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 THE 
 
 
 PULPIT COMMENTARY, 
 
 
 EDITED BY THE , 
 
 
 VERY REV. H. D. M. SPENCE, D.D., 
 
 
 DEAN OF QLOnOESTEB; 
 
 
 AND BY THB 
 
 
 REV. JOSEPH S. EXELL, M.A. 
 
 
 WITH 
 
 
 INTRODUCTIOJSTS 
 
 
 BT 1UB 
 
 jm 
 
 YEN. AECHDEACON F. W. FAERAR, D.D., F.R.S. 
 
 wk 
 
 RIGHT REV. H. COTTERILL, D.D., F.R.S.E. 
 
 •■^M 
 
 VERY REV. PRINCIPAL J. TULLOCH, D.D. 
 
 '^M 
 
 REV. CANON G. EAWLINSON, M.A. 
 
 iH 
 
 REV. A. PLUMMER. M.A., D.D. 
 
 
 aonDon! 
 
 1 
 
 KEGAN PAUL, TKENCH, TRUBNER & CO., LT«^ 
 
 
 1892. 
 
 
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 1 
 

 PRIN'^RD BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED^ 
 LONDON AND BECCLE5. 
 
 {Tht rights qf translation, and of reproductlsn are re$ei^ed.'} 
 
Spe/nee - Torve^, ^^^^ b^n^leil VVt^^^v^c <^ 
 
 rULPIT COMMENTARY, 
 
 EDITED BY THE 
 
 VERY REV. H. D. M. SPENCE, D.D, 
 
 DEAN OP GLOUOBSTEB; 
 
 AND ET THE 
 
 EEY. JOSEPH S. EXELL, M.A. 
 
 JEREMIAH. 
 
 Exposition 
 By REY. T. K. CHEYNE, M.A., 
 
 BECTOB of TEWDRING, and late fellow of BALLIOL OOLLEUE, OXFORD. 
 
 l^omiUtics 
 By REY. W. F. ADENEY, M.A. 
 
 ^omiliES bg Fatious auttorg: 
 
 EEV. D. YOXTNTG, B.A. BEV. S. CONWAY, B.A. 
 
 EEV. J. WAITE, B.A. EEV. A. F. MUIK, M.A^ 
 
 VOL. I. 
 FOURTH EDITION. 
 
 E n a n : 
 
 KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNEE & CO., Li^ 
 
 1892. 
 
A- 5-^(75 
 
THE 
 
 BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEEEIIAH. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 § 1. The Life, Times, and Characteristics of Jeremiah. 
 
 1. The name of Jeremiah at once suggests the ideas of trouble and lamenta- 
 tion ; and not without too much historical ground. Jeremiah was, in fact, 
 not only " the evening star of the declining day of prophecy," but the 
 herald of the dissolution of the Jewish commonwealth. The outward show 
 of things, however, seemed to promise a calm and peaceful ministry to the 
 youthful prophet. The last great political misfortune mentioned (in 
 2 Chron. xxxiii. 11, not in Kings) before his time is the carrying captive 
 of King Manasseh to Babylon, and this is also the last occasion on which 
 a king of Assyria is recorded to have interfered in the affairs of Judah. 
 Manasseh, however, we are told, was restored to his kingdom, and, apostate 
 and persecutor as he was, found mercy from the Lord God of his fatheis. 
 Before he closed his eyes for ever a great and terrible event occurred — 
 the sister kingdom of the ten tribes was finally destroyed, and one great 
 burden of prophecy found its fulfilment. Judah was spared a little 
 longer. Manasseh acquiesced in his dependent position, and continued to 
 pay tribute to the " great King " of Nineveh. In B.C. 642 Manasseh died, 
 and, after a brief interval of two years (it is the reign of Amon, a prince 
 with an ill-omened Egyptian name), Josiah, the grandson of Manasseh, 
 ascended the throne. This king was a man of a more spiritual religion than 
 any of his predecessors except Hezekiah, of which he gave a solid proof by 
 putting down the shrines and chapels in which the people delighted to 
 worship the true God, Jehovah, and other supposed gods under idolatrous 
 forms. This extremelj' popular form of religion could never be entirely 
 eradicated ; competent travellers agree that traces of it are still visible in 
 the religious usages of the professedly Mohammedan peasantry of Palestine. 
 " Not only have the fellahs preserved (Eobinson had already a presentiment 
 of this), by the erection of their Mussulman huhhes, and through their fetish- 
 worship of certain great isolated trees, the situation and the memory of those 
 sanctuaries which Deuteronomy gives up to the execration of the Israelites 
 entering the promised land, and which it points out to them crowning the 
 loftj' summits, surmounting the hills, and sheltering themselves under the 
 
 JEHKMIAH. 5 
 
INTRODUCTION TO 
 
 green trees; but they pay tliem almost the sarno worship as the ancient 
 devotees of the Elohim, those Canaanitish kuffars of whom they are the 
 descendants. These mahoms — so Deuteronomy calls them — which Manasseh 
 AA-ent on constructing, and against which the prophets in vain exhaust 
 their grandiose invectives, are word for word, thing for thing, the Arab 
 vidlcams of our modern goyim, covered by those little cupolas which dot with 
 fcuch picturesque white spots the mountainous horizons of the arid Judaaa." 
 Such is the language of an accomplished explorer, M. Clermont-Gannman,^ 
 and it helps us to understand the difficulties with which Hezekiah and 
 Josiah had to contend. The former king had the support of Isaiah, and the 
 latter had at his right hand the equally devott'd prophet, Jeremiah, the 
 year of whose call was apparently the one immediately following the com- 
 mencement of the reformntion (see ch. i. 2 ; 2 Chron. xxxiv. 3). Jeremiah, 
 hiiwever, had a more difficult task than Isaiah. The latter prophet must 
 have had on his side nearly all the zealous worshippers of Jehovah. The 
 state was more than once in great danger, and it was the burden of 
 Isaiah's prophecies that, by simply trusting in Jehovah and obeying his 
 commandments, the state would infallibly be delivered. But in Jeremiah's 
 time there seems to have been a great revival of purely external religion. 
 Men went to the temple and performed all the ceremonial laws which 
 concerned them, but neglected those practical duties which make up 
 so large a portion of true religion. Tliere was a party of this kind 
 in Isaiah's time, but it was not so powerful, because the misfortunes of 
 the country seemed to show clearly tliat Jehovah was displeased with 
 the state of the national religion. In Jeremiah's time, on the other 
 hand, the continued peace and prosperity which at fiist pievailed was 
 equally regarded as a proof that God looked favourably upon his people, 
 in accordance with those repeated promises in the Book of Deuteronomy, 
 that, if the people obeyed the Law of Jehovah, Jehovah would bless their 
 basket and their store, and would keep them in peace and safety. And 
 here it must be remarked (apart from the higher criticism, so much is as 
 clear as the day) that the Book of Deuteronomy was a favourite reading-book 
 of religious people at this time. Jeremiah himself (surely a representative 
 of the most religious class) is full of allusions to it ; its characteiistic phrases 
 recur continually in his pages. The discovery of the book in the temple " 
 (2 Kings xxii.) was, we may venture to surmise, providentially permitted 
 with a view to the religious needs of those times. No one can deny that 
 Deuteronomy was peculiarly adapted to the age of Josiah and Jeremiah, 
 partly because of the stress which it lays on the importance of religious 
 cf-ntralization as opposed to the liberty of worshipping at local shrines, and 
 partly because of its emphasis on the simple moral duties which the men 
 of that age were in serious danger of forgetting. No wonder, then, that 
 
 ' 'La Palestme Inoonnue ' (Paris, 1876), pp. 49, 50. 
 
 ' Th« question, on which Old Testament critics are so much divided, as to the Mosaic or 
 post-Mosaic o: igin of the Book of Deuteronomy receives a special treatment elsewhere 
 
 1 * 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PEOPHET JEREMIAH. 
 
 Jeremiah himself should take up the study of the book with special earnest- 
 ness, and that its phraseology should impress itself on his own style of 
 writing. There is yet another circumstance which may help us to under- 
 stand our prophet's strong interest in the Book of Deuteronomy. It is that 
 his father was not improbably the high priest who found the Book of the Law 
 in the temple. We know, at any rate, that Jeremiah was a member of a 
 priestly family, and that his father was named Hilkiah (ch. i. 1); and that 
 he had high connections is probable from the respect shown to him by suc- 
 cessive rulers of Judah — by Jehoiakim and Zedekiah, no less than by Ahikam 
 and Gedaliah, the viceroys of the King of Babylon. We may safely assume, 
 then, that both Jeremiah and a large section of the Jewish people were 
 deeply interested in the Book of Deuteronomy, and, though there was no 
 Bible at that time in our sense of the word, that this impressive book to 
 some extent supplied its place. There was, however, as has been indicated 
 above, a danger connected with reading the Book of Deuteronomy, the 
 exhortations of which so repeatedly connect the national prosperity with 
 obedience to the commandments of God. Now, these commandments are 
 obviously of two kinds — moral and ceremonial ; not that any hard and fast 
 line can be drawn between them, but, roughly speaking, the contents of some 
 of the laws are more distinctly moral, and those of others more distinctly 
 ceremonial. Some of the Jews had little or no conception of the moral nr 
 spiritual side of religion, and thought it enough to perform with the 
 strictest punctuality the ceremonial part of God's Law. Having done 
 this, they cried, " Peace, peace ; " and applied the delightful promises of 
 Deuteronomy to themselves. And it seemed as if Providence justified them, 
 for, as was noticed just now, the kingdom of Judah was freer from external 
 danger than it had been for a long time. Another consideration may be 
 added. The prophet Nahum, as is well known, predicted the complete 
 destruction of the tyrannical power of Assyria. In B.C. 626, i.e. in the 
 fourteenth year of Josiah, a great step was taken towards the fulfilment of 
 that prediction; a powerful rival kingdom to Assyria (though in nominal 
 subordination to it) was established at Babylon, and the Medes, now a 
 powerful and united kingdom, advanced upon Assyria from the east. This 
 was just at the time when Josiah was beginning his reformation, and 
 Jeremiah beginning to prophesy. Could there be a more manifest token 
 (so many professedly religious people might urge) of the favour of God 
 to his long humiliated people ? Jeremiah, however, thought otherwise. 
 Cassandra-like, he began his dirge when all were lulled in a deep sense of 
 security. The spiritual state of his country seemed to him utterly rotten. 
 He agreed, it is true, with those would-be reUgious persons that the local 
 shrines and chapels ought to be abolished, and he could not object to their 
 stiiot observance of the appointed rites and ceremonies ; but he did from the 
 bottom of his heart abhor and detest the supposition that a mere ceremonial 
 worship could be pleasing to God (see those remarkable, though at the same 
 time obscure, passages, oh. vii. 8 — 15, 21 — 23 ; xi. 15), 
 
INTRODUCTION TO 
 
 2. Jeremiah did not cease preaching, but with very little result. Wo 
 need not wonder at this. The visible success of a faithful preacher is no 
 test of his acceptableness before God. There are times when the Holj' 
 Spirit himself seems to work in vain, and the world seems given up to the 
 powers of evil. True, even then there is a " silver lining " to the cloud, if 
 we have only faith to see it. There is always a " remnant according to the 
 election of grace ; " and there is often a late harvest which the sower does 
 not live to see. It was so with the labours of Jeremiah, who, like the hero 
 Samson, slew more in his death than in his life; but on this interesting 
 point we must not at present linger. Jeremiah went on preaching, but 
 with small apparent success ; when all at once a little cloud arose, no bigger 
 than a man's hand, and soon the fair prospects of Judah were cruelly 
 ^Dlighted. Josiah, the favourite, as it seemed, of God and man, was defeated 
 and slain on the field of Megiddo, in B.C. 609, The immediate result was a 
 tightening of the political yoke under which the kingdom of Judah laboured. 
 The old Assyrian empire had long been declining ; and just at the beginning 
 of Jeremiah's ministry there occurred, as we have seen, one of those great 
 events which change the face of the world — the rise of the great Babylonian 
 power. It need hardly be said that Babylon and the Chaldeans occupy a 
 large place in the prophecies of Jeremiah ; Babylon was to him what Nineveh 
 had been to Isaiah. 
 
 But, before entering upon this subject of the relations of Jeremiah to the 
 Babylonians, we have first to consider a question of'some importance for the 
 study of his writings, viz. whether his references to foreign invaders are 
 covered entirely by the Babylonian aggression. Is it not possible that an 
 earlier danger may have left its impress on his pages (and also on those of 
 Zephaniah) ? Herodotus tells us that the Scythians were masters of Asia 
 for twenty-eight years (?), that they advanced to the borders of Egypt, and 
 that, on their return, some of them plundered the temple of Ascalon (i. 106). 
 The date of the Scythian invasion of Palestine can, it is true, only be 
 fixed approximately. The Canons of Eusebius place it in Olympiad 36.2, 
 equivalent to n.c. 635 (St. Jerome's Latin version), or Olympiad 37.1, 
 equivalent to b c. 632 (Armenian version). At any rate, it ranges between 
 about B.C. 634 and 618, i.e. between the accession of Cyaxares and the death 
 of Pbamnutichus (see Herod., i. 103— 105),or more precisely, perhaps, between 
 B.C. 634 and 625 (accepting Abydenus's account of the fall of Nineveh). 
 True, one could wish for better evidence than that of Herodotus {he. cit.) 
 and Justin (ii, 3). But the statements of these writers have not yet been 
 disproved, and they suit the chronological conditions of the prophecies 
 before us. A reft-rence to the Babylonian invasion seems to be excluded in 
 the case of Zephaniah, by the facts that in B.C. 635 — 625 Babylonia was still 
 under the supremacy of Assyria, and that from neither country could any 
 danger to Palestine then be apprehended. The case of Jeremiah is, no 
 doubt, more complicated. It cannot be maintained that any discourses, in 
 the form in which we now have them, relate to the Scythians ; but it is 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 
 
 possible that passages originally spoken of the Scythians have been inter- 
 mixed with later prophecies respecting the Chaldeans. Tlie descriptions 
 in ch. iv., v., viii., of the wild, northern nation, sweeping along and 
 spreading devastation as it goes, seems more strikingly appropriate to the 
 Scythians (see Professor Kawlinson's description, ' Ancient Monarchies,' ii. 
 122) than to the Babylonians. The difficulty felt by many in admitting 
 this view is doubtless caused by the silence of Herodotus as to any mischief 
 wrought by these nomad hordes in Judah ; of course, by keeping the coast- 
 road, the latter might have left Judah unharmed. But (1) we cannot be 
 sure that they did keep entirely to the coast-road. If Scythopolis is equi- 
 valent to Beth-shan, and if " Scytho-" is correctly explained as " Scythian," 
 they did not ; and (2) the pictures of devastation may have been principally 
 called forth by the later invasion. According to ch. xxxvi. 1 — 4, Jeremiah 
 dictated all his former prophecies to Baruch, either from memory or from 
 rough notes, as late as B.C. 606. Is it not possible that he may have 
 heightened the colouring of warnings suggested by the Scythian invasion 
 to adapt them to the later and more awful crisis? Nay, more, is not this 
 expressly suggested by the statement (ch. xxxvi. 32) that " there were 
 added besides unto them many like words " ? When you once grant that 
 prophecies were written down subsequently to their delivery, and after- 
 wards combined with others in the form of a summary (a theory which 
 does not admit of a doubt either in Isaiah or in Jeremiah), you therewith 
 admit that features of different periods have in some cases most probably 
 been combined by an unconscious anachronism.^ 
 
 We may now return to that more pressing danger which has so deeply 
 coloured the discourses of the prophet. One striking feature about the 
 rise of the Babylonian power is its rapidity; this is vigorously expressed 
 by a prophet contemporary with Jeremiah — 
 
 " Behold ye among the nations, and look, 
 Astonish yourselves, and be astonished ; 
 For, he doeth a deed in your days. 
 Which ye will not believe, when related. 
 For, behold, I raise up the Chaldeans, 
 The passiimate and impetuous nation, 
 Who goeth through the breadth of the earth, 
 To possess himself of dwelling-places which are not his." 
 
 (Hab. i. 5, 6.) 
 
 In B.C. 609 Babylon had still two seemingly vigorous rivals — Assyi-ia 
 and Egypt ; in B.C. 604 it had the undisputed mastery of the East. Between 
 these two dates lie — to mention the events in Palestine first — the conquest 
 of Syria by Egypt, and the reattachment of Judah, after the lapse of five 
 centuries, to the empire of the Pharaohs. Another still more surprising 
 
 ' On the whole Scythian question, see further Ewald, ' History of Israel,' iv. 255, 256 ; 
 Duncker, 'HiBtory of Antiquity,' iii. 271 — 274; Payne Smith (whose expressions beem to 
 the present writer too hasty and dogmatic), ' Speaker's Commentary,' v. 314. 
 
INTRODUCTION TO 
 
 event remains — the fall of Nineveh, virhioh, so very short a time previously, 
 had made such a Bhow of warlike power under the brilliant Assurbanipal 
 (B.C. 648—626). In vol. xi. of the ' Eecords of the Past,' Mr. Sayce has trans- 
 lated some striking though fragmentary texts relative to the collapse of this 
 mighty colossus. " When Cyaxaies the Mede, with the Cimmerians, the 
 people of Minni, or Van, and the tribe of Saparda, or Sepharad (of. Obnd. 20), 
 on the Black Sea, was threatening Nineveh, Esarhaddon II., the Saracus 
 of the Greek writers, had proclaimed a solemn assembly to the gods, in the 
 hope of warding off the danger. But the bad writing of the tablets shows 
 that they are merely the £rst rough text of the royal proclamation, and we 
 may perhaps infer that the capture of Nineveh and the overthrow of the 
 empire prevented a fair copy from being taken " (p. 79). 
 
 Thus was the prediction of Nahum, uttered in the height of Assyrian, 
 power, fulfilled ; the sword devoured her young lions, her prey was cut off 
 from the earth, and the voice of her insolent messenger (like the Eabshakeh 
 in Isa. xxxvi.) was no more heard (Nah. ii. 13). And now began a series of 
 calamities only to be paralleled by the still more awful catastrophe in the 
 Koman War. The Chaldeans became the waking thought and the nightly 
 dream of king, prophets, and people. A reference was made just now to 
 Habakkiik, who gives vent to the bitterness of his reflections in complaint 
 to Jehovah. Jeremiah, however, fond as he is supposed to be of lamen- 
 tation, does not give way to ihe language of complaint ; his feelings were, 
 perhaps, too deep for words. He records, however, the unfortunate moral 
 effect produced by the danger of the state on his fellow-countrymen. It 
 took the form of a religious reaction. The promises of Jehovah in the Book 
 of Deuteronomy appeared to have been falsified, and Israel's God to be 
 incapable of protecting his worshippers. Many Jews fell away into 
 idolatry. Even those who did not become renegades kept aloof from 
 prophets like Jeremiah, who boldly declared that God had hidden his face 
 for the sins of the people. Those who have read the life of Savonarola 
 vsrill be struck by the parallel between the preaching of the great Italian 
 and that of Jeiemiah. Without venturing to claim for Savonarola an 
 equality with Jeremiah, he can hai dly be denied a kind of reflection of Old 
 Testament prophecy. God's Spirit is not tied to countries or to centuries ; 
 and there is nothing wonderful if mountain-moving faith were blessed in 
 Florence as it was in Jerusalem. 
 
 The prospects held out by Jeremiah were gloomy indeed. The Captivity 
 was to be no brief interlude in Israel's history, but a full generation ; in 
 round numbers, seventy years. Such a message was, from its very nature, 
 doomed to an unfavourable reception. The renegades (probably not a few) 
 were, of course, disbelievers in " the word of Jehovah," and many even of the 
 faithful still hoped against hope that the promises of Deuteronomy, accord- 
 ing to their faulty interpretation of them, would somehow be fulfilled. 
 
 It cost Jeremiah much to be a prophet of ill ; to be always threatening 
 " sword, famine, pestilence," and the destruction of that temple which was 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PHOPHET JEREMIAH. 
 
 "the throne of Jehovah's glory" (oh. xvii. 12). But, as our own Milton 
 says, " when God commands to take the trumpet and blow a dolorous or a 
 jarring blast, it lies not in man's will what he shall say." ^ There are several 
 passages which show how nearly intolerable Jeremiah's position became to 
 him, and how terribly bitter his feelings (sometimes at least) towards his 
 own enemies and those of his country. Take, for instance, that thrilling 
 passage in ch. xx. 7 — 13, beginning (if one may correct the version) — 
 
 "Thou didst entice me, O Jehovah ! and I let myself be enticed; 
 Thou didst take hold on me, and didst prevail ; 
 I have become a derision all the day long. 
 They all mock me." 
 
 The contrast between what he hoped for as a prophet of Jehovah, and 
 what he actually experienced, takes form in his mind as the result of an 
 enticement on the part of Jehovah. The passage draws to its end with 
 the solemnly jubilant words — 
 
 " But Jehovah is with me as a fierce warrior ; 
 Therefore shall mine enemies stumble and not prevail, 
 They shall be greatly ashamed, because they have not prospered. 
 With an everlasting reproach that shall never be forgotten. 
 And thou, Jehovah of hosts, that triest the righteous. 
 That seest the reins and the heart. 
 Let me see thy revenge upon them, 
 For unto thee have I committed my cause. 
 Sing ye unto Jehovah ; praise ye Jehovah : 
 For he hath delivered the soul of the poor from the hand of evil-doers." 
 
 But immediately after this chant of faith, the prophet relapses into melan- 
 choly with those terrible words, which recur almost word for word in the 
 first discourse of the afflicted Job — 
 
 " Cursed be the day wherein I was born : 
 Let not the day wherein my mother bare me be blessed," etc.* 
 
 And even this is not the most bitter thing which Jeremiah has said. On 
 one occasion, when his enemies had plotted against him, he utieis the 
 following solemn imprecation : — " Give heed to me, Jehovah, and hearken 
 to the voice of them that contend with me. Should evil be recompensed 
 for good? for they have digged a pit for my soul. Kemember how I slood 
 before thee to speak good for them — to turn away thy wrath from them. 
 Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and spill them into the 
 hands of the sword ; and let their wives become childless, and widows; and 
 let their, men be slain by the plague, their young men smitten of the sword 
 in battle. Let a cry be heard Irom their houses, when thou bringest sud- 
 denly troops upon them: for they have digged a pit to. take me, and hid 
 
 - » ' Eeason of Church Government,' bk. li. ' 
 
 ' Compare similar passages in oh. xiv., xv., xvii. 15 — 18. 
 
viii INTRODUCTION TO 
 
 snares for my feet. But thou, Jehovah, knowest all their counsel against 
 me to slay me : forgive not their iniquity, neither blot out their sin from 
 thy sight, but let them be (counted as) fallen ones before thee ; deal with 
 them (accordingly) in the time of thine anger" (oh. xviii. 19 — 23). And 
 now, how are we to account for this? Shall we ascribe it to a sudden 
 ebullition of natural anger ? Some will reply that this is inconceivable in 
 one consecrated from his youth to the service of God. Let us remember, 
 however, that even the perfect Exemplar of consecrated manhood gave 
 utterance to feelings somewhat akin to those of Jeremiah.^ When our 
 Lord found (from the point of view of his humiliation, we may say 
 " found ") that all his preaching and all his wonderful works were thrown 
 away on the scribes and Pharisees, he did not hesitate to pour out the 
 full vials of his wrath on those " hypocrites." Doubtless " he felt pity as 
 ■well as anger, but he thought the anger had a better right to be expressed. 
 The impostors must be first unmasked ; they might be forgiven after- 
 wards, if they should abandon their conventionalties. The lover of men is 
 angry to see harm done to men."" Jeremiah, too, like our Lord, felt pity as 
 well as anger— pity for the nation misguided by its natural "shepherds," 
 and was willing to extend forgiveness, in the name of his Lord, to those 
 who were willing to return; the addresses in ch. vii., xxii. 2 — 9 are 
 manifestly intended for those very " shepherds of the people " whom he 
 afterwards so solemnly curses. Natural feeling, no doubt, there was in his 
 communications, but a natural feeling purifieM and exalted by the inspiring 
 Spirit. He feels himself charged with the thunders of an angry God ; he 
 is conscious that he is the representative of that Messiah-people of whom 
 a still greater prophet speaks in the name of Jehovah — 
 
 " Thou art my servant, O Israel, in whom I will get myself glory." 
 
 (Isa. xlix. 3.) 
 
 This latter point is well worthy of consideration, as it suggests the most 
 probable explanation of the imprecatory passages in the Psalms as well as in 
 the Book of Jeremiah. Both psalmists and prophet felt themselves repre- 
 sentatives of that " Son of God " (Hos. xi. 1), that Messiah-people, which 
 existed to some slight extent in reality, but in its full dimensions in the 
 Divine counsels. Jeremiah, in particular, was a type of the true Israelite, 
 an Abdiel (a " servant of God ") among the faithless, an adumbration of 
 the perfect Israel and the perfect Israelite reserved by God for future ages. 
 Feeling himself, however indistinctly, to be such a type and such a repre- 
 sentative, and being at the same time " one of like affections (ofioioirad-^s) 
 with ourselves," he could not but use language which, however justified, 
 bears a superficial resemblance to vindictive enmity. 
 
 > It is beat to speak guardedly. There was, doubtless, some human dross left in Jere- 
 miah ; and only the perfect " Servant of Jehovah " could appropriate the description in 
 Isa. xlii. 2, 3. 
 
 '^ 'Eoce Homo,' p. 270 (ch. xxi.). 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 
 
 3. Jeremiah's warnings became more and more definite. He foresaw, at 
 any rate in its main outlines, the course which events would shortly after- 
 wards take, and refers expressly to the dishonoured burial of Jehoiakim, 
 and the captivity of the youthful Jehoiachin.^ In the presence of such 
 misfortunes he becomes tender-hearted, and gives vent to his sympathetic 
 emotion precisely as our Lord does in similar circumstances. How touch- 
 ing are the words ! — 
 
 " Weep not over one that is dead, neither lament for him j 
 Weep (rather) for one that is gone away ; 
 For he will return no more. 
 Nor see his native country." 
 
 (Ch. xxii. 10.) 
 
 A-nd in another passage (ch. xxiv.) he speaks both kindly and hopefully 
 of those who have been carried away into exile, while those who are left 
 at home are described, most expressively, as " bad figs, very bad, that 
 cannot be eaten." " All that we hear of the later history helps us," Mr. 
 Maurice remarks, " to understand the force and truth of this sign. The 
 reign of Zedekiah presents us with the most vivid picture of a king and 
 people sinking deeper and deeper into an abyss, ever and anon making wild 
 and frantic efforts to rise out of it, imputing their evil to every one but 
 themselves, — their struggles for a nominal freedom always proving them to 
 be both slaves and tyrants at heait." ^ 
 
 The evil, however, was perhaps by nothing so much intensified as by the 
 hearing which the people, and especially the rulers, accorded to the flat- 
 tering prophets who announced a too speedy termination to the clearly 
 impending captivity. One of these, named Hananiah, declared that in two 
 years the yoke of the King of Babylon should be broken, and the Jewish 
 exiles be restored, together with the vessels of the sanctuary (ch. xxviii.). 
 " Not in two but in seventy years," was virtually Jeremiah's reply. If the 
 Jews who remained did not submit quietly, they would be utterly destroyed. 
 If, on the other hand, they were obedient, and " brought their necks under 
 the yoke of the King of Babylon," they would be left undisturbed in their 
 own land. 
 
 This seems to be the place to answer a question which has more than 
 once been asked— Was Jeremiah a true patriot in so continually expressing 
 his conviction of the futility of resistance to Babylon ? It must be remem- 
 bered, first of all, that the religious idea with which Jeremiah was inspired 
 is higher and broader than the idea of patriotism. Israel had a divinely 
 appropriated work ; if it fell below its mission, what further right had it 
 of existence? Perhaps it may be allowable to admit that such conduct as 
 Jeremiah's would not in our day be regarded as patriotic. If the Govem- 
 
 ' There is nothing inconoeivahle in this, even if we should grant that the prophecy, 
 ch. xxi. 1 — xxiii. 40, was modified in expression — in a word, edited — in the reign of 
 Zedekiah, the unelp and successor of Jehoiachiu. 
 
 ' Maurice, ' Prophets and iiings,' p. 420. 
 
INTRODUCTION TO 
 
 ment had fully committed itself to a definite and irrevocable policy, it is 
 probable that all parties would agree to enfoice at any rate silent acqui- 
 escence. One eminent man may, however, be appealed to in favour of 
 Jeremiah's patriotism. Niebuhr, quoted by Sir Edward Strachey, writes 
 thus at the period of Germany's deepest humiliation under Napoleon : "I 
 told you, as I told every one, how indignant I felt at the senseless prating 
 of those who talked of desperate resolves as of a tragedy. ... To bear our 
 fate with dignity and wisdom, that the yoke might be lightened, was my 
 doctrine, and I supported it with the advice of the prophet Jeremiah, who 
 spoke and acted very wisely, living as he did under King Zedekiah, in the 
 times of Nebuchadnezzar, though he would have g'ven difi'erent counsel had 
 he lived under Judas MaccabEeus, in the times of Antiochus Epiphanes."^ 
 
 This time, too, Jeremiah's warning voice was in vain. Zedekiah was mad 
 enough to court an alliance with Pharaoh-Hophra (the Egyptians called 
 him Uah-ab-ra, the Greeks Apries), who, by a naval victory, had " revived 
 the prestige of the Egyptian arms which had received so severe a shock 
 under Neoho II." ^ The Babylonians would not pardon this insubordination 
 and a second siege of Jerusalem was the consequence. Undaunted by the 
 hostility of the popular magnates (" princes "), Jeremiah urgently counsels 
 immediate surrender. (At this point, it is expedient to be brief; Jeremiah 
 himself is his best biographer. There is, perhaps, nothing in all litera- 
 ture which rivals the narrative cliapters in his book for dispassionate 
 truthfulness.) He is rewarded by close imprisonment, but his policy is 
 justified by the event. Famine raged among the besieged inhabitants 
 (ch lii. 6 ; Lam. i. 19, 20, etc.), till at length a breach was effected in the 
 walls ; a vain attempt at flight was made by the king, who was captured, 
 and with most of his people carried to Babylon, B.C. 588. Thus feU 
 Jerusalem, nineteen years after the battle of Carchemish, and, with Jeru- 
 salem, the last bold opponent of Babylonian power in Syria. A few poor 
 inhabitants, indeed, were left, but only to prevent the land from becoming 
 utterly desolate (2 Kings xxv. 12). Their only consolation was that they 
 were allowed a native governor, Gedaliah, who was also a hereditary fi lend 
 of Jeremiah. But it was a short-lived consolation ! Gedaliah fell by an 
 assassin's hand, and the principal Jews, fearing the vengeance of their new 
 lords, took refuge in Egypt, dragging the prophet with them (ch. xlii. 7—22 ; 
 xliii. 7 ; xliv. 1), But Jeremiah had not come to the end of his message of 
 woe. Did the Jews, he asked, expect to be secure from the Babylonians in 
 Egpyt? Soon would their foes be after them ; Egypt would be chastised, 
 and the Jews would sufier for their treason. And now the unhappy con- 
 sequences of the misreading of the Deuteronomio Scripture became fully 
 visible. It was from their infidelity, not to Jehovah, but to the queen 
 of heaven, that their calamities proceeded, said the Jewish exiles in Egypt 
 
 ' Strachey, 'Jewish History and Politics in the Times of Sargon and Sennacherib' 
 p. 222, note. • 
 
 ' Dr. Birch, ' Egypt,' p. 180. 
 
THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEPlBMIAH. 
 
 (cli. xliv. 17^19). Wliat answer could Jeremiah make? His missi(jn to 
 that generation was closed. He could only console himself with that heroic 
 faith which was one of his most striking qualities. During the siege of 
 Jerusalem he had, with a Roman belief in his country's destinies, purchased 
 a piece of ground at no great distance from the capital (ch. xxxii. 6 — 16) ; 
 and it was after the fate of the city was sealed that he rose to the highest 
 pitch of religious enthusiasm, when he uttered that memorable promise of 
 a new and spiritual covenant in which the external helps of prophecy and 
 a written Law should be dispensed with (ch. xxxi. 31 — 34). And in this 
 htaven-born assurance of the immortality and spiritual regeneration of his 
 people he persisted to the end. 
 
 4. It was impossible to avoid giving a brief abstract of Jeremiah's pro ■ 
 phetic career, because his book is to such a large extent autobiographical. 
 He cannot limit himself to reproducing " the word of the Lord ; " his 
 individual nature is too strong for him, and asserts its right of expression. 
 His life was a constant alternation between the action of the "burning fire" 
 of revelation (ch. xx. 9), and the reaction of human sensibilities. Truly has 
 it been ob.sttrved that " Jeremiah has a kind of feminine tenderness and 
 susceptibility : strength was to be educed out of a spirit which was inclined 
 to be timid and shrinking ; " and again that " he was a loving, priestly spirit, 
 who felt the unbelief and sin of his nation as a heavy, overwhelming 
 burden." Who does not remember those touching words ? — 
 
 " Is there no balm in Gilead ? is there no physician there ? 
 Why then hath not healing appeared for the daughter of my people ? 
 Oh that my head were water, and mine eye a fountain of tears, 
 That I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people !" 
 
 (Ch. viii. 22 ; ix. 1.) 
 
 And again — 
 
 " Let mine eyes run down with tears day and night,* 
 And let them not cease : 
 
 For the virgin daughter of my people is broken with a great breach, 
 With a very grievous blow." 
 
 (Ch. xiv. 17.) 
 
 In this respect Jeremiah marks an epoch in the history of prophecy. 
 Isaiah and the prophets of his generation are fully absorbed in their 
 message, and allow no space to the exhibition of personal feeling. In 
 Jeremiah, on the other hand, the element of human feeling is constantly 
 overpowering the prophetic. But let not Jeremiah be disparaged, and let 
 not those triumph over him who are gifted with greater power of self- 
 repression. Self-repression does not always imply the absence of selfishness, 
 whereas Jeremiah's demonstrativeness is not called forth by purely personal 
 troubles, but by those of God's people. The words of Jesus, " Ye would 
 
 * This has been well brought out in Keble's verses on Jeremiah (• Lyra Apostolica '). 
 
INTRODUCTION TO 
 
 not," and " But now they are hid from thine eyes," might, as Delitzsoh 
 remarks, be placed as mottoes to the Book of Jeremiah. 
 
 Jeremiah's rich individual consciousness extends its influence over his 
 conception of religion, which, without being less practical, has become more 
 inward and spiritual than Isaiah's. The main object of his preaching is to 
 communicate this deeper conception (expressed, above all, in his doctrine 
 of the covenant, see on ch. xxxi. 31 — 3 1) to his countrymen. And if they 
 will not receive it in the peace and comfort of their Judagan home, then 
 — welcome ruin, welcome captivity ! By uttering this solemn truth (ch. 
 xxxi.) — that a period of enforced seclusion was necessary before Israel could 
 lise to the height of his grand mission — Jeremiah preserved the spiritual 
 independence of his people, and prepared the way for a still higher and 
 more spiritual and evangelical religion. The next generation instinctively 
 lecognized this. Not a few of those psalms which belong most probably 
 to the Captivity (especially Ps. xxii., xxxi., xl., Iv., Ixix., Ixxi.) are so per- 
 vaded with the spirit of Jeremiah that several writers have ascribed them 
 to the pen of this prophet. The question is a complicated one, and the 
 solution can hardly be so simple as these writers appear to suppose. We 
 have to deal with the fact that therei is a large body of Biblical litera- 
 ture impregnated with the spirit, and consequently filled with many of the 
 expressions, of Jeremiah. The Books of Kings, the Book of Job, the second 
 part of Isaiah, the Lamentations,' are, with the psalms mentioned above 
 the chief items of this literature ; and while, on the one hand, no one would 
 dream of assigning all these to Jeremiah, there seems, on the other, to be 
 no sufficient leason for giving one of them to the great prophet rather than 
 the other. "With regard to the circumstantial parallels in the above-named 
 psalms to passages in the life of Jeremiah, it may be observed (1) that other 
 pious Israelites had a similar lot of persecution to Jeremiah (cf. Micah vii. 
 2 ; Isa. Ivii. 1) ; (2) that figurative expressions like " sinking in the mire 
 and in the deep water" (Ps. Ixix. 2, 14) require no groundwork of literal 
 biographical fact (not to remind realistic critics that there was no water in 
 Jeremiah's prison, ch. xxxviii. 6) ; and (3) that none of the psalms ascribed 
 to Jeremiah allude to his prophetic office, or to the conflict with the " false 
 prophets," which must have occupied so much of his thoughts. 
 
 Still, the fact that some diligent students of the Scriptures have ascribed 
 this group of psalms to Jeremiah is an index of the close affinities existing on 
 either side. So, too, the Book of Job may be more than plausibly referred to 
 as influenced by Jeremiah. The tendency of careful criticism is to hold that 
 the author of Job selects a passionate utterance of Jeremiah's for the theme 
 of his aflfiicted hero's first discourse (Job iii. 3; comp. ch. xx. 14); and it is 
 difficult to evade the impression that a feature in the deepest prophecy of 
 the second part of Isaiah is suggested by Jeremiah's pathetic comparison of 
 himself to a lamb led to the slaughter (Isa. Hi. 7 ; comp. ch. xi. 19). Later 
 
 ' On the question whether Jeremiah really wrote the LamentRtions, Old Testament 
 Bcholare are divided. 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PHOPHET JEREMIAH. xiii 
 
 on, an intensified interest in the details of the future contributed to heighten 
 the estimation of Jeremiah's works (Dan. ix. 2 ; comp. 2 Chron. xxvi. 21) ; 
 and several traces of the extraordinary respect in wliich this prophet was 
 held api)ear in the Apocrypha (2 Mace. ii. 1—7 ; xv. 14 ; Epist. Jer.) and 
 in the Gospel narrative (Matt. xvi. 14; John i. 21). 
 
 Another point in which Jeremiah marks an epoch in prophecy is his 
 peculiar fondness for symbolic acts (e.g. ch. xiii. 1 ; xvi. 1 ; xviii. 1 ; xix, 1 ; 
 xxiv. 1 ; XXV. 15 ; xxxv. 1). This is a subject fraught with difficulty, and 
 the question may reasonably be asked whether his accounts of such trans- 
 actions are to be taken literally, or whether they are simply visions trans- 
 lated into ordinary narrative, or even altogether imaginary — recognized 
 rhetorical fictions. We must remember that the flourishing age of prophecy 
 is over, the age when the public work of a prophet was still the chief part 
 of his ministry, and the age of decline is come, in which the quiet work of 
 laying up a store of testimony for the next generation has acquired greater 
 i mportance. The chapter with Jeremiah's going to the Euphrates and hiding 
 a girdle " in a hole of the rock " till it became good for nothing, and then 
 taking another journey thither to fetch it again, is no doubt rendered more 
 intelligible by reading "Ephrath" instead of P'rdth, i.e. "the Euphrates" 
 (ch. xiii. 4 — 7) ; but the difficulty is, perhaps, not entirely removed. May 
 not this narrative (and that in ch. xxxv.) be regarded as fictitious with 
 fully as much ground as the eqiially positive statement in ch. xxv. 17, 
 " Then took I the cup at Jehovah's hand, and made all the nations to 
 drink"? 
 
 There is yet another important feature for the student to notice in 
 Jeremiah — the diminishing emphasis on the advent of the Messiah, i.e. of 
 the great ideal victorious King, through whom the whole world was to be 
 brought into subjection to Jehovah. Though still found — at the end of a 
 passage on the bad kings Jehoiakim and Jehoiachin (ch. xxiii. 5), and in 
 the promises given shortly before the fall of Jerusalem (ch. xxx. 9, 21 ; 
 xxxiii. 15) — the personal Messiah is no longer the centre of prophecy as in 
 Isaiah and Micah. In Zephaniah he is not mentioned at all. It seems as 
 if, in the decline of the state, royalty had ceased to be an adequate symbol 
 for the great Personage to whom all prophecy points. Every one remembers 
 that, in the last twenty-seven chapters of Isaiah, the great Deliverer is spoken 
 of, not as a King, but as a persuasive Teacher, reviled by his own country- 
 men, and exposed to suffering and death, but in and through his sufferings 
 atoning for and jnstifying all those who believed in him. Jeremiah does 
 not allude to this great Servant of Jeliovah in words, but his revelation 
 of a new and spiritual covenant requires the prophecy of the Servant for its 
 explanation. How is the Law of the Lord to be written in the hearts of a 
 rebellious and depraved humanity? How, except by the atoning death 
 of the humble, but after his death rovally exalted. Saviour ? Jeremiah 
 prepared the way for the coming of Christ, partly by his putting out of 
 sight the too dazzling regal conception which prevented men from realizing 
 
INTRODUCTION TO 
 
 the deeper evangelical truths summed up in the prophecy of the "Servant 
 of the Lord." It ought to he added (and this is another respect in which 
 Jeremiah is a remaikable waymark in the Old 'i'estament dispensation) 
 that he prepared the way of Christ by his own typical life. He stood alone, 
 with few friends and no family joys to console him (ch. xvi. 2). His 
 countiy was hastening to its ruin, at a crisis which strikingly reminds us 
 of the times of the Saviour. He lifted up a warning voice, but the natural 
 guides of the people drowned it by their blind opposition. In his utter 
 self-abnegation, too, he reminds us of the Lord, in whose human nature 
 a strong feminine element cannot be mistaken. Doubtless he had a less 
 balanced mind ; how should this not be the case, for we are speaking of 
 him in relation to the unique, incomparable One? But there are moments 
 in the life of Jesus when the lyrical note is as clearly marked as in the 
 utterances of Jeremiah. The prophet weeping over Zion (ch. ix. 1 ; xiii. 17 ; 
 xiv. 17) is an adumbration of the sacred tears in Luke xix. 41 ; and the 
 suggestions of the life of Jeremiah in the great prophetic life of Christ 
 (Isa. liii.) are so distinct as to have induced Saadyab the Jew (tenth century 
 A.B.) and Bunsen the Christian to suppose that the original reference was 
 simply and solely to the prophet.^ It is strange that tlie most esteemed 
 Christian writers should have dwelt so little on this typical character of 
 Jeremiali ; but it is one proof of the richness of the Old Testament that 
 SI) striking a type should have been reserved for later and less conventional 
 students. 
 
 6. The literary merits of Jeremiah have been frequently contested. Ho 
 is accused of Aramaizing diction, of diflfnseness, monotony, imitativeness,'' 
 proneness to repetition,' and to the use of stereotyped formulas ; * nor can 
 these charges be denied. Jeremiah was not an artist in words, as to some 
 extent was Isaiah. His poetic flights were restrained by his presentiments ; 
 his utteiance was choked by tear.s. How could he exercise his imagination 
 oil depicting woes which he already so fully realized ? or vary a theme of 
 such unchanging impoitance ? Even from a literary point of view, however, 
 his unpretending simplicity is not to be despised; as Ewald has already 
 remarked, it forms a pleasing contrast (be it said with all reverence to the 
 Spirit common to all the prophets) to tlie artificial style of Habakkuk. But 
 
 ' Grotius, with a true instinct, remarks, " Hsb notra in Jeremiam quidem oongruunt 
 pritis, sed potius sublimiusque, ssepe et magis KOTi \4^iv, in Christum." 
 
 ' See the Commentary, paaeim. 
 
 ' Kuenen {' H istorisch-kritisch Onderzoek,' vol. ii. 218) gives a long list of almost identical 
 passages, from which I take the commencement : ch. i. 18, 19 (xv. 20) ; ii, 15 {iv. 7) ; ii. 28 
 (xi. IS); iv. (viii. W); iv.6(vi. 1); v. 9 (29; ix. 8); vi. 13—15 (viii.'lO— 12); vi. 22—21 
 (1. 41 -IH); vii. 16 (xi. 14; xiv. 11); vii. 31— 33 (xix. 5-7; xxxil. 35); vii. 33 (xix. 7; 
 xvi. 4; xxxiv. 20). 
 
 * Sucli are—" sword, famine, and pestilence," or " sword and famine " (oh. xiv. 12 -16 • 
 XV. 2 ; xvi. 4 ; xxi. 7, 9 ; xxiv. 16 ; xxsii. 8, 13 ; and twelve oth^r pasaa^'es) ; " the voice ot 
 mirth and the voice of gladness " (ch. vii. 31 ; xvi. 9 ; xxv. 10) ; " terror on every side " (oh. 
 vi. 25 ; XX. H, 10 ; xlvi. 5 ; xlix. 29) ; " feed with wormwood, and give water of gall to drink " 
 (ch. viii. 14; ix. 15; xxiii. 15). 
 
THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. xv 
 
 above and apart from his literary merits or demerits, Jeremiali deserves the 
 highest honour for his almost unparalleled conscientiousness. Under the 
 most trying circumstances, he never swerved from his fidelity to the ti'uth, 
 nor gave way 1o the " grief that saps the mind." In a quieter age he mi»ht 
 (for his talent is chiefly lyrical) have developed into a great lyric poet. 
 Even as it is, he may fairly claim to have wiitten some of the most sym- 
 pathetic pages of the Old Testament ; and yet — his greatest poem is his life. 
 
 § 2. Growth of the Book op Jeeemiah. 
 
 The question naturally suggests itself — Do we possess the prophecies of 
 Jeremiah in the form in which they were delivered by him from the 
 thirteenth year of the reign of Josiah onwards ? In reply, let us first of 
 all look to the analogy of the occasional prophecies of Isaiah. These, it 
 can be reasonably well proved, have not come down to us in the form in 
 which they were delivered, but have grown together out of several smaller 
 books or prophetic collections. Analogy is in favour of a somewhat similar 
 origin of the Book of Jeremiah, which was, at any rate once, much smaller. 
 The collection which formed the nucleus of the present book may be con- 
 jectured to have been as follows : — Ch. i. 1, 2 ; i. 4 — ix. 22 ; x. 17 — xii. 6 ; 
 XXV. ; xlvi. 1 — xlix. 33 ; xxvi. ; xxxvi. ; xlv. These were, perhaps, the 
 contents of the roll referred to in ch. xxxvi. — if at least, with the great, 
 majority of commentators, we give a strict interpretation to ver. 2 of that 
 chapter, in which the command is given to write in the roll " all the words 
 that I have spoken unto thee . . . from the days of Josiah, even unto 
 this day." On this view of the case, it was not till twentj'-three years after 
 Jeremiah's entrance upon his ministry that he caused his prophecies to be 
 committed to writing by Baruch. This obviously excludes the possibility 
 of an exact reproduction of the early discourses, even if the main outlines 
 were, by God's blessing upon a tenacious memory, faithfully reported. 
 But even if we adopt the alternative view mentioned in the introduction 
 to ch. xxxvi., the analogy of other prophetic collections (especially of those 
 embodied in the first part of Isaiah) forbids us to assume that we have 
 Jeremiah'.s original utterances, unmodified by later thoughts and experiences. 
 
 That the Book of Jeremiah has been gradually enlarged can, indeed, be' 
 shown (1) by a simple inspection of the heading of the book, which, aa we 
 shall see, originally ran thus.; " The wordof Jehovah whioh came to Jere- 
 miah in the days of Josiah, etc., inthe thirteenth year of his reign." It is 
 clear that this was not intended to refer to more th-an ch. i., or, more precisely, 
 to ch. i. 4 — ii. 37, which appears to'reprfesent the earliest discourse of our 
 prophet. Two further chrouologica! specifications; one relative to Jehoiakim, 
 the other to Zedekiah, appear to have been successively added, and even the 
 later of these will not cover ch. xl.— xliv. " '(2) The same result follows from 
 the remark at the close of ch, li., " Thus far are the words of Jei emiah." 
 This evidently proceeds from an editor, in who.^e, time the book terminated 
 at li. 64. Ch. Hi. is, in fact, not an independent narrative, but the conclu- 
 
xvl INTRODUCTION TO 
 
 sion of a history of the kings of Judah — the same historical work which was 
 followed by the editor of our " Books of the Kings," except that vers. 28 — 30 
 (a notice of the number of the Jewish captives) appears from the chronology 
 to be from another source ; it is wanting, moreover, in the Septuagint Version. 
 Granting (1) that the Book of Jeremiah was edited and brought into its 
 present form subsequently to the time of the prophet himself, and (2) that 
 an important addition in the narrative style has been made to it by one of 
 its editors, it is not a priori inconceivable that it should also contain passages 
 in the prophetic style not by Jeremiah himself. The passages respecting 
 which the greatest doubt exists are ch. x. 1 — 16 and eh. 1., li. (the longest 
 and one of the least original of all the prophecies). It is unnecessary 
 to enter upon the question of their origin here ; it is enough to refer the 
 reader to the special introductions in the course of this work. The case, 
 however, is suifioiently strong for the negative critics to make it desirable; 
 to caution the reader not to suppose that a negative position is necessarily 
 inconsistent with the doctrine of inspiration. In words which the author 
 asks permission to quote from a recent work of his own, " The editors of 
 the Scriptures were inspired ; there is no maintaining the authority of the 
 Bible without this postulate. True, we must allow a distinctit)n in degrees 
 (if inspiration, as the Jewish doctors themselves saw, though it was some 
 time before they clearly formulated their view. I am glad to notice that 
 one so free from the suspicion of rationalism or Eomanism as Eudolf Stier 
 adopts the Jewish distinction, remarking that even the lowest grade of 
 inspiration (h'ruahh hahkodesTi) remains one of faith's mysteries " (' The 
 Pj ophecies of Isaiah,' ii. 205). 
 
 § 3. Eelation of the Eeceived Hebrew Text to that represented bt 
 
 THE SePTUAGIN'T. 
 
 The differences between the two recensions relate (1) to the arrangement 
 of the prophecies, (2) to the reading of the text. 
 
 1. Vaiiation in arrangement is only found in one instance, but that a 
 very remarkable one. In the Hebrew, the prophecies concerning foreign 
 nations occupy ch. xlvi. — li. ; in the Septuagint they are inserted imme- 
 diately after ch. xxv. 13. The following table will show the differences ; 
 
 Hebrew text. Text of Septuagint. 
 
 Ch. xlix. 34—39 ch. xxv. 14—18. 
 
 Ch. xlvi. 2—12 ch. xxvi. 1—11. 
 
 Ch. xlvi. 13—28 ch. xxvi. 12—26. 
 
 Ch. xlvi. 40—51 ch. xxvi. 27, 28. 
 
 Ch. xlvii. 1—7 ... ch. xxix. 1—7. 
 
 Ch. xlix. 7—22 ch. xsix. 7—22. 
 
 Ch. xlix. 1—6 ch. XXX. 1—5. 
 
 Ch. xlix. 28—33 ch. xxx. 6—11. 
 
 Ch. xlix. 23—27 ch. xxx. 12—16. 
 
 Ch. xlviii. ch. xxxi. 
 
 Ch. xxv. 15—38 oh. xxxii. 
 
THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. xvii 
 
 • ^ — — . 
 
 Thus not only is tliis group of propliecies diiferently placed as a whole, 
 but the members of the group are differently arranged. In particular, 
 Elam, which comes last but one (or even last, if the prophecy on Babylon 
 be excluded from the group) in the Hebrew, opens the series of prophecies 
 in the Septuagint. 
 
 Which of these arrangements has the stronger claims on our accept- 
 ance ? No one, after reading ch. xxv., would expect to find the prophecies 
 on foreign nations separated from it by so long an interval as in the received 
 Hebrew text ; and thus (the latter being notoriously of comparatively recent 
 origin, and far from infallible) it would seem at first sight reasonable to 
 foUow the Septuagint. But there must be some error in the arrangement 
 adopted by the latter. It is incredible that the passage, ch. xxv. 15- — 26 
 (in our Bibles), is rightly placed, as in the Septuagint, at the very end of 
 the foreign prophecies (as part of ch. xxxii.) ; it seems, indeed, absolutely 
 required as the introduction of the group. The error of the Septuagint 
 appears to have arisen out of a previous error on the part of a transcriber. 
 When this version was made, a gloss (viz. ch. xxv. 13) destructive of the 
 connection had already made its way into the text, and the Greek translator 
 seems to have been led by it to the striking dislocation which we now find 
 in his version. On this subject the reader may be referred to an important 
 essay by Professor Budde, of Bonn, in the 'Jahrbiicher fur deutsche 
 Theologie,' 1879 (see p. 533). That the whole of the verse (ch. xxv. 13) is 
 a gloss had already been recognized by the old Dutch commentator Venema 
 (1765), who will hardly be accused of rationalistic tendencies. 
 
 2. Variations of reading were of common occurrence in the Hebrew text 
 employed by the Septuagint. It may be admitted (for it is self-evident) 
 that the Greek translator was but ill prepared for his work. He not only 
 often attaches wrong vowels to the consonants, but is sometimes so completely 
 at a loss for the meaning that he introduces Hebrew words untranslated into 
 the Greek text. It would also appear that the Hebrew manuscript which 
 he employed was badly written, and disfigured by frequent confusions of 
 similar letters. It may further be granted that the Greek translator is 
 sometimes guilty of deliberately tampering with the text of his manuscript 
 (striking instances of this may be found in ch. xxv. 25 and xliii. 13, and 
 less conspicuous ones in ch. ii. 18, 25, 30 ; iv. 6 ; viii. 6 ; xviii. 2, 22 ; xxii. 
 14, 30 ; XXX. 5) ; that he sometimes abridges where Jeremiah (as often) 
 repeats himself; and that either he or his transcribers have made various 
 unauthorized additions to the original text (as, for instance, ch. i. 17 ; ii. 28 ; 
 iii. 19; v. 2; xi. 16; xiii. 20; xxii. 18; xxvii. 3; xxx. 6). But a candid 
 examination reveals the fact that both the consonants and the vocalization 
 of them employed in the Septuagint are sometimes better than those of the 
 received Hebrew text. Instances of this will be found in ch. iv. 28 ; xi. 15 ; 
 xvi. 7 ; xxiii. 33 ; xli. 9 ; xlvi. 17. True, there are interpolations in the text 
 of the Septuagint ; but such are by no means wanting in the received Hebrew 
 text. The Septuagint is sometimes nearer to the original simplicity than tha 
 
 JEBEHIAH, C 
 
INTRODUCTION TO 
 
 Hebrew (see, for instance, ch. x. ; xxvii. 7, 8 6, 16, 17, 19 — 22 ; xxviii. 1, 14, 
 16 ; ricix. 1, 2, 16 — 20, 32).' And if the Greek translator takes offence at 
 some of the repetitions of his original, bo in all probability have the 
 transcribers who have, without any evil intention, modified the received 
 Hebrew text. On the whole, it is a favourable circumstance that we have, 
 virtually, two recensions of the text of Jeremiah. If no prophet was more 
 unpopular during his life, none was more popular after his death. A book 
 which is known " by heart " is much less likely to be transcribed correctly, 
 and much more exposed to glosses and interpolations, than one in whom 
 no such special interest is felt. 
 
 § 4. EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 The Latin Commentary of St. Jerome only extends to the thirty-second chapter of 
 Jeremiah. Abea Ezra, the most talented of the rabbis, did not write on our prophet • 
 but the works of Kashi and David Kimchi are easily accessible. Modern philological 
 
 exegesis begins with the Reformation. The following commentaries may be mentioned : 
 
 Calvin, ' Prselectiones in Jeremiam,' Geneva, 1563 ; Venema, ' Commentarius ad Librum 
 Prophetiarum Jeremias,' Leuwarden, 1765; Blayney, 'Jeremiah and Lamentations, a New 
 Translation with Notes,' etc., Oxford, 1784 ; Dahler, ' Jeremie traduit sur le Texte 
 Original, accompague de Notes,' Strasbourg, 1825 ; Ewald, ' The Prophets of the Old 
 Testament,' English translation, vol. iii., London, 1878 ; Hitzig, ' Der Prophet Jeremia ' 
 2ud edit., Leipzig, 1866 ; Graf, ' Der Prophet Jeremia erklart,' Leipzig, 1862 ; Naegels- 
 bach, ' Jeremiah,' in Lauge's Commentary, part xv. ; Payne Smith, ' Jeremiah,' in the 
 ' Speaker's Commentary,' vol. v. ; Konig, ' Das Deuteronomium und der Prophet 
 Jeremia,' Berlin, 1839 ; Wichelhaus, ' De Jeremias Versione Alexandrina,' Halle, 1847 ; 
 Movers, ' De utriusque Recensionis Vaticiniorum Jeremise Indole et Origine,' Hamburg, 
 1837 ; Hengstenberg, * The Christology of the Old Testament ' (Clark's edit.). 
 
 § 5. Chronology. 
 
 Any chronological arrangement of the reigns of the Jewish kings must 
 be largely conjectural and open to criticism, and it is not perfectly clear 
 that the writers of the narrative books in the Old Testament, or those who 
 edited their works, intended to give a critically accurate chronology ade- 
 quate for historical purposes. The most tedious problems relate to the 
 times previous to Jeremiah. One difficulty, however, may be pointed out 
 in the chronology of the concluding reigns (see Eobertson Smith, ' The 
 Prophets of Israel,' p. 415). According to 2 Kings xxiii. 36, Jehoiakim 
 reigned eleven years. This agrees with ch. xxv. 1, which makes the fourth 
 year of Jehoiakim synchronize with the first of Nebuchadnezzar (comp. 
 ch. xxxii. 1). But, according to ch. xlvi. 2, the battle of Carchemish took 
 place in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, which was the last year of Nabu- 
 polassar, the father of Nebuchadne/.zar. This would make the first year 
 of Nebuchadnezzar synchronize with the fifth year of Jehoiakim, and we 
 
 ' Nearly all the references in this paragraph are from vol. ii. of Kuenen's ' Historisch- 
 kritisoh Onderzook : ' Leydon, 18G1-C.5, — a book unsuriiaesod among introductions to the 
 Old Testament for completeness, accuracy, and sobriety of judgment, nnd wrilton on an 
 entirely different plan from the author's equally able but (in the judgment of orthodox 
 theologians) biassed work on ' The Religion of Israel.' 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 
 
 should have to conclude that the latter king reigned not eleven but tvvehe 
 years. 
 
 The following table, which is at any rate based on a critical use of the 
 sometimes discordant data, is taken from Professor H. Brandos' ' The Eoyal 
 Successions of Judah and Israel according to the Biblical Narratives and 
 the Cuneiform Inscriptions ' : — 
 
 B.C. 641 (spring) First year of Josiah. 
 
 B.C. 611 (spring) Thirty-first year of Josiah. 
 
 B.C. 610 (autumn) Jehoahaz. 
 
 B.C. 609 (spring) First year of Jehoiakim. 
 
 B.C. 599 (spring Eleventh year of Jehoiakim. 
 
 B.C. 598-7 (winter) Jehoiachin. Beginning of the Captivity. 
 
 B.C. 597 (summer) Zedekiah appointed king. 
 
 B.C. 596 (spring) First year of Zedeliiah. 
 
 1.0. 586 (spring) Eleventh year of Zedeliiah. Fall of the kingdom of Judah. 
 
THE 
 
 BOOK OF THE PEOPHET JEREIIAH. 
 
 EXPOSITION. 
 
 CHAPTER L 
 
 An Account of the Call and Consecra- 
 tion OF Jeremiah to the Prophetic 
 Opcice, followed by Two Expressive 
 Symbols op the Matters which he has 
 TO announce. 
 
 Vera. 1—3. — There are Bome indications 
 that the original form of the heading lias 
 been somewhat modified. Notice (1) that 
 tiiO words with which ver. 2 opens are iden- 
 tical with one of Jeremiah's characteristic 
 formulae for introducing a prophecy (oomp. 
 ch. xiv. 1 ; xlvi. 1 ; xlvii. 1 ; xlix. 34); and 
 notice (2) the awkward connection of vers. 
 1 and 2, and 2 and 3 respectively. (The Sep- 
 tuagint has endeavoured to efface this awk- 
 wardness in part, and is so far unfaithful to 
 the original record, but probably preserves 
 an earlier form of the opening words, rb 
 ^TjfjLa'rov 06oD). It is a reasonable conjec- 
 ture that the passage originally ran thus: 
 " The word of the Lord which came to Jere- 
 miah in the days of Josiah," etc. ; vers. 1 
 and 3 being added later, which involved 
 a change in the construction. 
 
 Ver. 1. — ^The words of Jeremiah. This 
 introductory formula only occurs here and 
 in Amos i. 1. The editor of Jeremiah and of 
 Amos deserts the usual phrase (" burden " or 
 "utterance," "vision," "the word of the Lord 
 which came," etc.) in order to give fuller 
 information concerning the origin Of the 
 prophetic writers (but see on ver. 2). On the 
 name Jeremiah, and on the position occu- 
 pied by Hilkiah,see Introduction. That were 
 
 JEREMIAH. 
 
 in Anathoth. So Vulgate ; Septuagint, how- 
 ever (followed by Payne Smith), makes the 
 relative refer to Jeremiah (ts KuTifKei). But 
 in this case would not the phrase have been 
 " Jeremiah the priest," etc. (comp. Ezek. 
 i. Ij? Anathoth was one of the priestly 
 cities (Josh. xxi. 18) ; it lay on or near tlio 
 great northern road (Isa. x. 30), and has 
 been identified by Dr. Eobinson (so also by 
 Lieutenant Condor) with 'AD§,ta, situateil 
 on a ridge, an hour and a quarter nortli- 
 north-east from Jerusalem. 
 
 Ver. 3.— Unto the end of the eleventh 
 year, etc. The limit is accurate with regar.i 
 to ch. i. — xxxix. Tile later prophecies have 
 a superscription of their own (see ch. xl. 1). 
 In the fifth month (comp. ch. lii. 12, 27). 
 
 Vers. 4 — 19. — Tlie call of Jeremiah. 
 
 Ver. 4. — Unto me. For the change of 
 person, comp. Ezek. 1 4. 
 
 Ver. 5. — Knew thee ; i.e. took notice of 
 thee ; virtually equivalent to selected thee 
 (comp. Gen. xxxix. 6; Amos iii. 2; Isa. 
 Iviii. 3; Ps. cxliv. 3). Observe, the pre- 
 destination of individuals is a familiar idea 
 in the Old Testament (comp. Isa. xlv. 4; 
 xlix. 1 ; Ps. cxxxix. 16). It was also 
 familiar to the Assyrians : King Assurba- 
 nipal declares at the opening of his ' Annals ' 
 that the gods " in the body of his mother 
 have made (him) to rule Assyria." Familiar, 
 too, to the great family of religious reformers. 
 For,. as Dean Milman has truly observed, 
 " No Pelagian ever has or ever will work a 
 religious revolution. He who is destined 
 for such a work must have a full conviction 
 that God is acting directly, immediately, 
 consciously, and therefore with irresistible 
 power, upon him and through him. . . . He 
 who is not predestined, who does not de- 
 clare, who does not believe himself predes- 
 
 B 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. [ch. i. 1—19. 
 
 tined aa the author of a, great religious 
 movement, he in whom Gtod is not mani- 
 festly, sensibly, avowedly working out his 
 pre-established designs, will never be saint or 
 reformer" ('Latin Christianity,' i. Ill, 112). 
 Sanctified thee ; i.e. set thee apart for holy 
 ■ uses. Ordained; rather, appointed. Unto 
 the nations. Jeremiah's prophecies, in fact, 
 have reference not only to Israel, but to the 
 peoples in relation to IsraeL(v6r. 10 ; ch, xxv. 
 J5, 16 ; xlvi.— xlix. ; 1. and li. ?). 
 
 Ver. 6.— Ah, Lord God ! rather, Alas, O 
 Lord Jehovah 1 It is a cry of altirm and 
 pain, and recurs in ch. iv. 10 ; xiv. 13 ; 
 xxxii, 17. I am a child. X am too young to 
 support such an office. The word rendered 
 "child" is used elsewhere of youths nearly 
 grown up (comp. Gen. xxxiv. 19 ; xli. 12 ; 
 1 Kings iii. 7). 
 
 Ver. 7.— Thou shalt go, etc. Thoughts of 
 self are altogether out of place in one who 
 lias received a Divine commission. Jere- 
 miah's duty is simple obedience. In pur- 
 suing this path he cannot but be safe 
 (ver. 8). 
 
 Ver. 9. — Touched my month; literally, 
 earned (Ids 7»and) to touch my mouth. Jere- 
 miah liad taid that he was unskilled in 
 oratory; the Divine answer is that the 
 words which lie has to speak «re not his 
 own, but those of Jehovah. Two things are 
 obvious; 1. The touching of the lips is not 
 purely metaphorical, as in Ps. 11 15 (comp. 
 Fs. xl. 6); it represents a real experience. 
 2. This experience, however, can only have 
 been a visionary one, analogous to that 
 vouchsafed to Isaiah at the opening of his 
 prophetic ministry. In the grand account 
 ■given by Isaiah of his inaugural vision 
 ( which has evidently influenced the form of 
 the vision of Jeremiah), we read of the same 
 significant act on tlie part of one of the 
 seraphim. It is the same act, certainly, 
 but it symbolizes, not as here the communi- 
 cation of a prophetic message (comp. Matt. 
 X. 19), but the purification of the lips. 
 Does it not seem as if Isaiah had attained 
 a deeper insiglit into the spiritual regenera- 
 tion needed by the prophet than had been 
 granted to Jeremiah? Another point in 
 which Jeremiah's account seems inferior to 
 that of Isaiah is plastic power. Notice how 
 Jeremiah dwells upon the meaning of the 
 words ; this is a reflective element which 
 diminishes the poetic power of the narrative. 
 A word may be added to explain that 
 " visionary " is not here used in opposition 
 to "based on fact." That tlie two epithets 
 are susceptible of combination is well shown 
 in the vision described by Pfere Gratry, in 
 his 'Souvenirs de ma Jeunesse' (pp. 102— 
 105), the reality of which is not in the least 
 impaired in the writer's mind by its tho- 
 roughly inward character : " Dans toutee ces I 
 
 scenes inte'rieures, je n'imaginais rien . . . 
 c'e'taient de saisissantes et tres energiques 
 realites auxquelles je ne m'attendais nuUe- 
 ment." 
 
 Ver. 10. — I have set thee; literally, I fea»e 
 made thee an overseer, or vicegerent (comp. 
 Geu. xli. 34; Judg. ix. 28, where the Autho- 
 rized Version renders the cognate noun 
 "ofBoer"). To root out . . . to plant, viz. by 
 pronouncing that Divine judgment which 
 fulfils itself (comp. ch. v. 14 ; Numb, xxiii. 
 25 ; Isa. ix. 8, 9 ; Iv. 11). As there is so 
 much more threatening than promise in 
 J-eremiah's writings, the destructive side of 
 his activity is expressed by four verbs, the 
 constructive only by two. 
 
 Vers. 11 — 16. — Two trials or probations 
 of Jeremiah's inner sight (2 Kings vi. 17). 
 Two visions are granted him, which he is 
 required to describe. The first expresses 
 the certainty of his prophetic revelation; 
 the second indicates its contents. 
 
 Ver. 11. — A rod of an almond tree. The 
 name here adopted for the almond tree is 
 peculiarly suitable in this connection. It 
 me.ins " wakeful ; " the almond, blossoming 
 in January, is the first to " wake " from the 
 sleep of winter. 
 
 Ver. 12. — I will hasten my word ; liter- 
 ally, 1 am wakeful over my word ; alluding 
 to the meaning of the Hebrew word for 
 almond. 
 
 Ver. 13. — A seething pot. There is a 
 variety of Hebrew words for "pot." The 
 word here used suggests a vessel of largo 
 size, since pottage for a whole company of 
 prophets could be cooked in such a pot 
 or caldron (2 Kings iv. 38). From Ezek. 
 xxiv. II we may infer that it was of metal. 
 A "seething pot" in ancient Arabic poetry 
 is a figure for war. The same symbol oc- 
 curs in Ezek. xxiv. 3 — 12, but with a 
 different application. The feoe thereof is 
 toward the north ; rather, toward the south ; 
 literally, from the face of the north. The 
 " face " of the pot is the side turned to the 
 prophet. We may suppose the contents to 
 be on the point of boiling over. 
 
 Ver. 14.— Out of the north. Previously 
 to the battle of Carchemish, the Baby- 
 lonians are only mentioned vaguely as a 
 northern people (see ch. iv. 6; vi. 1, 22; 
 X. v,22). Strictly speaking, they were an 
 ea„cern people from the point of view of 
 Palestine ; but the caravan-road which the 
 Chaldsean armies had to take entered Pales- 
 tine at Dan (comp. ch. iv. 15 ; viii. 16), and 
 then proceeded southward. (On the question 
 whether a Scythian invasion is referred to, 
 at least conjointly with the Babylonian, see 
 Introduction.) An evil; rather, the evil; 
 viz. the calamity which in deepening gloom 
 
CH. I. 1—19.] THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 
 
 forms the burden of the prophet's dis- 
 courses. Shall break forth ; literally, shall 
 open ; i.e. let loose by opening (comp. the 
 use of the same verb in Isa. xiv. 17, liter- 
 ally, "looseth not his prisoners homewards ; " 
 and Amos viii. 5, literally, "that we may 
 open," i.e. " bring forth wheat "). There is, 
 however, some diflSculty in explaining the 
 choice of this expression. We might indeed 
 suppose that the caldron had a lid, and that 
 the removal or falling off of this lid is the 
 "opening" referred to by the phrase. 
 
 Ver. 15.— I will oaU; literally, I om 
 calling ; i.e. I am about to call. The king- 
 doms of the north ; alluding possibly to the 
 varied origin of the population of Assyria 
 and Babylonia. But more probably It is 
 simply a suggestive phrase for the wide 
 extent of the hostile empire referred to 
 (comp. oh. xxr. 9). They shall set every one 
 his throne, etc. The kings or the generals, 
 representing "all the families," etc., shall 
 set up the high seat of power and judicial 
 authority at the broad space within the gate 
 of the city, which constituted the Oriental 
 forum (comp. Gen. xxiii. 10; Josh. xx. 4; 
 Job xxix. 7 ; xxxi. 21). Thither the be- 
 sieged would have to come to surrender 
 themselves (2. Kings xxiv. 12) and to hear 
 their fate. A similar prediction is made with 
 regard to Nebuchadnezzar (ch. xliii. 9, 10). 
 It is true the seat of authority is there said 
 to be placed at the entrance of the palace, 
 but this was in fact another place where jus- 
 tice was wont to be administered (ch. xxii. 2, 
 3). Jerome's view, adopted by Eosenmiiller 
 and Nagelsbach, that " to set one's seat " 
 means " to besiege " is against usage, and 
 does not accord with the opening words of 
 ver. 16. There is, however, an element of 
 truth in it. The judgment executed minis- 
 terially by the northern kings or generals 
 began with the siege of Jerusalem and the 
 other cities, and hence the words with which 
 the prophet continues. And against all the 
 walls, etc. We should have expected some- 
 thing like "and shall set themselves in 
 array against," etc. (comp. Isa. xxii. 7 6) ; 
 see, however, last note. 
 
 Ver. 16. — I will ntter my judgments ; or, J 
 will hold a court of justice upon them ; liter- 
 ally, I will speak judgments with them. The 
 expression is peculiar to Jeremiah (comp. ch. 
 iv. 12 ; xii. 1 ; xxxix. 6 ; lii. 9), and includes 
 both the examination of the accused, and 
 the judicial sentence (see ch. xxxix. 5 ; lii. 9). 
 All their wickedness, etc. Their " wicked- 
 ness," i.e. their infidelity to Jehovah, 
 
 showed itself in burning incense to " other 
 gods," and bowing down to their images. 
 "Burned incense" is, however, too narrow 
 a sense. The root-meaning of the verb is 
 to be fragrant, and the causative conju- 
 gations will strictly mean only " to make a 
 sweet odour," whether by the offering of 
 incense or by burnt offerings (comp. ch. xi. 12 ; 
 2 Kings xxiii. 8, where a causative conju- 
 gation is used in the same wide sense here 
 postulated ; also Ps. Ixvi. 15 and Isa. i. 13, 
 where the word usually rendered " incense " 
 seems rather to mean " a sweet smoke "). The 
 prophet says, " of other gods " (not " of false 
 gods "), out of consideration for the ignor- 
 ance of his hearers, to whom Baal and 
 Moloch really were as gods ; in fact, that 
 expressive word ('eJi'i) which Isaiah uses 
 ten times to express the unreality of the 
 other so-called gods, occurs only once, and 
 then not in quite the same sense (see ch. 
 xiv. 14) in Jeremiah. But the prophet's 
 own strict monotheism is proved by such 
 passages as ch. ii. 27 a ; viii. 19 5 ; xvi. 20. 
 
 Ver. 17. — Gird up thy loins, as an Orien- 
 tal does before making any kind of physi- 
 cal exertion, whether walking (Exod. xii. 11 ; 
 2 Kings iv. 29), running (1 Kiugs xviii. 46), 
 or fighting (Job xii. 21). Be not dismayed. 
 A want of confidence on Jeremiah's part 
 will issue in his utter discomfiture by his 
 enemies. " Dismay " in Hebrew has a two- 
 fold reference, subjective (" dismay ") and 
 objective ("ruin," "discomfiture"). Both 
 references can be illustrated from this verse. 
 (Comp. the command and— ver. 18 — promise 
 to Jeremiah with the command and promise 
 to Ezekiel— iii. 8, 9.) 
 
 Ver. 18. — Brasen walls. The plural is 
 used instead of a collective term for the 
 whole circle of fortifications. In the parallel 
 passage (ch. xv. 20) the singular occurs ; the 
 same alternation of plural and singular as 
 in 2 Kings xxv. 10; 1 Kings iii. 1. The 
 combination of figures strikingly expresses 
 the invincibility of one whose streujjth is in 
 his God. The kings of Judah. Why the 
 plural? Most reply, because Jeremiah 
 would have to do with successive sovereigns. 
 But this meaning would have been just as 
 well conveyed by the singular: "the king 
 of Judah," without any name being added — 
 would mean the king who from time to time 
 happened to be reigning. " Kings of 
 Judah " in Jeremiah seems to have a special 
 meaning, and to include all the members of 
 the royal family, who formed a numerous 
 and powerful class (see on ch. xvii. 20). 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. [ch. i. 1—19. 
 
 HOMILETICS. 
 
 Vers. 1—3.— On the external eurroundings of the life cf Jeremiah. These words, 
 ■which constitute the preface to the Bools of Jeremiah, are evidently intended to furnish 
 a historical setting for the writings of the prophet. But they also throw light on his 
 character and work. For, though the true life of every man is his inner spiritual life, , 
 we cannot estimate the worth of this until -we have taken account of the circumstances 
 in which it is placed, the adds and the hindrances it receives from without. Let us con- 
 sider, therefore, the spiritual sigtrificance of the main historical surroundings of the work 
 of Jeremiah. 
 
 I. The official kelationship <m Jeremiah. 1. Jeremiah had the advantage of 
 being the son of a priest. He had prohahly received a religious education from his child- 
 hood. The religion of his fathers must have been familiar to him. Its solemn rites and 
 suggestive symbols were often before his eyes. Possibly, like St. Paul, who was trained 
 in°Jewish theology before he became a Christian (Gal. i. 14), he may have found ttie 
 Law a schoolmaster to bring him to a higher religion. The children of Christian 
 ministers have peculiar privileges in the early knowledge of Scripture, Church life, etc., 
 which they have opportunities of acquiring. 2. ¥et this official relationship of Jeremiah's 
 had its disadvantages. It was quite exceptional. Not more than three of the prophets 
 were of sacerdotal origin. For the most part the priestly class regarded the prophetic 
 with jealousy, if not with envy. (1) Officialism is conservative, and opposed to the free 
 and revolutionary spirit of prophecy. (2) It is also formal, and tends to repress the 
 inward and spiritual experiences of which prophecy is the highest outcome. It speaks 
 well for Jeremiah that the spirit of prophecy was not crushed out of him by the dry 
 traditionalism and the rigid ritualism of his priestly connections. 3. It is noteworthy 
 that the official relationship of Jeremiah was entirely overshadowed hy his prophetic 
 mission. He is known to history not as the priest, but as the prophets Official religious 
 services are quite secondary to spiritual work. 
 
 II. The characteb of the age of Jebemiah. 1. Jeremiah entered on his mission in 
 the midst of the reformalion ef Josiah. \et the prophet's work was entirely discon- 
 nected from that of the king. Political religious activity is very different from personal 
 spiritual work. Ecclesiastical relorms will not effect spiritual regeneration. The king's 
 overthrow of the idols does not dispense with the need of the prophet's call to repentance. 
 2. Jeremiah continued his mission after the failure (f Josiah's reformation and during 
 an age of national decay. The character of the age changed, but the prophet remained 
 unchanged. Weak men may be content to «cho the popular cries of the day. It is too 
 often the mission of the servant of God to contradict these familiar voices. The true 
 prophet is not the creature of his age, the mouthpiece of the Zeit-geist ; he is called to 
 resist this influence. 3. Jeremiahclosed his mission amidst scenes of national ruin. It 
 was given him to see the fulfilment of his warnings of doom, but not that of his promises 
 of restoration. Hence he is the prophet of tears. Jesus also wept over Jerusalem, but 
 he brought redemption. We should be thankful that we live in these latter times when 
 we can see the realization of the promises of " the Book of consolation." 
 
 III. The dubation of the mission of Jbbbmiah. It lasted for at least forty years ; 
 how many more after the overthrow of Jerusalem we do not know. 1. This fact 
 speaks much for the prophetic power of Jeremiah. Many men can only rouse themselves 
 to one supreme effort. True greatness is as much seen in the continuance of powers as 
 in supreme exhibitions of them. 2. This fact is a grand proof of the faithfulness 
 of the prophet. Almost the whole of his work was done " in opposition." We admire 
 the young martyr who summons up a momentary heroic courage to seal his testimony 
 with his blood ; but greater honour is due to the aged confessor who has persevered 
 through a lifelong martyrdom, and, though spared to old age, is also " faithful unto 
 death." 3. This fact sheds light on God's ways with man. Jeremiah commenced his 
 stern prophetic denunciations forty years before the destruction of Jerusalem. This 
 suggests to us (1) that God mercifully delays the execution of his threats to give man 
 time for repentance ; and (2) that the forbearance of God, which postpones the evil day, 
 does not frustrate the justice which must ultimately bring it upon the impenitent. 
 
CH. I. 1-19.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. i 
 
 Ver. 5. — Predestination. I. Consider the chauacteristios of a Divine pke- 
 
 DESTINATION. 1. This implies (1) foreknowled(/e — God has his idea about a man and 
 
 his mission before he forms the initial germ of his life ; (2) a sanctifying, or setting apart, 
 
 by which the man is considered by God in relation to his destined mission, and treated 
 
 accordingly ; and (3) a preordination, a Divine action in^ accordance with the Divine 
 
 k idea and purpose which tends to carry these into effect. Every life-is prophesied in the 
 
 ! mind of God by God's thought of it, and comes into the- world girded with Divine pur- 
 
 i( poses, wrapped up and drawn onwards by the unseen threads of the- designs of God-. 
 
 2. This predestination does not involve- /atavism.,- it is consistent with human freedom 
 
 ■1' of action and personal responsibility.. On the one hand we must conclude, from its 
 
 existence, that there are certain possibilities with which God endows a man, and certain 
 
 limits with which God has hedged him about^ But on the other hand, we must 
 
 recognize that it depends on the man's-own will and effort whether he use those possit- 
 
 bilities, and attain to the end enclosed within those limits. He has a Divine vocation, 
 
 but he may neglect it ; he may fail in realizing God's idea of his life. There rests on 
 
 him the responsibility of accomplishing his destiny. 
 
 II. Consider the grounds fob belief in: a Divine predestination. 1. It is re» 
 vealed in Scripture (e^g. Acts ii. 23.; Bom. viii. 29 ; 1 Pet. i. 2). 2. It is involved in 
 the idea of the providence of a supreme God. God foresees all the future ; in every act of 
 his all other events and their relation to this must be present to the mind of God. With 
 such knowledge a universal control of events, such as is implied by a providence not 
 interfering from without now and again at critical moments, but immanent in the 
 whole course of the world, must imply a Divine preordination. 3. It is proved to us by 
 experience. (1) We are born with certain peculiarities, faculties, powers, tendencies. The 
 prophet, like the poet, nascitur, non jit. (2) The external circumstances of life are 
 largely beyond our control. The child cannot determine the sphere of life into which 
 it is to enter at birth. All the opportunities and duties which result from these circum- 
 stances are made for us, not by us. They bring a mission and open up a career, by 
 chance if there be no providence, but by preordination if there be a providence. 
 
 III. CONSIDEK the purpose OF A DiVINB PREDESTINATION. 1. It mUSt often be 
 
 mysterious. Until we review life as a whole we shall not be able to- interpret the 
 meaning of its several parts. We cannot judge of the architect's design by examining the 
 separate stones which lie scattered in the builder's yard. But: 2. II? is- not arbitrary. 
 The very idea of destiny as determined by a Beiiig of infinite thought implies purpose 
 based on reason. God would not determine events simply to manifest his unfettered 
 rights of sovereignty. Such aimless caprice could only emanate from a senseless despotw 
 3.°It is turned to a good purpose. This must be so^ for if God is good his designs must 
 be good. The predestination fa (J) for the good of the agent, who is blessed by being 
 selected for Divine service ; and (2) for the good) of the world. The elect are chosen 
 instruments for benefiting the whule world. Thus Jeremiah was- destined to be- "a 
 prophet unto the nations." The Jew was an elect people that he might be the channel 
 of blessing to all mankind (G«n. xii. 3; Rom. iii. 2). The Christian is a chosen vessel 
 that he may carry grace to others, and swve as the salt of the earth, as the light of the 
 world. 
 
 IV. Consider the practical effect of the doctrine of predestination. It con- 
 tains no excuse for indolence and no reason for despair, for Gtoi\ fits all of us for sonie 
 service, the accomplishment of which depends on our own taithfulness.. 1'. It should 
 lead us to inquire what is Ood's will, rather than to carve out a career for ourselves. 
 2. It should make us humble, submissive, obedient, ami diligent' in service, since tiiere is 
 a Divine idea of our life which God expects us to realize. 3. It should inspire courage 
 
 ■ in the midst of difficulties. Jeremiah was brave- in the thought that he was fulfilling 
 a Divine destiny. Such a thought inspires energy in face of enmi-ty, contempt, isolation, 
 and apparent failure. 
 
 Yers. 6—9. — Diffidence overcome. I. Diffidence is a difficulty to be overcome. 
 1. Jeremiah shrank from his mission, not through the cowardice that fears danger, nor 
 through the indolence that dislikes effort, nor through the selfishness that declines respon- 
 sibility, but through the diffidence of youth, sensitiveness, and humility. (1) Youth is 
 naturally diffident. The world is all unknown ; powers are not yet proved by experience. 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. [ch. i. 1—19. 
 
 (2) Sensitiveness inclines to diffidence. There is a confidence which depends simply on 
 denseness and callousness. Acute feeling is a great hindrance to bold action. Jeremiah 
 felt the miseries of his nation deeply, and it was peculiarly difficult for such a man to 
 assume the position of a stern censor. (3) Humility leads to diffidence. If we think 
 little of ourselves we are not likely to be forward in accepting posts of responsibility. 
 2. Now, this diffidence is an evil thing. It may not be sinful in its origin, but perfectly 
 innocent, and even a mark of amiable characteristics. But it is injurious in its effects, 
 and becomes positively guilty if indulged in when God has provided us means for over- 
 coming it. The most gifted are often the most diffident. Hence if they yielded to their 
 reluctance to fulfil their vocation) the greatest and best work of the world would be left 
 undone. There is also a danger lest diffidence should become an excuse for indolence, 
 selfishness, and cowardice. If unrestrained it will lead to these vices. People are often 
 greatly to blame for shrinking from posts of responsibility, although they may even 
 imagine they are earning the honours of modesty and humility. 
 
 II. God peovidbs means fob overcoming diffidence. God never calls a man to 
 any work without securing to him the means for performing it. Thus having called 
 Jeremiah to his service, God sends help for overcoming the young man's diffidence. 1. 
 The conscivwiness of a Divine mission. " Thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee." It 
 is well to feel that we are not doing our own work but God's. If we fail, what does that 
 matter to us so long as we are doing his will? The thought of duty is itself an in- 
 spiration. We are not simply to attempt what we imagine to be a good thing ; we are 
 called for a purpose, sent on a mission, and the thought that we are about our Father's 
 business should allay the hesitation of natural diffidence. The ambassador is armed with 
 the authority of his master and backed by his master's power. The prophet is sent by 
 God with God's authority. All who are working God's will are similarly supported by 
 God's authority. 2. The realization of the presence of Ood, "I am with thee." We may 
 be diffident while we look to self; but when we look away to God we see the Source of 
 strength and victory. Indeed, our very diffidence may be a means of securing our true 
 strength by making us seek the help of God. Self-distrust may lead to trust in God. 
 Thus when weak in ourselves we may become strong in him (2 Cor. xii. 10). If we go in 
 God's strength we have no more occasion to fear, since success no longer depends on our 
 ability but on his assistance. 3. The direct inspiration of the Spirit of Ood. " Behold 
 
 1 have put my words in thy mouth." God is not only present by our side to assist 
 and deliver us, but he is within the soul, infusing light and power. The prophet fears 
 he cannot speak the needed words. The words he is to speak are not his own but God's. 
 He is the messenger, God is the real speaker. If then he can but discern the voice of 
 God within him, and interpret this to the people, all diffidence arising from his own 
 imcompetence should vanish. Every work which is done for God can only proceed 
 from God, and when it does thus come from God we need not fear its failure. God can 
 accomplish his own will in us as well as by his immediate actions in the world. 
 
 Ver. 10. — The power of prophecy. 1. There is a poweb in prophecy. Prophecy 
 is not simply a light, a revelation of truth ; it is also a voice of authority, a means of 
 active influence, a power. The Divine word in the prophet is like the Divine word iu 
 nature— an energizing word. God speaks, and it is done. The New Testament references 
 to prophecy are made in obedience to this thought. The fulfilment of prophecy is 
 there quoted not so much, as in modern evidential literature, as a proof of supernatural 
 foresight, but rather as the effect of a Divine power which has realized the purpose of 
 the ancient Word of God. This or that is said to be done " that it might be fulfilled 
 which was spoken by the prophet." God's Word is always a power (Heb. iv. 12). The 
 Bible is not simply a revelation ; it is a means of influence. The preacher should see 
 that he is clothed with power. His mission is to influence as well as to teach. 
 
 II. The sodboes of the poweb of prophecy are spiritual. The authority con- 
 ferred on Jeremiah is not that of the secular arm. He is to exert his influence by no 
 material force. His power is difterent in kind from that of a political governmenU 
 The claim of the papal authority founded on this verse is unwarranted, since this does 
 not confer the power of the sword but direct spiritual influence. Neither is the power 
 of prophecy in the least allied to magic or sorcery. It is not a miraculou.s material foice. 
 1. It is the power of truth. Truth is strong ; knowledge is power. The prophet sees 
 
CH. 1. 1—19.] THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 
 
 the deep principles of God's government, and in the discernment of them lies the force 
 of his utterances. 2. It is the power of riyhi. The prophet takes his stand on the side 
 of justice, purity, goodness. In the end the might must go with the right. 3. It is 
 the power of Ood. The prophet is nothing in himself; he is GEod's servant; the 
 authority he wields is God's. So the power of the preacher is not to be sought in reason, 
 in eloquence, nor in official authority, but in the truth of his message, in the righteous- 
 ness ot his cause, and in his fidelity to the will of God. 
 
 III. The kange of the power op prophecy is worldwide. Jeremiaih was. a Jew. 
 Yet he was " set over the nations and over the kingdoms." 1. God is the King of 
 
 ' kings and his authority concerns kingdoms as well as individuals. Political questions 
 are amenable to the influence of Divine truth and righteousness. 2. God's truth does 
 not only concern the Church. It is for the world — if the world will obey,.for its blessed- 
 ness ; if it will not heed, for a judgment upon it. 
 
 IV. The effects of the power or prophkcy are bevolutionart. It is-no wild 
 and transient influence, but a great stirring energy. Translated into morlern language, 
 this means that truth, right, and the will of God are powerful factors in history, dis- 
 arranging human schemes and bringing higher designs into effect. 1. This power is 
 destructive. Jeremiah is to " root out," etc. Evil is not a mere negation — simple dark- 
 ness. It must be fought and cast out. Christ sent " a sword " (Matt. x. 34). The 
 era of the Reformation was a destructive age. It is the duty of the preacher to. protest 
 against evil, to denounce it, to seek its overthrow, and not to. shrink for fear of conse- 
 quent disturbances. Warfare is better than guilty peace. 2. This power is ultimately 
 constructive. Jeremiah is " to build and to plant." The destructive agencies of God 
 are simply intended to clear off obstructions, and make the way for a new and bettor 
 order. The disintegrating power of criticism should be regarded as only preparatory 
 to the creative influence of living truth. The guspel is chiefly a constructive power, 
 making men new creatures, building up the kingdom of God in our midst, bringing 
 about a new heaven and a new earth. 
 
 Vers. 11, 12. — The almond rod. The early budding almond rod is symbolical of the 
 wakeful attitude of God at a crisis in human events. God's manner of acting at this 
 period of Jewish history may be regarded as typical of what we may expect again under 
 similar circumstances. 
 
 I. There are occasions when God's watchfulness and energy are bshscially 
 MANIFEST. God never sleeps (Ps. cxxi. 4). While we sleep he keeps watch. Though 
 we do not mark his presence nor even think of it, he is still looking upon us and never 
 ceasing from his activity. Yet he is said to awake as though from sleep (Ps. xliv. 23), 
 because to us he appears to be more wakeful at one season than at another. 1. There 
 are times when God watches unseen, and times when he makes his waiclifulness manifest 
 to us by his acts ; then he is said to awake. 2. God generally acts in quiet ways un- 
 noticed and not directly interfering with us; but now and again his ceaseless activity is 
 more pronounced, and is specially felt by opposing our course ; then God seems to have 
 aroused himself. Such times are awful crises of existence. We should be prepared to 
 expect them, and not presume on the present obscurity of the Divine actions. Some 
 day it will be as though God awoke with the voice of a trumpet and the might of a host 
 suddenly revealed, 
 j II. God never delays his action beyond its dub time. When it is time for God 
 { to " awake," he does " awake." It seems as though he tarried ; but he has a reason for 
 I waiting. 1. He does not come to deliverance ac the moment we expect him (1) because 
 ' it is well we should be tried by distresses, or (2) because high purposes beyond our 
 own lives are to be attained through the things which are occasioning us trouble, or (3) 
 because we have not sought his aid with true faith and submission, or (4) for causes 
 beyond our com))rchension. 2. Ho does not come to judgment (1) because he waits ibr 
 sin to ripen, 'or (2) because he is long-suffering and gives time for repentance, or (3) 
 because larger issues than those which touch us are involved in the act of judgment. 
 Still, in both cases he comes at the right time. Ho is not a slothful God. He is wake- 
 ful, and his actions may be typified by the almond branch. 
 
 III. God's judgments sometimes fall suddenly and swiftly. We may have hut 
 short warning of their approach. The execution of them may be rapid. Tlie stonn 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. [ch. i. 1—19. 
 
 whicli has long 1)6611 br6wing may burst quickly. Th6 harvest which has ripened slowly 
 may be gathered in with haste. The impending judgment may not be discerned till it 
 is too late for escape. When the rain began to fall it was too late for man to seek 
 refuge in the ark. When the Jews saw the hosts of Nebuchadnezzar approaching there 
 were no means for saving their country from ruin. It is foolish and wrong to neglect 
 the salvation of God until we discern his judgment looming over us, " To-day if ye 
 will hear his voice, harden not your hearts." 
 
 Vers. 13, 14. — The seething pot. I. The vision op the seething pot fobeshadows 
 APPBOACHiNO DOOM. God is about to " hold his session "■ upon Jerusalem and the cities ot 
 Judah. 1. They who are most favoured by God must expect the severest judgment if they 
 prove unfaithful to him. The Jews were a favoured people. Their privileges were great ; 
 if they abused these their guilt and consequent punishment must be proportionately 
 great. Therefore, instead of considering the past mercies of God as a ground for ex- 
 pecting to escape the penalties of our offences, we should see in them the measure of his 
 future severities upon us if we sin in face of the special inducements to devotion afforded 
 by those mercies. 2. The revelation of impending judgment is a great motive for faithful 
 preaching. This vision of the seething pot is given to Jeremiah to rouse him to under- 
 take his prophetic duties. A large part of his work consisted in gloomy predictions of 
 coming doom. This was peculiar to the age. There are ages when similar preaching 
 is especially appropriate. But as sin always makes for death the preacher is always 
 called to raise a voice of warning. 
 
 II. The vision op the seething pot illusteates the chaeacteb or the appeoach-' 
 INQ doom. 1. It is gradually prepared. The vesselis slowly heated to the boiling 
 point. The guilt of sin accumulates and the evil consequences gather in force until 
 they burst upon the victim with the energy of long pent-up wrath. 2. It breaks forth 
 suddenly. Suddenly the vessel boils over. Judgment may be delayed and gradual in 
 the preparation, and yet suddenly surprise us when at length it falls upon us. 3. It is- 
 violent and overwhelming, as the seething pot suggests fury, tumult, and, in its boiling 
 over, a rushing forth of its scalding contents. 
 
 III. The vision of the seething pot suggests the souecb op the appkoaching doom. 
 The pot was turned towards the south and heated by fires in the north. 1. Punishment 
 may come from the most unlikely quarter. The Jews had turned to Babylon for friendship, 
 and from Babylon came their ruin. Our most trusted friends may become the instruments 
 of our keenest suffering. 2. Lawless violence may be overruled hy providence to work 
 the ends of God's righteous laws. The doom is not to come from within the range of the 
 theocracy and through the influence of those who consciously executed the Divine decree, 
 but from far-off regions, wholly beyond the light of Israel's religion. Thus G«d makes 
 the wrath of man to praise him. So storms and earthquakes, revolutions and invasions, 
 tumults in nature and tumults in the human world, work ultimate good results in clearing 
 and purifying the air, sweeping away pestilent corruption, and preparing for a new and 
 wholesome order. 3. The more luxurious Southern races have frequently been visited 
 by terrible invasions of hardier races from the North. The Scythians in the East, the 
 Goths in the West, were scourges of God, and wholesome scourges, helping to reform the 
 corrupt and indolent peoples who lived in dread of their invasions. We should see wise 
 and good purposes of providence in these terrible events of general history, as we see 
 them in the special history of Israel. 
 
 Vers. 17 — 19. — Encouragements to fidelity. It was no easy matter for Jeremiah, 
 young, modest, and sensitive, to come boldly forward and threaten the judgment of 
 God against his country. But if God calls a mau to any task, he will help him through 
 with it, and Jeremiah receives encouragements proportionate to his duty. 
 
 I. The duty. Consider what the duty of faithful service laid upon the prophet 
 included. 1. Energy. He is to gird up his loins, and arise. God is not satisfied with 
 passive submission to his will. God cannot be faithfully served by the indolent. All 
 our powers are required for his service, and they must be employed without distraction. 
 2. Obedience. Jeremiah is to speak just what God commands him. Fidelity is not 
 simply devotion to God, it is devotion according to his will — the devotion of servants, 
 not that of patrons. 3. Thoroughness. The prophet is to speak " all " that God com- 
 
CH. I. 1—19.] THE BOOK OF THE PKOPHET JEREMIAH. 9 
 
 mands him. It is treason for the ambassador to suppress those elements of his commis- 
 sion which are displeasing to himself. The servant of God must not select from the 
 revelation of Divine truth the words which suit his purpose and neglect the rest. He 
 is not to shun to declare " the whole counsel of God " — threats as well as promises, 
 difficult sayings and mysteries as well as plainly acceptable doctrines. 4. Fearlessness. 
 " Be not dismayed." Fear is not only painful ; it is injurious by paralyzing effort. 
 Cowardice is sin. 
 
 II. The bncoubaqements. It is our duty to be faithful, though fidelity should bring 
 our ruin; but such a result will not follow it. Consider the various inducements 
 Jeremiah receives to a faithful discharge of his difficult task. 1. A revelation of 
 momentous truths. God says, "Thou there/ore gird up thy loins," etc. The word 
 " therefore " carries us back to the visions of the almond rod and the seething pot. The 
 truths revealed in these visions themselves furnish a motive for the prophet to 
 declare them. The seer should become a prophet. Truth is not the private property 
 of the few ; it is the rightful heritage of all. It is the duty of him who knows to 
 enlighten the ignorant. More especially is this the case in regard to spiritual truths, 
 practical truths, and truths which concern the highest welfare of mankind. 2. A 
 warning of Divine displeasure. " Be not dismayed at them, lest I make thee indeed 
 dismayed." The fear of God is a safeguard against the fear of man. Cowardice pro- 
 vokes danger. The Christian has no armour provided for his back. 3. An assurance 
 of Divine protection. This is given in a succession of strong images, that it may be 
 felt in all its certainty and importance. For we need not only to know that God will 
 protect us, but to realize this if we are to be brave and strong. Thus Jeremiah is made 
 to feel that, in spite of his youth and sensitiveness, he will be strong as a lortress and 
 firm as brazen walls. None are so independent before men as they who are wholly 
 dependent on God. 4. A promise of victory over opposition. The young prophet is 
 taught to expect opposition. (1) It is foolish to ignore the approach of trouble. A 
 surprise sometimes leads to a defeat from very inferior foes. Danger foreseen is danger 
 half overcome. The Bible never makes light of the difficulties and hardships of life 
 (Luke X. 3).' (2) No ground of confidence is more inspiring than the knowledge that 
 the danger clearly, fully apprehended will yet be certainly overcome. This was the 
 assurance given to Jeremiah. The same assurance is offered to every faithful servant 
 of God (Isa. xliii. 1). 
 
 HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHOES. 
 
 On Jeremiah's ministry in general. " It is sufficient," said our Saviour, " that the 
 disciple be as his Lord." Now, of all his servants few answered more closely to this 
 description than did the prophet Jeremiah. In a very deep and real sense his life was 
 a type of oiu- Lord's. It is in the spiritual world as in the natural, a close resemblance 
 exists between the separate parts and the entire organism to which they belong. The 
 root, stem, bud, flower, fruit, and seed are each constructed on the same type as the 
 tree itself. However widely diversified they may seem in form or function, their 
 essential nature is the same. Hence every leaf is a miniature of the tree on which it 
 grows ; trunk, branches, foliage, are each patterned in it. And likewise every brancli is 
 but a reproduction on a smaller scale of the whole tree.' But this is only what we find 
 constantly exemplified in the spiritual world. What miniature lives of Christ are 
 those of men like Joseph, Moses, David, and many more ! And amongst such as are 
 illustrious in this respect stands Jeremiah. Like tiim, the consciousness of the Divine 
 call was with him from childhood (cf. Luke ii. 49 and ch. i. 6). He too was perse- 
 cuted with mmderous hate by his own townsmen. As Christ was driven from 
 Nazareth, so was Jeremiah from his native Anathoth (ch. xii. 6). His vehement 
 denunciations of the corrupt priests and prophets of his day remind us of the reiterated 
 woes pronounced by our Lord on the " scribes and phansees, hypocrites," of his day. 
 Like our Lord, Jeremiah also was the prophet who stood nearest to and told most 
 plainly of the dread catastrophe which overwhelmed Jerusalem and her people. 
 
 ' Macmillan. ■ 
 
10 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. [ch. i. 1—19. 
 
 Jeremiali was the prophet of Jerusalem's destruction by the Babylonian Nebuchad- 
 nezzar; our Lord of the like destruction by the Roman Titus. Both beheld the 
 glories of the temple, and both told of the swiftly coming days when there should " not 
 be left one stone upon another, which should not be thrown down." The footsteps of 
 him who, beyond all others, was " despised and rejected of men," Jeremiah, in so far 
 as it was possible to him, anticipated. The bitter tears shed by our Saviour over 
 impenitent Jerusalem are shadowed forth in the prophet's prolonged and profound 
 lament over his own idolatrous and disobedient countrymen. His well-known words, 
 " Is it nothing to you all ye that pass by ? " uttered concerning the sorrows of Jeru-' ; 
 salem and her people, have come to be so universally appropriated to our Lord, that the ' 
 prophet's own deep distress which they tell of, and the occasion of that distress, are 
 alike almost if not entirely forgotten. "His sufferings come nearest of those of the 
 whole army of martyrs to those of the Teacher against whom princes, and priests, and 
 elders, and people were gathered together." To him, as to the great apostle, was it' 
 given to know " the fellowship of Christ's sufferings, and to be made conformable 
 unto his death." And we may venture to prolong the parallel, and to apply to Jere- 
 miah the august words which, in their supreme meaning, can belong to but One alone. 
 " Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is atove 
 every name." In that high recompense Jeremiah, so far as any servant of God may, 
 shares. For the honour in which his name came to be held was very great. As time 
 rolled on he was regarded as the chief representative of the whole prophetic order. By 
 some he was placed at the head of all the prophets. At the time of the Christian 
 era his return was daily expected. He was emphatically thought to be " the Prophet 
 — ' the Prophet like unto Moses,' who should close the whole dispensation." No 
 wonder, then, that one devout student after another has been struck by the closeness of 
 the resemblance, here briefly pointed out, and has delighted to trace in the prophet's 
 history foreshadowings of the "Man of Sorrows," who, more than any other, was 
 acquainted with grief.— C. 
 
 Vers. 1 — 3. — Introductory statements concerning Jeremiah's parentage and period of 
 his ministry. I. His parentage. He was the son of Hilkiah, not that Hilkiah who 
 was high priest during the reign of Josiah, but of some similarly named priest. Even amid 
 the terrible corruptions of that period, there appear to have been a few faithful souls who 
 held fast to the fear of the Lord. We have their names, Huldah, Shallum, Baruch, etc. 
 From amidst these Jeremiah sprang. The Lord can call and convert and consecrate 
 to his work whom he will ; but his more common way is to come to the habitations 
 of his people, when he would find some whom he destines for special and honoured 
 service. The homes of the godly are the hope of the Church. Amidst the children of 
 the believing are to be found those whom God will generally employ to carry on his 
 work. This is one way in which the promise is fulfilled, " Them that honour me I 
 will honour." 
 
 II. His PROFESSION. He belonged to the priesthood. Terrible are the charges 
 which are brought against the priests and prophets of that day. They had reached 
 the limit of utmost degradation. They are said to " deal falsely," to be " profane ; " and 
 their conduct is described as " a v?onderful and horrible thing." Yet Jeremiah be- 
 longed to this deeply fallen class. How difficult must have been his position ! how 
 constant his resistance to the contagion of their example and influence! When from 
 amongst those who are of the same order, wlio have common interests, common duties, 
 and who are thrown together in so many and close relationships, one stands aloof and 
 turns upon his companions in severe and solemn rebuke as Jeremiah did, such a 
 one needs to be strong as " a defenced city, and an iron pillar, and brazen walls " 
 (ver. 18) Jeremiah stands before us as a noble proof that the tide of evil, however 
 strongly it may run, may yet be resisted ; none are of necessity borne down by it 
 but, by the same grace which was given to Jeremiah, they may stem the fierce current 
 and defy its power. Ten thousand of the saints of God have done this ; why should 
 not. we? 
 
 III. The reason of all men counting iiim as a pnopiiET. " The word of the Lord 
 came unto hiiu." He did not say, " I am a prophet ; " but all men felt he was. For 
 his words had power; they were mighty to the pulling down of the strong holds of 
 
CH. I. 1—19.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 11 
 
 sin. It was not simply that he announced that there should be a " rooting out and 
 pulling down " (cf. ver. 10), but the words which he spoke so wrought in men's minds 
 that these results followed. Hence men, conscious of the power of his words, con- 
 fessed that it was " the word of the Lord " which had come to him. This is the old 
 prophetic word which, whenever spoken, constrains men to confess the presence of 
 God (cf. 1 Cor. xiv. 25). And St. Peter (2 Epist. i. 19) says concerning it, " We have, 
 surer still, the prophetic word." " More sure," he meant, than even the wondrous voice 
 and vision of " the holy mount," for that was but a transient testimony given once 
 and to the three favoured apostles of the Lord alone ; but the prophetic word, that 
 which woke up the response in men's hearts, and by which the secrets of each soul 
 were disclosed — that was a more constant, more universal, more powerful, and therefore 
 a more sure testimony than aught beside. And the occasions when this " word of the 
 Lord " comes to any of his servants are well known. See how particular and definite 
 the dates are here. " In the thirteenth year of the reign of King Josiah. It came 
 also in the days of Jehoiakim," etc. The coming of the word of the Lord to any soul 
 is a marked and memorable period. He through whom that word is spoken is conscious 
 of an unusual power, he realizes the Divine presence in an altogether unusual manner. 
 He is more passive than active. It is said of the holy men of old, that they " spake as 
 they were moved [borne along] of the Holy Ghost," and this, St. Peter declares (2 Epist. 
 i. 21), is ever a characteristic of the prophetic word. And those who hear the word know 
 that the Lord is speaking through his servant. Listlessness and unconcern give way 
 to serious concern. Some can tell the very day and hour when they first heard the 
 " word of the Lord." They had listened to sermons and read the Scriptures again and 
 again, but one day they felt that the Lord himself was speaking to them, and they 
 could not but give heed. Like as the people of Judah and Jerusalem knew when the 
 voice of God, though they despised it to tlieir ruin, was speaking to them, so do men 
 now. And if we have heard it for our salvation, the time, the place, the speaker, will 
 often be vividly remembered in connection with ii, like as those who heard Jeremiah 
 knew the very year when the " word of the Lord came " to him. It is ill for both 
 hearers and speakers alike if they be unable to point to periods when they were conscious 
 that " the word of the Lord " came to them. For a preacher never to realize the sacred 
 glow and the uplifting of soul which accompany the utterance of the prophetic word ; 
 or for a hearer to have so dulled his conscience, so destroyed his spiritual ear, that 
 though the word of the Lord be spoken his heart never responds, his soul never 
 realizes the presence of God ; — from the sin and sorrow of either may God mercifully 
 save us. 
 
 rV. The date and duration of Jbkemiah's ministry. We are told when it began, 
 and how long it lasted. It began when the evil days for Judah and Jerusalem were 
 drawing very near. It was in vain that the devout King Josiah endeavoured to turn 
 back the hearts of the people to the Lord God of their fathers. But though the long- 
 suffering of God had been so tried and was now almost ceasing, yet, ere they were given 
 up to the punishment which was their due, God raises up his servant Jeremiah and 
 the band of faithful men who stood by him (cf. 2 Chron. xxxvi. 15—21). For forty 
 years^for that is the period covered by the reigns of the several kings spoken of — 
 Jeremiah exhorted, warned, entreated, threatened, prayed, wept; but all in vain. 
 Therefore God's wrath at length rose against them, and there was no remedy. " Behold 
 the goodness and the severity of God ! " How reluctantly will he abandon any. to the 
 results of their own ways ! how slow is he to let come upon them that which they 
 have long deserved ! Yea, he is the long-suffering God. But whilst we fail not to 
 remember and to rejoice in this, let us not fail either to remember and to dread the 
 other equally sure fact, that " God is a consuming fire " to those who set at nought all 
 his counsel, and will have none of his reproof (Prov. i. 24 — 33). Those to whom 
 Jeremiah prophesied found it so, and so will all who sin in like manner now. — C. 
 
 Vers. 4 — 19. — The dread commission. I. What was it? (Cf. ver. 10.) It was to 
 denounce the judgments of God against his people. At the end of the commission 
 there is mention made of "building and planting ; " but the chief charge is of an alto- 
 gether opposite character. Jeremiah was set over the naiions " to root out, and to pull 
 Qown, to destroy, and to throw down." It was a terrible undertaking. He was to 
 
12 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. [ch. i. 1—19. 
 
 spare no class, no rank, no order. Kings, princes, priests, and people were all to be 
 alike solemnly warned of the sure judgments that were coming upon them. And the 
 like work has to be done now. How prone we all are to speak with bated breath of 
 the retribution of God ! how ready, to ourselves and to others, to explain away or to 
 soften down the awful words of Grod against sin and the doers thereof ! Preachers and 
 teachers of God's truth, beware lest the blood of those who perishgd because you 
 warned them not be required at your hands (Ezek. xxxiii. 6) ! 
 
 II. But it is a dbead commission. The shrinking of Jeremiah from it is manifest 
 all through this chapter. Before the heavy burden which he was to bear was fully 
 disclosed to him, he exclaims (ver. 6), " Ah, Lord God ! behold I cannot speak : for I am a 
 child." « And the assurances, aids, and encouragements which are given him all show 
 how much needed to be done ere his reluctance and trembling fear could be overcome. 
 The whole chapter tells of God's gracious preparation of his servant for the arduous work 
 he had to do. And whosoever now undertakes like work, if he have no realization of 
 its solemnity and burden, it is plain that God has not called him to speak in his Name. 
 To hear a man tell of the awful doom of the impenitent in a manner that, if it be not 
 flippant, yet seems to relish his task, and to hail it as an opportunity for rhetorical 
 display, is horrible in the extreme, and will do more to harden men in sin- than almost 
 anything beside. The subject is so sad, so serious, so terrible, that he who believes in 
 it at all will be sure to sympathize with the prophet's sensitive shrinking from the work 
 to which he was ordained. If when sentencing criminals who have broken the laws of 
 man to their due punishment, humane judges often break down in tears, though their 
 punishment touch not the soul, — how can any contemplate the death that is eternal 
 unmoved or without the most solemn compassion and tenderest pity ? And to increase 
 the fear and shrinking with which Jeremiah regarded the work before him, there was 
 the seaming presumption of one so young — little more than " a child " in years, ex- 
 perience, or knowledge — ^undertaking such a work. Tim hopelessness of it also. As well 
 might a sparrow think to fly full in the face of a hurricane, as for the young prophet 
 to think to stay the torrent of sin which was now flooding and raging over the 
 whole life of his people. Sin and transgression of the grossest kind had become their 
 Imbit, their settled custom, their ordinary way. All that he had to tell them they had 
 heard again and again, and had despised and forgotten it. What hope of success was 
 there, then, for him ? And the fierceness of the opposition he would arouse would also 
 deter him from the work. It was not alone that the faces (ver. 17) of kings, princes, 
 priests, and people would darken upon him,. but they would (ver. 19) "tight against'' 
 him, as we knoW they did. Well, therefore, might he say, " Ah, Lord ! I cannot." 
 And to-day, how many are the plausible reasons which our reluctant hearts urge 
 against that fidelity in such work as Jeremiah's which God requires at our hands ! But 
 God will not allow them. See — 
 
 III. How HE constrained Jbeemiah to undertake this work. 1. Ver. 5 : he gave 
 him certainty as to his being called to the prophetic work. To know that we are indeed 
 called of God to any work is an unfailing source of strength therein. 2. Ver. 7 : he 
 made him feel that necessity was laid upon him ; " thou shalt go ; "" thou shalt speak." 
 (Of. Paul's " Yea, woe is me," etc.) ^o Jeremiah himself afterwards says (ch. xx. 9) God's 
 word was like " a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearitig, 
 and I could not stay." What a help to the preacher of God's truth is such a conviction 
 as this ! 3. Ver. 8 : he promised his presence and delivering grace. Consciousness of 
 security and safety in God will give a dauntless courage in the face of any and of all 
 opposition. 4. He gave him special qualifications for his work. Words and power of 
 speech (ver. 9). Immovable and unflinching strength of will, a determination and 
 resolve that would not waver (ver. 18). 5. He showed him that the rooting up and 
 the destruction were not ends in themselves, but to lead on to planting and to buildin<^ 
 afresh (ver. 10). To know that we are working on to a good and blessed end is no 
 small encouragement to us in working through all manner of difficulty to reach that 
 end. 6. He made him vividly realize the nature and nearness of the judgments he 
 foretold. This was the purpose 6f the visions of the rod of the almond tree and the 
 seething pot (vers. 11—15; for explanation, see exegesis). The first vision told of 
 God's judgment close at hand. The second, of the quarter whence these jud-rmcnts 
 come, and of the fierce, furious character of the foes who should come upon" them. 
 
OH. 1. 1—19.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 13 
 
 Jeremiah was enabled to " see well " the visions, that is, to realize very forcibly what 
 they meant. Oh, if we could but more vividly realize what the ano;er of God is against 
 sin ; if we could have a vision of the wrath of God ; with how much more power and 
 urgency should we plead with men to flee from the wrath to come! 7. Ver. 16: he 
 reminds Jeremiah of the sins that called for these judgments. A deep sense of sin is 
 indispensable to those who would earnestly warn of the doom of sin. 8. And (ver. 19) 
 God again gives his servant the blessed assurance, "They shall not prevail against 
 thee; for I am with thee to deliver thee." Thus did God equip the prophet and prepare 
 him for his work. His God supplied all his need. It was a stern warfare on which he 
 was to go, but he went not at his own charges. If we be summoned to difficult duty, 
 we shall be supplied with all-sufBcient strength. Only let us be careful to avail our- 
 selves of the help assured, lest (ver. 17) we be dismayed and God confound us before our 
 enemies. Dread, therefore, no commission that God entrusts thee with, for along with 
 it will ever be found the grace, all the grace, needed for its successful discharge. — 0. 
 
 Ver. 10. — The ministry for a corrupt age. I. MnsT be raised up by God. Such an 
 age will have its ministers, but they will be prophets who will prophesy only smooth 
 things. But a true ministry for such an age will not be produced by it, but be given 
 to it from God. " See, I have set thee," etc. 
 
 II. Will be ehdued with Divine power. " I have set thee over the nations . . . 
 to root out," etc. None who contemplate the marvellous effects of such a ministry 
 and compare them with the natural powers of him who exercises it, but must see that 
 the ascendancy he has gained and the spiritual power he wields are of God and not of 
 man. 
 
 III. Will make no compromise with sin. See the number and force of the words 
 used to indicate the ruthless antagonism which the prophet would manifest toward the 
 wickedness of his day. Nothing less than its complete overthrow would fulfil the 
 ministry entrusted to him. 
 
 IV. Will demand on the part of the prophet, and will gain from the grace 
 or God, a fearless and an unconquerable courage. (Vers. 17, 18.) 
 
 V. Its end and result blessed. " To build and to plant " (ver. 10). The en- 
 cumbered ground had first to be cleared and cleansed, but that done, the fabric of a 
 true life should be upreared, and principles pure, holy, and blessed should have root in 
 the hearts of all. — 0. 
 
 Vers. 11 — 16. — Jeremiah's visions. I. What were thet ? (Cf. vers. 12 — 14.) 
 II. Whprbfobe were they? In all probability, for the sake of vividly impressing 
 the mind of the prophet with the message he was to deliver, and so ensuring that that 
 message should be delivered with greater power. Hence the question, " What seest 
 thou?" (ver. 11) was designed to arouse and arrest his attention, and for the same 
 reason, when that attention had been awakened, the Divine commendation, " Thou 
 hast well seen," is given. Cf. for similar questions and similar visions, ver.13 ; ch. xxiv. 3 ; 
 Amos vii. 8 ; viii. 2 ; Zech. iv. 2 ; v. 2, and in each case the motive seems to have 
 been the same. 
 
 HI. Their suggestions for ourselves. 1. Concerning Ood's punishment of sin. 
 (1) Its not being apparent to us is no reason for denying it. Certainly the vision of 
 the stem, or branch, of the almond tree would not to an ordinary observer have sug- 
 gested it. Nor either the second vision, that of the " seething pot," although that did 
 undoubtedly present somewhat more of a troubled aspect. Yet both alike needed that 
 their meaning and interpretation should be given. Their significance did not lie on the 
 surface. Only a divinely illumined eye could see that the early-budding almond tree 
 which, because of its outstripping other trees, being in advance of them all in yielding its 
 fruit, was called the " wakeful " or " watchful " tree, meant that the Lord was " watchful 
 over his word to perform it." Nor was the interpretation of the second vision much 
 more evident than that of the first. And so continually, in connection with ungodly 
 men, there are events occurring and signs of varied kind are given, which to those who 
 are taught of God tell plainly how God is "watchful over his word to perform it ; " but 
 to others thay tell nothing of the kind. They are like the prophet's almond tree and 
 seething pot, which had no meaning until that meaning was pointed out. The people 
 
14 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. [ch. i. 1—19. 
 
 of Judah and Jerusalem saw nothing in these circumstances, any more than in the 
 prophet's visions, to alarm them very much. And so, still, ungodly men are at ease in 
 the presence of facts and indications which fill those who believe God's Word with 
 unspeakable alarm. How foolish, then, is it to take the unconcern, the powerlessness 
 to understand God's signs, which characterize ungodly men, as any evidence of the 
 unreality of that which QoA has declared I " As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it 
 be," etc. Lot was as " one that mocked unto his sons-in-law." The Jews crucified 
 our Lord because he saw so clearly and declared so plainly the character of their 
 trusted leaders and the destruction that was coming — one even more terrible than that 
 which Jeremiah foretold. But the Jews neither saw nor believed anything of the kind. 
 (2) Its being by means of natural laws does not make it the less God's punishment of 
 sin. The rapid growth and yield of the almond tree was a perfectly natural thing : 
 there was no interference with the orderly course which such forms of plant life 
 assume. And the war between the empires of Egypt and Babylon, in the vortex and 
 whirlpool of which Jerusalem was dragged in and dragged down ; all this which the 
 prophet's second vision told of, was it not the inevitable though sad misfortune of any 
 such diminutive power as was that of Judah and Jerusalem when placed in like 
 circumstances? Her lot was cast just in the place where the two raging seas of Egypt 
 and Babylon met. What wonder if her poor little barque went to pieces beneath the 
 violence of those waves ? It was sad enough, but yet perfectly natural ; indeed, one 
 may say, inevitable. And so it would be quite possible to explain all God's punish- 
 ment away, and to regard it like the early blossoming of the almond tree, and like 
 the seething troubles which must come upon little kingdoms placed as Judah was, 
 when great empires on either side of her go to war, as only what was to be expected, 
 what was in keeping with the natural order of things. Let any one read Gibbon, 
 and from his account of the decline and fall of the Roman empire, you would 
 gather no idea of a Divine righteousness arising to inflict merited punishment on an 
 awfully corrupt and degraded people. Believers in God can and do see this, but the 
 great historian has not felt himself bound to point out any such cause of the long 
 series of disasters which he so eloquently relates. The inspired prophet and seer of 
 Patmos has, however, done this ; and in the Book of the Revelation, the woes coming 
 upon that blood-stained empire are told of in symbolic but terrible form, and in con- 
 nection with that God-defying wickedness which was the source and cause of them all. 
 And so to-day, under cover of the fact that God works according to the natural order 
 of things, men evade the teaching of the events that befall them. Because God 
 punishes sin by the action of his natural laws, men deny that he punishes sin at all. 
 His hand is not recognized in it, and therefore no repentance is awakened. They deem 
 themselves unfortunate, and that is all. If we would, be more faithful with ourselves, 
 we should " hear the rod and who hath appointed it." No calamities or disasters come 
 without meaning and intent ; they are sent for moral and spiritual purposes, however 
 much they may appear to be but natural and necessary events. Each of them will own, 
 if interrogated, " I have a message from God unto thee." (3) It will increase in severity 
 if there be need. The first vision is simply that of the almond tree ; an emblem of 
 gentleness rather than of severity. But the second vision, that of the boiling caldron, 
 suggested a far other and more terrible visitation (cf. the plagues in Egypt, which 
 increased in terribleness as they went on). And it is ever so even unto the " con- 
 suming fire" (Heb. xii. 29). (4) It often comes from unexpected quarters. The 
 " seething pot " that the prophet saw had its face northward. Now, the reader of the 
 history of the times of which our prophet tells — the times of King Josiah — will know 
 that it was from the south, from Egypt, they expected that troubles would arise. And 
 in the next chapter (ver. 16) mention is made of trouble that did arise from that 
 quarter, though what particular event is referred to it is not easy to say. But the 
 great trouble was to come from the north, from the last quarter from which they 
 anticipated it. King Josiah lost his life in doing good service to that northern power, 
 the great Assyrian kingdom, by fighting against Egypt. It was not, therefore, to be 
 expected that thence calamity would come. But nevertheless it was thence that their 
 great overthrow and destruction came. And little do the transgressors against God 
 ever know or even dream whence his judgments against them will arise. It is not only 
 " in such an hour," but from such a quarter " as they think not, that the Divine dis- 
 
CH. I. 1—19.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 15 
 
 pleasure breaks upon them. A transgressor against God is safe nowhere : nothing may- 
 be visible to his eye, everything may be going on in orderly course, and he may 
 have full confidence that all is well. But notwithstanding this, events soon to happen 
 may prove that he has wrongly read the whole of God's providence, and that his security 
 is least where he thought it was greatest and most certain. Happy, and happy alone, 
 is he who hath made the Lord God his trust, and whose hope the Lord is. 2. Con- 
 cerning the Divine lone. We have seen wherefore these visions were given. They 
 reveal to us that Divine love which would warn men from ways which bring upon them 
 such sore judgments. The desire of God to save guilty men, to leave nothing undone 
 by which they may be turned and kept back from evil, is manifest in all this. He 
 would not have his message miss its mark by reason of any lack of deep impression 
 and vivid realization of the truth on the part of the messenger. — 0. 
 
 Yers. 4 — 9. — Jehovah calls Jeremiah and gives him ample encouragements. I. The 
 PURPOSE FOB WHICH Jebbmiah WAS BROUGHT INTO EXISTENCE. This is Stated ia a very 
 solemn and impressive way in ver. 5. Jehovah presents himself to Jeremiah as he 
 who formed him in the belly, and even before then recognized him as one who was to 
 do a special work. So with regard to Moses, Isaac, Samuel. The circumstances of 
 their birth direct our thoughts to the special ends to be worked out by their earthly 
 life. To each of them the same words might have been spoken as to Jeremiah. More- 
 over, if true of them, this word is true of all. Jehovah is the Fashioner of all mankind, 
 and since he does nothing without some purpose, it follows that for every one of us, 
 equally with Jeremiah, there is a recognition, a consecrating, an ordaining. In a few 
 instances there may be a special publication of the purpose, but the purpose itself is 
 real in every instance. Therefore our business clearly is to find out what God would 
 have us be, our eyes open to his presence, our ears to his voice. Then if we have dis- 
 covered what God would have us be, if there is a deepening impression on our minds 
 that we are in the right way, this very thought, that God saw the proper work of our 
 life or ever we entered upon it, will assure us that the work cannot fail. We shall feel 
 that requisite strength in the doing of it, and full success at the end of it, are made 
 certain. The failings of life come — and it is easy to see that they must come — from 
 putting our own purposes athwart the settled purpose of God. We may rebel against the 
 work which he calls upon us to undertake, but it is very certain that any work put in 
 its place must end in disappointment and disaster. To Jonah as to Jeremiah, God 
 might have said somewhat the same as is here recorded. It is an awful thought for 
 sinners, in the collapse of their own plans, that they might have been successful and 
 rejoicing, if only they had been from the heart obedient to the plans of God. 
 
 II. Tke answering plea op Jebbmiah. An opposing plea it can hardly be called, 
 but it is the not astonishing statement of a difficulty that from the human point of view 
 looks very great. When God makes his first approaches to men, asking them to do 
 something special, what is more natural than that they should see huge difficulfes in 
 the -way of obedience ? How fertile was the self-distrusting Moses in suggesting diffi- 
 culties when God came to him in Horeb (Exod. iii. 4)? Take special notice that the 
 difficulties of such men as Moses and Jeremiah are not meant to be mere excuses, bu 
 are felt to be real reasons. Such is emphatically the position here. Jeremiah was but 
 a lad ; it is possible that he had not yet attained to what we should call a young man 
 (Gen.' xli. 12 ; 1 Kings iii. 7). At such an age one is valued for listening and learning 
 rather than for talking. That the prophet made such an initial reply to Jehovah was 
 a good sign rather than a bad one. Deep humility and a keen consciousness of natural 
 weakness are welcome features in the man whom God would make his servant. It is 
 tolerably certain that among the elders of Anathoth Jeremiah would have the reputa- 
 tioft of being a quiet, unpretending lad. If a young man of another reputation had 
 stood forward as a prophet, there would have been fair ground to charge him with 
 presumption. But when one stands forward who ever looks doubtfully on his own 
 abilities, is no self-asserter, and forms by preference a member in the background of 
 every scene, such a standing forward at once suggests that there is some superhuman 
 motive behind it. Jeremiah's plea is therefore a recommendation. Unconsciously he 
 "ives a valid certificate of fitness for his work. At the same time, this plea suggests all 
 the difference which there is between the youthful Jeremiah and the youthful Jesus. 
 
10 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. [ch. i. 1—19, 
 
 Jesus in the temple seems in his natural element, not too young even at twelve years 
 of age to show an ardent interest in all that concerned Divine worship and service. 
 ■ III. The ample encouragement which Jehovah gives to Jeremiah. In a few 
 words, God puts before his servant all that is needed and all that can be supplied. 1. 
 There will he clear commands from God, amdfrom the prophet there must be correspond- 
 ing obedience. Not with Jeremiah rests the deciding of whether he shall go here or 
 there, or to what place first and to what last. He is always a sent man, and when he 
 comes into the presence of his appointed audience, his message is a provided message. 
 Thus it is ensured that he never finds himself in the wrong place or speaking at the 
 wrong time. Well does God know how little we are able, of ourselves, to decide when 
 to speak and when to be silent, what to say and what to leave unsaid. 2. One conse- 
 quence of God's message faithfully delivered will be hostility and menace from the 
 hearers, and therefore there is an exhortation to courage, and an indication of the 
 ground which makes that courage possible. When Jeremiah gets into a certain presence 
 and speaks a certain word he will be threatened. The threatening must be expected ; 
 it shows that the arrow of God's truth has found its home. All the powers of the 
 human face will be called into malignant exercise against the prophet. The eye, the 
 tongue, the muscles of the face will all be joined in strong combination to express the 
 contempt and hatred filling the brain that lies behind. In no way can Jeremiah escape 
 this experience ; he must face the enemies, but in doing so he has the assurance that 
 his Commander is near to deliver. 3. Qod makes now an actual communication to the 
 prophet. The path is not yet taken, the audience is not yet in view, but by way of earnest 
 inspiration the words of the Master are put into the servant's mouth. This of course 
 was an indescribable experience. What it is to have the words of God in one's mouth can 
 only be known by an actual enjoyment of the privilege. The only way in which we 
 can discern how real and fruitful this experience was, is by observing its effect. There 
 is no more hesitating, no turning from one answered plea to find another more cogent. 
 Henceforth the prupheD goes on steadily and faithfully in his mission, and his perfect 
 service is best proved by this, that in due time he meets with the indicated opposition, 
 and receives from God his promised protection. — Y. 
 
 Ver. 10. — The vast compass of the prophet's work. I. The wide extent the 
 prophecies cover. Primarily they had to do with Jerusalem and Judah and all the 
 families of the house of Israel. But this was only the beginning. They went on to 
 affect in the most intimate way all the nations and the kingdoms. The principles of 
 righteousness and truth and Divine authority concern all. They can no more be kept 
 within certain geographical bounds than can the clouds and rains of heaven. On this 
 day, when the Great I AM came to the youthful Jeremiah, he set him over the nations 
 and over the kingdoms, and here is the reason why these prophecies, with their grand 
 ethical deliverances, have still such a firm hold upon Christendom, upon the Gentile just 
 as much as the Jew. Wherever there still remains the worshipper of stocks and stones, 
 wherever the oppressor is found, and the man who confides in the arm of flesh, and the 
 man who is utterly indifferent to the glory of God, — then in that same place there is 
 occasion to insist most strenuously upon the continued application of Jeremiah's words. 
 The prophets were more than indignant patriots ; they were and are still witnesses to 
 an ideal of humanity, nowhere regarded as it ought to be, and only too often nes;lected, 
 if not contemptuously denied. He who came forth to condemn his own people for 
 lapsing into idolatry did thereby equally condemn other nations for not departing from 
 it. I'he gospel for every creature is preceded by a body of prophecy, which is shown 
 also to concern every creature, not by laborious inference, but by such explicit words as 
 we find in this verse. 
 
 II. The depth of the work to which these prophecies point. The work is hot 
 only wide ; it is deep as it is wide. The ultimate aim is set forth in two figures : 
 1. Building. 2. Planting. On these two figures Paul dwells very suggestively in 
 writing to the Corinthians. The constructive work of God in the human soul needs 
 more than one figure sufficiently to illustrate it. But all true building must be on a 
 sufficient foundation ; all Divine planting, if it is to come to anything, must be in a 
 suitable soil. Hence there goes beforehand an unsparing work, to destroy things already 
 in existence. Buildings already erected must be pulled down ; plants alroady growing 
 
CH. 1. 1—19.] THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 17 
 
 must be uprooted and put beyond the chance of further growth. "We have done things 
 which ought to have been left undone; and the word to Jeremiah is that they must be 
 undone, in order that the things which ought to be done may be fully done. The 
 terms indicating destruction are multiplied to emphasize the need, and prevent escape 
 into ruinous compromise. There must be no tacking on of a new building to certain 
 humanly cherished parts of the old. Constructions after the will of G-od must not be 
 liable to a description such as that of the image which Nebuchadnezzar saw in his 
 dream ; all must be strong, pure, and beautiful from basement to summit. In the 
 garden of the Lord there can be no mixing of heavenly and earthly plants. A clean 
 sweep — such is necessitated for the glory of God and the blessedness of man. Thus at 
 tlie very first is given a hint of the hostility which Jeremiah would provolie. Pulling 
 down means the expulsion of self from its fortress, and its bereavement of all that it 
 valued. Every brick detached, every plant uprooted, intensified the enmity one degree 
 more. " Destroy," " overthrow," are the only words that can be spoken as long as any- 
 thing remains in which human pride and selfishness take delight. But at the same 
 time, the prophet goes forth to build and to plant. He takes nothing away but what 
 he leaves something infinitely better behind. When God sends a messenger to us, his 
 great first word is " thorough ; " and even though he has to make his way through 
 human pains, tears, murmurings, and semi-rebellions, he keeps to the word. Remember, 
 then, that he who pulls down also builds ; he who uproots also plants ; and he builds 
 and plauts for eternity. — Y. 
 
 Vers. 11 — 14. — The almond tree and the seething pot. He who put his word into the 
 prophet's mouth also put a new power of vision into his eyes, and gave him to see si^^ns 
 such as tended to fix permanently in his mind deep convictions with regard to the 
 power and purposes of God. Thus the prophet was assured of his ability to see iiKire 
 than others could see. Both through eye and ear he was fortified in the consciousness 
 that his prophetic office was no empty boast. 
 
 I. The eod op the almond tree. Probably much such a rod as those which were 
 laid up in the tabernacle overnight in order to certify beyond all question the divinely 
 appointed office of Aaron (Numb. xvii.). This narrative, we may be pretty sure, would 
 be transmitted with special care from generation to generation of the priesthood, and 
 to it the mind of Jeremiah may at once have turned. That rod which once helped the 
 priest is now found helping the prophet. It was the sign of how much living and 
 fructifying energy might break forth where there was only the appearance of death. 
 Tiie auditors of Jeremiah's prophecies might say they saw no sign of impending 
 calamities. In all self-confidence they might say, " Peace and prosperity will last out 
 our time." And so Jeremiah goes forth with the remembrance of the almond rod, well 
 assured that by God's power the most unexpected things may happen with the utmost 
 suddenness. The words of prophecy may long lie dormant, and some may treat them 
 as dead and obsolete ; but none can tell at what moment the long quiescent may start 
 into the most vigorous activity. Was it not all at once, after a long period of quietude, 
 that Jesus came forth with a sudden outburst of miraculous energy and teaching 
 wisdom? It is precisely those who have been long tieati in trespasses and sins who 
 sometimes startle the world by a sudden exuberance of the Divine life within 
 them. 
 
 II. The seething pot. Here again is the exhibition of energy, and a sudden and 
 irresistible change from quiet into furious and threatening movement. A pot boiling 
 over with the vehemence of the fire under it, is an excellent emblem of how God can 
 stir up his destroying wrath against the rebellious. What can be quieter than the 
 water as it lies in the pot ? what quieter than the fuel before it is kindled ? and yet 
 the light touch of a very small flame sends fuel and water into activity, and that 
 activity soon rises into fury. The water that only a few minutes ago was still and 
 cold is now turbulent and scalding. Just in the same way, God can take these " families 
 of the kingdoms of the north," and make them the instruments of his wrath and chastise- 
 ment, little conscious as they are of all the use to which they are being put. Every- 
 wliere in close proximity to us there are latent forces of destruction, and these with 
 staitling rapidity may become patent. Consider how soon the beautiful and cheering 
 heavens may be filled with the elements of deadly storm. — Y. 
 
 JEBEMIAH. 
 
18 THE BOOK OF THE PKOPHBT JEEEMIAH. [ch. 1. 1— 19. 
 
 Ver. XT.— The consequence of unreasonable fear. God has already exhorted Jeremiali 
 to courage, and given him the strongest assurances of his own unfailing presence. But 
 now he adds warning. Pear of the enemies of God will bring not only suffering but 
 shame. The man who goes out to fight for his country, and turns in cowardice on the 
 day of battle, only escapes the enemy to die a disgraceful death at the hands of his own 
 people. To meet the threatenings of men, we must have in our hearts not only the 
 strength of God but the fear of God. Those vfho turn from the weapons of God's 
 enemies, whom in God's strength they should meet and conquer, find God himself in 
 arms against them. He himself visibly and signally confounds the unfaithful, and thus 
 even in the unfaithfulness of the messenger he who sends him is all the more honoured. 
 As yet, of course, Jeremiah had not been tried, and all through his prophecies there is 
 no sign that personal fear ever entered his mind. He had a very sensitive nature ; he 
 was often, almost continually ooe may say, the subject of depressing emotion, but the 
 fear of no man, however dignified and powerful that man might be, deterred him from 
 a plain exposure of his misdoings. And yet, although the prophet did not fall into un- 
 faithfulness, it was well to warn him beforehand. Warning never comes unsuitably to 
 any servant of God. He who stands should never take it amiss if he be exhorted to 
 take heed lest he fall. And all the securing words with which God follows up the 
 warning here do not make that warning one whit less needful. The prophet was to 
 become like a fortress, as far as God could surround him with protection ; but all the 
 protection would avail him nothing, if he became careless as to his own believing con- 
 nection with God. When faith fails, the whole spiritual man becomes vulnerable, and to 
 become vulnerable soon leads to being actually wounded. — Y. 
 
 Vers. 1 — 3. — A protracted ministry. The ministry of Jeremiah attracts attention 
 because of its length, the varied scenes amidst whicb it was carried on, and the external 
 aspect of failure worn by it from first to last. May there not be in these and other 
 respects a moral attaching to it for those who in distant ages can regard it as a whole, 
 and in connection with the subsequent Divine evolution of events of which it spoke? 
 Contrast it with that of John the Baptist. 
 
 I. Its backgkound of cikcumstancb. Five reigns: for the most part brief; two 
 of them ridiculously or tragically so. Beginning in a fitful flush of religious enthusiasm, 
 and ending in a long and shameful captivity. Foreign politics were unusually interest- 
 ing. The Medo-Babylonian overthrow of Syria was about to take place when he began ; 
 in the twenty-third year of his ministry Kebuchadnezzar kid the foundation of Baby- 
 lonian empire in the victory of Carchemish, in which Israel was subdued, and universal 
 rule passed into his hands ; the invasion of Judsea followed in four years, and in the 
 eleventh year of Zedekiah Jerusalem was taken. Personally his had been a chequered 
 career. For twenty-two years comparatively obscure ; for the most part probably at 
 Anathoth. But towards the end of this period he came to Jerusalem. We find him in 
 the temple (ch. vji. 2) ; in the gates of the city (ch. xvii. 19) ; in prison (ch. xxxii. 2) ; 
 in the king's house (ch. xxii. 1 ; xxxvii. 17) ; and then at times in Egypt. There are 
 two traditions as to his death — one that he was stoned by the Jews in their settlement 
 at Tahapanes, in Egypt ; the other that Nebuchadnezzar, having in the twenty-seventh 
 year of his reign conquered Egypt, took him and Baruch with him to Babylon. In any 
 case, he probably lived to an extreme age. 
 
 II. Its message. To warn against idolatry, by exposing its real nature and declaring 
 its consequences. But through all and beyond all, to declare the indestructibleness of 
 the kingdom of God, the certain advent of " The Lord our Righteousness," and the 
 ultimate glory and happiness of a redeemed and purified people. Of scarce any other 
 prophet can it bo said that his predictions were so absolutely, and to present percep- 
 tion hopelessly future. Yet is his tone on this account none the less believing and 
 confident. 
 
 III. Its Divine significance. The " burden " of Jeremiah is identical from reign to 
 reign, although the illustrative and occasioning circumstances vary. May we not say 
 that: 1. The personality of the prophet had a place in the Divine intention f Certain 
 we are that its influence was second only to that of his words, if even to that. His 
 astonishment, sorrow, hope, etc., are all instructive and remarkable. 2. The word of 
 Ood has to deal with the continuity and development of trror, and will outlast it. The 
 
CH. 1. 1— 19.] THE BOOK OF THE PEOPHET JEREMIAH. 19 
 
 best antidote to error is the healthful development of truth. There is no phase of 
 depravity, transgression, or unbelief for which the Word of God has not, in its historic 
 evolution, some doctrine, reproof, correction, or instruction in righteousness. Kevealed 
 through human lips and lives by the operation of the Holy Spirit, it is a living, manifold 
 growth, intimately associated with the vicissitudes of that human life it has to correct 
 aud redeem. There can never be a time when the gospel will have no word for the 
 inquiring, wondering, suffering, sinning, unbelieving spirit of man. 3. The ministry 
 of the prvphet was a visible sign of the Divine long-suffering. " But to Israel he saith, 
 All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying 
 people " (Rom. x. 21 ; Isa. Ixv. 'I). " faithless and perverse generation, how long shall 
 1 be with you ? how long shall I suffer you ? " (Matt. xvii. 17). — M. 
 
 Vers. 4 — 10. — The call of the prophet. As these are elements both ordinary and 
 extraordinary in the prophetic office, so preparation, etc., for it must be of both kinds. 
 Much that may be said of it will be applicable to all other service in God's Church ; and 
 tliere will be some conditions and circumstances that must necessarily be peculiar and 
 abnormal. The behaviour, too, of one called to such a high ofBce must ever be interest- 
 ing to observers. 
 
 I. The spibit in which such an office should be assumed. Like Moses and others 
 of whom we read, Jeremiah was of a backward and retiring disposition. It required 
 insistance and remonstrance on the part of Jehovah to persuade him to undertake the 
 task. His low thoughts of himself as contrasted with the mighty office to which lie 
 was called, held him back. There are some things that come most gracefully when 
 tliey are spontaneous. The general duty, love, and service, owing by the creature to 
 the Creator, etc., are of this kind. But for special work and appointment, requiring 
 great qualifications and especial help of God, modesty and hesitation are a recommendation 
 rather than otherwise. Our question, pointed first of all homewards, should be, " Who 
 is sufficient for these things?" A feeling like this is helpful and preparative, as leading 
 to the perception of the true strength and fitness that come from God, and to a constant 
 dependence upon him. Many long idly for " some great thing to do," others hesitate 
 because the thing is too great. 
 
 II. The manner in which God prepakes men foe exteaobdinary service in his 
 Church. Where direction and impulse are needed revelation is made. The spirit of 
 the prophet is not left in doubt. A hesitating, vacillating prophet were a worthless 
 messenger to the faithless. Revelation is therefore made to him of : 1. His anticipative 
 choice in the counsels of Ood, This predestinating grace of God is a frequent assertion 
 of the Old Testament. It is a mystery we cannot fathom ; but is consistent with the 
 free choice of the subject addressed. It has its effect in the voluntary acceptance of the 
 a|ipointment through persuasion and appeal. A discovery of this nature can only be 
 for the few, who are called to especial responsibilities, etc., and has no reference to the 
 general demands of duty, affection, zeal, which address themselves to all. 2. Future 
 Divine evidence, jirotection, and inspiration. God will be with him, and will fit him 
 for all he has to do. So Christ to his disciples, " Lo, I am with you alway, even unto 
 the end of the world " (Matt, xxviii. 20). This is to meet the exigencies of Divine 
 service, and is not intended for personal aims and ends. Many a lowly worker in the 
 Master's service is thereby endued with irresistible power. It is a conviction for which 
 we are encouraged to seek grounds and assurances. 3. Authority amongst the nations to 
 destroy and to restore. This is a moral investment. Just as God entorces truth and 
 righteousness with accompanying mysterious sanctions, so he clothes his messenger 
 with an authority the consciences of men will recognize even when their perversity 
 of will inclines them to disobey. 
 
 How muoli of this spirit of certitude and conviction is needed for the ordinary life of 
 the Christian ? Have we the measure of it we require? or are we itiefficient and useless 
 because of our lack of it ? There can be no question that such a spirit is inculcated by 
 Cliristianity, and thatrensonable grounds are afforded us all upon which to be thoroughly 
 persuaded in our own mind. Let us act upon our deepest convictions and most unalter- 
 able certainties. This is the only way to attain to a sound apprehension of Divine things, 
 and an efficient condition of service. — M. 
 
20 THE BOOK OF THE PEOPSET JEREMIAH. [ch. i. 1—19. 
 
 Ver. 11.—" What seest thou?" (of. Amos vii. 8; viii. 2; Zech. iv. 2; v. 2). Tlie 
 seer is encouraged and impelled to the exercise of his gifts. His first duty 's plain, viz. 
 to test his own powers of vision ; and next, to ponder the significance of what he sees. 
 So the spiritually endowed are summoned to the performance of the special work to 
 which they have been called; and the newly discovered gift lifts them into a new sphere 
 of responsibility and action. 
 
 I. GOD-GIVEN GIFTS ABE A STEWARDSHIP TO BE EXBECISED WITH THE UTMOST CAEE- 
 FULKESS AND ENDEAVOUR. 
 
 II. We CANNOT TELL HOW HIGHLY WB ARE ENDOWED UNTIL WE TRY 0UB8ELVES TO 
 THE UTMOST ; AND THE BEST GIFTS MAY BE IMPROVED BY CULTIVATION. 
 
 III. The WELFARE OP MULTITUDES MAY DEPEND UPON THE FAITHFULNESS OF ONE. Of 
 
 many it might be asked, " Do they see at all ? " Vision is a Divine gift to those who are 
 to be leaders of men ; and in lesser measure is given to all for their salvation if they will 
 but open their eyes. — M. 
 
 Vers. 12 — 16. — Hastening ills. (For the first fig, cf. Matt. xxiv. 32.) The vision of 
 the prophet is twofold, viz. a wakeful almond rod, and a boiling pot. They are symbols 
 of quick accomplishment and violent invasion. As the almond rod is wakeful or ready 
 to sprout when planted, and " first to wake from the sleep of winter," so the evils pre- 
 pared by God will be quickly brought to pass. The boiling pot would seem to be the 
 Chaldeans, who invaded Israel from the north. As swiftly and violently as the pot 
 boils over, so will God make the wrath of men to praise him. The ills are swiftly 
 approaching, but they are self-produced by Israel. When we compare this statement 
 with the forgiving character of God, we must feel how great the sin and the provocation 
 that could so move him. Yet on the very edge of his destroying vengeance he remem- 
 bers mercy, and will have his people repent. Notice — 
 
 I. Sinners must not conclude that they are safe because of present immunity. 
 Jeremiah was as the eye of Israel just opened to the impending dangers. Many would 
 even now reject his message ; but the warning is given : 1. Through an intensely 
 sensitive mind, that it may produce a vivid impression upon the imagination and heart 
 of those who hear the prophet. 2. Seasonably, that although but a short time remains, 
 there may be opportunity of repentance and reform. 
 
 II. God begins the chastisement of his people gently, but if they repent not 
 
 HE will increase AND HASTES HIS JUDGMENTS UNTIL THE EVIL IS WHOLLY AT AN END. 
 
 The first emblem is one of rapid yet natural development ; it is otherwise indefinite. 
 The second is more suggestive of punishment and destruction. The first speaks only of 
 such punishment as may be needed from time to time, and of the unceasing vigilance 
 of the offended God ; the second is sudden, overwhelming, and beyond all reckoning or 
 measurement. 
 
 III. Idolatry is the sin of which God is most intolerant. It is the transfer of 
 affection and trust to an unworthy object, and an insult to God and degrading to them- 
 selves. They who indulge in it are warned that their punishment will be constant and 
 rapidly successive ; and that they are on the brink of signal, terrible manifestation of 
 Divine wrath. — M. 
 
 Vers. 4 — 10. — The prophet's call. We see in the case of Jeremiah a striking instance 
 of a man constrained by force of circumstance and by a Divine call to occupy a posi- 
 tion and to do a kind of work for which he was not naturally either qualified or 
 disposed. Of a highly sensitive and timid nature, a tender heart, a desponding spirit, 
 he was inclined to mourn in secret over the abounding evils of the time rather than 
 publicly to rebuke them. But as soon as the Divine summons comes to him, he 
 " confers not with flesh and blood," he forgets his fears and infirmities, and for forty 
 long years patiently withstands the tide of iniquity and adversity — a noble example of 
 blended tenderness and strength. In this account of the prophet's call, note — 
 
 I. God's sovereignty in the raising up op men to do his work. Jeremiah was 
 "known" and "sanctified" — dedicated by God to his sacred office — before his birth. 
 His " ordination," appointment, now is but the fulfilling of an antecedent Divine pur- 
 pose and choice. Most of the illustrious men of old bear some conspicuous mark of 
 such Divine election upon them, e.g. Moses, Gideon, Samson, Gyrus. St. Paul de- 
 
CH. I. 1—19.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 21 
 
 voutly recognized it in himself, in spite of all his blind hostility to the name of 
 Christ in former years (Gal. i. 15). We fail too riften to take suflicient note of this 
 mystery of God's foreknowledge and predetermination underlying the progress of the 
 kingdom of truth and righteousness in the world. And yet we understand its history, 
 we get at the heart and core of its meaning, only so far as we look through all surface 
 appearances and, holding fast to the equally sure principles of human freedom and 
 responsibility, discern the will that works out steadily, through chosen instruments, 
 its own eternal purpose. 
 
 II. The shrinking of a lowly spirit from a position of extraordinary 
 DIFFICULTY AND DANGER. "Ah, Lord God ! bchold, I cannot speak, for I am a child." 
 This was the honest expression of conscious personal unfitness. 1. The feeling ii:as very 
 honourable to him. Who that knows himself would not tremble on beinu' summoned 
 to such a work ? To take up a solemn responsibility with a light heart and easy self- 
 confidence is the mark of a vain spirit that courts rebuke. He who has any true sense 
 of the greatness of his mission from God will often 
 
 " Lie contemplating his own unworthiness." 
 
 2. It V)as a sign of his real fitness for the work. Humility is the basis of all that is great 
 and good in human character and deed. " God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace 
 unto the humble." The cry, " Who is sufficient for these things ? " is a symptom of in- 
 herent nobleness and slumbering power. Jeremiah's feeling that he was " but a child," 
 prepared him the better to become the representative of the Divine majesty and the 
 vehicle of Divine strength. 
 
 III. The SPIRITUAL constraint of which all true SERVANTS OF God are con- 
 scious. The prophetic inspiration came upon him and compelled him to deliver his 
 message. "The word of the Lord was in his heart as a burning fire shut up in his 
 bones, . . . and he could not stay " (ch. xx. 9). A Divine commission thus asserting itself 
 in the inward consciousness of him who received it, might well be called the " burden 
 of the Lord." Great reformers, preachers, missionaries, martyrs, have ever been moved 
 by some such Divine afflatus. So felt Peter and John before the Jewish Council : " We 
 cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard " (Acts iv. 20). So felt St. 
 Paul : " Necessity is laid upon me ; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel " (1 Cor. 
 ix. 16). " Say not, I am a child : for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and 
 whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak." He must " speak " who is thus com- 
 manded ; he must " go " who is thus sent. 
 
 IV. The courage and strength with which God endows all who thus obey 
 his bidding. The ministry of Jeremiah is a signal example of the way in which the 
 grace of God may clothe the most timid spirit with dauntless energy and victorious 
 power. He will never be " afraid of the faces of men," who knows that the Lord is 
 with him. The fear of God casts out all other fear. Many a " little child " has thus 
 become preternaturally brave ; " out of weakness made sti ong." The history of the 
 kingdom of God among men abounds with illustrations of the way in which bo 
 " chooses the weak things of the world to confound the mighty." And every patient, 
 heroic Christian life bears witness to the sufiiciency of his grace. You can glory even 
 in infirmities, reproaches, necessities, and distresses, if the " power of Christ " does but 
 rest upon you (2 Cor. xii. 9, 10). 
 
 V. The mastery of truth over all the hostile powers of the world. 
 Jeremiah was " set over the nations and over the kingdoms," not as a prince, but as a 
 prophet; not as wielding any form of mere brute force, but as the instrument of that 
 silent energy of truth that casts down the strongholds of Satan in every land. His 
 word was " like a fire and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces " (ch. xxiii. 
 29). Divine truth is the mightiest of all forces alike to " root out and to pull down, . . . 
 to build and to plant." The sovereignty of the world is his of whom it is written, " He 
 shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he 
 slay the wicked " (Isa. xi. 4). The " many crowns " are on the head of him whose 
 " Name is called The Word of God."— W. 
 
22 
 
 THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. ii. 1—37. 
 
 EXPOSITION. 
 
 CHAPTEE n. 
 
 The second chapter forms the introduction 
 of a ^roup of diaconrsea (ch. ii. — vi.), which 
 should be read together. It is called by 
 Ewald (and the position of the prophecy- 
 favours this view) the first oracle which 
 Jeremiah delivered in public (" oracle " is, 
 in fact, the nearest English equivalent to 
 those two remarkable Hebrew synonyms, 
 massd and ngum — especinlly for the latter). 
 This would bring it into the thirteenth 
 year of the reign of Josiah (see ch. i. 3), 
 though of course we cannot be sure 
 that references to a later period may not 
 have been inserted afterwards. It is, 
 obviously, only a summary of the prophet's 
 spoken words which we have in this most 
 impressive discourse. In order to appreciate 
 it, we must bear in mind the external 
 political relations and the internal religious 
 condition of the kingdom of Judah. These 
 have been already touched upon in the 
 general introduction. Suffice it to remind 
 the reader that Josiah's reformation — in the 
 strict sense of the word — did not begin till 
 the eighteenth year of that king's reign ; 
 and that the state of things was at this 
 time complicated by a dangerous alliance 
 with that power against whose religion the 
 teaching of the prophets of Jehovah was a 
 continual protest (on the Egyptian alliance, 
 comp. Ewald, 'History of Israel,' iv. 218). 
 The first section of the prophecy is a 
 general introduction, already full of serious 
 charges against the people (vers. 1 — 9); in 
 the second, the special occasion of the dis- 
 course is declared in the form of a question, 
 and the sin referred to is rebuked (vers. 
 10 — 19); in the third, Judah's inveterate 
 idolatry is denounced, and the disappoint- 
 ment and ruin to which it led candidly 
 pointed out (vers. 20 — 28); and in the fourth, 
 " half in earnest and half in ironical satire " 
 (Ewald), the prophet points the moral of 
 this foolish Egyptian fever which has seized 
 upon rulers and people (vers. 29 — 37). 
 
 It is always interesting to notice how 
 later inspired writers hasten to do honour 
 to their predecessors. Originality is not 
 an object with the prophets, but rather the 
 
 developing and adapting the truths long 
 ago "delivered." The whole group of 
 prophecies to which ch. ii. belongs contains 
 numerous points of contact, in ideas or 
 phraseology, with the song of Moses (Deut. 
 xxxii.). The following have been indi- 
 cated : — Of. ver. 5 with Deut. xxxii. 4 ; 
 vers. H, 12 with Deut. xxxii. 1, 21 ; ver. 20 
 with Deut. xxxii. 15; vers. 26—28 with 
 Deut. xxxii. 6, 18, 37, 38; ver. 31 with 
 Deut. xxxii. 5 ; oh. iii. 19 with Deut. xxxii. 
 6 ; ch. iv. 22 and v. 21 with Deut. xxxii. 6 ; 
 cli. V. 7 with Deut. xxxii. 15 ; ch. v. 14 with 
 Deut. xxxii. 22 ; ch. v. 28 witli Deut. xxxii. 
 15 ; ch. vi. 1 1 with Deut. xxxii. 25 ; ch. vi. 
 15 with Deut. xxxii. 35 ; ch. vi. 19, 30 with 
 Deut. xxxii. 18, 19. 
 
 Ver. 1. — Moreover; literally, and. The 
 introductory formula agrees with ch. i. 4. 
 We have as it weie two parallel prophecies 
 (ch. i. 4, etc., and ch. ii. 1, etc.); both 
 branching out of the original chronological 
 statement in Oh. i. 2 (see Introduction). 
 
 Ver. 2. — In the ears of Jerusalem. Pre- 
 sumably Jeremiah had received his call at 
 Anathoth (comp. ch. i. 1). I remember thee, 
 etc ; nitlier, I remember for thy good the 
 kindness of thy youth. It is an open ques- 
 tion whether tlie "kindness" spoken of is 
 that of God towards the people, or of the 
 people towards God. The usage of the 
 Hebrew ilche'sed) admits of either accepta- 
 tion ; comp. for the first, Ps. v. 7, xxxvi. 5, 
 and many other passages; for the second, 
 Hos. vi, 4, 6 (in ver. 6 rendering for 
 " mercy," " goodness ") and Isa. Ivii. 1 
 (rendering " men of piety "). But the con- 
 text, which dwells so strongly on the 
 oblivion into which the Divine benefits had 
 been allowed to pass, is decidedly in favour 
 of the first view. How beautiful Is this 
 condescending language 1 Jehovah's past 
 feelings come back to him; at least, so it 
 appears to the believer, when God lets the 
 light of his countenance shine forth again 
 (comp. ch. xxxi. 20 ; Hos. ix. 10). He even 
 condescends to overlook the weakness and 
 inconsistency of the Israel of antiquity. 
 He idealizes it (i.e. Jeremiah is permitted 
 to do so). This is In harmony with other 
 prophetic passages (see Isa. i. 26 (" as at the 
 first"); Hos. xi. 1, 3, 4; Ezek. xvi. 6—14). 
 The figure of the bride recurs constantly (see 
 Hos. ii. 19, 20 ; Isa. liv. 4, 5 ; Ezek. xvi. 8). 
 Thine espousals; rather, thy bridal state. 
 When thou wentest after me (comp. Deut. 
 viii, 2, " all the way which Jehovah thy 
 
ca. II. 1—37.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 
 
 23 
 
 God led thee these forty years in the 
 ■wilderness "). 
 
 Ver. 3. — Israel was holiness, etc. Israel 
 was a consecrated people (comp. Exod. xix. 
 5, 6 ; Dent. vii. 6 ; xIt. 2 ; xxvi. 19). Isaiah, 
 fund as he is of the phrase " Israel's Holy 
 One," does not expressly enforce the correla- 
 tive truth, as Jeremiah does here. The first- 
 fruits of his increase ; rather, his firstfriMs 
 of increase. Israel is compared to the first- 
 fruits (reshWh) of the land, which were de- 
 voted to the house of the Lord (Exod. xxiii. 
 39; Numb, xviii. 12, 13). So in Amos vi. 
 1, the title given him is " the chief [marsin, 
 ' firstfruits '] of the nations " (in ch. xxxi. 7, 
 a synonymous and connate word, rosli, takes 
 the place of reshith for "chief "). All that 
 devour him shall offend ; rather, all that ate 
 him incurred guilt, or became guilty of a 
 trespass. Foreigners were forbidden to eat 
 of consecrated things; by breaking this 
 law they became guilty of a "trespass," 
 having invaded the rights of Jehovah (Lev. 
 xxii. 10, 15, 16). The word for "trespass" 
 is the same as that rendered " guilt." 
 
 Ver. 5. — ^What iniquity, etc. ; rather, what 
 unrighteousness, etc. (comp. Dent, xxxii. 4, 
 " a God of faithfulness, and without un- 
 righteousness," alluding to the " covenant " 
 between Jehovah and Israel). God's con- 
 descending grace (his 'anavdh, Ps. xviii. 36). 
 As if he were under an obligation to Israel 
 (comp. Micah vi. 3, etc. ; Isa. v. 3). Vanity ; 
 i.e. the idols ; literally, o breath (so ch. x. 
 15 ; xiv. 22 ; xvi. 19). Are become vain. The 
 whole being of man is affected by the want 
 of solid basis to his religion (comp. ch. xxiii. 
 16 ; Ps. cxv. 8); and the evident allusion to 
 our passage in Bom. i. 21 (St. Paul has 
 iliaratiiBriaav, as Septuagint here). The 
 clause is verbally repeated in 2 Kings xvii. 
 15, with reference to the ten tribes. 
 
 Ver. 6.— Neither said they, etc. ; as their 
 children's children were forced by stress of 
 trouble to say (Isa. Ixiii. 11 ; see note). A 
 land of deserts and of pits. The first phrase 
 applied to the region through which the 
 Israelites passed ("a wilderness") was 
 vague, and might mean merely pasture- 
 land. The remainder of the description, 
 however, shows that "wilderness" is here 
 meant, as often {e.g. Isa. xxxv. 1 ; 1. 2), in 
 the sense of "desert." Though recent 
 travellers have shown that the Sinaitic 
 peninsula is not by any means universally 
 a "desert," and that in ancient times it was 
 still less so, it is not unnatural that an 
 agricultural people should regard it as a 
 most inhospitable region, and should even 
 idealize its terrors (comp. Dent. viii. 15). 
 " Pits," i.e. rents and fissures in the soil, in 
 which the unwary traveller might lose Lis 
 life (oh. xviii. 20, 22). 
 
 Ver. 7. — A plentiful country. " A Carmel 
 
 land," as it were (so Payne Smith). 
 "Carmel" is strictly an appellative noun, 
 meaning "garden-land," i.e. land planted 
 with vines and other choice plants. So ch. 
 iv. 26 ; Isa. xxix. 17 ; xxxvii. 24. 
 
 Ver. 8. — The priests, etc. The blame 
 principally falls on the three leading classes 
 (as in ver. 26; Micah iii. 11). First on the 
 priests who "handle the Law," i.e. who 
 have a traditional knowledge of the details 
 of the Law, and teach the people accordingly 
 (Dent. xvii. 9—11 ; xxxiii. 10 ; ch. xviii. 18 ; 
 see also on ch. viii. 8); next on the "pastors," 
 or " shepherds " (in the Homeric sense), the 
 civil and not the spiritual authorities ; so 
 generally in the Old Testament (see ch. iii. 
 15 ; X. 21 ; xxii. 22 ; xxv. 34 ; Zech. x. 3 ; xi. 
 5, 8, 16; Isa. xliv. 28); and lastly on the 
 prophets, who sought their inspiration, not 
 from Jehovah (comp. note on ver. 30), but 
 from Baal. To prophesy by (by means of) 
 Baal, or rather, the Baal, implies that pro- 
 phecy is due to an impulse from the super- 
 natural world ; that it is not an objectifying 
 of the imaginations of the prophet himself. 
 Even the Baal prophets yielded to an im- 
 pulse from without, but how that impulse 
 was produced the prophet does not tell us. 
 We are told in 1 Kings xxii. 19 — 23, that 
 even prophets of Jehovah could be led 
 astray by a " lying spirit ; " much more 
 presumably could prophets of the Baal. 
 The Baal is here used as a representative 
 of the idol-gods, in antithesis to Jehovah ; 
 sometimes " Baalim," or the Baals, is 
 used instead (e.g. ver. 23 ; ch. ix. 13), each 
 town or city having its own Baal ("lord"). 
 Things that do not profit. A synonym for 
 idols (comp. ch. xvi. 19; Isa. xliv. 9; 1 
 Sam. xii. 21). An enlightened regard for 
 self-interest is encouraged by the religion 
 of the Bible, at any rate educationally. 
 Contrast Comtism. 
 
 Ver. 9. — I will yet plead, etc. Eepeated 
 acts of rebellion call forth repeated objurga- 
 tions and punishments. With your children's 
 children. For God " visits the iniquity of 
 the fathers upon the children " (Exod. xx. 5). 
 
 Ver. 10. — Justification of Jehovah s judi- 
 cial action towards Judah. Consider the 
 heinousness of the ofienoe. Pass over — 
 rather, pass over to — the isles of Chittim ; 
 i.e. the islands and maritime countries of the 
 West, represented by Cyprus (see on Gen.x. 
 4). For the wide use of Cliittim, comp. 
 Numb. xxiv. 24 ; Dan. xi. 30). Eedar, in the 
 narrower sense, is a large tribe of Arabian 
 origin, whose haunts were between Arabia 
 Petrsea and Babylonia. Here, however, it 
 is used iii a wider sense for the Arab tribes 
 in general (so ch. xlix. 28; Isa. xxi. 16, 17). 
 
 Ver. 11. — Hath a nation changed their 
 gods ? Has any heathen nation ever changed 
 its idol-god for another ? The prophet clearly 
 
24 
 
 THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. n. 1—37. 
 
 implies a negative answer ; and yet it must 
 be admilted that the adoption of a new reli- 
 gion, under the pressure of conquest or a 
 higlier foreign civilization is not an unknown 
 phenomenon in the ancient world. Glory; 
 i.e. source of all outward prosperity (oorap. 
 Ps. iii. 3, " my Glory, and the Lifter up of my 
 head "). Religion was, in fiict, the root of 
 natiomil life in antiquity ; contrast our own 
 division between the sacred and the secular I 
 Jehovah elsewhere receives the title " the 
 Pride of Israel "—Authorized Version, rather 
 wealcly, " the Excellency of Israel " — (Amos 
 viii. 7 ; Hos. v. 5. Comp. the parallel pas- 
 sages, Ps. ovi. 20 ; Rom. i. 23). 
 
 Ver. 12. — Be astonished. "Be appalled" 
 would more nearly express the force of the 
 Hebiew(aoch.xviii. 16; xix. 8). Be ye very 
 desolate ; literally, become dry ; i.e. not so 
 much " shrivel and roll up " (on the analogy 
 of Isa. xxxiv. 4), as " become stiff with 
 horror." 
 
 Ver. 13. — Two evils. Israel has not merely 
 offended, like the heathen, by idolatry, but 
 by deserting the only God who can satisfy 
 the needs of human nature. The fountain 
 of living waters. So ch. xvii. 13 (comp. Ps. 
 xxxvi. 9). Fountain ; literally, tank or reser- 
 voir. Such reservoirs were "dug in the 
 ground (see on ch. vi. 7). and chiefly intendud 
 for storing living waters, i.e. those of springs 
 and rivulets" (Payne Smith). Cisterns, 
 broken cisterns. A cistern, by its very na- 
 ture, will only hold a limited amount au<l 
 the water "cnUected from clay roofs or from 
 marly soil, has the colour of weak soap- 
 suds, ihe taste of the earth or the stable." 
 Who would prefer such an impure supply to 
 the sweet, wholesome water of a fountain ? 
 But these cisterns cannot even be depended 
 upon for this poor, turbid drink. They are 
 "broken," like so many even of the best 
 rock-liewn cisterns (Thomson, 'The Land 
 and the Book,' p. 287). How fine a descrip- 
 tion of the combined attractiveness and dis- 
 appointingness of heathen religions, qualities 
 the more striking in proportion to the scale 
 on which the religious problem is realized 
 (e (7. in Hinduism) ! 
 
 Vers. 14 — 19. — Israel's punishment and its 
 cause. 
 
 Ver. 14.— Is Israel a servant ? The speaker 
 is evidently the prophet, who exclaims in 
 surprise at the viuw which his prophetic in- 
 sight opens to him : " quasi de re nov^ et 
 absurds sciscitatur " (Calvin). For Israel is 
 a member of Jehovah's family ; he is not a 
 servant (except in the same high sense as in 
 Isa. xl. — liii., where " servant " is virtually 
 equivalent to "representative"), but rather 
 in the highest degree a free man, for he is 
 Jehovah's "firstborn son" (Exod. iv. 22). 
 How is it, then, that he is dragged away into 
 captivity like a slave who has never known 
 
 freedom ? The view of some, that " servant " 
 means " servant of Jehovah " (comp. oh. xxx. 
 10), and that the question therefore is to be 
 answered in the affirmative, is less natural. 
 "Servant," by itself, never has this turn- 
 ing; and there is a precisely similar term 
 in the discourse at ver. 31, where the nega- 
 tive answer of the question does not admit 
 of a doubt. 
 
 Ver. 15. — The young lions, etc. A fresh 
 figure, and a most natural one in Juda:a 
 (comp. 1 Sam. xvii. 34) ; already applied to 
 the .Assyrians by Isaiah (v. 29, 30). Burned; 
 rather, made ruinous (comp. "ruinous 
 heaps," 2 Kings xix. 25). 
 
 Ver. 16. — Also the children of Noph, etc. 
 This is the climax of the calamity. Noph, 
 called Moph in the Hebrew text of Hos. ix. 
 6, is generally identified with Memphis 
 (after the Septuagint), which was called in 
 the inscriptions Mennufr, or " the good 
 abode," but may possibly be Napata, the 
 Nap of the inscriptions, the residency of 
 tlie Ethiopian dynasty (De Rouge). Taha- 
 panes. The Hebrew form is Takhpanes or 
 Tahkpankhes. This was a fortified fnin- 
 tier town on the Pelusiot arm of the 
 Nile, called in Greek Daphnse (Herod., ii. 
 20), or Taphnse (Septuagint here). Have 
 broken, etc. ; rather, shall break, or (for 
 the pointing in the Hebrew Bible requires 
 this change) shall feed off (or depasture). 
 From this verse onwards, Judah is per- 
 sonified as a woman, as appears from the 
 suffixes in the Hebrew. Baldness was a 
 great mark of disgrace (2 Kings ii. 23 ; ch. 
 xlviii. 45). There is a striking parallel to 
 this passage in Isa. vii 18—20, where, in 
 punishment of the negotiations of Ahaz with 
 Assyria, the prophet threatens an invasi.m 
 of Judah both by Assyria and by Egypt, anil 
 employs the very same figure (see ver. 20). 
 So here, the devastation threatened by Jere- 
 miah is the punishment of the unhallowed 
 coquetting with the Egyptian power of which 
 the Jewish rulers had "been recently guilty. 
 The fact which corresponds to this predic- 
 tion is the defeat of Josiah at Megiddo, and 
 the consequent subjugation of Judah (2 
 Kings xxiii. 29). The abruptness with 
 which ver. 16 follows upon ver. 15 suggests 
 that some words have fallen out of the text. 
 Ver. 17.— Hast not thou proonred this? 
 rather. Is it not this that doth procure it unto 
 thee (namsly ) that thou hast forsaken, etc ? 
 or. Is it not thy forsaking Jehooah that pro- 
 cureth thee this ? When he led thee by the 
 way. The prophet thinks, perhaps, of the 
 rebellion of the forefathers of Israel, who 
 too soon ceased to "go after" Jehovah 
 (comp. ver. 2), and whose fickleness was 
 imitated but too well by their descendants. 
 This view is favoured by the phraseology of 
 Deut. i. 33; viii. 2, 15. But we may, if we 
 
CH. n. 1—37.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 
 
 25 
 
 prefer It, explain "by (or, rather, in) the 
 way," on the analogy of the promise in oh. 
 xxxi. 9, " I will lead them ... in a straight 
 way," i.e. I will grant them an uninterruptud 
 course of prosperity. Tlie omission of the 
 adjective in the present passage may be 
 paralleled by Ps. xxv. 8, " Therefore will he 
 instruct sinners in the (right) way." 
 
