That same question comes to each of us. It comes to us as a clear communication from our Creator. God has spoken, how will you respond? God’s central message to us is much the same as Isaiah’s was to Ahaz. God declares that he is able to save us, not just from the King of Syria, but from the consequences of our sin. From the effects of forsaking our father. From the wrath that we deserve for our rebellion. Even Isaiah’s name communicates that message to Ahaz and to us, for his name means ‘The LORD saves’. However, unlike that message to Ahaz, God has not only sent us Isaiah, but as we turn to the Bible, we find that all the prophets and all the apostles are sent to us in the Scriptures to declare this message to us. And not only prophets and apostles to declare and demonstrate God’s willingness to save if we would trust in him, but as we shall see he sent his Son to reveal himself to us. We have forsaken God and walk in darkness as a result. And yet into our state of darkness, he has shined a light. The choice is before us: will we have our sinful darkness or step into that light? Will we accept or reject his revelation?
Ahaz, like those in John 3 who loved darkness rather than light, rejected God’s revelation. Throughout the rest of Isaiah 7 Isaiah will clarify the consequences of that decision. Isaiah declares that in a coming day God will cover the land with armies of enemies like swarms of bees. The nation of Assyria will come to shame his people. Their economy would collapse. The people will be back to basics, living in poverty. The land that once flowed with milk and honey will be covered with briars and thorns. Wild animals will roam across abandoned fields. At the start of Isaiah 8, Isaiah continues, turning to his unfortunate son to symbolise this coming judgement. He names him ‘Maher-shalal-hash-baz’ meaning ‘speed-spoil-haste-booty’ (Motyer). The name declared that one was coming quickly that will take spoil and booty from Israel. Isaiah describes how that great nation of Assyria will burst its banks like a mighty river and sweep across the land of Judah. Because his people would not pay attention to his voice, respond to his warning, receive his offer of salvation, he will turn his face away from them. If they will not listen then he will not speak. At the end of Isaiah 8 we seen that eventually the people will be so desperate to receive some kind of revelation that will brighten their darkness, they will even look to dead. They will not inquire of their God, for they have rejected and forsaken him, but they go searching for light in graveyards through mediums and necromancers. And yet no light will be found there. In the day, when they are brought into great distress and hunger the people will once again turn their faces upwards towards God, and yet not to worship him or listen to him, but to curse him. They will then look to the earth for help, yet they will see what Isaiah had warned them about, they will ‘behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish. And they will be trust into thick darkness.’ (Isaiah 8:22)
God has spoken, what will you do? Judah decided to reject God’s revelation. They would not receive his offer of salvation. And they were plunged into deep darkness. What else could they expect to happen? If you were stuck in a cave and were fortunate enough to come across those rays of light that offer you a way of salvation, you can only expect darkness if you do not follow that light. If we refuse the light, then all we are left with is the dark. If you reject the light of the world, as Jesus would declare himself to be, then you will be left int eh darkness of this world. In the gospel, we are offered hope, life, forgiveness, fullness of joy. If we reject that, then surely we cannot be surprised if we are left with darkness and distress, gloom and anguish. We walk in darkness when we forsake our father, we walk in darkness if we reject God’s revelation.
2. SEEING THE GREAT LIGHT
If we are to recognise the scale of the transformation, we must have an accurate understanding of the situation. That is effectively what the plumber said to me a few weeks ago when he came to look at our boiler. I wanted to know what would it take, and more importantly cost, to transform my boiler from its leaky and noisy state? The plumber said he would need to take a look to see what its condition currently was. Having outlined the current state of the nation of Israel, Isaiah has placed us perfectly to appreciate the scale of the transformation that takes place. Given all we have read in Isaiah 1-8, I think we can say that the hymn writer put it well when she wrote ‘dark dark has been the midnight’ but thankfully as we reach Isaiah 9 ‘day spring is at hand’ (Anne Cousin). For into this world, where he was forsaken and rejected, God not only shown, but sent a great light. Given all we have read, how merciful and gracious is that sentence: ‘The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.’ (Isaiah 9:2)
In this magnificent passage the prophet leads us through three phases. Starting with the consequence, he leads us back towards the cause of it all. Like once tracing the flow of a river from its head back to its source, Isaiah begins with describing this great transformation that has taken place, before tracing it back to its trigger. The transformation is cause by a liberation brought about by the incarnation. Transformation. Liberation. Incarnation. Let us follow this path through the passage together.
