Bible Commentaries
Isaiah 61

Verses 1-11

Isaiah 61:1

Speaking against the South, on 3 February, 1863, John Bright declared: 'I cannot understand how any Englishman, who in past years has been accustomed to say that "there was one foul blot upon the fair fame of the American Republic," can now express any sympathy for those who would perpetuate and extend that blot. And more, if we profess to be, though it be with imperfect and faltering steps, the followers of Him who declared it to be His Divine mission "to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised," must we not reject with indignation and scorn the proffered alliance and friendship with a power based on human bondage, and which contemplates the overthrow and the extinction of the dearest rights of the most helpless of mankind?'

References. LXI. 1. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxvii. No. 1601; vol. xl. No. 2371. G. Matheson, Voices of the Spirit, p. 73. T. G. Selby, The Holy Spirit and Christian Privilege, p. 25. C. Kingsley, Sermons on National Subjects, p. 17. W. M. Punshon, Sermons, the Year of Jubilee, p. 171; see also Outlines of Sermons on the Old Testament, p. 239. LXI. 2. J. M. Neale, Sermons on the Prophets, vol. i. p. 254. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxiii. No. 1369. LXI. 3. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Isaiah XLIX.-LXVI. p. 191. J. Pulsford, Infoldings and Unfoldings, p. 1. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xvii. No. 1016. LXI. 4. Mandell Creighton, Christian World Pulpit, vol. li. 1897, p. 324. LXI. 7. J. B. Brown, The Soul's Exodus and Pilgrimage, p. 392. LXI. 10. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xliii. No. 2543. LXI. 11. Ibid. vol. xix. No. 1104.