 Ver. 18.— What hast thou to do in the way 
 of Egypt 1 rather, with tlie way to Epjpt. 
 Isaiah (xxx. 2 — 5 ; xxxi. 1) and Hosea (vii. 
 11, 16) had already inveighed against an 
 Egyptian alliance. The name given by 
 Hanasseh to his son and suocessor (Amon) 
 suggests that at one period in his rei^n an 
 Egyptian policy was in the aseenilant, which 
 coincides with the tradition preserved in 2 
 Chron. xxxiii. 11, of an Assyrian captivity 
 of Manasseh. Jehoiakim at a later period 
 was a vassal of Egypt (2 Kings xxiii. 31, 
 85). To diink the waters; taking up the 
 idea of the second clause of ver. 13. Sihor, or 
 Shihor, occurs again in Isa. xxiii. 3, as a 
 name of the Nile. It properly means, not 
 so much " the black " as " the dark grey " 
 (connected with shakhar, the morning grey), 
 from the colour of the water. Kosenmuller's 
 contrast between the muddy waters of loreign 
 streams and the " fountain of living waters " 
 is uncalled for ; besides, the Nile water has 
 always been held in high esteem. The 
 Septuagint has Fiitiv, i.e. Gihon, also a name 
 of the Nile according to Ecclus. xxiv. 27. 
 The way of — rather, to — Assyria. It is true 
 that Assyria was, to say the least, powerless 
 to interfere for good or for evil, when these 
 words were written. But in ver. H the pro- 
 phet has already warned us that his com- 
 plaints are partly retrospective. It would 
 seem that the Assyrian party from time to 
 time gained the upper hand over the Egyp- 
 tian in the councils of the State. Or per- 
 haps the propliet may refer to the Quixotic 
 fidelity to Assyria of Josiah (see below on 
 ver. 36). The river; i.e. the Euphrates, 
 " the great river " (Gen. xv. 18). Babylonia 
 it should be remembered, was in nominal 
 subjection to Assyria; the Euphrates was 
 the boundary between Syria and Palestine 
 on the one hand, and Assyria — hero the 
 Assyrio-Baby Ionian region — on the other. 
 
 Ver. 19. — Shall correct . . . shall reprove ; 
 rather, chastise . . . punish. It is a constantly 
 renewed punishment which follows the ever- 
 repeated offence. 
 
 Ver. 20. — Here a new section begins. I 
 have broken . . . bnist. This is, gr.immati- 
 cally, a possible rendering, but inconsistent 
 with the second person in thou saidst, unless 
 indeed (with Ewald) we suppose that some- 
 thing has fallen out of the text between the 
 first and the second clauses of the verse. The 
 best critics, except Ewald and Dr. Payne 
 Smith, are agreed that we should follow the 
 
 Septuagint and Vulgate in rendering " thou 
 hast broken . . . (and) burst." This does 
 not, strictly speaking, imply a new reading 
 of the text, for ti was the old form of tlie 
 suffix of the 2nd pers. fern. sing. ; there is a 
 precisely similar case in Micah iv. 13. It is 
 a true description of the history of Israel be- 
 fore the exile. It would almost seetn aa if 
 there was a fusion of two races among the 
 Israelites, and that the smaller but nobliT 
 stock supplied all the great men in the sphere 
 of religion; just as in Florence, must of the 
 men who have illustrated her annals benr 
 names of Teutonic origin. So we might 
 argue, if we wished to explain the Biblical 
 history from purely natural causes. But God 
 (to apply the Caliph Omar's words) " knoweth 
 his own." Bands (see on ch. V. 5). I will not 
 transgress. This is the translation of the 
 marginal reading in the Hebrew Bible, 
 which, though implied also in the Targum, 
 is probably a conjecture of the Jewish critics. 
 The text reading (also that of the Septuagint 
 and the Syriao) is, " I will not serve," 
 (equivalent to "I will not be a slave any 
 longer "). Obviously this does not harmonize 
 with tlie rendering "I have broken," etc., in 
 the first clause (unless, with Dr. Payne Smith, 
 we explain "I will not serve" as virtually 
 equivalent to "I will still serve my idol- 
 gods"); hence the Jewish critics, by just 
 adding a xepaia (Matt. v. 18), changed 
 "serve" iuto "transgress." They did not 
 venture to alter the next clause, which, quite 
 as much as the first, presupposes the reading 
 " serve " (see next note). When — rather, 
 for — upon every high hill, etc. Bare, treeless 
 heights were favourite spots for sacrifices, 
 especially for Baal ; groves, and leafy trees in 
 general, for the lascivious rites of Asherah 
 and Ashtoreth. The apparently extreme 
 statement of the prophet is not to be mini- 
 mized. Travellers still tell us of vestiges of 
 ancient and doubtless pre-Christian idola- 
 trous worship still visible on almost every 
 attractive spot in the open country in Pales- 
 tine. Under every green tree. We have no 
 single word to convey the "fluid" meaning 
 of this expressive word. It combines, in fact, 
 the senses of pliant, sappy, leafy (oomp. note 
 on ch. xi. 16). Thou wanderest ; rather, thou 
 wast stretching thyself out. 
 
 Ver. 21. — A noble vine. Jeremiah means 
 the choicest kind of Oriental vine, called 
 sorek (from the dark-red colour of its grapes), 
 and mentioned again in Isa. v. 2. The figure 
 of the vine is one endeared to ua by its asso- 
 ciation especially with our Lord ; it was en- 
 deared to the Jews by the annual festivities 
 of the vintage. The sacred writers are never 
 afraid of its palling on the ear by repetition 
 (comp. ch. V. 10 ; vi. 9 ; xii. 10 ; laa. v. 1 — 7 ; 
 xxvii. 2, 3 ; Bzek. ivii. 6 ; Ps. Ixxx. 8—16). 
 A right seed ; i.e. a vine-shoot of the genuine 
 
26 
 
 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. ii. 1—37. 
 
 Bort. " Seed" for " shoot," as in Isa. xvii. 11 
 (oomp. ver. 10). The degenerate plant ; 
 rather, degenerate shoots (if at least the text 
 is right). 
 
 "Ver. 22. — Nitre does not mean the sub- 
 staiice which now bears that name, but 
 " natron," a mineral alkali, deposited on tlie 
 shores and on the bed of certain lakes in 
 Egypt, especially those in the WMy Nat- 
 rdn (the ancient Nitria, whence came so large 
 a store of precious Syriac manuscripts). In 
 ancient times, this natron was collected to 
 make lye from for washing purposes (oomp. 
 Prov. xxT. 20). Sope ; rather, potash ; the cor- 
 responding vegetable alkali (comp. Isa. i. 25). 
 Thine iniquity is marked. So Kimchi and 
 Gesenius (through a doubtful etymology); 
 but the Aramaic use of the word favours the 
 rendering stained, i.e. filthy. The word is 
 in the participle, to indicate the permanence 
 of the state (comp. " Will all gieat Neptune's 
 ocean wash this blood," etc. ? ' Macbeth '>. 
 
 Ver. 23. — How oanst thou say, etc. ? This 
 is not a mere rhetorical fiction equivalent 
 to "or if thou shouldst perhaps say," but 
 probably represents an objection really made 
 by the inhabitants of the kingdom of Judah. 
 Their fault was not in neglecting the public 
 worship of Jehovah in his appointed temple, 
 but in superadding to this, idolatrous rites 
 inconsistent with tlie spiritual religion 
 taught by Jeremiah. The people did not, 
 it seems, regard this as tantamount to " fol- 
 lowing Baalim," just as some converts to 
 Christianity in our own foreign missions 
 might exclaim against being accused of 
 apostacy, because they secretly carry on 
 certain heattien practices. The prophet, 
 however, applies a more rigorous test to 
 their conduct. Baalim ; the plural of Baal, 
 used for " other gods" (oh. i. 16 ; comp. on 
 ver. 8). Thy way in the valley. The valley 
 in this context can only be that of Hinnom 
 (see on ch. vii. 31), which from the time 
 of Ahaz had been defiled with the rites 
 of " Moloch, horj id king " (see ' Paradise 
 Lost,' i. 392—896). Thou art a swift drome- 
 dary. Ewald would attach this half of the 
 verse to ver. 24 ; and there is something to 
 be said for this plan. Swift dromedary is, 
 properly speaking, in tlie vocative. The 
 ardour of the people for idolatry is expressed 
 by the comparison of it to the uncontrollable 
 instinct of brute beasts. The word rendered 
 " dromedary " is in the feminine gender ; it 
 means strictly the young she-camel which 
 has not yet had a foal. Traversing her 
 ways ; rather, interlacing her ways ; i.e. run- 
 ning backwards and forwards at the impulse 
 of passion. 
 
 Ver. 24.— A wild ass, etc. The type of 
 wildness and independence (comp. Gen. xvi. 
 12 ; Job xxxix. 5 — 8), That suuffeth up the 
 wind; to cool the heat of her passion. In 
 
 in her month; i.e. at the 
 
 her occasion 
 
 pairing-time. . 
 
 Ver. 25.— Withhold thy foot, etc. Hitzig, 
 with unnecessary ingenuity, explains tliis 
 with reference to the fatiguing practices of 
 the heathen cultus, comparing 1 Kings xvui. 
 26, where "vain repetitions" of "Baal, Baal," 
 and (as he thinks) barefoot religious dances, 
 are mentioned as parts of the worship of 
 Baal. Umbreit's view, however, is far more 
 natural. " God the true husband exhorts ■ 
 Israel not to run barefoot, and with parched 
 throat, like a shameless adulteress, after 
 strangers" (Payne Smith). There is no 
 hope ; i.e. the exhortation is in vain (so ch. 
 xviii. 12). 
 
 Ver. 26.— Is . . . ashamed. It is the per- 
 fect of prophetic certitude. 
 
 Ver. 27. — And to a stone, etc. Stone ('ehhen) 
 is feminine in Hebrew, and therefore ad- 
 dressed as the mother. 
 
 Ver. 28.— According to the number of thy 
 cities, etc. A remarkable statement, and 
 one that well illustrates the superficial 
 character of Hezekiah's reformation. True, 
 Manasseh's reactionary reign had intervened, 
 but his counter-movement would not have 
 been so successful had it not been attended 
 by the good wishes of tlie people; and 
 besides, the last years of Manasseh, accord- 
 ing to the tradition in 2 Chron. xxxiii. 
 12 — 16 were devoted to undoing the mis- 
 chief of his former life. The force of the 
 prophet's words is strikingly brought out by 
 M. Renau (he led an expedition to Phoe- 
 nicia), who has shown that every district 
 and every town had a cultus of its own, 
 which often only differed from the neigh- 
 bouring cultus by words and titles {nomina, 
 numina); comp. Baal-Hamon, Baal-Hazor, 
 etc. Dr. Payne Smith well expresses the 
 argument of Jeremiah : " When every city 
 has its special deity, surely among so many 
 there might be found one able to help his 
 worshippers." 
 
 Ver. 29. — Wherefore will ye plead with 
 me ? How can ye be so brazen-faced as to 
 attempt to justify yourselves ? 
 
 Ver. 30.— Have I smitten your children. 
 The cities and towns of Judah are repre- 
 sented as so many mothers, and the popu- 
 lations as their children. It would, no 
 doubt, be more natural to take " children " 
 literally; but then we must read the verb 
 in the next clause, " Ye have received," as 
 the Septuagint actually renders. In the 
 former case the " smiting " will refer to all 
 God's " sore judgments " — sword, drought, 
 famine, pestilence ; in the latter, to the loss 
 of life in' battle. Your own sword hath 
 devoured your prophets (comp. 2 Chron. 
 xxiv. 21 ; 2 Kings xxi. 16). Manasseh's per- 
 secution (which extended, according to 
 Josephus, especially to the prophets) may ae- 
 
CH. II. 1—37.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 
 
 27 
 
 count for the preponderance of " false pro- 
 phets" referred to in ver. 8 (cf. Matt, xxiii, 29). 
 
 Ver. 31. — generation, Bee ye. It is 
 doubtful whether generatinn here means 
 "contemporaries" (equivalent to "men of 
 this generation "), or, like ytxea sometimes in 
 the New Testament, ft class of men united 
 by moral affinity (comp. Ps. xiv. 5 ; Ixxviii. 
 8). In the latter case we should rather 
 attach the pronoun in " see ye " to " gene- 
 ration," and render " (evil) generation 
 that ye are ! " So Hitzig, Keil, and Payne 
 Smith ; Ewald and Delitzsch adopt the tirst 
 rendering. Have I been a wilderness, etc. ? 
 " Have I not been the source of light and 
 happiness to my people, and of all temporal 
 blessings?" (comp. ch. ii. 6). So the Divine 
 speaker in Isa. xlv. 19, " I said not unto the 
 seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain," or more 
 literally, " in chaos " (same word as in Gen. 
 i. 2); "chaos" and "the wilderness" are 
 both images of that which is utterly unre- 
 munerative. A land of darkness. This is, 
 of course, not literally accurate as a descrip- 
 tion of the Arabian desert. " Darkness " is 
 here used as a synonym for " misery." 
 Cloud and rain occupy precisely opposite 
 places iu the estimation of nomadic and 
 agricultural peoples respectively. " The 
 liedouins," says an Arabic scholast, "always 
 follow the rain and the places where min- 
 drops fall ; " whereas a townsman of Mecca 
 calls himself " child of the sun." So India 
 and Varuna, originally belonging to the 
 cloudy and rainy sky, are in the Vedic 
 hymns endowed with solar traits. It should 
 be added here that it is an old problem, and 
 too difficult a one for us to investigate, 
 whether we should render " the darkness of 
 Jah " (Jehovah) or (as Authorized Version) 
 simply " darkness." The former rendering 
 will mean very great darkness, such as 
 Jehovtih sends in judgment (e.gr. to the 
 Egyptians, Exod. x. 21—23). On this 
 question, see Dr. Ginsburg on Cant. viii. 6 
 (where a similar doubt exists), Geiger's 
 ' Urschrift uud Uebersetzungen der Bibel,' 
 p. 276 ; Ewald, ' Lehrbuch der Hebraischen 
 Bprache,' § 270 c. We are lords; rather, 
 we have broken loose. It is, however, a diffi- 
 cult word, which only occurs elsewhere in 
 Gen. xxvi. 40 ; Hos. xii. 1 ; Ps. Iv. 3. 
 
 Ver. 32.— Or a bride her attire. The 
 propliet perhaps means the magnificently 
 adorned girdle whith the bride wore on her 
 wedding day (comp. Isa. xlix. 18). But the 
 word only occurs again in Isa. iii. 20, and its 
 precise signification is uncertain. 
 
 Ver. 33. — Why trimmest thou thy way? 
 rather. Bow well thou contrivest thy way, 
 etc. ? Therefore hast thou also taught, etc. 
 The meaning which floated before our trans- 
 lators seems to be this : "so utterly imm(iral 
 is thy course of life, that even the worst of 
 
 women [' wicked ones ' is in the feminine] 
 have been able to learn something from thee " 
 {so the great Dutch scholar.De Dieu.in 1548). 
 But a more natural rendering is, ■' There- 
 fore [i.e. to gain thine ends] thou hast 
 accustomed thy ways to those evil things," 
 Nemo repente fuit turpissimun. It required 
 a deliberate " accustoming," or " training " 
 (such is the literal meaning of Ummad), to 
 produce such a habit (e^is) as is here re- 
 buked. 
 
 Ver. 34. — Also in thy skirts, etc. ; or, 
 there it even found in thy skirts (or, perhaps, 
 in thy sleeves— the wide sleeves of an Eastern 
 mantle). The fact which follows is adduced 
 as the crowning evidence of wickedness. 
 Blood of the souls is explained by the state- 
 ment in Lev. xvii. 11, "The soul of the 
 flesh [i.e. of the body] is in the blood ; " hence 
 the importance of the blood in the Mosaic 
 sacrifices. The historical reference of this 
 passage of Jeremiah may well be to the per- 
 secution of Manasseh, who is said to have 
 "shed innocent blood very much" (2 Kings 
 xxi. 16). It is Judah, no doubt, who is 
 addressed, but the prophets mostly assume 
 the " solidarity " of king and people 
 (analogous to that of a forefather and his 
 posterity); Manasseh, moreover, probably 
 had the support of a large section of the 
 population, at any rate in so far as he 
 favoured the inveterate cultus of the high 
 places or local sanctuaries. I have not 
 found it by secret searoh ; rather, ihnu hast 
 not found them breaking through (houses). 
 The phraseology agrees with that of Exod. 
 xxii. 2, the law against "breaking through ;" 
 it suggests that the houses of all but the 
 highest class in ancient as well as often in 
 inoderu Palestine, were made of mere sun- 
 dried brick, which could be easily " dug 
 into" (comp. Ezek. xii. 5 ; Matt. vi. 19, 20, 
 in the Greek). [Lieut. Condor states, it is 
 true, that in hilly districts of Palestine thn 
 houses of the villages are buUt of stone, but 
 he adds that the stone is simply taken from 
 the ruins of the ancient towns.] Burglars 
 caught in the act might be killed (Exod. 
 xxii. 2), but the innocent victims of persecu- 
 tion could not be brought under this category, 
 and hence those who slew them were really 
 guilty of murder. But upon all these ; 
 rather, but because of all these things ; i.e. 
 not for any crime, but because of thine 
 apostasy and Zf al for the false gods (" these 
 things," as in ch. iii. 7) ; so Hitzig, Keil, 
 Payne Smith ; less naturally De Dieu, " be- 
 cause of those false gods." 
 
 Ver. 35. — Because. This "because" is 
 misleading ; there is no argument, but the 
 statement of a supposed fact. The particle 
 so rendered merely serves to introduce the 
 speech of the Jews (like 8ti). Shall turn ; 
 rather, hath turned. Judah had so long 
 
28 
 
 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. ii. 1—37. 
 
 been undisturbed by any foreign power, that 
 the people fancied the promises of Deute- 
 ronomy were being fulfilled, and that they, 
 oil their part, had pleased God by their 
 formal obedience (comp. 2 Kings xxii. 17). I 
 wJl plead with thee. Here, as in some other 
 passages {e.g. laa. Ixvi. 16 ; Ezek. xxxviii. 22), 
 the word includes the sense of punishing. 
 
 Ver. 36. — Why gaddest thou about so 
 much— many render, Why runnest thou so 
 quickly ; but the verb simply means to 
 " go," and it is enough to refer to foreign 
 embassies, such as are alluded to in this 
 very chapter (ver. 18)— to change thy way 1 
 The " way " or policy of Judah was 
 according as the party in power 
 
 favoured an Egyptian or an Assyrian 
 alliance. Thou also shalt he ashamed of; 
 rather, thou shalt aim he brought to shame 
 through. As thou art ashamed of Assyria 
 (correct rendering as before). This is 
 certainly difficult, for in the reign of Josiah 
 it would appear that the political connection 
 
 with Assyria still continued. Is it possible 
 that Jereiiiiah, in these words, has in view 
 rather the circumstances of Jehoiakim than 
 those of Josiah? Does he not appear to 
 look back upon Judah's final " putting to 
 shame through Assyria " as a thing of the 
 past 1 And to what event can this expres- 
 sion refer but to the overthrow of Josiah at 
 Megiddo (so Graf)? 
 
 Ver 37.— From him; i.e. from Egypt, per- 
 sonified as a man (so whenever a people is 
 referred to; a land is represented as a 
 woman). Egypt was, in fact, the only great 
 power capable of assisting Judah at this 
 time (see Introduction); yet even Egypt, 
 the prophet says, shall disappoint her 
 Jewish allies, for Jehovah has rejected thy 
 confidences {i.e. the objects of thy confi- 
 dence). As a matter of fact, " the King of 
 Egypt came not again any more out of his 
 land" after Neoho's crushing defeat at 
 Garchemish (2 Kings xxiv. 7; comp. ch. 
 xxxvii. 5). 
 
 HOMILETICS. 
 
 Vers. 1 — 3. — Recollections of the happy past. It is pleasing to see how the prophet 
 of judgment opens his first oracle with touching reminiscences of the early happy 
 relations between God and his people. Thus the yonng man connects his new utter- 
 ances with ancient experience and the old well-tried principles of spiritual religion. 
 Thus, too, he leads the way from thoughts of God's goodness and memories of early 
 devotion to a right condition of reflectiveness and tenderness of heart, in which the 
 revelation of dark truths of the future will be less likely to harden his hearers in 
 rebellion than if thfey had been spoken abruptly and harshly. 
 
 I. Many of us, like the Jews, mat be reminded op a happt past. In years 
 of deepening disappointment the sunny days of youth rise up to memory and rebuke 
 the cynical mood which sorrow is too ready to engender. In years of lessening 
 spirituality the holy seasons of early devotion may be recalled to mind to startle us 
 out of our self-complacency. It is well to reflect upon such a past history as that of 
 the Jews. 1. This was marked by peculiar blessings on OocPs side. (1) It was a time 
 when God's love and kindness were felt with all the fresh receptiveness of youth ; and 
 (2) it was memorable for remarkable Divine protection and blessing. 2. This was 
 characterized by great fidelity on the side of Israel. In spite of frequent murmurings 
 and rebellions, the age of the Exodus had been the heroic age of Israel's national and 
 religious history. (1) The people then followed God with affectionate devotion ; they 
 " went after him." (2) They consecrated themselves in purity and in service ; " Israel 
 was consecrated unto the Lord." (3) They were the earliest true servants of God — 
 God's " firstfiuits." Yet the first may become last (Matt. xx. 16). (4) This devotion 
 was witnessed under trying circumstances. It was " in the wilderness, in a land that 
 was not sown." God's love is sometimes most manifest when outward circumstances 
 are most distressing, and men are often more faithful to God in the wilderness than in 
 the land flowing with milk and honey. What a strange irony of history is this, that 
 though, while passing through the wilderness, the people looked forward to their happi- 
 ness in the possession of the promised land, after they have had long possession of it 
 they are led to look back on those early homeless wanderings as containing the most 
 blessed age of their existence ! But true happiness is ever found, not in external comfort, 
 but in spiritual blessedness. Can we recollect early days when the battle of life was 
 hard, and we longed for the ease which came with success, and now see that there, in 
 that hard battle, our best days were lived, our true blessedness was realized ? Such a 
 memory must be full of pathetic suggestions. 
 
OH. 11.1— 37.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 29 
 
 II. The RECOLLECTION OP A HAPPY PAST IS PROFITABLE. 1. Ood rememlers the pat. 
 Not like the sour censor who remembers only our past faults, but rather like the kii.d 
 parent who delights to call to mind the goodness of his oliildreu's early days, God 
 makes no mention of the sins of the wilderness life, but dwells graciously on its happy 
 features. God remembers our past for our good : (1) as a link of affection after subse- 
 quent sin has driven us from him ; (2) as an ideal to which he would bring us back ; 
 and (3) — still for our good — as a standard by which to measure our present condition, 
 and a just ground for wholesome chastisement. 2. We are to recollect our happy past. 
 Israel is reminded of his early days. If we have "lost our first love," it is well that 
 we should know this : (1) that we may see how far we have fallen, and repent (Rev. ii. 
 4, 5); (2) that the recollection of the blessedness of early devotion may revive the 
 longing for its return ; (3) that the consciousness that this was once attained may 
 encourage us to believe that it is a possibility, and therefore may be attained again. Jn 
 conclusion, note : 1. It is foolish simply to regret the happy past. The use of memory 
 is not to give to us profitless melancholy, but to lead us actively to do better for the 
 future. 'A. It is a mistake for us to seek simply to regain the lost past, because (1) this 
 is gone irrevocably, (2) the new age requires new forms of life, and (3) we should seek 
 better things in the future. The second Adam is better than the first Adam before the 
 fall. The kingdom of heaven is more glorious than the garden of Eden. The ripe 
 Ohristian is higher in the spiritual life, though he may have fallen in the past, than 
 the innocent child who has never known evil but has not experienced the discipline 
 of life. 
 
 Vers. 5 — 7. — The ingratitude of sin. Of the many aspects under which sin may be 
 viewed none is more sad than that of ingratitude to God. Every act of sin is a distinct 
 act of ingratitude ; for every such act is an offence against him who has shown to us 
 nothing but love, and from whom we are taking innumerable favours in the very moment 
 of our transgression. 
 
 I. The inqratitude of sin is seen m the roBOBTFULNEss OP God's savinq mercy. 
 So the Israelites forget the glorious deliverance from Egypt, and preservation amidst 
 the horrors of the wilderness (ver. 6). God is resorted to in distress only to be ignored, 
 forsaken, insulted, directly rebelled against, when he has effected a deliverance. 
 
 II. The inoratitdde of sin is seen in the ionoring op the present goodness op 
 God. (Ver. 7.) The Israelites were eating the fruit of the good land which Gud had 
 given to them while they were rebelling against him. This is even worse than in- 
 gratitude for past blessings. Such ingratitude might attempt to plead the excuse of 
 failure of memory ; but ingratitude for present mercies can only arise from gross 
 spiritual blindness or wilful disregard of all claims of justice and affection. 
 
 HI. The ingratitude of sin is seen in the false character which is ascribed 
 to God. God asks, " What unrighteousness have your fathers found in me? " The 
 conduct of the Jews was a direct indictment of the character of God. They deliberately 
 insulted him, and rejected him for heathen deities. Such conduct could only be 
 justified by the discovery that he was not what he claimed to be. After God has 
 revealed himself to men in myriadfold evidences of goodness, there are some who hold, 
 if they do not confess to, such evil conceptions of his character as amount to the 
 basest calumnies of heartless ingratitude. 
 
 IV. The ingratitude op sin is seen in the character op the gods who are 
 preferred to Jehovah. These are " false " gods. Jews who knew that converted 
 religious worship into an unreality, and thus became themselves hollow and unreal. 
 For this miserable result did they forsake the Gud of heaven and earth, their Saviuur 
 and constant Benefactor ! If they had found a rival with some pretensions to worth 
 the insult would have been less. Herein is the grossness of the insult to God seen in 
 all sin. What do men prefer to him ? Transient pleasures, earthly dross. The pearl 
 of great price is iiung away, not for a smaller pearl, but for d^st and aslies. 
 
 V. The ingratitude of sin is seen in the abuse and corruption of God's gifts. 
 God gave the Israelites "garden-land," and they defiled it; they made God's heritaye 
 an abomination. When we sin we do so by employing the very powers which God 
 has bestowed upon us. We insult him by turniu'i; his own gifts into weapons of 
 rebellion. We blaspheme- him with the tongue which he has made. 
 
30 THE BOOK OF THE PEOPHBT JEREMIAH, [ch. ii. 1—37. 
 
 Ver. 8. — Wickedness in leading men. The great indictment of Israel reaches its 
 climax in the accusation of the leaders of the people. Even they who should have been 
 the guardians of truth and the vindicators of right have turned aside to evil ways. 
 After this the defection of the whole nation appears utter and hopeless. We have here 
 an instance of the terrible condition into which a country has fallen when its leaders, 
 its teachers, its responsible civil and religious authorities, are unfaithful to their mission 
 and set examples of wickedness. 
 
 I. CoNsiDBB THE SIGNS OF WICKEDNESS IN LEADING MEN. 1. These are often unrecog- 
 nized until the evil has wrought disastrous effects. For there are circumstances which 
 make them difficult to detect, viz : (1) External propriety. The priests still minister 
 at the altar, the Law is still slavishly observed in ceremonial details, rulers still exercise 
 authority, prophets still write and preach in orthodox language, and on the outside all 
 things go on respectably, while there is rottenness hidden within. This was specially 
 the case after the reformation of Josiah, when an outward respect for religious obser- 
 vances was established without any purification of heart or revival of spiritual life. 
 (2) Respect for authority. Many people are too subservient to question the character 
 of their leaders. They would rather unite with their rulers in crucifying Christ than 
 recognize his claims against the authority of these men. They do not judge of the 
 character of their leaders by any standard of morals, but found their standard of morals 
 on that character. 2. The signs of wickedness in leading men may be detected in its 
 bearing on the special functions of their respective offices. The priests are the temple 
 servants of Jehovah, yet they never seek their Master. They who are familiar with 
 the precepts of the Law know nothing of the person and will of the Lawmaker. The 
 civil rulers who are ruling under a theocracy directly transgress the Law of God. The 
 prophets lend themselves to a corrupt source of inspiration. So now again we may see 
 men abusing the powers of office, and sinning in the very exercise of the responsi- 
 bilities which are entrusted to them for the sake of the maintenance of right and truth. 
 Therefore we must be on our guard, and not simply follow those who claim to lead 
 because of their rank or office. Men of leading are not always men of light. We 
 must " try the spirits" (1 John iv. 1), and judge of the character of those who claim 
 to lead us by their actions, " Ye shall know them by their fruits " (Matt. vii. 16). 
 
 II. CONSIDBK THE PECULIAR GUILT OF WICKEDNESS IN LEADING MEN. 1. It is Contrary 
 
 to knowledge. The priests handle the Law. Men of influence are usually in a position 
 to learn what is wise and good. Teachers of religion may be presumed to know more 
 than the average of men. How great, then, is their guilt when their conduct is corrupt 
 (Rom. ii. 21 — 'IZ) ! 2. It is contrary toprofession. These leaders set themselves up as 
 examples to others, and then even they go wrong. They who assume a high position 
 should justify that position by manifesting a high character. More is expected of the 
 jirofessed Christian than of the confessed man of the world. 3. It is an abuse of great 
 responsihility. If men wilfully employ positions of trust as means of violating the very 
 objects of those trusts, their guilt is proportionate to the privileges they have received 
 and the honours they have accepted. He who uses a Christian pulpit to propagate 
 doctrines subversive of Christianity is guilty of base treason. 
 
 III. Consider the injurious effects op wickedness in leading men. These will 
 be great in proportion to the influence of the men, and will partake of the special 
 characteristics of that influence, viz. : 1. Breadth. Leading men have a wide influence, 
 and the seeds of evil which they sow will be widespread. 2. Depth. Leading men 
 have power at their disposal. Their example is weighty. 3. Subtlety. Dignity, 
 prestige, authority, disguise the evil which would be recognized if it were stripped of the 
 pomp of office. Therefore : (1) see that good men are chosen for posts of influence, and 
 let the selection and education of civil and religious leaders be a matter of more prayer 
 and thought on the part of the Church ; and (2) be not too ready to follow with blind 
 obedience those who may be in high positions. Be independent and watchful. Follow 
 the one infallible Leader, " the Good Shepherd," Christ. 
 
 Ver. 13. — Broken cisterns. I. All men need spiritual refreshment. The soul 
 has its thirst (Ps. Ixiii. 1). 1. This is natural. We are born with instincts which 
 reach out to the unseen, and the worldly habits which deaden these instincts cannot 
 utterly eradicate them. If they could, we should cease to be men and become merely 
 
en. II. 1—37.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEBEMIAH. 31 
 
 rational brutes, for " man is a religious animal." 2. This is intensified by the ex- 
 perience of life. Thirst is increased by a heated atmosphere, hard work, disease, and 
 special agents, e.g. salt water ; so spiritual thirst is deepened by the heat and burden of 
 life, by its toil and battle, by the fever of passion and the weariness of sorrow, by the 
 poison of sin and the disappointment of delusive promises of satisfaction. How 
 pathetic is this picture ! If tlie living water is forsaken, cisterns — even poor, broken 
 cisterns, with scant supply of foul water, are resorted to, for in some way the burning 
 thirst of the soul must be quenched. 
 
 II. They who fobsake God injure their own souls. Hitherto the prophet has 
 spoken of the guilt of unfaithfulness. He now speaks of the loss this entails. It is 
 right that we should first think of the simple sinfulness of our sin, for this is its most 
 important feature. But it is profitable to consider also the folly of it, and the misery 
 that it must bring upon us. This is not to be all relegated to the world of future 
 punishments. It is to be felt now, and would be felt keenly if men were not blind to 
 their own condition. As godliness has the promise of the life which now is as well as 
 of that which is to come, so ungodliness brings present loss. This must not be looked 
 for in the direction of material profit and loss, of bodily pain and pleasure, towards which 
 the Jew was too much inclined to turn his attention. It is inward and spiritual, yet it 
 is not the less real. For the spirit is the self. When the noise of the world is stilled, 
 in silent watches of the night, in lonely hours of reflection, does not the poor bomeless 
 soul feel some sense of unrest, some vague thirst which no pleasure or possession has 
 yet satisfied ? 
 
 HI. The injury arisino from forsakino God is found first in the very loss 
 OF God. God is more to us than all his gifts. The greatest loss of the prodigal 
 son is not the food which he craves for in the land of famine, but the father whom he 
 has forsaken. God is the chief source of the soul's refreshment. Men talk of the 
 duty of religion. They should consider its blessings, and learn to seek God as they 
 seek their bread and water — the first necessaries of life. God is a Fountain of living 
 water. 1. His refreshing grace is ever flowing, and in great abundance, not limited in 
 quantity as that of the largest cistern may be so that there is enough for all, and it 
 may be had at all times. 2. It is fresh, like the mountain stream bubbling forth cool 
 from the rock, not like the stale waters of the cistern. " He giveth more grace " 
 (Jas. iv. 6), and " grace for grace " (John i. 16). The Christian does not have to go 
 back to the grace of God in past ages. There is a fresh stream now flowing, and prayer 
 opens to us fresh supplies of the love and help of God. 3. It is wholesome and in- 
 vigorating, unlike the earthy waters of the cistern. How foolish, then, to turn aside 
 from such a supply for anything ! We need no better. 
 
 IV. The injury abisino from forsaking God is intensified by the unsatis- 
 factory NATURE OF THE SUBSTITUTES MEN TURN TO. 1. Thcsc are self-made. God 
 makes the fresh spring, man makes the cistern. Can our work equal God's ? 2. They 
 are limited in supply — reservoirs, not flowing streams. 3. They are often impure ; the 
 cistern soon gets impregnated with unwholesome matter. 4. They are imperfect of their 
 hind. The cisterns are broken ; what little unwholesome water they have leaks 
 away. All these characteristics apply to the waters men turn to in preference to God 
 — e.g. liuman religion, philosophy, public occupation, social distraction, pleasure ; 
 these all fail to slake the soul's thirst. " Cor nostrum inquietum est donee requiesoat 
 in te." 
 
 Ver. 19.— -Sm self-corrected. I. Sin brings its own chastisement. 1. Sin reveals 
 its evil character as it comes into existence, and is no sooner completed than it is 
 regarded by its parent with disgust. The wicked action which looks attractive in 
 desire is repulsive to reflect upon. The very sight and thought and memory of sin 
 are bitter. The burden of guilt, the shame of an evil memory, the sin itself is thus its 
 own chastisement. 2. Sin naturally produces its punishment. The penalty of sin is not 
 arbitrarily adjudicated nor is it inflicted ah extra. It is the natural fruit of sin. It is 
 reaping what we have sown (Gal. vi. 7, 8). This fruit the guilty man must eat as his 
 bread of sorrows (Prov. i. 31). Thus intemperance naturally breeds disease, mental 
 degradation, poverty, and dishonour. Greedy selfishness brings upon a man dislike 
 and provokes retaliation. Unfaithfulness to God deprives us of the communion of his 
 
32 
 
 THE BOOK OF THE PEOPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. ii. 1— 3T, 
 
 Spirit and the protection of his providence. We have to wait for no formal sentence, 
 no executioner. The law within us carries its own sentence, and is its own executioner, 
 and even as we do wrong we begin to bring upon ourselves the peuKlty of our conduct. 
 
 II. The chastisement op sin is to bbpbovb and ooerbct. The headache of the 
 morning is a warning to the drunkard not to repeat the debauch of the night. 1. 
 Chastisement corrects by bringing us to our right mind. It sobers a man, and thus 
 helps him to looli at his life in a true light. 2. Chastisement corrects by revealing the 
 true character of sin. Its charms are all torn off, and the hideous monster is revealed 
 in its naturally hateful shape. Then we see that all sin involves our forsaking God, 
 and is due to the loss of respect for his will— the loss of the " fear of God " according 
 to the Old Testament view, the loss of love to God according to the Christian view. 
 
 III. It is not well to wait fob the cobbective influence of chastisement 
 BEFOEE BEPBNTiNG OF SIN. 1. The chastisement may be a terrible experience from 
 which we would fain shrink if we knew the nature of it. 2. Sin is evil in itself, and 
 the sooner we stay our hand from it the better for ourselves, for the world, and for the 
 honour of God. It is better not to fall than to fall and be restored. 3. God has pro- 
 vided a higher means than chastisement for delivering us from sin. This is an exercise 
 of his goodness to lead us to repentance (Rom. ii. 4). The gospel shows us how Christ 
 can save us from our sins by drawing us to himself and constraining us by his love 
 to walk in his footsteps of holiness. 
 
 Ver. 22. — The stains of sin. I. Sin stains the character and life of men. 
 1. Sin leaves stains behind it. No man can have clean hands after touching it. These 
 stains are of two classes : (1) internal — the soiled imagination, the corrupted will, the 
 vitiated habit which a single act of sin tends to produce ; and (2) external, in the form 
 of guilt before God, and lowered reputation in the sight of men. 2. The stains of sin 
 are not natural. They are no part of the true colour of a man's character. They are 
 all contracted by experience. 3. These stains are all evil things. They are not like 
 marks of immature development or of the necessary imperfection of humanity. They 
 are products of corruption. 
 
 II. No MAN CAN WASH THE GUILT OF SIN FBOM HIS CHAEAOTEE. (Ch. xiii. 23.) The 
 
 Jews were attempting this by denying the offences charged against them or excusing 
 them. They would not admit their apostacy ; but in vain. 1. Sin cannot be undone. 
 We cannot recall the past. History is unchangeable. What we have done we have 
 done. 2. Sin cannot be hidden. We can never hide it from God, who searches the 
 heart (1 John iii. 20). We cannot long or perfectly hide it from man. It will colour 
 our lives and reveal itself in action, in conversation, in countenance. 3. Sin cannot be 
 excused. We may point to our training, our temptations, our natural weakness, our 
 ignorance ; and no doubt these facts are important as determining the degree of our 
 guilt (Luke xxiii. 34). But the sin itself, greater or less as it may be, cannot be 
 explained away. Our sins are our own or they would not be sins. 4. Sin cannot 
 be expiated by us. Sacrifice is of no real avail. That was only acceptable as a symbol 
 and type of God's method of cleansing sin. Penance could only act as discipline for 
 the future; for the past it is no better than a fruitless sacrifice. Future goodness 
 cannot atone for the past; for that is required on its own account, and if it were 
 perfect it would be no more than it ought to be — we should still be "unprofitable 
 servants." 
 
 III. No MAN CAN WASH THE STAIN OF INDWELLING SIN FEOM HIS LIFE. Men have 
 
 tried all methods ; but in lain. 1. Simple determination to conquer it. But he who 
 commits sin is the slave of sin (John viii. 84), and a slave who cannot emancipate 
 himself. The worst effect of sin is seen in the corruption of the will. Hence we 
 have not the power to reform until our will is renewed, i.e. until, in New Testament 
 language, we are " born again." 2. Change of external circumstances. This is a helpful 
 accessory of more effectual means, but it is not sufficient in itself, because sin is internal, 
 and no change of scene will effect a change of heart. A man may cross the Atlantic, 
 but he will be the same being in America that he was in England. He may be lifted 
 from the dunghill to a throne, but if he had a vicious nature in his low condition he 
 will carry that with him to his new sphere. Base metal does not become gold by re- 
 ceiving the guinea's stamp. Sanitary arrangements, education, reforming influences, etc., 
 
CH. n. 1— 37.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 33 
 
 are all helpful, but none are fundamental enough to effect the complete change. The 
 stains are too ingrained for any such washing to remove them. 
 
 IV. In the gospel op Gheist we mat see the means fob cleansino both the 
 
 GUILT OF OHARAOTEB AND THE STAIN OF INDWELLING SIN. 1. Ouilt is shown to be 
 
 removed by the free forgiveness of God in Christ, for no merits of our own, but for the 
 sake of his work and sacrifice ; by no eBbrt of ours, but on condition of repentance and 
 the faith which trusts liira as our Saviour, and submits to him as our Lord (Acts 
 X. 43). 2. The stain of indwelling sin is shown to be removed by the renewal of our 
 nature, so that we are born " from above " and " of the Spirit " (John iii. 3 — 8), and 
 become new creatures in Christ by means of the same faith of trust and submission 
 (2 Cor. V. 17). 
 
 Vers. 35 — ST.— False confidence. I. The grounds of false confidence. 1. 
 Assumed innocence. Israel says, " I am innocent ; " "I have not sinned." This 
 assumption may result from (1) self-deception, or (2) hypocrisy. 2. A claim to be 
 favoured by God. Isrnel says again, " His anger has turned from me." Present peace 
 is taken as a warrant for expecting contlnueil security, so tliat the very forbearance of 
 God is converted into an excuse for presumption and indifference. Perhaps, too, jiride 
 comes in and aids the assumption that the guilty people are special favourites of 
 Heaven and will be protected, whatever wrong they do. This was the mistake of the 
 contemporariesof our Lord wlieu they relied on the mere fact tliat they were Abraham's 
 children (John viii. 39). 3. Trust in human, aid. Judah turned first to Assyria, and 
 then to Egypt. So men look to worldly associations for security in trouble. 4. Ee- 
 Uance on dijjlomatic skill. Israel turned from Assyria to Egypt when the former power 
 failed and the latter was in the ascendancy. Men think to protect themselves by their 
 own ingenuity. 
 
 II. The failure of false confidence. The reasons of this may be noted : 1. The 
 reality of sin. This is not the less real because it is denied. God still sees it. It 
 still bears its necessary fruits. 2. The rejection of God. Israel turned from God to man. 
 How then could he expect God's continued protection ? 3. Lack of principle. Israel 
 turneii about from Egypt to Assyria. There was no settled policy. When expediency 
 is the sole guide of conduct we are sure to be landed in ultimate failure. 4. The character 
 and fate of tlie human objects of -confidence. These were rejected by God. They who 
 trust them must share their doom. It is always vain to " put confidence in princes " 
 (Ps. cxviii. 9). But when these are bad men, godless men, rejected by God, the 
 consequences of trust in them will be fatal. We are always involved in the fate of 
 what we trust oui'selves to. If we trust to the world, to human aid, to errors and 
 falsehoods, to evil things, the certain overthrow of these must involve us in its ruin. 
 
 HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. 
 
 Vers. 1 — 14. — A sweet remembrance embittered ; or Divine delight turned by his 
 people's ingratitude into Divine distress. 
 
 I. God greatly delights in his people's love. See the similitude he employs : 
 " the love of thine espousals." It is difficult for us to recall any period in the history 
 of Israel when such high praise as this was merited by them. For it is of their love 
 to Gdd rather than of his to them — though there was never any doubt about that — 
 that the prophet is here speaking. But when was Israel's love at all of such devoted 
 and intense order as to deserve to be thus srioken of? It is difficult to say. And he 
 that knows his own heart will be slow to credit himself with any such ardent affection 
 as is spoken of here. The explanation of such language is found in that joyous appre- 
 ciation by God of all movements of our hearts towards him which leads him to speak 
 of our poor offerings as if they were altogether worthy and good. Cf. " Lord, when saw 
 we thee an hungred, or athirst," etc. ? (Matt. xxv. 44) ; also our Lord's estimate of 
 the widow's two mites ; the cup of cold water given in his Name, etc. Still, whilst 
 the believer is compelled to confess that his Lord's loving estimate of his poor service 
 and affection is an exaggerated one, it is one which is nevertheless founded upon a very 
 blessed fact. There is such a thing as the child of God's "first love," when our delight 
 
 JEREMIAH. D 
 
34 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. ii. 1— 37. 
 
 in 
 
 ... God wns intense, real, abiding; when prayer and service were prompt and frequent 
 and delightful. Then we were content to leave the world, and to go out into the 
 dreary wilderness if but our God led the way. Then there was not, as now there too 
 often is, a wide separation between our religions and our common life ; but, as ver. 3 
 tells, we ourselves and all we had were counted as holy unto the Lord. We sought 
 that in whatsoever we did we might do all unto the glory of God. Now, such service 
 is a delight to the heart of God. We are shown, therefore, that we can add to or 
 dirainish'^the joy of God. Such power have we. And the Divine appreciation of such 
 service is shown by his anger towards those that in anywise hurt his servants. " All 
 that devour him," etc. (ver. 3). The Book of the Revelation is one long and awful 
 declaration of how the Lord God will avenge his saints. 
 
 IL But this Divine delight has become Divine distress. The remembrance has 
 become bitter. The cause of this change is by reason of his people having forsaken 
 him. As is the joy of God at men's hearts yielding to him, so is his grief at their 
 unfaithfulness. The heart of God is no figure of speech, but a reality. It rejoices in 
 our love, it mourns over our sin. And this all the more because of the aggravation 
 attending such forsaking him. For: 1. It is in violation of solemn vows and pledges 
 of fidelity which we hane given him. The yielding of the soul np to God is likened 
 unto the espousal of the soul to God. At tlie time we made our surrender we joy- 
 fully confessed, "Thy vows are upon me, God: my soul, thou hast said unto 
 the Lord, Thou art my Lord." Now, to go buck from God is to violate all these sacred 
 vows. 2. And whatever departures from God have taken place, they have been without 
 any provocation whatsoever. Ver. 5, " What iniquity have your fathers found in me ?" 
 etc. Has he been hard with us, or impatient, or unready to answer prayer, or faithless 
 to his promise ? Can any who have forsaken God charge him so ? 3. And such 
 forsaking of God has been an act of base and shameful ingratitude (cf. ver. 6). God had 
 brou<;ht Israel up out of the land of Egypt, etc. And he had brought them into a 
 plentiful country, but they had polluted it, etc. (ver. 7). All men are under a vast debt 
 of gratitude to God, even the heathen — so St. Paul teaches us — who never heard his 
 Name. But how much more vast is the debt of those who have " tasted that the 
 Lord is gracious," and known his redeeming love, and who yet " turn back and walk no 
 more with him " ! 4. Such departures from God are characterized by most unheard-of 
 and monstrous foolishness. The prophet in contemplating it (ver. 12) calls on the 
 heavens to be astonished, etc. For such conduct was uvheard of (cf. vers. 10, 11). 
 Idolatrous nations remained true to their gods, though they were no gods ; but Israel, 
 etc. Too often is it that the professed people of God are put to shame by those 
 who make no such profession at all. And it was as monstrous as it was unheard 
 of (cf. ver. 13). It was as if any should abandon the waters of some bright, pure 
 running fountain for the muddy mixture of a tank or cistern, which at the best 
 is almost repulsive to one accustomed to the fountains of living water. And the 
 folly of such exchange is even exceeded, for not only was it this foul cistern for 
 which the living fountains had been forsaken, but even these very cisterns were flawed 
 and fractured so that they could " hold no water." The force of folly could no 
 further go. And men do the like of this still. As, e.g., when they forsake the faith of 
 the Father in heaven for the creed of the materialist, the agnostic, the atheist ; when 
 they choose rather the peace of mind which contemplation of their own correctness of 
 conduct can afford instead of the joyful assurance of sin forgiven and acceptance with 
 God, gained through Jesus Christ our Lord ; when, in the controversy that is ever 
 going on between God and the world, they decide for the world ; when, reliance is 
 jilaced on a religion of sacraments, professions and forms of worship, instead of that 
 sincere surrender of the heart to God, that spiritual religion which alone is of worth in 
 his sight; when the lot of thr peopleot God is rejected in order that the pleasures of sin 
 may be enjoyed for a season, and in many other such ways. 5. And the sin is of such 
 desptrate character. For see (ver. 8) how it has mounted up and overwhelmed those 
 who from their profession and calling we should have thought would have been above 
 it. The ministers of religion, the priests, pastors, teachers, have all been swept away 
 by the torrent of sin. When those whose lives are given to prayer, to the study of 
 God's holy Word, and to that sacred ministry which should be a bulwark and defence, 
 not only for those for whom, but also for those by whom, it is exercised ; when these 
 
CH. ti. 1—37.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 35 
 
 are seen to bo involved in the common corruption, then the case of such a Church, com- 
 munity, or nation is hopeless indeed. See, too, the insensibility that such sin causes. 
 Ill ver. 2 Jeremiah is bidden " Oo and cry in the ears of Jerusalem." As you would 
 bend down vour face to the ear of one in whom the sense of hearing was all but dead, 
 and would place your lips close to his ear, and by loud, clear iittenince strive to make 
 him hear, so had it become necessary by reason of the insensibility which tlieir sin had 
 caused, to deal with those to whom the prophet wrote. It is one of the awful judo;- 
 nients that overtake the hardened and impenitent, that whereas once they would not 
 liear the voice of God, they at length find they cannot. Oh, then, let the prayer of us 
 all be "From hardness of heart, and contempt of thy Word and commandment, good 
 Lord, deliver us." — C. 
 
 Vers. 14 — 19. — The Divine ideal, how lott and regained. The prophet has in his 
 mind what was God's original thought for Israel, the Divine ideal concerninn him ; and 
 along with that the mournful and utter contrast of his actual condition. An indignant 
 " No " is the answer which rises to the prophet's iips as the questions, " Is Israel a slave ? 
 Is he a homeborn slave ? " are asked. He thinks of God's words (Exod. iv. 22). But 
 then there stares him in the face the most distressing but yet most unanswerable fact 
 that Israel has become altogether such an one. "He is spoiled ; the young lions roar 
 over him," etc. (ver. I.^). Applying the story of Israel to ourselves, we learn — 
 
 I. The dignity and olobt which Gud designed fob his redeemed. They were to 
 be as his suns (cf. John i. 12, and parallels). Think of the ideas which we assnciate 
 with the relationship of sons. Take the story of Abraham and Isaac as setting forth in 
 human form what these relationships are. What afi'ection, what confidence, what 
 sympathy, what affluence, what honour, were Isaac's because he was Abraham's son ! 
 All that appertained to him no doubt manifested his happy consciousness of the place 
 he held in his father's love. Hi.^ looks, his tones, his dress, his demeanour, the respect 
 paid to him, the freedom of his intercourse with Abraham, the influence he had 
 with him, — all made manifest his honoured and his happy position. Now, all that whieli 
 was Isaac's because he was Abraham's son, God purposes should be ours because we 
 are his. Were the Divine ideal fulfilled, all that appertains to us would reveal 
 the terms on which we stand towards God. Our look, our vo ce, our demeanour, our 
 freedom from care, the general brightness of our life,— all would show our happy con- 
 sciousness that we were the "' sons " of our Father in heaven. The delight that Isaac 
 had in Abraham, the delight that children have in their parents (Prov. xvii. 6), 
 above all, as the supreme example of true sonship, the delight that Jesus had in God, 
 we should increasinuly realize. Such is God's ideal for his redeemed. 
 
 II. The sad contrast which actual pacts too often present to this ideal. 
 This contrast Jeremiah presents in a series of vivid similitudes. 1. Israel is "spoiled." 
 'J'hat is, he who had been a beloved son, happy, honoured, and free in his father's 
 affluent home, is made a prey of, bound, beaten, abused, carried off as a slave. 2. Next 
 he is likened to some unhappy traveller who, passing by a lion's lair, has fallen a 
 victim. The beast's talons are fastened in his i|uivering flesh as he lies prostrate on the 
 ground, and its fierce, exultant yells over him make the forest ring again. 3. The 
 next is that of a wasted land, the desolated homesteads, the stripped fields, the torn- 
 down vineyards, the flocks and herds all driven away. 4. The next, that of once 
 goodly cities, their buildings now a heap of smouldering ruins. 5. And last, that of 
 mocked and insulted captives in Egypt. Their captors have inflicted on them the 
 indignity, so terrible in the eyes of a Hebrew, of shaving off their hair ; the words 
 " broken the crown of thy head " rather meaning " shorn the crown of thy head." 
 Now, all these pictures which would call up vivid ideas of humiliation and suffering 
 before the minds of Israel, the prophet suggests in these several sentences, in order to 
 show the contrast between what God proposed for Isiael at the first, and that to which 
 he had now fallen. But that which was true of Israel is true now, once and again, of 
 those who should have continued as God's sons. Does not that verse " Where is the 
 happiness I knew?" etc., and the whole tone of that well-known hymn, describe a 
 spiritual condition all too common? Our very familiarity with it shows how often 
 there has been the sad experience of which it tells. One reason why we love the 
 Psalms so much is that they clothe our own thoughts in the very words we need ; 
 
THE BOOK OP THE PROPHKT JEREMIAH, [ch. n. 1—37/ 
 
 they say what our hearts have often said, and not least do they thus sj)eak for us 
 ■when, as they so often do, they confess the smart, the shame, the pain, and the 
 manifold distress which our sin has brought upon us. 
 
 IIL The CAUSE OF THIS CONTRAST. (Vcr.lT.) Didnot thy forsaking of Jehovah tliy 
 Goil procure thee this ? Let conscience confess if this be not the true explanation of 
 ver. 19. Let us beware of explaining away the true cause, and sheltering our sin 
 beneath some convenient excuse. 
 
 IV. The remedy fob this condition of things. 1. There must be the clear per- 
 ception of its true cause. Ver. 19, " Know therefore aud see that," etc. To further this 
 most salutary knowledge was the reason of so many distresses coming upon Israel, and 
 fur the same reason God will not suffer sin to be only pleasant, nor the cup of iniquity 
 to be free from bitterness. To the riot and gaiety of the prodigal in the " far country," 
 God added on the poverty, the swine-feed ins, the rags and wretchedness, the husks for 
 lood, and the desertion by all his so-called friends,— all that misery that he might " come 
 to himself," which whilst his riches and riot lasted he never would. And this is God's 
 way still. He would have us know and see that it is an evil thing and bitter to forsake 
 the Lord. 2. And when this has been thus known and seen, would we regain what 
 we have lost, we must have done " with the way of Egypt and the waters of Sihor," 
 that is, we must resolutely abandon those forbidden ways in which we have hitherto 
 been walking. Ver. 18 is an earnest expostulation with such as have wandered fi-om 
 God. It seems to say to such, " What hast thou to do to be going after the world's 
 sinful ways, or to be looking for help from her Sihor-like, her foul dark, waters ? Oh, have 
 not her ways harmed thee sufficiently already ? will not the burnt child dread the fire ? 
 Wilt thou again belie thy name, and live rather as the devil's slave than as God's child ? 
 Was the one sorrow and shame which thy sin heaped upon thy Saviour not sufficient, 
 tliat thou must crucify the Son of God afresh, and put him anew to open shame ? Shall 
 the dove vie with the vulture in greed for foul food, or the lamb find satisfaction 
 in the trough of the swine? As soon shouldest thou, child of God, love sin and 
 its evil ways." Let us remember for our great comfort, when well-nigh despairing of 
 deliverance from the dread power of sin, that Christ has as certainly promised to deliver 
 us from this, the power of sin, as be has from its guilt. The earnest look of trust to 
 him, pleading his promise herein, — this repeated day by day, and especially when 
 we know that " sin is nigh," will break its mastery, and win for us the freedom we 
 need. — 0. 
 
 Vers. 20 — 37. — Jehovah's indictment against Israel. Note — 
 
 I. Its many counts. 1. Their sin of outrageous character. It is spoken of as in ver. 20, 
 because it so commonly involved the grossest fleshly sins, and because it involved 
 shameful denial of God. Cf. ver. 27, " Saying to a stock. Thou art my father," etc. 
 And it was chargeable with numerous and shameful murders (ver. 30). Killing the 
 ]irophets of God ; ver. 34, " In thy skirts is found the blood of the souls of the poor 
 innocents," etc. 2. Of long standing. Ver. 20, " Of old time thou hast broken thy 
 yoke " (see exegesis for true translation), " and saidst, I will not serve." 3. In no wite 
 chargeable to God. Ver. 21, " Yet I had planted thee a noble vine," etc. 4. Was 
 ingrained into their very nature (ver. 22). All manner of endeavour had been 
 made to cleanse away the defilement, but its stain remained in them still. 5. Wa< 
 fiercely ai'd determinately pursued after (vers. 23, 24, 33; see exegesis). They 
 " worked all uncleanness with greediness." 6. And this in spite of all that might have 
 taaght them better. (1) Warnings (ver. 25, where they are enti-eated to have done 
 with such wickedness). (2) Miserable results of their idolatry in the past (vers. 26 — 
 28). (3) Divine chastisements (ver. 30). (4) God's great mercy in the past (ver. 31). 
 God had not been to them as a wilderness. (5) The honour and glory God was ready 
 to jilace upon them (ver. 32), like as a husband would adorn his bride with jewels. 7. 
 And their sin is aggravated by (1) their shameless assertion of innocence (vers. 23, 35) ; 
 (2) their persistence in sin (ver. 36), " gadding about to change their way," going 
 from one idolatry to another, one heathen alliance to another. 
 
 II. The miseeabi.b defence offered. It consisted simply in denial (vers. 23, 35). 
 It augmented their guilt and condemnation (ver. 37). 
 
 III. The instkuction from all this for our own day and for cub own lives. 
 
<3H. 11. 1—37.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 37 
 
 1. It shews us, tho terrible nature of sin. (1) The lengths it will go. (2) The gracious 
 btriiurs it will break through. (3) The condemnation it will surely meet. 2. it bids 
 us not trust to any early advantages. Israel was planted " a noble vine, wholly a right 
 seed." ■ 3. The folly and guilt of deiiyihg our sin (cf. 1 John i. 8, " If we say that we have 
 no siu," etc.). 4. The needs be there is for us all of the pardoning and preserving grace 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ. — 0. 
 
 Ver. 22. — The sinner's attempt to wash away his sin. I. Whekeforb he makes the 
 ATTEMPT. Sometimes it is that (1) conscience is aroused ; or (2) the Word of God is 
 loo plainly against him; or (3) Divine providence threatens ominously; or (4) like 
 Felix, he trembles as some Paul preaches. 
 
 II. The manner in which he proceeds. 1. He partially abandons known sin, as 
 Pharaoh, Kineveh, Israel at time of Josiah's reformation, Herod. 2. Multiplies 
 religious services. 3. Is ready with good resolves. 4. There is some stir of religious 
 feeling. Tears are shed, the emotional nature is excited, and there is some temporary 
 tenderness of conscience. Added to all ihis there may be : 5. Self-inflicted punish- 
 ments, bodily mortifications. Such is the washing with nitre and the taking of much 
 soap which the prophet describes. 
 
 III. Its uselkssnbss. The stain of the iniquity is there still (ver. 22). How 
 powerfully is this confessed in the great tragedy of ' Macbeth ' ! After his dread crime, tho 
 conscience-stricken wretch thus speaks — 
 
 " How is't with me, when every noise appals me ? 
 What hands are here ? Ha ! they pluck out mine eyes ! 
 ■Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood 
 Clean from my hand ? No ; this my hand will rather 
 The multitudinous seas incarnadine, 
 Making the green — one red." 
 
 IV. The true cleansing which it suggests and invites us to. Isa. i. 18, " Come 
 now, and let us reason together," etc. — C. 
 
 A'^er. 25. — A dread snare of the devil. I. In what it consists. The persuading tlie 
 sinner that " there is no hope." 
 
 I II. Its TERRiBt.B character. It leads the sinner to excuse himself in bis sin by the 
 false belief that he is delivered to do all his abominations. It encourages him to go on 
 in his sin (cf. ver. 25), instead of resolutely breaking away from it. 
 
 III. How MEN PALL INTO IT. By letting sin become the habit of their lives ; the 
 constant repetition of separate sinful acts forges the chain of habit, which it is hard 
 indeed for any to break through. 
 
 IV. How MEN MAY GET OUT OF IT. 1. By prayerful pondering of the many proofs 
 which show that this suggestion of Satan, that " there is no hope," is one of his own 
 lies. These proofs are to bo found in the plain statements, and in the many examples 
 ofthe Word of God, wliich tell of God's grace to the very chief of sinners. They are to 
 be found also in the recorded biographies and observed lives of many of the people of God. 
 And also in our own experience of God in the past. 2. By then and there committing 
 our souls into the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ for pardon, for restoration, and fop 
 safe keeping for the future. 3. By renewing this self-surrender day by day, and espe- 
 cially when we are conscious that danger is near. So shall we be able to say, " My soul 
 is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowler." — C. 
 
 Ver«. 36, 37.— 2%e restlessness of sin. " Why gaddest thou about so much to change 
 thy way?" etc. 
 
 I. This is a common course of conduct in sinful men. 
 
 II. The reasons for adopting it are of various kInds. 1. Hope of larger gain. 
 
 2. Prospects of increased pleasure. 3. Disappointment with the way that has hitherto 
 been tried. 4. Conscience will not be quiet in continuing the present way, etc. 
 
 III. But it is all of no avail. The same wretched result is reached whichever waj- 
 is taken (vers. 36, 37). 
 
33 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [cii. n 1—37. 
 
 IV. God in all this is sating, " Let the wicked foesake his way, and the 
 
 XTNEIGHTEOCS," ETC. (Isa. Iv.). — 0. 
 
 Ver. 2. — Ood's estimation of his people's love. A remarkable passage : to be taken in 
 its evident meaning, and not to be explained away. What a loving use to make of the 
 past faithfulness and attachment of his people ! He would remind them of them, that 
 they may repent and return. 
 
 I. It is full of interest to him. To those who feel intense love for others, it is 
 exceedingly grateful to find their love reciprocated. High, pure, disinterested love, like 
 that of God for men, never receives equal return ; but what it does elicit it prizes be- 
 yond all its intrinsic value. The parent thinks more of the child's love for him than 
 the child of the parent's. 1. Jt spoke of trust. There is no fear or selfishness in love 
 Divine love awakens. The wilderness could not daunt the simple hearts of faithful 
 Israel. They were willing to take God at his word, and to look for the land of promise. So 
 with respect to Christ. 2. It spoke of gratitude. He had saved them from Egypt's 
 bondage, and made them his own freemen. No service was too arduous ; no trial too 
 severe. Jesus has saved us from sin and its consequences ; we owe to him a deeper 
 gratitude. 3. It spoke of an affection that was its oivn reward. There was delight in 
 the presence and communion of God. Worship was rapture. The chief interest of life 
 was spiritual and Divine. The life of Israel was separated and sanctified to God. Love 
 that could manifest itself thus was a sign and guarantee that the love of God had not 
 been in vain. 
 
 II. Its failings ake condoned by its genctineness. No mention is made of 
 their murmurings, their disobedierice, and unbelief. Where the true spirit of Divine 
 love is exhibited God can forgive defects, etc. To him it is enough for the present that 
 we do our best, and are true and earnest. So at the first signs of repentance he is will- 
 ing to forget all our offences. What is good and real in men, is of infinitely more value 
 to him than we can imagine, and for the sake of that he is willing to cover the guilty 
 past. This is all the more precious a trait in the Divine character that it does not sjiring 
 from ignorance of us. He knows us altogether, our secret thoughts, our down-sitting 
 and our uprising. The readiness of God so to forgive and to overvalue past love and 
 trust on the part of his people, ought to fill us with compunction and shame. We ought 
 to ask, " Was this our love ? " " Lord, when saw we thee an hungred," etc. ? 
 
 III. Though tkansient, it elicits an eteenal attachment and leaves an un- 
 dying MEMOEY. " I remember." It ought to be a strong motive to the Christian to 
 think that his little works of faith and labours of love are so highly prized, and so long 
 remembered. " For thy works' sake." Who would not rather charge the memory of 
 God with such gracious memories, that " heap up wrath against the day of wrath " ? — ^M. 
 
 Vers. 2, 3. — First love to Ood. We have here a picture of the idyllic days of the 
 soul's first love for God. The emphasis is on the sentiment — its depth, reality, and 
 attractiveness. It is spoken of as something in which God delights ; as in the odour 
 of a rose, the beauty of a landscape, or the pleasant melody of a song. 
 
 I. It is atteactive. For its spontaneity ; its spirit of self-sacrifice ; and its abso- 
 luteness. 
 
 II. It is immediate in its influence upon chaeactee and life. Generous 
 saciifice. Dominance of spiritual aims and interests. Peisonal holiness. 
 
 III. It is full op peomise. Not only what it is, but what it may become. In 
 one sense the bud is more valuable than the leaf, or flower, or fruit. It has the interest 
 of growth and the future about it. Israel's best gifts, then, wore to God but " first- 
 fruits." God only knows what capacity of spiritual progress and enlargement is ours ; 
 and he alone can tell the influence and importance of his people's faithfulness. — M. 
 
 Ver. 3. — Guilty instruments of Divine judgment. A great problem in morals. 
 Pharaoh's "heart is hardened," and yet his guilt remains. Nations are raised up to 
 punish Israel for unfaithfulness, yet tliey " oifend " in doing this very thing. 
 
 I. Wheeein the guilt of instruments op Divine vengeance may consist. At 
 least two explanations of this are to bo found : 1. In the distinction between the formal 
 end the material character of actions. The essential evil or gotd of an action is in the 
 
CH. II. 1—37.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 39 
 
 intention, the subjective conditions tliat originate and give ciiaraoter to it. It is sub- 
 jective, not actualized ; or its actualization in one of several forms or directions is in- 
 different. Towards any of these the Divine power may direct the impulse and temiency ; 
 or they may be shut up to them through the unconscious influence of providence, 
 working in wider cycles. 2. In the overdoing or aggravation of the appointed 
 task. 
 
 II. What it is that aggravates the quilt op the wicked instkument of Divine 
 WRATH. It is the character of God's people, and the relation they bear to him. They 
 have been " holiness unto the Lord." In so far as this character is interfered with or 
 injured by the instruments of vengeance, the latter shall be the more guilty. In so far, too, 
 as hatred for this character, either as past or present, in God's people has actuated the 
 vengeance inflicted, the avengers " shall offend." (Of. for a similar sentiment, Matt, 
 xviii. 6.) The Divine Being declares his personal attachment to those he has chosen, 
 and his identification with them. To injure them is to injure him. They also repre- 
 sent, even in their apostasy, the stock from which salvation is to come, and the world's 
 spiritual future. — M. 
 
 Vers. 4 — 9. — Uie indictment of Israel. The chosen nation is arraigned in all its 
 generations and in all its orders. It is a universal and continuous crime ; and it ran 
 parallel with a succession of unheard-of mercies, deliverances, and favours. In these 
 respects it corresponds to the sin of God's people in every age — forgetfulness of past 
 mercy, abuse of present blessings, the corruption and perverseness of those who were 
 entrusted with Divine mysteries and sacred offices. 
 
 I. Jehovah appeals to his character and dealings in the past in disproof of 
 there being any EXcnsE IN them fob the sin of his people. Inquiry is challenged. 
 History is rehearsed. So it always has been. The reason for the sins, etc., of God's 
 people is in themselves and not in God. God is just, and all the allegations and mur- 
 murs of unbelieving and disobedient Israel are lies. So the excuses Christians often give 
 for their faults and offences are already answered in advance. We have received from 
 him nothing but good. His help and protection were at our disposal ; but we forsook 
 him, and sinned against both him and ourselves. 
 
 II. The enormity or the offence is then set forth. The recital is marked 
 by simplicity, symmetry, force, and point. It contains the undeniable commonplaces 
 of history and experience, but the artist's power is shown in the grouping and per- 
 spective. 1. It is ancient and hereditary. The fathers, the children, and the children's 
 children. Just as they could not go back to a time when God had not cared for them 
 and blessed them, so they could not discover a time when they or their forefathers had 
 not shown unbelief and ingratitude^ It is pertinent to ask in such a case, " Must there not 
 be some hereditary and original taint in the sinners themselves ? " What will men do 
 with the actual existence of depravity ? How will they explain its miserable entail '? 
 Human history in every age is marked by persistent wickedness ; Christianity suggests 
 an explanation of this. ' It is for objectors to substitute a better. 2. It consists in in- 
 gratitude, unbelief, and the service of false gods. The Exodus with all its marvels and 
 mercies, the blessings that surrounded them in the present, go for nought. They are 
 forgotten or ignored. And idols, which are but vanity, are sought after to such an ex- 
 tent that their worshippers "are like unto them." This is the history of religious 
 del'ection in every age. Forgetfulness of God, iniiratitude, and the overwhelming in- 
 fluence of worldly interests and concerns, and the lusts of our own sinful nature, work 
 the same ruin in us. How many idols does the modern world, the modern Church not 
 set up ? 3. It is marked hy the abuse of blessings and the breach of sacred trusts. 
 When men are rendered worthless by their sinful practices, they cannot appreciate the 
 good things of God. Divine bounty is wasted, and blessings are abused. Sacred things 
 are desecrated. Those who ought to be leaders and examples are worse than others. 
 The priest who, if any one, ought to know the " secret place," " the holy of holies," of 
 the Most High, is asking where he is. The lawyers are the greatest law-breakers. The 
 pastors, who ought to guide and feed, are become " blind mouths." And the prophets 
 are false. Corruptio optimi pessima. How hard is the heart that has once known 
 God ! " If the light that is in you be darkness, how great is that darkness ! " The 
 backslider, the child of holy parents), etc., who shall estimate their wickedness? 
 
40 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. ii. 1— 37- 
 
 III. Fob all these things men will be beouqht into jubgmetjt. The assur- 
 ance is very terrible : " I will yet plead with " {i.e. reckon with or plead against) " you, 
 . . . and with your children's children will I plead." This is the same Jehnvali who 
 "keepeth mercy for thousands," hut " visiteth the iniquity of the fathers upon 
 the children." There is a solidarity in Israel, Christendom, and the race, which will be 
 brought to light in tliat day. " It "is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living 
 Gild," and to bear our offences in the company of transgressors and the universal con- 
 nection of the world's sin. " But as in Adam all have died, so in Christ shall all be 
 niade alive." Jesus is set forth as the Head and Re|iresentative of the humanity he 
 redeems. Let us seek oneness with him through faith. — M. 
 
 Vers. 10 — 13. — The marvel of unbelief. A magnificent apostrophe. Yet this is no 
 D'ere rhetoric. There is a terrible reality in the phenomenon to which attention is 
 directed. Chittim, the general name of the islands and coast of the eastern Mediter- 
 ranean, stands for the extreme west ; and Kedar, the general name of the Arabs of the 
 desert for the extreme east of the " world," with which the prophet and his hearers were 
 familiar. Our " from China to Peru " would represent its meaning to us. 
 
 I. The considebatjons that make it maevbllous. The people themselves were 
 but dimly conscious of the strangeness of their apostasy. The prophet seeks to rouse 
 tlieir better nature by the most striking comparisons and illustrations. 1. He corn- 
 fares it with the general fixedness of heathen systems. A tendency to subdivide and 
 stereotype life in the family, society, and the state is shown by idolatry. Idolatries 
 reflect and pamper human de.sires and ideas, and enter into the whole constitution 
 of the people. They undermine the moral life and spiritual strength, and flourish upon 
 the decay they have made. Their victims are helpless because they are moribund or dead. 
 The words of Isaiah are justified in such a case ; " from the sole of the foot even unto the 
 head there is no soundness in it," etc. This is the reason of the perpetuation of error 
 and superstition ; but the fact is there all the same, and it is in striking contrast to 
 tlie vacillation and apontasy of God's people. That which only appears to be good is 
 clung to with reverence and tenacity from age to age. That which is acknowledged to 
 be I est, and in part realized to be so, is cast aside repeatedly. 2. Look too at the character 
 of him who is forsaken. He has already told them a little of God's doings (vers. 5 — 7). 
 Now it is sufficient to describe him as the " Glory " of Israel. The heavens, which 
 look at everything all the world over, are to wonder and to be horror-struck at this 
 unhsard-of ingratitude and folly. 3. Disadvantage and dissatisfaction must evidently 
 result. The action of the apostate is twofold — negative and positive. Describe the 
 figure. How great the labour of worldliness ; and its disappointment I 
 
 II. How SUCH conduct can be accounted foe. If it were the result of genuine 
 and honest experience, it might be fatal to the claims of Jehovah. But it is explained 
 by : 1. Tlie influence of the near and sensible. The physical side of our nature is more 
 developed than the spiritual. Our need appeals to us first and most strongly on that 
 side. Abraham, who pleaded for Sodom, lied for Sarah. Jacob, the dreamer of Bethel, 
 is the craven at Penuel. How unaccountable the yielding of the man of God to the 
 false prophet (1 Kings xiii.) ! After David's signal escapes and deliverances, he yet said 
 in his heart, " I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better 
 for me than that I should speedily escape into the land of the Philistines." Elijah, 
 after all his miracles and testimonies, sighs out, " Let me die." Peter, upon whose 
 witness Christ was to found his Church, is addressed as he is ready to sink at the 
 vessel's side, "0 thou of little faith, wherefore didst thuu doubt?" Paul, who had 
 withstood them "that seemed to be pillars," quails beneath the "thorn in the flesh." 
 2. 37(6 demands made by true religion. Self has to be denied. The whole carnal 
 life is condemned. i)i%fnce is insisted upon. We have to "pray without ceasing," 
 to labour and not faint. We have to " press toward the mark for the prize." Patience 
 is demanded, and the Christian profession commits us to indefinite sacrifice. — M. 
 
 Ver. 18. — The unreasonableness of appealing to worldly assistance in spiritual enter- 
 prises. This was the tendency of Israel when her faith grew weak. It is shown even 
 now by those who trust to the arm of flesh, and who seek worldly alliances for the 
 Church. We ought to be deterred from this when we consider — • 
 
en II. 1—37.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, 41 
 
 I. The opposition op the chabactbb and aims of the world to those of 
 spiritual keliqion. 
 
 II. 'J'he ukbeliableness of the worldly. 
 
 III. The dishonour and spiritual peril of such alliances. — M. 
 
 Ver. 19. — God's method of punishing apostasy. I. Its own sin is to find it out. 
 II. That the true character of its actions and the bitter fruits of its sin 
 
 MAT appear. — M. 
 
 Vers. 26 — 28. — The shameless shame nf vMatry. I. Its degrading influence. It 
 violates all morality. Is repeatedly affronted ly tlie discoveries which are made of its 
 wickedaess and fully. It affects the whole nation from the highest and the best. The 
 reason is debased and set at nought. 
 
 II. Calamity is the test of its pretensions. Whilst things go well with the 
 idiilater he forgets God or consciously dishonours him. But when he is overtaken with 
 the consequences of his evil deeds he is not ashamed to call upon God. The unreason- 
 ableness and inconsistency of this conduct are no barrier to it. Beneath the unbelief 
 and worldliness of men there is a tacit belief in the goodness and power of God. In 
 prosperity they are idolaters, in adversity they find their way back to the God they 
 had despised. This is the universal and permanent inconsistency of the world life. — M. 
 
 Ver. 28. — " Lords many and gods many." The multiplicity of idols contrasts with the 
 unity of the true God. It involves inconsistency, spiritual confusion, etc. But here 
 the argument is — 
 
 I. That idolatry is a local, exclusive, and separative principle. 
 
 II. It is thus the creature and the occasion of ignorance, prejudice, and 
 discord. 
 
 III. It is therefore bound to disappear before the light and progress of 
 humanity. — M. 
 
 Ver. 30. — Rejecting the chastisements of Ood. The spiritual benefits of pain, calamity, 
 etc., are contingent for the most part upon their being received in a right way — as from 
 God, and not by accident. They are intended to discover our sins to us, and to lead 
 us to the love and righteousness of God. Where this result is not effected, " chastise- 
 ment is not accepted." 
 
 I. The possibility of refusing chastisement. 
 
 II. Misery and pain are not of themselves ministers of grace. 
 
 III. Rightly received, our greatest griefs may become our greatest mercies. 
 — M. 
 
 Ver. 35. — The plea of innocence a culminating sin. We do not know to which par- 
 ticular charge this reply is given. Perhaps the key is contained in 2 Kings xxiii. 26. 
 An external reformation was considered enough in the reign of Josiah, and it was 
 assumed that the anger of God was thereby turned away. The prophet assures them 
 that this was a mistake, and more than this, a sin in itself. 
 
 I. Deadly sin may exist in the mind which is not specially conscious of it. 
 
 II. Such unconsciousness exhibits perverted moral nature and callousness 
 
 OF heart. 
 
 III. It provokes the more severe judgment from God. — M. 
 
 Vers. 1 — 8. — Israel's desertion of Jehovah viewed in the light of the past. Desertion 
 rather than apostasy is the word by which to describe the offence charged against 
 Israel in this chapter. Apostasy from principle is too abstract and unemotional a way 
 of putting the thing. The spectacle presented to us is that of one person deserting 
 another in the basest and most ungrateful way. It is a desertion without excuse, 
 aggravated by every -circumstance which can ag^rravate it. And now Jehovah sends 
 his servant to bring the reality of this desertion distinctly before the nation. And 
 suitably enough he sends him to " cry in the ears of Jerusalem." Whatever is sounded 
 forth in the capital by a man who has had the words of God put in his mouth may be 
 expected to go to tlie ends of the land. 
 
42 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. ii. 1— 37. 
 
 I. The whole nation is spoken to. God has the power to look at human life in 
 the light of a unity which the individual man is scarcely able to conceive. Here he 
 looks not only at the living generation of those who had sprung from Jacob, but all 
 backward through the past ; each generation is, as it were, a year in the life qf one 
 who still lives, and is able to look back on things that happened centuries ago as events 
 of his own youth. Thus not only is it true that one generation goes and another 
 comes, while Ood abides for ever, but it is also true that while one generation goes and 
 another comes, Israel abides for ever. Israel is spoken to as a full-grovirn man might 
 be spoken to, exhorted in the midst of backsliding and unworthy habits to look back 
 on the far different promise of his youth. 
 
 II. The nation is spoken to as sustaining a most endearing relation to 
 God. Even as a husband loves and cherishes his wife, so God has loved and cherished 
 Israel. Ho looks back into the past, and he sees a great fall. The youth of Israel, 
 according to his present view of it, was a time of love and devotion. No doubt there 
 were murmurings and rebellions ; and indeed, when we think of some of the things 
 that Israel did during the leadership of Moses, the words of God seem exaggerated in 
 speaking of the kindness of Israel's youth and the love of its espousals. But then we 
 must bear in mind that we know only in a very imperfect way what is recorded, 
 wliereas God saw all, and to him the enthusiasm of the people on certain memorable 
 occasions was very significant. He remembered all those events in which Israel rose to 
 the height of its better self, ana indicated the possibilities that might be expected 
 friira it. Such events now stand forth like sunny heights in memory. They arc 
 reasons why God should not allow his people quietly to depart, further and further, 
 into the alienations of idolatry. This is what makes the present attempt at restoration 
 so full of interest, that it is an attempt to bring back the erring spouse to her first love. 
 
 III. The nation is viewed in the light of a past in which Jehovah had made 
 
 GREAT PROMISES AND ENTERTAINED GREAT EXPECTATIONS WITH REGARD TO IsRAEL's 
 
 futgrb. They were reckoned a holy nation. They were as firstfruits of the whole 
 earth, to which he attached an especial value. Levi he brought in sacred nearness to 
 liimself in lieu of the firstborn of Israel. It is one of Christ's distinctions that he 
 has become the firstfruits of them that slept ; and so here there was a nation which 
 was the first to step out from long-accustomed idolatry. The glory of Abraham's faith 
 in the unseen was still, as it were, resting on Israel in the wilderness. Jehovah told 
 the people where to go ; he gave them bread, water, and defence against enemies, in a 
 land of peculiar desolation and danger. Promises for the future were given in the 
 most effective way by distinguished services rendered in the present. When at last 
 the Israelites settled down in Canaan, it might have been said to them, " May you not 
 be sure that he who has freely, amply, and just at the right time, supplied your every 
 need, will also, in all the generations to come, whatever their peculiar experiences', 
 do the same thing ?" God had taken his people into the deepest darkness, and put out 
 every earth-enkindled light, just that he might manifest in greater glory and attrac- 
 tiveness that light which is the portion of all unwavering believers in himself. Thus 
 the past of Israel glorified the God of Israel ; and at the same time, it not only dis^ 
 graced Israel itself, but had in it such elements of God's favour and assiduity as made 
 the national desertion of him a great myster}'. 
 
 IV. Observe how completely it is brought out that the desertion is a 
 NATIONAL ACT. The przests ajipointed mediators in offering and atonement between 
 Jehovah and his people, the expounders of the Law, whose business it was to keep ever 
 manifest the difference between right and wrong ; the shepherds, such, for instance, as 
 «'very father at the head of his household, providing and guiding ; the prophets, who 
 should have been the messengers of Jehovah ; — all these, far away from their righ', place, 
 aie found in the very forefront of iniquity. Jehovah is not only ignored; he is almost 
 treated as if he were unknown. The people carelessly let their superiors think ibr 
 them. When the priest in the parable went by on the other side, the inferior Levite 
 would have thought it presumption to have acted differently. — Y. 
 
 Vers. 10, 11. — Heathendom gives an unconscious rebuke to apostate Israel. From a 
 humiliating contrast of the present conduct of Israel with what might have been 
 Fcaionably expected from the peculiar experiences of the past, God now turns to 
 
cri. It. 1—37.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 43 
 
 make a contrast more humiliating still with heathen nations. The request to look hack 
 is succeeded by a request to look round. Search through every nation, inquire in every 
 idol temple, watch tlie religious life of idolaters, and everywhere yuu will see a fidelity 
 which puts the apostate children of Isiael to shame. The heathen gods themselves 
 Jehovah has indeed put to shame, notably the gods of Egypt and Philistia ; but in spite 
 of all, the heatlien are still clinging to the falsehoods in vvliiuh they have been taught 
 to believe. Their fanatical devotion is, indeed, a pitiable thing, but even in the midst 
 of all that is pitiable, God can find something to be used for good. This very fidelity 
 to what is so false and degrading may be used to point a keen reproach to those who 
 owe but do not pay allegiance to Jehovah. 
 
 There is thus suggested as a topic the unconscious rebukes which the world gives 
 TO the Chdbch. The heathendom on which Jehovah bade his people look has long 
 jiassed away. Jn spite of the fidelity here indicated, the temples have fallen into ruin 
 and the idols are utterly vanished. Nay, more ; increasing signs come in fi-oni year to 
 year, that all heathendom is gradually dissolving, so that, in one sense, Jehovah's words 
 may be said no longer to apply. But we know that, in the spirit of the words, they 
 continue to apply only too forcibly. It is but the form of the idol that passes away ; 
 the reality is the same. Thus he who calls himself and wishes to be thou'i;ht a believer 
 in Christ, does well to look out and see what he can gather by way of spiritual instruc- 
 tion and rebuke from the world. The world has much to teach us if we would only 
 learn. Jesus himself gave the New Testament parallel when he spoke ol the children 
 of the world being wiser in their generation than the children of light. And though 
 we should be very foolish to pay any attention to the world, when it puts on the air of 
 a wiseacre and talks with the utmost self-conceit of things it does not understand, 
 there is all the more reason why we should learn all we can by our own divinely directed 
 observation. How the world rebukes us, for instance, every time we see men of science 
 searching after truth ! Think of the patient attention given day after day with the 
 telescope, the microscope, and all the apparatus of the experimentalist in physics. Think 
 of the perils and privations of the traveller in tropic and in arctic zones. Think of 
 tile unwearied hunting of facts, for possibly a whole lifetime, in order to turn some 
 hypothesis into an established truth. And we also have truth to attain. Jesus and 
 his apostles often spoke of truth which we have to make our own ; understanding it, 
 believing it, and making it part of our experience. But that truth assuredly is not to 
 be won without effort. The question may well be asked if such differences would 
 continue to exist among Christians as do exist, provided they only set themselves in 
 reality and humility to discover all that may be known on the subject-matter of their 
 convictions. A man of science, for instance, would not grudge the labour needed to 
 learu another language, if he felt that an increase of knowledge would prove the result 
 to be worth the labour. But how many Christians can be found who have any notion 
 that it might be worth their while to learn the Greek Testament for themselves instead 
 of depending upon even the best of translations? Again, the woild rebukes us as we 
 consider the enthusiasm of terrestrial citizenship. There is much for the Christian to 
 learn as he contemplates the spirit breaking forth in many men at the thought of the 
 lanel that gave them birth. How the feelings of such men glow to fever heat with the 
 exhibition of a national flag, the singing of a national anthem, or the mention of great 
 military and naval triumphs, with the names of the captains who achieved them! 
 Then think of what is better still, the unwearied labours of social reformers, simply 
 from love to tneir country, to lessen crime, vice, disease, and ignorance. In view of all 
 this deep attachment to the land where the natural man has sprung into existence and 
 is sustained, may not Christ well ask his people, if the heavenly jroAirefa into which 
 they have been introduced by the second birth, is as dear to them ? Then, what a 
 rebuke comes to us as we look at the efforts of commercial tnterprise. What toil there 
 is here ! what daring investments of capital I what quick combinations of the many to 
 attain what cannot be done by the one ! what formation of business habits so as to 
 make easy and regular what would otherwise be difficult, perhaps impossible! And 
 yet it is all done to get that wealth on which the Scriptures have so many warning 
 words to speak. As these gods of the nations were no gods, so the wealth men think so 
 much of is really no wealth at all. We are not to look towards the goal of their 
 desires, nor follow in their steps. But as earnestly as they look towards the goal of an 
 
4i THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. ii.' 1— 37. 
 
 earthly fortune, we should look towards that of a heavenly one. As we stand among 
 men clinging to riches which they cannot keep, and clinging none the less firmly 
 because the riches are hollow, let us bear in mind how easy it is for us who are but 
 sinful mortals also to be deluded away into neglect of the true riches. — Y. 
 
 Ver. 13. — Forsaking thi fountain of living waters. I. There is suggested hebe 
 AN INCONCEIVABLE ACT OP FOLLT. It is a thing which could be believed of no one in 
 his sound senses that he would leave a fountain of living water, knowing it to be 
 such, and enjoying the use of it ; and be contented with a cistern such as is here 
 described. A fountain is that from which he benefits without any trouble ; it is a pure 
 gift of grace, and all he has to do is to take up his habitation by it. Why, then, should 
 he leave a fountain for a cistern, even if the cistern were ready-made? Still less 
 credible is it that he should take the trouble to make a cistern. And the incredibility 
 reaches its height when we are asked to suppose him doing all this with the end of 
 possessing a broken cistern that can hold no water. Such broken cisterns the people of 
 Israel seem to have known only too well. Dr. Thomson says there are thousands such 
 in Upper Galilee, which, though dug in hard rock and apparently sound, are all dry in 
 winter ; at best they are an uncertain source of supply, and the water, when collected, 
 is bad in colour and taste, and full of worms. The whole action, then, of the character 
 here indicated is scarcely conceivable, unless as the expression of fear in a diseased 
 mind. In somewhat of this way we have heard of men acting, who, after having 
 made great fortunes, have become victims to the horrid delusion that they are paiipe -s, 
 and must make some sort of provision against utter destitution. So we might imagine 
 the victim of delusion, with tountains all round him, still insisting upon having some 
 sort of cistern provided. Note, moreover, that the aspect of folly becomes more 
 decided when we consider that it is water which is treated in this way. The water 
 which is offered so freely and continuously in the fountain is a thing which man needs, 
 and yet it is for the supply of that which is a great and may be a painful need that hu 
 is represented as depending on broken cisterns which with great toil he has constructed 
 for himself. 
 
 II. Thebe is mentioned an indisputable act op desertion. Israelites, stung to 
 wrath by a charge of folly, might reply that they had not left a living fountain for 
 broken cisterns. This, however, was but denying the application of a figure ; the 
 historical fact which the prophet had connected with the figure they could not possibly 
 deny. Assuredly they had forsaken God. Not simply that at this time they were 
 without him, but, having once been with him, they had now left him. Had he not 
 taken them up when they were in the weakness, dependence, and waywardness of 
 national infancy? Had they not received all their supplies from him, and gathered 
 strength and prestige under the shelter of his providence? They owed the land in 
 which they lived, and the wealth they had heaped up, to tne fulfilment of his promises, 
 and yet they were now worshipping idols. Their worship was not a momentary out- 
 break like the worship of the golden calf, soon after leaving Egypt, and when they had 
 so long been living in the midst of idolaters. It was a steady settling down into the 
 worst excesses of an obscene and cruel worship, after long centuries during which the 
 Mosaic institutions had been in a place of acknowledged authority. What extenua- 
 tions there may have been for this apostasy are not to be considered here. The thing 
 insisted upon is the simple undeniable fact of the apostasy itself. 
 
 III. This desertion op Jehovah is divinely asserted to bb an act op the 
 grossest folly. We have noticed the figure under which this act is set forth ; and 
 if Israel meant to get clear of a humiliating charge, it was only by denying that God 
 was indeed a fountain of living water. The figure, therefore, resolves itself into a sort of 
 lo<:ical dilemma ; and the fact is clearly shown that in spiritual affairs men are capable 
 of a folly which, in natural affairs, they are as far from as possible. Man holds within 
 him a strange duality of contradictions. In some directions he may show the greatest 
 powers of comprehension, insight, foresight ; may advance with all the resources of 
 nature well in hand. But in other directions he may stumble like a blind man, while 
 around him on every hand are piled up the gracious gifts of a loving and forgiving God. 
 There is no special disgrace to any individual in admitting what a fool he may be in 
 «viiitual things. In this respect, at all events, he is not a fool above other fools. Ho 
 
CH. II. 1—37.] THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, 45 
 
 may see many of the wise, noble, and mighty of earth who have lived and died in 
 apparent neglect as to the concerns of eternity and the relation of Christ to them. 
 Men toil to make securities and satisfactions for themselves, but if they only clearly 
 mw that they are doing no better than making broken cisterns, their toils would be 
 relinquished the next moment. It is but too sadiy plain how many neglect the revek- 
 tions, offers, and promises of God; but who can doubt that if they cuuld only really 
 see him to be the true Fountain of living waters, the neglect would come to an end at 
 once ? — Y. 
 
 Ver. 26. — A shame to he ashamed of. There is, as Paul tells us (2 Cor. vii.), a godly 
 sorrow and a sorrow of the world ; a godly sorrow working out a repentance never to 
 be regretted, and a sorrow of the world which works out death. So there is a shame 
 and humiliation which is profitable in the right way and to the highest degree, when a 
 man comes into all the horrors of self-discovery, and is ready to declare himself, feeling 
 it no exaggeration, as the chief of sinners. Such a shame is indeed the highest of 
 blessings, since it gives something like a complete understandii)g of what human natui-e 
 owes to the cleansing blood of Christ, and to the renewing power of the Spirit. But 
 there is also shame and humiliation such as the gaoler at Philippi felt when he sus- 
 pected his prisoners were gone, and degradation was impending over him at the hand 
 of his masters. It is to such a shame tliat our attention is directed here. The shamci 
 of a thief, not for the wrong he has done, but because he is detected ia the doing of it. 
 Israel, we see, is being dealt with in very plain language. Already the nation which 
 God had so favoured, and from which he had expected so much, has been spoken of as 
 lower than an idolater. And now it is likened to the thief in the moment when his 
 knavery is discovered. Consider, then, as here suggested — 
 
 I, Why the sinner should be ashamed. The thief, of course, ought to be ashamed, 
 and ashamed whether he is caught or not. He ought to come into such a state of 
 mind as to acknowledge his offence and make restitution, even when otherwise his 
 offence might remain undiscovered. He should be ashamed because he has done 
 wrong; because he has broken a commandment of God; because he lives on what has 
 been won by the industry and toil of his neighbours ; because, in addition, he is rob- 
 bing his neighbours of what benefit should have come to them from his own industry 
 and toil. Some have enough to make them bow their heads in despair of ever being 
 able to make restitution ; and it is just when we thus be.iiin to estimate the sense of 
 shame that should fill the thoughts of the thief that we also come to have a clear idea 
 of what a universal feeling amongst mankind shame should be. " The thief should be 
 thoroughly ashamed of himself," you say, "in all possible ways." True, he ought. 
 But now take to mind the home-pressing words of the apostle, " Wherein thou judgest 
 another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things" 
 (Rom. ii. 1). Nay, there may be more to be said for the thief than for thee. Only too 
 often he has a bad start, and no real chance of getting out of bad associations. He may 
 get so hemmed in with temptations as to find it very difficult to resist. And in any 
 case, the thief has no more cause to be ashamed of his theft than any other sinner for 
 his own particular mode of self-indulsence. God does not draw the distinctions which 
 we are compelled to do, between wrongs that are crimes and wrongs that are not 
 crimes. His distinctions are made on altogether different principles — principles which 
 abide. If the thief has wronged his neighbour in one way, be sure of this, that you 
 have wronged him in another. If the thief has sinned against God in one way, you have 
 sinned against him in another. You may go through the world without the slightest 
 fear of anything leaping to the light such as will bring the detective's tap upon your 
 shoulder, and nevertheless you have yet to be bowed in unspeakable bitterness of 
 shame because you have been defrauding God and missing the great end of life. What 
 is wanted is that all of us should come to ourselves — being guided by that unerring 
 Spirit which guides into all trath, and self being revealed by the light of the cross and 
 ot eternity. 
 
 II. Why the sinnek actually is ashamed. Discovery is what he dreads; dis. 
 covery puts him in utter confusion. Discovery is disgrace and ruin, so far as his future 
 Tilation to men is concerned. Henceforth he passes into a suspected and avoided 
 class ; he has lost the mark of respectability and confidence. The sad thing is that, in 
 
46 THE BOOK OF THR PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. ii. 1— 37 
 
 the eyes of a lar^e part of manlvind, discovery seems to make all the difference. Ono 
 may do a great deal of wrong with sucial impimi-ty, if only there is cleverness enough 
 to keep on the hither boundnry of what is reckoned criminal. Those who are most 
 serenely indifierent to the Law of God will fall into all sorts of sins, real and far-reachini^ 
 evils, rather than transgress a certain social code. It is not so long ago since the duel 
 ceased to be a part of the social code of England ; and what a curious standard of 
 honour was involved in such a |.ractioe! There are countries still where a man is dis- 
 graced if he refuses to fight ; if he fijihts and kills his man it is reckoned no shame at all. 
 The most immoral and debauched of men are yet curiously sensitivetowhat they choose 
 to consider points of honour. People will plunge over head and ears into debt, and 
 run into the wildest extravagance, that tliey may flourish a little longer in the social 
 splendour which they know they have not the honest means to maintain. They feel it 
 is a greater disgrace to sink in the world than to he unable to pay their debts. How 
 needful it is for the Christian to take up all positions which he feels to be right — riglit 
 acconling to the Divine will, no matter how much he may be exposed to the re|iroach of 
 folly. Quixotism, and fanaticism ! Let us pray that we may ever have a godly shame 
 when the light of heaven is thrown on us, and we are contrasted with God in his holi- 
 ness and Jesus in his perfect manhood. Let us equally pray that we may never ba 
 ashamed of Jesus. It is a harder thing than many seem to think, even though they 
 are constantly acknowledging in hymn and prayer what they owe to Jesus in the way 
 of gratitude and service. — Y. 
 
 Ver. 37. — Why the confidences of men do not prosper. The people of Israel are set 
 forth, even within the limits of this one chapter, as having multiplied and extended 
 their confidences ; and yet it could not be said that they were prospering. Men with 
 the religious element in their nature strongly clamouiiiig for satisfaction, had turned 
 to the gods of neighbouring nations, and multiplied these objects of worship until it 
 could be said, "Acconling to the number of thy cities are thy gods, O Judah." God 
 coin|iaves them to thirsty people who, with a copious fountain in their midst, work and 
 toil to make cisterns, only to find that the end of their labour is in broken cisterns which 
 can hold no water. And then, when their broken cisterns had proved quite unavailing, 
 they fly to drink of Nile and of Euphrates. Evidently their confidence had not prospcreil, 
 and a continuance and increase of adversity was threatened, the cause of it all being 
 that th<ir cnfidences were such as God, in his righteousness and majesty, must 
 inevitably reject. Consider — 
 
 I. Why this question ab to the sufficiency of human confidences is so 
 IMPORTANT. The answer is that men cannot do without confidences. The events of 
 a single day of life might be registered in such an aspect as to show what a confiding 
 creature man is. Faith has become so much a habit with him as to be almost a 
 second nature. Hence, even in the great concerns of life, we find many reposing trust 
 with very little inquiry. Looking at otliers, v\e find their lives proving the need of 
 confidence by the very frequency of doubt and irresolution in them. They are ever 
 asking the question, yet never quite able to answer it, " What is the best thing for me 
 to do ? " And then, as so often happens, the end of hesitation and perplexity is, that 
 they seem to have no choice at all, and go submissively towards the confidence that 
 Jiappens to be most inviting at the moment. Seeing, therefore, that we are compelle<l 
 to have confidences, it is of the first importance to discover in what sort of confidences 
 jirosperity will alone be found. 
 
 II. Many actual confihences of men prove failures in the end. They approach 
 nien invitingly, they seem lo stand well in the judgment of past generations, they may 
 lie the obiects of very general approval, nnd yet, when they are searched into, when 
 the truth concerning them is got from the bottom of the proverbial well, that truth is 
 seen to be well expressed in the words which say men have not prospered in them. 
 There is, for instance, a very plausible appearance of prosperity in worldly wealth. 
 Many fail to acquire it, and when they acquire it, fail to keep it; but this is held to 
 come in the majority of cases from some fault in the man, and not in the stability of 
 his possessions. To say that a llOsses^ion is as safe as the Bank of England is to 
 utter the strongest conviction as to its stability and security ; and yet such confidences 
 fail because ihey are not enou^jh for the whole man. It is just one of the perils of 
 
CH. II. 1—37.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 47 
 
 wealth that man should let Ms whole heart rest upon it ; should come to let the com- 
 forts, occupations, and hopes of life depend upon external possessions. There is failure 
 also when men put confidence in self, confidence in present views of life, present 
 feelings, present vigour of body and mind, in natural qualities, such as shrewdness, sell- 
 control, presence of mind, and in habits of attention, industry, and promptitude, that 
 have been cultivated. What manifest failure also often comes from too much confi- 
 dence in the judgment of man ! The counsels of the wisest, most experienced, most 
 successful of men, must be listened to with discretion. 
 
 III. The reason why such confidences do not bbino peosperitt is made 
 PLAIN. They are not confidences after God's own heart. Thpy are an ungodly wa.ste 
 of affections and energies given for higher purposes and more durable occupations. The 
 ]iractical lesson is that we should reject all confidences if we are not made quite certain 
 tliat God approves them. Blessed is that man who has found his way, it may be 
 tlirough many losses and agonizing pains, to the truih that tlie unseen is more trust- 
 worthy than the seen, the eternal than the temporal. One who has thus risen into the 
 sphere of Divine realities may have his confidences rejected and despised of men. What 
 do these rejections matter ? He who has firm hold of God himself need not to care 
 for contemptuous words. The hard words of worldly men cannot destroy spiritual 
 prosperity. — Y. 
 
 Ver. 13. — The peoples sin. This is the sum and substance of the charge the prophet 
 was called to bring against Israel. Idolatry was their destroying sin, the root of all 
 their discords and miseries. It involved the renunciation of their allegiance to the God 
 of their fathers, and in this their conduct was without a parallel. No instance of such 
 apostasy conld be found elsewhere. Those whom God had chosen to be witnesses fur 
 him before all the world were put to shame in this respect by the very heathen whom 
 it was their mission to enlighten and bless. But we may regard this as the condemna- 
 tion of the whole human race. " They have forsaken," etc. Note the view we get 
 here^ 
 
 1. Op the being of God and the relation he sustains towards trs. "The 
 Fountain of living waters " (see also ch. xvii. 13 ; Ps. xxxvi. 9). 1. He is emphatically 
 the Living One. The grand distinction of the Bible is that it reveals " the living 
 God." The Name Jehovah, the mysterious and incommunicable Name, was expressive 
 of this. " And God said to Moses, I AM THAT I AM," etc. (Exod. iii. 14). Abso- 
 lute existence — essential, independent, necessary being — is the idea it conveys. The 
 knowledge of such a spiritual Being, of a personality kindred with our own but abso- 
 lutely exempt from its limitations, is our supreme need. David did but utter forth ihe 
 insatiable longing of our nature for its true home, its only possible resting-phice, when 
 he crieii, " My soul thirsteth for God, yea, for the living God." We want, not mere 
 vague impressions of infinitude and eternity, but an Infinite and Eternal One in whom 
 we may trust. Not mere abstract ideas of truth, and beauty, and righteousness, and 
 love, but One of whom these are the unchanging attributes, and to whom, in the frailty 
 of our nature, we can fly for refuge. "Our heart and our flesh cry out for the living 
 God." 2. He is the Giver and Sustainer nf all other forms of spirit-life. The " Foun- 
 tain " of life ; all other existences are dependent upon him. " 'I'he Father of spirits ; " 
 " we also are his offspring ; " " in him we live and move and have our being." 
 Whether our spirit-life once given can ever become extinct again may be a matter of 
 doubt and controversy, but certainly it cannot be regarded as absolute and necessary 
 existence. Though God may have endowed our nature with his own immortality, we 
 do not possess immoitality in the sense in which he does. " He only hath immortality." 
 Ours is not self-existent being , it is dependent on him from whom it came — an out- 
 flow of the " Fountain " of life. 3. He is the Source of all that nourishes, enriches, ajid 
 gladdens this dependent crciture-life — " the Fountain of living waters." " Living 
 waters" are the Divine satisfactions of the humnn soul. The Scriptures abound with 
 similar figurative representations (Gen. ii. 10; Zech. xiv. 8; John iv. 14; Eev. xx4. 
 1, 17). Every age has had its witness to the truth that man's real satisfactions are only 
 to be found in (?od. In Christ that witness is perfected, that truth verified. " This is 
 the record," etc. (1 John v. 11, 12). Here are the conditions of infinite blessedness for 
 every on'e of lis. To be separated from God in Christ, to turn away from him, is to 
 
48 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. hi. 1—25. 
 
 perish, to doom yourself to the pangs of an insatiable hunger and a quenchless thirst. 
 " This is life eternal, that they might know thee," etc. (John xvii. 3). This is death 
 eternal — not to know him, to refuse the knowledge of him, to dream that you can live 
 without him. 
 
 II. The folly and exceeding sintulnbss of sin. The "two evils" here spoken 
 of are but two forms, two sides, of one and the same thing. There is the self-willed 
 departure from Grod, and there is the endeavour in that to lead a self-determined and 
 self-sufficient life. 1. They have forsaken me. All sin is a forsaking of God. Adam 
 turned his back on Q-od when he listened to the voice of the tempter. The prophet 
 rebukes here the shameful idolatries of the peo[)le. Think what idolatry means. It 
 has, no doubt, its fairer side, in which it is seen to be the ignorant but still honest 
 expression of the religious sentiment in men— the blind " feeling after God if liaply 
 they may find him." But think how it arose, and what its issues have been. St. Paul 
 tells us how it was born of the corruption of man's nature, and has ever since been the 
 Satanic means of deepenino; that corruption (see Rom. i. 20, et seg.). So is it with every 
 sinful life. It begins with a more or less intentional and deliberate renunciation of 
 God. The exact point of departure may not be very definitely marked ; but as the life 
 unfolds itself, the fact that this is its true meaning becomes more manifest. How mar- 
 vellous a picture of this dread reality of moral life does our Lord's parable of the proiligal 
 supply ! Such is the history of prodisjal souls. Happy are they who " come to them- 
 selves " before it is too late to return to the forsaken home of the Father. 2. The dream 
 of a self-determined and self-contained life. " They have hewed them out cisfenis " of 
 their own, which shall render them, as they think, independent of the " Fouutaiu 
 of living wafers." Here is the idea of a proud endeavour to find in one's self and one's 
 own self-willed way all necessary good. But it is altogether vain. The cisterns are 
 miserably shallow, and they are " broken." It is true of every man, indeed, that his 
 satisfactions must spring from what he finds within rather than from his earthly sur- 
 roundings; but then he is " satisfied from himself" only because he has learnt to link 
 himself with the Divine Source of all blessedpess — the living God. 
 
 " Here would we end our quest ; 
 Alone are found in thee 
 The life of perfect love, the rest 
 Of immortality." 
 
 w. 
 
 EXPOSITION". 
 
 CHAPTER in. ^'^'■- l--^They sayi etc. ; as the margin of 
 
 Authorized Version correctly states, the 
 That this chapter (to which the first four Hebrew simply has " saying." Various in- 
 verses of oh. iv. ought to have been at- gcnious altempts have been made to explain 
 tached) belongs to the time of Joeiah seems t^'s. Hitzig, for instance, followed by Dr. 
 
 to be proved by ver. 6, and the years im- '^^^"^ S'"^"'' *'.'i"}^'^ ''>?' "saying" may b» 
 ,. . , » „ ■ xu r .• an unusual eqmvalent for "that is to say." 
 mediately following the reformation ni-e •• for example!" or the like; while the Vul- 
 not obscurely referred to m vers. 4, 10. gate and Kashi, followed by De Wette and 
 Naegelsbach gives a striking distribution Kosenmiillur, assume an ellipsis, and render, 
 (if its contents. The general subject is a " It is commonly said," or " I might say." 
 call to " return." First, the prophet shows ^"' f" t*^" "lost natural way is to sup- 
 that, in spite of Deut. xxiv. 1, etc., a return P°f t*'^' "^^yi^e'V" * fragment of the 
 ., / , ■, Kx rpi, u J -1, Bupersioriptioii of the prophecy, the re- 
 18 possible (vers. 1-5). Then he describes ^ainder of which has been accidentally 
 successively an invitation already uttered placed in ver. 6, and that we should read, 
 in the past, and its sad results (vers. 6 — 10), " And the word of the Lord came unto me 
 and the call which will, with a happier in the days of Josiah the king, saying." So 
 issue, be sounded in the future (vers. 11— ^: ^- Michaelis, Ewald, Graf, Naegelsbach. 
 25): this is followed by an earnest exhorta- « ^..^deron^Z K Deut'^^If n' 
 tion, addressed first to Israel and then to which forbade an Israelite who had divorced 
 Judah (ch. iv. 1 — i). his wife to take her again, if in the interval 
 
OH. III. 1—25.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 
 
 49 
 
 she had been married to another. The Jews 
 had broken a siJll more sacred tie, not once 
 only, but repeatedly ; they worshipped " gods 
 many and lords many ; " so that they had 
 no longer any claim on Jehovah in virtue 
 of his "covenant" with his people. Shall 
 he return, etc. ? rather, Oaglit he to return % 
 The force of the term is potential (comp. 
 Authorized Version of Gen. xxxiv. 7, " which 
 thing ought not to be done "). Shall not 
 in the next clause is rather would not. 
 Yet return again to me. So Peshito, Tar- 
 gum, Vulgate, and the view may seem to be 
 coufiiraed by the invitations in vers. 12, 14, 
 22. But as it is obviously inconsistent with 
 the argument of the verse, and as the verb 
 may equally well be the infinitive or the im- 
 perative, most recent commentators render, 
 "And thinkest thou to return to me?" (liter- 
 ally, and returning to me! implying that 
 the very idea is inconceivable). Probably 
 Jeremiah was aware that many of tlie Jews 
 were dissatisfied with the religious condi- 
 tion of the nation (comp. ver. i). 
 
 Ver. 2. — Lift up thine eyes, etc. No 
 superficial reformation can be called "re- 
 turning to Jehovah." The prophet, therefore, 
 holds up the mirror to the sinful practices 
 wliich a sincere repentance must extinguish. 
 The high places ; rather, the hare hills (comp. 
 on ch. ii. 20). In the ways hast thou sat 
 for them. By the roadside (comp. Gen. 
 xxxviii. 14 ; Prov. vii. 12). As the Arabian 
 in the wilderness. So early was the reputa- 
 tion of the Bedouin already won (comp. 
 Judg. vi.). Jerome ad loc. remarks, " Quia 
 gens latrociniis dedita usque hodie iucursat 
 terminos Palsestinse." 
 
 Ver. i. — Wilt thou not, etc. ? rather, Truly 
 from this time thou callest unto me (literally, 
 Bnst thou not, etc. ? a common way of giving 
 an energetic assurance). The prophet ad- 
 mits the apparent revival of faith in Jehovah 
 which attended the compulsory reformation 
 under Josiah, but denies that it was more 
 than apparent (comp, ver. 10). The guide of 
 my youth ; rather, the companion (the familiar 
 associate) ; so in Prov. ii. 17. Comp. ch. ii. 2, 
 and especially Isa. liv. 6, "and a wife of 
 youth" (i.e. married in youth), "that she 
 should be rejected [how incredible a 
 thing ! ] " 
 
 Ver. 5. — Will he reserve ? rather, Will he 
 retain, etc.? It is a continuation of the 
 supposed address of Judah. To the endT 
 rather, everlastingly 9 Behold, thou hast 
 spoken, etc. ; rather, Behold, thou hait 
 spoken it, but hast done these evil things, 
 and hast prevailed (i.e. succeeded). The 
 substance of the two verses (4 and 5) is 
 well given by Ewald : " Unhappily her 
 power truly to return has been exhausted, 
 as not long ago after fresh signs of the 
 Divine displeasure she prayed in beautiful 
 
 JEREMIAH. 
 
 language to [Jehovah] for now favour and 
 abatement of the old sufferings, [but] she 
 immediately fell again into her sin, and 
 carried it out with cool determination." 
 
 Ver. 6. — The Lord said also unto me, etc. 
 It has been suggested (see on ver. 1) that 
 this introductory clause belongs rather to 
 ver. 1. Some sort of introduction, however, 
 seems called for ; Ewald supposes a shorter 
 form, such as " And the Lord said further 
 unto me." The view is not improbable, for 
 although there is evidently a break between 
 ver. 5 and ver. 6, there are points of contact 
 enough between vers. 1 — 5 and the follow- 
 ing discourse to prove that they represent • 
 the same prophetic period (comp. ver. 10 
 with ver. 3, vers. 8, 9 with ver. 1, ver. 12 
 wiih ver. 5, ver. 19 with ver. 4). Backsliding 
 Israel; literally, apostacy Israel. Usually 
 a change or modification of a name is a s'gu 
 of honour ; here, however, it marks the dis- 
 grace of the bearer. Israel is apostacy per- 
 sonified (comp. vers. 14, 22). She is gone 
 up ; ratlier, her wont hath been to go up. 
 
 Ver. 7. — And I said after she had done, 
 etc. ; rather, and I said, After she hath done 
 all these things, she will return unto me. And 
 her treacherous sister. Observe the distim- 
 tiou between the two sisters. Israel had 
 openly broken the political and religious 
 connection with Jehovah (Hos. viii. 4),; 
 Judah nominally retained both, but her 
 heart was towards the false gods (comp. 
 the allegory in Ezek. xxiii., which is evi- 
 dently founded upon our passage). 
 
 Ver. 8. — And I saw, when for all the 
 causes, etc. ; rather, and I saw that even 
 because apostate Israel had, etc. But this i^ 
 exceedingly strange in this connection. The 
 preceding words seem to compel us either 
 (with the Vulgate) to omit "and I saw" 
 altogether, or (with Ewald) to read the first 
 letter of the verb differently, and render 
 " and she saw," taking up the statement of 
 ver. 7 (" saw ; yea, she saw," etc.). The 
 latter view is favoured by a phrase in ver. 10 
 (see note below). The same corruption of 
 the text (which is palseographically an 
 easy one) occurs probably in Ezek. xxiii. 
 13. The error must, however, be a very 
 ancient one, for the Septuagint already has 
 
 Ver. 9.— Through the lightness of her 
 whoredom; i.e. through the slight impor- 
 tance which she attached to her whoredom. 
 So apparently the ancient versions. TIih 
 only sense, however, which the word kol 
 ever has in Hebrew is not " lightness," but 
 "sound," "voice," and perhaps "rumour" 
 (Gen. xlv. 16). Hence it is more strictly 
 accurate to render " through the cry," etc. 
 (comp. Gen. iv. 10; xix. 13), or "through 
 the fame," etc. (as Authorized Version, 
 margin). But neither of these seems quite 
 
 E 
 
50 
 
 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. hi. 1— '^5. 
 
 suitable to the context, and if, as King 
 James's translators seem to have felt it 
 necessary to do, we desert the faithful trans- 
 lation, and enter on the path of conjecture, 
 why not emind Ml into It'lon (there is no 
 vav, and such fragments of true reailings are 
 not altogether uncommon in the Hebrew 
 text), which at once yields a good meaning 
 — " through the disgrace of her whoredom " ? 
 Ewald thinks that Itol may be taken in the 
 sense of k'lon ; but this is really more arbi- 
 trary than emending the text. With stones, 
 etc. (see ch. ii. 27). 
 
 Ver. 10. — For all this ; i.e. though Judah 
 had seen tlie punishment of apostate Israel 
 (ch. iii. 7, 8). So Eashi, Naegelsbaeb, Payne 
 J^mith. Most commentators suppose the 
 phiase to refer to Judah's obstinate wicked- 
 ness (ver. 9), but this gives a weak sense. 
 " Judah defiled the land, etc., and yet not- 
 withstanding her repentance was insincere " 
 —this is by no means a natural sequencu of 
 i<leas. The right exposition increases the 
 probability of the correction proposed at the 
 beginning of ver. 8. 
 
 Ver. 11. — It is very noteworthy that Jere- 
 miah should have still so warm a feeling for 
 the exiles of the northern kingdom (more 
 than a hundred years after the great catas- 
 trofihe). Hath justified herself. "To justify" 
 can mean " to show one's self righteous," as 
 well as " to make one's self righteous," just 
 as '' to sanctify " can mean " to show one's 
 self holy " (Isa. viii. 13), as well as " to make 
 I ne's self holy." In spite of Israel's apoatacy, 
 .-lie has shown herself less worthy of punish- 
 ment than Judah, who has had before her 
 the warning lesson of Israel's example, and 
 who has been guilty of the most hateful of 
 all sins, hypocrisy (comp. ver. 7). 
 
 Ver. 12. — Israel, therefore, shall be re- 
 called from exile. Her sins are less than 
 tliose of Judah, and how long and bitterly 
 has she suffered for them I Toward the north. 
 For Israel had been carried captive into the 
 regions to tlie north of the Assyrian empire 
 (2 Kings xvii. 6 ; xviii. 11). Comp. the pro- 
 mise in ch. xxxi. 8. I will not cause mine 
 anger to fall upon you; rather, my face to 
 fall towards ynu (i.e. upon your return). 
 
 Ver. 13. — The condition of restoration to 
 favour. Israel is to acknowledge, or per- 
 ceive, notice, recognize, her guilt. And hast 
 scattered thy ways ; alluding to that " gad- 
 ding about" in quest of foreign alliances, 
 reproved in the preceding chapter (ii. 36). 
 Comp. " interlacing her ways," ch. ii. 23. 
 
 Ver. 14. — Turn, backsliding children. 
 There is a play upon words, or rather upon 
 senses, in the original, "Turn, ye turned 
 away ones " (comp. ver. 12). To whom is 
 this addressed ? To the Israelites in the 
 narrower sense, for there is nothing to in- 
 dicate a transition. Long as they have 
 
 been removed from the paternal hearth, 
 they are still " sons." For I am married 
 unto you. The same Hebrew phrase occurs 
 in ch. xxxi. 32. Its signification has been 
 a subject of dispute. From the supposed 
 necessities of exegesis in ch. xxxi. 32, some 
 (e.g. Pococke and Gesenius) have translated, 
 "for I have rejected you," but the con- 
 nection requires not " for " but " though," 
 which, however, is an inadmissible render- 
 ing; besides, the Hebrew verb in question 
 nowhere has the sense of "reject" else- 
 where (yet the Septuagint already has it, 
 virtually at least, in ch. xxxi. 32, q.v.'). The 
 literal meaning is /or I have been a lord 
 over you, i.e. a husband. Israel is de- 
 spondent, and fears to return. Jehovah 
 repeats his invitation, assuring Israel that 
 he does not regard the marriage bond as 
 broken. He is still (in spite of ver. 8) the 
 husband, and Israel the bride (comp. Hos. 
 ii. ; Isa. 1. 1 ; liv. 6, etc.). One of a city, and 
 two of a family, "rhe promises of God are 
 primarily to communities, but this does not 
 prevent him from devoting the most special 
 care to individnals. " One of a city, and 
 two of a family," even though there should 
 be but one faitliful Lot in a city, and two 
 such in a family (larger than a city, a 
 single tribe containing only a few mishpd- 
 hhoth, or clans), yet I will admit these few to 
 the promised blessings." Calvin's remark 
 is wortli noticing : " Hio locus dignus est 
 oljserviitu, quia ostendit Deus non esse, cur 
 alii alios cxpeotent; deinde etiam si corpus 
 ipsum populi pntrescat in suis peccatis, 
 tiimen si pauci ad ipsum redeant, se illis 
 etiam fore placabilem." The historical facts 
 to which the prophecy corresponds are 
 variously regarded. Theodoret, Grotius, 
 etc., suppose it to have been fulfilled ex- 
 clusively in the return from Babylon; St. 
 Jerome and others think rather of the Mes- 
 sianic period. Hengstenberg finds a con- 
 tinuous fulfilment, beginning at the time of 
 Cyrus, when many belonging to the ten 
 tribes joined themselves to the returning 
 Judahites. He finds a further continuation 
 in the times of the Maccabees, and in fact a 
 continually growing fulfilment in prepura- 
 tion for tliat complete one brougiit in by 
 Christ, when the promised blessings were 
 poured out upon the whole SwS€K(i<pv\ov 
 (Luke ii. 36). " Zion and the holy land 
 were at that time the seat of the kingdom 
 of G.od, so that the return to the latter was 
 insepnrable from the return to the former." 
 Dr. (lUthe, however, the latest critical com- 
 mentator on Jeiemiah, thinks that the pas- 
 sage can be explained otherwise, viz. " from 
 each city one by one, and from each family 
 two by two." This gives a more obvious 
 explanation ; but the ordinary rendering is 
 more natural, and the explanation based 
 
cii. lit. l--2r).] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 
 
 51 
 
 upon it is in the highest degree worthy of 
 the Diviilo subject. The doubt, of course, is 
 whether in the Old Testament a special 
 providence is extended elsewhere so dis- 
 tinctly to the individual. But Jeremiah is 
 pre-eminently an individuiilizing prophet ; 
 he feels the depth and reality of individual 
 as opposed to corporate life as no one else 
 among the prophets. (At any rate, one 
 point is clear, that the prophet foresees that 
 the number of the exiles who return will 
 be but small compared with the increase to 
 he divinely vouchsafed to them; see ver. 
 16.) 
 
 Ver. 15. — Pastors. In ch. xxiii. 4, the same 
 word is rendered in the Authorized Ver- 
 sion " shepherds," which would be less open 
 to misunderstanding here than "pastors," 
 civil and not spiritual authorities being in- 
 tended (see on ch. ii. 8). The prophecy 
 is, of course, not inconsistent with passages 
 like ch. xxiii. .'i, but as the national con- 
 tinuance of Israel was guaranteed, it was 
 naturid to refer to the subordinate civil 
 authorities. According to mine heart; 
 better, according to my mind; for here, as 
 also in 1 Sam. xiii. 14, it is something very 
 far from perfection which is ascribed to the 
 chosen rulers. " Heart " is sometimes equi- 
 valent to "understanding." 
 
 Ver. 16. — When ye be multiplied; a 
 common fe:iture in pictures of the latter 
 days (ch. xxiii. 3; Ezek. xxxvi. 11 ; Hos. 
 ii. 1). They shall say no more, The ark of 
 the covenant of the Lord. A definition of 
 the Messianic period on its negative side — 
 tlie ark shnll be no longer the centre of 
 religious worship. We must remember that 
 the ark is represented in the Law as the 
 throne of Jehovah, who was " enthroned 
 upon the cherubim " on the lid of the ark. 
 J t is in virtue of this sacramental presence 
 that the temple is called the "dwelliiig- 
 piaces " of Jehovah (e.g. Ps.xlvi.4; Ixxxiv. 1, 
 where Authorized Version has wrongly 
 "tabernacles"). Now, in the Messianic 
 pBiiod the consciousness of Jehovah's pre- 
 sence was to be so widely spread, at any 
 rate in the centre of God's kingdom, the 
 holy city, that the ark would no longer be 
 thought of; it would be, if not destroyed 
 (we know, as a matter of fact, that the ark 
 was destroyed in some unrecorded way), yet 
 at least become utterly imimportant. Jeru- 
 salem would then naturally succeed to the 
 title " Jehovah's throne " (applied to the 
 temple in ch. xiv. 12). Neither shall it come 
 to mind. The same phrase is used of the old 
 heaven and earth as compared with the new 
 (Isa. Ixv. 17). In the concluding clauses, 
 "visit" should rather be "miss," and "that 
 be done" should be "it [viz. the ark] be 
 made." On the whole subject of the pro- 
 phetic descriptions of the worship of the 
 
 Messianic period — descriptions which often 
 wear at any rate a superficial appearance of 
 inconsistency, see the luminous remarks of 
 Professor Eiehm, ' Messianic Prophecy,' pp. 
 161 — 163. At the same time, we must be 
 extremely cautious how far we admit that 
 Old Testament prophecies of the latter days 
 have received a complete fulfilment in the 
 Ohristian Church, considering how far the 
 latter is from the realizable ideal, and also 
 the importance attached in the New Testa- 
 ment as well as in the Old to the continuance 
 of Israel as a nation. 
 
 Ver. 17. — Jerusalem's spiritual glory. 
 With Jeremiah's description, comp. that 
 of Ezekiel, " The name of the city from that 
 day shall be. The Lord is tliere" (xlviii. 3.i). 
 This gives us the positive aspect of the 
 Messianic period (comp. on ver. 16). Jeru- 
 salem shall be the spiritual centre of the 
 universe, because it is pervaded by the 
 presence of the Most High (comp. Isa. iv. 5). 
 May we explain with Dr. Payne Smith, 
 " Jerusalem, i.e. the Christian Church " ? 
 Only if the provisional character of the 
 existing Church be kept well in view. AU 
 the nations ; i.e. all except the chosen people. 
 The word for " nations " (goijlm) is that 
 often rendered " heathen." To the name ; 
 or, hecause of the name, i.e. because Jehovah 
 has revealed his name at Jerusalem. The 
 phrase occurs again with a commentary in 
 Josh. ix. 9, " Thy servants are come because 
 of tile name of Jehovah thy Gud, tor we 
 have heard the fame of him, and all that lie 
 did in Egypt." But we must not suppose 
 that " name " is equivalent to " revelation ; " 
 rather, there is here an ellipsis — " bucause 
 of the name " is equivalent to " because of the 
 revelation of the name," or better still, "... 
 of the Name." The " Name of Jehovah " is 
 in fact a distinct hypostasis in the Divine 
 Being ; no mere personification of the Divine 
 attributes (as the commentators are fond of 
 saying), but (in the theological sense) a 
 Person. The term, " Name of such and such 
 a God," is common to Hebrew with Phcenioian 
 religion. In the famous inscription ot 
 Eshmunazar, King of Zidon, Ashtoreth is 
 called " Name of Baal ; " and to whichever 
 proper name the religious term Name may 
 be attached, it means a personal existence 
 in the Divine nature, specially related to 
 the world of humanity; or, to use the 
 language of Hengstenberg, the bridge be- 
 tween the latter and the transcendent 
 heights of God as he is in himself. In 
 short, the Name of Jehovah is virtually 
 identical with the Logos of St. Johii, or the 
 second Person in the blessed Trinity. 
 Hence the personal language now and again 
 usLd of this Name in the Old Testament, 
 e.g. Isa. xxx. 27, " The Name of Jehovah 
 Cometh from far . . . his lips are lull ol 
 
52 
 
 TEE BOOK OF THE PEOPHET JEEEMIAH. [ch. ni. 1— 25. 
 
 in(Hs;natioii ; " lea. xxvi. 8, " The desire of our | 
 soul was to thy Name; " lea. lix. 19, "So shall 
 they iear the Name of Jehovah from the 
 west, and his glory from the rising of the 
 sun." Comp. also Prov. xviii. 10 ; men do 
 not run for safety to an abstract idea. Nor 
 will all nations in the latter days resort 
 either to a localized or to a spiritually dif- 
 fused Jerusalem in the future, to gratify a 
 refined intellectual curiosity. Neither shall 
 thoy walk, etc.; i.e. the Israelites of the 
 latter days ; not the "nations" before men- 
 tioned (as Hengstenberg). The phrase 
 occurs eight times in Jeremiah, and is 
 always used of the Israelites. The word 
 rendered "imagination" is peculiar {sh&ri- 
 rutli). As Hengstenberg has pointed out, it 
 occurs independently only in a single pas- 
 sage (Deut. xxix. 18) ; for in Ps. Ixxxi. 13, 
 it is plainly derived, not from the living 
 language, from which it had disappeared, 
 but from the written. (The close phraseo- 
 logical affinity between the Books of 
 Deuteronomy and Jeremiah has been already 
 indicated.) The rendering of the Autho- 
 rized Version, which is supported by the 
 Septuagint, Peshito, Targum, is certainly 
 wrong; the Vulgate has pravitatum ; the 
 etymological meaning is "stubbornness." 
 The error of the versions may perhaps have 
 arisen out of a faulty inference from Ps. 
 Ixxxi. 13, where it stands in parallelism to 
 " their counsels." 
 
 Ver. 18. — The reunion of the separated 
 portions of the nation (comp. Ezek. xxxvii. 
 16, 17 ; Hos. i. 11 ; Isa. xi. 12, 13). Observe, 
 Israel is converted first, then Judah. This 
 detail in the prophecy is not to be pressed. 
 Not that the force of any prophecy ia to be 
 evaded, but that in this case the form of the 
 statement is so clearly conditioned by the 
 abounding sympathy of the prophet for 
 the ten tribes. These had been so long 
 languishing in captivity that they needed 
 a special promise. The form of the promise 
 is imaginative ; this seems clearly to follow 
 from the fact that in no other passage (ex- 
 cept, indeed, ch. xxxi. 9) is there a reference 
 to the spiritual primacy of Ephraim in the 
 restored nation. Oat of the land of the 
 north ; i.e. Assyria and (ch. i. 14) Babylonia. 
 The Septuagint inserts, " and from all the 
 countries," agreeably to ch. xvi. 15 ; xxiii. 
 3; xxxii. 37. Of course, it would not be 
 an accurate statement that the exiles from 
 Judah were confined to " the land of the 
 north." This is a fair specimen of the 
 supplementing tendency of the Septuagint, 
 though it is possible, and even probable, 
 that the Hebrew text has suffered in a less 
 degree from the same tendency on the part 
 of later copyists. 
 
 Ver. 19. — The concluding words of the 
 last verse have turned th« current of the 
 
 prophet's thoughts. "Unto your fathers." 
 Yes ; how bright the prospect when that 
 ideal of Israel was framed in the Divine 
 counsels ! Condescending accommodation 
 to human modes of thought. But I said 
 fails to represent the relation of this verse 
 to the preceding. Kender, I indeed had 
 said, and continue. How will I, etc. Put 
 thee among the children. This is a very 
 common rendering, but of doubtful correct- 
 ness. It assumes that, from the point of 
 view adopted (under Divine guidance) in 
 the prophecies of Jeremiah, the various 
 heathen nations were in the relation of 
 sons to Jehovah. This is most improbable ; 
 indeed, even Exod, iv. 22 does not really 
 favour the doctrine of the universal father- 
 hood of God in the fullest sense of the word. 
 Moreover, the pronoun rendered " thee " ia 
 in the feminine, indicating that the 
 prophet has still in his mind the picture 
 of Israel as Jehovah's bride. It would 
 surely be an absurd statement that Jehovati 
 would put his bride among the children I 
 Eender, therefore, How will 1 found thee 
 with sonst comparing, for the use of the 
 Hebrew verb, 1 Sam. ii. 8, and for that of 
 the preposition, Isa. liv. 11. It is, in fact, 
 the familiar figure by which a family or a 
 nation is likened to a building (" house of 
 Abraham," "of Israel"). Jehovah's purpose 
 had been to make Abraham's seed as the 
 dust of the earth (Gen. xiii. 16). Instead 
 of that, the restored exiles would be few, 
 and weak in proportion, so that the Jewish 
 Church of the early restoration period ia 
 represented as complaining, " We made not 
 the land salvation, neither were inhabitants 
 of the world produced " (Isa. xxvi. 18). A 
 special Divine promise was needed to sur- 
 mount this grave difficulty. A goodly . . . 
 nations; rather, a heritage the moat 
 ghriuus among the nations. So in Ezekiel 
 (XX. 6, 15) Palestine is described as " the 
 glory of all lands." The want of irrigation, 
 and the denudation of the land, have no 
 doubt much diminished the natural beauty 
 and fertility of Palestine; but wherever 
 moderate care is bestowed on the soil, how 
 well it rewards it ! Thou shalt call me ■ . . 
 Shalt not turn; rather, thou wilt call me 
 . . . wilt not turn. It is the continuation 
 of Jehovah's ideal for Israel. In response 
 to his loving gifts, Israel would surely 
 recognize him as her Father, and devote to 
 him all her energies in willing obedience. 
 Father is here used, not in the spiritual and 
 individualizing sense of the New Testa- 
 ment, but in such a sense as a member of a 
 primitive Israelitish family, in which the 
 palria potestat was fully carried out, could 
 realize. The first instance of the indi- 
 vidualizing use of the term is in Eoolus. 
 xxiii. 1 — 4. (For the Old Testament use, 
 
CH. III. 1—25.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 
 
 5.T 
 
 comp. Isa. i. 2; Ixiii. 16; Exod. iv. 22; 
 Hos. xi. 1.) 
 
 Ver. 20. — Surely. The word acquires an 
 adversative sense from the context, as in 
 Isa. liii. 4, and is virtually equivalent to 
 " but surely." From her husband ; literally, 
 from her friend or companion. The choice 
 of the word seems to indicate the inner 
 hoUowness of the married life. The 
 woman only sees in her husband the 
 companion, behind whose back she oan 
 follow her own inclinations. 
 
 Ver. 21. — Another of those rapid transi- 
 tions so common in emotional writing like 
 Jeremiah's. The prophet cannot bear to 
 dwell upon the backsliding of his people. 
 He knows the elements of good which still 
 survive, and by faith sees them developed, 
 through the teaching of God's good provi- 
 dence, into a fruitful repentance. How 
 graphic is the description ! On the very 
 high places (or rather, bare, treeless lieights 
 or downs, as ver. 2) where a licentious 
 idolatry used to be practised, a sound is 
 heard (render so, not was heard)— the 
 sound of the loud and audible weeping of 
 an impulsive Eastern people (comp. oh. vii. 
 29). Tor they have; this evidently gives 
 the reason of the bitter lamentation ; render, 
 hecause they have. 
 
 Ver. 22. — Eetum, ye backsliding children, 
 etc. ; more literally, Turn, ye turned-away 
 sons; I will heal your turnings (as Hos. xiv. 
 4). It seems strange at iirst sight that this 
 verse does nut stand before ver. 21. But the 
 truth is that ver. 21 describes not so much 
 the " conversion " of the Jews as their 
 willingness to " convert " (an archaism of 
 King James's Bible, which we may well 
 regret), or "turn" to God. Christ must 
 touch, or at least make his presence felt, in 
 order that the sick man may be healed ; a 
 special call of God must be heard, in order 
 that the sinner may truly repent. Behold, 
 we come unto thee. Efficacious, and not 
 " irresistible " grace, is the doctrine of the 
 Old Testament. 
 
 Ver. 23. — Truly in vain, etc. An obscure 
 and (if corruption exists anywhere) corrupt 
 passage, which, however, it is ho|ieless to 
 attempt to emend, as the corruption con- 
 sists partly in wrong letters, partly in 
 omitted letters or words lor botli); and, 
 moreover, the text employed by the Septua- 
 , gint appears to have presented the same 
 difBculty. The latter point is especiully 
 
 noteworthy. It is far from proving that 
 the traditional text is correct ; what it dncK 
 suggest is that the writings of the prophets 
 were iit first written down in a very insecure 
 manner. Tlie rendering of the Authorized 
 Version is substantially that of Hitzig, who 
 explains "the multitude of [tlie] moun- 
 tains," as meaning "the multitude of gods 
 ■worshipped on the mountains " — too forced 
 an expression for so simple a context. It 
 seems most natural to suppose (with Ewald, 
 Graf, and Keil), a contrast between the wild, 
 noisy cultus of idolatrous religions, and the 
 quiet spiritual worship inculcated by the 
 propliots. Compare by way of illustration, 
 the loud and ostentatious demonstrations 
 of Baal's ritual in 1 Kings xviii., with 
 the sober, serious attitude of Elijah in the 
 same chapter. The word rendered in tlie 
 Authorized Version " multitude " has a still 
 more obvious and original •meaning, viz. 
 " tumult ; " and probably the Targum is not 
 far from the true sense in rendering, " In 
 vain have we worshipped upon the hills 
 and' not for profit have we raised a tumult 
 on the mountains." 
 
 Ver. 24.— For shame ; rather, and the 
 Sliame (i.e. the Baal). The words Bosheth 
 (" Shame ") and Baal are frequently inter- 
 changed ; so again in ch. xi. 18 (oojnp. Hos. 
 ix. 10). So, too, Jerubbesheth stands for 
 Jerubbaal (2 Sam. xi. 21 ; comp. Judg. vi. 
 32) ; Ishboaheth for Eshbaal (2 Sam. ii. 8 ; 
 romp. 1 Chion. viii. 83). Hath devoured 
 the labour of our fathers, etc. ; a condenser i 
 way of saying that Baal-worship has brought 
 the judgments of God upon us, our floi'ks 
 and herds, and all the other " labour " (or 
 rather " wtalth," i.e. fruit of labour) of our 
 fathers, being destroyed as the punishment 
 of our sins (comp. Dent, xxviii. 30 — 32). 
 Another view is that the " devouring " had 
 til do with the sacrifices, but it is improbable 
 that the sacrificial worship of Baal had 
 developed to such a portentous extent, and 
 the former explanation is in itself more 
 suitable to the context. 
 
 Ver. 25. — We lie down ; rather. Let us lie 
 down; said in despair, just as Hezekiah 
 says, " Let us enter the gates of Sheol " 
 (Isa. xxxviii. 10). A prostrate position is 
 the natural expression of deep sorrow (2 
 Sam. xii. 16; xiii. 31; 1 Kings xxi. 4). 
 Our confusion covereth us; rather. Let our 
 confusion (or reproach)' cover us (like a 
 veil) (comp. ch. li. 51 ; Pb. Ixix. 7). 
 
 HOMILETICS. 
 
 Yer. 4. — Filial reminiscences of God. We are here brought from tlie view of God as 
 a Husband to that of him as a Fatlier, for anly when we consider his various relations 
 
r;4 THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [cn. in. 1—25. 
 
 with us can we measure the depth of our sin or the motives we have for returning 
 to him. 
 
 I. God's people can call to mind old memories of his fatheelt goodness. 
 1. In our own experience of his grace he has revealed himself as a Father. He is the 
 Source and Origin of life. In him we continue to exist (Acts xvii. 28). He is constantly 
 protecting us and enriching us with his gifts. 2. God may be discerned as the Com- 
 panion of his people's early days. (1) He was with his people — a Companion — not 
 merely blessing them from a distance. (2) He was with his people as a Friend, holding 
 kindly intercourse, condescending to intimate communion, accompanying them as a Stay 
 and Solace through their pilgrimage. (3) He was with his people in t\iw youth. None 
 are too young to be honoured with the friendship of God. Happy are they who have 
 been in communion with God from their youth up, instead of only coming to him at the 
 eleventh hour ! They enjoy the most of him, have longest time for his service, have 
 most advantages for growing and ripening in religious experience. As we look back on 
 our early days, we may often discern how God has been with us in dark scenes where 
 his presence was unrecognized at the time, and has been sustaining and cheering us 
 when we have not recofinized the hand from which the comfort was coming. 
 
 II. Old memobies op God's fatherly goodness may be abused. It would seem 
 that the Jews often fell into this mistake. 1. We may assume that the past blessing of 
 Ood is all that we need. Because we once enjoyed his presence we may be too ready 
 to rest satisfied as though all must be well with us henceforth for ever. But we cannot 
 live in the past. It is vain to waste our time in idle self-congratulations on our early 
 devotion if later years have found us wandering far from God. We must not say that 
 all is done that our souls need if we can point to an early time when we were introduced 
 to filial relations with God. It is nothing to us that God was the Friend of our youth 
 if he has been rejected in our later days. Indeed, this early memory will be our 
 accuser for subsequent unfaithfulness. 2. We may assume that if Ood was once our 
 Father and Friend he will always stand in those relations to us. But if we lose our 
 tirst love we lose the blessings which are connected with it. The past is no security for 
 the present. The momentous questions is. Do we now stand in a true filial relation 
 with God ? Is he still our Friend ? If he was valued as a Companion in the fresh- 
 ness of youth, is he not wanted in the toils and battles of manhood ? will he not be 
 needed in the weariness of age ? in the darkness and mystery of the lonely passage of 
 death ? 
 
 III. Old memories of God's fatherly goodness may be considered with profit. 
 1. They may reveal our suhseijuent unfaithfulness. We compare ourselves with our- 
 selves and see how we have fallen. 2. , They may lead us to see the blessedness of an 
 earlier estate, to be awakened to the loss we have suffered, and to be roused to the 
 desire for a return to it. 3. They may help us to trust God. He was our Father and 
 our Friend in early days. He is changeless. If, then, we repent and return to him, will 
 he not permit us still to cry, " My Father ; " and again to enter into the blessed in- 
 fluences of friendly fellowship with him ? So the prodigal remembers his early days, and 
 is induced by old memories to say, " I will arise and go to my father " (Luke xv. 18). 
 
 Ver. 10. — Insincere repentance. I. Repentance is insincere when it does not 
 POSSESS the whole heart. Judah is accused of being " false," and of turning to 
 Jehovah "feignedly," because she did not turn "with her whole heart." 1. True 
 repentance must be found in the heart. Mere confession with the lip without a change 
 of feeling is a mockery (Isa. xxix. 13). Simple amendment of external conduct is no 
 repentance unless it is prompted by a sincere desire to do better, by a return to the love 
 of goodness. 2. True repentance must possess the whole heart. It is not consistent 
 with a lingering affection for sin. The penitent must not look back regretfully, like 
 Lot's wife, on the pleasant things he is renouncing. Repentance must be for sin, not for 
 certain sins selected from the rest for condemnation ; it means the desire to abandon 
 all wickedness. People sometimes repent insincerely by confessing and abandoning 
 trifling faults, while they cling to greater evils. A right repentance searches the dark 
 depths of the soul and brings forth old buried sins, forgotten but not yet forgiven, dar- 
 ling bosom sins which have grown into the very life and can only be torn out from a 
 bleeding heart, common sins whicli are classed among a man's habits and which lie 
 
CH. III. 1—25.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEEEMIAH. 55 
 
 excuses to himself as being " his ways." Such repentance is no superficial emotion, no 
 sentiment of the hour stirred in the church only to be forgotten as soon as a man 
 re-enters his worldly associations. It must be thorough, profound, overwhelming. Yet 
 it is not to be measured by the number of tears shed, but by its practical fruits, the 
 solid proofs of a desire for a better life (Luke iii. 8 — 14). 
 
 II. Insikceke repentance cannot be accepted by God. 1. Such repentance is 
 inej'cus ible. Judah had failed to profit by the solemn lessons of her sister's sin and 
 ruin. In face of such terrible warnings, how foolish to cling still to the old life even 
 while pretending to turn from it! 2. Such repentance is ouij' self-deceiving. The 
 hypocrite would deceive God, but failing to do this he deceives himself. He is the dupe 
 of his own design. For he imagines that his fraud will serve him some good purpose, 
 whereas it is detected by God and frustrated from the first. 3. Such repentance is 
 useless. Judah gains no deliverance by her feigned repentance. God is Spirit, and can 
 only be approached in spirit (John iv. 24). Any other pretended return to him is no 
 return. We do not come to Gud by simply entering a church, nor please him by the 
 mechanical observance of an external service (Isa. i. 11 — 16). The insincere repentance 
 is a double mistake, its trouble is all wasted, its tears all shed to no purpose, and the 
 falsehood of it is a new oifence increasing guilt before God. To turn to God only with 
 the Up is thus not merely not to turn to him at all, it is to wander still further from 
 him. Let us beware, therefore, of using the familiar language of conlession if we are 
 not really desiring to renounce sin and be '•econciled to God. Let repentance, of all 
 things, be true and whole-hearted. 
 
 Vers. 12, 13. — God inviting the return of his sinful children. This invitation is 
 offered to "backsliding Israel" in preference to "false Judah" (ver. 11). There 
 seemed to be more hope of the former. Openly wicked men are more easily led to 
 re|ientance than hypocritical pretenders to goodness. Christ came not to call the 
 righteous, but sinners (Matt. ix. 12, 13), and his invitations were more readily accepted 
 by publicans and reprobates than by Pharisees. 
 
 I. The invitation is from God. Before men return to God he seeks them. The 
 Father calls to his children while they are yet in rebellion against him. In the quarrel 
 between man and God all the wrong is on man's side, yet God is the first to bring about 
 a reconciliation. 1. We have not to reconcile Ood to us, but to be reconciled to him 
 (2 Cor. V. 20). Any difficulty on God's side has been removed by his owu act in the 
 sacrifice of his Sun. Now it only remains for us to return. 2. We have not to wait 
 for Ood's willingness to receive us, nor to persuade him. Already he has inviied us, 
 and he now waits to be gracious. 
 
 II. The motive for the' invitation is the goodness op God. We must not 
 imagine that there is in us any inherent attractiveness, any merit which in the eye of 
 God outweighs our sin, any valuable qualities which njake us necessary to him. The 
 reason for God's anxiety to have his children return is simply his love for them, and 
 this love is not derived from their worthiness, but from his nature. 1. It is because 
 Ood is " merciful," i.e. this is his peculiar characteristic ; and mercy is exercised not 
 aoioiding to desert, but according to need. Therefore the less man's de.sert is the 
 greater will be the outgoing of God's mercy, because the deeper will be man's wretched- 
 ness. 2. It is because God's anger is temporary, while his mercy " endureth for ever." 
 (iod says, " I will not keep mine anger for ever ; " but he does keep his love lor ever. 
 We say " God is love," but we do not say " God is anger." He exercises anger when 
 this is required, but to serve an end — to establish justice, to punish sin, etc., whereas he 
 exercises love for its own sake. This latter is more fundamental, in the very heart of 
 God, and outlives the wrath. Hence behind the passing anger that denounces and 
 punishes, there is the eternal love that invites to reconciliation. 
 
 III. The one condition for accepting the invitation is the acknowledgment 
 OF GUILT. " Acknowledge thine iniquity." 1. This acknowledgment is necessary. 
 We can only return to God by forsaking our sin, for it is just our sin which keeps us 
 from him, and as long as this is retained must still keep us from him. Indeed, separa- 
 tion from God and sin are but two aspects of the same spiritual condition. We can 
 only be forgiven when we admit our guilt, and only he welcomed by God when wc 
 humble ourselves before him. 2. This acknowledymeut must be mmjilete. It niuht 
 
56 THE BOOK OF THE PHOPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. iii. 1— 25. 
 
 include a recognition of (1) positive disobedience — " thou hast transgressed," etc. ; (2) 
 the multitudinous variety of sins—" and hast scattered thy ways; " (3) the disregard of 
 God's voice even when he has spoken in love and urged us to return. 3. This acknow- 
 ledgment is sufficient. " Only acknowledge thine iniquity. No sacrifice, penance, or 
 partial reformation is first required on our part. The new and better life must begin 
 with our return to God. 
 
 Ver. 14 (second clause, "and I will take you," etc.). — Bdigioua individualism. I. 
 By nature men live separate, individual lives. Man is social, yet he is personal. 
 ■ 1. Each soul has its own personality, separate from that of every other soul by im- 
 measurable oceans. Sympathy unites souls, but does not destroy this individuality of 
 being. Each soul has its own secret life, and the deeper the spiritual experience is the 
 more lonely, hidden, and incommunicable will it be. There are dark recesses of con- 
 sciousness in the shallowest heart which no stranger can fathom (Prov. xiv. 10). 2. 
 Each soul has its own separate course to live, its peculiar privileges and privations, 
 blessings and trials, its duties which no other soul can fulfil, its reserved heritage, its 
 vast destiny. Starting from near points, our lives may branch out in all direotious till 
 they are utterly isolated in the lonely solitudes of the infinite possibilities of being. 3. 
 Each soul has its own necessary variety of nature. No two are alike. The unity of 
 mankind is a oneness, not of unison, but of harmony. 
 
 II. God deals with men separately and individually. 1. His love is towards 
 men as individuals. The size of the human family is no impediment to this with an 
 Infinite Being who possesses infinite capacities of thought and affection. Even among 
 men the parent of a lar^e family has as individual a love for each of his children as the 
 parent of a small family. 2. God approaches man individually. The outv^ard voice 
 (if invitation is general : " whosoever will " is invited. But the inward voice, in con- 
 science and spiritual communion, is private. Yet this fact is not a restriction on our 
 enjoyment of God's favours, for he speaks thus inwardly to all who will listen to him. 
 
 HI. Men must return to God separately and individually. Each must repent, 
 trust, pray for himself. A nation can only return as the units return, " one of a city, 
 and two of a family." We must enter the " wicket-gate " in single file. No association 
 with Christendom, a Christian nation, a Church, a Christian family, will secure our 
 personal redemption. Even families are divided here. Each must say for himself in 
 the singular, " /will arise ; " " My Father ; " " My God." Still : (1) We mtiy help one 
 another, and owing to the influence of sympathy there may be " two of a family," while 
 perhaps there is only " one of a city ; " (2) after we return to God we may naturally 
 unite in his service as his family, his Church, the one body of which Christ is the Head ; 
 and (3) though a few may return at first, it is to be the work of these few to increase 
 their number till the whole apostate family is reconciled to God. 
 
 Vers. 16 — 18. — The hlessings of redemption. The blessings which are here described 
 as following the restoration of Israel are partly national and material in form, but they 
 contain, in the heart of them, those deep spiritual elements of the Messianic ideas which 
 constitute the blessings of redemption. Note the chief characteristics of these — 
 
 I. The negative characteristics op the blessings op redemption. 1. Freedom 
 from the old life of sin. " Neither shall they walk any more after the stubbornness of 
 their evil hearts." This implies (1) that the conquest of sin is itself a good to (3-od's 
 people, and not merely a painful and self-denying means for securing some other goad ; 
 and (2) that this conquest is to be complete and final. Bad as were the subsequent 
 failings of the Jews after the Captivity, they were cured for ever of their old sins of 
 idolatry and of participation in the immoral and cruel rites of their neighbours' religions. 
 Many as are the defects and falls of the Christian, these do not equal the evil of his old 
 life. 2. A change from the old habits of religion. The Jews will no longer have the 
 ark, the seat of a localized Divine presence, and they will not want this. We can 
 never exactly recover the past. Paradise cannot be regained. The new Jerusalem will 
 not be like the old garden of Eden. The restored Christian cannot return to the primi- 
 tive innocence of childhood. But he need not altogether regret this impossibility. 
 With the innocence of childhood there were associated its ignorance, its weakness, its 
 restraints. With redemption there comes a new and larger life. The ark is lost ; but 
 
CH. III. 1—25.] THE BOOK OF THE PKOPHET JEREMIAH. 57 
 
 this need not be regretted since with it the limitations and material conditions of the 
 Divine visitations are gone also. 
 
 II. The positive ohabacteristics op the blessings op eedemption. 1. Tlie enjoy- 
 ment of God's full presence. God's throne is to be no longer the mercy-seat at the arlc : 
 (1) confined to one small sanctuary ; (2) separating the religious from the secular ; (3) 
 hidden from the common gaze of men. All Jerusalem will be God's throne. God will 
 dwell in the midst of his people, revealed to all, consecrating the affairs of daily life 
 (Zech. xiv. 20). 2. The glorifying of Ood in the earth through the instrumentality of 
 his people. " All the nations shall be gathered," etc. God's people are honoured by 
 being the means of attracting others to him. Thus they are " a city set on a hill " 
 (Matt. V. 14). The blessings of the gospel in Christ are offered to the world. The 
 glory of the Saviour and the joy of his people will be completed by the acceptance of 
 them by all nations. 3. Brotherly love. The old enmity of Israel and Judah will 
 cease (Isa. xi. 12, 13). Christ is the Prince of peace. His advent prepared the way 
 for peace on earth. As his kingdom spreads, peace must also extend over the troubled 
 world. Even now the individual Christian must find his joy in exercising the peaceful 
 spirit and practising brotherly love (Heb. xiii. 1). 
 
 III. The conditions fob eecbiving the blessings op bedemption. 1. Beturn to 
 Ood in repentance. This is implied in the previous verses. Repentance precedes restora- 
 tion. 2. Multiplication of numbers. These blessings were to come after the people 
 were " multiplied and increased." We cannot expect the full Christian blessings till 
 the Church has grown largely in numbers. God has special blessings for his Church. 
 The Holy Spirit came at Pentecost, when the whole Church was gathered together 
 (Acts ii. 1). These privileges of Christianity are of such a nature that they are not 
 lessened by distribution, but the more they are scattered abroad, the more valuable do 
 they become to every individual who enjoys them. 3. A fitting time. These blessings 
 were not enjoyed at once. For some we still wait. " The kingdom of heaven is like a 
 grain of mustard seed." Its growth is gradual ; so is also the enjoyment of its blessings. 
 
 Ver. 22. — Invitation and response. I. The invitation. 1. The ohject of the in- 
 vitation. God calls on his people to return to him. Not simple reformation of morals, 
 but the restoration of personal relations with God as the Father of his people is desired. 
 2. The condition of the invited. They are apostate children ; i.e. (1) they are far from 
 God, though (2) they were once near to him, and (3) they are still his children. As 
 sinners, men have all lost a first estate of innocence, but have not lost, and can never lose, 
 their filial relationship to God. Hence (1) the greatness of their guilt and (2) the hope 
 of their restoration. 3. The accompanying promise. God invites and does not drive ; 
 he here exchanges threats for promises. God will heal, not simply receive his children. 
 God alone can heal their apostacies. Man repents of sin, but God cures it. It is our 
 part to turn from the evil, God's to destroy that evil. Sin is washed out, not by the 
 tears of penitence, but by the blood of Christ. The healing is of the apostacies them- 
 
 ■ selves, not simply of their painful effects. Christ saves from sin. This is what God 
 most requires .in us, and what we most need for our own blessedness (John i. 29). 
 
 II. The ebsponse. 1. An expression of willing obedience. "Behold, we come 
 unto thee." This response must be voluntary. God waits for man's return, does not 
 force it ; since what he desires is not the abject submission of vanquished enemies, but 
 the loving reconciliation of children. This response must also be active. " We come." 
 The penitent does not simply " accept " the grace of God in a passive faith. He must 
 " arise and go " (Luke xv. 18). This implies exertion of will, active obedience. 2. 
 An indication of the grounds of that obedience. " For thou art the Lord our God." 
 
 ■ God invites by a promise of blessing to his people ; they respond by turning from the 
 thought of their own profit to that of the character and claim of God. The great 
 motive to return is found in what God is rather than in what he does, because the 
 return is to him and not merely to his blessings. Men will return to God when thi,y 
 see what there is in him to attract them to his feet. Hence the importance of knowing 
 God (Job xxii. 21). Christ invites us by revealing the Father (John xiv. 6, 7). ^1) 
 We should think of the revealed character of God as a ground for returning to him. 
 Israel returns by remembering the ancient Name " Jehovah," with its glorious sii^ni 
 ficance and its sacred memories. (2) We should think of God's peculiar rdatwiu with 
 
58 THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. iii. 1— 25, 
 
 >is. Israel thinks of "Jehovah our God." This relationship points to God's claim 
 upon us, rising out of his recognized authority as "ours," and the special covenant 
 bonds of those who have once yielded themselves to hiin, and also to the peculiar grace 
 God bestows on his people, vvliich both increases the obligation and facilitates the eflbrt 
 to return. 
 
 Ver. 23. — From, false to true salvation. I. The need of salvation. This seems 
 to be confessed before as much as after repentance. In both conditions Israel must 
 turn somewhere . for deliverance. 1. The need is universal. Israel was in national 
 danger : but socially and privately men felt a vague sense of unrest and helplessness, 
 and their heathen rites were a proof of this. The mystery of existence, the weariness 
 of toil, the sorrow and disappointments of common experience, the terror of death, make 
 men feel their helplessness. All religions witness to this fact. 2. The need is felt to be 
 such that only religion can meet it. Men instinctively cry to their gods in the storm 
 (Jonah i. 5). This element of religion is retained when every other vestige of it has 
 vanished. This element is common to the most diverse forms of religion, the most 
 degraded equally with the most elevated. Is not suuh a fundamental fact of human 
 nature a ground for hope? Can we believe that such a deep, instinctive cry will meet 
 with no response ? 
 
 II. The false hope op salvation. Israel had turned to the pagan worship on the 
 hills for deliverance ; but in vain. 1. Superficially regarded, there was much to recom- 
 mend this. (1) It was conspicuous and imposing — on the hill-tops. (2) It was noisy ; 
 there was tumult on the mountains. The more noise and bustle there is in a thing the 
 more important does it seem to those who forget that the real power is with " the still 
 small voice" and the "gentleness" that makes great. (3) It was popular; in religious 
 matters, as in all else, unthinking people go with the multitude. (4) It was nmltiforrn ; 
 not one temple service, but sacrifices on every hill. Unspiritual people put faith in the 
 number of prayers, the amount of gifts, etc., rather than in the motive and spirit which 
 prompt them. (5) It was easy to follow ; it required no purity of life, no spiritual 
 effort of faith. Men like a cheap religion. 2. Experience proved the hope to be false. 
 The salvation was hoped for in vain. Heathen gods neither protected from external 
 foes nor cured the internal wretchedness of Israel. This must have been the case, 
 because (1) they were not gods at all, the ground of the hope did not exist ; (2) the 
 corruption which was permitted and encouraged in the rites with which these gods 
 were served was the very source of the nation's ruin. The hope of salvation was the 
 cause of destruction. So is it whenever men turn from God to lower grounds of con- 
 fidence. The very apostacy thus committed is the source of the ruin which it is 
 expected to avert. It is a great thing to have made the discovery of this fact. To see 
 the mistake of the false hope is the first step towards deliverance. 
 
 III. The true hope of salvation. " Truly in Jehovah our God is the salvation 
 of Israel." 1. God only can deliver, since he only can control nations and subdue the 
 hearts of individual men. 2. God does deliver by his providence in outward events 
 and his spiritual help in the internal battle with sin. 3. God is known as the ' 
 Deliverer by his actions in the past. Israel turns to " Jehovah our God," the God 
 who had often shown himself as a Saviour. He who rightly reads the story of his 
 own past lite will see in it reasons for trusting God for the future. 4. God is sought 
 as the Deliverer when all other refuges fail. After making the paiuful discovery 
 mentioned in the earlier part of the verse, Israel comes to recognize the true salvation, 
 but not till thou. Trouble is good if it reveals the rottenness of our mistaken hope in 
 time to set us free to seek the true hope. Yet how sad that men should need to have 
 the veil thus forcibly torn from their eyes ! 
 
 Vers. 24, 25. — Shame. I. Shame is the natural accompaniment of guilt. 1. 
 Distinguish slmme from modesty. Modesty is the fear of shame. Modesty shrinks 
 from doing the thing which when done will result, or ought to result, in shame. Thus 
 modesty pertains to innocence, shame to guilt. 2. Distinguish natural shame from 
 guilty shame. Natural shame results from the exixisure of what should be kept private 
 but is jmre in itself — this applies to spiritunl as well as bodily delicacy ; guilty shame 
 is associated with that which, whether revealed or iint, is morally, bad. 3. Distinguish 
 
CH. III. 1—25.] THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 59 
 
 false from true shame. The blush of innocence when falsely accused, the shrinking 
 from the disapproval by others of conduct which we feel conscientiously bound to 
 pursue, and similar feelings, are instances of the former. They simply result from 
 weakness. Such shame is a needless pain, but it is only culpable when it leads to 
 weak subserviency to what we know is not right — the fear of man which bringetli a 
 snare. True shame is not simply the distressmg consciousness of the disapproval of 
 others, but the consciousness that this is well deserved. 
 
 II. Repentance leads us to begakd sin with shame. Israel then names Baal, 
 the god of her former worship, " Shame." To the penitent " all things are new." 
 The sins in which lie gloried are now objects of the deepest shame. 1. Men must see 
 sin in a true light to regard it with shame. . The Israelites are here represented as 
 confessing sin ; they feel it is their own act : " We have sinned ; " they feel that their 
 fathers' siu does not extenuate the guilt of the new sin of the children, but, on the 
 contrary, adds to the cumulative guilt of the nation. 2. When sin is thus regarded, the 
 shame is overpowering and overwhelming : overpowering, for Israel says, " Let us lie 
 down in our shame," there is no resisting the influence of it, it crushes to the dust in 
 humiliatioQ ; and it is overwhelming, " let our confusion cover us ; " such shame is no 
 superficial and transient emotion. It is all-absorbing. 
 
 III. The shame for sin is a wholesome corrective. Nothing is more painful. 
 Self-love, self-conceit, and self-respect are all cruelly wounded. Yet the bitter medicine 
 is a true antidote to the sweet poison of sin. 1. It opens our eyes to the fatal consp- 
 guences of wickedness. In regarding Baal as " shame," the people seem to discover for 
 the first time that he had "devoured the labour of their fathers from their youth." 
 The passion of sin throws a false glamour about it and its effects which shame dissolves. 
 2. It serves as a strong deterrent from future sin. It makes our old ways look horrible, 
 disgusting, contemptible. We wonder how we could have loved them, and so h^ng as 
 the shame lasts nothing could induce us to return to tliem. Unfortunately, shame soon 
 dies away, and if disregarded leaves men harder than before. Therefore it should not 
 be trusted in by itself, but used as a means to lead us to the enduring security again.st 
 sin in Christ (Rom. viii. 1 — 5). 
 
 HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. 
 
 Ver. 4. — A call to the young. We need not hesitate so far to turn these words aside- 
 from their original meaning as to regard them as a Divine appeal to the young ; especi- 
 ally if we understand that the prophet is here calling on Judah to return to the fresh- 
 ness of her " youth ; " that " at this time," this hopelul reign of the good King Josiah, 
 she should renew her covenant with Jehovah and the " love of her espousals " (ch. ii. 2j. 
 In the days of youth the heart is most freely open to Divine influences, and it may he- 
 expected to respond readily to such an appeal as this. Note — ■ 
 
 I. The deepest tbdth op religion is the fatherhood of God. That he is the- 
 Father of our spirits is the basis of his claims upon us. The quality of our religious 
 thought, the drift of our religious opinions, the tone of our religious life, depend very 
 greatly on our iaith in this truth. Fatherhood is our highest conception of God, and 
 includes within it all aspects of his being, and all the relations he sustains towards us. 
 This crowns them all, embraces all. We cannot rise above and beyond it. Our ideas 
 are essentially defective if we fall short of it. Not that the actual human fatherhood 
 worthily represents it ; that, at its best, is but a marred and broken copy — a feeble, 
 distant reflection — of the Divine. And yet the essential elements remain in spite of 
 accidental faults. Power, wisdom, love, judicial authority, kingly rule, protective 
 tenderness, — these are the attributes of its ideal. And from the human, with all its- 
 imperfections and perversions, we rise to the Divine. 
 
 II. The apprehension of this sacked relationship is specially befitting the: 
 season of youth. What more natural than that young people should think of God 
 as their Father ; that this idea of him should give shape and colouring, to all their othei 
 religious ideas, and blend with all their -views of life, and all their impressions of per- 
 sonal dnty ? Those who have grown old — old in the habit of frivolous thought,, in the- 
 ciu-naliziag ways of the world, in the debasing service of sin, are olten dciid to the iui- 
 
60 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [oh. hi. 1—25. 
 
 pression of it. Their hearts are too much estranged to feel its charm. But shall not 
 they who still have the dew of their youth upon them, the bloom of its quick sensi- 
 bility and pure affection, love to hear a Father's voice ? 
 
 III. Nevertheless, the full discovery of this relation marks a crisis in the 
 HISTORY OF ANY SO0L. It is generally connected with the painful discovery of sin 
 and need. " I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for 
 his Name's sake, . . . because ye have known the Father" (1 Johnii. 12, 13). Howsug- 
 gestive is this of the hidden causes, the secret spiings, the earliest realizations of Divine 
 life in the soul ! One of its first evidences is the recognition of the Father. The cry, 
 " Abba, Father ! " is the first that it breathes forth. But this comes with and tlirougli 
 the reco.:nition of Christ, the Son, the Saviour. " No man knoweth the Father save tlie 
 Son, and he to whomsoever the Son shall reveal him " (Matt. xi. 27). And it is a 
 revelation that brings the assurance of " forgiveness for his Name's sake." The sense of 
 dreary distance from God — guilt, shame, hunger, degradii tion, — this is the prelude to the 
 sweet satisfactions of the life of sonship. It is the prodigal "coming to bimsel!." 
 When we are thus painfully feeling our way back to him, God comes forth in Christ to 
 meet us, embracing us in, the arms of his great love, breathing, weeping out upon us 
 the infinite tenderness of his fatherly heart. Then we feel that we can dare to take 
 that sacred name " Father " on our lips. It has a deep and blessed meaning in it never 
 known before. And fear and shame and sorrow give place to the joy of eternal 
 reconciliation. 
 
 IV. The natural result of THts discovery will be full personal surrender 
 TO the Father's guidance and control. "Guide," literally, Husband; and the 
 word '"husband " is suggestive of all thoughtful and kindly guardianship, the wisdom 
 that directs, and the strength that sustains. Youth needs such guardianship : 1. Because 
 of its special moral dangers, worldly fascinations, Satanic temptations, acting on quick 
 natural susceptibility. 2. Because of its inexperience. Experience is the growth of 
 years. It is not of itself always the parent of the highest practical wisdom, but the 
 want of it calls for the help of a superior power. 3. Because of its weakness of moral 
 principle. There may be excellent natural dispositions, germs of Christian virtue in 
 tlie soul, but they are not yet developed. They are but latent possibilities of good. 
 When put to the test, they may be found wanting. God's grace alone can ripen them 
 into mature and steadfast principles. 4. Because beneath its fairest promise there may 
 he hidden seeds pf evil, which only need the outward incentive to bring forth deadly 
 fruit. 5. Because the after-destiny depends so much on how the steps of youth are guided. 
 Let the young give heed to the Father's voice, and yield themselves to his loving con- 
 trol, if they would tread the path of honour and safety and blessedness. — W. 
 
 Ver. 22. — " Backsliding Israel." " Backsliding " was the characteristic vice of the 
 Jewish people throughout the whole course of their history. Their career was one of 
 perpetual sinning and repenting, until the great apostacy, tlie final "falling away." 
 And in this we see what is too often a truthful reflection of the individual life of men. 
 The Jews were emphatically a representative people. Not merely does their recorded 
 history represent the method of God's ways, but it illustrates the folly and treachery, 
 the moral weakness and waywardness of our human nature. Dwell on the individual 
 applicatjon of this passage. Consider — 
 
 1. The evil indicated. " Backsliding " is suggestive of a turning away from God, 
 a departure from the path of truth and righteousness, a fall from some higher state of 
 spiritual consciousness or moral life. This evil may assume different forms. It may 
 consist: 1. In the loss of the simplicity and integrity of religious faith. In an age of 
 mental restlessness like the present, men too easily lose their hold of truth, which is 
 the verj' hope and life of their souls. We may look with perfect composure upon the 
 conflict between truth and error as regards its general and ultimate issues, but dare not 
 forget how disastrous its bearings upon the individual life may be. There are revolu- 
 tions in the history of religious thought, as in the history of nations, which it is as vain 
 to think of arresting as it would be to attempt to turn back the ocean tide ; but it is a 
 mournful thing when, under such conditions, the mind that once had a firm grasp of the 
 vital elements of Christian truth has slipped from its moorings and drifted out into the 
 wild sea of doubt and uncertainty. To a really earnest spirit the recovery of a lost faitli 
 
CH. III. 1—25.] THE BOOK OJ? THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 61 
 
 is generally a painful process. How many have travelled back, as with wounded, bleeding 
 feet, to positions of clearer vision and firmer standing which they once occupied, but in 
 an evil hour had forsaken ! As sometimes after a bright morning, which has been fol- 
 lowed by a day of cloud and storm, there is again at sunset a glorious outbursting 
 gleam of the radiance that had been obscured ; so is it with their souls. They return to 
 rest calmly in the truth that they had for a while lost sight of, and " at eventide," as 
 in the morning, " it is light." 2. In the decline of religious feeling, the decay of those 
 affections in which religious life consists. 'J'his is that secret spiritual " backsliding " 
 that directly affects the soul's personal relation to God, and the consciousness of which 
 sometimes extorts the bitter cry, " Oh that 1 were as in months past 1 " etc. (Job xxix. 
 2 — i). It may arise from no change in religious belief. While a departure from the 
 simplicity of the faith is generally connected with a lowering of the tone of religious 
 feeling, the converse of this is not always true. But the faith has lost its life-giving 
 force. The light it sheds has no warm, kindling glow. It is the light of the moon 
 rather than the sun — clear and cold, having no power to quicken the frame of nature, 
 to develop its beauty and fruitfulness, to awaken its music, and fill it with exulting 
 joy. The carnalizing influences of the world, the wear and tear of daily life, inevi tably 
 lead to this internal spiritual decay, unless there is a perpetual renewal of tlie liie 
 " whose springs are hidden, and Divine." 3. In, practical departure from the standard 
 of religious duty. The backsliding of the heart cannot long be concealed. It betrays 
 itself in many ways — in a forsaking of the paths of Christian service, in some manifest 
 lack of moral integrity, in a relapse into some form of vicious habit, perhaps in a com- 
 plete loosening of the bonds of religious restraint, and utter abandonment to the pursuits 
 of an ungodly life. It is of such a case that our Lord says, "If the salt have lost his 
 savour," etc. (Matt. v. 13) ; and again, " No man, having put his hand to the -plough," 
 etc. (Luke ix. 62) ; and St. Peter afterwards affirms, " It had been better for them not 
 to have known the way of righteousness," etc. (2 Pet. ii. 21). 
 
 II. God's method of healing. "I will heal your backslidings." This is the 
 gracious persuasion by which he seeks to reclaim his children from their guilty wan- 
 derings. How may we expect him to fulfil the promise? 1. Sy awakening in us a 
 vivid sense and penitent acknowledgment of the wrong. We can scarcely be delivered 
 from it till we have seen all the sin and shame of it — its real meaning, the source from 
 whence it springs, the end to which it leads. Until all this is deeply felt and freely 
 confessed before God, the first step in the process of recovery has not been taken (see 
 Ps. li. 3, 4 ; xxxii. 5 ; 2 Cor. vii. 10, 11). 2. By moving us to trust simply in his for- 
 giving and renewing mercy. Our only refuge is in the Divine mercy, and there is no 
 other way of mercy than that which the gospel reveals. The guilt of our backslidings 
 can alone be cancelled by the blood of Christ, and the secret cause of them removed by 
 the grace of his Spirit (1 John ii. 1, 2 ; iii. 5 — 9). " There is no prescription for the 
 sickness of the heart but that which is written in the Redeemer's blood," for in this 
 alone have we both the pledge and the channel of the saving love of God. 3. .By creat- 
 ing in us the energy of a nobler life. " Return," etc. It is a question, after all, of 
 moral resolution and self-determining spiritual power. 
 
 "Full seldom does. a man repent, or use 
 Both grace and will to pick the vicious quitch 
 Of blood and custom wholly out of him. 
 And make all clean, and plant himself afresh." 
 
 But God gives this gracious energy to those who seek it, and such "repentance unto 
 . life " is the true " healing."— W. 
 
 Ver. 1. — The offer of a great forgiveness. I. Consider the illustration by which 
 IS SHOWN the extent OF Jehovah's MERCY TO THE LOST. By an illustration drawn 
 from the power allowed to the Israelite husband, Jehovah shows how great is his spirit 
 of mercy and his desire that the deserting wife, so terribly described iu the preceding 
 chapter, should return. The reference is evidently to Deut. xxiv. 1 — 4. There the 
 husband is invested with an authority which almost seems arbitrary, although from 
 Numb. V. it also appears that an accused wife had a right of appeal to ordeal, which 
 ordeal would infallibly certify either innocence or guilt. The essential point here. 
 
