The character of Isaiah.
I. The character of Isaiah is apparent through his writings, in all its clear and separate parts, as the pebbles of a beach seen at the bottom of translucent water or the objects of the wood and hill seen through the atmosphere which bathes and penetrates them. His writings show him to have been a man having a greater tendency towards objective than subjective religion. While Jeremiah is ever studying and lamenting over his own internal condition, Isaiah is ever looking outwards on the external objects of the kingdom of God; Jeremiah seems to discover God through personal experience, Isaiah through His word and works; while Jeremiah laments over his own shortcomings, Isaiah rejoices over the coming glories of the Gospel.
II. We might without much difficulty divide the whole of Isaiah's prophecy into three parts, the first being the description of the sinfulness of the people, the second the remedy in the atonement of Christ, the third the establishment of the Church in its great external system, each of the portions being considered in a peculiarly objective manner.
III. Men who are described in Holy Scripture range themselves under each class: the objective and the subjective. The deep self-searchings of David, the melancholy wailings of Jeremiah, the mournful dirges of Jacob, the wild death-song of Hezekiah, the pathetic appeals to God's protection of Micah, the communings of Moses, and the bold yet morbid reasonings of Jonah range these under the standard of what I have called subjectiveness. On the other hand, the sombre dignity of Samuel, the unquestioning obedience of Abraham, the magnificent hosannas of Isaiah, the stern simplicity of Daniel, the unflinching rebukes of Elijah, and the mystic parables of Ezekiel make them fitting heralds for the silent footsteps of the ever-pondering Virgin, the rapt gaze of St. John, and the unhesitating simplicity of St. Andrew and St. Nathanael.
IV. Both spirits are needed for the Church. But neither spirit is safe by itself. It is as a single wing to a bird, wanting the other wing to bear it safely through the counter-currents of mid-air. Without the one tone we may fail in reverence, without the other in love. Without the one we may fail in obedience, without the other in a living hope.
E. Monro, Practical Sermons on the Characters of the Old Testament,vol. i., p. 177.