Who can but admire a man who speaks thus? Enthusiasm quickens life. It is salt and light for common days. It makes earth flash with heaven. But was it a man who said this? No. This voice came from heaven. Then of Cod. Well may Calvin annotate my text, saying, "The words are indeed did some strong and radiant angel thus avow himself? No. This is the voice singular." God is telling His people the great things He purposes to do for them, and He declares He will accomplish all with His whole heart and with His whole soul. Here we are brought face to face with the kindling fact that God is a God of enthusiasm. In one sense, Calvin's remark on the singularity of these words is very pertinent. But surveying them from another view-point, the Divine declaration is not "singular." Enthusiasm is an impressive element of Bible theology. Scripture gives us peeps into God's nature. Only peeps. The open vision would blind us. And assuredly we frequently behold in the Holy Book the outflashing of the Divine enthusiasm. Isaiah uses the wonderful phrase, "The zeal of the God of hosts." It is God's quenchless enthusiasm which is to establish in triumph the ever-increasing kingdom and peace of Emmanuel. This quality of God is one Isaiah delights in. Isaiah on the enthusiasm of God is a stimulating study. He says of a wonderful and apparently impossible deliverance of God's people from their iron oppressor, "The zeal of the Lord of hosts shall do this." Courage, sad-hearted and foe-encircled brother! The enthusiasm of God is pledged to thy deliverance! In another place the poet-theologian describes God as a warrior, and cries, "He... was clad with zeal as a cloak." Grand is the vision of God as He appears in ruby-red robe of zeal. Ezekiel, "his feet on earth, his soul floating amid the cherubim," represents God's enthusiasm in its vengeful form when he declares how the wrath Divine shall bruise impenitent transgressors, "and they shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken it in My zeal, when I have accomplished My fury in them" If enthusiasm be a quality which Old Testament theology ascribes to God, it is also emphatically accredited to Him by the theology of the new covenant. It is revealed as an outstanding feature of Him to have seen whom is to have seen the Father. "With My whole heart and with My whole soul," was the motto of His incarnate life. Holy enthusiasm was the temper of His words and deeds. "The zeal of Thy house will eat me up." Thus our Lord fulfilled the scriptural ideal of enthusiasm as He fulfilled all scriptural ideals. God in Christ is always a God of enthusiasm. How intense He is! How He prays! The fervour of His prayers is never chilled. How He meditates! His inexplorable thoughts breathe themselves through eternity. The Christ of the New Testament is the Jehovah of the Old Testament, in white-hot enthusiasm, as in everything, august, and gentle, and lovely. Enthusiasm must surely be an essential of a true theology. One cannot conceive of an impassionate God. An apathetic God would depress the universe. An ancient Greek finely described enthusiasm as "a God within." And such all grand enthusiasm is, and must be evermore. How attractive is our God by reason of His enthusiasm. Who would not love Him with his might who is ready to bless with His whole heart and with His whole soul? Such a God allures us. Who are they for whom God promises to labour so enthusiastically? Notice the repetitions "them" in this verse. Equally recurrent is the "them" in the previous verse. In verse 38 the "them" is indicated. It refers to "My people." God will do wonderfully for His people. He prizes His people beyond compare. Nothing is too great for Him to do for those who are in His sight so lovely. And no enthusiasm is too lavish to expend upon their interests. Is there caprice in this wealthy enthusiasm over His people? By no means. God's "people" represent character. And God's enthusiasm for character is shown in His enthusiasm for His people. God's enthusiasm is evoked by character. Our poor unworthy enthusiasms are often pitifully raise directed. The zeal of God never misses the true mark. God is enthusiastic to help men of character. See how in the neighbourhood of this text He rains golden showers of promises upon such. "I will not turn away from them, to do them good" (ver. 40). "I will rejoice over them to do them good" (ver. 41). "I will plant them in this land" (ver. 41). "I will bring upon them all the good that I have promised them" (ver. 42). "And fields shall be bought in this land" (ver. 43). The enthusiasm of God runs forth in temporal helpfulness to men whose ways please Him. He cares even for "fields" which belong to His people. Lay tide to heart, burdened business man, if thou art one of God's people! Consider this, depressed agriculturist, who art a man of God! God makes your interests His own interests. God is enthusiastic in respect of the creation and development of character. How abundantly that can be demonstrated from the context! "I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear Me for ever, for the good of them, and of their children after them" (ver. 39). "I will put My fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from Me." What do these golden words portend? That with all His heart and with all His soul God will perfect the character of His people. The fact is, nothing in man creates such enthusiasm on God's part as the instituting and enhancing of character. Your soul is that in you in which God is most interested, and He is interested in everything about you. He is enthusiastic in incomparable degree for your salvation. The supernatural rectification of the will and of the being which we commonly call conversion draws forth God's intense enthusiasm. With His whole heart and with His whole soul He proposes to develop the good He has already created. He pines to perfect His servants. He has splendid ideals for them. He strongly yearns to make their to-morrows better than their yesterdays. There are those whose so-called enthusiasm is self-centred. Certain "intense" people are intensely selfish. Some have ineffectual enthusiasms. No altruism irradiates them. Nobody is anything bettered for them. They are "fruitless" fires. Not so the enthusiasm of God. God's zeal is to help, to bless, to enrich men. To illumine what is dark in men. To raise what is low. To glorify what is sordid. Temporally and spiritually beneficent is the enthusiasm of God. He delights to help us. Nor can the strong years conquer His enthusiasm. In this, as in respect of all the qualities of the Divine character, we are to be "imitators of God, as beloved children." An enthusiasm is contagious. Throbs thrill. The awful peril is that we imitate evil enthusiasms. Souls of men, be admonished against such devil-born enthusiasm. God's enthusiasm is the true ideal for man. "Be ye imitators of God." Be ours enthusiasm for holy living. What a rebuke to our tepidity is the enthusiasm of God! What is more remote from God than moral and spiritual coldness? Oh, this Divine enthusiasm is the crying need of modern religion! It is very instructive to study the Bible teaching concerning the enthusiasm of God. It is even more impressive on the negative than on the positive side. God has no spark of enthusiasm for much that man burns about. What discordance there often is between God and man! This is apparent in the objects of their respective enthusiasms. God has no enthusiasm for self-centredness. God has no enthusiasm for worldliness. No matter what form it assumes, He cares not for it. It is all "vanity" to Him. God has no enthusiasm for indifferency. Some are zealous for nothing but apathy. They have dead hearts, and there is no death so deadly as the death of the heart. Stoicism is not sanctity. God is quick with sympathy. The omissions from the revealed enthusiasms of God are intensely significant. Take heed lest thou art enthusiastic where thy God is not. A God who, with His whole heart and with His whole soul, seeks man's highest good, is a God who constrains our devotion. He attracts us. He captivates us. Were He a cold, unresponsive God, I should shrink from Him. But being an enthusiastic God, my heart is His. Here is a ground of trustfulness — the enthusiasm of God. Can I fear for the morrow when this God is mine? Here is a ground of hope — the enthusiasm of God. All shall always be well, seeing such a God is mine. Here is a ground of service — the enthusiasm of God. Too much one cannot do for such a God. When He declares, "With My whole heart, and with My whole soul," He prefixes another delectable word, "assuredly." The margin renders it "in truth," or "in stability." So the good Lord assures us of the perpetuity of His kindly enthusiasm. It will never fail His people. Whoever cools toward us, the enthusiastic God of grace will be faithful and fervent still

(D. T. Young.)