62 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. hi. 1—25. 
 
 however, lies in this, that there was an ordained inability for the wife to return to her 
 tirst husband. The- marriage tie, in spite of all the apparent facility of divorce, was 
 not a thing to play fast and loose with. The way of departure might seem compara- 
 tively easy, but the way of return was altogether hedged up. We behold a curious 
 mixture of indulgence and severity — indulgence for a time because of the hardness of 
 the people's hearts ; severity, in order that society might be kept together at all. For a 
 husband to take back such a wife was ordained a ceremonial pollution, which needed 
 to be cleansed away. But if such a return was impossible, still more evidently 
 impossible was the return of one who had lived as a harlot. Yet thus did Israel, once 
 the loving, devoted spouse (ch. ii. 1), now appear to Jehovah. Her life of desertion 
 from Jehovah is described as one continuous, shameless exhibition of the harlot's lust. 
 And it is just in the light of all this terrible impurity that the word comes to her, 
 " Return again to me, saith the Lord." 
 
 II. CONSIDEE HOW IT COMES THAT GoD CAN ADDRESS SUCH AN INVITATION. It IS 
 
 the old story of God's power to do things which man, however loving and merciful he 
 may be in disposition, finds to be quite Iseyond his reach. Man, with the best inten- 
 tions, with the most sympathetic heart, is limited in his resources to the outcast by 
 the necessities of human society. To put one who has been an habitual thief in a 
 position of serious trust, is a thing so hard as to be practically impossible. The victims 
 of vicious inclinations may be deeply pitied, and yet the moment one tries to give 
 them any large measure of help, the claims of others somehow come in to forbid. But 
 God, as he i-ises far above man in his love and mercy and insight into the sinning 
 human heart, so he rises — if one may thus put it — higher still in his power to give an 
 amply suflScient help. God can bring back into the privileges and possibilities belong- 
 ing to his Church, he can bring under all the penetrating potencies of his grace, the 
 very worst apostate. What creature can be thought of more defiled than the harlot ? 
 Human reclaiming agencies can do nothing to serve her or save her, except as they put 
 in their forefront the loving-kindness of God in Christ Jesus. It is well for us when 
 we have to consider the Impure, the degraded, the despairing slaves of vice, to consider 
 also these encouraging words of God, " Return to me." Think much of him who spoke 
 them, and then of the sort of people to whom they were spoken. Those who are most 
 of all suffering in social outlawry may read all the horrible descriptions of abandon- 
 ment to impurity found not only in this prophet but in others, and then say with the. 
 most joyful hope, "If Israel, being such, was pleased to return, I also may return." 
 Hosea gives the appropriate words for such, " I will go and return to my first husband ; 
 for then was it better with me than now " (Hos. ii. 7). And to keep up the figure, 
 what will the end of such a Divine invitation and such a human resolution be ? It is 
 found in Rev. xxi., where we read the following request, "Come hither, I will show 
 thee the bride, the Lamb's wife." The first Israel sank into an indescribable shame ; 
 the second Israel will rise into an indescribable glory. — Y. 
 
 Ver. 4. — Israel's cry to the Father and the Friend. I. Observe the sudden change 
 OP EELATION WHICH IS THUS BROUGHT BEFOKB US. Hitherto We have had before us 
 Jehovah's description of Israel under the guise of a wife departing from her husband 
 into the most degrading and shameless conduct. And now our thoughts are suddenly 
 turned, with nothing to prepare for the tran.sition, to a new relation — that of father and 
 child. Note that it is not God who directly presents himself in this relation. " Father " 
 is a term put into the mouths of the people in the preceding chapter and also in this. 
 In ch. ii. 27 they are represented as saying to a stock," Thou art my father;" and now 
 they say to Jehovah, " Thou art my Father, the Friend, the Companion of my youth." 
 It may be that there was no depth of real sincerity in the cry, even though it is de- 
 scribed as a cry, and not a mere perfunctory recognition — at all events, it sets forth a 
 fact. Jehovah was a Father to the nation of Israel in this sense, that it was by his 
 peculiar and necessary power that Israel was separated in all sorts of profoundly sig- 
 nificant ways from the great mass of mankind. When Abram started forth, not know- 
 ing whither he went, this was to him a sort of being born again ; an entirely new life 
 lay before him, with expectations that he never could have cherished but that God 
 planted them deep in his heart. And thus the name is a right and needful name to 
 use. Israel is doing what it ought to do when it says, " Abba, Father ! " The idea 
 
CH. III. 1—25.] THE BOOK OF THE PEOPHET JEREMIAH. 6.3 
 
 evidently is tliat Israel has learned to speak to God much in the same way that an 
 English child learns to say " papa " or " father " (Isa. viii. 4). 
 
 II. Observe the conduct by which what is good in this reooqnizhd relation 
 OP father is manifested. It was true that Jehovah had been Father to Israel ; it 
 was moreover true that he had been Guide, Friend, and Companion to Israel's youth. It 
 is not always the case that fatherhood means a loving and cherishing companionship. 
 But here it is emphatically the case. Jehovah vfas a very close Companion to Israel in 
 its youth ; not really nearer, of course, than he had been since, but near in such a waj' 
 that the people were compelled to note his proximity to them, and constant watchful- 
 ness over them. This, therefore, as Israel looked back upon its youth, was the right 
 way for it to speak of Jehovah. Being Father, he had also been a true Companion and 
 Support. " Guide of my youth " does very well for a rendering, if we bear in mind all 
 that the guiding implies. There is a guiding which is a mere trade, a mere selling o( 
 the guide's knowledge. He takes up any stranger, shows him the way, gets his pay, 
 and then the relation is at an end. But the practical guiding here comes from a deep 
 love and solicitude. Further, it must be remembered that Jehovah's friendship and 
 companionship were the friendship and companionship of one competent to guide. 
 Friendship by itself is, of course, not sufBcient to constitute guiding capacity. We see, 
 then, that the expression of this verse is a very suggestive one by which to address 
 God. All fathers may learn from it the spirit of a right relation towards their children. 
 It is the name which they should desire their children to associate with their child- 
 hood. It should be a remembrance having a binding power when the child has become 
 a man, and the father an old man. It should be possible to look back on a childhouil 
 where the father was a true companion, one whose companionship was full of true 
 befriending and guiding. There is also indicated the spirit in which youth should look 
 heyond earthly dependencies to Qod himself. He who was so much to a youthful nation 
 of old will be of inestimable service to the ignorance, weakness, and abonnding need 
 of all youth. Especially should this consideration have force when one thinks of the 
 significance in the doctrine of being born again. He who is born again has then a 
 second youth, even though he be in the full strength of natural manhood. And what 
 is wanted is that the man in his strength and his wide outlook on the possibilities of 
 life should choose a truly humble position before God. The expression is also one that 
 may point back to a submissive, hopeful youth, wherein many Divine impressions were 
 made, and from which there has been a great backsliding. Then how beautifully 
 would such an expression come fiom the lips of the returning prodigal, " My Father, 
 thou wast the Guide of my youth, and now after a bitter experience of trying to make 
 my own way, which has ended in a mere drifting before the strong currents of passion 
 and self-indulgence, I come back to thee " ! It is sad to have the friendship of father 
 and child broken, sad at any tinje, but saddest of all when it is not through some 
 meddling whisperer or repeater of a matter (Prov. xvi. 28 ; xvii. 9), but through the 
 voluntary and obstinate departure of one of the friends. — Y. 
 
 Ver. 5. — Actions speak louder than words. Israel, we see, is represented as speaking 
 with a very pathetic remembrance of God's great favours in the remote past. At 
 present, indeed, there is a withholding of the rain that means frmtfulness and prosperity, 
 but that Father who has been the Guide of Israel's youth, surely he will soon bring the 
 rain, with all that follows it, in spite of any appearances to the contrary, such as his 
 anger with Israel suggests. Such is the way that Israel speaks ; but how does it act ? 
 Is there to be alteration in God without alteration in man ? It is of no use for the 
 sinning nation simply to wait as if God's righteous chastisements would be exhausted 
 by lapse of time. There might have to be waiting, but assuredly there would have to 
 be repenting^ and the bringing forth of fruits meet for repentance. But instead of this 
 God is confronted with persistent transgression. He who had been Friend, Companion, 
 and Guide in youth could not have been so without a docile acceptance of the companion- 
 ship. The guidance in youth meant that Jehovah had a right to expect a manhood of 
 holy service. But so far from the people. giving this, the expectation in their heart 
 is that God will still provide for them and let them do as they like. They do not 
 seem to understand that it is they who by their transgressions provide for the susten- 
 ance and continuance of the anger of Jehovah. That anger is not like a storm which 
 
64 THE BOOK OP THE PEOPHET JEEEMIAH. [oh. hi. 1—25. 
 
 rises one knows not how, and presently subsides without man being able to do any- 
 thing for its removal. God's anger was as a fire, and the wickedness of the people was 
 like dry and highly combustible fuel before the flame. The one thing needful was to 
 stop the fuel, and the fire would then very speedily burn out. To say with the lips, 
 " My Father, thou wast the Guide of my youth," will only be of use when there is 
 something like correspondence between what is spoken and what is done. — Y. 
 
 Ver. 15. — Ood will provide pastors according to his own heart. I. The need so 
 
 EMPHATICALLY IMPLIED THAT SUCH PASTOBS SHOULD BE GIVEN. The shepherd's occupa- 
 tion, it need hardly be said, is one that coines up again and again in the Scriptures, both 
 in the literal sense of the word and the figurative one. And even in the literal occupa- 
 tion there was, doubtless, often need of men who could be described as shepherds after 
 God's own heart. Every shepherd who was faithful, observant, courageous, and alto- 
 gether superior to the hireling spirit, was to that extent a shepherd after God's own 
 heart. Such a one might possibly not be after God's own heart in other respects. 
 Many are very watchful over the brutes committed to their charge, and utterly thought- 
 less about the shepherding of their own souls and of the various human beiugs 
 dependent on them and influenced by them. Then passing to the figurative flocks and 
 shepherds, there are very pathetic representations in the Scriptures of the mischief conse- 
 quent on the unfaithfulness of those rulers and providers who had been set over God's 
 people. Take such a man as King Ahab. He was not a man after God's own heait, 
 and what is the result ? Going out against the King of Syria, Ahab, not very hopeful 
 of a favouring word, consults Micaiah, the faithful prophet of God : " I saw all Israel 
 scattered upon the hills, as sheep that have not a shepherd ; " which was not only a 
 warning of utter defeat, but a bitter charge against Ahab that he had been utterly 
 faithless to his trust (1 Kings xxii. 17). There is so rhuch of the sheep-nature in the 
 human breast. How many have been troubled because there is no shepherd (Zech. x. 
 2) ! Every time the confession is uttered, " All we like sheep have gone astray," there 
 is a hint of pastoral unfaithfulness somewhere or other. The sheep-nature in the 
 human breast has never been better set forth than in the anxiety of the departing 
 Moses with respect to a competent successor (Numb, xxvii. 17). Food needs to be pro- 
 vided. There must be a guarding against self-willed wandering away from the supplies 
 and comforts belonging to a constant member of the flock. There are the perils fruin 
 wild beasts (1 Sam. xvii. 34). There is the work needed to bring back that which is 
 lost. Look at Zech. xi. 16, where there is a hint of what the shepherd has to do — 
 visiting those that are cut off, seeking the young ones, healing the broken, bearing that 
 which standeth still (see also ch. 1. 6 ; Ezek. xxxiv. ; John x.). 
 
 II. The fact that such pastoes will assuredly be PROvinED. Great is the re- 
 quirement, and there has often been a grievous disappointment in getting it met, but 
 assuredly it can be met. The rulers in Israel had not all been as Ahab. That same 
 Moses, who was so anxious concerning his successor, had been himself taken from 
 faithful oversight of another man's sheep in order to deliver Israel from Pharaoh's 
 clutch, and lead him towards the green pastures and still waters of the promised land 
 (Kxod. iii.). David, who had followed the ewes great with young, no doubt gently 
 leading them when needful, gathering the lambs in his arm and carrying them in 
 his bosom, who also had smitten the lion and the bear, was now taken to feed Jacob 
 the people of God, and Israel his inheritance (Ps. Ixxviii. 71 ; Isa. xl. 11). Not only 
 had he been faithful as a shepherd, but he had also grown ever more conscious of the 
 sheep-nature in himself, and the sheeplike requirements of his own life, and so, 
 looking away from his flock upwards, he beautifully says, " Jehovah is my Shepherd." 
 He had lions following his own soul (Ps. vii. 2 ; x. 9; xvii. 12; xxii. 13). Those are 
 fitted to be shepherds after God's own heart who, feeling their own needs, make 
 Jehovah their Shepherd. It is important to remember how David is declared as the 
 man after God's own heart (1 Sam. xiii. 14 ; Acts vii. 46 ; xiii. 22). So God is here 
 speaking through Jeremiah, with that confidence which comes from actual experience of 
 the true and the brave among his own chosen. Then there is the great work of Jesus 
 to be considered. It is very significant that in ch. xxiii., after a reference to the un- 
 laithful shepherds, there is a promise of faithful ones, their work being set forth mora 
 explicitly even than here ; and then God goes on to speak of the righteous Branch 
 
CH. in. 1—25.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 65 
 
 which shall be raised to David, the King who shall reign and prosper and execute 
 judgment and justice in the earth: he is the Governor who shall feed the Lord's 
 people Israel (Matt. ii. 6); he is the Great Shepherd of the sheep brought again from 
 the dead (Heb. xiii. 20) ; he who is also the Lamb in the midst of the throne, shall 
 meet those who are gathered out of the great tribulation, .and feed them, and lead them 
 "unto living fountains of waters" (Rev. vii. 17); and thus being himself the Great 
 Shepherd, he is competent to convey to all under-shepherds the resources whereby in 
 all wisdom they may feed the hungry with knowledge and understanding. If Jesus 
 makes us truly righteous, then with the lips of the righteous we shall be able to feed 
 many. The duties of a pastor after God's own heart will appear in all their magnitude 
 to ojie who is considering the pastoral work of Jesus himself. Such a one will take 
 heed to himself, and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made him over- 
 seer, feeding the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood. He 
 will have his eye on the grievous wolves that enter in, not sparing the flock. He will 
 carry out the spirit of the commandment which God gave to Moses at Sinai : " Neither 
 let the flocks nor herds feed before the mount " (Exod. xxxiv. 3) ; by doing his best to 
 keep all within his charge from thoughtless trifling with holy tilings. It is a great 
 matter to be put in a position of S[iiritual pastoral responsibility ; and all in such positions 
 may joyfully remember that God will give them all needed strength. It is a sad 
 thought for the careless pastor that it should so often be needful for the strangers to stand 
 and feed the flocks he should feed — men that to a certain extent may be reckoned 
 unauthorized. And yet what can be done ? Flocks must not die of hunger ; and as the 
 real physician is he who cures the disease, whatever his professional standing may be, 
 so the real shepherd is he who feeds the flock, and the brand of interloper is affixed to 
 Iiim in vain. And so God would invite all his people to do what they can to be true 
 shepherds. In one sense the shepherds are as many as the sheep. It is better to be 
 ministering to the deep, undying wants of men, thiin just to their passing pleasures, 
 lie who strives to make himself accepiable to men by an incessant watching of their 
 whims and prejudices is very much like the prodigal who found nothing better to do 
 than feed the swine. It is God's will that we should feed shtejp. — Y. 
 
 Ver. 16. — Tlie superseding of the ark Along with the denunciations and painful 
 descriptions which Jehovah has put into the mouth of the prophet, there now begins 
 to be mingled a gracious, evangelical element. God's severest condemnations are 
 meant to pave the way for return, repentance, reconciliation, and a reception of still 
 more aliundant gifis than before. Far and wide Israel has been scattered, but 
 scattered only to be brought together again. Though there be but one in a city and 
 two in a nation, God will find out the isolated ones and draw them back to him. Then, 
 with pastors after God's own heart, what can there be but increase and multiplication 
 of the flock of God? And then comes what is evidently meant to be considered as a 
 great blessing, though at first it seems to point to another sad apostasy, and to 
 forgetfulness of one of the holiest and most precious treasures of the past. The ark of 
 the covenant, with the tables of the Law deposited within, was the very centre of 
 religious associations to the nation. But now it is to be no more spoken of. God, 
 indeed, trusts tliat the memory of it was to pass away. Reading such a verse as this, 
 how one is made to feel the importance of time as an element necessary to the proper 
 understanding of things ! Such words as these spoken by Israel at an earlier date 
 would have been a very bad sign, but spoken at the time when all was ripe for them, 
 they become just as niuch a sign for good. The ark of the covenant — the literal ark 
 with the literal tables of stone — could not be a permanent institution. For centuries 
 it had been holy — holy not in word only, but also in deed. Consider how God honoured 
 it, when for a time it was lodged in Philistia ; consider the calamities that came upon 
 the men of Bethshemesh and upon Uzzah, for their thoughtless han()ling of the ark. 
 Much thus happened to make the Israelite very careful how he dealt witli it. David 
 and Solomon in particular were very solicitous to honour the ark to the titmost of 
 their power. This is seen not only in the bringing of the ark up into the city of 
 David, and the putting of it into the temple by Solomon, but perhaps even more in the 
 conduct of Solomon to Abiathar, when Abiathar was implicated in the offence of 
 Adonijah. Solomon spared the man he would otherwise have slain, because he had 
 
 JEREMIAH. r 
 
66 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. lii. 1— 25. 
 
 borne the ark of the Lord God before David (1 Kings ii. 26). But there can be no doubt 
 that as generation succeeded generation, the general feeling would become so mixed 
 ■with superstition as to do more harm than good. The people had said, " The ark of the 
 covenant of the Lord," but their saying had not amounted to much. The ark had 
 been remembered, but the writing on the stones within had been forgotten. The 
 longer it stood as the central object of a unique ritual, the more it became a symbol 
 of separation from other nations. That which had been given so that one set of 
 thoughts should be associated with it, thoughts to help in making pure, reverent, and 
 watchful, had ended in having quite another set of thoughts associated with it. And 
 so both the object itself seems to have vanished, and at the same time its dominion to 
 have ceased. It is surely a very remarkable thing that all through the Books of Ezra and 
 Nehemiah there is no reference to the ark. The vessels of God's house are mentioned, 
 an altar was set up and offerings made, and in due time a temple built ; but there is no 
 word of the ark. Its work was done, and we are not so much as told what became of 
 it. We know that the brazen serpent was declared Nehushtan, but the withdrawal of 
 the ark God manages in complete silence. So true it is that — 
 
 " God fulfils himself in many ways, 
 Lest one good custom should corrupt the world." 
 
 T. 
 
 Yer. 17. — The gathering of the nations to Jehovah's throne. I. Thk new chabacteb 
 IN WHICH Jerusalem appears. It is no lunger to be considered simply as the centre of 
 Israelite affection and devotion, the city where was the palace of a human king, and the 
 temple of Jehovah as the peculiar deity of Israel. It is no longer to be the place of a 
 peculiar worship. Its character henceforth is to be far more glorious, one in which 
 Israel shall lose nothing, yea, rather gain, in remembering what it has been able to con- 
 tribute in attaining such an end. Jerusalem, that had been associated with all sorts of 
 idolatrous abominations, is first of all to be desolated and humbled, whatever human 
 pride and glory there was in it extinguished ; and then the true glory will come. The 
 city shall be Jehovah's throne, the throne of him who is God above all gods and King 
 above all kings. And when men would recognize the authority of a king, his throne 
 is the place they must come to. Hence to Jehovah, seated on his throne, all the 
 nations are to be gathered ; forsaking national idols and national ideals, all that is local 
 and narrow and self-originated will vanish. The ark of the covenant passes away, and 
 the tables of stone become unnecessary, for from his throne Jehovah will take means 
 whereby he may write on the fleshy tables of every human heart the two great prin- 
 ciples, " Love God and love thy fellow-man." 
 
 II. How THE GATHEBINQ IS TO BE BEOUQHT ABOUT. How clear it is that, the ark of 
 the covenant passing away, mere local, terrestrial Jerusalem must also cease to have 
 any peculiar value ! The taking away of the ark of the covenant is really the taking 
 away of all in the way of dependence that is merely visible and material. It is plain 
 that the gathering together to Jerusalem cannot mean an actual travelling there from 
 all parts of the earth's surface. Not that the mere local Jerusalem can become as a 
 common spot of earth. After these northern deaolators, of whom Jeremiah so often 
 spoke, had done with it. It was rebuilt, and in due time became the scene of great 
 spiritual redeeming acts profoundly affecting every child of man. The thought of the 
 local scenes where Christ died, rose again, and ascended into glory, may well help every 
 sinner in his believing approaches to his Saviour. Those who gather at Jerusalem 
 gather there by virtue of the power which there is in every believing heart. Innumer- 
 able pilgrims, on piety intent, have gone on pilgrimage to Jerusalem, doing laborious 
 penances by the way, only to discover in the end that they have been walking after the 
 imaginations of their evil hearts. 'J'here may be great value in a journey to the Holy 
 Land, if only those who go there have first of all had their minds opened to apprehend 
 the work which he who died at Jerusalem did for them ; otherwise their travels, what- 
 ever the human joy and interest of them, may only add to their subsequent condem- 
 nation. To go to Jerusalem spiritually is the great thing. The Jerusalem of our 
 journey is situatrd in the pages of the New Testament rather than in Palestine. It is 
 as we read the Gospels that we feel how Jerusalem is indeed the throne of Jehovah in 
 this sense, that there, through his Son Jesus, he manifested righteousness, power, and 
 
CH. in. 1—25.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 67 
 
 love, all the glorious attributes of his eternal reign. The transactions at Jerusalem are 
 incomparable. No transactions in any one nation, however much they may affect the 
 career of that nation, can rival the transactions at Jerusalem. The Englishman as 
 an Englishman may feel his deep concern in Magna Charta and the Bill of Eights. 
 The American as an American thinks of Philadeliihia and thu Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence. The negro as a negro remembers Lincoln and the proclamation which gave 
 freedom to the slaves. But underneath the natural, the peculiar, the merely terrestrial, 
 there is another man, the man who has to think of sin within him, and death and 
 eternity before him. Such a man, if he thinks rightly, will feel that it is towards 
 Jerusalem that his most earnest considerations should gather. All who truly ponder the 
 great questions of life must gather there, and thence in faith their thoughts will ascend 
 to the true, the heavenly, the everlasting Jerusalem. — Y. 
 
 Ver. 21. — A sincere repentance in an appropriate place. How came this voice to be 
 heard on the high places — this weeping and this supplication ? The answer seems to lie 
 in ver. 20, where there is interposed a suggestion that Israel, because of its past defec- 
 tions, would fail to prove capable and worthy of that glorious future which has been 
 just depicted. How then can Israel reply except by an abundant outflow of the signs 
 of penitence? There is weeping; there is deprecation of any such withdrawal of 
 Jehovah's contem|)lated goodness; there is a most emphatic declaration that they had 
 indeed been utterly perverse and had forgotten Jehovah. The submission to him, the 
 acknowledgment of liim, shall now be complete. The words put into the lips of the 
 repentant people (vers. 22 — 'iS) are not extorted and grudging words, with a counter- 
 resolution underneath to back out if any chance should ofi'er. The eyes of the apostates 
 have been opened ; Israel has come to itself. What has been sought in vain on hills 
 and mountains in the cruel service of heathen deities is to be got in full and abiding 
 power from God. Observe now how — 
 
 These high places wbkb most appropriate for these tearfol acknowledg- 
 ments AND THESE ENTREATINQ APPROACHES TO GoD. 1. The tiling done had been a 
 great public wrung. Where men have sinned is the place for them to confess their sin. 
 Now, this was not a sin in some secret place; it was not a sin confined to the thoughts 
 of the heart, and known only to God ; it was not some private, domestic wrong-doing. 
 The whole nation shared in the sin of the high places. Even if some were not actually 
 idolatrous, yet by their silence and inaction they condoned the idolatry. All sur- 
 rounding nations must be cognizant of it. Sins in public cannot be got rid of without 
 an equally public repentance and suffering. Who can tell what audacious and mocking 
 words may have been spoken concerning Jehovah by the heathen around ? — " Why, this 
 Jehovah, whose temple and service are in Jerusalem, and who has no image, has really 
 no power over the people ! He has a name to live, but surely he is dead! " Elijah 
 mocked the priests of Baal, and he had cause, for, unhappy men that they were, they 
 had believed in a lie. But priests of Baal might also many times have mocked the 
 people of Israel, for in one sense they had the truth, but they did not believe in it. Of 
 course, in the end, such people were bound to make a very public acknowledgment of 
 their folly and unbelief. 2. By this weeping, etc., on the high places, there was a par- 
 ticularly impressive condemnation of idolatry. He who forsakes a course of action 
 necessarily condemns that action, and reproaches all who still continue in it, reproaches 
 them none the less because reproach may nut be at all intended. Such a return to 
 Jehovah as is indicated in tbe concluding verses of this chapter is also, by the very act, 
 a downright blow against idolatry. Let men who will peisist in wrong courses know 
 that they must be prepared for painful experiences when their companions, every now 
 and then, desert them. There will always be some one di.scovering that the course is 
 wrong, and going over to the other side. Take a very important instance of snch 
 exposure as we find it in the New Testament. Pharisaism and Jewish pride are there 
 condemned from two great sources of judgment. One of these we find in Jesus, who 
 spoke, we know how severely, against the I'harisees and their doings. From his words 
 we feel how bad their spirit must have been and their inner life. But perhaps it is 
 not too much to say that Saul's condemnation of them is still more striking ; shown 
 not in words so much, but oh, how clearly in deed ! when he came out from them, 
 showing he was no more of thorn. 3. There is thus a great warning to all who are 
 
63 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [cii. in. 1—25. 
 
 . acting doubtfully in the blaze of public life. If such have occasion to turn, they must 
 turn in public. Any one who siands well out before his fellows had need take care 
 what he says and does, for he knows not what may be the force of circumstances, what 
 revolutions there may be in his convictions. How much nations have had to suffer — 
 perhaps will have to suffer to the end of time— just because they are not careful of the 
 besinuings of evil in their midst ! Look at what it cost America to get rid of negro 
 slaveiy when ouce it had grown into a far-spreading and lucrative custom. — Y. 
 
 Vers. 1 — 5. — Sin, Law, Grace. We have here represented to us — 
 I. Sin in its most awful form. It was the sin of idolatry. This was especially 
 grievous in the sight of God, since Israel was designed to give light to all other nations. 
 They were raised up for the very purpose that through them the knowledge of God might 
 flow forth to the whole world. The destinies of humanity depended on them. Hence 
 if the light that was in them were darkness, " how great," etc. ! I'heir corruption was the 
 poisoning of the fountain, which would render deadly all its .streams. Hei.ce it is that 
 tliis ^m is so commonly represented in the prophetic writings under the images of 
 harlotry and adultery — crimes which, when found in any belonging to him, the Isjaelite 
 would most fieicely resent. By the nature and measure of tbeir own hatred for such 
 outrages on the purity of their home life, would God have them understand somewhat of 
 the nature and measure of his hatred of that idolatry into which as a nation they had 
 fallen, and against which God's prophets were for ever uttering their earnest protest. 
 And to aggravate their wickedness, they had been guilty thereof again and again (ver. 1). 
 1'hey had become lost to all sense of shame in regard to it (vers. 2, 3). They had not 
 waited to be tempted and persuaded, but had gone after their sin, greedily, seeking it 
 rather than it them (ver. 2). They had persisted until the land was polluted by their 
 sin (ver. 3). They had become so hardened that God's corrections failed to jiroduce 
 any result save to make them more brazen-faced in their wickedness than before 
 (ver. 3). And they had gone on to this degree of criminality that they dared to mock 
 God with mere lip service (vers. 4, 5). " Ay, and from this time forward thou criest 
 to nie. My 1^'ather, the Friend of my youth art thou. Will he always bear a grudge 
 and keep it up lor ever ? Behold thou speakest thus and docst wickedness and earnest 
 it out" (Keil's translation). Corruptio opUmi pessima est. The sin of such as Israel — 
 and we are such, raised up, qualified, designed to be the means of vast blessing to 
 others, as is Gud's purpose with his Church, — is more aggravated and assumes forms 
 more terrible than is possible to others. 
 
 II. Law in its most righteous utterance. (Ver. 1 ; cf. Dent. xxiv. 4.) " Tlit-y 
 say; " it was a well-known fact that the Law would not hoar of the forgiveness and restora- 
 tion of those who had sinned in the manner Israel had. Such leniency would open the 
 door wide to the most glaring iniquity. " Plato, Plato," said Socrates, " I do not see 
 how God can forgive sin." Sin once committed becomes a fact. Facts have their 
 necessary, immutable and eternal consequences, which only by a miracle can be fet 
 aside or escajed. (See sermon by Rev. T. Biniiey, on 'The Law our Schoolmaster,' 
 etc. ; also J. Cook, of Boston, Monday Lectures : ' 'I'he Atonement.') There is no gospel 
 for the sinner anywhere outside the gospel. The Law, as here, binds the wrong-doer 
 to the inevitable issues of his own wrong-doing. Forgiveness and restoration are simply 
 impossible. But note — 
 
 ill. Grace in its most marvellous manifestation. Ver. 1, " Yet return again 
 to me, saith the Lord." There is doubt as to the meaning of this; some read it (see 
 exegesis) as a question to which a negative answer is required. But the whole tone and 
 intent of the chapter (ver. 12) uphold the gracious meaning which belongs to the words 
 as tliey stand and which we therefore accept. But if righteous Law forbids the sinner's 
 return, how can grace invite such return ? The elder son in the parable was much 
 scandalized at the father's welcome of his prodigal younger brother. It did seem to be 
 an improper thing to do. The practical reply to all such objections — and they have 
 never ceased to be urged in all ages of the C'huich — is to point to actual facts. What has 
 been the result of the belief of God's wondrous grace? Has a scriptural faith been 
 proved to foster a sinful life ? Are they who humbly rest on God's grace in Christ the 
 licentious, the ungodly, the profane ? The Evangelical Church cun fearlessly press 
 questions like chese. And if it be asked what is the philosophy of this? how is it 
 
OH. III. 1—25.] TUE BOOK OF THE PlIOPHET JEREMIAH. 6!i 
 
 that what seems likely to produce such ill, in fact does not? the answer is, that when 
 the sinner comes In contrition and faith to the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, the new 
 lite, the sift of regeneratum, which is ever in connection with the cross, is yiven to him. 
 He is started on a new career, on wliich he is certain to make progress, slow it may be, 
 but sure nevertheless. And as day by day he repairs agfdn to that same Saviour, the 
 powers of the new life are replenished and renewed, and so, inste.id of the full free for- 
 giveness which, when he returned to God, was bestowed upon him, causing him to take 
 encouragement to live on in sin, it has wrouj;ht in him a holy hatred of it, and led him 
 to turn from it more and more. No, the wondrous grace of God, which is told of in 
 this word, " Yet return again to me," does not make void the Law, but it establishes 
 the Law (cf. Kom. viii. 1). — C. 
 
 Vers. 6 — 10. — An old and sad hut very true fiory. L God looking fob fruit but 
 NOSE FORTHCOMING. 1. The fruit God looked for was Judah's repentance (cf. the 
 history of tlie times to which Jeremiah refers). Idolatry was rampant in the northern 
 kingdom. The southern also had been very far from free Irom it. But at this time 
 God looked for a true repentance on Judah's part. 2. And such fruit was reasonably 
 expected. There was the personal example and influence of King Josiah and the band 
 of faithful men who were endeavouring to promote a true religiou.s relormation. Tliey 
 had seen the degradation which followed Israel's sin (ver. 9) ; how Israel had fallen so hj w 
 as to worship stocks and stones, the " most scoundrel idols," as Matthew Henry calls 
 thein. They had heard the gracious appeal of God to Israel (ver. 7). They liad steu 
 the judgments of God which had followed when his grace was rejected. How severe 
 and terrible these had been ! God " had put Israel away " (ver. 8). For nearly a 
 century Israel had been in dread captivity by reason of their sins. And the sin which 
 had brought down their judgments was the sin which Judah herself was guilty of. 
 And the judgment had not happened to an alien nation or in a remote land. No, but 
 to Judah's own sister, to members of the same family, of one blood and lineage ; and 
 close to her own door, hence under her own eye. What more arousing and alarming 
 call to the unconverted could there have been than all this ? And to lend further force 
 to this call, there was in Judah the presence of the temple, the possession of all manner 
 of religious privilege. How reasonable, then, was the expectation that Judah should 
 turn away from her idolatry and unfeignedly repent! But the like of all such reasons 
 for the expectation of a true turning to God exists in the case of many to-day. Every 
 influence and argument for such turning to God as bore upon Judah then, bears upon 
 many still. 3. But that which God desired was not forthcoming. It is the burden of 
 the prophet's complaint that what Israel had done, and worse, was chargeable against 
 Judah. And as now, all too often, those from whom real religion may reasonably be 
 expected are found not only as evil, but outstripping others in ungodly ways. This is 
 part of the story told us by these verses. 
 
 II. Another is that of men seeking to palm off on God fictitious feuit instead 
 OF genuine. (Ver. 10.) Cf. the history of the reformation in Josiali's day — how justly 
 it is described in this verse! It was sudden, partial, external, shortlived. And sucli 
 feigned reformations are common enough still. Cf. Luke xi. 21 — 26 ; and sermon No. 
 613 by Spurgeon : " And as the devil looks round and finds the place swept, he finds 
 it garnished too. The man has bought some pictures : he has not real laith, but he 
 has a fine picture of it over the fireplace. He has no love to the cross of Christ, but he 
 has a very handsome crucifix hanging on the wall. He has no graces of the Spirit, but 
 he has a fine vase of flowers on the table of other peoples' experiences and other peoples' 
 graces, and they smell tolerably sweet. There is a fireplace without fire, but there is 
 one of the handsomest ornaments for the fireplace that was ever bought for money. It 
 is swept and garnished. Oh, the garnished people I have met with ! garnished some- 
 times with almsgiving, at other times with long-winded prayers ; garnished with the 
 profession of zeal and l;be pretence of reverence. You will find a zealous Protestant — 
 oh, so zealous ! — who would go into fits at the sign of a cross, and yet will be guilty of 
 nameless vice. You find persons shocked because another boiled a tea-kettle on a 
 Sunday, or insured his life, or assisted at a bazaar, who will cheat and draw the eye- 
 teeth out of an oriihan child if they could get sixpence by it. They are swept and 
 garnished. Walk in, ladies and gentlemen 1 Did you ever see a house so delightfully 
 
70 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [oh. in. 1—25. 
 
 furnished as this? How elegant! how tasteful ! Just so: but men may be damned 
 tastefully, and go to hell respectably, just as well as they can in a vulgar and debauched 
 fashion." Wherefore do men thus actf Because conscience has been aroused by 
 God's dealings with them, and it will not let them rest without doing something. 
 The question now comes, how little can they do which will be sufficient to still the 
 inconvenient and uncomfortable clamour of conscience ? and such turning to God 
 " feignedly," such reformations as that of Judah under King Josiah, such sweeping 
 and garnishing of the house empty of any true love to God, is the device they resolve 
 upon. Then next, in this sad story, we see — 
 
 III. Gebatee condemnation than ever comino upon men in consequence. 1. They 
 are branded with a worse name than others (cf. "treacherous Judah," vers. 7, 10). 
 Under pretence of being faithful to God, guardians of the temple, the priesthood, the 
 Law, making loud profession, they were idolatrous even as Israel. Hence the name 
 o( infamy, " treacherous." And Christ's most terrible words were for the " hypocrites " 
 of his day. 2. A place less tolerable in the day of judgment will be assigned them, 
 than that of those who sinned in like manner but without any such religious pro- 
 fession (ver. 11). Oh, then, what need for the prayer — 
 
 " Search me, God, and try my heart. 
 For thou that heart canst see ; 
 And turn each cursed idol out 
 That dares to rival thee." _ 
 
 Ver. 11. — The comparative advantages of Judah and Israel ; professors and non- 
 professors. I. Let Judah and Israel be taken as eepeesenting eespectiyelt 
 professors of eeligion and those who make no such profession. Judah did make 
 such profession, but Israel stood aloof, neither worshipping at the temple nor joining in 
 the appointed feasts. 
 
 II. Observe that Iseabl is said to have " justified herself more," etc. (Ver. 11.) 
 1. This was true, for a sterner sentence went out against Judah than against Israel. 
 (1) A more infamous name is given to her than. to Israel; she is called "Trea- 
 cherous." (2) And her punishment was more severe. Israel had long been jiepared to 
 mingle more or less readily with other nations. An assimilating process had been 
 going on for many generations, religiously, socially, and politically. Hence they were 
 looked upon much as the Pharisees of our Lord's day looked upon the publicans and 
 sinners whom he so graciously welcomed. And we find that, as a fact, they soon became 
 merged into the nations whither they had been carried away captive. They had 
 no such memories, no such antipathies as the people of Judah, and hence their exile 
 must have been more tolerable. The piteous psalms which bewail the hard lot of the 
 captive came not from them, but from the exiles ^i Judah. It was they who " by the 
 rivers of Babylon sat down and wept as thoy remembered Zion." The iron entered into 
 their soul as it could hardly have done in the case of Israel. And the like facts — (1) 
 and (2) — are seen in the case of unworthy professors of religion. See our Lord's holy hate, 
 hear his scathing words of scoi'n and doom, in regard to the hypocrites of his day. And 
 the world, too, looks on them with a contempt it keeps for none other. And they 
 suffer as none other can. If the grace of God be still in them, who can describe the 
 remorse, the self-abasement, the shame, with which they view the punishment that 
 has come upon them ? 2. And the reasons wherefore it was less tolerable for Judah 
 than for Israel were : (1) Judah's privileges were so much greater. (2) Her warnings 
 had been more numerous, more plain, more arousing, more prolonged (cf. the history 
 and previous verses). (3) Her inducements to loyal obedience were stronger. Henco 
 her sin brought the greater doom, " And the Lord said," etc. (ver. 11). And these are 
 the reasons — greater privileges, louder warnings, more powerful inducements to obedi- 
 ence — which, when they are all disregarded and set at nought, compel, yea, create a 
 scourge for the fallen Church, such as they who have never made any such profession 
 can never feel. Therefore — 
 
 HI. Inquiee what is the just conclusion that should be drawn from the 
 FACT Kow OBSKEVED. 1. Is it this : that it is butter to bo Israel than Judah ; to stand 
 aloof from all profession of religion than to make such profession? (1) No; for it was 
 
OH. III. 1—25.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 71 
 
 letter to be Judah than Israel. There were possiliilities, and these generally realized, of 
 greater blessedness in Judah than could be attained in Israel. Compare the histories of 
 the kingdoms of Judah and Israel, and see if the brightest and most numerous examples 
 of sanctity, as well as the greatest displays of God's favour, to say naught of the joy of 
 his appointed worship, were not in Judali rather than in Israel. And so in like manner 
 we affirm that it is better to be the avowed disciple of Christ, notwithstanding the possi- 
 bility of a more terrible fall, than to be numbered with the crowd of those who neither 
 possess nor profess any regard for God. For larger blessing, in the form of increased 
 moral resemblance to God, of joy in God, and of greater security from the power of sin, 
 — these certainly belong to those who are as Judah rather than to those who are as 
 Israel. All God's favour is open to them as it is not to those in whom God's fear does 
 not dwell. (2) And again. No ; for we do not reason in such manner in regard to other 
 things. True, " He that is down need fear no fall ; " but we do not, on the strength of 
 that dismal proverb, begin immediately to prefer the lot of the fallen one to that of him 
 who, by God's providence, is set on high and stands upright. The rich man does not 
 hasten to make himself poor that he may be free from the fear of becoming so. Nor 
 does the man who is blessed with vigorous health desire the condition of the 
 invalid because in that condition there can be no fear of loss of health. Then why 
 should the far less blessed lot of Israel, and of those outside the professed Ciiurch of 
 God whom Israel represents, be preferred to the better and brighter lot of Judah and 
 of God's Church, though a fall terrible and sad is possible here which could not be 
 there? (3) And it would bo right still to prefer the lot of Judah, even if Israel had 
 been simply let alone by God. If God had sent no punishment to Israel, it would have 
 been better to be Judah, with the possession of God's favour, although the possession 
 involved the possibility of its loss, than to have been without that favour at all. But 
 when we see that the judgment of God came upon Israel as well as upon Judah, then 
 much more, notwithstanding the sad fact declared in this ver. 11, was it better to have 
 been Judah than Israel. And so, were there no judgment on the world, and God's anger 
 came only on a fallen Church, better even then to be of the Church than of the world. 
 But when we know that there is a judgment of the world as well as of the Church, that 
 sin has no immunity anywhere, then, though sin in the Church be worse than sin in 
 the world, still let me be there where the favour, the joy, and the grace of God are, and 
 not where they can never come. 2. But the true lesson of what we have been con- 
 sidering is, "Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall." Judah, 
 and the Church of God whom Judah represents, need to remember that, notwith- 
 standing their high position of privilege, corruption and sin may lay hold upon them, 
 and should that happen, their sin and their doom will be the most terrible of all (cf. 
 Epistle to Church at Laodioea). Therefore hearken to our Lord's words, " Watch and 
 pray."— C. 
 
 Vers. 12 — 19. — Confession of sin the indispensable prerequisite for its pardon. That 
 this is so is shown by the evident fact that if it could have been dispensed with it 
 would have been. For the desire of God to pardon his guilty people is, as this section 
 shows, intense. He will not cease to seek after them even when the punishnient of 
 their sin has actually come upon them. Hence (ver. 12) he addresses them in the 
 lands of their exile, Mesopotamia, Assyria, and Media (2 Kings xvii. 6), and three 
 times (vers. 12, 14, 22) implores them to " return." He " fills his mouth with argu- 
 ments," and endeavours by every kind of assurance and promise to induce them to 
 return. Ver. 12 : they shall be completely forgiven. Ver. 14 : they ought to return, 
 for they are his by right, as the wife is the rightful possession of the husband. Ver. 14 : 
 they are the object of his constant regard, .so that they cannot be concealed from his 
 eye or hindered from his help. No, though in a whole city, or tribe, or nation, there 
 should be but " two " or even " one," still his hand would reach them there, and bring 
 them out and restore them to Zion. Ver. 15 : and those who in days gone by had so 
 grievously led them astray, should do so no more, for now, " pastors," i.e. rulers and 
 guides, whether in the State or in religion, should be such as were " according to God's 
 own heart," and these should feed them with knowledge. Ver. 16 : and under tins 
 happy rule they should greatly multiply in the land. And, better still, they should so 
 realize and rejoice in the spiritual presence of God that they should no longer need the 
 
72 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. hi. 1—25. 
 
 aid of the ancient symbols of that presence, such as tlie ark of the coTenant of the 
 old dispensation. Ver. 17 : and Jerusalem should be so filled with the Lord's presence 
 that they should call the city " the throne of the Lrrd." And the " nations " should 
 be converted, and their wickedness be forsaken. Ver. 18 : and Judah and Israel should 
 be one, and in unity and affection possess the land. Such were the glorious ho]ies 
 with which God sought to win back his people's hearts to himself, and tliey conclu- 
 sively show how intensely the heart of God was set upon his people's return. But 
 eagerly desirous as God was for this restoration of his lost children to his heart and 
 home again, he is evidently held back from indulging such affectionate proinptin,s 
 by considerations that could not be overlooki-d. What they were, the demand that he 
 makes for confession of sin plainly shows. They are — 
 
 I. The Law of righteousness. Sin is the violation of that Law, and until du atone- 
 ment and acknowledgment have been made, sin ought not to be forgiven. I may, in 
 accordance with our Saviour's commands, refrain from inflicting punishment o one who 
 has wronged me, even though he have not repented of his wrong ; and that refraining from 
 inflicting punishment, or from demanding what is my right, is forgiveness in the sense 
 our Lord meant ; but he did not mean, for it would be a command impossible to obey — 
 mat I should receive such a one into the same confidence and love which I bear towards 
 a dear friend who has never deserved anything else. Therefore my forgiveness of such 
 an unre|)entant offender, thouiih granted in accordance with our Lord's command, and 
 well-pleasing in his sight, and the best I am capable of, is nevertheless not complete, 
 not perfect ; for perfect forgiveness, that which God would bestow upo sinful men, 
 means far more than the remission of penalty : it means restoration to the love, the 
 fellowship, and the confidence of God. But this caniot be apart from due atonement 
 made on the part of the wrong-doer. The Law of righteousness, the Law written upon 
 our hearts as well as inherent in the nature of things, forbids such forgiveness apart 
 from the essential condition of such forgiveness. 
 
 IL And the well-being of his household is that other consideration which restrains 
 the prompting of affection to forgive sin unconditionally and from mere pity. Man is 
 not the whole of God's household. He may be only the one sheep who has gone- 
 astray. The rest, the ninety and nine blessed ones who need no repentance. But to 
 pardon sin without atonement would be to confound all moral distinctions, to dis- 
 courage the good, and to teach the wrong-doer to regard his wrong as a very .slight 
 matter; it would be to carry the discords of earth, in to the presence of God, and to 
 reproduce there the sins and sorrows of this world. Therefore let the love of God 
 towards sinful man be inconceivably great, and it is so, still it is held back in its 
 exercise by these considerations now named. But where sin is confessed as God 
 demands it should be, then, as is promised here and in many other Scriptures beside, 
 God's pardoning love can go forth and the sinner be restored to the favour, which he 
 had lost. And the reason of this is not because the sinner's poor and inadequate con- 
 fession of his sin is a sufficient atonement for the wrong he has done, but because, when 
 he sincerely makes that confession, he is invested with the acceptdbleness of Christ. 
 For Christ has made that atonement perfectly which man can only offer in the most 
 imperfect way ; " man's repentance needing too often to be repented of, and his very 
 tears to be washed in the blood of Christ." But Christ looked upon sin as God looks 
 upon it, hated it as God hates it, consented to God's judgment concerning it by 
 bearing the penalty of it; "he bore our sins in his own body on the tree," and so made 
 that true, that perfect confession and atonement which we can never make. And he 
 did this in our nature, and as our Representative. So now, when we come in his Name, 
 .fincerely repenting of sin, though that repentance be inadequate in itself, yet because 
 it is " the mind of Christ," and looks upon sin sorrowing over it as he did, our imperfect 
 atonement is accepted in his perfect one, we have the fellowship of his sufferings, his 
 atonement is in our measure reproduced in us, and we are made conformable to his 
 death. Pardon thus bestowed neither violates the Law of righteousness nor is incon- 
 sistent with the well-being of the whole family of God. Hence it is that, as in ver. 13, 
 the demand is made for confession of sin, and then of their iniquity in all its aggravated 
 forms. Without such confession pardon cannot be bestowed. Not till the prodiga" 
 " came to himself," went to his father and said, " I have sinned," was he forgiven, not- 
 withstanding all the yearning of the father's heart after his, lost child. Now, to bring 
 
CH. ni. 1— 25.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAlt. ^3 
 
 men to this looking upon their sin as God looks upon it, as the Lord Jesus looks upon 
 it, is the object of God's disciplines, of the pain and smart which so olten accompany 
 sin, and of so much of the teachinn; of the Bible and of God's providential government. 
 And those who have trusted in (Jhrist are continually to be " looking unto Jesus," lor 
 in that trustful look is the sure guarantee of the preservation of the " mind of Christ " 
 in them in regard to sin, and so of their for ever abiding in the favour and love of Goil. 
 This mind of holy hatred and sorrow on account of sin it is the especial work of God's 
 Holy Spirit to produce in men ; that Spirit who is given to them that ask his aid, 
 more readily than even parents give to their children what those children they so much 
 love need and ask for. — C, 
 
 Ver. 14. — Married to God. " Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord ; for I 
 am married unto you." 
 
 I. This seems an incredible statement. Had it been spoken of angels, or of 
 unfi\llen man, or of eminent saints, it would have been more easy of belief. But it is 
 of men desperately wicked, and to such, that God says, " I am married unto you." 
 What infinite condescension and love ! 
 
 H. But nevekthbless it is true. For : 1. We have the marriage lines, the record 
 of the transaction, the very words of the covenant deed (cf. Ps. Isxxix. 3, 28 ; Heb. 
 viii. ; ch. xxxii. 38 — 40). In all these Gid declares that he has taken us to be 
 his for ever : " They shall be my people, and I will be their God." 2. Our children 
 are his. He bids them all call him by the blessed name of Father. 3. He repeatedly 
 declares that we were the objects of his choice. Cf. Eph. i., "He took not on him 
 the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham." And this because 
 we " were partakers of flesh and blood, he himself also took part in the same ; " " God 
 so loved the world ; " " He came to seek and to save that which was lost " (cf. also 
 Eph. v. 25 — 27). 4. He has given us the sign and token of our being his in the 
 sacrament of our baptism. That which the wedding ring is to the wife, baptism is to 
 us : it declares the blessed fact that we are God's, and separates us for his Name, the 
 Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. 5. He has endowed us with his 
 goods: "All things are yours, . . . the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things 
 to come ; all are yours " (1 Cor. ill. 22). 6. He is always with us : " In him we live and 
 move," etc. He is not far from any one of us : "I will never leave thee nor forsake 
 thee." 7. He is jealous of our love : " I the Lord thy God am a jealous God." What is 
 the Bible but one long record of the disquiet of the heart of God when the love of those 
 to whom he is " married " is turned from him ? Hence the eternal law, " Thou shall 
 have no other gods before me;" " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart." 
 A man has a right to claim that she whom he has married should love him. He has 
 no such claim on any other. And so because the Lord God condescends to hold this 
 relationship towards us, he too claims our love : " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God." 
 8. We are on the way to dwell with him in his eternal home. We are not there yet, 
 but we are on the way. " We are coming up from the wilderness," and if we faithfully 
 recognize our relationship to God, we shall be "leaning upon our beloved" (Cant, 
 viii. 6). 9. He has done for us, and does for xis still, what only such a near and dear 
 relationship can account for. Even the compassionate friend will not feel himself 
 bound, though he will minister relief, to go and share the very same lot as that of those 
 whom he compassionates. And the father of the prodigal did not make himself poor 
 as that prodigal was. He lifted him up, but he did not himself stoop down. No; that 
 which the Lord God has done is more than the love of friend, brother, father; it is the 
 love of the husband alone. For the husband, if he be worthy of the name, will ikaio 
 the lot of the wife. And if she must suffer hardship, he will share it with her. If she 
 dwell in mean abode, he will not be happy to dwell elsewhere. But does not all this 
 describe what the Lord God hath done ? " He, though he was rich, yet for our 
 sakes became poor." The word "married" is not a mere metaphor, it is the alone 
 explanation of the Incarnation and of tlie Atonement. The general benevolence of 
 God, not even the fatherhood of God, will adequately tell wherefore he so humbled 
 himself and lived here " as a poor meek man upon earth," and then died for us ; but 
 the husbandhood of God, the fact that he declares when he says, " I am married unto 
 you," will account for it and explain all. We have to live here in this wilderness 
 
74 THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. in. 1— 2X 
 
 world, to be tried, tempted, troubled, and at length to die, and we have also to resist 
 even unto blood, striving against sin ; and therefore he himself also took part in the 
 Bame. Then if this statement of the text be true — ■ 
 
 in. Vast consequences follow. 1. Forgetfulness or disregard of this relationship 
 in which we stand to God must be utter misery. Perhaps hell is never so nearly- 
 brought up and made known in all its hideous wretchedness here on earth as by means 
 of a marriage in which one side has lost all love for the other. Oh, the drag of the mar- 
 riage bond then 1 What an iron chain; what a fetter it is! How it I'rets! Howitgalls! 
 How simply horrible it has become ! Penal servitude for life is but a mild description 
 of it. From ever knowing it by experience, may God deliver us all ! But such things, 
 alas, are, and between men and women who have vowed to love and cherish each other 
 " until death do them part." But we do not recognize so readily that well-nigh all the 
 sorrow of this life of ours is because we have forgotten or disregarded our relationship 
 to God. That marriage also is a bond which can never be severed. And if we have 
 no love to God, no delight in him, no trust or confidence, oh, how that bond will gall, 
 will irritate, will fret, and so become the very " strength of sin " 1 The unrest, the dis- 
 tress, the wild attempts to win happiness in lawless ways, the sting of conscience, the 
 inward remorse, are all accounted for by the consciousness that men have of their r<bliga- 
 tion to God whilst that obligation is being grievously disregarded. On the other hand : 2. 
 Due response rendered to the love of God towards us must be our deep, our indestructible, 
 our ever-advancing joy. See the proofs of this in the return of the prodigal •. " They 
 began to be merry." Listen to David : " God, thou art my God," etc. " I will go unto 
 the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy." Behold the martyrs. Rather than be 
 severed from God by denial of him, let what shame, agony, loss, death, that might como 
 upon them. Ask those who know what the love of God is, if it be not as we say. That 
 pure joy which a true wife has in the husband she loves and reveres, that is the type 
 of the joy in God which we may have and should have, and to which even the worst 
 of us, the miserable backsliders, are by God himself entreated to return. How happy 
 in his protection! How certain that he will be prompt to help in all peril and emergency! 
 How free the outpouring of the heart in loving confidence! How sure of 1 - love always! 
 — no doubt ever clouding that certainty. And how sure, too, of his sympathy, his wise 
 counsel, his constant support! And to all this God invites us, yea, he by this word 
 of his bids us claim it as our right — a right he will at once recognize. It is wonderful ; 
 the condescension and the love of it are so marvellous that we are slow to comprehend, 
 slower still to believe it, and slowest of all to realize and rejoice in it. But yet it is 
 most assuredly true. Therefore, Lord, increase our faith ; we believe, but help thou our 
 unbelief. — 0. 
 
 Ver. 19. — The great difficulty overcome. " How shall I," etc. ? A different rendering 
 has been proposed for this verse, but inasmuch as the general meaning and spirit of 
 the prophecy are maintained in our common translation, we prefer to abide thereby. 
 So read, the verse brings before us— 
 
 I. God's gracious purpose op love towards sinful men. He would put them 
 " among the children," etc. Think what this involves. Picture to ourselves tho lot of 
 the children im the home of an affluent, affectionate, wise, and godly father. What 
 condition fairer, more enviable, can be conceived? What freedom from all care! What 
 unrestrained, confiding, loving intercourse between the children and their father! What 
 healthful development and direction of character and disposition! How sheltered ; how 
 secure ; how happy in the abiding consciousness of their father's love ! How full of all 
 good their position cannot but be ! But the brightest, fairest lot that ever fell to any 
 children in an earthly home fails fully to set forth what it must be to be set amongst 
 Gud's children, and to be numbered amongst his sons and daughters. Blessed indeed 
 are such; how blessed none but they who are thus "set among the children" can fully 
 know. But such was the gracious purpose of God towards man, nothing less than . 
 this. He created us for this very purpose, with this very intent. ' And it is the reason 
 and motive of the creation of every newly born child. For this every human soul is 
 endowed with faculties which can find their complete exercise and enjoyment only 
 anmngst God's children : " God hath made us for himself, and our hearts have no rest 
 until they find rest in him." But the verse, by its very form, indicates— 
 
OH.rn. 1— 25.] THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 75 
 
 II. The terrible thwartino and hindering of that gracious puRrosE which 
 HAS TAKEN PLACE. " Eow shall I put theo," etc. ? plainly denoting that there is some 
 giant obstacle in the way. In the case of Israel the previous portions of this prophecy 
 show clearly what this was. But it is equally true of us all. And this dread hindrance 
 to God's carrying out his purposes of grace towards us consists not so much in what 
 we have done as in what we are. The heart of man is not right in the sight of God, 
 and whilst that is so, God cannot set us amongst bis children. Transgressions and 
 offences are but the symptoms of the deadlier evil that lurks within, not the evil itself. 
 That consists in the state of heart Godvvards which, alas! characterizes us all, until the 
 new heart and the right spirit be given. What should we say if towards ourselves as 
 parents our children were to order themselves as we do towards God ? — rarely thinking 
 of us, placing no confidence in us ; though we would delight to have them speak to us, 
 yet maintaining a sullen silence always; in their hearts disliking us and resenting the 
 expression of our will ; disobeying us on the slightest pretext, and choosing for their 
 friends those they well know to be our foes. If any parent was so unhappy as to have 
 such a son or daughter, how could he set such a one amongst his other children who 
 love him as children should? And that this is the case between the unrenewed man 
 and God, let conscience and men's works, words, and ways witness. This being so, how 
 can we "marvel" that our Lord hath said, "Ye must be born again"? But we are 
 shown also- 
 Ill. This diffictiltt, vast as it is, triumphantly overcome. In the latter part 
 of the verse and in the confessions of the twenty-second and following verses it is clear 
 that a great change has taken place. The rebel heart has gone, the child's heart has 
 Clime in its place. The erewhile sinful godless soul is heard calling upon God as " My 
 Father," and in daily conduct is found not turning away from him. What a change ! 
 No wonder that the Scripture emblems of it are all drawn from contrasts the most 
 vivid and intense that experience furnishes or the mind can conceive: life and death, 
 darkness and light, crimson red and snow whiteness, leprous and pure ; as one 
 possessed of the devil, and as one calm, sober, and in bis right mind ; — such are some of 
 them. But the beholding of so great a change leads of necessity to the inquiry how 
 it was brought about. Hence note — 
 
 IV. The means whereby this was accomplished. These were as they ever are, 
 the manifestation of the love of God. In Christ God came to seek and to save his 
 self-lost children. But they, instead of welcoming the Christ of God, crucified and slew 
 him. That rebel alienated heart which is common to us all wrought this awful crime. 
 But it is when by the Holy Spirit men are led to see what they have done to him 
 who so loved them as to come from heaven to save them, there is produced that con- 
 viction of sin, that deep and genuine repentance, that sense of his infinite love, and 
 that consequent entire trust in him, — all which are the very elements of that heart of a 
 dear child which calls God " My Father," and which will not turn away from him. 1 
 have read of one who was for ever reclaimed from the deadly sin of drunkenness by the 
 deep anguish of heart which he experienced when he found that one day, when 
 brutalized by drink, he bad smitten to the ground his own dear child, and wounded her 
 with a wound the scar of which she would never lose; and that he had done this 
 whilst she was lovingly seeking to lead him away from the place and the people who 
 were tempting him to his ruin. When he came to himself and knew what he had 
 done, his horror and remorse had no bounds. " The drink ! ay, it was all the drink ! " 
 he exclaimed when, years after, telling the story. " Could I ever touch it again ? I 
 kept my finger lightly on the little maid's forehead, and lifted my face to heaven, and 
 vowed that I would never touch the murderous thing 'again as long as I lived, and 
 with a broken heart I prayed the Lord to help me." That well-known story serves to 
 illustrate how, in this great matter of man's restoration to God, he who once was a god- 
 less rebel becomes filled with another heart, and God can, as he desires to, place him 
 amongst the children. For when I clearly see the wounds which I in my mad sin 
 have inflicted on him who sought to save me, and who tenderly loves me still not- 
 withstanding all I have done, the sight of his cross and of those wounds will fill my 
 soul with such a hatred of sin and love of God that I am no longer what I was ; I am 
 born again, I have passed from death unto life. Yes, it is the sight of the love of God 
 in Christ which turns the sinner into the child of God, and wins for him a place 
 
76 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEPvEMfAH. [ch. in. I— 25. 
 
 amonffst the chiUli'en of God. With what fervour, then, may we pray the blessed Spirit 
 to fulfil his work in and for us and for all men ! — C. 
 
 Ver. 20— ch. iv. 2. — GocCs way of restoration ; or, the experiences of a young convert. 
 In ver. 19 we have given us the expression of the Divine perplexity in regard to lost 
 Israel : " How shall I place thee among the children," etc. ? But ere the verse closes 
 we behold the problem solved, the seeming im|X)ssibility accomplished, for the lost is 
 found, and he that was dead is alive again. The rebel Israc-1 has become the lovmg 
 obedient child. And now in these verses (20 — ch. iv. 2) we seem to liave a telling 
 of the experience of the restored one, a setting forth of how G-od had dealt with him. 
 It is given in the form of a dialogue between God and Israel, and is an accurate descrip- 
 tion of the Divine process of restoration. 
 
 I. There is the brikgikg home of sin to the conscience. (Ver. 20.) God charges 
 upon lost Israel great and grievous sin. He likens the wrong he has suffered at the 
 hands of Israel to the most grievous wrong it is possible for a mnn to suffer, and which 
 of all others a man resents the moat. The accusation is terrible. Thus sharply and 
 sternly does God deal with the soul he would save. He does not gloss over, or palliate, 
 or in any way make little of our sin, as we are apt to do; but he shows it to us so 
 clearly that the sight of it is almost more than the heart can bear. 
 
 II. This conviction of sin is followed by a deep repentance. (Ver. 21.) Israel 
 is represented as seeing her sin, and then from the very high places which had witnessed 
 her guilt is heard her weeping and supplication. The soul that has never known the 
 smart and pain of the conviction of sin will never earnestly turn to the Great Physician 
 for the healing that is needed. 
 
 III. The proclamation of mercy follows. Ver. 22, " Return, ye apostate 
 children, I will heal your apostasies." Just as to the enraptured ears of the penitent 
 who was weeping over the Saviour's feet there came the blessed sound of his pardoning 
 word, assuring her her sins were ibrgiven and that she might go in peace, so here God 
 is represented as declaring his meicy to the weeping, supplicating Israel. And the 
 heart the Lord hath dealt with knows that thus it is. A voice not audible, but I'eal, is 
 heard in the soul, assuring the contrite one of the forgiveness he needs and craves. 
 
 IV. In such a heart prom.pt belief, instant acceptance of the offered mercy, 
 follows. Ver. 22, " Behold, we come unto thee; for," etc. As well might the steel 
 filings i-efnse to be moved by the magnet that lies by them as the sin-convinced and 
 contrite heart fail to lay hold on the promise set before it in the gospel. No sooner 
 has God said, " Return, I will heal," than the answer is heard, " Behold, we come." 
 
 V. Then follows the confession and repentance or faith. (Vers. 23 — 25.) 
 There had been confession and repentance before the soul bad heard and accepted the 
 offer of pardon ; but that which follows is more full, more diep than that which went 
 before. We repent more deeply of sin after we have known God has pardoned us than 
 before we had that blessed knowledge. See here : 1. Their confession of the utter 
 vanity of all their idols (ver. 23). 2. 'I'heir confident assurance that God alone can be 
 their salvation (ver. 23). 3. Their confession of the disurace and infatiintcd folly which had 
 characterized them as a people for so long a time (ver. 24). They call their idolatry 
 "shame," and own how it has destroyed both their substance and themselves. 4. They 
 acknowledge the complete righteotisness of God's judgment against their sin, and 
 their own just exposure to his wrath (ver. 25). " Let us lie in our shame and our dis- 
 grace cover us, that we have sinned," etc. (I/ange's translation). And thus it ever is: 
 the more we realize God's pardoning love, the more intense will be our perception of 
 the baseness and utter evil of the sin that has been forgiven. 
 
 VI. Ihis confession is followed by further assurances of grace. (Ch. iv. 
 1, 2.) Return to God shall be followed by return to their own land. "If thou ro- 
 turnest to me, thou shalt return (unto thy land), and if thou puttest away, etc., thou 
 shalt not remove," i.e. into exile again. " And if thou shalt swear by Jehovah with 
 sincere, righteous, and true heart," i.e. "if thou wilt truly give thyself up to God, then 
 the heathen nations outside, seeing how thy God shall bless thee and shall heap his 
 favours upon thee, shall come and bless themselves in him, and shall glory in him," i.e. 
 they shall have done with their idolatries and be converted unto God. With such 
 gracious promises would God encourage Israel in the new and better way in which 
 
CTT. III. 1—25.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 7? 
 
 they are represented as walking ; with such gentleness would he make them, as he iu 
 like manner makes all who truly turn to him, great. — C. 
 
 Ver. 16. — Supercession of external religious ordinances and institutions. This is 
 because of the necessarily temporary nature of these, and the spirituality to which they 
 are intended to minister, and which subsequently they may hinder. 
 
 I. The true worship of God is spikitctal. It is not to bow before an altar or an 
 ark that God calls us to his temple, but to see himself face to face, to discover our need 
 of him, and to delight in his presence. Nor is this communion to be occasional or in- 
 termittent. The whole life is to be aifected by spiritual influences. A true life may 
 thereby become worship, and " daily toil temple service." This arises from tlie nature 
 of God. " God is a Spirit : and they that worsliip him must worship him in spirit and 
 in truth." 
 
 II. The most sacred symbols are only useful as they help to this, and when 
 IT IS attained are no longer required. This may be said not only of external church 
 furniture, rites of worship, etc., but even of words and doctrines themselves, which are 
 but imperlect representations of the Divine glory. When the building is finished the 
 scaffolding is removed. The final end of education is not to load the mind with dead 
 knowledge, but to culture and strengthen it. Ceremonial and doctrinal teaching are 
 intended to lead men into personal experience of God and communion with him. 
 When that is attained they fall into the background. 
 
 III. That ritual worship shall give place to spiritual is distinctly promised. 
 1. An incentive to the spiritual use of rites. 2. An assurance of Divine favour and 
 love. 3. A promise of Christ and communion ihrouyh him. — M. 
 
 Ver. 19. — " Put among the children." A promise deeply and tenderly evangelical. 
 Israel and Judah had forfeited tliis position because they had broken the covenant. 
 But the forgiving love of God is shown in his declaring that they should he reinstated. 
 The force of the phrase is well explained as that of " bestowing a rich paternal bene- 
 diction," or of restoring to the riglits and privileges of inheritance. 
 
 I. The sinker has forfeited his position in the family of God. All through 
 Scripture this relation is shown as depending upon mutual agreement and obligatiou. 
 The covenant is the title-deed to the inheritance of God's children. The breaking of 
 tills on the part of the sinner destroys his claim and position. In the parable of the 
 prodigal son we have the consciousness of this on the part of the transgi-essor beauti- 
 lully described — " I am no more worthy to be called thy son." Moral harmony between 
 the soul of man and God is of the essence of the filial relation. A lost position ; a 
 possibility that we have destroyed by our own act. Henceforth the sinner is a spiritual 
 orphan, or a " child of Satan." There is no claim upon God save on condition of 
 renewed obedience. He is subject to the wrath of God's wounded love and outraged 
 honour. 
 
 II. Readoption is the guarantee of all highest blessings. It is only children 
 of God who are heirs of God ; if, then, we would enjoy the privileges and blessings of 
 his house, we must be reinstated in that \\hich we have lost. But this is only possible 
 on repentance and belief. We are assured here and elsewhere that the sinner can 
 regain this title and relation without lessening of the dignity, privilege, and affection. 
 When once this has taken place there is no bar to the bestowal of God's richest bene- 
 diction. As his children, as those who are actuated by his love and governed by his 
 Spirit, there is ample security that his blessings shall not be abused. A holy confidence 
 and communion are established, and the true end of being is once more secured. 
 
 III. This is an act op God's fkee grace. The initiative is not the sinner's. 
 Overtures of mercy come from him he has offended. There is nothing to compel God 
 to do this. He is perfectly free, and any obligation into which he enters is sealed only 
 by his voluntary promises. There is abundant evidence, too, of a Divine satisfaction 
 and joy in the exercise of pardoning love. It is spoken of as a long hoped for and 
 gladsome consummation. The "Abba, Father!" of the restored one is music in the 
 heart of God. This is the only true joy — the joy of reconciliation. Who can doubt 
 his welcome with such assurances as this ? God wills not that any should perish, but 
 that all shoidd come to him and live. — M. 
 
78 
 
 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEEEMIAH. [ch. iv. 1—31. 
 
 Vers. 21 — 25. — Typical penitence. It is difficult if not impossible to fix any historic 
 date for the fulfilment of this prophecy. Not a few competent scholars maintain 
 ttiat it is yet unfulfilled. But in any case it is a picture of the future, and may be 
 accepted as a description of the penitence that is well-pleasing in the sight of God. All 
 through it is spiritual, and the national circumstances involved are put thoroughly into 
 tlie baok<;round. 
 
 I. The upspniNGiNG or godly soriiow fob sin. (Ver. 21.) It is not the expression 
 of annoyance and pain at the consequences of sin. A deeper sentiment inspires the 
 host of weeping supplicants. Sin itself is the grief. The cry is from men who feel they 
 have lost their way, that there is no satisfaction in the foul and inconsequent rites of 
 idolatry. The religion and the life that flows from it are felt to be profoundly and 
 utterly false. Memories of past spiritual privileges and endearing ties overpower 
 their hearts. They do not wait, but pour forth their sorrow on the very scene of trans- 
 gression. Their sin is before them. God is the Being they have offended, and to him 
 therefore do they cry, in heartfelt and unrestrainable sorrow. 
 
 II. The Divine kesponse. (Ver. 22.) The fatherly heart of God cannot resist the 
 " voice heard upon the high places." He waits not, but forthwith addressing them 
 already as " children," encourages their approach. Their offence is declared, but equally 
 is the promise given, " I will lieal your backslidings [apostasies]." This expresses the 
 objective and subjective influence of Divine forgiveness. It not only removes the sin 
 so that forthwith and henceforth it is as if it had never been, but it destroys the causes 
 and tendencies of the evil. The source is cleansed, the disposition changed, and the 
 ■way cleared for thorough reconciliation with God. 
 
 III. The acceptance of the Divine invitation. (Ver. 22.) God is taken at his 
 word. No delay takes place. As the way of return has been shown, so they hasten to 
 avail themselves of it. His authority and relation to them are acknowledged. They 
 obey him. 
 
 IV. The accepted sinneb's confession. (Vers. 23, 24.) The " vanity," waste, and 
 ruin attendant upon idolatry are declared. God is recognized as the only Saviour. 
 Testimony like this has often proved more powerful in converting sinners than many 
 sermons. It is due to God, and may be profitable to others. 
 
 V. The accompanying emotions. (Ver. 25.) Shame predominates. But it is not 
 accompanied by despair. There is a false shame which prevents the sinner coming to 
 God ; there is a true shame which coexists with acceptance of proffered mercy, and 
 earnest effort to retrieve the past. We ought not too readily to forget " the wormwood 
 and the gall."— M. 
 
 EXPOSITION. 
 
 CHAPTER rV. 
 
 Vers. 1, 2. — The form and structure of 
 the tRinslation require a change. Kender, 
 If thou wilt return, Israel, saith Jehivah, 
 wilt return unto me; and if thou wilt put 
 away, etc., and! not wander ; and wilt swear. 
 As Jeliovdh livefh, with good failh,wilh justice, 
 and with ritjhteousness ; then sJtall tli-e nations 
 Hess themselves hy him, and in him shall 
 they glory. The clause, " and not wander," 
 seems too short ; the Septuagint had a 
 choicer reading, " and put away, etc., from 
 )iis [thy] inouth, and not wander from before 
 me." It is t!ie close of the prophecy which 
 ■we liave here. The prophet subjoins a 
 promise which he has heard from Jehovah. 
 True, it does not appeal to Israel's self-love 
 (as Isa. xlviii. 18, 19; Ps. Ixxxi. 13—16), 
 but to a nobler feeling of responsibility for 
 the world's welfare. Israel )iaa been en- 
 trusted with a mission, and on the due 
 
 performance of this mission hangs the weal 
 or woo of humanity. Hence Jehovali's 
 lorging for Israel's repentance. If Israel 
 will but "return," and obey God's com- 
 mandments, all nations will be attracted to 
 the true rellgicm. The form, of expression 
 used for the latter statement is borrowed 
 proliably from Gen. xxii. 18; xxvi. 4 (it 
 is less closely parallel with Gen. xii. 3; 
 xviii. 18). To "bless by" any one is to 
 use his name in the benediction formula. 
 Seeing Isruel so blessed through liis allegi- 
 ance to Jehovah, all nations shall wish 
 thi-mselves a similar blessing (the reverse 
 of the procrss in eh. xxix. 22 ; comp. Isa. 
 Ixv. 16). To " swear. As Jehovah liveth," 
 means to call Jehovah to witness to the 
 truth of a statement. This is to be done 
 " with good faith," etc., i.e. the object of 
 the oath must be consistent with honesty 
 and probity. Abominations ; i.e. idols, as 
 often (see 2 Kings xxiii. 24). 
 
OH. IV. 1—31.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 
 
 79 
 
 Ver. 3. — There is no oooasion to separate 
 vers. 8, 4, from the preceding prophecy. We 
 have other iustanoes of as sudden a tran- 
 sition from the Israelites (in the narrower 
 sense) to the men of Judah (see Isa. viii. 
 6 — 14 ; X. 1 — 4 ; xxviii. 1 — 6 ; in the writer's 
 commentary). For thus, etc. "For" is here 
 not causal, but explanatory : " I say this 
 not only to the men of Israel, but to you, 
 () men of Judah, who need the admonition 
 to repentance, how deeply 1 " (see ch. v. 2). 
 Break up your fallow ground; the same 
 figure as in Hos. x. 12. To understand it, 
 we must read the clause in connection with 
 tl'C following one. Sow not among thorns. 
 The prophet means, though he does not say 
 so, the roots which will spring up into 
 thorns. "Do not plant your good reso- 
 lutions in a heart filled up with the roots 
 of thorns, but first rake up the soil, and 
 clear it of noxious germs, and then sow the 
 seed which will grow up in a holy life " 
 (comp. Matt. xiii. 7). 
 
 Ver. 4.— Ciroumoise yourselves to the Lord. 
 A significant passage. All the Jews were 
 circumcised, but not all were " circumcised 
 to the Lord." There were but too many 
 who were " circumcised in unoircumcision " 
 (ch. is. 25), and the prophet sternly reduces 
 such circumcision to the level of the 
 heathenish rite of cutting off the hair (ch. ix. 
 26 ; comp. Herod, iii. 8). Jeremiah seems 
 to have been specially anxious to counteract 
 a merely formal, ritualistic notion of cir- 
 cumcision, sharing in this, as in other points, 
 the influence of the Book of Deuteronotny, 
 so lately found in the temple (comp. Deut. 
 X. 16). To him the venerable rite of cir- 
 cumcision (older, certainly, than Abraham) 
 is a symbol of the devotion of the heart to 
 its riglitful Lord icomp. St. Paul in Kom. 
 ii. 28, 29; C(d. ii. 11 ; Phil. iii. 3). 
 
 Vers. 5 — 31. — A revelation of grievous 
 purport has suddenly reached the prophet. 
 See how the foe draws nearer and nearer, 
 «nd how alarm drives the scattered popu- 
 liition to seek for refuge in the fortified 
 cities. Can such be the issue of the 
 promises of peace with which Jehovah has 
 encouraged his people ? Such are the con- 
 tents of the first paragraph (vers. 5 — 10). 
 Next, in short, detached figures the prophet 
 sets forth the sin of the people and its 
 punishment. Like a scorching simoom is 
 the former; like swift clouds, and like a 
 whirlwind, is the onward march of the 
 instruments of the latter. Swift, indeed, 
 must refientance bo, if it is to outrun pun- 
 ishment. For the northern peoples are 
 already here (vers. 11—18). The impres- 
 sion ia so strong on the mind of the prophet 
 
 that he vents himself in language such as the 
 last man might employ on the morrow of the 
 final judgment day (vers. 19— 2G). And 
 now, " lest what precedes might seem only 
 poetry" (Payne Smith), the Divine decree 
 is solemnly announced. The judgment is 
 irrevocable ; but there is a gleam of hope : 
 " I will not make a full end." On the ques- 
 tion whether the Scythians or the Baby- 
 lonians are mainly alluded to, see Intro- 
 duction.) 
 
 Ver. 5 — Cry, gather together; rather, 
 ery aloud. 
 
 Ver. 6.— Set up the standard. The " stan- 
 dard " was a tall pole with a flag, pointing 
 in the direction of Zion, for the guidance 
 of fugitives. Betire, stay not ; rather, save 
 your goods by flight; linger not. The former 
 verb occurs again in the same sense in 
 Exnd. ix. 19 ; Isa. x. 31. From the north. 
 The expression suits either the Scythians or 
 the Chaldeans (see on ch. i. 14). 
 
 Ver. 7. — The lion; the symbol of irre- 
 sistible might and royalty (Gen. xlix. 7; 
 Rev. V. 5). Of the Gentiles ; rather, of the 
 nations. There is no reference to the dis- 
 tinction between Jews and Gentiles ; the 
 Jews themselves are not allowed to escape. 
 An ordinary lion attacks individual men ; 
 tliis lion destroys nations. Is on his way ; 
 literally, has broken up his encampment - a 
 ])hriise perhaps suggested by the nomad 
 Scvtiiians. 
 
 Ver. 8. — Is not turned back from us. As 
 we in our folly believed (ch. ii. 35). 
 
 Ver. 9. — The heart . . . shall perish ; i.e. 
 they shall lose their reason. The same verb 
 in Etliiopio means "to be mad." The 
 " heart " in Old Testament language is the 
 centre of the intellectual as well as of the 
 moral life (comp. Hos. iv. II ; Job xii. 24; 
 Prov. XV. 28). So St. Ephrcm the Syrian 
 says (' Works,' in Syriao, ii. 310, quoted by 
 Delitzsch), " The reason expatiates in the 
 heart as in a palace." 
 
 Ver. 10.— Ah, Lord God I rather, Alas 1 
 Lord Jehovah (see on ch. i. 6). Thou hast 
 greatly deceived this people, etc. Much 
 difficulty has been felt in interpreting this 
 verse, p irtly because it seems directly to 
 charge Jehovah with "deceit," and partly 
 because the prophecy, Ya shall have 
 peace, on which this charge is founded, 
 accords exactly with the strain of the "fake 
 prophets" (see ch. vi. 14; xiv. 13; xxiii. 17). 
 Hence some {e.g. Ewald) have altered the 
 points of the verb at the beginning of the 
 verse, so as to enable them to render, 
 " And one shall say," the subject understood 
 being eitlier a " false prophet" or one of Ihe 
 people. This view is not in itself iiupus- 
 sible (Keil's objection will not bear exa- 
 
80 
 
 THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. iv. 1— 31. 
 
 minafion), liut is not absolutely neoessary, 
 for tlm present is not the only passage in 
 which Jeremiah, under the influence of 
 strung emotion, chaiges Jeliovah with 
 " deceit " (see ch. xx. 7. a synonvnious word 
 is used; and comp. 1 Kings xxii US', and 
 tlie words, " Ye shall have peace," may be 
 meant to summarize tlie cheirhig promises 
 in ch. iii. 14 — 18. Jeremiah may (it is not 
 incorrect to conjecture) Ijave supposed the 
 fulfilment of his prophecy to be nearei' than 
 it really was (comp. 1 Pet. i. 11); hence hia 
 disappointment, and hence his strong lan- 
 guage. So St. Jerome, " Quia supra dixo- 
 rat, In illo tempore vocabunt Jerusalem 
 solium Dei, etc., et nunc dicit, Peribit cor 
 regis, turbrttur propheta et in se Ueum putat 
 esse mentitum; neo intelligit, illud multa 
 post tempora repromissum, lioo autem vicino 
 fiiturnni tempore." To suppose, with Keil, 
 that Jeremiah refers the prophecies of the 
 "false prophets" to God as tiieir ultimate 
 Author, seems inconsistent with Jeremiah's 
 own statements in ch. xiv. 14 (comp. oh. v. 
 13). Mcireover,wehaveparallels elsewhere in 
 tlie propliets, as well as in the Uook of Job, 
 fortiie USB of language with regard to Provi- 
 dence which a cahn^r judgment would con- 
 demn. A notable instance is Isa. Ixiii. 17, 
 where the Jewish Church, through its 
 luuutlipieoe the prophet, tnrows the respon- 
 sibility of its errors upon Jeliovah. De- 
 pressed by melancholy, they give way for 
 tlie moment to those liuman " thouglits " 
 Avhich are not as "My thoughts." They 
 ielt the " burden of the mystery." TJnto the 
 soul; i.e. unio the life. 
 
 Vei-. 11. — Shall it be said to this people; 
 i.e. -words like these may be used wilh 
 reference to this people. A dry wind, etc. ; 
 literally, a clear wind (but the notions of 
 dryness and heat are closely connected with 
 that of heat; comp. Isa. xviii. 4). The 
 prophet doubtless means the east wind, 
 ■whioli is very violent in Palestine, and, of 
 course, quite unsuitable for the winnowing 
 process. High places should rather be hare 
 hills. Tuward; or (is) the way of. So Hitzig, 
 supposing the conduct of the Jews to bu 
 likened to a wind which brings no blessing, 
 but only drought and desolalion. 
 
 Ver. 12. — Even a full wind from those 
 places. The passage is obscure, but this is a 
 very possible rendering. "Full," equivalent 
 to " violent ; " " those (places)," equivalent 
 1o tlie bare hills spoken of in ver. H. Keil 
 and Payne Smith, however, reniler, "a ful- 
 ler wind than those," i.e. a more violent 
 wind than those which serve for winnowing 
 the corn ; while Hitzig (see ou ver. 11 : sup- 
 poses " from those " to mean the persons 
 described in ver. 11 as "the daughter of my 
 peo I lie." TJnto me ; or perliaps for me, at my 
 beck and call. How also will I, etc. We 
 
 must supply the other term of the anti- 
 thesis from the context : " As they have 
 sinned against me, so will I also now hold 
 a court of justice upon them" (see oa 
 ch. i. l(i). 
 
 Ver. 1.8. — He shall come up as clouds, etc. 
 It is needless to name the subject ; who can 
 it be but the host of Jehovah's warlike in- 
 struments ? (For the first figure, comp. 
 Ezek. xxxviii. 16; for the second, Isa. v. 28; 
 Ixvi. 15 ; and for the thinl, Hab. i. S; Deut. 
 xxviii. 49.) Woe unto us ! etc. The cry 
 of lamentation of the Jews (comp. ver. 20; 
 ch. ix. 18). 
 
 Ver. 14. — Thy vain thoughts. The phrase 
 specially belongs to sins against one's 
 neighbour— such sins as are described in 
 ch. vii. 5 — 9 (Keil). " Vain " should rather 
 be " wicked " (immoral ; the root-meaning 
 of the noun is " a breath " (the symbol of 
 material or moral emptiness). 
 
 Ver. 15. — For a voice deolareth, etc. 
 There is no time to lose, for already news 
 of the foe has airived. He is now at Dan, 
 the northern frontier-town, and is heard 
 of almost as soon in the hill-country of 
 Ephraim. 
 
 Ver. 16. — Hake ye mention, etc. This 
 verse contains a call to tho neighbouring 
 nations to take notice of an event which 
 nearly concerns them all. True, it is only 
 the investment of Jerusalem which can as 
 yet be reported, but there can haidly be a 
 doubt of the issue, and the capture of the 
 principal fortress will at once be followed by 
 that of the other fortified " cities of Judah." 
 Against in the second clause should rather 
 be concerning. (For the use of "beliold" 
 before an imperative, comp. Ps. exxxiv. 1.) 
 Watchers ; i.e. besegers (comp. ver. 17), who 
 like the panther lie in wait for every oue 
 who comes out of the city, to kill him (ch. 
 V. () ; comp. ch. vi. 25). 
 
 Ver. 17.— As keepers of a field. The 
 prophet compares the tents, or perhaps the 
 booths (1 Kings xx. 12, 16), of the besieging 
 army to the booths of the guardians of the 
 crops (Isa. i. 8 ; Job xxvii. 18). 
 
 Ver. 18. — This is thy wickedness; i.e. the 
 effect of thy wickedness. (Foi- the following 
 words, comp. ch. ii. 19; iv. 10.) Because; 
 rather, truly. 
 
 Ver. 19. — My bowels. It Is doubted 
 whether the speaker in vers. 19 — 21 is the 
 prophet or the whole nation. Ver. 19 re- 
 minds us of Isa. XV. 5 ; xvi. 11 and xxi. 3, 4, 
 and would be quite in harmony with tho 
 elegiac tone of our prophet elsewhere; the 
 Targum too already regards the passnge as 
 an exclamation of the prophet. On the 
 other hand, the phrase " my tents " (ver. 20) 
 certainly implies that the people, or the 
 pious section of the people, is the spoiiker. 
 lloth views may perliaps be uuited. The 
 
CH. IV. 1—31.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 
 
 til 
 
 prophet may be the speaker in ver. 19, but 
 simply (as is the case with so many of the 
 psalmists) as the representrttive of Ins fel- 
 low-believers, whom in ver. 20 he brings on 
 the stage more directly. Ver. 19 is best 
 rendered as a, series of exclamalions — 
 "My bowels I my bowels! 1 must writhe in 
 pain! 
 
 The walls of my heart ! My heart moaneth 
 unto me I 
 
 I cannot hold my pt^ace ! 
 
 For tlinu liast heard, O my soul, the sound 
 of the trumpet. 
 
 The alarm of war I 
 Observe, the " soul " hears ; the " heart " is 
 pained. So generally the one is more active, 
 the otlier more passive. The Hebrew mar- 
 gin gives, for " I must writhe," " I must 
 wait" (comp. Micah vii. 7) ; but this render- 
 ing does not suit the context. The walls of 
 my heart. A poetical way of saying, " My 
 heart beats." 
 
 Ver. 20. — My tents. Jeremiah uses a 
 similar phrase in ch. xxx. 18 (comp. also 
 2 Sam. XX. 1; 1 Kings viii. 6B; xii. 16; Ps. 
 cxxxii. 3; also Isa. xxix. 1, "city where 
 David encamped, i.e. dwelt"). The ex- 
 prtssion is evidently a " survival " of the 
 nomadic, tent-dwelling age. (Comp. the 
 parallel phrase, " my curtains," i.e. my 
 teut-curtains ; comp. ch. x. 20 ; Isa. liv. 2 ; 
 Cant. i. 5.) 
 
 Ver. 21. — Shall I see the standard. (See 
 on ver. 6.) 
 
 Ver. 22. — For my people is foolish. The 
 Lord gives no direct answer to the com- 
 plaining question in ver. 21. He simply 
 states tlie moral ground for Judah's calamity, 
 and implies that this will last so Ion<< as 
 the people continue to be " foolish," t.«. 
 virtual deniers of the true God. 
 
 Ver. 23. — 1 beheld. The prophet is again 
 the speaker, but in a calmer mood. God's 
 judgment has been pronounced, and it is 
 not tor him to reliel. He has now simply 
 to record the vision of woe which has been 
 granted him. He foresees the utter deso- 
 lation into which not only the land of 
 Judah, but the earth in general, will be 
 brought, and which reminds him of nothing 
 so much as the "waste and wild" condition 
 of the earth previous to the first creative 
 word. But wliy is " the earth " mentioned 
 in this connection ? Because the judgment 
 upon Judah is but one act in the great 
 general judgment which, when completed, 
 will issue in a fresh order of things (comp. 
 Isa. iii. 14, 15, where side by side are men- 
 tioned Jehovah's judgment of "the peoples" 
 and of " his people," and Isa. xxiv., wliere 
 the judgment upon the enemies of Israel 
 is interwoven with the judgment upon " the 
 earth "). Without form, and void ; rather, 
 miste and wild (to represent in souio 
 JEUEMIAH 
 
 degree the characteristic assonance of the 
 orif!;inal — tohii ra-hdhu) ; more literally, im- 
 movable and lifeleas. It is tlie plirase used 
 in Gen. 1. 2 for primeval chaos. Tohu and 
 boM occur in parallel lines in Isa. xxxiv. II, 
 to express utter desolation ; toM alone five 
 times in the Boul£ of Isaiah, and once in 
 Job, They had no light. The heavens were 
 in the tame condition as on the third day, 
 subsequently to the creation of the heavens, 
 but prior to that of the luminaries. 
 
 Ver. 24. — Moved lightly ; rather, moved to 
 and fro. 
 
 Ver. 26. — The fruitful place; rather, the 
 garden-land (see on ch. ii. 7). Not " the 
 Carmel " (Keil, Payne Smith) for the con- 
 text refers to the whole of the country, not 
 to any single tract. The article before the 
 two appellatives is the generic. At the 
 presence of ; rather, by reason of. 
 
 Ver. 27. — The vision breaks oflF, and the 
 prophet emphasizes its truthfulness by the 
 announcement of the Divine deer. e. " Dpso- 
 lation, and yet not a full end," is its burden. 
 This is the same doctrine of the " remnant " 
 which formed so important a part of the 
 prophetic messasfe of Isaiah and his con- 
 temporaries. However severe the punish- 
 ment of Judah may be, tliere will be a 
 " remnant" which shall escape, and become 
 the seed of a holier nation (Amos ix. 8 ; 
 Isa. iv. 2; vi. 13; x. 20; xi. 11; Hns. vi. 1,2). 
 
 Ver. 28. — For this ; i.e. because of the 
 impending judgment. Be black. " To be 
 black" is equivalent to "to put on mourn- 
 ing" (comp. ch. viii. 21 ; xiv. 2). 
 
 Ver. 29. — The whole city. The reading 
 of which this is a version can hardly be the 
 right one; for "the whole city "can only 
 be Jerusalem, and in ver. 6 the people out- 
 side are bidden to take refuge in the capital. 
 Hence Ewalil, H itzig, and Payne Smith (after 
 Septuagint, Targura) would slightly amend 
 the word rendered "city," so as to translate 
 "tlie whole land" (of Judah). Shall flee; 
 literally,/eeift. So afterwards render, " have 
 gone," " is forsaken," " dwelletli." It is a 
 vivid dramatic representation of the effects 
 of the invasion. Bowmen. It is singular 
 that Herodotus should say nothing about 
 the use of the bow by the Chaldeans. But 
 the moniimLnta give ample evidence that 
 they were a people of archers. So of course 
 were the Scythians, as Herodotus testifies. 
 The rocks; i.e. the limestone caverns wliioh 
 abound in Palestine, and which were fre- 
 quently used as strong! lolds and hiding- 
 pliioes (see Judg. vi. 2 ; xv. 8 ; 1 Sam. 
 xiii. 6; xiv. 11; xxiv. 3 (especially); 1 Kings 
 xviii. 1,3). 
 
 Ver. 30.— And when thou art spoiled, etc. 
 It is Jerusalem who is addressed— -Jeru- 
 salem, personified as a woman, who decks 
 herself out tiuely to please her admirers. 
 
 o 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. iv. 1— 31, 
 
 All these avts are in vain, for a violent 
 repulslun lias converted her lovers into her 
 deadly enemies. And when Jerusalem is 
 " spoiled," or taken by storm, what device 
 will there be left to iittfrnpt? The '• lovers" 
 are the foreign powers to whom the Jews 
 paid oniiit (fli. ii. 18, 36, 37). Though thou 
 rente? thv face, etc ; alluding to the custom 
 of Kasterii women, who try to make their 
 eyes seem larger by putting powdered anti- 
 mony (the Arabic kohl) ujjon their eyelids. 
 So, for inatanee, did Jezebel 'see 2 Kings 
 xi. 30); and one of Job's daughters leceived 
 the name Keren-happueh. " Lox of anti- 
 mony,'' ie. one who sets off the company in 
 which she is, as antimony does the eje. An 
 old author. Dr. Sliaw, writes thus : "None 
 of tliese ladies take themselves to be com- 
 pletely dressed till they have tinged the 
 
 hair and edges of their eyelids with the 
 powder of lead ore. And as this operati"n 
 is performed by dipping first into this powder 
 a small wooden bodkin of the thickness of 
 a quill, and then drawing it afterwards 
 through the eyelids over the ball of the 
 eye, we have a lively image of what the 
 prophet (Jer. iv. 30) may be supposed to 
 mean " (Shaw, ' Travels in Barbary and the 
 Levant,' 2nd edit., p. 229), 
 
 Ver. 31. — For I have heard a voice, etc. 
 This explains the preceding statement, 
 " They will seek thy life." It Is this mur- 
 derous plot which calls forth the " cry as of 
 a woDJian in | arigs." Bewaileth herself; 
 rather, sigJieth deeply. Her hands ; literally, 
 lier palms. Is wearied because of murderers ; 
 rather, fainteth into the hands of (literally, 
 it weary unto) the murderers. 
 
 HOMILETICS. 
 
 Ver. 3. — Fallow ground. Fallow ground is land that has fallen out of cultivation, 
 or that has never been cultivated, and this has its counterpart in the broad fields of 
 humanity, in the nations or individual men who are not under the influence of spiritual 
 cultivation. 
 
 I. Fallow geodnd is comparatively fruitless. It may not be utterly fruitless. 
 Even the bramble bears its wholesome fruit, and good thoughts and good deeds spring 
 ui) in the midst of heathen nations and irreligious people. God's Spirit has not wholly 
 deserted any. But such Iruit is poor compared with the fruit of cultivation, and the 
 crop of it is thin. The good which still pertains to a neglected soul is imperfect, aud 
 small in the extreme compared with the good which would spring up in that soul 
 under proper s|)iritual influences. The highest thought, the purest morality, the 
 noblest eflbrt, the largest charily, are only to be found where the spiritual life is culti- 
 vated by worship, instruction, and discipline. 
 
 II. Fallow ground bears weeds. If there are no flowers in a neglected garden, 
 the soil will not be unoccupied. Dropped by birds in their flight, borne on the wings 
 of the wind, in some way, myriads of seeds will find entrance into that garden and spring 
 up in luxuriant growth. The neglected garden is not a barren desert ; it is a wilderness. 
 The neglected suul will not be merely deficient of good ; it will bear a crop of evil. 
 The heart cannot endure a void. If it is not filled with pure thoughts, it will indulge in 
 unholy imaginations; if it has no object of worthy love, its affections will descend and 
 twine about some debased object; if it is not active in doing good, it will be diligent 
 in doing harm. In proportion to the gifts iind powers of the soul will be the evil that 
 will come out of it when neglected; the more fertile the soil, the more abundant the 
 crop of weeds. 
 
 III. Fallow ground is susceptible of cultivation. It is not rock, but good soil. 
 The most brutalized man is not yet a brute. Conscience slumbers, is not killed. The 
 Divine image in the soul is worn in the traflic of worldliness and fouled in the mire of 
 sin, but it is not eflaced. The disobedient son is still a son. Hence there is hope for 
 the most neglected heathen, the woist sinner, the oldest enemy of Christ. 
 
 IV. Fallow ground must be broken up. Throw bushels of wheat among the 
 thorns, and the thorns will only " choke " it (Matt. xiii. 7). Till the old evil is torn 
 from the heart, the new truth cannot grow and bear fruit there. Men must repent of 
 sin before they can receive the seed of eternal life to profit. John the Baptist must 
 pi-eoede Christ. So long as we are cherishing any sin we are preventing the growth of 
 fruitful graces. The mere hearing of the truth is not enough. If the heart is hard, it 
 will not receive it (Isa. vi. 10). If the heart is preoccupied, the truth will be soon 
 forgotten, or at best will be crushed out of all living energy. Hence the heart niust 
 
CH. IV. 1—31.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMI.\H. 83 
 
 not only be cleared of weeils, it must be softened. The ijlough must break up the 
 fallow ground. 
 
 V. It is our duty to bkbak up the fallow gbodnd. Men must be prepared for 
 receiving the gospel of Christ. We are too eager to sow the seed. Henoe the slight 
 returns we have for so much effort and expenditure. People are called to "accept 
 Christ" who do not know Christ, and would have no room in their hearts to receive 
 him if theydid know liim. Much so-called "gospel preaching " thus meets with 
 ridicule, or indifference, or bewildered surprise. If we were less hasty in seeking 
 brilliant results we should see more true, fruitful returns for our work. Christ was not 
 always and only crying, "Come unto me!" "Follow me!" Less pleasing, and in 
 some eyes less important, words were often seen by him to be necessary. Men need 
 instructing as well as inviting, rebuking as well as exhorting. 
 
 VI. The duty of breaking up the fallow oround is great and pressing. How 
 much fallow ground there is (1) in the world! — think of India, China, Africa, the 
 godless of Europe ; (2) in the Church ! — how many enjoy its privileges I how few 
 maintain its work ! and (3) in our own hearts I — what faculties are wasted i what oppor- 
 tunities for good neglected ! 
 
 Ver. 10. — Divine illusions. I. Good men mat misjudge God's actions. The 
 words of the text are not spoken with Divine authority ; on the contiary, they are 
 given in historical narrative as a record of the personal utterance of the prophet. He 
 does not preface them with the august claim of authority, " Thus saith the Lord ;" he 
 distinctly says, " Then said I." Without needing to look for any other rendering of the 
 text, we may consider it as throwing light on the condition of the prophet's mind, 
 rather than as a difficult scriptural declaration of God's character and mode of acting. 
 Thus we may see in it an expression of hasty judgment, misunderstanding, irritable 
 impatience, complaint. If so, it warns us to beware of the piejudiced or impassioned 
 utterances of the best and wisest men (Ps. cxvi. 31), and to be more cautious in form- 
 in;; judsnients on difficult aspects of providence and religion, since even prophets err. 
 
 II. It is difficult to judok rightly of God's actions while we are in the midst 
 OF them. We are too near to have the right perspective. The character of an action 
 cannot be judged till its ultimate desi'^n is revealed. Many things look wrong because 
 they are parts of a whole the remainder of which is unseen. Pride, passion, self- 
 interest, and prejudice pervert our judgment. We must wait for time to clear up many 
 dark jiassages in earthly providence (John xiii. 7). The inconsistency which seemed 
 palpable to Jeremiah is less felt by us. 
 
 HI. God's actions are sometimes illusory to us. There was a measure of truth 
 in the rash cry of the prophet. God never deceives. Yet his utterance may be mis- 
 understood by us. God is said to harden the heart when his action results in this 
 evil condition through the misconduct of men, and not at all through his wish to bring 
 that evil about. So God might almost be said to deceive (though the expression is 
 misleading) when his Word is such that we fall into a misconception in hearing it. 
 
 IV. The illusory character of some op God's actions is determined by com- 
 mon limitations and imperfections. Some truths are revealed, while qualifying 
 truths are necessarily hidden because we could not understand them. No mention is 
 made of the time of the fulfilment of a promise ; hence we think it will be immediate, 
 and are disappointed when we see delay and find unexpected troubles coming first. 
 One part of God's Word may seem to contradict another when they refer to different 
 conditions, but conditions not yet revealed to us. 
 
 V. Truth and human welfare are better served by these illusions than by 
 revelations which admit of no misconstruction. If the child were never allowed 
 to stumble, he would never learn to walk. We are educated by temporary illusions 
 for higher truths than could be attained by plainer paths. Thus we know more of 
 God and of heaven through the anthropomorphic and materialistic languajie of much 
 of Scripture, which has resulted in gross misconceptions at times, than we should have 
 learnt from language made bare enough to be unmistakable. 
 
 Ver. 14. — The cleansing of the heart a necessary condition of salvation. I. Sal- 
 vation IS promised on the simplest possible conditions. The very mention of con- 
 
84 THE BOOK OF THE PIIOPHBT JEREMIAH, [cii. iv. 1— 31. 
 
 ditioDS suftgests difficulties, delays, barriers. But the only conditions required are in 
 our own power, are simply such as are necessary to make tlie reception of the salvation 
 I'f God possible to us, and do not refer to the source of it. We are not to save 
 ourselves, not to purchase nor to merit salvation, but only to be in a right condition 
 to receive it. 
 
 II. Salvation is only possible where there is a cleansino from wickedness. 
 The soul that clin5;s to sin cannot also grasp the Saviour. If it would be right to 
 deliver men from the painful consequences of wickedness while they remained under 
 the power of it, it must have been wrong ever to have permitted those consequences. 
 If it is not unjust to forgive the impenitent, it is unjust to punish them, which is 
 absurd. 
 
 III. The cleansing from wickedness must be in the heart. There all sin has 
 its origin. Glean hands are vain without a pure heart. Reformation must not simply 
 be moral, it must be spiritual — not a change of habits, but a purification of thought, 
 affection, and desire. 
 
 IV. The duty of cleansing otrB hearts from wickedness bests upon ourselves 
 The text is not a promise, but an exhortation. True, no one can purify himself by his 
 own eflbrts alone (ch. ii. 22). God has provided the fountain for uncleanness, and only 
 they who wash in this are clean. But men must plunge into the purifying flood, must 
 make the effort of repentance, must seek the cleansing which is promised through 
 Christ, must submit to the baptism of the Holy Ghost, must actively apply them- 
 selves to the execution of good deeds in the power given by God. Compare the words 
 of Isaiah (i. 16). 
 
 V. There is no reason to delay the cleansing of our hearts. " How long 
 shall thoughts of wickedness lodge within thee ? " The longer repentance is post- 
 poned, the more difficult does it become; the more numerous are the stains of sin, the 
 nearer is the approach of doom. Since it is for men to seek the cleansing of their 
 souls, any delay must be attributed to their negligence, not to God's unwillingness to 
 help them. 
 
 Ver. 22. — Tlie folly of misdirected wisdom. I. Wickedness is folly. The " fool," 
 according to Scripture, is both morally corrupt and intellectually imbecile {eg. Ps. 
 cvii. 17). There is a truth underlying the sayiiij; of Socrates, that " Virtue is know- 
 ledge, and vice is ignorance." It is apparent, indeed, that men may have an intellectual 
 conception of the right while they do wrong, as also that good men may fall info 
 error. But, on the other hand : 1. We cannot progress in goodness till we discern the 
 way ; we must know God to love him, recognize the good to choose it. 2. Immorality 
 deadens the faculty of spiritual intuition ; purity purges the vision of the soul. 3. 
 Wisdom is not mere intelligence, but applied intelligence, practical intelligence. It 
 is not perfected till it is practised. He who knows the good is not wise until he does 
 it ; and he who does right from instinct, habit, or mere inclination is not really per- 
 forming a moral action. An action is moral when it is performed with an intelligent 
 regard to principle, i.e. when it is under the direction of spiritual wisdom. 
 
 II. The folly of wickedness may be associated with misdirected wisdom. 
 The " fo(jl " in spiritual things may be a worldly wise man and clever in the execution 
 of wickedness. Ironical as is the language of the text, it may often find a literal 
 application. Shrewd business men may be spiritually blind. Men who are wakeful 
 and eager in material concerns become dull and listless when they touch higher 
 interests. This may be explained by two considerations. 1. We develop most wisdom 
 in regard to those things which intenst ua m,ost. Interest rouses attention, quickens 
 perception, excites inquiry, stimulates intellectual activity ; while lack of interest 
 leaves the mind in a slumberous condition, working at half-power. If we feel no 
 inierest in goodness, we shall be dull and foolish in regard to it. 2. Spiritual wisdom 
 depends upon a spiritual tone of mind. The greatest intelligence is not capable of 
 detecting subtle harmonies and discords if it is not accompanied by "an ear for music." 
 The cold intellect, which is but a huge calculating-machine, has not the fitting powers 
 of perception for discerning spiritual truth. This requires a spiritual sympathy 
 (1 Cor. ii. 14). Therefore (1) let the man of conscious intellectual jiower beware of 
 the danger of assuming to judge spiritual questions before he has acquired the requisite 
 
OH. IV. 1—31.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 85 
 
 spiritual qualification ; and (2) let ua all beware of attaching too much weight to the 
 religious motives of people who may be able business men, clever literary critics, 
 and even profound students of science, and yet in moral regions " blind leaders of the 
 blind." 
 
 III. Misdirected wisdom is the height of follt. The very ability, misapplied, 
 witnesses for the foolishness which permitted so gross a mistalse. These people who are 
 " wise to do evil " are on the whole " foolish," " sottish," and " have no understanding." 
 The man who is prudent enough to exercise forethought for this life only enhances bis 
 folly in having none for the future life (Luke xii. Itj — 21). He who linows much of 
 worldly things is convicted of grossest darliness in not Ijnowing God. The born fool 
 is excused by his misfortune of nature. But how foolish for the man who shows him- 
 self capable of wisdom to neglect the highest wisdom! Note, in conclusion, (1) the 
 common mistake of honouring men for their intellectual ability rather than for their 
 moral character; (2) the error of those who pride themselves in "knowing the world," 
 while they are ignorant of God (Rom. xvi. I'J) ; and (3) the need to turn from 
 intellectual pride to childlike trust for the source of true wisdom (Matt. xi. 25). 
 
 Vers. 23 — 26. — Olians the result of sin. I. Sin has a hbtrogeessive movement. 
 In his vision of the earth desolated by a Divine judgment on sin, Jeremiah sees a 
 relapse to the primeval condition before the dawn of creation, and inhisgrajihic descrip- 
 tion uses the very words of the narrative in Genesis. He describes the earth as " waste 
 and wild." Every step in sin is a step downward, backward. It is backsliding. How 
 rapid this is! One generation sees the fall bade to the condition from which it had 
 taken ages to build up the order of the world. One day's sin may undo the work of 
 years in a soul's progress. One age of misrule may throw a nation back for centuries. 
 
 II. Sin has a disintegbating influence. It breaks up the fair order of the world 
 and tends to reduce it to chaos. Religion and morality are the chief securities for order, 
 the strongest bands of social unity. Vice is a social solvent, destroying ties of trust 
 and affection, undermining the foundations of industrial co-operation. It is corruption, 
 and corruption means decomposition. This may be applied (1) politically, (2) socially, 
 (3) personally. 
 
 III. Sin has a desolating effect. The earth is seen as not only wild ; it is " waste," 
 I.e. fruitless, solitary, desolate. The Iruitfid place becomes a wildernt-ss, and the whole 
 land desolate. The result of the retrogressive and disintegrating influences of sin is 
 not to reduce the world to a state of elementary simplicity. It introduces confusion, 
 turmoil, disaster, death. The loss of goodness involves the admission of evil passions, 
 and the advent of these is followed by the irruption of misery with no prospect of 
 peace but in death and destruction (Jas. i. 15). 
 
 Ver. 30. — The ahj'ect helplessness which resorts to false pretensions and its failure. 
 I. Abject helplessness. This follows the discovery or punishment of sin. It is when 
 Israel "is spoiled." Israel is boastful and self-confident before the disaster comes; the 
 prophet advises him to consider what he will do after it has fallen on him. What 
 can be done in such a case ? The sin cannot he undone ; once revealed it cannot be 
 hidden again ; punishment from God cannot be successfully resisted by man. It is 
 vain, then, to call on the mountains to fall and cover us (Luke xxiii. 30). How dread- 
 ful to be thus confounded! left without excuse, without refuge, without remedy! 
 How much better to anticipate this conclusion and prevent it ! 
 
 II. False pretensions. There are the refuges now resorted to and trusted in for the 
 future, but in vain. ]. Outward glory is a mockery when once internal wretchedness 
 is discovered. What use are purple and fine linen to the leptT ? 2. When character 
 is revealed, profession counts for nothing. 3. When true worth is destroyed, the most 
 frantic attempts to recover it at the last moment will prove fruitless. The character 
 once lost is hard to retrieve. Consider, then, the common mistake of living for 
 appearances, making the outside of life respectable while the heart is corrupt, and, in 
 the event of discovery, not repenting and amending, but simply excusing one's self, 
 " making the best of the matter," trying still to put on a fair show. This is common 
 at all times. So many people are more anxious to seem good than to be good. All 
 •-.he petty contrivances and miserable deceptions of such lives will be one day disclosed. 
 
80 THE BOOK OF THE PliOPHET JKKEMIAH. [cii. iv. 1— 31. 
 
 in. Ultimate failurk. " Thy lovers will despise thee, they will seek thy life." 
 1. Once discovered, the attempt to win favour by false appearances willnot only defeat 
 its own object ; it will aggravate the evil it is intended to avoid. It aims at secunug 
 honour; but when detected it is the outt of ridicule, the deserved occasion of con- 
 tempt. 2. The friends of sinful days become foes in the time of trouble. The lovers of 
 the daughter of Zion are the first to despise her and seek her life. The ties of friend- 
 ship in wickedness are brittle. This is based on selfishness. No high constancy can be 
 expected from people of bad character. The only friend who will be a refuge in the 
 shame and ruin which follow sin, is not the partner in guilt, but the very God against 
 whom the sin is committed. 
 
 HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. 
 
 Vers. 1 — 4. — The duty of reality in religious profession. The reformations of Jehu 
 and Josiah were superficial and short-lived. Something more thorough was required. 
 A real, immediate return to iJehovah was demanded. 
 
 I. The signs of uneealitt. 1. Eetention of the memorials and symbols of the 
 guilty past. They may not be used, but they are there. There has not been strength 
 of will to remove them, or the fear of man has produced vacillation. Externally the 
 heathen temple stands side by side with the house of God, and may claim equal respect 
 with it. 2. An uncertain and wavering attitude. Blowing hot and blowing cold. 
 Compromising with existent evils. Postponing needed relorms. 3. Unrighteousness of 
 life. This is one of the gravest evils. A creed which does not affect conduct must be 
 either untrue or not heartily believed. An enigma of the anti-slavery times was the 
 fact that amongst the pro-slavery advocates were many of the most orthodox clergy, 
 whereas the leaders of the agitation for freedom were secularists. Unitarians, and men 
 of vague or heterodox religious opinions. 
 
 II. Evils attendant upon unreality. 1. Confusion is created between the true 
 and the false reliijions. 2. A constant temptation exists in the relics and practices of 
 evil that are retained. 3. Moral influence upon unbelievers is lust, and unrighteousness 
 encouraged. 4. Spiritual growth is seriously impeded. It is a "sowing among 
 thorns," or upon the exhausted and unfruitful soil of superficial emotion and fancy. 
 As wild land can be cleansed from weeds only by deep and repeated ploughing, so the 
 spiritual nature must be thoroughly moved by |ieniteiice and steadfast resolution. 
 
 III. God's FEELixa towards unreal woKSHirPEus. He cannot acce|.it their peni- 
 tence. Their services are an abomination to him. His anger is represented as a 
 smouldering fire ready to break forth in destruction. — M. 
 
 Ver. 10. — Human uncertainty coexisting with Divine illumination. The prophecy 
 now uttered does not harmonize with that of ch. iii. 12 — 25. The times of fulfilment 
 are unknown to the prophet. This element of uncertainty in al! prophecies, even those 
 of Christ (" for of the times and the seasons knoweth no man," etc.) is noteworthy. 
 This outburst of annoyance and misconception illustrates — 
 
 I. The temptation latent in superior Divine knowledge. The moral balance 
 and perspective are threatened with disturbance. Hence the impulse to expostulate 
 with God — to speak as if from a superior standpoint of morality. Seeming con- 
 tradictions are encountered which would have no existence to a simpler or less 
 illuminated spirit. It is as if the moral nature of man were only practically sufBcient 
 for what is revealed to him by the oidinary faculties and means of knowledge. 
 
 II. The borrow accompanyikg exceptional gikts. The prophet, no more than the 
 poet or man of genius, is to be envied. How hard to bo the custodian of a truth nien 
 will not receive ! to be conscious of evils impending which one cannot avert ! The excep- 
 tional sensitiveness of the pro|ihetic temperament, and the Iceener vision of the seer, are 
 the occasions of au incomnmnicablo sadness, and even, at times, of overwhelming concern. 
 Especially is this the case where patriotic feeling identifies the prophet on the one side 
 with his people, and devout spirituality leads him nevertheless to acknowledge the 
 righteousness of God. 'Ihere was no more human or loving heart in Israel thsin 
 
CH. IV. 1—31.] THE BOOK OF THK PROPHET JEKEMIAll. 87 
 
 Jeremiah's, and if they would not heed his counsels, he was helpless. To be " before 
 the age" in such a sense is not so enviable as we might imagine. 
 
 111. The reserve that marks the communication of truth. Partly necessitatid 
 by limitation of human nature ; partly due to the subordination of tlie prophi^t, 
 teacher, etc., to the special task before him. We should lose more than we should gain 
 if, constituted as we are, we were to receive unlimited revelations of the future. The 
 practical and immediate import of Divine revelation is therefore our first coucern. To- 
 day is a little space cleared for duty. Opportunities of well-doing occur in constant 
 succession. " What is that to thee ? " might well be asked of many a one that concerns 
 himself with things beyond his ken : " follow thou me." — M. 
 
 Ver. 22. — The wisdom of this world. That there is such a thing we may well 
 believe, for Christ himself noticed and commended it : "The children of this world are 
 wiser in their generation than the children of light." Within a certain range it is often 
 seen to the disadvantage of the " wisdom that is from above." 
 
 I. It is great in questions op means, methods, and policy. Attention is directed 
 to these continually. A certain pride is exhibited in skill and power of manipulation. 
 There is something very attractive to a certain order of mind in the oppoitunities the 
 world affords for ii'anoeuvre, dexterity, intrigue. The world prizes and encourages 
 cleverness in practical, external matters. It can even appreciate the business qualities 
 and the reliable characterof Christians, when their inspiring principle is utterly ignored 
 or intensely disliked. How much has the Church of to-day to learn of the world in 
 merely practical concerns, knowledge of human nature, and adaptation of herself to her 
 surroundings! 
 
 II. It is marred by : 1. Dislike to what is worthy and good. Disillusion from 
 worldly dreams may coexist with this. But men without lofty ideals cannot be happy 
 or satisfied. 2. Heedlessness as to the impending jwlgmr.nts of God and the eternal 
 future. 3. Consciousness of luorthlessness and uselessness of its own efforts. — M. 
 
 Ver. 3. — Fallow ground. Such an analogy as this reminds us that the materials of 
 the highest wisdom are always lying close within our reach, sometimes in very unlikely 
 places. The world without is a mirror in which we see our own moral life and the 
 laws that govern it reflected. Air, earth, and sea are full of teachers whom God has 
 sent to rebuke in us all that is false and evil, iind lead us into ail that is true and good. 
 'J'he prophet, in the text, does but give an articulate voice to the silent eloquence of 
 one of these. Apply personally some of the lessnns taught. 
 
 I. The life of every man is a process of spiritual husbandry. There is a true 
 analogy between the soul of a man and the field in which a farmer sows his seed. In 
 each case there are latent productive elements, that may be turned either to good or evil 
 according to the conditions of their development — capacities of indefinite improvement 
 or of indefinite deterioration, of boundless fruitfulness or of boundless waste. The pro- 
 lific virtue of the soil will nourish alike the germs of precious corn or of noisome weeds ; 
 and, whichever it be, the heavens above, by ail the influences they shed down upon it, 
 will promote the process. Thus will the laoulties of our spiritual n iture foster either 
 the seeds of Divine excellence or of satanio corruption, and then all the laws to which 
 our nature is subject, and all the associations of our life, will help to elabofiite the issue, 
 until we reap either a glad harvest of fruits that will endure for ever, or one of shame 
 and sorrow — thorns and weeds and briars fit only for the flames. '• He that soweth to 
 his flesh," etc. (Gal. vi. 8). Hence the solemn necessity for some Divine power so to 
 control and govern the secret dispositions and tendencies of our nature as that in our 
 case the law shall be fulfilled in the nobler and better way. "Make the tree good," etc. 
 (Matt. xii. 33). 
 
 II. In this husbandry of the soul, neglect leads to loss and waste and ruin. 
 "Fallow ground" is land untilled, uncultivated, which no plough turns up and into 
 which no seed is cast. It may be purposely left to rest, that it may not exhaust itself, 
 and that its internal resources may be all the richer afterwards. But tlie point of the 
 analogy is this — that it naturally becomes encumbered with " thorns." In the spiritual 
 husbandry, while fruitfulness is the result only of diliaent labour, ruin follows from 
 simple neglect. The land of the slothful husbandman will soon present the picture ol 
 
88 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. iv. 1—31. 
 
 weedy, thorny desolation. To be ruined, to sink into a. state of utter poverty and 
 barrenness and destitution of all satisfying good, the souls of men only need to be left 
 alone. " "While men sleep the enemy sows tares." " What shall it profit a man," 
 etc. 1 (Mark viii. 36). Our Lord speaks of the soul as being " lost " simply through 
 lieing forgotten in the eager pursuit of a kind of good which can never of itself enrich 
 and satisfy it. This implies that its native propensities are for the most part of a down- 
 ward tendency. It bears within it the seeds of moral decay. The " fallow ground " 
 spontaneously produces " thorns." 
 
 III. It is vain to sow seeds op truth and goodness in hearts pbeoccitpied with 
 OTHER AND iNooNGBUous THINGS. Ho* many there are whose religious career may 
 well be described as a " sowing among thorns " ! They have religious susceptibilities ; 
 they are familiar with religious influences; but their secret hearts are the home of 
 mean ambitions, tainted with the " lust of the eye and the pride of life," or they are 
 entangled with a network of worldly associations or bound by the chains of some bad 
 habit, from which they have not the courage or the strength to set themselves free. 
 And so their spiritual condiDion is a strange medley of good and evil. Every better 
 affection and impulse within them has some form of moral weakness by its side that 
 nullifies it. Strong as their heavenward aspirations may sometimes be, there is nothing 
 like whole-heartedness in their pursuit of the nobler good. No wonder they are " barren 
 and unfruitful in the knowledge of Christ." The ground must be cleared before a 
 better result can be expected. How many a sower, going forth in the name of the Great 
 Husbandman, is oppressed in spirit with the thought that much of the seed that he 
 scatters falls " among thorns " I He has to contend with a thousand obstructive forces 
 in men's hearts, and knows well that, unless some mightier force goes with his mes- 
 sage to overbear all these, they will " choke the Word." Let the young especially watch 
 and pray against the encroachment upon them of influences fatal to their higher life. 
 It is a comparatively easy thing to overmaster the sins and follies of youth. Far 
 otherwise when they have become the confirmed and cherished habits of the man. 
 " Break up your fallow ground!" It is hard to do this. It involves much self- 
 crucifixion. We all like to live at ease — to yield to the strongest influences of the 
 passing hour, as the sluggard does, who allows himself to be overcome by the spell of 
 .sleep, and to dream away the hours and moments that ought to be spent in the 
 wakeful activities of life. But this is not the way to leach the heights of heavenly 
 glory and blessedness. It is the certain road to poverty and ruin, to despair and diath. 
 Not on grounds of self-interest alone is the appeal of the text to be urged. Consiiler 
 what a loss to the world is involved in every barren, undeveloped human soul and life. 
 It is a great calamity to a country to have large tracts of its territory lying waste and 
 desolate, while many of its people, perhaps, are peiishing for lack of bread, or compelled 
 to flee to other lands to find a field and reward for their labour. How sad that, in a 
 world of such overwhelming stiiritual need and destitution as this, the powers of any 
 human soul, that might exercise a redeeming influence upon it, should be left idle or 
 allowed to run to waste ! — W. 
 
 Ver. 14. — Vain thoughts. I. The life op evert man is governed by his thoughts. 
 " As a man thiuketh in his heart, so is he " (Prov. xxiii. 7). True as it is that the 
 essential moral quality of the man will always determine the order of his thinking, the 
 converse also is equally true. Thought is the formative principle of all | ersonal life — 
 kindles feeling, touches the springs of purpose, guides the course of moral action. What 
 are character and conduct but the definite expiession of secret thought ? 
 
 " That subtle husbandman. 
 That sows its little seed of good or ill 
 In the moist, unsunned surface of the heart. 
 And what it there in secrecy dolh plant. 
 Stands with its ripe fruit at the judgment day." 
 
 IT. Evert man is responsible for the tenor of his thoughts. If not, there 
 could be no room in this matter for remonstrance or appeal. The law of the associa- 
 tion of ideas may be such that it is as impossible to prevent some particular thouo-ht 
 from recurring to tlie mind as to stay the tide of the ocean ; but it is certainly possible 
 
CH. IV. 1—31.] THE BOOK OP THE PHOPHET JEREMIAH. 89 
 
 for us to regulate our habitual mental conditions. It is given to us by watcUful, 
 prayerful self-discipline, especially by occupying the mind with higher and nobler 
 things, to secure that the main drift of our thinking shall be in the right direction. 
 We can choose our own fields of daily contemplation. Those thoughts will " lodge " in 
 us which we most encourage and cherish, and for this we are accountable. 
 
 III. The CHERISHINO of vain thoughts is necessarily DEORADINa IN ITS EFFECT. 
 
 " Vain thouglits " are iniquitous thoughts, sinful thoughts. " The thought of foolish- 
 ness is sin " (Prov. xxiv. 9). It is impossible to measure the corruptini; power of such 
 thoughts. No evil imagination or purpose can enter the inind, and be allowed for a 
 moment to dwell there, without leaving some moral stain behind it. Accustom yourself 
 to any extent to the play of such influences, your whole being becomes contaminateii 
 by them, and— 
 
 " The baseness of their nature 
 Shall have power to drag you down." 
 
 Our minds cannot be in frequent contact with mean or grovelling objects of contem- 
 plation without finding that they poison all the streams of moral life within us. " To 
 be carnally minded is death " (Uom. viii. 6). 
 
 IV. The only cure for this evil tendency is the Divine renewal of our 
 SPIRITUAL NATURE. " Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts " (Matt. xv. 19). Li-t 
 that be sanctified, and their power over us shall cease. Superficial expedients, me e 
 external restraints and corrections, are of little use. We need something that shall go 
 to the root of the disease. The fountain of life within must be cleansed if the streams 
 that flow from it are to be pure. The temple at Jerusalem was externally beautiful, 
 its roof so bright with burnished gold that nothing less pure than the glorious suo- 
 beams could rest upon it ; but that did not prevent it from being internally the haunt of 
 many a form of hollow hypocrisy, and the scene of a base, worldly traffic — " a den of 
 thieves." Let the Spirit of God make our souls his temple, and that holy Presence 
 shall effectually scatter all vain and corrupt imaginations. They cannot " lodge " where 
 the heavenly glory dwells. Every thought of our hearts shall then be " brought into 
 captivity to Christ." — W. 
 
 Vers. 3, 4. — The peril of profession without possession of real religion. This will be 
 shown if we consider — 
 
 I. The scene here presented to ub. 1. The fallow ground ; that is, ground 
 unoccupii'd, free. Not hardened, as the wayside (cf. Matt, xiii.) ; not shallow-soiled, as 
 the stony ground ; not poor and barren, but capable of yielding rich return. 2. Boweis 
 about to cast in seed — good seed. 3. A stirn prohibition of their wojk. They are 
 commanded to " sow not." A reason is given— the fallow ground that looks so lair is 
 full of thorns. They are bidden " break up," i.e. purge, cleanse, this ground. And all 
 this on penalty of God's sore displeasure (ver. 4, etc.). 
 
 II. Its SIGNIFICANCE. 1. F</r those to whom Jeremiah wrote. (1) They were as the 
 fallow ground, at this time free from open visible idolatry which had been their dis- 
 grace and ruin. All that King Josiah had put a stop to. So now they were free to 
 begin afresh, to take a new departure, to turn over a new leaf, as fallow ground is ready 
 for a new sowing (cf. the history of the times). (2) And they were about to sow the 
 seed ; i.e. they were about to adopt the outward forms of the divinely appointed Jewish 
 worship. Externally they would conform to the ancient faith, and in large measure 
 they did so. (3) But now there comes the strange, stern prohibition of the text, and 
 in so much that follows. They are bidden to refrain from this external religion, these 
 outward rites. And the reason is given — their hearts were yet unchanged, full of the 
 seeds of all their former wickedness, and until these " thorns " were purged out no 
 good, but only evil, could come of any mere external conformity. It had no value in the 
 eyes of God, it only aroused his sore wrath. But let them " break up the fallow ground " 
 (cf. vers. 4, 14). Let there be a true inward repentance before they approach God with 
 the visible signs and forms of his worship. Let them not think that by any such mere 
 formal service they could turn aside the anger of God. Such the significance of this scene 
 in regard to Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Jeremiah. But note : 2. Its significance 
 for ourselves. (I) There ate many whose ohiiracter corresponds to the "fallow ground." 
 
00 TriE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. Lc"- iv. 1—31. 
 
 Free from gross external fault, morally fair, decent, and reputable. Not thoughtless 
 and trifling, as the wayside hearers (of. Matt. xiii.). Not obstinately self-willed, as the 
 stony-ground hearers, who are represented by the emblem of a superficial soil having 
 stretched beneath it a hard, pavement-like rock, through which the rootlets of the sown 
 seed cannot thrust tliemselves to reach the nourishment of the soil beneath. Nor are 
 they incapable of yielding good service to God; on the contrary, they have, like the 
 fallow ground, all oapacitius for yielding a rich return. (2) And such persons often 
 sow the seed of religious profession and observance, and assume the varied ex- 
 ternal signs of true religion. It is not necessary to inquire their motives, but they 
 do this. And when we see them we are all well pleased. We hope very much from 
 them, as no doubt Josiah hoped much from the external religiousness of the people with 
 whom he had to do. But God sees not as man seeth. His eye penetrates beneath the 
 surface. And the fallow ground may be full of thorns; that is, the heart of him who 
 makes all this external profession — comes to the Lord's table, teaches in a Sunday 
 school, leads in prayer, perhaps enters the ministry of the Church, — his heart may all 
 the while be unrenewed, impure, filled with the seeds of thorns, which wait only their 
 opportunity to bear their baneful harvest. (3) Hence God forbids such sowing amongst 
 thorns. Hovv stern his denunciations, how awful his threatenings, tothote who are 
 guilty of this sin 1 Do any iuquire, Wherefore this severity ? The reply is : (a) Hypocrisy 
 is hateful to him. See our Saviour's denunciations of hypocrisy (cf. Matt, xxiii.). He 
 who was gentle and full of grace to all others, had no words too scathing for this sin. 
 No doubt his stern words were designed also to open the eyes of the people who were 
 deceived by the false professions of those to whom our Lord spoke so severely. And we 
 can hardly doubt, either, that there was a gracious purpose in regard to the men them- 
 selves, to awaken and alarm them, if by any means it might be possible. But still, he 
 who to us is the Manifestation of God, makes evident how hateful in his sight is all reli- 
 gious profession that rests on no reality within. (5) A furtlier reason for the severity 
 which is so marked here is the extreme peril of such sowing amongst thorns to the sowers 
 themselves. Few things are more deceiving to a man's soul than to be professing 
 religion, and to be accounted by others as truly religious, when he is not so. It is bad to 
 be an unregeuerate man ; it is worse to be such and not to know it ; but the worst con- 
 dition of all is to be such, and to be believing all the while that you are the reverse, and 
 that for you salvation is sure. But this dread self-deception is fearfully fostered by 
 this sin, which God here so severely condemns, (c) And yet another reason for this 
 Divine condemnation is that by this sin the Name of God is blasphemed. The 
 world is keen-eyed, and soon detects the mere outside religion of those whom this word 
 contemplates. And because of the base coin the genuine is suspected, and the way of 
 godliness despised. Therefore note — 
 
 III. The solemn suggestions of this subject *o ouksbt.vks. 1. To those who 
 have been guilty of this sin. You have been, you are now, it mny be, making loud 
 religions pi-olession, and yet your heart is not right in the sight of God. We do not 
 say, " Throw up your profession, abandon all religious ways ; " but we do say, " Have 
 done with insincerity." Resolve that the fallow ground shall be broken up, the heart 
 truly yielded to God. Implore him to give you the reality, that your profession may be 
 a lie no mure. 2. Let all remember that this purging of our hearts, this cleansing of 
 our souls, needs to be continually done. The thorn seeds float continually over the fallow 
 ground, and, if it be not continually cleansed, they will take root, and the good seed will 
 be choked. 3. The Divine condemnation of sowing amongst thorns is not designed to 
 deter our sowing where the grace of God has cleansed us from such thorns. Many read 
 these terrible threatenings, and fear to take upon them a religious profession, lest they 
 should be found unworthy and untrue. But if God has given you to repent of sin, to 
 long after holiness, to look daily to your Lord for grace and help, then he has washed 
 your heart from wickedness (ver. 14), and you may, you ought, openly to avow his 
 name, observe his appointed ordinances, and engage in any way his providence may 
 invite you in his direct and recoitnized service. 4. And let not those who neither 
 possess nor profess religion deem themselves better off because those who profess with- 
 out possessing are so severely dealt with. Let them remember that if the righteous — 
 and to the outward eye these are righteous — scarcely be saved, where shall the un- 
 godly and the sinner appear? — C. 
 
CH. IV. 1—31.] THE BOOK OF THE rROPIIET JEREMIAH. 01 
 
 Vers. 5 — 31. — Tlie proclamation of woe. Such is the character of this entire section, 
 and we observe upon this proclamation — 
 
 I. That, like all such, it is rnoMPTBD by Divine love. The most fearful judgments 
 contained in the whole Bible are those denounced by our Lord Jesus Christ. The most 
 awful words ever spoken are those which proceeded out of the mouth of him at whose 
 graciousness all men wondered. It is evident, therelove, that they were the utterances, 
 as is this one here, of Divine love. They are beacon-lights set up as a warning, that 
 men may not suffer their vessels to run on those rocks against which they warn, and of 
 whose peril they are the evidence and sign. There was time for those to whom 
 Jeremiah spoke to turn imto the Lord and find salvation, though indeed it was the 
 eleventh hoar. And that they might be driven to this, morally compelled to come in 
 to the mercy of God, is the object of these terrible threatenings, these blasts of the 
 alarm-trumpet of God's love. And in keeping with this intent, this proclamation — 
 
 II. Sets forth in a vivid, striking form the judgments that it denounces. 1. 
 Under the emblem of a lion bursting forth from its thicket upon its defenceless prey 
 (vers. 7, 8). 2. Under that of a terrible tempest (vers. 11 — 13). 3. Under that of a 
 cordon of " watchers," who guard every corner and the entire circumference of a field in 
 which the game they are hunting for has taken refuge. So should Judah and Jerusalem 
 be beleaguered and hemmed in until captured and destroyed (vers. 16, 17). They who 
 would lead men away from sin to God must not shun tu set lorth in the most impres- 
 sive way possible to them the dread evil of that which they would have them forsake. 
 Hence the lurid pictures of the unquenchable flame and the undying worm which our 
 Saviour ]iresents to us, and hence these vivid representations of the prophet Jeremiah. 
 
 III. Is intermingled, as it has been preceded, with exhortations to that 
 repentance by which the threatened judgments would be turned aside. (Vers. 
 8, 14.) So in declaring the judgments of God against sin, we should never let it be for- 
 gotten how God hath said, "As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death 
 of the wicked ; but rather," etc. This section is a model of the method in which the 
 more awful portions of our message to men should be declared. Hence note how it — 
 
 IV. Is A burden op the Lord on those who are charged with it. (Vers. 19 — 31.) 
 Jeremiah could not refrain from delivering his message, and could not but know that to 
 many it would be delivered in vain ; but it was with grief and pain of heart he foretold 
 what he knew must come. See our Saviour's tears over Jerusalem. Listen to St. Paul, 
 " Of whom I tell you even weeping." Would that we all knew how to combine this 
 faithfulness and this yearning tenderness in the delivery of this tjiessage ! Then would 
 men be aroused, as too often they are not now, to " Hee from the wrath to come." 
 
 V. Is certain to be fulfilled if the sin which is the cause of it bk not for- 
 saken. Pew things are more solemnizing to the careless soul than to have plainly 
 brought before him the sure fact that God has never gone from his word, awful though 
 that word might have been. He did not here. All that Jeremiah foretold came to pass. 
 The anguish of his heart was not caused, any more than were the Kedeemer's tears, by 
 a merely fancied calamity. We are not able to tell what will be all the characteristics 
 and elements of the Divine retribution on sin, but of its reality none who read the book 
 of God's written records, or the book of his providence as seen in historic facts, can for 
 one moment doubt. Oh for a far deeper conviction of these soul-subduing truths on 
 the part of all who preach and all who hear God's holy Word! — C. 
 
 Ver. 10. — " Ah, Lord God! surely thou," etc. Inflicted infatuation, or the deceived of 
 Qod. I. There are such. How else can they be described who, in spile of the plainest 
 declarations of God against their wickedness, persist therein, persuading themselves that 
 they have no cause to fear? Such was the way of these to whom Jeremiah spoke. 
 They and their false prophets were continually saying, " We shall have peace " (cf. cl). 
 V. 12, 31). And there have been other instances (cf. Pharaoh, hardening his heart 
 against God). And there are many now. 'J'he Bible speaks, providence speaks, con- 
 science speaks, Christ's ministers speak, the Holy S|)irit speaks pleading with them ; 
 but they heed not, they turn a deaf ear to every voice. What can this be called but 
 infatuation? And it can only be explained as Jeremiah here explains it, as a Divine 
 judgment. " Ah, Lord God ! surely ttoM hast deceived them." The evidence that theij 
 coui'se was one that must bring punishment w.^s so glaring, so strong, so irresistible. 
 
92 THE B03K OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. iv. 1— 31. 
 
 that none but the infatuated could possibly disregard it. Now, it is the testimony of 
 the Word of G-od that such blindness is judicial, is from God. God hardened Pharaoh's 
 heart. Our Lord refers more often than to any other Old Testament Scripture, to that 
 word of Isaiah's which tells of the Divine will, that "seeing, they [his enemies] may 
 see and not perceive, and hearing, they may hear and not understand." Men who wi.l 
 not hear come at length to find they cannot. So with Judah and Jerusalem ; they were 
 at this time " given up to a strong delusion, that they should believe the lie " — that 
 peace could be their lot in spite of what they were. We speak of gospel-hardened 
 men, and, alas! we too often see such. And this is in keeping with God's law of habit 
 — a law most beneficent to those who obey him, but terrible in its effects on the dis- 
 obedient. For separate actions crystallize into habits, whereby such actions, no matitr 
 what their character, become easy to us, and at last can be performed without any efl'ort 
 of our will. So that separate acts of obedience to God will at length become a blessed 
 and holy habit of obedience, and separate acts of sin repeated again and again will 
 become a direful habit of sin, from which we cannot break away. And because all this 
 is In accordance with a Divine law, therefore God is said to harden men's hearts, to 
 hinder their understanding of his Word, to give them over to strong delusions and, as 
 here, to " deceive the people." 
 
 II. The cause is clbab. Ver. 18, " Thy way and thy doings have procured these 
 things unto thee." It is from no decree of reprobation, from no predestination to sin, 
 but from the inevitable action of the law of God which ordains that "ways" ami 
 " doings" such as Judah's were shall at length so utterly deceive those who are guilty 
 of them that the most j;laring falsehood is not too glaring for them to believe. 
 
 III. Its doom is just. Is it unjust that a man shall be filled with the fruit of his 
 own ways ? that what a man soweth that he shall also reap ? Holiness must become 
 impossible if its opposite be not possible too. The same law necessitates both. It is 
 no arbitrary infiiction, but the natural outcome of what a man has been and of what 
 he has per.iistently done. It is as natural as that the harvest should follow the sowing 
 of its own seed. The most dreadful element in the sinner's doom — the worm that dieth 
 not — will be the ever-present refleutiou that he has brought it all upon himself. He 
 himself made the bed on which he has to lie. And if still the doom of these wicked 
 men be objected to, as it is, we reply, remembering how it is ever the necessity of any 
 moral condition to be seeking to assimilate its surroundings to itself, so that goodness 
 ae^s to make others good, and evil seeks to make others evil — remembering this we 
 say, with the late Dr. Arnold, " It is better that the wicked should be destroyed a 
 hundred times over than that they should tempt those who are yet innocent to join 
 their company." And this is what they would be sure, from the very necessity which 
 arises from what they are, to be ever seeking to accomplish. Therefore we say their 
 doom is just. 
 
 IV. The awakening awful. (Ver. 9.) See the picture of dismay and despair 
 which the prophet draws (cf. Rev. vi. 17). Self-deception, however hardened into habit 
 by long years' use, cannot endure for ever. There will be an awakening. 
 
 V. The lesson plain. Break away at once from sin lest it coil round thee like a 
 serpent, lest repeated transgression become links, and the links a chain which will bind 
 thee so fast that thou canst not escape. Therefore break away now, turn to the Lord 
 Jesus, invoke his aid, day by day look to him, and thou art saved. — C. 
 
 Ver. 14. — "0 Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be 
 saved." The loving charge of the Great 'Searcher of hearts. The text shows us — 
 
 I. God intensely desieing man's salvation. This is evident from the pleading tone 
 of the text. It is like the pathetic cry of the Saviour over the same Jerusalem, when her 
 people rejected him. And this Divine distress over the sinner's rejection of salvation, 
 or in any wise missing of it, is attested not by any one Scripture alone, but by many, 
 and by a multitude of other witnesses beside. How many Divine utterances there are 
 which breathe the like loving concern to that well-known one which says, " As I live, 
 saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked ; but that the wicked 
 turn from his way and live " (Bzek. xxxiii. 11)! And the Divine words of love are 
 confirmed by the supreme deed of love. " God so loved the world." Surely the remem- 
 brance of this Divine yearning for our eternal salvation should touch and subdue our 
 
CH. IV. 1—31.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 93 
 
 hearts. If we knew of one who, when we were prostrate with disease, out of love camR 
 to us, despising all risk of contagion, and watched over us night and day, on the aleit 
 at every turn and stage of the dread foe that was threatening our life, who in every way 
 showed himself heedless of his own comfort or safety, so only as he might win us baclc 
 to health; how in after years should we regard such a one? Would not even the 
 most selfish cherish a warm regard, a grateful recollection? And most men would take 
 care to let it be known what was their estimate of such .self-sacrificinc love. " But " 
 saith God, " Israel doth not know ; my people doth not consider." 
 
 II. God declaring that man must do his paet if that salvation is to be 
 WON. If the whole matter rested with God, such language as our text, in which man is 
 charged, importuned to bestir himself, would have no meaning, would be what we will 
 not even suggest. And our text but embodies the same truth as to the need of man's 
 co-operation with God which lies upon the surface of every " Come unto me " uttered 
 by our Lord or by his apostles and ministers in his Name. Our salvation is not a case 
 in which God but speaks and all is done, and commands and all stands fast. The 
 work of grace is not accomplished as one tree is made an oak, the other an elm. We 
 loiik with delight and wonder at the manifold triumphs of mind over matter which the 
 varied discoveries of science have in this century achieved. But the salvation of a soul 
 has the higher glory of the triumph of mind over mind — that in strict liarmony with the 
 laws and liberties of mind, and in spite of inherent and inveterate opposition, the love 
 of God shall conquer and subdue, and the " unruly wills of sinful men " shall cheerfully 
 own and yield to the Divine sway. But in such a salvation man must do his part ; he 
 is not left out in the scheme, and here, as in so many other Scriptures, he is called upon 
 to be a worker together with God that he " may be saved." How this truth shatters 
 the delusion and the fatal self-deception of those who comfort themselves in their dis- 
 regard of God by a wresting of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit's work, as if it were one 
 which absolved them from all endeavour, instead of prompting them thereto and aiding 
 them therein. And some Christian workers need also to be reminded of this same 
 truth ; for they are tempted at times to excuse and account for their want of success on 
 the ground of the sovereignty of the Divine working — the Spirit, like the wind, blow- 
 ing where it listeth — rather than on the ground of their own laggard following of the 
 Divine leading and their failure to cn-operate with God. Man must do his part — this 
 is the law writ large over all God's Word and works and ways. 
 
 III. God showino to man what his part is. " Wash thine heart," etc. Then : 
 1. Wickedness is a defiling thing. It is to the soul what the mud and mire of the 
 street, what all material foulness, are to the body. Sometimes this is m.ade manifest 
 even now. On a man's face may bo read the moral defilement of his soul. But generally 
 men are too cautious for that, and in this world men take care not to let the inward 
 defilement appear. We are formed to love what is fair-looking and pure and whole- 
 some, and we turn away from its opposite. And wicked men know this, and are careful 
 to maintain appearances. But if hf-reaffer, as now, God "gives to every seed its 
 own body," he shall then, as is plainly taught, give to every soul its own body 
 — a body that will take its nature, shape, and form from the moral characteristics 
 of the soul. Oh, what transformations there may be then I The character of the soul 
 determining what the body shall be. Some then, who here have had no form nor comeli- 
 ness, shall be seen then as the angels of God ; and others who here have lacked no 
 natural beauty, shall be shunned as were those who in our Lord's days on earth wore 
 possessed with an unclean spirit. Oh for the purged vision, that we might see our 
 souls as God always sees them ! Then surely we, seeing how wickedness ever pollutes 
 and defiles, should turn from it with loathing:, as now we too seldom do. 2. And the 
 defilement is such as cleaves to the soul. " Wash thine heart," etc. The abode from 
 which the evil spirit went forth for a while, but then in his lordly manner declared he 
 would return to it, as he did — that abode was only " swept," not washed ; that defile- 
 ment which lay loose and light about the house could be thus got rid of, but that whijh 
 cleaved to it continued there still. He who would be saved must deal thoroughly with 
 his soul. No light, easy, partial amendment will do. This God teaches us by this 
 3arnest word, " Wash thine heart," etc. 3. And this cleansing must be of the heart. 
 The whole chapter is a protest against the mere external purifying which the sintul 
 people were seeking to palm off upon God instead of the true inward cleansing which 
 
94 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. iv. 1—31. 
 
 he demanded, and with which alone he would or ever will be content. 4. And this we 
 must do. Had we been told that the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ can alone do this, 
 or had we been bidden pray like David, " Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean : 
 wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." " Wash me throui;hly from mine iniquity, 
 and cleanse me from my sin ; " — such declarations and counsels we could readily have 
 understood, but for us to be told to do ourselves what so many Scriptures repeatedly 
 declare God alone can do— how is this? AVell, let the story of the blind man whoni 
 our Lord bade go and wash in the pool of Siloam, and who because he obeyed won back 
 his sight, — let his story answer the question. It was the grace of the Lord Jesus restored 
 him, but yet this much that he could do he had to do. But never, never on the 
 ground of that washing in Siloam would the restored man claim for himself the credit 
 of his own restoration, and so, although we be bidden wash our hearts from wicked- 
 ness, yet who does not know that there lies behind these words the promise of the 
 cleansing fountain, in which alone we can wash and be clean ? And every one who 
 seeks to obey this word will soon find his own utter powerlessness to rid himself of tho 
 clinging, cleaving wickedness of his heart, and the necessity he is under to answer back 
 to this word of the Lord's, "Lead me, then, Lord, to that cleansing stream, where only 
 it is of any avail that I seek to wash my heart from wickedness." 
 
 IV. God enooukaging man to do his part by the promise of salvation. " Wash 
 thine heart, . . . that thou mayest be saved." The promise is contained in the 
 command. We can appeal to experience to verify this iraiilied promise. In the hour 
 when sin would assert its mastery, let the soul turn in instant trnst and prayer to the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, and he shall find that he is saved. Sin will slink away, like Safcm 
 did at the word of the Lord, and in such experience of Christ's saving power we have 
 the pledge and earnest of the full salvntion which shall be ours when he who has begun 
 the work in us has perfected it according to his word. — G. 
 
 Ver. 14. — Vain thoughts. " How long shall," etc. ? 
 
 I. They are the prolific source and oatjsis of all wickedness. " As a man thinketh 
 in his heart, so is he." St. Paul, desiring all things lovely and of good repi irt, all that has 
 praise and virtue, to abound in the disciples of Christ, bids them " think on these 
 things" (Phil. iv.). Therefore vain thoughts must lead to and produce wickedness. 
 " They are the spawn of the evil heart, from which all other wickedness is produced." 
 They are not to be here understood as merely trifling, foolish, empty thoughts, but 
 thoughts that are evil, impious, sinful, wicked. They are the thouiihts which bring 
 forth sin, which in its turn brings forth death. " Keep thy heart with all diligence, for 
 out of it," etc. 
 
 II. They render salvation impossible. The cleansing of the heart from them, 
 their dislodgement therefrom, is set forth as indispensable to Jerusalem being saved — ■ 
 a condition that must be fulfilled. " Blessed are the pure in heart : for they shall sea 
 God." The converse of this is true also and equally, " Without holiness," that is, without 
 this pureness of heart, " no man shall see the Lord." How manifestly true tliis is ! 
 What would a man whose heart is full of these thoughts do in the " Father's house"? 
 It would be hell to him. He would he anywhere rather than there. 
 
 in. They are voluntarily entertained. They have come to the door and have 
 sought and obtained entrance. They have lecn bidden "come in," and the lieart has 
 consented to " lodge " them. The protest that the prophet utters against them, were 
 they not voluntarily admitted and retained, would be unmeaning. There would be 
 occasion for profound pity, but none for blame. But conscience owns the truth that 
 the prophet's word implies. 
 
 IV. They can be got rid of. Men are called upon to " wash their hearts " from 
 tliem and to expel them. It is, therefore, plainly within men's power to do this. The 
 words of these exhortations suggest the method. 1. Turn to Christ, in trust and 
 prayer, especially to him as your crucified Lord. Behold the fountain of his bhiod. 
 Such turning to Christ for pardon and lor purity will "wash thine heart from wicked- 
 ness." 2. By a vigorous act of the will, like as when our blessed Lord found the evil 
 one lodging wrong thoughts in his mind, he gave him no place, but sternly bade him 
 and his begone. And this was ever his way. It must be ours. 3. But leave not the 
 heart empty. Bring in at once other thoughts, holy, Christ-like, that d<:mand prompt, 
 
CH. IV. 1—31.] THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 95 
 
 vigorous, and continuous work fiT Christ; so shall vain thoughts quit their hold and 
 home in thy heart, and lodge there no more. 
 
 V. They are grievous in the sight of God. Note the pathos and pleading of the 
 appeal. " Jerusalem, . . . How long ? " Men take cognizance only of words and 
 dt'eds, and are content if these be in keeping with the laws society has laid down. But 
 God notes the thoughts of the heart, aud grieves when they are " vain." What fervour 
 this fact should lend to our prayers for purity of heart, that its thoughts may be cleansed 
 by the inspiration of God's Holy Spirit ! 
 
 VI. They are edinous in their effects. (Of. vers. 15 — 17.) They lead to sin and 
 that to death. Are we conscious that such thoughts have lodged or are lodging within 
 us? Listen to the Divine appeal, and implore his grace that you may respond thereto as 
 he would desire. — C. 
 
 Ver. 27. — " Yet will I not make a full end." God's reserve of mercy. This Divine 
 resolve regarding the reserved remnant of the people of Judah and Jerusalem, who should 
 be excepted from the desolation that was coming, is declared several times. Here in 
 the text, then again in ch. v. 10 ; xxx. 11, and once again in ch. xlvi. 28. And these 
 are but the echo of what God said to Israel long ages before in the desert of 
 Sinai, as we read in Lev. xxvi. 44. And in other parts of Jeremiah's prophecies, and 
 in the writings of all ihe prophets, this Divine resolve to mercifully reserve from 
 destruction a portion of Israel is more or less plainly declared. Thus, then, God does not 
 conceal that the end he makes will not be a full end. And there were many reasons 
 why this fact should be declared. 1. It would show that God was mindful of his 
 covenant with their fathers ; that their " unfaithfulness could not make the faithfulness 
 of God of none effect." The scoff of the unbeliever, the dismay of the true-hearted, 
 would be alike prevented, fur, by God's not making a full end, the way was yet plain 
 for the accomplishment of all that he had spoken. 2. Moreover, such declaration 
 would sustain the faith of the faithful. They would see how they were not forgotten, 
 that God's watchful care was over them, and that amid the coming desolations he 
 would find means to deliver those who put their trust in him. 3. And the keeping 
 open of this door of hope was calculated to persuade some to enter through that do(ir 
 and so be saved. This is why, even when a man has sinned away well-nigh all his 
 life, when he has made an end of nearly every opportunity of return to God, we go 
 and stand by his bedside, dying sinner as he is, and tell him that " a full end " is nut 
 yet made ; even now Christ waits to be gracious, and will in no wise cast out. We 
 tell of this hope in the trust that now, even at the last, the guilty one may turn to 
 Christ and live. But we know that an "end" was indeed made to the national life of 
 Israel. The terrific judgments which came upon them, and which the prophet in this 
 chapter so vividly describes and so bitterly bewails, did make an end to all their 
 national slory. Their land became desolate, their cities were destroyed, the holy ami 
 beautiful house of God was burnt with fire, their kings were slain, the throne over- 
 turned, the whole people carried into captivity ; tlieir cup of national sorrow was full 
 to overflowing. But God did not suffer the agents of his righteous judgment to make 
 s.full end. Accordingly, in the days of Cyrus and his successors there came a restora- 
 tion, although partial, poor, and incomplete, and under Ezra and ]Siehemiah Jerusalem 
 and the house of the Lord were raised from their ruins and rebuilt. A remnant 
 of the people was saved, the full end was not allowed to come, has never been 
 allowed to come, though Israel's national glory, yea, their very existence as a nation, has 
 long since passed away. But whilst the oft-repeated words of the text refer mainly to 
 Judah and Jerusalem, they really declare a ■principle of the Divine procedure, a continual 
 law of his government and rule. God's way is, when making an end, not to make a full 
 end. He has ever a reserve of mercy. Now, concerning this principle, we observe — 
 
 I. It is in perpetual operation. 1. It finds illustration, yea, may be said to be 
 ever ruthlessly at work, in the kingdom of nature. Look at the story of creation. 
 Whatever may have been the material condition of our globe prior to the period told 
 of in the sacred record, we cannot conceive of it as having been eternally "without 
 form and void." The researches of science seem to give a very difierent account from 
 that. But whatever may have been its condition, and we can hardly doubt that it 
 had an order and beauty of its own, an end was iiiade tu all that ere the last creation 
 
96 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. iv. 1—31. 
 
 era dawned. But yet not a full end. The material for the new creation was there, 
 and it took new form and order according to the creative word. All had become deso- 
 late, but out of that God brought forth a new condition of things, which he himself 
 declared to be " very good." And what is this doctrine of evolution, concerning which 
 in these days we hear so much — what is it but a further illustration in the kingdom of 
 nature of the law of the text? " The survival of the fittest " — what does that imply 
 but that there has been an end made of all the unfit and the less fit. But the whole 
 order has not perished ; there has been an end, but not a full end, and the fittest have 
 been reserved. 2. And how frequent in the pages of history are the illustrations and 
 examples of this principle of the Divine procedure ! The destruction of the world by 
 the Flood, — that was an end, but not a full end, for Noah and his house were saved. 
 Earlier still, when God drove out from Eden the parents of our race, — what an end 
 was then made of all that was bright and blessed in their lives ! but still not a full 
 end. For, as St. Paul tells us, " the creature was made subject to vanity, in hope." 
 Hope, the hope, of redemption and restoration through the promised Seed of the woman, 
 was God's illustration of this law then. The destruction of the generation of Israel 
 that came up out of Egypt with Moses, and whose carcases fell in the wilderness ; 
 but their children were God's reserve of mercy in their case. And outside the pages of 
 the Bible, thoughtful students of history, who love to trace the hand of God therein, 
 are able to point to many an illustration of this law. Take the story of one man — 
 Alfred the Great : he and the little Saxon band that clave to him were God's reserve of 
 mercy for our land in those dark days, and saved us from coming to a full end, 
 though we had come so near to it. And there are many, many more to which we cannot 
 now allude. And in the history of the Church also how often has this been seen! Take 
 the call of Abraham, for example. The religion of the ancient patriarchs had all but 
 died out, an end had nearly come. But by the Divine call of Abraham it was prevented 
 from being a full end ; a new era was iniroduoed when he became " the father of the 
 faithful and the friend of God." And to pass over all intermediate illustrations of this 
 same law, though they be many, and some of them most notable, we may refer to the 
 revival of evangelical religion in the last century. An end had come to well-nigh all 
 earnest religion ; the land was desolate with more than a material desolation. There 
 was " a famine, not of bread, but of the hearing of the Word of the Lord." But God 
 suffered it not to be a full end. Wesley and his trusty band, Whitefield and those who 
 laboured with him, became, under God, the means of a new departure, the introducers 
 of a better order of things which has continued to this day. And it has been the 
 same in families. Take the prophetic family in the days of Samuel. But for him it 
 would have come to a full end. Take the most illustrious instance of all, — the house 
 and lineage of David. To what nearness to extinction it had come when the Saviour, 
 the predicted Stem who should grow out of the root of Jesse, was born at Beihlehem, 
 and that course of events began which have made the name of David, great before, yet 
 infinitely and eternally great now by means of him of whom it was foretold by the 
 angel to his mother, that he should " sit upon the throne of his father David," and of 
 whose kingdom David himself sang that it " should have no end." 3. And what are 
 many of God's providential dealings with men, his afflictive dispensations especially, 
 but lurther illustrations of this same law ? " Ye have heard of the patience of Job." 
 The lives of Joseph, of David, of Elijah, of Daniel, of Paul, and, above all, of our 
 Lord, — what are they but instances in which " it pleased the Lord to bruise them, and 
 to put them to grief"? He saw fit to make an end to much of that which naturally 
 they loved, and for a weary while to cloud over and conceal well-nigh all the brightness 
 of their lives. But in no case was there a full end made, nor ever will there be. To 
 many of us the Lord God comes and makes an end of what we would so much like to 
 guard and keep — health, wealth, friends, prosperity, our inward joys, our outward 
 gladness ; God sends his angel of discipline and bids him make an end — though not a 
 full end — of these things. Yes, it is oftentimes God's way. 4. And what are his 
 spiritual disciplines hut the carrying out of the same principle? Do we not read, 
 " Then Manasseh knew that the Lord he was God " ? of the prodigal, that " he came 
 to himself," and said, " I will arise and go to my father, and say unto him. Father, I 
 have sinned ? " of Peter, that " he went out and wept bitterly " ? Yes, often does he 
 i)ring down our hearts so that we cry out, " ^yhy art thou cast down, my soul ? " 
 
CH. IV. 1—31.] THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 97 
 
 But he never makes a full end. False hope and trust have to go, but trust that ia 
 true, hope that is of God, come under the law of his reserve of mercy — they are the 
 Spared remnant, and whilst an end is made of all the rest, these survive. 5. And what 
 will death itself he but our last experience of this law ? Heart and flesh shall fail, t!ie 
 outward man shall perish, there shall be an end made of all that belongs to this 
 world so far as we are concerned, and the place that has known us here shall know us 
 no more for ever. But whilst it will be an end, so much so that our bodies shall 
 return, " earth to earth, dust to dust, ashes to ashes," still it will not be " a full enri." 
 We — the true self — shall still remain ; though the bodv go back to its earth, '• the spirit 
 shall return unto God who gave it." Yes, the law of the text is seen everywhere. It 
 ia a principle of the Divine procedure that is in perpetual operation ; it was brought to 
 bear upon Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Jeremiah, and it bears upon nations, 
 Churches, families, individuals, men, whenever God sees that the time has come for its 
 application. But — 
 
 11. It is a principle that prompts inquiry as to its reason and intent. 
 This making an end, even tliongh it be not a full end, has much about it that may 
 well, if not perplex, yet give rise to earnest, thoughtful inquiry on the part of him 
 who observes it. Without question, it is often a severe law, a principle [irolific in pain. 
 It was so in the case of those to whom Jeremiah wrote. " The righteous scarcely were 
 saved," but " the ungodly and the sinners," who formed the vast majority, were not 
 saved at all. Yes, though God made not, a full end, the end he did make was terrible 
 indeed. Now, we know it is not possible for us so to undeistaad all the ways of God that 
 we may fully rise to — 
 
 "The lieight of this high argument. 
 And justify the ways of God to men." 
 
 But this much we may say : the surgeon's knife that cuts away the poisoned 
 flesh in order to save life is a severe operation, yet one that even he who writhes 
 beneath it will con-ent to and be thankful for. The burning houses that cannot be 
 saved are allowed to burn on, and men's efforts are all turned towards the saving of 
 those that are yet untonchcd. If Israel was to be preserved faithful as the keeper of 
 the oracles of God^and, humanly speaking, the welfare of the whole world depended 
 upon her fidtdity in this matter— then the cankered portion of her people must be cut 
 off, that the rest, yet in health, might continue so. "Our God is a consuming fire." 
 His judgments will, mnst, burn on until all that is rotten and unsound has perished 
 from the way. 'i'he di'ead doom of the world to come is described by a word that tells 
 of the action of the surgeon's knife, or of the vine-dresser's pruning implements, which 
 are used to cut away that which is evil or worthless, that that which is healthful may 
 be preserved, strengthened, and developed according to the will of God. Yes, it is 
 dreadful when God comes forth to make an end of wickedness and the wicked ; but it 
 would be more dreadful still — the whole history of mankind attests it — if he did not. 
 But it is a work from which he shrinks. " As I live, saith the Lord " — and can we 
 dare, or would we wish, to disiielieve him? — " I have no pleasure in the death of the 
 wicked ; but rather that he should turn Irom his wickedness and live." " Why will yc 
 die, ye house of Israel ? " And we may say more than this. In the repetition of our 
 text, ^yhich we have in the tenth verse of the next chapter, we see another purpose 
 designed by these terrible dealings of God with his people. They were gettinij behind 
 " battlements," trusting in defences and safe;^uarils which were of no avail ; withdraw- 
 ing their confidence from God, who had never Tailed them, to jilace it in those professed 
 protectors who would always fail them, even as they had ever done. Hence one pur- 
 pose of the stern process through wliich Judah and Jerusalem had to pass was the 
 taking away ol those " battlements " which were " not the Lord's." Their hoking to the 
 rulers of other nations, the godsof other nations, or to such poor material resources as they 
 could themselves stipply, was fatal to that reliance on the Lord God which had been their 
 distinguishing feature in their happiest and most glorious days. But it was essential to 
 the fulfilment of God's purposes in regard to them that this reliance upon God shonld 
 by any means be restored. Therefore it was necessary that God should make an end of 
 and destroy these "battlements," taking them utterly away. And in pursuance of this 
 same main design, God would set the faithful amongst them free to live a new, a happier, 
 
 JEREMIAH. u 
 
PR THE BOOK OF THE TROrHET JEREMIAH, [ch. iv. 1— 31. 
 
 holier, and every way better life. For they were hampered, entangled, ensnared, thwarted, 
 and hindered at every turn by the hideous mass of moral wreoliane by which they were 
 surrounded. They could hardly move for it. There must, therelore, be a clearance 
 niade if God's people were to enter upon, as he was determined tliat they should, that new, 
 that better lile, to which he recommended them, and after which they yearned. " Now, 
 all these things happened unto them for an ensample," and we may see in them, if 
 we will, the motive and intent of the like dealings of God with men in our day. Thou 
 troubled child of God, afflicted very much, of whose earthly comforts, enjoyments, and 
 possessions God has been pleased to malie so larj;e an end, thou seest the reason why. 
 And tliou whose soul he has brought very low, taking from thee all thy trust and con- 
 fidence, so that now he has made " thy very spirit poor," canst thou not understand 
 wherefore he hath so dealt with thee ? And our death, which makes an end of all that 
 in this world we have called our own, it too finds its explanation in what was the 
 evident purpose of God's dealing with his ancient people. It was and it is, either lor 
 the putting away — if even by a terrible process— of the evil and wrong that are yet in 
 men ; or for the destruction of every false confidence, or for the setting the soul tree — 
 as his disciplines do, and as at last his messenger. Death, will do — to serve him in new- 
 ness of life to his honour and glory, and to our own eternal joy. But in what has now 
 buon advancid we have only spoken of ihe rtason wherefore God makes an end of so 
 much, wliy he conies in these often terrible ways. We have yet to ask, " Why are we 
 spared ? Why is there this restrue of mercy ? Why is not a full end made ? " And 
 looking at the history of God's ancient people, answers to these questions also may 
 readily be found. To have made a full end would have given occasion to the enemies 
 of God to blaspheme. We remeniber how Moses pleaded this argument when sore 
 wrath had gone out against Israel, and it seemed as if a full end was to be made. And 
 the 1 roniise of God to Abraham would have been set aside, the covenant which he 
 njade with their fathers in the days of old. And the language which we find in the 
 Scriptnri'S, the language of intense tenderness and love towards his people, proves that 
 ta liave made a full end would have broken the heart of God. " How shall I give thee 
 lip?" " I have wiitlen thee on the palms of my hands." "Can a mother forget her 
 sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, she 
 may lurget ; yet will not J forget thee." In vii'w of such love, how could there be a 
 full end ? And the Lord Jesus Christ has rendered such condemnation needless. For 
 they who are spared when God judges the world, are spared not for any inherent 
 intrinsic excellency in themselves, but they are they who have believed on the Name of 
 God's dear Son. Hence they have the righteousness of faith, the germ, the guarantee, 
 the generator of all righteousness; and they have the indwelling of the Holy Ghost by 
 whom they shall be strent;thened to live in newness of life. All the possibilities to secure 
 which God makes an end of so much in those who have not come to faith, they already 
 have, and hence God is able, even as he is willing, to except iheni from the destruction 
 that conies on all beside. And to mention but one other reason for this reserve of 
 mercy — for God not making a full end ; he sees in these spared ones those by whom 
 his "way shall be made known upon earth, and his saving health among all nations." 
 They are to be the instruments of his grace, his cLannel of untold blessing to all man- 
 kind. Therefore doth God care for and guard them, and amid all destruction no evd is 
 suffered to befall them, nor any plague to cimie nii:h their dwelling. 
 
 III. And now, lastly, we note that this principle of the Divine procedure which we 
 have been consideiing is one which we must all of us be puepared to have applied 
 TO OUKSEI.VES. Yes, God will look down upon us all, as Churches, families, indiviiluals, 
 and will mark what in us and who of us will be foitnd worthy to stand in the great 
 day when he separates the chaff from the wheat. Ah ! this is the great question which 
 concerns us. " Where, then, shall I myself be ? Shall it be amongst those whom Goil 
 must put away, or amongst those whom he shall delightedly spaie?" What question 
 can compare with this? But the material lor its answer may be ftiund by asking — 
 Wliere are we now? The destroying powers of the world, the flesh, and the devil 
 are abroad ; they are slaying their thousands and their tens of thousands. But are they 
 ■i' stroying us V Or are we — as God grant it may be — aniongsthis " reserve of mercy "? 
 Are wo living unto God? Can we look up to our Lord and Saviour and appeal to him 
 wlio kuowelli all things, to attest the love and trust towards him that abide iu our 
 
CH. IV. 1-31.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 99 
 
 heart? Oh, if it he so, and the life of prayer, of obedience, of self-surrender, he ours 
 now, then wo can, with humble but strong confidence, predict that when the last 
 destroynr comes, even Death, whilst he will be permitted to make an end of much that 
 here we rejoice in, yet he shall by no means make " a full end " of us. No, his aouihig, 
 which is so terrible to the unbeliever, shall for us be but a setting us tVc ■, ^i delivering 
 us from the bondage of corruption " into the glorious libertj' of the children of God," 
 so that our soul shall escape as a bird from out the snare of the fowler, and we hence- 
 forth shall " live unto Qui." 
 
 " Then shall the day, dear Lord, appear 
 That we shall mount and dwell above, 
 And stand and bow umoiigst them there, 
 And see thy face and sing thy love." 
 
 An end, a full end, will have been made of all that is corruptible, all that distresses, all 
 that defiles, all that death can in any way touch; but it shall not be a full end of un, 
 rather shall it be the begirming of a life so holy, so blessed, that all the past shall seem 
 to have bci-n no hfe at all. Look, then, at the two companies which have been 
 biought before us. There are those whom God's judgments are making an end of, 
 and there are those whom those judgments cannot touch — God's reserve of mercy. 
 Look at these latter again ; they are clothed in white robes, and they have jialms in their 
 hunds. For they have come " out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, 
 and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefnre are they before the throne 
 of Gi'd, and serve him day and night in his temple. . . . 'J'hey hunger no more, neiiher 
 thirst anymore; neither doth the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb 
 which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living 
 fountains of waters : and G>'d shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." Therefore, O 
 Lord, make us to be nun i bored with thy saints now and in glory everlasting. — C. 
 
 Vers. 20, .SO. — "Suddenly are my tents spoiled." "When thou art spoiled, what 
 wilt thou do?" A swely coming cotifesaion compelling a, present serious question. 
 !Note the historic reference of the words to the people to whom the prophet spoke. 
 Applying them in more general sense, let us observe — 
 
 I. This confession. " Suddenly," etc. This confession. 1. Not that of the child 
 of God, for his tents cannot be spoiled. (1) The peace of mind which he enjoys. That 
 rests on the sure basis of what Christ has done for him. The varied disturbing powers 
 (if this world cannot touch that. Nothing can separate him from the love of God 
 (Rom. viii. at end). (2) The righteousness which God has given him. That S|)rings 
 from a source, and is sustained by a power, that is supernatural and therefore beyond 
 the power of this world to give or take away. (3) His most cherished possessions. 
 True, the child of God is subject, like other men, and at times it seems more than other 
 men, to sudden reverses of furtune, to loss, bereavement, and the other manifold sorrows 
 of this life. But though he cannot but lose his earthly treasures, and deeply feel their 
 loss, yet all the while his true treasure remains intact, for it is not here, but yonder. 
 And even when with one hand God takes away his earthly treasures, with the other 
 he so graciously ministers support and consolation that, in the might of a Divine 
 laith and love, he is able to say, " The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away ; 
 blessed be the Name of the Lord." (4) His life. That is not capable of being spoife<l. 
 H he is callei) upon suddenly to lay it down, or to give it up amid much pain and dis- 
 tress, he is able to say, as dear old Richard Baxter did when he lay a-dying, and when 
 asked by a friend how he was, "Almost well." Yes, the nearer death, the nearer life to 
 the child of God. It is a blessed exchange for him, come how, come when, come where 
 itwiU. Therefore this confession cannot he his. But, as it was in the days of Jere- 
 miah, it is : 2. The cimffssiun of the worldling and all those who are living without Qtoil. 
 For their tents are suddenly spoiled. (1) The peace of mind in which they often seem 
 so established. To our eyes they appear not to be troul>led, neither to be plagued as 
 other men are (cf. Ps. xxxvii.). How easy and unconcerned they are ! but the text comes 
 true to them. Remorse may suddenly spoil their tents. Like " Esau, who found no 
 place of repentance, though," etc. The events of Ood's prooi'lence may be the spoiler; 
 carrying off their riches, striking down their wealth, turning away their friends. Every- 
 
100 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [en. iv; 1—31., 
 
 thing may seem to be slipping away from them. And then, oh how true our text is of 
 them then ! And the approach of death, with the " fearful looking for of judgment." 
 And should none of these have succeeded in this life to shatter their false trust, how 
 will the dread solemnities of . Ood's judgment Jay certainly do this! See the conster- 
 nation of those on the left-hand side of the Judge, who asked, " When saw we thee," 
 etc. ? (2) The moral rectitude, the credit for righteous character, on which they havo 
 stayed their souls. This too may be, will be, suddenly spoiled. Sometimes sudden 
 temptation wiir do this. Unguarded by any Divine power, the man's weak resolves, 
 give way under unusual pressure, and character is blasted and the good name gone, as 
 in a moment. Transient visions of the Divine holiness, the claims and requirements 
 of God's Law flashing upon him as did the lij^htnings from Mount Sinai, — such mani- 
 festations will reveal the man to himself, and " spoil" his self-complacency for ever. 
 The light of eternity must do this. Tried by the standard God has given, self- 
 righteousness must give way. (3) His external prosperity on which his heart was 
 fixed. To have nothing but what this world can give, and to have tliat suddenly taken 
 away, as it often is, as at death it all must be, — whose should this confession lie if not 
 his of whom we are speaking? (4) His life itself, to which he clung so tenaciously, 
 oh, what a wrench that will be when the n an to whom this life was all is by the 
 hand of death ruthlessly torn away from it ! And oftentimes this is sudden, unlooked 
 for, at such an hour as he thinks not, as he has made up his mind that it will not come. 
 Like him to whom God said, " Thou focil ! " These, then, are they from whom this con- 
 fession — bitter lamentation and wail of woe rather should it be called — is heard. What 
 agony of heart can be conceived more awful than that of the worldling and the god- 
 less, when " suddenly their tents are S|oiled"? God grantit may not be ours. Kote — 
 
 II. The question, " What wilt thou do," etc. ? Who can tell what the delirium of 
 dismay and despair will drive a man to under such circumstances? See Judas the 
 traitor. Suddenly his tent — the hope of his gains — was "spoiled," and we know what, 
 in the remor.se and despair which fastened upon him, he did. But some will harden 
 themselves still more. Others will' plunge into business, pleasure, sin, and there seek 
 to drown the tortures of the mind. It is impossible to forecast what one and another 
 will do, and least of all can they tell themselves. But it is Ood who asks this ques- 
 tion, and that with the gracious intent that we should turn to him for the answer. Let 
 us do so. Perhaps your tents are spoiled already. Before, therefore, you say what 
 you will do, ask of God what thou shouldest do. 1. Is it thy inward peace, tlie calm 
 and unconcern of thy life, that is spoili d ? Then " acquaint thyself with God, and be at 
 peace." 2. Is it thine estimate of thine own righteousness? Do not seek to mend or 
 patch it up in any way (cf Phil. iii.). Seek from Christ the righteousness that is of faith. 
 3. Is it thine earthly prosperity that is shattered ? " Set your affections on things above, 
 and not on things on the earth." Have your treasure for the future in heaven. There, 
 " where neither moth nor rust," etc. 4. Is it thy very life that is being taken from thee ? 
 Oh, wait not until this tent is actually spoiled. 
 
