The Preacher's Complete Homiletic Commentary on the Books of the Bible, Volume 15 (of 32) The Preacher's Complete Homiletic Commentary on the Book of the Prophet — Background and Themes

Produced by John Hagerson and Mrs. Faith Ball

- Technical note: This book makes heavy use of SMALL CAPS formatting. You may need to experiment with fonts and browsers until you see the words "small caps" formatted in SMALL CAPS.

- This is a commentary on the first 39 chapters of the Biblical book of Isaiah. It was written to help ministers with their sermon preparation. Many of the thoughts presented are condensed from published sermons. The book is a collection of man's opinions on the inspired Word of God. The Transcriber does not necessarily agree with every opinion expressed. Among the disagreements are suggestions that the Church replaces Israel, or is "the true Israel," or that human effort has any effect on God's pacing of future events. Some of the opinions expressed are unapologetically anti-Roman Catholic or culturally insensitive. The book is a product of its time and place (late nineteenth century greater London). The U.S. conflict between North and South is still within memory and neither the great European wars to come, nor England's loss of her colonial possessions in India and Africa, nor the establishment of the State of Israel is even foreshadowed.

- The page numbers in the first part of the book ("front-matter") and the last part of the book ("back-matter") were modified from unadorned Arabic numbers to make them unique. In this e-book, front-matter pages are identified by lower-cased Roman numbers and back-matter pages include the letter "A" (for "Appendix") and either an "L" or an "R" to identify the left or right column. The Appendix presents two translations of the whole book of Isaiah and two additional translations of the fifty-second and fifth-third chapters.

- In the original, the outlines are generally in order by scripture reference and information in the page headers helps one find an outline related to any desired passage. Due to the length of the e-book, and the supplemental outlines added toward the end, the Transcriber has inserted a listing of outlines in sequential order by scripture reference after the Index of Subjects, Index of Authors, and table of Times, Seasons, and Occasions, and prior to the Introduction.

- The footnotes in the text are identified by sequential lower-case Greek letters: ɑ, Β, etc. The Transcriber has changed them to superscript bracketed numbers to comply with current use. In the main portion of the book, the "footnotes" were set in smaller type at the end of the respective outlines. In the Appendix, footnotes were set at the bottom of each page. The text and each footnote are hyperlinked both directions.

- Certain long outlines (The Virgin's Son, The Burden of Dumah) and the Appendix were set almost entirely in footnote type to save page count.

- The detailed list of Transcriber's changes is at the foot of the document.

THE PREACHER'S COMPLETE HOMILETIC COMMENTARY ON THE BOOKS OF THE BIBLE

WITH CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES, INDEXES, ETC., BY VARIOUS AUTHORS

THE OLD TESTAMENT _Volumes 1-21_

THE NEW TESTAMENT _Volumes 22-32_

The Preacher's Complete Homiletic COMMENTARY

ON THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET Isaiah Volume I

_By the_ REV. R. A. BERTRAM _and_ _The_ REV. ALFRED TUCKER

[LOGO] PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY NEW YORK

1. In the preparation of this Commentary, my aim throughout has been evangelical and practical. A study of the Book of Isaiah suggests many historical, critical, and speculative questions, but these I have entirely disregarded. I have asked only, What messages from God has this inspired prophet for the men of this generation? What instruction has he to give us? What warnings? What encouragements? What consolations? To these questions I believe there are answers in the outlines I have myself prepared, and in those I have obtained from other sources.

2. As my work proceeded, my methods somewhat changed. I discovered that I had commenced the Commentary on too large a scale, and that it was in danger of becoming too large and costly. I therefore ceased to append illustrations to the outlines, and contented myself with giving references to illustrations in my _"Homiletic Encyclopædia of Illustrations in Theology and Morals"_ and my _"Dictionary of Poetical Illustrations,"_ using for this purpose the letters H. E. I. and P. D.

3. I also ceased to prepare outlines on _all_ the texts, and limited myself to those most likely to be profitable to ordinary congregations.