A. TRANSFORMATION (Isaiah 9:1-3)
The transformation described by Isaiah, as we have already said, is as stark as possible. It is literally the difference between night and day. Isaiah 8 finishes with the gloom of anguish, Isaiah 9 opens by stating their shall be no gloom for those in anguish. In verse 1, Isaiah describes the transformation of the land. In the former time the land of Zebulun and Naphtali were humbled, brought into contempt, were cursed. Those who but a few verses previously were cursing God found themselves cursed. As peripheral tribes in Israel, Zebulun and Naphtali, were on the edge of the nation. They were the first to be attacked when enemies invaded. And time and time again, they were shamed at being unable to repel them. In 2 Kings 15:29, we see the King of Assyria come up against Israel and capture this part of the nation, taking all the people off into captivity. Many believe these events took place before Isaiah wrote this and he is referring to here. However, Isaiah tells us that this region in latter times has its fortunes changed from gloom to glory. Galilee, this backward, weak, defenceless part of the nation would be honoured, privileged, blessed in the coming days. As we shall see the way of invasion, would become the way of salvation. The path invaders took to ruin the land would be the same path that the Saviour took to rescue it.
And its not just the land that Isaiah tells us is transformed, but the people are as well. We have already seen in verse 2 that the people who dwelt in darkness are brought into the light. In verse 3 Isaiah presses on and tells us that this nation, who he had declared would be so reduced by their enemies that the land would lie empty and wild animals would roam across it, will now be multiplied and increased. Given the reference to Galilee of the ‘nations’ in verse 1, he is probably pointing to a future increase of this nation that would incorporate the surrounding nations. Instead of coming against this nation, the surrounding nations will come into it. And the nation would not only increase in number, but in joy. Here we see their grief turned to gladness. No longer will they lift their faces and curse their God, but they will rejoice before him. They will rejoice with a joy likened to the joy shared by those who have just brought in a great harvest. The kind of joy that one has when dividing the spoil after a battle. That nation whose economy would collapse and be reduced to poverty will once again celebrate a harvest. That nation who had been warned that they would be plundered by their enemies and taken as spoil are now enjoying sharing out the spoil themselves. What a transformation. Gloom to glory across the land. Grief to gladness for the people. The surrounding nations coming into, not against, this nation.
B. LIBERATION (Isaiah 9:4-5)
The trigger of this transformation in verse 1-3 is traced backed by Isaiah into verses 4-5. This transformation has occurred for there has been a great liberation. First, verse 4 tells us of an astonishing victory. In speaking of ‘the yoke of his burden’, ‘the staff of his shoulder’, and ‘the rod of his oppressor’, Isaiah is using language used throughout the Old Testament to refer to a slavery like that which the nation of Israel experienced in Egypt. However, just as that slavery was shattered, this slavery will also be shattered. It will be ‘broken as on the day of Midian’. If you know the story in Judges 7, you will remember that Gideon leads an army of 300 Israelites, many of which came from Zebulun and Naphtali, to an astonishing victory over an army of Midianites that was beyond number. Outrageous odds, against all expectations, God delivers a victory through Gideon and 300 men. Isaiah tells us that this liberation involves an Egypt-like slavery broken by a Gideon-like victory. Here Isaiah prophesises that there will be a new Exodus for the people of God.
Not only is this victory astonishing, but it is absolute. Verse 5 tells us that the boots used in the battle, the garments of the warriors that are covered in blood, they will all be burnt. It is an echo of what was prophesised previously in Isaiah 2:4, ‘they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.’ This victory has been so decisive, so absolute, that there will be no more battles, no more war. This liberation will last.