 " To Jesus do thou fly, 
 Swift IIS the morniiiK light, 
 Lest life's young polden beams should die, 
 In sudden endless night." 
 
 III. The ordeb in which this confkssion and question are placed. The 
 question is asked before the spoiling takes place. Like as it is asked, " How shall we 
 escape if we neglect so great salvation ? " The intent is that we should, by turning 
 to God and coming within his sure defence, escape that spoiling of our tents which 
 must come on all not within that defence. And so in the other question, which is like 
 imto it, the intent manifestly is that we should not neglect so jireat salvation. Then 
 let this good will of the Lord be done. Come over amongst those whose tents cannot be 
 spoiled, and away from those upon whom the spoilers shall fall certainly, suddenly, and 
 soon. — C. 
 
 Vers. 19 — 30. — " The fellowship of Christ's sufferings" The extreme anguish of the 
 prophet which is revealed in these verses justifies the affirmation that, like St. Paul, 
 Jeremiah also knew " the fellowship of Christ's sufferings." Consider — 
 
CH. IV. 1—31.] THE BOOK OF THE PltOPHET JEREMIAH. 101 
 
 I. Their nature. 1. The sight of. the constant dishonour done to God. This was 
 part of our Lord's suffering. Living amongst men at all involved it. It has been said 
 truly that, if the Son of God became incarnate, he must be a " man of sorrow.?." But if 
 it be a pain and outrage to an affectionate son to hear his father, whom he knows to be 
 worthy of all honour, yet nevertheless insulted, and to see him daily dishonoured, 
 what must have been the sufferings of our Lord at what he daily had to see and hear ! 
 And to Jeremiah this was one chief part of his sorrow. To him the Name of God was 
 dear ; his honour and glory precious ; but let these chapters tell what scenes continu- 
 ally came before him. " Rivers of water run down mine eyes because men keep not 
 thy Law." Dishonour done to God has ever been distress and pain to his servants. 2. 
 1'he endurance of the scorn and hafe of men. To some men this is nothing. They 
 answer scorn by scorn and hate by hate. They choose war rather than peace. But 
 in proportion as a man is of a loving disposition, and has lavished his love upon 
 any, he will desire, yea, yearn for, a response. Do not parents desire it in their chil- 
 dren ? Would they not be distressed indeed if they did not receive it ? And so with 
 our Lord. He had no armour of indifference, or contem])t, or hate afcainst men. But 
 he opened his heart to them. There was no stint in the love he lavished upon them. 
 Hence he could not but long to receive a response to that love. The cross itself was 
 wreathed with attractiveness for him, because it, though nothing else would, would draw 
 all men unto him. And in the fellowship of this suffering Jeremiah shared. He, though 
 deeply loving his people and faithfully serving them, yet was denied the response of 
 trust and love which he would fain have gained. He, too, " was despised and rejected 
 of men." 3. The realizing, by the power of affectionate sympathy, the awful conse- 
 quences of his countrvmen's sin. It is the effect of such sympathy to cause the 
 sufferings of those we love to come before us in such terrible vividness that they fill 
 the soul with an anguish that is almost intolerable. Hence our Lord's deep distress 
 (cf. " Jerusalem, Jerusalem ! " etc. and his lament over the doomed city and people). 
 But in this suffering of our Lord Jeremiah had indeed fellowship (cf. vers. 23 — 30.) 
 He saw the destruction that was coming on Judah and Jerusalem in its entireness. 
 " The whole land is spoiled ; " " The whole land shall be desolate." In its suddenness. 
 " Suddenly are," etc. (ver. 20). In its duration. Ver. 21, " How long shall I see the 
 standard V " etc. It could not be a passing storm, but an abiding wrath. And more still, 
 he sees how deserved it all was (vers. 18, 22). And then how awful I It was as if 
 original chaos had come again (ver. 23 ; cf. Gen. i.). It was as the dread and never-to- 
 be-forgotten manifestation of God at Sinai, when the mountains trembled and all who 
 beheld were stricken with fear (ver. 24). For the devastation caused by the " spoilers " 
 had been so thorough, they had done their work in such I'earful fashion, that districts 
 heretofore teeming with population were now solitary and lone as the desert ; and so 
 stripped were they of all that could minister to life, that the very birds had fled away 
 (vers. 25, 2b). The awlul spectacle was clearly visible to the prophet's eye, and, as he 
 looked upon it all and knew how certain was its advent, he cries out as in the agony of 
 dread bodily pain (ver. 19). 4. The witnessing day by day the decay of all goodness and 
 the firmer hold of sin. Our blessed Lord'.s tears over Jerusalem, his oft " sighing," his 
 agony, his long lament over the guilty people, were not caused only, nor chiefly, by 
 the mere fact of their sufferings, but it was because of the increasing alienation from 
 God, the ever-hardening heart, the mighty power of sin upon them, that his bitterest 
 tears were shed and his deepest agony endured. And so with Jeremiah. Pain and 
 distress were evils undoubtedly, but they were as nought compared with the moral 
 degradation, the spiritual wickedness, which he saw around him and increasing every 
 day. 5. The being compelled to utter the " amen " of his soul to the judgment of God 
 as " true and righteous altogether." With what agony would a father witness the 
 accumulation of proof upon proof that his son whom he loved had been guilty of 
 crime that deserved and must receive condign punishment ! To be obliged to own to 
 himself that his beloved son is righteously condemned — what sorrow that ! And this 
 confession our Lord made. His death meant this — his assent to the judgment of God 
 against sin that that judgment was just. Death was the penalty, and he submitted to 
 it. And never has death been, nor can it be to any child of God, what it was to our 
 Lord. The realization of sin, the consciousness that on him was the iniquity of us all, 
 and how awful but how just was the wrath of God against it, — this explains that 
 
102 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. iv. 1—31. 
 
 e.\ceeiling bitter cry from out the darkness, " My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken 
 meV" And, in his measure aud degree, Jeremiah had the fellowship of this suffering 
 also. It is the sorrow uf sorrows to him tliat there was no alternative ; God mu4 
 j.unish siu like that of his countrymen. How glad would he have been could he 
 have seen any — however little — light in the darkness ! But it was all dark ; there was 
 not a solitary redeeming ray. The condemnation was awful, but God was just who 
 judged so. 
 
 II. The universality of this fellowship. Like as in every leaf of the tree the 
 whole fabric of the tree is pourtrayed, root and irunk, branch and foliage, so in the 
 ex|)erieuce uf every member of Christ's mystical body, however humble that member 
 may be, there is shown the resemblance of Christ himself. See Abraham intercedirjg 
 for Bodom, Moses for Israel, Samuel mourning for Saul ; Elijah's ministry and that of 
 all the prophets, Paul's and that of all the apostles, and where there are any who have 
 ' the mind that was in Christ Jesus," who aie filled with love to God aud love to mau, 
 to whom sin is hateful and holiness dear. It will be a measure and a test of our own 
 pijssessiou of the mind of Christ if those sad facts, which were the source to him and to 
 all his true-hearted servants of such great sorrow, are likewise sources of sorrow to us 
 and make us know the fellowship of his sufferings. 
 
 ill. Its exceeding blessedness. It may seem an anomaly and contradiction to 
 speak of " blessedness " as appertaining to " sufl'eiing," but it is nevertheless true that 
 exceeding blessedness does I'elong to the fellowship of Christ's sufferings. For: 1. It 
 wins for us the ministries that sustained our Lord. These were such as the full enjoy- 
 ment of the love of Gud, uninterrupted communion and intercourse with him, the 
 open vision of the "joy set before him" in the winning back of the world to God, — 
 such weie the supports of Christ's ministry, aud the like has been given to all who 
 have entered into his sufferings. See the bright onlook of Jeremiah (cf. ch. iii. 15 — 18 
 and 11) and of all the prophets; of St. Paul and all the apostles. And see, too, their 
 joy in God, the rest of their hearts in his love. Such have been and such will be the 
 supports of such souls. 2. It fortifies us impregnably against all the power of the 
 wicked one. Satan will not waste his time and energy on those who are within the 
 sure defence of this holy fellowship. His darts cannot reach where they stand, or, if 
 they reach and strike, they caimot penetrate the "armour of God" in which they are 
 clad. Siu has no charm, but repels : holiness attracts with a magnetic might. " They 
 are born of God, and the wicked one toucheth them not." 3. It gives tremendous 
 power over the hearts of men. What is the great need of our day but this, a ministry 
 that has entered into this fellowship ? one penetrated with the love of God and the 
 love of men, to whom the favour of God is life, and the judgments of God the un- 
 unspiakable woe of the soul? How would such men speak and pray and plead ? It 
 vias the secret of St. Paul's power, and of the great miijisters for Christ in all ages. 
 It; won all the triumphs of the early Church, it was manifest in Bernard, Francis, 
 Wesley, Whitefield, and many more. Men cannot resist the power with which such 
 sfieak. It constitutes those who have entered into it God's true priests. They have 
 ]jower when they plead with God for men, and when they plead with men for God. 
 Such is another element of the exceeding blessedness of this fellowship of Christ's 
 sufi'erings. 
 
 IV. Its alone entrance. This entrance is by fellowship with Christ in our daily 
 life. Let us look much upon him as he is shown to us in his gospel and in the 
 Scriptures generally, and as we see his likeness reproduced in the lives of the truest 
 of his people. Let there be much looking to him in the exercise of daily trust, 
 committing and commending our whole interests to his care. Let there be much 
 converse with him in devout meditation, worship, and prayer. Let there be much 
 service done for him in all such ways as he points out for us, and the result will be 
 that we shall come so to see, hear, touch him, so to realize his living presence, aud 
 then so to love him, that all that affects him will affect us. We shall have fellowship 
 in it all, and, therefore, in this fellowship of his sdti'erings in which all his chosen have 
 shared. — C. 
 
 Vers. 30, 31. — Brohen reeds, concerning which note — 
 
 1. What thei ake. They are the fiiends llnH t^re kept simply by either: 1 
 
CH. IV. 1— ?1.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHKT JEREMIAH. 10:j 
 
 Wealth. " Though thou clothest thyself with crimson " (ver. 30). The garb of the 
 rich, telling how Jerusalem had won some of her professed friends. 2. Splendour. 
 " Deckest thee with ornaiiients of gold." Jerusalem could make a grand show, put on 
 much pomp by which the eyes of men were dazzled and deceived. And outward show 
 will deceive many men. But those thus altracted know how, when the splendour pales 
 and the outward show can no more be kept up, to fall away and show what " broken 
 reeds " they are. 3. Exti-rnal.heaufy. The "painting" spoken of was an Oriental device 
 to increase the beauty of the countenance. But weak indeed is the hold wliich mere 
 outward beauty can have on any who have been attracted by it. It fades, and they 
 along with it. 
 
 II. Theib apparent trustworthiness. Had there never been anything at all like 
 helpfulness in them, no reliance could have been placed upon them. But the lures 
 which drew them had power enough to make them profess much and then to practise 
 somewhat. Hence they seemed to be real friends. 
 
 III. Theib true character. When they can no longer gain aught by her who 
 believed in them, they turn round upon her and " seek her life " (ver. 30). It was so 
 with Jerusalem, it will be so with such as are like her. And yet men go on seeking 
 after these outward things which can win for them only friends of this wretched soit, 
 whilst those inward qualities which have no charm for such, but have all charm for the 
 worthy and the good, are little valued and therefore little cultivated. 
 
 IV. The dread incbbasb op sorkow they are the cause op. A more appal- 
 ling picture of utter agony and distress of soul cannot be imagined than that ^iven in 
 ver. 31. It is said that when Caisar saw Brutus amid his assassins, he covered lis face 
 wilh his mantle and let his murderers do their worst. No stab could be so deadly as 
 the discovery that his trusted friend had become his murderer. " Et tu, Brute I " And 
 jiart of the deep sorrow of our Lord was that Judas, " his own familiar friend," should 
 betray him. if, then, to the stainless soul the discovery of such treachery can cause 
 such sorrow, how must the sorrow of those who, in addition to this, have the memory of 
 their own sin, be deeper and more dreadful slill ? 
 
 V. The way op wisdom, which knowledge op them points to. Surely it is 
 this— to turn from all such " broken reeds " to " the rod and the stafif " which Christ 
 furnishes lor all bis pilgrims. 
 
 " One there is above all otners. 
 Well deserves the name of Friend," etc 
 
 c. 
 
 Ter. 31. — " There shall he weeping." The text is a solemn and awful declaration of the 
 retribution of God upon impenitent men. 
 
 I. No TRUTH MORE DOUBTED OR DKNIED THAN THIS. Lot was " tO his SOnS in law 
 
 as one that mocked." And so it is still; this truth scarce gains any hiaring and yet 
 less belief. Reasons of this are: the prevalent scepticism as to all religious belief; 
 the special dislike to such a subject as this ; false views as to the love of God ; the 
 busy energy of the evil one, who will not suffer men to consider and ponder this 
 truth. 
 
 II. But it is nevertheless the truth of God. Scripture is full, plain, and 
 earnest in the matter. The premonitions of conscience endorse the Word of God. The 
 course of observed events lends its strong testimony. The common consent of 
 the wisest and best of men confirms it. The analogy of all human government 
 supports it. 
 
 III. And demands therefore to be made known. Compassion would prompt to 
 its proclamation. The severe displeasure of God against the watchman who neglects 
 to warn the people urges this. The example of our Lord, who ever insisted on it. its 
 manifest fitness to arouse and arrest the sinner. Bevvare, therefore, of yielding to the 
 temptation to be silent on this theme. 
 
 IV. But to be preached only by such as believe and peel its truth. 
 Unbelieving or unfeeling setting forth of these awful verities will but steel the heart 
 of the ungodly against them. But in the spirit of Jeremiah, and yet more in the 
 spirit of our Lord, let men be warned that for the impenitent there remaineth the dread 
 retribution of Gud. 
 
101 THE BOOK OF THE TROPHET JEREMIAH, [cii. iv. 1— 31. 
 
 Ver. 1. — 27te kind of return which Jehovah requires. In ch. iii. there has been much 
 spoken concerning return. There is the ini possibility pointed out of a divorced wife 
 returninj; to her husband; yet Jehovah's own people, wliose conduct has been even 
 worse, he presses to return. The fact is mentioned that Israel had been told to turn, 
 yet had not turned. There is also the fact that Judah had made a feigned turning. A 
 true return is seen to be the prime condition of all the glorious future which God liad 
 shadowed forth, first for Israel, and then for all nations. And then the chapter con- 
 cludes with a touching outbarst of penitential emotion. From all which it will be 
 clearly seen how timely and needful is the exhortation which introduces ch. iv. Return 
 of a certain kind is, after all, not so difficult, if only there be certain conspiring circum- 
 stances. The most undemonstrative and unlikely man may have his feelings roused 
 up, and then comes decided utterance. Riglit words are spoken, right purposes 
 declared. But what of the carrying of them out? What about the difficulties in the 
 future — the fightings without and the fears within? The return which God desires is 
 a. permanent return, just as when, alter a long frost, there comes a complete thaw, and, 
 with genial warmth following, renewed lil'e, growth, and fruitfulness. 
 
 I. Observe how God bbcognizes the instability of the apostate people. It is 
 not simply ttiat he apprehends instability in their resolutions towards himself. Thtir 
 \ery apostasy is itself an unstable thing. Witli all the hold which idolatry seems to 
 have upon them, they are not thoroughly fixed in it. Evidently there are ways 
 of appealing to them which draw forth a resolve to make some sort of turning. Never 
 should we forget that sinners, even the most persistent of them, are unstable in their 
 ways. Instability there of course is from the common fluctuations of life ; but, more 
 than that, the very purposes of the sinner are more unstable than he thinks. A thick- 
 skinned conscience is often more in appeariinco than in reality; the penetrable point 
 has not been discovered — that is all. Even when to all outward appearance a man 
 suems quite contented with the life which others condemn, he may have very trying 
 diaXoytaiioi within him. Hence the strange anomaly sometimes presented of wickid 
 men doing deeds of helpfulness to others. Gamblers, out of their unrighteous gains, 
 are known to indulge in most eccentric acts of beneficence. After all, the powers of evil 
 have a most uncertain tenure over those who may seem most their slaves. 
 
 II. The only tukning eiiom evil which can be complete and profitable is the 
 TURNING towards God. Kot Only from sin, but towards God. That is the only way 
 of keeping clear both of Soylla and Charybdis. To turn from a life that is self-con- 
 demned, by trying to make another path of one's own, may seem to be successful for a 
 while, but in truth it is only travelling in a circle. The man whose springs of know- 
 ledge and strength are in himself, or in the counsels of men, will come back to where 
 he started. Think, for instance, of those drunkards who have taken pleilges of total 
 abstinence, and set their feet towards a manlier and purer life, only to find very soon 
 that appetite and habit are not so easily mastered. At last, after many failures, a per- 
 manent keeping comes. There is a struggle, crowned with victory, because the soul, 
 having lost all its self-confidence, has really turned to God. The departure into sin is 
 from God, and to him must be the only satisfactory return. 
 
 HI. The FORSAKING OF SIN MUST BE A COMPLETE FORSAKING. Into this demand for 
 completeness there must be put the utmost significance of the word. God's people 
 might visit all the high places in turn, and laboriously erase every outward vestige of 
 idolatry. On everything like an approach to idolatry the most rigorous penalties 
 might be imposed. There might be a domiciliary visitation, and a ransacking ol every 
 house from garret to basement, lest there should be anything hidden away, such as 
 Laban's seraphim which Rachel stole. But what of all such exertions? 'ihey could 
 only end in tlie taking of abominations out of the sight of man. The essential thing 
 was to take them out of the sight of God. The high places and groves in every heart 
 must be jjurged of their idolatries. Here the edicts of a king and the vij,ilanco of 
 reforming enthusiasts were of no avail. By the very necessity of the case, the putting 
 away must be an individual act. Forth from the heart proceed the outward visible 
 aliominations, and the only way of stopping the procession was by a thorough cleansing 
 of the source whence it came. Such prayers are wanted as for the creating of a clean 
 heart, and the setting of one's secret sins in the light of God's countenance. The 
 heart, deeuitful and despirately wickid, only Gud tan know, and only Gud can 
 
CH. ivll— 31.] THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 103 
 
 cleanse. He himself must be besought to direct affections, purposes, imaginations, 
 towards things pure, holv, and Divine. Remember, then, that a thing may be out of 
 man's sight and yet right over against the eyes of God. Even that which may not 
 at present disturb your conscience may yet be very offensive to him. Thus it will bo 
 seen that a real turning to God is very difficult, and needs much submission and 
 humility. One has to walk very circumspectly. Wavering is one of the greatest 
 perils, and may very soon be fatal. He who wavers, vacillates, and turns to look 
 round to the things that are left, loses the direoiion ; and that direction, once lost, who 
 knows how much else may be lost before it can be recovered ? — Y. 
 
 Ver, 2. — Jehovah's requirement with respect to the oath, Jehovah has just told his 
 people that, with unwavering resolve, they must put their abominations out of his 
 sight. This exhortation, general as it is, is very emphatic ; but it chiefly serves to 
 lead on to something more explicit. Jehovah singles out one peculiar abomination, and 
 fixes the attention of his people on that. The truth is, if they sweep this abomination 
 away, all is done that needs to be done. These abominations, so odious to the pure 
 eyes of Jehovah, were bound together in a kind of organic unity. The infliction of a 
 fatal blow on any one of them inevitably brought death and withering on the others. 
 Just as he who stops the action of one of the vital organs of the body stops the action of 
 them all. Look, then — 
 
 I. At what Jehovah kequiees with regard to the oath. There were many 
 solemn appeals that had in them the nature of an oath. God at once directs attention 
 to the most solemn of all, the appeal to himself by his own peculiar Name and his own 
 enduring existence. The passages are too numerous to mention in which there is 
 record of people saying, "As Jehovah liveth." Now and then, no doubt, the words 
 were spoken with solemjiity and sincerity, and also with a steady remembrance after- 
 wards ot the holy Name which had thus come to the lips. But in the great bulk of 
 instances it was only an idle word. A man gets excited, and then the most solemn 
 words rush from his mouth, with no thought of the meaning they express. Or, worse 
 still, there may be the deliberate attempt to consecrate a f ilsity, and get it received fur 
 undoubted truth, so that others may act from it and rest upon it with the utmost con- 
 fidence. Now, to the removal of all this lalse swearing, God would have his people 
 earnestly to apply themselves. Note that God does not say here what Jesus afterwards 
 said, " Swear not at all." The time was not ripe for such an exhortation. The words 
 of Jesus aim directly at that ideal state when every man shall speak truth as naturally 
 as he breathes pure air; when it shall be as impossible for him to speak or even thir.k 
 the false as to live amid carbonic acid gas. One may say that even here, in this word 
 through Jeremiah, there is nothing to bind tlie hearer to an oath. The injunction 
 has a permissive element. A man needs not to say, " Jehovah liveth ; " but if he 
 does say so, let him bear in mind all that the expression involves. It is the most 
 solemn way of securing that all speaking and acting shall be true and sincere ; that ail 
 judgments shall be according to proven facts and Jehovah's declared principles of 
 justice ; and that all life, in short, should be pervaded and filled with energy by a sjiirit 
 of righteousness. To begin with, what an abomination it was to say, " As Jehovah 
 liveth," when the practice showed that whatever true recognition of Deity obtained 
 aniong these people was on the high places and towards the heathen idols! Then from 
 this it was only too easy to bring forward Jehovah's Name in connection with all sorts 
 of falsehood, cruelty, and oppression. The change is to come by bringing truth into 
 the oath. There mu.st ever live in the mind of the oath-taker a distinct apprehension 
 and conviction as to Jehovah's real, enduring existence. It must be remembered how 
 he said to Moses, "I am that I am." And, following the history of Israel onward, 
 there must be an ever clearer perception of his character, of his power, of his constant 
 observation of individual life, and his fiery, consuming anger against all iniquity. Then, 
 if all this truth, justice, and righteousness appear where before there was such a loath- 
 some sink of deception and corruption, what will he the result? 
 
 II. The nations will enter into an inexpressibly satisfactory relation 
 TOWARDS Jehovah. His aspect, in their eyes, altogether alters. A step is taken — a 
 great step, and oije that makes all others easy — towards that gathering of the nations 
 to Jehovah's throne which is mentioned in ch. iii. 17, There is now somithiug to awe 
 
106 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHKT JEKF.MIAH. [en. iv. 1— 3J. 
 
 and to attract the hitherto worshippers of idols. They say that a man is known hy 
 liis friends. If the man be one not yet seen, living at a distance, he can only be 
 judged of by those professing to be his friends, with whom we come into actual inter- 
 course. If those whom we see be upright, generous, magnanimous, loving, we shall 
 have no difficulty in crediting that the unseen one is tlie same. Israel having been 
 what it had been, it was little wonder if the heathen came to have a very poor opinion 
 of Jehovah. But Israel is now called to a very difftTent life, and, in particular, to 
 make such a use of the oath as that the nations shall not merely have their opinion of 
 Jehovah altered, but shall find in him a source of blessing to themselves and one 
 in whom, witliout risk of shame and confusion, they can continually glory. Jehovah, 
 Grod of Israel, whom Israel at last has truly honoured, obtains then more than a bare 
 acknowledgment. He is exulted in as Lord and Benefactor to all the nations of the 
 earth. " And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of 
 many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord 
 Grod omnipotent reigneth" (Rev. xix. 6). This is the consummation of creation's 
 choral song, and it comes from practising truth, justice, and righteousness in such a 
 way as will fully please Jehovah. — Y. 
 
 Ver. 3. — Thoroughness in spiritual culture. There is put before us here an agri- 
 cultural figure, which our observation of fallow ground in Englnnd, at present, fails 
 to give us the power of understanding. When we look at an English ploughman 
 .turning a piece of meadow-land into arable, there does not seem anj'thing very difficult 
 about his work. Why, then, should breaking up the fallow ground be so hard? Why 
 should this be reckoned an approfiriate fiaure for something evidently difficult, some- 
 thing, it would seem, habitually shirked and the necessity of attending to which the 
 men of Judah and Jerusalem did nut sufficiently recognize? The answer is to be found 
 in a state of things which, after all our efforts, will probably present itself imperfectly 
 to the mind. By many of the Hebrew husbandmen the cultivation of their land seems 
 to have bei^n managed in a very imperfect, careless, happy-go-lucky sort of » ay. In 
 the moveless East, what things are to-day tell us pretty well what they were two 
 thousand years ago. Dr. Thomson, speaking of the plain of Gennesaret — a district 
 which Josephns describes as extremely fruitful — says, "Gennesaret is now pre-eminently 
 fruitful in thorns. They grow up among the grain, or the grain among them." And 
 again on the same page, " 'J'hese farmers all need the exhortation of Jeremiah, ' Break 
 up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns.' Tliey are too apt to neglect this ; 
 and the thorns, springing up, choke the seed, so that it cannot come to maturity" 
 ^ Land and the Bookj' p. 348). The truth, then, was that the land was but half 
 reclaimed from the wilderness. To have properly reclaimed it, and then kept it in 
 a satisfactory state, would have required a great deal of trouble. And since from such 
 fertile land the husbandman, with but little effort, could get enough to serve the 
 passing day, he did not concern himself to make the land do its bett. 
 
 Hence we see that this admonition, whatever its first aspect of obscurity, is really 
 a most important one for all of us. The exhortation is to nothing less than thorough- 
 ness in spiritual culture. Thoroughness in the cultivation of the heart, as a soil 
 wherein the seeds of Divine truth are sown, pays in the highest sense of the word. 
 Look at what science, skill, and the bold investment of capital for the enrichment of 
 the soil and for machinery to save labour, have done for modern farming. The full 
 productiveness of God's earth seems to be apprehended by comparatively few. And 
 if this is so in things natural, there is no wonder at all that we should be so little 
 Cfinsoious of the thoroughness required in cultivating our spiritual nature. There are 
 many human hearts where subsoil ploughing is as yet unknown. There is a soil that 
 grows an abundant crop from plants of human origin, but the seed that God sows 
 either falls dead or dies after a brief struggle to find hold and sustenance in the he-irt. 
 'J'he word through Jeremiah here is but the germ from which our Lord expounded his 
 jiarable of the four kinds of soil. There is laid on each one of us a heavy burden — the 
 stewardship of a human heart. And yet it is a precious and honourable burden. Far 
 beyond the ripest, sweetest, and most copious fruits of the soil beneath our feet, is the 
 fruit that may come from within us. But the culture must be thorough. True, that 
 iiieaus toil, patience, watchfulness, discrimination; but what great work was ever dune 
 without them ? — Y. 
 
OH. IV. 1—31.] THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 107 
 
 Ver. 9. — Despair among the leaders in Israel. Let us consider how Jeliovah leads 
 the prophet up to the emphatic, and what we may call consummating, announcement 
 of this verse. One severe sentence comes on another, until at last the prophet himself, 
 crushed and overwhelmed, gives utterance to the sense he feels of contradiction to for- 
 mer gracious words. This cheerU'ss outlook to Israel, he .says, is as a sword |jiercing to 
 the soul. Looking back, tlien, through the previous eight verses, we find a spirit of 
 thorouf/hness running through the whole. Jehovah has asked for thoroughness, and seems 
 to intimate that the demand will be practically neglected. Thoroughness in turning to 
 him ; thoroughness in the putting away of all abominations ; thoroughness in observing 
 the sanctity and obligation of the oath; thoroughness in the culture of spiritual life; 
 thoroughness in circumcision of heart ; thoroughness everywhere, is the order of the 
 day. Then on the other hand — because, in spite of all remonstrances, there is a clin.:;ing 
 to the superficial modes in which all merely human reformations are managed — we are 
 confronted with the thoroughness of God's work. 1/ men will nut he thorouyh, at all 
 events Ood will le so. His fury will come forth like the unquenchable flame ; his 
 agents, in the shape of invincible armies, will bear down resistlessly on his unfaithful 
 people ; and, as a sort of climax, the very heads and guides will acknowledge themselves 
 utterly overcome. Such is the scene presented in ver. 9. Consider — 
 
 I. How THE CONSTERNATION AND HUMILIATION OF THESE MEN NOW IS IN CONTRAST 
 
 TO THEIR PREVIOUS CONDUCT. We do not Stay here to make discriminations among 
 the four classes of prominent men here indicated. The general truth underlying the 
 conduct of all of them is that the leading ]iersons in the State would assuredly lose 
 their self-confidence. Brazen and complacent as that self-confidence is, Jehovah is 
 undermining it in ssecret, and it will come down with a crash. These men were 
 associated in deception; each one deceived, first of all, himself; and then by a con- 
 tinuous mutual action and reaction, the power both of deceiving and of being deceived 
 became very great indeed. The king, upon giving the slightest encouragement, would 
 become a centre for all sorts of flatteries and arrogant assurances ; and indeed, as long 
 as it was a matter of keeping their own people in subjec'ion, these leaders might have 
 comparatively little difficulty. They knew what they were dealing with, and could 
 keep it in bounds by virtue of lona practice and cleverly transmitted tricks of mana'je- 
 ment. There was a certain ground of experience which they went upon in all their 
 contemptuous refusals to listen to God's prophet. But now there comes up, all at once, 
 a danger outside their experience, and not only defying their resources, but coming 
 down on those resources like a deluge, and utterly sweeping them away. When the 
 downtrodden and aggrieved in their own borders begin to mutter sedition and meditate 
 conspiracy, they may, perhaps, stop this peril in its beginning ; but when the majestic 
 destroyer of the Gentiles is on his way, how shall he be met? The lion out of the 
 thicket is manageable enough if the man against whom he advances happens to have a 
 loaded rifle in his hand, and the power of using it with unerring aim ; but what if he 
 has nothing more than a cudgel ? Kings and princes, priests and prophets, might 
 successfully join in counsel to mislead and keep down their own people; but a strong 
 and proud army, that has come forth like a mighty wild beast intent on prey, is not to 
 be turned back by meie counsels. In the last resort strength must be opposed to 
 strength. The sole virtue of skill lies in this, that it can make the most of strength. 
 But where the strength is lacking, skill can do nothing. No amount of skill can irake 
 a walking-stick do the work of a rifle, and the great peril of most human lives lies just 
 in this, that they go on in the contented use of ordinary resources for ordinary needs. 
 Practically speaking, extraordinary needs are not thought of till they come. There are 
 voices to us, even as to these kings, prince.s, priests, and prophets of old; but we do 
 not heed them, and meanwhile the lion out of the thicket, all unsuspected, is coming 
 nearer and nearer to us. 
 
 II. Note the forcible expression with regard to the kings and princes 
 Their hearts are to perish. Not but what priests and prophets may have the same 
 experience. Hebrew parallelism is to be borne in mind. The description of king and 
 princes applies also to priest and prophet, and vice versa. 1'hey were overwhelmed in 
 a common catastrophe. It is the heart-perishing icself we would call attention to, who- 
 ever the subject of it might be. One is reminded of the similar expression, tolerably 
 frequent in the Old Testament, of the heart mclt'iig. With regard to l!ic king, tliciu 
 
108 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. iv. 1—31., 
 
 would be an utter collapse of all kingly, dignity and pretension. It is not the mere con- 
 quest of territory and the desolation of it that can turn the supreme master into a 
 complete slave. Complete subjection is only achieved when body and miud are alike 
 in bonda<^H. Many a captive Jfias shown himself nobler than his captor; his heait 
 bein:; swelled out with even an increase of vitnlity, courage, and resource in the very 
 hour when the ungodly seem to have triumphed. Discrowned kings have sometimes 
 been more regal than on the coronation-day itself. The thing to be marked here is that 
 these leaders being cast down outwardly were equally cast down inwardly. The 
 whole nature crashes down in ruins. The dispossessed leader becomes as dejected 
 in soul as be is in station. What a warning/or us, then, is this melancholy preiliction ! 
 It is very certain that to us the outward casting down, at all events, must come. 
 ^Natural resources, limited and temporary at the best, are always showing weak points, 
 always needing patching up, and the most that can be done is to postpone the evil 
 day. And then what is the end to be? Are our hearts also to perish? Is there 
 to come on ns utter despair and brokenness of spirit ? It neud not be so. Look on 
 ihe courage of genuine Christians in captivity, in martyrdom, in poverty, amid the 
 attacks of slander, in the midst of spiritual non-success. If the heart perish, it will 
 be for want of believing resort to the succours which come down from the heavenly. 
 ]ilaces. God can so unite, inspire, instruct, and gladden the heart of every believer, as 
 cBiectually to dtliver it from jierishing. And remember, we are every one called to be,, 
 if not kings, at all events viceroys in our own life. There must be no yielding to pre- 
 sumptuous and audacious dictation of men. He who leans upon the mere assertions of 
 1 thers, because he is himself indisposed to make ihe necessary effort for finding out 
 truth, must be prepared at last to get into that state which is described as one in 
 which the heart perishes. — Y. 
 
 Vers. 11 — 13. — The uses of the wind. Not all the uses of the wind are set forth here, 
 but enough is mentioned to ri mind us how God can turn a leni-ficial agent into a 
 ilestructiue one very rapidly and decisively. The force of the unquenchable fire has 
 iilready been spoken of (ver. 4) ; and it is a sufliciently dreadful thought that fire, so 
 genial, so useful, with such a place in the house, and — .so far as Israel was ouncerned — 
 sucli a ]ilace in the service of God, should thus have become, iu the thoughts to be 
 associated with it, dreadful as sword, famine, or pestilence. The man who has had his. 
 house burned down, to the utter loss of all his goods, will henceforth be apt to make, 
 grim comments in his own heart when he hears men extolling the benefactor fire. And 
 now God comes to another great force in the material world, and shows how it can be 
 the symbol of the workings out of his holy wrath. 1. Observe how he calls atten- 
 tion to the beneficial working of the wind. Frequently the force of the wind is of such 
 a moderated, yet effectual kind, that it is used to fan and to cleanse. These invadino- 
 hosts, it was to be remembered, were not essentially destructive. They were made up 
 of human individuals, each of whom had measureless capabilities of benefiting bis 
 fullow-men. Possibly from these very northern lands there had come buyers and 
 sellers, bringing commercial prosperity to Israel. Is it not plain that we should always 
 consider, when one approaches us in a hostile and threatening way, that it may be 
 possible by a certain course of conduct t'< have him come in a very different way? 
 JIany enemies liave been friends, and after their enmity has come to a head and done 
 much daraa;;e, it is possible for them to become friends a^ain. This destroying wind 
 fierce and dreadful as it was for a time, would yet subside, and fanning and cleansing 
 work be done again. 2. It is worth noticing that (he Spirit of God which has such 
 large power to bless has also power to destroy. The Spirit of God is, on the hii^hest 
 authority, compared to the wind. Indeed, that is what the name signifies — the breath 
 cr wind from God. Working through Peter in the glorious apostolic days, we see that 
 Spirit healing the lame man ; we hear him speaking mighty, convincing, renewino- 
 words to thousands hitherto indifferent ; bringing men into correct and firm apprehen- 
 sions of truth that had been misunderstood or not understood at all ; and filling their 
 minds with such a light of promise as gave reality and indescribable charm to the 
 ititune. But that same Spirit struck down Ananias and Sapphira with an appalling 
 and fatal blow, and made Elymas the sorcerer suddenly blind. Only a turn is needed 
 and the o^jen hand which God extends, the hollow of it filled with the "ifts of his 
 
CH. IV. 1—31.] THE BOOK OP TFIE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 109 
 
 grace, can be closed so as to smite in wrath. God does not need to go far afield for tlie 
 instruments of his chastisement. The enerfjy of his Holy Spirit can destroy as well 
 as make alive ; and Jesus, who is Saviour, is also appointed to judge and condemn. — Y. 
 
 Ver. 14. — Tlie unwashed heart and the vain purposes cherished in it. There are here 
 an exhortation and a question which, taken together, pierce very deep, and suggest 
 once more the true cause of all the teri'ible calamities which are to befall Israel ; for 
 though Jerusalem is addressed, the repentance and remedy for all the evils in question 
 must come Irom the action of a united people. Jereiniali's words in ver. 10 are in a 
 measure representative words ; they indicate the way in which the nation would 
 'conclude that Jehovah had promised one thing; whereas quite another thing had 
 ■happened, and that evidently by his disposition. And so Jehovah meets Jeremiah with 
 this word, so that he shall not persist in a mistaken attempt to harmonize Jehovah's 
 predictions. Further, he is to declare the same thing to Jerusalem, that being the great 
 centre where kings and princes, priests and prophets are gathered together. Instead 
 of looking outward and igmirantly complaining of God, let them look inward, with 
 practical intent, and see what they can do by way of heart-reformation. These 
 
 • stupendous jjerils can all be removed, but Jehovah by himself cannot remove them. 
 In one sense, of course, he could do so. The wind might be made to subside, the lion 
 be driven back to his thicket, the destroyer of the Gentiles annihilated. But there 
 would be no permanent putting right in this if Israel remained the same. Israel 
 indeed might think that, if only the enemies vanished, then the sword would indeed be 
 withdrawn from the soul. The hearts of the king and |irinces did not perish simply 
 because of the hosts that were gathered a^jainst them. This was a reason so far ; but 
 in another sense no reason at all, seeing it did not go to the root of the matter. But 
 now Jehovah does go to the root of the matter; his Word is indeed a sword reacliing 
 deeper than the superficial thoughts of the people. 
 
 I. The exhohtation. 1. 2he heart is to be deavsrd. The heart. Persistently 
 does God drag these people to look within. Kither they were not willing to do so, or 
 not able to do so, or, what is perhaps a more correct way of putting it, they lacked 
 ■both willingness and ability. They would look anyvihere but to ihe true cause of all 
 their ills and to the true sphere where ndemption and security were to he worked out. 
 If they would only attend to their hearts and see in their hearts what God saw in them, 
 ■all the seeds of peril, corruption, and everlasting shame, then they would get on to 
 the right way, and being delivered from fundamental errors in their thoughts, they 
 
 • woulci come to the apprehension and practice of fundamental truths. They had already 
 been told of the mockery of a mere outward circumcision, and enjoined to circumcise 
 their hearts. Now the figure is vaiied, and they are tcild to cleanse their hearts. 
 It is because the heart of the king and the ]irinceis so polluted that it jierishes. If it 
 were a clian heart it would be a strong heart, invincible against panic and despair. 
 2. The filth that is to he taken out of the heart is wickedness. It takes a long time to 
 work the conviction into the minds of many people that wickedness is as filth. These 
 very people loathe the waifs and strays who think nothing of being constantly 
 begrimed with dirt. To such the impurity of the great unwashed is a loathsome thing ; 
 it nauseates them to come within sight or scent of it. But let such recollect that even 
 if, as far as their bodies are concerned, they have daily changes of fine linen, white 
 and clean, that is a mere trifle if the consciousness within be habitually defiled by 
 inhuman and degrading thoughts. There is, of course, a very practical truth in the 
 •common saying that "Cleanliness is next to godliness;" but cleanliness of the conseience, 
 removal ot every slimy stain of self, is but one of the aspects of perfect godliness. If 
 
 ■ only we are labouring to cleanse our liearls from wickedness, all other cleanliness will 
 assuredly follow. In proportion as wickedness is cleansed out, there will follow all 
 outward decencies, courtesy of manner and refinement of tastes. 'I'he ri'.;ht inwardly 
 grows to the comely outwardly ; but if that inward right be lacked, then all apparent 
 comeliness is but the whifed sepulchre. 3. 2'he mode of cleansing. The word chosen 
 to indicate this is a very significant one. The mere general term for cleansing is not 
 sufficient; nor even the more restricted but still general term for cleansing with water. 
 The washing to be done is that sort which in the literal instance is to be done by a 
 vigorous trampling of the feet. The Hebrew word is the same one in which the 
 
110 THE BOOK OF THE PROPriET JEREMIAH, [en. iv. 1—31. 
 
 profoundly penitent David prays tliat God would wash him from his iniquity, and 
 again to wash him so that he "should be whiter than snow (Ps. li.). And so here we 
 have another instance of the unreniittini; thoroughness which marks this chapter. It 
 is the heart that is to be cleansed, and that by the most vigorous kind of washing. The 
 accumulated filth of years has entered into the very texture of the fabric. The truth is 
 that the only way of carrying out the exhortation is to submit the heart to him in exactly 
 the same spirit as Uavid (iid. God is t/ie Cleanser, and only when our nature has 
 passed through all his purifying agencies shall we really know what perfect human 
 nature is. We do indeed see that perfection in Jesus, but with such distorted vision 
 that the seeing cannot be called seeing as we onght to see. 
 
 II. The question. The thoughts with respect to which the question is asked are 
 really purposes. This will come out more clearly on considering some of the expres- 
 sions in which the same Hebrew word is used ; e.g. when the woman of Tekoah spoke 
 to David of God devising means to bring back his banislied (2 Sam. xiv. 14) ; so 
 Eliphaz tells Job that God disappoints the lieuices of the crafty (Job v. 12). Several 
 of the Proverbs cimtaiu the word. The thoughts, i.e. counsels, of the righteous are just 
 (Prov. xii. 5). Where there is no deliberation, purposes are disappointed (Prov. xv. 22). 
 There are many devices in a man's heart, but the counsel of God shall stand (Prov. 
 xix. 21). Purposes are established by counsel, i.e. there must be wisdom in forming 
 them, and prudence in carrying them out. A comparison of these selected passages 
 will amply suffice to show what God means by vain thoughts, and what sort of 
 practical thoughts he would wish us to put in their place. Man is meant to live with 
 definile ends in view, on which he may expend his strength and faculties. But when 
 these ends are his own — self-originated and self-gratifying — then they are emphatically 
 vain. They can only continue by deceiving the mind that proposes them and holds to 
 them. Tlie question therefore is as to when our eyes shall be opened to perceive the 
 right purposes of life, the solid and attainable ones, the purposes that are not vain, 
 because tliey are God's purposes and because he provides all resources ncieded for carry- 
 ing them out. Jerusalem wished thise terrible troubles from outside to be at an end, 
 just that it might resume its own projects. On the other hand, God wished it from 
 the very heart to adopt his projects in order that then he might take all obstacles 
 .and enemies completely out of the way. — Y. 
 
 Ver. 22. — Those who are wise to do evil. This description of "my people" has a 
 curious resemblance to the exhortation of our Lord when he told his friends to be wi.se 
 as serpents and harmless as doves. These people, according to Jeremiah's observation, 
 had all the wisdom of the serpent, but it was for serpentine purposes. And the worst 
 of it was that they liurt themselves the most. Note— 
 
 I. The reference to man's great powers. Even in his headlong, infatuated 
 descent to ruin, the great powers are manifest. It is the very perversion and ruin of what 
 is so noble in its original constitution that helps to give one an insight, deep even 
 though melancholy, into all that makes up the nobility. A temple in ruins fills one 
 with thoughts which could never be excited by looking at a dilapidated shed. Jeremiah 
 looks upon Jerusalem and the men who are leaders there (ver. i)), and their great human 
 faculties cannot be concealed from him. When man sinks into sin, this does not 
 destroy the great human powers ; it simply distorts their operation. We look at men 
 as they are, and whatever the sad reflections coming into our minds, we still see the 
 supremacy in terrestrial creation, the power to adapt means to ends, and all that 
 strenuth and suppleness of intellect which are so much more than the greatest strength 
 of a brute. 
 
 II. These great powers must be used. The human intellect cannot be left to 
 lie like a dead sword in the scabbard. In one sense the intellect is but an instrument, 
 having in itself no character either for good or evil, any more than a piece of machinery. 
 Everything depends on the disposition and intents of the man using it. But then the 
 intellect, instrumental as it is, is not a mere instrument, but lias a living connection 
 with the rest of human nature. It must act, with more or less energy, according to tire 
 individuality of its [assessor. These faculties must bo used, if not for good, then for 
 evil. History abounds in instancrs of wicked and selfish men who have achieved their 
 mischievous ends by that very intellectual force which was given for something very 
 
CH. IV. 1—31.] THE BOOK OF THE raOPHET JEREMIAH. Ill 
 
 differont. Hence the importance of early training and direction, so far as one will can 
 alter the course of another. Every individual whose faculties are diverted from good 
 purposes is so much gain to the powers of evil. 'J'here is no neutral ground to which to 
 retire. To go out of the one path is to go into the other. This whs the sad thought 
 that, even while Jerusalem was going down, lower, lower, towards the hour of its capture 
 and desolation, there were yet in it many men who hud the power, if only their hearts 
 had been right, to do much towards saving and blessing their country. But all their 
 thoughts, their utmost acuteness of mind, were given to build and enrich self. — Y. ' 
 
 Vers. 23 — 27. — A threatened return from cosmos to chaos. It is impossible to read 
 this passage without having the first chapter of Genesis brought to mind. Moreover, it 
 was intended that it should be brought to mind. In Gen. i. we have the brief, sub- 
 lime description, impossible to forget, of the advance from chaos to cosmos. Here in 
 Jeremiah we have a very sad and suggestive indication of possible return from cosmos 
 to chaos, 'i'hese two words, it will be admitted, are often used very loosely. Particu- 
 larly is this true of the latter. We tallc of things having got into a chaotic condition, 
 when if such really were so, it would be a very terrible condition indeed. Fur what is 
 chaos .» It is the state indicated at the very beginning of the Scriptures, the state out 
 of which God fashioned what we call the cosmos or the world. Bear in mind that the 
 creation desoiibed in Genesis is not the making of something out of nothing, but the 
 fashioning of formless, empty matter into an orderly collection of appropriate parts and 
 beyond tiiat an innumerable array of living, active organisms. " The earth was without 
 form and void." Strictly speaking, the earth spoken of in Genesis was as yet an ideal 
 thing. " And darkness was on the face of the abyss." As the writer of the narrative 
 conceived it, there stretched out from the formless, empty earth an impeneirable, rayless 
 depth of space. This is chaos, where there is no ray of light, not even the slightest 
 beginning of order, not even the smallest seed of life. But with the moving of God's 
 breath upon the face of the water cosmos begins. Light comes ; and then day and 
 night are defined, and heaven and earth, and so on through the familiar iToce<sion of 
 God's wonderful works, till cosmos gets its terrestrial crowii in the fashioning of man. 
 It is worth while for all who would rejoice in the works and ways of Gud to get a clear 
 notion of the difference hetwetn chaos and cosmos. 
 
 Then bearinj this difference in mind, what a terrible prospect Jeremiah hints 
 AT IN this passage ! Just by the profit and glory of the as'ent I'rom chaos to cosmos 
 in Genesis do we measure the loss and shame of the descent from cosmos to chaos in 
 Jeremiah. It is earth we see, with the men and women, the domestic and social bonds, 
 city and country, all occupations of mankind, all that is highest in human attainments ; 
 and this aggregation, which cotnes from man's toiling development of the cosmioal 
 elements presented to him, is seen sliding back to chaos agam. There can be no 
 mistake about it. Mark, it is not what the prophet hears, but what he sees. " I 
 beheld " is repeated. And looking out he sees not the accustomed scene of life and 
 activity, but the earth without form and void. He looks for the heavens where dwell 
 the sun by day and moon and stars by night, but there is no light of any sort. The 
 mountains and hills, whicli always were so significant of strength and grandeur to the 
 Hebrew imagination, show signs of being moved away. No man could be seen. There 
 are several words in Hebrew all rendered by the English word "man," but Jeremiah's 
 word here is the same wiih that in Gen. i. 2(J. Then, moreover, all the birds of the 
 heaven fiy away. Other inhaliited and cultivated places have l)ecome as the wilderness, 
 but not as an uninhabited wilderness. Note Isa. xiv. 23 : I'.abylon is there described 
 as being made a possession lor the littorn. Thus it is indeed desolated, but evidently 
 the birds do not tly away from it. Here, however, even the birds, which so easily flit 
 from place to, place, disappear as if they had no hope of making in this place their 
 nests and finding in it tlieir sustenance. Thus every detail points to the chance, the 
 possibility, of Chaos resuming his ancient reign. But now observe — 
 
 There is an arrest before such a deplorable consummation. " I will not make 
 a full end." Man the individual and men the social community may slide a long way 
 towards destruction, may be as it were on the brink, without a remedy ; and yet God 
 can so act as to arrest, restore, and consolidate anew, with such internal pmity and 
 coherency as will defy further lapse. Note the full significance of the use of the word 
 
112 THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. iv. 1—31. 
 
 KStr/ios in the Greek Testament. It was into the KSa-fios that the true Light came. 
 John's great directing word to his disciples as he saw Jesus coming to him was, 
 " Bf hold the Lamh of God, which taketh away the sin of the K6aft.os." Where all should 
 be perfect order, vigorous life, and exuberant fruitfulness, there is discord, contradiction ; 
 everything jars, and there is a never-intermitting groan of pain. All this Jesus can 
 take away, and nmst take away. It is through him that whatever promises and hopes 
 lie in ver. 27 are to be carried into effect. This whole passage, therefore, suggests an 
 aspect ill which the need of Christ's work and the reality of it may be very profitably 
 considered. — Y. 
 
 Ver. 30. — Departed charms that cannot he restored. The figure here is of a woman, 
 once beautiful and attractive. There is thus a return to the theme of ch. ii., where 
 the idolatrous land is set forth as a wife departing from her husband. In the days of 
 her beauty she has fascinated many lovers ; but now the beauty is gone, and she makes 
 desperate attempts to compensate Ibrvanislied charms by external adornments ; only to 
 find her efforts cause for deeper humiliation. Consider — • 
 
 I. The charm of natural attractions. There is a time when youth and beauty 
 are comparatively independent of external aids. So there was a time in Israel when no 
 .■special devices were needed to keep the admiration and envy of the world. David and 
 Solomon made the kingdom great, not by a dexterous concealment of poverty and hoUow- 
 ness under external magnificence, but by a simple and scarcely avoidable exhibition of 
 the greatness of real resources. The kingdom was one of strong men, valiant warriors, 
 and overflowing material wealtli. So it is with individuals still. They attract and 
 influence, not by vain pretensions, but by what they really are. Tlie attractive 
 element in them may be overvalued, but at all events it is not a mere appearance. 
 Xotliing is gained by refusing to admit the success and charm of natural resources. 
 Cunfidence in them is justified by the way in which the world receives and encourages 
 those who possess them. 
 
 II. The folly of foboettino that natural attractions must fade and dis- 
 appear. Probably they are but comparatively few — those vain men and women who 
 use dyes, cosmetics, and paints, under the notion that thereby they conceal the ravages 
 of time. Nevertheless, ludicrous as such devices are, there are only too many who do 
 the same thing, so far as the essi-ntial principle is concerned. They cannot be got to 
 admit the fuilure of power and faculty. Habit is too strong to enable them rightly to 
 ap|irehend their diminished resources. Hosea said of Ephraim, " Gray hairs are here 
 and there upon him, yet he knoweth not" (vii. 9). There may even be a nobler side 
 to such a spirit, viz. the resolution not to give way before difficulties. But we must 
 take care that an admirable element in conduct does not blind us to what may be dis- 
 .advantageous or ev(;n perilous in it ; e.fi. one hears sometimes of judges afflictai with 
 deafness — a most dangerous infirmity in the administration of justice, and at least a 
 most discommoding one to all who have to address the judge. What is needed is that, 
 even in the days of youth and strength, of unimpaired faculties of sense and intellect, 
 one should remember that far other days are coming. Consider in connection with this 
 the last eighteen verses of Ecolesiastes. The speoiacles and the speaking-trumpet are 
 all very well in their way, so far as they make an easier, smoother slope to tlie grave; 
 but what folly it is to be assiduous aliout these things, and utterly careless about that 
 new, Divine, and eternal life which shows itself in all thegrandeurof its peculiar principle 
 and strength, precisely amid the decays of the natural man ! What sadder sight can 
 there be than an old man, clingini; to the worn, torn, weather-beaten, age-marked sides 
 of his earthly tabernacle, and doing his best to resist every incur.sion from the fore- 
 runners of death ; simply because he knows of no better mansion, because he is utterly 
 ignorant of the " house of God not made with hands, eternal in tlie heavens " I — Y. 
 
CH.V. 1— 31.] THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 
 
 113 
 
 EXPOSITION. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Is the punishment thought too severe? 
 Then let the moral condition of Jerusalem 
 be inquired into. Must not such trans- 
 gressions precipitate its people into ruin? 
 There are four well-marked sections or 
 strophes. 
 
 Vers. 1 — 9. — Gladly would Jehovah 
 pardon, if his people showed but a gleam 
 of sound morality. But they are all deaf 
 to the warning voice — the Law of God is 
 flagrantly violated. In particular the 
 marriage tie, as well the typical one be- 
 tween man and woman as the anti-typical 
 between the people and its God, is openly 
 disregarded (comp. Hos. iv. 1 ; Micah vii. 2 ; 
 Isa. Lxiv. 6, 7 ; Ps. xiv. 3). 
 
 Ver. 1. — If ye can find a man. " A man " 
 is explained by the following clauses. It 
 is a man whose practice and whose aims 
 are right, of whom Jeremiah, like Diogenes 
 with bis lantern, is in search. (It is evident 
 that the prophet speaks rhetorically, for 
 himself and his disciples, however few, 
 were doubtless "men" in the prophetic 
 sense of the word.) Judgment . . . the 
 truth; rather, justice . . . good faith, the 
 primary virtues of civil society. 
 
 Yer. 2. — And though they say, The Lord 
 liveth. Though they asseverate by the 
 most solemn of all oaths (contrast ch. iv. 
 1, 2). Surely. So the Syriac. This ren- 
 dering, however, involves an emendation 
 of one letter in the text. The ordinary 
 reading is literally therefore, but may ety- 
 mological ly be taken to mean " for all this," 
 " nevertheless." 
 
 Ver. 3. — Are not thine eyes upon the 
 truth? rather, surely thine eyes are upon 
 (equivalent to thou lookestfor and demandest) 
 good faith, alluding to ver. 1. 
 
 Ver. 4. — Therefore I said ; rather, and a$ 
 for me, I said. They are foolish; rather, 
 they act foolishly (as Numb. xii. 11). For ; 
 rather, hecause. Their want of religious 
 instruction Is the cause of their faulty 
 conduct. In fact, it was only after the 
 return from Babylon that any popular 
 schools were founded in Judsea, and not till 
 shortly before the destruction of the temple 
 that the elementary instruction attained 
 the regularity of a system (Edersheim, 
 'Sketches of Jewish Social Life in the 
 Time of Christ,' pp. 134, 135). The judg- 
 ment of their God, A similar phrase occurs 
 in ch. viii. 7. "Judgment (mishpat) here 
 (as in some other passages) has acquired a 
 technical sense. This may be illustrated 
 by the corresponding word in Arabic (din), 
 
 JEEEMIAH. 
 
 which means (1) obedience, (2) a religion, 
 (3) a statute or ordinance, (4) a system 
 of usages, rites, and ceremonies " (Lane's 
 ' Lexicon,' s.».). " Judgment " is, therefore, 
 here equivalent to " religious law," and 
 " law " is a preferable rendering. 
 
 Ver. 5. — The bonds are the thongs by 
 which the yoke was secured to the neck 
 (comp. Isa. Iviii. 6). In ch. ii. 20 the word 
 is rendered " bands." 
 
 Ver. 6. — This verse reminds us of a 
 famous passage in the first canto of Dante's 
 ' Commedia,' in which Dante the pilgrim is 
 successively opposed by three wild beasts — 
 a panther, a lion, and a she-wolf. That the 
 poet had Jeremiah in his mind cannot be 
 doubted. The deep knowledge of the 
 Scriptures possessed by mediaeval theo- 
 logians (and such was Dante) may put 
 many Protestants to eb«me. Curiously 
 enough, whereas the early commentators 
 on Dante interpret these wild beasts of 
 vices, the moderns find historical references 
 to nations. On the other hand, while 
 modern expositors explain Jeremiah's wild 
 beasts as symbols of calamities, Eashi and 
 St. Jerome understand them of the Chaldeann, 
 Persians, and Greeks. A lion out of the 
 forest. The first of a series of figures for 
 the cruel invaders of Judah (comp. ch. 
 iv. 7). The frequent references (see also 
 ch. xii. 8; xxv. 38; xlix. 19; 1. 4) show 
 how common the lion was in the hills and 
 valleys of the land of Israel. A wolf of 
 the evenings ; i.e. a wolf which goes out to 
 seek for prey in the evening. So the Peshito, 
 Targum, Vulgate (comp. "wolves of the 
 evening," Hab. i. 8; Zeph. iii. 3). But 
 there is no evidence that 'erehh, evening, 
 has for its plural 'arabhoth, which is, in fact, 
 the regular plural of 'arafcaA, desert. Render, 
 therefore, a wolf of the deserts, i.e. one which 
 has its den in the deserts, and falls upon the 
 cultivated parts when it is hungry. Luther, 
 " the wolf out of the desert." A leopard ; 
 rather, a panther. The Chaldeans are com- 
 pared to this animal, on account of its 
 swiftness, in Hab. i. 8. 
 
 Ver. 7.— How ... for this t rather, Why 
 should I pardon thee ? Thy children ; i.e. 
 (since " the daughter of Zion " is equivalent 
 to Zion regarded as an ideal entity) tlie 
 members of the Jewish people (comp. Lev. 
 xix. 18, "the children of thy people"). 
 When I had fed them to the full. So Ewald, 
 following the versions and many manuscripts 
 (there is no marginal reading in the Hebrew 
 Bible). This gives a good sense, and may 
 bo supported by ver. 28; Deut. xxxii. 15; 
 Hos. xiii. 6. But the reading of the received 
 
 I 
 
114 
 
 THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. v. 1—31. 
 
 Hebrew text, though somewhat more diffi- 
 cult, is yet pel fi. ctly capable of explanation ; 
 and, slight as the difference is in the reading 
 adopted by l^wald (it involves a mere shade 
 of pronunciation), it is not to be preferred 
 to the received reading. Bead, therefore, 
 though I made them to swear (alleyianee), 
 yet they committed adultery. The oath may 
 be that of Sinai (Exod. xxiv.), or such an 
 oath as had been recently taken by Joaiah 
 and the people (1 Kings xxiii. 3; 2 Chron. 
 xxxiv. 31, 82). The "adultery" may be 
 taken both in a literal and in a figurative 
 sense, and so also the " harlots' houses " in 
 the next clause. It is also well worthy of 
 ccjnsideration whether the prophet may not 
 be referring to certain matrimonial customs 
 handed down from remote antiquity and 
 arising from the ancient system of kinship 
 through women (comp Ezek. xxii. 11). 
 
 Ver. 8. — As fed horses in the morning. 
 The rendering fed horses has considerable 
 authority. "Lustful horses" is also pos- 
 sible; this represents the reading of the 
 Hebrew margin. The following word in 
 the Hebrew is extremely ditticiilt. "In the 
 morning" cannot be. right, as it is a^'ainst 
 jj;iaminar; but it is not easy to furnish a 
 substitute. Most modems render "roving 
 abiiut ; " Fiirst prcfeis " stallions " 
 
 Vers. 10 — 18. — Provoked by the open un- 
 belief of the men of Judah, Jehovah re- 
 peats his warning of a sore judgment. 
 
 Ver. 10. — Her walls. Tliere is a doubt 
 about " walls," which should, as some think, 
 rather be vine-rows (a change of points is 
 involved ; also of shin into eiji— the slight- 
 est of all changes), or shoots, or branches 
 (comparing the Syriac). The figure would 
 thus gain somewhat in symmetry. How- 
 ever, all the ancient interpreters (wlioso 
 authority, overrated by some, still counts for 
 something) explain the word as in the Au- 
 thorized Version, and, as Graf remarks, in 
 order to destroy the vines, it would be 
 necessary to climb up upon the walls of the 
 vineyard. (For the figure of the vine or 
 tlie vineyard, oomp. on ch. ii. 21.) Take 
 away ... not the Lord's. The Septunglnt 
 and Peshito read differently, translating 
 "leave her foundations, for they are the 
 Lord's" (supposing the figure be taken from 
 a building). As the text stands, it is better 
 to change battlements into tendrils. Juilah's 
 degenerate members are to be removed, but 
 tlie vine-stock, i.e., the bilioving kernel of 
 the nation, is to be left. It is the key-note 
 of the " remnant " which Jeremiah again 
 strikes (see ch. iv. 27). 
 
 Ver. ] 2. — It is not he. Understand " who 
 speaks by the prophets" (Payne Smith). 
 It is hardly con eivable that any of the 
 Jews absolutely denied the existence of 
 Jehovah. They were practical, not specu- 
 
 lative unbelievers, like men of the world 
 in general. 
 
 Ver. 13. — And the prophets, etc. A con- 
 tinuation of the speech of the unbelieving 
 Jews. The word is not in them. The 
 Authorized Version gives a good meaning, 
 but it involves an interference with the 
 points. The pointed text must be rendered, 
 he who speaketh (through the prophets, viz. 
 Jehovah) is not in them. Thus the Jews 
 hurl against prophets like Jeremiah tlie 
 very charge which Jeremiah himself brings 
 against tlie " false prophets " In ch. xxiii. 
 25 — 32. Thus shall it be done; rather, so 
 be it done ; i.e. may the sword and famine, 
 with which they threaten us, fall upon them. 
 
 Ver. 14.— My words in thy mouth fira. 
 (See on ch. i. 9, 10.) 
 
 Ver. 15. — house of Israel. After the 
 captivity of the ten tribes, Judah became 
 the sole representative of the people of 
 Israel (comp. ch. ii. 26). A mighty nation. 
 TheAuthorized Version certainly gives apart 
 of the meaning. The Hebrew word rendered 
 " mighty " ('ethan), rather, " perennial," is 
 the epithet of rocks and mountains (Numb. 
 xxiv. 21 ; Micali vi. 2) ; of a pasture (ch. 
 xlix. 19) ; of rivers (Deut. xxi, 4 ; Ps. Ixxiv. 
 15). As applied in the present instance, it 
 seems to describe the inexhaustible resources 
 of a young nati(m. Render here, ever re- 
 plenished ; i.e. ever drawing anew from its 
 central fountain of strength. Does not this 
 aptly convey the impression which a long- 
 civilized nation (and the Jews, who have 
 been called "rude," were only so by com- 
 parison with the Egyptians and Assjrian.s) 
 must derive from the tumultuous incursions 
 of nomad hosts? The description will 
 therefore fit the Scythians; but it is not 
 inappropriate to the Chaldeans, if we take 
 into account the composite nature of their 
 armies. An anoient nation ; i.e. one which 
 still occupies its primeval seat in the north 
 (ch. vi. 22), undisturbed by invaders. Whose 
 language thou knowest not. So Isaiah of 
 the Assyrians, " (a people) of a stammering 
 tongue, that thou canst not understand." 
 The Jews were no philologists, and were as 
 unlikely to notice the fundamental affinity 
 of Hebrew and Assyrian as an ancient 
 Greek to observe the connection between 
 his own language and the Persian. When 
 the combatants were to each other $dp0apoi, 
 mercy could hardly be expected. The se- 
 quence of vers. 49 6 and 50 in Deut. xxviii. 
 speaks volumes. 
 
 Ver. 16. — Iheir quiver. (See on ch. iv. 
 29.) As an open sepulchre ; i.e. furnished 
 with deadly arrows, " fiery darts." So the 
 psalmist, of the " throat " of deceitful perse- 
 cutors (Ps. V. 9). 
 
 Ver. 17. — Which thy sons and thy daugh- 
 ters, etc. ; rather, they shall eat thy sons and 
 
CH. V. 1— 31.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 
 
 115 
 
 thy daughters. In the other clauses of tlie 
 verse the verb is in the eingulur, tlie subject 
 being the hostile nation. Xhey shall im- 
 poverish, etc. ; rather, it shall hatter . . . 
 loith weapons of war (bo rightly Payne 
 Smith) ; kh&ebh, commonly rendered 
 " oword," is applied to any cutting instru- 
 ment, such as a razor (Ezuk. v. 1), a mason's 
 tool (Exod. XX. 25), and, as here and Ezek. 
 xxvi. 9, weapons of war in general. 
 
 Vers. 19 — 29. — Judah's own obstinacy and 
 flagrant disobedience are the causes of this 
 sore judgment. 
 
 Ver. 19. — Like as ye have forsaken me, etc. 
 The law of correspondence between sin and 
 punishment pervades Old Testament pro- 
 phecy (comp. Isa. v.). As the Jews served 
 foreign gods in Jehovah's land, they shall 
 become the slaves of foreigners in a land 
 which is not theirs. 
 
 Ver. 21. — Without understanding; lite- 
 rally, without heart. This seems at first 
 sight inconsistent with ver. 23, where the 
 people is described as having indeed a 
 " heart," but one hostile to Jehovah. The 
 explanation is that a course of deliberate 
 sin perverts a man's moral perceptions. 
 The prophet first of all states the result, and 
 then the cause. So in Ezek. xii. 2, " Which 
 have eyes and see not," etc. ; " for they are 
 a rebellious house." 
 
 Ver. 22. — Fear ye not me ? The Hebrew 
 places "me" emphatically at the beginning 
 of the sentence. By a perpetual decree. This 
 is one of the evidences, few but sufficient, 
 of the recognition of natural laws by the 
 Biblical writers : of laws, however, which are 
 but the description of the Uivine mode of 
 working, " covenants" (oh. xxxiii. 20 ; comp. 
 Gen. ix. 18) made for man's good, but capable 
 of being annulled (Isa. iiv. 10). Comp. Prov. 
 viii. 29 ; Job xxxviii. 8—12. 
 
 Ver. 23. — A revolting and a rebellious 
 heart. The heart is the centre of the moral 
 life virtually equivalent to " the will ; " it is 
 "revolting" when it "turns back" (so 
 literally here) from God's Law and service, 
 and " rebellious " when it actively defies and 
 opposes him. 
 
 Ver. 24. — That giveth rain, etc. The 
 second appeal is to the regularity of the 
 rains. Dr. Robinson remarks that there are 
 not at the present day in Palestine " any 
 particular periods of rain, or succession 
 of showers, which might be regarded as 
 distinct rainy seasons," and that, unless 
 there has been some change in the climate 
 of Palestine, the former and the latter rains 
 seem to correspond to " the first showers of 
 autumn, which revived the parched and 
 thirsty earth and prepared it for the seed, 
 and the later showers of spring, which con- 
 tinued to refresh and forward both the 
 ripening crops and the vernal products of 
 
 the fields" (' Biblical Researches,' iii, 98). 
 He reserveth unto us, etc. ; literally, he 
 keepeth for us the weeks — the statutes of 
 harvest; i.e. the weeks which are the ap- 
 pointed conditions of harvest. The prophet 
 means the seven weeks wliich elapsed from 
 the second day of the Passover to the " Feast 
 of H,ai-vest," or "Feast of Weeks" (Pente- 
 cost) (Exod. xxiii. 16 ; xxxiv. 22 ; Deut. 
 xvi. 9, 10). 
 
 Ver. 25. — Have turned away these things. 
 " These things " are the benefits mentioned 
 in the preceding verse (comp. ch. iii. H ; 
 xii. 4). Thus the judgment is not entirely 
 future ; a foretaste of it has already been 
 given (oomp. 1 Kings xvii. ; Amos iv.). 
 
 Ver. 26. — They lay wait, etc.; rather, 
 they spy (literally, one spielh), as fowlers lie 
 in wait. A trap; literally, a cJesiroi/er ; i.e. 
 an instrument of destruction (comp. Isa. 
 Iiv. 16, where " the waster " (or destroyer) 
 probably means the weapon referred to 
 previously). 
 
 Ver. 27.— A cage. The Hebrew word 
 h'lu.b is used in Amos viii. 1 for a basket 
 such as was used for fruit ; it seems to he 
 the parent of the Greek word KKai$6s, used 
 in the 'Anthology ' for a bird-cage. Thernot 
 means to plait or braid ; hence some sort 
 of basket-work seems to be meant. Con- 
 necting this with the preceding verse, Hitzig 
 seems right in inferring that the "cage" 
 was at the same time a trap (comp. Ecclus. 
 xi. 30, " Like as a partridge taken in a cage 
 [^1/ KaprdWi;', a peculiar kind of basket], so is 
 the heart of the prond "). Canon Tristram 
 suggests that there is an allusion to decoy- 
 birds, which are still much employed in 
 Syria, and are carefully trained for their 
 office ('Natural Hibtory of the Bible,' 
 p. 163). But tills seems to go beyond the 
 text. Deceit ; i.e. the goods obtained by 
 deceit. 
 
 Ver. 28. — They overpass the deeds of the 
 wicked; rather, they overpass tlie common 
 measure of wickedness (literally, the cases of 
 wickedness') ; or, as others, they exceed in 
 deeds of wickedness. Yet they prosper ; 
 rather, so that Ihey (the fatherless) might 
 prosper ; or, that they {the rich) might malce 
 it to prosper. 
 
 Ver. 29. — A repetition of ver. 9 in the 
 manner of a refrain. 
 
 Vers. 30, 31. — The result of the prophet's 
 examination of the moral condition of the 
 people. 
 
 Ver. 30. — A wonderful and horrible thing, 
 etc. ; rather, an appalling and horrrilde 
 thing hath happened in tlie land. The word 
 rendered "appalling" (or stupefying) has 
 a peculiar force. It only occuis again in 
 ch. xxiii. 14, though a cognate adjective is 
 found in ch. xviii. 13 (comp. on ch. ii. 11). 
 
 Ver. 31. —The prophets ... the priests. 
 
116 
 
 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. v. 1—31. 
 
 (See on ch. ii. 26.) Bear rule by their 
 means; rather, rule at their heck (literally, 
 at their /lands, comp. ch.xxxiii. 13; 1 Chron. 
 XXV. 2, 3; 2 Chron. xxiii. 18). An example 
 of this inteferenoe of the false prophets with 
 the priestly ofSce is given by Jeremiah 
 himself (oh. xxix. 24-26). My people love 
 
 to have it so. Sometimes the prophets 
 speak as if the governing classes alone were 
 respon.iiblo for the sins and consequent 
 calamities of their country. But Jeiemiah 
 here expressly declares that tlie governed 
 were as much to blame as their governors. 
 
 HOMILETICS. 
 
 Ver. 1. — Forgiveness for many through the righteousness of one. I. God is gbeatly 
 DEsiEOtrs TO PARDON HIS CHILDREN. The Command is given to " run to and fro " and 
 search for the one righteous man. Grod thus expresses his anxiety ^o forgive. " He 
 waiteth to be gracious." The first movement towards exercising pardon comes from 
 God even before men desire it. He will lay hold of the smallest ground for forgiveness. 
 If the one righteous man can but be found, Grod will forgive the city. 
 
 II. Some eiqhteodsness is necessary as a ground foe forgiveness. If the 
 righteous man cannot be found, the condition of the city is hopeless. There is a pro- 
 pitiatory power in righteousness. Good men are priests, and their lives sacrifices of 
 value for the advantage of others. The righteousness of Christ is an essential element 
 in the atonement (Heb. x. 9, 10). It was not possible for the sin of man to be forgiven 
 except on condition of this. Pardon is offered to men only through this (Acts xiii. 38). 
 
 III. The righteousness vthich, avails with God must be solid and practical. A 
 vain, religious boast counts for nothing (ver. a). 1. The goodness to be sought for i.s 
 not devoutness of demeanour, but the exercise of justice and the effort to keep good 
 faith. 2. This is to be looked for, not in the temple, but in the streets and lanes and 
 places of public concourse, i.e. in daily life. The best evidences of character are to be 
 seen in home life and conduct in business. When the domestic and commercial 
 morality of a city is corrupt, the condition of that city is ruinous, whatever may be the 
 assiduity and decorum with which religious observances are maintained. 
 
 IV. The righteousness op one may be efficacious for the security op many. 
 Sodom and Gomorrah would have been spared for the sake of ten righteous men (Gen. 
 xviii. 32). Lot was the providential means of saving Zoar (Gen. xix. 21). The one 
 man Christ secures salvation for the whole world (Heb. vii. 24, 25). There is much 
 that is mysterious in the principle of Divine grace which is here revealed — much that 
 we cannot explain. Still, there are truths entering into it which may be discerned, e.g. 
 injustice cannot be done by God in the smallest respect; the righceous are " the salt 
 of the earth," they preserve by preventing complete corruption ; there is hope for the 
 city in which but one righteous man lives, since he may be the means of leading others 
 back to righteousness — this principle is one on which God acts in forgiving, not in 
 distributing bare rights; all that he requires is a safe and justifiable ground on which 
 to exercise pardon, not a fund of merit such as could constitute a claim on his grace. 
 
 Ver. 3. — Fruitless chastisement. I. The purpose op chastisement is correction. 
 1. It is to lead men by outward suffering to inward grief (_" they have not grieved"). 
 No more hopeless condition can be found than pleasure or indifference in sin. Tiie 
 tears of penitence are the first preparations for reformation. 2. It is to lead men, 
 through outward suffering and inward grief, to a genuine conversion of character (Gud 
 looks for a restoration of " good faith "), and to bring them bade to Ood (" they have 
 refused to return "). It is no end in itself, no good except as leading to a further good. 
 It is not given in vindictive rage nor to satisfy the claims of abstract justice. Though 
 it springe directly from the wi-ath of God, that wrath is based on his eternal love. 
 Because God loves bis children he must be angry when they sin. Because he desires 
 their good he must not spare his rod (Prov. iii. 11, 12). The purpose of chastisement 
 is not so mysterious as is commonly supposed. People often exclaim vaguely, " These 
 troubles must be sent for some good purpose." The purpose is not all hidden. It is 
 mainly that we may be brought nearer to God. 
 
 II. The correction aimed at in chastisement is not always attained. A 
 
CH. V. 1— 31.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 117 
 
 terrible deltfsion possesses multitudes of suffering people. They have faith enough to 
 believe that trouble is sent for their good, but not spirituality enough to see how 
 to use it for that end. Such people assume that it must benefit tliem, however they 
 behave under it. Some suppose that if they suffer in this world they will certainly 
 receive compensation in the next. Such ideas imply that chastisement cannot 
 be deserved, or that the mere endurance of it is meritorious, or that, if not exactly 
 punishment for sin, it must be a necessity to be borne now or hereafter for its own 
 sake or to satisfy some strange will of God. But chastisement is a "means of grace," 
 and, like other " means of grace," may be frustrated. We may receive this grace in 
 vain (2 Cor. vi. 1). Consider the causes of the fruitlessness of chastisement. 1. 
 Stoical hardness. We may be stricken, but not grieve. 2. Thoughthsxness. We 
 may feel inward grief, but not reflect on our condition and need. 3. Pride, which 
 suffers pangs of grief but no contrition for sin. 4. Impenitence. We may "refuse to 
 receive correction," harden our wills against submission, and rebel in impatience and 
 complaining against God, instead of returning to him. 
 
 III. t'RuiTLESs CHASTISEMENT IS WHOLLY AN EVIL THING. Like every other grace, 
 if abused it works injury. Sent to bless, it is converted into a curse. 1. It is wasted 
 suffering. As such it must be reckoned as an evil. Pain in itself is not a good thing. 
 If it works no good, natural instinct is right in regarding it as bad. 2. It leads to an 
 aggravation of wickedness. The very abuse of it is a sin. The wrong temper in which 
 it is received is so much more wickedness added to the long catalogue of unrepented 
 sin. One more call from the Father is spurned by his children. 3. It leaves the heart 
 harder than it finds it. Sorrow, if it does not soften the sufferer, will harden him, as 
 friction, which abrades the tender skin, renders the tough skin more thick and horny. 
 
 Vers. 12, 13. — Culpable unbelief. The Jews are accused of unbelief as a sin. It is 
 therefore sometimes to be regarded in this light {e.g. Heb. iv.). Let us consider the 
 characteristics of a culpable unbelief and its origin. 
 
 I. Unbelief is morally culpable when it arises from an evil heart. 1. This 
 unbelief must be distinguished (1) from that of ignorance ; (2) from that of prejudice, 
 bad education, etc. ; (3) from that of honest doubt. 2. It is recognized (1) as residing in 
 the will rather than in the intellect — a result of wishing a thing not to be true ; and (2) 
 as coloured by custom, worldly proclivities, base passions, ill feeling against all that the 
 highest truth is concerned with. It is practically equivalent to the wilful rejection of 
 truth. He who is blamed for this is not blamed for his opinions, but for the moral 
 determining causes of them. We are not responsible for our beliefs, in so far as they are 
 purely intellectual, but we are responsible for them in so far as they are formed under 
 moral influences. 
 
 II. The evil tendencies towards a culpable unbelief are abundant and 
 POWERFUL. These are not to be found in a simple proneness to err, a natural weakness 
 of faith, nor in the dangers accompanying daring speculation. They are to be traced 
 in conduct and practical affairs. 1. Untruthful habits. Israel had dealt treacherously 
 with God (ver. 11). We must be true to discern truth. If the eye is evil, the whole 
 body is full of darkness. I'here is a close connection between those two evil things 
 which go under the name of infidelity — treachery and unbelief, lack of faithfulness and 
 lack of faith. 2. Resistance to the will of God. The language of the people betrays an 
 animus, a spirit of enmity to God. " They have belied the Lord." JS'othing blinds 
 like hatred. 3. Love of ease. The words of Jeremiah were not pleasant ; he threatened 
 terrible things. Therefore his hearers refused to accept his message. Their conduct 
 was most illogical, since truth is not affected by our liking for it — are there not many 
 unjileasant truths ? — and most injurious to themselves, since it was for their own interest 
 to give heed to the warning of approaching calamity, that foresight might mitigate the 
 force, if it could not now prevent the falling, of the blow. Yet this conduct was most 
 natural. It is constantly to be observed that people listen to the teachers whom they 
 like rather than to those whom they believe to be speaking the most important truths, 
 and accept the opinions which suit their inclinations ratlier than those possibly less 
 agreeable ideas which stand on the surest foundation of fact. 4. Spiritual deadness. 
 The Jews deny the inspiration of the prophets. To them weighty words such as those 
 of Jeremiah are mere " wind." So there were those who derided him who spake with 
 
118 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. v. 1—31 
 
 the weightiest authority and "as never man spake." Sin deadens the soul to the 
 perception of God's voice in nature, in the Bible, in Christ, in conscience. 
 
 Ver. 19. — Suitable retribution. In anticipation of their astonishment at the character 
 of the retribution that is to fall upon them the Jews are to be shown that this is fitting 
 and rightly corresponds to their conduct. 
 
 I. They who fobsake God in pkosperitt will fekl the loss of God in adver- 
 sity. According to the religious conduct in sunny days will be tlie condition of rest 
 or ruin in dark days. 
 
 II. The false gods of peospekity prove worthless in adversity. Israel served 
 heathen gods in their own land. In their captivity they are to be slaves to strange 
 men. The gods are then nowhere. Men make gods of wealth, pleasure, fame, etc., 
 and find that, though these may be worshipped, they can do nothing to deliver their 
 devotees. 
 
 III. They who throw off the service of God must submit to harder service. 
 They think to be free, but they really are the slaves of sin (John viii. 34). Thoy 
 reject the easy yoke and light burden of Christ only to find themselves bound in the 
 galling fetters of Satan. 
 
 IV. The abuse of blessings is naturally punished by the loss of them. In 
 their own land the Jews had proved unfaithful to the God who had given it them. They 
 are rightly punished by exile to a strange land, where they must miss his gracious 
 government. 
 
 Vers. 22 — 24. — Man rebuked by nature. Man considers himself to be " the lord of 
 creation." He alone of all creatui-es is made in the image of God. Yet there are things 
 in nature which should put him to shame. Jeremiah indicates two of these. 
 
 I. The Divine order op nature rebukes the wilful disobedience op man. 1. 
 Nature is ever obedient to the law of God. (1) The greatest powers of nature submit 
 to Divine ordinances. The sea, vast and mighty, is bound by his decree (Job xxxviii. 
 8 — 11). (2) The wildest convulsions of nature do not transgress these ordinances. 
 The waves may toss and roar, but they cannot pass the bounds that God has set them. 
 Hurricanes, thunder-storms, earthquakes, are as subservient to law as the silent sun- 
 shine and the peaceful growth of spring. (3) The simplest means in accordance with 
 Divine laws are sufficient to restrain the fiercest forces of nature. God has placed the 
 saiid as a bound of the sea, and the storms are driven back from the sandy heuch as 
 surely as from the coast of iron crags. (4) The obedience of nature to these Divine 
 ordinances is everlasting and without exception. The sea is bound by perpetual 
 decrees. 2. Man alone is disobedient to the Law of God. He is the great exception to 
 the order of the universe. The wild sea never transgresses God's decrees ; man is the 
 sole transgressor. The possibility of this strange, solitary rebellion among all the 
 orders of God's kingdoms of nature is explained by the constitution of man and the 
 cliaracter of the obedience which is required by this. Nature is under necessity ; man 
 is free. Nature's obedience is unconscious, material ; man's is deliberate, moral. He is 
 to fear, to tremble, i.e. to obey under the influence of thoughts and feelings of reverence. 
 Lacking these, he can be bound to the throne of God by no chains of compulsion. But 
 how terrible to use the high endowment of liberty only to set at defiance the august 
 decrees before which all other creatures bow unceasingly ! 
 
 II. The Divine beneficence op nature rebukes the ungrateful rebellion op 
 MAN. 1. The order of nature is beneficent. God gives the rain " in its season." He 
 keeps for men " the appointed weeks of the harvest." The regularity and harmony of 
 the physical world are beneficial to men. The sun never fails to rise. If it once 
 failed, what disasters would follow ! If the motion of the earth were irregular no life 
 could continue to exist. The order of the seasons is a distinct blessing (Gen. viii. 22). 
 Instead of shrinking from " the reign of law " as from a cruel tyranny, we should 
 welcome it when we remember that the laws of nature are but the material expression 
 of the will of God, and that will the outcome of his goodness. 2. This beneficence of 
 nature shows all sin to be a mark of ingratitude. God smiles on us in nature (Matt, 
 V. 45). How then can we, while blessed by the very sunshine of that smile, rise up in 
 revolt against him ? If the grandeur and splendid harmony of nature do not awe us, 
 
CH. V. 1— 31.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMTAH;. ng 
 
 shall not its gentleness and kindliness attract us to loyal obedience to him who is at once 
 the Fountain of law and the Father of mercies ? 
 
 Vers. 30, 31. — The most appallmg condition to which a nation can sinJc. After 
 enumerating the sins of his people ia ever-darkening series, the prophet at length 
 reaches a form of evil worse than all others, at the sight of which he starts back with 
 aa exclamation of horror ; this is corruption at the very fountain of instruction and 
 worship, and the willing acquiescence in it by the nation. 
 
 I. Consider the feabful natdbe of this evil. 1 False prophecy. The prophet 
 should be the highest oracle of truth. If he utters lies, knowledge is corrupted at its 
 source. The guilt of such conduct is exceptionally great, because (1) it is a sin against 
 light ; (2) it is a prostitution of the highest powers to the basest ends ; aud (3) it is a 
 cause of widespread ruin to those who follow these " blind leaders of the blind." 
 2. Subservient priesthood. The priests were at the beck of the false prophets. These 
 men had not the excuse of the prophets. Tlie prophets represented a progressive 
 religion — a religion of inward lights, a religion in which new departures were expected, 
 and therefore one in which the excuse of honest though mistaken enthusiasm might he 
 urged in defence of a lapse into error. But the priests were the custodians of a rigid 
 ritual defined by a written Law. They were put in trust, and their apostasy was a 
 deliberate act of unfaithfulness. The Christian teacher, though free from the letter of 
 the Law, and gifted with the spiritual freedom of prophecy, is put in trust with the 
 gospel (1 Tim. 1. 11). If he, while retaining the influence and emoluments of his office, 
 coijsciously forsakes the guidance of the New Testament for the fascinations of ground- 
 less speculation, he too is guilty of unfaithfulness; and if he knows the speoulaiion to 
 be false, but accepts it out of deference to its popularity, he is guilty of base ti'eason 
 like that of the commander of a fortress who surrenders to the enemy from sheer 
 cowardice. 3. Popular acquiescence in these evils. " My people love to have it so." 
 This is pleasing, since (1) the false prophets flatter and prophesy smooth things, while 
 the true prophets like Jeremiah must often rebuke and denounce judgments ; and (2) 
 the priests are satisfied with an unspiritual religion, ritual without morality, perhaps 
 even immorality in religion. But this fact completes the terrible depravity of the 
 nation. The people cannot plead ignorance nor compulsory obedience. The willing 
 followers of corrupt religious leaders must share their guilt ; nay, they are responsible 
 for the aggravation of it by fostering with applause that which would die out if 
 neglected. 
 
 II. Consider the final result of this evil. " And what will ye do in the end 
 thereof?" It was characteristic of the false prophets that they aimed only at imme- 
 diate popularity, and thought only of the present, while the true prophets were con- 
 cerned with the future. But the future will some day be the present. Is it not best 
 to inquire what this is becoming while yet there is time to modify it ? 1. Consider the 
 moral results of this depravity, the corruption of conscience, the falsifying of the nature 
 of those who live in falsehood, the destruction of all spiritual life in those who lower 
 spiritual functions before the claims of worldly convenience. 2. Consider the ptnal 
 results of this depravity. Can this of all evils go unpunished ? (See ver. 29.) 
 
 HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. 
 
 Ver. 1. — A wicked city spared for the sake of one saint. The challenge is very bold 
 and striking. It proves how thoroughly the prophet, as taught by the Spirit, had read 
 the national corruption. At the same time it furuishes a gauge of the long-suffering 
 mercy of God, and the influence for good of one true man. Jerusalem, the chief city, 
 is chosen as representing what is best and most influential in the nation ; and its streets 
 and lanes as the haunts of the multitude, the merchants, the artisans, and common 
 people, who would represent the general public morality. It is as if he had said, " In 
 practical life, amid the miscellaneous throng, seek for the just and honourable man." 
 "What light this throws upon — 
 
 I. The extent of cobkuption possible in human nature ! The Jewish metropolis 
 had been highly favoured. The priesthood had its head-quarters there. The chief 
 
120 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. v. 1—31. 
 
 messages of the propliets had heen delivered in its precincts. It was the centre of 
 influence, national spirit, and intelligence. Yet the effect of ail this was morally and • 
 spiritually nil. Worse even than Sodom and Gomorrah in actual spiritual condition, 
 as certainly it would be far less tolerable for it than for them in the day of judgment. 
 Ideally it was the city of the saints and of heavenly peace and order ; actually its 
 temple was a den of thieves, and its streets the scenes of universal dishonesty, godless- 
 ness, and corruption. As has been said of a certain metropolis of Christendom, it 
 would appear to have been the case that " the more churches the less religion." 
 Allowing it to be a rhetorical exaggeration, it was nevertheless a terrible statement to 
 be able to make. But the great cities of the modern world have filled with a like 
 despair the minds of the wisest thinkers. The measure of man's possible degeneration 
 and depravity who can fix ? 
 
 II. 'Ihe importance of individtjal tnflubnce in spiEiTtJAL THINGS! The spectacle 
 of Abraham praying for the cities of the plain is most impressive. But may it not be 
 paralleled by the unconscious influence of good men ? Even accepting the statement 
 as a challenge, was it not a great thing to say that one man by his holiness could have 
 saved the city ? Suppose there had been such a man. One can imagine what would 
 have been his sorrow at the universal evil, and his feeling of helplessness and useless- 
 ness amid the prevalent irreligion. Yet would his presence there be no light matter, no 
 vain thing. Though he knew it not, he would have been the saviour of the people- 
 immediately from the judgment of God, possibly in the future from the sin that was 
 destroying it. The value, therefore, of individual influence in spiritual matters \s incal- 
 culable ; and no Christian can say that he is of no use. Oodward the prayer of the 
 faithful may soar in constant intercession and mediation ; manward his character and 
 works are a constant testimony to the unbeliever. 
 
 III. The iNFiNiTENESS OF God's LONa-suFFEBiNG LOVE. The presence of one good 
 man in the wicked city would have been an appeal to God's justice that could not be 
 despised. He could not " destroy the righteous with the wicked." But far more would 
 it have been an appeal to Ms love. The hope of the future would have been wrapped 
 up in that solitary saint. In him grace would find a secret sanctuary, and the forces of 
 salvation a vantage-point from which to sally forth to the rescue of perishinsc souls 
 and the work of national, yea, of world-wide, regeneration. The judgments of God are 
 not inflicted arbitrarily or in haste. He has "no pleasure in the death of the wicked." 
 Any reasonable excuse for merciful intervention or delay is welcome. Countless acts 
 of mercy and forgiveness, countless opportunities for repentance, have occurred ere the 
 uplifted axe has dealt its terrible stroke. Learn, then, from this that: 1. The life as 
 the prayer of a righteous man availeth much with Ood. 2. That Ood will save us 
 if we will only let him ; and 3. Ee will begin his work of salvation from the least, and 
 carry it on even to the greatest. 
 
 TV. The ebasonablbness and righteousness of vicakious suffbbing thbough 
 Cheist. — M. 
 
 Ver. 3. — What God requires of man. "0 Lord, are not thine eyes upon the 
 truth ? " This is better rendered, " Lord, look not thine eyes for fidelity ? " Faith 
 is the grand requirement. It is the condition of communion between man and God, 
 and man and man. Scripture lays stress on this. Faith cannot be a mere logical 
 abstraction or a condition beyond the reach of man. It must be practical— within the 
 power of the will, and such as may be reasonably looked for in all. " Fidelity," the Old 
 Testament equivalent for the New Testament " faith," has its expression in reality, 
 honesty, thoroughness. These are the marks of the man God delights to honour, and 
 they are the obligation of all (cf. Micah vi. 8). 
 
 I. The siMPLioiTy, ebasonableness, and nboessitt of it. God could not ask for 
 less than man demands of his fellow, and society reiuires for its stability and advance- 
 ment. It is obviously independent of the accidents of culture, fortune, or position ; 
 and for any solid understanding between God and man, absolutely indispensable. We 
 are God's stewards, servants, representatives, etc. Having this, we have all ; wanting 
 this, all our other acquirements are vain. 
 
 II. The scaecity of it. A little while ago we read that not a just man could be 
 found in all Jerusalem. Here it is said that even in the most sacred oath there is false 
 
OH. V. 1—31.] THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 121 
 
 swearing. The want of this quality, rather than its presence, strikes the inquirer. This 
 it is that gives rise to wars, jealousies, selfishness, ain in all its forms. 
 
 III. The kbason for its absence in most men. Because men are sinners, alienated 
 from the life of God and unconscious of his claims. The carnal nature is unable of 
 itself even to be real, to be truly honest, or to discharge faithfully and completely the 
 most ordinary duties. A supernatural aid is required. A Saviour must die. Throujih 
 him the soul must be united with God in a true love and holy understanding. The 
 better nature thus awakened, the trust and confidence and love thus created must be 
 reinforced by the Spirit. How terrible the thoughts, " Thou God seest me "1 " Be not 
 deceived : God is not mocked " 1 " His eyes are as a flame of fire" ! " The Word of God 
 is sharper than any two-edged sword," etc. ! Who shall deceive that all-seeing One ? 
 The eyes of Jehovah, reading the secrets of the soul, look ioi fidelity, iot faith, — M. 
 
 Ver. 18. — Sparing mercy. The judgments described as about to be inflicted are 
 very fearful, but they were amply deseived. The wickedness of the people was such 
 as to justify their complete destruction. Yet they were spared ere they were totally 
 extinct ! Why this unlooked-for restraint? 
 
 I. It has chabacterizbd all God's judoments of mankind on earth. The Fall, 
 the Flood, the Exodus, etc., the sparing of the remnant of Benjamin, etc. 
 
 II. There is but one explanation foe it. It is the possibility of some turning to 
 him truly in the first instance ; and, secondly, through them, of the race being saved 
 in the future. God has never utterly cut off even the most sinful. Love, and not 
 mere vengeance, behaves in this way. 1. Eas he not spared us ? 2. Se has never 
 abandoned his purpose of saving " the whole world." — M. 
 
 Ver. 22. — God's power in restraining the forces of nature. An old, yet ever new, 
 illustration of his power. The tiny grains of sand, the " Portland Beach " of shingle 
 or pebbles, is enough to hold back the mighty ocean. It is but one of many impressive 
 illustrations of his restraining power and goodness. 
 
 I. It is calculated to inspire reverence and love. 
 
 II. Our helpless dependence upon him is thus shown. 
 
 III. The power of God in the sphere of moral influence and saving grace as 
 thereby suggested. 
 
 " ' Thus far and no further,' when addressed 
 To the wild waves, or wilder human breast, 
 Implies authority thiit never can 
 And never ought to be the lot of man." 
 
 It is God's prerogative. Let us not defy him or arrogate to ourselves that which is 
 his. Let us rather yield ourselves to his gracious dealings and fatherly purpose. — M, 
 
 Ver. 1. — Cora a righteous man he found in Jerusalem f God's warnings still go on 
 concerning the same thing — the deeply seated, the deeply destructive wickedness of the 
 people. But though the same subject has to be spoken of, there is no monotony in the 
 treatment of it. It can be looked at from fresh points of view, and put into fresh 
 lights. A careful reading of ch. iv. will show how many different things can be said 
 concerning wickedness ; and now, with ch. v. 1, the reproaches and appeals still con- 
 tinue. Note — 
 
 I. The individualizing aspect of the appeal. The nation and Jerusalem and the 
 leaders in it have all been referred to ; but as long as there are geueralities and nothing 
 more individuals will think they can get away from blame under cover of them. Here, 
 then, is a bold challenge which fastens up in a corner every dweller in Jerusalem. The 
 challenge, of course, is not to be taken literally. The true state of things may be 
 known, and known very distinctly, without any running to and fro at ail. Let every 
 one take a glance at those whom he knows, and then come home to a candid inquiry 
 concerning the life within his own breast. It is an easy thing to blame others, to 
 throw the fault of disaster upon those who occupy prominent positions. Followers are 
 to blame as well as leaders. The iniquity of Jerusalem, deep, turbid, incessant as the 
 stream of it is, is made of many contributions which, individually considered, may 
 seem very slight. A few men in every age are called to toil for the removal of evils 
 
122 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. v. 1—31. 
 
 of which, personally, they are not puilty ; but every one has the opportunity of im- 
 proving the world, by doing his best to keep his own heart right. Others are to 
 blame, and there are times when tliey must be faced, blamed, and resisted ; but there 
 is given a daily need, duty, aud opportunity to do in our own hearts what no one else 
 '.an do for us. 
 
 II. How COMPEEHENSIVB AND CONFIDENT THE CHALLENGE IS. It amoimts tO this, 
 
 that there cannut be found in all Jerusalem one man who is just in all his dealings, 
 and a seeker after truth. Not one. Must we, then, take this literally ? The answer is, 
 No, and Tes. It would have been strange if Jerusalem had become so utterly bad a 
 place that every soul within it was perverted from the ways of ri>4ht and truth. There 
 must have been some men desiring and striving to live a right life. We bear in 
 mind what God said to Elijah when Elijah said, iu the despair and bitterness of his 
 heart, that only he was lelt to serve Grod. Nut so by any means; the searching God, 
 who counts hearts where fallilile men can only count heads, told his prophet there 
 were still seven thousand with knees unbowed to Baal. And did not Jeremiah dis- 
 cover from his own experience that there were some on Jehovah's side (ch. xxvi. 24 ; 
 xxxix. 15 — 18)? But they were not enough to exert a leavening and recovering 
 influence. And yet the veiy men whom we may call good and just and true, seeing 
 something of the right, and trying to do it as far as they saw, would have drawn bnck 
 in confusion and self-distrust if they had been asked, in a direct way and so that the 
 question could not be evaded, " Do you answer this description ? " " Are you doers of 
 justice and seekers after truth ?" In trying to answer such a question, would not the 
 moments of unfaithfulness and hesitation come to mind — the occasions when tliey 
 were tempted to escape from loss and pain by some convenient compromise ? It will 
 never do for us to congratulate ourselves on being a great deal better than others so 
 long as we come short of what God wants us to be. 
 
 III. The thing to be specially considered is, how this accusation applies to the 
 GREAT MASS OP THE PEOPLE. Many would have said, cynically enough, " Justice and 
 truth are no concern of ours." These are words that sound very well in general 
 statements ; but directly the attempt is made to bring them close to the individual, it 
 is alleoed that they do not apply, or else there is the name and not the thing. Thinps 
 are called just which are not just, and true which are utterly false. Let men of noble 
 minds talk of justice and truth, and only too many are found to allege that suoli 
 si caking is but cant and hyprocrisy. When Jesus said to Pilate that he came into 
 the world to bear witness to the truth, Pilate answered him with the question, 
 "What has truth got to do with the matter?" Men want to get on, to get rich, to 
 get known, to live easily, to satisfy the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eye and 
 the pride of life; and the claims of justice and truth would make sad havoc with such 
 purposes. Those who have learned from Christ that justice and truth are great 
 necesiiities of life, necessities in a far higher sense than food and clothing, have often 
 to notice, with great pain and concern, the number of those who do not seem to have 
 any conception of what it is really to do justice and seek after truth. They do not 
 comprehend the objects which God and Christ set before them any more than a blind 
 man comprehends colours. Why, then, blame them? it may be asked. The blame is 
 that they will not come to Christ that they may have sight. To Christians the power 
 and disposition are given to do justice. The spirit is put in them to seek fur truth as 
 those who seek for hid treasures, and those who seek with such a zeal and impulse 
 can never seek in vain. — Y. 
 
 Vers. 3 — 6. — Chastisement thwarted hy universal stuhhornness. I. The pact that 
 God's chastisements are thwarted. The chastisements are evidently indicated 
 as severe, and the reason of the severity is hinted in the preliminary ques- 
 tion. God is looking for truth, looking for it in the midst of oaths broken and 
 despised. He looks for faithfulness in all the ways in which it can be shown. There 
 must be correspondence between promises and performances; there must be stability 
 of character ; the character must be such that men will be the same out of sight as in 
 sight, working as ever in the Great Taskmaster's eye. Moreover, God cannot be put off 
 by the most plausible appearance of fidelity ; he knows always whether the heart is 
 steadfast in its afiection and zeal. And thus seeing all this insincerity among his 
 
en. V. 1—31.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 123 
 
 people, this carelessness about truth, he chastises them to make them feel their wrong, 
 attend to his will, and alter their deceiving ways so as to correspond with it. They are 
 told beforehand what is coming, and the very instrument of chastisement is displayed 
 before them. They had no ground for saying, " Suffering came upon us, and we knew 
 not why it came." We know that Jeremiah's words must have been very pungent 
 and irritating, and the irritating element was just this, that he persistently spoke of 
 conquest, desolation, and exile as lying in the immediate future for his fellow-country- 
 men. And here Jeremiah, with the prophet's melancholy privilege, sets Ibrth the future 
 as present. The stroke has fallen ; the suffering, the loss, the humiliation, are keen ; 
 but there is no understanding in the mind, and no sign of repentance and return. 
 Their faces are harder than the rock. If some sculptor could put into a marble face 
 all that outwardly marks the stubliorn mind, that would be the expression of Israel 
 now towards Jehovah. No subdued look in the eye ; no irrepressible quivering of the 
 lips preliminary to saying, " father, I have sinned . . . and am no more worthy to be 
 called thy son " (ch. iii. 4). 
 
 II. The keason which the prophet advances for this stubbornness. Remember 
 what we have said already — and let it be said ai^ain, for it is essential to a right under- 
 standing of the passage — that the purpose of the chastisement was distinctly set forth 
 beforehand. The people had not to grope in the dark as to the reason of their suffering. 
 There was no room for disputing, if only Jeremiah were accepted as indeed a prophet 
 of Jehovah. And to Jeremiah himself the intention of the chastisement was, of 
 course, plain by the very clearest light. And, since it is natural for us to suspect that 
 what is plain to us should be plain to others, Jeremiah could see only one reason for 
 this distressing want of recipiency. Those who are so stubborn he thinks can be but 
 a part of Israel, the poor and foolish, the degraded, brutalized residuum of the nation. 
 Thus Jeremiah illustrates, by this interposed conjecture of his, a very common and 
 perilous tendency among tldnking men. We may not be unwilling — indeed, we may 
 only be too eager — to admit the degradation of a large part of mankind, and their stolid 
 indifference to all that is noble, refined, and truly humane. But then, on the other 
 hand, there is an excessive exaltation of the natural man. Genius, intellect, success 
 in research and discovery, such as that of a Newton and a Faraday — these are glorified 
 beyond their due. It is forgotten that while men have natural powers whereby they 
 can climh very high, they must come to God in humility and ask for wings of faith if 
 they are to discover the highest kind of truth, the truth to which man must soar 
 rather than climb, Jeremiah reckons that what he certaiuly cannot find in some he 
 will assuredly find in others. He will turn away from the ignorant rabble, and go to 
 the men of substance, the men with responsibility, such, doubtless, as the king and 
 the princes, the priests and the prophets. But he goes only to fail, only to discover 
 that the wise men of this world are as little disposed to attend to the preaching of the 
 prophet as Paul afterwards discovered them to be to the preaching of the apostle. 
 
 III. And so we come to the real reason op the stubbornness. It is something 
 which lies in universal sinful human nature, apart from any special defects or special 
 excellences. The stubbornness may sometimes suddenly vanish where we should 
 expect it to continue, and where we should expect it to vanish it may not only 
 continue but become to all appearance invincible. The heart of unbelief is found in 
 every rank. The experience of Jesus would seem to have been that the poor and the 
 foolish, as Jeremiah would have classified them, were more ready to turn to him than 
 the great. An excellent commentary on the passage we have been considering is to be 
 found in the first and second chapters of Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians. — Y. 
 
 Ver. 10. — The vineyard spoiled because of the degenerate branches. I. Look at 
 the riauEE which underlies this exhortation. We find in other parts ol 
 Scripture passages curiously rich in illustration of the emphatic exhortation here. 
 Turn to Isa. v. 1 — 7 : here is presented to us the picture of a vineyard pro- 
 tected by a fence against marauders and wild beasts, planted with the choicest vine, 
 and tilled in the most complete and careful manner. 15ut when the vineyard, in spite 
 of all care, only yields wild grapes, then the hedge and the wall are taken away and 
 the cultivated land lapses into wilderness. Ps. Ixxx. contains a very similar pas- 
 sage, save that it is the language of appeal from a suffering people instead of a warning 
 
124 THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [en. v. 1—31. 
 
 from a disappointed God. God is described as having cast out the heathen to make 
 room for the vine which he had brought from Egypt. And in the land where_ he 
 planted it it grew downwards and upwards and outwards, spreading far and wide. 
 " Why then," say the people, " hast thou broken down her hedges, so that ail which 
 pass by the way do pluck her? The boar out of the wood doth waste it, and the wild 
 beast of the field doth devour it." Once again, there is a very striking passage in Prov. 
 Kxiv. 30, 31. The wise man passes the vineyard of the man void of understanding, 
 and finds it full of thorns and nettles, and the stone wall thereof broken down. Hence 
 the vineyard, with its need of a strong wall kept in good repair, comes before us 
 almost as distinctly as ilit were a familiar sight. 
 
 II. Consider now the exhoetation itself. The wall round this vineyard of 
 God, even this vineyard which he so plainly set apart and has cared for so much, is to 
 be broken down. We have not far to seek for the reason. The branches of the vine 
 are not Jehovah's. " 1 had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed : how then 
 art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me ? " (oh. ii. 21). The 
 wall is not yet in such case as that round the vineyard of the man void of understand- 
 ing. It has not dropped to pieces through sloth. Its fate, it may be said, is even 
 worse, for it has to come down by an act of judgment. Protection is a mockery and 
 reproach when the thing protected fails to reward the care that has been lavished upon 
 it. God breaks down the fence that he may make a clear way for the removing of the 
 branches. The branches, one may say, are fixed in a true vine and draw nourishment 
 from good soil ; yet wild, sour, deluding, discreditable grapes are all the result. The 
 branches, therefore, are to go, but only the branches. A full end is not to be made. 
 The trunk, the roots, still stay. For indeed a word has, by-and-by, to be spoken by 
 Jesus, concerning the vine and the branches, and the branches which are to abide in 
 the vine that they may bring forth fruit. God will destroy all profitless connection 
 with himself. If men avail themselves of the strength and opportunity which he gives 
 to bring forth fruit, not such as will glorify him, but such as suits the perverted taste of 
 men, then all the branches on which such fruit comes must be unsparingly cut away. 
 And what a thought that fruit which men so much value is after all in God's sight, 
 which gives the true estimation, a sour and worthless thing 1 — Y. 
 
 Ver. 14. — Those who call the word of Jehovah a lie. It has been a common folly, in 
 connection with all the revelations which God has made at sundry times and in divers 
 manners, to despise the authority of the messengers. Noah, Moses, David, and many 
 others up to Jesus himself, could tell, along with Jeremiah, the same essential expe- 
 rience of contempt, rejection, and persecution. It is not for God to use those outward 
 pomps and recommendations on which men count so much. A message unwelcome in 
 itself is easily made of no repute when the messenger is devoid of outward state. Out- 
 ward show, as every age can tell, counts for a great deal. Perhaps the visit of the 
 Queen of Sheba would have been made far less of if she had not been a queen, or had 
 come without the barbaric treasures which she spread forth in such great abundance. 
 Simple lovers of truth, when their station happens to be obscure, are not much 
 remarked. Here then was Jeremiah, asserting that he had come with a message from 
 the Lord of the utmost moment, and he is rejected with the brusque intimation that his 
 message is a lie and he himself an impostor. And this rejection is all the more notice- 
 able because the words of the prophet must surely have had a strange impressiveness. 
 None of the prophets could have spoken in the routine fashion of a herald announcing 
 the proclamation which many times, perhaps, he lias announced before. They must 
 all, at least in the judgment of a few, have spoken with authority and not as the 
 scribes. And Jeremiah at all events must have stood before the people, having every 
 channel of outward expression filled from the sad experiences and emotions of his own 
 inward life. The sorrows of which he spoke were as sorrows that he saw rising before 
 his mind's eye in all the horrurs of their reality. The words, as he says in oh. xx. 9, 
 were often words that he tried to keep back, but that which was as a burning fire shut 
 up in his bones must break out at last. And therefore, when the words did come, they 
 were charged with a force of personal conviction and brotherly entreaty which m 
 Itself ought to have been enough to arrest attention. Moreover, sword and famine, 
 future calamities with all their aggravations, were not the only things of which the 
 
CH. V. 1—31.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 125 
 
 prophet spoke. He had to deal with an actual present as well as a foreshadowed 
 future. The present in which he and his audience lived teemed with idolatry, perjury, 
 fraud, and oppression. These things were not lies. It was no lie to point to the 
 manifest seed that Israel was sowing, and surely there was nothing more really reason- 
 able than that there should be a reaping according to the sowing. At this height of 
 rejection, then, God steps in to vindicate and honour his faithful servant. It is a 
 melancholy kind of distinction, but a distinction nevertheless. His words were noo 
 only true words, but most terribly near to their fulfilment. It was not that Jeremiah 
 himself was an agent in destroying, but his words became so immediately true, there 
 was such a rapid production and concentration of the agents of destruction, as to make 
 it quite proper to say that these words of the prophet were as consuming fire. But a 
 few years, and many of these despisers found that the alleged lies were only too pain- 
 fully true. It is not over lapsing centuries that we have to look for the fulfilment of 
 Jeremiah's gloomy prediction. Isaiah long before had sounded the note of warning, 
 and now the peril is close at hand. It was inevitable that Jeremiah should speak with 
 an urgency arid excitement absent from the messages of his great predecessor. As the 
 time of chastisement drew nearer, the warnings had to be louder, more disturbing, 
 possibly more continuous. The mariner setting out on his voyage may be warned of 
 some special danger lying in his track ; but the adviser, while he may speak very 
 earnestly, will not speak as does the man who, when the helmsman is close upon the 
 danger, shouts to him, with utmost excitement and agitation, at once to change his 
 course. God gave to Jeremiah this melancholy satisfaction, that while he had been, 
 to his heart's deepest sorrow, a messenger of woe, he had yet been approved, on the 
 surest evidence, as a messenger of truth. — Y. 
 
 Ver. 22. — A lesson from the raging sea. I. We oesekve God fixing limits within 
 WHICH HIS CREATURES EXERCISE THEIR POWER. Jehovah speaks here of the sea in 
 particular, but just because it happens to be an excellent representative, for the pur- 
 pose in view, of the rest of his creation. We may notice God's boundaries in many 
 places and at diffeient seasons, and surely it must often strike thoughtful minds, as 
 they walk by the mighty deep, that there is, in the arrangement of sea and land, an 
 exquisite illustration of the unfailing wisdom of God. Here is this vast mass of water, 
 covering the surface of the globe, ever in motion and yet ever keeping its place. The 
 true state of the case is even more wonderful than that which was presented to 
 Jeremiah. To him the earth was a flat expanse, and the beach would have the aspect 
 of an embankment which really kept the water back. We, aided by the discoveries of 
 science, know that the real limiting forces of the sea work in a much more mysterious 
 manner. But, of course, the fundamental truth is the same. There must be a great 
 and loving intelligence at work, keeping the waters within their appointed bounds. 
 
 II. Observe the comparison which is made between disobedient man and the 
 SEA IN A state OP STORM. The Sea easily gets a kind of personality, and the sea in a 
 storm is very like a proud man chafing against the barriers which confine him, and 
 trying to break them down. More than that, when God looks down into human 
 society, underneath the (to us) often calm surface, he must see little else than stormy 
 agitation, one human billow dashing against another, each individual in his self- 
 assertion contributing to make a general disturbance, and a disturbance which appa- 
 rently will not soon have an end. And yet the sea, with all its fury and roar and 
 threatening, with all the destruction it may work out in its own sphere, is powerless 
 to overwhelm the solid land. In the strength of their confidence, men would build 
 large cities close to the ocean-brink and inhabit them without fear. They will go down 
 and look at the tempest in its utmost fury, sure that they are safe. A few yards make 
 all the difference between the agony of deadly peril and perfect ease of mind. The 
 more furious the storm is, the grander it makes the sight without in any wise diminish- 
 ing the feeling of safety. 
 
 III. Hence there is indicated the folly or all hdman opposition to God. The 
 [Storm rises ; it may destroy many ships and lives ; but in due time the calm returns 
 and the great features of the scene appear the same. The land is still there. And sc 
 men may chafe against the commandments and purposes of God, and may go on 
 without intervals of calm, even exceeding the sea in the continuity of their violence, 
 
126 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [en. v. 1—31. 
 
 But what does all the strife avail ? The boundaries are fixed. If iii that' which is 
 natural God has taken so much care in the line between sea and land, is it not certain 
 that he will take equal care in that which is spiritual ? God's work continues on the 
 solid land, away from all disturbance of his foes. Nay, more, looking at the iigure 
 here from the Christian point of view, we see that even within what seems its own 
 sphere, the raging of the sea can soon be stopped. Let us think of Jesus quelling the 
 waves, and we shall feel that the greatest storms of opposition and persecution are 
 entirely in the hands of God. How long these storms may rage and what they may 
 do entirely depend on the purpose which he wishes them to subserve. — Y. 
 
 Vers. 26 — 29. — Tlie worst hind of wickedness found among the people of Jehovah. 
 God's people are well acquainted with the voice of those scorners who speak as if 
 hypocrisy was the invariable accompaniment of a religious profession. They do discover, 
 it must be admitted, far more frequently than they ought to discover, that religious 
 profession is a mere pretence ; and thereupon they never forget the few well-established 
 instances which are a ground, in season and out of season, for a sweeping charge of 
 hypocrisy. But such peojjle, unfortunately for themselves, are not readers of the 
 Scriptures ; else they would discover that God does not wait for outside malevolent 
 critics to make the most of the hypocrisies to be found amongst his people. God not 
 only sees and laments this peculiarly odious form of wickedness, but is exceedingly 
 plain in his description and terribly severe in his denunciation. In this matter out- 
 siders cannot tell God's people anything they do not know already. Note — 
 
 I. That which otjght to be found amongst God's people. This is just the thing 
 which makes the whole discovery so inexpressibly sad — that this wickedness is found 
 where there should have been found a character diametrically opposite. It is the scene 
 of the wickedness that indescribably aggravates the wickedness itself. That a good 
 man, a really good man, should be found in a den of thieves is impossible. Vain 
 would it be for him to continue there and yet plead his uprightness. A den of thieves 
 does actually give character to every one who willingly inhabits it, and so, passing from 
 the bad to the good, a certain high reputation must attach to every one who openly 
 ranks himself among the people of God. It was not because these Israelites dwelt in 
 a certain territory or were descendants from certain ancestors that they were reckoned 
 the people of God. There was a covenant, the terms of which were to be taught to 
 every generation and diligently observed by it. And this covenant emphatically 
 required that these people should live among themselves an upright, brotherly, loving 
 life. Without this, worship was vain; indeed, without this, worship, in the true sense, 
 was impossible. In the home, union was to be preserved by subordiuation and purity ; 
 and in society, by the safety of life and property to the individual. God's people are 
 " the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand," and it is manifest that, in the 
 right order of things, a sheep's clothing should cover a sheep and not a wolf. 
 
 II. That which actually is found. Wicked men are found where none but the 
 devout, the upright, and the gentle ought to be. Further, this wickedness is so marked 
 off by bold and indignant expressions that every one guilty of it may know Jehovah's 
 eye to be upon him. For such a man there lies no way of escape among vague 
 generalities. He cannot get off by alleging, with apparent seriousness, that, while there 
 are undoubtedly deceivers among the people of God, he at all events is not to be 
 numbered amongst them. If a man is behaving himself after the fashion here 
 described, he certainly must know it. With regard to certain actions, the nature of them 
 may come out so openly that it is easy to effect the consequent exclusion and sepa- 
 ration of the offender from the people of God. But there yet remain many wickednesses, 
 the worst of wickednesses, which a man may go on committing and yet keep his 
 name written in the human record of those who profess service to God. He may even 
 make his very position a vantage-ground for the laying of his snares and the perfecting 
 of his wiles. He may be able so to conceal his hand and his purpose as to deceive even 
 his victims, who, instead of arguing that because there is great wickedness the doer of 
 it must be a bad man, begin at the other end and say that a maker of long prayers 
 cannot possibly be bad ; he may be driven to the infliction of a painful blow, but, 
 that must be reckoned his calamity rather than his fault. Now, the descriptions in 
 this passage make it evident that God sees into all the doings of such men. And at 
 
CH. V. 1— 31.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 127 
 
 this particular time these men had become very successful, and we must infer very 
 influential. Wherever money is lieaped up it makes influence. And even though 
 such oppressors were not numerous, their very position gave them power. But over 
 against them, with all their power, all their wealth, all their pretensions, there is that 
 God who marlis every tear and groan and writhing of the oppressed. This passage is 
 but one out of many in which God shows his hatred to all injustice. Some of the 
 so-called friends of humanity, who are never tired of asserting their friendship and 
 pressing their claims, make one of their great claims to be in tliis, that they oppose all 
 acknowledgment of God. Depend upon it, God is the true Friend of humanity ; he 
 first, and alterwards are those whom he inspires with his own indignation against 
 wrong, and endows with the strength, patience, resolution, and all Divine resources 
 needed to destroy it. What wonder is it that God should speak of vengeance against 
 such a nation as permits and extenuates the monstrous evils denounced in this 
 passage ? — Y. 
 
 Vers. 30, 31. — Mutiud helpers in wrong-doing. I. The temptations here set 
 FORTH. Three classes are mentioned — the prophet, the priest, and the people in 
 general. Each class plays only too well its iniquitous and deplorable part, just 
 because of the strong assistance which it gains from the attitude of the others. 
 Each class acts as tempter in its turn, and that none the less effectually because it 
 may do it unconsciously. Bach one also tempts because he is tempted, and one 
 hardly knows where the malign influence begins save by remembering the words of 
 James, "Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed." 
 The prophet, however, is here put first, and this can hardly be without reason. On 
 him there did indeed lie a peculiar burden of responsibility. The prophets here 
 mentioned, we may take it, were not false prophets, although they spoke falsely. 
 The false prophet was he who pretended to be a prophet, although God never sent 
 him ; and of such there were doubtless some in the land at this very time. But the 
 horrible thing here was that men whom God had set apart to speak the truth used 
 the prophetic olfice to tell convenient lies, such as seemed to afford security and profit. 
 Jonah, in his cowardice fleeing from duty, is an illustration of what many other prophets 
 must have done, only they went further and never came back to truth and peace. We 
 know how men in all ages have sold the heritage of faculty which God has given them 
 to the service of lying and darkness. Instead of fighting where their hearts ought to 
 have been, among the soldiers for truth and liberty, they have become mercenaries 
 under despots. These prophets on whom Jehovah had put his hand had allowed 
 themselves to be filled with fear and greed and schemes for worldly success, instead of 
 with the Spirit of Jehovah. They went not with what was true, but with what was 
 acceptable. How much higher the faithful prophets should stand in our esteem when 
 we consider the temptations they resisted, the pains they suffered, the pious heroism 
 which marked their sometimes long career! Imagine what the consequences would 
 have been if the apostles had altered and trimmed the gospel. Then there were the 
 priests. " The priests bear rule by their means." The allusion may be to the hands 
 of the prophets, but perhaps a better meaning is to take it that the prophet sinned m 
 his way, and the priest again in his way. The prophet's great instrument of service 
 was his mouth, and with this he prophesied falsely. The priest's great instrument of 
 service was his hand, and this he used to get superstitious deference to his privileges, 
 instead of for the purpose of presenting, with his whole heart, offering and atonement 
 for the people. In addition to this, there may have been, and very likely was, a 
 corrupt understanding between priest and propliet. Then both priest and prophet had 
 in their eyes the threat mass of the people. God himself looked down on this unfaitli- 
 iulness of the great officials with a warmth of indignation that would soon burst into 
 flame, but the people regarded it all with a very different feeling. They " loved to have 
 it so." When a true prophet came, speaking truth, his message was so hateful and 
 humiliating that they denied his office. " Surely the man who speaks such things cannot 
 be a prophet ; a madman he may be, or a fanatic, or a disloyal man whose Israelite 
 form hides a foreign heart ; anything you like, but not a prophet." But when the 
 prophet comes speaking lies, looking into the faces of his audience for all that he has 
 to put into their ears, then his office will be approved. And so with the priest. If he 
 
128 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. v. 1—31. 
 
 makes it clear that burnt offerings and all sacrifices are nothing without repentance 
 and reform, he will be thought very little of. He must let the people sin and sin as 
 much as they like. They will cram the temple area with multitudes of flocks and 
 herds, to take the effect of sin away, if only they may go on sinning. What God had 
 given to teach the dreadful malignity of sin, these priests had turned into an agency 
 lor making it seem a mere trifle. 
 
 II. There was also an oppoetunitt op bebuke and eemonsteance. The people 
 were not obliged to accept these priests and prophets on their own ipse dixit. It was 
 not because a man came forth with his " Thus saith the Lord " that he was to be 
 followed. Anybody can say, " Thus saith the Lord." The devil attempted persuasions 
 of this sort when he came to Jesus in the wilderness. There must be a strict search- 
 ing into what is said. One purpose for which God used prophets and priests was as 
 a test of those whom they had to do with. God wishes to know the extent of our 
 regard for the truth, and he has not left us helpless in discovering that truth with the 
 almost certainty. There is always something to appeal to. Every true prophet with 
 his " Thus saith the Lord " had behind him a Law and testimony, already written 
 and indisputably valid, to which he could point. Bach prophet as he came along 
 was more firmly tied to the truth, because he had behind him so many who had 
 already spoken, and whom he must not contradict. So the apostles could be checked 
 in speaking lies or inventions, because an appeal was possible to what Jesus had said 
 ill the flesh. There were twelve men with one message, and only as long as the 
 message was one were people bound to receive it. And happily, if a difference had 
 arisen, there was always the means of testing which speaker was right. " No man 
 speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed." As things stand to-day, it is 
 perfectly clear that we can test every one professing to be a messenger of Divine truth ; 
 we can test him effectually. We are not left unprovided amid modern imposture, 
 knavery, and delusion. — ¥. 
 
 Ver. 1. — True manhood. Without any introduction, let us plunge at once into our 
 subject, which is True manhood. It opens broadly before us in the suggestions which 
 both this verse and the chapter from which it is taken contain. And first of all we 
 will note — 
 
 I. The Divinb definition and desoeiption of it. It consists in executing 
 judgment and seeking the truth. The Lord asks importunately that " a man " may 
 be found, and then he defines and describes what he means by " a man," in the 
 words, " one that executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth." Such is his 
 description of true manhood. So, then, the true man is he to whom truth — that 
 which is right, that which is in accordance with the will of God — is the all-important 
 thing. The habit of his mind, the purpose of his life, is to discover this truths 
 to know what is right. And when what professes to be truth comes before him, 
 he weighs it in the balance of conscience, tests how it tallies with the mind and will 
 of God ; and according to its agreement thereto he approves or disapproves, he gives 
 his judgment. And then, when his judgment is formed, his mind made up, as we say. 
 he does not linger in the outer courts of mere approbation, but he presses on into the 
 very sanctuary, the holy of holies, of corresponding action — he "executeth judgment." 
 Having sought, seen, approved the right, he does it; not once now and then, but 
 habitually. Such is the man after God's own heart, such the Divine description of 
 what manhood really is. And now observe: 1. How complete a definition this is! 
 For what form of goodness or excellence is there that this does not include? 
 Whatever is right for a man to do or be comes under this description. Our well- 
 known word, "virtue," will help us here ; for what is virtue but simply that which 
 becomes, which properly belongs to the idea of, the vir, the grand old Roman name 
 for man regarded in his higher nature, as contrasted with the lov/er idea of man in 
 regard to those qualities which he possesses in common with the brutes around him ? 
 Man spoken of as merely the human creature was designated by another word ; but 
 man as intelligent and moral, man in his nobler being, they designated by that word 
 vir, from which our word " virtue " comes. Therefore " this word ' virtue ' corresponds as 
 closely as possible with our word ' manliness.' They are equivalent terms. Then, if we 
 know what virtue is, we know what true manhood is. It includes all moral excellence 
 
BH. V. 1— 31.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 129 
 
 whatsoever. It is the fruit, the certain fruit, of a man's seeking the truth, and then, 
 when he has found it and conscience tells him that he has found it, of his straightway 
 practically putting it into action, embodying it in word and deed. It is the product of 
 the three highest faculties God has given to man — intellect, conscience, will, it there- 
 fore must embrace all that belongs and is becoming to the vir, the man, and must 
 exclude all that is contrary thereto." 2. And how catholic a description it is! In it' 
 " there is neither Greek nur Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, 
 male nor female, bond nor free ; " there is neither — that is, neither exclusively — Buddhist' 
 Mahommedan, Christian, Jew ; neither Romanist, Eastern, Anglican, Luthi^ran, Pres- 
 byterian, Congregationalist, nor any other sect nor creed whatsoever. For " God is no" 
 respecter of persons," but, as St. Peter said to Cornelius, " In every nation he that 
 feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted of him.'.' Thus catholic, thus all- 
 embracing, is this Divine description of a true man. God's chosen ones consist of all 
 the good. 3. But how condemnatory of the world's standards ! Before what tinsel 
 imitations of the true manhood does the world bow down! How many glorifv 
 physical strength — the Samsonian type of man! And indeed the possession of "a 
 ]ihysical frame capable of much toil, much endurance, that shrinks not from hardships, 
 and laughs at bold aud daring enterprises before which other men quail ; a body well 
 organized, its varied functions all working powerfully and smoothly like the several 
 parts of a perfectly adjusted machine; — that is a great gift of God. But to make a 
 man's physical qualities the measure of his manhood, that cannot be worthily thouo-ht 
 of for one moment. And so, too, if we take infeltectual distinction — that, though 'far 
 nobler than the physical, will fall before the high claim of the Divine ideal. And as 
 for secular distinction — that greatness which consists in what a man has, wealth, rank, 
 power, rather than what he is, — that claim will not stand for one moment. The world 
 may, does, fall down befo'e these things, and before the last it absolutely grovels ; but 
 in the high courts of God's judgment they go for nothing at all. And at that bar not 
 a little that has the world's free licence as consistent with manhood is frowned upon 
 and utterly condemned. No; right, truth, virtue, all that is in harmony with God's 
 will, — this is what the man after God's mind seeks, finds, and habitually floes. 4. And 
 how commendatory to the conscience ia this Divine definition of manhood! Put it 
 before any thoughtful man, and at once he confesses it worthy of God to set forth and 
 blessed for man to seek after. Here the excellent of the earth in all ages and in all 
 lands have found a common meeting-place, and, when unbiassed conscience has spoken, 
 have come to a cordial embrace. 5. But how Christ-compelling is this Divine 
 description of true manhood ! For he who sets himself to euibody it, and really enters 
 on the glorious endeavour, will speedily find that he wants a model, a motive, and a 
 might which assuredly he cannot find in tlie world around him. A motkl ; for mere 
 abstract descriptions help but little. What, can the most brilliant wurd-painting do to 
 enable you to realize what a lovely landscape is like ? It can do something, but not 
 very much. But let the gifted artist draw the scene, let him in beautiful picture 
 portray it, and how much more vividly we realize it then ! The mechanician must 
 have his model to work from if he is to do successful work. And so, would we realize 
 the description God has given us of a true man, we also must have our model. But 
 there is only One who is flawless and altogether perfect — the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 Patriarchs, prophets, psalmists, apostles, saints, even the most worthy, are none of them 
 perfect ; for we have to modify here, correct there, and absolutely reject elsewhere. 
 It is, therefore, to the life of our blessed Lord and Master that this Divine description of 
 manhood forces me would I find the one example I may safely, always, and everywhere 
 copy. But I want a motive also ; for when I begin my great endeavour I find it no 
 holiday task. It brings no worldly gain, it wins no human applause. My natural 
 bent and bias are utterly against it. Ease and comfort are ever crying, " Spare thy- 
 self." Companions on the road are few, and not all of them to my liking, and the way 
 is narrow and rough and steep. "What, then, can alone spur me on and constrain 
 me by a compulsion I cannot resist? What but a sense of Christ's great love, and 
 the supreme solicitude to " be accepted of him," which flows therefiom ? There is abso- 
 lutely no other motive which will serve for the whole way. Some will take me a part 
 of the way, and others a further part, but all will fail long ere the true end is reached. 
 Therefore am I again driven to Christ, that, as he is my Model, so he may be my Motive 
 
 JEBEMIAH. K 
 
130 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. v. 1— 31 
 
 too. But he must also ba my Might. The power to endure, the strength to toil, the 
 daily grace for daily need, — whence can it come but from him who has said, " Because 
 I live, ye shall live also ? " True manhood, real virtue, is therefore an impossible thing 
 apart from Christ. More ot less stunted and distorted forms of it there may be, but 
 the Divine ideal, never. May he help us to remember this. Thus, then, complete, 
 catholic, condemnatory of the world's standards, commendatory to the conscience, 
 compelling resort to Christ, is this Divine manhood of which our text tells. But 
 note — 
 
 II. The Divine disappointment and dismay at not finding it where it mat 
 so JUSTLY HAVE BEEN EXPECTED. Observe the words of our text, how they challenge 
 the most thorough search everywhere, im|ilying that the Lord himself had made such 
 search — he whose eyes (ver. 3) " are upon the truth," who is keen-visioned to discover his 
 own in the densest crowd or in the most obscure abode. But now he challenges any 
 to make a like search. Let them run to and fro in the by-streets, in the broad ways, 
 in market-places, in all parts where men congregate ; let them in every such place see, 
 know, seek, if they can find even one true man. And the challenge is made not in 
 scorn nor in anger, but in disappointment and dismay. For where, if not amongst 
 God's own professed people, and in the centre of their worship, Jerusalem ; where, if not 
 there, could such as God sought be found ? But not even there were they ; there were 
 " none righteous ; no, not one." But what was found this whole chapter plainly declares. 
 There was horrible wickedness — wickedness which only suck appalling images as the 
 seventh and eighth verses of this chapter could fitly describe. Ami this not amongst the 
 ianorant poor only, but amongst the great, the well instructed also (vers. 4, 5). And 
 where there was a form of religion the power was wanting, as the second verse tells. 
 They might use devout words, but the Lord, whose eyes were on the truth (ver. 3), 
 knew how hollow that profession was. So that there was not one man such as God 
 desired. And, though willing to spare, God was forced to punish (ver. 9). This and 
 much more of a like sort prevails all through the chapter. But the contemplation of 
 it fills the Divine mind with disappointment and dismay. It is deep distress to him 
 tl)at he cannot find what he so much desires to find. Are we quite sure that the like 
 question might not be asked in our day? Is the Divine ideal of manhood so constantly 
 realized ? Is there not very much to make a devout heart fear lest a like search might 
 lead to a too much like result ? Let us remember what it is God looks for in us. Not 
 that which the world thinks so much of, but this manhood ; and he mourns when he 
 finds it not. And let it be our prayer that more and more we may be men according to 
 his mind. Note next — 
 
 III. The Divine demonstration op the delight and joy he has in it. He 
 says if there be but one such man, he will spare Jerusalem for his sake. Such is the 
 meaning of the last clause of this verse. What higher proof (save one which we will 
 note anon) could he give of his estimate of this manhood ? He gave large proof when 
 he told Abraham that if there were ten righteous in Sodom he would spare the city 
 for their sakes. And he is continually doing the like of what he here said he would do. 
 He is continually blessing the bad for the sake of the good. "Ye are the salt of the 
 earth," said our Lord to his disciples, implying thereby that, but for his people, the 
 world would go to corruption. " For the elect's sake those days shall be shortened " — ■ 
 the days, he meant, of Jerusalem's destruction, which were then, as in Jeremiah's time, 
 swiftly drawing on. And how often we read of bad and wicked descendants and suc- 
 cessors on the throne of David, who for his sake were dealt with far other than they 
 deserved ! And to-day, how many godless children of pious parents are for like reason 
 dealt with in like manner ! The Church might well, did she choose, challenge the world 
 to say where it would be without the Church. Tlie impious sneer at, persecute, and 
 despise the godly; but were it not for those they so shamefully use, theirs would be a 
 short shrift and a quick going down into hell. And let all who are living gorily in 
 Christ Jesus be cheered by knowing that, though persecuted by the world, they are yet 
 most precious in the Lord's sight. Now finally note — 
 
 IV. The supreme demonstration God has given op his delight and joy in it. 
 We turn to the gospel for this, and it enables us to reply to the Divine challenge to 
 " find a man ; " for we have found him " of whom Moses and the prophets did write " — the 
 man Christ Jesus. He has answered to the Divine description, and for his sake not a city 
 
CH. V. 1—31.] THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 131 
 
 alone, but a world, is to be pardoned. " For he is the Propitiation for our sins, and not 
 for ours only, but," etc. And our pardon will be not as Sodom's or Jerusalem's would 
 have been — leaving the people still the slaves of sin ; but the beginning of a new life, 
 in which we shall grow more and more into the fulness of the stature of the perfect 
 man, the Divine ideal embodied in Christ Jesus. But such is the Divine delight in this 
 Man that, for his sake, he pardons whosoever believeth on him. God hath laid help for 
 us " on One who is mighty " to save. Let us, then, go and put in our claim, confessintr 
 our deep need of pardon, but pleading God's own promise, that for the sake of this 
 Man — his own " beloved Son in whom he is well pleased " — he should pardon us. 
 And the answer will come back, " Go in peace ; be of good cheer : thy sins be forgiven 
 thee."— C. 
 
 Ver. 3. — An unfailing appeal. "O Lord, are not thine eyes upon the truth?" 
 Text uttered in protest against the pretence and hypocrisy everywhere prevailing in the 
 prophet's day. But the appeal is vindicated whatever we understand by " the truth." 
 Consider it in regard — 
 
 L To THE TKDTH AS SPOKEN BY GoD, TS HIS WORKS AND IN HIS WoitD. See this 
 
 in the constancy and invariability of the order of nature. The reign of law is because 
 " the eyes of the Lord are ever," etc. See it in the fulfilment of ancient prophecies, 
 especially those which concern our Lord Jesus Christ ; and we are to believe it in 
 regard to those many promises of God, the fulfilment of which yet waits. 
 
 II. To THE TRUTH WRITTEN — to try and test thereby all our teachings and beliefs. 
 See our Lord, in the temptation, how his eyes were ever on the truth. Hence his " It 
 is written" foiled the tempter again and again. " To the Law and to the testimony," 
 etc. The Bereans — and their example is held up as noble — searched the Scriptnres 
 daily, to see if the teachings they heard " were so ; " so, that is, as the apostles 
 aBinued. 
 
 III. To THE TRUTH IMPLANTED — to encourage and avense it. His grace implants 
 truth in the character, and leads to its being acted out in the life. Now, the eyes of 
 the Lord are ever upon such men. As he hates the hypocrites, so he loves the sincere, 
 the "Israelites indeed, in whom there is no guile." His eyes rest on them ever with 
 delight. His Spirit cheers and encourages them amid all outward distress and per- 
 secution. His hand will verily avenge them as " his own elect," in his own good time. 
 
 IV. To THE Truth incarnate — to behold and bless all those who are in him. " I 
 am the Truth," said the Lord Jesus. How we love to attract the attention and to 
 enjoy the smile of recognition and approval on the part of those who are greater than 
 ourselves in this world ! Would wo come under the notice and smile of the Lord God, 
 we must come to him upon whom his eyes are ever resting with delight, even to his 
 well-beloved Son, the Truth incarnate. Until we are "in him" we are in the cold 
 shade, and without hope or help. In him the eyes of the Lord are on us as they are on 
 him, and " he makes his face to shine upon us." — C. 
 
 Ver. 3. — The sorrow of sorrows. "Thou hast stricken them, but they have not 
 grieved," etc. 
 
 I. To BE STRICKEN OF GoD AND AFFLICTED IS IN ITSELF VERT PAINFUL TO CON- 
 TEMPLATE. When such sorrow comes it is : 1. To teach the servant of God how to 
 sympathize with and succour other troubled ones. 2. To loosen them Irom the clinging 
 bands of this world. 3. Because such sorrow is the inevitable pain and distress 
 attendant upon that glorious contest for " the prize of our high calling," for which 
 contest our Father, out of love to us and because of his joy in us, and knowing that we 
 shall win it, has entered us. Still, notwithstanding these facts and others like them, 
 the afflictions of the righteous are painful indeed. 
 
 II. But sorrow is yet more sorrowful when it is self-caused. Such was the 
 sorrow of many of those whose tears and lamentations we read of in Scripture — David, 
 Peter, Esau. " It was my own fault : " this is the reflection which calls into dread life 
 and activity "the worm that dieth not." But still, when, as with the contrite hearts, 
 Manasseh, David, Peter, etc., of whom Scripture tells, their sorrow is of a godly sort, 
 then, sad as it is, its result makes it blessed. 
 
 III. But there is a sorrow of sorrows, and it is told or here. It is when, us 
 
132 «1'HE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [en. v. 1—31. 
 
 this verse tells, God sends his corrections and sore afflictions upon men, and yet they 
 are none the better for them, but even worse. Pharaoh is the great illustration of this 
 deepest sorrow. It is not all who can say, "Before I was afflicted I went astray: but 
 now have I kept 'thy Word." But of too many that word is true which says, 
 " Though thou shouldest bray a fool in a mortar . . . yet will not his foolishness 
 depart from him " (cf. Eev. xvi. 10 ; Acts xxvi. 14). 1. But what is the cause of 
 these failures on thepat't of God's chastisements? They are such as these : (1) Sentence 
 against an evil work is not executed speedily. (2) The fearful force of the desire 
 after the evil object overwhelms and bears down all thought of the punishment that 
 must follow. (3) The assigning of the affliction that comes to other causes than the 
 true one. To this day the Jews do not see that their rejection of tlie Lord Jesus was 
 the reason of God's rejection of them, nor that it .is his blood which is upon them and 
 their children. 2. But without question such sorrows are the most lamentable of all; 
 for : (1) they reveal the virulence, the deep-seated character, and the dread hold 
 which sin has gained; (2) they necessitate and foretell yet more severe judgments 
 from God ; (3) they cast most sad doubt on the question whether such persons will 
 ever be saved at all. 
 
 Conclusion. Is sorrow resting upon us? Then: 1. Rest not until you have 
 found out its cause. " Show me wherefore thou contendest with me " should be our 
 appeal. 2. Let the possibility that your sorrows may leave you unblessed, that 
 God's purpose and intent may be lost upon you, send you to the throne of grace with 
 importunate prayer that so it may not be with you; — ^0. 
 
 Vers. 3 — 5. — The rich and the poor meet together. They do so — 
 
 I. In most mouknful ways. 1. In their common exposure to sorrow and death. 
 2. In their yet more mournful subji-ction 'to the bondage of moral evil, both alike 
 leagued together in rebellion against God (cf. text). Prom which learn : (1) No 
 circumstances alone will shut out sin. (2) If one condition of life has its moral dis- 
 advantages, so has another. (3) That this does aot affirm that all are on one level in 
 this respect. They are not so; they who have knowledge and have been taught God's 
 truth may and will justly be expected to compare favourably in conduct and character 
 with those not so privileged. (4) That the terribleiiess of the might of sin is seen in 
 the fact that it leaps over the fences and safeguards of happy circumstances and 
 abundant knowledge, as easily as it finds entrance where there are no such fences at 
 all. But the mournfulness of this meeting of the rich and poor leads us to look out 
 for and rejoice in other and more happy ones. And there are such. Note, therefore — 
 
 II. The blessed meetings of the eich and the poor. 1. In their common 
 possession of a moral and spirituuil nature. Those great capacities whereby " a man 
 is so much better than a sheep" are the property of rich and poor alike — to love and 
 be loved ; to search out knowledge, to worship, trust, and delight in God. Man is 
 God's jewel, whether it be set in all fit and beautiful surroundings or whether by some 
 malign cause it have fallen into the mud. By its nature, not its surroundings, are we 
 to judge of it. 2. In Christ. "He was rich, ... he for our sakes became poor" — thus 
 for ever uniting the two together. He was, whilst on earth, at the same time both 
 rich and poor, having at his command more than the vastest resources of the rich, and 
 yet day by day sharing the lot of the poor. He was the Son of man, the Head and 
 Bepresentative of all men — of humanity at large. 3. At the cross. The common 
 malady craves and finds the common medicine. The sorrows of the contrite heart are 
 those of no class at all, but are the experience of rich and poor alike ; and the cross 
 alone can soothe them, and thither therefore they alike come. These all are clothed 
 in the robe made white in the blood of the Lamb. 4. In the everlasting kingdom of 
 our Ood. There the barriers of caste and class, which here seem so fixed that they can 
 never be moved, will be broken down, and character alone will determine whether we 
 shall stand high up or low down on the steps of the eternal throne. The love of God 
 in Christ will be the great uniting bond, and, as that rules and governs us, so will our 
 companionship and our condition be ordered. There the rich shall be rid of the many 
 hindrances of their lot which make it so " hard for a rich man to enter into the kingdom 
 of God;" and there the poor shall have said farewell for ever to all the privation and 
 painful toil of earth. The tears of all shall flow no more. Then let us learn : (1) To 
 
CH. V. 1—31.] THE BOOK OF THE PEOl^HET JEREMIAH. 133 
 
 cherish sympathy with all our brethren. The poor with tho rich, and they with 
 the poor. It is equally difficult but equally obligatory on each. (2) To be eager ia 
 telling to the poor of this gospel of the meeting of the rich and the poor. (3) To come 
 to Christ and to his cross, and to abide there, that the Spirit of him who was the 
 Friend and Saviour of all may dwell in us more and more.: — C. 
 
 Ver. 4. — The moral disadvantages of the poor^ Jeremiah recognizes and refers to 
 these disadvantages as a well-known fact, and he tells how he expected to find in them 
 an explanation of the deplorable wickedness with which Jerusalem was filled. " There- 
 fore I said. Surely these are poor," etc. We note — 
 
 I. That these are the real evils op the lot of the poor. At once- all manner 
 of other distresses which attend poverty arise to our minds, audi therefore we would, 
 observe : 1. That we do not deny that their physical and social disadvantages are also 
 evils. To be ill fed, ill housed, ill clothed, as so many of the poor are, — who can make 
 light of a lot like theirs? Therefore : 2. Still less do we deny our duty to relieve their 
 physical evils to the utmost of ovrr power. 3. But we do deny that these are their chief, 
 evils. For: (1) Many of these aie more than counterbalanced by what is so commonly 
 found amongst the rich. Dr. Ohanning says, " When I compare tog-^ther different 
 classes as existing at this moment in the civilized world, I cannot think the diflference 
 between the rich and the poor in refjard to- mere physical suffering so great as is some- 
 times imagined. That some of the indigent among us die of scanty food is undoubtedly 
 true, but vastly more in this community die from eating too much than from eating, 
 too little, vastly more froui excess than starvation. So as to-clothingi many shiver 
 from want of defences against the cold ; but there is vastly more suffering among the 
 rich from absurd and criminal modes of dress, which fashion has sanctioned, thart 
 among the poor from deficiency of raiment. Our daughters ai-e oftener brought to. 
 their grave by their rich attire than our beggars by their nal%edness. So the poor are 
 often overworked ; but they suffer less than many among the rich, who have no work, 
 to do, no interesting object to fill up life, to satisfy the infinite cravings of man fori 
 action. According to our present modes of education,, how many of our daughters are 
 victims of ennui — a misery unknown to the poor, and more intolerable than the 
 weariness of excessive toil! The idle young main, spending the day in exhibiting his- 
 person in the street, ouuht not to excite the envy of the overtasked poor; and this, 
 cuniberer of the ground is found exclusively among the rich." (2) And their in- 
 tellectual disadvantages are nearly as great an evil as those that belong to their 
 outward lot. " Knowledge is power," but to be without knowledge is to. lack the- 
 power to lighten, to elevate, to refine, to cheer, and in ways manifold to ameliorate our 
 lot in life. Therefore to lack knowledge and education deserves to be looked upon> 
 with even more compassion than the lack of physical comforts. But still, the chief 
 evil of poverty is its moral disadvantage. Now — 
 
 II. These moral disadvantages of the poor are such as- arise from : 1. The 
 difficulty of maintaining self-respect. All the world seems agreed to regard the i»or 
 as the " lower orders," and to confine the term " respectable " to those who have enough 
 and to spare. And when poverty necessitates the receiving, and yet more the askiu;;, 
 of charity, how hard it is then to maintain that erect moral bearing, that spirit of 
 independence, which is so essential to the formation of all true, worthy moral character ! 
 2. The almost impossibility of merdal culture. How can the man who has to continue 
 at prolonged and laborious bodily toil from morn to night, day after day all his life 
 long, and only then can earn scarce sufficient to provide for his actual bodily necessities, 
 be expected to be other than rough, rude, illiterate, and contented to be so? What 
 mockery it seems to talk of mental cultivation to a man like that ! But shut off 
 from such cultivation, how utterly is the door closed upon him which leads to so much 
 that would cheer and brighten his whole life, and would lift him up in the scale of 
 moral being ! 3. The risk to all moral delicacy and refinement which their crowded 
 and wretched habitations invoice. If men are obliged to herd like cattle, only less 
 comfortably than they, how can " a man be better than a sheep " in such case ? 4. The 
 temptation to envy and sullen discontent at their beholding what seems to them the so 
 muck brighter lot of the well-to-do. The patience of the poor beneath the awful 
 iujustices and hardships which arise from the unequal distribution of wealth is a 
 
134 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. v. 1— 31. 
 
 marvel. Especially, too, when they have daily to endure the supercilious and half- 
 soornful treatment which the possesssion of wealth almcst invariably begets towards 
 those who have it not. 5. The hard strnngle which faith in Ood and his goodness 
 cannot hut have amid the hardships of poverty. It is true that men would be far happier 
 if they were better men, but it is also true that vast numbers of men would be better 
 if they were only happier. When our children are happy they aie good ; it is un- 
 happiness makes them cross and wrong. Tliere is no more heartbreaking fact to a 
 thoughtful and compassionate mind than this, that the blessing of faith in God and 
 the love of God, which the poor most of all need, is for them the hardest of all to win 
 and keep. 6. The dread temptation to sensual indulgence which the hardships of their 
 lot expose them to. Can we wonder that those men rush to the gin-shop, the tavern, 
 and there in strong drink forget for a while the miseries of their common life? It is 
 a piteous fact that it is the most wretched of the poor who drink most desperately. 
 (Let the reader turn to Dr. Channing's sermon on ' Ministry for the Poor,' to see many 
 of these points worked out.) Such are the real evils of the lot of the poor, beside 
 which their outward hardships are small in comparison. 
 
 III. From all this wb learn why we should compassionate their lot, and 
 WHAT IN IT WE SHOULD CHIEFLY ENDEAVOUR TO BELIEVE. When tlieir moral dis- 
 advantages move our compassion, as they should and as they did our Lord's, we shall 
 strive most of all to counteract and remove them. How shall we do this ? We reply. 
 After the manner of our Lord. Chiefly by ministering to their souls. He went about 
 everywhere preaching and tea'hing. The very greatest kindness that can be done to a 
 poor man is to bring him to Christ, to get him by God's grace thoroughly converted. 
 That will lift him up and bless him every way. It will not despise secondary means. 
 Our Lord fed the poor, healed them, ministered to their temporal relief frequently. But 
 he did not do this indiscriminately. They were by no means his chief works. That 
 chief work was a ministry to their souls. And so those who copy his example will not 
 despise secondary means — charity, wise sanitary laws, education. But all these will 
 be put in the second place, not in point of time and attention, but in esteem and worth. 
 1'hey will be counted only as aids to what is far better than themselves. It may be thst 
 the Chuich has not availed herself of these aids as she should, but has left them to the 
 care of the State more than she should. Still, it is ever those who are most intent on 
 the moral well-being of the poor who are found to the front in all schemes for their 
 physical and social well-being. So that the excellence of our Lord's method is that, 
 whilst it aims at the highest good, it more than any other seeks to |iromote and indeed 
 secures as a help to that highest, the lower and temporal good of those to whom it 
 ministers. And it has a rich reward. " Blessed are ye poor," said our Lord, " rich 
 in faith and heirs," etc. Not a few of the greatest saints, the martyrs, the heroes of 
 the faith, have been drawn from the ranks of the poor. The grace of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ has come to them, and straightway they have been as it were transformed. 
 They have risen up above the low levels of their old life — so mean, sordid, foul, goiiluss 
 oftentimes — and have come to be like the Lord himself. And to-day, how perpetually 
 may we see amid the godly poor all the disadvantages of their lot which we have 
 enumerated above, completely overcome I They reverence conscience ; they euvy not 
 the rich; they cultivate and rejoice in the purest and tendorest home affections; though 
 ignorant of most of human learning, they have the fear of God and the knowledge of 
 his Word, and so are wise with a wisdom before which mere human wisdom dwindles 
 into insignificance. They keep themselves from all vice, they love and trust God 
 with a simplicity of utter trust and calm confidence, beau( if ul and blessed even to 
 contemplate — how much more to possess! " Blessed are ye poor! " Thus, then, ufler 
 the manner of our Lord, would we strive to meet and overcome the moral disadvaniai'-es 
 of the poor. — C. 
 
 Ver. 7. — How men curse their Uessings. "When I had fed them to the full," etc. 
 
 I. God DOBS this at times. Cf. Gen. iii. 17, " Cursed is the ground for thy sake," 
 etc. ; Hag. i. 11, etc. And whenever he makes our good and pleasant things the nnaus 
 of our punishment. Hezekiah's riches and prosperity were the lure which drew upon 
 him the oppressing Assyrians. And so the body which, when possusi-ed of all its 
 faculties and in health, ministers so much good to man, God, in judgment upon the 
 
CH. V. 1—31.] THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 135 
 
 man's sin, may for the sake of the sinful soul cause that disease, pain, impotence, may 
 curse it. And the mind also-:-that may become a den of malignant, impure, profane 
 thoughts. 
 
 II. But men do this fab moke frequently. The noblest physical gifts may be 
 shattered, wrecked, by sins against the body, 'i'he mind— capable of such high serv'ce 
 and a channel of such vast blessing — men may, do, pollute, corrupt, and pervert and 
 so curse their blessings. The moral nature — this a great gift of God, the power to 
 judge, choose, resolve ; but see how soon man cursed that and turned his blessing into 
 a curse. The gifts of providence are also abused in the same way (cf. text). The 
 home. Oh, what joy comes to men through the blessings that were designed to be for 
 ever associated with that word ! Hut how often men, by self-indulgence, neglect, evil 
 example, utter failure in parental duty, turn the blessing of home into a curse-! And 
 even the gospel of Christ itself — God's unspeakable gift — men may make the knowledge 
 of it to be " a savour of death unto death " for themselves. '"IhLs Child is set for the 
 fall of many in Israel," said Simeon of our Lord. 
 
 III. But it is a crime which God cannot away with. " How shall I pardon thee 
 for this ? " etc. " Shall I not visit," etc. ? (ver. 9). Cf. parable of fruitless fig tree— 
 " Cut it down," etc. ; the talents — " Take from him the talent," etc. And the human 
 conscience everywhere assents to this judgment of God. We jud<!e in like manner 
 ourselves. We feel tliat such are without excuse. Let us, then, consider our blessings, 
 and ask ourselves, "What are we doing with them? how are we using them?" Let 
 it be our daily prayer and endeavour that we fall not into this great sin. 
 
 IV. God's way is to turn our curses into blessings. (Cf. Neh.. xiii. 2.) 1. 
 He hus done so even with sin. What curse could be greater? Yet, by the redemption 
 there is in Christ, even that is so made subject that now 
 
 " We may rise on stepping-stones 
 Of our dead selves to higher things." 
 
 2. And he has done so with sorrow. Grief had been for ages going about the world, a 
 sad-robed, sombre, and ever-tearful guest in whatever house she took up her temporary 
 abode : and there was no house she did not visit. But since the Lord Jesus became 
 the "Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief," she, in virtue of that acquaintance, 
 has changed her very nature, and the curse is turneii into a blessing, hhe ministers 
 help to the soul, in releasing it Irom the bonds of this evil world and in upliilting it 
 towards its true I'ather and home in heaven. 3. And so with ileath. Its sting is 
 taken away. To them who are in Christ he is rather a friend than a foe, for he it 
 is who opens the door of our prison-house and lets the soul go free and rise to that 
 place — 
 
 " Where loyal hearts and true 
 
 Stand ever in the light. 
 All rapture through and through, 
 
 In God's most holy sight." 
 
 c. 
 
 Ver. 10.— Battlements not the Lord's. Jeremiah is telling of the defences of Judah 
 and Jerusalem. In the approaching invasion they should fall and prove utterly 
 worthless ; lor, by reason of the people's sin, that blessing of the Lord which had made 
 their battlements impregnable hitherto was withdrawn, and so, the people being no 
 longer the Lord's, their defences were not either, and so were no defences at all. But 
 > often those who are not under the Divine displeasure— nations. Churches, individuals- 
 are found relying on defences that are not Divine, thinking to find shelter and salety 
 within battlements that are not the Lord's; and when such is the case the Lord would 
 ever have such battlements taken away. The course of his providence not seldom 
 makes plain his displeasure in these things ; for they get torn down and destroyed 
 hopelessly if they who trust in them are not wise in time, and themselves take them 
 away. There are many references in Scripture to such battlements. They are spoken 
 of either as "walls daubed with untempered mortar," or as " broken cisterns which 
 hold no water," or, more plainly, as " icfnges of lies," or a- "a house built upon the 
 
,136 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. [cii. v. 1—31. 
 
 sand," or as the building upon the foundation of " wood, hay, stubble." Such are some 
 of the parallels to the truth taught in the text. But take some illustrations of this 
 erecting of and trusting in battlemf nts not the Lord's. 
 
 I. It has been seen ik the defence of the Church of Christ. Nothing in the 
 ■world is so precious, so essential to the .world, as the Church of Christ, and he has 
 promised to preserve it unto the end. But men have often tried to plant, maintain, 
 and spread it in anything but Divine ways ; e.g. when : 1. Thi-y have relied on the 
 secular arm. They have done so, and with what consequences let the present state of 
 Christendom tell. When will men trust the glorious inherent power of the faith of 
 Christ, and throw to the winds those carnal weapons which she wields only to her own 
 vfounding? When will she hear the voice of God saying, concerniui; such battlements, 
 "Take them away; they are not the Lord's"? 2. Organization is another of these very 
 questionable defences. That it has its use, and is capable of much aud valued service, 
 he would be a fool who should deny. But the peril is lest the artificial and merely 
 human supports which organization supplies should be allowed to serve instead of that 
 Divine life which alone is the true drl'ence of any Church. Church arrangements 
 which necessitate that when that life is wanting everything shall collapse about such 
 a Church, that it shall cease to be and not present the mere simulacrum of what it is 
 not, — it is a question if this be not a better order than one which, bv means of its 
 elaborate organization, keeps up the show of Church life when the reality is not there. 
 ■ 3. And the same may be said of all tliose adventitious aids to the Church of Christ upon 
 which men are apt so much to rely. Wealth, social position, leamiug, eloqueuce, 
 numbers, gifts, and other such advantaiies, — let a Church place her trust in any of these, 
 and the command of the text will go forth at once. But the true defence of a Church 
 is the life that is in her, the manifest godliness of her members ; that is a battlement 
 which is the Lord's, and which none can take away. 
 
 II. It has been seen in the defence ok the faith of the Chdbch. The faith 
 of the Church is, without doubt, most precious ; and it is our duty to contend earnestly 
 for it. But men have sought to guard and defend it in wrong wa\ s. 1. Persecution 
 has been tried. 2. Demanding subscription to fixed creeds. 'J'here may be and are 
 good reasons lor demanding such subscription, but it cannot be said that such sub- 
 scription has kept the faith one and entire in all the members of the Church. Probably 
 there is more unity of belief in those Churches which demand no such subscription 
 than in those who do. 3. Belying mostly on the intellectual defences of the faith. 
 There are such, many, varied, cogent, clear, invaluable, but they may be all read and 
 mastered, and the citadel of the heart be not won. But the true battlement of the 
 faith is in the fact that it commends itself to every man's conscience in the sight of 
 God. Let conscience be awakened and then the faith presented, and the fitness of the 
 faith to the needs and teachings of conscience are visible at once. 
 
 III. It is CONTINnALLY SEEN IN MBN's CONDUCT IN ERGARD TO THEIR OWN PERSONAL 
 
 SALVATION. What else is : 1. Trust in saciaments? They are, without doubt, means 
 of grace to the believer in Christ — the experience of myriads of snints attests that ; but 
 he who looks to iljeui as a viaticum that will open a way to heaven lor the vilest, 
 surely that is a retuge of lies. 2. Meliance on humun priests f This reliance is by 
 no means confined to the Church of Rome. Deep seated in men's mind is the idea 
 that ministers of religion can really help the soul in its great needs. Much of sending 
 for ministers in cases where death is anticipated is based on this false belief. 3. '/rust 
 in such poor righteousness as we can offer to God; what can it do? 4. Resting on an 
 imagined leniency in God, which will prevent his carrying out the threatenings of his 
 iioly Law as he lias said he would? How many soothe and still all disquiet of con- 
 science by such false confidence as this ! — a confidence which the facts of life, apart 
 liom the Word of God, utterly shatter and show to be false. But the true defence of 
 the soul is Christ; that battlement is the Lord's, yea, is the Lord himself, and he will 
 keep that which is committed to him even unto the great day. — 0. 
 
 Ver. 24. — The silken fetter. In ver. 22 the prophet has spoken of the soft, unstable 
 sand holding in and beating back the mighty surgings of the sea ; but here he tells of 
 what would seem a still more unlikely thing, that the goodness of God should lead 
 men to fear him. He selects that prominent proof of God's goodness, the giving of 
 
CH. V. 1—31.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 137 
 
 the rains and the harvest, as a type of all, and he takes for granted that men ought to 
 have found in this goodness of God an argument for his fear. Now we remark — 
 
 I. That this is an unusual aeoument. We could understand other attributes 
 of God being appealed to as grounds for fearing him — his majesty, his power, his justice, 
 his wrath — but his goodness seems to call for almost every other feeling than that of 
 fear. Joy, gratitude, benevolence, praise, but not fear. We delight ourselves in his 
 goodness, we bask in it as in the blessed warmth of the sun, but we never /ear it, or 
 see in it a reason for such regard of God. And it is certain that this expectation of 
 the prophet, that God's goodness should lead us to his fear, was not based on any 
 supposition or belief that there was aught of fearfulness about the goodness of God. 
 Of the devil's goodness when he turns himself into an angel of light, when he quotes 
 Scripture, as he did at onr Lord's temptation, and when he pours honey into our cup, — 
 of his goodness we may be afraid. It is but a mask. And of some men's goodness we 
 may be afraid — men who are " false as the smooth, deceitful sea," " adders' poison under 
 their lips ; " they betray with a kiss. And men were wont to fear the goodness of the 
 gods tliey worshipped. They imagined they would be jealous if they saw a man 
 prospering overmuch. Hence to appease them men would inflict loss and injury on 
 themselves. See the story of Polycrates. Nor either because there is aught of fatality 
 attached to the goodness of God. It is not as the beautiful flush on the countenance, 
 which, lovely as it may appear, is a mark of doom clearly discernible to the experienced 
 eye. For no such reasons as these are we to fear God and his goodness. Nevertheless^ 
 
 II. God's goodness I8 a peopbr kbason fob a holy fear. 1. For it reveals a 
 Being so far removed above all our conce|)tions of human goodness. One who stands on 
 so infinitely higher a level of moral excellency, that a sacred awe fills our soul as we 
 contemplate what God is and what his love is, especially his love to us in Christ. 
 "There is forgiveness' with thee, that thou mayest be feared." 
 
 " Oh, how I fear thee, living God, 
 With deepest, tenderest fears, 
 And worship thee with humble hope 
 And penitential tears ! " 
 
 2. And because God's goodness reveals the intensity and depth of his love, and there^ 
 fore reveals a corresponding wrath against all who outrage that love. The gentlest 
 mother yearning with affection for her children, — let those little ones be wronged, what 
 a fury will she become towards the wrong-doer, and all because her love is so great ! 
 And so, "according to God's love, so is his wrath." There is no wrath like that "of tlie 
 Lamb." 3. And because God's goodness in its temporal manifestations is but granted 
 for a while. He reserves his right to recall it when he will. Hence if riches, or any 
 other form of earthly good and present earthly joy, — if these increase, set not your heart 
 upon them. It is terrible to have all our peace of heart and mind, all the joy of our 
 life, identified with and dependent upon what one day God may recall. Every channel 
 of God's goodness thus becomes a possible channel of deep suffering and distress. If, 
 then, your delight in the gift have not led you to the love and trust of the Giver, what 
 comfort will you have when the gift is withdrawn? What an argument this for the 
 comment of our text ! 4. Remember, again, the depraved nature which we carry about 
 with us, which ever seeks to pervert to evil what God gives us for our good. " Jeshuriin 
 waxed fat, and kicked." Prosperity is a sore temptation, before which many a ma:i 
 falls. God's gifts are the material out of which many build a screen, a wall which 
 shuts them off from God. 5. And because God's goodness heightens our responsibility. 
 How stern the word, " Cut it down ; why cumbereth ? " etc. ! Goodness and h ive and care 
 had been thrown away upon it. If God, then, have pleaded with us by hia love, as we 
 know he has, what if our hearts be still estranged from him ? " He that from God's 
 mercy gathers no argument for his fear, may conclude thus much — that there is indeed 
 forgiveness with God, but no forgiveness for him " (South). Then let us ask — 
 
 '' Lord, let thy fear within us dwell, 
 Thy love our footsteps guide ; 
 That love shall all vain love expel, 
 That fear all fear beside." 
 
138 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch.'v. 1—31. 
 
 Ver. 24. — Ood's gifts of the rains and the harvest. " The Lord our God, that giveth 
 rain, both the former and the latter, in his season : he rei^erveth unto us," etc. To 
 a country so liable to drought as Palestine, the regular, periodic rainfall was of the 
 utmost importance. If they had not the former rain — that wliich came first after seed- 
 time — the seed would not germinate in the soil ; and if, when near the harvest, the rain 
 did not come again, there would be no full corn in the ear : it would not swell out and 
 mature in any way to the husbandman's content. " Henoe the people of those lands 
 speak of the weather and the crops with a more immediate reference to God than is 
 usual with us. It is said that the common expressions of the peasantry are such as 
 much impress travellers with their apparently devout recognition of the Almighty's 
 agency." A lady and her party were one day traversing, under the conduct of their 
 Arab guide, the fertile plains west of the Carmel range. " Rain began to fall in torrents. 
 Mohammed, our groom," so the lady tells, " threw a large Arab cloak over me, saying, 
 ' May Allah preserve you, lady, while he is blessing the fields ! ' " " Blessing the 
 fields," — what a beautiful synonym for the rain ! But it indicates the constant 
 dependence of those lands on these rains, and the people's sense of the high value of this 
 gift of God. The husbandman relies entirely upon the early and the latter rain, and 
 if these do not fall copiously in their season famine will ensue. Therefore, when 
 wishing to point out some signal mark of the Lord's favour to his people, the prophet 
 selects this, that he "giveth rain, both the former and the latter, in his season," etc. 
 The prophet knew that every heart would assent and own the goodness of the Lord 
 herein. Probably he was more sure of it there and then than he would be here and 
 now. We have got so mystified with the modern doctrines of " the order of nature " 
 and "the uniformity of natural law," that we have come to regard the universe almost 
 as a great machine, the regular working of which excites no surprise, and demands and 
 obtains still less gratitude. But all this is very sad. Happy they who, in the coming 
 round of the seasons, the fall of the rain and the blessed harvest, are both able and 
 glad to confess, "It is the Lord, who giveth food to all flesh: for his mercy endureth 
 for ever." But let this verse not so much suggest the literal facts here commemorated 
 by the prophet, as those other and higher spiritual facts which they resemble and 
 suggest. The three blessed gifts of God in the natural world here spoken of, tell of 
 gifts like to them in the spiritual world. And first they remind us of — 
 
 I. Those persons who abb so happy as to realize all the three : the two 
 rains — both the former and the latter — and the harvest. Now, there are many such 
 God be praised for them! In their own religious life they know what God's blessing 
 of the former rain is. There was such vivid realization of the love of Christ, such 
 hatred of sin, such sweet sensitiveness of conscience, such free intercourse with God in 
 prayer, such bright onlooks into the glory to be revealed, such ready delight in worship 
 and in work, such prom])t siding with the will of God — in a word, such enjoyment of 
 him, that it is still, and will ever be, a delightful retrospect. 
 
