'I gave My back to the smiters, and My cheeks to them that plucked off
the hair: I hid not My face from shame and spitting.'--ISAIAH l. 6.
Such words are not to be dealt with coldly. Unless they be grasped by
the heart they are not grasped at all. We do not think of analysing in
the presence of a great sorrow. There can be no greater dishonour to
the name of Christ than an unemotional consideration of His sufferings
for us. The hindrances to a due consideration of these are manifold;
some arising from intellectual, and some from moral, causes. Most men
have difficulty in vivifying any historical event so as to feel its
reality. There is no nobler use of the historical imagination than to
direct it to that great life and death on which the salvation of the
world depends.
The prophet here has advanced from the first general conception of the
Servant of the Lord as recipient of divine commission, and submissive
to the divine voice, to thoughts of the sufferings which He would meet
with on His path, and of how He bore them.