C. INCARNATION (Isaiah 9:6-7)
A transformation caused by a liberation that results from the incarnation. In verses 6-7 we arrive at the source of it all. This is the great cause of all this change. This is the trigger for the transformation. This is the foundation for the freedom we have just described. ‘For to us a child is born, to us a son is given.’ Here Isaiah traces all this transformation back to the birth of a child. The New Testament will leave us in no doubt who this child is. In recording of the start of Jesus’s ministry, Matthew will explicitly state in 4:12 that he went to begin in Galilee in order to fulfil what the prophet Isaiah said here. Jesus was the one who would come and make glorious the way of the sea. He was the great light that would shine into the darkness. He was the child that was born, the son that was given. Christians, never forget that Christ changes everything. This transformation, this liberation, Christ is the cause of it all. As the source of all our light in this world is the sun, so too in this Son we find the source of all the blessings and benefits described by Isaiah, the shattering of the slavery of sin, the turning of gloom into glory and grief into gladness. On Christmas Day 1859, Charles Spurgeon, preaching in this city on this verse would exhort, ‘Ah, Christians, ring the bells of your hearts… "For unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given."…Wipe that tear away! Come, stop that sighing! Hush yon murmuring. What matters your poverty? "Unto you a child is born." What matters your sickness? "Unto you a Son is given." What matters your sin? For this child shall take the sin away, and this Son shall wash and make you fit for heaven.’
Christ changes everything. Christmas changes everything. It is of course the birth of the Saviour that is referenced by Isaiah here. Perhaps you find it surprising that beneath this great transformation of the nations, this liberation from slavery and bondage, Isaiah brings us to behold a baby. Yes, Isaiah will get to behold the King in his beauty, later in the book. But here, his focus centres on a child. Here we have an unexpected hero, Gideon-like saviour. A child born in a manager, in the squalor of a borrowed stable. However, this is just a foretaste of where the story of this Saviour is heading. It makes perfect sense when you realise that this liberation, this transformation, will not be brought about by a general winning on a battlefield for his army, or a king ruling on a throne for his people. It is brought about by a man dying on a cross for our sins. The peace brought by this prince in peace purchased by the blood of the cross. The great light that came into our world went through gloom and anguish, those hours of darkness on the cross. Liberation and transformation purchased by the giving of a son. ‘For God so loved that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.’(John 3:16) Isaiah promised, ‘to us a Son will be given.’
No ordinary Son is this. No ordinary child. This is not simply another generation of Mary, this is incarnation. This is God with us. Immanuel. Isaiah makes that perfectly clear when he declares that ‘his name shall be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.’ Nobody but God himself could possess such names. This son is not just the son of Mary, but the son of God. And the prophet takes this beam of light, this Son that the Father has sent into this world, and like a prism breaks it into its many colours. In a world of confusion, he brings counsel. In a world of weakness, he is mighty. In a world of fear and cruelty he comes with fatherly care. In a world of hurt and hostility, he gives harmony and peace. Knowing all this, surely we must rejoice this morning. For when set against all the shades of darkness, Christ is light.
CONCLUSION
If you aren’t a Christian this morning, you are still in darkness for forsaking your Father, don’t remain in it by rejecting his revelation. Now that you know how great this light is, step into it. Do what Ahaz did not, look to God for your salvation. As Isaiah would plead in 50:10, ‘Let him who walks in darkness and has no light trust in the name of the LORD and rely on his God.’ Take up Jesus’ promise in John 8:12, ‘I am the light of the world, whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life.’
If you are a Christian, I hope you will have some true Christmas cheer this year when you remember the change that Christ brings. There are 9 days left before the 25th, why not take up these first nine chapters of Isaiah and read one each day to remind yourself of the real reason for it all. If you do, on that last day you will not only read again about transformation, liberation and incarnation, but when you come to 9:7 there will be a great deal of anticipation. Like stars that look beside each other in the sky because we are at a distance, but are actually light years apart, from a distance Isaiah bring together the first and second coming of Christ. The fact that at Christ’s first coming he would bear a cross of his shoulders rather than a government in made explicit in other prophecies in the book. And yet Isaiah is certain of the final result, the whole passage is written in the past and present tense. Though Isaiah is waiting for the Lord, hoping in him for the future, he is certain as to what that future will be. We too must do the same. Though we do not dwell in the darkness, we must deal with it as we wait. As we wait for the return of that great light, of whose government and peace there will be no end. ‘For lo! the days are hastening on, by prophets seen of old, when, with the ever circling years, comes round the age of gold; when peace shall over all the earth, its ancient splendours fling, and the whole world give back the song, which now the angels sing.’ (Edmund Sears)
ALEXANDER ARRELL