 " What peaceful hours we then enjoyed I 
 How sweet their memory still i " 
 
 " That was the early rain. The seed had just been sown, and the Master, to make it 
 take deeper rout, and to make it spring up faster into the green blade, gave them the 
 sacred shower of his loving presence." And then there came afterwaids the latter raiti. 
 For such is needed even in the holiest Christian's life. The early excitement, the power 
 of novelty, which is a power in the religious life as in all other, wore off, as it is its 
 nature to do. Many weary leagues of life's ]iilgrimage had to be traversed, many 
 
 disappointments to be met with, many trials to be endured, many temptations subtle 
 
 strange, strong — had to be met and overcome, and they left the soul weary and 
 exhausted. And, but for the blessed latter rain, the strcDgth and vigour of the Divine 
 life in the soul would have died down. But then there came, brought about in one 
 way and another, the second baptism of the Holy Ghost. And, by means of that 
 separate actfe of obedience crystallized into blessed habits, which made their dischari'e 
 prompt, easy, and eftective. The power of prayer became more marked, the knovv'led''e 
 and experience of the truth of God's Word deepened. The unseen and eternal camo 
 out of the mist and vagueness of former j'ears into clear, well-defined reality, so that 
 the seeing him who is invisible came to be a daily vision ; and the walk with God 
 
CH. V. 1— 31.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEKEMrAH. 139 
 
 grew to be constant, delightful, and more intimate each day. And so the harvest of 
 peace with God, of holy calm, of settled obedience, and of loyal, happy service, was 
 daily reaped. And in the case of those who have passed into the skies, the harvest of 
 glory has been reaped also, or rather is being reaiied, the joy of which is ever-during 
 with the eternal life of the snul. So again and again has it been in the experience of 
 the Christian life. And likewise has it been also in the work and service rendered to 
 Clirist. That, too, in many an instance, has had its former rain of blessing. It was 
 begun in Christ and for Christ. Tokens of the Lord's [iresence were not wanting even 
 al the very outset. Sinners were converted, believers were edified, souls were saved, 
 as the result of the early toil in the Master's vineyard. The sermons may have been 
 juvenile, unskilled in mere sermonic art, but they had the Divine power with them. 
 The teaching given to the scholars in the class may have been sadly unscientific, and 
 wanting in symmetry and system ; but Jesus was commended to the children, and his 
 love so spoken of that they listened, were touched, were persuaded, were saved. And 
 then years after the latter rain came. For a long while the work went on in a quiet, 
 almost monotonons way. There appeared no stir, no great impression made. But he 
 who gave the early rain now sent the latter also. And a new outpouring of the 
 Spirit's influence was given. And again and increasingly the Word was spoken with 
 power ; the influence of Christ's servant told with all the added strength that life-long 
 consecration to that work gave to it, and many a soul confessed the might of that 
 ministry which Christ enabled him to discharge. And a blessed harvest was reaped, 
 day after day, week by week ; the sickle of the Word seemed never so keen, the hand 
 that wielded it never so vigorous, the sheaves never so large, until the reaper was 
 called away to join in the glad festivities of the eternal harvest-home. Yes, so it has 
 been again and asjain. And, would we have it so with ourselves, — and would we not ? — 
 let it not be forgotten that the realization of these blessings — the early and the latter 
 rain, and the harvest — in our work depends upon our personal realization of them in our 
 own souls. The soul not alive in and fur God can never accomplish much in his work 
 and service. We must " take heed to ourselves " would we successfully take heed to 
 our work, and be the means of salvation to others. Yes, let us remember this. But 
 be encouraged by remembering also that it is God's way and wont to send this threefold 
 blessing. This verse speaks of his giving these great gifts as his customary habit. It 
 is not an exceptional or strange thing with him, but that which we may, and evea 
 should, look for. May he help us so to do, and then give us our heart's desire ! But 
 next consider — 
 
 II. Those less happy ones who realize only two out of these three gifts 
 OF God. They have had the early and the latter rains, but the harvest they have not 
 yet rejoiced in. There are such experiences, both in the Christian life and in Christian 
 work. The men were truly converted to God at the first, and they have in after years 
 felt the power of his Spirit again and again ; but that harvest of settled peace and joy, 
 that power habitually to walk with God in the comfort of his love, and in prompt, joy- 
 ful obedience to his will, has not come to them. And they grieve over it, much. And 
 yet more is this delay of the harvest often known in the sphere of Christian xoork. 
 The whole Christian. Church mourns to-day over this delay of harvest. The early rain 
 of the Pentecostal day fell refreshingly upon them ; and since then there have been 
 spring-tides of Divine influence, copious outpourings of the Spirit of God, latter rains 
 in deed and in truth. But the harvest — where is that ? Where is the world, or even 
 one entire nation, won for God? The boundaries of the kingdom of Satan do not 
 seem much diminished, nor those of the kingdom of God much enlarged. And so, too, 
 individual Churches have, in like manner, been blessed with early and latter rains, but 
 the harvest of their work has not come. They can tell you of times in their history 
 when there seemed a general movement Godwards ; when the people met for prayer in 
 unwonted numbers and with unwonted fervour. Their early history may have been 
 one of difficulty and strugsle, but these were overborne by a glorious awidvening, a gird- 
 ing of them with power, by the Spirit of the Lord manifestly setting up his standard 
 in their midst. " And the Lord added to them daily such as should be saved." And 
 in more recent years they have had like and even larger experiences of his glorious 
 presence. But yet the harvest is not reaped. Not only is the neighbourhood around 
 hem still for the most part as it was, untouched, unimpressed by the power of the 
 
140 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. [ch. v. 1—31, 
 
 gospel, but many who gather with them Sunday by Sunday, and in their week-day 
 assemblies, are yet unconverted and unsaved. VVhere is the harvest ? Why does it 
 not come? "How long, Lord, how long?" these .servants of God continually cry 
 to him. And so, too, with the individual worker for Christ. He, too, can look back 
 . on a time when he began his holy labour, whether in more prominent or more obscure 
 \ place it matters not ; but there was given to him the early, and since then there has 
 been the latter, rain. But he looks round his class, his family, his school, his congre- 
 gation, and oh, what a scant portion of the field is as yet even begun to be garnered 
 for Christ ! How powerless his words seem to fall on many of them ! How 
 unanswered his prayers on their behalf still seem to be ! Now, what are we to say 
 to all this 1 Well, these three things we may surely say : First, that God reserves 
 the weeks of harvest. He has appointed them, but the day of their coming he has 
 reserved in his own power. The husbandman must have long patience ; the growth 
 and development of the holy seed is an orderly, and is generally a slow, process. All 
 God's greatest works are slow. Science is ever teaching us this. What ages upon 
 ages do the geologist and the astronomer demand for the processes of which they 
 tell! How our little chronologies dwindle into insignificance besides those vast 
 periods which they have conclusively shown to have been occupied by the Creator 
 in perfecting those phenomena of which their several sciences take account ! And, in 
 the far greater and more difScult work of the moral and spiritual regeneration of 
 human souls, shall we be impatient if God do not begin, continue, and eml it all in the 
 short space of our little lives? Surely this is to be unreasonable, is improper, is 
 wrong. But remember, too, that the harvest itself is a long process. 'J'hey are 
 " weeks of harvest." The ingathering has begun when only one sheaf in a field has 
 been reaped. The Lord Jesus said, " The fields are white already unto harvest," 
 when he held in his hand only one solitary ripe ear of corn, the conversion of the 
 woman of Samaria. Hence we may possibly be mourning that the harvest has not 
 come, when in fact it has actually begun. Why, my brother, it began in you from the 
 first hour that you were converted to God. He was cutting the bonds that bound you 
 to this world when he first called you to himself; and all the varied means by which 
 he is separating you from the world is but the reaping continually going on ; and 
 when the sickle of death comes and cuts down this bodily life of yours, it will be 
 but the last stroke of the reaper that tells that the harvest for you is fiaished at last. 
 And so with your work. The harvest is begun. That child's heart you won for Christ 
 here, that sonl that was brought to Jesus through the Word preached by you there, 
 those others gathered to the Redeemer's feet elsewhere, — what were these blessed facts 
 but the beginning of the harvest, a beginning that is to go on ? You are not strong 
 enough to reap all the Lord's field ; be content that he lets you reap a part. Other 
 workmen are to enter in where you may not, and to their arm shall fall the sheaves 
 that you may not gather. So say not any more, " The harvest is delayed." Why, you 
 are actually engaged in it now. You are not a mere sower, but you are a reaper tno. 
 And remember the full harvest shall be reaped. He is the Lord of it, aud will not let 
 it waste ; by one means or another it shall all be gathered in. This is what we have 
 to say to you who mourn at the harvest's delay. 
 
 in. But there are others less happy still. Those who can claim to havk 
 KEALIZKD ONLY ONE OF THESE THREE GIFTS OF GoD. The harvest is not theirs, nor 
 both the former and the latter rains, but only one of them. Now, this one may be only 
 the former rain. In their religious life they were blessed with this ; the wonted happy 
 results ioUowed ; but since then there has been a standstill, and those observing them 
 are, as St. Paul was in reference to the Galatians, " in doubt " about them, and sorrow- 
 fully ask the question, " Ye did run well ; who did hinder you? " Their goodness has 
 been " like the morning cloud and the early dew " — it has gone away. And so also in 
 much of religious work. At the beginning there was a zeal and fervour and force 
 which promised great things, but it all soon died down. They had no staying power, 
 and because all was not accomplished in one vigorous rush and charge, and because the 
 difficulties that had to be overcoine presented a more stubborn and obstinate front than 
 was antioipati:d, those who went forth to do battle with them became discouraged and 
 soon turned back. In these cases, both in the life and the work, though there was the 
 former rain, the latter has not as yet fallen. Now where, as is often the case, this has 
 
CH. V. 1— 31.] TEIE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 141 
 
 been owing to neglect of those Divine aids which God has phvced within our power— 
 
 the blessed aids of prayer, wiitclilulness, and the diligent use of grace already given 
 
 then not pity but censure must be awarded to those of whom we speak. " They have 
 not because they asked not ; " or if they asked they " asked amiss." Ah, what a sad 
 amount of such asking amiss there ever is! — asking as a substitute for working, instead 
 of as an aid and encouragement thereto ; asking, Ijut with motives marred by selfish- 
 ness, strife, and many forms of that " regarding iniquity in the heart," which ever bars 
 the coming of the needed answer. And so there have been decline and decay, and a 
 fresh fall of the heavenly rain is indeed wanted. Oh, do these words apply to any of 
 us, either in regard to our stunted life or our ineffectual work ? It may be so. But, 
 thank God, such sad facts are not always the cause. God may be pleased, notwith- 
 standing that his servants wait upon him for the outpouring of his Spirit they so much 
 desire, to delay his answer. The rains of God have their season, and he best knows 
 ■what and when that season is. His purpose is to stir you up to yet more earnest 
 prayer, to greater energy of spiritual endeavour. All the night through did Jacob 
 wrestle with the angel, ere he won the glorious name of Israel. Not till after so long 
 and so arduous a struggle that his physical strength gave way, the sinew of his thigh 
 shrank, and he seemed reduced to utter powerlessness ; — not till then was the victory 
 won. If, therefore, any of us, in our own religious life or work, are still waiting in 
 prayer and watching thereunto, but yet the desired answer has not come, regard it not 
 as denial, but only as a delay sent to test and try your faith — that faith more precious 
 in the sight of God than gold and silver, and which when tested shall come forth 
 triumphant, to the praise and glory of his grace. But there are those who have the latter 
 rain only. Is it not so with all those instances of late repentance, of eleventh-hour 
 turning to God? Such coming to God at the last does now and then occur, and the 
 promise of our Lord, " Whosoever cometh unto me I will," etc., is made good. Such 
 have the latter rain, but they can hardly be said ever to have known the former. And 
 so, too, with those who all their lifetime have been subject to bondage, have walked in 
 darkness and have seen no light, — to these tried children of God li^ht often comes at 
 eventide ; they have the latter rain, but not the former. And it is so also in many depart- 
 ments of Christiiin work. Take the long and painful history of many of our missions. 
 For how many years, amid how many discouragements, from deaths, desertions, disease, 
 and the like, have the pioneers of those missions toiled on as the missionaries in Central 
 Africa, so repeatedly deprived by death of one and another of their little band, are 
 yet doing ! The early rain has never come, but the latter we are sure they and all 
 such shall have. Oh, how they deserve and demand our sympathy and our earnest 
 prayers ! Shame will it be on the Church at home if these be withheld. But we 
 believe they are not and will not be. These are, however, a third class less blessed 
 than those who have both the former and latter rain, and still less than those who have 
 added on the crown and consummation of all their toil — the joyous harvest. But far, 
 far more blessed are they than that other and last class of whom also we are reminded— 
 IV. Those who have neither op these blessings — neither former nor latter 
 EAIN, NOR HARVEST. The profession of the Christian life may be made, and one or 
 other form of Christian work may be undertaken, but all manner of motives, all manner 
 of reasons, save the alone right and true one, may account for such facts. The religion 
 and the work may alike be hollow, formal, insincere ; a life and a work on which 
 neither the former nor the latter rains of God's Spirit will ever come, and the only 
 harvest which shall be reaped will be one of " shame and everlasting contempt." There 
 is no Divine life in the man's soul, and therefore none in his work either. No more 
 pitiful spectacle can any contemplate than this, and from being examples of it may God 
 in his mercy deliver us all. But there is no need of this. The Lord our God is wont 
 to give "rain, both the former and the latter, in his season," and to reserve unto us the 
 appointed weeks of harvest. This is his declared will. Why, then, should we be with- 
 out his blessing ? Oh, let every one resolve that if importunity of prayer can for 
 Christ's sake win it, we will know the joy of both the former and the latter rain, and 
 will anticipate and look out for the appointed weeks of harvest ! You who have had both 
 the former and the latter rain, be ready for the reaper's work. You who have had but 
 the former rain, plead mightily for the latter too; and you who have had neither, 
 whether in your own life or in your work, remember the fault is your own, but resolve 
 
142 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAII. [oh. v. 1—31. 
 
 in the strength of Grod's grace that it shall be .so no more. Turn to him your Lord and 
 Saviour, who came that you might have life, and might have it more abundantly, and 
 beseech him to give you ■what you must have or die. And so for you and for us all we 
 would pray— 
 
 " Diffuse, O God, those copious showers, 
 That earth its fruit may yield, 
 And change this bai ren wilderness 
 To Oarmel's flowery field." 
 
 0. 
 
 Vers. 27, 28. — The devWs lure. " Their houses are full of deceit, therefore they are 
 become great," etc. 
 
 I. Sevekal of these LUKE8 ARE NAMED HEBE. 1. Wealth : " They are waxen 
 rich." 2. Luxury : " They are waxen fat, they shine." 3. Impunity : " They overpass, 
 . . . they judge not, . . . yet they prosper." 4. /Success : " They prosper." 
 
 II. And the like lures are held out still. Satan is ever seeking, and with 
 sad success, to seduce men by such and similar snares. 
 
 HI. It is what we might expect. For that Satan should in this manner tempt 
 men is in keeping with his constant method of parodying and travestying all the good 
 works of God. What virtue, what Christian grace, is there that he does not carica- 
 ture — modesty by servility, prudence by meanness, generosity by careless waste, etc. ? 
 And so here, " The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich," and hence Satan sets to work 
 to devise a blessing of his which also shall make rich — and this is his great lure. 
 
 IV. And this lure is made the more attractive by the fact that God 
 often suffers his servants to fall into great distress. " Many are the afflic- 
 tions of the righteous ; " " In the world ye shall have tribulation." For God desires 
 that we shall love him for himself, yea, when our earthly interests even plead against 
 him. . Such trial of our faith is exceeding precious in his sight. 
 
 V. Our duty and defence, therefore, is: 1. To look right on beyond the 
 present reward, even to " the end." 2. To expo.se to others the treachery of these 
 apparent rewards. 3. To pray for and cherish the spirit of Nehemiah, who said, " So 
 did not I, because of the fear of God." 4. To yield our heart and soul up to the better 
 attraction of Christ and his cross, until we come to say of him, " Thou art ' mine 
 exceeding joy.' " — 0. 
 
 Ver. 31. — A wonderful and horrible thing indeed. Consider^ 
 I. In what IT consisted. 1. " The prophets prophesy falsely." The prophets were 
 not mere predicters of future events, but the utterers of God's will — those who spoke 
 forth, as the very word " prophet " denotes, the hitherto undeclared mind of God. For 
 this purpose they were specially selected, trained, privilegi'd, commissioned. Hence 
 every inducement that could possibly bear on them to lead them to be faithful to their 
 high charge and trust was theirs: love of their country; approval of their own con- 
 science ; the fear of God ; the sure, if not present, reward of their fidelity which 
 they would receive from God. But yet they prophesied falsely. We could have 
 understood : (1) 'J'heir hesitation in the discharge of their duty. See how Jeremiah 
 himself shrank from it, so stern and arduous was it. It was no light matter to be a 
 prophet in those days. (2) Their silence even. Fear may have rendered them dumb, or 
 hiiiieletsness of doing any good may have silenced them. But that they should prophesy 
 falsely — they from whom fidelity at all costs might have been looked for — that was " a 
 wonderful and horrible," etc. The fountains of truth were poisoned, the helm of the 
 ship was in the hands of those who would steer her on to the rocks. 'J'he light that 
 was in Israel was darkened, therefore bow great was their darkness ! What force such 
 a fact as this lends to the urgency with which : (a) Ood's prophets — his ministers to-day 
 are such — should take heed to themselves and to their doctrine ; and (6) Ood's people 
 should remember in fervent prayer those on whom so high and solemn a charge is laid. 
 2. " TTie priests bear rule by their means." The priests were the more familiar ministers 
 of religion. They were a permanent order, not raised up for special occasions, and they 
 came into contact with men continually. They were supposed " to keep knowledge." 
 They had all the traditions of their order, all the memories of their history and of God's 
 
CH. V. 1— 31.] THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 143 
 
 favour to them. They were independent of the prophets, but were much bound to the 
 people for their sympathy and support. But wliilst independent of the prophets, they 
 were greatly assisted by them in furthering the service of God. And they also had 
 means of knowing the truth. They were able to try the spirits, whether they were of 
 God. Hence they might have known the falsity of the false prophets. And they 
 ought to have exposed it. But instead they combined with them, accepted the aid of 
 their falsehood, and bore rule by their means. For, corrupt as the people were, they 
 would speedily have discovered the wickedness of the priests had not the prophets 
 sided with them. Kow the poison spreads. The prie.sts, coming into contact with all 
 the people, propagate the falsehood of the prophets, shelter themselves behind their 
 authority, and deceive those who trusted in them. Yes, it is " a wonderful and horrible," 
 etc. It is in the power of some to originate falsehood : this the prophets did. It is 
 in the power of others to spread that falsehood abroad: this the jiriests did. Leagued 
 too-ether, the people who trusted them were in evil case indeed. But there was a further 
 element of sorrow to be yet added. 3. The people loved to have it so. (1) This showed 
 that : (a) conscience was dead or drugged ; (J) all perception of their true wisdom was 
 tfone ; (c) there was no remedy but the fire of the judgment of God. ^2) It is explained 
 iiy probable facts that : (a) the poison was disguised ; (b) large licence was allowed. 
 (:i) It reveals the awfully contae;ious nature of moral evil. The dread possibilities of 
 national corruption, against which we are bound to watch and pray. 
 
 II. The question it gives kise to : " What will ye do in the end thereof? " That 
 is to what lenf ths will they go when their wickedness has full hold upon them ? to 
 what depths of degradation will they fall? to what resources will they turn when God's 
 iud^ments come? The sadness of the question lies in the impossibility of satisfactorily 
 answering it. It leads us to the brink of an abyss, at which we can only shudder and 
 pray that none of us may fall therein. 
 
 Conclusion. 1. Thank God that such prophets and priests are the exception to the 
 rule. 2. That when such exceptions are met with, God has provided a remedy against 
 them— in his infallible Word ; in his Spirit, leading us into all truth. 3. Try all that 
 human ministers say by these tests. 4. Seeing how much depends upon them, and 
 what power for good or ill they cannot but have, pray with all importunity tliat God 
 send only faithful men into his ministry, and preserve in their fidelity those who are 
 there already. — 0. 
 
 Vers. 20 24. — Nature's witness against blind eyes and rebellious hearts. Three forms 
 
 of evil are rebuked here. 
 
 I. The dulness of spiritual sensibility that fails to discern tub JJivinb 
 meaning op nature. Israel and Judah are addressed as a " foolish people, without 
 understanding" etc. Their crimes and sorrows sprang in great part out of their blind- 
 ness and thoughtlessness (Isa. i. 3 ; v. 12, 13). They would not use even the powers 
 of spiritual discernment they possessed. They perceived not the Divme presence in 
 natural things— the sounding shore, the revolving seasons— so as to bow with adormg 
 reverence before it. Few things are stranger or sadder than the insensibility of the 
 spirits of men to the Divine in nature. " They have eyes, but do not see " the " invisible 
 thino-s"of the Great Creator " through the things that are made, even his eternal 
 power and Godhead." They must be startled into the recognition of the present God. 
 When some event out of the ordinary course occurs, they stand in awe before it, but in 
 the familiar round of nature they find nothing Divine. We are all more or less open to 
 this charo-e. The earthquake, the lightning flash, the hurricane, set us thinking ot the 
 maiesty of him who wields such mighty forces at his will ; but we forget the still 
 more marvellous exercise of power that maintains the silent harmony of the spheres, 
 holds the due balance of earth and sea, chases away the darkness of the night by 
 the gently spreading dawn of every new morning, brings the grass blades and the 
 flowers up out of the cold sod, ripens the fruit upon the trees, and changes the green 
 carpet of the springing corn into the golden glory of the harvest. Of course it cannot 
 be expected that any incident in the familiar daily round of nature should produce 
 w-ecisely the same effect on us as some new and startling phenomenon. Ihe g lory oJ 
 the setting sun, that we have gazed upon a thousand times before, must needs be less to 
 us in this respect than that of some flaming meteor that bursts suddenly upon the 
 
144 
 
 THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [cii. vi. 1— 30. 
 
 darkness and is gone. But it is deeply significant of the dulness of our spiritual 
 sensibility that we can gaze so often on the world of wonders around us without being 
 solemnly impressed with the presence of the living God. 
 
 II. The self-will that spurns the Divine control. A contrast is here drawn 
 between the subjection of the great sea to the laws God's will has imposed on it, and 
 the bounds his hand has drawn around it, and the insubordination of the rebellious 
 spirit of man. It is a grand expression of Divine power in the material realm that the 
 sea-shore presents. We are impressed with the majestic force of the rolling tide, but, 
 after all, there is something still more wonderful in the solid strength of the belt of sand 
 that resists and restrains it. (Even as the moral strength of a man is seen not so muck 
 in the ungoverned fury of his passions, as in the calm resolution that controls them.) 
 The sea is subject to restraint ; not so the wayward spirit of man. The sea, in its 
 wildest raging, obeys the laws that are imposed on it, and "its own appointed limits 
 keeps ; " but the rebellious heart; of man defies all authority other than its own 
 impulses. How deep the mystery of this difference between material and spiritual 
 forces! How awful the prerogative of a being on whom God has conferred a moral 
 freedom like his own! He will never violate that freedom in any of his dealings with 
 us; that were to destroy the very nature he has given. But in proportion to the 
 dignity of the self-determining power, so dreadful must be the penalty of abusing it. 
 
 III. The ingratitude that yields no return op love for the Divine 
 beneficence. It was an aggravation of the guilt of Israel that they were as unmoved 
 by the perpetual manifestation of the goodness of God as they were by the revelations 
 of his power. Even that did not lead them to repentance or teach them to fear him. 
 Few evidences of the thoughtful goodness of God have'been more conspicuous through all 
 the ages than the beneficent round of the seasons. In spite of all the wickedness of -man's 
 ways, " he left not himself without witness, in that he did good," etc. (Acts xiv. 17). 
 The appeal this great fact makes to the consciences and hearts of men is specially 
 forcible as bearing on those whose calling is to be fellow-workers with God in develop- 
 ing the harvests of the earth. " Labour is a sublime necessity," not as a mere 
 " necessity," but because of its moral meaning and moral uses. And of all physical 
 labour, the husbandry of the earth is most rich in moral associations, as educating men 
 to lowly dependence on God, and grateful devotion to him in response to his fatherly 
 providence and long-suffering grace. 
 
 Learn — As all Divine manifestations speak to us alike of infinite power and infinite 
 beneficence, so the result in us should be the blended affections of fear and love. — W. 
 
 EXPOSITION. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 A prophecy, in five stanzas or strophes, 
 vividly describing the judgment and its 
 causes, and enforcing the necessity of re- 
 pentance. 
 
 Vers. 1 — 8. — Arrival of a hostile army 
 from the north, and summons to flee from 
 the doomed city. 
 
 Ver. 1. — ye children of Benjamin. The 
 political rank of Jerusalem, as the capital of 
 the kingdom of Judah. makes it difhcult to 
 realize that Jerusalem was not locally a city 
 of Judah at all. It belonged, strictly speak- 
 ing, to the tribe of Benjamin, a tribe whose in- 
 significance, in comparison with Judah, seems 
 to have led to the adoption of a form of ex- 
 pression not literally accurate (see Ps.lxxviii. 
 68). The true state of the case is evident 
 from an examination of the two parallel pas- 
 sages, Josh. XV. 7, 8, and xviii. 16, 17. As 
 
 Mr. Fergusson points out, "The boundary 
 between Judah and Benjamin . . . ran at the 
 foot of the hill on which the city stands, so 
 that the city itself was actually in Benjamin, 
 wliile, by crossing the narrow ravine of 
 Hinnom, you set foot on the territory of 
 Judah " (Smith's ' Dictionary of the Bible,' 
 i. 983). It is merely a specimen of the un- 
 natural method of early harmonists when 
 Jewish writers tell us that the altars and 
 the sanctuary were in Benjamin, and the 
 courts of the temple in Judah. The words 
 of " the blessing of Moses " are clear (Dtut. 
 xxxiii. 12) : " The beloved of the Lord ! he 
 shall dwell in safety by him, sheltering him 
 continually, and between his shoulders he 
 dwelleth ; " i.e. Benjamin is specially pro- 
 tected, the sanctuary being on Benjamite 
 soil. And yet these highly favoured " chil- 
 dren of Benjamin " are divinely warned to 
 flee from their sacred homes (see ch. vii. 4— 
 7). Gather yourselves to flee ; more strictly, 
 
CH. VI. 1—30.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 
 
 145 
 
 tave your goods hy flight. In ch. iv. 6 the 
 same advice was giveu to the inhabitants of 
 the country districts. There, Jerusalem was 
 rcpreiiented as the only safe refuge; here, 
 the capital being no Innger tenable, the wild 
 piisture-lund to the south (the foe being ex- 
 ptcted from the north) becomes the goal of 
 the fugitives of Jerusalem. Inlekoa. Tekoa 
 was u town in the wild hill-country to the 
 south of Judab, the birthplace of the prophet 
 Amos. It is partly meutioneil bucause its 
 name seems to connect it with the verb 
 i«udered blow the tinmpet. Such parono- 
 masiie are favourite oratorical instruments 
 of the prophets, and especially in cormections 
 like the present (comp. Isa, x. 30; Micah i. 
 10 — 15). A sign of &ce is Beth-haccerem ; 
 rather, o signal on, Belh-hahke'rem. The ren- 
 dering of Authorized Version was suggested 
 by Judg. XX. 38, 40 ; but there is nothing 
 in the present context (as there is in that 
 passage) to favour the view that a fiery 
 beacon is intuuded. Beth-hakkerem lay, 
 according to St. Jerome, on an eminence 
 between Jerusalem and Tekoa ; i.e. probubly 
 the hill known as the Frank Muuntain, the 
 Arabic name of which {Djebel el-Faraidis, 
 Little Parudise Mountain) is a not unsuit- 
 able equivalent for the Hebrew (Vimyard- 
 liouse). The " district of Beth-hakkerem " 
 is mentioned in Neh. iii. 14. The choice of 
 the locality for tlie signal was a perfect one. 
 "There is no other tell," reinaiks Dr. 
 Thomson, "of equal heiglitand size in Pales- 
 tine." Appeareth ; rather, bendeth /or ward, 
 as if it were ready to fall. 
 
 Ver. 2. — I have likened ... a comely and 
 deUoatB woman. This passage is one of the 
 mo.>t difticult in the book, and if there is cor- 
 luption of the text anywhere, it is here. The 
 must generally adopted rendering is, " The 
 comely and dtlicate one will I destroy, even 
 the daughter of Zinn," giving the verb the 
 same sense as in Hns. iv. 5 (literally it is, 
 / haee brauijlit to silnice, or peifect of pro- 
 phetic certitude). Tlie context, however, 
 teems to favour the rendering " pasturage " 
 (including the idea of a nomad settlement), 
 instead of "crmiely; " but how to make thij 
 lit in with the remainder of the existing text 
 is far from c ear. The true and original 
 reading probably only survives in fragments. 
 
 Ver. 3. — The shepherds with their flocks, 
 etc.; rather, To her name shepherds with their 
 flocks ; they have pitcht-d their tents round 
 iiltout her; they have pastured each at his side. 
 The liest connneiitiiry on the last clause is 
 furnished by Numb, x.^ii. 4, " Now shall this 
 company lick up all that are round about us, 
 as the ox licketh up the grass of the field." 
 
 Ver. 4.— Prepare ye war; literally, sane- 
 tify (or, consecrate) war. The foes are dra- 
 matically described as urging each other on 
 at the different stages of the campaign. The 
 
 JKREMIAH. 
 
 war is to be opened with sacrifices (comp. 
 Isa. xiil. 3 with 1 Sam. xiii. 9); next there 
 Is a forced march, so as to take the city by 
 storm, when the vigilance of its defenders 
 is relaxed in the fierce noontide heat 
 (comp. ch. XV. 8) ; evening surprises the foe 
 still on the way, but they press steadily on, to 
 do tlieir work of destruction by night. The 
 rapidity of the marches of the Chaldeans im- 
 pressed another prophet of the reign of Josiah 
 — Habakkuk (see Hab. i. 6, 8). Woe unto 
 us ! for the day goeth away ; rather, Alas for 
 us ! for the day hath turned. 
 
 Ver. 5. — Let as go; rather, let us go up. 
 " To go up " is the teclmical term for the 
 movements of armies, whether advancing 
 (as here and Isa. vii. ] ) or retreating (as ch! 
 xxi. 2; xxxiv. 21; ixxvii. 5, 11). 
 
 Ver. 6. — Hew ye down trees ; rather, Ker 
 trees. Hewing down trees was an ordinary 
 feature of Assyrian and Babylonian expe- 
 ditinns. Thus, Assurna9irpal "caused the 
 foi ests of all (his enemies) to fall " (' Records 
 of the Past,' iii. 40, 77), and Shalmaneser 
 calls himself " the trampler on the heads of 
 mountains and all forests "(Ibid., p. 83; comp. 
 p. 90). The timber was partly required for 
 their palaces and fleets, but also, as the con- 
 text here suggests, for warlike operations. 
 " Trees," as Professor Bawlinsou remarks, 
 " were sometimes cut down and built into the 
 mound " (see next note) ; they would also be 
 used for the " bulwarks " or siege instru- 
 ments spoken of in Deut. xx. 20. Cast a 
 mount j literally, pour a mount (or " bank," 
 as it is elsewhere rendered), with reference 
 to the emptying of the baskets of earth re- 
 quired for building up the " mount" (mound). 
 Habakkuk (i. 10) says of the Chaldeans, "He 
 laugheth utevery stronghold, and /leapeWt up 
 earth, and tal<eth it " (comp. also 2 Sam. xx. 
 15 ; Isa. xxxvii. 33). The intention of the 
 mound was not so much to bring the be- 
 siegers on a level with the top of the walls as 
 to enable them to work the battering-rams 
 to better advantage (Rawlinson, ' Ancient 
 Monarchies,' i. 472). She is wholly oppres- 
 sion, etc. ; rather, she is the city that if 
 punislied; wholly oppression is in the midst 
 of her. 
 
 Ver. 7. — As a fountain oasteth out ; rather, 
 OS a cistern keepelh fresh (literally, cool). The 
 wickedness of Jerusalem is so thoroughly 
 ingrained that it seems to pass into act by 
 a law of nature, just as a cistern cannot help 
 always yielding a supply of cool, fresh water. 
 Violence and spoil ; rather, injustice and 
 violence (so ch. xx. 8 ; Amos iii. 10; Hab. i. 
 3). Before me, etc. ; rather, before my face 
 cohtinually is sickness and wounding. The 
 ear is constantly dinned witli the sounds of 
 opjuession, and the eye pained with the sighl 
 of the ijodily sufferings of the victims. I'lie 
 word for " sickueSB " is applicable to any kind 
 
146 
 
 THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. vi. 1—30. 
 
 of infirmity (see Isa. liii. 3, 4), but the con- 
 text clearly limits it here to bodily trouble. 
 
 Ver. 8. — Be thou instruoted ; rather, Let 
 thyself be corrected (Authorized Version 
 misses the sense, a very important one, of 
 the conjugatidn, which is Nifal tohraticum 
 (comp. Ps. ii. 10; Isa. liii 12). The phrase 
 is equivalent to " receive correction" (ch. ii. 
 30 ; V. 3), and means to accept the warning 
 conveyed in the Divine chastisement. Lest 
 my soul, etc. ; rather, lest my soul be rent from 
 thee (Authorized Version renders the same 
 verb iu Ezek. xxiii. 17, " be alienated "). 
 
 Vers. 9—15. — It is an all but complete 
 judgment which Jehovah foreshows. Un- 
 >rilling as the people are to hear it, the 
 disclosure must be made. 
 
 Ver. 9.— They shall throughly glean, etc. 
 "Israel" has already been reduced to a 
 " remnant ; " the ten ti-ibes have lost their 
 independence, and Judah alone renjains 
 (ch. V. 15). Even Judah shall undergo a 
 severe sifting process, which is likened to 
 a gleaning (comp. Isa. xxiv. 13; Obad. 5; 
 ch. xlix. 9). The prospect is dark, but 
 believers in God's promises would remember 
 that a few grapes were always left after the 
 guthcring (conip. Isa. xvii. fi). Turn hack 
 thine hand. If the text is correct, the 
 .speaker here addresses the leader of the 
 gleaners. Keil thinks this change of con- 
 struction is to emphasize the cirtainty of 
 tlie predicted destruction. But it is much 
 more natural (and in perfect harmony with 
 many other similar phenomena of the re- 
 ceived text) to suppose, with Hitzig, that the 
 letter represented in the Authorized Version 
 by "thine" lias uri-en by a mistaken repe- 
 tition of tlie first letter of the following word, 
 and (the verl^al form being the same for the 
 infiiiitiie and the impeiative) to render 
 turning arjain tliC hand. In tiiis case the 
 clanse will be dependent on the preceding 
 statement as tn the "gleaning" of Judah. 
 Iui;o ihe baskets ; rather, unto the shoots, l he 
 gleaners will do their work wiih a stern 
 thoroughness, laying the hand of destruction 
 again and ag.iiu upon the vino-shoots. 
 
 Ver. 10. — -Their ear is unciroumoised ; 
 covered as it were with a foreskin, which 
 pre.ents the prophetic message from find- 
 ing admitlance. Elsewhere it is the heart 
 (Lev. xxvi. 41 ; Ezek. xliv. 7), or the lips 
 (Exod. vi. 12) which are said to be " circum- 
 cised ; " a piipsagi) iu Stephen's speech ap- 
 plies the epithet both to the heart and to 
 the ears (Acts vii. 51). 
 
 Ver. 11. — therefore I am full; rather. But 
 I am full. I will pour it out. The text hns 
 "pour it out." The sudden transition to 
 the imperative is certainly harsli, and ex- 
 cuses tlie conjertiiral emeiidat.'un, which under- 
 lies thereudeiingof tile Authorized Version. 
 If we retain the imperative, we must explain 
 
 it with reference to Jeremiah's inner expe- 
 rience. There are, we must remember, two 
 selves in the prophet (comp. Isa. xxi. 6), 
 and the higher prophetic self here addresses 
 the lower or human self, and calls upon it 
 no longer to withhold the divinely com- 
 municated burden. All clasfes, as the 
 sequel announces, are to share in the dread 
 calamity. Upon the children abroad; liter- 
 ally, upon the child in tlie street (comp. 
 Zech. viii. 5). The assembly of young men. 
 It is a siicial assembly which is meant (comp. 
 ch. XV. 17, " the assembly of the laughers "). 
 
 Ver. 12. — Shall be turned ; i.e. trausfem d. 
 Their fields and wives. Wives are regarded 
 as a property, as in Exod. xx. 17 (couip. 
 Dent. V. 21). 
 
 Ver. 13. — Given to oovetousness ; literally, 
 gaiiieth gain; but the word here rendered 
 " gain " implies that it is unrighteous gain 
 (the root means "to tear"). Unjust gain 
 and murder are repeatedly singled out in 
 tJLe Old Testament as repres.'ntative sins 
 (comp. Ezek. xxxiii. 31 ; Ps. cxix. 36 ; isa. 
 i. 15 ; ch. ii. 34 ; and see my note on Isa. 
 Ivii. 17). There is a special reason for the 
 selection of " covetousuesa " here. Land was 
 the object of a high-born Jew's ambition, 
 and expulsion from his land was his appro- 
 priate punishment (comp. Isa. v. 8, 9). 
 
 Ver. 14.— They have healed, etc. The full 
 force of the verb is, " they have busie 1 
 themselves about healing" (so ch. viii. 11; 
 Ii. 9). Of the daughter. Our translators 
 evidently had before them a text which 
 omitteiltliese words, in accordance with many 
 Hebrew manuscripts and the Septuagint; 
 Van der Hooght's text, however, contai s 
 them, as also does the parallel passage (ch. 
 viii. 11). Slightly; or, ii;/7i% ; Septaigint, 
 4iouBtvoivTes. Saying, Peace, peaoe. Always 
 the burden of the mere professional prophets, 
 who, as one of a higher order — tlie bold, uu- 
 cnmpromisin;; Micah —fittingly characterizes 
 them, "bite with their teeth, and cry. Peace;" 
 i.e. diaw flattering pictures of the state and 
 prospects of their country, in order to " Hue 
 tlieir own poclieta" (Micah iii. 5). 
 
 Vir. 15. — Were they ashamed 1 The Autho- 
 rized Version certainly meets the require- 
 ments of the ojntext ; there seems to be 
 nil implied interrogation. Most, however, 
 render, "They are lirouj.'ht to shame;" in 
 which case it seems best to take the verb in 
 a perfect of proplietin certitmle, equivalent 
 to " they shall surely be brought lo shame." 
 When ; rather, because. Nay, they were not 
 at all ashamed; ruthcr, neverthelrs* they fet-l 
 no shame (i.e. at present). Ihey shall be 
 oast down; rather, thnj shall stumble. 
 
 Vers. 16— 21.— Without hearty repentaneo, 
 there is no hope of escape. But hitheito 
 Judah has rejected all uduionitions. What 
 availeth mere ceremonial punctuality ? 
 
CH. VI. 1—30.] THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 
 
 147 
 
 Yoi. 16. — Stand ye in the ways; literally, 
 station, yourselofs on (nr, hy) roads, i.e. at the 
 raueliif>;-point of diffen-nt ri.nds. There (as 
 the following words state) the Jews are to 
 make inquiry as to the old paths. An- 
 tiquity Kives a presumption of rightness ; 
 the ancients were nearer to the days when 
 God spolfe with man ; they had the guidance 
 of God's two niiglity " shepherds " (Isa. 
 Ixiii. 11 ; they knew, far belter than we, 
 wh ) "are liut of yisterday, and know no- 
 thing" (Job viii. U), the way of happiiicss. 
 For though there are many pietended 
 " ways," there is but " cue way " (ch. xxxii. 
 39) which has Jehovah's blessing (Ps. xxv. 
 8,9). 
 
 Ver. 17. — Also I set; rather, and I Itept 
 raising up (tlie frequentative perfect). 
 Watchmen; i.e. prnphuts (l";zek. iii. 17, and 
 part of Isa. Iii. 8 ; Ivi. 10). Hearken, etc. 
 Probahly the words of Jehovali. Sianding 
 on their high watch-tower (Hab. ii. 1), the 
 prophets scrutinize the horizon for the first 
 appearance of danger, and give warning of 
 it by (metaijhorically) blowing a trumpet 
 (so Amos iii. 6). 
 
 Ver. 18. — Therefore hear, etc. Remon- 
 strance being useless, the sentence upon 
 Israel can no longer bedeliiyed, and Jehovah 
 Kunnnons the nations of tue earih as wit- 
 nesses (comp. Mieah i. 2; Isa. xviii. H; 
 Ps. xlix. 1). congregation, what is among 
 them. The passage is obscure. "Congrega- 
 tion" can only refer to the foreign nations 
 mentioned in the first clause; for Israel could 
 not be called upon to hoar the judgment 
 " upon this people " (ver. 19). There is, 
 however, no other jjassoge in which the word 
 has this reference. The words rendered 
 " what is among Ihem," or " what (shall 
 hiippen)in them," seem unnaturally laounic, 
 and not as weighty as one would expect after 
 the solemn introduction. If correct, they 
 must of course refer to the Israelites, llut 
 Graf's conjecture that the text is corrupt 
 lies near at liand. The least alteration which 
 will remove the difficulties of the passage is 
 that presupposed liy the i endering of Aquila 
 ( iot Symniachus, as St. Jerome says; see 
 Ficll's 'Hexapla') and J. U. Michaelis, 
 "the testimony which is against them." 
 
 Ver. 19.— The fruit of their thoughts. 
 That punishment is the ripe fruit of sm, is 
 the doctrine of the Old (Isa. iii. 10; Ps. 
 Iviii. 11, margin) as well as of the New Tes- 
 tament (J as. i. 15). 
 
 Ver. 20. — To what purpose . . . incense 
 from Shela T This is the answer to an im- 
 jilied objection on the part of the Jews, that 
 they have faithfully fulfilled their cere- 
 monial obligations. " To obey is betti-r than 
 SMcrifice" (1 Sam. xv. 22); "And what doth 
 the Loid require of thee, but to do justly, 
 and to love meicy, and to walk humbly with 
 
 thy God?" (Micah vi. 8; comp. Isa. i. 11; 
 Amos V. 21— 24 ; lios. vi. 6 ; Micah vi. 6—8). 
 All these passages must bo read in the light 
 of the prophets' circumstances. A purely 
 formal, petrified religion compelled them to 
 attack the existing priesthood, and a holy 
 indignation cannot stop to measure its lan- 
 guage. Incense from Sheha ; frankincense 
 frcmi soutli-west Arabia. This was required 
 for the holy incen e (Exod. xxx. 34), and as 
 an addition to t! e miukhah, or "mi al offer- 
 ing." Sweet cane. The '• sweet calamus " 
 of Kxod. xxx. 23, which was imported from 
 India. It was an ingredient in the holy 
 anointing oil (Exud., hic. cit.). Not to be 
 confounded with the sugar-cane. 
 
 Ver. 21. — I will lay stumbling-blocks, eto. 
 Of the regenerate Israel of the future it Is 
 prophesied (Isa. liv. l.i) that his enemies 
 sliall " fall upon him [or, ' by reason of hira']." 
 Of the unrcgeneriite Israel uf the present, 
 that he shall " fall" [i.e. come to ruin) upon 
 the " stumbling-blocks" presented, not with- 
 out God's appointment, by the terrible 
 northern invadi-r. 
 
 Vers. 22 — 30. — The enemy described ; the 
 terror eonseqnent on his arrival ; a rumoured 
 declaration of the moral cause of the judg- 
 ment. 
 
 Ver. 22. — From the north country (so 
 oh. i. 14 (see note) ; iv. 6). Shall be raised ; 
 rather, shall he aroused. The sides of the earth; 
 rather, " the reci sses (i.e. furthest parts) of 
 the earth " (so ch. xxxv. 32 ; Isa. xiv. 13). 
 
 Vei-. 23. —Spear ; rather,j(iie?i» (or lance). 
 They are oruel. The cruelty of the Assyrians 
 and Babylonians seems to have spread 
 general dismay. Nahum calls Nineveh 
 " the city of bloodshed " (iii. 1) ; Habakkuk 
 styles the Chaldeans "biiter and vehement, 
 terrihle and dreadful " (i. 6, 7). The cus- 
 toms brought out into view in the monu- 
 ments justify this most amply, though 
 Professor Eawlinson thinks we cannot call 
 the Assyrians (with whom the Babylonians 
 may of course be coupled) naturally hard- 
 hearted. "The Assyiian listens to the 
 enemy who asks for quarter; he prefers 
 making prisoners to slaying; he is very 
 terrible in the battle and the assault, but 
 afterwarils he forgives an.l spares" ('Ancient 
 MonHrcnies,' i. 243). Their voice roareth. 
 The horrid roar of the advancing hosts 
 teems to have greatly struck the Jews 
 (comp. Isa. v. 30; xvii. 12, 13). 
 
 Ver. 24. — We have heard the fame thereof. 
 The prophet identifies himself (oomp., for 
 the same jihenomenon, ch. iv. 19 — 21; x. 
 19, 20) with his people, and expresses tlie 
 general feeling of an.tiety and pain. Tlje 
 phraseology of the closing lines reminds us 
 of Isa. xiii. 7, 8. 
 
 Ver. 25 — Go not forth into the field. The 
 " daughter of Zion " (i.e. the peraonitic po- 
 
148 
 
 THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [en. vi. 1— 3a 
 
 pulation of JeniBalem) is cautioned against 
 venturing outside the walls. The sword of 
 the enemy ; rather, the enemy hath a sword. 
 Fear is on every side ; Hebrew, magor miisa- 
 hib ; one of Jeremiah's favourite expressions 
 (see ch. xx. K, 1(1 ; xlvi. 5 ; xlix. 29 ; and 
 comp. Ps. xxxi. 13 [14]). Naturally of a 
 timid, retiring character, the prophet cannot 
 help feeling the anxious and alarming 
 situation into which at the Divine command 
 he has ventured. 
 
 Ver. 26. — Wallow thyself in ashes; rather, 
 sprinlele thyself with anhes, a sign of mourn- 
 ing (2 Sam. xiii. 19; so Micah i. 10). 
 atonming, as tor an only son. The Septuagint 
 renders irivdos ayawriTov (comp. Gen. xxii. 2, 
 where in like manner the Septuagint renders, 
 not " thine only son," but " thy beloved 
 bom"). Possibly this was to avoid a sup- 
 position wUich might have occurred to 
 some readers 'Jt lias, in fact, occurred to 
 several modern critics) that the "only son ' 
 was Adonis, who was certainly " mourned 
 for" by some of the Israelites under the 
 name of Thammuz (Ezek. viii. 14), and 
 whose Phoenician name is given by Philo 
 of Bylilus as 'UoiS (i.e. probably Yakliidh, 
 only begotten, the word used by Jeremiah; 
 comp. BripovS, equivalent to Berith). M. 
 Kenan found a vestige of tlie ancient festival 
 of Adonis at Djebeil (the Phoenician Gebal) 
 even at the present day. There would be 
 nothing singular in the adoption of a com- 
 mon popular phrase by the prophet, in spite 
 of its reference to a heathen custom (comp. 
 Job iii. 8), and the view in question gives 
 additional force to the passnge. But the 
 ordinary explanation is perfectly tenable 
 and more obvious. The phrase, " mourning 
 [or, 'lamentation '] for an only begotten one," 
 occurs again in Amos viii. lU ; Zech. xii. 10. 
 In the last-ment oned passage it is parallel 
 with " bitter weeping for a firstborn." 
 
 Ver. 27. — I have sat thee, etc. ; literally, 
 as an amayer have I set thee among my 
 people, a fortress. Various attempts have 
 been made to avoid giving the last word its 
 natural rendering, "a foitriss." Ewald, for 
 instance, would alter the points, and render 
 " a separator [of metals]," thus making the 
 \Nord synouymous with that translated "an 
 assayer;" but this is against Hebrew usage. 
 Hitzig, assuming a doubtful interpreta- 
 tion of Job xxii. 24, renders "... among 
 my people without gold," i.e. " without 
 there being any gold there for thee to as- 
 say " (a very awkward form of expression). 
 These are the two most plausible views, and 
 yet neither of them is satisfactory. Nothing 
 remaina but the very simple conjecture, 
 
 supported by not a few similar phenomena, 
 that mibhfar, a fortress, has been inserted 
 by mistake from the margin, whc re an early 
 glossator had written the word, to remind 
 of the parallel passage (ch. i. 18, "I have 
 made thee this day a fortress-city," 'ir 
 milihfar). In this and the following verses 
 metallurgic phraseology is employed with a 
 moral application (couip. Isa. i. 22, 25). 
 
 Ver. 28. — (irieTons revolters; literally, 
 rebels of rebels. Walking; rather, going 
 abdut, as a pedlar witli his wares (so Piov. 
 xi. 13; XX. 19; Lev. xix. 16). Jeremiah 
 had good ri ason to specify this characteristic 
 of his enemies (see ch. xviii. 18). Brass and 
 Iron ; rather, copper and iron, in short, base 
 metal. 
 
 Ver. 29. — The hallows are httmed. The 
 objection to this rendering is that the burn- 
 ing (if the bellows would involve the inter- 
 ruption of the process of assaying. Wo 
 might, indeed, translate "are scorched" (on 
 the authority of Ezek. xv. 4), and attach 
 the word rendt red " of the fire " to the first 
 clause ; the half-verse would then run : 
 " The bellows are scorched through the fire; 
 the lead is consumed," i.e. the bellows are 
 even scorched through the heat of the 
 furnace, and the leail has become entirely 
 oxydized. But this requires us to alter the 
 verb from the masculine to the feminine 
 form of third sing. peif. (reading tammah). 
 It is better, therefore, to give the verb (which 
 will be Kid, if the )iu» be radical) the sense 
 of " snorting," which it has in Aramaic and 
 in Arabic, and which the corresponding noun 
 has in Hebrew (ch. viii. 16; Job xxxix. 20; 
 xli. 12). The masculine form of the verb 
 rendered " is consumed ' is still a difiiculty ; 
 but we have a better right to suppose that 
 the first letter of tillom was dropped, owing 
 to its identity with the second letter, than 
 to append las the first view would require 
 ns) an entirely different letter at the end. 
 This being done, the whole passage becomes 
 clear: "The bellows puff, (that) the lead 
 may be consumed of tiie fire." In any ca-e, 
 the general meaning is obvious. The 
 assayer has spared no trouble, uU the rules 
 of his art have been obeyed, but no silver 
 appears as the result of the process. Lead 
 is mentioned, because, before quicksilver 
 was known, it was employed as a flux in 
 the operation of smelting. Flacked away; 
 rather, separated, like tlie dross from the 
 silvir. 
 
 Ver. 30. — Beprohate silver . . . rejected 
 them; rather, re/use silver (as the margin) 
 . . . refuted iliein. The verbal root is the 
 same. 
 
CH. VI. 1—30.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 149 
 
 HOMILETICS. 
 
 Ver. 7. — Wells of wickedness. I. If wickednkss is abundant and persistent, it 
 MUST COME FROM A DEEP SOURCE. The wickedness of Israel is constantly renewed— 
 ever fresh and abundant, like water in a well. Such water must flow out of deep 
 fountains. The continuity of a course of sin proves that its origin is deep-seated. The 
 sin of hasty temper is less than that of deliberate calculation, the fall before sudden 
 temptation more excusable than the wilful choice of evil, the occasional slip less 
 culpable than the continuous habit of wickedness. This haldtual sin must be rooted 
 in a, man's nature. Springing out under all circumstances, it is seen to be, not an 
 outside delect, but a fruit of his own inner life. Constantly flowing in spite of all 
 nstraints of law, social influence, and conscience, it shows how thoroughly corrupt the 
 heart must be (Matt. xv. 18). 
 
 II. If wickedness is dkep-seatbd in the heart, it must plow out in frequent 
 ACTS. The spring cannot restrain its waters ; the heart cannot repress its imaginations. 
 These must come forth and express themselves in deeds. Men may aim at living two 
 lives — ail inner life of sin and an outer life of propriety; but the attempt must ulti- 
 mately fail. The greater the evil of the heart, the more completely must this colour 
 the life. 
 
 III. Deep-seated and ever-flowing wickedness provokes the severest judg- 
 ment FROM God. Jeremiah points totl'is as the terrible justification for the approach- 
 ing desolation of the land. 1. In itself it is most heinous, and carries the greatest guilt. 
 2. It is so radically evil that it impregnates the whole nature of the people in whom it 
 dwells, so that they cannot be regarded as doers of wickedness only, but as wicked ; 
 iiot as those who have committed acts of dishonesty, untruth, violence, etc., but as 
 thieves, liars, murderers, etc. 3. Ever-flowing, it promises no better things for the 
 future. If left to itself, it will but repeat the sickening tale of the past with aggiavated 
 depravity. 4. It is the source of evil to others. The sin flows out. It must be 
 checked for the protection of all who come under its influence. 
 
 Vers. 10, 11. — The indifference of men and the burden of truth. We have here 
 revealed to us a conflict in the mind of the prophet. At first it seems vain for him to 
 speak, for none heed his warnings (ver. 10) ; but then he feels the awful burden of his 
 message comieliing utterance. While he looks at his audience he loses heart and sees 
 little good in attempting to influence them ; but when he looks withm at his trust he 
 finds that this has claims and powers before which he must bow obediently. Thus the 
 teacher of high truth is often discouraged when he considers the unfitness of men to 
 receive it, uutil he realizes more fully the majesty of the truth itself which possesses 
 him and is not simply a treasure to be regarded as his property, but a Lord demanding 
 Ills faithful service. 
 
 I. The indifference op men. Here was the source of Jeremiah's discouragement, 
 and we can sympathize with him. What is the use of uttering truths that men are 
 not flt to receive — only to waste our powers, create misunderstandings, and provoke 
 O|iposition? 1. The reception of truth depends on the condition of the receiving mind. 
 language requires ears as well as tongues. Outward ears are useless without the 
 inward ears of an understanding mind. An ass has no lack of ears, but what are a 
 ]irophet's words to him ? There are people to whom the solemn utterance of the most 
 awful truths is but so much noise. Therefore (1) it behoves men to beware of mocking- 
 at the supposed folly of any teaching till they have ascertained whether the fault lies 
 with the teacher or with the taught. And (2) it is not enough to utter truth; we 
 should seek fur men the right preparation for receiving it — the ploughing of the hard 
 soil in readiness for the sowing of the seed. 2. When the mind is in a wrong con- 
 dition for the reception of truth this may meet with ridicule and dislike. Truth may 
 meet with ridicule. The word of Jehovah was "a mockery to the Jews." Ridicule 
 may be both a result of misunderstanding the truth and a cause of further mistakes. 
 Truth may also meet with dislike. The Jews had " no delight " in the Uivine Word. 
 This was a proof of their not understanding it ; for to know it is to love it (Ps. cxix. 
 
150 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEHEMIAH. [ch. vi. 1— 30, 
 
 16). It was also a cause of their not rightly receiving it ; for dislike to truth blinds 
 the eye to the nature of it. 
 
 II. The burden of truth. In spite of all these grounds for discouragement, 
 Jeremiah feels that he must utter his message when once he coDSiders its origin and 
 character. 1. Truth is a trust from Qod. It is "the fury of the Lord" that pi issesses 
 the prophet, not the mere passion of his own tlioui^hts. He who holds a Divine truth 
 is a steward of an oracle of God. Woe to him if he consult his own convenience and 
 rely only on his own jud;j;ment when, as a steward, he is called to be faithful to his 
 Master's will. His duty is to speak ; tlie consequences may be left to God. 2. Truth 
 is an inspiration from God. Jeremiah is " full of the fury of Jehovah." The Spirit 
 of God has possessed him ; he is brought into sympathy with the thought and feeling of 
 God : he must needs utter this. If men feel the inspiration of truth they will be carried 
 away by it and poor considerations of worldly expediency will be swept on one side by 
 the flood of a Divine passion. 3. Truth is a burden on the soul which cries for utter- 
 ance. Jeremiah exclaims, " I am weary with holding in ! " " Woe is me ! " cries St. 
 Paul, as he thinks of the suggestion to restrain his preaching the gospel. Under great 
 passions men do not speak measured words, chosen in strict consideration for their 
 hearers; they speak to give vent to their own souls. The grandest utterances of 
 humanity, in prophecy and in poetry, are free from all calculations as to the reception 
 of them by an audience. They are unrestrainable expressions of the soul; like the 
 songs of birds flowing from the very fulness of the heiirt. 4. Truth is fir the good of 
 mankind. Jeremiah must speak, for what he utters concerns others than himself. No 
 one has a right to the monopoly of any great truth. It is common property, and he 
 ■who hides it steals it. If his excuse is that men cannot understand it, let him remember 
 (1) that he is not an infallible judge of the capacities of other men ; and (2) that his 
 duty is to bear his testimony, whether men will hear or no, and to leave all further 
 responsibility with them. 
 
 Ver. 14. — False peace. I. The craving for peace is natural. These false 
 prophets gained their influence by professing to satisfy a natural instract. The Jews 
 dreaded war with their great neighbours. 1. All wicked men are at heart in a state 
 <f unrest. The soul that sins is at war with God, with the law and order of the 
 universe, with its own nature. 2. This condition is distressing. The outward warfare 
 begets inward unrest. Then, above all things, peace is the great want of the soul. 
 Wealth, success, hajjpiness, can be spared if but this jewel is still preserved. All 
 great philosophies and all earnest religions set themselves to the task of discovering 
 or creating it. 
 
 II. The pretensions of false peace are plausible. The prophets dissuaded their 
 hearers from attending to the warning words of Jeremiah, and endtavoured to make 
 them believe that they were in no danger. There is much that is very popular in 
 arguments such as theirs. 1. They agree with the wishes of the hearers. Men are 
 always inclined to believe what they wish. 2. They flatter the pride of the populace. 
 The people are told that they are too great and too favoured of Heaven to sufler any 
 serious calamity, and they are only too ready to believe it. 3. They claim the merits of 
 charity. They promise pleasant things. This looks more charitable than the threat- 
 ening language of stern censors. Hence the prophets win favour for their apparent 
 geniality and liberal sentiments. 4. They require no sacrifices from those who accept 
 them. The doctrine is popular because the practice flowing from it is easy. The 
 flattering prophets called to no reforraiition of character. 5. They have appearances in 
 their favour. At present all looks fair. Is not this a presumption that the future 
 •will be happy ? The sun is rising in gold and crimsou ; why, then, prophesy the 
 approach of a storm ? 
 
 III. The pretensions of false peace are ruinous. 1. These pretensions do 
 nothing to secure the peace. They simply lead men to believe that they are to enjoy 
 it. Such a belief cannot alter fjcts. If there is no peace we do not make peace by 
 cryinc;, " Peace, peace ! " This is the language of folly and indolence. 2. These 
 delusions only aggravate the danger. They prevent men from preparing for the 
 calamity by blinding them to the near advent of it. 
 
 IV. There is a way by which the natuIial craving foe peace may be satisfied. 
 
CH. VI, 1—30.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 151 
 
 The deceiving prophets do not make peace ; they only talk of it. But in the teaching 
 of true prophets and apostles the way to secure solid peace is revealed. 1. This is shown 
 to be not immediate. Jeremiah was right in saying that the people must suffer before 
 they enjoyed peace. Clirist, the Prince of peace, came to " send a sword " (Matt. x. 34). 
 The gospel does not preach " peace at any price," but peace after victory in warfare, 
 rest after patii'nt endurance of tribulation. 2. This is shown to be through repentance 
 and renewal of life. The deceiving prophets promise peace to the people as they are. 
 While we are in sin we cannot have true peace (Isa. xlviii. 22). Peace follows the 
 advent of the Spirit of Christ (John xiv. 26, 27). 
 
 Ver. 16. — The old paths. I. Coksider the recommendation to follow the old 
 PATHS. 1. The course of life should be (ietermiiied after thoughtful deliberation. 
 Jeremiah is to "stana in the ways and see." It is foolish to go with the multitude 
 without individual convictions of what is right, or to ibllow our own private impulses 
 blindly and aimlessly. 2. The choice should fall on a good way. Other ways may be 
 smooth, pleasant, flowery at the starting, only to lose themselves in the pathlt-ss 
 wilderness, while this may look more rugged and steep at first ; but it should not be 
 the present attractiveness, but the direction, the whole course and the end of a way, 
 which should determine our choice of it. 3. There are old paths of right. Religion 
 lias not to be made anew. It is not left for the latest saint to discover the way of 
 holiness. 4. Having found the right way, we should forthwitli " walk therein." Know- 
 ledge is useless without practice ; nay, guilt is aggravated if, knowing the right, we 
 follow the wrong. 5. In the right way is rest for the soul. Even while on the 
 earthly pilgrimage many quiet resting-places may be found (Ps. xxiii, 2), through 
 all the course an inward peace may be enjoyed (Prov. iii. 17), and at the end will be 
 found the perfect rest of tlie home of God (Heb. iv. 9). 
 
 II. Consider the grounds on which this recommendation is based. 1. Old ways 
 have been tested by experience. We choose for a guide one who has already trHVersed 
 the country. In an unknown land we naturally turn to beaten tracks in preference to 
 following stray footprints across the wild, or striking out for ourselves a pathless way. 
 If others have done rough pioneer work, why should not we avail ourselves of it? If 
 the)' have reached the goal, they have proved that it is attainable by their way. 
 This is fact; that a new way will be easier or shorter is conjecture. There is,' 
 therefore, a presumption in favour of the old. 2, Old ways in religion are nearer to 
 the original fountains of inspiration. Israel was referred back to the old ways 
 marked out by Moses, the great founder of the Jewish faith. Christians are referred 
 back to primitive Christianity, to the teaching of the apostles, to the life and example 
 of Christ. Christianity is not a speculation, a creation of the spirit of the age. It 
 is a tradition, a following of those Divine counsels which are indicated in the New 
 Testament. 
 
 III. Consider the limitations to the application of this recommendation. 
 1. 'Ihe old ways are to be followed only in so far as they are good. Still we must; 
 jiidfe by our own conscience. Antiquity must not be taken as a despotic master. 
 'J'here are bad old ways. The first-born man struck out an evil way; it was left to 
 A bel, the second-born, to show the better course. 2. In considering the char^icter of aU 
 old way, we must take note of the character and light of those who founded it. There 
 have been dark ages in the past. Corruption soon crept in. Tilings are not good just 
 in proportion to their age. Christians must look, not to the Puritans, the Keformers, 
 the mediwval Church, the Fathers, but, passing numerous errors and corruptions, reach 
 back to Christ himself for the true old way. He is the Way (John xiv. 6). 3. We 
 must ever progress beyond the attainments of the past. We are to follow those old 
 ways that are good ; we are to build on the one foundation. But we are not to be con- 
 tent with having the foundation. The fabric must rise higher and higher (1 Cor. iii. 
 1 1 — 15). Christianity is a religion of progress. It is not to be subject to revolutions. 
 Progress must Ibllow the lines laid down by Christ and his apostles. Christianity is 
 nut "strengthened nor adorned, but only burdened and hidden, by a mere accretion of 
 human ideas and institutions; yet it is a seed which grows, developing larger, fuller 
 life ont of its own essential principles (Matt. xiii. 31). Jeremiah himself took a great 
 stride forward beyond the limits attained by antiquity, tliough in the direction of the 
 
152 THE BOOK OF THP: PllOPUET JEREMIAH, [ch. vi. 1—30. 
 
 old path, i.e. in the spirit of the religion of his fathers (ch. xxxi. 31 — 34). "These 
 times are the ancient times, when the world is ancient, and not those which we count 
 ancient, ordine retrograde, by a computation baclc wards from ourselves " (Francis Bacon). 
 
 Ver. 17. — Watchmen. I. The mission of the watchmen. 1. They are appointed hy 
 Qod. God raises up prophets, preachers, teacliers of righteousness. Unless they have 
 a Divine call they are usurping a position to which they have no right (Gal. i.. 1, 15). 
 Hence see (1) the authority of the watchmen ; (2) the merciful kindness of God in pro- 
 viding warning and instructiou. 2. They are to observe what goes on around them. 
 The prophets are seers of spiritual truths, observers of events of history in the light of 
 those truths, and thus, as watchmen, able to discern approaching dangers. The 
 Christian teachers must not be wrapt up in abstract truth. They must see the appli- 
 cation of this, note the condition and needs of men, discern tlie "signs of the times." 
 The prophets were political leaders. They discoursed on subjects which in our day 
 would be discussed in the newspaper. 3. They are to blow the trumpet. The seer is 
 to be a prophet. He who knows truth must make it known to others. The watchman 
 must not simply "Zet his light shine; "he must blow a trumpet, demand attention, 
 compel men to hear. The enemy is at the gate. This is no time for mild disquisitions 
 on military tactics; it is a moment when men must be awaked from their sleep and 
 summoned to arms. The Christian preacher speaks to men who are asleep and in great 
 danger. His duty is not simply to let the truth be knowti. He must arouse, urge, 
 " compel " men to hear his message. 
 
 II. The keception op the mission op the watchmen. The watchman has done his 
 duty in sounding the trumpet. If none will liear, he is free. 1. Men must hearken to 
 the Divine message before they can profit by it. To be warned is not to be saved. If 
 men refuse to accept the truths of Christianity these can do them no good, and they 
 are left free to follow or to neglect thera. 2. Men must obey the Divine message before 
 they can profit by it. It is nothing to tremble at the warning of judgment unless we 
 are moved to actions of precaution. Felix trembled, and was none the better for this 
 proof of the powerful effect of the preaching of St. Paul (Acts xxiv. 25). 3. If the 
 Divine message is heard and disregarded, the 'oily, guilt, and ruin will only be aggra- 
 vated. The plea of ignorance is gone. Indifference is converted into obstinate rebellion 
 (ver. 19). 
 
 Ver. 20. — Worthless sacrffices. I. Sacbifices are worthless when they arb 
 HOT OFFERED IN THE RIGHT SPIRIT. The mere gifts are of no use to God (Ps. 1. 
 8 — 13). They are only valuable as expressing the thoughts and feelings of the giver. 
 Religious services are simply good as the outward expression of worship. 1. Sacrifices 
 are worthless when they are not prompted by spiritual devotion; reliiiious services are 
 unacceptable when they are only external performances. The true sacrifice must be of 
 the will, i.e. self-dedication. 2. Sacrifices are worthless when they are accompanied by 
 immorality of conduct. Worship at church is a mockery if daily conduct in the 
 world is corrupt (Isa. i. 15). 
 
 II. Worthless sacrifices mat have all the external characteristics op 
 ACCEPTABLE SACRIFICES. 1. They may be offered to God. There may be a real inten- 
 tion to approach God, yet this is vain if the heart is wrong. 2. They may be .icconl- 
 ing to prescribed ordar. The formally obedient Jews were rigidly subservient to the 
 ordinance of the authorized ritual. 3. They may be costly — incense from Sheba, sweet 
 cane from India. But men cannot buy acceptance with God by signing heavy cheques. 
 
 HI. The offering op worthless sacrifices is a serious fault. 1. It is an 
 insult to Qod. Better offer nothing than the worthless gift when all he really asks for, 
 the heart, is withheld. 2. It is a source of self-delusion. The offering being given, 
 the conscience feels relieved, false pride is stimulated, and the real spiritual condition is 
 hidden. People have a vague feeling that they have done a good thing in attending 
 church, in sitting out a service, in mechanically following the forms of worship. Yet, 
 as this is really utterly worthless, the impression of self-complacency it produces is 
 highly injurious. 
 
 Vers. 27—30. — Testing fires. Under the image of an assayer and his fire, Jeremiah 
 
CH. VI. 1—30.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 153 
 
 is led to regard his mission, and the troubles of Israel, with which this is so much 
 concerned, as means for te.stin;^ the character of the Jews. 
 
 I. The standard of mbasuremkkt is Divine tuuth. The prophet is. to be an 
 assayer. Men are to be judged by the truths of righteousness wliich ho is inspired to 
 see and to declare. God has revealed standards of judgment. We are not free to 
 shape our lives according to fancy, taste, or unaided private judgment. The truths of 
 Scripture constitute the standard by which we shall be measured. This will be applied 
 according as it is known. Jeremiah was the watchman before he was the assayer. He 
 blew the trumpHt, preached the truth he saw. They who have not received the fuller 
 revelation will be judged by what light they possess (Rom. i. 18—20 ; ii. 12). 
 
 II. The test is applied in this fires of affliction. Trouble is not only sent 
 for discipline and chastisement; it is a test, a revealer of character. It reveals a man 
 ti) him.sell' and to others. If he has any true spiritual life, any precious metal, it must 
 come out when, one after another, the worthless ideas and feelings fail before the search- 
 ing flames of the baptism of fire. Trouble shows: 1. Whether religion is real and 
 heartfelt, or formal and superficial. 2. How far laith is a practical trust, and how far 
 it is a barren conviction. 3. Wliether love and devotion to Gud are deep enough to 
 stand against the temptation to rebel or despair. 
 
 III. TUEY ARE utterly WORTHLESS WHO DISI'LAY NO GOOD QUALITIES AFTER TUB 
 
 searching TRIAL OF AFFLICTION. This follows from the preceding statements. It 
 was terribly applicable to Israel. We should ask how far it applies to ourselves, and 
 beware of two delusions, viz. : 1. The delusion that merit may be sti]' hidden after 
 God has applied his most thorough test. A religion which is completely secret, never 
 discoverable, must be a poor and worthless thing. The heart cannot be right if it 
 never gives proof of good qualities when tested in all ways. 2. The deUKion that 
 trial can destroy spiritual worth. The silver is not burnt if it is not forthcoming. 
 True religion will survive the hardest test that may be applied to it. It is only the 
 superficial, unreal sentiment of religion that is scorched up by persecution and affliction; 
 the growth on the barren rook, not that in the good soil (Matt. xiiL 5, 20, 21). 
 
 IV. God WILL reject none without full trial. Character is to be assayed. 
 Gud judges before he condemns. The reprobate silver has been well tried. No soul is 
 reprobated by God till every means has been used to search for some good in it. See, 
 then, the merciful intention of trial. The fires are fierce because the intention is to 
 discover some small good thing hidden from every milder test, if only this exists. God 
 is not anxious to find the evil, but to find the good, in men, as the assayer is searching 
 for silver. He will gladly welcome the faintest indication of the least good. No 
 genuine silver can miss the Assayer after his most searching tests. God will abandon 
 no soul till he has sought for all that can be brought in its favour. He is loth to give 
 his children up (Hos. xi. 8). 
 
 HOMILIES BY VAEIOUS AUTHOES. 
 
 Vers. 4 — 8. — The apostate city that cannot he let alone. Godlessness is condemned by 
 its impracticableness as a universal and thorough-going principle of human life. It 
 is also an evil that defies ordinary restraints, and constantly becomes worse. "This 
 is the strongest and most dangerous mining-powder of cities and fortresses when sin, 
 shame, vice, and wantonness get the upper hand " (Cramer). The city that has for- 
 saken God is — 
 
 I. A SOURCE OF MISCHIEF AND UNCLBANNESS. It is likened to a fountain casting 
 forth wickedness. It is an originative agent of evil. Its private, social, and public 
 life multiplies occasions and causes of sin. There is no power within itself sufficient 
 to restrain or purify. Its very laws and regulations tend to foster vice. As of the 
 natural heart our Saviour said that out of it "proceed evil thoughts, murders, 
 adulteries, etc.," so, where there are multitudes of such, there will be an exaggeration 
 of the individual tendency and influence. As the leader of fashion, and doininant 
 authority in new customs and ideas, there is an edat transferred from it to what is evil. 
 Its existence becomes, therefore — 
 
 II. An OCCASION OF INJURY AND DANGER TO ALL WHO HAVE TO DO WITH IT. It 
 
154 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHE T JEREMIAH, [ch. vi. 1— 30i 
 
 ja as a fire that has bi'oken out amidst combustible material. By-and-by " the 
 wicked city " is felt to be an intolerable evil. It is a menace to the peace and good 
 government of its neighbours. They cannot affnrd to ijinore it. No time must be 
 lost in bringing it to reason. Its excitements and dissipations wax madder and more 
 widespread. No time cim be lost. Hence the avenj;ers come from all quarters in 
 liaste and eagerly. " Sanctify war against her ! Arise, let us go up at noon ! " — the 
 heat being no barrier to their setting out ; " Arise, and let us go up in the night I "— 
 the darkness and weariness being forgotten in their hatred and vengeance. For the 
 same reason no terms can be made with it. The Mosaic regulations in warfare are set 
 aside (Deut. xx. 19, 20). There is no chivalrous respect inspired by it, and as it shows 
 110 mercy, none is accorded to it. 
 
 III. It is a continual offence to Gon. God's love for it had been great, and he 
 had purposed to make it a centre of redeeming love. This aim had been thwarted. So 
 it has been with the city life of man everywhere. As a natural (ievelopment, and a 
 providential result in human history, the city is intended to enlarge the powers of 
 doing good and to bless the world. But how seldom has tliis been the case ! The 
 centralization of life has but intensified its corruption. Is there any place where the 
 salvation of society seems more hopeless than in our great cities ? And God's putience 
 threatens to give out. He cannot bear the noisomeness of its evil. He is about to turn 
 from it in utter loathing and final abandonment. But not yet. Warning is given ; a 
 jjrophet is sent. Nay, the Sou himself, if haply they will hear him, in whom alone a 
 sufficient antidote is found. In him is salvation, for of the holy city, the New Jeru- 
 salem, the scene of regenerated society, he is Centre and Lord. He is the " Fountain 
 opened for sin and for all uncleanness." — M. 
 
 Ver. 13. — The ministry of deceit. The extent to which corruption prevailed is 
 suggested when even the prophets and priests share the general apostasy : " Every one 
 dealeth falsely." 
 
 I. The duty it had to fulfil. The priest dealt with ritual, the prophet with 
 moral and doctrinal questions in religion. They hid to act as the si)iritnal -luides and 
 overseers of the people of God. Here they are represented as behaving like quack 
 doctors in cases of grave injury or disease. They were appointed for the spiritual health 
 and well-being of men. Circumstances in the condition of their flocks would 
 determine the manner in which they should exercise their functions, and the special 
 direction in which their attention should be directed. Israel had fallen into serious 
 wickedness. It was no isolated acts of transgression of which she was guilty ; her 
 whole spiritual state was one of alienation from God. In such a case the utmo.st 
 faithfulness and severity were required ; as the surgeon has to probe the wound, and use 
 sharp instruments for excising the part that is diseased ; or the physician has to make 
 a thorough diagnosis of a patient, and in desperate sickness to use desperate remedies. 
 Here an opposite course had been pursued. The gravity of the " hurt" was overlooked 
 or ignored, and merely outward signs of amendment were regarded as complete recon- 
 ciliation with God. 1. That which separates men from God is no slight matter. It is 
 a deadly thing. If it continues, it must inevitably destroy. 'J'he observances of 
 religion will be nullified until it is put right. Men must lie told of their sin, not merely 
 in a round and general manner, but judiciously, and according to the specialities of 
 individual or class peculiarities. The unbelief of the natural man is the parent of his 
 misdeeds and sin, and keeps him from any real communion with God. 2. 2'he min- 
 ister of religion is bound to he discerning and fait'iful. 3. It is only through a rial 
 and spiritual repentance that reconciliation can he effected. At such a juncture spiritual 
 religion ought to have been insisted on, and the enormity of the offence exposed. 
 Preliminary acts of contrition ; experiences and discoveries of the heart such as con- 
 viction of sin, etc. ; the necessity of love, obedience, and faith ought not to be slurred over. 
 
 II. Failure in this duty and its causes. The root-cause is undoubtedly the 
 share which the religious teachers had in the general depravity. There was also a 
 conseqnent lack of spiritual discernment. The greatness of the fall from the former 
 position occujiied by Israel was not appreciated, and the nature of true religion was 
 not understood. A ministry under court patronage and a merely popular ministry are 
 alike subject to the temptations to please rather tlian to deal honestly with the evils of 
 
GH. VI. 1—30.] THE BOOK OV THK PltOPHET JEREMIAH. tCS 
 
 individuals, society, and tlie state, and to rectify them. " They who live to please must 
 please to live." Tliei-e is such a thing always as a making of religion too easy either 
 in its moral conditions or its doctrinal realizations. It is fearfully wrong to say a man 
 is a Christian when lie is not a Christian; or so to deal with him in pastoral relations 
 that he fancies himself in possession of salvation and spiritually secure when he is in 
 heart and life far I'rora God. Flattoiy has a thousaud forms, and there is no false- 
 hood to which it contributes that is more insidious or wide-reaching than this. 
 
 III. The result?. The^e are terrible in the extreme. From the authority of 
 office they are credited in their declarations, and national and individual offences are 
 condoned and perpetuated. Possible for a man to be deceived on this most vital 
 question ; to think himself a child of Grod when he is in reality a child of Satan. 
 Ueath-bed repentances. 1, The divorce of morality from, religion. 2. The intensi- 
 fied wrath of Ood at hypocrisy and sham religion, 3. Eternal death and irretrievable 
 toss. — M. 
 
 Ver. 16. — The old paths. Men are surrounded from their earliest years with 
 various religious systems, the claims of which conflict. To a conscientious mind, 
 iiilellectual disquietude is the first result of this; in those less in earnest it produces 
 and justifies indiflerence. All rehgions tend, under these circumstances, to assume the 
 aspect of speculative questions, and the moral life is increasingly detached from 
 reli>i)0MS sanctions. Morality must thereby be impaired, if it do not ultimately dis- 
 appear. The prophet, therefore, recalls the people to the consideration of religion as a 
 practical question. It is with him a question not of pure theory, but of conduct and 
 experience. He urges the settlement of the conflict upon these grounds, and furnishes 
 certain criteria by which to determine it. 
 
 I. Antiquity is a test op true religion. Man is a religious being by nature, 
 and God has never left himself without a witness in the world. There has been no 
 generation in which some have not sought and found him. From the very first, 
 therefore, there must have been religious conditions observed, which from their nature 
 nmst he, as they were intended to be, permanent. The argument ibr the existence of 
 God, for instance, is greatly strengthened by the evidence of the reco;;nition of him by 
 primitive and ancient peoples. Even in their errors and mistakes, when their views 
 and observances are collated and compared, witness is given to fundamental tniths. 
 But the argument is stronger still when the people appealed to are those who, like 
 Israel, have an historical faith. Ages of faith were behind them, illustrated by mighty 
 heroes and saintly men of God. For ajres a certain communion had been observed 
 between the nation and its theocratic Head. What was the secular character of those 
 ages ? Were they marked by political strength, social order and purity, and commercial 
 prosperity ? Were the leaders of the people men whose ideal of life and actual beha- 
 viour commended tliemselves to the general conscience of the world? Was it to be 
 supposed that any essential truth for the spiritual guidance of men had to be discovered 
 thus late in the day? Were men to be always on tiptoe to learn what the last finding 
 of research mi;;ht be? There were paths that had been tried by holy men. When 
 tlie nation was at its best, it acknowledged God in these ways. The vast majority of 
 those who were holiest and best had tried them and found them satisfactory. 
 
 II. But discrimination is required. The children of Israel were to " stand in the 
 ways," i.e. to examine the different systems of religion and morals that laid claim to 
 their atteniii>n. Critical and historical judgment had to be exercised. It is mo« 
 simply the oldeat religion that is to be retained and followed, but that in the religious 
 history of the past which has most evidently conduced to noble action, spiritual health, 
 and well-being. The heathenisms of the world are self-condemned ; immorality has 
 ever tended to destruction. The Englishman, therefore, is not to look to the Druids 
 for infallil'le teaching; nor Christians to the saints of the Old Testament times. The: 
 dictum of Ignatius is sound : Nobis vera antiquitas est Jesus Ohristus. But the 
 teaching and personality of Jesus were commended by their essential agreement with 
 Mosaicism in its most ancient form ; as that in turn was but a confirmation and elabo- 
 ration of patriarchal convictions, experiences, and revelations. The truth that has been 
 held in all ages is retained in each new development of revelation and history, but it is 
 spiritualized and grounded upon deeper and wider sanctions. 
 
1"G THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. vi. 1— 3a 
 
 III. The natural human desire fob mere novelty has to be overcome. 
 True religion is not to be despised because it is old. The truth, when carefully studied 
 and spiritually realized, is ever new and fresh. And the " new truths " to which 
 advancing time introduces us are justified only as we can organically and sjiiritually 
 evolve them from their archaic predecessors. Obligations which are merely relative 
 Avill change or disappear with the relations upon which they are founded, but the 
 cardinal truths of heart and life must ever retain tlieir authority, and new experience 
 ■will but tend to deepen and strengthen their hold upon the religious nature. If, on the 
 other hand, the teachings of experience and the warniniis of prophets are despised, 
 new heinousness will be added to the wickedness of the wicked. It will be wilful 
 disobedience, and as such will be more severely punished. 
 
 IV. Obedience to these doctrines op experience will confirm and satisfy 
 THE SOUL. If, in spite of these corroborations, the doctrines were productive of misery 
 and spiritual unrest, then they would go for nothing. But this is the final and abso- 
 lute criterion — Do they tend to the welfare and increase of sijiritual life, and to the 
 satisfaction of the deepest longings of the soul ? — M. 
 
 Vers. 18 — 20. — The reasonableness of the Divine judgments. The language employed 
 suggests publicity. The world is called into solemn council — a " congregation " for 
 judgment. 1. Not that upon questions of this nature the carnal mind is any authority 
 if and hy itself. " Who art thou that judgest ? " might well be asked of any who 
 assumed such an office. It is only as confirming and justifying the action taken by 
 God. Thus understood, the testimony of the world is most valuable, being difl'erent 
 from what might be expected. It is a great mystery, this judgment of God's ajostate 
 people by the heathen nations. 2. And yet we muni not understand it as a mere figure 
 of speech. There is a real endorsement of the righteous judgments of God in the 
 rnind of the world — one of those revealing circumstances which show " the Law of God 
 written upon their heart." When the question is a broad, simple, and evident one, 
 even the most perverted soul will affirm the sentence of Heaven. Unbelief is only 
 superficial. Beneath the crust of hardened consciences there still remains a primitive 
 sense of justice ; and to this will the final sentence of condemnation ap^jeal, when we 
 shall give account of the deeds done in the body. The sinner will not only hear the 
 decision from the great white throne, but he will stand self-condemned ; and the uni- 
 versal assembly will confirm the verdict. 3. Bow fearful, too, must haoe been the guilt 
 of God's people that on this occasion such umpires could have been so confidtntly 
 appealed to I The features of their criminality that are emphasized are these : obstinacy 
 and hypocrisy. The latter is but the abettor of the former. The unreality of Israel's 
 repentance was especially abhorrent to Jehovah. It vitiates all the costly articles and 
 enhancements of their worship, and is but the cloak of a real continuance in sin. If, 
 then, they do in heart refuse to obey God, what more reasonable than that he should 
 suffer the laws of his universe to deal with them, and punish them with "the fruit of 
 their thoughts"? The angels of vengeance that wait upon sin, licentiousness, luxury, 
 and waste, will be suffered to do their work ; and they shall learn by experience that 
 " the way of transgressors is hard." But the instant that the spirit of reality and 
 sincerity revisits their hearts, his ear will be open to their cry, and his mercy will 
 redeem. — M. 
 
 Vers. 27 — 30. — The prophet a spiritual assayer. Of interest as a description of 
 process of refining precious metals among ancient peoples. The grinding and wash- 
 ing of the ore to discover and separate the precious metals, the fusing of the silver 
 with lead in order to its further purification, and the repetition of this under severer 
 heat, are processes which are used to illustrate the influence of the words of revelation 
 upon tie human heart. These words — 
 
 I. Reveal character. " Some believed, and some believed not," is the consequence 
 always following upon the faithful preaching of the truth. " It is a hard saying ; who 
 can hear it?" How instantaneous were the results in this way attendant on tho 
 proclamations of Biblical prophets and preachers! They addressed the conscience, the 
 affection, and the will, and pressed for a verdict and practical following up of opinion 
 in action. Much more is this the case with the gospel, because of its deeper and more 
 
CH. VI. 1—30.] THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 157 
 
 spiritual force. It is by hearing the Word, and looking into the mirror it affords, 
 that a man is discovered to himself. 
 
 II. Determine destiny. Sometimes in a good, sometimes in a bad sense. In the 
 case before us it is wholly the latter. As there was no reality or eiirneatness in Israel, 
 so there was no point at which a commencement could be made towards reformation. 
 They are all concluded guilty and worthless. It was a severe judgment, but was meant 
 in mercy to the people themselves. They were thereby warned of the need of radical 
 change, and the supernatural, saving grace of God. It is by the determinations 
 and effects produced by the hearing ol' the Word that the future is influenced. 
 There is a distinct moral responsibility incurred each time the truth is proclaimed in 
 our hearing. Nothing else so searches into and potently affects the moral nature, 
 because the conscience is most vividly aroused and reality in all its naked force bursts 
 upon the soul. The furthest developments of personal character, interest, and occupa- 
 tion may be thus conditioned : " See, then, how ye hear ! " 
 
 III. Abb carefully adapted, by increasingly severe processes, to effect 
 THEIB END. They result in rejection, and this is remiered inevitable by the utter 
 worthlessness of character and work exhibited. If there is any good in a man, the 
 truth will discover it, and sympathetically develop and reinforce it; if not, it will only 
 the more utterly and unquestionably condemn him. The ear does not try words more 
 delicately or decisively than words of God try the heart. Accordin>i to their spiritual 
 state will men be condemned, approved ; received or rejected by the hearing of the 
 gospel. Some men have been tried and condemned by it already ; to others it opens 
 more and more widely the door of hope. — M. 
 
 Vers. 1 — 8. — A dreadful ortXook. Such was the vision of Jeremiah which he saw 
 concerning the coming wrath upon Judah and Jerusalem. It was the sad sight which 
 the sinners in Jerusalem never, but the seer ever, saw clearly, vividly, heart-brokenly. 
 The vision of Jeremiali for Jerusalem was the forerunner of our Lord's m substance, 
 spirit, and result. Now, with regard to this awful onlook of the prophet which is here 
 related, note — 
 
 I. How SOLITARY IT WAS. The people of Judah and Jerusalem were in no fear, 
 and for forty years and more this vision was not realized. Other eyes saw nothing to 
 be troubled about, and men generally were at ease in Zion. It was only the purged 
 vision of the prophet that pierced the future and portrayed the dread realities of that 
 fast-coming day. He saw clearly what others saw not at all. And so it is always. 
 But why is this? Why do sinners not see? Take an answer from those senseless 
 exhibitions in which the performers place themselves in positions of frightful peril, so 
 that a moment's unsteadiness of nerve, the slightest slippins^ of hand or foot, would 
 lead to their immediate inevitable and dreadful death; running all this risk to amuse 
 the gaping, shameless crowds, who stare, stamp, and shout their applause at what 
 never ought to be done. But let these performers provide us a reply to the question we 
 have asked. They will tell j'ou that at first they approached those dangerous places 
 with great fear ; how it was long ere they could walk with ease along that slender cord, 
 or stand fearless on that dizzy height. But they got at length so used to these things 
 that now they go through their perilous perforinances without the slightest fear. And 
 so is it with grievous sinners against God. They have got so used to the threatening 
 of his anger that they think nothing of it after a while, and go on unconcernedly 
 until almost the moment of his vengeance bursts upon them. " Because sentence 
 against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore," etc. Tljeir heart wishes 
 that there may be nought to fear. The long-suffering and forbearance of God are 
 perverted, by the deceitfulness of sin, to foster that belief, and so they at length 
 persuade themselves that what God's servants see so clearly and warn them of s > 
 faithfully has no real existence, and "as it was in the days of Noah, so is it also in the 
 days when the Son of man cometh." Oh, what need for the prayer, " From all th.; 
 deceits of the world, the flesh, and the devil, good Lord, deliver us " 1 
 
 II. How VIVIDLY BEEN. Jeremiah sees the hurried flocking of the Benjamitos 
 Csee Exposition), the terrified inhabitants of Jerusalem, to some common centre in thu 
 city, and then their hasting away out of the southern gates towards Tekoa, one of the 
 Southernmost cities of the land, and furtliost off from the dread invaders, who were 
 
158 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. vi. 1—30. 
 
 speeding from the north. The alarm-trumpet sounding its shrill notes amid the quiet 
 streets of Tekoa ; he sees the signal-fives blazino; from the height of Betli-haccerem, 
 and answered by other like fires, all telling of distress ; and then, from hill-suraiiiit.s 
 yet furtlier away, he sees the never-ending train of fierce and victory-flushed soldiers 
 inarching ruthlessly on in all the pride and pomp of war, streamin-^ along the great 
 northern roads, the open highway whereby they entered tlie holy laud. He sees the 
 various encampments, the spoliation of the whole district round, the eager, haste of the 
 foe t<i attack the great fortress of Jerusalem, the goal of all their hopes and the prize 
 of their arduous campaign ; he sees the varied preparations fur war, the building; of the 
 engines of attack, the burning of her palaces ; in short, the whole dread details of a 
 city doomed to destruction at tl:e hands of a besieging army. Thus vivid was the 
 vision. And such clearness of onlook is given to Gud's seers that they may thereby 
 more deeply impress and more surely move the minds of those they are sent to. It is 
 well to muse over things unseen and eternal until they become real to us, until our laith 
 becomes the evidence of the things not seen, and gives substance, shape, and body to 
 the things hoped for. Then as tliose who have tasted and handled and felt the 
 powers of the world to come, we shall speak with unvvouted power, and men through 
 I'.s will also see what they have never seen before. But — 
 
 III. How WELL FOUNDED THIS VISION WAS. For the prophct came to the convic- 
 tion of the coming wrath upon his country, not on any light grounds, but ou such as 
 in all ages may lead to a like conviction. 1. There was the extreme importance of 
 Jerusalem, as an almost impregnable mountain fortress. In the frequent wars between 
 Egypt and Assyria this fortress was the object of much solicitude to either side. And 
 besides her strength there was her wealth and her fame, so that Jerusalem became a. 
 coveted possession to one great monarcliy after another. Jeremiah (ver. 2) compares 
 her to a beautiful and luxuriant pasturage (cf. Exposition). And as shepherds would cuvet 
 such pasturage for their flocks, so the enemies of Jerusalem would covet her. So 
 attractive, so desirable was she in their esteem. This fact, then, of the worth of Jerusalem 
 to Assyria was one reason wherefore Jeremiah knew that that lawless and rapacious 
 nation would certainly attack her. 2. Tne "delight in war" which characterized Assyrii. 
 Vers. 4, 5 represent the language of their soldiers, their eagerness to be led to the attack, 
 their impatience at every hindrance, their disregard both of the heat of noon or darkness 
 of night. They were a people ever on the look out for plunder and aggrandizement, 
 and seized on the very fiist pretext that offered for invasion and capture. 3. The 
 prophet's clear pi-rception that God was on, the side of Israel's foes. Ver. 6, " Thus 
 hath the Lord of hosts said." It was, therefore, his will. It had been borne in u|)on 
 his mind that God's wrath was ready to be poured out. He had been told so by the 
 Spirit of God; he "spiritually discerned" the dark facts of the future, so that they 
 stood out vivid and clear before the eye of his soul. 4. And his conviction that such was 
 Ood's will could not but he deepened by the constant presence before him of the atrocious 
 wickedness of the doomed city. Ver. 7, " As a fountain," perpetually, copiously freely, 
 irresistibly, " casts out her waters, so did Jerusalem cast out," etc. The moral cor- 
 ruption of the people made him certain that the holy God of Israel would not suffer it 
 to go on unpunished. And it is ever so. Let a iiation, a family, a Church, an individual, 
 give themselves up to wickedness and gross violation of the commands of God, it is 
 certain that sentence of death is on them. Execution may be deferre.l, but unless there 
 be repentance it will certainly be carried out. There were special features about the 
 vision that was given to Jeremiah, but eveiy believer in God sees in substance the very 
 same. The deep-felt conviction of the godly is the expression of the will of God. What 
 such a one binds on earth is bound in heaven, and whose sins such retain they are 
 letained. It is a terrible fact, then, wlieii any come under the grave moral condemna- 
 tion of the people of God, for their condemnation is but the echo of those thunders they 
 have heard reverberating around the throne of God. 
 
 IV. How MERCIFOLLT SENT. Their purpose was obvious. Many years God would 
 yet wait. Thus he gave this call to repentance, and waited long to see if it would bo 
 needed. The most loving words of Jesus are those which make our hearts trenjble and 
 our spirits quake with fear; those which tell of the everlasting fire and the never-dying 
 worm. Fvr these awful declarations are the exiiedients of love to drive, to terrify, to 
 force away from the edge of the precipice of ruin those whom no other means will witii- 
 
CH. VI. 1—30.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 159 
 
 draw therefrom. And that this is the intent of these awful representations of God's 
 wrath is seen in ver. 8, where God pathetically pleads with Jerusalem to be "in- 
 itruoted" by his words, "lest his soul depart from" her. Remember, then: 1. It is 
 only the eye, purged by the Spirit of truth., that can see the truth as to ourselves or 
 others. Until thus cleansed, we may be goiuf; down to our graves with a lie in our right 
 liand. 2. Praise and bless God for his looing warnings to the wicked. Pray that 
 tliey may be heeded, and be careful not to disguise or diminish them by prophesyitiga 
 of peace when there is no peace. 3. Hasten to he yourself and to bring others to be safe 
 within the shelter of the love of Ood, where no evil can befall and no plague ever corns 
 nigh. — C. 
 
 Ver. 1. — Signal-fires. " Set up a sign of fire in Beth-haccerem." Introduction — 
 Illustrate from Homer's description of such sisinal-fires, or from Macaulay's poem, 
 ' Defeat of the Spanish Armada.' Take them as illustrative of the warnings of God 
 against sin. 
 
 I. Review some of these signal-fires. 1. The Bible. 2. The ministers of God's 
 truth. 3. Conscience. 4. Present judgments upon men's sin. 
 
 II. Note whebefobe they should be set up. 1. Men are living in grievous sin. 
 2. God's judgments are near at hand. 3. Men are in a state of false security. 4. They 
 will rally the good to increased exertion. 5. They will arouse and arrest the wicked. 
 6. That like fires may be enkindled by the faithful, who have seen them and taken 
 the warning, and will therefore send it on. 7. God's sore judgment will come upon 
 those wlio do not set them up. 
 
 III. How THIS MAY BE DONE. 1. By faithful preaching. 2. By living in the fear 
 of God. 3. By separation from the ungodly. 4. By seeking to save all over whom you 
 have influence from the wrath to come. 
 
 IV. When done, let these warnings be as bignal-fibes. 1. Such as all must 
 observe. 2. Such as all will under.-taud. 3. Set up from sense of the reality both of 
 the threatened danger and the people's need. 4. Kept burning steadily in spite of all 
 that would quench them. 
 
 V. The signal-fibes that God sets up have these chabacteeistics. 1. The 
 iBible. 'J. Conscience. 3. Present judgments. 
 
 VI. Let oubs have the same. — C. 
 
 Vers. 2, 3. — The Lord's pasture. Patterns of things spiritual and eternal are 
 scattered broadcast over God's universe. Nothing is more pleasant than to trace these 
 rfsembknces out. Our Lord was ever " likening " things in the kingdom of heaven to 
 things he saw around him in the world. His own word, " parables," tells of things 
 " phiced by the side " of others for comparison of their likenesses or contrasts. The 
 prophet in these verses " likens" Jerusalem — the daughter of Zion— to a beautiful and 
 luxuriant pusturage (cf. Exposition). He was sp'aking of the material city. But that 
 daughter of Zion leads our thonghts to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of God, tli'' 
 (Jhuroh, " which he lias purchased with his own blood." Now, that may be fitly likened 
 to such a pastnre ; it is the Lord's pisture. For — 
 
 I. Theue the sheep of the good Shepherd find best and eek-beshment aftkb 
 
 THE OFTBM WEABY JOURNEY OVKB THE WAYS OF THE WORLD. (Cf. Ps. Xxiii., Ixxxiv.) 
 
 See the many testimonies to the spiritually refreshing and restful influence of the 
 worship of the Church. "He maketh me to lie down in green pastures," etc. 
 
 II. Theke his sheep finu pastctre. " I will abundantly bless her provision : I 
 will feed her poor with bread." By the inini>try of God's truth, by the application, 
 through the Holy Spirit's grace, of the things of Christ. Christ's people are fed as with 
 the Hread of life. 
 
 HI. The comeliness and beauty op the Chubch of Chbist justify this com- 
 parison. True, the Church has not yet put on her " beautiiul garments." The pro- 
 phetic visions of her glory and majesty still wait to be realized. " The bride " has not 
 yet " made herself ready." But even as she is, in her garments of humiliation, treading 
 her painful way as a weary pilgrim, who is like unto her ? Where are moral beauty ami 
 rrrace to be found such as she possesses, and has ^hown— yea, is showing still— in spite 
 3f all iuiperfcctions ? Even now— oh, how much more Uy-and-hy !— thu Church of Christ, 
 
160 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. vi. 1—30. 
 
 the Lord's pasture, is the fairest, loveliest scene this poor sin and sorrow stricken earth 
 presents. Even now she is Christ's bride, and all spiritual beauty and comeliness are 
 summed up in that. 
 
 IV. Fob attbactiveness. Of. ver. 3, which tells how other shepherds were irresis- 
 tibly drawn to thii< pasturage, and how eagerly they led their flocks there. As con- 
 cerned the earthly Jerusalem this had no happy meaning, but as concerns Christ's Church 
 its meaning is happy and blessed indeed. It is good that the fowls of the air should 
 lodge in the branches of the great tree, which has sprung from the tiny seed planted by 
 the Lord. And it is good thnt " nations, and peoples, and tribes, and tongues " should, 
 as many already have been, and as all others will be, drawn by the attractiveness of the 
 rich and luKuriant pasturage which the Lord's pasture offers. It is a weary world ; self 
 and sin are cruel taskmasters ; they have no green pastures into which they lead their 
 sheep. The opened ear of those whose hearts are touched with Christ's sympathy per- 
 petually hears the cry for help, the longing to be led into the pasture of the Lord, It 
 is a reproach to every prolessed disci|jle of Chiist if he do not, by what he is and by 
 the spirit of his life, attract others to the Lord's pasture, and lead them to say, " We will 
 go with you, for we see that the Lord is with you." 
 
 V. It is thbhe wheee the Loed leads his sheep. Many think they can be Christ's 
 without uniting themselves to his people, keeping amid the world's ways and standing 
 aloof from the Lord's pasture. But this is wrong. There is a sense in which the old 
 saying, " Nulla salus extra ecclesiam," is true, and nothing casts graver doubt on the 
 reality of our discipleship than absence of sympathy with other disciples, and no liking 
 for their companionship. Love for " the brethren " is given as one note of having 
 " passed from death unto life." It is the Lord's will that his people should be banded 
 together in their several folds, and the instinct of the renewed heart almost certainly 
 leads it to desire this pastnraj;e. Hence, as a fact, there are scarce any, if any, of ihe 
 disciples of Christ who are not found in one or other of the folds into which the one 
 flock of the Good Shepherd is divided. 
 
 Conclusion. Ask two questions : 1. Of those who are not Christ's. Do you find 
 that the ways of the world are really better than the Lord's pasture ? is it better 
 to serve sin and self than Christ? VVe are sure that there can be but one answer. 
 AVhy, then, do you not hear the voice of the Good Shepherd and " follow " him ? 2. 0/ 
 those who are his. Are vou careful not to blotch and blur that likeness ? Many do this, 
 so that the likeness car not be traced, and the world turns away from it, not drawn 
 by what it sees. Strive to let men see in you .somewhat^ — much — of that spiritual 
 grace and beauty which will lead men greatly to desire to enter the Lord's pasture lor 
 themselves. — C. 
 
 Ver. 4. — Sorrow because of eventide. " Woe nnto us ! for the day goeth away, for 
 the shadows of the evening are stretched out." It is not thus that we are wont to 
 welcome the going away of the day, the quiet peaceful hours of eventide. How beautiful, 
 even in its outward at-pect, is oftentimes the evening hour, the gradual subsidence of 
 the varied sounds of the busy day, the glorious sunsets, the rich radiance of the 
 evening sky, the exquisite tints and colourings of the hills as the mellow light of 
 evening falls upon them, the ruby glow which ailorns, glorifies, and almost transfigures 
 the sun-clad peaks of mountainous lands! Yes, eventide is an huur of beauty, in 
 which Nature puts on her almost loveliest garb now that the "garish day" has gone. 
 It is a scene on whicli the eye delightedly rests. And it is the hour of reunion also. 
 From the scattered districts where one and another have pursued their daily toil, the 
 juembers of the family, the household, the village, come home, and in pleasant converse 
 talk over the events of the day, and Ibrecast tiie events of to-morrow. The hearts of the 
 children turn to the fatliers, and the heart of the fathers to the ihildren, in the happy 
 intercourse which is ouly possible on the blessed Sunday or at the evening hour. And 
 it is the hour of rest. The plough stands still in the furrow, for the ploughman lias gone 
 home ; the toil-worn horse loains in his pasture or leeds peacefully in his stable. 
 The man of business has shut up his ledger, and left the city and the office, and rests 
 quietly amid his family at home. The night has come, in which no man can work. 
 And if we lake the symbolic meaning of the day and regard it as telling of the day of 
 life, oven then the ideas of calm, rest, and serene quiet gather around it. What a 
 
CH. -vi. 1— 30.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEEEMIAH. 161 
 
 beautiful old a^e is that described in the seventy-first psalm— beautiful for its confidence 
 in God, for its humility and meekness, lor the vigour of its desire for God's glory, and for 
 its bright onlook into the future ! And such beauty often belongs to old age, so that 
 "at eventide there is light." We probably all of us know of some on whom the 
 shadows of evening are falling fast, because tlie day of their life " goeth away ; " but 
 how calm, how serene, how peaceful, how bright, is their old age ! They do not say, nor 
 do others say concerning them, " Woe unto us ! for the day," etc. liut in the text we 
 have a precisely opposite feeling, one of dismay and sore grief because of the day's depar- 
 ture. And this lamentation is one uttered, not alone by those of whom the prophet 
 wrote, but by many others also. Therefore let us — 
 
 I. Listen TO those who make this lamentation. And: 1. There were those of 
 whom Jeremiah wrote. The Chaldeans, who were about to invade Judasa and Jerusalem. 
 The text occurs in a vivid description of the troubles they would bring upon his people. 
 He is representing their eagerness, their furious haste to assail and capture the doomed 
 city. Hence the interruption of nightfall is fiercely resented by them. They would 
 lengthen out the day if but they could. Like as Joshua bade the sun stand still 
 (.Josh. X.), that he might complete the overthrow of his enemies, so would these 
 Chaldeans like that the sun should stnnd still, that they might complete the overthrow 
 of theirs. And because that caimot be, therefore they exclaim, " Woe unto us ! " etc. 
 What a lesson these Chaldean soldiers give to the professed soldiers of Christ ! Would 
 that we had the like zeal in our endeavour to win the kingdom of heaven ! But it is 
 only the violent, those who are in real earnest and ptit forth all their "force," who shall 
 take it. 2. But if we take the day as referring to the day of life, we shall often hear in. 
 Holy Scripture the like lamentation. The saints of the Old Testament, how they 
 shrank from death: "Oh, spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go hence, and 
 be no more ; " " The dead praise not thee, neither any that go down into slence ; " " The 
 living, the living, shall praise thee, as I do this day." The overflowmg gratitude of the 
 hundred and sixteenth psalm is because of deliverance from the dreaded death. How 
 Hezekiah (Isa. xxxviii.) piteously wept and prayed that he might not die ! Tiiey 
 knew not that to depart was far better; death was to them only gloomy, silent, d^rk, 
 and where fellowship with God was not. Hence this " Woe unto us ! " etc., expresses 
 the common feeling of Old Testament times at the going away of the day of life. 3. 
 But there are tlwse who still make like lamentation. Let us listen to them. (1) Those 
 from whom the day of opportunity is going away. We none of us like to miss oppor- 
 tunities. Even to miss a train vexes us. How much more when we see slipping last 
 from us the power of gaining and doing great good ! The scholar who has let slip the 
 opportunities of winning the knowledge which would fit him for his life's work, but 
 now must go forth all ill equipped, and so must with shame take a lower place. The 
 youth or man who has failed to win the confidence of those about him, and now has to 
 leave them without the great advantage which their confidence would have given him. 
 The professed disciple of Christ who has some child, some companion, some one over 
 whom he had influence, leaving him for a distance, or, more grievous still, by death, 
 and he has never used his opportunity of speaking to him on behalf of Christ. This is 
 a woe indeed, a reflection bitter to have resting upon one's conscience. The brother or 
 sister, the husband or wife, the companion or friend, who have let go opportunities of 
 showing kindness, of comforting and helping those who looked to them for such 
 comfort and help, and now it is too late. Ah ! that is a dreadful thought, to think of 
 what you might have done for them and ought to have done but did not, and now can 
 never do. All these are instances in which those from whom the day of opportunity is 
 going away will often lament, " Woe unto us 1 " It is with a bitter pang that we see 
 "the shadows" of that "evening stretched out." (2) Those from whom the day of 
 •prosperity is going away. Listen to the patriarch Job (xxix. 3) : " Oh that I were 
 as in months past, as in the days when God preserved me!" And all through the 
 chapter he continues his sad lament over happy days gone by. And so now to see the 
 like befall ourselves — health, wealth, friends,dear children, or those even dearer still, all 
 going from us, what wonder that such say, " Woe is us !" etc.? But sometimes it is on 
 account of the going away of the day of spiritual prosperity. The mournful retrospect 
 of days of purity, peace, strength, enjoyment of God, delight in his worship, usefulness 
 in his service ; but these now all gone or ia&i disappearing. Ah ! the. backslider, the 
 jekemiah. m 
 
1U2 THE BOOK OF THE PllOPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. vi. 1— nO. 
 
 man who suffers himself to lose hia religion, has many hitter moments of regret and 
 remorse. How he curses the sinful folly which led him to lend an ear to the deceitful 
 suggestions of the wicked one, and which have brought him to this wretched pass ! 
 Yes, it is a terrible thing to see the day of spiritual prosperity going away and the 
 shadows of its evening stretched out. (3) Those from whom the day of a life lived 
 without God is going away. This must be dreadful indeed. They have drunk np all 
 that the cup of this world has to give them ; there is not a drop left, and there is no 
 provision made for the eternity to which tliey are hastening. With what intensity of 
 bitterness will the "Woe unto us!" of such be uttered ! For though such perceive that 
 eternity is near, and God's awful judgment bar, yet how difficult, how all but impos- 
 sible do they find it to hurry on their preparations as they would fain do! The lips 
 unused to pray cannot pray. The habits of unbelief and worldliness won't be broken. 
 Faith will not come. They have so long turned away from Christ that now they 
 cannot turn to him. Pride holds back the confession which their repentance would 
 make, that all their past life has been one melancholy mistake. Such are some of the 
 great difficulties which stand in the way of him who, at the close of a long life lived 
 without God, would then turn to God, And as he sees that now this world is lost to 
 him, and the next not won and all but impossible to be won, how inevitable the 
 exceeding bitter cry, " Woe unto us ! " etc.! But now — 
 
 II. Let us endeavour to lighten this lamentation, and to comfort those who 
 SAT, " Woe unto us ! " 1. Those who lament the going away of the day of oppor- 
 tunity. Remember that all opportunity is not gone. " Why should a living man 
 complain?" "A live dog is better than a dead lion." (Illustrate from Foster's 
 essay on ' Decision of Character.' Story of a spendthrift who had lost a vast estate 
 suddenly resolving that he would regain it, and at once setting about to earn money, 
 though ever so little, and at length, by dint of prolonged, hard, and often degrading toil 
 and of rigid economy, accomplishing his resolve. Such victories have been won in 
 spite of temporal loss.) Remember all is not gone. And where spiritual opportunities 
 have been let go, sad as such loss is, others yet remain. " Sleep on now, and take your 
 rest;" that was our Saviour's way of telling his unwatchful disciples that they had lost 
 the opportunity of ministering to him as he had asked them. But in the next breath 
 he says, " Rise, let us be going : behold, he that betrayeth," etc.; that was his way of 
 telling them that there were opportunities for other service yet awaiting them. Peter, 
 when he went out after his denial of his Lord, and wept bitterly, thought that never- 
 more would he have opportunity of doing aught for that dear, dear Lord whom he had 
 so shamefully denied. But 'twas after that the Lord said to him, " Feed my lambs," 
 " Feed my sheep." Therefore waste not time in mere brooding over lost opportunities. 
 Confess your feithlessuess, and seek forgiveness, and then ask the Lord to show you 
 what yet remains that you may do for him. And be sure that he will graciously deal 
 with you as he did with his apostle of old. 2. Those who lament the going away of 
 the day of prosperity. If you are not a believer in Christ — one born again of the Holy 
 Ghost unto him, then I know not how to comfort you or how to lighten your lamenta- 
 tion. I can only counsel you to kneel and pray that this loss of temporal good may 
 lead you to him who waits to give you eternal good, in the gain of which all earthly 
 loss will be forgotten. God grant you may follow this counsel. But if you are a child 
 of God, then remember Christ will be with you in your trial. Was there not another 
 with the three Hebrew youths in the furnace of fire, so that its fierce flames burned 
 them not, and they walked up and down as if beneath the cool shade of the trees of 
 Paradise? Manifold and great good to you and through you is undoubtedly designed 
 by letting such trial come to you. To give you holy skill and blessed tenderness in 
 ministering to other troubled souls; to impart to you deeper knowledge of yourself; 
 to make you the means of making known to others what Divine grace can do. This 
 w as why God suffered Job to be so tried, and why the Lord put the faith of the Syro- 
 plioenician woman to so severe a strain. Did not our Lord himself become the " Man 
 of sorrows and acquainted with grief"? What do we not all owe to that? And so 
 through his people becoming more or less men of sorrows and acquainted with grief, 
 large blessing shall flow down to others. Then do not think it all " woe " if the day 
 of your earthly prosperity does seem to be " going away," and the shadows of its 
 evening be stretched out. 3. Those who lament the going away of the day of a life 
 
CH. VI. 1-00.] THE BOOK OF THE PEOPHET JEREMIAK 1G3 
 
 lived without God. To such we would say that it is a rare mercy that they are dis- 
 tressed at all. For many die as they have lived, indifferent and unconcerned about 
 God and things eternal. But if alarm and tear have been awakened, that is a token of 
 mercy. The dying robber on the cross beside our Lord, at that last hour turned tc 
 him, and was not refused the mercy he craved. Christ " saves to the uttermost all that 
 come unto God by him." Give glory to him by even now turning to him, as he bids 
 you do. But let none presume on the possibilities of such repentance at the very last. 
 " The Gospels tell of one such, that none may despair ; but of only one, that none may 
 presume." " Kemember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth." 
 
 " To Jesus may we fly 
 
 Swift as the morning light, 
 Lest life's young golden beams should die 
 
 In sudilen endless night." 
 
 If we be found in him, then the exceeding bitter cry of our text will never be heard 
 from us. The day of opportunity will not leave us. If the day of earthly prosperity 
 do leave us, then it will be because the Lord hath provided some better thing for us. 
 And when the day of life goeth away and we with it, it will be but " to depart and be 
 with Christ, which is far better." — 0. 
 
 Vers. 4, 5. — How the kingdom of heaven is to he tahen. " Prepare ye war," etc. It 
 is lawful to learn from the children of this generation, who are wiser in their affairs 
 than the children of light. Therefore, from the way in which the enemies of Judah 
 should assail her, we may learn how the kingdom of heaven is to be won. There is — 
 
 I. The recogkition op the reality of the struggle. " Prepare ye war," etc. 
 
 II. Casting aside op all suggestions op ease. " Let us go up at noon ; " the 
 burning heat did not matter. 
 
 III. Impatience op hindrances. " Woe unto us ! for the day," etc. 
 
 IV. Kesolvb to encounter any and evbuy peril rather than be put back from 
 their enterprise. " Let us go up by niglit." 
 
 V. Detkrmination hot to rest till the power op the foe be utterly 
 DESTROYED. " Let US destroy her palaces," etc. — C. 
 
 Ver. 6. — The real director of human affairs. " For thus hath the Lord of hosts 
 said, Hew ye down trees," etc. Nothing could seem a more purely human affair than 
 the invasion of Judah and Jerusalem by the armies of Babylon. Its motives, methods, 
 means, results, were all just such as were perfectly comprehensible and according to 
 the manners of that age and the peoples concerned. One event followed another in 
 natural sequence, and was fully explained, so men would say, by what went before. 
 And so in refereuce to a still more notable event — the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ. To the eye of an ordinary historian, that supreme event was brought about in 
 altogether a common and ordinary way. But as concerning that event, so concerning 
 this of which Jeremiah tells, it is distinctly declared that Ood was overruling and 
 directing all that took place. Not that God was the author of the wickedness which' 
 seemed triumphant in these events — especially in the " wicked hands " by which our 
 Lord was " crucified and slain." No, but just as, when a fire has broken forth and is 
 threatening to devour and destroy on all hands, wise and skilful firemen, when they 
 cannot quench it, will contrive to lead it in a given direction, will order the path it 
 shall take as seems to them best, so God, when he sees the raging fire of wickedness 
 has broken forth, guides and orders the path it shall take, the work it shall do. 
 Wickedness is never attributable to God, but the development and form it shall 
 assume are so. Hence in the text, the Lord of hosts is represented as the real Com- 
 mander of the armies that were to invade Judah and Jerusalem ; it was his orders they 
 were in fact obeying, though nothing was further from their thoughts than this. And 
 so we are taught that Qud is behind all human affairs, ordering and directing them 
 according to his will. 
 
 " There's a divinity that shapes our ends. 
 Bough-hew them how we will." 
 
164 THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. vi. 1— 30. 
 
 And now we ask — 
 
 I. Why should not this be so ? Many reply that if you find an adequate cause 
 for any given effect, there is no need to look for any other. But, in answer, see, I let 
 this book fall ; what causes it to fall ? The law of gravity will adequately explain it. 
 But was that the real cause ? Was not my will to let it fall that real cause ? And so in 
 human affairs, we may see the immediate antecedent, but we have a right to ask, " What 
 lies behind that ? " You say, " Sufficiently plain motives led to such and such conduct ; " 
 but we ask, " Who brought these motives into action ? who or what set them at work so 
 that these results have come about?" Further — 
 
 II. God is a perfectly holy Being, and therefore must desire to have all 
 MORAL NATURES MADE LIKE UNTO HIMSELF. " Grood and upright is the Lord, therefore 
 will he teach sinners in the way." "The righteous Lord loveth righteousness ; " hence 
 we are bidden, " Give thanks at the remembrance of bis holiness." Hence it is certain 
 that he will employ all means consistent with the nature he has given us to bring our 
 wills into harmony with his own. Therefore when we see a whole system of things, 
 an entire course of events, tending to and actually producing this result — for the 
 Captivity did cure Israel of their idolatry, they went no more after false gods, nor have 
 they done so ever since — we at once put it down to him whose nature and whose will 
 we know. 
 
 III. And oue individual constitution supports this view. There are Divine laws 
 for the body, the mind, the affections. And to bring us into harmony with his laws, 
 which are the expression of his will, he has " begirt us round " with safeguards and 
 guides which, if we heed, happy are we, but if we neglect, we suffer. It is certain 
 that the health of our whole nature follows obedience to these laws ; and, on the 
 other hand, the misery which results from disobedience declares plainly his will, and 
 shows that he is behind all those facts which we call the causes of these results, and is 
 himself the Cause of them all. Now, this is true in the case of each single person. 
 May it not, therefore, be true in the case of the world at large, and in regard to what we 
 call " causes and effects " ? Then note further — 
 
 IV. The unity of purpose which is seen throuohout the orderino or the 
 
 UNIVKRSB, so FAR AS WE CAN TRACE, SEEMS TO INDICATE ON'E MIND GOVERNINO ALL. 
 
 Bead history, or such a book as Creasy's ' Decisive Battles of the World,' and note how 
 each great struggle has helped forward the advance of humanity, has bettered the 
 condition of mankind, so that it is terrible to think what, in many instances, would 
 have been the consequences had the events fallen out in an opposite way. The hand 
 of God in history is clearly discernible by all who believe heartily in the living, all- 
 holy, all-loving God. 
 
 V. And, of course, the whole authority op Scripture supports this doctrine. 
 (Cf. the story of Joseph, and his answer to his brethren, " It was not you that sent 
 ine hither, but God.") 
 
 VI. Learn in conclusion : 1. To cast out from your minds every idea or thought of 
 chance, fate, or any mere haphazard coming about of events. 2. How seriously we ought 
 to look at the events of our own lives, and inquire God's meaning in regard to his 
 dealings with us. We are not to be drawn off Irom this by the imagination that our 
 little lives are far too insignificant for God to care for or direct. Does not Gud paint 
 the roadside flower, the wing of the moth? Is there anything minute or insignificant 
 in his esteem ? 3. Rejoice and be exceeding glad. " Our Father's at the helm." " What 
 we know not now we shall know hereafter." Therefore "rest in the Lord, and wait 
 patiently for him." — C. 
 
 Ver. 7. — Sin compared to a "fountain." I. The comparison just. For : ]. Natural- 
 ness. A fountain or spring bursting out on the hillside excites no surprise as if it were 
 an unheard-of, an extraordinary thing. Nor does the outflow of sin from the human 
 heart. 2. Continuartce. The streams of each may sing — 
 
 " But men may come and men may go, 
 But we flow on for ever." 
 
 3. Having their source "from within." Out of the depths both alike come. 4. 
 JJnchangeableness in character. What they were once they are always. 5. 8} on- 
 
cii. VI. 1-30.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 1G5 
 
 taneousness. No force is needed to draw forth their streams. 6. Gopionmeas. 
 7, Effectiveness. Tlie course of a stream is ever discernible by its effects. It tells on 
 all that it touches, it leaves nothing as it was before it came. 8. Force. The fountain 
 will have way given to it. It will break all barriers that block its way. 
 
 II._ The lesson is obvious. Shall we diaert its streams, and compel them to run 
 only in quiet safe places where they will cause us no worldly harm ? This is what 
 most men try to do, and very often succeed in doing. But this is not God's plan. His 
 charge is, "Make the fouvtuin good." And this he can do ; he can create a clean heart 
 and renew a right spirit within us. " He that believeth in me," said our Saviour, 
 " from within him shall flow rivers of living water : " not, as now, rivers of death 
 O Christ— 
 
 " Thou of life the Fountain art. 
 Freely let me take of thee : 
 Spring thou up within my heart, 
 Bise to all eternity." 
 
 c. 
 
 Ver. 8. — The worst woe of the wicJced. " Be thou instructed, Jerusalem, lest my 
 soul depart from thee." 
 
 I. There aeb many woes which accompany sin. " Many sorrows shall be to the 
 wicked." All observation attests the truth of this word. 
 
 II. But theke is one which may fitly be spoken of as the worst of all. It is 
 thi.s — God's soul departing from the sinner. This indeed is terrible. It is so amongst 
 men. We hear at times of those who have worn out the luve even of those who loved 
 them most tenderly. They have made the soul of those who loved them to depart 
 from them. Sons have done this for fathers and mothers, friends for friends, 
 husbands for wives and wives for husbands ; and to have thus driven away a deep and 
 earnest love is a depth of ruin than which none in this world can be more terrible. 
 But to have worn out the love of God — to have made his soul to depart from us, what 
 woe can compare to that? His providential favour may depart from us, and that is 
 sad. Our realization of his love in our hearts may depart from us, and that is sadder 
 still. But for his love itself to depart, that, is the worst of all. 
 
 III. What, then, can cause so great a calamity to comb upon a man ? It is his 
 refusing instruction (cf. Pi'ov. i., " Seemg thou hatest knowledge," etc.). This Judah 
 and Jerusalem were doing ; this all too many are doing now. 
 
 IV. But this God depebcates greatly, and implores us not to be guilty of. 
 " Be thou instructed, Jerusalem" (cf. our Saviour's tearsover Jerusalem). Appeal. — C. 
 
 Ver. 9. — " Turn bacJc thine hand." The text, no doubt, tells of the utter and 
 complete desolation which would result from the Chaldean invasion of Judah and 
 Jerusalem. In vivid dramatic form Jehovah is represented as bidding the invading 
 armies go over their ruthless work again, and make the desolation yet more awful. 
 Like as the grape-gatherer, after he had to all appearances stripped the vine of its 
 clusters, would " turn back his hand " amongst the tendrils, and search once more over 
 the whole branch to see that no solitary cluster had escaped him (" tendrils," rather 
 than " baskets," are what is meant ; see Exposition) ; so, if there were a solitary village 
 or homestead which had escaped the fury of the foe, they are bidden go back on their 
 work, that none whatever might escape. Such the meaning, and it was ruthlessly 
 fulfilled. But the form of expression may be applied, not merely to the ministers of 
 God's vengeance, as in the text, but to those who serve him in ways far more accept- 
 able and ordinary. We, therefore, take the charge, " Turn back thine hand as a 
 grape-;iatherer," and address it — 
 
 I. To those who are at work for God. The self-satisfied, who look at their work 
 with too much content, as if it could not be bettered, — these need this charge. Aud the 
 discouraged, who are for throwing up their work, abandoning it in sorrow and despair, 
 believing they can do nothing more, — to them God would say, " Turn back thine hand." 
 To those who desire to do their work thoroughly. Go over it again. See how Paul was 
 constantly in the habit of " turning back his hand," i.e. going over the Churches that 
 he had established, revisiting them, in order that he might " confirm " them in the 
 
166 THE BOOK OF THE PEOPIIET JEIIEMIAH. [ch. vi. 1—30. 
 
 faith (cf. Acts, passim). " Line upon line, line upon line," is God's counsel to us in 
 this matter. 
 
 II. To THE STUDENTS OF HIS WoRD. To none more than to these is this charge 
 necessary, if they are to keep a living interest in God's Word. We come to be so 
 familiar with the main themes, and the forms in which they are expressed, that 
 reading of the Bible comes to be a work in which no thought is aroused, or attention 
 arrested, and fwe weary of it terribly. Now, it is to the diligent searcher, who will 
 " turn back his hand," go over his work again, and not be content with the truths 
 which lie only on the surface and which every eye can see, — to him shall there be 
 revealed clusters of precious truths which he had never seen before, and the Word of 
 God shall yield to him what it yields only to searchers like himself. 
 
 III. To THOSE ANXIOUS FOB THE FE0ITS OP God's GRACE IN THEMSELVES. To trUC- 
 
 hearted believers it is often a cause of regret that their fruits seem so few and so poor. 
 How often the confession is made of this spiritual fruitlessness ! But we need not, ought 
 not, to stay in complaints and confessions. " Turn back thine hand," and search if there 
 may not be more fruit found, and of a better kind. " In me is thy fruit found," says God, 
 and it may be we have been looking in the wrong places and to wrong sources lor that 
 which we so earnestly desire to see. We may " go on unto perfection," for so bids us the 
 Word of God. Our " whole body, soul, and spirit may be preserved blameless," and 
 we maybe " the sons of God without rebuke;" for Christ "is able [has power] to save 
 to the uttermost," and therefore we may be " filled with all the fulness of God." So, 
 Christian brother, " turn back thine hand as a grape-gatherer," and think not thou hast 
 fathered all the fruits of the Spirit that may be borne by thee. Thou hast not. 
 
 In conclusion, note how the subject tells of : 1. The worth of those objects which we 
 search alter. The action of the grape-gatherer, in carefully going over the braucii 
 again, testifies to his sense of the value of that for which he searches. And so here in 
 I., 11., III. 2. And what is yet left to be gathered will be more readily found because 
 of the others that have been gathered. The solitary remaining clusters are seen more 
 easily now that the others which hid them are cleared away. And he who desires to 
 do more work for God, to know more of the truth of God, to bear more fruit unto God, 
 shall find that his former work has been for his help, and on account thereof he is 
 more sure of success. "Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit;" 
 therefore " turn back thine hand." — C. 
 
 Vers. 9 — 17. — TTie preacher's hitter cry. Profound distress marks the prophet's 
 utterances in this section. The lament over the incorrigible wickedness of men and 
 his own baffled work is loud and long and bitter exceedingly (cf. Christ's tears over 
 Jerusalem ; Paul's sorrow over his countrymen). 
 
 I. What caused this bitter cry ? His perception of the judgment of God drawing 
 nigh (vers. 9, 12, 15). The obstinacy of the people (vers. 10, 16, 17). The hopelessness 
 of reformation (ver. 13). All were corrupt, and the prophets and priests were even 
 leaders in sin (ver. 14). Even the Lord's voice had been despised (ver. 16). Now, when 
 facts like these occur, the judgment of God threatening but those exposed to them 
 obstinately refusing warning ; and when those who should have warned them and been 
 their guides in the ways of God are themselves godless, and the voice of God has been 
 heard and deliberately despised, tlien, as the faithful servant of God sees this awful guilt 
 and its sure, inevitable, and swift-approaching judgment, — then it is that a sense of 
 despair, a deep grief fills the soul, as well it may. 
 
 II. What is a preacher to do under such circumstances ? The first thought is 
 to turn away from the doomed people and to speak no more to them in God's Name. 
 But it is better to take example Irom the prophet, who was verily as one of those servants 
 who, when those called to the prepared least would not come, but " made light " of the 
 gracious invitation, each saying, "I pray thee have me excused," went out, at his 
 lord's bidding, into the highways and the hedges and compelled them to come in. Bo 
 did Jeremiah now (ver. 11). It grieved him to the heart that God's Word should be 
 despised, and he became " full of the fury of the Lord " (cf. ch. xx. 9). Hence he poured 
 out his full heart upon young and old, men, women, and children, wherever he found 
 opportunity of unburdening his soul on this great theme. He was inspired by God lo 
 do this, and the fact teaches us that preaching, which may seem to be of no use for the 
 
cu. VI. 1—30.] THE liOOK OF TliK PKOPilET JEKEMIAH. IG'. 
 
 arcomplishment of one result, may yet be of rauoli use in regard to another. Jeremiah's 
 testimony, though it did not save the people from captivity, vpas of great service to 
 them there, and to the whole Jewish people ever after. His words, which seemed as 
 idle tales when he spoke them, became mighty through God in after days. The neglect, 
 tlierefore, of Our message now should not lead us to cease delivering it, but should rouse 
 us to more zeal, and make us " weary wilh holding in" (ver. 11). We may be sure 
 that whenever God moves us to speak earnestly his Word, he intends to make our 
 message a means of blessing somewhen and somewhere. 
 
 III. What the preacher's grief reveals. It tells much: 1. Of God. (1) Of 
 Ilia love ; for it is ever he who inspires his servants with deep solicitude for men's 
 salvation: it is he who through them is saying, "How can I give thee up?" (2) Of 
 his righteousness ; for the vivid realization of the coming judgment which his servants 
 have is given them that they may impress upon the impenitent and the ungodly the 
 sure issue of their sins. The prophets who see and declare God's love are they who. 
 declare his rigliteousness also. 2. Of the preacher himself. How truly he is sent of 
 God ! It is tTie Spirit of God spoak.s through him, the love of God lending; him to deep 
 love for his fellow-men. If our hearts are greatly filled with a yearning for men's souls, 
 if " rivers of water run down our eyes because men keep not God's law," — such solici- 
 tude is a sure sign of the presence of God with us, and a pledge of his help in deliver- 
 ing our message. 3. 0/ men. How desperately set they are against God ! how absolute 
 their need of the renewing power of the Holy Ghost ! See what the prophet says 
 (ver. 10) : " Their ear is uncircimicised, and they cannot hearken." The habit of sin has 
 caused their ear to be overgrown, and its power of bearing stopped, " so that," etc. How 
 should the preacher ever remember this, and supplicate the mighty aid of the Divine 
 Spirit if his message is to do any good ! 
 
 IV. Questions IT SUGGESTS. 1. For preachr-rs and teachers. Do wo know anything 
 of the prophet's grief? Facts all too plentiful and too closely resembling tliose 
 which filled Jeremiah with the fury of the Lord (ver. 1 1 ) abound in our day. Do they 
 excite any similar feeling in ourselves? What need we have to pray and watch, 
 against becoming used to sin ! and for sympathy with the prophets of God and yet 
 more with Christ, their Lord and ours ! 2. J' or those who hi-ar the Word ofGo'1. Are 
 you becoming the cause of such grief to any of (lod's servants? Eememher theirs is 
 but the foreshadowing of your own, which will be far greater if you heed not their 
 word. Rather heed that Word, and so become not their bitter grief but their joy now, 
 and their cause of rejoicing in the day of the Lord. — C. 
 
 Ver. 10. — The uncircumcised (ar. I. What is this? Not apJit/sical defect, although 
 the figure employed seems to tell of some fie.shly growth which has fiirmed over the 
 cavity of the ear, and so destroyed the power of hearing. Nor a mental defect. 1'hey 
 were acute enough ; they readily understood the prophet's meaning when he spoke to 
 them. Their minds were at that very time busy about all sorts of plots and schemes, 
 which thoy hoped to carry out. Nor was it a moral defect. 'J'hey knew the right, 
 the true, the i;ood. Conscience was still at work and goading them with her reproaches. 
 Hence they devise means (ver. 14) to lull and quiet it. And they had the power of 
 choice, and deliberately chose ways of their own rather than those of God. True, it is 
 said in the text, " And they cannot hearkrn." Unt that tells only of what is the perpetual 
 result of refusing continuously to hear God's AVord. Let a man tie his arm to his side 
 for six months, and see what power of using it he has left after that. It will have 
 become atropliied. And so in like maimer do the functions of the soul, the limbs of 
 our spiritual nature. The "will not" in regard to their use darkens down into the 
 dreadful "cannot " of tlie judgment of God. There is no more awful I'act fur the foith- 
 less servant of God, nor more blessed one for the I'ailhful, than this law of habit. The 
 utterance of it concerning the wicked is, as here, " They cannot hearken ; " but con- 
 cerning the good, "My heart is fixed, God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give 
 praise." But it is a s/dritual defect. It is the result of " the alienated will," that which 
 the Bible calls " the unrenewed heart," " the carnal mind," " the unregenerate nature." 
 All such expressions tell of the will of man turned away from God, and having no 
 liigher motive than to ]ilia.<!e and gratify self. That is the radical delect of us all, and 
 it is that which the prophet here terms "the uncircumcised ear." It by no means 
 
168 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. vi. 1—30. 
 
 always involves the outrageous wickedness which is told of in their prophecies; it can 
 exist and yet never " commit abomination," as did these to whom Jeremiah spoke. It 
 is foand in company with much outward religiousness, much moral jjropriety, mucii 
 amiability of character ; but wherever it is, Christ's word concerning all such is, " Ye 
 inust be born again." It is in its nature fierce, savage, unsubdued still. It often 
 seems to be tamed, and moves about soft-footed and gently as if it never could do 
 harm ; but let some lure be held out to it, some provocation be given, and then its 
 ftrocity and all its hideous evil will reveal itself at once. Accustomed as we are to see 
 this evil nature held in check by the usages of society, the habits of civilized life and 
 a refined selfishness, we are often blind to its true character, and " marvel " much at our 
 Saviour's reiterated word, "Ye must be born again." 
 
 II. Its EFFECTS. 1. Disregard of and dislike to the Word of Grod. "To whom shall I 
 speak ?" said the prophet. He could get no one to listen to him. And this is the too frequent 
 experience of our own day. How deserted the churches are, and where they are better 
 attended, what kind of listening is it that prevails? Granted the intolerable dulness 
 of many preachers, but the evil is not probed when this is said. The true cause is 
 " the uncircumcised ear" that Jeremiah tells of. But not only have men " no delight 
 in " the Word of God, they count it " a reproach." They come to be ashamed of its 
 being thought that they should regard it with interest or have any real care for it. 
 The tone adopted regarding those who do delight in God's Word is one of scorn and 
 contempt. 2. Men go on unchecked in sin (cf. vers. 13, 15, and. passim."). Surely it 
 is a question not merely for the Church, but for thoughtful men of the world, whether it 
 be well for any community or people to be throwing aside all the restraints of God's 
 Word, as so many are doing. The history of Israel of old is a beacon-light, warninu; 
 the people of our day of what comes from despising the Word of the Loid. 3. God's 
 judgments come upon such people (ver. 12). 4. Men become shameless and hardened 
 (ver. 15). 5. The heart of God's faithful servants is sorely troubled (cf. ver. 10). Heie 
 the prophet mourns over their " uncircumcised ears." 
 
 III. Abettors and ministers to this evil. 1. Unfaithful priests and prophets 
 (ver. 18). 2. The haideuing efiucts of the people's own sin. 
 
 IV. The remedy. Yet more impassioned and earnest ministry of the Word. There 
 must be no giving up of work or abandoning it in despair. But — as ver. 11 — more 
 intense devotedness in the endeavour, futile as it may appear, to save men from death. 
 2. The fiery disciplines of God. He is " a consuming fire ; " and the fire of his love 
 will burn fiercely ou until the evil on which it fastens is burnt out of the soul, the 
 Church, the nation, he loves. Oh, the awfulness of the love of God ! If God were not 
 love, there might be a possibility of a soul being allowed to perish in its sins and to go 
 its own way to death unchecked ; but as the fondest mother will subject her child to 
 terrible suilering for the saving of its life, so, too, will God. 
 
 Conclusion. What a summons comes to us from these truths : (1) to seek the 
 renewing grace of the Spirit of God ; (2) to take heed how we hear ! — C. 
 
 Ver. 14. — 27)6 vampires of the soul. There is a hideous creature called the vampire 
 bat, that is .said to destroy its victims by sucking their life-blood. Whilst thus 
 destroying them, it gently fans them with its wings, and so keeps them in a profound 
 slumber, from which the probabilities are that they will never wake. And what other 
 are they who lull the souls of sinful men to the sleep of death by " saying. Peace, peace ; 
 when there is no peace "1 No greater crime can be imagined than this of which our text 
 tells. The physician who should pamper a man in his disease, who should feed his 
 cancer or inject continual poison into the system, whilst at the same time he promised 
 sound health and a long life, — such a physician would not be one-half so criminal as 
 the professed religious teacher who should knowingly bid those entrusted to his charge 
 to be at ease and to take comfort, when he ought to be crying, " Woe unto them that 
 are at ease in Zion ! " The pilot who should pretend to steer a ship toward its proper 
 haven, but all the white-was of intent driving her upon unseen rocks, would not be a worse 
 traitor than the man into whose hands the helm of human souls is entrusted, and whose 
 professed duty it is to steer them towards Christ, but who, instead of so doing, was 
 guiding them to utter ruin, by flattering them that all was well when all was ill. In 
 the great day, when all shall render up their account to God, what awfulness of doom 
 
CH. VI. 1—30.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEKEMIAH. 169 
 
 will not be reserved for him who has been chargeable with blood-guiltiness like this ? 
 We observe-^; 
 
 I. That it is an all too frequent sin. 1. The prophets of Judah and Jerusalem 
 were guilty of it, notwithstanding 'that (1) they knew the truth ; (2) they professed 
 the truth ; (3) they were ordained to teach the truth. Still, out of all manner of evil 
 motive they were guilty of this sin. Oh, let all who teach, whether in the pulpit, the 
 home circle, or in the school, remember that their sacred charge and duty may not 
 merely be imperfectly fulfilled — that it ever is ; nor even neglected merely, sad as tlwt 
 is ; but it may be utterly perverted, and that which was designed to be for our own ami 
 others' great good may become the means of our and their more terrible condemnatiuu. 
 From this may God save teachers and tauitht alike ! 2. And there are now those who 
 are bidding men be at peace when there is no peace. (1) They who bid men be at 
 peace on the ground of their moral integrity, their respectability of character, and of 
 the righteousness with which they are credited amongst their fellovv-men. Grod forbid 
 that we should decry or depreciate the value of character, reputation, and integrity 
 amongst men. No, indeed ; but all the same we feel that it is a plea all too feeble, 
 and one that cannot avail such as we are before the bar of the all-holy God. (2) They 
 who teach men to trust in sacraments or Church ordinances of any kind. These, too, 
 are precious in their proper place, but regarded as a valid claim to eternal life, apart 
 from the disposition of the heart Godwards, they will save no man, and he who trusts 
 them or teaches others to trust them, is guilty of saying, " Peace, peace," etc. 
 (3) They who rely on a faith which is fruitless in love to God and man. This is the 
 characteristic of all forms of Antinomianism, and though that be " a way which 
 seemeth right unto many men, the end thereof is death." 3. But let us remember that 
 we may practically be preaching this fatal peace. Christian men and women, who do 
 nothing for the salvation of those around you ; who are eager about amusements, 
 business, worldly position, and all such things, but who are unmoved or but very 
 little moved at the ungodliness in the midst of which you live ; what is the conclusion 
 that others draw from this unconcern ? Why, that you don't believe what you 
 profess, and that therefore they need not either. And so you encourage them to say, 
 " Peace, peace," etc. Whose conscience is there that does not smite him here ? and 
 who of us is there that has no need of the prayer, " Deliver me from blood-guilliness, 
 God, thou God of my salvation" ? And all who are unconceined about their own 
 eternal welfare. Fathers and mothers who have not sought the Lord, you will die in 
 yuur sins if you repent not ; but you will die not to yourselves merely; you will drag 
 your children down with you, for you are teaching them to be unconcerried and 
 iudiffereut, when neither you nor they possess any true peace at all. 4. But after all, 
 those who are the most guilty of saying, " Peace, peace," etc., are sinful men to them- 
 selves. The devil taught men the way very early in the history of our race. " Ye 
 shall not surely die ; " so he lyingly declared to our first mother, and she, all too willing 
 to believe that there would be peace though she did disobey God, ruined herself, her 
 husband, and all her children by that one deed. And ever since men who love to 
 disobey have encouraged themselves in their sin by this fatal flattery of their souls of 
 which our text tells. They did so in the days of Noah, " until the flood came and 
 took them all away." See also Belshazzar's feast at the height of merriment, when 
 the handwriting appeared on the wall, and that night Babylon was taken and her 
 king slain. So has it been with the Jewish people — in Jeremiah's time, and so in our 
 Lord's. The Captivity shattered that first false peace, and the utter destruction of 
 Jerusalem the second. And we are told it will be so at the last, in that " day when 
 the Son of man conieth." Observe, then, some of the deceits whereby men beguile 
 themselves into saying, " Peace, peace," etc. They are such as these : (I) The infinite 
 mercy of God. (2) " I am no worse than those who make a religious profession. If 
 they are saved, I shall be too." (3) " Yes, I am going to repent and turn to God ; I 
 ceitainly mean to one day." (4) Religious profession : " 1 am baptized and take the 
 sacrament." (5) Denying the truth of the Bible : " I have no proof that there is a 
 God, a heaven, or indeed that I have a soul. It is all a ' perhaps ; ' " so men say. And 
 there are many other such deceits. But now — 
 
 n. Note how the lie that is in all such sayinr of " Peace, peace," etc., mat 
 BE DETECTED. A man may hold up a pbial of liquid that is colourless, clear, spar- 
 
no TFIE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEIIEMIAII. [cii. vr. 1—30. 
 
 kling, that seems in all respects like pure, wholesome water. But the skilled chemist 
 drops into it the fitting test, and at once the poisonous substance is precipitated, 
 and thus is made evident to all. Now, with all these deceits of which we have 
 been telling, their true nature may be made manifest if we apply those tests which 
 only the true peace of God will endure. For, if the peace in which we are trusting 
 be a true one and not a deception, it will : 1. Always tend to the making of us holier, 
 purer, more Christ-like. God's peace always does this. It " keeps our hearts and 
 mmds in Christ Jesus," it "rules " in our henrts. 2. Stand under the hardest blows of 
 misfortune and earthly sorrow. Listen to its voice : " Though he slay me, yet will I 
 trust in him ; " " The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away ; blessed be the Nimie 
 of the Lord." Now, will peace such as springs from such sources as those told of help 
 a man in straits like those of Job? 3. Be with him in death. 4. Have Christ at the 
 heart of it as its Alpha and its Omega, its beginning and its end. 
 
 IIL But our surest safeguard is not in ouk beino able to detect the false 
 PEACE, BUT IN POSSESSING THE TRUE. That is ours when we surrender our souls to 
 Christ. Then we shall have peace indeed. (1) Peace from fear of God's condemnation ; 
 (2) peace from dread of guilt ; (3) peace from the tyranny and oppression of " the 
 evil one;" (4) peace from the crushing power of eartldy sorrow; (5) peace from the 
 terror of the grave and the judgment day ; (6) peace in the conscious possession of the 
 love of God. Such is the true " peace of God." Oh, how foolish, then, to barter that 
 for the false and fatal pretences of peace which are for ever beguiling the hearts of 
 sinful men ! May he who is " our Peace," even Christ, cause us to give heed to his 
 own loving call, " Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and 1 will give 
 you rest " I — C. 
 
 Ver. 15. — The sin against the Holy Ghost. I. This sin is set forth herb. For 
 the sin is no one definite act, but a condition of mind which renders repentance hope- 
 less and persistence in sin certain (cf. Revised Version, Mark iii. 29, where the true 
 reading is as there given, "is guilty of an eternal sin"). But is not this the condi- 
 tion described in the text, described vividly, accurately? They had hardened themselves 
 till repentance, yea, even shame, on account of " abomination" was utterly absent from 
 them. " ' They were not at all ashamed,' no tinge of it, not the least ' blush ' was 
 visible. Was it not certain that such people who would go on, as they did, in sin, 
 were in danger of eternal sin ? " Hence they had never forgiveness, and the prophet 
 was forbidden (see oh. vii. 16) even to pray for them (cf. 1 John v. 16). 
 
 IL Other instances of it oe approximations to it. 1. Those who with unblush- 
 ing effrontery ascribed Christ's holy ministry and his deeds of merciful might to Satanic 
 power. They cried out, " Show us a sign from heaven" implying that thus far he had 
 only shown them signs from hell. 2. Those who were responsible for the cry, " His blood 
 be oil US, and on our children ! " Ami there are instances now. The condition of 
 shamelessness in sin and of helplessness as to repentance may be, and we fear at 
 times is, reached. Therefore note — 
 
 HI. The steps by which men reach this condition. 1. By disregard of the 
 rebukes of conscience, stifling them, instead of going, as they would pmnipt, to the 
 mercy-seat, and there confessing the sin. 2. By persistence in sin. 3. By the com- 
 mission of great sins. 4. By loss of self-respect. 5. By forfeiture of character and the 
 esteem of men. 
 
 IV. Its doom. "It hath never forgiveness." "They shall fall among them that 
 fall; they shall be cast down, snith the Lord." Wherefore this? 1. IJeoause sin and 
 sorrow are linked together by a chain that cannot be broken. Therefore where there is 
 eternal sin there must be eternal punishment. The latter keeps pace with the former, 
 and dogs its footsteps for ever. It cannot but be so. 2. Because such men are 
 murderers of other men's souls. They are centres of rebellion against God, of deadly 
 spiritual contagion. Blood-guiltiness is upon them, yea, they are steeped therein. 
 3. Because God could not be God and not abhor such condition of soul as this sin 
 betrays. 
 
 V. Jts solemn lessons. 1. Cherish a holy hatred of sin, for its tendency is ever to 
 reproduce itself, and so to become eternal. 2. Lievvare of disre-'ardiiig the monitor 
 witliiu — conscience, God's voice in our souls. ■ To do so is to drive away the trusty 
 
CH. VI, 1—30.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 171 
 
 sentinel who guards the app'onohes of the soul against its deadly foes ; to pierce and 
 undermine those blessed walls which keep back the inrush of the ocean upon the 
 whole land. Let us not do aught like this. But pray — 
 
 " Quick as the apple of the eye, 
 O God, my conscience make. 
 Swift to dibceru when sin is nigh, 
 And keep it still awake." 
 
 3. Is sin upon your conscience now? At once confess it, and so find from your 
 Lord forgiveness for it, and more — deliverance from it and from all possibility of that 
 dread sin which th.e text describes and which hath never forgiveness. — 0. 
 
 Ver. 16. — The good old paths. It is noticeable in the order of nature how God has 
 secured the true adjustment and hence the highest well-being of his universe by means 
 of the action of contrasted and opposite forces. By means of that power which the 
 mighty mass of the sun has to draw everything to itself — if this were left alone to 
 operate, the whole of those innumerable orbs that now circle round the sun as their 
 centre would be drawn in upon it and perish. But this is prevented by the action of 
 an opposite force, called the centrifugal, as the first-mentioned is called the centripetal. 
 This opposite force tends, by the velocity with which the planets revolve around the 
 sun, to drive them oif and away from it : thus, by the effect of these opposite forces, 
 that perfect harmony and unerring order of the whole stellar universe, which has been 
 the admiration of all observers in all ages, are preserved. Chemistry also can furnish 
 illustrations not a few of the beneficent action ot opposite forces, whei'e either left alone 
 would work only harm. In the great law of sex, the constitution of all life, plant life 
 as well as animal, as male and female, this in all its aspects is another marked instance 
 of the same Divine method. In political life, the two great tendencies, monarchial 
 and democratic, or the rule of the one versus the rule of the many — the mutual 
 stragglings of these two — keep the world in such equilibrium as we see. In reli- 
 gion, the Catholic principle which makes self nothing, and the Ptotestant principle 
 which makes self all-important, each man having to give an account of himself to 
 God, — these are both designed to contend tlie one against the other, and whilst 
 Catholicism is to check the selfish individualism into which Protestantism is apt to 
 lapse. Protestantism is in its turn to struggle agiiiust that servility of mind into which 
 the principle of self-abnegation, the esseiitinl principle of Catholicism, is prone to 
 degenerate. It is in the resultant of the.«e two fiaroes that the purest form of religious 
 life is found. And in regard to the life of obedience to Ood, the life which he wotdd 
 have us live here on earth, that, too, is governed by the action of opposed laws. There 
 is the law which works through our bodily nature, and which if lelt alone would make 
 us, not in body only but in soul, of the earth earthy, for ever " grovelling here below." 
 But there is the opposed law which works through our spiritual nature ; but, blessed 
 as it is, it needs to be disciplined and made perfectly healthful to us by means of the 
 salutary necessity of giving heed in due measure to the lesser law just spoken of. The 
 first preserves us from being mere enthusiasts, the second from the far greater peril of 
 enslavement to the world, the flesh, and the devil acting through them. And in those 
 two tendencies, one of which is plainly referred to in this sixteenth verse and the other 
 implied, the love of the old is contrasted with the love of the new. Here, again, we have- 
 et before us two great forces in humanity, which by their mutual contentions preserve it 
 
 tolerable health and comfort, and ensure its steady, onward progress. Conservatism 
 and liberalism are not the products of any one national revolution, like our own in 
 1688, but they are two God-implanted tendencies of the human mind, each of which 
 J)3B its appropriate and most useful function, and neither of which can be dispensed 
 with without harm to the whole body politic in every nation under the sun. To lie- 
 jike a log on the ocean of human life, useless and despised andd the nationalities of 
 the world, is the doom of those who will blindly close their eyes to the fresh light and 
 truth which are for ever breaking forth upon the world ; to run upon the rocks and 
 make shipwi'eck of everything is the doom of those who despise the teachings of 
 experience, and care only to be for ever finding out some new way and to follow some- 
 new guide. But let these two act and react each on the other — the love of the old 
 
172 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [en. vi. 1—30. 
 
 upon the love of the new, the tendency to be always looking hack upon the tendency 
 to be always looking forward, and then the result is that men will come generally to 
 practically act upon that prudent, though to many minds most prosaic, maxim, which 
 Counsels — 
 
 " Be not the first by whom the new is tried, 
 Nor yet the last to lay the old aside." 
 
 But in regard to the way in which God would have us go, our text teaches — 
 
 I. That there are nq new ways. From the beginning that which the Lord God 
 hath required of man has been, even as it yet is, that we should "do justice, love 
 mercy, and walk humbly with our God." The gospel of the Lord Jesus is not to 
 supersede or make void this eternal law, but to establish it as it never had been or 
 could have been before. " What the Law could not do in that it was weak through the 
 flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful fiesh," did, " that the righteous- 
 ness of the Law might be fulfilled in us." For this end, by the grace of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, the burden of guilt is taken off from us, and a new heart and a right spirit given. 
 But the law of life is ever the same. It is the old and good way. 
 
 II. Nevertheless, men aiib contindally devising new ways. It was so in Jere- 
 miah's tiiue ; it is so in our own. By denials of truths most surely believed amongst us 
 for many generations, or by additions tliereto, or by substitutions of other forms of 
 faith, men have done to-day as in the days of old. Every magazine and newspaper, 
 besides innumerable volumes ever issuing from the press, — all alike are popular as they 
 throw over old ideas and propound "some new thing." Science and secularism and 
 superstition between them would, long ere this, have destroyed the good old way, had 
 it not beeti so firmly constructed that all these powers combined are not adequate for 
 such a task. 
 
 III. In these new ways what is true will be found to be old, and what is 
 NOT OLD WILL BE FOUND TO BE NOT TRUE, For there are tests by which new teachings 
 may be tried, and ought to be tried, and by which the prnphets of God tried the new 
 teachings of their day. 1. The test of conscience. The human conscience coniesses 
 God. It is borne in upon the human heart that God is. Nothing can permanently 
 stifle or destroy that confession, which Conscience, left to herself, would ever make. 
 The very word " conscience " implies the recognition of some other being as with us, 
 in us, around and about us. It confesses God. All teachings, therefore, that deny God, 
 or explain him away as a blind force or law, or identify him with his universe, the 
 pantheist's God,— these teachings by this sure test are tried, and found wanting. 
 2. T/ie test of result. Note what is the result of any professed truth uijou personal 
 happiness. God, who has given us so many things richly to enjoy, must from his very 
 nature purpose the blessedness of his children. But if a system be offered us, the 
 inevitable result of which is to blot out hope, to shut us up to this often most miserable 
 life, as all they would do who would take from us the Christian hope — then its drear 
 and dread effect upon the heart of man proclaims it false. See, too, how any teaching 
 tells upon character. Here is a surer test still. Whatever else is dark and obscure, 
 goodness and truth must ever be right. But if any new doctrines tend to deteriorate 
 character, as many of them do, to make sin easier and virtue more difficult ; if they 
 throw the reins upon our lower nature; if they take away the great motives to noble- 
 ness of life; — then again they are demonstrated false. And note their effect upon 
 society ijenerally. Can the denial of God's existence, of the religious basis of morality, 
 as Mr. Herbert Spencer denies it, of the authority of Holy Scripture, of the sanctity of 
 the sabbath, of the Divine mission of the Son of God, of the resurrection of the dead, 
 the judgment and future blessedness or woe depending upon our lives here ; — can the 
 denial of any of these things, which, alas ! is common enough now, tend to the good of 
 society? Must not the general well-leing of mankind be greatly threatened if such 
 doctrines be generally accepted ? But doctrines that would thus destroy good are ipso 
 facto declared to have no part nor lot in the kingdom of truth. By these tests of con- 
 science and restUt let the new ways be tried, and it will be seen that what in them is 
 true is old, and what is not old is not true. 
 
 IV. WHEiiEFORE, THEN, DO MEN DEVISE THESE NEW WAYS? The causes are Some- 
 times : 1. Intellectual. Mental restlessness on the part of some will lead men, even in 
 the most perilous matters, to be doubting the old and devising what is new. And God 
 
CH. VI. 1—30.] THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 173 
 
 often suffers them to wander in the far and drear country of mental unrest, and to feed 
 upon its husks, and so come to themselves, and arise and go back to theif Father's 
 heart and home, from whence it had been better had they never strayed. 2. Some- 
 times, and more often, moral. Religion is that which binds. It is a ligature, a 
 restraining cord upon the evil propensities of our nature. If, therefore, doctrines be 
 offered which will relax that little-loved bond, they will be eagerly welcomed. A faith 
 that will give not true liberty, but "licence," men will ever love. 3. And always 
 spiritual. Where the heart is surrendered to Christ the mind will not be ensnared by 
 these subtleties of the evil one. If the Holy Spirit of God have wrought in us the great 
 regenerating change, we shall have liberty and deliverance from all these. Safety from 
 the wanderings of the intellect, as well as from the worse wanderings of our sinful 
 nature, are alike ensured to him who has given himself up unreservedly to God. 
 
 V. But those who would walk in the way Uod would have them go may 
 KNOW THE WAY BY ITS BEING " OLD " AND GOOD. All old ways are not good, but the 
 way of God is both. It is old, therefore familiar to many ; has been often described, is 
 well marked out ; its different stages are well known. " The wayfaring man, though a 
 fool, need not err therein." And it is good. It leads to him who is the supreme Good 
 — God. It has been the chosen way of all the good. It makes those good who walk 
 therein. He who alone on this earth of ours was perfectly good — our Lord Jesus — 
 walked in it, and lives to enable us to walk therein also. It is the will of God that we 
 should walk therein. " Its ways are all ways of pleasantness, and all its paths are 
 peace." " Ye shall find rest to your souls." For all these reasons it is the good way as 
 well as the old ; therefore let us " stand," " see," and " ask " for this way, and this way 
 alone. — C. 
 
 Ver. 16. — At the meeting of the ways. " Stand ye in the ways," etc. 
 
 I. This is where veky many are. The young especially. Paths stretch out on 
 either hand, some of them inviting, some repelling. But for the young, and for many 
 others beside who have not yet fully chosen their path, the present is a time when a 
 decided choice must be made. If the matter were to be settled according to the 
 inviting or other aspect of the beginning of the ways, the one we should choose would 
 soon be fixed upon. But we have to take into consideration the progress of the way, 
 and, above all, the end of the way. Here the text gives — 
 
 II. Good counsels foe all who have comb to this meeting of the ways. We 
 are bidden : 1. I'ause a while. " Stand ye in the ways." Oh, if we could but secure 
 this thoughtful pause ! if we could but induce those we are now contemplating to 
 " ponder " a while the paths before them ! if it were but realized that the way we take 
 is a matter for consideration, and that only a fool would rush heedlessly on ! 2. Investi- 
 gate. As one at the meeting of the ways, but not certain which was the right one for 
 him, would look along each way in turn, and " see " which appeared to be the most 
 likely to brin^ him to his desired destination. Therefore we are bidden, not only 
 " stand," but ""see." 3. Inquire. Other travellers come along — men who are familiar 
 with the district, who have traversed one or other of these roads themselves. Then let 
 us avail ourselves of their knowledge and experience, and "ask" as to these ways. 
 4. And let your mind he made up as to the character of the way you desire to walk in. 
 Let there be no mere vague, listless looking over all the paths without much concern 
 which of them you take ; but we are bidden, " Ask for the old paths ... the good 
 way." 
 
 " The way the holy prophets went, 
 The way that leads from banishment, 
 The King's highway of holiness." 
 
 All the " old " paths are not also " good ways ; " far from it. But there is an old, and 
 therefore well-known, well-trodden, and hence unmistakable way, which also is the 
 good way. One purpose of the lives of God's faithful people is that, by the observation 
 in the record of them, men may be led to ask for the paths in which these walked, 
 feeling sure the way they took must be a good, the good way. Happy they who have 
 been led to resolve they will find out the secret of such men's lives and make it their 
 own. These will ask, not for any way, but for the old pfiths, the good way. 
 
174 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. vi. 1—30. 
 
 III. GrREAT ENCODRAGBMENTS TO FOLLOW THIS COUNSEL. 1. It IS implied that if 
 
 such guidance bo asked it will be giveii. For, if that guidauce were not given, how 
 could any walk in these paths? That it is open to them to do so proves that the 
 guidance asked has boeu given. And so it ever will be. 2. It is promised that, if we 
 walk in the old and good way, we shall find " rest " to our souls. After all, this is 
 everything. If a man has inward rest and peace, heaven for him has begun below^ 
 What matters it what we have if this rest be not ? What matters what we have not 
 if this rest be ours ? And it is a true rest — not a mere lethargy of the soul or sleep of 
 conscience, but that " rest which remaiueth for the people of Grod," the rest of faith, 
 the rest promised by the Lord Jesus when he said, " Come unto me, . . . and I will," etc. 
 
 IV. Chkist himself is that Way — the old, the good Wat. Let the will be 
 utterly surrendered to him ; let our faith daily look to him ; then " he shall be made to 
 lis of God, wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption." This is 
 what he meant when he said, " I am the Way." 
 
 " This is the way I long had sought, 
 And mourned because I found it not; 
 Till late I heard my Saviour say, 
 ' Come hither, soul, I am the Way.' " 
 
 And so we shall find rest to our souls. — C. 
 
 Vers. 18 — 30. — God's appeal for vindication of his vengeance. Note — 
 
 I. The challenge. (Ver. 18.) God summons the nations, the congregations, the 
 earth, to serve as on a grand jury, and to vindicate by their verdict the righteousness 
 of his procedure. Now, from this challenge we learn : 1. The universality of conscience. 
 There is a moral sense, a Icnowledge of right and wrong, implanted in all men by God. 
 It is " the light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world." 2. That God 
 desires to have this universal conscience approving what he has done. (1) He takes 
 for granted that his procedure will be scanned and judged by men. (2) But this he 
 desires and approves. (3) He asks only for a true deliverance upon the case before 
 them. 3. God desires us to regard his actions, not as right because they are his, but 
 as his because they are right. It is a perilous thing to defend the rectitude of Divine 
 actions — as they have been defended, e.g. the massacres of the Canaanites — on the ground 
 tliat his will makes them right. Tliat is not the method whereby we are to "vindi- 
 cate the ways of God to man." Abraham did not so, but asked, " Shall not the Judge 
 of all the earth do right?" Not make right, but do it. But what condescension on 
 tlie part of Gud, thus to submit himself to our judgment! But he does this because 
 he so yearns for our love, and because love cannot be apart from moral approval. 
 
 II. The statement of the matter on the part of God. 1. God declares what he 
 will do (vers. 19 — 21). 2. How he will accomplish his purpose (vers. 22, 23). 3. How 
 terrible its accomplishment will be (vers. 24 — 26). And then he gives : 4. The grounds 
 of his procedure (vers. 19, 28, 29). 
 
 III. The calling of the witness. (Ver. 27; cf. Exposition.) Jeremiah was to 
 observe and declare the guilt of those whom God condemned. 
 
 IV. The verdict anticipated. (Ver. 30.) Men shall call them "reprobate 
 silver." 
 
 CoscLTTSlON. Let us tremble at that righteousness of God which the whole earth 
 will confess when he condemns the sinner. Let us lay hold on that righteousness 
 of God which is for us in Christ. — C. 
 
 Ver. 19. — The fruit of thought. I. Thought has fkuit. In all departments of 
 life its fruit is seen — scientific, political, social, moral, religious. Thoughts are iorn 
 in some one mind. Sown by words spoken or written, and by the influence of the lives 
 of those in whom they are born ; they germinate by contact with other minds ; they 
 appear above ground in the tendencies of any given age ; they hear fruit in the 
 achievements of the age. 
 
 II. Thought bears good fruit or evil, according as the Law of God is 
 heeded or rejected. "Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By 
 taking heed thereto according to thy Word." 
 
(;n. VI. 1—30.] THE BOOK OF TME PROPHET JEREMIAH. 175 
 
 III. The chief partaker of the fruit of thohoht will be the thinker. 
 (Of. text.) And it is true botli of good thoughts and ill. As a man thinketh so is he. 
 
 Conclusion. Let it be our prayer that we may come into full sympathy with him 
 who said, " How precious are thy thoughts unto me, O God 1 " Bo shall the fruit of 
 our thoughts be precious likewise. — 0. 
 
 Ver. 20. — Abhorred sacrifices. I. There are such. (Cf. text ; Ps. 1. ; etc.) 
 
 II. They mat have many of the characteristics op acceptable SAORiriOEa. 
 
 1. Costly : " Incense from Sheba." 2. Regular. 3. Correct. 
 
 III. But yet they are abhorred of God. " To what purpose," etc. ? (Cf, 
 our Lord's denunciations of hypocrites.) This because: 1. They lack sincerity. 
 
 2. They yield no fruit in holy obedience. 3. They cause the Name and worship of 
 Cod to be hated of men. 4. They render more hopeless the true repentance of the 
 offerer. 
 
 IV. Wherefore are they offered ? 1. Conscience will not allow men to throw 
 off all regard for religion. 2. Custom demands it. 3. Worldly interests are served by 
 it. 4. There is a secret reliance upon them as furthering their good before God. 
 
 V. What do such facts teach us ? Not to throw aside outward forms of worship : 
 many do this on the ground of insincerity often associated with them. But to see that 
 whilst we worship outwardly we worship also in spirit and in truth. To measure the 
 worth of our worship by its power over our conduct. To join on all our poor, marred 
 offerings, which is ail that at the best they are, with the perfect sacrifice which Christ 
 has offered for us all. — C. 
 
 Ver. 29. — " The bellows are burned." The text is a homely and unusual one, but its 
 graphic force may help all the more to impress the truth taught by it. " The prophet 
 likens the people of Israel to a mass of metal. This mass of metal claimed to 1)6 
 precious ore, such as gold or silver. It was put into the furnace, the object being to fuse 
 it, so that the pure metal should be extracted from the dross. Lead was put in with 
 the ore to act as a flux (that being relied upon by the ancient smelters as quicksilver 
 now is in these more instructed days). A fire was kindled, and then the bellows were 
 used to create an intense heat, the bellows being the prophet himself. He complains 
 that he spoke with much pathos, much energy, much force of heart, that he exhausted 
 himself, without being able to melt the people's hearts ; so hard was the ore that the 
 bellows were burned before the metal was melted — the prophet was exhausted before 
 the people were impressed ; he had worn out his lungs, his powers of utterance ; he 
 had exhausted his mind, his powers of tliouaht ; he had broken his heart, his powers 
 of emotion ; but he could not divide his people from their sins, and separate the precious 
 from the vile " (C. H. Spui-geon). Now,, from the text learn — 
 
 I. It is the purpose of God so to melt and subdue the heart op man that 
 
 HE MAY MOULD IT AFRESH, AND ACCORDINa TO HIS OWN GRACIOUS WILL. NoW tO 
 
 this end there are needed : 1. A Divine fire which shall bear upon the heart of man. 
 But the Holy Spirit is such a fire, which, if it be quenched, woe is unto us ! 2. That 
 that fire shall glow with fervent heat, 
 
 II. To SECURE THIS HE MAKES USE OP MANY AND VARIED APPLIANCES WHICH THE 
 
 PBOPHET HERE LIKENS TO " BELLOWS." 1. The prophets own ministry in the case of 
 ludah and Jerusalem at that time. 2. The faithful ministiy of his truth by his 
 prophets now. 3. Sis Law, his Word, the varied means of grace. 4. His mercies, 
 especially the mercy of Ood in Christ. 5. His chastisements and judgments. These 
 more especially referred to here. Such are some of these appliances. 
 
 III. Now, IT IS possible for ALL THESE TO BECOME UTTERLY INEFFECTUAL. This 
 
 is what is here meant. GoA's messengers. Law, mercies, chastisements, — all in vain. And 
 such things happen now. There are those whom nought can move. What is the cause f 
 Not that the Divine heat did not bear upon the heart that was to be melted. _ Not that 
 those appliances were left unused whereby the understanding, the conscience, the 
 affections, and the will might be rendered more susceptible of the Divine influences. 
 But the obduracy of the heart. The perversity and evil of that baffled all the earnest 
 ende;iv(nirs of God's grace in regard to that heart. 
 
 IV. Now, WHEN "THE BELLOWS ARE BURNED," WHEN ALL MEANS HAVE BEEN 
 
176 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [cii. vi. 1—30. 
 
 TRIED AND FAILED TO WIN THE HEART FOR GoD, NO CONDITION CAN BE MORE AWFUIj 
 
 OK DEPLORABLE. 1. It is sad foT God's ministers, Jeremiah, Paul, Ciirist, and 
 thousands of his ministers since have prayed and wept over obdurate hearts. 2. But 
 it is far more sad for these hard-hearted ones themselves. (1) They are without 
 excuse. (2) There is no hope of their repentance. (3) They are in danger of eternal 
 ■sin. 
 
 Conclusion. 1. Christ's ministers must expect that, so far as they can see, they will, 
 at times, labour in vain in re<j;ard to the salvation of souls. The bellows will be 
 burned, and the ore remain uunie-lted still. 2. They are to be sustained by the thought 
 that God will deal witli them, not according to the results of their work, but according 
 to its fidelity. 3. Let the impenitent be warned. — C. 
 
 Ver. 16. — The good way. The prophet here employs the memory of the past as a 
 motive to repentance. He would fain persuade the people to return to the better ways 
 in which their fathers walked. The calamities that were falling so heavily upon them 
 were tlie result of their having forsaken those good old ways. Let them consider how 
 they have fallen, search out the real causes of the trouble and sorrow they endure, 
 retrace their wandering steps, and the old prosperity shall come back to them again. 
 Note here — 
 
 I. The diverse ways men take, diverse as regards their moral quality and issues. 
 " Stand ye in the ways." Think of the various kinds of moral life that men are leading. 
 Amid the social conditions and relations of this world we are as travellers with many 
 paths branching out iu different directions before them, who must choose their own. We 
 may know little of the internal experiences of our associates in the pilgrimage of life, but 
 the broad types of character, the general tendencies of moral habit, are open enough to 
 our view. The " ways " are many, but there is only one path of eternal rectitude and 
 blessedness. There is the way of reckless transgression, of thoughtless indilference, of 
 base avarice, of exclusive devotion to earthly ambitious, of mere virtuous respectability, 
 of religious indecision, etc. ; and there is the way of faith and piety, " the path of the 
 just which is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day." 
 Men cannot help to some extent revealing outwardly the tenor of the life within 
 them. Every one of us bears more or less clearly upon him the stamp of a certain 
 distinctive character. Whatever the bent of his spirit may be, it will always betray 
 itself, in look, manner, speech, conduct, by the books he reads, the friendships he 
 ibrms, the places he frequents, the gratifications in which he delights, through a 
 thousand channels of self-revelation. We are all " living epistles " of something — some 
 type of character, some order of moral lite — " known and read of men." 
 
 n. The thoughtful observation these conditions demand. " Stand in the 
 ways, and see." It is a great thing to know how to "see." 'J'here are those who 
 " seeing, see not." One of the first lessons in the moral science of life, as in physical 
 science, is observation — to know how to note facts and trace laws and draw conclusions, 
 to know how to learn and to turn what is learnt to good account. 'J'he characters and 
 lives of others are not to be to us mere matters of amusement or philosophic specula- 
 tion, much less ill-natured criticism; but sources of instruction, teachers of practical 
 truth. They all have their admonitory and exemplary use. The higher advantages 
 of social life have never been reaped, the very rudiments of our duty as social beings 
 have not been mastered, till we thoroughly apprehend this. Let the young specially 
 lay the lesson to heart. Their position is favourable — the plain of life before them, 
 not yet entangled in a network of circumstantial difficulties, nothing to undo that 
 ought never to have been done, no false steps to retrace that were rashly taken. But 
 how soon may they be drawn into forbidden and dangerous paths if they do not 
 consider 1 As the ship glides imperceptibly from the open sea into the broad mouth 
 of the river, whose distant banks are hidden, so easily are they led captive to the power 
 of evil if they allow themselves to drift with the tide of outward influence and inward 
 impulse, and will not think. At the same time, enlarged experience of life may be 
 expected to give added force to its moral lessons. Beset as a man may be with associa- 
 tions that seem to determine his course for him in spite of himself, it is always possible 
 for him to pause and consider his way. The darkness and confusion of the storm may 
 be too great to allow the sailor to take his observations and find out his real place on 
 
cit. VI. 1—30.] THE BOOK OP THE PEOPHET JEREMIAH. 177 
 
 tlie pathless ocean ; not so with any man as concerns his relation to the heavenly powers 
 and the eternal realities. He has always light enough to "discern between the 
 righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him 
 not " (Mai. iii. 18). The true way of life is clearly revealed to those who are willing 
 to " see." " The wayfaring man, though a fool, shall not err therein " (Isa. xxxv. 8). 
 . III. The practical resdlt to which such observation must lead. "Ask fur 
 the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein." Asking and acting, 
 inquiry after the right way, and a resolute determination to follow it ; when these 
 conditions are supplied there can be little doubt as to the issue. A life of practical 
 giidliness, based on faith in revealed truth, springing from the inspiration of the spirit 
 of truth and purity in the secret soul, — this is the way. It is tlie " old way." New as 
 regards the light Christianity has shed upon it, new as regards the revelation of him in 
 whose redeeming work its deep foundations have been laid, it is "old" as regards its 
 essential principles of faith and righteousness. The martyrs, prophets, and holy men 
 of every age have left their glowing footprints upon it. Elijah ascended from it in his 
 chariot of fire. David made the statutes of the Lord his delight as he pursued his 
 pilgrimage along it. Abraham trod tlie same path, led on by the star of promise. 
 Upon it Enoch walked in lowly fellowship with God. It is stained with the blood of 
 righteous AbeL 
 
 " Our glorious Leader claims our praise 
 
 For his own pattern given ; 
 While the long cloud of witnesses 
 
 Show the same path to heaven." 
 
 The way is as plain as Divine teaching and human experience can make it ; let us gird 
 up the loins of our minds to " walk in it." 
 
 IV. The bewabd of practical obedience. "Ye shall find rest unto your souls." 
 " Rest," for beings such as we are, is the repose of the mind in discovered truth, the 
 pacification of the conscience in the assurance of Divine forgiveness, the satisfaction of 
 the heart in the embrace of real good, the balance of all our powers in a holy service. 
 In the life of faith and godliness, the life Christ gives to all who come to him, can such 
 rest alone be found. " Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, . . . and ye shall find 
 rest unto your souls " (Matt. xi. 29). — W. 
 
 Ver. 7. — Jerusalem like a fountain casting forth evil, A fountain, as mentioned in 
 Scripture, is generally suggestive of a most gracious and abundant supply of the 
 highest good ; even as in ch. ii. 13 and John iv. 14. How very noteworthy, then, to 
 find that the fountain, which naturally suggests all that is bright, beautiful, and 
 refreshing, should be so turned away from its common place in poetic use as to become 
 the most impressive illustration of Jerusalem's polluted heart ! Indeed, an imaginative 
 •writer would probably get severely criticized if he used the figure of a fountain for 
 such a purpose ; and yet, when one thinks it over, this very unexpectedness makes the 
 figure more instructive. The poetry of a prophet must, above all things, have arresting 
 power in it. Think, then, of the iountain. Think of it, first of all, in its usual aspect, 
 pouring forth a bright, pleasant-sounding stream, as inspiring to the mind as it is 
 rel'reshing to the thirsty mouth. But all this view must be instantly and decidedly 
 put away. Instead of the clear, sparkling water there must come into the mind the 
 thought of a feculent, poisonous flood, and of the force that lies behind it, some deep 
 inward energy hidden in the secret places of the earth. A continuity of most pestiferous 
 evil comes from these secret places, and even by such an image as this is the actual 
 wickedness of Jerusalem set forth. The hearts of its people are gathering-places for a 
 destructive stream, always flowing forth and always replenished. They never get tired 
 of their wickedness and never repent of it. Then one remembers that the hearts of 
 men were destined for a very diflerent purpose. Just as the devout heart perceives 
 that God meant these crevices and great caverns in the earth to gather and pour forth 
 the refreshing streams of water, so he meant the hearts of the children of men to gather 
 and pour forth all manner of loving, hopeful, patiently pursued projects for the good of 
 others and for the glory of God. The woman of Samaria evidently came to Jesus with 
 a heart that was indeed a fountain casting out wickedness, but she heard the delight- 
 lul news that Jesus could give her water which should be in her "a well of water 
 
 JEREMIAH. N 
 
178 THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. vi. 1—30. 
 
 springint; up into eternal life." There is another Jerusalem besides this earthly 
 and polluted one. Jeremiah was not the only one who told people to fly out of it 
 because of impending destruction. Jesus, in his prophetic words, spoke with even 
 greater emphasis — a thing to be expected. The earthly Jerusalem, great and glorious 
 as it once was, is now called spiritually Sodom and Egypt, for it is the place where our 
 Lord was crucified (Rev. xi. 8). The Jerusalem to be thought of henceforth is the 
 holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God. It has many glories, many beauties, 
 many surpassing gifts of grace for needy men, and not the least is this, that there is " a 
 pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of 
 the Lamb." And may we not say that this river is constituted by the numberless foun- 
 tains that flow out of every renewed heart ? The glory of the river is God's, but the 
 service and dedication which bring that river into existence are the privilege of God's 
 people. We are to let our thoughts dwell on the deplorable fountain Jeremiah speaks 
 of here, only that we may see more clearly and gratefully the spring of true and abiding 
 goodness which he can put in its place. — T. 
 
