Isaiah 29:19

The poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel

Reasons why the poor may rejoice in God

One of the most striking proofs of the Divine origin of Christianity is its universal adaptation to the condition and the wants of the whole family of men.

It is not designed to be the religion of a sect or an age, but the religion of the whole world. The universality of its character proves that it comes from Him who sustains all, preserves all, feeds and blesses all. We propose to assign reasons why the poor may well “rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.”

I. BECAUSE CHRIST IN HIS HUMILIATION CONDESCENDED TO BE POOR AND THUS HONOURED AND HALLOWED THE CONDITION OF THE POOR. Who of all the legislators, moralists, and teachers that have appeared in the world ever conferred such honour on humanity, or displayed such regard for the poor? Who, after this, shall dare to look down upon honest poverty! Who, after this, shall dare to convert want into a crime? Let the poor, then, “rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.” He can enter into your sorrows, and feel for your wretchedness.

II. BECAUSE THE BLESSINGS OF CHRIST’S SALVATION ARE PROVIDED AND BESTOWED GRATUITOUSLY, AND ARE THUS PECULIARLY ADAPTED TO THE CONDITION OF THE POOR.

1. Money has been paid down for the imperial purple of Rome,--the empire of the Caesars has been sold to the highest bidder; but were salvation only to be purchased with money, or did it require resources in man himself, black despair might seize and petrify the heart of every poor man.

2. Or were salvation a work that required expensive and tedious elaboration at home,--were it like the erection of a palace, or the building of a pyramid, or the construction of such vast works as those by which you cross a gulf or span a sea,--alas for the poor! for then their souls must perish. But let the poor among men rejoice, for the salvation which the

Holy One of Israel provides and bestows is a salvation “without money and without price.”

3. There is another circumstance which ought mightily to enhance these Gospel blessings in the estimation of the poor; namely, the exclusion from many earthly privileges to which poverty subjects them. It is very true that many of the simpler, purer, and more exquisite pleasures of life are as free to the poor as to the rich. But in this world poverty does exclude from some privileges. But, oh! how does my heart, as that of a poor man, exult in the free salvation of the Lord Jesus Christ! Here, in the Gospel of Jesus, is full compensation for all the contumely and scorn cast on humble poverty.

III. BECAUSE, IN ADDITION TO ALL THAT HE HIMSELF HAS DONE FOR THEM, HIS AUTHORITY, AS A LAWGIVER, ENJOINS SPECIAL ATTENTION, CHARITY, AND SYMPATHY TOWARDS THE POOR.

IV. BECAUSE THE CONDITION OF POVERTY IS MORE FAVOURABLE THAN THAT OF RICHES TO THE RECEPTION OF CHRIST AND TO THE DISPLAY OF RELIGIOUS PRINCIPLE. The Saviour’s language seems fully to warrant this sentiment when He says, “How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God!”--and again: “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven.” Poverty seems to be the favourite element in which religious principle k produced and nurtured. It is in the atmosphere of the Poor that the light and heat of Divine truth love to radiate. (J. French.)