 Ver. 13. — Oovetousnesa a universal sin. It is not so mxich of covetousness in itself 
 that the prophet is here speaking, as of the universality of it. Prom the least even 
 to the greatest the spirit of the spoiler is in the hearts of the people. The words, of 
 course, are not to be taken literally as to individuals ; but there is this universality 
 about them, that they apply to every class. That a man is rich, and increased with 
 goods, and that he has, indeed, a great deal more than he can ever enjoy in his own 
 person, is far from being a general ground for supposing that he v^ill be contented 
 with his possessions. The more he has and the higher he stands, the more he may 
 want to have and the higher he may want to get. And so all the way up the ladder 
 from the lowest round, men are continually struggling with one another. It is a ladder, 
 the lowest round of which will hold a great multitude, but it ever narrows as it ascends ; 
 and the covetous who happen to be also strong and consequently victorious over their 
 feebler competitors, go clambering on as long as one's eye rests upon them. No one ever 
 seems to reach the top of the ladder ; and it may be said moreover that, though there 
 seem many who are free from the spoiling spirit, it simply arises from this, that there 
 has been nothing to bring the dormant germ into life and activity. No one can tell 
 what possibilities of evil lie within him. And may not the essential element in 
 covetousness be a strong motive force even when it is hidden away under the appear- 
 ance of something else ? One thing is very certain, that covetousness prevailed from 
 the least even to the greatest in Jerusalem ; it will also do so in every other human 
 society. It is in human nature to have strong desires of the heart, strong and impera- 
 tive even as hunger and thirst ; and these desires will go out after things that can be 
 seen and felt, enjoyed with the senses. To whom these things may of right belong is, 
 alas ! a secondary consideration with many men. They simply do not reflect upon it at 
 all. Life resolves itself into a struggle between him who wants and him who has, and, 
 if the truth must be spoken, the victor in such a struggle is practically a robber. 
 There may be no physical violence, no shedding of blood ; but if there is the enriching 
 of one's self at the expense of another, then the essential wrong is present. Let us allow 
 the covetous man whatever credit there may be in this, that he does not form his 
 covetous designs for any pleasure that he has in rapacity, but rather that he is 
 rapacious in order to carry out his covetous designs. He wants to be rich and strong, 
 and the only way he can do it is by crushing others into poverty. Hence this is 
 reckoned an unavoidable accompaniment. It never strikes men of this sort that there 
 is a more excellent way to satisfy and exhilarate the heart. God's eye is upon this 
 universal desire for large possessions, and he can make a Divine and truly wise use 
 of the desire. He turns our thoughts to the heavenly, the unseen, the eternal. Man 
 does well in having the largest views as to possessions ; he does well in looking to an 
 immense increase of goods. It is a grand thing when he can pull down his barns and 
 build greater, if it is only spiritual wealth that he is heaping up. In this gathering 
 of goods there is no spoiling of the brethren, leaving them hungry, naked, and 
 unsheltered. The spiritual wealth of the godly nian makes poverty to none. Nay, 
 rather — beautiful contrast — the richer he becomes, the richer he makes all with whom 
 he comes in living contact,— Y, 
 
CH. VI. 1—30.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 179 
 
 Ver. 14. — Healing the hurt slightly. There is here an illustration of the false 
 dealing referred to in the previous verse — an illustration from the prophets in parti- 
 cular, and, as might be expected, the specimen given shows how seriously this false 
 dealing affected the prospects of the nation. There is, it will be observed, a plain 
 statement of the matter wherein the prophets were deceivers ; and there is also a 
 figure setting forth the practical result of the deception. 
 
 I. Consider the plain statement of that wherein the prophets are found 
 LIARS. They say, " Peace, peace ; when there ia no peace." The plain statement comes 
 later than the figure, but it is needful to consider it first. War, invasion, humiliating 
 conquest, — these had been threatened by the true prophet, but the false prophets come 
 in and declare that there shall be peace. The word " peace" was probably one of the 
 ordinary mutual salutations of the people ; and these prophets, going out into the public 
 places when war had been threatened, may have thrown into the salutation a special 
 emphasis, as much as to say, " This Jeremiah speaks a lie when he prophesies war." 
 And this word of the prophets showed that they did not comprehend where the 
 hostility really lay. The hostile relations between the invading human hosts and 
 Israel amounted to the merest trifle compared with the hostility between Jehovah and 
 those who had been named as his people. The essence of the struggle lay, not in its 
 being a struggle between invader and invaded, but between rightful Master and 
 rebellious servants. The invader indeed may not have been conscious of any particular 
 enmity against Israel. The chief passion in his heart may have been nothing more 
 than savage lust for the exercise of force and the acquirement of spoil. But between 
 God and his people there was a deep breach in all right relations. God wars against 
 them, and therefore they were not to suppose that peace was secured, even if they 
 kept on amicable terms with foreign nations. But, in truth, no amount of finessing, 
 parading, and boasting could keep them permanently right with foreign nations. To 
 suppose this was to suppose that they could pluck the weapons of God's chastening 
 anger from his firm grasp. When God takes the wicked to become his sword, his 
 sword they are, to be wielded with no uncertain efficacy. Men make the blunder of 
 thinking there is peace, when they have only conciliated what enemies they can see 
 and hear into invisibility and silence. 
 
 II. Consider the figure which adds to the force of the plain statement. 
 It is a figure which does much to bring to the individual Israelite the serious conse- 
 quences of this false dealing on the part of the prophets. War, while always a 
 national disaster and anxiety, may leave individuals unscathed ; nay, there are always 
 a few who manage to build up some sort of prosperity and renown by successful war. 
 But here is a figure which speaks of healing and of hurt, and of those who have to 
 heal the hurt. The prophet is set forth as the surgeon, whose business it is to enter 
 the home and put right again the malady that may be afflicting some member of it. 
 This figure, too, it will be observed, tells us something of the feeling of the people, 
 and thereby goes beyond the plain statement as to the false dealing of the prophets. 
 1. There is a consciousness that all is not right. There is a hurt. There is something 
 to be healed. There is a sense of uneasiness, a sense which somehow must be taken 
 away. The words of Jeremiah inflict superficial wounds and bruises at the least. 
 There is a pain in the inward consciousness which is like the slashing of a whip upon 
 the tender skin. Such messages as those which God put into the prophet's mouth 
 were sure to hurt the pride of a nation, and rouse its patriotism into egotistic fury. 
 Then we may be sure that some of the people would feel that the prophet might be 
 speaking the truth. Some things he said were undeniable. The idol-worship was 
 plain ; so were the trickery and oppression which abounded in the common life of the 
 ]ieople. And all this sense of uneasiness, which is really the sign that conscience is 
 not utterly dead, only needs to be treated rightly in order to be roused into a vigorous 
 life. 2. The nature of the hurt is misunderstood. This is the least that can be said. 
 It may have been understood by some of the prophets, and yet, for their own base 
 purposes, misrepresented. Jeremiah describes the hurt by its true name. The word in 
 the Hebrew is a very strong word, meaning something very serious, something which 
 demands great skill and effort, if it is to be put right. Who can exaggerate the serious- 
 ness of the crisis, when some malady going to the very heart of a man seems to awaken 
 no corresponding alarm, either in his own mind or in the mind of his physician ? And 
 
180 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. vi. 1—30. 
 
 what a serious charge to bring against a physician if he seeks to lull alarm by maldn'j; 
 out the trouble to he a mere trifle! Yet this is just what many do. When the sense 
 of unrest gets into the life, it is counted but as a physical illness. Change of air and 
 scene are prescribed for symptoms which can only be permanently removed by change 
 of heart. The more worldly and unspiritual a man is, the more dogmatism, reckless- 
 ness, and overbearing arrogance he will show in lecturing those who have become 
 disturbed in their consciences. 3. There is thus declared to be healing, when there is 
 not the slightest possibility of it. Assurances are given which have no real foundation 
 in anything tlie assurer knows or has done. He has been giving great attention to 
 the visible cuts and bruises, and the deep, internal, organic injury is more firmly fixeil 
 than ever. Men will thus play the physician, try to get credit for their skill, and do 
 untold harm, when they ought rather, in all humility and modesty, to confess their 
 ignorance. — Y. 
 
 Ver. 16. — The ancient paths to he sought and walked in. I. The address is to those 
 WHO ARE ALREADY WALKING IN A CERTAIN WAT. There Is activity of the whole life, 
 a conscious and chosen activity. We are sometimes spoken of as being asleep and 
 needing to be awakened out of sleep, and even as being dead and needing to be 
 renewed to life ; but here there is rather an approach to the other extreme in the aspect 
 of sinful man that is presented. One kind of movement in human life lies beyond 
 choice. Man must move on, from birth, through time, into eternity. This is a move- 
 ment which, as he does not produce it, so neither can he in the least retard it. But 
 now we are called to notice another kind of movement, that which man chooses — 
 emphatically chooses — and into which he throws oftentimes his whole energy. Thus 
 there is no man but what is in a path which he has chosen. However much he may 
 seem to be the sport of circumstances, yet it will be found, in the complete inspection 
 of his heart, that he loves to have circumstances moving him rather than that he 
 should do what he can towards controlling circumstances. Moreover, the address is to 
 those who are walking in a wrong way. Evidently they are persisting in it. And it 
 is not only wrong, but seriously, even fatally, wrong. Yet, though the address is to 
 those in the wrong way, there is every reason why those who happily are in the right 
 viay should also consider the appeal. If it is very difficult to turn from the wrong 
 way into the right, it is very easy to make some divergence, at first imperceptible, 
 from the right way, and so become most dangerously entangled in the wrong one. 
 
 II. There is an appeal to those addressed, to give the mattes in question 
 MOST EARNEST CONSIDERATION. There IS surely a great deal in these two words, see and 
 ask. The difference between right and wrong is also the difference between the soul's 
 highest bliss and deepest misery ; but it is a difference only to be comprehended when 
 the soul is thoroughly in earnest to get to the bottom of all that is involved in the 
 difference. Hence we are told to look ; and we must be sure that we see as we ought 
 to see. It is quite possible to have eyes and to look towards a thing, and yet to be 
 practically blind, not discerning the real nature of it. A man's ways may be right in 
 his own eyes ; he may think the warnings of others, or the differing course that they 
 take, to be mere scrupulosity, ending in nothing. Wherefore a man is to distrust his 
 eyes, and add to what they may tell him the information to be gotten by the hearing 
 of the ear. It is interesting to notice how sometimes the eye confirms the ear, and 
 sometimes the ear the eye. Here the man is to make the tongue follow the eye, asking 
 to follow upon seeing ; so that he may get information on a matter of the utmost 
 moment from authorities on whom he may depend with the utmost confidence. We 
 must not dare to blame any one but ourselves if we make some gross error in the 
 conduct of our life. God knows how easily the children of men wander ; and so he 
 expects them to do all they can by way of making sure that they are in the right 
 road. Consider how alert some people are, in travelling by rail, lest perchance an 
 omitted inquiry may send them in a wrong direction. A prudent man will never 
 miss his way for want of asking. Yet these very people, who are reckoned prudent in 
 such a small matter as finding their way from one place to another on the surface of 
 the earth, are indifferent to an event which it is awful to contemplate, when they are 
 told to see and ask if they be in the right way for eternity. 
 
 III. Observe the definiteness which is given to the looking and the asking. 
 
CH. VI. 1—30.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 181 
 
 Man is not sent out on a vague quest, with nothing to guide and to limit him. If he 
 will look where God points, and ask the questions which God puts into his mouth, 
 his quest will soon be at an end. The right path is indicated by infallible signs. It 
 is file ancient one ; the way which began to be trodden, not one or two generations 
 back, but as far back as the record of human relations extends. The right way is 
 older than the wrong. The way appointed for the first progenitors of mankind, when 
 they stepped out where none had been before them, is the way for us. As to essmtiah, 
 Christ points out no different way from that which Adam was set to travel. Adam's 
 path was to be the path of strict attention, so that he might understand God's will ; of 
 strict obedience in doing the will when understood ; and of perfect trust in God, feeling 
 that his commandments for his dependent and finite creatures were the best, even 
 though reasons for them might not be given. The most ancient of all patlis pre- 
 scribed for men is that of a willing handing over of one's life to the will of that wise, 
 loving, and holy One who is supreme. All that Christ has told us, all he has done for 
 us, is for the purpose of leading us into an efieotual compliance with the requirement. 
 Does not the experience of Enoch show that the right path is an ancient one? What 
 more can be said of the most devoted Christian, rich in all the resources of grace, than 
 that he has walked with God ? What else can there be but true good and rest undisturbed 
 when one is under the immediate influence of that God whose own peace knows not 
 the slightest invasion amid all the commotion of the universe ? Real rest, a rest to 
 tlie heart, was wanted by these people of Israel, and all that was so much wanted 
 would surely come if only the ancient paths were found and once more frequented. — Y. 
 
 Ver. 20. — Sv)eet and fragrant things made abominable to God. I. Observe the 
 
 TROUBLE WHICH MEN WHO ARE BEALLT UNGODLY MAY TAKE IN CONNECTION WITH 
 
 RELIGION. Beat religion means, of course, a great deal of trouble and self-denial, 
 watchfulness and prayer. But when there is only the appearance of religion, there may 
 also be much trouble, considerable time may be appropriated, and there may be con- 
 siderable expenditure of money. So it was here. Materials for holy service were 
 brought from a far country, and, being probably expensive in themselves, they would 
 become more expensive still by the distance they had to be brought. The expense 
 would also look greater because it was on articles which were not manifestly a necessity 
 of life. Men must spend money for food and raiment and a roof to shelter them, and 
 out of the money so spent they plainly get something ; hut here, in return for all the 
 trouble and cost of getting the incense, etc., to Jerusalem, there is a very plain intima- 
 tion that the offering of it does not effect the slightest good, does not in the least 
 improve the position of those who offer. And this very rejection by Jehovah makes us 
 see more clearly the trouble these people took. For we may he sure that the word 
 through Jeremiah would not stop them in their offerings, useless as they were. The 
 less there is of intelligent and pure devotion in religion, the more there is of super- 
 stitious, terrified clinging to habitual outward forms ; and the same kind of action con- 
 tinues still, in many ways and in all communions. People without any real love to 
 God in their hearts, or real submission to him, go through a great deal in the way of 
 forms and ceremonies, and delude themselves with the notion that somehow they will 
 he the better for it all. 
 
 II. Observe the certainty that this trouble is all in vain. Those who bring 
 the offerings are not left in even the slightest doubt. They have not the excuse of 
 being able to say that in some way or other, which they do not understand, there 
 will come a benefit out of their offerings. There is a refusal in the most decided 
 and solemn way. Although these gifts may find their way into the house of God, and 
 the altar itself be used in connection with them, they are not therefore accepted. 
 They are just as much refused as a gift would be if the bringer of it had the door of 
 the house where he brought it slammed in his face. 
 
 III. The reason op the refusal. Though not here expressed, the reason, from 
 what is said elsewhere, is perfectly plain. These gifts, sweet and fragrant as they are 
 in themselves, become an insult because of the men who bring _them. Growing in 
 their natural place, they play their part in adding to the beauty and perfume of God's 
 world ; but now the fragrant has become as it were stinking, because of the defiled hands 
 through which it has passed. What men bring to God they must bring with clean 
 
182 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. vi. 1—30. 
 
 hands and a pure heart. The great use of these gifts with their pleasant qualities was 
 to signify what was sweet and fragrant and devoted in the hearts of the people. But 
 when God knew that the gifts were heatowed through superstition or formality, or 
 through the fear lest neglect might bring disaster on some cherished scheme, how could 
 he accept these gifts ? Consider further how, in many instances at least, the money 
 was got that procured these gifts. They were the fruits of robbery, fraud, and oppres- 
 sion. When we read how some of the spoils of conquest in ancient times not 
 unfrequently went to enrich an idol temple, how thankful we should be that in God's 
 Word there is such plain dealing with those who think that some great gift to religious 
 uses can condone their wickedness. Then, of course, in such cases the greater the 
 expense of a man's religion the greater also was the amount that had to be gotten in 
 wrongful ways. The Pharisee extortioner had to give several extra turns to the screw 
 in order that he might get just that special sum which was needed to keep up hia 
 reputation as a religious man. — Y. 
 
 Ver. 30. — " Beprobate silver." Two important things are to be remembered with 
 regard to the meaning of the words in this verse. 1. That Jeremiah uses the same 
 Hebrew verb where we have the two different words, " reprobate " and " rejected." 
 What Jeremiah really says is that the silver bears the name " rejected silver," because 
 Jehovah has rejected it. 2. The verb employed is commonly used to signify the action 
 which is opposed to choosing ; e.g. in Isa. vii. 15 the time is spoken of when a child 
 becomes able to reject the evil and to choose the good, and in Isa. xli. 8, 9 there is a still 
 more striking instance, because of its bearing on the words now under consideration. 
 These are the words : " Thou, Israel, art my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the 
 seed of Ahraham my friend. Thou whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, 
 and called thee from the chief men thereof, and said unto thee. Thou art my servant ; 
 I have chosen thee, and not rejected thee." Thus it will be seen that we are not 
 simply to think of rejection over against approval. Silver ore, being put through the 
 most searching test possible, may respond to the test by coming out approved silver. 
 But he who is thus die to approve is not necessarily in the position which requires him 
 to choose. He may only have the duty of an assay agent, which stops with reporting 
 the result of his test ; he who has employed is the man to make the choice. Now, 
 God tries in order that he may decide for himself whether to choose or reject ; e.g. he 
 rejected Saul from reigning over Israel, which of course means that, from the hour of 
 rejection, Saul's throne was considered vacant. We can now proceed to point out the 
 truths implied in this verse. 1. There can he no adequate discernment of the merit or 
 demerit of any man unless ly God himself. Only when God rejects can the stamp 
 " rejected " be put on any one. Men may set up their canons of approval ; they may 
 apply their tests, philosophical, or political, or literary, or even theological. They may 
 reject and excommunicate, pursuing with fiercest hatred all who are not approved 
 according to their tests. Thus there wiU be a partial and temporary rejection, but since 
 it comes from no adequate inquiry, the rejection itself will be rejected by a higher 
 authority. Of this we have a conspicuous, we may even say the supreme, instance in 
 Ps. cxviil. 22, "The stone which the builders rejected [the same Hebrew word as 
 Jeremiah uses, be it observed] is become the head of the corner." It may be, indeed, 
 that he whom some men reject may in the end be rejected by God also, but it will be 
 for very different reasons. 2. The reasons for rejection we must try to discover. The 
 Lord rejects those who claim to be accepted. He will reject the claim when it is that 
 of mere national descent, as when Jesus said to the proud Jews who opposed him, that 
 out of the stones he could make children to Abraham. God rejects all mere formal 
 acknowledgment of him ; it is not enough to say, " Lord, Lord." He rejects all that 
 is the mere exercise and effort of intellectual faculties. In short, he rejects all that 
 does not begin with a complete acceptance of Christ, and hence go on in the spirit 
 of entire submission to him. Illustrations of what prompts to rejection are furnished 
 both before and after this verse, e.g. in ver. 20, where the incense, etc., is rejected, i.e. 
 of course, the men who offer the incense, and in ch. vii. 14, where the admired temple 
 is threatened with overthrow. A mere building is shown to be nothing in God's sight 
 unless it is frequented by such as are themselves acceptable to him. Observe also, iu 
 ascertaining the reason for rejection, how the word " silver " is kept. The thing tested 
 
CH. VII. 1—34.] THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 
 
 183 
 
 is rejected, not because it is counterfeit, but because it is persistently impure. It will 
 not yield up those baser elements which are so intimately blended with it, and 
 eflectiially destroy the value and hide the lustre of the pure silver. And yet remember 
 how higli rejected man rises above rejected silver. Man in his freedom may relent 
 from his stubbornness and submit to those renewing and purifying processes which 
 will result in the silver being approved and chosen. 3. There is no chance of 
 establishing and commending what the Lord rejects. Saul did his best to struggle 
 against the Divine decision, but there is no more pitiable sight in all the records of 
 kingship than that which he presents in the struggle. We also must reject those 
 whom Grod rejects ; and there can be no mistake about it that we must reject those 
 who reject God — such as are spoken of in 2 Kings xvii. 15, those who rejected tije 
 statutes of God and the covenant that he had made with their fathers, and the testi- 
 monies which he testified against them. — Y. 
 
 EXPOSITION. 
 
 CHAPTEE Vn. 
 
 Ch. vii. — X. — Severe rebukes of idolatry 
 alternating with announcements of the im- 
 pending judgment. The circumstances con- 
 nected with this discourse, or part thereof, 
 appear to be detailed in oh. xxvi. Among 
 the parallelisms between the two sections, 
 notice especially the reference to the fate of 
 the temple of Shiloh (comp. ver. 14 with ch. 
 xxvi. 6). The date of the original utterance 
 of the prophecy is thus fixed for one of tlie 
 early years of the reign of Jehoialdm. Ch. 
 X. 1 — 16, however, requires separate cou- 
 sideration. 
 
 Vers. 1 — 7. — The Divine requirements 
 and the corresponding promise. 
 
 Ver. 2. — Stand in the gate; i.e. not an 
 outer gate (for the outer court would be filled 
 with the people whom Jeremiah was to ad- 
 drees), but one of the three gates which led 
 from the inner court to the outer. Probably 
 it was the gate where Baruoh recited the 
 prophecies of Jeremiah at a later period, 
 and which is designated " the new gate of 
 the Lord's house," and said to have been 
 situated in the "upper" i.e. inner court 
 (ch. xxxvi. 10 ; comp. ch. xxvi. 10). We 
 may conjecture that either one of the three 
 great festivals or some extraordinary fast 
 had brought a large number of people to- 
 gether at the temple. 
 
 Ver. 4. — The temple of the lord. Notice 
 the iteration of the phrase, as if its very 
 sound were a charm against evil. It re- 
 minds us of the performances of the howling 
 dervishes at Cairo, who " sometimes remain 
 for hours, incessantly shouting the Muslim 
 confession of faith (M ilaka, etc.)" (Dr. 
 Ebers, in Badeker's ' Egypt,' p. 150). The 
 phrase is repeated three times to express 
 the earnestness of the speakers (comp. ch. 
 xxii. 29, " eaith, earth, earth "). These 
 
 false prophets evidently retained a large 
 amount of the old materialistic faith of the 
 Semitic nations (to whom the Israelites 
 belonged by race), which localized the 
 presence and the power of the divinity. 
 The temple was, in fact, their palladium, 
 and as long as it stood, the iiatinnal inde- 
 pendence appeared to them to be secured. 
 They faithfully handed on the teaching of 
 those prophets of the last generation, who, 
 as Micah tells us (iii. 11), were wont to 
 " lean upon the Lord, and say. Is not the 
 Lord among us? none evil can come upon 
 us." How Isaiah met this error we may 
 collect from Isa. xxviii. 16 'see my Com- 
 mentary). Are these ; i.e. these buildings 
 (comp. 2 Chron. viii. 11, where for "the 
 places " the Hebrew has " these "). 
 
 Ver. 5. — If ye throughly amend, etc. ; a 
 development of the idea of ver. 3. The true 
 palladium of Judah would be the faithful 
 performance of Jehovah's moral laws, es- 
 pecially those referring to the conduct of the 
 rulers, Observe the stress which all the 
 prophets lay on the virtues of civil life. 
 
 Ver. 6. — The stranger, the fatherless, and 
 the widow; specially commended to the 
 care of the Israelites (Exod. xxii. 21, 22— a 
 passage belonging to one of the most evi- 
 dently primitive portions of the Pentateuch ; 
 Dent. xxiv. 17, 19, 21; xxvii. 19; comp. 
 Isa. i. 17, 23 ; x. 2 ; Ezek. xxii. 7). In this 
 place ; i e. specially in Jerusalem, but not 
 altogether excluding the rest of the kingdom 
 (see vers. 3, 7). - 
 
 Ver. 7.— For ever and ever. It is doubt- 
 ful, both here and in ch. xxv. 5, whether 
 these words should be joined to " gave" or 
 " cause you to dwell." Still, the latter con- 
 nection is both in itself the more probable 
 one, and that suggested first of all by the 
 accentuation (this, however, is not here 
 decisive). It was not the extent of the 
 original promise, but that of the enjoyment 
 of the gift, which was in question. A 
 more exact rendering of the prophet's 
 
184 
 
 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. vii. 1—34. 
 
 formula Is that of the Septuagint, IJ aiwvos 
 Kol ecoj oiajras : i.e. from the most remote 
 autiquity to the most distant future. 
 
 Vers. 8 — 15. — The formalism of Jewish 
 religion exposed. The lesson of Shiloh. 
 
 Ver. 8. — Lying words; such as those 
 quoted in ver. 4. 
 
 Ver. 9. — Will ye steal, etc.? rather, 
 Whal I stealing, murderiruj, etc. ? The con- 
 struction is formed by a series of infinitives, 
 preceded by an interrogative expressing 
 extreme surprise, equivalent to " Is this 
 yoxu: way of life — a course of theft, and 
 so forth?" 
 
 Ver. 10. — And come, etc. ; rather, and 
 then ye come, etc. We are delivered to do, 
 etc. ; rather, we have escaped, in order to do, 
 etc. To make the concluding words of the 
 verse a part of the speech seems hardly fair to 
 tiie Jews, who would certainly not proclaim 
 that they had made their escape from the 
 threatened judgment with the object of 
 prosecuting abominable acts. Such a view, 
 moreover, greatly weakens the force of the 
 emphatic " We "have escaped." " In order 
 to do," etc., are the words of the prophet, 
 who thus lays bare the secret intentions of 
 these formal worshippers. 
 
 Ver. 11.— Even I have seen it ; understand, 
 " and I will therefore destroy the house 
 which gives shelter to evil-doers." 
 
 Ver. 12. — But go ye now unto my place 
 which was in Shiloh. Jeremiah attacks this 
 false couiidence in the temple of Jerusalem, 
 by pointing to the destruction of an earlier 
 sanctuary, of which very little is known, 
 indeed only so much as to give an edge to 
 our desire for more. It is certain, from 
 Josh, xviii. 1 and 1 Sam. iv. 3, that the taber- 
 nacle and the ark found a resting-place at 
 Shiloh (an Ephrairaitish town to the north 
 of Bethel), nearly the whole of the period of 
 the judges, or more exactly between the 
 latter days of Joshua (Josh, xviii. 1) and 
 the death of Eli (1 Sam. iv. 3). Manifestly, 
 tlien, there must have been some sort of 
 " house," i.e. temple, at Shiloh ; a mere 
 tent would not have been sufficient for so 
 liiug a period. This presumption is con- 
 firmed by the language of Jeremiah, and by 
 the expieasious of tlie niirrative books. The 
 fate which the prophet is bidden to announce 
 for the existing temple is analogous to tluit 
 which fell upon " Jehovah's place in Shiloh." 
 The latter was, therefore, not merely a depor- 
 tation of the ark, such as is referred to in 
 1 Sam. V. And when the narrator of the 
 times of Samuel speaks of Eli as "sitting 
 by the door-post of the temple of Jehovah " 
 (1 Sam. i. 9), is it more natural to suppose 
 that the word " temple " is here applied to 
 the tabernacle, or that there was really a 
 house, however rude, as sacred in the eyes 
 of the faithful as was afterwards the splendid 
 
 temple at Jerusalem? The latter view is 
 strongly confirmed by Judg. xviii. 31, " AU 
 the time that the house of God in Shiloh 
 existed " (Authorized Version is misleading), 
 and Judg. xix. 18, where the Levite travel- 
 ling to Slount Ephraim says, " I am going 
 to the house of Jehovah." It is no doubt 
 strange at first sight that so little informa- 
 tion is given us as to this central sanctuary 
 of the true religion ; but are there not other 
 omissions (especially in the history of the 
 judges), which are equally strange as long 
 as we look upon the Old Testament as 
 primarily an historical document? We do 
 know something, however, and more than is 
 generally suspected; for when the right 
 translation is restored in Judg. xviii. 31, it 
 follows, from a comparison of this and the 
 preceding verse, that the temple of Shiloh 
 was destroyed simultaneously with the 
 captivity of the northern tribes. The im- 
 pression produced by this emphatic an- 
 nouncement of Jeremiah is revealed to us 
 by a later passage in his book (see ch. 
 xxvi.). 
 
 Ver. 13. — Bising up early and speaking ; 
 i.e. speaking zealously and continually (so 
 ver. 25 ; ch. xxv. 4 ; xxvi. 5 ; xxix. 19). It 
 is an expression peculiar to Jeremiah. 
 
 Ver. 14.— To Shiloh. Shiloh and the 
 temple of Shiloh are interchanged, precisely 
 as Jerusalem and the temple of Jerusalem 
 (ch. xxvi. 9 ; Mioah iii. 12). 
 
 Ver. 15. — I will oast you out of my sight ; 
 viz. into a foreign laud (see Deut. xxix. 28). 
 The land of Israel was in a special sense 
 " Jehovah's land " (Hos. ix. 3 ; Lev. xxv. 
 23). Ephraim ; here used for the northern 
 tribes collectively, as Isa. vii. 2 ; Hos. iv. 
 17 ; V. 9 ; xii. 1. 
 
 Vers. 16— 20.— The hypocrisy of the 
 worship of Jehovah proved; its punish- 
 ment. 
 
 Ver. 16. — Pray not thou for this people. 
 Abraham prayed for Sodom (Gen. xviii. 23 — 
 32); Moses and Samuel for Israel (Exod. 
 xxxii. 11 — 14 ; xvii. 11 ; Numb. xiv. 13 — 20 ; 
 Ps. ovi. 23 ; 1 Sam. vii. 9, 10 ; xii. 17, 18, 
 23) ; and Jeremiah would fain pciform the 
 same pious duty to his people. We have a 
 specimen of his intercession in ch. xiv. 19 — 
 22 (comp. ch. xviii. 20), followed imme- 
 diately by a rejection of his prayer, parallel 
 in thought to the present passage. Verbal 
 parallels are ch. xi. 14; xiv. 11. Cry; i.e. 
 cry for help (see on ch. xiv. 12); parallel 
 with "prayer," as ch. xi. 14; Ps. xvii. 1: 
 Ixi. 1. 
 
 Ver. 17. —In the streets. A climax. There 
 is no sense of shame left. 
 
 Ver. 18.— The children ... the fathers 
 . . . the women. All ages were represented 
 in this idolatrous act, thus justifying the 
 sweeping character of the judgment as 
 
en. VII. 1—34,] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMTAH. 
 
 1«8 
 
 desoiibed in oh. vi. 11. Cakes (comp. oh. 
 xliv. 19). The word is peculiar (kavmnlm), 
 and perhaps entered Palestine together 
 with the foreign rite to which the cukes 
 belongi'd. Various conjectures have been 
 oiTered as to their nature, but without any- 
 demonstrable ground. Sacrificial cakes were 
 not uncommon. Hosea refers to the luscious 
 raisin-cakes used by idolaters (Hos. iii. 1). 
 To the queen of heayen. This title of a 
 divinity only occurs in Jeremiah (here and 
 in cli. xliv. 17 — 19, 25). It reminds us, 
 first, of titles (such as " queen of the gods ") 
 of the Babylonio-Assyrian goddesses, Bilat 
 (Beltis) and Istar, who, though divided iu 
 laler times, were " originally but two forms 
 of the same goddess " (Sayce, Transactions 
 of Sudetsj of Biblical Archieolngy, iii. 169). 
 It is, however, perhaps an objection to the 
 view that Bilat or Istar is intended, that 
 neither here nor in ch. xliv. is there any 
 allusion to that characteristic lascivious 
 custom which was connected in Babylonia 
 with the worship of Istar (Herod., i. 199). 
 The phrase has, however, another associa- 
 tion. It reminds us, in the second place, of 
 the Egyptian goddess Neith, "the mother 
 of the gods." The first mention of " the 
 queen of heaven " in Jeremiah occurs in the 
 reign of Jehoiakim, who was placed on the 
 throne by Pharaoh-Necho, one of the Saite 
 dynasty (Sai's was the seat of the worship of 
 Neith). If the *' queen of heaven " were a 
 Babylonio-Assyrian goddess, we should have 
 looked for the introduction of her oultus at 
 an earlier period (e.g. under Ahaz). But it 
 was in accordance with the principles of 
 polytheism (and the mass of the Jews had 
 an irresistible tendency to polytheism) to 
 adopt the patron-deity of the suzerain. 
 Subsequently Judah became the subject 
 of Nebuchadnezzar ; thus it was equally 
 natural to give up the worship of an 
 Egyptian deity. Jewish colonists in Migdol 
 would as naturally revert to the cultus of 
 the Egyptian "mother of the gods" (see 
 Gratz, ' Monatsschrift,' Breslau, 1874, pp. 
 349 — 351). The form of the word rendered 
 " queen " being very uncommon, another 
 reading, pronounced in the same way, 
 obtained currency. This should be ren- 
 dered, not " frame," or " workmanship " (as 
 Authorized Version, margin), but " service." 
 The context, however, evidently requires a 
 person. 
 
 Ver. 19. — Do they provoke me, etc.? 
 literally, Is it me that they provoke (or, vex) f 
 Is it not themselves i 
 
 Ver. 20. — Upon man, and upon beast. I'hat 
 all creation shares in the curse of man is 
 repeatedly aifirmed in the Old Testament 
 as well as the New. Inferentially, this 
 doctrine appears from the narrative of the 
 Fall, and still more clearly from Isaiah's 
 
 description of Paradise regained (xi.), 
 Hosea speaks of sufferings of the animals 
 arising out of the guilt of Israel (iv. 3), and 
 a consciousness of the "solidarity" of all 
 living creatures is ascribed to a Ninevite 
 king in the Book of Jonah (iii. 7, 8). In 
 general, the origin of this community of 
 suffering is left mysterious, but in Gen. 
 vi. 12 it is expressly stated as the cause of 
 the Deluge, that " all flesh [i.e. both man 
 and beast] had corrupted its way upon tlie 
 earth ; " i.e. apparently, that contact with 
 man had led to a corruption of the original 
 innocence of the lower animals. It is a 
 common experience that intercourse between 
 Christianized (not to say civilized) man and 
 the domestic animals produces a sometimes 
 pathetic change in the psychic phenomena 
 of the latter. Is the reverse process utterly 
 inconceivable ? 
 
 Vers. 21 — 28. — Jeremiah dispels the 
 illusion that God's claims are satisfied by a 
 merely formal service. 
 
 Ver. 21.— Put your bnmt offerings, etc. 
 Throw all your sacrifices into a mass, and 
 eat them at your pleasure. Ye have my 
 perfect permission, for they are of no 
 religious value. According to the Law, the 
 burnt offerings were to be entirely consumed 
 by fire, while the other sacrifices were 
 mostly eaten by the offerers and by their 
 friends. There is a touch of contempt in 
 the phrase, eat flesh ; they are merely 
 pieces of flesh, and ye may eat them. 
 
 Ver. 22. — I spake not unto your fathers, 
 etc. An important and much-disputed 
 passage, from which Graf, Colenso, and 
 Kuenen derive one of their chief subsidiary 
 arguments for the post-Exile date of the 
 Levitical legislation. The prophet here 
 appears to deny in toto that Jehovah at 
 Mount Sinai had given any injunctions on 
 the subject of sacrifice. But the prophet 
 must at any rate be consistent with himself; 
 he cannot utter anything by Divine com- 
 mand which is fundamentally at variance 
 with other equally authoritative declarations. 
 Do the statements of Jeremiah elsewhere 
 justify us in accepting the words in their 
 literal, superficial meaning? There are 
 three other passages which have a claim to 
 be considered. In ch. xvii. 26 the prophet 
 draws a picture of the happy condition in 
 which the Jews might be, were they only 
 obedient. One of the features of this 
 picture is that the Jews would still bring 
 all the various kinds of sacrifices to the 
 house of Jehovah. In ch. xxxi. 14 a similar 
 description is closed with the promise to 
 "satiate the soul of the priests with fat- 
 ness," implying that there would be a great 
 abundance of thank offerings in regenerate 
 Israel. In ch. xxxiii. 11, among other 
 blessings of the future, the prophet mentions 
 
186 
 
 THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. vii. 1—34. 
 
 the praiseful exclamations of those who 
 would bring the sacrifice of thanksgiving. 
 These passages do not contain any stiite- 
 ment respecting the origin of the sacrificial 
 system; but they do expressly assert that 
 Jehovah contemplates that system with 
 pleasure, and apparently that he designs it 
 to be permanent among his people Israel. 
 Let us now turn to ch. xxxiii. 17 — 24. 
 Here the prophet, in the Name of Jehovah, 
 declares that there is a Divine covenant 
 " with the Levites, the priests," who shall 
 never "want a man before me ... to do 
 sacrifice continually." A covenant with 
 the priests implies a covenant with the 
 people, the priests being the representatives 
 of the people. This passage, therefore, is 
 more distinct than those previously quoted ; 
 it does appear to maintain that the range 
 of the Sinaitic covenant included the duties 
 of the priesthood, i.e. sacrifices. On the 
 other hand, it should be observed that the 
 genuineness of this latter passage is not 
 beyond dispute, the whole section in which 
 it occurs (oh. xxxiii. 14—26) being omitted 
 in the Septuagint. We have now to 
 inquire, Is there a real discrepancy between 
 the words of Jeremiah (strictly speaking, 
 of Jehovah) in the verse now before us, 
 interpreted literally, and the passages ad- 
 duced above? Are they more inconsistent 
 than such an utterance as ch. vi. 20 (first 
 half of verse), which appears to deny the 
 utility of sacrifices altogether ? If the latter 
 may be explained as a forcible oratorical 
 exaggeration, why not also the present 
 passage ? Jeremiah sees the people attach- 
 ing a pernicious importance to the opus 
 operatum of sacrifice. On one occasion he 
 tells them that Jehovah cares not for 
 sacrifices ; he means, as the context shows, 
 the sacrifices of men without spiritual 
 sensibilities. On another, that Jehovah 
 never commanded their fathers to sacrifice ; 
 he means (may we not presume ?) the mere 
 outward forms of the ritual, divorced 
 from the sentiment and practice of piety, 
 which, as Hosea tells us (vi. 6), Jehovah 
 " delights in and not [equivalent to 
 'more than'] sacrifice." There is, therefore, 
 no fundamental inconsistency between the 
 passage before us and the three passages 
 first quoted, and if so there can be no real 
 discrepancy with the last-mentioned passage, 
 for the priests (as was remarked) perform 
 their functions on behalf of the people, and 
 the permanence of Jehovah's covenant with 
 the priests depended on the spiritual life 
 of the people they represented (read ch. 
 xxxiii. as a whole). This view seems less 
 arbitrary than that of Ewald, who thinks 
 that the sacrifices spoken of in our passage 
 are merely the free-will offerings of the rich ; 
 and than that of D.ihler, who interprets, 
 
 " My chief care was not to prescribe rules 
 for holocausts and sacrifices, but this is what 
 I commanded thee above all," viz. moral 
 obedience. According to it, the prophet's 
 denial is not absolute, but re'ative — relative, 
 that is, to the notion of sacrifices entortained 
 by the Jews whom lie addresses. Of course, 
 Graf's view, that the deniid is absoluts, will 
 equally well suit the context. The people 
 were surprised at Jen^miah's objurgitioiis, 
 because they thought they had fulfilled the 
 claims of the covenant. Jeremiah's purpose 
 is equally well fulfilled whether his denial 
 is qualified or unqualified, absolute or 
 relative. Our object has been to separate 
 the exegesis of our passage from a still 
 doubtful controversy, and to offer a tenable 
 view of it, based upon grounds purely 
 internal to Jeremiah. It may be suggested, 
 however, to the student of Leviticus, that 
 even if the Levitical legislation in its 
 present form were proved to be of a post- 
 Exile date, it would still be doubtful 
 whether any believing temple-worshipper 
 could help assuming that Jehovah had, from 
 the first existence of the nation, given his 
 direct sanction to the offering of sacrifices. 
 If so, it is comparatively unimportant 
 (except with regard to the progressive 
 revelation of the strictness of the law of 
 truth) whether the Levitical code was given 
 to Moses at Mount Sinai in its present form 
 or not. 
 
 Ver. 23. — But this thing . . . Obey my 
 voice, etc. Comp. Deut. vi. 3, " Hear [the 
 verb rendered here 'obey'] thbrefore, O 
 Israel, and observe to do it; that it may be 
 well with thee," etc. The words, I will 
 be yonr God; rather, to you a God, etc., 
 occur in Lev. xxvi. 12 (comp. Exod. vi. 7 ; 
 Deut. xxix. 13). Walk ye in all the ways, 
 etc., is not a citation, but reminds us of 
 passages like Deut. ix. 12, 16 ; xi. 28 ; xxxi. 
 29. That it may be well unto you is a 
 characteristic phrase of Jeremiah (ch. xlii. 
 6 ; xxxviii. 20 ; xl. 9) ; but is also frequent 
 in Deuteronomy (comp., besides the passage 
 quoted above, Deut. iv. 40; v. 16; vi. lb; 
 xii. 25). 
 
 Ver. 24. — Imagination; ratlier, stubhorn- 
 neaa (see on oh. iii. 17). Went backward, 
 and not forward; rather, turned their hack, 
 and not their face (literally, became buck- 
 wards, and not forwards). 
 
 Ver. 27. — Theretore thou shalt speak, etc. 
 rather, and though thou speak . . . yet will 
 they not, etc.; and though thou call unto 
 them, yet will they nut answer thee. 
 
 Ver. 28.— But thou shalt say; rather, 
 ihou shalt therefore say. A nation; rather, 
 the nation. " What one nation in the earth 
 is like thy people, even like Israel, whom 
 God went to redeem for a people to him- 
 self?" (2 Sam. vii. 23). And jet "this is 
 
CH. VII. 1—34.] THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 
 
 187 
 
 the nation that have not hearkened," etc. 
 Truth ; i ather, good faith (as ch. v. 1). Is 
 cut off from their mouth ; i.e. their oaths to 
 Jehi)\ ah are fiilse oaths (ch. v. 2). 
 
 Vers. 29— 34.— Tophet, the greatest of 
 all abominations; the begiuuing of the 
 Divine retribution. 
 
 Vt-r. 29. — Cut off thine hair. The 
 " daughter of Zion," i.e. the community of 
 Jerusalem, is addressed ; this appears from 
 tlie verb being in the feminine. It is a 
 choice expression which the prophet em- 
 jiloys — literally, shear off thy crown (i.e. 
 thy chief ornament). The act was to be a 
 sign of mourning (see Job i. 20 ; Micah i. 
 16). Some think there is also a reference 
 to the vow of the Nazarite (the word for 
 "crown" being here n€zer, which is also 
 the word rendered in Authorized Version, 
 " separation," i.e. " consecration," in the 
 law of the Nazarite (Numb. vi.). But 
 neither in this context nor anywhere elsS 
 have wo any support for the application of 
 the term " Nazarite" to the people of Israel. 
 On high places ; rather, on (the) bare hills 
 (see on ch. iii. 21). The generation of his 
 wrath; i.e. on which his wrath is to be 
 poured out (comp. Isa. x. 6). 
 
 Ver. 30. — They have set their abominations, 
 etc. ; alluding, doubtless, to the altars which 
 Manasseh built " for all the host of heaven 
 in the two courts of the house of Jehovah," 
 and especially to the image of the Ca- 
 naanitish goddess Asherah, which he set 
 up in the temple itself (2 Kings xxi. 5, 7). 
 
 Ver. 31. — The high places of Tophet; 
 rather, the high places of the Topheth — (on 
 
 the "high places" (Hebrew 5omo(/i) — here 
 probably artificial mounds to erect the altars 
 upon, and on "the Topheth," see Com- 
 mentary on 1 Kings). In the valley of the 
 son of Hinnom. Hilzig and others would 
 take Hinnom as a noun meaning " groan- 
 ing " (Hashi, the great Jewish commentator. 
 had already proposed this view), which ia 
 at first sight very plausible. But this name 
 of the valley is already found in the descrip- 
 tion of the boundaries of Judah and Benja- 
 min in Josh. XV. 8; xviii. 16. To burn their 
 sons, etc. (On the worship of Moloch 
 (Saturn), see on Lev. xviii. 21, and comp. 
 Ezek. xvi. 20, 21, from which it appears that 
 the children were first slain before being 
 "caused to pass through the fire.") 
 
 Ver. 32. — The valley of slaughter; with 
 reference to the great slaughter reserved 
 for the unbelieving Jews. The scene of 
 their sin shall be that of their punishment. 
 Till there be no place; rather, /or want of 
 room (elsewhere). 
 
 Ver. 33. — And the carcases, etc.; almost 
 verbally identical with Dent, xxviii. 26. 
 
 Ver. 34. — The land shall he desolate; 
 rather, shall become a waste. The curse 
 denounced upon the disobedient people in 
 Lev. xxvi. 31, 33 (for another parallel 
 between this chapter and Lev. xxvi., see 
 ver. 23). In both passages the word for 
 "waste" is Miorbah, which, as Dr. Payne 
 Smith remarks, is " used only of places 
 which, having once been inhabited, have 
 then fallen into ruin." Hebrew is rich in 
 synonyms for the idea of " debolation." 
 
 HOMILETICS. 
 
 Vers. 1 — 7. — Preaching repentance. I. The occasion. It was in the gate of the 
 temple, where the crowd of worshippers would pass, and at the time of their going up to 
 worship. 1. In a, public place, (1) that men might not have to seek the preacher, but 
 rather be sought by him; and (2) that all might hear, for truth, warnings of judgment, 
 and gospels of deliverance are for all. 2. At the entrance to the place of worship, because 
 ( 1 ) worship should be associated with instruction ; (2) many people who observe 
 religious ordinances need to be convinced of their sin and urged to repentance as much 
 as the " publicans and sinners;" and (3) we must repent of sin before we can be 
 accepted by God ; so Jeremiah was to preach to the people as they went in to the 
 temple, not as they came out. 
 
 II. The accusation. The Jews are not accused of Church sins, neglecting religious 
 ordinances, etc. Their sins were against common morality. 1. Though men may be 
 very observant of religious ordinances they may yet be guilty of the grossest wicked- 
 ness (ver. 6). 2. God is most concerned with our conduct in daily life. Here is the 
 true life, the life which occupies the larger part of our time, engages most of our 
 energies, gives freest scope for good or evil. 
 
 III. The exhoktation. Practical amendment is sought. 1. There must be an 
 amending. Repentance is not merely sorrow for the past; it is a change of desire and 
 effort for the future. 2. This must be practical. The Jews are to amend their " ways." 
 True repentance is more a matter of conduct than of emotion. It must bring forth 
 fruits (Matt. iii. 8). 3. This must be definite. Particular sins are specified as to be 
 
188 THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [cii. vii. 1—34. 
 
 abandoned (ver. 6). Men must repent of their own sins, their characteristic sins, their 
 habitual sins. We are too ready to renounce the sins which do not helong to us, and to 
 J ass over our moat familiar sins unnoticed. 4. This must be thorough. The Jews are 
 to " throughly amend " their ways. A half-hearted repentance is a mockery. As 
 well not flee from the City of Destruction at all as linger regretfully about its vicinity 
 like Lot's wife, only to suffer a similar fate to hers. 
 
 IV. The admonition. The Jews arc warned of the danger of a false ground of 
 confidence (ver. 4), and threatened with approaching judgment. 1. If we believe that 
 men are in danger, that is a. false charity which hides the danger out of consideration 
 for feelings of mere temporary comfort. 2. There is an advantage in using the minatory 
 language of Scripture, though (1) with deep solemnity, (2) with sadness and kindliness 
 of purpose, (3) without the amplification of imaginative sensationalism, (4) accom- 
 panied by clear indications of the way of escape and encouragements for hope in 
 following it. 
 
 v. The promise. (Ver. 7.) Repentance is to be followed by forgiveness and the 
 restoration of favour. God charges us with our sins, and threatens judgments, all in 
 Inve that he may thus lead us to safety and blessedness. 'J'he most wicked men may 
 find forgiveness and ultimate salvation if they will but repent and turn to God (ver. 6). 
 
 Ver. 4. — The confidence of superstition. I. Confident ianguaoe is no suaeantee 
 FOR a secure foundation OF TRUST. The Jews are vehement in exclamation ; but 
 their words are boastful without ground. Frequent repetition is no evidence of the 
 truth of a saying. Yet, though against all reason, and by mere force of urgency, how 
 many convictions have been thus forced on the belief of mankind ! Trite sayings are 
 commonly accepted for true sayings. We do not think to test the genuineness of the old 
 worn coin so much as that of the new coin. We naturally believe that with which we 
 are familiar. Indeed, we may persuade ourselves to believe almost anything by simply 
 dwelling upon the idea of it till this becomes inseparable from our consciousueiss. And 
 all this without the slightest reason ! 
 
 II. The superstition of eeliqion mat be found in men who have lost the 
 spirituality of it. The Jews neglected the spiritual worship, which was all that was 
 really valuable in the temple service, but they clung to the idea that there must be a 
 sanctity about the very walls of the temple which would make it a place of safety for 
 those who took shelter within them. Superstition is the disease of religion. When 
 spiritual holiness is gone, a sanctity is ascribed to material things. They who have no 
 faith in God may have strange faith in charms and spells, like the Jews who, perhaps, 
 thought to work a charm by the threefold iteration of their cry, " The temple of the 
 Lord," etc. 
 
 HI. No seal security can be found in external THIN8S. The temple building 
 was no palladium to the had men who sought refuge in it. It is vain to be neHr the 
 Church if we are far from God. Religious ordinances, membership in a Church, official 
 association with religion as priest, prophet, or minister, and the like outside affairs, 
 contain no promise whatever of protection, and the man who shelters himself beneath 
 the whole of them and does not seek spiiitual shelter is as much exposed to the 
 tempest of judgment as if he stood out in the open plain of bare infidelity. 
 
 IV. The true temple of the Lord is the heart of a oood man. God does not 
 dwell in temples made with hands. Earthly temples of stone may represent his 
 dwelling, but they cannot bring him nearer to men nor confine his presence within 
 limits. But the soul of a good man is a real temple wherein God's Spirit truly abides 
 and effectively operates (1 Cor. vi. 19). Such a temple is safe from all harm. Thus 
 we must seek safety, not by entering a temple, but by becoming a temple — not by 
 securing the external protection of holy things while the heart and life are unholy, but 
 by receiving God within the heart and sanctifying the life to him. 
 
 Ver. 13. — The voice unheeded. I. God is ever speaking to his children. There 
 IS a Divine voice speaking, not to favoured prophets in rare moments ot spiritual eleva- 
 tion, but to all men, that all who will may hear. This voice comes to us in many 
 forms. 1. The voice of nature — the proclamation of the power and wisdom of God in 
 tlie awful, silent speech of the stars (Ps. xix. 3), and the gentler language which tells 
 
CH. VII. 1—34.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 189 
 
 of his tenderness and beneficence in tlie cheery songs of spring and the glad shout of the 
 harvest. 2. The voice of history. God is in history, and spealss to us through tlie 
 events of the past, warning by judgments (ver. 12), inviting by acts of deliverance and 
 gifts of mercy (see Ps. cv.). 3. The voice of providence in daily life. Has not God 
 been speaking to us throngh our own experience — using various prophetic agencies — ■ 
 the advent of a new joy, the cloud of a great sorrow, a visitation of the angel of death 
 to the home? has he not repeatedly roused, invited, pi jaded, and consoled us with 
 voices from out eternity ? 4. The voice of prophecy. God had often so spoken to the 
 Jews before the days of Jeremiah, and reference is plainly made to this fact in the 
 text. That voice still lives, because truth is eternal. Thus God speaks to us through 
 the inspired thoughts of the Bible. 5. The voice of Christ. He is the " Word " of 
 God made articulate in the dialect of men (John i. 1 — 14). He who sees Christ hears 
 the voice of God. 6. The voice of conscience. This is God speaking within the soul. 
 Every time we feel compunction at doing wrong, or an inward urging to do the right, 
 God is pleading in our heart by direct communion, spirit with spirit. 
 
 II. The voice of God is urgent. God speaks with urgency — " rising up early and 
 speaking." 1. The urgency of God's voice is a proof of his great love to his children. 
 He speaks with frequency, repeating the same unheeded lesson, and even when none 
 attend to his voice. God speaks to his children before they pray to him. The first 
 impulse to spiritual communion comes from God, not from us (Ps. xxvii. 8). Christ 
 stands at the door and knocks (Rev. iii. 20). We may see iu this an evidence of the 
 long-suft'ering mercy of God — a mercy which " endureth for ever," and we may see an 
 encouragement to listen and turn to him. Still he " waiteth to be gracious." 2. The 
 urgency of God's voice is a proof of thegreat importance of what he says. God is urgent. 
 What tremeudoas destinies must turn on a question which even he must rouse and 
 bestir himself about I We might expect that any voice from the awful majesty of Gud 
 would be full of deep and vast meaning. What must be the significance of his words 
 when even he speaks with earnest insistance, with pressing urgency? How can such 
 an utterance be passed unheeded ? 
 
 III. God's voice is often not heeded. He speaks with the authority of the 
 majesty of heaven, with the yearning love of a Father, with the urgency which 
 betokens matters of profound interest, and with a direct reference to the most fearful 
 woe and the most glorious blessedness of his children. Yet men turn aside with indif- 
 ference. What are the causes of this appalling wonder? 1. Spiritual deafness. There 
 are men who have no ears for the voice of God. Yet God can open our ears if we are 
 willing to hear. 2. Hatred to the highest truth. Men stop their ears against the sound 
 of holiest words which are hateful to sinful heai'ts. 3. Consciousness of guilt. Fearing 
 words of doom, men refuse to hear any words Irom God ; but (1) the doom will not be 
 the less because the warning is unheeded, and (2) God warns to save. 4. Unbelief. 
 Doubt as to whether a voice is Divine is often natural, and if the doubt grows into 
 widespread scepticism the cause may be intellectual rather than moral. But when 
 once' a voice is recognized as Divine, unbelief is distrust in God; it is "making him a 
 liar." 
 
 IV. The refusal to oive heed to God's voice is a fatal evil. 1. It aggravates 
 guilt by adding to it (1) fresh rebellion against our great King, (2) ingratitude to the 
 pleading love of our merciful Father, (3) wilful sin against light. 2. It leaves the 
 purpose of God's voice uneffected. He urges and pleads with his children, but he does 
 nut force them to return to him. If they will not heed his voice that voice is lost 
 upon them, and the ruin from which it would call them unaverted. . 
 
 Ver. 16. — Forbidden prayers. Certain prayers must be regarded as unlawful. 
 
 I. Prayers of positive demand. Many men pray as though they were dictating to 
 God. Prayer is petition, not command. The suppliant should assume the attitude of 
 a mendicant. 
 
 II. Pkaiers which aim at turning the will of God. We may believe that God 
 will do in answer to prayer what he would not do apart from prayer, because the very 
 prayer may be the one essential condition which makes that fitting which would not 
 be fitting without it. But this must be in accordance with God's will, which is 
 always perfect, while otirs is often evil. 
 
190 THE BOOK OF THE PKOPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. vii. 1—34. 
 
 III. Peatebs fob what is weong in itself. God cannot grant, such prayers. We 
 may pray for all men, but we may not pray for every Imaginable favour to be given 
 to all men. Thus it is wrong to pray that the impenitent wicked should not be 
 punished. The purpose of the text seems to be just to forbid this prayer. Jeremiah 
 is not to pray that the calamities he sees approaching may not fall on the guilty 
 people. It would be bad for them and an outrage on justice that, while they refused 
 to hear the Divine voice warning them of their danger and inviting them to the way 
 of safety, God should hear the voice of any intercessor pleading that the threat should 
 not be accomplished, and that the wicked people should be saved from just punishment. 
 
 Vers. 21 — 28. — Declension. Jeremiah endeavours to rouse a sense of guilt in his 
 hearers by pointing to the sad downward course of their history when this is regarded 
 in the light of Divine requirements and inducements to follow them. 
 
 I. The Drvn™ beqdiebments. These were not for the offering of mere formal 
 sacrifices, but for obedience to God in heart and conduct (1 Sam. xv. 22). Men need 
 to be repeatedly reminded of this fact, because there is a common tendency to separate 
 religion from morality, to believe that God is pleased with the performance of Church 
 services by those whose lives are spent in sin and selfishness, and that the devotions 
 of the sanctuary atone for the wickedness of daily life. Jeremiah and the prophets 
 generally teach (1) that religious services are worthless except as expressions of inward 
 devotion, and (2) that no religious service is acceptable while obedience in common life 
 is neglected. 
 
 II. The inducements to ruLriL these eequieements. 1. A clear statement of 
 them. Jeremiah was not the first to reveal them. They were well known and easily 
 understood. 2. Rewards promised for obedience. It would be " well with " the people 
 if they walked in all the ways that God commanded them. Disobedience led to the 
 Captivity. Obedience is the only condition on which we can enjoy liberty. 3. 
 Mepeated warnings. (Ver. 25.) By all forms in which the Divine voice reaches us 
 God is continually reminding us of his will and urging us to obedience. 
 
 III. The causes op declension. 1. Inattention. " They hearkened not." People 
 are too preoccupied by worldly concerns to give the requisite thought to higher 
 interests. 2. Self-will. " They walked in the counsels and stubbornness of their evil 
 heart." Men disobey through the conceit of superior knowledge and through the 
 obstinacy of selfish aims. 
 
 IV. The chaeacteb of deolenston. 1. Departure from God. Israel turned " the 
 back and not the face " to God. In disobeying the will of God we necessarily cease to 
 walk with God, lose the light of his presence, become godless. 2. A constant deterio- 
 ration of morals. The contemporaries of Jeremiah " did worse than their fathers." 
 Progress is the natural order. But, left to itself, the leaven of wickedness will spread as 
 surely as the seed of goodness would grow if that were allowed free development. 
 
 V. The consequences op declension. 1. Hardening against the reception of truth. 
 (Ver. 27.) The people have reduced themselves to such a condition that they cannot 
 receive the prophet's message. 2. Inability to profit by correction. " This is a nation 
 that . . . receiveth not correction" (ver. 28). 3. Destruction of the value of religious 
 services. The burnt offering should express the dedication of the worshipper. But a^ 
 it does nothing of the kind, it is worthless, and may as well serve as flesh for a common 
 meal (ver. 21). Eeligion, which should be the inspiration of morality, is dead and 
 powerless in the hands of people of corrupt lives. The noblest exercise of humanity is 
 thus reduced to a nullity. 
 
 Ver. 32 — ch. viii. 3. — Horrors of retribution. I. Thebb is season to believe that 
 hoeeoes of sin will be followed by hoeeoes op eetbibution. 1. Justice requires a 
 proportionate relation of punishment to sin. The Jews had sinned greatly. It was 
 right that they should be punished with severity. Mild views of the requirements of 
 punishment may be the result of a dulness of conscience which does not recotrnize the 
 depth of guilt. When men are most deeply convinced of sin, they are also most 
 apprehensive of the merited wrath of God. 2. Punishment, to be effective, must be 
 proportionate to guilt. In its three functions as deterrent when threatened, chastise- 
 ment for correction when received, and warning to others when witnessed, it can only 
 
CH. VII. 1—34.] THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 191 
 
 be effectual if a due proportion be observed. 3. The nature of God leads us to suppose 
 that he may exact horrible retribution for horrible sin. He is almighty, and if his 
 anger, which is slow to rise, is at length roused, this must be terrible indeed. God is 
 long-suffering, merciful, ready to forgive; but he is not weak and indifferent to the 
 great evils of sin. It is not reasonable to suppose that the Divine anger will be the 
 less in its outpouring because it is long withheld. 
 
 II. Thbbb akb indications of the horroks of rbtbibution in the scriptukal 
 BEVBLATIONS CONCERNING IT. Jeremiah is speaking chiefly of physical horrors which 
 are to accompany the overthrow of Jerusalem. But he suggests that these contain 
 certain necessary elements of retribution. 1. Death. Tophet shall be a valley of 
 slaughter. The great and ultimate punishment is always regarded, not as pain, but as 
 death (Rom. vi. 23). 2. Shame. The corpses are to be unburied and exposed to the 
 ravages of unclean animals — for the Jew a fearful degradation. Sin exposed, con- 
 founded, defeated, will reflect burning shame on the sinner. 3. Anguish. "The 
 voice of mirth," etc., will cease; men will prefer death to life (ch. viii. 3). 4. A 
 peculiar relation of penalty to offence. Tophet, the scene of horrible wickedness, shall 
 be the spot for retributive slaughter. Where wretched men immolated their children 
 their own dead bodies shall be cast. The sun and moon and stars which they wor- 
 shipped shall look down on their bones bleaching out in the open. 
 
 III. There abb times when it is necessary to make men think of the horrors 
 OF RETRIBUTION. The language of Jeremiah is explicit and graphic. 1. Details of 
 future retribution should not take the chief place in instruction. They lose their effect 
 by too frequent repetition. By themselves they are not able to produce a better life, 
 but may result in hardness, unbelief, and disgust. The love of God in Christ is the 
 great power to lead to holiness. 2. Nevertheless we must not shun to declare " the 
 whole counsel of God." Thoughts of retribution may be powerful means for rousing 
 convictions of sin, if they are accompanied by appeals to conscience which make men 
 feel the due proportion of guilt to punishment. 
 
 HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. 
 
 Vers. 1 — 3. — Keeping the temple gate. It was probably not the outer gate, but one of 
 the gates which led from the outer to the inner or upper court (cf. ch. xix. 14 ; xxvi. 
 10 ; xxxvi. 10). " From this point the prophet could view the whole assembly of the 
 people in the outer court, as well as the gates leading from without into it " (Lange). 
 Ohrist seems to have stood thus at times. 
 
 I. The pbeacheb of truth does well to choose the most impressive positions, 
 
 OCCASIONS, AND OIBOUMSTANCES FOB THE DELIVERY OF HIS MESSAOE. The great aim of 
 
 the preacher is to get a hearing for what he has to say. Tact (to a certain degree), 
 artistic juxtaposition and arrangement, sympathy with the spirit of the times, etc., are 
 indispensable qualities to him who would give the Word of God bold and effective 
 expression. Public occasions may, therefore, frequently be utilized for special services, 
 etc. Passing movement and contemporary events may give fresh interest to perma- 
 nent truth. A curious ingenuity is sometimes exhibited in making the preacher 
 inconspicuous and reducing his office to a matter of routine. He ought always to feel 
 that his message is an extraordinary one, requiring all the earnestness and effort of 
 which he is capable to convey it with due effect. And even then it must have suffered 
 at his hands, and in much he will be an unprofitable servant. 
 
 II. Religious obsbbvance may be very fashionable, and all but universal, 
 WHERE THERE IS LITTLE REAL RELIGION. One has to distinguish between the outward 
 and the inward, the religion of rite and ceremony and that of the heart. Here 
 apparently the representatives of " all Judah " were assembled, and yet it was no sign 
 of national piety, but rather the contrary. Instead of the carnal nature being checked 
 and corrected, it was directly fostered by such worship. Public worship is a phrase 
 which often iucludes elements that have nothing to do with the worship of God. That 
 the services of God's house should be chaste and attractive will be generally admitted. 
 But architectural adornments, musical accessories of an ornate or merely artistic nature, 
 displays of rhetoric, and similar additions to the esseutial character of the worship, may 
 
192 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. vii. 1—34. 
 
 pro7e popular and entertaining, and yet be spiritually pernicious. In the case of Judah 
 the whole worship was on a low intellectual and spiritual key. The gods of heathenism 
 and Jehovah were worshipped alike, and the licentious rites of idolatry mingled witl'i 
 the sacrifices of the Law. This bad resulted in the temple -being polluted and 
 becoming a " den of thieves." Our aims in worship, the purity and concentration of 
 our hearts, the moral relation between our every-day life and our temple service, have 
 all very intimately to do with the question of the value of public religious observances. 
 
 III. EioHTEOusNESs otjoHT TO BE PRELIMINARY TO woESHiP. " Amend your ways 
 and your doings " is the demand the prophet makes in proof of the genuineness of 
 their worship. Religion is a matter of life, and not of showy observances and empty 
 protestations. The best proof that we intend serving God is that we have already 
 begun to do so in business and morals. This duty, although difficult, is the best prepara- 
 tion for exalted spiritual experiences and sincere adoration. Men are not fit to appear 
 before God when their misdeeds are still being repeated and their moral habits are not 
 under the influence of his Spirit. 
 
 IV. Unreal worship op God is cbetain to be detected and exposed. We can 
 imagine the shame of the nobility and people whom the prophet from his unlooked-for 
 vantage-point so sharply rebuked. — M. 
 
 Vers, i — 7. — VPTio shall dwell in the house of the Lord? I. An unwabbantable 
 ASSUMPTION. They arrogate to themselves, not only the exclusive possession of a 
 jueeting-place between God and man, but they speak of themselves as in a special and 
 peculiar sense the temple of God. 1. There is an argument latent here. The temple 
 is looked upon as a permanent and immovable building — a place of intercourse between 
 Jehovah and his people. It is the only place of the kind, and it will stand for aye. But 
 the Jews are so related to the temple, so bound up with its existence and maintenance, 
 that they esteem themselves identified with it, and therefore partaking of its attributes. 
 By an easy transition, to which language affords many parallels, they come to say, 
 " The temple of the Lord is this [i.e. are we]." 2. And yet this very pretension, 
 when spiritually interpreted, expresses a gracious and mysterious truth. That is the 
 intention and aim of man's creation. Every man, as man, is made to be a temple of 
 the Holy Ghost. This is his purpose and obligation ; but, instead of this, how opposite 
 is the actual condition of most men ! Not, therefore, as a matter of course, inde- 
 pendently of moral resolve and Divine inspiration, but as something to be striven after 
 and earnestly realized in holiness of life, is man the " temple of the Lord." 3. And as 
 is often the case, the Illegitimate narrowing and monopoly of this Divine indwelling is 
 the very sign of its absence. They who rest upon other than moral grounds for the 
 claim to the presence of God within them are usurpers. It is the universal privilege 
 of those who serve God acceptably in spirit and in life. That which has a moral con- 
 dition cannot be confined to local or sectarian limits. 
 
 II. A COMMANDMENT WITH PROMISE. A rehearsal of common duties enjoined by 
 the Law of Moses. It is terse, prosaic, detailed, and altogether opposed to the absurd 
 pretension it is meant to correct. Just those duties, too, are mentioned which the 
 prophet was well aware had been neglected by Judah. There is nothing brilliant or 
 magnificent about the catalogue of deeds. They are just such actions as are obligatory 
 upon all men. It was not even necessary for a man to be a Jew to do them ; for when 
 the Gentiles do these things it shows that there must be a law written upon their 
 hearts by nature or grace. And yet the greatest in Jerusalem could not, any more 
 than the heathen, do the least of them perfectly. How gracious that to them, therefore, 
 is attached this promise of temple consecration! So the grand human duties and 
 merciful dispositions, without wliich life would be so hard, are recommended and 
 enforced by that comprehensive promise, to be immediately realized in personal 
 blessing and consecration, to be completely fulfilled when " the tabernacle of God shall 
 be with men." — M. 
 
 Vers. 13, 25. — " Rising up early." A striking expression concerning Jehovah. In 
 ver. 25 it is strengthened : •' Daily rising up early." It speaks to us — 
 
 I. Of the anxiety of Jehovah fob his people. He who has important business 
 on hand, or dear ones in trying circumstances, or great results dependent upon imme- 
 
CH. VII. I— 84.J TUB BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 193 
 
 diate and strenuous exertion, will show diligence in some such way. Ho will be 
 unnble to rest. So it ia with God and his Cliurch. Not that he can be said to fear 
 or be uncertain as to the issues. But the interest he has in the fortunes and spiritual 
 state of his people is of this description. It is no impassive God who is presented to 
 us in Scripture. A profound concern for the interests of our race ever fills the mind 
 of God. His deepest affections are engaged. He mourns the sin and rejoices in the 
 salvation of men. 
 
 II. Of his diligbnob in PROviniNa foe the wants of his people. It is no aimless, 
 helpless anxiety that fills his breast. The riiost practical measures of help and direc- 
 tion are devised and carried into execution. Prophets, the plenipotentiaries of Divine 
 grace, are sent in immediate response to the needs and demands of men. No age of 
 the world or the Church but has its thick succession. Heaven is in continual activity 
 on behalf of sinners. The choicest spiritual gifts are ceaselessly rained upon the earth. 
 The most devoted servants of God are raised up and sent. Truth in quick evolution 
 anticipates the spiritual necessities of those who would seek God. There is no flagging, 
 no cessation, from Adam's fall to the uplifting of the second Adam. And onward from 
 that Divine spectacle, in which was displayed the " fulness of the Godhead bodily," 
 events hurry to the culminating glories of Pentecost and the marriage supper of the 
 Lamb. 
 
 III. If this be the case, how ought we to studt and lay hold of the message 
 OF SALVATION? Is there not a contrast between the affectionate concern and sacrifice 
 of God and the languid indifference or stubborn refusals of men ? How shall we escape 
 if we neglect this infinite mercy ? How shall we excuse the manner in which we listen 
 to the Word of God?— M. 
 
 Vers. 17 — 20. — Idolatry a detailed insult to Jehovah. This is frequently stated in 
 the Bible. It must be the case from the very nature of the worship of false gods. It 
 is a denial and robbery of the true God. But the description here given helps us to 
 realize more completely the intense sinfulness of the worship of idols, because of the 
 circumstances attending it. 
 
 I. Aggbavating ciecumstances. 1. It was done puhlicly in the streets of Jerusalem 
 and the cities of Judah. God wa^ displaced from the land he had given. The place 
 that was consecrated by the faith and worship of the saints and the ceaseless mercies 
 of Jehovah is desecrated by the orgies and profanities of heathenism. The worship of 
 the " queen of heaven " (the female representative — Astarte — of the nature principle, 
 of which Baal is the male principle) could not but be public. As the Baal worshippers 
 poured forth their libations to the sun-god in broad day, so the worshippers of the 
 moon made no secret of their devotions. It was done literally and perforce " in the 
 face of heaven." And celebrations of the most obscene description mingled with their 
 sacrifices. Yet was there no shame. 2. It absorbed the attention and energies of the 
 people. Here is a picture of a whole family, from the eldest to the least, occupied in 
 tasks connected with the worship of Astarte. How different from the perfunctory or 
 imperfect service rendered to Jehovah ! No time was left for the true worship. And 
 is it not just so to-day under new forms and conditions ? The idolatry of pleasure, 
 gain, ambition, personal and social ideals, — does it not absorb the minds and bodies of 
 its devotees ? How little time is left for Christian duty and sacrifice ! How weary 
 and useless are those faculties which are professedly placed at the service of God ! 
 Our life-work ia too often in the market-place, in the forum of personal display and 
 self-seeking, etc., instead of the service of Jesus and the house of God. 3. It 
 involved the ivaste of the natural products of the land, 
 
 II. The deijbbbate intention. There was not wanting this expressed defiance. 
 The idea is that they would annoy and exasperate Jehovah with impunity to them- 
 selves, as mean natures delight in awakening the jealousy, etc., of others. In this way 
 they showed how completely they misunderstood the relations of Jehovah with his 
 world and his people, his command over the forces of nature, and his power of retalia- 
 tion through the ordinary laws of nature. 
 
 III. Its becompense. 1. According to natural laws. Affecting, therefore, the 
 objects they required for their sacrifices to Astarte, and cutting off the supplies requisite 
 for man and beast. 2. Tu their own confusion. God will be unaffected ; they them- 
 
 jekemiah. o 
 
194 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. vii. 1— 34. 
 
 selves will be -put to shame. The idolater and atheist are their own worst enemies. 
 3. Not to he escaped or ended. They are playing with fire. It will soon find its proper 
 objects in themselves and their profaned offerings. Nor will they be able to quench 
 that which they have kindled. So helpless will transgressors ever be. In the least of 
 the calamities that they provoke upon themselves there is a beynning of penal fires 
 and eternal miseries. — M. 
 
 Vers. 31— 33.— TOe desecration of Tophet. This valley was the scene of Solomon's 
 Moloch-worship, of the child-sacrifices of Ahaz and Manasseh, and of the varying 
 idolatrous rites of succeeding times. If the temple still maintained externally its 
 consecration to Jehovah and its position as the centre of the theocracy, the valley of 
 Ben-Hinnom was the acknowledged centre and high place of Moloch. Its vicinity to 
 Jerusalem brought it into prominent opposition to the temple. Some signal exhibition 
 of the Divine wrath is, therefore, called for. This is furnished by the iconoclastic zeal 
 of Josiah, the great slaughter of Israel in war, and the gradual use of it as a receptacle 
 lor filth, sewage, unburied dead, etc. The prophecy, repeated in ch. xix. 11, is 
 speedily translated into history. We have here an instance of the Divine laws — 
 
 I. That that which is morally coekupt shall entail desteuction. Where 
 there is filth in God's universe there will be fire. Corruption is the beginning of 
 death, in this world and that which is to come. 
 
 II. The inward, moral chaeacter of things and persons shall have extbenal 
 physical expression. It will not always be concealed. That which is whispered in 
 the ear shall be spoken from the house-top. The trap will be labelled and the pitfall 
 plainly shown. The externalizing processes of history and development in nations, 
 individuals, etc., tend to declare by outward and unmistakable signs the real character. 
 Of this Tophet is an illustration. The judgment its revolting practices bring upon its 
 votaries is the occasion of its permanent defilement. It gradually is transformed into 
 a scene of physical abomination, and, to the spiritual imagination, the type and symbol 
 of eternal perdition. Gehenna fires — how different their first and last senses, and yet 
 how related ! The same law will operate in holy and spiritual men. The inward 
 nature will cast the slough of corruption, and shall be clothed upon with a "body," 
 which shall express, further, and fulfil it. When that which is really and spiritually 
 filthy is sentenced to be " filthy still," the saints shall find embodiment and circum- 
 stances corresponding to their inward condition, and constituting the elements of their 
 reward. — M. 
 
 Vers. 1—34. — The relations of righteousness and religion. This chapter, as indeed 
 so much other of Jeremiah's prophecies, teaches not a little concerning this great theme. 
 In this chapter we note how it shows — 
 
 I. That eightbodsness is the principal thing. 1, It is God's solemn demand 
 (ver.'2). (1) Jeremiah is charged to proclaim it in the Name of the Lord and as his word. 
 (2) He is to go where there will be a vast congregation of the people : " In the gate of 
 the Lord's house." (3) Probably at a time of national gathering, at one of the feasts, 
 so as to secure a yet larger audience. (4) At a moment when the word of the Lord 
 might be expected to win most attention from them — as they were " entering in at the 
 gates to worship the Lord." 2. It is God's perpetual demand. See the whole chapter, 
 the whole prophecy. " Amend your ways and your doings " (ver. 3) is its constant 
 appeal. 3. At first it was his only command, and it is ever his fii st commanA (ver. 22). 
 Our first parents were commanded to obey before sacrifice or any rites of religion were 
 appointed. And so with Israel (ver. 22). The moral Law was given before the cere- 
 monial. And it was given in a far more imperative form. The moral Law begins 
 "Thou shalt;" the Leviiioal (Lev. i. 2 — ii. 1), "If any man will." Hence from all 
 the foregoing it is evident that righteousness stands belore all else in the Divine esteem. 
 
 II. Religion was given foe the sake of and as an aid to righteousness. 
 Righteousness is not for the sake of religion, but vice vei sri. No doubt they render mutual 
 help, but the proper relation of the two is as aforesaid. And religion can be a help to 
 righteousness and ought ever to be, even as it has often been and is. 1. £y supplying 
 fresh motives. Apart from religion, righteous conduct becomes simply morality, and 
 bases itself upon laws of expediency, or at best draws its force from motives that rise no 
 
CH. vn. 1—34.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 195 
 
 higher than earth and man and the present life. But religion gives the love of God in 
 Christ as its all-constraiuing force. Under the influence of this, what have not men 
 done and borne ; and what will they not do and bear? 2. By lending intensity to those 
 already in action. How puny the power of hope, when it has none other recompense 
 than that which this life and this world can furnish, contrasted with its invincible force 
 when the recompenses of eternity, made known to us by religion, are set before it and 
 held out to it! And so with the motive oi fear. What an immense addition is made 
 to the deterrent force of fear when the idea of God and his awful displeasure are present 
 before the mind I 
 
 " His love will all vain love expel, 
 His fear all fear beside." 
 
 3. By furnishing a perfect example. In our blessed Lord's life, short as it was in 
 duration, and far removed from us as it is in time, place, and circumstance, neverthe- 
 less in it there is to be found a standard and model of righteous conduct for all ages 
 and all lands, such as can be found nowhere else. His life has been the compass by 
 which many a saint has steered across the difScnlt ocean of life, and by its aid arrived 
 safely at the desired haven. 4. By winning fur us, in response to our fervent prayers, 
 the ever-present and potent help of the Divine and transforming Spirit. By his aid the 
 very "body of sin" within us is crucified, and we become new creatures in Christ. 
 5. By its ordinances of worship : its continual teaching, its Church fellowship, and its 
 varied saci'ed observances, keeping alive within us those beliefs and sentiments which 
 are ever the most powerful prompters to all righteousness of life. Thus the Israelite 
 of old found the Law of God (cf. Ps. cxix.) his perpetual aid, and the worship of God's 
 house a constant solace and strength. And it is so still. By the truths and the ordi- 
 nances of religion, the weak, wavering will is steadied, the i'eet are kept fiom falling, 
 and the soul is preserved from death. Such ought ever to be the case, ever is so, where 
 religion is the worship of God in spirit and in truth ; and this was the Divine design and 
 iutent in giving it to us, 
 
 III. But they aeb at times found asunder. Religion may flourish, but righteous- 
 ness be only conspicuous by its absence. It was so in the time of the prophet. We see a 
 whole apparatus of religion — temple, altar, priests, sacrifices, services ; nothing omitted 
 in external observances. And there was a national prolession of it ; large sums of money 
 were lavished on it, and there was a universal outward regard for it. But, on the other 
 hand, all this went on whilst the most gross unrighteousness cliaraoterized the very 
 people who outwardly were so religious (cf. vers. 5, (i, 9, 18). This was an appalling fact. 
 Nor, alas! is it one that now has no existence; the same sad separation of religion from 
 righteousness may be too often seen in our days as of old. The murderous banditti of 
 Southern Europe are ddigent at Mass, and pay all honour to the Virgin and saints. The 
 midnight assassins of Ireland are all good Catholics. And many a chapel and church 
 in our own land has amongst its seemingly most religious worshippers, men who are 
 cruel, hard, fraudulent, impure — " saints at the prayer-meeting and sacrament, but very 
 devils at home." 
 
 IV. They may be even opposed to one another. Not merely separate, but 
 antagonistic. Yes, religion, which was designed to minister to righteousness, may not 
 only be severed from it, but be actually found undermining it, sapping its very life and 
 strength. Thus : 1. By begetting false confidence. (Cf. ver. 4.) The Jews thought that 
 all this religion must guarantee them immunity from the Divine displeasure, must ensure 
 them his saleguard and protection. He, so they thought, could never suffer harm to come 
 to his own temple — " the temple of the Lord." And still it is hard to persuade our hearts 
 that all our religion goes for nothing, and worse than nothing, when it brings forth no 
 fruit of righteousness. So many prayers, such liberal gifts, such good desires, such 
 correctness of creed and of outward demeanour, such devotional fervour, — surely these 
 things must propitiate Heaven, must ward off the Divine displeasure ! (Cf. G. Eliot's 
 character, Bulstrode, the fraudulent but very religious banker, in ' Middlemarch.') 2. By 
 teaching men truths which they can readily wrest to evil. (Cf. ver. 10.) The meaning 
 (see Exposition) is not " We cannot help ourselves ; God has given us over to sin ; " but 
 " We are delivered by our religious observances — .'lacriflces and the like; thescore is cleared 
 off; we are secured against harm ; we may go and live as we list." Thus they " turned 
 the grace of God into lasciviousness," and " continued in sin that," etc. And is not this 
 
196 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEEEMIAH. [en. vn. 1—34. 
 
 done still? It is to be feared that not a few snok a poisonous pleasure from the blessed 
 doctrine of the forgiving love of Gud. Thus the gospel itself may become a " savour of 
 death unto death " to those who thus " make Christ the Minister of sin." And because 
 religion has been seen so often severed from righteousness, and sometimes even minister- 
 ing to unrighteousness, many have been and are eager to sweep it away altogether as a 
 hindrance rather than a help to moral well-being. A highly educated German gentle- 
 man, whom the writer met abroad, expressed it as his strong and deliberate conviction 
 that the religiousness and the decay of a people stand related as cause and effect. He 
 argued that England must sink because her leading statCbman was an eminently reli- 
 gious man. And were religion necessarily or generally severed from righteousness, still 
 more if it were necessarily or generally opposed to righteousness, then it would deserve 
 the denunciation of all right-minded men, and the sooner it were swept utterly out of the 
 way the better. But all we can say is that if riLjhteousness be not found in company 
 with religion, it is to be found nowhere else ; and if the Church of God, the great com- 
 pany of those who profess to be actuated by religious motives and aims, do not furnish 
 and nurture God-like and righteous souls, then there is no other company on the face of 
 the earth that does so. Bad as the Church may be, the world is far worse. 
 
 V. What,, then, is oue duty ? Not to inveigh against religion, still less to seek its 
 destruction, but to do all we can to restore the original and God-de.signed relationship 
 between it and righteousness. " What God hath joined together, let," etc. And it i? 
 on this restoration of right relationship between the two that God so strenuously and 
 sternly insists here and throughout his Word. If (ver. 3) they will amend their ways, 
 then his blessing ; but if not, he will have no mercy. He cites the instance of Shiloh 
 as a solemn warning to them (ver. 14). He forbids Jeremiah even to pray for them 
 whilst they continue as they are (ver. 16). He pours his contempt upon all their 
 religion, their burnt offerings, and sacrifices (ver. 21), whilst severed from righteousness. 
 He tells them that all along in their history, i'rom the first until now, he had asked 
 for, though he had never received it from them, not religion merely, but righteousness — ■ 
 obedience to his Word (vers. 21 — 28). Instead of that they had committed all abomi- 
 nation, and therefore they should miserably perish (vers. 29 — 34). How dreadful, then, 
 must he the separMtion, and yet more the antagonism, between these whom God united ! 
 As he gave Eve to be a help-meet to Adam, so did he give religion to be the help-meet 
 of ri:j:hteousness. Let us tremble with a holy fear if we find ourselves able to go on 
 contentedly in religious observances, whilst conscience becomes less and less sensitive, 
 and our love and loyalty to righteousness grow feebler day by day. Our subject shows 
 us that such a disastrous condition is possible. But that we may escape it, let us 
 resolve that, inasmuch as God has given us religion forour help — a help which our blessed 
 Lord himself ever made use of — 
 
 " Cold mountains and the midnight air 
 Witnessed the fervour of his prayer ; " 
 
 — we will know the possibilities of help towards holiness which undoubtedly it contains. 
 Let us set ourselves to seek the " baptism of the Holy Ghost " and " the enduements of 
 power " which come therefrom; If we do thus set ourselves to seek these, they shall 
 be ours, for they are most certainly promised ; so shall religion and righteousness abide 
 iu that most intimate and hallowed union which God from the first designed for them 
 and our righteousness, ministered to by its God-given help-meet religion, shall far exceed 
 that of the scribes and Pharisees, yea, shall advance ever nearer to that most crlorious 
 attainment, in which we shall be as our Saviour bid us be — "perfect, as our Father in 
 heaven is perfect." — C. 
 
 Ver. 3.- — The indispensable condition of all grace. " Amend' your ways," etc. See 
 how this demand for amendment is reiterated in this chapter and throughout this 
 prophecy. And we observe — 
 
 1. It is ever so. 1. See the Word of Ood. The prodigal had lo come away from 
 the far country first. John the Baptist, our Lord, and his apostles all preached repent- 
 ance before pardon. The Law comes before the gospel. 2. Conscience confirms th,e 
 justice of this demand. We feel it to he a monstrous thing that, without any turninir 
 from sin even in purpose, there should be an expectation of God's grace. 3. Men make 
 
OH. VII. 1—34.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, 197 
 
 this same demand of those who rebel against their laws. 4. God's providence upholds 
 this demand. The O'institution of things is for the obedient and against the trans- 
 gressor (cf. Butler's ' Analogy '). 
 
 II. And the reasons abb becattse sin : 1. Outrages Ood. What order or happi- 
 ness can there be in that household where the authority of the head is openly set at 
 naught? 2. Js dog;/ed hy sorrow and death. The avenging deities were said to bo 
 shod with wool, so that their footsteps, ever following the transgressor, were not heard. 
 It was the vision of sin and its awful issues that caused Jesus to sigh, to be troubled in 
 spirit, and to weep ; it was his agony. Now, God would save us, but cannot until we 
 have done with wickedness. 3. Minds the soul to enmity against God. Deeds of 
 wrong are the devil's sacraments, whereby he seals on the soul his own impress and 
 pledges the soul to serve him. Every solitary act of sin deepens that impress and 
 makes that pledge more irrevocable. Therefore, if the soul is to be saved, that bond 
 must be broken. 4. Amendment in conduct is the first step towards the restoration of 
 the soul. A man may break off ill-doing, and yet his heart be very far from right witii 
 <3rod. Still, because every victory over sin strengthens the conscience and weakens 
 the power of sin, its hold is thus loosened upon the soul, and the work of restoration 
 is so far advanced. 
 
 III. But compliance with this most eighteous demand is : 1. Often very difficult. 
 Ask the drunkard, the impure, the worldling, the gambler, if they find it easy to 
 break away from their besetting sins. How like a set nf fiends they clamour for their 
 wonted indulgence ! " Hoc opus hie labor est." 2. But never impossible. No ; for 
 along with every Divine command goes forth the strength needed for obedience. How 
 absurd, on mere human principles, for our Lord to bid the man with the withered hand 
 to stretch it forth ; the palsied to rise, take up his bed, and walk ; and Lazarus to come 
 forth from his tomb ! But all these facts are recorded to encourage those who would 
 tura to the Lord, but jet "are sore let and hindered." We often ask— 
 
 " Oh, how shall feeble flesh and blood 
 Burst tlirough the bonds of sin ? 
 The holy kingdom of our God, 
 What soul shall enter in ? " 
 
 And there could be but one sad answer were it not that he who gives the command 
 gives also the needed help. Yes — 
 
 " There is a way for man to riae 
 To that sublime abode ; 
 An offering and a sacrifice, 
 A Holy Spirit's energies. 
 An Advocate with God." 
 
 3. And ever Uessed. (Cf. vers. 3, 7.) All those precious sentences with which the ser- 
 mon on the mount opens, and which we call the Beatitudes, were addressed to those who 
 had resolved, by God's grace, to amend their ways. Christ has no other word tor 
 them than that they are blessed, and what his Word affirms all they who have followed 
 his leading do with grateful heart confirm. Yes, " blessed are they that do his com- 
 mandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through 
 the gates into the city." 4. But if refused, is awfully avenged. Too often it is 
 refused. It was so here. All manner of excuse attempted, and though these " lying 
 words" (ver. 4) were and are exposed agaiu, the refusal is persisted in, and then " the 
 wrath of God arises, and there is no remedy." " From all such hardness of heart and 
 contempt of thy holy Word and commandment, good Lord, deliver us." — C. 
 
 Ver. 4. — How men deceive themselves. " The temple of the Lord, the temple of the 
 Lord," etc. The people of Jerusalem were flattering themselves that no harm would 
 come to them because of the presence in their midst of the temple of the Lord. And 
 men flatter themselves in like' manner still. Now let us — 
 
 I. Consider their argument. God had said, " In this house will I dwell." They 
 knew that, and hence it seemed impossible that it should be devastated by the heathen. 
 It was the place of which he had said, " There ' mine honour dwelleth.' " The cloud of 
 
193 ■ THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. vn. 1—34. 
 
 glory had filled it, the Shechinah hrightness rested on the mercy-seat. "Was it to be 
 imagined that he who of old had smitten with death those who presumed even to look 
 into or to touch the ark of God, who had smitten monarchs with leprosy for lack of 
 due respect to it, would now suffer the bands of the idolaters to lay waste his sanc- 
 tuary, in which it was enshrined? Moreover, once and again salvation for Israel had 
 gone forth from the temple of Gfod, deliverance and victory had there been won. The 
 prophetic prayer of Solomon who had built it told of mercy and help that should 
 surely come to Israel through that temple. Thus ancient teachings, glorious events, 
 the manifested presence of (iod, many promises in connection with the temple of the 
 Lord, all combined to lead men to look upon it with an undue trust, and to believe 
 that, so long as it reared its sacred front in their midst, it would prove as a palladium, 
 a shield and defence for them all. Therefore they met all Jereminh's warninas, and all 
 misgivings of their own consciences, by the oft-repeated cry, " The temple of the Lord, 
 the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, are these ! " And that which answers 
 in our day to the Jewish trust in these " lying words," as Jeremiah terms them, is the 
 confidence that is placed in the Church, her sacraments and ministers ; or in past reli- 
 gious experiences, or in present moods of feeling ; and yet more in the endorsement of our 
 religious profession by our acceptance into the Church's fellowship and our admission 
 •to her ordinances. Such answer now to the " lying words " Jeremiah denounced then. 
 But note — . 
 
 II. What of worth there is in this ahoument. There can be no doubt that the 
 tares owe a great deal, owe everything in fact, to the wheat amongst which they have 
 been sown. But for the wheat, they would have been plucked up long ago. And God's 
 dealings with men had so often confirmed what our Lord's parable teaches, that the 
 tares had come to congratulate themselves that they had no cause for fear. For ten 
 righteous men Sodom would have been spared. For Moses' sake all Israel had been 
 borne with, when but for his intercession God's righteous anger would have swept them 
 away. The descendants of David had cause many times, to bless themselves that, 
 though so unlike their great ancestor in obedience to God, they were yet of his house 
 and lineage. " For the elect's sake," said our Lord, " those days " — days of Jerusalem's 
 final doom — " shall be shorteneii." And so here in the text, the people of Jerusalem 
 could not but know that they were wicked in the extreme ; but because they, though 
 tares, were blessed with the presence of what they thought God counted as wheat — the 
 temple and all its hallowed associations — they laughed at the idea of any great calamity 
 coming upon them. And in the present-day parallels to that old trust in "lying 
 words," what of worth there was in those words then, there is in the like of them now. 
 The Church, with all its hallowed associations, is God's wheat, or rather, does assuredly 
 contain all there is of it. For what manner of definition of the Church of God will 
 any one presume to lay down other than this, that it consists of all the good ? Broader it 
 is not ; but so broad it is. The presence, therefore, of the godly in any community is a 
 guarantee of good to that community. " Ye are the salt of the earth," said our Lord. 
 But for his Church the world would rot. Let any who sneer and persecute Christ's 
 servants, whether in school, work-room, ofBce, shop, or where else — and such persecu- 
 tion is common enough — let them remember that, but for such as those on whom they 
 are pleased to pour their contempt, their own career would be cut very short indeed. 
 If, then, the temple of the Lord, to which the Jews were trusting, was as the wheat, 
 then the wicked people who were looking to it for safety were in the right, and their 
 words were not lying words. 
 
 III. Its worthlessness NOTWiTHSTANDiNa In all those instances in which the 
 tares had been spared for the sake of the wheat, there had been two conditions ful- 
 filled. It had been really wheat which sheltered the tares, and there had been suffix 
 ciency of it. There was not enough of it when the Deluge came, nor when Sodom was 
 destroyed ; and so, in like manner, should ever the wheat fall short, it will go ill with 
 the tares then. But did the temple and its ritual and its associations fulfil either of 
 these conditions? No doubt the mere structure, her very stones, had worth in God's 
 sight. Just as, for the sake of the dearly beloved soul that once has dwelt within that 
 now lifeless corpse, we hang over it with tenderest fondness, and would not put it 
 away from us were we not compelled ; so, because of the true worship that had 
 gone up from that temiJe, and because of the many saintly men wha there had 
 
CH. vn. 1— C4.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, 199 
 
 drawn near to Grod, that material shrine had a certain value and would not lightly he 
 allowed to perish. But if there were preciousness in the temple, there was not sufli- 
 ciency of it to outweigh or to cover over the iniquities which surged around it, yea, 
 invaded its very courts, and of which it was made the unwilling occasion. Instead 
 of being a psiUadium, or any sort of guarantee of safety to that godless nation, its 
 towers and courts, its altars and ever-ascending sacrifices, were ever calling down ven- 
 geance upon those who so shamefidly used them. And, indeed, it could hardly be 
 said to be as God's Avheat at all. The temple had often been the vehicle of that " wor- 
 ship in spirit and in truth " which alone God desires, and for the sake of such worship 
 it had a relative preciousness. But let that worship cease — as it had long ceased — then 
 the temple became as a mere corpse, beautiful, tenderly loved indeed, but still cor- 
 ruptible, corrupting and spreading corruption, and therefore demanding to be put out of 
 the way. Now apply all this to the false truths of our own day. Will the Church, 
 her sacraments, her ordinances, your membership with her, your frequent moods of 
 religious feeling, your current creed, your loud profession of attachment to her, your 
 manifold religious privileges, — will any or all of these things, precious though they every 
 one of them be, compensate for that surrender of your true self to God which is his 
 perpetual desire and demand? Will they not rather, as did the presence of the temple 
 and their innumerable privileges for the Jews, heighten your guilt, and make more glaring 
 your sin, because they show that you have been amongst those " to whom much has 
 ■been given," and of whom, therefore, " much will be required " ? No worship, however 
 magnificent, costly, constant ; however hallowed by association, or authorized by vener- 
 able usage, or sanctioned by the holiest of the Church of God, or even owned by God 
 as the means of uplifting many hearts heavenward and Godward; if such worship be 
 wanting, as, alas ! it may be, in the all-essential element, the " worship in spirit 
 and in truth ; " if there be no outgoings of the heart in it all, as too often there is not, — 
 then it will prove no shield from but a provocative to that holy wrath of God which 
 sooner or later awaits every godless soul. 
 
 IV. The very serious suggestions it offers. 1. The utter hatefulness of sin. 
 (1) It turned the very temple of the Lord and its sacrifices, which had been designed 
 to be "a savour of life unto life" to those who by means of them drew nigh to God, 
 into " a savour of death unto death." And so still, even Christ the Bock, the sure 
 Foundation, becomes by this wresting power of sin a crushing stone which, falling on 
 the head of the sinner, grinds him to powder. (2) It drags down the innocent with 
 the guilty. That temple of the Lord, the holy and beautiful house, what had that 
 done? Had it not deserved all honour and love from those amid whom it stood? 
 And now the sin of the people was to overwhelm her in utter and irretrievable ruin. 
 The man whose wickedness pulls down innocent and loving wife and children, and 
 drags them in the mire which he has chosen to wallow in, as we see their misery, how 
 odious his sin appears ! And this is ever one of sin's works. It drags in and down the 
 innocent, the pure, the beloved. Behold those blackened ruins, those polluted altars, 
 those blood-stained courts, and see a parable of sin. 2. The testimony that these refuges 
 of lies, such as that in which the Jews trusted, do surely give of our need of a real 
 refuge, a true defence. Men who deny the Saviour most are yet ever confessing that 
 they and all men do need a Saviour. They who would not trust in God trusted in 
 the mere material temple, 3. To what are we trusting ? In " lying words " — which 
 God forbid ! — or — which may God grant ! — in those words of the Lord Jesus, which are 
 able to make us wise unto salvation ? — C. 
 
 Vers. 5 — 16. — Strange church-goers. I. Look at them as Jeremiah saw them. 
 Thieves (vers. 6, 9),' most cruel oppressors, murderers, adulterers, etc. Yet they were 
 all going into the temple to worship the Lord. Strange church-goers indeed. 
 
 II. Ask if there be ant such now ? What if some angel of God, unseen by us, 
 were to mark on the foreheads of all who enter our churches now their true characters 
 in the sight of God : would there be no fraudulent, no oppressors of the poor, none 
 whose hearts, though not their hands, are chargeable with having shed innocent blood? 
 Let us each one ask, " What name would be put upon me ? " 
 
 III. Inquieb what possible motives can actuate them. 1. With some, no doubt, 
 it is a cloke to cover up their real character. 2. Or a tribute paid to the demands of 
 
200 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. vn. 1— 34. 
 
 fashion, custom, society. What would be thought of them if they did not go to 
 church ? 3. Or a method of quieting conscience. They come away and think they 
 have wiped off the score that was against them. They say (ver. 10), " We are dehvered 
 [see Exposition] to do," etc. 4. Or to set an example to those they are pleased to call 
 " the lower orders ; " lilte the philosophers of old, who, whilst they held all religions 
 to be equally false, yet regarded them all as indispensably useful. 5. Or as a means 
 — for so many regarded such things— of propitiating the Divine favour and securing a 
 title to heaven by-and-by. But .there is no end to the motives which lead such men 
 to do that which, to more honest-hearted people, appears a mockery, an absurdity, and 
 yet worse. 
 
 IV. Listen to the Lord's woed to such. He tells them : 1. They were getting no 
 good whatsoever from such worship (ver. 3). 2. They were completely deceiving 
 themselves (ver. 4). 3. They were neglecting that amendment of their ways whicli 
 would save them (ver. 5). 4. They were grossly insulting God (vers. 10, 11). 5. They 
 were blind to notorious facts : e.g. Shiloh (ver. 12) ; Bphraim (ver. 15). 6. Thorough 
 reformation was alone the way of life for them (vers. 3, 7). " Be not deceived ; Q-od is 
 not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth 
 to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption ; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of 
 the Spirit reap life everlasting." — C. 
 
 Vers. 9 — 11. — Sacrilege. I. What do wb generally tjndeestahd bt this word ? 
 1. Some use it of disregard of ritual. 2. Others of secular employment of sacred places 
 or things. 3. Others of those persons whom they regard as unauthorized presuming to 
 minister in holy things. 4. Others of robbing churches, etc. But without discussing 
 these, let us note — ■ 
 
 II. What God counts as sackileob. It is declared here (ver. 11). It is when men 
 turn the Church of God into a den of robbers. Our Lord charged this upon the 
 religionists of his day. Jeremiah charges it, in God's Name, upon those to whom he 
 was sent. Costly, splendid, correct, continual worship was duly carried on. Irre- 
 verence — and how much less sacrilege! — would seem to be a charge utterly unfit for 
 tnose who worshipped in such manner. And yet, though the word be not here used, 
 the thing itself is emphatically told of as the very crime which these people were 
 flagrantly guilty of Turning God's house, which was called by his Name, into a den of 
 robbers, — if that be not sacrilege, what else is? They robbed one another (vers. 5, 6). 
 They robbed God. And the temple was their haunt, as their den is the robbers' haunt; 
 and there they found rest, and prepared themselves for farther crime (ver. 10), as does 
 the robber in his den. It is an awful indictment. But under one or other of the 
 counts of such indictment they are assuredly chargeable who frequent the house of 
 God, not for the high and holy purposes for which the worship of God was designed, 
 but that, as in ver. 10, they may get peace of mind in regard to their past sins and so 
 be free to go and sin ajain. " With such usase the temple is not a place of salvation, 
 but a refuse fOr robbers, where they purify themselves from the blood of their evil 
 deeds, so as to be the readier for new ones." Therefore all they who " make Christ 
 a Minister of sin," who, instead of deliverance from siu, get comfort in it by their 
 religious observances, who shelter themselves from all fear of God's anger and silence 
 the warnings of conscience by " coming and standing before God in his house which 
 is called by his Name," though their ohi;ject be only "to be delivered to do all these 
 aborainatiiins," and not at all to be saved irora them, — these are the sacrilegious, and 
 their profanaiion of holy things is the worst of all. 
 
 III. Think 01' the results op such SACErLKGE. 1. How God is dishonoured! 
 2. How his service is made hateful in the eyes of men I What a stumbling-block it is 
 to those who would turn to God ! 3. How it hardens the man's own soul ! 4. How 
 it necessitates the judgment of God ! 
 
 IV. What should suoh a subject teach us? Surely, when in the house of God, 
 to pray that if any have come there in sacrilegious manner, God's Spirit, the Lord of 
 the temple, may meet with them and turn them from their evil way. Should we not 
 also search and see if there be any such evil way in ourselves ? And let our prayer be 
 imto him who when on earth drove i'orth with scourges the "robbers" whom he found 
 in the temple, that he would be pleased, by the scourge of bis Spirit and his Word, to 
 
CH. VII. 1—34.] THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, 201 
 
 drive forth from all in his house now all in them that would roh him of his glory and 
 their souls of eternal life. — 0. 
 
 Vers. 12 — 16. — Warning voices. I. Sttch voices are perpetually heard. The 
 prophet speaks of three such here. 1. Shiloh (ver. 12). 2. The Lord himself (ver. 13). 
 3. Bphraim (ver. 15). 
 
 II. And THEY TELli EVBR THE SAME TRHTHg. 1. The Divine anger against sin 
 (ver. 12). 2. The utter uselessness of their "trust in lying words" to escape that 
 anger (ver. 14). 3. The absolute need of repentance. 
 
 III. And MEET, ALL TOO OFTEN, WITH THE SAME RECEPTION. They Were rejected, 
 " Ye heard not ; and I called you," etc. (ver. 13). 
 
 IV. But are vindicated in like awful manner. 1. By their sin becoming 
 ineradicable, so that they are given over to a reprobate mind, and are " guilty of an 
 eternal sin " (cf. Mark iii. 29). Hence (ver. 16) the prophet is forbidden to pray 
 for them (cf. 1 John v. 16). 2. By the judgment of God falling upon them (ver. 15). 
 
 Conclusion. 1. Watch and pray against unbelief in these warnings. 2. Take 
 heed to them yourselves. 3. Hold them up to others. 4. Bless God for them. — C. 
 
 Vers. 12 — 14. — Shiloh, or the God-forsaken shrine. It is to many minds impossible 
 to avoid a feeling of deep sadness when we look upon the ruins, noble even in their 
 desolation, of some fonner beautiful and august sanctuary of God. There are many 
 such scattered over this and other lands : Tintern, Furness, Melrose, etc. Our 
 imagination pictures them when in the zenith of their glory, with their many stately 
 towers and tapering spires, their long-drawn aisles and lofty roofs, the glorious vista 
 of high-arched nave and choir and glittering sanctuaries stretching away further still 
 in the dim distance, the gleaming altars,, the magnificent service, the vast throng of 
 kneeling worshippers, the soul-enchanting music, and the murmur of myriad prayers. 
 The memories of saintly men and women who have worshipped and are buried there 
 crowd upon the mind, and we wistfully wonder where and why that consecrated genius 
 has flown which had power to rear for God shrines so glorious as those whose ruins 
 we are beholding must once have been. It is sad to think of such glory and beauty 
 as these forsaken shrines once had gone for ever. The Jews who came back from the 
 Captivity wept when they thought of the glory of the ancient temple, which they 
 never more might see. But if the departure of material glory may cause sadness to 
 the mind, how much more the departure of that which is spiritual 1 If we mourn that 
 we shall no more have the presence of some fair temple of the Lord, how much more 
 when we lose the Lord of the temple I And it is such sadder loss that Shiloh, the 
 God-forsaken shrine, has to tell of. And we observe upon it that — 
 
 I. There are few more mournful histories than that op Shiloh. Shiloh was 
 one of the earliest and most sacred of the Hebrew sanctuaries. There for full three 
 hundred years the ark of God remained and the priests of the Lord ministered. As 
 soon as the promised land was mainly subdued, Joshua brought the ark of God from 
 Gilgal, near the Jordan, to Shiloh. The place was probably chosen for its seclusion 
 and hence its safety, it being off the great highways of the land. Bethel, which other- 
 wise might have been chosen as especially sacred, was yet in the hands of the 
 Canaanites. Hence Shiloh, in the territory of the powerful tribe of Ephraira, and of 
 their great ancestor Joseph, a tribe which more and more had been coming to the front 
 amongst their brethren, was chosen for the sanctuary of the ark of God. There, as 
 afterwards at Jerusalem, " the tribes went up, the tribes of the Lord, imto the testi- 
 mony of Israel, to give thanks unto the Name of the Lord." What glad festivals ; what 
 gracious deliverances ; what Divine responses to their inquiring of the Lord ; what 
 holy memories of thronging worshippers, of accepted sacrifices, of saintly priests and 
 prophets who had dwelt there, were all associated with that shrine at Shiloh ! There 
 Eli ministered, and Hannah came to present her offerings, to pour out her prayers and 
 to pay her vows. There she brought Samuel, and there the Lord called him to his high 
 service as he ministered before him. All their truest and noblest life drew its inspi- 
 ration from the God who had placed his Name there, and whom there they went to 
 worship. But at length, under the rule of Eli, that welKmeaning but weak-willed high 
 priest, priesthood and people alike sank down into a state of moral and religious degra- 
 
202 THE BOOK OP THE PEOPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. vn. 1—34. 
 
 dation from which Eli was powerless to deliver them. His own sons led the way in 
 abominable wickedness, and became sons of Belial even beyond others. So low had 
 they fallen, that they had come to regard the ark of God as a kind of fetish, and hence 
 they carried it down to battle against the Philistines, thinking thereby to certainly 
 win the day. But the ark of God was taken, its besotted priests slain, and Eli, 
 hearing the dreadful tidings suddenly, died, a worn-out and broken-hearted old man. 
 Prom that hour, as the seventy-eighth psalm tells, God "forsook Shiloh, the tent 
 which he placed among men ; ... he refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not 
 the tribe of Ephraim." And it was all because, as the same psalm tells, Israel " tempted 
 and provoked the most high God, and kept not his testimonies : but turned back, and 
 dealt deceitfully like their fathers : they were turned aside like a deceitful bow. For 
 they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with 
 their graven images." Wherefore " he was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel." And 
 now, ages after, Jeremiah bids the people of his day go to Shiloh, and see what God did 
 to it for the wickedness of the people. They might trace out, perhaps, the foundations 
 of her ancient walls, and discover the vestiges of the former sanctuary ; but now no 
 altar bore the sacred fire, the smoke of no sacrifice ascended, no priest ministered, na 
 God gave answer, no song of the Lord went up ; the whole place was probably ravaged 
 and overthrown by the enemies of Israel, who had carried off their great treasure, 
 the ark of God. Weir might the wife of Phinehas, in the hour of her agony, call 
 her new-bom, . but now fatherless, and soon to be altogether her orphan, child, 
 I-chabod, for indeed the glory had departed, the ark of God was taken, and the Lord had 
 forsaken Shiloh. Oh, the sorrow, the shame, the unavailing remorse which would over- 
 whelm the faithless priesthood and the godless people, when they beheld that God- 
 abandoned shrine, and remembered wherefore this calamity had come upon them ! Yes, 
 this story is a sad one ; but it is most salutary also, and therefore we may well heed the 
 word of the Lord which says to us, " Go ye now unto my place which was in Shiloh, 
 where I set my Name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my 
 people Israel." But we observe — 
 
 II. That Shiloh has many parallels. Shiloh is not the only God-forsaken shrine 
 of which the Bible tells or of which we have had knowledge. No; there are all too 
 many like it. There was the temple of the Lord in Jeremiah's time. All its 
 splendour, its solemn ritual, its lavish sacrifices, its ever-burning altar fire, could not 
 save it. The stern sentence went forth against it, and it was burnt with fire and 
 laid in ashes on the ground. There was the temple which was afterwards built on the 
 return from Captivity, and which was so beautiful and adorned in the time of our Lord ; 
 concerning that, too, Jesus said, " Behold, your house is left unto you desolate ! " And 
 it was the same with many Churches, those " spiritual houses " which, after our Lord's 
 time and in his Name, were reared " for a habitation of God through the Spirit." The 
 Christian Church at Jerusalem. The honour of being the mother Church of Christendom 
 was taken from her and transferred to Antioch, and ultimately it was overwhelmed 
 altogether in the destruction that came on the city in which it was gathered. And 
 there were the Churches of Asia ; their " candlestick was removed out of its place," as 
 the Lord warned them would be the case, and now secular historians bear their testi- 
 mony to the truth of that warning word. Gibbon tells how " in the loss of Ephesus 
 the Christians deplored the fall of the first angel, the extinction of the first candlestick 
 of the Revelation; the desolation is complete; and the Temple of Diana or the Church 
 of Mary will equally elude the search of the curious traveller. The circus and the 
 three stately theatres of Laodicea are now peopled with wolves and foxes. Sardis is 
 reduced to a miserable village ; the god of Mahomet, without a rival or a son, is invoked 
 in the mosques of Thyatira and Pergamos; and the populousness of Smyrna is 
 supported by the foreign trade of Pranks and Armenians. Philadelphia alone has been 
 saved by prophecy or courage. At a distance from the sea, encompassed on all sides by 
 the Turks, her valiant citizens defended their religion and freedom above four score 
 years; and at length capitulated with the proudest of the Ottomans. Among the Greek 
 colonies and Churches of Asia, Philadelphia is still erect ; a column in a scene of ruins." 
 They have thus all disappeared, as Christian Churches almost utterly ; they are as Shiloh 
 and Jerusalem — their houses ill which they worshipped God lelt unto them desolate. 
 And there have been many other Churches since, and some nearer our own time and in 
 
OH. vn. 1—34.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 203 
 
 our own land. And many still, perhaps, need sorely the admonitory counsel to go to 
 Shiloh, and see what the Lord has done there. But noi in material edifices alone, nor 
 even in those gathered communities to which more properly the name of Churches 
 belongs, need we go to find instances of Grod-forsaken shrines. For inasmuch as we all 
 are " temples of the Holy Grhost," so St. Paul tells us, and our own experience confirms 
 his word, it is possible to find only too many illustrations of this same mournful fact. 
 Take the ever-memoi'able example and warning of the fallen apostle Judas. What a shrine 
 of the Holy Ghost he once was 1 How richly gifted 1 how gloriously endowed I He came 
 with the rest, saying, " Lord, even the devils are subject to us through thy Name." He 
 with the rest " ate and drank in Christ's presence, and in his Name did many wonderful 
 works." He enjoyed the fellowship of Christ, and by him was sent forth in his Name. 
 But behold him giving place to the devil, yielding his soul up to the demon of 
 covetousness and worldly ambition, and then acting as the guide to them who arrested 
 the Lord, betraying the Son of man with a kiss, and then, when too late he awoke to 
 see the madness and horror of what he had done, rushing forth to seek and find a 
 suicide's grave in the Aceldama, "the field of blood," purchased by the price of his 
 traitorous gain. And Ananias and Sapphira and IJemas and yet others, what are they 
 all but deplorable instances and names of these God-forsaken shrines? And have we 
 not known such ? Men who prayed, and worshipped, and taught, and preached, and then, 
 having denied the Lord who bought them, fell away, and found henceforth nothing but 
 "a fearful looking for of judgment" and of the "fiery indignation" of God destined 
 to be poured out on all such as they. Ah ! it is a sight which might well make angels 
 weep, and which drew forth the bitter tears of the Son of God himself. 
 
 HI. And in every case the cause of this foksaking of them by God was one 
 AND THE SAME. It was always " wickedness." Not any outward circumstance, not any 
 of those secondary causes which we are so apt to regard as the real cause. But this 
 which these verses so plainly declare. It was so even in those ruined edifices to which 
 we referred at the beginning of this homily. History will tell you how gross immo- 
 rality and horrible coiruption found a too-ready home in those fair fabrics which had 
 been reared for far other purposes and with far other desian. But " wickedness " 
 having made them its haunt and home, the people, roused to fierce wrath, rose up and 
 tore them down, and their grey, ivy-clad stones utter forth to this day such message as 
 that in our text. And in all those other instances to which we have pointed, whether 
 temples made with hands, whether Churches or individual men, it has ever been sin, sin, 
 which has wrought all this evil. And in that every-day fact of bodily death we have 
 the standing type of this terrible truth, " The wages of sin is death." That body once 
 so bright, so full of energy, so lit up with intelligence and love, so possessed too, it may 
 have been, with the Spirit of God, so fair, so lovely to look upon when life dwelt in it, 
 now in death, — what is it but a God-forsaken shrine, and hence doomed to return, " earth 
 to earth, dust to dust, and ashes to ashes " ? We are so accustomed to death that this 
 its solemn lesson we are ever forgetting or putting out of sight. 
 
 IV. But all these Shilohs hate a message feom God unto us, AccoBDiira to 
 WHAT WE AEE. - We every one of us are either examples of these forsaken ones, or 
 becoming so, or, blessed be God, still habitations for him through the Spirit. Now, if we 
 he already forsaken of God, then if this fact be — as surely it should be, and as we trust 
 it is — a matter of sore distress to us, then there is a gracious word to us if we be willing 
 to hear it. All of ns were once "temples of God." We can look back to the time 
 when none of the unclean spirits that now haunt and harm us so terribly had any home 
 in our souls ; when thoughts were pure, hands undefiled, and our lips unpolluted with 
 evil. Our fathers and mothers brought us to be baptized, or in other ways recognized 
 the blessed truth that we belonged to the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. And in our 
 childhood days we, as all children are, were members of the kingdom of heaven. But 
 what are we now ? God, it is dreadful to think of what some are now ! The 
 desolate ruins of once glorious Churches ; the lifeless bodies that we carry to the grave 
 are but faint types of what some of these God-forsaken ones have become. And can it 
 he that any are willing to continue so, and thus make it inevitable that God should 
 sweep you away into the hell of all corruption ? Oh no ; you cannot be willing that that 
 should be. Well, then, if you tremble at such doom, as well you may, listen: Ood will 
 re-enter his shrine, and make you once tvgain his temples. Yes, he will do that. He will 
 
204 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ce. vii. 1— 34. 
 
 "restore your souls and lead you in," etc. But first, as when Hezekiah cleansed the temple, 
 you must cast out the manifold uncleanness that is there. There must be a thorough 
 purging, a real repentance. God will not come back to a sin-inhabited and evil-loving 
 soul. You must "throughly amend your ways." This is indispensable. Seehow in.this 
 chapter and throughout his Word God insists upon this. And then, as the high priest 
 was wont to do, come bearing the blood of atonement into the presence of God ; come, 
 that is, pleading the Name of Jesus for acceptance and pardon and restoration, — and you 
 shall behold, in the shrine of your soul, the cloud of glory once again shining there and 
 the presence of God again manifested there. Thus come day by day, and you shall find 
 how Christ saves " to the uttermost all that," etc. But are you of those wiiom God is 
 now forsaking ? Is the dread process of crowding out God by the bringing into the shrine 
 of your heart those many things God hates and with which he will not abide, going on 
 in you? Ahl^that may be so. As others, so you were once the temple of the Holy 
 Ghost, and perhaps there came a day when more than ever you welcomed him as your 
 Ruler, because hfe had taken of the things of Christ and had shown them unto you. You 
 made your open confession and avowal of your desire to be ruled and governed by him ; 
 you pledged yourself by his help to be Christ's faithful servant always. And for a time 
 you were so : you were careful, conscientious ; you remembered your Lord's word, "Watch 
 and pray ;" you readily abandoned all that stood between you and the doing of his will ; 
 you walked with God. But a change has come over you. One by one you received into 
 your heart likings, and desires, and beliefs, and dispositions which were contrary to the 
 Spirit oi Christ. These suggestions you listened to, their counsels you obeyed. And 
 so the love of the world fastened on you, propensities and habits which war against the 
 soul took hold of you, and. now you, whose heart was once a shrine of God, will, if the 
 sad process I have spoken of goes on much longer, be forsaken of him altogether. Oh 
 that the consideration of the doom of Shiloh may fill us with a holy fear, and lead us 
 to such prayer as that which the well-known verse expresses !— - 
 
 " Search me, O Lord, and try my heart, 
 For thou that heart canst see. 
 And turn each cursed idol out 
 That dares to rival thee." 
 
 But some of you are to be congratulated that you are still temples of God, still 
 shrines of the Holy Ghost. Well, then, cherish his presence as the greatest joy of your 
 life. For " he is your life." You would not invite to meet and abide with a dear and 
 honoured earthly friend those with whom you well knew he had no sympathy nor they 
 with him, who were distasteful and hostile to him. You would not treat an earthly 
 friend so. Be careful, then, not so to treat the Spirit of God, who now dwells within you. 
 Be full of solicitude not to grieve him, yet more to do nought that would drive him from 
 you. " Walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." So shall God dwell in you and you 
 in God, and that more and more to your ever-increasing strength and purity and joy. 
 Thus though, as we have now done, you may go in devout thought to Shiloh, and 
 ■ behold what God has done there, yet you shall be able with thankful joy to know that 
 never, never shall you be as that God-forsaken shrine. — C. 
 
 Vers. 13 — 16. — The Divine long-suffering worn out. The above section brings before 
 us, as do many other Scriptures, this very certain and very serious truth of God's 
 patience being not only exhaustible, but exhausted. We observe — 
 
 I. The Divine long-suffeeing is a veky precious fact. Nations, Churches, indi- 
 viduals — have not we ourselves ? — have been examples of it. What have not all of us 
 owed to the fact that the Lord is long-suffering, and " willeth not the death of a sinner, 
 but rather that he should tarn," etc. ? But — 
 
 II. This truth has very often been much abused. 1. In men's thoughts; for they 
 have allowed themselves to pervert the truth of the " eternal hope," and to think that in 
 no way can the finite will of man exhaust the infinitude of mercy which there is 
 in God. 2. And in their words also they have so set forth the long-suffering of God 
 as to leave on men's minds the impression that it was practically infinite. We love 
 to sing such Tcrses as those which tell how 
 
OH.vn. 1— 34.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 205 
 
 . , , " None can measure out thy patience 
 By the span of human thought, 
 Kone can bound the tender mercies 
 Which thy holy Son hath wrought." 
 
 And there is a sense in which these words are most blessedly true, but it is undeniable 
 that such words are often pressed to a meaning which practically encourages the 
 sinner to go on in sin. 3. And yet more is this truth abused in deed. Those to whom 
 the prophet was writing had abused the long-sufifering of God (cf. the closing verses 
 of the Second Book of Chronicles). And how fearfully frequent is this abuse in the 
 present day! How many reckon securely on making their peace with God, and having 
 all the great, affairs of their souls fully settled for eternity, although they go on, day by 
 day and year by year, living in total disregard both of God and of his will. Therefore 
 it is necessary to insist with all urgency — 
 
 III. That, the lokg-suffeeing op God can be worn out. The above section of 
 this prophecy plainly declares this fact. And the fate of Jerusalem stands not alone 
 in evidence of this (cf. the story of the Deluge, and how long then the long-suffering 
 of God waited). Those who perished in the wilderness — how often were they warned! 
 And, indeed, it may be said that God never brings ruin upon nation. Church, or 
 individual soul without warning, repeated, plain, and urgent. But the fact that he 
 does seud such ruin proves that men may tempt God too far. 
 
 IV. And that which will exhaust the LONO-suFFERiNa OP God is clearly 
 SHOWN us. It is not the fact of sin, great sin, repeated sin, but it is when, as in the 
 case before us, sin has been persisted in in spite of every kind and degree of plainest 
 warning. ■ " He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck," etc. (Prov. xxix. 1). 
 Now, such was the conduct of those told of here. God had not merely let them know 
 of the peril of their conduct, but his loving solicitude for them had shown itself in the 
 most marked ways. Note expressions in ver. 13 : God not only spoke to them, but 
 like as " those who watch for the morning " rise up early, so God himself awoke early, 
 i.e. he chose the most favourable hours, the most probable means for gaining attention 
 to the truths which he, by his prophets, spoke to them. But it was all of no avail. 
 " Ye heard not ; ... ye answered not" (cf. ch. vi. 16, 17). Now, it is sin persisted in, 
 in spite of all such Divine solicitude so repeatedly manifested, that God will not pardon 
 (vers. 14, 15). It is an unpardonable sinj and like such sin its forgiveness is not even 
 to be prayed for (ver. 16, and cf. 1 John iv. 16). 
 
 V. Consider the reason of this refusal to forqitb. It is not because there is 
 not love sufficient in God to pardon, but because his love is so great, because he is 
 love. For God's love is not as that of too many earthly parents — a partial and unjust 
 tliino', loving one child at the expense of the others — but his love is for the children. 
 His whole family are the subjects of his incessant and tenderest solicitude. Now, if a 
 rebellious child come away from its rebellion, and have done with it, coming and 
 confessing, "Father, I have sinned," with what joy the Father welcomes such returning 
 one back ! And so do the angels of God. No harm, but only good, results. But if 
 there be no repentance, and the spirit of rebellion burns on in the heart of the child, 
 how, consistently with true regard for the welfare of the other and obedient children, 
 can the Father deal with that one as he does with these ? It would turn heaven into 
 hell, and make the Father's house, now the home of blessedness and the blessed, a scene 
 of eternal discord. It could not be. Now, it is because such despising of the long- 
 suffering of God destroys the hope of repentance, renders impossible the sighing of the 
 contrite heart, and renders certain the going on in rebellion, that therefore this sin 
 wears out the long-suffering of God and hath never- forgiveness. The very love of God 
 necessitates that he who is separate and alien in heart from the children of his love 
 should be separate and alien from them in every other respect as well. And therefore, 
 because it would be praying against the well-being of God's children, the prophet is 
 forbidden to pray for the forgiveness of this sin. It is the unpardonable sin, the sin 
 unto death, the sin against the Holy Ghost. 
 
 Conclusion. We learn what alone bars the mercy of Ood. Not this or that sin, 
 however great. Still less the circumstance of death. But this "despising the for- 
 bearance of God." What need, then, for us all to pray, " Keep back thy servant also 
 
206 THE BOOK OP THE PEOPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. vii. 1— 34, 
 
 from presumptuous sins ; let them not have dominion over nle : . . . I shall be inno- 
 cent from the great transgression "! — C. 
 
 Ver. 16. — Prohibited prayers. The text a distinct instance. "We remark — 
 I. Sdch prohibition of prater seems very strange. Are we not bidden " pray- 
 without ceasing," "in all things by prayer and supplication . . . make our requests 
 known unto God " ? Are we not promised, " Ask, and ye shall receive " ? Did not the 
 Lord say, " Men ought always to pray, and not to faint " ? And, in a case more nearly 
 resembling the one before us in the text, did not Samuel say to the rebellious people of 
 his day, " But God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for 
 you"? 
 
 IL It is nevertheless a fact. And this prohibition is repeated (ch. xi. 14; xiv. 11 ; 
 of. also Exod. xxxii. 10). 
 
 III. And we have what is similar now. There is no express command not to 
 pray for the reversal of the laws of nature. But yet we never do pray for such things. 
 David's servants wondered that when his child was dead he should altogether cease 
 from fasting and prayer; but he answered, "Wherefore should I fast? can 1 bring him 
 back again ? " (2 Sam. xii. 23). And even before death has actually taken place, when 
 there is no hope of life, we find it all but impossible to pray for such life. And so in 
 regard to what we know would be derogatory to the honour of God and his righteous- 
 ness ; we should never think of praying for aught like that. Or for what cannot be in 
 the nature of things. Now, in all these things it is as if we had been prohibited to 
 pray for them, seeing that we never do so pray. As children give over praying their 
 parents to do this or that when they see by the expression of their countenance that it 
 cannot be, and, on the contrary, when they see the faintest look of " yes," they urge 
 their request with a renewed importunity of clamour ; so is it in our prayers before 
 God. We must see the look of " yes " on the face of God in more or less degree, or our 
 prayers die down. But if it he seen, then they rise up, press on and forward with a 
 vigour unknown before. This is a law of all prayer. And in regard to prayer for such 
 as are told of in the text, it may be that Jeremiah was not expressly told in so many 
 words that he was not to pray for them, but it was borne in upon his mind that he 
 could not. And it is sadly possible that such conviction may bei borne in upon the 
 minds of God's people now concerning some reprobate ones. There comes over the 
 soul the deep feeling that such and such a one " is joined to his idols," and that you 
 can only " let him alone." The disciples of the Lord were bidden, when their message 
 was spurned, to cast off the dust of their feet as a testimony against them. Paul did 
 so with the hardened Jews. And such solemn conviction as to the utter godlessness of 
 any on the part of a company of God's people is that " binding on earth " which will 
 be ratified by, because it is but the result of, the " binding in heaven." They of whom 
 the Church feels deeply that " their sins are retained," those sins are retained. And so 
 through this solemn conviction, this despair of the soul's turning to God, prayer for 
 such ."ioul may become impossible. God has practically said concerning such to his 
 peo))le, " Pray not thou for this people, neither," etc. 
 
 IV. This is a fact of most momentous import to those whom it concerns. To be 
 given up by God's servants may be the tokeu that you are given up by God. Their 
 feeling about you may be — we do not say necessarily is, but may be — but the refleo- 
 tioa of God's. Happy are they who put ioy and gladness into the hearts of God's 
 servants, and for whom they with earnestness and strong faith can pray. But sad 
 is the outlook of those for whom those same servants of God feel they cannot pray. 
 Oh, pray that prayers for you may never be counted by God or by his people as 
 amongst prohibited prayers ! — 0. 
 
 Ver. 18. — Idolatrous worship loth a warning and a model. The text vividly por- 
 trays the worship rendered to the heathen goddess, whose sumptuous and licentious 
 worship had so fascinated those to whom the prophet wrote. 
 
 I. It is a warning. For it shows the deadly contagion of sin. Now, when the 
 head of the household goes after evil, he speedily draws in and down wife and children, 
 until the whole family is corrupted, and they become a household of wickedness. The 
 text reveals whole families ei .'^aged in the worship of idolatry, each member takin^' an 
 
CH. VII. 1—34.] THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 207 
 
 active and eager part. They become so many societies for the propagation of ungodli- 
 ness. In the sanctity or the sin of the parent the children are sure to share. In the 
 first, by the grace of God ; in the second, by the fatal force of a father's example. A 
 father can lift his children up to heaven or he can drag them down to hell, and some 
 do. See the text. 
 
 II. But it is a model also. In what we are here told, the heathen shame the 
 Church. Idolatrous worship may well put to the blush much of the worship of God. 
 For in the worship told of in the text, false and horrible as it was, nevertheless we see 
 much that we might well copy. 1. It was a worship that made all work. What a busy 
 hive of workers each household is seen to be ! But where is the counterpart of this in 
 the Church of Christ? A whole family eager and active for Christ — the father, the 
 mother, and all the children — would be a unique fact. How lazy, how indolent, is 
 the greater part of our religion I 2. The children were interested in it. We are heart- 
 broken that the great masses of our countrymen stand aloof from the worship of God. 
 Did we interest them in it when they were children? We had them all in our hands, 
 as we have their children now. Are our modes of worship, our representations of God's 
 truth, our methods of instruction, such as shall make them love God's worship when 
 they grow up? What would we not give to see our children so eager in God's worship 
 as were the children told of in the text in idol-worship? 3. Both sides of the house 
 were agreed on this great question. Husband and wife were of one mind, and each did 
 what they could to further it. It was the general rule. Is it so now in regard to God 
 and his service? Does the husband never hinder the wife? does the wife always help 
 the husband on the heavenward road ? 4. There was fit work for each, and each did 
 it. The children could gather sticks, the men kindle the fires, and the women, etc. 
 When will there arise in the Church some who will point out some fresh and wise 
 methods of enlisting all in her work ? We have now two or three regular plans in 
 operation; but if any be unfit or unwilling for them, as many are, there is nothing else 
 for them. What we need is what these idolaters in their sad worship seem to have 
 found — a work for every one, and every one at his work. But meanwhile let each one 
 who is standing in the vineyard idle, not because unwilling to work, but because no 
 one has hired him, no one has pointed him to the work for which he is really fit — and 
 there are many such — let him take his case to the Lord, and ask, " Lord, what wilt 
 thou have me to do ? " and he may rest assured, no matter whether he be little child or 
 grown-up man, an answer will come to him soon. — C. 
 
 Ver. 19. — The recoil of sin. I. The results op sin on others are terrible. 1. 
 What may not be their deadly influence upon those with whom the sinner comes in con- 
 tact ? How hereditary, how contagious, how virulent, the poison of sin I As no man liveth 
 unto himself, so also " no man dieth unto himself." If he die by reason of his sin, he 
 ever drags down others into the same doom. 2. And their results Godward. It is said 
 they " provoke him to anger ; " " God is angry with the wicked every day ; " " God is 
 slow to anger, and of great mercy." But still sin is "the abominable thing that he 
 hates." He will not tolerate it in his children, and hence, however severe the measures 
 necessary to separate it and them, those measures will be taken. "Our God is a 
 consuming fire." But — 
 
 II. The recoil of sin on the sinner himself is terrible also. It is described in 
 the text. 1. It provokes him to anger. It is not alone the Lord whose anger is aroused, 
 but the sinner's anger also is provoked. As he looks back on the folly, the utter 
 madness, of what he has done, how completely he has been deceived, what rage of 
 remorse fills his soul ! How he flogs himself with the lashings of his own self-upbraid- 
 ing 1 What epithets of anger and contempt does he heap upon his own head 1 He is 
 filfed with the fruit of his own ways. And another of these bitter fruits is : 2. Con- 
 fusion of face. He is ashamed, abashed, confounded, because of his sin. He is so 
 (1) liefore his own conscience. He cannot bear to think of himself. Prom the com- 
 panionship of his own thoughts he flees as from a haunting ghost. Like a sheeted spectre 
 conscience seems to be pointing at him with its dread finger, its stony eyes ever glaring 
 upon him, so that, turn which way he will, he cannot escape their gaze. He is ashamed. 
 of himself, covered with confusion of face before his own conscience. Oh, miserable, 
 miserable wretch that he is ! (2) Before God. He cannot pray. He shuns the throns 
 
208 THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. vn. 1—34. 
 
 of grace. His iniquities have so " taken hold of him " that he cannot " look up." All 
 joy, all confidence, all hope in God, have fled. He feels himself an outcast Irom the 
 Divine presence ; he would feel the eye of God upon him if he knelt down to pray, and 
 that he cannot bear. (3) Before man. He cannot for ever conceal his sin and folly, 
 and even when it is as yet undiscovered, he is conscious of this " confusion of face " in 
 the presence of others. And when at length the sin is discovered, oh, vphat agony of 
 shame and remorse then ! Death is chosen ratber than life, and men rush to the 
 suicide's grave as to a positive relief. " Anywhere, anywhere out of the world," which 
 has become aware of their sin! Oh, this awful recoil of sin! "I believe that if the 
 mental sufferings of such backsliders could be written and faithfully published, they 
 ■would astound you, and be a more horrible story to read than all the torments ol the 
 Inquisition. What racks a man is stretched upon who has been unfaithful to his 
 covenant with God ! "What fires have burned within the souls of those men who have 
 been untrue to Christ and his cause ! Wiiat dungeons, what grim and dark prisons 
 underground, have saints of God lain in who have gone aside into by-path meadows 
 instead of keeping to the King's highway ! He who sins must smart, especially if he 
 be a child of God, for the Lord hath said of his people, ' You only have 1 known of all 
 the people of the earth, therefore I will punish you for your iniquities.' Whoever may 
 go unchastised, a child of God never shall " (Spurgeon). 
 
 111. The alone cdee fob this cokfusion op face is the costeitb confession op 
 THAT WHICH HAS CAUSED IT. God's word is passed that such confession shall avail ; 
 but let not him who has gone back from God think that the return will be as easy as 
 the departure. It will not. David was never the same after his sin as he was before. 
 Oh, it is dreadful to think of this recoil of sin, and how it staggers and wounds and 
 weakens the soul for the whole life long. We slide back, gliding easily as over smooth 
 ice. Not so do we return. Still, let the return be ever so difficult, the Lord bids us 
 return, and he will heal all our backslidings. Oh, let us all go straight away to the 
 cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, for fear we should be backsliders ; for there is the surest 
 standing-ground, there our footsteps never slip! And if we have thus sinned, and sin's 
 recoil is now terribly felt by us, then still go to the same cross ; for our only hope of 
 healing is there, and there alone. 
 
 " Come, let us to the Lord our God 
 With contrite hearts return ; 
 Our God is gracious, nor will leave 
 The penitent to mourn." 
 
 c. 
 
 Ver. 20. — The innocent victims of sin. I. There are mant such. All forms of 
 life are mentioned here — human, animal, plant from the stateliest trees down to the 
 lowliest herb— and all shall suffer because of the sin of but a portion of them. How 
 many, even of men, were innocent ! and the young children — what had they done ? 
 Yet none were to escape, though it was but a portion of the men of the day who had 
 done such wrong. 
 
 II. Hence some sat, "The way of the Lord is not equal." But: 1. The 
 summing up of all life in one head, constituting it a corporate unity, giving a 
 sulidarite to all life, especially to all human life, is the Divine order. 2. And though 
 sin and soitow come by means of it, yet a far larger balance of good is produced by it. 
 What do we not owe to our all being members one of another? True, evil comes, but 
 good yet more. Were we all isolated, separated, independent, there would be no 
 guarantee for our good even then, but there would be certainty of infinite loss. If the 
 sins of the fathers are visited on the children unto the third and fourth generation, the 
 mercy of the Lord is unto thousands of generations " of them that love him and keep his 
 commandments" (Exod. xx. 6). 3. And though because of it "in Adam all died," yet 
 because of it also " in Christ shall all be made alive." This interlinking of one with 
 all and all with one is, therefore, a matter for great thankfulness, and, though attended 
 with present evils, not at all of complaint. 
 
 III. And THE thought of these innocent victims op SIN IS MOST SALUTARY. 
 
 1, It often holds hack from sin. This is one way in which God " out of the mouth of 
 babes and sucklings has ordained strength." How often fathers and mothers will, for 
 
CH VII. 1—34.] THE BOOK OP THE PllOPHET JEREMIAH. 209 
 
 the sake of their children, that they might not be harmed, keep back from sin, to 
 ■which but for such motive they might have yielded 1 2. It deepens repentance for sin. 
 (Of. 2 Sam. xxiv. 17.) 3. It makes sin mure hateful to us. What must that be which 
 destroys not us only, but our children, innocent of all sin? And it may be that the 
 thus furnishing of additional safeguards against sin, and of additional motives to 
 obedience, was one reason in the Divine mind for constituting us all " members one of 
 another." 
 
 IV. And the thought of the innocent Victim op sin, cub Lord Jesus, la the 
 MOST SALUTARY OF ALL. For he transforms us from victims into victors— victors over 
 the condemning, the attractive, the defiling, the enslaving power of sin. And it is as 
 we " look unto " him, as our souls habitually trust him to do all this for us, that we 
 cease to be victims of sin, and become victors over it. Let us give glory to him by 
 accepting his oflered grace. — 0. 
 
 Vers. 21 — 28. — The indispfnsdble condition of well-leing. This is laid down in 
 ver. 23 — obedience to God. It is the teaching of the entire Bible, of our Lord, the 
 ])ro|ihets, his apostles. The gospel is for this — to secure it more perfectly; and the 
 sacririces of the ancient Law were for the same reasim. But men have ever rebelled 
 against this. They were doing so in Jeremiah's time. They sougljt to make their 
 sacrifices and burnt ofl'erings a substitute for the obedience God commanded. Hence, 
 as Hezekiah was compelled to destroy the venerable relic, the brazen serpent, which, 
 intnnded as an aid to faith, had become the object of faith, so now Jeremiah was com- 
 pelled to speak slightingly of the appointed sacrifices and worship of the temple for the 
 very same reiison. Ver. 21 : he mocks at their repeated sacrifices, and (ver. 22) 
 declares that at first God never desired or commanded any such things — only that they 
 should obey his voice. He implies that they were afterwards given but as safeguards 
 and helps to their obedience, which, without them, could not be secured. 1'hat 
 obedience (ver. 23) he emphasizes as the one thing needful — the only thing fur which 
 God cared, but which they had persistently and, what was worse (ver. 26), increasingly 
 refused. So that now (ver. 27) they were fixed in their disobedience, and no words, 
 however divinely authorized, however earnestly urged, would have effect, and there 
 was nothing left but to declare (ver. 28) their utterly abandoned cliaracier and con- 
 dition. And the like conduct is seen still. Meu still are ever attempting to evade the 
 Divine rule of life. By reliance on sacraments, profession of religion, adherence to 
 orthodox creeds, resting in feelings and periods of religious excitement when their 
 emotional nature has been deeply stirred, — ^in almost anything rather than in that God 
 faith in whom is shown only by obedience to his will. And the habit of this grows, 
 and its results, as of old, become worse and worse, and all exhortation and warning 
 fall on deaf ears and hardened hearts, and men still become as those who " obey not the 
 voice," etc. (ver. 28). Let us remember that this is the subtle temptation of all ages, 
 all Churches, and all people ; and let us pray that God would write upon our hearts 
 the sure truth that the one only evidence of our having so " named the name of Christ " 
 as to be " in him " is our " departing from iniquity." — C. 
 
 Ver. 29 — ch. viii. 3. — The harvest of sin. I. We bead in other Soeiptukbs of " the 
 JOY OF harvest." Such shall be the joy of God's redeemed people when his purposes 
 of grace are fulfilled in and for them. It will ba a joy unspeakably glorious. 
 
 tl. But here we have portrayed another harvest — that of sin. Here there is 
 no joy, but bitter lamentation and weeping and woe (ver. 29). We are shown : 1. The 
 seed from which this harvest springs (ver. 30) — the doing evil in the sight of the Lord ; 
 setting their abominations in his house (ver. 30). 2. VVe see its growth — in open and 
 unblushing idolatry ; in the debasement of their nature. They had come to sacrifice 
 their own children to their idol-god, to snch horrible cruelty had they sunk down. 
 3. We see its harvest, (V) in death, widespread and terrible (vers. 32, 33) ; (2) in the flight 
 (if all joy and gladness (ver. 34) ; (3) in public and deep degradation (ch. viii. 1, 2) ; (4) in 
 utter despair (ch. viii. 3). 
 
 III. And though differing in outwAed circumstance, yet in substance and 
 reality the same harvest will ever spring from the same seed. 1. All evil- 
 doiity is such sted. And sheltering this under the cloak of religion, — this is the same 
 
 JEREMIAH. P 
 
210 THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. vii. 1—34. 
 
 seed. 2. And its growth will be in like manner. Progressive daring in sin; the 
 debasement of our nature. 3. And its harvest will be seen, (1) in widespread spiritual 
 death, and often in teirible death-beds; (2) in the loss of all joy and gladness; (3) in 
 degradation before men ; (4) in awful despair. 
 Conclusion. Eemember, " God is not mocked : whatsoever a man soweth," etc. — 0. 
 
 Ver. 4. — " Lying words." These were " lying words," as being used by false men for 
 a false purpose. Literally true, for it was " the temple of the Lord " that stood in the 
 midst of the land, and in the gate of which this message was delivered, — they were 
 false in spirit, for the deceitful prophets thought thus to make the sanctity of the 
 material structure a cover for the iniquities of the people — a charm to ward off their 
 threatened punishment. The cry was indicative of a hollow and rotten condition of 
 things throughout the entire system of social life. " The prophets prophesied falsely, 
 and the priests bore rule by their means, and the people loved to have it so " (ch. v. 
 31). We may take these words in three different lights, as reflecting — 
 
 I. The spieitual peide that leads men to think themselves the special 
 OBJECTS OP the Divine favoub. This was the characteristic vice of the Jewish people. 
 The distinctions God conferred on them — that they were separate among the nations 
 as " Abraham's seed " ami the chosen covenant people, that they had the temple of the 
 Lord among them — were made occasions for national vain-glory, instead of incentives 
 to holy character and noble deed. The same principle is illustrated whenever superior 
 enlightenment, knowledge of truth, spiritual gifts, personal sanctity, ecclesiastical 
 advantage, etc., lead in any way to self-exaltation. Nothing more unseemly than this. 
 Tf in any such sense " the temple of the Lord " is with us, it may be expected that the 
 hhadow of it will produce in us a solemn sense of responsibility. Special privilege 
 brings with it corresponding obligations. Whatever tokens of his favour God bestows 
 on us, their due effect is to lead us to walk with the greater self-forgettulness and 
 reverential fear before him. 
 
 II. The htpoceist that makes the " form or godliness " a substitute for its 
 " POWER." What availed it that the temple of the Lord stood among them, if the spirit 
 of devotion had departed? The sacred shrine in which they boasted was but a 
 mockery of their internal falseness. The essence of Pharisaism lies in this resting in 
 the out«ard and apparent, to the neglect of tlie inward, the spiritual, the real. None 
 so far from God as they who imagine that a mere round of external observances will 
 please him apart from the sincere homage of the sonl. " This people draweth nigh 
 unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips," etc. (Matt. xv. 8). 
 
 III. The self-deception that puts on the garb of a religious profession as a 
 CLOKE FOR SIN AND A SHIELD FROM ITS PENALTY. The people did wickedly, and then 
 went and stood before the Lord in the house called by his Name, and said, " We are 
 delivered" (ver. 10) — a striking illustration of the folly of those who dream that, so 
 long as they pay public homage to the sovereignty of God's claims, they may violate 
 his laws with impunity. It is a delusive di'eam that must have, sooner or later, a 
 dread awakening. The mere material temple, glorious as it may be, is no sanctuary 
 for a guilty conscience and a corrupt life. Simply to "lay hold on the horns of the 
 altar" will not save us from the Divine retributions, the Nemesis that tracks the foot- 
 steps of the transgressor. Merely to cry, "Lord, Lord!" will never avert from men 
 the sentence, " Depart from me, ye workers of iniquity " (Luke xiii. 25 — 27). — W. 
 
 Vers. 1 — 14. — The doom, of the temple. I. The message to those concerned cannot 
 be escaped. The message is to men who make their boast and confidence in the 
 temple. To be within temple reach seems to place them in a kind of fortress. Such 
 must evidently be met on their own ground. And thus the prophet is sent to the 
 temple gate. There, assuredly, all who took any deep interest in the temple would 
 be foimd. Jeremiah himself belonged to the priests, and there is no saying but what, 
 pruphet as he was, lie had to take an allotted iihare in the temple service. Possibly the 
 message may have been repeated on several occasions, and likeliest of all on those 
 occasions when the temple precincts were crowded with visitors. And when the 
 temple was destroyi d, would there not be many to remember that the threateninf of 
 debtruction was uttered in the very gates of it? Thus we see that there is no want of 
 
CH. VII. 1—34.] THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 2H 
 
 directness and closeness in dealing with the unfaithful; and no want of courage and 
 candour on the part of the man who was chosen to warn. 
 
 H. The message is to mistaken worshippers. To look round with pride and 
 say these buildings are the temple of God, was as the utterance of some first principle. 
 These worshiijpers, precise enough in outward forms, had a superstitious feeling that 
 whatever vicissitudes might come elsewhere, Jehovah would keep the place of worship 
 secure. The mistake lay in thinking that God valued the temple for itself. Yet it 
 had not been made by his commaud, in the same sense as the tabernacle had been ; 
 rather, it was accepted as a sign of David's deep religious feeling and Solomon's pious 
 regard for his lather's wishes. There is nothing to show that out of his own will God 
 would ever have commanded the erection of a temple. It was unseemly in the eyes 
 of David that he should be dwelling in a house of cedar, when the ark of God was 
 behind curtains. But this feeling had in it a certain barbaric element, a fondness for 
 outward pomp and display. It was the best that was in the king's heart, and so it 
 was accepted. He did what he could. But there was no inherent sacredness in the 
 temple, that it should be kept inviolate amid the wreck and defilement of everything 
 else. The people needed to be taught this truth in very plain language. The feeling 
 towards the building is made manifest in such a passage as Ezra iii. 11 — 13. In fact, 
 the more the people became alienated in heart from the God of the temple, the more 
 enthusiastic, fanatical even, they seem to have become with regard to the mere 
 building. 
 
 III. The WAT IN WHICH THE MISTAKE IS SOUGHT TO BE REMOVED. There is nO 
 
 heaping of scorn on the feeling of the people. Their feeling is rather made the occa- 
 sion of strengthening the hold of God's truth upon them. If they really value the 
 temple, they are shown the way by which they may keep it and dwell within it. 
 Jehovah shows very distinctly that in his eyes the true glory of Jerusalem is not the 
 temple, but the sort of people who dwell in the city. It is better to have a community 
 of the pious, the upright, the truly brotherly, dwelling in cottages, than to have whole 
 streets of splendid palaces, inhabited by luxurious, self-indulgent oppressors. Men, 
 hold in high esteem buildings, pictures, books, statues, great fruits of human intellect. 
 God looks at good actions ; little but significant kiLidnesses — the giving of the cup of 
 cold water, the visiting of the sick, and the feeding of the hungry. A community of 
 men, selfish to the core, will not be preserved for the sake of a splendid building ; but 
 that building may be preserved if a community of good men will be really pleased by 
 its preservation. The truth, however, is that a community, living such a life as God 
 here indicates should be chosen, would care very little about the pomps of a building. 
 They would prefer to spend their substance in satisfying pressing needs of men. Many 
 of the ecclesiastical buildings of to-day are inexcusably sumptuous. They are put up 
 to gratify the lust of the eye, and meanwhile the spiritual glories of the upper room 
 at Jerusalem and the Pentecostal miracle are quite forgotten. The publican, the 
 penitent after God's own heart: went up to the temple; but what were its material 
 splendours to him, as he stood, smiting his breast, and saying, " God be merciful to me 
 a sinner"? 
 
 IV. The MESSAGE is clinched by a closely FITTING EXAMPLE FROM HISTORY. 
 
 One instance is enough to prove a negative. The feeling in the hearts of the people is 
 that God will fence the temple site around, for the sake of the temple. But Sliiloh 
 is at once brought forward as a capital instance to the contrary. Evidently it still 
 remained in a ruined, neglected state, fur any one to go and see it. Lsrael knew what 
 Shiloh had been at the first, and they could see how different it was now. In reading 
 history, we are bound to profit by all of Divine warning that may appear in what wo 
 read. — Y. 
 
 Ver. 18. — The family joined in idolatry. I. Remember God's ideal op an 
 Israelite family. This is not set before us in any particular passage, but we can 
 gather it from different institutions and commandments. Religion not only concerned 
 the individual in his i-elation to the priest, the altar, and the holy of holies, and in his 
 general relations to his fellow-men; but there was a very special mention of institutions 
 and regulations which made the individual remember his position in the family. These 
 ii'Stitutions and regulations were as vital bonds, making the family into a true organic 
 
212 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. vii. 1—34. 
 
 unity. There were the dedication of the firstborn, and the institution concerninfr the 
 meaning of the Passover feast (Exod. xiii.). There was the command to honour father 
 and mother. So connected with the passage now under consideration, there was the 
 setting apart of the dough (Numb. xv.). A continual instruction and training in Divine 
 things" was to be provided for. A mother could have no greater honour than that her 
 children should rise up and call her blessed. Thus gathering together many passages 
 that might be cited, we see that God meant the family to be a great agent for the 
 advancement of his people in all that was good ; and the same family ideal comes out 
 with equal prominence and beauty in the New Testament. The natural family may, 
 80 far as Christ is concerned, count for much, if only each individual in the family will 
 live up to his opportunities. Still, Christ insists upon the natural family being subor- 
 dinate to the spiritual family. It is one of the illustrations of the great disintegrating 
 and reconstituting power of the gospel of Christ, that it breaks up the family which is 
 held by nothing stronger than natural bonds. The ideal family of the children of God, 
 those who are the spiritual and abiding Israel, must be gained at any cost. The 
 notion of a family gives one of the aspects in which Christians may be perfectly 
 associated together. 
 
 II. Look at the deqbaded position in which the Israelite family actually 
 WAS. The parents are confirmed idolaters, and are dragging down their children to 
 their own level. The children are sent out to gather fuel towards an idolatrous offer- 
 ing, when they should be learning of the nature, the will, and the promises of Jehovah. 
 A desecrated temple has been spoken of, turned into a den of robbers ; but what is that 
 compared with a desecrated family ? How insidiously, how gradually, how irresistibly, 
 these children are drawn into idolatry ! Gathering wood might be an interesting, 
 amusing occupation, more like play than work. What idea could the children have of 
 the awful insult to which this gathering would contribute ? They would grow up, as 
 by a second nature, to kindle fires and knead dough themselves. And it was so easy 
 to treat the child in its way, to tell it to go out and gather wood; far easier than to 
 bear patiently with its waywardness and inattention, and thus lead it on to some 
 understanding of Israel's glorious past. For such treatment meant that the parent 
 should be a learner also, he and his children moving onward together into an enjoy- 
 ment of the fulness of the Divine promises. And yet God had dune much for tliese 
 parents to make the teaching of his truth as easy as it could be made. He had given 
 things to be set before the cliildren's eyes at periodic intervals. But here, in this deep 
 and pleasing infection of idolatry, is an influence which seems to work successfully 
 against all that God can do. What could be hoped from rising up early and sending 
 the prophets, when there was all this counter-working in the Israelite home ? 
 
 III. Consider the possibility of still achieving the ideal. Much may be 
 done towards making even the natural family a holier and more edifying institution 
 than in most cases it is. The humiliating description here shows how much depends 
 upon the parents. How much there is still, even among families nominally Christian, 
 which is just as horrible in this way as this family idolatry among the Israelites of old? 
 Children are sedulously schooled into the worship of Mammon. Selfish and heedless 
 parents are eager to send them to work, when as yet they should know only the home, 
 the school, and the playground. Too often is the maxim reversed that the parents 
 should provide for the children. Christian parents, at all events, should hold then)- 
 selves bound by the most solemn . obligations to do all they can for the training of 
 their children in godliness. There is an ideal of parental duty, and that ideal is seen 
 in action when we look towaids the great Father in heaven. Assuredly there would be 
 more God-fearing children if there were more really God-fearing parents. But what can- 
 not be gained by looking up to human guidance and example, can be gained by looking; 
 to Gud. He gathers his children out of many human households, and gives them his 
 own Word to he an impulse and a guide. He puts into their hearts a love of tho 
 spiritual brotherhood, which is a deeper feeling than any that nature knows. And the 
 end of it all will be that his children will be perl'ectly joined together in one mind, in 
 the praise and service of him who alone is worthy to be praised and served by all. — Y. 
 
 Ver. 28. — Tlie inveterate disobedience of Israel. All along, from ver. 21, this is the 
 theme, viz. the disobedience of Israel. Now, to give full force tci a charge of disobedience 
 
CH. vin. 1—22.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 
 
 213 
 
 there must be the means of furnishing ample proofs that directions have first been 
 given — plain, earnest, and authoritative. And this is just what we fiud here. God 
 refers his people back over the long years in which, by divers agencies, he had laid 
 before them his righteous and beneficent will. What he commended was for his glory ; 
 for his glory because for his people's good; for his people's good because for his glory. 
 The present state and prospects of the people are very humiliating, but assuredly no 
 part of their humiliation can be laid to the charge of their God. The cloudy and tho 
 fiery pillar was but a symbol of most distinct guidance for the whole heart. The peoplis 
 were not suffered to wander for lack of ex|iostulation and warning. When a lad turns 
 out badly, criticizing speech is often directed against the parents, as if somehow thej/ 
 must be at fault. They may be at fault indeed, but there is no must in the matter. 
 Hasty criticism at such a time, from the very injustice of it, adds a cruel intensity 
 to the pain and disappointment already existing. But hasty criticism cannot be 
 silenced by merely deprecating it, and parents at such moments would do well to 
 remember that they stand in relations to their disobedient children not unlike those in 
 which, as is represented here, Jehovah stood towards Israel of old. The most loving 
 and watchful and patient of parents never did for his children near so much as Jehovah, 
 did for Israel. There was the instruction of their wonderful career, in which God had 
 moved so sublimely among them. There were the tea commandments, formulated so 
 distinctly, and set in such a grand historical frame. There were all the rites and 
 ceremonies filled with instructing power to those who would seek to understand them. 
 And there was also, accumulating generation after generation, the great mass of 
 ]irophetic truth. Man is what he is, not for want of light, but for want of disposition 
 to use and obey the light when it appears. There is an indisposition to attend to 
 truth and to fidelity in all duty, until at last the very feeling of what faithfulness 
 and ric;hteousness are vanishes from the breast. But still the excuse is attempted, 
 and persisted in with shameless impudence, that the word which professes to come from 
 God must have in it something defective, something that effectually prevents it from 
 being received. But it is only from the unrenewed mind that talk of this kind comes. 
 Those who have had their eyes opened to the truth of God soon begin to discern that 
 in that truth there is no lack of guidance, or inspiration, or comfort, or any good thing 
 which can uplift and satisfy the heart. And we may bo sure that God, who lias given 
 this immense and fruitful body of truth, has brought it nearer to the individual 
 conscience than the individual in his perversity will always acknowledge. Men are 
 indulged too much in the complaint that nobody has spoken to them about their souls. 
 A miserable egotism often lies at the bottom of such complaining. If they know by 
 any means whatever — and it matters not how slight the hint may be — that there is 
 something written for the obedience of all mankind and for their consequent advantage, 
 then these complainers are bound to attend to it. Men are not so foolish in the quest 
 of worldly gains. Then they will go upon the slightest hint, and follow it up discreetly 
 and warily. Why, then, should they be so foolish in the matter of spiritual gain? 
 Because " truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth." — Y. 
 
 EXPOSITION. 
 
 CHAPTEE Vni. 
 
 Vers. 1 — 3. — Punishment will even over- 
 take the sinners who have long since been 
 deceased. 
 
 Ver. 1. — They shall bring out the bones. 
 Not only shall many of the dead bodies 
 remain unburied, but the sepulchres of 
 those who have till now " lain in honour, 
 each one in his house " (Isa. xiv. 18), shall 
 be violated. The inhabitants of Jerusalem 
 meant are evidently those of the upper 
 clflss, for the others were buried, with but 
 little regard to the security of the corpses, 
 
 in the valley of Kedron (2 Kings xxiii. 6). 
 According to some, the motive of this inva- 
 sion of the chambers of the dead is avarice 
 (comp. Herod., i. 187, Darius at the tomb of 
 Nitocris); but the context, without excluding 
 this view, rather suggests malice and con- 
 tempt. Thus " the wrath of man " was to 
 " praise " Jehovah (Ps. Ixxvi. 10). 
 
 Ver. 2. — And they shall spread them, etc. 
 Not as an act of solemn mockery, for tho 
 agents are idolaters themselves, but God so 
 overrules the passions of his unconscious 
 instruments that no more effective cere- 
 monial could have been devised. Whom 
 
214 
 
 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [cii. viii. 1—22. 
 
 they have loved, etc. The prophet is 
 designedly diffuse in his description. With 
 till their misspent zeal, these unhappy 
 idolaters cannot even find tombs. 
 
 Ver. 3. — Which remain. The words are 
 certainly to be omitted in the stcond place 
 where they occur. In the Hebrew tliey 
 stand after in all the places, and the word 
 for " places " is feminine, whereas the parti- 
 ciple, " the remaining," is masculine. The 
 Septuagint and Peshito have nothing eorre- 
 Bponding. There ia a, clerical error in the 
 Hebrew. 
 
 Ver. 4 — ch. ix. 1. — The incorrigible 
 wickedness of the people, and the awfulness 
 of the judgment. 
 
 Ver. 4. — Moreover thou shalt Bay, etc.; 
 literally, and thou dialt say. The Section is 
 introduced by a formula which connects it 
 with ch. vii. 2, 28. ShaU they fall, etc. ? 
 rather, So men fall . . . doth a man turn 
 awayl One of those appeals to common 
 Bense in which the prophets delight. Who 
 ever sees a fallen man stay quietly on the 
 ground without attempting to rise? or a 
 man who has wandered out of the path 
 persist in going in the wrong direction ? 
 
 Ver. 5.— Slidden back . . . backsliding. 
 The verb is the same verb (in anotlier con- 
 ju^'ation) as in ver. 4, and the noun is a 
 derivative from it. The Authorized Ver- 
 sion, therefoie, has slightly weakened the 
 force of the argument. They hold fast deceit. 
 They cling to a false view of their relation 
 to their God (comp. ch. iv. 2 ; v. 2). 
 
 Ver. 6. — I hearkened and heard. The 
 Divine Judge condescends to speak after 
 the manner of men. He will be his own 
 witness ; for it is his own people, Jeshurun, 
 which is on its trial. Not aright. It is a 
 Cf'impouud expression, equivalent to " insin- 
 cerely," " untruly " (comp. Isa. xvi, 6). 
 Bepented . . . tamed ; rather, repenteth . . . 
 turneth (or, returneth). To his course. The 
 Hebrew text, sometimes represented as 
 having a different reading ("courses," in 
 the plural) from the margin, really gives 
 the same reading with one letter mis- 
 placed. The singular stands in the parallel 
 passage, oh. xxiii. 19, and offers no diffi- 
 culty. As the horse msheth ; literally, over- 
 Jloweth. Both the Auth(jrized Version and 
 the Vulgate (impetu vadena) efface the 
 second metaphor. The uncontrollable 
 passion of both people and war-horse is 
 compared to the all-subduing course of a 
 winter stream or torrent. 
 
 Ver. 7. — The appeal to the regularity of 
 animal instincts reminds us of Isa. i. 3. Yea, 
 the stork, etc. The migratory birds obey 
 their instinct with the most unfailing regu- 
 larity. Those referred to are : (1) the stork, 
 whose "regular and sudden return is one 
 of the most interesting natural sights of 
 
 Palestine. The expression 'stork in the 
 heavens' refers to the immense height at 
 which they fly during migration" (Tris- 
 tram); (2) the turtle, or turtle-dove, whnse 
 retnruis the sure sign of spring (Cant. ii. 11); 
 (3 and 4) the crane and the swallow, or 
 rather, "the swift and the crane." These 
 birds are again mentioned together in Isa. 
 xxxviii. 14 (the psalm of Hezekiah), where 
 special reference is made to the penetrating 
 quality of tlieir note. " The whooping or 
 trumpeting of the crane rings through the 
 nii;ht air in spring, and the vast flocks 
 which we noticed passing north near Beer- 
 sheba were a wonderful sight." The intro- 
 duction of the swallow in the Authorized 
 Version is misleading, as that bird is not a 
 regular migrant in Palestine. The note of 
 the swift is a shrill scream. "No bird is 
 more conspicuous by the suddenness of its 
 return than the swift," is the remark of 
 Canon Tristram, who saw large flocks pass- 
 ing northwards over Jerusalem, on the 12th 
 of February (' Nat. Hist, of Bible,' p. 208). 
 It is an interesting fact that the swift bears 
 the same name ^fus) in the vernacular Arabic 
 as in the Hebrew of Jeremiah. The judg- 
 ment ; better, the law (see on ch. v. 4). 
 
 Ver. 8. — How do ye say. We are wise ? 
 Jeremiah is evidently addressing the priests 
 and the prophets, whom he so constantly 
 described as among the chief causes of. 
 Judah's ruin (comp. ver. 10 ; oh. ii. 8, 26 ; 
 iv. 9 ; V. 31), and who, in Isaiah's day, 
 regarded it as an unwarrantable assumption 
 on the part of that prophet to pretend to 
 instruct them in their duty (Isa. xxviii. 9). 
 The law of the Lord is with ns. "Wiih 
 us ; " i.e. in our hands and mouths (comp. 
 Ps. 1. 16). The word tordh, commonly ren- 
 dered " Law," is ambiguous, and a difference 
 of opinion as to the meaning of this verse 
 is inevitable. Some think these self-styled 
 "wise" men reject Jeremiah's counsels on 
 the ground that they already have the 
 divinely given Law in a written form (comp. 
 Eom. ii. 17 — 20), and that the Divine revela- 
 tion is complete. Others that torah here, 
 as often elsewhere in the prophets (e.g. Isa. 
 i. 10 ; viii. 16 ; xlii. 4), simply means " in- 
 struction," or " direction," and describes the 
 authoritative counsel given orally by the 
 priests (Ueut. xvii. 11) and prophets to 
 those who consulted them on points of 
 ritual and practice respectively. Theusago 
 of Jeremiah himself favours the latter view 
 (see ch. ii. 8 ; xviii. 18 ; and especially xxvi. 
 4, 5, where "to walk in my Tord/i " is parallel 
 to " to hearken to the words of my servants 
 the prophets." The context equally points 
 in this direction. The most natural inter- 
 pretation, then, is this: The opponents of 
 Jeremiah bade him keep his exhortations to 
 himself, seeing that they themselves were 
 
CH. VIII. 1—22.] THE BOOK OF THE PUOPHET JEREMIAH. 
 
 215 
 
 ■wise and the divinely appointed teachers 
 of the people. To this Jeremiah replies, not 
 (as the Authorized Version renders) Lo, 
 certainly in vain made he it, etc. ; but. Tea, 
 behold I for a lie hath it wrought — the lying 
 pen of the scribes (so Authorized Version, 
 margin). Soferim (scribes) is the term 
 proper to all those who practised the art of 
 wriliuji; {sefer) ; it included, therefore, pre- 
 suiuabjiy at least, most, if not all, of the 
 priests and prophets of whom Jeremiah 
 speaks. There are indications enough that 
 tlie Hebrew literature was not entirely con- 
 fined to those whom we look up to as the 
 inspired writers, and it is perfectly credible 
 that the formalist priests and false prophets 
 should have availeil themselves of the pen 
 as a means of giving greater currency to 
 their teaching. Jeremiah warns his hearers 
 to distrust a literature which is in the ser- 
 vice of false religious principles — a warning 
 whicli prophets in the wider sense of the 
 term (' The Liberty of Prophesyings ') still 
 have but too much occasion to repeat. [It is 
 riglit, however, to mention another gram- 
 matically possible rendering, which is 
 adopted by those who suppose torah in the 
 preceding clause to mean the Mosaic Law : 
 " Yea, beliold, the lying pen of the scribes 
 hath made (it) into a lie ; " i.e. the profes- 
 sional interpreters of the Scriptures called 
 SCI ibes have, by their groundless comments 
 and inferences, made the Scriptures (espe- 
 cially the noblest part, the Law) into a 
 lie, so that it has ceased to represent the 
 Divine will and teaching. The objections 
 to this are : (1) the neee.-sity of supplying 
 an object to the verb — the object would 
 hardly have been omitted where its omission 
 renders the meaning of the clause so doubt- 
 ful ; (2) that this view attributes to the 
 word soferim a moiining which only became 
 prevalent in the time of Ezra (comp. Ezra 
 vii. 6, 11).] 
 
 Ver. 9. — The wise men are ashamed. It 
 is the perfect of prophetic certitude, equiva- 
 lent to "tlie wise men shall certainly be 
 ashamed." And why ? Evidently because 
 they have not foreseen the calamities im- 
 pending over their nation. They have 
 preached, " Peace, peace ; when there was 
 no peace" (ver. 11); and hence they find 
 themselves " taken " in the grip of a relent- 
 less power from which there is no escape. 
 What wisdom ; literally, wisdom of what f 
 i.e. in respect of what ? 
 
 Vers. 10 — 12. — These verses are almost 
 the same as ch. vi. 12 — 15 ; the differences 
 are in ver. 10. They are omitted in the 
 Septuagint, and Hitzig regards them as an 
 interpolation, at any rate from the point 
 where the present passage coincides verbally 
 •with its parallel. His grounds are : (1) tliat 
 ver. 13 follows more naturally on ver. 10 a 
 
 (" . . . them that shall inherit them ") than 
 on ver. 12; (2) that ver. 10 is deficient in 
 symmetry ; and (3) that the deviations from 
 ch. vi. 13 — 15 sometimes loosen the con- 
 nection of the clauses, sometimes sink into 
 the colloquial style. The arguments seem 
 to bo inconclusive. Jeremiah is apt to 
 repeat himself (Graf refers to ver. 14 = ch. 
 iv. 5 ; ver. 15 = ch. xiv. 19 ; ch. v. 9 = v. 29, 
 ix. 8 ; ch. vii. 16 = xi. 14 ; oh. 1. 41—43 = vi. 
 22—24 ; ch. 1. 44-46 = xlix. 19-21) ; and 
 the element which is common to this para, 
 graph and to oh. vi. 12 — 15 seems equally 
 appropriate in both connections. It should 
 be added, however, that the cautious and 
 reverent Bleek has come to the same con- 
 clusion as Hitzig. To them that shall 
 inherit them ; rather, to them that shall talte 
 possession of them, i.e. by violence. 
 
 Ver. 13 — ch. ix. 1. — Furtlier description 
 of tlie judgment ; grief of Jeremiah. 
 
 Ver. 13. — There shall be no grapes, etc. ; 
 rather, th^re are no grapes . . . and the leaf 
 is faded. It is the actual condition of 
 things which the prophet describes. Else- 
 where Judah is compared to a vine with 
 bad grapes (ch. ii. 21) ; here the vine does 
 not even pretend to bear fruit. Another 
 figure is that of a barren fig tree (comp. 
 Matt. xxi. 19). And the things that I have 
 given them, etc.; rather, and I gave them 
 that which they transgress (viz. laws). The 
 construction, however, which this rendering 
 implies is not perl'ectly natural, though 
 supported by most of the ancient versions 
 (except the Septuagint, which omits the 
 words), and it is better to alter a single 
 vowel-point, and render, "And I will give 
 them to those who shall pass over them." 
 The phrase to pass away is constantly used 
 of an invading host ; e.g. Isa. viii. 7 ; Dan. 
 xi. 10, 40. 
 
 Ver. 14.— Why do we sit still? The 
 prophet transports us by a stroke of his pen 
 into the midst of the fulfilment of his 
 prophecy. The people of the country 
 districts are represented as urging each 
 other to flight. True, it is the resource of 
 despair. No defenoed cities can defend 
 them against the judgment of Jehovah. 
 Let us be silent; rather, let us perish; 
 literally, let us be put to silence. Hath put 
 us to silence; rather, hath caused us to 
 perish; i.e. hath decreed our destruction. 
 Water of gall ; a phrase characteristic of our 
 prophet (see ch. ix. 14 ; xxiii. 15). It is a 
 little ditficult to find a rendering which 
 shall suit all the passages in which rosh 
 (gall) is mentioned. In Dent, xxxii. 33 
 (and BO Job xx. 16) it is clearly used for 
 " venom " in general ; and yet in ver. 32 of 
 the same chapter it obviously^ means a 
 plant. Another general api ilioutiou of the 
 term seems to have been to bitterness in 
 
216 
 
 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. vm. 1—22. 
 
 general, the ideas of bitterness and 
 poisonousntsa being taken as interchange- 
 able. The Authorized Version may there- 
 fore stand. 
 
 Ver. 15. — Health; rather, RenKn J. Another 
 rendering is tranquillity (same sense as in 
 Eccles. X. 4). Trouble ; rather, terror. 
 
 Ver. 16. — The invader is introduced with 
 the same mysterious indefiniteness as in cli. 
 iv. 13. From Dan; i.e. from the nortliem 
 frontier (see on ch. iv. 15). Trembled; 
 rather, qualeed (so ch. xlix. 2l). His strong 
 ones. The phrase " strong ones " generally 
 denotes oxen, but here (as in ch. xlvii. 3 ; 
 I. 11) horses. 
 
 Ver. 17. — A new image to intensify the 
 impression of dreadfulness. Serpents, 
 oookatrioes ; rather, serpents (e»en) basilisks. 
 The second noun is in apposition to the 
 more general " serpents." " Basilisks " 
 {Serpentes regulos) are the renderings of 
 Aquila and the Vulgate. Some species of 
 highly venomous serpent is clearly intended; 
 more than this we cannot say. The root 
 probably means " to hiss." Canon Tristram 
 thinks of " a very beautifully marked yellow 
 serpent, and the largest of the vipers found 
 in the Holy Land," called the Daboia 
 xantheina. He adds that it is one of the 
 most dangerous (' Nat. Hist, of Palestine,' 
 p. 275). 
 
 Ver. 18— ch. ix. 1.— The captivity of 
 Judah and the deep sorrow of Jeremiah. 
 
 Ver. 18. — When I would comfort myself, 
 etc. The text is here extremely difficult, 
 and if there is corruption anywhere it is in 
 the opening of this verse. Ewald and Graf 
 suppose an ellipsis, and render, "(Oh for) 
 my enlivening [i.e. an enlivening for me] 
 in Irouble I " Hitzig more naturally renders 
 in the vocative, " BIy enlivener in trouble," 
 which he supposes to be in apposition to 
 my heart. De Dieu il648) wavejs between 
 tliis and the view that it is an address to 
 ]iis wife, " QuiB marito solatio est." (See, 
 however, ch. xvi. 2.) 
 
 Ver. 19. — Because of them that dwell in, 
 etc. The Hebrew simply has " from them," 
 (to. The propliet is transported in imagi- 
 nation to the time of the fulfilment of his 
 propliecies. He hears the lamentation of 
 his countrymen, who are languisUing in 
 captivity. Is not the Lord in Zion, etc. ? is 
 the burden of their sad complaints ; " king" 
 is a familiar synonym for " God " (comp. 
 Isa. viii. 21 ; xxxiii. 22 ; but not Ps. Ixxxix. 
 18, which is certainly mistrauslated in 
 Authorized Version). 15ut why " in Zion " ? 
 " Zion " was properly the name of the east- 
 ward hill at Jerusalem, where lay the 
 oldest part of the city (called " the city of 
 l>iivid "), and the highest portion of which 
 was crowned by the temple. Why have 
 they provoked me to anger, etc. ? is the reply 
 
 of Jehovah, pointing out that their Buffer- 
 ings were but an exact retribution for their 
 infidelity (comp. ch. v. 19). 
 
 Ver. 20. — The harvest is past, etc. For 
 " summer," read fruit-gatliering (the vintage 
 began in September). The people again 
 becomes the speaker. The form of the 
 speech reminds one of a proverb. When 
 the harvest was over and the fruit-gathering 
 ended, the liusbandmen looked for a quiet 
 time of refreshment. Judah had had its 
 "harvest-time" and then its "fruit-gather- 
 ing ; " its needs had been gradually in- 
 creasing, and, on the analogy of previous 
 deliverances (comp. Isa. xviii. 4; xxxiii. 
 10), it might have been expected that God 
 would have interposed, his help being only 
 delayed in order to be the more signally 
 supernatural. But we are not saved (or 
 rather, delivered). 
 
 Ver. 21. — For the hurt, etc.; literally, 
 because of tlie breaking, etc., I am brolten; 
 comp. ch. xxiii. 9, and the phrase " broken in 
 heart " (Isa. Ixi. 1, etc.). The prophet feels 
 crushed by the sense of the utter ruin of 
 his people. I am black ; rathi r, I go in 
 mourning (so Ps. xxxviii. 6; xlii. 9). The 
 root means rather " foulness " or " squalor " 
 than " blackness " (comp. Job vi. 16, where 
 "blackish," an epithet of streams, should 
 rather be " turbid "). 
 
 Ver. 22. — No hope or remedy is left; 
 again a proverbial expression. No balm in 
 Gilead. Gilead appears to have been 
 celebrated in early times for its balsam, 
 which was expoited by Ishmaelites to 
 Egypt (Gen. xxxvii. 25) and by Jewish 
 merehants to Tyre (Ezek. xxvii. 17). It 
 was one of the most costly products of 
 Palestine (Gen. xliii. 11), and was prized 
 for its medicinal properties in cases of 
 wounds (cnmp. ch. xlvi. 11 ; li. 8). Josephus 
 mentions this balsam several times, but 
 states that it only grew at Jericho (' Antiq.,' 
 XV. 4, 2). Tristram searched for ba'saiii in its 
 ancient haunts, but in vain ; he thinks Jere- 
 miah means the BaUamodendron gileadense 
 or opobaleamum, which in Arabia is used as 
 a medicine both internally and externally. 
 But if Pliny ('Hist. Nat.,' xxiv. 22) mav 
 be followed in his wide use of the term 
 "balsam" so as to include the exudations 
 of the "lentisous" or mastick tree, then 
 " balm of Gilead " is still to bo found ; for 
 the mastick tree " grows commonly all over 
 the country, excepting in the plains and tho 
 Jordan valley" ('Nat. Hist, of Bible,' p. 
 336). Is there no physician there? Wo 
 hear but little of physiciaus in the Old 
 Testament. They are only mentioned again 
 in Gen. 1. 2 (but with reference to Egypt, 
 where medicine was much cultivated), and 
 in 2 Chron. xvi. 12 ; Job xiii. 4. From tho 
 two latter passages we may, perhaps, infer 
 
CH. vm. 1—22.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 
 
 217 
 
 that physicians were rarely successful ; and 
 this is certainly the impression produced by 
 Ecolus. xxxviii. 15, " He that sinneth before 
 his Maker, let him fall into the hand of the 
 pliysician." The remedies employed in the 
 Talmudio period quite bear out thid strong 
 saying (see Lightfoot, 'Hore Hebraiuse,' 
 
 on Mark v. 26). The physicians of Gilead, 
 however, probably confined themselves to 
 their one famous simple, the balfam Is 
 not the health . . . recovered? Gesenius 
 renders, less probably, " hath no bandage 
 been applied to the daughter of my people ? " 
 
 HOMILETICS. 
 
 Vers. 4 — 6. — Persistent depravity. I. Persistent depravity must be distin- 
 guished FROM A CASUAL LAPSK INTO SIN. 1. This is marked by a constant habit of 
 sin, a falling without rising again. The best man is often guilty of mistakes, but he 
 soon seeks to recover himself (Ps. xxxvii. 24). His habit is upright, the direction he 
 follows on the whole, though now and then he may lose ground for a short time, is 
 right. But the man who is persistently depraved makes the wrong way his main 
 course, and if he ever deviates from it does so accidentally or only under some tem- 
 porary impulse, soon returning as by instinct to wallow in the mire, where only he 
 feels at home (2 Pet. ii. 22). 2. This is characterized by absence of repentance after 
 sinning. No man is heard to repent (ver. 6). After a good man has fallen into sin he 
 is overwhelmed with shame, plunged into dark depths of grief, tortured with bitter 
 pangs of contrition, like Peter when he " went out and wept bitterly." But the 
 persistently depraved man feels no such distresses. The sun shines as brightly after 
 he has contracted a new crime as before. His serene self-complacency is not raffled 
 by one spasm of inward revulsion. 3. This is characterized by an impetuous impulse 
 to sin. A good man may fall into sin. One who is persistently depraved rushes into 
 it. To the former sin comes as deleat after a battle in which his better nature has 
 fought and failed ; to the latter it comes unresisted, welcomed : he " returneth to his 
 course " with eagerness, " as the horse rusheth into the battle." 
 
 II. Persistent depbavitt is ear more culpable than a casual lapse into 
 SIN. All sin is culpable. Sin cannot be entirely accidental in any case, or it would 
 cease to be sin. But persistent sin is by far the most evil form of sin. 1. A casual 
 fall may be induced by powerful external temptation ; persistent depravity must rise 
 from an internal appetite. 2. A casual fall may come as a sudden surprise when a 
 man is off his guard ; persistent depravity must be clearly perceived and consciously 
 cherished. 3. A casual fall may be the result of a sudden outburst of passion which 
 results in something approaching temporary insanity ; persistent depravity must be 
 calm and cold-blooded, standing the test of reflection. This is altogether beyond what 
 could be anticipated. You are not surprised that a man should stumble occasionally 
 in the darkness of this world, amidst the snares and pitfalls of temptation, with the 
 natural weakness of humanity, or that he should sometimes miss his way or be lured 
 aside from the right road to pleasanter paths ; but that he should not care to rise after 
 falling, not think of returning when he sees the error of his way, but should keep to 
 it with a consistency which would be heroic in a better course, — such depravity is 
 unuatural and monstrous. 
 
 Ver. 7. — A lesson from the birds. It is interesting to observe that the Scripture 
 references to natural history are not directed so much to theological arguments as to 
 moral lessons. While questions concerning the being and nature of God absorb 
 almost the exclusive attention of the natural theologian, the prophet, who assumes the 
 belief of his hearers in the immanence of God in Nature, is more concerned to show how 
 she rebukes man for his own shortcomings and incites to goodness by her mute 
 example. The scriptural treatment is, therefore, more nearly followed by the regard 
 for the human and moral aspects of nature in the spirit of Wordsworth and Buskin, 
 which is characteristic of the better thought of our own age, than by the cold, prosaic 
 examination of the physical world, as simply affording one section of the evidences of 
 religion, which was pursued in the days of Paley. 
 
 I. The birds remind us that \ns are surrounded by Divine ordinances. 
 Migratory birds have their appointed times. Every creature has its special vocation. 
 
213 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. viii. 1— 22. 
 
 To the lower animals this comes as a necessary law, as a course determined by uncon- 
 scious instinct. To man it comes as a mandate uf duty, an impulse in the conscience, 
 a way to be clearly perceived and freely chosen. But, thoU!j;h the same method for 
 exacting the performance of the Divino ordinances which obtains in nature is not 
 enforced on man, those ordinances extend to him ; to him also they come with Divine 
 sanction. Though man is physically free to rebel, morally he is no more his own , 
 master than are the birds wlio are bound by the laws ol' their instincts. Freedom from 
 compulsion is not freedom from obliiration. 
 
 II. The birds remind us that it is as well to obey the Divikb ordinances. 
 In their migrations they find their welfare secured. Driven by the iuward impulse of 
 Divine law written on their instincts, they sjieeJ them over vast tracts of unknown 
 lands, and at length find themselves in the clime and at the season which is best suited 
 for them. What an image of implicit faith I We are called to go forth, like Abraham, 
 we know not whither, but like him to find a possession in the unknown land 
 (Heb. xi. 8). The future is unseen, the way is wild and pathless, dark clouds as ol 
 brooding storms gather on the horizon ; but if we take as our compass the knovra will 
 of Ciod, we too shall find sunny climes beyond the seas of trouble, a home at the end 
 of our pilgrimage. 
 
 III. The bibds, by their example, rebuke obh disobedience to the Divine 
 ORDINANCES. Free to roam through illimitable regions of air, the high-flying stork, the 
 turtle-dove, the swift, and the crane all keep to their true course, not dropping down, 
 tempted by the attractions of leafy vales or fruitful gardens, not turned aside terrified 
 by the horrors of high mountains, lonely deserts, or stormy seas, till they reach their 
 destination in punctual obedience to the mysterious law of their nature. These 
 migratory birds are representative of external liberty restrained by inward law. We 
 are not under any outward compulsion nor any inward law of instinct like that of the 
 birds. But we are capable of following a higher law. We have light which is 
 denied to them, and high motives of fear and love to prompt to obedience. If we 
 disobey, the obedience of the birds is an ever-recurring rebuke. 
 
 Vers. 8, 9. — Untrustworthy literature. I. Literature may have many attractions 
 AND yet be untrustworthy. 1. Authority. They were official prophets and teachers 
 \\hom Jeremiah opposed. Errors gain power when they are pronounced ex cathedra. 
 The belief in papal infallibility is but one instance of a common human weakness. 
 2. Pretentiousness. The self-styled wise men of Jeremiah's age were confident and 
 boastful. The world is too ready to take a man at his own estimate of himself. 
 "Vehement assertion is often accepted instead of solid proof. 3. Numerical force. 
 Jeremiah stood as one against many. No mistake is greater than the assumptiou of 
 so-called common sense, that truth may be presumed to reside with the majority. How 
 often from the days of Noah downwards has it been found with the few ! 4. Popular 
 style. These "wise" men knew how to suit the taste of the multitude; they could 
 prophesy smooth things. There is a fearful fascination in literary style. The great 
 clanger to the culiivated ia that they should .select for their guides those writers whoso 
 language is most pleasing in place of those whose arguments are most sound. Lies 
 may be commended by brilliant epigrams, and unwholesome passions fostered by 
 splendid poetry. The ease and fluency of Hume and the wit of Voltaire were effective 
 with many persons who would not have been moved by bare arguments. 
 
 II. If literature is untrue it should be treated as worthless. 1. Style is 
 but the vesture of thought, and thought is but idle fancy if it does not correspond to 
 fact. The first question to be asked about a writer is not, "Are his ideas novel, original, 
 striking? are they beautiful, grand, imposing? are they pleasing, popular, accept- 
 able ? " but simply, " Are they true ? " If this question in answered in the negative, all 
 other recommendations may be considered as worse than worthless. The sweeter the 
 bait, the more dangerous the trap. 2. The test of truth in religions literature is con- 
 fiirmity to the Word of God. The Scripture is a guide and authority to the Christian. 
 God's word in nature, providence, and conKcienoe must be heard and interpreted if men 
 would speak truly on these subjects. The profession to be speaking Divine words 
 founded either on a pretended revelation or a boast of superior intelligence, is vain 
 unless the private words of the individual harmonize with the general truth of God's 
 
CH. VIII. 1—22.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 219 
 
 world-wide revehtions. 3. Experience will test the truth of literature. If literature 
 concerns itself with serious subjects, it cannot be regarded as a trifle of idle hours. It 
 ■•vill be bruu.;ht into judgment. Experience will try it. No lie can be eternal. The 
 <elf-styleil " wise " men will " have to be ashamed," " dismayed and taken," when 
 events contradict their untrue language. 
 
 Ver. 11. — (See on ch. vi. 14.) 
 
 Vers. 14, 15. — Despair. I. Despair will arise on the perception that there is 
 NO WAY OF ESCAPE FROM RUIN. The miserable Jews are pictured as fir.st sitting still 
 helplessly, and then rousing themselves to enter the fenced cities, only to tind that 
 death awaits them there as surely as in the open plain. People are too ready to- 
 believe that " something will turn up," and so hold on, in confidence and indifference, 
 till their eyes are suddenly opened, and they see room for nothing but despair. 
 
 II. Despair will arise on the recognition of the wrath of God. The Jews 
 are to see that their God has put them to silence. Philistines, Egyptians, Assyrians, 
 Chaldeans, might all be resisted; but who shall resist God? Men can only fight 
 against God with confidence until they perceive him fighting against them. Then 
 hope is madness. 
 
 III. Despair will be heiqhtened by the sense of guilt. The Jews are to see 
 that their calamity is the punishment of sin. It is deserved. It is justly given. Men 
 hope on while they refuse to admit their sin ; but conviction of sin is fatal to hope. 
 
 IV. Despair may follow a confident hope. The Jews had looked for peace 
 and for a time of health. Yet none came. Hope may be very bright and yet very 
 delusive. The splendour of the sunrise contains little promise that the day will close 
 without storms. Subjective confidence is no guarantee of objective truth. Things 
 are not the more true because we believe them very firmly. We may feel safe and be 
 in danger. A peaceful death is no security for a joyful resurrection. It is little that 
 a man has overcome the fear of death ; the important question is whether he has 
 removed the ground for that fear. The faith that saves is not confidence in our own 
 security, but submissive and obedient trust in Christ. 
 
 V. The possibility of despair is revealed, not to produce it, but to warn 
 us from it. If it were inevitable, or, being experienced, invincible, it would be cruel 
 to prepare any for it. Why not let the poor doomed wretch enjoy his brief hour of 
 suiishme before he is sent "to dwell in solemn shades of endless night"? But the 
 revelations of a possibly dark future are given in mercy to warn us from sowing 
 the seeds of despair and to point to the way of escape. No soul need despair since 
 there is One who " is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him " 
 (Heb. TU. 25). 
 
 Ver. 20. — Harvest contrasts. The seasons have their lessons for all of us, teaching 
 both by analogy and by contrast ; for the warnings suggested by the opposition of our 
 own condition to that of the natural world may be as instructive as the encourage- 
 ments arising out of ttie harmony between the two. To Jeremiah the harvest came in 
 its brightness only to show the condition of the Jews in the deeper shadow. A similar 
 experience may occur to those of us who have no harvest-song in the soul to respond 
 to the harvest-gladness of the world without. 
 
 I. The most hopeful external event is no security for deliverance from 
 the greatest troubles of life. Even harvest did not bring deliverance. People 
 Sire too ready to rest their confidence on various indications of God in the outside 
 world. 1. Time. The harvest is a new waymark in the course of time. Many trust 
 blindly to time to bring them some help, while they do not stir a finger to secure it. 
 2. Change. The harvest indicates a new season. The sanguine are too ready to 
 believe that any change must be for the better. 3. Material prosperity. The harvest 
 brings bread for the body. Must it not, therefore, lay the foundation of perfect and 
 lasting good ? To those men whose " god is their belly " the harvest would seem to 
 promise complete satisfaction. 4. Indications of the merciful kindness of Ood. He 
 sends the harvest. Then, it is reasoned, he wishes to bless, and therefore will permit 
 no harm. But experience proves the error of these anticipations, and reflection should 
 
220 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. vni. 1— 22 
 
 soon detect the falla-^y wliich underlies them. Outward events do not always 
 correspond to inward experiences ; the latter have their own seijarate conditions. God 
 may deal mercifully with us now and in earthly things, but his present forbear- 
 ance is no proof that we shall never suffer from his righteous wrath in the season of 
 judgment. 
 
 II. The most hopeful extebkal event deepens the sense of the intebnal 
 DISTRESS WITH WHICH IT IS CONTRASTED. The harvest past, and yet undelivered I 1. A 
 new stage of time has gone, and the deliverance is still delayed. 2. Outside events 
 change, but the essential condition remains unchanged. 3. Material good is enjoyed 
 while real good is still unattained, and this makes the minor blessing seem but a 
 mockery, i. Goci is mere j/'uZ, and yet we are not delivered! Home fearful evil must 
 be at the foundation of such a strange condition. 5. A time of rest is looked for but 
 comes not. After harvest should come rest. Distress is heightened by the disappoint- 
 ment of expected deliverance. 6. Approaching troubles increase the gloom of present 
 distress. The harvest Is past. Now we look forward to chill autumn, to stormy 
 winter. Not saved in harvest ! What are we to expect in less propitious times ? 
 
 Ver. 22. — "Balm in Oilead." I. The world needs remedies for moral and 
 SOCIAL HEALING. Jeremiah regarded the Jews as wounded hy the cruel calamities 
 which were to overwhelm them; but beneath the wounds he detected an unhealthy 
 national condition which equally needed healing. Men suffer thus from the external 
 wounds of adversity and from the internal disease of sin. How small a part of mankind 
 can be considered in a thoroughly healthy condition ! Men are not only imperfectly 
 developfd ; they are suffering from positive disorders. The world needs medicine as 
 well as food — the physician as well as the farmer. Nations need healing for political 
 disorganization within and wrongs of subjection to a foreign yoke without. Society 
 sadly requires to be purified, even regenerated. Individual men suffer trom the smart 
 of sorrow and the disease of sin — both signs of an imperfect, disorganized condition, 
 needing cure. The one disease which is at the root of all the chief maladies of man- 
 kind is moral evil. The forgiveness of sins must come as a healing of sickness 
 (IVIark ii. 9). 
 
 II. Many professed remedies are forthcoming. Gilead has her balm. Every 
 new physician has his patent nostrum. The world does not suffer from the small 
 number of remedies which have been proposed to cure all the ills that flesh is heir to. 
 It is rather in danger of being poisoned by a superabundance of most incongruous 
 drugs. Every religion brings its own remedy. Philosophy, in its highest ambition, 
 aims at a practical cure of society. Political innovations, social reforms, education, 
 sanitary improvements, — all seek this result. 
 
 III. No EARTHLY REMEDIES SUFFICE FOR THE NEEDED CURE. The balm of Gilead is 
 
 found in abundance, but, alas ! it will not heal the-smart ot Israel. Physicians advise, 
 but their advice is futile. Nothing could effect the deliverance of the Jews in the days 
 of Jeremiah, though lying prophets and astute politicians did their best. No earthlj- 
 remedy can heal the widespread evil of the world (Isa. i. 6). 1. Earthly remedies are 
 external. They may change the social order ; they cannot cure the false ideas, irregu- 
 lated passions, and vitiated conscience of which the habits of society are but symptoms. 
 Spiritual disease must be treated with spiritual medicine. The physician for the body 
 can do little in ministering to " the mind diseased." You cannot make men moral by 
 the strictest puritanical legislation. (1) The disease of sin is in the heart, and the 
 remedy must reach the heart. (2) So the deepest distress of mankind cannot be cured 
 by the amelioration of physical comforts. A princely legacy is no consolation to a 
 mother for the loss of her child. 2. Earthly remedies pa ifa^e of tJte character of the 
 disease. Human religions bear on their faces the marks of that very moral corruption 
 which they aim at destroying. Sin can only be cured by something outside the sinful 
 world; sorrow, by something above the scene of human distresses. We must go 
 further than Gilead for the true balm, for Gilead will share with Israel the trouble for 
 which we seek a remedy. 
 
 IV. jGoD has PROVIDED HIS OWN REMEDY FOR THE MORAL AND SOCIAL HEALING OP 
 
 THE WORLD. Christ is "the good Physician." The miracles of healing which he 
 ivrought on the bodies of mea were signs of the work he came to effect for their souls. 
 
CH. VIII. 1—22.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEliEMIAH. 2?l 
 
 1. Christ's remedy comes from h'ghfr than human sources. The healing of the sinlesa 
 One is not tainted witli the corruption which marks all simply human attempts at 
 cure. 2. Christ's remedy goes to the root of the evil of mankind. His great work is 
 not to effect an external revolution of society, but to cleanse the conscience (Heb. 
 ix. 14) and heal the heart. 3. Individually, healing is brought to all, and the worst 
 cases are just those for which Christ chiefly came (Matt. ix. 12). When all other 
 remedies fail, his is most effectual, because it is (I) most needed, and (2) most irloriflud 
 by the result. 4. Society must be healed by the application of Christian principles 
 to politics, to commerce, to literature, to recreation, (jp domestic life. 
 
 HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. 
 
 Vers. 4 — 7. — Apostasy an anomalous and incalculable thing. I. The analogies ov 
 COMMON SENSE AND INSTINCT ABE FALSIFIED. (Vers. 4 — H.) If a man fall, he will rise 
 again to his feet ; if he has made a mistake or gone in a wrong direction, and discov( rs 
 it, he will turn again, unless he be absolutely bereft of his senses. One might expect 
 .similar behaviour in spiritual matters. But in the wickedness and defection of Isra-l 
 it was not so; their apostasy seemed perpetual. The migratory birds are taught by 
 instinct when to return. The season of their coming again is almost as calculable as 
 that of their going. But the departure of the sinner is incomprehensible, and his 
 return cannot with certainty be expecteii. Nay, the likelihood is he will continue in his 
 sin, and pursue his own destruction to the bitter end. In tiiis, as in many other instances, 
 the career of the sinner can only be explained on the score of infatuation. His moral 
 sense is perverted or destroyed. In place of that quick response which conscience 
 ought to make to the voice of duty, there comes over his spirit an insensibility to moral 
 cousiderations, and a growing ignorance of things Divine gradually deepening into 
 outer darkness. 
 
 il. It IS UNMOVED BY THE CONSIDERATIONS THAT OUGHT TO AFFECT IT. (Ver. 5.) 
 
 The growing; misery and luihappiness which it occasions are not strong enough to check 
 the tendency to sin, if indeed their connection with it is clearly perceived or acknow- 
 ledged. The cravings of the spiritual nature have to "ive place to " the lust of the flesh, 
 the lust of the eye, and the pride of life." By-and-by they are stilled, not by being 
 satisfied, but by being stifled ; and a curious heedlessness, which is deaf to all the voices 
 of prophetic warning and entreaty, increasingly characterizes it. Under such circum- 
 stances it is diEBcult to discover any common point of contact or argument that shall 
 be valid to both parties. When reason is left behind, it is not to higher, but to lower, 
 susceptibilities that appeal has to be made. 
 
 III. The CONCEENj the claims, AND THE GRACIOUS PROVISION OF GoD ARE AS 
 
 NOTHINO. (Ver. 6.) The saint in the times of his calamity calls upon God to incline his 
 ear. In the fearful condition and moral insensibility of his people to their wickedness 
 and danger God is represented as of himself inclining his ear and listening attentively 
 for the lightest sigh of repentance. He calls, but no notice is taken. The means of salva- 
 tion he has provided are neglected or abused. The form of godliness is cultivated when 
 the siiirit has fled and the exercises of religion are the chief foes to its reality. What 
 can be the conclusion to all this? They are spiritually dead. There is neither power 
 nor inclination to seek for better things. Nothing but supernatural grace and long- 
 suffering love can avail to save them. — M. 
 
 Vers. 8 — 12.-^" Peace, peace; when there is no peace." The present condition of the 
 country, the evils that lowered upon the horizon, — these alike bore their message even 
 to the natural conscience. If Israel was in the right way, and really understood the 
 will of the Lord to do it, why these scandals, miseries, and impending evils? Again, 
 the better to reach the perception of those who were thus unable to draw the inference 
 for themselves, the condemnation was to be in kind — a sort of elementary lesson in the 
 " correspondences " that marked the Divine government of the world was to be read to 
 them. The scribe who had prophesied " smooth things " would be confronted with his 
 own writings and compelled to eat his own words. 
 
 I. Divine illdmination alone can give true understanding of God's Word. 
 
232 THE BOOK OF THE PROrHET JEREJIIAH. [ch. viii. 1—22. 
 
 The priests and sorites, because of familiarity with holy things, claimed to he wise. 
 They were satis6ed with the spiritual state of Israel. Had they been wise, they would 
 have anticipated what took place. The Holy Spirit alone bestows Divine insight and 
 foresight. 
 
 II. The dbspisees of Divine truth, and those who falsely pretend to its 
 CUSTODY, WILL BE PUT TO SHAME. " Refuges of lies " will be swept away. The judg- 
 ment, when it comes, will find them wholly unprepared and helpless. " Take heed 
 that the light that is in thee be not darkness." "Blind leaders of the blind," the 
 sorrowing comes to them in vain for comfort, or is deceived to his own hurt ; at last 
 the victim of a misplaced confidence, to find himself " of all men most miserable." 
 The sinner meets with no true correction or instruction ; and in his desperation he 
 receives from them no help. Their judgment is that they will share the fate of their 
 victims and dupes. — M. 
 
 Vers. 13 — 15. — False hopes ministering despair. The lessons of life are not readily 
 learned by most men. They recjuire to be frequently repeated ere they produce an 
 impression. God, therefore, deals severely with his people, whose delusion is the more 
 unpardonable because of the piety of their fathers and the light of revelation which had 
 been given. He will, therefore, make to " pass away from them " one by one the 
 things that he had given : the fruits of the earth shall be cut off; the comforts of life 
 shall be at an end ; trouble and sorrow shall seize upon them. 
 
 I. How HAED IT IS FOE MEN TO REALIZE THAT THE OUTWARD BLESSINGS OF LIFE DO 
 
 NOT OF THEMSELVES SATISFY, AND CANNOT BE EELiBD UPON 1 Each of US Can remember 
 how, one by one, the things of life had to be taken from him ere he learnt their real 
 littleness and insufficiency. This is often the way God seeks to bless us. He takes 
 away the object whose possession is misunderstood and whose properties are abused, 
 that he may remove the temptation from the heart and leave it free for heavenly 
 afi'ections. " We can do without happiness, and instead thereof find blessedness." 
 But to only a few is it given to know this. The multitude are as foolish scholars, 
 " ever learning, and never able to come to a knowledge of the truth." 
 
 II. Hope which has been so misplaced and betrayed too frequently integduces 
 TO despair. As the lesson has not been learne(i, there is no perception of the real 
 mistake. The old blunders are repeated until, iu the sweeping away of all that we had 
 held dear, we feel that life itsell' is not worth living, because we can see no real good 
 within our reach. "Who will show us any good?" We are convicted, too, of 
 unpardonable folly. The dissatisfaction with the things of life is gradually equalled, if 
 not surpassed, by dissatisfaction with oiu-selves. We are conscious of needs that are 
 not met and yearnings that refuse to be stilled. And beneath all these is the miserable 
 consciousness that, in pursuits so trifling and tastts so mean, our true nature is hems, 
 degraded. We grieve over our shattered idols and our vanished comforts, and yet more, 
 are angry with ourselves that we should so grieve. The question will at last come, 
 " If these things be our chief good, what security is left of ultimate happiness ? If 
 the real end of life has not been sought, we are not only unfortunate — we must be 
 culpable." For to seek the truth, etc., of life is not only a possible enjoyment we have 
 missed, but a duty we have neglected. And yet of our own selves we feel unable to 
 retrace our steps. Having the desires we have, which have been strengthened by years 
 of indulgence, we cannot all at once or of our own motion replace them with better 
 ones. A feeling of helplessness, convicted folly and sin, and indefinite degradation 
 gradually dawns upon our aflrighted conscience. How shall we escape from the conse- 
 
 • qnences of our own actions? Whither shall we fiee who, in seeking our good always 
 in material things, have been living in practical atheism ? We can do nothing else but, 
 like the smitten Israelites, betake ourselves to our closets and sit still. 
 
 III. But the judgments op Heaven upon the sinner, howevbe terrible in them- 
 selves, ARE NOT MEANT TO PRODUCE THIS DESPAIR. The false trust is removed, that 
 we may find the true one. The worst calamities of life, and its grievous disappoint- 
 ments, will be more than compensated for if they lead us to the Saviour. The prophet, 
 speaking representatively for Israel, says, " Let us submit to God's judgment, ami 
 confess our sin as its cause." " Silence before the Lord " is the sure way to his restored 
 favour and help. — M. 
 
CH. vui. 1— 22.] THE BOOK OF THE TKOPHET JEllEMIAH. 22.T 
 
 Ver. 20. — Occasions of hoped-for salvation that have not availed. Probably a pro- 
 verbial expression. It is not admissible for us to understand the words of help expected 
 from Egypt, which would be to make tliem an anachronism. They well describe the 
 result of hoping against hope, and in this sense might be spoken by those who have 
 been reduced to extremity by worldliness of spirit and unholiness of life. " It is plain 
 that a great part of Israel imagined, like their heathen neighbours, that Jehovah had 
 need of them as much as they had need of him ; that their worship and service could 
 not be indifferent to him ; that he must, by a natural necessity, exert his power against 
 their enemies, and save his sanctuaries from profanation. This, indeed, was the 
 constant contention of the prophets who opposed Micah and Jeremiah (Micah iii. 11 ; 
 ch. vii. 4, seq. ; xxvii. 1, seq.) ; and from their point of view the captivity of Judah 
 was the final and hopeless collapse of the religion of Jehovah " (\V. Robertson Smith). 
 
 I. How MANY OCCASIONS HAVE THERE BEEN ON WHICH WE HAD EXPECTED AN 
 IMAGINARY GOOD, OR LOOKED FOR A DELIVERANCE WHICH NEVER CAME ! The man who 
 
 has sought for wealth becomes rich only to find that his possessions fail to yield him 
 the satisfaction he expected. False expectations have been entertained by the victims 
 of niisfortime that God would deliver them. True, they have no claim upon him, and 
 they know that, if they were to be requited as they deserved, they would be left alone. 
 The victim of unhallowed desires, hurried and driven as by an inward demon, fancies 
 that, in his own nature or the course of life, he will come to a turning-point. He will 
 " sow his wild oats " now ; by-and-by he will settle down and marry and be respect- 
 able and virtuous. The events of life to which he looks forward take place, but there 
 is no deliverance wrought by them. So many seek the Divine favour in formal religious 
 observances, and do not find it. When many around us are being awakened from 
 their indifference and converted to God, we are alarmed at our own spiritual deadness. 
 The time of grace has slipped past unimproved. God has been gathering in his 
 children, and we are left out. 
 
 II. To WHAT CONCLUSION OUGHT THIS TO LEAD US? That We ought to be anxious 
 and in earnest there can be no question. Our chances appear desperate. Our power 
 of moral recovery is greatly lessened as compared with the freshness of childhood's 
 days. But whilst there is life there is hope. We have reason to congratulate ourselves 
 that we have not been cut off in the midst of our sins. The door is still open. Let us, 
 as those "born out of due time," awake to righteousness, and seek with tears an 
 offended but loving Father. "Now is the accepted time; , . . now is the day of sal- 
 vation."— M. 
 
 Ver. 22. — " Physicinn, heal thyself." Gilead, an outlying district of Palestine, was 
 celebrated for its aromatic balsam, of great virtue for wounds, sores, etc. The natives of 
 the place doubtless became expert in the application of their famous herb. By virtue 
 of its possession, Israel might be said to be the healer of the surrounding nations. Even 
 more so in a spiritual sense it was the physician of men's souls, holding for others and 
 for all time the saving truth of God. But the evils which came upon itself — social, 
 political, spiritual — had bow increased to such a degree that it might well be asked, 
 were the sources of saving health exhausted, or were the possessors of spiritual wisdom 
 wholly extinct ? 
 
 I. What foundation was there for the pretension of Israel to be the saviour 
 OF THE nations? Its own internal condition was deplor.able. Materially and spiri- 
 tually it was more in need of healing than those it regarded as barbarians and heathen. 
 So of the Church which has become corrupt a similar question may be asked. If those 
 who profess the faith of Christ do not exhibit its fruits or possess its peace, they belie 
 their profession and discredit the cause of their Master. When professed believers are 
 as troubled with earthly cares and as downcast amid earthly trials as others, men of 
 the world will doubt the efficacy of their religion, belief, and life. This is the burning 
 question of Christendom through all time. Has it any means of curing the evils of 
 humanity, the miseries of life, the wickedness inherent in human nature ? 
 
 II. Had the utmost use been made of the resources at command? Was there 
 any one who knew the nature of the evil, and how to cure it? Why did they not seek 
 Jehovah? Christians are frequently at a loss, not so much for lack of an orthodox 
 creed as of a realizing faith. They have not been in the habit of going to Christ 
 
224 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. viii. 1—22 
 
 ■with their cares and sorrows. Earthly things have been allowed to divert their atten- 
 tion from truth and righteousness as the principles of life. But sometimes great 
 mischief is done hy wrong expectations of what Christ will do for his people. Men sow 
 to the flesh and expect to reap a spiritual harvest, or their faith in Christ is but anothtr 
 avenue to an earthly end. Under such circumstances they cannot fail to be disai - 
 pointed. We must look to religion for its proper functions ; to Christ for what he has 
 promised to give. Have we any grief which we do not, cannot take to Christ? Are 
 we consciously resting on him for moral guidance and support and spiritual fellowship? 
 They who always and in all things rest their souls upon a living Saviour will know 
 that there is " balm in Gilead," etc. — M. 
 
 Ver. 2. — Befooled indeed. This is what we say when we see men giving heed to the 
 plausible statements of gross impostors, and, in consequence, lavishing their time, energy, 
 and wealth in the hope of large recompense; but who, when the time comes that the 
 hoped-for gain should be theirs, find themselves deceived, defiauded, helpless, and 
 ■utterly ruined men. These are they who are the prey of bubble companies, lying 
 advertisements, and the other ten thousand frauds into which unwary persons are 
 beguiled. But is not this what we mny say when we read of those told of in our text ? 
 Was there ever more flagrant, piteous, and awful instance of men being made fools of 
 indeed? For— 
 
 I. Look at these utterly dbcei'VED ones. 1. They were worshippers of the gods 
 of the heathen. The sun, the moon, and all the host of heaven : tliese were the objects 
 of their worship. Reference is continually made to them and to their worship (2 Kings 
 xxiii. 5 ; xxi. 3, etc.). 2. And they were most earnest worshippers. Note the piling 
 up of expressions to indicate this. (1) They " have loved " them. Here is the root of all 
 real worship. The object must be loved, and these people were drawn to and attracted 
 by these false gods. (2) They " served " them. This follows as a sure consequence. It 
 is not said they believed in them ; but that matters not : if there be that in the object of 
 our worship which makes us like it — love is almost too snored a word as applied to false 
 gods — we shall serve it readily enough. (3) And then they " walked after " them. 
 That which lured them at the first drew them more and more, and so it became the 
 habit of their lives. (4) And they " sought " them. When they found the worship of 
 some of these gods was pleasant, they sought out more of them ; or it may mean that 
 they got at last to have a real faith in them, and hence " consulted them as oracles, 
 appealed to them as judges, implored their favour, and prayed to them as benefactors." 
 (5) And they " wrshipped" them. See them at their wor.ship on Mount Carmel, on 
 the day when Elijah challenged their priests to put to the test his God and theirs. 
 None could doubt the sincerity of their worship or the earnestness with which they 
 died all that morning long, "0 Baal, hear us!" And those to whom Jeremiah wrote 
 were such thorough worshippers of these gods. They withheld no proof of their devoted- 
 ness, 3. But yet they were utterly deceived and disappointed. See in text and in 
 immediate context how these gods dealt with them. Ardent votaries as they had been, 
 those whom they worshipped let all the hideous woes come upon them which are told 
 of hero: death, desolation, degradation, and despair. That was what their gods diil 
 for them. They had spent their all on these pretended physicians, and were nothing 
 bettered, but made worse indeed. 
 
 II. ENDEAVOnB to EXPLAIN BOTH THEIR INFATUATION AND THEIR DISAPPOINTMENT. 
 
 1. As to their infatuation. It can hardly be possible for any reader of the history of 
 these people to avoid asking the question, " Wherefore was it that they were so given 
 to idolatry ? " Their whole national history showed that nothing but sorrow and shame 
 had come from idolatry, and yet here they were for ever, not merely falling into it, but 
 deliberately and persistently going after it. What could be the reason? (1) Partly, 
 no doubt, the example of the great and mighty nations around them. We must 
 remember what an infinitesiraally small kingdom that of Judah was— about the size 
 of an ordinary English county, and how insignificant they were; how the influence, 
 therefore, of the great empires which pressed them on either side could not out be felr. 
 And this was all on the side of idolatry. Idolatry had done them no harm ; the gods 
 they worshipped had, so it would seem, lifted them up to greatness and power surpassed 
 by none. All seemed to say to the poor, weak, little kingdom of Judah, " You had far 
 
CH. VIII. 1—22.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 225 
 
 better do as we do and tvust our gods rather than your own." (2") The spirituality of the 
 worship God required, and the absence of all such demand on the part of idolatry, was 
 another argument for idolatry and against the worship of God. No graven image, no 
 representation of Gud, nothing that would help the senses to conceive of God as like to 
 themselves, was granted to the Jews ; God was a Spirit, and he was to be worshipped in 
 spirit and in truth. No statue, no image, no painting, no symbol even, was to repre- 
 sent him. It was not allowed that the Jew should be able to place in his house or 
 carry about with him, as other nations did, any material emblem of his God (cf. 
 Deut. iv. 15 ; Isa. xl. 18). But spiritual worship of this kind has ever been found far 
 more difficult to maintain: it demands a condition of heart and mind so purified that 
 to the gross and sensual such worship is impossible, and to the ordinary mind it is far 
 from easy. The anthropomorphisms of the l)ld Testament, and the Incarnation itself, 
 are condescensions of God to the confessed feebleness and incapacity of man for such 
 pure worship. But,,on the other hand, idolatry, abounding with " chambers of imagery," 
 lending itself to all the clamour of the senses, — what wonder that it was preferred ? (3) 
 Add on to this the fact that strict obedience to the Iievitical Law involved such isolation 
 from all other people, such scrupulous care, such heavy sacrifices of time, wealth, ease, and 
 the good will of men ; in short, was altogether, as St. Peter afterwards said (Acts xv. 10), 
 " a yoke which neither our fathers nor ive were able to bear ; " whilst idolatry wooed them 
 with its sensuous, brilliant, luxurious, and easy rites ; and again we ask, what wonder 
 that idolatry was preferred ? (4) And present earthly good seemed to be associated with 
 it, and absent from the worship of God (cf. ch. xliv. 15 — 19, " For then had we plenty 
 of victuals, and were well, and saw no evil. But since we left off, ... we have wanted 
 all things "). And (5) lastly, the licence allowed by the lax moral code of idolatry, 
 and its positive sanction of gross licentiousness ; this, contrasted with the stern frown 
 of the true Jewish faith upon all such sin, was more than sufficient to attract in crowcis 
 a people so debased as the Jews had now become. Then, as still, the most powerful and 
 the most depraved passions of human nature were not only permitted free indulgence 
 by idolatry, but actually patronized, protected, and prescribed. All ancient history 
 attests this, and the result on the heathen world, not only history but God's providence 
 and his Word alike (Rom. i.) have plainly declared. 2. As to their disappointment. 
 Idolatry, however for the moment it may seem to have brought good along with it 
 (cf. supra), resulted at last in such unparalleled woe as the prophets, one and all, 
 continually declared must come from it. But whilst no idolatrous nation has ever 
 stood permanently in its greatness — let the decayed and perished empires of antiquity 
 witness — there can be little question that sentence against the evil work was executed 
 more speedily, more sternly, and more notoriously against the Jews than against any 
 other idolatrous nation whatsoever. It cost them more than any other people, and they 
 have not paid " the uttermost farthing " even yet. The rabbis say that in every one 
 of the innumerable cups of affliction which Israel in the course of the long ages has 
 had to drink, there has been mingled some of the dust of that golden idol-calf which 
 Moses ground to powder beneath Mount Sinai. We are told how, when he had done 
 this, he cast ihe powder into the stream from whence the camp drew its water, and made 
 all the people drink of it. Now, wherefore was sorer judgment meted out to Israel 
 than to otheis becau.se of their idolatry ? (1) Because they were the beloved of the Lord. 
 A man may see a strange child doing a disgraceful action and may take comparatively 
 little notice ; but if it be his own son, whom be loves, will he not feel and resent it then 
 as otherwise he never would ? (2) And " chiefly because to them were committed the 
 oracles of God." They were to be the channel along which the truth of revelation was 
 to flow to mankind at large, and if that channel were not kept free from pollution, 
 neither could the living waters which flowed along it. Hence the prompt and stern 
 measures which were ever taken to preserve Israel in the faith of God, or to restore , 
 them if they had wandered. It could not be, therefore, that Israel should permanently 
 and entirely lapse into idolatry. The well-being of the world hinged on their handing 
 down pure and unoorrupt the oracles of God and the faith of their forefathers, and 
 because " God so loved the world," the cup of idolatry was ever made bitter and nauseous 
 to his people, so that they might hate to drink of it. 
 
 III. Try to turn this whole subject to good account. 1. The votaries of the 
 world may in these verses behold their own portraiture and read their sure reward. 
 
 JEBKMIAH. "i 
 
2"G THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. viii. 1— 22. 
 
 For (1) they do after this manner give themselves to the world. They " love," " serve," 
 " walk after," " seek," and " worship " it. (2) And their infatuation is explained by like 
 reasons. (3) And their reward will he to be utterly deceived and disappointed. God 
 will say to each one of them, " Thou fool ! " (Luke xii. 20). 2. The worshippers of Ood 
 may profitably contemplate a model which too many of them too seldorn, follow, of 
 earnest devotedness in their worship. " The children of this world are wiser in their 
 generation than the children of light." Would that the devotedness of the world to its 
 god were equalled by the devotedness of the Church to theirs! 3. Every one may 
 behold, in the tremendous and deadly attraction of the world, fresh, urs;eut, and constant 
 need of being " kept by the power of God " in the love of God. Well may each day 
 begin with this prayer — 
 
 " Lord, I my vows to thee renew ; 
 Scatter my sins lil^e morning dew, 
 Guard my first springs of thought and will, 
 And with thyself my spirit fill." 
 
 G. 
 
 Vers. 4 — 11. — Backsliding in its worst forms. All departures from God are evil, but 
 some are only temporary, and are quickly followed by repentance, return, and restoration, 
 'i'here are others, however, of a far more serious kind, and we have in these verses a 
 great deal told us concerning them. We are told of some of — 
 
 I. 'I HKiii CHAEACTERisTics. 1. So contrary to men^s wonted ways. For when men 
 find that they have brought evil on themselves, they will at once seek to undo such 
 evil (ver. 4). If a man fall, he will not lie still in the mire or in the road, but will get 
 up again as speedily as may be. If he have mistaken his path and got on a wrong 
 track, will he not, as soon as he discovers his mistake, quickly retrace his steps that he 
 may get into the right way ? That is how men act in the common affairs of life. But, 
 though Judah and Jerusalem knew well that they had fallen, yet they showed no 
 desire to rise, and though they could not but know they were altogether out of the 
 right way, they showed no willingness to return. 2. Resists the strivings of God's Spirit 
 and all bis drawings of them to himself. Ver. 7 implies such God-implanted instincts 
 in men's souls, but declares that, unlike the ever-obedient birds, man resists and refuses 
 the call of God. ^. Becomes shameless. (Vers. 6, 12.) This feature we have had noticed 
 before (cf. ch. vi. 15) ; it arrested the prophet's attention as being evil exceedingly. 
 ^. Determined and defiant. (Ver. 6.) 5. Is at last perpetual. (Ver. 5.) They have gone 
 into an evil way, and they abide in that way, no power of Divine grace being able to 
 draw them therefrom. So terrible is this worst form of backsliding, it is perpetual. 
 
 II. Their consequences. The evil fruit such sin bears is shown here. 1. Deep 
 sorrow to the heart of God. How pathetic is this lament ! How it echoes the anguish 
 of those words, " How shall I give thee up ! " " How often would I have gathered thee ! " 
 etc. ! Such is the tone of these (vers. 4 — 8). The Divine grief is audible through every 
 part. 2. Shame to the backsliders themselves. (Ver. 9.) It is ever so. These chapters 
 have been giving illustration upon illustration of this result. And our own observation 
 and the experience of all who have turned from God to sin — all alike confirm what God's 
 Word has said. 3. Utter and absolute ruin. (Ver. 10.) The dreadful sorrows of the 
 vanquished in beholding their most beloved ones torn from them to a fate worse than 
 death, and their lands which they had inherited from their fathers taken possession of 
 by their conquerors, — these common incidents of war are cited as illustrative of the 
 utter ruin which would come upon these ungodly ones. And evermore will men find 
 it an exceeding bitter thing to depart from the living God. We are also shown some of— 
 
 III. Their CAUSES. 1. Deception. Ver. 5, " 'J hey hold last deceit." How many are 
 the falsities by which men are deceived, and to which they hold fast as if they were 
 sure facts on which their souls might rest (cf. vers. 8, 11 ; vii. 4, 8) 1 2. Dislike of God's 
 ways. " They refuse to return." They had no desire to detect the falsity of their 
 trust; they were glad to have any excuse for refusal. 3. Strong preference for the 
 world's ways. Ver. 10, " Every one . . . given to covetousness." The ways of God 
 suffered not such worldliness, but the ways they had chosen gave free permission. 
 Hero is ever the secret of departure from God. But can nothinij be done ? " Is 
 thure no balm in Gilead ? " (ver. 22). Note, then — 
 
CH. VIII. 1—22.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 227 
 
 IV. TheIb curb. How shall this evil spirit be cast out and the right spirit be restored ? 
 In ver. 6 the process is shown to us. There is : 1. Realization of the results of our sin. 
 The backslider is represented as contemplatino; with dismay the awful consequences of 
 his sin, and asking, " What have I done ? " It is " the conviction of sin " which is the 
 beginning work of God's Spirit in the sinner's heart. See the prodigal contemplating 
 the ruin he had brought upon himself. This was the first step in his "coming to 
 himself." 2. Repentance of our wickedness. (Ver. 6.) Not general repentance, but each 
 man seeing his own wickedness and repenting of that. The man has come to look on it 
 as God looks on it. Formerly he loved his sin, now he hates it. One element of our 
 Saviour's atonement was this, that he in our nature and as our representative, looked 
 upon our sin as God looked on it, and so offered to God for us a true repentance. 
 We, however contrite in heart, could offer none such, for as it has been truly said, 
 " Our very repentance needs to be repented of, and our tears washed in the blood of 
 Christ." But this element of all true atonement — that he who makes such atonement 
 looks on the wrong done as he who has been wronged looks on it — was present in 
 Christ's atonement, and is one reason wherefore " the blood of Christ cleanseth from all 
 sin." 3. Confession. This is the " speaking aright " which is told of in ver. 6. They 
 had been denying, excusing, maintaining their sin heretofore, anything but speaking 
 aright about it ; but now there is heard the right language of confession : " I have 
 sinned." 4. Practical turning from the evil way. As before each had turned determinedly 
 to his own self-chosen course (ver. 6), now they would turn from it. Such is the way 
 of the backslider's returnand restoration, a way up which there is no smooth easy sliding 
 as there was down, but in which every step has to be firmly made and resolutely kept 
 to — a way difficult indeed, but, blessed be God, not impossible. 
 
 V. Theib counsel. Let each wanderer from God ask himself the question, " What 
 have I done ? " 1. Such inquiry can do no harm ; and : 2. Is likely to be of great 
 advantage. 3. The time for such inquiry is lessening day by day. 4. "It is a fearful 
 thing " for an unforgiven man " to fall into the hands of the living God." — C. 
 
 Ver. B. — The way home. The text suggests much concerning this way from the far 
 country of sin to the home of our Father and God. The Lord is here lamenting that 
 none of the people of Jerusalem were walking in it. Note — 
 
 I. 'i'HE STAGES OF THE WAT. 1. Realization of the ruin wrought hy our sin. The 
 soul is represented as contemplating this ruin, and asking, " What have I done ? " 
 This is the first stage. 2. Repentance. ' Each oue is to repent of " his wickedness." We 
 are not to lose ourselves in a general confession of sin, as too many do, but to think of 
 our own sin apart from that of other people, and to think of what is especially our sin. 
 Thus personal and particular, our repentance is the more likely to be genuine and godly. 
 3. Confession. " These that have sinned, these and these only speak aright when they 
 speak of repenting, and it is sad when they who have so much work for repentance do 
 not say a word of repenting." But confession is this " speaking aright " which God 
 desires to hear from us. Now, this confession is so acceptable to God because it 
 glorifies his holiness and his love. His holiness ; for the sinner has come to see sin as 
 God sees it, and hence to hate and abhor it. He is of one mind with God about it as he 
 never was before. And his love ; for confession casts itself in faith upon a love that is 
 deeper than its sin. Deep as is God's abhorrence of sin, the sinner in confession appeals 
 to and lays hold on a love that is deeper still. Hence, when the sinner makes his 
 sincere confession before God, he is at once right out of " the far country," and home 
 in the heart of God. The robe, the ring, the shoes, are put upon him ; the feast is pre- 
 pared, and the merry-making, the joy in the presence of the angels of God, at once begins. 
 
 II. The attentive obsekveb of those who travel by this way. It is God who 
 is represented as bending down his ear, hearkening to what is said, listening for any 
 vnrda of confession, and ready to hear them if spoken. The text is the language of 
 gvaoious expectation and desire on the part of God. It calls to mind the father's 
 wailiilg for the prodigal's return. How olten had he looked with longing, loving gaze 
 down the road along which his returning son must come, if ever indeed he would come 1 
 He had looked so often that a speck in the far distance would at once be discerned by 
 him. Hence, " when a great way off," the father saw him. And so here God is repre- 
 sented as thus waiting for his guilty people's return. And how much there is to 
 
228 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [un. viii. 1— '-:2. 
 
 couflrm our faith in this Divine solicitude for the sinner's salvation ! Look at the very 
 constitution of our nature. That, as Bishop Butler has shown, is evidently on the side 
 of virtue, that is, of obedience to God, and against the disobedient. " Who will harm 
 \ou, if ye be doers of thai; which is good ? "—thus the apostle appeals to the universally 
 recognized fact, that the constitution of man's nature is such as to favour the good. 
 And, on the other hand, the declaration that " the way of transgressors is hard," is based 
 on another like fact of universal experience. Such is one evidence of " the care " with 
 which, as George Herbert sings, " Lord, with what care thou hast begirt us round ! " Then 
 the revelation of his truth is yet further in evidence. That truth, as ministered to us by 
 tlie written Word or by the lips of prophets, apostles, pastors, teachers — it matters not — 
 is a perpetual proof of the Divine solicitude for our eternal good. And hh prooidtnce, 
 making it to be well with the righteous and ill with the unrighteous. Well and ill with 
 each rtspectively in mind, body, and estate. And his Spirit. 1'hat Spirit speaking to 
 us in conscience and in the powerful pleadings of his grace in our hearts, of which we are 
 all so often conscious. And, last of all, God has shown us this loving care of his for us 
 in his Sun. He has shown himself in a manner adapted to touch and move all hearts, 
 and to draw all men unto him. Now, all this mass of evidence is in keeping with that 
 Kiilicitude which this verse and so many other portions of God's Word reveal as felt by 
 him towards sinful men. And if it be asked " What moves this solicitude ? " the cha- 
 racter of God furnishes the answer. The holiness of God. " Good and upright is the 
 Lord, therefore will he teach sinners in the way." And we are bidden " Give thanks at 
 the remembrance of his holiness." It is the nature of holiness to be distressed at all 
 that contradicts it and is unlike itself. It rests not until it has assimilated all around 
 it to itself. Here, then, is one reason of God's perpetual appeals to sinful men. His 
 wisdom also. It is the characteristic of God's wisdom to adjust means to ends. How 
 wonderfully and beautifully this is seen in all departments of nature ! But for the 
 fulHUing of the high purposes of his grace, what instrument can he find more fit than 
 the regenerated, redeemed soul ? Even now and here we see this. A soul aglow with 
 love and faith towards God, what will not that soul do for God ? Hence to the princi- 
 palities and powers in heaven shall be made known by the one Church — the company 
 of the redeemed shall evidence it — the manifold wisdom of God. His love also. If the 
 beholding of scenes of distress touch our hearts and make us eager to render help, can 
 we imagine that he who made us is less willing than ourselves to show pity and render 
 help? Our Lord's argument is, "If ye, evil though ye be, know how" — and we do 
 know how — "to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly 
 Father give," etc. ? Humanity, as it has been well said, is the heavenly Father's sick 
 child. Will not the Father's love, therefore, be all the more called forth to that child? 
 And his compassion also. For this life is the critical period of that child's malady. It 
 is the time when the great question of its life or death is being determined. Terrible 
 forces are against it, and the struggle is now at its most momentous hour. This fact 
 would cau.-e the Father's love to go forth, as it has gone and is going forth, in active 
 compassion, in open manifestation of its solicitude. Such are some of the considera- 
 tions which lead to our Father's attentive observance of all those who travel by this 
 homeward way. 
 
 III. The end of the way. They who come there will find restoration to the 
 Father's love, the implantation of a new nature, the complete pardon of the past, power 
 to live as God's dear child for the futiu-e, and ultimately the everlasting dwelling in 
 the very presence and home of God. 
 
 IV. Bkooks by the WAT. It is said, " He shall drink of the brook by the way, 
 tlierefore shall he lift up the head." We may apply these words to the travellers in 
 the way we are speaking of; for they need, in the weary and often most difficult jouriey, 
 the refreshments which God alone can supply. Such aids are given in the promises of 
 Gud, the fellowship of God, the communion of fellow-travellers on the way, and in the 
 service and worship of God. 
 
 V. The solitariness of the way. It is but " here and there a traveller " that is 
 found. The way is not thronged. This verse is God's lament that scarce any are found 
 willing to go along this road ; for it is not the way of worldly advantage. They who 
 " are given to covetousness " (ver. 10) will never choose this way. They have per- 
 suaded themselves that they are as well off and better where they are. They are 
 
CH. VIII. 1—22.] THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 228 
 
 deceived, and, what is worse, are willing to be deceived : " They hold fast deceit, and 
 so refuse to return." We should have thought that surely it would be otherwise. 1. 
 Reason bids them return (ver. 4). If a man have fallen, he will not lie content on the 
 earth, but will arise. If in an ordinary journey he have missed his way, he will at 
 once retrace his steps. Reason rules in such cases, but not here. 2. Conscience bids 
 them return. They could not but know that their sin had done them sore harm ; but 
 none of them asked, "What have I done?" however loudly conscience might summon 
 them to such repentance. 3. QocPs Word bade then return (ver. 8), but lo ! certainly 
 in vain he made it. 4. Providence bade them. The events that had taken place were 
 all admonitions of God ; but though the birds of the air marked and obeyed the pro- 
 vidence of God, sinful man " knew not the judgment of the Lord " (ver. 7). Hence 
 the way is solitary. 
 
 Conclusion. But the question for ns is, "Are we in this way?" Let us bless God if 
 we are, and press on therein. Let us note how short the day is in which we can travel, 
 how its few fleeting hours are lessening, lest when we would start on the way we have 
 to exclaim (oh. vi. 4), " Woe unto us ! for the day goeth away, for the shadows of the 
 evening are stretched out." — C. 
 
 Ver. 18 — ch. ix. 1. — The prophet's grievous lament. I. Its skibvousness. (Vers. 
 18, 21, ch. ix. 1.) Ver. 18, " When I would comfort myself," etc. All hope dies 
 down, is crushed beneath the overwhelming evidence of the hopelessness of his people's 
 condition. Ver. 21 : he is as if wounded, his heart is clad in the garb of deepest woe, 
 the black raiment of the mourner. Ch. ix. 1 : he has exhausted his power of telling 
 forth his deep grief, his eyes refuse to weep more, though his heart be sore pierced, 
 and the troubles of his people are unrelieved. Therefore he desires that he might 
 weep continually. 
 
 II. Its grounds. 1. They were still trusting in lying words (ver. 19), reckoning 
 that, because the temple of Jehovah and the throne of David belonged to them, there- 
 fore they should have been secure. Though in distant lands, in actual captivity — for 
 there the prophet contemplates them — they were still imagining that the possession of 
 the temple and David's throne should have been their sure safeguard. It is terrible 
 to see God's judgments coming upon guilty men, but when these judgments themselves 
 seem to fail in teaching the needed lesson, that is a greater sorrow still. 2. The time of 
 redemption was over. (Ver. 20.) The long harvest days, the bright summer weather — 
 symbols of all days of opportunity — these were gone. The days when they might 
 have turned to God and found deliverance, " the wi-ath of God had arisen against them, 
 and there was no remedy." But what a retrospect is his who has to say as did lost 
 Israel, " The harvest is past," etc. ! For: (1) Such seasons remind us of our privileges 
 and obligations, (a) It is a time of fruitlulness, of great privilege, grace, and good- 
 ness. God makes man's cup to overflow. Youth and days of gospel privilege. Sun- 
 days, sacred services, etc. {b) It should be a time of great activity. The natural harvest 
 and summer-time is so. For: (c) It is a season of such limited duration. (2) But men 
 often let these times pass away unimproved, (a) The world hinders them. (6) Per- 
 version of Scripture truths, (c) Belief that they are well enough as they are. {d) 
 Procrastination. (3) But once gone, the fruits of that summer and that harvest can 
 never be saved. Such facts as these open the floodgates of giief in hearts like that of 
 Jeremiah. 3. He could see no means of restoration or recovery whatsoever (ver. 22), 
 no balm and no physician anywhere. 
 
 ■ III. Its word to all who should know ob are thr causes ov such grief 
 NOW. 1. Ciirit-t's servants should be in sympathy with the prophet's lament. It is 
 because we are so indifferent the world is so. " Si vis me flere flendum est," it is ever 
 saying, but in vain, to the professing Church. Oh for the compassion of Jeremiah and 
 yet more of Christ! If we sowed in tears we should reap in joy. If so we went forth 
 " bearing precious seed, we shall doubtless come again rejoicing, bringing," etc. 2. But 
 you who cause such grief, think you not that if such be the result of anticipating God's 
 judgments upon sin, the enduring of them must be far worse? And that is your part 
 in them. Christ fiimself assured the weeping women who followed him to Calvary 
 that the woes of them who crucified him would be worse than his own. " If ttiey do 
 these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry ? " 
 
230 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. viii. 1—22. 
 
 Conclusion. Then, instead of causing sovrow to the faithful servants of God by 
 resisting their appeals, yield to them, and so gladden these servants, and the angels 
 of God, and the heart of God, and the Son of God. So you yourself shall " enter 
 into the joy of your Lord." — 0. 
 
 Ver. 22. — Christ and the Holy Ghost recJitm after all. " Is there no balm in Gilead ? " 
 etc. One of the commonest taunts of ungodly men — and it has been so in all ages — 
 against the believer in God and in his redeeming grace, has been their apparent utter 
 absence amongst such vast multitudes of people for so many centuries, and this though 
 the conditions were such as needed, and that in most distressing manner, both their 
 presence and their power. And one of the subtlest and saddest temptations to which 
 the human mind is subject is that of doubting the grace of God. " My teais have been 
 my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me. Where is now thy 
 God ? " The taunt of the psalmist's enemies had roused up the demon of doubt con- 
 cerning God and his love, and no wonder, then, that the psalmist's tears flowed fast 
 both day and night. Now, the text is one of those sad questionings to which the force 
 of distressing facts will now and aijain give rise. It contains three questions, and 
 we will note concerning them these three things — their meaning, their occasions, their 
 answers. 
 
 I. Theik meaning. And take : 1. The literal meaning of the balm and the physician 
 about which the prophet so mournfully inquires. Balm was a resinous gum which 
 flowed from the side of a tree or shrub found on the sunny slopes of Mount Gilead, and 
 counted very precious. When Jacob would counsel his sons how they might propitiate 
 Joseph, who held their brother in captivity, he told them to take him a present, of "a 
 little balm " (Gen. xliii. 11). It was an article of merchandise (Gen. xxxvii. 25), regarded 
 as of invalnaljle efficacy in medicine (cf. ch. xlvi. 11; li. 8). Its name was derived from 
 a word which told of the manner in which it was procured from the tree that bore it. 
 The side of the tree was pierced, and the precious balm then flowed forth. The physi- 
 cians of the day constantly made use of it, and had studied the best means of applying 
 it. But it is evident that the prophet is speaking under a figure. Note, then : 2. The 
 metaphorical meaning. He speaks of the lost "heallh of the daughter of my people," 
 and means by that the national ruin which was so fast coming on Judah and Jeru- 
 salem — ruin of all kinds, spiritual, moral, temporal. By the "balm" he means some 
 method of recovery for his people, and by the " physician " some skilled, sagacious, 
 powerful deliverer, who should be able to employ these methods and so save the land. 
 The prophet was in despair about this ; he saw no hope nor help anywhere, and hence 
 the piteous cry, the mournful question of our text. To every one who professed to 
 have found the balm and the physician the ruined land so needed, he addressed the 
 unanswerable question, "Why then is not the health," etc.? 3. Their evangelic import. 
 It has all along been seen that the terms used here were capable of such application. 
 The " balm " is a beautiful symbol of Christ. The Mount Gilead, the tree, the pierced 
 side, the stream thence issuing, and its mighty healing power, — these severally send 
 our thoughts to Mount Calvary, the cross, the pierced side of the Saviour, the precious 
 blood, and the unquestionable spiritual healing might there is therein. And Scripture 
 is ever speaking of sin as a disease ; of man as one whose health needs recovery. The 
 analogies are obvious. And the " physician," who is he but that Divine Spirit" whose 
 office it is to take of the things of Christ and show them unto men ? He so shows to 
 us the meaning and intent of our Saviour's sacrificial death, that " by his stripes we 
 are healed." Yes ; whilst we all are the stricken with mortal disease, Christ is the 
 Balm that surely heals, and the blessed Spirit is he who reveals Christ to the soul. 
 " For no man can say that Jesus is Lord "—that is, in all the full meaning of those 
 wiirds, and with sincere intent — " but by the Holy Ghost." 
 
 II. Theib occasions. What led to these questions being asked by the prophet? and 
 what tends to their being asked still ? 1. By the prophet. The ruin of his land and 
 people. The awful calamities that were at that moment overhanging the doomed nation. 
 But : 2. By mem still. It is the contemplation of the threefold fact of sin, sorrow, and 
 death. (1) Of sin. Think of the myriads of mankind who have lived and died on this 
 earth of ours, and all of them unblessed by the light of the gospel. Think of the 
 rampant wickedness, the hideous vice, the festering corruption, the indescribable moral 
 
CH. VIII. 1—^2.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 231 
 
 pollution that characterizes vast masses of mankind, indeed the mass of mankind. And 
 think of the corruption of Christianity: what a veneer of religion! what a counterfeit of 
 godliness! what a hollow mockery so great part of it is! And coming closer home, the 
 saddened contemplator of the ravages of sin may turn his gaze inward into his own 
 heart, and as he reflects on tha slender hold which Divine and holy principles have 
 upon him — 
 
 " What scanty triumphs grace has won. 
 The broken vow, the frequent fall ; " 
 
 and as he cries out at times almost in despair at seeing the strength of the chains by 
 which his soul is bound, " wretched man that I am !" etc., — the words of our text fit 
 in with his mournful mood. It seemed to him as if there were " no balm in Gilead, 
 no," etc. (2) Of sorrow. To St. Paul, as he penned the eighth chapter of the Epistle 
 to the Romans, the whole creation seemed to " groan and travail together in pain." 
 What is the progress of mankind but one long procession of mourners I Oh, the tears 
 and sorrows of the broken-hearted, the helpless, the desolate and afflicted of all ages 
 and of all lands ! What a catalogue do they till ! The mind reels as it contemplates 
 the dark mass of human woe. Its faith in the Divine Fatherhood staggers as if smitten 
 with a deadly blow, and is half forced to the conclusion, which to a sad and an in- 
 creasing number seems self-evident, that there is no balm in Gilead, no physician there. 
 (3) And the reign of death produces similar feelings. As men see how the king of 
 terrors stalks triumphantly through the land, how ruthless is his tyranny, how crush- 
 ing his power, how dark the grave into which we so soon descend, and how helpless 
 we all are against his might, it does seem at times as if there were no deliverer aud no 
 deliverance. But note — 
 
 III. The answers to these questions. 1. To those which inquire, " Is there no 
 balm . . . physician there?" some answer "No." Sin, they say, is a mistake which 
 education will rectify, and the operations of the great law of evolution will gradually 
 eliminate. In fact, there is no such thing as " sin " in the sense religious people 
 tliink. Therefore, whilst for the race there is hope, for the present and past generations 
 there is none. SoiTOW, also, they teach, is the result of ignorance of natural laws or 
 of disregard of them. The progress of knowledge will gradually lessen it; that is all 
 that can be said. And as to death, that, of course, is the inevitable, and ends all. The 
 only immortality is in the influence which a man exerts in those who come after him. As 
 to " the Resurrection and the life " — credat Judceus. Such is the dismal gospel of this 
 nineteenth century. But the Christian reply to these questions is unhesitatingly, "Yes; 
 there is a Balm and a Physician for the sin-stricken soul, whether of the individual or 
 of the whole human race. And for the heart riven with sorrow, broken with grief. 
 And for all those, too, over whom Death has reigned with such cruel power. Because 
 we believe in Christ and in the Holy Ghost, we believe in the 'Balm' and in the 
 'Physician' humanity needs." But then comes : 2. The last and seemingly unanswer- 
 able question. " Why then is not," etc. ? What are we to reply to this ? (1) Fur 
 one large part of those whom it concerns, the sin, sorrow, and death ridden multitudes, 
 we deny that which the question assumes. For the Balm aud the Physician Ijave done 
 or are doing their blessed work on them. We appeal to the throng of the redeemed, 
 the blessed dead, myriads of whom are now with God. 
 
 "White-robed saints in glory. 
 Cleansed from every stain." 
 
 With the eye of faith we behold them, and we believe in their existence as we believe 
 in our own, and the yearning of our hearts is to be with them. And they are a great 
 cloud of witnesses to the Balm and to the Physician both. But — as unbelievers will 
 dernand clamorously that we should do — we come down to this world and this life 
 that now is. Well, then, we appeal to the fact that there are regenerated, renewed, 
 saintly souls living here on earth to-day, walking in purity, integrity, and in the light 
 and love of God. I'hiy are God's witnesses to what the unbeliever denies. Further- 
 more, there are a vast nuniher in whom this pruceas of healing is going on. Slowly, it 
 may be, and with sad retrogressions at times, but really, notwithstanding. The tide is 
 
232 THE BOOK OF THE PllOPHET JEllEMrAH. [en. viii. 1—22. 
 
 a long, long time coming in, but it does come in. Healing is always a gradual work. 
 "Nemo repente fuit ' sanctissimus,' " any more than " turpissimus." A man pannot 
 leap into heaven, as, thank Grod, he cannot leap into hell. But because healing is only 
 gradual, do we deny its existence ? But we know there are vast multitudes more to be 
 accounted for than those we have as yet told of. (2) Therefore for this part we say 
 concerning them, wait. St. Paul had evidently pondered this problem, and he has 
 taught us that there are due times and seasons appointed in the wisdom of God for 
 the manifestation of Christ to men (cf. 1 Tim. ii. 6 ; Eph. i. 8 — 10 ; Pliil. ii. 9 ; 
 Col. i. 20), but that in the " dispensation of the fulness of times " it is God's " good 
 pleasure" to "gather together all things in Christ," all the living and all the dead. 
 And it is impossible not to see how the heart of the holy apostle exults in the beatific 
 vision, the " breadth, and length, and depth, and height " of the glorious completed 
 living temple of the Lord God. Therefore, in view of revelations like these, we say 
 that before the reality of the work of Christ and the Holy Ghost are denied, we are 
 bound to wait. And if it be objected that the waiting has been and may be for so 
 long, we reply that it is because men will not come unto Christ that they might have 
 life. The remedy of redemption is not forced upon any soul. A man's soul is not 
 saved by his will being crushed, by his ceasing to be a man and becoming a machine. 
 We cannot but believe and know — the individual conversion of every true child of 
 God demonstrates it — that God has ways and means to bring "the tmruly wills of 
 sinful men " into accord with his own, and this in perfect harmony with the moral 
 freedom he has given man. How long and how dreaiifully far the human will may 
 go in resisting God we cannot tell, but we may not believe that it is greater than God 
 himself and can exhaust all the Divine resources. The hunger and misery of the 
 prodigal brought him " to himself," .the consuming fire of the dread captivity which 
 Jeremiah is foretelling burnt out for ever the love of idolatry amongst Israel ; and there 
 are other like fires of God's holy love which may have like results. Therefore, we 
 say, that until — if we may so speak — God has thrown up the case of sin and sorrow 
 stricken humanity, we have no right to affirm that there is "no balm in Gilead," etc. 
 In regard to sorrow, that has a ministry of spiritual healing of its own, which has 
 gone on ever since "the Man of sorrows" became "acquainted with grief." As his 
 messenger, Grief has gone about from house to house, from heart to heart, a veritable 
 sister of mercy, though clad in coarse and unlovely garb. Up and down the streets of 
 this weary world, and in and out every one of its homes, she perpetually goes ; but no 
 one ever meets her in the new Jerusalem, in the city of our God, for her ministry is 
 not needed there. Then as to death, we say that in all the drear, dark, hopeless power 
 of it " Christ has abolished death." We can, and by every graveside we do — challtnge 
 death as to its sting, and the grave as to its victory. Therefore we say, and with glad 
 hearts, that the health of the daughter of the people is recovered, or is recovering, for 
 that there is both Balm in Gilead and a Physician there. 
 
 Conclusion. But whilst we bid the unbelieyer wait ere he pronounce with certainty 
 that there is neither Balm nor Physician, we would earnestly and affectionately beseech 
 him not to wait ere he has recourse to them. Disease does not become easier to cure 
 by being allowed to go on unchecked. It only gives the physician far more trouble, 
 and the patient far more pain. And the analogy holds good in regard to the disease of 
 sin. Come, then, to Christ now. — 0. 
 
 Ver. 22. — The balm of Oilead. There were those who treated the crimes and 
 miseries of the nation as a trifling matter ; they sought to " heal the hurt slightly, saying, 
 Peace, peace; when there was no peace" (ver. 11). Not so the prophet. He is 
 keenly alive to the dreadful evils of the time. He takes the sins and sorrows of the 
 people on himself, makes them his own. 'lender human sympathy, as well as Divine 
 compassion, breathes in the words, " For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I 
 hurt." And it is not sorrow alone but " astonishment " of which he is conscious. 
 " Why is not her health recovered ? " Can it be that there is no remedy ? The '' balm 
 of Gilead " is taken as the symbol of a healing moral power. Is it so, then, that the 
 very nation that was called to diffuse a redeeming influence over all the world is 
 unable to cure herself — has no medicine for her own diseases, or none to apply it? 
 iSuch is the wonder with which a thoughtful, earnest spirit will often contemplate the 
 
CH. VIII. 1—22.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 232 
 
 moral condition of the world, in view of the fact that God's "saving health" in the 
 gospel has so long heen made known to it. Consider — 
 
 I. The Divine bembdy for the moral maladies of the human race. This 
 remedy is the spontaneous fruit of the love of God. On the ground of that love we may 
 justly expect such a remedy. It is not likely that a God of infinite benevolence would 
 leave the human race to perish. Though redemption is " of grace," yet there is every- 
 thing to make it antecedently probable. Though nature contains no revelation of it, 
 yet to the eye on which the light of the gospel has once fallen, the whole constitution 
 of the universe is full of dim prophecies and promises of some such triumphant grace. 
 The spirit of boundless beneficence that pervades and governs it — the fact that for every 
 want there is a supply, for every appetite that which gratifies it, for every danger a 
 safeguard, for every poison its antidote ; above all, the silent witness in favour of mercy 
 that is graven more or less deep on every human heart ; — all this is so much in harmony 
 with the great redemption as in a sense to anticipate it. But it is facts, not proba- 
 bilities, with which we have to deal. The gospel is God's actual answer to our human 
 necessities, the sovereign remedy his love has provided for the sins and sorrows of the 
 world. He heals them by taking them upon himself in the person of Jesus Christ his 
 Son. " He was wounded for our transgressions," etc. (Isa. liii. 5) ; " Who his own self 
 bare our sins," etc. (1 Pet. ii. 24); "Where sin abounded, grace did nmch more 
 abound," etc. (Rom. v. 20, 21). Note respecting this Divine remedy : 1. It goes to the 
 root of the disease. It does nut effect a mere superficial reformation, as human methods 
 for the most part do ; does not flatter with the appearance of health while leaving the 
 malady to strike its roots down deeper and deeper into the soul. It reaches at once 
 the secret springs of all mischief, destroys the germs of evil in human nature, changes 
 the outward aspects of the world's life by giving it a " new heart." 2. It is universal 
 in its application. All national diversities, all varieties of social condition, of age, of 
 culture, of intellectual development and moral life, etc., are alike open to its applica- 
 tion, and it is the same for all. 3. It is complete in its efficacy. Every element of human 
 nature, every department and phase of human life, bears witness to its healing power. 
 A perfect manhood and a perfect social order are the issue it works out. 4. It stands 
 alone, not one among many, but absolutely the only remedy. It enters into no kind 
 of competition with other methods of healing. It has the solitary and supreme 
 authority of that which is Divine. "Neither is there salvation in any other: for there 
 is none other name," etc. (Acts iv. 12). 
 
 II. The hindrances to its universal efficiency. " Why then is not," etc. ? 
 The reason lies, not in any want of fitness in the remedy, or in any lack of power or 
 willingness in him who provides it, but in certain human conditions that nullify its 
 action and thwart his purpose. 1. In the self-delusion that leads men to think that 
 tlwy have no need of cure. " They that are whole need not a physician," etc. (Matt. ix. 
 12). The sense of moral sickness is the first step to healing. 2. In the vain self-trust 
 hy virtue of which men dream that they can cure themselves. How many and how 
 plausilile are the expedients by which the world seeks to rid itself of its own maladies ! 
 How slow is human nature to confess its helplessness I 3. In the obstinacy of spirit 
 that refuses the Divine method. " Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, 
 better than all the waters of Israel ? " etc. (2 Kings v. 12). Anything rather than God's 
 way of healing by the blood of atonement and the regenerating grace of the Spirit 1 
 4. In the lethargy and neglect of those whom Ood has called to minister the healing 
 power. Who shall say how much of the continued sin and misery of the world lies- at 
 the Church's door ? If all who have themselves known the virtue of this sovereign 
 balm were but more thoroughly in earnest in their efforts to commend It and to 
 persuade men to apply it, how much more rapidly would the health of human society 
 everywhere be recovered ! — W. 
 
 Vers. 1, 2. — The tones of the dead idolaters cast out hefore their cities. I. Ask 
 HOW THIS spoliation COMES TO PASS. One cannot suppose that it came by the intention 
 of Jehovah. Bather would it arise as a necessary part of wholesale pillage. Considerable 
 treasures might be lying in the tombs of these grandees of Israel, and much might also 
 have been hidden in them for purposes of safety, and therefore, seeing that this hideous 
 devastation had to happen, it was fitting to call attention to it beforehand. It was 
 
234 THE BOOK OF THE PllOPHBT JERBMAH. [ch. viii. 1—22. 
 
 another indication of how completely, for its sins, Jerusalem had been handed over to 
 the foreign destroyer. It makes all the difference to mention such a terrible circum- 
 stance beforehand, as an illustration of the severity of God's dealiogs. Thus it is seen 
 that the spoliation cannot be laid to his charge. And though it must be taken as a sign 
 how barbarous the ancient civilization was at bottom, this is but a consideration by the 
 way. The real cause of this hideous spectacle was in the idolatry of those who had 
 covenanted to love and serve Jehovah, to walk after him and seek him and worship 
 him. These dead ones had forsaken God and taught their posterity to forsake him 
 also ; and now there was none among the living able to protect the bones of the dead 
 from such horrible insult. 
 
 II. Observe that the humiliation has a peculiab connection with the 
 IDOLATRY OF THE PEOPLE. Not ouly are the tombs emptied, but the bones are 
 scattered before the host of heaven. The enemy was not thinking of this exhibition, 
 but it happened so very opportunely. Sun, moon, and stars looked down upon the 
 scene thus strewn with the bones of the illustrious, as if in rebuke for the use which 
 Israel had tried to make of them. They had worshipped and served the creature in 
 opposition to the Creator, and this was what had come of it. These bones had 
 strengthened the living body to worship the sun, and now the sun shone steadily 
 down on them, as if in public rejection of what was not only a mistaken honour to the 
 creature but a shameful insult to the Creai;or. The very things we misuse become 
 the instruments of our humiliation. 
 
 III. The general question op the treatment of dead bodies is suggested 
 FOR considekation. Various are the customs of men with respect to the treatment 
 of the dead, but many of them have one common element, in that they try to preserve 
 the visible, tangible relics of life as long as possible. There is something very touching 
 in the hopes and beliefs which are represented by an Egyptian mummy, as if the 
 survivors felt that life had receded into some deep, inscrutable chamber, a lain to come 
 ibrth in due time and reanimate its old tenement. We think of how Joseph must 
 have been under the influence of a feeling of this kind, when he gave such strict 
 commandment concerning his bones. Still, it is part of the salvation wherewith Christ 
 saves his people, that we are lifted above these haunting considerations as to the cor- 
 poreal frame. It is according to the Spirit of Christ that we should labour, by exercise 
 and self-denial, to make the living body an efficient agent of his will ; but when the 
 life has gone, no sentimental treatment of ours can alter the fact that the body is mere 
 matter, fast under the chemical laws which will soon resolve it into its constituent 
 elements. Have not the bodies of God's saints been shamefully maltreated, both during 
 life and after death ? Think out of what a mangled and bleeding form the spirit of 
 Stephen took its flight to everlasting bliss. If there be force in the injunciion of Jesus 
 not to fear what men can do to the sentient body, how much more may it be urged not 
 to fear what they can do to the senseless corpse. The enemies of the noble and fearless 
 witnesses of truth have shown more than once their contemptible spirit by the way in 
 which they have treated the dead. They could not get at them when living, and they 
 thought it was something of a triumph to insult their remains when gone ; e.g. Wycliffe 
 and Cromwell. The scattering of these bones before sun, moon, and htars would have 
 been a thing to glory in, if the men to whom they belonged had been soldiers in the 
 noble army of martyj's. — Y. 
 
 Ver. 3. — A pitiable condition: death pre/erahle to life. I. Eemember man's 
 NATURAL dread OF DEATH. The Very force of the prophet's expression here lies in 
 this, that it contradicts the habitual feelings of the human breast. The natural 
 ]u-eference is to choose life rather than death ; nay, it can hardly be called preference 
 i»t all. There is an instinctive prompting to ward off everything that may be fatal. 
 Whatever the drawbacks and pains of life may be, life is chosen rather than death, 
 in most instances the suicide is held not responsible for the state of his mind at the 
 time. We must all die indeed ; yet death is so alien to every predominating feeling of 
 tlie mind when in health and prosperous circumstances, that even when death comes 
 near others, it is viewed as if it had little or nothing to do with us. And so when 
 Jeremiah's word came to these people in Jerusalem, they, at least the young and the 
 strong among them, would receive it very incredulously. That things should ever become 
 
CH. vm. 1—22.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 235 
 
 so bad as to make death desirable would seem to them to show that the threatener of 
 such a doom was overdoing his warnings. 
 
 il. Life may become so full of pain and misery that this natural dread 
 MAY be reveeskd. When the blow was struck and Jerusalem fell into the hands of 
 the hosts from Babylon, thousands would be thankful that, amid so much destruction, 
 their lives were spared. To lose possessions and go into exile would seem a light price 
 to pay for the preservation of life. But with the increased experience of exile itself 
 its dreadfulness became manifest. How could it be otherwise? The captivity and 
 exile were not of an ordinary nation, but of one whose God was Jehovah. These people 
 had been in the enjoyment of peculiar privileges and satisfactions, which they had come 
 to accept as a matter of course ; and when they lost them, they would then discern, if 
 never before, something of their true value. It was out of a land of promise, a land 
 reserved for the people of God, that they had been cast, and no lapse of time could 
 content them to be as other nations. It is just because man has within him such 
 capabilities for enjoying life that he can be driven to the other extreme of desiring 
 death. Life could not be so blessed as Christ holds out the hope of its being, unless 
 there were also the possibility of its being correspondingly wretched. 
 
 III. It is thus suggested that we should aim at reaching a state of mind such that 
 
 EITHER LIFE OR DEATH SHOULD BE EQUALLY ACCEPTABLE. To prefer life to death is 
 
 a natural feeling, but certainly not the feeling which a believer in God and Jesus should 
 have. And to prefer death to life is the feeling which comes softer a time of struggling, 
 weariness, pain, and disappointment ; but what darkness of the mind does this not 
 prove! what inability to profit by the light which shines in Christ! The Christian 
 medium lies between the two extremes. Not to wish to live, nor to wish to die, but 
 to be in Christ's hands, so that as long as we are living there may be an availing of 
 every opportunity of service, and when we die a fresh proof that faith in the Saviour 
 who also died, but rose again, is no deluding vanity. It is one of the glorious aspects 
 of Christ's salvation that he can save men from crying out for death rather than life, 
 just because he can lift them into an experience of joy and peace which overbear the 
 sense of temporal pain and loss. — Y. 
 
 Vers. 4 — 7. — The unnatural conduct of Jerusalem. Still more humiliation for the 
 proud, self-satisfied city. The prophet comes with a heavenly light, revealing the very 
 foundations of her glory, and showing how unsubstantial they are, how easily exposed as 
 contradicting truth and the highest propriety. What is aimed at here is to set before 
 man, by the force of contrast, what he ought to be, in the sum of all his faculties made 
 one by a will which acts according to the commandment of God. And so we see — 
 
 I. A LESSON FROM THE SUBORDINATE PART OF man's NATURE. If a man falls, he instantly 
 attempts to rise again. Even if there is some serious injury, it is commonly discovered 
 by the failure of the man's attempt to rise ; and so from the subordinate part of our 
 nature there is a rebuke to the higher and governing part. A very striking instance of 
 such a rebuke would be given in the falling of a drunken man to the ground. He 
 staggers to his feet again if he can. If he remains on the ground it is a sign, to use the 
 common expression, that " he is very far gone indeed ; " and in such an instance may we 
 not truly say that the body is rebuking the will for its imbecility and its base slavery 
 to appetite? So if a man is going anywhere, and turns unwittingly from the straight 
 path ; such a turning may be made very easily, and the wrong path be kept in for 
 a while, but presently there will be some sign to show the error, and with more or less 
 delay there will be a return to the right path. Here, then, are two iustances, level with 
 the experience of everybody, of what is natural for man to do, viz. come back from a 
 wrong state as soon as ever he can; and if the position, be only looked at truly, it will 
 be seen that it is as unnatural for a man to remain in spiritual degradation as to con- 
 tinue lying on the ground. 
 
 II. A LESSON FROM THAT PART OF THE CREATION WHICH IS SUBJECTED TO MAN. There 
 
 is the horse. He can be so trained as to become a potent force in the battle-field, and 
 if he becomes uncontrollable and rushes hither and thither, as dangerous to friend as to- 
 foe, it is not because of any rebellious purpose, but a brief madness has seized on him. 
 Let a few hours pass, and he may be submissive and serviceable as before. " We put bit? 
 in the horses' mouths, that they may obey us ; and wc turn about their whole body." 
 
236 THE BOOK OP THE PKOPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. vin. 1—22, 
 
 " The ox knoweth his owner, and the asa his master's crib : but Israel doth not know, 
 my people doth not consider." The very birds of the air, seemingly so free from all 
 restraint, come and go according to certain laws. If the beasts which man has tamed 
 to his use, and on which he daily depends, were to treat him as he treats Ood, what an 
 awkward, nay more, what a perilous scene this world would become! The whole visible 
 universe, ground beneath, air around, and lar away into the immensities of space, are 
 crowded with admonitions to perversely disobedient man. These birds mentioned here, 
 by certain wondrous intimations to which they are ever heedful — exceptions only going 
 to prove the rule — help to carry on the government of God. They are faithful to their 
 nature, and their faithfulness is again but a sign of God's own faithfulness in the order- 
 liness of the seasons. Then go beyond the ordinary subjection of God's creation to his 
 will. Look at what we call " miracles." Think of the passage of the Red Sea, tlie speak- 
 ing of Balaam's ass, the obedience of the fish in the Sea of Galilee to the will of Jesus, the 
 storm becoming a calm, the venomous serpent dropping innocuous from the hand of Paul. 
 What rebukes these are to man, who persists in walking in his own way! Man himself 
 proceeds with all confidence in the training of brute beasts. He takes the colt and the 
 puppy, and makes them abundantly useful. He is pretty sure how they will turn out. 
 The trouble he takes with them is rewarded in the end. But with regard to his own 
 child, though he has watched over it far more carefully than any of his beasts, he may be 
 bitterly disappointed. His training may be mocked, as it were, and put to shame — and 
 so, rising from the human parent to the thought of God in heaven, we see Israel 
 similarly perverse, negligent of all that has been done to make right ways for it and 
 keep it in them. — Y. 
 
 Vers. 8 — 12. — The exposure of pseudo-wisdom. I. The claim made. Those on whom 
 Jeremiah presses his appeals for a change of purpose reply, if not by plain words, at all 
 events by equally plain actions, that they are so wise in their own conceits as to need 
 no guidance from an outsider. A profound belief in one's own insight and skill may of 
 course be justified by results ; such a belief has been a very important factor in many 
 great achievements. But it is also to be noticed that to have this belief without any 
 corresponding reality is an evil which may afflict a man at every age of his life. It 
 belongs to the young in their ignorance, and the old, with all their experience, may not 
 be free from it. That experience, even though long, may have been a narrow one, and 
 yet, with all its narrowness, full of blunders. But the recollection of all that should 
 make such old men humble avails nothing to diminish the dogmatism of their advice 
 to others. A certain official and social position is also a grand vantage-ground to ail 
 a reputation for wisdom. Nothing is then needed but an abundance of self-assertion to 
 gain acknowledgment from the weak and the ignorant. These great men of Jerusalem 
 would point scornfully at Jeremiah, the lonely prophet. Their city polish would 
 perhaps be in strong contrast to the rustic airs of the man from Anathoth, and, as if 
 to make their claim of wisdom more definite, they fell back on what seemed an 
 unanswerable challenge. " Is not the Law of Jehovah with us ? " The meaning of 
 this seemed to be that they could boast of a certain outward conformity with Mosaic 
 institutions. They certainly did attend to the incen.se and the sweet cane, the burnt 
 offerings and the sacrifices (ch. vi. 20). Moreover, what they asserted for themselves 
 implied a correspondingly humiliating opinion of Jeremiah. They were wise, and of 
 course he was a fool. They had the Law of Jehovah, and Jeremiah, in pretendino- to 
 utter Jehovah's words, was of course nothing better than an impostor. 
 
 II. The Divine way of exposing this claim. These self-cunstituted wise men meet 
 the prophet with a declaration as to wliat they think themselves to be. " We are wise 
 men," they say, nor does the prophet throw back the shortest, directest answer that 
 was possible. It would liave been of no use to say, " You are fools." But it was of use 
 to project himself into the future, and indicate what would happen to these boasters. 
 "When the homes of these pseudo-wise are broken up, and their wives and fields become 
 the spoil of the conqueror, then it will be clear beyond a doubt wliere the wisdom is 
 and where the folly. Polly will be condemned of her children, even as wisdom is 
 justified of hers. Where now are the writings of these wise men ? Jeremiah said at 
 the time that they were full of lies, and we may be sure that, like all reflections o( 
 iKijiular fashion and prejudice, they passed very quickly out of vogue. " The Law nf 
 
OH. VIII. 1—22.] THE BOOK OF TPIE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 237 
 
 Jehovah is with us," said these wise men ; but it was a valueless connection, whereas the 
 prophet had that Law written in his heart. Being in full sympvithy with all that was 
 right, and loving, and generous, and pure, he was a fit subject for the solemn impulses 
 that came to hiiu from on high, and thus he went forth to speak on themes immeasur- 
 ably deeper than the passing phenomena of an age. And so it is that his woids, 
 despised and rejected at the time, nevertheless abide, and are felt to be very precious by 
 all who lack wisdom. As we notice the arroctanoe of spurious wisdom here and also in 
 such passages as John vii. 48 and 1 Cor. i. 22, we turn away to welcome that heavenly 
 light which in the veiy shining of it proclaims its source to be entirely different from 
 any earth-enkindled light. Our true wisdom in presence of the Law and the prophets, 
 the Christ and the apostles, is to feel very deeply how ignorant, benighted, and astray we 
 are without them. And there is true wisdom also in that power of the heart which 
 enables us to discern between the false prophet and the true, the false Christ and the 
 true. Such wisdom may be found in the heart of a little child or of a man oa the 
 common level of humanity, when it is utterly lacking among many who lead the world 
 in temporal affairs. Pull of darkness and duplicity must the minds of these leaders in 
 Jerusalem have been when they lacked the power of seeing that Jeremiah, unpromising 
 as his outward appearance might be, was indeed a prophet of God. — Y. 
 
 Ver. 17. — The serpents which cannot he charmed. I. There are serpents which can 
 BE CHARMED. Scrpent-charmiug must have been a not unfamiliar sight to the Israelites 
 (see ' The Land and the Book,' pp. 154, 155). This means, taking the figure away, that 
 there were many great and pressing evils which lay within human resources to mitigate, 
 perhaps to remove. Thus when sore famine I'ell upon Canaan, Jacob found com, though 
 he had to send as far as Egypt. The resources thus employed are, no doubt, exceptional, 
 and need peculiar skill and aptitude to discover and use them; but still — and this is the 
 thing of importance here to rerrember — they are within the reach of the natural man. 
 To say that necessity is the mother of invention is only another way of saying that 
 there are serpents which can be charmed. Man stands upon the known and the 
 achieved, that he may reach forward and win something more from the unknown. Not 
 everybody can charm a serpent, but some can. So there are a few physicians, one here 
 and another there, who have wonderful skill in the cure of special dijicases. Part of the 
 ills of human life can be swept away by wise and timely legislation. Epidemics may 
 be restrained and made comparatively mild by cleanliness and attention to sanitary 
 rules. Ills which in one age have been thought beyond remedy, in the next age are 
 perfectly understood as to their causes and their cure. 
 
 II. There are serpents which cannot be charmed. We may assume that it was 
 so literally ; that there were certain serpents which proved obdurate against every wile. 
 And the danger of the serpent's bite would in such an instance become most dreadful, 
 just from this verj' insensibility to everything in the shape of a charm. An enemy was 
 to be brought on Israel whom no bribe, no promise, no art of persuasion whatever, 
 iiDuld turn back. If he was to be turned back, it must be by main force or by Divine 
 interposition. So we have to consider that, whatever ills we may succeed in neutralizing, 
 there are others still left behind, unabated in their deadly efficiency by any resources 
 we have in ourselves. It matters little that we can charm some serpents, if we cannot 
 charm all. If there be left only one superior to our skill, that one is enough to ruin all. 
 The most successful charmer among us will discover his match at last. He may charm 
 poverty away, only to find, in a little while, ennui and possession without enjoyment. 
 He may have the experience indicated in Prov. xxiii. 32 : he may charm away, as he 
 thinks, the peril of the wine-cup, and exult in assured mastery, only to discover at last 
 that the foe with whom he has been trifling " bites like a serpent, and stings like an 
 adder." So a man may achieve most of his purposes, charming away, as it were, 
 obstacles on every side, only to find in the end that he cannot charm his conscience, 
 that it Will not be silent and sleep before the memory of much wrong-doing. 
 
 III. There are serpents which can be more than charmed. There is much 
 in the conjecture that the reference to the serpent here is suggested by the mention of 
 Dan in the previous verse. Jacob's word for his son Dan was, "Dan shall be a 
 serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horse heels, so that his rider 
 shall fall backwards" (Gen. xlix. 17). But we shall do wisely in considering the 
 
238 
 
 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [en. viii. 1—22. 
 
 reference as having a deeper connection with the work of him who is the serpent from 
 the beginning (Rev. xx. 2). All the painful serpent-bites of life, all the deadly ills, 
 proceed from the brood which in some way or other originate with him. And thus 
 thinkin" of him, the great dragon, the devil, the adversary, we must needs think of the 
 correspmidingly profound work of Jesus over against his work. Jesus was a serpent- 
 charmer ; and bis efBcacy as a charmer is most graciously manifested in the miracles 
 which he wrought to remove physical defect, disease, and death. These miracles had m 
 them something of the nature of a charm. They did not destroy the maleficent povver, 
 but they curbed it, made it for the time dormant and inoperative. But after having 
 done all these miracles, Jesus is seen proceeding to a work which is more than that ot 
 the charmer. He who was lilted up to draw all men to him makes the victim of the 
 serpent-bite impervious, for all future existence, to any further danger. The bite may 
 come, in the sense of inflicting pain, but the peril is past. The serpent-poison becomes 
 neutralized by the vigour and purity of that eternal life which is in Christ Jesus the 
 Lord.— Y. 
 
 Ver. 20.—" The life is more than the meat." After the subsidence of the Deluge, there 
 was a promise given to Noah that, " wliilo the earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest, 
 . . . summer and winter, . . . shall not cease." Scanning the surface of the Scripture nar- 
 rative, it appears as if this promise had not been kept, seeing there is a record of several 
 notable and protracted famines ; and moreover, we have only too good reason to 
 suppose that millions in the successive ages of the world have perished from famine. 
 We must hold, however, to God's promise having been kept in the spirit of it ; its non- 
 fulfilment, so far as human experience is concerned, must arise from some other cause 
 than the unfaithfulness of God. An inquiry into these painful experiences is suggested 
 by the utterance of this verse. The meaning seems to be that harvest and summer, 
 the annual gathering of the corn and the wine and the oil, have nevertheless, in some 
 way or other, left the people who should have profited by them, unprovided for. The 
 words may be applied in two ways. 1. When there is an actual gathering of harvest. 
 There may be an abundance, even a superabundance, of the fruits of the earth, and j'et 
 those who sowed and planted, watched and watered, may not get the slightest benefit. 
 Now, not to get the expected benefit from these things means, if not destruction of 
 life, at least a considerable impairment of it ; for natural life depends upon them. And 
 ch. v. 15 — 24 casts no small light on this state of things. There the mighty men from 
 the north are spoken of, and Israel is addressed as follows : — " They shall eat up thine 
 harvest, and thy bread, which thy sons and thy daughters should eat : . . . they shall 
 eat up thy vines and thy fig trees." Strangers pluck the rich fruit of the husbandman's 
 toil, and he himself is trampled into privation, reduced to the bare subsistence of a slave 
 itaken in war. Thus we see how God may lay before a man that which through the 
 sin and folly of the recipient he may not be able to use. Think of the prosperous man 
 in the parable, who had such abundant crops that he must needs build bigger barus, 
 and yet in the very day of his pride was taken away. What is wealth unless God, 
 in the prosecution of his own wise purposes, chooses to give security in the possession 
 of that wealth ? 2. When the harvest itself fails. The harvest season may pass and the 
 summer close, only to leave men with empty garners, in hunger and despair. Whither 
 shall they turn, when drought, blasting, and mi Idew, palmerworm and locust, cankerworm 
 and caterpillar, have done their work? Then it is that "those who are slain with the sword 
 are better than those who are slain with hunger, for these pine away, stricken through 
 for want of the fruits of the field " (Lam. iv. 9). Thus, whether the harvest be given 
 or withheld, the practical result is the same. The people are not saved. God may 
 bring the harvest to a complete and beautiful maturity, may, so to speak, save the 
 harvest — and " save the harvest " is not an unfamiliar expression to those who are 
 engaged in the vicissitudes of agriculture — only to teach thereby a more impressive 
 lesson to the ijeoplo who live so that they cannot be kept safe. What force there is in 
 the expression of this verse if we take it to mean, " The corn is saved ; the vintage is 
 saved; the olives are saved ; all the pleasant fruits of the land are saved; but we are 
 not saved " ! The life is more than the bodily nourishment, and when men will not take 
 heed to the higher things which belong to the life, it is just what might be expected 
 that they should have disappointments iu the loiver things which belong to the nourish- 
 
CH. vin. 1— 22.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 2;:9 
 
 ment. The true material wealth of every land, when we get at the substance of it, lies 
 in what its soil produces ; and when men boast, as they are apt to do, that their own 
 land has gotten them their wealth, it is needful that Jehovah should show them how 
 completely he controls the roots and fruits of everything that he has made to grow for 
 human food. No wonder evil comes to those who do not say in their hearts, " Let us 
 now fear Jehovah our God, that giveth rain, both the former and the latter, in his 
 season : he reserveth unto us' the appointed weeks of the harvest " (ch. v. 24). Malachi 
 puts into striking words the fundamental reason for the sore complaint we have been 
 considering, and the way in which it may be brought to cease (ch. iii. 9 — 11). — Y. 
 
 Vers. 21, 22. — Why the hurt of Israel is not healed. I. It is not for want of 
 EARNESTLY CALLING ATTENTION TO THE HURT. Jeremiah had Wearied and vexed his 
 fellow-countrymen by his persistent warnings. In ver. 21 he insists on how the hurt of 
 Israel had become his hurt. In one sense he was not hurt, for he had kept clear of all 
 idolatrous and unjust ways ; he was in a different service and different kind of occupation. 
 But though separated thus, he was also united even as a member to the rest of the body, 
 and had to suffer where he had not sinned. His fellow-countrymen, perhaps, said to him, 
 in substance if not in so many words, " Leave us to go our way, and go you yours ; if 
 we sin, we sin, and if we suffer, we suffer, and it is no concern to any but ourselves." 
 The sinner in his suffering and his heart-corruption must be a cause of great trouble to 
 those who are trying to serve God. They cannot go by on the other side and leave 
 him. No matter how self-occupied one may have been before he came under the 
 control of the Divine will, afterwards he must occupy himself with such things as 
 concern the spiritual health and blessedness of all mankind. Jeremiah sets us a great 
 example in thus speaking of himself as being individually wounded. If sinners continue 
 careless, impenitent, incredulous as to the wrath of God and their pitiable state of 
 alienation from him, there is all the more need that God's people should feel instead of 
 them. These Israelites could not say they were left without warning and urgent 
 remonstrance, for the man upon whom the business of warning had been laid cried and 
 mourned over the troubles of others, because in a very deep sense they were his own. 
 Vain, therefore, was it for the people, in after years, amid the gloom of exile and 
 bereavement, to say they had not been properly warned. 
 
 II. It was not for want of a medicament. In wounds of the body, Israel 
 knew where to go. They found balm in Gilead, and Gilead was not far off, even 
 supposing they had always to fio there to get the balm. Balm of Gilead might be made 
 to grow nearer than Gilead. Thus we see the medicament was easily procured — a Very 
 important consideration. The incense for the altar they brought all the way from 
 Sheba, but the balm for healing grew much nearer. Easiness of procurement, however, 
 would have been little without efficiency. A certain remedy brought from the ends of 
 the earth is better than a doubtful one near to home ; only, of course, tliere must be 
 foresight to lay in a stock, so that it will be at hand when wanted. Evidently this 
 balm of Gilead which grew within Israelite territory was a famous and trusted balm. 
 Only some popular and widely known agent of healing would have served the purpose 
 of the prophet for quoting here. And is it not plain that the God who thus provided 
 for bodily wounds a balm so easily obtained and so efficient in its action, might also 
 be trusted to provide an available and thorough cure for the worst of spiritual ills ? 
 Assuredly the prophet means that an affirmative and encouraging answer is to be 
 given to his question. There is balm in Gilead. There is peace for the guilty con- 
 science, purity for the turbid and defiled imagination, strength for the weakened will. 
 The springs of all our pollution and pain can be dried up, and their place know them 
 no more for ever. 
 
 HI. It was not for want of a physician. The medicament is good, but it may 
 require to be applied by a skilful and experienced hand. The physician can do nothing 
 without his medicaments, and the medicaments are oftentimes nothing without the 
 physician. A physician is needed to prepare the way for saving truth, to apply it in 
 its most efficacious order, and to press it home in close and vigorous contact with that 
 which has to be healed. The balm of Gilead is not given that it may be trifled with, 
 that it may film over deep evils with a deceptive appearance of removal. In applying 
 that balm there may have to be pain, intense pain for a time, in order that a worse 
 
'/lO 
 
 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMFAH. [en. ix. 1- 
 
 pain may be for ever taken away. The pain coming from self-indulgence 'must be 
 succeeded by the pain coming from self-denial. Men have to discover that the pains of 
 sin are the smitings of God, and when they have made this discovery they will be in 
 a fair way to learn that only he who smites can also heal. Do not let us unjustly 
 complain of incurable ills ; let us rather confess that we are much in the condition of 
 the poor woman who, aftSr spending much on many physicians, found, by a simple 
 faith touching the true Source of healing, what she had lofig vainly sought. 
 
 IV. The reason plainly lay with the people themselves. They would listen 
 to no warning. Balm was offered, and the physician's skill to apply it, but they would 
 not come to be healed. They preferred the pleasures of sin along with its risks and 
 pains. That their state was bad they knew, but they believed it was not near so bad as 
 the prophet made it out to be. Only physicians can tell how many cases of bodily disease 
 might be cured if the sick were willing to go to the root of the nratter, and mend their 
 habits as to eating and driuking, working and playing. Ignorance, indifference, 
 prejudice, and unblushing lust of the flesh lie at the bottom of much bodily disease, 
 explaining both how it originates and how it continues. And similar causes operate 
 with regard to such ills as afflict the consciousness of the entire man. Sinners must 
 have a will to go to Jesus if they expect healing and life, and then life more abun- 
 dantly.— Y. 
 
 EXPOSITION. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Ver. 1. — The Hebrew more correctly 
 attaches this verse to ch. viii. Oh that my 
 head were waters, etc. 1 A quaint oimceit, it 
 may be said. But "if we have been going 
 on pace for pace with the passion before, this 
 sudden conversion of a strong-felt metaphor 
 into something to be actually realized in 
 nature, is strictly and strikingly natural." So 
 Bishop Doane, quoting, by way of illustration, 
 Shakespeare's 'Richard II.,' "meditating 
 on his own utter annihilation as to royalty : " 
 
 " Oh that I were a mockery king of snow, 
 To melt before the sun of Bolingbroke 1 " 
 
 The tone of complaint continues In the 
 following verse, though the subject is 
 different. 
 
 Vers. 2 — 22. — Complaint of the treachery 
 and folly of the people; lamentation over 
 their consequences. 
 
 Ver. 2. — A lodging place of wayfaring 
 men ; a " khan "or " caravanserai," to use 
 the terms now so familiar from Eastern 
 travel, where " wayfaring men " could at 
 least find shelter, and the means of preparing 
 their provisions. Comp., besides the parallel 
 passage in Ps. Iv. 6, 7, our own Cowper's 
 fine reminiscence of Jeremiah : "Oh for a 
 lodge in some' vast wilderness ! " etc. Adul- 
 terers, . . . treacherong men (see ch. ii. 20 ; 
 iii. 8, 9; iii. 20; v. 11). 
 
 Ver. 3.— And they bend their tongues, etc. ; 
 rather, and they bend their tongue as their 
 bow offalsehood, and they use not their valour 
 in (liierally, according^ to) good faith. There 
 is a Had, 4**i-n irony in these words, which 
 remind us of Isaiah's (v. 22) " valiant men^ 
 for drinking wine," and of our own prophet's 
 
 repetition of himself in ch. xxiii. 10, " Their 
 valour is — untruth." A leos pointed form 
 of the same figurative statement is tliat of 
 the psalmist in Ps. Ixiv. 3. Upon the earth ; 
 rather, in the land. The Authorized Version 
 pays very little regard to the context in its 
 rendering of the ambiguous word eref. 
 
 Ver. 4.— Take ye heed every one of his 
 neighbour. Such was tlie result of clinging 
 to an unprogressive religion — one which 
 refused to be spiritualized by the prophets. 
 Certainly, if the established religion was so 
 inefficacious, it was self-condemned. Here 
 we find the prophet depicting a state of 
 society in which the elementary bonds are 
 already dissolved, and suspicion becomes the 
 natural attitude even of a good man. We 
 find a very similar picture in the last chapter 
 of Micah — a chapter, it is true, which stands 
 apart from the rest of the book, as it implies 
 a greater development of wickedness than 
 the rest of Micah and the contemporary 
 prophecies of Isaiah would lead us to expect. 
 Are these prophetic descriptions just and 
 accurate ? We may allow something, no 
 doubt, for the warmth of feeling natural to 
 every human preacher, even under the influ- 
 ence of inspiration ; but we must not allow 
 ourselves to explain away the obvious mean- 
 ing of the prophets. The latter and their 
 disciples were "the salt" of their country; 
 and. in proportion as their influence declined, 
 the natural effects of a non-moral, purely 
 ritualistic religion showed themselves on a 
 larger scale. Every brother; i.e. every 
 fellow-tribesman or fellow-citizen. Will 
 utterly supplant. There is nothing in the 
 context to suggest an allusion to Gen. xxvii. 
 36 (Jacob). The verb has its common sense 
 of deceiving. The tense should be the 
 
CH. IX. 1—26.] THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 
 
 241 
 
 pjesent, not the future, both here and in the 
 next verse. Will walk ; rather, goeth about 
 (see ch. vi. 28). 
 
 Ver. 5. — They have taught their tongue, 
 etc. ; again an intimation of the unnatural- 
 ness (in the higher seuse) of vice (oomp. 
 oil ch. ii. 33). 
 
 Ver. 6. — Thine habitation, etc. Aoooiding 
 to St. Jerome, this is addressed to the 
 prophet; but it is better to follow the 
 Targum, which makes the clause refer to 
 the Jewish people. The connection is (as 
 Dr. Payne Smith points out), " Trust no one ; 
 for thou dwellest surrounded by deceit on 
 every side." 
 
 Ver. 7. — I will melt them. It is the same 
 woril as that used iu Mai. iii. 3 of the 
 " refiner and purifier of silver." Purification, 
 not destruction, is the object of the judg- 
 ment which is threatened! Strange that 
 mercy should find place, after the offence of 
 tlie criminal hiis been found so grievous 1 
 But, lest we should expect too favourable 
 an issue, the prophet adds, in the name of 
 Jehovah, For how shall I do's or rather. 
 Mow should I act ? How otherwise should I 
 act ? The continuation is a little doubtful. 
 The Hebrew has, " by reason of the daughter 
 of my people ; " but this can hardly be right. 
 We naturally expect something to justify 
 the preceding statement. The reading of 
 the Septuagiut answers to our anticipations 
 by rendering airh irpoffdnrov Trovtjptas Bvyarphs 
 AooS fiov, and this is confirmed by the 
 parallel passage ch. vii. 12 (comp. oh. xi. 17 ; 
 xxxii. 32). 
 
 Ver. 8. — (Comp. Ps. Iv. 21.) As an arrow 
 shot out ; rather, as a sharpened arrow ; but 
 this is based on the marginal reading, 
 and is itself a slightly forced rendering. 
 The Hebrew text (i.e. the consonants), and 
 also the Septuagint and Yulgate, have " as 
 a murderous arrow." 
 
 Ver. 10.— This and the next six verses 
 contain a description of the sad fate of the 
 sinful land and people. At first the prophet 
 speaks as if he saw it all spread out before 
 him. Then, in the cliaracter of a surprised 
 spectator, he inquires how this came to 
 pass, and receives the Divine answer, that 
 it is the doom of self-willed rebellion. The 
 habitations should rather be pastures. The 
 country, once covered with grazing flocks 
 and herds, is now so utterly waste that even 
 the birds cannot find subsistence. 
 
 Ver. 11. — I will make, etc. Notice how 
 the utterances of the prophets stand side by 
 Bide with those of Jehovah. A true prophet 
 has no personal views; so that whetlier his 
 revelations are expressed in the one form or 
 the other makes no difference. Dragons ; 
 rather, jaekals. 
 
 Ver. 12. — For what the land perisheth. 
 \. closer rendering would be more forcible : 
 
 JEREMIAH. 
 
 Wherefore hath the land perixhed, is it 
 hurned up like the wilderness with none that 
 pasHclh through? 
 
 Ver. 13. — Tliere is no answer, for the wis« 
 men are ashamed (ch. viii. 9) ; so Jeliovali 
 himself takes up his speech. My law which 
 I set before them; not in reference to the 
 publication of the Law on Sinn!, but, as 
 Keil rightly points out, to the oral exhibi- 
 tion of the Tordh by the prophets. In either 
 walked therein ; viz. in the Law. (On tlie 
 precise contents of the term here rendered 
 " Law," see note on ch. viii. 8.) 
 
 Ver. 14. — Imagination; rather, stiMorn- 
 ness (see on ch. iii. 17). Baalim. Tho 
 Hebrew has "the Baalim;" pructically 
 equivalent to "the idol-gods" (see on ch. 
 ii. 8). Which their fathers taught them. 
 " Which " refers to both clauses, i.e. to the 
 obstinacy and the Baal-worship. 
 
 Ver. 15. — I wiU feed them, . . . with worm- 
 wood. A figure for the bitter privations 
 of captivity (comp. Lam. iii. 15, " He hath 
 filled me with bitterness, he hath made me 
 drunken with wormwood "). Wormwood and 
 gall — i.e. the poppy (Tristram) — are com- 
 bined again in Deut. xxix. 17. 
 
 Ver. 16. — I will scatter them also, etc. 
 (comp. Deut. xxviii. 64; Lev. xxvi. 33). 
 I win send a [the] sword after them. Even 
 in the land of their captivity they shall 
 have no rest, A special prophecy to tho 
 same effect was addressed to the Jewish 
 fugitives in Egypt (ch. xliv. 27). In both 
 cases it is the unbelievers who are referred 
 to; the nation as such was, through its 
 Divine calling, indestructible. 
 
 Vers. 17 — 22. — A new scene is introduced. 
 To give an idea of the greatness of tlie 
 impending blow, all the skilled mourners 
 are sent for to raise the cry of lamentation. 
 But no, this is not enouah. So large will 
 be the number of the dead that all tho 
 women must take their part in the doleful 
 ofiice. The description of the mourning 
 women is as true to modem as to ancient 
 life in the East. " And, indeed," says Dr. 
 Shaw, a thoughtful traveller and an orna- 
 ment of Oxford in the dark eighteenth 
 century, "they perform their parts with 
 such proper sounds, gestures, and com- 
 motions, that tliey rarely fail to work up 
 the assembly into some extraordinary pitcii 
 of thoughtfulness and sorrow" ('Travels 
 in Barbary and the Levant,' 2nd edit., p. 
 242; comp. Amos v. 16; Eccles. xii. 5). 
 
 Ver. 18. — That our eyes may run down, 
 etc.; a justification of this artificial system. 
 The piercing notes of the hired mourners 
 are to relieve the sorrow of the afflicted by 
 forcing for it a vent. 
 
 Ver. 19. — Forsaken; rather, left. Our 
 dwellings have cast us out; rather, they 
 have cast down our dwellings. 
 
242 
 
 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [oh. ix. 1—26. 
 
 Ver. 20. — Yet hear ; rather, jar hear. 
 _ Ver. 21. — Death is come up, etc. " Death," 
 equivalent to "pestilence" (as oh. xv. 2), 
 the most dreaded foe of a besieged popula- 
 tion. (For the figure, comp. Joel ii. 9.) 
 The children from without. The ideal of 
 Zechariah is that " the streets of the city 
 should be full of boys and girla playing 
 iu the streets thereof" (viii. 5). But the 
 pitiless reaper. Death, shall cut off even 
 " the playful child from the street " (so we 
 might render more literally). Streets, in 
 the parallel clause, meuns the " broad 
 places" where men congregate to tell the 
 news. 
 
 Ver. 22. — Speak, Thus saith the Lord. 
 These words are in three important respects 
 contrary to the style of Jeremiah : (1) such 
 a prefix as " speak " is unique ; (2) such a 
 phrase as " Dtu m is also unique in Jere- 
 miah; (3) when our prophet does use the 
 formula " dn: it is not at the beginning of a 
 verse. They are omitted by the Septuagint 
 translator, who presumably did not find tliem 
 in his copy of the Hebrew, and the text gains 
 greatly by their removal. The following 
 words are mistranslated in the Authorized 
 Version, and should run, not even, but and, 
 the carcases of men shall fall, etc. It is most 
 improbable, however, that a fresh Divine 
 revelation should begin with " and." With 
 otiier points, tlie word rendered "speak" 
 would mean "pestilence." Possibly the 
 word fell out of ver. 21, where it would find 
 an excellent place in the second clause (as 
 an explanatory parallel to "death," as in 
 Ps. Ixxviii. 50), which would thus obtain 
 greater roundness and symmetry. As the 
 handful ; i.e. as thickly as one heap of corn 
 succeeds another under the deft hand of the 
 reaper. 
 
 Vers. 23, 24. — These two- verses were 
 hardly composed for their present position, 
 though a connection may, of course, be 
 thought out for them. Perhaps a com- 
 parison of Hab. iii. 17, 18, may help us. 
 There the prophet looks forward to a com- 
 plete desolation resulting from the Chaldean 
 invasion, and yet declares that he can eveu 
 exult in his God. So here. All subjects of 
 boasting have been proved untrustworthy ; 
 but one remains— not wisdom, not valour, 
 not riches, but the knowledge of the re- 
 vealed God. 
 
 Ver. 24. — The knowledge of God relates 
 to three leading attributes, the combination 
 of which is very instructive. First, loving- 
 Jdndness. This is not to be understood in 
 a vague and general sense of the love of 
 God to all mankind ; the term has a special 
 connotation with regard to the Israelitish 
 people. God shows loving-kindness to those 
 with whom he is in covenant ; hence the com- 
 bination " loving-kindness and faithfulness " 
 
 (Pa. Ixxxv. 10, corrected version), and as 
 here (comp. Ps. v. 7, 8 ; xxxvi. 5, 6), " mercy 
 and righteousness." Israel is weak and 
 erring, and needs mercies of all sorts, which 
 Jehovah, in his "loving-kindness," vouch- 
 safes. Next,judgment, or justice. Jehovah 
 is a King, helps the poor and weak to their 
 right, and punishes the wrong-doer (comp. 
 oh. xxi. 12). Then, righteousness — a similar 
 but wider term. This is the quality 
 which leads its subject to adhere to a fixed 
 rule of conduct. God's rule is his covenant ; 
 hence "righteousness" shows itself in all 
 such acts as tend to the full realizing of the 
 covenant with Israel, including the " plan 
 of salvation." It is by no means to be con- 
 fined to exacting penalties and conferring 
 rewards. 
 
 Vers. 25, 26. — A further enforcement of 
 the doctrine that no outward privileges, if 
 dissociated from inward moral vitality, will 
 avail. 
 
 Ver. 25. — All them which are circumoised 
 with the uncircumcised ; rather, all the cir- 
 cumcised in uncircumcision, or, as Ewald 
 turns it, " all the uncircumcised-circum- 
 cised." But what does this enigmatical 
 expression signify? Hitzig, Graf, and 
 apparently Dr. Payne Smith, think that 
 it has a twofold meaning : tliat, as applied 
 to the Jews, it means circumcised in the 
 flesh, but not in heart, and, as applied to 
 the heathen, simply uncircumcised (the one- 
 half of the plirase neutralizing the other, 
 like "a knife without the blade," "angels 
 with horns and hoofs," etc.). The latter 
 meaning, however, is surely very impro- 
 bable, and it would only become necessary 
 if it were proved that circumcision was 
 practised by none of the nations mentioned 
 but the Jews. This is not the case. There 
 is no doubt that the Egyptians were cir- 
 cumcised in very early times (see the 
 drawing of a bas-relief in the Temple of 
 Ohunsu at Karnak, given by Dr. Ebers in 
 his 'Egypten und die Biicher Mosis'). 
 The assertion that only the priests under- 
 went the operation has no older evidence 
 than that of Origen (edit. Lommatzsch, 
 iv. 138), " in whose time it is quite possible 
 that the Egyptians, like the later Jews, 
 sought to evade a peculiarity which exposed 
 them to ridicule and contempt." As to 
 the Ammonites and Moabites, we have, un- 
 fortunately, no information. With regar I 
 to the Edomites, it is true that, according 
 to Josephus ('Antiq.,' xiii. 9, 1), they were 
 compelled to accept circumcision by John 
 Hyrcanus. But it is still quite possible 
 that, at an earlier period, tlie rite was 
 practised, just as it was among the ancient 
 Arabs, the evidence for which is beyond 
 question (see the writer's article, " Circum- 
 cision," in ' Encyclopsedia Biitannica,' 9th 
 
cii. IX. 1—26.] THE BOOK OF THE PllOPHET JEREMIAH. 
 
 243 
 
 edit.). (On the statement that "all these 
 [the] nations are uncircumcised," see below.) 
 Ver. 26. — All that are in the utmost 
 corners ; rather, all that are comer-clipped ; 
 i.e. that have the hair cut off about the 
 ears and temples. Herodotus tells us, 
 speaking of tlie Arabs, "Their practice is 
 to cut the hair in a ring, away from the 
 temples " (iii. 8); and among the representa- 
 tives of various nations, coloured figures of 
 whom are given in the tomb of Barneses III., 
 we find some with a square place shaved 
 just above the temples. The hair below 
 tliis shaven place wtis allowed to grow long, 
 and then plaited into a lock. It is to such 
 customs that Jeremiah alludes here and in 
 
 ch. XXV. 23; xlix. 32. A prohibition is 
 directed against them in the Levitioal Law 
 (Lev. xix. 27 ; xxi. 5). For all these nations 
 are auoiroumoised ; ratlier, all the nations, 
 etc. Another obscure expression. Does it 
 mean (taken together with ' the following 
 clause), " The Gentile peoples are uncircum- 
 cised in the flesh, and the people of Israel 
 is equally so in heart " ? But this does not 
 agree witli facts (see above, on ver. 2o). It 
 is safer, therefore, to assume that " uncir- 
 cumcised" is equivalent to "circumcised in 
 uncircumcision " (ver. 25). The next clause 
 will then simply give the most conspicuous 
 instance of this unspiritual obedience to a 
 mere form. 
 
 HOMILETICS. 
 
 Ver. 1. — Grief for others. I. The bight spirit in which to reoaed the miseries 
 OP OTHER MEN IS ONE OF GRIEF. A less Worthy spirit is too common. 1. Self -con- 
 gratulation. The evil condition of others is simply used as a dark background on 
 which to throw out in relief our own superiority. 2. Indifference — the spirit of Cain, 
 which cries, " Am I my brother's keeper ? " 3. Vindictiveness. Jeremiah denounceii 
 the sins of Israel, and threatened punishment. Yet he regarded these sins with no 
 Pharisaical sternness, and he could not contemplate the punishment of them witli 
 indignant satisfaction. Even if men are deserving punishment, that punishment is 
 still pitiable. Sin inclines a good man to sorrow as much as to anger. 
 
 II. Gribp for the miseries of others will be induced by a true appreciation 
 OF those miseries in a spirit of sympathy. 1. A spirit of sympathy. Jeremiah 
 felt the distresses of his nation as private sorrows. He was a true patriot. We must 
 feel one with men before we can rightly regard their troubles. 2. A true appreciation 
 of the miseries of men. Sympathy implies knowledge. We do not feel aright because 
 we do not take the trouble to inquire into the condition of others. Much apparent 
 hs-rd-heartedness arises simply from ignorance — but culpable ignorance. True sym- 
 pathy will feel distress for the real evil of others, not only for their transient moods. 
 It may need to weep over those who foolishly rejoice, and rejoice for those who weep 
 wholesome tears of penitence. 
 
 III. (Jrief for the miseries of others may be our best means for helping 
 THEM. Barren pity is a mockery when active aid is called for. 1. But genuine 
 sympathy is the strongest motive to help. 2. We can intercede in- prayer most 
 effectually when we make the sorrows of others our own. Christ's sorrow for men was 
 an important element in his intercession. 3. Sorrow for others may move them to 
 view their condition in a true light. Tears may avail where warnings are lost. We 
 have no greater motive to repentance than can be furnished by a right feeling of what 
 Christ has suffered through our sin. 
 
 IV. Grief for the miseries of others is not alone sufficient for their 
 deliverance. Jeremiah wept over his nation, yet the threatened desolation' was noc 
 averted. Christ wept over Jerusalem, but Jerusalem was destroyed. Though God is 
 " grieved " at our sin, we may fall into ruin. His grief is a strong inducement to 
 repentance, but every man must repent and seek deliverance for himself. 
 
 Vers. 4 — 8. — Falsehood. I. Sin culminates in universal falsehood. The 
 intellectual aspect of sin is untruth. Every sin is a lie. The triumph of sin is the 
 overthrow of all truth and trust. 
 
 II. False relations with God lead to false relations with men. Religion 
 and morality mutually influence each other. The worship of a god known to be false 
 develops a life of falseness. The hypocritical service of God is likely to be accompanied 
 by dishonest dealings with men. 
 
244 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JBREMfAH. [ch. ix. 1—26. 
 
 III. Habits of falsehood are fatal to human welfaeb. Society reposes on 
 trust. Commerce is impossible without good faith. Universal distrust must involve 
 social disintegration. The state, the family, all mutual organization, must then fall to 
 pieces. Falsehood only succeeds by abusing trust ; but by so doing it tends to destroy 
 trust ; and when it has accomplished this end it will be ineffectual. Universal lying 
 would be useless to everybody. 
 
 IV. Falsehood is begakded by God as a peculiarly wicked sin. For this 
 especially the people must be punished (ver. 9). Deceit amongst men is a sin against 
 God, who is the Truth eternal. It is a spiritual sin, a sin most near to the diabolical 
 (John viii. 34). It is a sin which is peculiarly injurious to the spiritual nature of the 
 sinner, tending to destroy conscience (Matt. vi. 23). It involves both injustice and 
 cruelty towards men. 
 
 Ver. 9. — A visitation of God. I. Chastisement is a visitation of God. The 
 phrase " a visitation of God " has been too much confined to calamitous events. God 
 visits us every hour in gentleness and mercy. Still, it is important to recognize that 
 he also comes in chastisement. He comes, does not simply order, but himself executes 
 chastisement. 1. We should recognize the Divine visitation. Outwardly the trouble 
 may have a human origin. The calamities of the Jews arose out of a Chaldean 
 invasion, but the prophets saw above and behind that invasion a Divine purpose. 
 God was in those armies from Babylon. God is in our troubles. 2. This fact should 
 make us dread to incur chastisement. We cannot resist it, for if God is in it, all his 
 might and majesty are there. 3. This fact should make us submit to the chastise- 
 ment when it comes as Just and good. Its origin is not Satanic, but Divine. If God 
 is in it he must ever be true to his character ; his fiercest anger can never break the 
 bounds of what is just and fair; he must always be ready to show mercy when this is 
 possible (Hab. ill. 2). 
 
 II. Chastisement is determined by the personal relations between God and 
 MEN. It is God's soul being avenged. God's vengeance is quite unlike ours ; it is never 
 cruel or intemperate ; it is always governed by justice and consistent with unchanging 
 love. It is, however, more than judicial punishment. It is an action arising out of 
 jjersonal feeling and determined by our persoual offences against God. Sin is more 
 than transgression of Law, — it is ungrateful rebellion against God ; and punishment is 
 more than the cold vindication of Law, — it is the result of the provoked anger of God. 
 Such anger is right, for it is not kindness but weakness that allows a father to receive 
 insult from a child unmoved. The greater the love, the greater will be the righteous 
 anger when this is wronged. 
 
 III. Chastisement is necessitated by the conduct of men. It is " for such things" 
 and "on such a nation." God does not love vengeance. He does not send punish- 
 ment as an arbitrary exercise of sovereignty. Therefore our chastisement is virtually 
 in our own hands. Even after meriting it, we alone are to blame if the full force of 
 the blow falls upon us. For God has provided a way of escape, and offers forgiveness 
 to all who repent and submit. Therefore it is foolish for men to complain of their 
 hard lot in falling under the storm of a visitation of God in wrath. 
 
 IV. The necessity for chastisement may be recognized by cub common 
 INTELLIGENCE. The text is an appeal to reason, a question which unbiassed minds 
 could answer only in one way. If chastisement is not seen to be reasonable, it must 
 be either (1) because the depth of guilt is not felt, or (2) distorted views of chastise- 
 ment have been entertained. This will be such as befits the offence. 
 
 V. The personal characteristics op chastisement involve personal elements 
 IN redemption. Hence the necessity for a " propitiation." Thus Christ' redeems us 
 by becoming a Propitiation for our sins (1 John ii. 2). 
 
 Vers. 12 — 16. — TTie causes of national disaster. I. It is profitable to inquire 
 INTO the causes OF NATIONAL DISASTER. 1. Intellectually, this is a subject of profound 
 interest, dealing with fundamental principles and the vast issues to which they lead 
 when working on the largest scale. 2. Morally, it is of great practical importance for 
 the warning it supplies to all nations. The sight of terrible ruin rushing down upon 
 a people is appalling, but the awe with which it strikes us will not have much whole- 
 
CH. IX. 1—26.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 245 
 
 some effect till we have an intelligent appreciation of the sources from which it comes, 
 and are thus enabled to watch them and guard against them. 
 
 II. Spiritoal wisdom is requisite fob the discernment op the causes op 
 NATIONAL DISASTER. They do uot lie on the surface. No study is more difficult than 
 that of the philosophy of history. Unless the mind is awake to spiritual facts, the 
 inquiry will not go beyond secondary causes, or attempting more will commit injustice. 
 The prophets needed inspiration for this as much as for the prediction of future events. 
 No mere literary historian is fit for the work. Only a prophet can be fully equal to 
 it, and other men can only pursue it with safety when they walk in his footsteps. 
 Hence the immense value of the historical elements of the Old Testament to the 
 statesman. 
 
 III. The chief causes op national disaster are moral. Material causes are 
 visible on the surface, such as famine, plague, invasion, revolution. Political causes 
 lying deeper may be easily discerned, such as diplomatic complications, class divisions, 
 violent changes in popular sentiment. But beneath all such influences there are great 
 moral causes. 1. These act through providence. God takes note of the conduct of 
 nations, judges, ministers. 2. They also act (i»Vec%. Luxury is enervating ; injustice 
 destroys the confidence of a people in its government, etc. 
 
 IV. Once revealed, the moral causes op national disaster are simple and 
 intelligible. The prophets make these clear to us in the case of their own nation. 
 1. Negatively, the causes were traced to disobedience to the will of God, culpable because 
 this was well understood — " set before them." 2. Positively, they were found in 
 wilful stubbornness and demoralizing idolatry. God was the shield of his people. 
 When he was forsaken they were defenceless. Nations are only secure while they are 
 governed by the will of God, by justice and humanity. Godlessness, bearing fruit in 
 falsehood, cruelty, and vicious lawlessness of passion, is a sure source of national ruin. 
 The state of the public conscience is more, important to a nation than that of its army. 
 
 Vers. 23, 24. — False boasting and true confidence. I. False boasting. 1. We are 
 inclined to overvalue our own, possessions. The wise man thinks wisdom the one 
 source of security, the strong man strength, the rich man riches. That bulks most 
 largely which lies most near to us. 2. The very good that is in a thing may deceive 
 us by tempting us to overvalue it. Wisdom, strength, and riches are all good in their 
 way. Trust in them is very different from trust in fraud and violence. Not regarding 
 them as enemies, we are in danger of confiding in them as saviours instead of simply 
 employing them as servants. 3. The number of earthly resources leads us to assume 
 that security must be found in some of them at least ; for when one fails we can fall back 
 on another. But if the best do not protect in the extremity of danger, will inferior 
 aids suffice? Wisdom is greater than strength, and strength than riches. If wisdom 
 fails, what can the rest do for us? 4. The variety of advantages contained in earthly 
 resources deceives us as to their value. Wisdom promises to outwit the enemy or 
 devise some means of evading ruin. Yet the wisdom of the wisest Jews was defeated 
 by those who came from the land of "the wise;" and how can it avail against the 
 supreme wisdom? Strength as physical prowess and national power may be imposing 
 and yet not almighty. Samson was weak under a woman's wiles. Goliath fell before 
 the sling of the stripling David. Kiohes may buy much. They could not prevent 
 the Chaldean invasion. They cannot buy off sickness, disappointment, death, the 
 punishment of sin. Nebuchadnezzar i'ound the possession of the world no security 
 against the most humiliating affliction (Dan. iv. 28 — 33). The rich fool was mocked 
 by his own prudence (Luke xii. 16 — 21). 
 
 II. 1'^uE CONFIDENCE. 1. This is to be sought in the knowledge of Ood. Wisdom, 
 the best of earthly resources, is not sufficient for protection, but it is the type of a 
 higher wisdom, wherein is the secret of safety. This is a wisdom which concerns itself, 
 not with petty devices, subtle schemes, cunning, and cleverness, but with the highest 
 knowledge, bearing fruit in " the fear of God " (Ps. cxi. 10). We must know God to 
 trust him. 2. The knowledge of God will reveal to us the special grounds for 
 confidence in him, viz. (1) loving-kindness, disposing him to help the needy; (2) 
 justice, making it apparent that he will concern himself in human affairs as the King 
 ruhng all into order ; and (3) righteousness, showing that in the broadest way he will 
 
246 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [en. ix. 1—26. 
 
 maintain the right. Hence it will be apparent that God can and will help us only in 
 accordance with these principles of his character ; and we must know them, not only to 
 learn thereby to confide in him, but also to bring ourselves into that spirit which will 
 justify us in expecting his mercy, i.e. reconciliation to his love, submission to his 
 government, and obedience to his righteous will. 
 
 Vers. 25, 26. — Impartial justice. I. Special privileges bo not inteefebe with 
 THE IMPAETIAL EXERCISE OF DiviKE JUSTICE. Judah is specially privileged, and prizes 
 circumcision as a seal of the peculiar favour of Heaven (Gen. xvii. 9 — 14). Yet 
 Jiidah must take its place in the indiscriminate catalogue of corrupt nations. If 
 privileges are noted in God's exercise of justice, this can only be as an aggravation of 
 guilt. The citizens of favoured nations, the heirs of rank and wealth, persons whose 
 lives have been peculiarly successful and unvisited with the usual amount of trouble, 
 all stand in this position. Their present happy condition is no guarantee for favour 
 in the day of Divine judgment, but, on the contrary, a reason for regarding the 
 ingratitude of sin as, in their case, the more culpable. 
 
 II. The observance op external ordinances has no influence on the impartial 
 EXERCISE OF DivTNE JUSTICE. Their utility is solely as regards their effect on men. 
 They are profitable only in so far as they assist the corresponding spiritual acts, which 
 are all that God takes note of (Col. ii. 11). The circumcised in body who are not 
 circumcised in heart will suffei: just as if they had never been circumcised at all. The 
 ordinance without the spirituality is an offence rather than a pleasing thing. It shows 
 knowledge ; it is a mockery to God. This must be so, (1) because God is spirit, and 
 can only be served spiritually ; and (2) because the highest justice is concerned with 
 thoughts, motives, deeds of the soul, rather than with the ambiguous actions of the 
 outer life. 
 
 III. No EXCEPTIONS WILL BE MADE TO THE IMPARTIAL EXERCISE OP DlVINB JUSTICE. 
 
 All kinds of nations are classed together. Cultivated Egyptians and wild Arabs, scrupu- 
 lous Jews and idolatrous Ammonites, all come before the same judgment-bar, all have 
 the same fair trial and righteous sentence. 1. The heathen are not excluded from God's 
 judgment ; for (1) he is the God of all the earth, and of those who ignore him as well as 
 of those who recognize him ; (2) the heathen have a light of nature and a conscience 
 by which to guide their conduct ; (3) God's judgment is reasonable, and can adapt 
 requirement to opportunity, so that the heathen will have as just treatment as those 
 who are more privileged. 2. The Jews and professedly religious are not excluded. 
 Many people make an utterly unwarrantable assumption that their respectability, 
 position in the Church, etc., are such that the stern ordeal of the judgment is not for 
 them. In his vision of judgment Christ made no such exceptions (Matt. xxv. 31 — 46). 
 
 HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. 
 
 Ver. 1. — Vicarious grief. It is a common occurrence in the history of God's Church 
 that when general indifference to religious truth, to impending judgments, or depraved 
 spiritual condition, etc., is exhibited by the multitude, one or at most a few are sensible 
 of the nature and extent of the evil. Knowledge in such a case is nearly always 
 sorrow. This is intensified when remonstrances are unheeded, and efforts of reform are 
 defeated. It is the righteous man, the reformer, who is most affected by the situation, 
 and who feels most keenly the disgrace and danger. 
 
 I. In THE highest THINGS IT IS THE FEW THAT MUST PEEL FOR THE MANY. This haS 
 
 been the law from the beginning. It is a necessity of nature. It is a Divine appointment. 
 Pure feeling, even when painful, appears as a stewardship in one or two hearts, perhaps 
 in one alone. Joseph is moved to tears at the heartlessness of his brethren. Jonathan 
 is ashamed for his father Saul. Elijah laments in loneliness and despair the apostasy 
 of Israel. Jesus weeps over Jerusalem ; painfully wonders at the slowness of heart to 
 believe exhibited by his own disciples ; is " sore amazed " at the cup of iniquity he has to 
 drink. Jeremiah is here evidently in the same succession of vicarious suffering. We 
 see the same principle working in our own circle of acquaintance. Men, women, sorrow- 
 iug and suffering for others, who are themselves unconscious or are partially so. 
 
CH. IX. 1—26.] THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 2t7 
 
 II. What akb the countervailino advantages which light up this mystery ? 
 It cannot be wholly to the detriment of those in whom it is illustrated. The justice of 
 God is involved in the question. 1. The keenest joys spriny from or coincide with the 
 deepest, purest sorrows. 2. By-and-hy the sorrow will transfer itself to its objects, in 
 the (/rate of repentance, 3. In at least one illustrious instance, it exerts an atoning, 
 mediatorial influence for sinners with Ood. — M. 
 
 Vers. 2, 3. — The man of God's longing for seclusion. I. It is the natural recoil 
 OF A pure heart FROM WICKEDNESS. When the knowledge and love of God are in the 
 heart, sin appears more loathsome. The love of goodness will show itself in a hatred 
 of evil, and a desire to be separated from its workers. In some this love of God and 
 goodness overpowers even the natural attachments and ties of life. And it may be 
 carried to such an excess as to become a spiritual disease, in its way as sinful as the 
 causes that give rise to it. Monasticism has its root in a good and proper feeling 
 carried to excess, and without the restraining and modifying considerations that ought 
 to accompany it. In the instance before us (and like instances) — 
 
 II. It springs from no selfish motive. Jeremiah did not seek for the " luxury " 
 of grief; sufficient the wanderer's tent, or the comfortless caravanserai of the desert. 
 Nor has he any desire to attitudinize. It is a loneliness that shall not be conspicuous ; 
 a losing of himself amongst strangers who care not for him and notice him not. Nor 
 did he seek to evade the duties of life. If he separated himself, it was not to escape 
 from the impending dangers he had announced ; nor to intermit his spiritual activities. 
 " He wished there to weep for them " (Zinzendorf) ; to study the problem in fresh and 
 more hopeful aspects ; to recover his mental and spiritual calm ; to recruit his spiritual 
 energies for a new and more successful effort. So in our own day, the underlying 
 motive must ever determine the lawfulness, the character, and the continuance of our 
 spiritual retirements. 
 
 III. God DID NOT EEHUKE IT, but he did not see fit to gratify it. Here the 
 longing, if it ever grew into a prayer, was not answered, at least at once, or in the way 
 conceived of. Whilst the day of grace lasted, and God's people were open to repent 
 aud to be influenced by his words, he is detained amongst them. When all possibilities 
 were exhausted, then the dungeon of the king's prison or the shame of the Egyptian 
 exile might serve the purpose. But even then the essential craving was satisfied. There 
 is a longing that is its own answer. To some it is given to experience solitude and 
 spiritual detachment in the midst of the busy throng of transgressors for whom they 
 yet ceaselessly work. This centrifugal tendency may be productive of greater concen- 
 tration, real compassion, and capacity for usefulness, when it is controlled and overcome 
 by a sense of overmastering responsibility, and a " heart's desire and prayer to God for 
 Israel, that they may be saved." — M. 
 
 Vers. 2 — 6. — The self-opposition and futility of the sinner's life. A strong argument 
 against the practice of a thing may often be found in the supposition that it should 
 become universal. This is valid in the case of the practices and desires of wicked men. 
 The idea of Hobbes concerning the original state of human society is ingenious and 
 conceivable from this very reason, were it not contradicted by the world's history. 
 
 I. One sin entails another, and crime leads to crime. (Ver. 3.) 
 
 II. Universal wickedness produces universal distrust and misery. (Ver. 5.) 
 
 III. Evil-doing is a weary and fruitless toil. 
 
 IV. Its futility culminates when it robs a man of the knowledge and fellow- 
 ship OF God, and even of the desire for them. (Ver. 6.) — M. 
 
 Vers. 12 — 16. — The affliction of Qod's professed people an enigma to he explained. 
 I. The mystery. This consists partly in the particular subjects of it, and partly in 
 the degree to which it has gone. It is spoken of here prophetically as a future thing 
 that has already taken place ; and the problem is stated accordingly as a realization, and 
 not a thing only conceived of. Prom time to time the history of Israel and Judah 
 presents such scenes. It is by no means one of uninterrupted progress. There are 
 backward movements, standings still, interruptions, sharp and humiliating national 
 disasters, and long epochs of civil war, political nonentity, or foreign captivity. 1. Yet 
 
248 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [oh. ix. 1—26. 
 
 have there not heen many gracious promises to the contrary ? 2. On the whole, the past 
 reverses of Israel have heen retrieved, and a measure of continiious progress attained. 
 3. The special affliction referred to is unprecedented, and its result would almost appear 
 to he final. The history of the Christian Church and of individual believers presents 
 features analogous to this. The slow progress of the world's evangelization. The com- 
 parative absence of spiritual blessing in the midst of God's children. Their divisions, 
 scientific scepticism, or unscientific superstition, like parasites, strangling the tree of the 
 Church and draining away its life. Or the mystery appears in the individual Christian. 
 His creed is orthodox, his behaviour outwardly presenting little that is blameworthy ; 
 and yet worldly business is a constant series of reverses and dishonourable compromises ; 
 his influence is lost ; afilictions come upon him, and he cannot bear up under them; the 
 peace of Christ is not his ; etc. 
 
 II. The point of view fbom which it is to be eegakdbd. This very important to 
 be determined. The apostate people of God fail to realize the extent to which they 
 have fallen, and confound the formal rites of religion with its spirit and realiiy. 
 They at first attribute it to natural causes, or treat it as a temporary thing that will 
 right itself, etc. The heathen, looking on ab extra, imagine that the Jehovah of Israel 
 is no longer able to deliver, or that he has ceased to care for her. Here it is declared to 
 be a judgment upon apostasy — utter departure from truth and righteousness, and the 
 sterner because of that fact. And when we look at all the circumstances of the case, 
 this interfiretation seems more probable— to carry, as it were, its evidence with it. 
 The key, therefore, is for the most part an inward one ; at first, at any rate, wholly so. 
 This it is which constitutes the main element of difficulty in the troubles of God's 
 people. Hence the room there must be for mistakes, and the ease with which a wholly 
 erroneous view may be taken with superficial probability. And this suggests how 
 large a part of the Church's function is fulfilled in merely heing a problem and a 
 mystery to the carnal mind. When judgment begins at the house of God, it is time 
 for all attentively to look on and inquire why it is so. Greater perils lie on the side 
 of unfaithfulness than of mere unbelief.. And in the last resort conscience must be 
 appealed to In explanation of mysteries of reverse and trouble. Thereby God is 
 knocking at the door of the heart both of the world and the Church. It is of the 
 utmost importance that we settle the question between us and him. 
 
 III. An interpreter wanted. (Ver. 12.) When men are at a loss, or there is 
 radical difference of opinion, it is evident that some authority is required to decide the 
 question. The world and its canons are by the nature of the problem ruled out of 
 court. And the apostate is too blinded with his own sin and too callous through 
 repeated acts and prolonged habits of wrong-doing to be trusted in the matter. At 
 this juncture the advantage of revelation and of the prophetic office appears. So far 
 as God is concerned, the seer speaks with the authority of direct inspiration ; so far as 
 the culprit is concerned, he occupies a representative position, and as one of those 
 implicated, yet himself innocent, acts as general conscience. This is God's way — to 
 raise a testimony and extract a confession from the heart of the transgressor himself, 
 or from the midst of those upon whom his judgments fall. And the same end is 
 accomplished now through the Spirit and the Word. The saint becomes the mouth- 
 piece of the Saviour, and the world is convinced of " sin, of righteousness, and of judg- 
 ment."— M. 
 
 Ver. 21. — The death of the wicked contrary to nature. Various respects in which 
 this is so : it is sudden ; it defies all the resources of comfort and protection ; it is 
 untimely, and cuts off the young in their bloom — the children for the fathers' sin, the 
 hope of the nation and the family. " Death will not, as an enemy lurking without, 
 attack those only who venture out to him, but will assault the people, penetrating 
 into all their houses, to fetch his sacrifices " (Naegelsbach, in Lange). Why so ? 
 
 I. It is because the laws of God and of nature have been shamefully 
 violated. 
 
 II. The trial and punishment of the confirmed sinner are swiftly removed 
 TO another judgment-seat. 
 
 III. It is intended as a demonstration against evil and a terror to evil- 
 doers. — M. 
 
CH. :x. 1—26.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 249 
 
 Vers. 22 — 24. — The hnowUdge of Ood the only real "glory" of man. Compariscm 
 of the earthly acquisitions and properties of the natural man with those which are 
 spiritual and Divine frequent in Scripture. In history and in life they are seen in com- 
 petition. It is not that the one class of gifts is to be wholly despised and the other 
 alone sought. A correct perspective must be established. It is the " glory " of a man 
 that requires in the first place to be determined. After that is settled, all other things 
 will take their due place and precedency. 
 
 I. The "globy" of man must depend upon the end for which he has been 
 BROUGHT INTO EXISTENCE. This is Written in his nature, confirmed by providence, and 
 jiiade clear by revelation. In the woi-ds of the Westminster Oatecliism, " The chief end 
 of man is to glorify Qod, and to enjoy him for ever." Everything else must be 
 subordinated to this ; but if pursued in its place, will show itself to be a perversion of 
 his nature, and will end in calamity and misery. How very few care to satisfy them- 
 selves upon this momentous question ! Hence the necessity for the teachings and 
 warnings of experience. 1. The " glory " of man will be declared by the manner in which 
 the circumstances of his earthly lot affect it in the working out of that end. Each 
 of the qualities and properties upon which men usually pride themselves has been tried 
 in this way and found deficient. The wisdom of the world has a thousand times been 
 shown to be foolishness before God. There are a myriad problems for which it has 
 no key. "Miaht" has been reduced to nothingness by the least of the duties and 
 experiences of the spiritual life. Disease and death can bring down the mighty from 
 their seats, and stay the greatest worker at his task. Many a time has the cherished 
 object after which one has laboured with apparent success been snatched away just 
 when about to be attained. And " wealth " is similarly discredited. The moth and the 
 rust can corrupt the treasures of earth, and the thief breaks through and steals them 
 from their most guarded security. The accident of fortune may give or take away the 
 greatest fortune. And when death comeS, all these earthly possessions have to be left 
 behind. They cannot avail for what lies beyond. How seldom are these gifts used for 
 the highest end ! And how unavailing of themselves would they be to secure it ! 
 2. The " glory " of man must depend upon the success with which it contributes to secure 
 that end. 
 
 II. The knowledge op God is indicated unmistakably by these tests as the 
 ONLY true " glory" OP MAN. God is identified with the ultimate aim of our being. 
 He made us, and it is for him we live. Consequently, the better we know him, the 
 better shall we be able to serve him. 1. Imitation of Ood will spring from the know- 
 ledge of him. The more we know of him the more we must love him, and admiration 
 will lead to resemblance in spirit and in life. " We love him, because he first loved us." 
 2. Knowledge depends on and leads to obedience. (Johnvii. 17.) The knowledge of God 
 sheds light upon the universe and lii'e, and directs the soul and body into the channels 
 of health, happiness, and usefulness. 3. It is connected with and culminates in Divine 
 fellowship. In this way the character and presence of God are brought into closest 
 contact with the spirit of man, his character is moulded into the image of the Divine 
 original, and the joys of communion deepen and enlarge into the blessedness of 
 heaven. " This is life eternal, [even now] to know thee the only true God, and Jesus 
 Christ, whom thou hast sent." — M. 
 
 Ver. 1. — The testimony of tears. Tears are an unusual, a strange sad sight in a strong 
 man. But here Jeremiah appears utterly broken down. He abandons himself to a very 
 agony of sorrow. His tears remind us of those of our Ijord and of St. Paul. But they 
 are also a relief to the overburdened heart. Like the cry of the sufferer in sore pain. 
 We are glad when we behold one enduring some crushing sorrow enabled to pour forth 
 his grief in tears. The heart-broken prophet has evidently felt them to be such a relief. 
 His thoughts of his country's .sorrows, when they lie too deep for tears, are greater than 
 he can bear. He would, therefore, that he might be able continually to weep. But 
 tears are admonitory. They bear a very powerful testimony, which we shall do well to 
 give heed to. For they bear witness — 
 
 I. To his profound convictions. 1. In regard to the truth of the message he has 
 delivered. When we behold God's servants, such as Jeremiah and St. Paul and others, 
 labuuring with all energy of soul, with iufinite self-sacrifice, ex^iosed to every form of 
 
250 THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. ix. 1—26. 
 
 ill, and " with many tears," we are constrainerl to inquire the motive of such a life. 
 But only one of three suppositions is possible. (1) Either he who labours is a deceiver. 
 He is consciously acting a part. But this supposition in regard to prophets and apostles 
 of God's Word has long been given up. " The world has renounced almost to a man 
 this hypothesis. It reluees to believe in the possibility of a hypocrite whose writings 
 inculcate and whose conduct exemplifies the highest order of moral_ excellence ; it 
 refuses to believe in a benevolent, modest, self-denying, high-minded, humble, 
 magnanimous liar, in whom falsehood speaks with the very tongue, looks through the 
 very eyes, and personates the very gestures and tones of truth ; it refuses to believe 
 that a man with no earthly motive for it, and every earthly motive against it, should 
 spend the best part of a lifetime in cheating men into truth and virtue which he had 
 himself utterly renounced " (H. Rogers). But if this hypothesis be rejected, then there 
 is another. (2) He has deceived himself. He is the victim of enthusiasm, the 
 unconscious agent of a bewildered and disordered brain. But this hypothesis also will 
 not bear investigation. For such enthusiasms are generally short-lived, they are soon 
 detected, and the common sense of mankind refuses to participate in them. No instance 
 can be found of a mere enthusiast persuading whole nations and convincing the purest, 
 the most sober, and the most thoughtful of whole communities, and in such manner 
 that the falsehood thus originated shall live on and acquire power over men's minds 
 increasingly. And there are other tests whereby enthusiasm may be discriminated 
 from the deliberate convictions of the sober mind, and every one of such tests, when 
 applied to the history of faitliful witnesses for God's truth, fail to show that these wit- 
 nesses were, though not dishonest, yet merely mistaken enthusiasts. There remains, 
 therefore, (3) only the other alternative, that the message which they delivered with so 
 much earnestness was true. And the tears of the prophet and apostle do alike bear 
 this testimony, and its force men have everywhere felt. And would we convince an 
 unbelieving world of the truths we profess to hold, we must manifest more of a like 
 conviction. If some wan, worn, emaciated preacher, bearing on him evidently the 
 marks of the Lord Jesus, whose whole life had been, like that of Jeremiah or St. Paul, 
 one long sacrifice for the truth, — if such a one could appear amongst us, then would the 
 world believe, as it now altogether refuses to whilst those who profess belief show such 
 few tokens of the reality of their belief. 2. In regard to the dread peril of those who 
 disobey Ood. We know with what impassioned earnestness Jeremiah had pleaded 
 with his infatuated countrymen ; how he had exhorted, implored, and wept in his 
 endeavour to win them from their wicked ways. And now, when it seemed all in 
 vain, we behold him sunk in sorrow, dissolved in tears. Wherefore this ? Were the 
 theory of the universalist true, that there is no " fearful looking for of judgment," that 
 all will be made blessed in the coming hereafter, irrespective of what they have been or 
 what their conduct in this life, — then such tears as we are contemplating now would be 
 unmeaning. Had the prophet held such views, had our Lord, had St. Paul, their deep 
 distress would have been inexplicable, because altogether uncalled for. Or even if the 
 theory of those who hold that " death ends all " been that of God's servants, still such 
 distress would be far more than could be accounted for. Or even if it were that only 
 the blessedness of the righteous were missed, and all others would simply perish, then 
 too the future of the ungodly would call for no such sorrow. Or that by such devices 
 as those of the Romish Church — Masses, indulgences, and the like — the guilty soul, 
 though indeed its doom were terrible, yet it might by these devices be rescued from such 
 doom, — then too there could have been no tears such as these. But contemplating 
 the overwhelming sorrow of men like Jeremiah when beholding the judgment of the 
 ungodly, we are shut up to the conviction, which evidently possessed him so profoundly, 
 that it is a fearful thing for an unforgiven man to fall into the hands of the liviuc 
 God. 3. In regard to the exhaustion of all present resources of help. Could Jeremiah 
 have done anything to turn aside that judgment which he so vividly and with such 
 distress anticipated, he would not have given himself up to tears. They are the 
 evidence that all resources are exhausted, that nothing more can be done, that as he says 
 (ch. vi. 29), " The bellows are burned." The language of such tears is the voice of God 
 saying, concerning the hardened and impenitent, " He is joined to his idols : let him 
 alone." God save us all from having to shed, and still more from causing, such tears 
 as these. But they bear witness also — 
 
CH. IX. 1—26.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 251 
 
 II. To PROFOUND COMPASSION. He who has known the compassion of God for his 
 own soul will, in proportion to the depth of that knowledge, feel compassion for the souls 
 of others. Indifference and unconcern are no longer possible to him who knows the 
 love of God when he sees men perishing in sin. " The love of Christ constraineth " him. 
 And the same compassion, thus begotten, leads him to mourn when the offer of God's 
 mercy is refused. Such tears, being interpreted, tell of his passionate but useless 
 desire that the sinner's doom had been averted. Cf. David's exceeding bitter cry, " 
 Absalom, my son, my son ! " etc. And they are made to flow the more freely by the 
 remembrance that that lost condition mi^ht have been so altogether different. There 
 was no necessity for it. That which could not have been avoided, which we feel to 
 have been inevitable, we bear with more calmness. But when there is the conscious- 
 ness, such as David had concerning Absalom, that he might have come to an end so 
 different, to an end as honourable and blessed as this was disgraceful and miserable, 
 that reflection made his tears flow faster than before. And when it is not mere folly 
 but grievous sin which has brought God's judgment upon men, then the compassionate 
 heart grieves yet more ; a further drop of bitterness is infused into the cup, and such 
 tears as we are contemplating have this sorrow in them as well as the others we have 
 spoken of. And that now there is no hope, no remedy, — this is the last and worst 
 reflection which wrings the compassionate heart with uttermost grief. Jeremiah 
 beholds the house of Judah " left unto them desolate ; " the daughter of his people not 
 merely " hurt," but slain. How is it that, with like reasons for such compassion as that 
 of Jeremiah, we know so little of it? " Rivers of waters run down mine eyes, because 
 they keep not thy Law " — so spoke God's servant in the hundred and nineteenth psalm. 
 But who can say that now ? Compassionate Saviour, give us of thy mind. 
 
 III. To THE BBUOLDEES OF SUCH GEiEF. I. Are you Workers for Oodi Then 
 remember that disappointment and present failure have been the lot of many of the 
 noblest of the servants of God. There is a goodly fellowship of such. 2. Are you 
 believers in Ood ? Then remember his sure promise as to what shall follow this 
 "sowing in tears," this "going forth weeping, bearing precious seed." We are not to 
 think that we have seen the last result of our toil because that which we do see is so 
 distressing. 3. Are you rejecters of Ood ? Then remember that God puts such tears 
 " in his bottle," and they are treasured by him ; and their testimony, whilst it will be 
 for the salvation of those who have shed them, will be far more terrible judgment 
 against those who have caused them. " Weep not for mc," said our Lord on his way 
 to the cross, " but weep for yourselves, and for your children. ... If they do these things 
 in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry ? " Yes, these tears tell of the sorrows of 
 God's people, but they predict a worse sorrow still for his hardened foes. Look, then, 
 O thou who hardenest thyself against God, and ask thy.self, " If this be the sorrow I 
 have caused, what shall that be which I shall have to bear ? " Remember that it is 
 not only here that there are tears, but in the future abode of the impenitent it is dis- 
 tiuctly declared, " There shall be weeping." Then cease to cause such tears here, that 
 you may never have to shed tears far more bitter there. — C. 
 
 Ver. 1. — 27ie moral degradation of women. The expression, " the slain of the 
 daughter of my people," suggests this subject. Therefore we may thus apply the 
 prophet's words. Note — 
 
 I. The moral degradation of the daughters of a people is a just cause fob 
 THE deepest sorrow. For think of what and how much is slain in these slain ones. 
 The ruin of health, and the early and often dreadful death, are the least that is slain. 
 Happiness is slain — that of the victim, and of those to whom she was once precious. 
 The joyous hopes once cherished. The influence which might have been so pure and 
 purifying, now corrupt and corrupting. The character once honoured, now dragged in 
 the mire. The soul, in all its moral worth and spiritual energies and desires, that too 
 is slain. Therefore, when contemplating such cruelly slain ones, the prophet's piteous 
 cry of anguish is no more than such utter woe constrains. 
 
 II. But such sorrow should turn into scorn and wrath foe the slaters of 
 THESE SLAIN. Beware of the hideous complacency with which the world regards such 
 murderers. Pray to be kept from the paths of such " bloody men." 
 
 III. But sucat soeeow should not forget that there is a Divike Spirit that 
 
252 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. ix. 1— 2fi. 
 
 CAN " BREATHE UPON THESE SLAIN, THAT THET MAT LIVE." The Spirit of Christ did SO 
 
 breathe upon one such, and she lived. He said to her, " Thy sins are forgiven. . . . 
 Thy faith hath saved thee ; go in peace " (Luke vii. 36 — 50). — C. 
 
 Ver. 2. — Sighings after the wilderness. The text reminds us of Ps. Iv. 5, " Oh that 
 I had winKS," etc. I of Elijah's longins that he might die ; of the similar dejection of 
 Moses. Even our Lord said, " faithless generation, how long shall I be with you ? 
 liow long shall I suffer you? " But such desire as that of the text is in itself — 
 
 I. CJnnatubal. We are formed to mingle with our fellow-men, to lire with them, 
 not away from them. 1. It is in intercourse with them life becomes interesting to us. 
 We are taken out of ourselves, fresh sources of pleasure and advantage are continually 
 opened up to us. 2. Sympathy also is in fellowship. Our joys are more than doubled 
 and our sorrows more than halved by the power of that sympathy which solitude can 
 never know. 3. Opportunities of doing good are not to be had " in the wilderness," 
 and when we " leave " our people. 4. Nor are the benefits they can confer on us to be 
 found there. Heart and mind and soul are blessed by companionsliip and injured by 
 solitude and isolation. Hence such wish as that of the text is, apart from the motive 
 given, unnatural. 
 
 II. And it mat be weono. 1. It is so when it is the child of impatience. Doubt- 
 less there is much often to try our patience, and to make us wish that we could have 
 done with it all. But we should not think much of the labourer who, because the toil 
 was arduous, threw up his work ere the day was done ; or of the soldier who left in the 
 midst of the campaign. 2. Tet more culpable is It when it springs from indolence. 
 There are many who dislike real work in any form. Exertion and effort are shrunk 
 from everywhere. And in their religious life it is the same. And from such poor 
 motive such wish as that of the text sometimes springs. 3. Still worse is it when it 
 comes of unbelief. When all faith is gone, and the dark, dread falsehood begins to get 
 hold of a man, that rest is only to be gained by breaking out of this life altogether. 
 
 III. But it mat proceed from causes which can onlt excite oub compassion. 
 1. Extremity of suffering : Job, Paul. 2. Experience of human infidelity, as in Ps. Iv. 
 3. When all the purposes for which God ordained us to live in fellowship with one 
 another are unattainable. Such was the case with Jeremiah. Pleasurable interest 
 in such fellowship as was his could not be for him, but only daily vexation of his 
 righteous soul (cf. Lot). Sympathy he could neither give nor find. Ever so desirous 
 of doing them good, they spurned and despised all his efforts. And as to gaining good 
 from them, it was but a continual contact with pollution. What wonder, then, that 
 Jeremiah longed to be away from such a scene? "The hermits of the East, the 
 anchorites of the desert, are more closely linked with ourselves in feeling than some at 
 first may think. Our impulses are often identical With theirs ; and if our actions vary 
 it is because our standard of right, not our nature, is changed. In the life of each man 
 there are hours when he sighs for the desert ; hours when, bowed down by the sense of 
 sin in himself and the sight of it in others, wearied out by striving to teach a stiff- 
 necked generation, disheartened at seeing the ' good cause ' advance so slowly, he can 
 scarcely refrain from following, in his small way, the example of that emperor who 
 exchanged the palace for the cloister, and the crown for the cowl." These are 
 moments such as came to Jeremiah now. " The Emperor Charles uttered in deeds 
 what we have all breathed in sighs. We do and we must long to flee away and be at 
 rest ; but then it must remain a longing, and nothing more " (Gr. Dawson). 
 
 IV. And God has made provision foe its satisfaction. Not by giving us per- 
 mission to retire to desert solitudes, except, as with Elijah and Paul, it may be for 
 a while to prepare for future and higher service. But in the manner that the psalmist 
 su<;gests where he says, "Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then," etc. Yes, wings 
 nice a dove will bear us into the present rest of Ood. The dove is the emblem of meek- 
 ness. Like the lamb amongst the beasts, so the dove amongst the birds is the symbol of 
 lowly meekness and gentleness. But lowly meekness is the way to rest, the rest God 
 gives, the peace of God. Listen to our Saviour: " Come unto me, all ye that labour 
 . . . Take my yoke. . . . For I am meek and lowly in heart : and ye shall find rest 
 unto your souls" (Matt. xi.). The dove is the emblem oi purity. It was not only amoni'st 
 those birds that were counted clean, but was especially selected for presentation to G^d 
 
CH. IX. 1—26.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 253 
 
 in sacrifice, as that which was pure alone could he. The doves were allowed to fly 
 about the temple and to rest on its roofs and pillars (see H. Hunt's picture of the 
 'Finding in the Temple'). But purity opens the door of heaven, and enraptures the 
 beholder with the beatific vision there. " Blessed are the pure in heart : for they shall 
 see God." Wings are these, therefore, well likened to those of a dove, " covered with 
 silver, and her feathers with yellow gold." Yes, " keep thyself unspotted from the world," 
 and God shall so manifest himself to thee that thy soul shall be at rest, let the wicked 
 rage around thee as they may. And the dove was the selected symbol of the Holy 
 Svirit. " I saw the Holy Spirit descending like a dove," said John the Baptist. But 
 his wings will bear thee where thou mayost see the fatherly love of God, his wisdoui 
 guiding all, and his gracious purpose being more and more accomplished. " He will 
 take of the things of Christ and show them unto thte." And in them thou shalt have 
 peace. The psalmist's passionate longing may then be fulfilled for us. We may have 
 " wings like a dove." These, of meekness, purity, and the blessed Spirit of God. And 
 so, without quitting the station assigned us or departing to any wilderness, wo may 
 have even now the rest of Gud. — C. 
 
 Ver. 7. — The doings and doom of deceit. The verses from ver. 2 to the text set 
 forth its doings, and the text and remainder of the chapter foretell its doom. Note — • 
 
 I. Deceit. It is a terrible indictment that the prophet brings. He aSirms that 
 deceit is : 1. Universal. Ver. 2, " They be all" etc. Ver. 6, " Thine habitation is in the 
 midst of deceit;" i.e. it is everywhere, all around you. That: 2. It has broken up the 
 most sacred relationships : "They be all adulterers " (ver. 2). 3. It has turned their 
 solemn assemblies into a conclave of liars (ver. 2). 4. It is practised deliberately. 
 Ver. 3 : as a man deliberately bends and takes aim with his bow. 5. It has mountuJ 
 the judge's seat (ver. 3 ; cf. true translation of phrase, " They are not valiant for the 
 truth "). 6. It has smoothed the way for all evil. " They proceed from evil to evil " 
 (ver. 3). 7. It has destroyed all confidence (1) between neighbours, (2) between 
 brethren (ver. 4). 8. It is diligently studied. Ver. 5, " They have taught," etc. 
 " They take the utmost pains to go crookedly." 9. It is cruel and deadly in its aims 
 (ver. 8). In view of a condition of things so horrible, how unanswerable is the demand 
 of ver. 9, " Shall I not visit them for these things ? " etc. I It will be found in all the 
 judgments of God upon nations that those judgments have never come until there was 
 no other way of dealing with such nations, if the moral life of the world was to be 
 maintained. 
 
 II. Its doings. 1. It had made dwelling amongst them intolerable to the righteous. 
 (Cf. ver. 2.) Jeremiah longs to get away from them. The most desolate solitude 
 would be preferable to living amid such a people as this. It id an ominous sign for a 
 community when the godly, however compassionate, however long-suflering, can no 
 longer endure to dwell in their midst. 2. It had made the thought tf Ood intolerable 
 to themselves. Vers. 3, 6, "They know not me, saith the Lord." Just as a man 
 may meet one whom he desires to have nothing to do with, but when he meets him 
 will pass him as if he did not know him ; so deceit had made these people, as it makes 
 all such, desirous of having nothing to do with God. Therefore they will not recognize 
 or acknowledge him in any way. 3. And at last it had made them intolerable to God. 
 Ver. 7 : God asks, " What else can I do for the daughter of my people ? " (cf. Expo- 
 sition). There was nothing now but for the judgment of God to go forth against them. 
 Therefore note — 
 
 III. Its doom. Ver. 7, " Therefore thus saith," etc. And down to ver. 22 these 
 awful judgments of God are set forth. Inquire, therefore, what there is about deceit 
 which renders it so hateful in the sight of God. 1. There can be no doubt that it is so. 
 " Lying lips are an abomination unto the Lord " (cf. Ps. xv. ; Acts v.). " All liars shiiU 
 have their part in the lake that burneth," etc. 2. And some of the reasons are : (1) 
 Deceit cometh from Satan, who was " a liar from the beginning," and " the father of 
 lies." It was by his lies that our. first parents were deceived and sin was brought into 
 the world. (2) It is the source of infinite misery and distress. It is " the deceits of 
 the world, the flesh, and the devil " which still work well-nigh all our sorrow and our 
 shame. (3) It tends to the destruction of human society. All our well-being and 
 comfort depend upon good faith being maintained between man and man, " But now. 
 
254 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. ix. 1—26. 
 
 ■where fraud and falsehood, like a plague or cancer, comes over to invade society, the 
 ■band which held together the parts compounding it presently breaks, and men are 
 thereby put to a loss where to league and to fasten their dependencies, and so are 
 forced to scatter and shift every one for himself. Upon wMch account every notori- 
 ously false person ought to be looked upon and detested as a public enemy, and to be 
 pursued as a wolf or a mad dog, and a disturber of the common peace and welfare of 
 mankind; there being no particular person whatsoever but has his private interest 
 concerned and endangered in the mischief that such a wretch does to the public " 
 (South). A sin, therefore, so destructive of the well-being of his children cannot but 
 be abominable in the eyes of the Father of us all. 3. It shuts God out of the heart . 
 altogether. God has made us for himself, but deceit bars fast the door of man's heart 
 against him. God can only be worshipped in spirit and in truth ; but deceit renders 
 this primary condition of such worship unattainable. 4. But God in his anger 
 remembers mercy. Ver. 7, " Behold, I will melt them, and try them," that is to say, 
 he will, as the smelter casts the metal into the fire not to destroy but to refine it, to 
 purge away its dross, and then, that being done, tests and tries it to see that the pro- 
 cess has been efiectual; so God will send his judgments upon his people, not to destroy, 
 but to purify them, and he will afterwards test them again, give them another oppor- 
 tunity of serving him. He might have destroyed, but this he will not do. He " will 
 melt them, and try them." But less than this he cannot do. " What else," etc.? he asks. 
 It is a dread process ; Judah and Jerusalem found it so, and all who compel God to 
 cast them into such a crucible find it to be a dread process. Our blessed Saviour wept 
 over Jerusalem, although he told them that when next they saw him they should say, 
 " Blessed is he that cometh in the Name of the Lord." It was the thought of that 
 furnace for fire through which they must be passed ere they would come to this better 
 mind that drew forth those tears. Let none, therefore, deem the judgment of God a 
 subject for trifling with, because, as here, God says its purpose is to " melt and try," 
 rather than to destroy. 
 
 Conclusion. Let this consideration of the doings and doom of deceit lead us to 
 listen to the Lord's appeal, " Ob, do not this thing that I hate ! " — C. 
 
 Vers. 10 — 22. — The terrible fhreatenings of love. There are few more awful passages 
 of Scripture than this. The doom denounced on the guilty people is indeed dreadful. 
 Nevertheless that doom had not yet descended. There was a merciful pause, during 
 which space was given for repentance. Meanwhile the prophet was bidden to utter 
 these threatenings. Notice — 
 
 I. How TEEKIBLB THEY AEB. 1. In themselves. The fertile hills and pastures of 
 their country shall be laid waste, so that no living creature can find food (ver. 10). 
 Jerusalem is to be utterly destroyed and desolate (ver. 1]). The deep anguish of the 
 people — their very meat to be as " wormwood," and their drink as " water of gall " (ver. 
 15). They shall be carried captive and scattered among the heathen, and even then 
 shall not escape the sword (ver. 16). They shall be overwhelmed with sorrow, their 
 eyes shall gush out with tears (vers. 17 — 19). Death shall reign everywhere (ver. 21) ; 
 and shall be accompanied with deepest degradation (ver. 22). It is not possible to 
 conceive of more hopeless misery than is portrayed in these vivid descriptions of the 
 wrath that was to come. 2. Because of their righteousness. Unrighteous suffer- 
 ing can be borne, and those who bear it are bidden by the Lord to count thpmselves 
 as " blessed " because of it (Matt. v. 11, 12). And sorrows that come to us in the 
 course of God's providence, and the reason of which we do not know, these we can bear 
 sustained by the faith of the Father's love. But when sore suffering is sent to us as 
 the direct punishment of sin, and the righteous because so deserved anger of God is 
 evident, then those consolations which are open to us under other sufferings are closed 
 to us under these. The bitter reflection, " It was all our own fault ; it might, it ought 
 to have been avoided," makes the pain we endure, and the calamities that overtake us, 
 more terrible than otherwise they could possibly be. We take refuge from man's anger 
 and from ordinary sorrows in God's love, but sin that has brought down God's righteous 
 judgment has also closed against us that most blessed shelter and every shelter, and 
 we are left without defence. And another element in their terribleness is : 3. The cer- 
 tainty of their fulfilment. " God is not mocked : whatsoever a man soweth, that shall 
 
CH. IX. 1—26.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JBEBMIAH. 255 
 
 he also reap." The threatenings of God are not, as are many of the threatenings of men, 
 mere empty vapourings, great swelling words, never designed to be fulfilled. Let the 
 records of all human history, of all human lives, whetlier told of within or without 
 the pages of the Bible, attest the absolute certainty of fulfilment which evermore 
 characterizes the threatenings of God. When and where has he ever threatened and 
 failed to fulfil his threat? Let the Fall, the Flood, the destruction of Sodom, the 
 plagues on Egypt, the deaths of the generation of unbelievers in the wilderness, and 
 ten thousand instances more, all prove the steadfastness of God to his word. And 
 it is this fact of the absolute certainty of his threatenin;is being fulfilled that adds 
 to them a yet further terribleness. There is no chance of escape, no hope of God's 
 relenting ; as certain as the fixed laws of nature are these awful denunciations of God 
 to him who persists in bringing them upon himself. 
 
 IL But they abe the threatenings of love. 1. He who utters them is the God 
 who in his very nature and essence is love. How manifold are the proofs of this in 
 creation, in providence, in grace ! He, therefore, has no pleasure in the death of the 
 wicked ; judgment is his " strange work." 2. Those against whom they are uttered 
 are the objects of his love. His love for them is deeper than his anger against them. 
 Hence it is that the contrite sinner never fails to gain the pardon he seeks. " Fathers 
 of our flesh " may " chasten after their own pleasure, but he for our profit " (cf. ver. 7). 
 3. His purpose in these threatenings is a loving purpose. He would compel by the 
 scourge of fear his rebellious children to abandon their evil ways. 4. And if at length 
 he is compelled to execute his threatenings, it is out of love that he does so. For the 
 love of God is towards his children, not to any one particular child, and the welfare 
 of the family is the chief consideration. Salus populi suprema lex. If consistently 
 with that the transgressor can be restored, he will be, but not else. Hence, as an 
 earthly father would not permit one of his children, ill with terrible and contagious 
 disease, to mingle with the other children ; or, as in the far more sad case of utter moral 
 wickedness, intercourse with the rest would be forbidden ; so, for the sake of the rest 
 of his children, God will separate them from the wicked and the wicked from them. 
 But it is love which constrains to this, and hence it is that the seeming contradic- 
 tion is true, that he who is the God of love is also " a consuming fire." The very 
 fatherhood of God is the most fearful fact of all others against the persistently 
 rebellious and ungodly soul. Hence — 
 
 JIL Such threatenings are ever the most terrible of all. Cf. the threaten- 
 ings of our Saviour. The most awful utterances to be found in the whole Bible 
 proceeded from his lips — the lips whose words were wont to be so " gracious " that the 
 people " wondered " at them. It is his sayings which have lit up the lurid glare of 
 the fires unquenchable of hell, and it is he who has made our souls shudder at the 
 sight of " the worm that dieth not," and of the " outer darkness " where there is " weep- 
 ing and wailing and gnashing of teeth." See, too, the Revelation of St. John. That 
 apostle, whose great theme is the love of God, whose soul was more attuned to the 
 music of iove than that of any other, wrote that awful book, which is full through- 
 out of " mourning, lamentation, and woe," and which almost reeks with the blood ami 
 fire and smoke of torments of which it tells. These facts can only be accounted for — 
 and there are more like them — on the ground that the threatenings of love are ever 
 the most terrible of all. And they are so, for such reasons as these : 1. Love so hates 
 what tends to the harm of those it loves. Hence it brands with its deepest curse that 
 sin which harms God's children most of all. One chief argument with many minds 
 for the retention of capital punishments is that only so can a government or nation 
 mark its sense of the supreme wickedness of the crime it so punishes. Punish it as 
 other crimes are punished, and it will come to be regarded as no worse than they. 
 And in like manner God would inspire us with a holy abhorrence of sin by the awful 
 condemnation that he has pronounced against it. 2. Love so yearns to rescue those 
 it loves. The rope may cut and wound the hands of the drowning sailor to whom we 
 have thrown it, but we do not mind that if thereby he be drawn safe to shore. The 
 knife of the surgeon may cut deep and cause fearful pain, but if it saves the imperilled 
 life we are thankful notwithstanding. So God sends forth these stern, rough, and 
 terrible threatenings, that souls under the spell of sin may be awakened, alarmed, made 
 to tremble, and to " seek the Lord while he may be found." No gentler means wdl 
 
256 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [en. ix. 1—26. 
 
 avail ; therefore these, so love resolves, shall not be left untried. It will shrink from 
 nothing to accomplish its compassionate purpose of rescuing from the murderous sin 
 the soul it loves. 3. And there is no wickedness so deep as that of outraging love. Men 
 will never see sin in all its hatefulness until they see it as outrage done to love. Whilst 
 they are taught only that it is disobedience to sovereign rule rather than despite and 
 shameful wrong done to a Father's heart, they will not look upon it as they should, 
 nor repent of it as they must. Even in human esteem, outrage done to a loving heart 
 adds intensity to the condemnation with which we view and sentence disobedience 
 done to law. We all recognize that such wickedness is the worst of all. We cannot 
 wonder, then, that the threatenings against wrong persistently done to the love of God 
 are terrible as they are, and the most terrible of all. 
 
 CoNCLnsioN. 1. Beware of bringing upon yourselves such threatenings as these. 
 Those which are fulminated forth by hatred, or by pride, or by sovereignty, or by law, — 
 these, though they may be terrible, are not to be compared with those that we have 
 been considering. " The v^rath of the Lamb " is the must awful of all. 2. Beware of 
 despising them. So far from believing what has now been shown, men argue in directly 
 opposite way, and, because the threatenings are those of love, they conclude that they 
 may safely be disregarded, they will never be carried out. But what has now been 
 shown proves that this is the very last thing we can venture to do. 3. Beware of con- 
 cealing them. It is to be feared that, in these soft, easy days on which we have fallen, 
 the Lord's watchmen do very often fail to "blow the trumpet and give warning." 
 From blood-guiltiness such as that let us pray to be delivered. For are there nut 
 many now whom nothing but the startling peal of the trumpet of God's threatened 
 judgments will ever arouse or alarm ? Assuredly there are. Therefore, in view of 
 the doom of the ungodly, as well as by the love of Christ, let us " beseech men to be 
 reconciled to God." — 0. 
 
 Vers. 12 — 15. — The inquest on the slain of Judah and Jerusalem. I. God demands 
 IT. 1. For his righteousness is impugned. Men had not failed, could not fail, to 
 notice the terrible judgments which Gnd had sent upon Judah and Jerusalem, and, as 
 is implied by his own declaration of their causes (ver. 12), they had either not seen or 
 had denied the righteousness of what had been done. This questioning of the Divine 
 righteousness and equity is a procedure all too common still. 2. And thus the Divine 
 hold on the loyalty of men's hearts is threatened. For unless men regard God as 
 righteous, just, and good, no power in the universe can make them yield him the 
 homage of their hearts. How much of the alienation of heart in the present day may 
 be attributed to the representations of God which a false theology has set forth ! Men 
 will not, for they cannot, love such a being as too many preachers represent God to be. 
 They may be threatened with everlasting perdition, but it will make no difference. For 
 God himself has given us a nature which renders impossible our yielding our hearts' 
 homage to any one — be he whom he may — that our hearts do not regard as worthy of 
 that homage. 3. But God's supreme solicitude is for this homage of our hearts. Hence 
 what threatens it must be intolerable to him. Therefore he seeks for vindication 
 before the hearts of men, and demands this inquiry. 
 
 II. An dnimpbachablb juky is impanelled. It is not just any one who can be 
 tnisted to make this inquiry. The frivolous, the unthoughtful, would fail to grasp 
 the problem involved, and the ungodly who suffered these judgments would be sure to 
 assign them to any and every cause rather than the true one. Therefore those who 
 are summoned to this inquest are (1) the wise — those who will intelligently consider 
 all the facts of the case ; and (2) those " to whom the Lord hath spoken " — those, that is, 
 who have been divinely enlightened, who are in sympathy with truth and righteous- 
 ness. God summons such, and fearlessly demands, now as of old, the most thorough 
 investigation into the righteousness of all his ways. 
 
 III. They aee bidden well and teuly tby the case before them. He would 
 have them so consider it that they may " understand " it in all its bearings, reasons, and 
 ends. He tells them what he has done and what he yet will do, and what are his 
 reasons for his conduct. He does not conceal that his judgments are tremendous 
 notorious, certain to excite inquiry, to be challenged, and by many to be condemned! 
 But he appeals to the " wise," and to those " to whom the Lord hath spoken," to con- 
 
CH. IX. 1—26.] THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 257 
 
 sider and understand what he has done. God calls not for mere credulity from any of 
 us ; he asks for no mere blind faith ; but it is to a " reasonable service " he summons 
 us, and this reasonableness he would have us consider and "understand." "I speak as 
 to wise men; judge ye what I say : " such is his appeal. 
 
 IV. And when they have " understood " the iiightbousness op God thet abb 
 TO " declare " IT. There is no greater service that can be rendered than " to vindicatu 
 the ways of God to man ; " to " commend the truth to every man's conscience in the 
 sight of God." The believer is established, the waverer brought to decision, the sinner 
 — like as Felix, when Paul " reasoned of righteousness and judgment " — is made to 
 tremble, the scorner and the atheist are silenced. 
 
 V. The effects of that verdict will be varied. 1. It will strike terror to the 
 hearts of the enemies of God ; for it will rob them of the comfort they had in regarding 
 God's judgments as unjust. Even this " drop of cold water " they may not have. 2. It 
 will give great peace of mind to all beholders of God's strong rule ; for it will show that 
 his rule is not strong and supreme alone, but absolutely righteous. 3. It will make 
 God's people " sing unto the Lord a new song," because " he cometh to judge the earth " 
 (Ps. xcvi.). It will assure them of the triumph of righteousness, and the utter impotenoy 
 and impermauency of wrong. But let each one ask himself, " How will that verdict 
 affect me ? "— C. 
 
 Ver. 14. — Hereditary sin real sin. God here declares that he will punish those who 
 have walked " after Baalim, which their fathers taught them." Therefore the fact of 
 their having been trained in this sin by their fathers is not held to acquit them of guilt 
 in what they do. Their sin, though hereditary, is real. 
 
 I. This seems unjdst. It has often been objected to that because the fathers ate 
 sour grapes the children's teeth should be set on edge (Ezek. xviii. 2). Why should 
 I be punished for another's man's sin ? 
 
 II. But it is the Divine Law. The sins of the fathers are visited on the 
 children. " By the offence of one all men were made sinners " (Rom. v.). And in 
 daily life how perpetually we see this law in ruthless operation ! — children punished in 
 health, fortune, character, reputation, in mind, body, and soul, all through their fathers' 
 sin. They walk in the ways of Baalim because their fathers taught them. And yet, 
 unjust though their punishment mat/ appear — 
 
 III. Conscience endorses it. Who knows how much of that strong passionate 
 nature which led David into such dreadful sin may have been inherited ? Indeed, he 
 says, " Behold, 1 was shapen in iniquity," etc. (Ps. li.). But this does not hinder him 
 from taking all the blame of his sin upon himself. All the way through we hear his 
 coufessiou — " my sin," " my transgression," " mine iuiquity." And never does the con- 
 science awakened to a sense of sin think of palliating such sin by the plea of its being 
 the result of inheritance. Thus conscience witnesses to the righteousness of the Divine 
 Law. 
 
 IV. And so does human law. What judge ever pardoned a criminal because he 
 had a bad father? We execrate "bloody Queen Mary" notwithstanding she had a 
 bloodthirsty father. 
 
 V. The explanation is : 1. That hereditary sin does not destroy conscience. That 
 speaks in all ; it is " the light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world," the 
 inward monitor which ever condemns crime and approves righieousness (cf. Kom. ii. 
 14, 15). 2. Nor does it destroy understanding. Teachers of righteousness are on every 
 hand, from whom all may learn. 3. Nor does it destroy the power of will. It may 
 weaken, but it does not destroy. Therelore, in spite of hereditary sin, every man knows, 
 and can choose if he will, that which is right ; and therefore he is held accountable before 
 every tribunal — that of God, of conscience, and of man. 4. But there is yet another 
 reason given by St. Paul : " Ood hath concluded all in unbelief, that he may have mercy 
 upon all" (Rom. xi. 32 ; Gal. iii. 22). A cruel Roman empi.Tor wished that all Rome 
 had but one neck, that he might kill it with one blow. God hath in his infinite grace 
 gathered up all our humanity into one, even in Christ, so that, as sin had destroyed all 
 by one stroke (Rom. v.), the grace of God in Christ might save all by the one rifihteous- 
 ness of the One ; so that " where sin did abound, grace," etc. That gathering up of 
 humanity into one in Adam, which seems at first sight to have worked such injustice, 
 
 JEREMIAH. S 
 
258' THE BOOK OF TliE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [cir. ix. 1— 20.' 
 
 is altogether met, and far more than met, by the again gathering up of all in One, even 
 in Christ, which works such grace. But that ultimate redemption which is in Christ 
 does not hinder, but that meanwhile, and for a weary while, hereditary sin may work 
 woeful sorrow and harm. Therefore — 
 
 VI. This fact appeals : 1. To all parents. Seek to cut off the entail. We may 
 have received such sad inheritance, but let us, as we may, reject it for ourselves, and in 
 so doing refuse to hand it on to others. Again and again has God given grace to some 
 one member of a godless house — as to Josiah, son of that Amon of whom it is said-, 
 " But Amon sinned more and more " — who has for himself and those who come after 
 him broken the bad succession and begun a new and blessed departure. When we 
 have done our best, our children will have a sufficiently heavy burden to bear ; let us 
 not make that bui'den heavier, life more terrible, and holiness and heaven far less 
 attainable for them, by handing down to them a legacy of evil example and of unhallowed 
 habits and propeu'-ities inherited from ouiselves. Do not let us sin so against our 
 children. Yet many do. 2. To all children. Your fathers' sin will not excuse yours. 
 God has turned judgment away from many an evil sou because he had a godly father, 
 but never because be had an ungodly one. Therefore if yours be the sad and too 
 frequent lot of those who inherit evil from their parents, reject that inheritance, and 
 seek and gain from your heavenly Father, though you may not be helped herein by 
 your earthly one, the better, the most blessed iulieritance of the children of God. — C. 
 
 Vers. 21, 22. — Death's doings. Behold — 
 
 I. Death's carnival. In many an ancient continental city you may see portrayed 
 iu still vivid colours, on the roofs of their covered bridges, — as on that of the old 
 biidge at Lucerne, — on the walls of their churches, and elsewhere, the grim ' Dance of 
 Death.' These verses remind of those paintings, and tell in yet more fearful form of 
 I )eath's dread carnival. With what diabolic zest be is represented at his work here ! 
 He is shown to us, not as coming in in ordinary manner to the sick-chamber, where 
 his coming has long been expected and may even be welcomed ; but as breaking 
 in roughly, unexpectedly, cruelly, like a thief coming iu at the windows. Nor 
 as drawing near to the poor, the defenceless, the miserable ; but entering into our 
 palaces, the abode of the great, the rich, the strong. Nor as calling home those whose 
 day's work is done, who have lived their life, and to whom eventide has long ago 
 arrived ; but as cutting ruthlessly down the dear young children in the very blossom 
 of their days. Nor as ridding the earth of the cruel and vile ; but tearing from us 
 the innocent, the children. Nor are vigour, strength, and promise any more a defence 
 against him than decrepit old age ; for " the young men " are his victims even as 
 others. And no multitude of slain will satiate him. Ver. 22 represents the numbers 
 of the dead as so great that they have to be left unburied and uncared for to rot upon 
 the open field. It is true that this frightful picture is taken from the awful experiences 
 of a besieged city, but with slight modifications it is true everywhere and always. 
 This life is the carnival of Death. What are men but a long succession of mourners ? 
 As the poet says — 
 
 " Our hearts like muffled drums are beating 
 Funeral marches to the grave." 
 
 And when we contemplate the cruel consequences of this carnival of Death, which is 
 going on still, the mind and heart reel, and faith in the fatherhood of God would fade 
 utterly out of men's souls were it not that in brighter colours still the Word of God 
 portrays — 
 
 II. Death's CoNQUEROK. C/insf has abolished death. The broken pillar, the iarned- 
 down torch, the "Vale, vale, in Kteinum vale," of the old pagan world, have now no 
 appropriateness because no truth. Death is i-^orrow still, even to those who believe in 
 him who is " the Resurrection and the Life ; " but it is not and cannot be that hopeless, 
 unutterable, unfathomable woe which it was till he came who hath abolished death. 
 No doubt this terrible verse (ver. 21), which tells of Death's dread doings, is yet far 
 more true than we would like it to be, and often and often, in the blank desolation and 
 shattered hopes which earth's bereavements bring to us, we fail to derive all the 
 consolation and help which Death's glorious Conqueror has given to us. But, neveri 
 
CH. IX. 1—26.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 259 
 
 theloss, he has given them, and it is true that " Blessed are the dead which die in the 
 Lord." Let us see to it tliat wo are, by a living abiding trust, " in the Lord," and then, 
 though we sorrow, and sorrow bitterly still, yet it will not be, it is not, " as those that 
 nave no hope." — U. 
 
 Vers. 23 — 26. — " Wliereof to glory." Introduction. Cannot understand these pro- 
 phecies without a knowledge of the history of the times. This is true of all prophecies, 
 and especially of these. Therefore we will glance at such history as we proceed. Note — 
 I. 'Ihe glorying that is condemned. 1. That of the wise man in his wisdom. 
 The statesmen of Jeremiah's days had been thus glorying. They had prided them- 
 selves in their political sagacity. For many years they had formed alliances, now with 
 one power and now with another. And they seemed to have managed well, for, for 
 nearly a whole century, Judah had been, though so weak a power and so valuable 
 a prize, left unattached. Therefore no wonder that the wise men gloried in their 
 wisdom. But now political trouble was beginning again. Egypt had become a great 
 power, and was warring against Assyria. In this war the king Josiah sided with 
 Assyria, and was slain in the battle of Megiddo. Thus they were witliout their king, 
 and compelled to ally themselves with Egypt and to share in her fortunes, which to 
 the eye of the prophet were the reverse of bright. Great troubles were drawing near, 
 and it is lu view of them that Jeremiah says, " Let not the wise man," etc. 2. The 
 strong in their strength. The army of Judah was large, their fortress of Jerusalem 
 was all but impregnable, but Jeremiah saw that all this would not avail. Their utter 
 overthrow was fast hastening on. 1 he great Babylonian power which had absorbed 
 the Assyrian should accomplish this. Hence the word, " Let not the strong man," etc. 
 o. The rich in their riches. The long continuance of peace had enabled the nation to 
 accumulate vast wealtii. But this only made them yet more an object of desire to 
 their approaching invaders. Their wealth was their woe. 4. The children of Abraham 
 in the covenant, of which circumcision was the sign (vers. 25, 26). From the time of 
 Hezekiah's reformation until the time when Jeremiah wrote, Judah and Jerusalem had 
 ))rofessed the ancient faith. The temple service had gone on, the sacrifices offered, etc. 
 There had been a short, sad interval during Manasseh's reign. But so fur as profession 
 went they had been worshippers of God. And of late years Josiah's reformation had 
 led to still louder profession. And in this profession we know they trusted very 
 implicitly (cf. ch. vii.). But it had not preserved them from the Divine displeasure in 
 days gone by, nor in the present, nor would it in days to come. For beneath all this 
 )irofession the moral and spiritual condition of the nation was most evil. Even in 
 Hezekiah's day Isaiah had told the people that, in spite of all their profession, " the 
 whole head was sick," etc. (cf. Isa. i.). And that this was so was shown by the 
 readiness with which they followed Manasseh in his idolatries, and joined in the perse- 
 cution of the faithful servants of God. And when Manasseh repented, and there was 
 again an external profession, it was scarcely any better. But the monstrous conduct of 
 Amon, who " sinned more and more," made the people desire the old ways. Hence, 
 when Josiah came to the throne, they were prepared for his reforms. But again it was 
 only a change of custom, not of character ; outward, but not inward. Jeremiah sought 
 to help forward a true reformation, for it was indeed needed (see his description of th(! 
 moral condition of the people, vers. 2 — 8 in this chapter). Hence it was that he told 
 them their circumcision was no better than uncircumcision. Apply all this to our- 
 selves : (1) As a nation. We have all these several advantages above named : wise 
 statesmen, great strength, vast wealth, universal religious prufession; but all these, 
 apart from moral and spiritual worth, will go for nothing. It is " righteousness," and 
 that alone, that " exalteth a nation." (2) As individuals. We are not to despise any 
 of these things. They are God's good gifts ; but they will not save us. We may not 
 glory in them as a sure safeguard. 
 
 II. Whekeof we may and should glory. (Cf. ver. 24.) This means that there 
 should be : 1. Intdlectaal apprehension of the truth in regard to God. His character is 
 shown : (1) In his exercise of loving-kindness. It is well to be open-eyed to the many 
 and varied proofs of this — in creation, providence, redemption, grace. And it is well 
 to be able to trace these proofs and to show that God is good. (2) In his exercising 
 judgment. He has given proofs of this also, and that is but a partial and therefore 
 
2R0' THE BOOK OF THE PHOPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. ix. 1—26. 
 
 most misleading theology that shuts oiit of view the sterner aspects of the Divine 
 Father. As in Christ we see most of all how God exercises loving-kindness, so too in 
 him we may see the sure warnings of his judgment. " If they do these thiiigs in a 
 green tree, what shall be done in the dry ? " " If the righteous scarcely be saved, 
 wliere," etc. ? (ii) In his exercise of righteousness. How full the proofs of this also ! 
 How manifest in Christ, his teachings, life, death, his Spirit's work now, etc. ! Now, it 
 is most desirable to understand all this, for the mind to grasp these sure truths. Too 
 much of the religiousness of the day is weak, flaccid, unstable, because there is wanting 
 knowledge and understanding in the truth. We aie apt to be satisfied with an 
 emotional reli;^ion, with the play of feeling and the outgoing of the affections. But for 
 all this to be reliable we must understand as well as feel. 2. In that he " knoweth " 
 as well as understandeth. This is more than to understand. For " to know " continu- 
 ally means, in Bible language, to approve, to be in sympathy with, to delight in, etc. 
 (cf. "I will not know a wicked person;" "The Lord knoweth the way of the 
 righteous ; " " This is life eternal, to know thee the only," etc.). And so here to know 
 God is to have moral sympathy, personal experience, inward approval and delight in 
 regard to God. Now, he who thus understandeth and knoweth God hath " whereof to 
 glory." The prophet desired that his people might have this glorying, for this would 
 save them, whilst all the other things in which they gloried but left them to perish. 
 Appeal to all who profess religion and who instruct others. Can you thus glory ? Do 
 you understand? Better still, Do ■^oVihnow God in his loving-kindness, judgment, 
 righteousness ? — 0. 
 
 Vers. 23, 24. — T^e chief good. The people had little reason to gloiy in their wisdom, 
 or power, or wealth. These natural resources had utterly failed them as a safeguard 
 against the avenger and destroyer. The prophet directs them to an infinitely surer 
 ground of trust, a higher cause of rejoicing. These words are a striking appeal to 
 faith, all the more remarkable because of the desperate circumstances of the time. In 
 spite of all the desolation of the land, the wreck and ruin of all their pride as a nation, 
 let them hold fast to their faith in the living God, and especially in those attributes of 
 his being and principles of his government — loving-kindness, judgment, righteousne.is 
 — which such circumstances tend to obscure and seem even to disprove. We fix our 
 minds now simply on this thought — the knowledge of God and ■personal fellowship with 
 him are immtasurably more worth our seeking and rejoicing in than all those endoviments 
 which to the carnal eye are so full of charm. There is a natural tendency in men to 
 rejoice unduly in the good that they derive by birth, or education, or the favour of 
 providence, forgetting that the chief good is something of a different kind, something 
 that must come to them in a different way. Nothing that tends to enrich and adorn 
 and gladden our life in this world is to be despised ; but if we measure things by a true 
 standard, and esteem them according to their real and relative value, we shall place 
 everything else that men call good or great beneath that which connects us directly 
 with God and heaven and immortality. Note respecting this higher good — 
 
 I. It is moke truly oue own than anythino else can ever be. This is seen 
 if we consider : 1. The way in which it becomes ours. The surface acquirements and 
 adornments of life — wealth, social position, favourable circumstances, etc., cannot be 
 called " ours " in the sense in which that which is an inherent element of our 
 individuality is ours. And even as regards personal qualities, there are important 
 differences. Whatever natural gifts belong to us, our own will has had nothing to do 
 wiih our possession of them. Their development may be dependent on it, but in their 
 origin they are not so. Whereas the afi'ections that connect us with God tell how tlie 
 deei est depths of our being were stirred at their birth within us. Nothing so truly 
 ours as that which has thus become ours. 2. 3%e absolute satisfaction it brings. All 
 the " springs of our being " are in God. He is the true Home and blissful Centre of 
 rest for every human spirit. " The good man is satisfied from himself" (Prov. xiv. 14), 
 not because of anything in the resources of his own finite being, but because he has 
 leaint by the utter renunciation of all trust in these to find his true " self " in God. 
 3. Its ptrpttuity. We may soon be bereft of all other endowments ; this we can never 
 lose. There is no possession over which a man can rejoice in this world which is not 
 precarious and uncertain. And though the sense of this need not check our free use 
 
CH.IX. 1— 26.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 261 
 
 and hearty enjoyment of it, it will always cast some .slight shadow over the sunshine of 
 our delight. But there is no shadow here, no sense of insecurity, no fear of disappoint- 
 ment. Have your soul in conscious fellow.ship with God, and you may rest in the 
 thought that "nothing shall ever be able to separate you from his love " (Rom. viii. 
 38, 39). " This is life eternal," etc. (John xvii. 3). " The water that I shall give him 
 shall be in him," etc. (John iv. 14). 
 
 II. Unlike other forms of good, it is incapable op abuse. What natural gift 
 is there that men may not turn, and have not actually turned, to some purpose contrary 
 to that for which it was given ? The false use grows, not so much out of any quality 
 or tendency in the thing itself, as out of the innate perversity of our human nature. 
 And there is nothing in the thing itself, or in the fact of our possessing it, that 
 necessarily acts as a cure for that perversity. Intellectual capacity, genius, literary 
 culture, rank, wealth, etc., — how often have these been allied with moral corruption, and 
 given their possessors the ability to infiiot incalculable mischief on the human race ? 
 The graces of holy character which spring from fellowship with God cannot, in the 
 nature of things, be thus abused. You cannot conceive of their being prostituted to 
 evil ends. They bear within them the pledge of their Divine use and issue. 
 
 III. It enables us, as nothing else can, to appkbciatb all that is true and 
 GOOD IN this present WORLD. You must know God before you can rightly understand 
 and realize the highest profit of the world in which he has placed you. There are two 
 popular errors in this direction — one is the error of supposing that the apprehension 
 of the truth of nature depends solely on mental capacity and scientific investigation. 
 Does not the inability of some of the most illustrious thinkers of every age to find out 
 the Divine in nature, rather show that it is more a question of spiritual sympathy 
 than of intellectual power? The other error is that of supposing that the power to 
 procure the good of this life is the same thing as the power to enjoy it. And yet how 
 many pampered children of wealth and fashion are there who bear upon their faces the 
 marks of weariness and discontent ! Their souls are withered by excessive physical 
 Indulgence and artificial culture. They have lost the capacity of pure and simple 
 enjoyment, and childlike wonder and delight are things to them unknown. Let your 
 spirit be in fellowship with God, let your " heart be set to hallow all you find," and the 
 deepest treasures of truth and the sweetest satisfactions of life are within your reach. 
 God has made purity of heart the condition, not only of knowing himself, but of knowing 
 the best of his gifts. It both creates and verifies^ 
 
 " The cheerful faith that all which we behold 
 Is full of blessing." 
 
 " Godliness with contentment is great gain " (1 Tim. vi. 6). " Blessed are the meek," 
 etc. (Matt. V. 5). " All things are yours," etc. (1 Oor. iii. 21—23). 
 
 IV. It gives us the power to confer highest benefit on oub fellow- 
 creatures. We are disposed sometimes to envy the talents, the range of influence, 
 the means of usefulness, that others possess. It seems a grand thing to us to be in 
 certain commanding positions, and have resources that may be used at pleasure for the 
 working out of certain desired ends. Remember, however, that what can alone givo 
 worth to these things are precisely those personal, moral qualities that are within the 
 reach of all. The influence of godly character is deeper, more radical, more productive 
 of enduring fruits of blessedness than any other kind of influence. Who would not 
 rejoice in the power to confer this highest good upon the world ? — W. 
 
 Ver. 1. — Incessant weeping over the calamities of Israel. We have here still another 
 measure of how great, in the estimation of the prophet, the calamity was which had 
 fallen upon his people. Other measures have already been given, in the despoiling of 
 tlie tombs (ch. viii. 1, 2), in the exile worse than death (ch. viii. 3), in the visitation 
 of serpents which were beyond the charmer's power (ch. viii. 17), and in the sufiisring 
 through the sin of his people, which even a true servant of God could not escape (ch. 
 viii. 21). And now this extraordinary desire of the prophet comes in to make plain 
 from yet another direction how great he reckoned the impending calamity to be. We 
 may well imagine that as he set before Jerusalem these gloomy prospects, the people 
 in their light-heartedness replied, " Why make all tlus ado ? Why try thus to alarm 
 
SR? THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [en. ix. 1—26. 
 
 ■us by these threatenings and cries and tears?" The exclamation of ver. 1 guides us 
 to what the prophet's answer would be. " My tears, which you count so causeless, 
 rather fall short — short beyond all expressing — of the occasion for them." 'J'he fact is 
 that the deepest, tendcrest human pity and soirow, when compared with the actual 
 needs of fallen man, are but as a slight thaw that vainly struggles with the penetrating; 
 frost of the heart. Not that human beings lack the power of deep emotion. Whole 
 peoples will be responsive enough to certain touches. But who is to bring before the 
 hearts of all men a sufficient perception of what it is that underlies and perpetuates 
 the misery of the whole world? The thing wanted is an abiding pity for men lying in 
 the suffering of sin. It is perfectly true that there is not pity enough for men because 
 of their poverty, their bodily defects and infirmities, and all miseries that are visible to 
 the natural man. But the real reason why even this pity falls so lamentably short is 
 that there is no searching consideration of what lies deeper than any visible miseries. 
 Nothing effectual can be done with the seen unless the unseen is put right. Then we 
 may be sure of it that the seen will come right with wonderful quickness and stability. 
 We must make our hearts to dwell with the utmost pity on tliose who are not yet born 
 again, not yet living the life of faith, not yet in living union with the great Source of 
 eternal life, not yet rejoicing with the joy of the Holy Ghost. If we ourselves are really 
 in process of salvation, and with our increased knowledge of truth comprehending more 
 and more what salvation will bring with it for ourselves, then it will not appear to us 
 extravagant and rhapsodical rhetnric that a prophet should wish his head to be waters, 
 and his eyes a fountain of tears. It is unmanly and utterly despicable to weep for trifles, 
 to weep over some spoiled gratification of self ; but what sort of a heart must that man 
 have who can watch, free from the deepest agitation, his brethren going on heedlessly into 
 perdition ? Jeremiah would have been unworthy of his call and his visions as a prophet 
 if he had fallen short of his exclamation here. Not, of course, that we are to make too 
 jTRich of the mere shedding of tears. In the case of the prophet copious tears were the 
 index of a heart within right in its thoughts, steady in its purposes. But there are 
 many instances where copious tears have no such value. They come and go like 
 a thunder -shower, lasting us briefly and leaving as little trace behind. Men of few 
 tears may be men of a large, wise, far-seeing kindness. He who never gives to beggars 
 in the street may yet be doing much to make beggary cease altogether. Jeremiah's 
 wish, then, was the wish of a man who saw deeply into the confusions of his time ; and 
 jet he did not see as deep as Jesus. Those few tears that Jesus dropped amid the 
 bereaving agonies of Bethany, had in them more of a pure and profound pity over men 
 tlian all the tears that sinners themselves have shed. No sinful man can imagine that 
 ideal of human life which was ever before the eyes of the Son of God. He alone knows 
 how far man has fallen ; he alone knows how high fallen man can be raised. He sees 
 what men miss who do not repent and believe in him. He sees what possibilities of 
 remorse and shame and self-condemnalion may be opening up in eternity to the 
 jiegiigent and the impenitent. What wonder, then, that he spoke of the worm that 
 dieth not, and the fire that is not quenched ! AVhat tears must not be shed over those 
 who choose to sow the wind, seemingly forgetting that they must reap the whirl- 
 wind ! — Y. 
 
 Ter. 2. — The lodging-place in the wilderness. I. What it is the prophet wishes 
 FOR. The occurrence of the word "wilderness" may easily mislead us into thinking 
 that the prophet's wish was for solitude, and thus we may be disposed to reproach him, 
 as if, Tinion-like, he wanted to get away from his fellow-men altogether. But it is not 
 on the word " wilderness " that we must fix our attention to discover the prophet's 
 feeling. The reference to a traveller's lodging-place is the main thing to be considered. 
 It is not between some hermit's humble, solitary shelter and the well-built house, which 
 is but one out of many making up the stately city, that the contrast is made, but rather 
 between the inn of the traveller and the abode of the man who, day after day, has to 
 mingle busily in the society of which he forms a part. If you are staying at an inn 
 for the night, it matters very little, so far as acquaintance is concerned," who your 
 fellow-guests may be. You scarcely meet them ; you are in their company for a few 
 hours, and on the morrow each takes his several way. Jeremiah prefers to live in an inn, 
 where he would see a succession of strange faces, to hving even amongst his own people. 
 
CH. IX. 1—26.] THE BOOK OF THE I'ROPHBT JEREMIAH. 2C:! 
 
 Tlien that the inn should be in a wilderness was a sort of necessity, to round his wLsh 
 off and make it perfectly express the state of his mind. Travellers had often wide 
 stretches of wilderness-land to cross, where, just because it was wilderness, some sort of 
 shelter needed to be provided for the niglit. But it might not be an inn in anything 
 like our understanding of the word — perhaps nothing more than a rough enclosure, 
 where only that was provided which the bare necessities of the moment demanded. 
 
 II. Why the pkophet wishes fob this. The settled society in which the prophet 
 has been living has become rotten in all its important relations. Jeremiah has a 
 people whom he must describe as "my people." He is connected with them by a tie 
 of nature which no repugnance of his can destroy. But, though they are his people, 
 that cannot make him to overlook, excuse, or tolerate their iniquities. Nay, the very 
 fact that they are his people helps to make the iniquity more jjurdensome to him ; for 
 with one's own people one has so much to do. A righteous son of Sodom, if such a 
 character were imaginable, sickened with all the abominations around him, might well 
 have left his kinsfolk, if they would not listen to his warning or profit by his refusal to 
 join in their wrong-doing. And Jeremiah may be looked on here pretty much as if he 
 had been a dweller in Sodom, for Jerusalem was spiritually Sodom. Adultery, knavery, 
 habitual lying and wrong-doing, — these were sad elements to be charged as going to 
 the substance of the social life of the people. And the prophet wished to be free from 
 all entanglement with such. Of course we are not to take his wish literally. It is but 
 an emphatic way of indicating how separated he was in the spirit of his mind from 
 such considerations as ruled in only too many hearts of Israel. Though among his 
 people, he was not of them. TTnited according to the flesh, there was a great gulf 
 between them according to the spirit. His people though they were, he yet was com- 
 pelled to look upon them as travellei's whom he casually met just for a little time. 
 And so must God's people ever learn to look upon many of those whom they are con- 
 tinually meeting ou earth. For enduring society there must be something more than 
 natural ties, frequent intercourse, or communitj' of intellectual tastes and pursuits. It 
 is a small thing to be brought together in the concerns of time if we are not also 
 brought together in the concerns of eternity. Sad it is to think that there may be a 
 closer bond between those who have never met on earth than between those who, on 
 earth, have lived for years together ! Those who are travelling to the same place may 
 never meet by the way, but when they do meet it is not in the traveller's mere 
 lodging- place, but where there are many mansions, and whence they "go out no more 
 for ever." A mansion is itself a place that abides, and those who dwell in it are meant 
 to aiide also. — Y. 
 
 Ver. 3. — Wickedness prevailing, and why it prevails. " These wicked people," says 
 the prophet, "prevail, but their prevailing does not come by truth and good iaith." 
 
 I. We have here an admission that wickedness prevails. It is, indeed, one 
 great considei'ation in the prophet's unutterable grief that wickedness is so strong and 
 successful. Man, weak and puny as he is in some respects, is in others strong to 
 achieve very impressive results. In mere physical strength there are many brutes that 
 far excel him, but he has faculties which so nmltiply his strength as to put the rest of 
 creation under his feet. That man, with his peculiar nature, should be strong to do 
 good, means that if his choice so falls he may also be strong to do evil. The prophet 
 looks out, then, upon wicked men who prevail in their plots and schemes. He has no 
 wish to miniuiize their success. He uses a strong word to indicate it. The word used 
 to indicate the prevailing of the waters at the Deluge is the word also used to indicate 
 the prevailing of the wicked here. The wickedness is not only extensively pre.^ent, 
 but manifestly successful. There must be no shirking of this fact. It is another 
 matter, indeed, what the success may be worth, and how long it may last; but there it 
 is, such as it is. The wicked prevail by putting the good into prison, and even tothe 
 taking away of their lives. They prevail by seducing the weak and self-indulgent into 
 temptation. They prevail by deceiving the simple. They go upon the maxim that 
 everything is fair, and has in it the highest necessity if it helps toward the attain- 
 ment of their ends. And their ends they do attain, making a boast of their success, 
 and sneering at the scrupulosity of those who will not follow in their steps. 
 
 II. The instability of this prevailing is hinted at. Integrity, truth, good 
 
26t THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. ix. 1—26. 
 
 faiili, are thrown to the winds. The prophet does not need to have extorted from him 
 an admission that the wicked prevail; but along with the admission he makes an 
 assertion which, even in the midst of his melancholy, gives him confidence and a 
 measure of satisfaction. This prevailing, great and proud as it is, cannot last, for it 
 lacks the essential constituents of endurance. The man who gains his ends by deceit 
 and perfidy must of necessity deceive himself as much as he does others. He persuades 
 himself that he will never grow weary of what he so much enjoys. He forgets, too, 
 that every one whom he deceives may be thereby learning a lesson which some day 
 may come back in unexpected and terrible treachery to himself. There is not a single 
 instance of wicked prosperity that need alarm or perplex us. The more wickedness 
 raises its head in boasting, the more sudden may be the final overthrow. 
 
 III. Those who cleave to truth always peevail in the end. They do it by 
 the best kind of prevailing — that of vanquishing the evil in their own hearts ; and, so 
 far as their overcoming is also an overcoming of others, they do it in such a way 
 as provokes no retaliation. He who has a settled regard for what is real and true and 
 abiding, keeps out of his future those very things which bring confusion to the wicked. 
 The prevailiog of the righteous may not, indeed, be exhibited so as to impress the eyes 
 of the world ; but that is a small matter. He who overcometh looks forward to God's 
 rewards, which are such that the world cannot appreciate thum. The great thing is to 
 be calmly conscious in our own breasts that we are winning the victory God would 
 have us win. — Y. 
 
 Vers. 4 — 8. — The social bond a rope of sand. This is very strong language for a man 
 to use concerning the society in which he lives, but it harmonizes with the strength of 
 the language which the prophet has been using with respect to himself in vers. 1, 2. 
 A very bad state of things cannot be described by mild words. Such descriptions 
 as that in this passage make plain how just and necessary the impending desolation of 
 Jerusalem was. He who has just expressed such wishes for himself must speak with 
 words that startle when he comes to counsel all who, in the midst of many perils, 
 would wish to act prudently. 
 
 I. Theee is an implication hbkb as to what society in Iskael might have 
 been. Without looking for perfection, it was reasonable to expect something a great 
 deal better than what the prophet saw. There is the strength and help coming from real 
 friendship. The more men are brought together the more chances they have of 
 making most precious friendships. Modern facilities of intercourse have probably done 
 much to enlarge such relations. Men meet ottener and communicate more easily than 
 they were once able to do. But it ought to be especially true of those living near one 
 another that neighbourhood and acquaintance, other things being equal, should lead on 
 to friendship. The claim of friendship is recognized as something special — beyond the 
 claim of kindred, humanity, and common country. In time of trouble we look to 
 friends as those to whom we have a right to look, and we must be ready for similar 
 claims upon ourselves. The prophet indicates also the claim of brotherhood. Brother 
 should help brother. Not, of course, that mere natural nearness can compensate for 
 deeper differences of disposition and temperament ; but the remembrance of a common 
 parentage should have at least the negative effect of destroying all temptation to injure. 
 Then there is general integrity in all dialings between man and man. It is one of the 
 most reasonable of all expectations that we shall so live and act that our word shall bu 
 as good as our bond. That which is fair and just towards every one should be wished 
 and provided for. The good name of each should be the care of all. 
 
 II. Thbbe is a very bold statement as to what the society in Israel actually 
 WAS. The man who could speak thus must have been a man of great courage — a man 
 into whom God had put a spirit of resolution agreeing with the words he had to 
 speak. Stern, unsparing words are only belied and made to look ridiculous when 
 uttered by a faltering lip. If the prophet's words here were true, this was a society 
 only in name. Some may say that such words could not be true — that things could 
 not possibly be so bad. But, remember, these are the words of a prophet of God, and 
 God is he who searches the heart and can tell exactly how far advanced in corruption a 
 society is at any particular time. Note how a skilled physician will assert the existence 
 of mortal mischief in a patient when as yet there is no sign of it to others, and also 
 
cii. IX. 1— 26.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 2C5 
 
 predict with tolerable correctness how long it will take the mischief to run its course. 
 And shall not God be much more discerning ? All doleful statements as to the rotten- 
 ness of society have come to bo called jeremiads, as if they were really in the same 
 class as the statement of Jeremiah here. But very often such doleful statements are 
 only the result of ignorance and partial views, coming from a defect in him who sees 
 and not in the thing seen. Jeremiah stated the simple truth here. If there had been 
 hopeful signs they would have been mentioned, for Grod never lacks in an encouraging 
 recognition of the preservative elements in society. To one who notes the warnings of 
 Isaiah it will be nothing wonderful that the evils perceptible in his time should have 
 strengthened into the deplorable universality indicated here. And even now, in places 
 where the outward signs of Christianity abound, there are proofs that society might, in 
 no very long time, approach the description of Jeremiah. The same evils are continually 
 present, though kept in check. No one trusts a stranger. He must first of all take the 
 lowest place, and do such things as need the least amount of trust, and so gradually 
 work himself into the highest place of esteem. No one complains that he cannot win 
 confidence at the first. Family jars and disputings are proverbial. Jesus, we know, 
 divides brother against brother ; but it is nothing new that he thus brings into society, 
 for Jacob is the supplanter of Esau, and brother complains against brother to this very 
 Jesus, because he thinks himself defrauded of his rights in the inheritance. There were 
 two couples of natural brethren in the company of the apostles, and in their carnal days 
 they were found hotly embroiled in the dispute as to who should stand greatest in the 
 kiugdom. There are abundant seeds of evil in society which are mercifully prevented 
 from having free scope, else the result might soon show us that Jeremiah was in no 
 wise going beyond the essential truth in what is said here. — Y. 
 
 Vers. 23, 24. — Exultation of heart and life according to the will of Qnd. I. Man is 
 
 SET BEFORE US HERB AS BEING IN A STATE OP VERT LIVELY EMOTION. He is Spokcn of 
 
 as glorying ; and the Hebrew word used is such as suggests the idea of a man, not only 
 intensely pleased within his own breast, but whose pleasure, like heat bursting into flame, 
 finds vent in words and songs of exultation. The glory and exultation felt by the mind 
 within may appear in many ways — in the face, in the gestures, in the speech ; but 
 the prophet indicates here the highest kind of expression, that of poetic and musical 
 utterance. Genius comes in to render permanent certain experiences of exultation, the 
 record of which would otherwise speedily pass away. There is thus set before us a 
 certain state of mind and a certain expression of it. And be it observed that this 
 state of mind is not condemned in itself ; nay, it is rather invited and encouraged. It 
 is only condemned when it is produced by a wrong consideration of the objects exciting 
 it, and there is a plain direction how to produce it in the right way. Hence we see 
 how God intends man to be raised into great activity of emotion. It is a wicked thing 
 to repress and starve the feelings. Some there are who act as if the expression of 
 emotion were a thing to be ashamed of; they seem to think they are doing a good 
 work In trying to kill everything like living feeling within them. Now, it is perfectly 
 certain that God would encourage everything which gives the emotions a large part to 
 play in human life, and particularly the joyful emotions. Notice, for it is an interest- 
 ing thing to notice, how it is Jeremiah, the weeping prophet as he is called, who here 
 points out to his erring brethren the way to the best sort of exultation. The truth is 
 that Jeremiah was a rejoicing believer as well as a weeping prophet. He wept over 
 Jerusalem, as did the greater One who came long after ; but it is plain that he must 
 also have had deep joys in his own soul, even as Jesus had. God wishes us to cultivate 
 the singing, exultant heart; for that we all may have, even when we lack the singing 
 lip. We are to have much grief and pity, continual sorrow of heart, because of the 
 world's sins, but it argues a great lack and a great loss if we have not much joy because 
 of God's salvation. The exultation which comes from a selfish use of the world and a 
 selfish success must be put away, but only that another and purer kind of exultation 
 may take its place. 
 
 II. The warning lest this exultation, with the consequent expression of it, 
 SHOULD BE PRODUCED IN A WRONG WAT. Three classcs are spoken of — the wise, the 
 strong, the rich. Wise and strong by natural endowments ; rich by the acquirement 
 of visible, tangible possessions. And wise, strong, and rich men may rejoice and boast 
 
266 THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEEEMTAH. [cii. ix. 1— 2G; 
 
 and sing when, perhaps, their feelings should rather tend to the other extreme, of 
 mourning and humiliation. A word on the warning to each of thuse classes. 1. The 
 wise. The existence of the wise man is recognized. A wise man is not of necessity to 
 he always contrasted with the foolish. He has a right to the name of wise if his 
 practical faculties of mind rise ahove the common level. When such a one has shown 
 himself foreseeing and cautious, patient to wait when action would be hurtful, yet 
 prompt to decide when decision is necessary — when, in short, he has obtained a general 
 reputition for wisdom — it is then only moek-modesty for him to pretend that his gifts 
 are not beyond those of common men. Wisdom is the strength of the mind, and the 
 man who has it cannot be unconscious of it, any more than the man strong in body 
 can be unconscious of his strength. But this wisdom, while it is to be used, disciplined, 
 made the most of, is not a thing to glory in. The more it is looked at, the more its 
 limits will be seen. See how easily it can be misused. It was said of Burke that he 
 gave up to party what was meant for mankind, although he would strenuously have 
 maintained that, through party, he got his best means for serving mankind. But of 
 many it is only too true that their great faculties of intellect, meant for tlie good of 
 men and the glory of God, have been deliberately given up to that which hurts men. 
 Wisdom, as wisdom, is not to be gloried in. It must be an instrument in a higher 
 hand belore it can work out such a result as will fill the contemplating mind with 
 exultation and praise. 2. Thi strong. How much men admire strength — strength of 
 body, or strength to maintain and carry out some settled purpose ! The young men 
 who contended in the Gtrecian games gloried in their strength, and so did their kins- 
 folk and all the people who took pride in the land that produced such. And yet 
 glorying of this sort would not bear reflection. Assuredly it could not endure in a 
 renewed mind to think that the prize of victory had been gotten by the defeat and 
 humiliation of a brother man. Glorying in strength means looking back on victories 
 of brute violence, such victories as Goliath was wont to rejoice in. Glorying in 
 strength means sitting down at the banquet with the blood-stained conqueror, and 
 singing of his achievements amid the flush and insolence of wine. And it means also 
 the encouragement and the formation of similar ho[)es and purposes for the future. 
 Such feelings of glorying in mere strength the beast of prey may have as he goes up 
 and down in the forest, but they are not the feelings of a man considering the possible 
 range of his thoughts and aspirations. A strong man must employ his strength usefully, 
 recollecting that it was given so that, with a devout and obedient mind in a strong body, 
 he might serve God in his day and generation. 3. The rich. Kich men glory inthe"ir 
 wealth, and not without plausibility. They find that it stands excellently well in the 
 place of wisdom and strength. They can buy the wisdom and the strength of others ; 
 and the more freely they expend, the more also, in certain ways, they obtain. He who 
 professes to despise wealth never gets credit for sincerity ; and yet it is perfectly cer- 
 tain that those who profess to glory in this same wealth are preparing for themselves, 
 in one way or anothei, a terrible humiliation. Let them lose their wealth, and they 
 will waken to the discovery that they have also lost their attractions. There is more 
 to be said for glorying in one's wisdom and strength than in one's external possessions ; 
 for the wisdom and strength, whatever their shortcomings, are really a part of the man, 
 while the external possessions are little better than an accident. 
 
 III. Man is directed to a CADSE op EXUIiTATION WHICH, WITH THE UTMOST 
 CONFIDENCE, HE MAT ALLOW TO OPERATE FREELY ON HIS MIND. There IS a SOn" for 
 
 man to sing worthy of his highest powers — a song in which he may glory with respect 
 to himself, because he has become somewhat of that which he ought to be. We are 
 not allowed to sing exultingly and proudly of our own natural powers, even if they 
 were the powers ol' a Plato, a Shakespeare, or a Newton ; but there is a sure standinff- 
 ]ilace for us to exult lawfully in what we have become. The least in the kino-dom of 
 heaven is greater than the greatest born of women. We may always magnify humanity 
 when we see one of ourselves coming to a true knowledge of God.° The peculiar 
 possibility of glory to man is that he is able to know his Maker. Understand and 
 fcnow. Surely these words mean a great deal; one can hardly put too much of 
 moaning and encouragement into' them. Through Isaiah, Jehovah said, " The ox 
 knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib : but Israel doth not know, my 
 people doth not consider." And yet, if Israel will only consider and turn, it is capable 
 
CH. X.1— 25.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 
 
 2G7 
 
 of knowing Grod as no bvnte, however dooilo, attentive, and faithful it be, can ever como 
 to know its master. The brute gives to its master a brute's recognition ; it does the 
 utmost its faculties enable it to do ; bnt in coming to man we come to one who can be 
 so altered as to know God even as a cliild knows its father. The true glory of tho 
 worst of men is that he can be regenerated. The glory of the best of men is that h>- 
 has heen regenerated. The great end to be aimed at is that every man should exult iji 
 his having been made a partaker tif the Divine nature. The more he thinks of his 
 Saviour, the more he will glory in this — that he, in spite of all his spiritual ignorance 
 and blindness, has had in him a power to be so renewed and uplifted ; that he has 
 become one of the exceeding great multitude, who owe eternal blessedness to the work 
 of Christ. To speak of the possibility of such glorying as comes from the knowledge 
 of Gud was a great matter in relation to these children of Israel. They had fallen 
 into the most appalling errors as to the character and disposition of d?ity. They had 
 come to have gods many — gods who were the patrons of cruiilty, rapacity, tyranny, 
 injustice, lust, and covetousness. They liad to practise, as a matter of religion, things 
 opposed to those very things in which Jehovah here represents himself as delighting. 
 "What was required from them, therefore, was to listen humbly and attentively to those 
 prophetic expostulations which pointed towards light, truth, redemption, and a new 
 song to be put in their mouths by Jehovah himself. And a similar way is to be ours 
 if we would be sure of glorying in the Lord. The way of God in this matter is by 
 the truth as it is in Jesus, and into that way God's Spirit must lead us, and keep us in 
 it even to the end, amid all the difficulties arising from the natural pride of human 
 hearts. — Y. 
 
 EXPOSITION. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Whoever wrote the prophecy in vers.] — 16 
 of this chapter, it was not Jeremiah; but 
 of course, as the passage forms part of a 
 canonical book, its claims to the character of 
 a Scripture remain the same as if it were the 
 work of our prophet. It is obvious at the 
 very outset that it interrupts tlie connection ; 
 vers. 17 — 25 stand in no relation to vers. 
 1 — 16, but attach themselves most naturnlly 
 (see below) to the concluding verses of ch. 
 ix. The author tells us himself, as clearly 
 as he can, that the people whom he ad- 
 dresses are free as yet (or at any rate have 
 freed themselves) from the guilt of idolatry, 
 and consequently cannot be the same as 
 those who are so severely chastised for their 
 polytheism in oh. vii. I'v, 18, 30, 31. The 
 style too is, on the whole, very differeut 
 from that of the writer of the preceding 
 chapters (see the details in the introduo. 
 tion to this passage in the Commentary of 
 Xaegelsbach). But how can we account for 
 such an insertion? Only by the view al- 
 ready mentioned (supported by a large num- 
 ber of fiicts throughout the prophetic litera- 
 ture), that the prophecies were edited, and 
 here and there supplemented by the " sons 
 of the prophets " (if the term may be ap- 
 
 plied in a new sense), i.e. by persona provi- 
 dentially raised up for this purpose, and 
 endowed with at least a younger son's 
 portion of the prophetic Spirit. In the 
 times of the editor of Jeremiah, to whom we 
 owe the first sixteen verses of this chapter, 
 the Jews must have been in danger of falling 
 into idolatry, and our prophet, guided by the 
 Divine Spirit, took up the pen to counteract 
 this danger. His name has not come down 
 to us; indeed, self-abnegation is the cha- 
 racteristic of inspired writers. How un- 
 certain is the authorship of at any rate not 
 a few of the psalms, and of all the historical 
 books ! And have we a right to be sur- 
 prised that the prophets too, absorhed in 
 their glorious mission, have sometijnes for- 
 gotten to hand ou their names to posterity ? 
 It is of course possible, in the abstract, that 
 some fragments of the passage are really 
 due to Jeremiah; but how are we to distin- 
 guish them from the rest? Hitzig thinks 
 that vers. 6—8 and ver. 10 are the great 
 prophet's work; but these are the very 
 verses the origin of which is the most 
 doubtful, since they are entirely omitted in 
 the Septuagint. One thing is certain — that 
 the passage vers. 1 — 16 stands in close re- 
 lation to the latter part of the Book of 
 Isaiah. The prophetic writer, whoever he 
 
208 
 
 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. x. 1— 25. 
 
 ■was, had his mind saturated with the ideas 
 and phraseology of that maguificent work. 
 The similarity, however, is hardly so close as 
 to justify the view that Isa. xl. — Ixvi. and 
 ch. X. 1 — 16 are productions of the same 
 inspired writer. [It is no objection to the 
 theory hero advocated that the passage is 
 found in the Septuagiot; for no one has 
 ever supposed that the process of editing 
 the Scriptures was not already long since 
 finished when the Alexandrine Version, or 
 rather collection of versions, was made.] It 
 is a singular fact that ver. 11 is written in 
 Chaldee (see note below). 
 
 Ver. 2.— The way of the heathen. " Way " 
 equivalent to " religion " (oomp. dShs, Acts 
 ix. 2, etc). Be not dismayed at the signs of 
 heaven ; alluding to the astrological calcu- 
 lations baaed upon extraordinary appear- 
 ances in the sky. Diodorus Siculus remarks 
 (ii. 30) — and liis statement is fully confirmed 
 by the Babylonian cuneiform tablets — that 
 " the appearance of comets, eclipses of the ■ 
 sun and moon, earthquakes, and in fact every 
 kind of change occasioned by the atmosphere, 
 whether good or bail, both to nations and to 
 kings and private individuals [were omens 
 of future events]." A catalogue of the 
 seventy standard astrological tablets is to be 
 found in tlie third volume of the British 
 Museum collection of inscriptions. Among 
 the items we read, " A collection of twenty- 
 five tablets of the signs of heaven and earth, 
 according to their good presage and their 
 bad ; " and again, " Tablets [regarding] the 
 signs of the heaven, along with the star 
 (comet) which has a corona in front and a 
 tiiil behind; the appearance of the sky," 
 etc. Theie can liardly be a doubt tliat the 
 jirophetic writer had such pseudo-science as 
 this in his eye (see Professor Sayce, ' The 
 Astronomy and Abtrology of the Baby- 
 lonians, with translations of the tablets,' 
 etc , in the Transactions of the Society of 
 Bihlical Archieology, in. 145 — 389). 
 
 Ver. 3. — The customs of the people. 
 " People " should, as usuid, be corrected into 
 peoples — the heathen nations are referred to. 
 The Hebrew has " the statutes ; " but the 
 Authorized Version is substantially light, 
 cuotoms having a force as of iron in Eastern 
 countries. It seems to be implied that the 
 " customs " are of religious origin (comp. 2 
 Kings xvii. 8, where "the statutes of the 
 lienthen " are obviously the rites and 
 customs of polytheism. For one outteth a 
 tree, etc. This is intended to prove the 
 foregoing statement of the " vanity," or 
 groundlessness, of idolatry. The order of 
 the Hebrew, however, is more forcible, for 
 as wood out of the forest one cutteth it, viz. 
 the idol. 
 
 Ver. 4.— They deck it . . . that it move 
 not. The close resemblance of this verse to 
 Isa. xl. 19, 20 ; xli. 7, will strike every reader. 
 '' Move ". should rather be tutter. 
 
 Ver. 5. — They are upright as the palm 
 tree ; rather, they are Wee a piUar (i.e. a 
 scarecrow) in a field of ciuMmbers. This 
 is the interpretation given to our passage 
 in ver. 70 of the apocryphal Epistle of 
 Jeremiah (written in the Maccabean period, 
 evidently with reference to our prophecy), 
 and is much more striking than the rival 
 translation, " like a palm tree of turned 
 work," i.e. stiff, immovable (comp. Virgil, 
 'Georg.,' iv. HO, 111; Horace, 'Sat.,'i. 8, 
 1 — i). They must needs be borne . . . they 
 cannot do evil ; a reminiscence, apparently, 
 of Isa. xlvi. 7 ; xli. 23. 
 
 Ver. 6. — Forasmuch as there is none; 
 rather, so that, etc. But practically it is 
 merely a strengthened negative. There is 
 none like unto thee ; none, that is, among 
 those who claim to have Divine power (comp. 
 the phrase, "God of gods," Deut. x. 17; 
 Ps. cxxxvi. 2). It would appear from some 
 passages, however, as if the heathen did 
 not worship mere nonentities (though idols 
 are sometimes called " things of nought," 
 e.g. ten times by Isaiah) by comparison with 
 Jehovah, but that there was a dark back- 
 ground of awful personal or quasi-personal 
 reality {e.g. Deut. iv. 7; 2 Chron. xxviii. 
 23). 
 
 Ver. 7. — King of nations. As time went 
 on, the sacred writers became more and 
 more distinct in their assertions of the 
 truth that Jehoviih, the Self-revealing God, 
 is not Israel's King only, but also of the 
 world (eomp. Ps. xxii. 28 ; xlvii. 7, 8 ; xcvi. 
 10). To thee doth it appertain; viz. that 
 men should fear thee. Forasmuch as, etc. 
 (see above, on ver. 6). Among all the wise 
 men. " Men " is supplied, but doubtless 
 rightly. It is a contest — how unequal a 
 one I — between Jehovah and the sages of 
 the heathen (comp. " Yet he also is wise," 
 Isa. xxxi. 2). 
 
 Ver. 8.— Brutish and foolish. In fact, the 
 original meaning of the idolatrous reli- 
 gions had begun, probably, to fade, and the 
 worship of Bel and Nebo had become (as 
 the woiship of the Egyptian gods became 
 at a later period) increasingly formal and 
 ritualistic. The stock is a doctrine of vani- 
 ties ; rather, an instruction of vanities ; i.e. 
 all that the idols can teach is vanities. 
 Against this is the plural (" vanities," not 
 " vanity ") ; it is more natural (and also more 
 in accordance with usage ; comp. Gen. xli. 
 26, Hebrew) to render, the iiisfruetion of the 
 vanities is wooden (" vanities " has the con- 
 stant technical sense of " idols ; " see ch. viii, 
 19; xiv. 22; Deut. xxxii 21; Ps. xxxi. (i). 
 The clause then furnislies a reason for tlie 
 
CH. X. 1— 25.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 
 
 2^9 
 
 folly of the heathen ; how should they 
 attain to more than a "wooden" know- 
 ledge, when the idola themselves are but 
 wood ? A bitter truth in an ironical form. 
 
 Ver. 9. — This verse apparently once 
 followed ver. 5. Like vers. 7 and 8, it is 
 omitted in the Septuagint. Silver spread 
 into plates, etc. The silver and gold were 
 meant for the coating of the wooden image 
 (oomp. Isa. XXX. 22 ; xl. 19). Tarshish ; i.e. 
 Tartessus, in south-west Spain, between 
 the two mouths of the Bsetis, or Guadal- 
 quivir. Gold from Uphaz. A place bearing 
 this name, or anything like it, is not known 
 from other sources than the Old Testament 
 writings ; and hence a corruption of the text 
 has naturally been suspected (Ophir into 
 Uphaz). As, however, r and z are not easily 
 confounded, either in the earlier or the later 
 Hebrew characters, this view must be 
 abandoned, though it has the authority of 
 several ancient versions of this passage 
 (including the Peshito and the Targum). 
 The name occurs aguin in Dan. x, 5. The 
 Peshito, moreover, curiously enough, trans- 
 lates zihab mufaz in 1 Kings x. 18 (Autlio- 
 rized Version, " the best gold ") by " gold 
 from Ophir." Blue and purple. The Hebrew 
 has no word, strictly speaking, for either 
 " blue " or " purple." Both these words 
 here used probably express colouring matter 
 rather than colours (this is certain of the 
 latter word, which propcily designates a 
 kind of mussiSl, the shell of wliich yielded 
 dye). The first produced a violet purple, the 
 second a reddish purple. 
 
 Ver. 10. — The true God ; literally, a God 
 in truth, the accusative of apposition being 
 chosen instead of the usual genitive con- 
 struction, to emphasize the idea of " truth." 
 
 Ver. 11. — Thus shall ye say, etc. This 
 verse is, unlike the rest of the chapter, 
 written in Chaldee, and greatly interrupts 
 the connection. Whether it is a fragment 
 of a Targum (or Chaldee paraphrase) repre- 
 senting a Hebrew verse really written by 
 Jeremiah, or whether it is a marginal note 
 by some scribe or reader which has found 
 its way by accident into the text, cannot be 
 positively determined. What is certain is 
 that it is not in its right place, though it 
 already stood here when the Septuagint 
 Version of Jeremiah was made. To argue, 
 with the ' Speaker's Commentary,' that the 
 latter circumstance is decisive of the correct- 
 ness of the passage in its present position, 
 implies a view of the unchangeableness of 
 the text in the early centuries which few 
 leading scholars will admit. 
 
 Vers. 12 — 16. — Repeated with a slight 
 variation in ch. li. 15—19. 
 
 Ver. 12. — He hath made the earth, etc. 
 (eomp. tlie frequent references to the Divine 
 treatorship in tlie latter pait of Isaiah (xl. 
 
 22 ; xlii. 5 ; xliv. 21 ; xlv. 12, 18 ; li. 13). By 
 his discretion ; rather, by his understanding. 
 
 Ver. 13. — When he uttereth his voice, etc. 
 The phrase is difficult, but the Authorized 
 Version probably gives the right sense. 
 God's " voice " is the thunder (Ps. xxix. 3), 
 which is accompanied by the gatheiing of 
 hiavy clouds ("His pavilion round about 
 him," Ps. xviii. llj. He eauseth the vapours 
 to ascend, etc. ; the storm-clouds coming up 
 more and more thickly from the horizon. 
 From this point the verse agrees with Ps. 
 cxxxv. 7 (the psalm is full of such reminis- 
 cences, and is obviously very late). Iiight- 
 nings with rain ; rather, firr the rain. The 
 lightnings are, as it were, the heralds or 
 attendants of the rain. The wind out of his 
 treasures | a noble figure, used elsewhere of 
 the snow and hail (Job xxxviii. 22), and of 
 the waters of the sea (Ps. xxxiii. 7). 
 
 Ver. 14. — Before these natural miracles, 
 all men, except those who have been 
 enlightened by revelation, are without 
 Imowledge (so, and not in his knowledge, 
 we ought to render); i.e. without in>ight 
 into their origin and meaning (compare 
 the overwhelming series of questions in the 
 sublime theophany in Job, ch. xxxviii., 
 xxxix.). Every founder is confounded by, 
 etc. ; rather, every goldsmith is brought to 
 shame by the graven image ; for how can the 
 work wliich has needed all the resources of 
 his skill deliver him ? 
 
 Ver. 15. — The very essence of idols is 
 vanity; they are unieal as "a breath;" 
 they are, not so much the work of errors 
 as a worh of mockery, i.e. not opus risu 
 dignum, but a work which rewards the 
 efforts bestowed upon its production by 
 disappointment. 
 
 Ver. 16. — The portion of Jacob ; i.e. Jeho- 
 vah. The phrase appears to have been 
 coined at a lower level of religiun, when 
 every nation was supposed to have its own 
 patron deity ; just as the prophet says, 
 ironically, to the fetish-worshippers of 
 Israel, "Among the smooth stones of the 
 stream is thy portion " (Isa. Ivii. 5), and 
 Moses, in Deuteronomy (iv. 19), speaks of 
 the host of heaven as having been " divided 
 \i..e. assigned] unto all nations under the 
 whole heaven." But, of course, the phrase 
 is susceptible of a high, spiritual applica- 
 tion (comp. Ps. xvi. 5 ; cxlii. 5). God's people 
 are, i)y their very comeption, an iK\oyii, 
 chosen out by God, and choosing him, pnd 
 not the world, for their portion. " Making 
 the best of both worlds'" is an object 
 implicitly condemned by this consecrated 
 phrase. The former of all things. How 
 much more forcible is the original phrase : 
 "... of the whole," i.e. the universe I " To 
 form " is a phrase constantly used of God in 
 the second part of Isaiah. The rod of his 
 
270 
 
 THE BOOK OF THE rROPHET JEREMIAH, [en. x. 1—25. 
 
 inheritance. " Eod " should rathpr be tribe. 
 The twelve tribes had an inner unity,' as 
 contrasted with other peoples; comp. Ps. 
 Ixxiv. 2 and Isa. Ixiii. 17 (" tribes "). 
 
 Vers. 17 — 22. — This passnge connects 
 itself immediately with oh. ix., where the 
 invasion of Judah and tlie dispersion of its 
 inhabitants have been foretold. Here, after 
 describing dramatically the departure of 
 the latter into exile, tlie prciphet rejiorts a 
 distinct revelation of the same fact, so that 
 this can no longer be assumed to be mere 
 imaginative rhetoric. The Jewish people is 
 then introduced, lamenting her sad fate, but 
 expressing resignation. 
 
 Ver. 17. — Gather up thy wares. " Wares " 
 should rather be bundle. There is no 
 allusion to trafficking. inhabitant of the 
 fortress ; rather, thou that dwellest besieged. 
 
 Ver. 18. — I -will sling out; a forcible 
 image, to express the violence of the expul- 
 .sion; comp. Isa. xxii. 17, 18 (ver. 17 needs 
 (correcting). At this once; rather, at this 
 time (comp. ch. xvi. 21). Invasion wns no 
 novelty to the Jews, but had hitherto merely 
 jiroduced loss of goods rather than of personal 
 liberty. That they may find it so; better, 
 that they may feel it. Others supply as the 
 .■-ubject " Jehovah," comparing Vs. xxxii. 6, 
 " In a time of finding " (Authorized Version, 
 " When thou mayest be found "). Jeremiah 
 liimself says, " Ye shall seek me, and shall 
 iind, when ye shall m arch for me with all 
 your heart " (ch. xxix. 13 = Deut. iv. 29). 
 Still, these passages are hardly quite parallel, 
 as the object of the verb can bo easily sup- 
 plied from the connection. The Vulgate 
 apjiarently reads the text with diiTerent 
 vowels, for it renders ut inveniantur ; tlie 
 Septuagiut has "that thy stroke may be 
 found." 
 
 Ver. 19. — It is rather doubtful (as in ihe 
 parallel passage, ch. iv. 19— 21) whether the 
 speaker here is the prophet, or " the daugh- 
 ter of my people," who, in ch. vi. 26, is 
 called upon to " make most bitter lamenta- 
 tion." Of course, the prophet cannot dis- 
 sociate himself from his )eople; and we 
 may therefore, perhaps, consider both lefer- 
 eiices united. Hurt ; literally, breach ; a 
 term so used for political calamities. A 
 grief; rather, my grief; but "grief" is 
 meant to include both physical and mental 
 sufferings (literally, my sickness). 
 
 Ver. 20. — My tabernacle ; rather, my tent. 
 It is very striking how present to the minds 
 of the Israelites was the consciousness of 
 their pastoral origin. Hence the cry, " To 
 your tents, O Israel" (1 Kings xii. 16); 
 
 comp. also, "And the children of Israel 
 dwelt in their tents, as aforetime " (2 Kings 
 xiii. 5). My cords ... my curtains. The 
 " cords " are those which, by being fastened 
 to poles and stakes, keep the tent steady ; 
 the "curtains," of course, are the covering 
 of the tent (comp. Isa. liv. 2). 
 
 Ver. 21. — The pastors; i.e. the civil au- 
 thorities (see on ch. ii. 8). They shall not 
 prosper; rather, thei/ have not prospered; or, 
 better still, they have not acted wisely, the 
 notion of prospering being rather suggested 
 than expressed (the same word is used in 
 Isa. Hi. 18). 
 
 Ver. 22. — Behold, ... is come; rather, 
 Sarltl tidings! Behold, it cometh 1 The 
 tidings are that the foe is at hand, advancing 
 with a great commotion, with clashing 
 spi-ars, prancing horses, and all the hubbub 
 of a great army. A den of dragons ; rather, 
 of jachah (as ch. ix. 11). 
 
 Vers. 23 — 25. — These verses confirm the 
 view taken above, of the speaker of this 
 whole section. Jeremiah and the people, 
 each is, in a sense, the speaker ; but here 
 the prophetic faith seems to run rather in 
 advan'e of that of his fellow-countrymen. 
 They form, however, a fitting sequel to the 
 ciiarges brought against the people in ch. ix. 
 The speaker admits that he(either the peoplo 
 of Judah personified, or Jeiemiah as a repre- 
 sentative of its best portion) fully deserves 
 chastisement for having attempted to go his 
 own way (comp. Isa. Ivii. 17). He has now 
 attained an insight into the truth that man's 
 duty is simply to walk in the path which 
 God has marked out for him. He only asks 
 that Jehovah would chastise him with judg- 
 ment, or, more clearly, according to what is 
 just. " The contrast is between punishment 
 inflicted in anger, the object of which is to 
 cause pain to thecriminal,and that inflicted 
 as a duty of justice, and of which the object 
 is the criminal's reformation" (Payne 
 Smith). The fear expressed, however, is 
 nut exactly lest thou bring me to nothing, 
 which is too strong for the Hebrew, but lest 
 thou malie me small. Israel was secured 
 against annihilation by the promise of 
 Jehovah, but feared he might possibly sur- 
 vive only as the shadow of his former self. 
 
 Ver. 25. — This verse is repeated, with 
 slight differences, in Ps. Ixxix. 6, 7. The 
 fault of the iieatheu is tliat tliey exceeded 
 their con^niission (Isa. x. 6, 7; xlvii. 6; 
 Zech. i. 15), and aimed at destroying, instead 
 ofmerely iiunishing, .lehovah'serring peo|ile. 
 His habitation; rather, his pasture (comp. 
 ch. xii. 10). ^ 
 
CH. X. 1— 25.] THE BOOK OF THE PIIOPHET JEREMIAH. 271 
 
 HOMILETICS. 
 
 Vers. 1 — 5. — The folly of paganism. I. The folly op paganism proves the 
 WEAKNESS OF SUPERSTITIOUS FEAKS. The Jews Were tempted to fear astrological 
 portents (ver. 2) and idol-powers (ver. 5). Yet a, little reflection was enough to show 
 that these things were impotent for harm. The lowest religion is a product of fear. 
 Superstition finds converts where rational faith fails. The trouble thus resulting 
 from the weakness of men can only be dissipated by boldly confronting the source of 
 terror and thoroughly examining it. 
 
 II. The follt op paoanism kevbals the mistake op tibldino to its fasci- 
 nations. For this miserable inanity the Jews were abandoning the God of heaven 
 and earth I Eeligion should be accepted, not for its attractiveness, but for its truth. 
 It must be a reality or it will be a snare. Yet how many are led to adopt systems of 
 religion without any Regard to the truth of the ideas they contain, but simply out of 
 liking for their ritual, emotional sympathy for their poetry, or even mere love of the 
 musical accompaniments of the worship connected with them ! 
 
 III. The folly op paganism is an evidence in favour of the truth op the 
 RELIGION OP THE BlELB. The Fcason and imagination of men in all ages, in all climes, 
 in all degrees of civilization, have been set to the task of inventing religions (con- 
 sciously sometimes, but for the most part nnoonsciously and therefore the more 
 genninely), and the result in all cases is far inferior to Christianity. A mere com- 
 parison of religions should lead us to prefer this, and a simple conclusion from such a 
 comparison is that this must be of Divine origin. 
 
 Vers. 6, 7. — The incomparable greatness of Ood. I. God is gbeat. This simple item 
 of the Mohammedan's creed must be accepted with equal reverence by the Christian, 
 though it forms but one part of his conception of the Divine nature. There is danger 
 lest we should regard the goodness of God in such a way as to detract from his majesty. 
 Truly considered, it enhances the supreme glory of God's greatness. God is great in 
 power, in wisdom, in resources, in essential being. God is also great in chai'acter, in 
 purpose, in the just and good principles of his actions. The worship of a God of mere 
 ])o\ver is the cringing of a slave, and has no spiritual value, but rather degrades the 
 devotee by destroying independence of conscience and moral courage. It would be our 
 duty to resist a being of infinite power if that power were not used righteously, for 
 such a being would not be God, but an infinite demon; and though resistance were 
 hopeless, it would be better to be a martyr to conscience than the degraded minion of 
 an unrighteous despotism/ But God is worthy of all worship because his greatness of 
 power reposes on greatness of character. 
 
 II. The grbatnf.ss of God is incomparable. The Jews were led to see that 
 their God was not one among many deities, not even the supreme God, the Zeus of a 
 pantheon of lesser divinities, but the only God, and out of all comparison with all other 
 beings. God is infinite. You cannot compare the infinite with anything finite. The 
 greatest existence which has any limit is as far from the infinite as thf; smallest. This 
 is as much larger than a world as it is larger than a grain of sand. The being of God 
 is entirely distinct from all other orders of being — vastly greater than the universe of 
 them — in its fulness incomparable to any. Yet: 1. God, being infinite, contains in 
 himself all possibilities of being, and therefore all may see their ideal perfection in him 
 though he transcends all (Heb. ii. 10). 2. God has made man in his own image, and in 
 his power of thought, freedom of will, and moral conscience, man has characteristics 
 like the Divine in kind, though incomparable with that in degree (Gen. i. 26). Christ 
 is the " express Image of his substance " (Heb. i. 3), " but only so because in him 
 dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily " (Col. ii. 9). 
 
 III. The incomparable greatness of God should move all men to fear 
 before him. All should fear because: 1. Pie is too great to be concerned with a few; 
 aU nations, all mankind, are equally under his sway. 2. He is infinitely above the 
 greatest, so that kings and wise men, persons of the highest rank and of the most pro- 
 found genius, are as much below him as if they were beggars and fools. 3. He is so 
 vast in being, power, and chai'acter, that it is no mark of noble independence to resist 
 
272 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. x. 1—25, 
 
 him, but only a sign of foolisli pride which will certainly be humiliated. The fear of G-od 
 thus engendered is an awe, a reverence, not mere terror. The gospel tempers this with 
 the confident love of children, but does not destroy it, since perfect love, while casting 
 out terror, infuses feelings of reverence. 
 
 Vers. 10, 12, 13.— The nature of Ood. The true nature of God is seen in contrast 
 with the objects of heathen worship. Error is sometimes serviceable in furnishing an 
 occasion for a clearer definition of truth. Christian theology has grown up through 
 controversies with heresy and unbelief. 
 
 I. The nature of God. 1. God is real. Jehovah is the true God. He is not 
 only superior to heathen deities. They are non-existent. He alone is. Religion is 
 based on facts. Its first affirmation is this — " God is." It is not a growth of tha 
 poetic imagination, a fabric of baseless speculation, nor merely " morality touched with 
 emotion," without any object for that emotion to rest upon. It is the worship of a 
 God who exists. Otherwise no poetic charm nor practical expediency can make it 
 anything but a delusion, which all who venerate truth should abjure. 2. God is 
 living. The word " God " is not a name for the totality of being, for the unconscious 
 forces of the universe, for a blind " Not ourselves that makes for righteou-snessi, ' All 
 faith affirms more. No worship is justified without the belief that God is spirit, 
 thinking, willing, living. God is, indeed, the one self-existent life, the life in which 
 all other life is contained (Acts xvii. 28). 3. God is an everlasting King. He is 
 eternal and changeless — not a God of the past alone, but equally active in the present. 
 He is not only the Creator who formed the world ages ago, but the King who now rules 
 it. Our worship is not merely veneration for what he has done, but a constant appre- 
 ciation of what he is doing, and prayer touching his future action — a real and effectual 
 communion with a living and acting God. 4. These thoughts of the nature of God 
 should induce submission and reverence. None can compare with him. All are in his 
 power. His eternal presence demands constant attention, and his ceaseless activity 
 requires a correspondence in all our activity. 
 
 II. The manifestation of the nature of God. 1. It is seen in creation. 
 Power is revealed in the original formation of all things, wisdom in their orderly 
 establishment (ver. 12). A renl world can only come from a real God. A living! 
 world must derive its vitality from an original source of life. The less cannot produce 
 the greater. All that we see in the universe must have been originally in the thought 
 and power of God. 2. It is seen in the present activities of the world. The tumult of 
 waters flows in obedience to God's voice. Clouds, and wind, and lightning, and rain, 
 follow his directions (ver. 13). The irreat energy of the physical world testifies to an 
 energizing power behind it. The universe is not a beautiful crystal, nor a fossil rehc 
 of past life. It is replete with force, undergoinc; perpetual change, and constantly 
 developing fresh forms of vitality. Such a condition of things implies that the real 
 and living Creator must be also an ever-present Ruler, " an everlasting King." 
 
 Ver. 16. — God tlie Portion of Israel, I. GoD is peculiaelt belated to his own 
 PEOPLE. The previous verses describe the universal supremacy of God and the claims 
 he has over all his creatures. He is not one among many gods, but the only God ; he 
 is the Creator of all things, in him all things consist, all men live only through him. 
 He is gracious to all his human family, he is willing to give his richest blessings to all 
 mankind. Still, there are other and special relations which God holds only with those 
 who trust and love and obey him. They who seek God will find him as the negligent 
 will never do. They who choose God for their Portion will be chosen by him for 
 peculiar favours. This is quite consistent with the universality of the being and activity 
 of God. 
 
 II. God's peculiak relation with his people admits op no rivalry. God 
 must be the Portion of his people or in no sense peculiarly theirs. Israel cannot retain 
 the special privileges of the covenant with Jehovah while breaking the conditions of 
 that covenant which require unwavering fidelity (Deut. xxviii. li). He who would 
 find his portion in God must not also seek it in the world. He may have many 
 worldly advantages while pursuing hijiher aims, because these may be " added unto 
 him ; " but he must " seek first the kingdom of God " (Matt. vi. 33), 
 
CH. x.l— 25.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMUH. 273 
 
 III. God's pecultak eelation with ins people is an unspeakable blessing to 
 THEM. 1. He makes them his inheritance, i.e. prizes them as property, values them 
 " as the apple of his eye " (Deut. xxxii. 10), as his " peculiar treasure " (Mai. iii. 17). Ii 
 God showers down upon all his creatures mercies countless as the stars of heaven, what 
 must be the wonder and the glory of their state whom God thus prizes and marks for 
 special favour ! 2. They find in him their Portion. (1) The Portion is God, not the 
 gifts of God, for the Giver is better than his gifts. God is more to his people tliau 
 all he bestows upon them. (2) This portion is independent of all earthly circum- 
 stances; it may be enjoyed in sickness, in poverty, in human contempt. (3) It is 
 the highest blessedness of the soul — enjoying God, living in the light of his love, 
 receiving the essential blessedness of Heaven. 
 
 IV. The blessing op this peculiar relationship with God is open to all 
 MEN. The Jews too often rested their claim on inherent national rights — their birth- 
 rights. But the New Testament declares the spiritual Israel to be the true Israel 
 (Gal. vi. 15, 16), and this Israel is composed of all who walk " according to the rule " 
 of faith in Christ. Therefore the broad invitation fur all to follow Christ opens the 
 door for all to the closest relationship with God. If all are invited to Christ who is 
 the Way, all may become God's peculiar inheritance, and find their Portion in him 
 (1 Pet. ii. 9). 
 
 Vers. 23, 24. — Confession and correction. I. Genuine confession involves a clear 
 becognition of duty and a willingness to receive necessary correction. 1. 
 There must be a recognition of duty. We cannot confess the wrong till we know tha 
 right. Conscience awakes only when a standard of right outside ourselves is pei- 
 ceived. 2. There must be a willinyness to receive necessary correction. If we make 
 honest confession of sin, we imply that we desire to be free from it. But a right under- 
 standing of our own condition in the light of God's requirements makes the necessity 
 of correction apparent. 
 
 II. A clear recognition of duty will show that this consists in self-abnega- 
 tion to a higher will. The essence of sin is self-will. The tirso sin was an act of 
 disobedience. All wickedness is a rebellion against a supreme authority. Man is not 
 Iree to live to himself, swayed oniy by his own lawless caprice. He has a vocation to 
 fulfil. 1. He has no right to go his own way. He is a servant. He is lawfully subject 
 to a righteous Lord, before whom duty requires him to say, "Not my will, but thine, 
 be, done." 2. He has not light enough to direct his own steps. Future accidents 
 cannot be anticipated. The ultimate effects of thj simplest action are not to be traced 
 beforehand. Hence the need of a higher direction. 3. He has not power to succeed 
 in his own way. If he starts by himself, making the awful experiment of a self- 
 sustained pilgrimage through the toils and storms of life, he will assuredly make ship- 
 wreck. Our duty is not to live for self, nor even for God in our own way or by our 
 own unaided strength, but to do his will, in his way, by his aid. Thus the Christian, 
 looking for authority, guidance, and strength in Christ, is taught to say, " To me to 
 live is Christ." 
 
 III. A willingnkss to receive correction arises from a perception of its 
 
 JUSTICE and utility WHEN VIEWED IN THE LIGHT OF THE REQUIREMENTS OF DUTY. 
 
 1. It must be recognized as Just, not only merited, but coming iu a fair dejrce. We 
 could not willingly accept a correcting chastisement whicli was disproportionate to 
 guilt; 2. It must be recognized as given on principles of righteousness, not out of 
 vindictive wrath. 3. It must be recognized as sent for a merciful purpose. It is cor- 
 rection, not simply retribution. This is wholesome, and given, not in anger, which 
 would be fatal (Ps. ii. 12), but in love (Prov. iii. 12). Such correction we should not 
 murmur under, but welcome, accept as a blessing, and even pra>' for. But we shall only 
 do this when we are impressed with a right sense of duty, which makes us acknow- 
 ledge that we are not to live for ourselves, and must be subdued and trained by all 
 necessary means to submission and obedience and a true feeling of our own helpless- 
 ness, requiring the help of Divine discipline. Because man's way is not in himself he 
 may naturally ask for wholesome correction. 
 
 JEREMIAH. 
 
274 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEnEMIAH. [ch. x. 1-25.. 
 
 HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. 
 
 Vers. 2 — 5. — The helplessness of heathen gods a conclusive argument against them. 
 How is the superstitious worship of nature and inanimate objects to be corrected? It 
 is obvious that the attributes attached by the worshippers to the idols they worshi[) 
 are wholly foreign to them. It is ignorance, association, and the tendency to transfer 
 subjective ideas to objects of sense, that have largely to do with this. The correction, 
 therefore, must be furnished by a real analysis of the idol — a taking of it to pieces, and 
 examining how it came into existence. But — 
 
 I. Let ds inquire what worship involves. It is evident that an impression must 
 exist of the power of the object worshipped to help or to hurt. In some way men have 
 associated it with the production of evil or good in human destiny. A sense of 
 dependence is generated. Fear arises, to degenerate into vulgar terror or to refine itself 
 into the sentiments of reverence and respect. A being greater than ourselves is needed 
 to constitute a vtritable God to the human heart. 
 
 II. Tested by this, idols and celestial signs cannot be gods. 1. Careful ohser- 
 vation will fhow that, whilst there may he agreement between certain changes of the 
 heavenly bodies and the changes of weather, physical condition, etc., these are not 
 producible as by a responsible will but according to the fixed laws if nature. 2. The 
 stars of heaven and the idols of earth are alike constituted of inanimate matter. 3. In 
 addition to this, the latter are wholly the creatures of man, 4. Neither the heavenly 
 bodies nor the idols can help themselvts. — M. 
 
 Vers. 6, l.—The uniqueness of Jehovah. When other gods have been proved to be 
 false, it is very important that this unlikeness of God to anything else should be 
 established. His claim to attention and reverence is thereby held in judgment. 
 
 I. In what respects Jehovah is ukiqde. 1. In idea. It is a wondrous conception 
 — a being so great, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, 
 holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. As a conception it stands alone, commands 
 respect, and invites reverent investigation. Such goodness with such power and 
 wisdom ! 2. In pretensions. (1) He claims our sole worship ; (2) our highest and 
 holiest service is his by right, and is unworthy of him; (3) our welfare and destiny 
 are in his hands. 3. In works. There is nothing he has claimed to be which he has 
 not made good in his works — creation, providence, grace. 
 
 II. This conception op God as unique harmonizes with the instincts of the 
 human spirit, and the teachings op history and nature. It has cast its spell over 
 the mightiest intellects, and commanded the homage of the purest and best of men. 
 In the worship of him whom it represents the highest longings are satisfied, and the 
 most characteristically human sympathies and principles encouraged. The unity of 
 nature ; the mental principle that traces everything to a great First Cause ; the manner 
 in which the system of religion of which he is centre and dominating principle explains 
 this, and harmonizes the life of man with his surroundings; — are all indications that 
 point to the same conclusion. — M. 
 
 Ver. 19. — Orief borne that cannot be cured. I. An instance of the power op 
 TRUE RELIGION. His sorrow was intense. No one could understand or sympathize 
 with it. Yet he is able to put it under and, although not removing it wholly, to beiir 
 it. This is alike removed from self-indulgence and stoicism. 
 
 II. The considerations that affected him in this way. He had to finish his 
 task. It was practical, and could admit of no interruption. The sense of duty is, 
 therefore, supreme — patience, submission. His grief is recognized as a personal 
 stewardship. He is responsible for its expression and repression. It has a speci.il 
 relation to his own character and life. He legards it, therefore, as sent from God, and 
 not, therefore, to be hastily dismissed. How it enriched his nature, increased his' per- 
 sonal usefulness, and enhanced the value qf his writings to generations then unborn ! 
 
 III. Christianity IS tested by the manner in which it enables men to bear 
 AFFLICTION. The relation of our sorrows to our personal and spiritual salvation. The 
 ministry of sorrow. The hopes of the future alleviating and directing into profitable 
 
CH. X. 1—25.] THE BOOK OE' THE PROrHET JEREMIAH. 275 
 
 refleotinn and effort. " Our ligkt affliction, whicli is but for a moment, worketL," 
 etc, — M. 
 
 Vers. 1 — 17. — Idolatry. This section of Jeremiah's prophecy is one of the notable 
 passages in the Scriptures concerning idolatry. It is lilie that in Ps. cxv., and in 
 Isa. xl., xliv. It states or suggests much of great interest on this subject, and which 
 deserves to be well considered by us. There is — 
 
 I. The tkemendous fact of idolatby. See : 1. The multitudes of mankind who 
 have avowed such worship. 2. The wide extent of the world's inhabited couiitrici 
 over which it prevails. 3. Its permanence. It has lasted on from age to age, and has 
 been handed down unchanged from generation to generation, so that the prophet could 
 challenge his countrymen to tell of any nation which had ever changed their gods (cf. 
 ch. ii. 11). And though vast portions of mankind have professedly thrown aside their 
 idols, yet there are still more who have not even at the present day. Idolatry is the 
 dominant religion of the world to-day, if numbers are cousidered, even as it was in the 
 
 .days of Jeremiah, and this notwithstanding — 
 
 II. Its manifest absurdity. How scathing is the ridicule which the prophet 
 pours out upon such monstrous worship ! With what sarcasm he dwells upon the fact 
 of their being mere wooden dolls, hideous as a scarecrow in a garden of encumbers (cf. 
 Exposition, ver. 5), chipped into such shape as they have by the hands of the men who 
 worship them, decked with tawdry finery, must be nailed up lest they should tumble 
 down, and " must needs be borne because they cannot go " (ver. 5), and are, of course, 
 powerless either for evil or for good. And the prophet points out (ver. 8) that the 
 absurdity is none lessened when the idols are of a more costly sort. They may be 
 plated with silver and adorned with gold (ver. 9), and the workmanship may be of a 
 much more elaborate and artistic kind. But it is all the same ; the idol is nothing but 
 a piece of wood, and that which is taught about them is " a doctrine of vanities," i.e. 
 utterly false and absurd. But though idolatry be thus manifestly absurd, yet we are 
 forced to admit the fact of — 
 
 III. Its kevebtheless strange but strono attractiveness. How else can not 
 only the multitude of its votaries be accoimted for, and their fidelity to it, but also the 
 hit/h rank and leading position of those nations who adhered to it f They were not mere 
 barbarous savages who worshipped idols, but the foremost peoples of the world. The 
 empires of Egypt, Babylon, Assyria, Greece, Rome, were all sworu upholders of idolatry 
 (cf. Acts xvii.). And to-day it is not the mere fetish-worstiippers of the South Seas and 
 Africa who are idolaters, but |>eoi)le such as the Chinese and Hindoo's — to say nothing 
 of those who in Christian Churches bow down belbre tinsel-decked images or pictures 
 
 ■of virgins, apostles, and saints, and, if they do not worship them, render them homage 
 which can hardly be distincfuished from worship. And a yet further proof ot this 
 attraction is that the well-instructed people of God, the seed of Israel, the possessors of 
 the oracles of God, werj for ever falling iuto this sin. This entire chapter is one appeal 
 and protest agaiust their so doing. And we know how often in the past they had 
 
 . bowed down to idols. The command which stands at the head of the Decalogue, by its 
 position there, by its fulness of expression, and by the severity of its saootiuns, shows 
 that the attraction of the idolatry which it denounced was indeed terrible, and theielbro 
 needed to be thus solemnly forbidden. And age after age the same command had to 
 be repeated, and its violation sternly punished, notwithstanding that (ver. 16) " the 
 Portion of Jacob " was " not like " these wretched idols — no indeed, but was the alone 
 true God, the living God, the everlasting King; (ver. 10). And yet there were needed 
 this command and appeal ; yes, and the consuming fire of God's wrath which fell upon 
 Israel in their captivity, before the taint of idolatry could be burnt out of them. Now, 
 how was this? Xole, therefore — 
 
 IV. Its probable reason and cause. We cannot observe the tremendous fact of 
 idolatry without being led to inquire into its origin. It is not. sufficient to refer to the 
 licence it gave to the sensual nature of man; if such licence were all that was desired, 
 why, couple it with some form of worship ? The explanation must lie deeper than 
 this. And that missionary would get on very poorly with any toleiably educated 
 heathen if he were to assume that the idolater worshipped the hideous idol before 
 which he bows himself down. He would tell you that ho did nolhinj; of the kiud. 
 
IITO THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [en. x. 1—25. 
 
 but that which he worshipped was the unseen powers of which that idol was the 
 symbol. No doubt idolalry degenerates into actual idol-wor.ship. That with which 
 something Divine has been so long associated comes to be regarded as itself Divine, 
 and worshipped accordingly. And then idolatry has sunk down into futishism. 
 And it may be often seen where you would least expect it. But oiiginally idolatry 
 was not the worship of images. That worship may probably be thus explained. 
 1. Man cannot do without a deity of whom, in some form or other, he must be 
 conscious, and whose presence he can realize so as to be able to look to him in time 
 of need. Man cannot be a thorough atheist. His instinctive religiousness and ten- 
 dency to worship cannot be ever kept under. For a while it may, but let heavy 
 sorrow come, or let fear and dread fill his mind, and he will, he must, then call upon 
 God. 2. But God will not reveal himself to us except to our spirits. He can be only 
 spiritually discerned. Not through any of our senses, or through our intellect, but 
 through the Spirit alone. "They that worship him must worship him in spirit and in 
 truth." 3. But such coming to God involves purity of heart and life. " Jf I regard 
 iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me." And not only purity, but gieat 
 spiritual effort. How difficult yve find it to realize the presence of God, to hold down our 
 minds, and to summon the energies of the will when we pray ! " We know not how to 
 pray as we ought." And permitted sin, defilinj; the conscience and destroying our con- 
 fidence, will ever hinder spiritual worship. 4. But these imperative conditions of worship 
 — that it should be in spirit, and that it should be pure — men like not. Still, they 
 must worship. What, then, is to be done ? The idol is the solution. To avoid the 
 strain and effort of the spirit, men have taken as a symbol some material thing — as the 
 Israelites at Sinai took the golden calf — and so have sought to represent God to their 
 minds. The idolater persuades himself he cannot know the Deity directly, and there- 
 fore will avail himself of the aid some sensuous object will afford. And such symbol 
 he can carry about with him, and there is no need of purity of heart for such wor- 
 ship — it can be done without. What wonder, then, that man, averse to spiritual 
 exercises and sensual-hearted, should have everywhere fled to idolatry, as in fact he 
 has done? It is an endeavour to have the favour of God on cheaj.er terms than he 
 demands ; on conditions easier and more agreeable to our fallen nature. But in regard 
 to the idolatries into which Judah and Jerusalem so often fell, there must be remem- 
 bered not only the force of those universal causes of idolatry now considered, but the 
 further force of 'powerful example all around them. Who were the mighty nations 
 with whom they had most to do? Egypt, Assyria, Babylon. Tyre also, in her wealth 
 and might, stood on their northern border, and yet others, whose fame reached them 
 from alar, flourished and grew strong. But all these worshipped idols. Happiness, 
 success, strength, and power seemed to be with these nations and not with the wor- 
 shippers of Jehovah. And all this Judah saw and deeply observed, and at length 
 came to believe that it was better for them to serve idols than to serve God (cf. for 
 proof of this, ch. xliv. 17 — 19). For Israel to keep from idolatry was to swim against 
 wind and tide, and to do so when wind and tide promised to bear them on to a condition 
 of prosperity greater than they had ever known. And Jeremiah knew that in Babylon, 
 where they were going, they would be exposed to the full force of this temptation. 
 The devil of idolatry would come to them, and, pointing to the glory of Babylon, would 
 say, " All these things will I give thee, if," etc. And to fortify them against this 
 teniptation was the object of the prophet's earnest appeal. The tempter would suggest 
 to them, " You have lost everything by worshipping God. Your conquerors, who 
 hold you now in their power, and have destroyed your city, your temple, your lanii, 
 have gained all their glory by worshipping their gods. Do you the same ; learn their 
 ways." 
 
 V. Its coksequences. These have been very terrible. With Israel God dealt very 
 sternly. His direct vengeance came upon them again and again, it was hanging over 
 them at this time as a dark thunder-cloud. But besides this, there were the natural 
 results of such worship — results which were couspicuous in Judah and Jerusalem, and 
 have ever been so in all idolatrous nations (cf. ver. 8). They became " brutish," " given 
 over to vile affections " (cf. Rom. i. 20 — 32). 
 
 VI. Its suee bot only antidote. Living faith in the living Ood — this alone, but 
 this suiely, would enable them to resist, not only the clamour and cravings of their 
 
CH. X. 1— 25.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 'iT,', 
 
 lower Tintnre, liut also the seductive force of the seeming success which idolatry had woa 
 and they had lost. Only such fnith would serve them, and hence, in vers. 6, 7, 10 — 1.^, 
 1(5, the prophet liids them remember the incomparable glory, majesty, and power of the 
 Lord, the true God, the living God (ver. 10), and the terribleness of his wrath. He 
 reminds them that God is Creator (ver. 12) and Preserver (ver. 13). He who formed 
 the earth governs it still, and he is thtir God, and they are his people. He is their 
 ''Portion," and "Israel is the rod of his inheritance" (ver. 16). And this which 
 would be Israel's safeguard must be ours still. Let that living faith in the living God 
 be lost, and at once resort will be had to symbols and substitutes for God, which, though 
 in form they may be far different from the idols of the heathen, yet in substance and 
 effect are the same. 
 
 VII. Its present-day lessons. There are such, for the peril of Israel is our own. 
 1. For we also may — and many do — substitute reverence for those things which are 
 ^associated with the worship of God for that worship in spirit and in truth which he alone 
 cares for. Symbols, sacraments, creeds. Churches, religious observances, — any one of 
 these may become an idol, that is, a substitute for God. They demand no strain and 
 energy of our spiritual nature ; the senses or the intellect can grasp them ; and they make 
 no such strenuous demand upon the surrender of the will, the yielding of the heart to 
 God ; they will let us do as we like, if not entirely yet far more than true spiritual 
 worship ever will. And thus, though we be called Christians, we may be idolaters 
 after all. 2. And let us guard against being deceived by the sanction which worldly 
 success and present good so often lend to ways which God forbids. There was very 
 much around Israel whose desirableness said to them, "Come with us, and we will do 
 you good." Idolatry did seem to answer, whilst their religion did not. And the way of 
 the wicked will often seem to prosper, whilst "waters of a full cup" of sorrow "are 
 wrung out " to the people of God. The mighty bribe which Satan pressed upon our 
 blessed Lord, if he would but renounce the way of the cross appointed for him by his 
 Father, and take " all the kingdoms of this wurld and the glory of them " — that same 
 bribe is pressed upon myriad souls still. 3. By constant and earnest worship of God 
 let us cherish and keep alive in our hearts that living faith in the living God made 
 known to us in the Lord Jesus Christ, which alone can, but surely will, meet and 
 overcome all those temptations to idolatry, which now, as of old, beset every human 
 soul. — 0. 
 
 Ver. 16. — " The Portion of Jacob." By this expression, " the Portion of Jacob," is 
 meant the Lord God. Once again it is met with in Jeremiah's prophecy (ch. li.), 
 where several of the verses of this chapter, our text amongst the rest, are repeated 
 word for word. It is interesting to inquire the probable reason for this beautiful but 
 unusual name being given to God. That God is the Portion of his people is a precious 
 truth often declared. But this form of that precious truth is unusual, and may well 
 lead us to ask why God is so called. And there can be little doubt, I think, that the 
 motive of the prophet was to touch the hearts of those whom he addressed, and, if so 
 it might be, to waken up again a longing after this " Portion of Jacob," which they 
 were so fast letting go. There was an appealing power in this name, and for that 
 reason it was probably chosen. The devout Jew loved to think and tell of God as the 
 God of Jacob. You meet with the two names thus linked together perpetually in the 
 psalms and often elsewhere. "The God of Jacob is our Refuge," "The Name ot' 
 the God of Jacob defend thee," etc. Sometimes we read of God as the God of Abraham, 
 and as the God of Isaac, but more commonly as the God of Jacob. Now, why is thisV 
 Is it not because that Jacob was more thoroughly the representative and father of the 
 Jewish people than any other patriarch? Abraham was a great hero of the faith; 
 li-aac's career was too still and serene to be at alka pattern of their own ; but Jacob, he 
 was the typical Jew, both in the mingled good and evil of his character, and in the 
 manifold trials and vicissitudes of his life. A sorrowful, struggling, and often sinful 
 man was he, sore chastened of the Lord again and again, but never given over unto 
 death ; like the bush burning in the fire but never burnt, and coming out of God's 
 disciplines the better for having passed through them. In him the Jews saw their 
 own character and career vividly portrayed, and they loved to feel that God was the 
 God of Jacob; the God, therelore, whom they needed, and in whom he who was the 
 
278 THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [en. x. 1—25. 
 
 truest representative of all their race found strength and solace and salvation. Thus 
 this appellation here given to God, " the Portion of Jacob," was calculated to waken 
 up man^ very tender and holy memories, and might lead, as was sorely needed, to a 
 better mind towards God amongst those to whom the prophet spoke, and to a turning 
 away from those idolatries by which now and for so long they had been sinning 
 against God and destroying themselves. And the Portion of Jacob waits to be ours as 
 well as his. Jacob was not only a representative Jew, but also o representative man. 
 For men are but rarely cast ia the heroic mould of Abraham, nor is their career quiet 
 and uucheckered like that of Isaac. But in tlie sins and sorrows, the struggles and 
 falls, the temptations and trials of Jacob they behold themselves. God by this name 
 declares himself to be the God of, the Portion of, all sinful, sorrowing, struggling, and 
 much-tried men everywhere and at all times ; the God, therefore, that we need, the 
 Helper we want. He is the God who is revealed to us in our Lord Jesus Christ, in 
 whom there is neither Greek nor Jew, no distinction of any kind, but who is " the 
 Saviour of all men, specially of them that believe." If, then, this Portion of Jacob may 
 be our Portion too, we shall consider with more interest what that Portion consists 
 of, what it was that Jacob possessed in God. And to. see this let us recall to our 
 minds the records that are given of the patriarch's career. As we study them we shall 
 readily see what portion Jacob had in God, and how pi'ecious a possession it was. And — 
 I. In God he found unspeakable grace. Was there ever a more wretched, guilty 
 siimer than Jacob, when he fied away from his home in just fear of his outraged 
 brother's wrath? He had entrapped him once and again, inflicting on him grievous 
 •wrong ; he had deceived his aged lather ; he had lied ajjjain and again in the basest and 
 most hypocritical way. Altogether the man was odious in the sight of all; all our 
 sympathies go over in a rush towards the frank if foolish Esau. Jacob's character 
 vas at this time nothing less than repulsive. His mother was probably the only 
 living soul who had either faith in or affection for him. He had deserved the 
 reprobation of all. And we cannot but believe that he must have felt very much of 
 this, and that it was with a sense of deepest sin and shame he fled away to Padan- 
 aram, from his father's and mother's home. Man had cast him off; would not God do 
 the like ? For his sin had not been that of one who had never known God. God had 
 been about him all his days ; he had learnt to know, to fear, and desire God. He had 
 been, as all knew, an avowedly religious man. His sin was therefore all the more 
 unpardonable, as his guilt was all the greater. He is shov^n to us out on the wide 
 stony track over the mountains which form the backbone of Palestine. The day has 
 ended, the sun gone down ; he is all alone, the night is gathering round him. The 
 ground is strewn with huge fragments of the bare, barren rock of which the mass of 
 those mountains is composed. Od the cold hard ground he lays himself down to rest, 
 helpless, hopeless, forsaken, he might well think, both of God and man. But it was 
 not so, for God came to hiiu there. " In the visions of the night the rough stones 
 tormed themselves into a vast staircase reaching into the depth of the wide and open 
 sky, which without any interruption of tent or tree was stretched over the sleeper's 
 head. On the steps of that staircase were seen ascending and descending the mes- 
 sengers of God ; and from above there came the Divine voice, which told the houseless 
 wanderer that, little as he thought it, he had a Protector there and everywhere ; that 
 even in this bare and open thoroughfare, in no consecrated grove or cave, ' the Lord 
 was in this place, though he knew it not.' This was Bethel, the house of God, the 
 gate of heaven." What the effect of this glorious vision must have been upon him 
 we can hardly ever estimate. The nearest Scripture parallel probably would be the 
 effect of the father's gracious reception upon the returning prouigal. Somewhat akin 
 to his feelings must have been those of Jacob at this time. For what he had seen 
 and heard had shown him beyond doubt that God had not cast him off, had not dealt 
 with him after his sins nor rewarded him according to his iniquities. It was like the 
 kiss of the Divine forgiveness, the joy of conscious realization of God's redeeming love. 
 Yes ; Jacob found this Portion in God, the fulness of forgiving love. But is not this the 
 Portion we want, the God we need to know ? Not one who will cast us away from his 
 presence and throw us over when we have done wrong. If God were strict to mark 
 iniquities, who of us could stand V But the God, the Portion of Jacob, meets our need ; 
 for as Jacob was sinful and often faUing into sin, so are we. 
 
en. X. 1—25.] THE COOK OF THK niOPHET JEKEMIAif. 273 
 
 II. Another element of this portion which Jacob possessed in God was the con- 
 tinual AKD most ooMFOKTiNtJ MANIFESTATIONS OF GoD whioh he was privileged to 
 enjoy. How continually in his career are we met with instances of God's appearing 
 to him 1 And besides the distinctly recorded instances, the impression is left upon the 
 mind that it was the constant [irivilege of Jacob to hold intercourse with God, to talk 
 witli him as a man talketh with his friend. Yes ; the God of Jacob was One who 
 was graciously willing to come near to his servant, and to bo known by him as his 
 God — a God near at hand, and not afar olf. But who can estimate what these Divine 
 communications did for Jacob ? — how unspeakably valuable an element in his portion 
 this was ? What courage, what confidence, what bright hope, what strength of faith, 
 it nmst have imparted to the patriarch's mind! And such blessedness is assured to all 
 believers. "I will come unto them, and will manifest myself unto them," said our 
 Saviour. " I have set the Lord alway before me ; because he is at my right hand, I shall 
 not be moved." " God is our Refuge and Strength, a very prenent Help in trouble." lb 
 is because we cannot realize God's presence, can in no w ay feel him near to us, that 
 therefore our hearts fail us for fear and our souls are cast down within us. But he to 
 whom God reveals himself as he did to Jacob has in that fact a safeguard and 
 protection from fear such as nought else can afford. 
 
 . III. But another element in the portion which Jacob had in God was that of 
 PUMFYINO DISCIPLINE. Assuredly he was not left without chastisement; yea, it was 
 a very scourging that was dealt out to him on account of his sins. Men are apt, both 
 in reading the Bible and in observing the too frequent failures of godly men now, to 
 look steadily at the sins of men like Jacob and David and others, and to wonder how 
 such men can be regarded as God's people at all ; but they do not look on and observe 
 how sorely they are punished for their I'aults, and how they in this world find, beyond 
 well-nigh all others, that " the way of transgressors is hard." Wlioever else may seem 
 to sin with impuiiity, the children of God may not and do not. No doubt Eobekah 
 and Jacob thought they had done a viry wise and clever thing when, by deceiving 
 Isaac, they fraudulently obtained the blessing which belonged to Esau as the firstborn. 
 But Rebekaii, in the long ytars of melancholy bereavement of her favourite sou — for 
 she never saw him again after that day he fled from his home — had abundant leisui'e 
 to see and repent of her fully and her sin. And Jacob, as he ate the bread of servi- 
 tude and dwelt a stranger in a strange land, haunted with dread of Esau, was made 
 to know that his trickery and fraud had borne him but a wretched harvest. The 
 consuming fire of God's holy love burnt fiercely on until this dross which was so 
 mingled with the pure ore of Jacob's faith was purged out of him. And this is ever 
 an indispensable and a never-absent part of the portion of Jacob. The purging, 
 puril'yini; disciplines of God's holy love we shall all have to submit to according to our 
 need of them. And this should render the Portion of Jacob not less but more precious 
 in our esteem. If we willingly submit to much pain and distress in order that the 
 health of the body, which at best can last only for a few short years, may be secured, 
 may we not much rather submit ourselves to whatever of painful discipline God may 
 appoint in order to secure the health of our souls, which shall live for ever ? How 
 dreadful would it be if God were not thus to purge and cleanse us ; if he were to allow 
 the cancerous growth of our sins to spread and grow until it had oljtained such hold on 
 us that death, eternal death, must follow ! But this, out of fatherly love to us, he will 
 never allow ; and therefore Jacob was, and so we must be, held down to the suffering 
 which his disciplines cause until their perfect work is done, and we are presented .fault- 
 less before tlie presence of hia glory with exceeding joy. Oh, let us be more anxious 
 that God's will should be done in us than that his hand should be taken off from us. 
 Never, never may he say concerning any one of us as he did concerning Ephraim, " He 
 is joined to his idols : let him alone." 
 
 IV. God's providential quaedianship and care was a further element in the 
 jiortion of Jacob. How God watched over him ! how truly Jacob could say, " He 
 knoweth the way that I take " ! Never was there any man to whom these words were' 
 njore appropriate than they were to him. "With what constant interest did God appear 
 to mark all the way by which Jacob had to go ! His eye was never off him, his hand 
 never withdrawn, his help never wanting when needed. Even when Jacob did not 
 dream that God was near him, he was so in fact. So that he had to confess as at 
 
280 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. [(iH.s.l— 25. 
 
 Bethel, "Surely Gnd is in this place, though I knew it not." Hearken howbe speaks 
 of God when blessing the sons of Joseph. He tells of him as " the God which led me 
 all my life long unto this day, the Angel which redeemed me from all evil." Such was 
 his confession of that never-tailing care, that inces.sant interest with which the Lord 
 God had watched over every stage of his life's journey. How all his very steps had been 
 ordered by the Lord I This is another characteristic of the jiortion which Jacob had in 
 God. And must not that man be blessed who consciously realizes that he has this 
 God for his Help ? To have our lives made God's care, our interests his concern, to have 
 his angels evermore keeping watch and ward over us, encamping round about us to 
 deliver us, — this is another blessed element in the portion of Jacob and of all like him. 
 
 V. Meetnbss fob " THE iNHEKiTANCE 01" THE SAINTS IN LIGHT." Gradually, step 
 by step, sometimes with seeming retrogression, but ever advancing on the whole, 
 Jacob was lifted up from the low level of his former spiritual life, and ceased to be any 
 longer Jacob, and became Israel. Such elevation, such meetness for " the inheritance of 
 the saints," was and ever is part of the portion of Jacob, and a most blessed part it is. 
 
 And now, in conclusion, let us ask. Is there such a Portion anywhere dse « Our text 
 affirms, " The Portion of Jacob is not like them." The prophet is speaking of the 
 wretched idols before whom his countrymen were so prone to bow down. It seems 
 wonderful that any should have ever thought that the God of Jacob was like them. 
 Like them ! when even to think of them was to despise them with utter contempt. 
 What a contrast to him, whom mind, and heart, and will, body, soul, and spirit could 
 never sufficiently adore ! It seemed monstrous that any should substitute for him those 
 wretched idols, upon whom the prophet, in the preceding part of this chapter, pours forth 
 his bitter scorn. But he means by the assertion we have been considering to declare 
 that the Portion of Jacob is an incomparable Portion. None can be put beside, still less 
 put in the place of him. And this is a trutli for to-day. We ask again the question, " Is 
 there such a Portion anywhere else?" Oh that they whom the psalmist calls " men 
 of the world," and of whom he saj's, "they have their portion in this life," would 
 compare the two — Jncob's and their own ! Ah I you who have not the Portion of Jacob, 
 we allow that you may have very much that is bright and fair. God may fill your veins 
 with health, your coffers with gold, your houses with all luxury, your gardens with 
 flowers, your fields with fruits, and your life with comfort and outward peace; but you 
 are like those trees which in the winter-time are called Christmas-trees. " One feels a 
 kind of pang at the first sight of such trees. No doubt it is beautiful in its way, with 
 the little lights twinkling among the brauches, and the sweet gifts of affection hanging 
 from every twig. But the tree itself, are you not sorry for it? — rooted no longer, 
 growing no more, no more circulation of the living sap, no sweet discoursing by its 
 means between air and soil, between soil and air. The last waves of its life are sinking, 
 and the more you hang upon it and the more you gather round it the faster it will 
 die " (Dr. Raleigh). And if we have not the Portion of Jacob, we are like one of theso 
 trees. Loaded it may be with all manner of pleasant things, and surrotmded with 
 affection, but dying all the while. But " the Portion of Jacob is not like them " — one 
 that will abandon you at the close of your life, or maybe Ions before, and leave you help- 
 less and forlorn. Oh no ; but then, when "heart and ilesh fail," God will be " the Strength 
 of your heart," and your " Portion for evermore." That is the portion of Jacob, and oh 
 may God grant that it may be yours and mine, and that of all we love 1 Amen. — 0. 
 
 Vers. 17, 18. — Wlterefore Ond doth judge the world. It is not of the world at large, 
 but of Judah and Jerusalem, that the prophet is here speaking. But nevertheless the 
 judgments of God and the design wherewith they were sent, though having reference 
 <inly to one people, are true examples of all like judgments, whenever, wherever, and 
 however they come. Therefore note — 
 
 L The judqments foretold. 1'he people are to be driven forth into exile and 
 captivity. The whole book tells of their sorrows. Jeremiah's prophecy is one long 
 denunciation of the wrath of God about to come on the guilty land. He was sent to 
 declare this in the hope that those to whom he spoke might yet turn to the Lord and 
 live ; like Noah, that " preacher of righteousness " who warned the godless of his day of 
 the judgment that was coming upon them. More particularly in these versos Jeremiah 
 declares (ver. 17) that not even the meanest and poorest will escape. The " wares " 
 
en. X. 1—25.] THE BOOK OF TUB PROPHET JEREMIAH. 281 
 
 spoken of tell rather of the few mean possessions, the small trifling properties, of a poor 
 man, which in his haste he would gather together in a bundle and so endeavour to save 
 (of. Exposition), In former judgments it was mainly the high and lofty, those of wealth 
 and station, who had sutfered ; but now all, from the highest to the lowest, should ba 
 included in the overwhelming desolations about to be poured forth. And so the prophet 
 represents the poor and wretched hastily gathering up their little effects, and makin;^ 
 off with them as best they may. And ver. 18 adds yet other terrible features to this 
 delineation of the judgment that is coming : " Behold, I will sling out," etc. This, there- 
 fore, shows how ready they must have been for such treatment. David selected smooth 
 stones from the brook, such as were fit and apt lor his sling, and with them he wen t 
 forth to meet Goliath. Not any missile, not any stone, would serve. And so if it weru 
 possible, as it was, for a people to be " slung out " ot a land, they must Ijave madu 
 themselves fit for such judgment, or else they would not have been subjected to it. 
 And this they had been doing for many a long year. " When the husbandman seetli 
 that the harvest is come, he putteth in the sickle." This is true of the visitation of 
 judgment as well as of grace. The violence of the people's expulsion from their land i.s 
 also indicated : as a stone is hurled forth from the sling. And the completeness of the 
 judgment: "at this once," i.e. couipletuly, thoroughly, at one blow. Former judgments 
 had been partial, temporary, long drawn out. This was to be complete, perpetual, and 
 " at once," as a stone is in a moment driven forth from the sling. And t\\ev[ far-distant 
 destination is suggested. God intended that they should be carried far off into the land 
 of their exile (cf. Isa. xxii. 18). But note— ^ 
 
 II. The fact th.it thkse judgments aeb declared to have a purpose beyond 
 THEMSELVES. All was to be done " that they may find." It is plain, therefore, how- 
 ever we supply what must come after the word " find," that there was a definite 
 Divine purpose in all these calamities. They were not to be an end in themselves, but 
 to lead on to one beyond. And surely this must be the purpo>;e of all God's judgments ; 
 he can have no satisfaction in them simply as punishment. His heart is set on what 
 is to come forth out of them, and the result has regard to them. " That they may find ; " 
 they who have sinned so terribly, they shall learn by these judgments that he sends. 
 
 III. What that purpose is. What is it that they may find ? Our trauslators 
 have simply added the words " it so," thus leaving undetermined what the finding is to 
 be. But surely that which God would have theru find is all that which hitherto they 
 could not be persuaded to believe iu, e.g. the bitterness of disobedience, the vauity of 
 idols, the sure truth of God's word, the uselessuess of all religion that is not from thu 
 heart, etc. But all this to the intent that they may find, as at last many of them did, 
 the way of repentance and return to God. God had made them for himself, as he has 
 made us all for himself. It is blasphemy to think of him as creating human souls, 
 endued as they all are with such vast capacities, with any other design. Aud hence 
 it is that the heart of man is unquiet, has no rest, until it find rest in God. God will 
 not sufl:er it to be otherwise, blessed be his Name. And since for Judah and Jerusalem 
 nothing else would do, they should go into bitter exile, and suffer as in the very fire, 
 " that they might find " God ; that they mi<j;ht come to themselves, and say, " I will 
 arise and go to my father," etc. " God will have all men to be saved, and to come to 
 the knowledge of the truth ; " and for the persistently impenitent a most awful will it is. 
 As the late Duke of Wellington was wont to say, " There is ouly one thing worse than a 
 great victory, and that is a great defeat ; " so we may say there is only one thing worse 
 for the ungodly than this set will of God for their salvation, and that is that his will 
 should not be as it is. 
 
 IV. What, thbbbfore, we abb to learn from this. 1. Give thanks and praise 
 to the Lord God for his most gracious purpose concerning men, that they should find 
 him (cf. Ps. c, " Oh be joylul in the Lord, all ye lands, ... for it is he that bath made 
 us, and not we ourselves ; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture "). 2. Oompel 
 him not, as Judah did, to resort to sore judgments ere we will seek and " find" him. 
 3. At once take Christ's yoke and learn of him, aud so find rest in our souls by finding 
 him.— C. 
 
 Ver. 19. — Suhmisdon. I. The grief contemplated. It is told of in ver. 17, etc 
 And It was indeed great ; the " wound was grievous ; " for : 1. It was so universal. It 
 
2S2 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEKEMIAH. [en. x. l—l^n. 
 
 affected all classes and in all ways, in mind, bndy, and estate. 2. So fevere. It was 
 not a " light affliction," but " the iron entered into their souls." 3. And it was self- 
 caused. The fangs of remorse were fastened in them by the consciousness they could 
 )iot escapfe, that they had brought all their sorrows upon themselves. 4. And they 
 dreio down so many others, and innocent ones, in their own doom. This is ever one of 
 the most fearful torments to the soul of the guilty. " I have ruined, not myself only, 
 but my wife, children, parents, friends." The dart, if it be plunged tirst into the heart 
 of those we love, will rankle in our own all the more terribly when it pierces us. 
 .5. And the light of God's countenance was gone. With that we can bear anything. 
 Paul and Silas sang praises in the dungeon at Philippi. But withdrawn, driven away 
 by uur sin, then is the soul sad indeed. 6. And it was irreparable. The wrath of 
 God had arisen, and there " was no remedy " (cf. ver. 20). But note — 
 
 II. The spirit in which it was borne. " But I said, Truly this is a grief, and I 
 must bear it." Now, these words might be used to express a spirit of sullen hardihood. 
 Home have so understood them. But we rather regard them as the language of pious 
 submission. It is the true Israelite who speaks; not the godless, idol-loving multitude, 
 but the chosen of God who were mingled among them. And that this is so is shown : 
 1. By the check the speaker puts upon his lament. He was about seemingly to launch 
 otit in great complainings when he arrests his speech by recollections of a different kind : 
 " But 1 said," etc. He would not allow himself in any mure complaint; he replies to 
 all such thoughts by the considerations he iioW brings forward. 2. He recognizes the 
 cause of all these sorrows (ver. 2 1). It was their failure to " seek the Lord," the pastors' 
 becoming " brutish " — their grievous sin. Mere sullenness would never make such a 
 confession as this. 3. And the spirit of vers. 23 — 25, so lowly, devout, and filled with 
 sacred desire, — all these show that we are to understand ver. 19 as the utterance, not of 
 defiant hardihood or any other evil spirit, but as that of submission. Parallels, there- 
 fore, are to be found in the submission of Aaron at the death of his sons (cf. also Lam. 
 iii. 18—21, 39, 40 ; Micah vii. 9 ; Ps. Ixxvii. 10 ; xx.xix. 9, etc.). 
 
 III. This spirit greatly to be commended. 1. For Us nature. It is not the 
 spirit of a stoic, of one who sets his teeth firm, and resolves to endure, come what 
 mny ; but it is tender, gentle, and keenly susceptible of pain. Nor is it silent. Its 
 voice is heard in prayers, confessions, praises, and it is ever desiring more of God's 
 presence and grace. Nor is it slothful. It will be open-eyed to see and alert to act if 
 aught can be done to minister relief or gain deliverance. Thus it does not violate any 
 good instinct or dictate either of nature or conscience, as it would do were it oharac^ 
 terized by either of the undesirable qualities named. They each have some sort of 
 semblance of submission, but are far away removed from being identical with it or 
 necessary to it. But submission consists in that calm composure of our whole nature 
 that meek acquiescence in the will of God, however painful that will may be. And there- 
 fore this spirit is commendable : 2. For Us comeliness. How morally beautiful and lovely 
 it is ! We never tire of it, never do anything but in our hearts admire and praise 
 it, and long to make it our own. How our hearts go out towards those that have 
 eminently manifested it ! As Aaron (cf. supra) ; Job saying, " The Lord gave, and the 
 Lord hath taken away," etc. ; Moses; and above all, our Saviour. Notwithstanding all 
 his present and most deserved glory as our risen Lord, it is to him on the cross, crowned 
 Aviih thorns, in all the glory of his meek submission — to him the heart of humanity 
 tver turns with adoring love and trust. 3. For its self-conquest. Under the smart 
 and distress of great loss and disaster, how ready the understanding is to think hard 
 thoughts and to utterly resent what Grod has done! And the will, how sullenly it 
 Uowus upon God, and with lowering brow refuses to submit ! And the passions, how 
 they rage in torrents of tears and wild wailing cries of angry agony ! And the lips 
 what hard speeches they are prompt to utter (cf. " I said in my haste. All men are 
 liars ") ! And the hands, how eager to take revenge upon any who have been the means 
 and instruments of our affliction 1 But the spirit of submission holds all t^ese hot, eacer 
 forces in, as with bit and bridle, and bids them all be still. They are, as were the lions 
 before Daniel, awed and subdued by his calm, hallowed presence. Blessed is he who 
 
 'can thus conquer himself. None else shall conquer him, and least of all any of the 
 mere circumstances of life (cf. Prov. xvi. 32). 4. For its wisdom. " There are few 
 things in the world so totally and entirely bad but sonie advantage may be made of 
 
cir. X. 1— 25.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 283 
 
 them by a dexterous management ; and it is certainly a man's wisdom to make the 
 best of a bad condition, there being a certain liind of pious and prudential husbandry 
 by which a man may so improve a calamity as to make the endurance of it the per- 
 formance of a duty, and by his behaviour under it to procure a release from it. We 
 should, with Isaac, take the wood upon our shoulders, though we ourselves are designed 
 for the sacrifice ; and who knows but, as in his case, so in ours also, a patient resig- 
 nation of ourselves to the knife may be the sure and direct way to rescue us from it ? " 
 (South). 
 
 " He always wins who sides with thee; 
 
 To him no chance is lost ; 
 Thy will is sweetest to him when 
 
 It triumphs at his cust. 
 
 " 111 that thou blessest turns to good. 
 And unblest good to ill ; 
 And all is right that seems most wrong. 
 If it be thy sweet will." 
 
 5. For its acceptoMeness to Ood. The Lord Jesus Christ was the " my beloved Son, in 
 whom I am well pleased," because of it; becHuse his meat and his drink was ever to do 
 the will of the Father who sent him. " Blessed are the meek." " Humble yourselves 
 therefore under the mighty hand of God, that," etc. 
 
 IV. Not east, but nevertheless fully i'ossible, of attainment. Not easy, 
 because all our instincts under the smart of pain and loss (cf. supra) protest against it. 
 Because also the maxims of the world are directly contrary to it. But attainable by 
 practice. " Let him train himself whilst young to lesser self-denials and mortifications ; 
 let him learn to put up with and pass by a slight undervaluing word, and in time he shall 
 find himself strong enough to conquer and digest an injurious action ; let him learn to 
 overlook his neighbour's incivility, and in time he shall be able with patience and 
 firnmess of mind to endure bis insolence and cruelty, and that without being dis- 
 composed by any instigations to revenge ; and let him accustom himself to do this 
 often, and at length he shall be able to do it always" (South). And yet more by 
 communion and intercourse with the Lord Jesus Christ. We catch the tones and 
 habits and thoughts of those with whom we most associate. Live in close ci/mpanion- 
 ship with Christ, and the spirit of him who "when he was reviled, reviled not again," 
 shall be formed in us, and more and more shall we know how " blessed are the meek," 
 and how surely God " will exalt us in due time " (cf. Phil. ii. 5 — 11). — C. 
 
 Vers. 20, 21. — The ruin wrought by the prayerless pastor. I. Consider the scene 
 POKTBAYED BY THE PROPHET. Consider it both before and after that dread invasion of 
 which he was ever warning his countrymen. 1. Before that invasion, whilst Judah was 
 at peace, there might often have been witnessed over the wide downs and pasture-lands 
 of Palestine the shepherds' encampment ; for Palestine was an eminently pastoral 
 country, as the psalms of David and the teachings of our Lord plainly show. And 
 hence up and down the land might have been seen the shepherds' tents, whole camps 
 of them, dotting the plains or valleys with their slender poles, their broad curtains and 
 strong cords holding them erect and securing them firmly to the ground on which they 
 stood. The swarthy children would be running in and out, and at even-time the 
 greater portion of the whole inhabitants of these tabernacles would be gathered around 
 or within them. And in the immediate neighbourhood, carefully watched by their 
 shepherds, would be the flocks quietly grazing, in which consisted their whole wealth. 
 It was a pastoral scene the peacefulness and beauty of which were as manifest as the 
 commonness of it in the happier days of Palestine and her people. 2. But after the inva- 
 sion, in the unhappy days which, when Jeremiah spoke, were drawing so terribly near, 
 when the land should be overrun by the armies of Babylon, there would be as often 
 seen the actual circumstances portrayed in our text. The tent thrown down, its cords 
 cut, its curtains a shapeless heap upon the ground, left to decay and rot by those who 
 had wrought its ruin. And all would be silent and still ; no merry prattle of children 
 heard, or the coming and going of the men and women who once had made that tent 
 their home. A few blackened ashes alone telling where the camp-fire had been. The 
 
284 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [cii. x. 1— :5. 
 
 floclts all scattered ; those that'' the foe had not destroyed driven off and wandering 
 in the wilderness, none knew where. It is a picture of utter and most mournful 
 desolation. 
 
 I[. Its meanino. Its intent is to represent what was about to happen in regard to 
 the Church and people of Judah. The temple should be overthrown and burnt with 
 fire; her holy places profaned, her altars broken down, her sacred services allbronght 
 to an end, the solemn feast-day no more observed. Her children — they who ministered 
 at her altars and sang the hi;j;h praises of the Lord — should have gone forth from her 
 and be as thou'ih they were not, and all the con.;regation of the people, the flock of 
 the Lord, should be scattered. And all this came to pass, as we well know, violently 
 and as in a moment, like as a stone is suddenly hurled forth from the sling (ver. 
 18;. But the prophet's picture has a yet wider application ; for it tells of the terrible 
 desolation which may come upon any Church, whether in a nation, or a community, or 
 in any given district. Under the vivid imagery which Jeremiah employs we may see 
 represented the deplorable disaster of a Church's desolation, and whence and how it 
 comes. Therefore let us look at : 1. The overthrown tent. By it we may see represented 
 the destruction of the whole organization of the Church. How beautiful is the spectacle 
 presented to the outward eye by a Church that enjoys the blessing of God ! Behold her 
 sanctuaries. Look upon them, from the stately cathedral down to the humblest house 
 of God in the land. Here, with dome and towers and spires piercing the sky, pointing 
 upwards, heavenwards, and breaking the dull level of men's common habitations, 
 and of the buildings which they have reared for their dwellings, their labour, their 
 tr^de. And out in the country, on the hillside, scattered over the wide plains and 
 along many a quiet valley, in hamlet, village, and town, we behold the sanctuaries 
 built for God, and the stream, larger or smaller, of worshippers that continually go up 
 to ihem to worship. Each one of these sanctuaries a centre of light and warmth, of 
 energy and holy toil, blessing and being blessed. And think of the sabbaths of the 
 Cliurch — those blessed days of rest, when the weary round of toil is made to hush its 
 noise, and for the time to cease. The plough stands still in the furrow, the horses 
 roam in the meadow or gladly rest in the stall ; but the ploughman is gone home, that 
 be may, if he will, give heed to the husbandry of the soul and to the preparation for 
 the harvest of heaven. Nor, in this survey, may we pass by the Church's worship. 
 What myriads of jubilant anthems and glad psalms and triumphant hymns go up 
 heavenwards, with a merry noise! What help for all who desire it is won by those 
 who give heed to the holy truth that is at such times proclaimed! Ah! if spiritual 
 thought and feeling could, by some Divine chemistry, be made visible, what a glorious 
 scene would be witnessed ! Like unto the rainbow which was round about the throne, 
 beautiful to behold, would the worship of the Church be seen, even as it is seen by 
 him to whom and for whom and by whom it is all rendered. Think, too, of the work 
 of the Church. The ships that bear her messengers, charged to proclaim the glad 
 tidings of the gospel to all mankind, speed their way through all seas, across all oceans, 
 and enter every harbour. Ah! yes; Christ's Church on earth, faulty, imperlect, 
 •unfaithful, as she so often and so largely is, — where would the world be without her? 
 and where would the wretched and the lost find their truest friends, if not in her ? But 
 all this outward organization, this visible tabernacle of the Church, is contemplate), 
 nut as in her happy ideal, but in the very reverse. The prophet's picture portrays the 
 taliernacle thrown down, and desolation everywhere. Hence her sanctuaries forsaken, 
 profaned, or left to decay and ruin ; her services abandoned or turned into mere per- 
 formances of worn-out ceremonies ; her sabbaths no longer days of guarded rest, but 
 liUe all other days; her work paralyzed and dropped more and more, and all her 
 external framework and organization overthrown. Try and realize what that would 
 be. And this is not all. 2. Her children are represented as having gone forth from 
 her. When all is well with a Church, it is our joy to see the children taking the lathers' 
 place, coming forward to uphold the standard which the aged hands of the seniors are 
 compelled to let go. How delightful such a scene is we need hardly say. But there is 
 nothing of this kind contemplated here, but, on the contrary, those to whom the Church 
 would naturally look to carry on her work are seen borne away captive by the foes of 
 the Church, and as slaves to the world. 3. And the last feature in this sad picture is 
 iJie scattering of the flock. The people at large, tor whose interests the Church was 
 
cii. X 1—25.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. ?R5 
 
 bidden to cave, turning from her with disgust, scouting her claims, running; riot in sin, 
 unchecked, unhindered, unwarned; sinking down into awful depths of wickedness and 
 spiritual ignorance, living " without God and without hope in the world." Such is the 
 scattering of the flock, the alienation of her children, and the spoiling of her tabernacle, 
 from all which may God evermore keep and defend us. But that we may be thus 
 defended, let us — 
 
 III. Inquire the cause of suoh disaster. It is clearly stated in ver. 21, "Tha 
 pastors have become brutish, and have not sought the Lord." 1. Who are these 
 . pastors ? It would be a mistake to suppose that only ministers are meant. Jeremiah 
 did not mean these only, but all to whom the flock of God were entrusted — kings, 
 rulers, judges, parents, and teachers, heads of families, and all to whom, by virtue of 
 their position, the charge and responsibility of watching over the souls of others was 
 given. 2. Now, these pastors had " become brutish." By which is meant, flrst of all, 
 unintelligent, stupid, blind to the meaning of facts, and incapable of perceiving what 
 needed to be done ; with no quick apprehension, if any at all, of their responsibility, their 
 duty, or the peril that threatened both their flock and themselves ; settled down into 
 the stolid apathy and indili'erence of ignorance, of dulled perception, and of blindness 
 of heart. Brutish, too, because unspiritual, materialized, worldly, earth-bound; having 
 little or no regard for anything beyond what this life can give or take away ; caring 
 more for the fleece of the flock than for its faith and fidelity. And brutish, it may 
 be, in a yet lower sense, because sensual ; like those of whom Paul tells with bitter 
 tears. " Whose god," he says, "is their belly, who glory in their shame, who mind 
 earthly things." 3. "The pastors have become brutish." What an awful association of 
 ideas ! Can any condition be conceived of more horrible than this ? No wonder sucli 
 disastrous results followed. Think hnw dreadful such a fact must be for the honour 
 of Christ. How his Name must be blasphemed! How such must crucify the Sno of 
 God afresh, and once more put him to open shame ! How again the Lord Jesus, pointing 
 to the wounds in his sacred hands and feet and side, must declire, "These are the 
 wounds with which I was wounded in the house of my friends"! Blessed Saviour, 
 keep us fi'om such sin as this. And how dreadful for the Church of Christ, whicu he 
 , has purchased with his own blood! How such men discourage the Church! how 
 they chill its ardour! how they stajrger its faith! how they weaken its strength! how 
 they imperil its very life! And how dreadful for the world 1 " Woe unto the world," 
 said our Saviour, " because of offences ! " This he said in pity for the world, hindered, 
 made to stumble and fall by those who shotild only have helped it on its way to God. 
 How many will be hardened in wickedness, encouraged to despise all religion, furnished 
 with fresh subject for impious mockery and new arguments for sin, by such as they 
 of whom our text tells ! And how dreadful for these brutish ones themselves ! " But 
 woe," said Jesus, "unto them by whom that offence Cometh!" "Who shall abide 
 the day of the Lord's coming " to execute his wrath on them ? AVho, indeed ! God, in 
 his infinite mercy, save us from ever knowing what that wrath is. 4. Bat how came 
 this awful fall? What brought down these pastors to this dreadful condition? And 
 the answer to this question is plainly given. They did iiot seek the Lord ; they were 
 prayerless pastors : and that explains all. Now, this did not mean that there was no 
 worship, no praise, no prayer, ever offered. We know there was. The temple service 
 went on and the sacrifices were presented as usual. But there was no true, heartfelt 
 prayer. They did not really seek the Lord. And so with ourselves, there may be, and 
 there probably will be, the keeping up of pious customs, the daily prayers, the ordinary 
 worship ; but for such seeking of the Lord as is here told of, and the neglect of which 
 worked such ruin, there must be far more than this. There must bo that full appli- 
 cation of the heart; and mind, that lifting up of the soul to God, that drawing out of 
 the affections after him, that cleaving of the desires to him, that ardour and yet that 
 patience, that humility and yet that boldness which time cannot measure, which 
 make long prayers seem short to him who oflers them, and short prayers, if of neces- 
 sity they must be short, count as long prayers with him who, for Christ's sake, 
 . mercifully receives the' soul who follows hard after him. This is the kind of prayer 
 which can alone be our safeguard from the abyss into which the pastors here told of 
 fell. Would we escape it, we must seek the Lord so ; all else is as seeking him not at 
 all. It is no holiday task, but one demanding all the energies of the soul. How many. 
 
286 THE nOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. x. 1—25. 
 
 how mighty, how manifold, how siilitio, aro the difEcuUies in the way! There is the 
 earth-bound heart, that ever clogs our souls with its clinging clay ; that makes them 
 like the bird with the lime of the bird-snarer on its feathers, unable tiiher to fly or go : 
 when it would soar aloft it is powerless to spread its wings, and so is as if chained to the 
 ground. And incessant occupations clamour for attention, and are ever telling us we 
 have no time. And indolence and sloth keep suggesting thoughts of ease and self- 
 sparing. And want of practice in this, as in everything else, makes real prayer very 
 difficult. And Satan, when he sees the soul threatening to escape him by means of 
 such prayer — as by such means it ever will escape him — bends all his energies to 
 thwart and hinder, to baffle and beat down, such prayer. All this is so, but yet we 
 must thus pray. And let us not be disheartened. All these difficulties have been 
 overcome by ten thousand of the saints of God, and shall be by us. And, for our 
 ■ help, remember our Lord's intercession. Join all our prayers — poor, weak things as at 
 their best they are — on to his almighty, all-prevailing intercession, and in this also we 
 shall come off " more than conquerors through Clirist who hath loved us." So shall 
 we be kept from being one of those wretched pastors who have become brutish, and 
 have, therefore, only scattered tlie Lord's flock; yea, we shall be made and be con- 
 fessed, now and hereafter in our Lord's presence, as one of the pastors after his own 
 heart. — 0. 
 
 Vers. 23 — 25. — Fruits of a chastened spirit. From what foul soil do the fairest 
 flowers spring ! Beautiful as they are, they are rooted in that which is altogether 
 xmbeautiful. The sweet perfume of many woods, seeds, flowers, will not be given forth 
 until they are gashed with the axe, or bruised, or crushed, or otherwise seemingly mal- 
 treated. We could not have the many-hued arch of the exquisitely tinted rainbow 
 were it not for the drear, dark clouds and the descending rain. The most precious of 
 the psalms were wrung out of the heart of David when that heart was well-nigh borne 
 down with grief. And here, in these verses, it is the chastened spirit of Judah, per- 
 sonified in the prophet who speaks, that utters itself in the lowly confession of the 
 twenty-third verse, the holy submission of the prayer of the twenty-fourth verse, and 
 the settled hatred of them who hate God which burns in the twenty-fifth. Consider, 
 then, these fruits, and may God make them to abound in ourselves. 
 
 I. The confession. Ver. 23, " Lord, I know," etc. Now, this is a confession : 
 1. Of humble dependence upon Ood. It is an acknowledgment that, however much 
 man may propose, God will dispose; that man's goings are of the Lord. The lite of 
 each is, as God told Cyrus (Isa. xliv.), guided, governed by him. Illustrations are 
 everywhere : the cruelty of Joseph's brethren ; the oppression of Israel in Egypt ; 
 the crucifixion of our Lord (cf. Acts ii. 23); the persecution of the Church (Acts 
 viii. 3); Paul's farly life; etc. All these are instances in which, whilst men did 
 exactly as they liked, acting with choice as unfettered as it was evil, they were never- 
 theless made to subserve the Divine plans, and their evil was compelled to work out 
 good. Man may have power to " walk," but whither his steps will lead he cannot 
 " direct." " The way of man is not in himself." He is free to choose his way, and for 
 his choice he is responsible ; but he is not allowed to determine all that shall come of 
 that choice or what its issues and results shall be. Every time that men find their 
 plans turn out altogether differently from what they expected or designed, proves the 
 truth of the prophet's word. God has planned the life of each one of us. He. intends 
 certain results to be secured by our lives. 
 
 " There's a divinity that shapes our ends, 
 Eough-hew them how we will." 
 
 And our wisdom is to see and confess and conform ourselves to the Divine plan 
 
 happy they who do so ! — and not to thwart or hinder it, as so many are bent upon 
 doing, and hence, in the manifold sorrows of their lives, find it " hard to kick against 
 the pricks." Our wisdom is daily to pray, " Cause me to know the way wherein I 
 should walk ; make plain my path before my face." 2. Of their own folly and sin. 
 There are many teachers who will instruct us in this tritth of our own incompetence 
 to order our ways; all that is needed is that we be willing to learn. Such tcacheis 
 are : (1) Beuson. It is reasonable that, as we are the creatures of God, he should have 
 
CH. X. 1—25.] TPIE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 0^7 
 
 the control of our lives. (2) Scripture. We have cited some instances ah-eady. 
 
 (3) Observation. The vporld is strewn witli the wrecks of men who have disregarded 
 the chart given them of God, and have run upon the rooks in consequence. (4) But 
 
 , the most strenuous and resistless teacher of all is Experience. He will make a man 
 learn, almost whether the man will or no. And it was this teacher who had been 
 instructing, in his emphatic manner, Judah and her people. By the miserable mess 
 they had made of their lives, and the frightful calamities which now were close at their 
 doors (ver. 22), they had at length come to see and con less their own wretched 
 ordering of their way. Hence now the confession, " Lord, I know that," etc. It is a 
 blessed I'ruit for folly and fault to bear. It is not the natural fruit, but one of God's 
 gracious grafts. Peter's folly of boasting bore such fruit when " he went out and wej)! 
 bitterly." Let our prayer be that the faults and follies, the sins and sorrows, wiih 
 which our lives are scattered over may make us see and own, "0 Lord, I know that," 
 etc. 3. Of their trust, neoertheless, in Oo'i's infinite love. For not improbably this 
 confession has not only an upward look to God as the Director of men's ways, and aa 
 inward look upon their own sin, but also an outward look upon those dread foes wlio 
 wei'e hastening to destroy them. And this was their conifurt that, after all, these 
 enemies of theirs were in God's hands. No doubt they designed fearful things against 
 God's people (cf. ver. 25). But then, " the way of man is not," etc. Hence even these 
 fierce, relentless foes might be held in and turned about by the bit and bridle of God. 
 Had not God, in the days of the good Kinii Hezekiah, proved this in regard to the King 
 of Assyria and his army? Had he not, as Isaiah said, " put a hook in his nose . . . and 
 turned him back by the way by which he came " ? And this confession breathes this 
 hope and trust that God would do the like by their enemies now about to fall upon 
 them. It is a real comfort to know that all our enemies, whether human or spiritual, 
 are under the control of God. Even the apparently omnipotent prince of evil has but 
 a limited power. He, too, cannot direct his oun way. " The Lord, he is the true God, 
 the living God, the everlasting King " (ver. 10). 
 
 11. The prayee. Ver. 24, " Lord, correct me, but," etc. 1. This is a model 
 
 •prayer. For: (1) It confesses wrong. It owns the need of correction. The man is 
 no longer right in his own eyes. He is seen, like the publican, "standing afir off," etc. 
 (2) It desires to be put right (cf. Ps. li.). As there, so here, there is the longing for 
 renewal, the clean heart, the right spirit. (3) It deprecates, not the correction, but 
 the wrath of God. The man has a clear view of that wrath — its crushing, destroying 
 power. It is good to have this. Without it there is the danger of our looking lightly 
 upon our sin. 2. It is a most instructive prayer. It teaches us: (1) That all the cor- 
 rections we have received have been fatherly ones — "in judgment," not "in anger." 
 Fur had they been in anger we had not been here at all. (2) That we are alive and 
 
 . in God's presence proves that the luve of God, and not his anger, is ours still. For his 
 anger would have "brought us to nothing." (3) That there are corrections in anger. 
 There have been such. 'Where are EL;ypt, Nineveh, Babylon, Rome? God brought 
 them " to nothing." And there will be for all who harden themselves against Goil. 
 
 (4) That, seeing all need correction and will therefore receive it, either "in judgment" 
 or " in anger," onr wisdom is to make this prayer our own. One or other of these cor- 
 rections we must have. Which shall it be ? This prayer was answered for Israel. 
 They have not been brought to nothing, and they were corrected. That sin of idolatry 
 which brought on theni God's correction they have, ever since that correction, utterly 
 abandoned. Then let us make this prayer our own. 
 
 III.' Holt anger against the enemies op God. We can readily see that vers. 23 
 and 24 are the fruits of a chastened spirit, but this fierce utterance of ver. 25 seems 
 of another kind. But it is not. No doubt it has somewhat of the fierceness which 
 belonged to that stern age, but it is none the less a real fruit of a right s|)irit. We 
 ought to be very doubtful oi our own spirit, however meek and contrite it is, if it be not 
 accompanied with an intense detestation of evil. "Do not I hate ihem, Lord, that 
 hate thee ? and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee ? " Such sentiment 
 is a true note of the Spirit of God, and a religious life that lacks it is sure to be lacking 
 in vigour, strength, and reliability. It is not personal hatred that finds utterance here, 
 so much as a dee|) sense of the wrong done to God and the hindrance that is placed in 
 the way of his will. The seventy-ninth ii>'alin is an expression of this petition. Our 
 
288 THE BOOK OF THE PIIOPHBT JEREMIAH, [ch. x. 1— 25. 
 
 age, and the temperament that so soft an age induces, are apt to make us lie too easy 
 with sia and siuners. "We are so bred up in the idea of the " Gentle Jesus, meek and 
 mild," that we forgot hoW anything but gentle and mild he was to the hopelessly bad 
 who were, in regard to the spiritual well-being of his people, doing as is here said, 
 "eating up Jacob, devouring him," etc. What awfal words poured forth from the 
 Saviour's lips towards such ! Let us suspect a meekness that makes us mild towards 
 such. A man may make the confession of ver. 23, and offer the prayer of ver. 24, ami 
 iall and fall again ; but if he have the stern spirit of ver. 25, that deep, intense hatred 
 of evil, sin is far less likely to have dominion over him for the future; he will be 
 " strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might." Therefore, whilst we crave that 
 fruit of the Spirit which is seen in vers. 23, 24, let us crave that also which we have 
 here in ver. 25. It is the result of our being "strengthened with might by the Spirit 
 of God in the inner man," and leads on, in blessed, successive steps, to our being " filled 
 with all the fulness of God." — 0. 
 
 Ver. 23.—" The way of man:' The prophet probably speaks here not merely for 
 liimself, but in the name of the whole nation. He gives articulate utterance to the 
 better elements of tliought and feeling existing among them, their conscious short- 
 sightedness as regards the meaning and issue of their own national experiences, their 
 helpless dependence on the unseen Divine power that is working out through the 
 lerrible events of the time its own all-wise purposes. An important view of human 
 life is here presented before us. Consider (1) the fact asserted; (2) the infiueuce it 
 laay he expected to have over us. 
 
 I. The fact assekted. " The way of man is not in himself," etc. AH human life 
 is a "way," a journey, a pilgrimage, through various scenes and circumstances, to the 
 "bourn from whence no traveller returns." And, free as we may be and accountable 
 ibr our own actions, there is a sense in which it is equally true that it is given to none 
 of us to determine what that way shall be. We are called on to recognize a governing 
 ])ower exlernal to ourselves, above and beyond ourselves. Look at this fact in two 
 lights as indicative of: 1. Moralinahility. A man's own judgment and impulse are 
 not in themselves a safe rule for the conduct of his life. He cannot always trace the 
 mutual relation of interests and events, is liable to be deceived by appearances, blinded 
 by the glamour of his own feelings, misled by the force of his own self-will. The very 
 complexity of the circumstances among which he " walks " is often a source of danger. 
 He is as one surrounded by the diverse interlacing paths of a forest ; he needs both 
 external guidance and internal influence to direct his choice. The right way is not " iu 
 himself." 2. Practical restraint. No man has the actual power to determine altogether 
 the course of his own life. Free as he may think himself to be to take what " steps" 
 he pleases, he is, after all, often ruled by circumstances over which he has no control. 
 He is not always master of his own movements, cannot do the thing that he would, 
 constrained perhaps to do something totally different from what he intended. Who has 
 not found himself to have been drifted, by the silent, unobserved current of events, into 
 a position entirely other than he would have chosen for himself? Who has not had to 
 accept, as the issue of his own doings, something strangely unlike what he looked for? 
 " Man proposes ; God disposes." 
 
 " There's a divinity that shapes our ends, 
 Eough-hew thein how we will." 
 
 Human history — national, social, individual — is full cf illustrations of the governing and 
 restraining effect of some mysterious force that underlies all the phenomena of life. 
 Faith penetrates the heart of this mystery, and discerns in it a personal Divine provi- 
 dence, the energy of a will that is " holy and just and good." 
 
 II. The influence this fact may be expected to have over us. Such a truth, 
 even in the purely negative form in which this passage presents it, may well have a 
 marked effect on the whole habit of our daily thought and action. It teaches several 
 important lessons. 1. Distrust of self. If our judgment is thus fallible, onr impure 
 misleading, our power limited, shall we think to make our own will the sole rule of 
 life? "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own under- 
 standing," etc. (Prov. iii. 5, 6) ; " Go to now, ye that. say, To-day or to-morrow we will 
 
CH. X. 1—25.] THE BOOK OF THE PROHIET JEREMIAH. 289 
 
 go into such a city," etc. (Jas. iv. 13 — 16). 2. Thoughtful observation of the course 
 of events, with a view to trace the path of the providence that is over us. Hidden as 
 the power that governs our life may be, the teachable mind discerns ever more and more 
 clearly the method of its working. " Tlie secret of the Lord is with them that fear 
 him," etc. (Pd. xxv. 14); "The meek will he guide in judgment," etc. (Ps. xxv. 9). 
 3. Practical obedience to the call of preserd duty. Dark as our way may be, we cannot 
 go far wrong if we follow the dictates of conscience. Be true in everything to your own 
 sense of right and to the clear lines of Divine Law, and you may safely leave all issues 
 with God. 4. The calm repose of faith. In the confused conflict of adverse circum- 
 stances, in the deep night of our sorrow and our fear, we hear a voice that whispers 
 to us, " All is well." It must be so if we believe that almighty Love is Lord of all. — W. 
 
 Vers. 1 — 12. — What men fear and what they ought to fear. I. What men feak. 
 They fear mere images of their own manufacture. Note the connection between vers. 
 2 and 3. In ver. 2 the heathen are spoken of as being dismayed at the signs of 
 heaven. Probably these signs, considered in their more particular and direct connection 
 with the dismay, were really images on earth, representing the supposed Divine dignity 
 Of the bodies in the heavens. The heavenly bodies were signs to the believer in Jehovah — • 
 signs of the power and wisdom of Jehovah. But what signs could they be to the heathen ? 
 In their eyes they were themselves Divine realities, and the signs were on earth in the 
 shape of images. If this view be correct, it makes dismay at the signs of heaven look 
 more than ever absurd ; for these siins were of man's own making. He goes out to the 
 wood and cuts down one tree, and it supplies material for common use, beams and 
 flooring and furniture for his dwelling-place. He takes another tree, neighbour and of 
 the very same kind, and of this he makes an image, to be an object of dread, to be 
 approached with trembling solicitude and doubt. The very chips and shavings that 
 come off as it is being shaped may be burnt, but it itself is sacred, decked with silver 
 and gold, perfected by the most cunning art of the time, surrounded probably with the 
 choicest treasures of the land wliere it is worshipped. And yet in itself it is nothing. 
 When it grew in the wood it bore leaves and fruit, and had vital movement in it. By 
 its life it spoke to those who had ears to understand. Other trees cut down, even when 
 they become dead wood, are useful ; but here is dead wood not only useless but so treated 
 that it becomes full of the worst peril to all associated with it, a centre of abominations, 
 delusions, and cruellies. And it must be felt as a very extraordinary thing that what 
 men thus make with their own hands should be regarded with such perpetual dread 
 and circumspection. Partly it may be accounted for by the force of education. Those 
 who had been brought up having their minds sedulously filled with certain associations 
 in respect to these images, would either fail to see any absurdity in fearing them or, in 
 spite of the absurdity, would be unable to get over the fear. It is very absujd to be 
 afraid of walking through some secluded churchyard at midnight, but many people 
 could only do so with the utmost trepidation — even those who show plenty of good sense 
 in their ordinary affairs. The mystery lies not so much in the continuance of image- 
 worship as in the origin of it ; and this is a mystery we have no power to penetrate. 
 A more practical thing is to take heed to the counsel here given. These works of your 
 own hands cannot hurt j'ou. Neglect them, they cannot resent the negligence. Pile 
 up before them all you can in the way of gift and honour, and yet you get not the least 
 good in return. You may be hurt by other works of your hands, but assuredly not by 
 them; and if you are hurt — as it seems by the instrumentality of these images— yet 
 be sure of this, that the hurt comes from Jehovah's anger because you are honouring 
 and worshipping the creature in opposition to the Creator. And if it be said, "How 
 does all this dissuasion against image-worship concern «s?" the answer is plain that, 
 although we do not make images of wood, we may have conceptions in our own minds 
 which are as truly the cause of empty terror as any visible image that man ever 
 made. The ultimate meaning of the counsel here is that it is vain to tear anything 
 or any one save the omnipotent God. 
 
 II. What men ought to fear. Images are presented in this passage, first, in 
 themselves, in all their emptiness, as pure fabrications of human superstitions ; and 
 then they are brought into the presence of the exceeding glory of Jehovah, and thus 
 the exhibition of their nothingness is completed. Moreover, the glory of Jehovah 
 
 JlfHEMIAU. u 
 
200 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. x. 1—25.. 
 
 shines more brightly still by contrast with the darkness and shame that are over 
 against it. He is the great and strong One, the living One, and the everlasting King. 
 The ever-living God over against dead and degraded matter ! — can there be a greater 
 contrast? And to bring out God's strength, bis strength to make his wrath felt as real 
 suffering in the lives of those who displease him, the contrast is made, not between 
 the living God and dead idols, but between the omnipotent Ruler and the kinc,'s of 
 the nations. Take the kings of the nations ; take him who rules the widest territory, 
 controls the largest resources, shows in himself the greatest resolution and force of 
 character, achieves the most splendid reign that history can record — take such a one, 
 and yet what is he over against Jehovah ? Jehovah is the King of the nations. It 
 is his power that moulds them and gives them their destiny, their place in his 
 economy of the ages. And as Jeremiah contemplates all this, he says, " Who would not 
 fear thee ? " Certainly there are none but what would fear, and with a properly befitting 
 fear, if only they could properly regard the object presented to them. But while men 
 are fearing that which need not be feared, they depart further and further from a 
 sense of him who holds in his self-sufficing being complete power over all their best 
 interests. When they suffer, being deceived by lying lips, they attribute their suffer- 
 ing to the wrath of a God whom they themselves imagine ; and so, fixing their 
 minds by a kind of fascination on the wrong cause, they fail to have even the least 
 suspicion of the right one. If, when a blow falls upon us, we could trace that blow 
 back, and see how much of it comes from God, and with wliat purpose it comes, then 
 how much useless suffering would be spared ! But blows come oa men in the dark, 
 and they prefer to remain in the dark with their evil. deeds rather than be freed from 
 their misconceptions by coming to the light. — Y. 
 
 Ver. 2. — The dismay of the heathen at the signs of heaven. By the signs of heaven 
 here are doubtless meant those heavenly bodies given for signs and seasons, days and 
 years (Gen. i. 14) ; this view still further helping to explain the reference in ch. viii. 2 
 to sun and moon and all the host of heaven. Why these should terrify it is not very 
 easy for us to comprehend, surrounded as we are by quite different associations. Often, 
 indeed, there is cause of terror in the heavens above us, as when the depths of the 
 celestial spaces are hidden from us by the thunder-cloud, and when the stormy 
 blasts go forth on their errand of destruction over land and sea. But such terrors, 
 we know, come from things nearer the earth. Sun and moon and all the host of 
 heaven have quite a different effect on our minds. And we know, too, from the refer- 
 ences to them in the Scriptures, that tliey did not terrify those who knew God. The 
 Book of Psalms shows nothing of dismay at the signs of heaven ; rather it sets them 
 forth as helping to produce cheerfulness, enjoyment, and elevating adoration towards 
 him who made them. Such feelings have never been absent from the minds of those 
 who have really comprehended whose handiwork the heavenly bodies are, and why be 
 brought them into existence. How is it, then, that by such a strong expression they are 
 here represented as being objects of terror ? The answer is, that the maker of them 
 being unknown, and the purpose of them being undiscernible, to those whose minds 
 weie darkened by wicked works, they had to make their own conjectures. And 
 thus they filled the darkness of their ignorance with horrid, stupefj'ing errors. To 
 sun and moon and all the host of heaven they came to attribute a kind of personality. 
 And then to the personality thus conceived there would be attached the two contrasted 
 states of mind of complacency and wrath. Complacency appeared in the warmth, 
 brightness, and clearness of day, and the cloudless skies of night, when moon and 
 stars were reve.iled in all their milder splendour. Wrath, on the other hand, would 
 seem to be shown by the eclipse, the waning of the moon, by rolling clouds, destructive 
 storms, thunder and lightning, long droughts, meteors, comets, etc. And once having 
 got into their heads that sun, moon, and stars had Divine dignity about them, it was 
 nothing very wonderful that these heathen should be thus terrified by everything in 
 the way of celestial commotion. In every such commotion the frowning faces of the 
 celestial gods would be visible, and every injury thus coming would be reckoned as 
 a blow from them. The words of the messenger to Job, telling him how the light- 
 ning had destroyed his flocks, may he jidduced as a very striking illustration of 
 dismay at the signs of heaven. What does the messenger tell Job? That the fire oj 
 
CH. x.l~25.] THE BOOK OP THE PEOPHBT JEREMIAH, 2'Jl 
 
 Ood had fallen from heaven. But the messenger did not know that ; all he knew waa 
 that some extraordinary flame had destroyed the sheep. He went beyond the actual 
 fact of his experience, sind from it made such an inference as his superstitious mind 
 naturally led him to make. Thus, then, we may take it this dismay at the signs of 
 heaven was produced ; and once it became thoroughly fixed in the mind that every 
 eclipse, comet, storm, death by lightning, was an expression of Divine wrath, the next 
 thing would be an instant attempt to make propitiation and avert further mischief. And 
 it is easy to see that, as priestcraft grew in power, all would be done that could be 
 done to make the people believe that the signs of heaven needed constant remem- 
 brance in order to keep them acting favourably towards the inhabitants of earth. 
 Such, then, was the way of the heathen ; but the way of Jehovah's people was to be 
 quite different. These signs of heaven were no sufficient cause of terror, and indeed 
 were to be quite differently regarded. God saya to his people, "Be not dismayed; " 
 but the command cannot directly produce obedience. There must be a showing, a clear 
 showing, that there is no cause for terror. Terror because of the signs of heaven can 
 only come from ignorance. The moment the mind takes in the great general drift of 
 Geu. i., that same moment dismay will yield to an intelligent veneration towards God. 
 A savage, seeing the express train rush past him, with its thunder and mystery, at the 
 rate of fifty miles an hour, is as a matter of course utterly terrified and bewildered. 
 But there would be no terror and bewilderment if he only really knew all the wisdom, 
 patience, and controlling power which have made that express what it is. Further- 
 more, who would think of denying the immense utility of railways to the world 
 because every now and then there is some hideous disaster to a train? And, similarly, 
 through all the mysterious destructions which from time to time come in the natural 
 world, we must look at something beyond and above them. Jesus Christ, who came 
 into the world to make manifest and explicit the love of God as a great reality, is 
 higher than any of these causes of temporal pain and loss. We are not permitted to 
 get any satisfactory view of suffering as a whole, and we do well to refrain from putting 
 any speculation of our own in the place of such a view. Our wisdom is to get more 
 and more of a practical knowledge of God. Only so can it become possible for us to 
 say that " we shall not fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains 
 be carried into the midst of the sea." — Y. 
 
 Ver. 23. — The vay of man not in himself. I. Man is not to be the chooser of 
 HIS WAT. "I know that the way of man is not in himself." It is surely not without 
 significance that din is here used for " man." To the Hebrew there must always have 
 been the opportunity of peculiar suggestions upon the occurrence of this word. Adam 
 would rise to mind, the first man, with God's purposes for him, and his speedy 
 calamitous departure from those purposes. God made Adam that he might go in God's 
 way. When the two accounts of the creation of man are taken together, it will be 
 seen how abundant is the evidence that the way of Adam was not in himself. His 
 only condition of safety, peace, and happiness was in strict compliance with the 
 Divine injunctions. And with regard to the descendant of Adam, he who can read the 
 account of Adam and see the essential correspondence between ancestor and posterity, 
 is there not everything to teach him that his way also is not in himself? Why, he is 
 some little distance advanced in the way before he is conscious that it is a way at all. 
 The preservation of his life and the direction of it have been at the disposition of 
 others. And when life— ^as far as individual resimnsibility is concerned — really begins, 
 how wise he proves to be who looks for the pointing of God's finger, and feels that he 
 must follow it! The man who insists that he can make his own way only finds it 
 perish at last. Because no way can be considered just as a way ; whether it is pleasant 
 or painful, easy or difficult, is not the great matter, but whither it leads, what lies at 
 the end of it. As it would bo foolish for a man to take charge of a ship, ignorant of 
 his destination and how to reach it, so it is equally foolish for a man to suppose that 
 any way will do so long as it is as comfortable and easy as he can make it. Man's 
 right way must be according to God's clear will; and it is the way of trust in Jesua 
 who is the Son and Christ of God. Note, further, the strong expression of individual 
 assurance here gi^"". "I know," says Jeremiah. He knew it indeed from his own 
 experience. The way in which he now was, of "prophet and witness for Jehovah, waa 
 
292 THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. Ech. x. 1— 25- 
 
 not of his choosing. He did not think himself fit for it. And yet so far was he 
 from being right in his own impressions as a youns; man, that it appears God had 
 chosen him for a special purpose or ever his existence had begun. It is a great bless- 
 ing to a man when, either from experience of his own wanderings or prudent observa- 
 tion of the wanderings of others, he can say in this matter, " I know." He spares 
 himself much anxiety and shame who is humble enough to put himself under Divine 
 guidance. 
 
 II. God must establish man when he is in the eight way. " It is not in man 
 that walketh to make sure of his steps." In other words, though he may have begun 
 the journey rightly, that is no proof that he will go on without hindrance or disaster 
 to the end. In days when the journeys of most people, even long journeys, would 
 have to be undertaken on foot, this expression with regard to the walking man would 
 be very significant. The perils of such a journey were well known — perils from robbers, 
 perils of losing one's way in the dark and sometimes probably in the daylight, perils 
 through trusting lo strangers who may deceive or insufficiently inform him, perils through 
 sickness far from home and friends. And so in the great spiritual way there is needed 
 humility all through. The way is made up of little steps, and a false step may not 
 be possible to retrieve. Divine knowledge and Divine intimations must stand in the 
 place of our experience. Faith in God's wisdom which cannot fail, and in God's Word 
 which cannot lie, must be our resource in all perplexity. There are times when com- 
 mon sense and right feeling are enough to guide our conduct, yet even these are more 
 the gift of God than may at first appear. We cannot, then, be too minutely observant 
 as to our need of Divine light and truth and assurance. Thus, being found in the 
 right way and enduring to the end, we shall be safe. — Y. 
 
 Ver. 24. — Ood's correction of his people. A preliminary difficulty is felt here, in that 
 this earnest deprecation seems to apply to the position of an individual. Ver. 23 is easily 
 taken as being the utterance of Jeremiah himself, but ver. 24 can only apply with pro- 
 priety to the nation. Such an utterance as that of this chapter must evidently be taken 
 as a combination made up by several speakers. Jehovah speaks ; Jeremiah speaks ; the 
 nation speaks ; and in such an outburst as that of ver. 24 the nation speaks fitly, not as 
 a multitude, but as with the voice of one man. It will be noticed that there is a cor- 
 respondence with ch. iii. 4, where Israel is represented as possibly addressing Jehovah, 
 and saying, " My Father, thou art the Guide of my youth." And here is an ample 
 confession that the filial, dependent, submissive spirit is needed still. 
 
 I. Observe the admission op wronq-doing. " Correct me," uttered at all, is an 
 admission that correction is deserved. The whole of the supplication of course implies 
 a reference to the relation of lather and child, as if Israel said, " My Father, I have 
 done wrong, and I know that all wrong-doing children, when the wrong is discovered, 
 must expect to be corrected." The correctum of children by their parents must have 
 been very familiar to all Israelites ; the Book of Proverbs, in many of its pithy sentences, 
 being in part a consequence of this familiarity and in part a cause of it. A most 
 important part in the benefit of correction came from its very certainty, from the child's 
 knowledge that the correction could not be escaped. Though the extent of it might be 
 an open question, the certainty was to be no question at all. The position might be 
 put thus : If an earthly father, being evil, yet has firmness enough not to overlook the 
 least departure from his commandments, then the pure Jehovah above, who is re^aidtd 
 as the Father of Israel, cannot be less strict to mark iniquity. Israel has done wron" 
 and to make an ample admission of the wrong, to welcome the needful chastisement, 
 is nothing more than what is rijht. There is no merit in such an admission ; the 
 suppliant who makes it is only doing what he ought to do. To continue insensible of 
 the wrong adds to the wrong, and makes correction as correction altogether in vain. 
 
 II. A FEAR LKST THE CORRECTION MAT BECOME EXCESSIVE AND INJURIOUS. Israel 
 
 has before its mind, the conception of a father in his relations, powers, and duties. 
 But since the measurements are made from the earthly father with all his imperfec- 
 tions, it follows that not only are the encouraging aspects of the relation seen, but also 
 dreadful possibilities as to how far the chastising force may go. Israel argues too 
 closely from the father on earth to the Father in heaven. The earthly father is seen 
 bulling over with rage, beating his child in the wildness of his fury, ijot because it, 
 
CH. XI. 1—23.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 
 
 203 
 
 has done wrong, but because it his thwarted him. It is important to notice this very- 
 partial way of conceiving the fatherhood of God ; this exaggeration of mere might. 
 There is thus given an index to the insufficiency of the knowledge which the Israelites 
 had of God, and a proof how much Jesus was needed to come in and reveal the Father, 
 bringing the serenity and composed action of his attributes into full view. God, of 
 course, never acts with fury and frenzy as we apply these words to man. God produces 
 results through man, and there may be fury in the human agents, but in the God 
 behind them there is none. The narrow notion of Jehovah expressed in vers. 24 
 and 25 itself needed to be corrected. His favour towards Israel was not an arbitrary 
 thing, nor could it be right that his imagined wild fury might justly expend itself on 
 heathens. If Israel was to be corrected with judgment, the same judgment was surely 
 needed to correct the heathen. If there is fury with them, there can be no true 
 dealing in judgment with Israel. Severity with the heathen as typical enemies of the 
 typical people of God is another matter ; but severity must never be confounded with 
 fury. 
 
 III. The kind op correction desired. " Correct me, but with judgment." Correc- 
 tion, to have any proper effect, must be deliberate, and proportioned to the offence that 
 has been committed. While it comes from a fatherly purpose, it must come also with 
 the calmness and impartiality of a judicial procedure. A charge is made ; evidence is 
 adduced and examined; defence, denial, extenuaiion, are listened to; everythincr must 
 be weighed ; and so he who is corrected will feel in his conscience that the correction 
 is just. The severity is not blind and measureless force. If it cannot fall short of a 
 certain standard of pain, Deither will it exceed it. Any other sort of dealing has no 
 right to the name of coirection at all. Foolish Rehoboam, threatening to chastise the 
 people with scorpions, is an illustration of what must ever be avoided by those who 
 are in power. Be it a child or be it a man who is smitten, no good can be done unless 
 there is the sense that the smiting is just. — Y. 
 
 EXPOSITION. 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 Tlie superscription in ver. 1 evidently be- 
 longs to the three chapters xi. — xiii., tliough 
 oh. xi. and xii. are more closely connected 
 with each other than with eh. xiiL To which 
 period the group of prophecies belongs — 
 whether to the reign of Josiah, or of Jehoia- 
 kim, or of Jehoiaohin, or to various periods, 
 is a matter of dispute. It contains at any 
 rate one passage (oh. xii. 7 — 17) wliioh was 
 almost certainly put in by a later editor. 
 It is doubtless Jeremiah's work, but .seemis 
 out of place here (see below, on this pas- 
 sage). Naegelsbach's analysis of ch. xi., xii., 
 is striking. The fundamental idea of the 
 entire discourse he assumes to be the anti- 
 thesis of covenant and conspiracy, and pro- 
 ceeds thus : 1. A reminder of the renewal 
 of the covenant between Jeliovah and the 
 people lately made under Josiah (ch. xi. 
 1—8). 2. First stage of the conspiracy; all 
 Israel, instead of keeping the covenant with 
 Jehovah, conspires against him (oh. xi. 9 — 
 13). 3. The punishment of the conspiracy is 
 an irreversible, severe judgment (ch. xi. 14^ 
 
 17). 4. Second stage of the conspiracy ; tha 
 plot of the men of Anathoth (ch. xi. 18 — 23). 
 5. Third stage; the plot in tlie prophet's 
 own family (eh. xi. 1 — 6). Naegelsbach, how- 
 ever, with violence to exegesis, continues 
 thus (assuming the homogeneousness of ch. 
 xii. 1 — 6 and 7 — 17) : 6. Israel's conspiracy 
 punished by a conspiracy of the neighbour- 
 ing peoples against Israel (ch. xii. 7 — 13). 
 7. Bemovnl of all antitheses by the final 
 union of all in the Lord (cli. xii. 14 — 17). 
 
 The opening verses of this chapter give 
 us (as we liave seen already in the general 
 Introduction) a most vivid idea of the acti- 
 vity of Jeremiah in propagating a know- 
 ledge of the Deuteronomlo Tordh {i.e. the 
 Divine " directions " with regard to the 
 regulation of life). It may even be inferred 
 from ver. 6 that he made a missionary cir- 
 cuit iu Judah, with the view of influencing 
 the masses. It was, in fact, only the " elders " 
 of the different towns who had taken part in 
 the solemn ceremony described in 2 Kings 
 xxiii. " The words of this covenant " had 
 been ratified by the national representa- 
 tives; but it required a prophetic enthu- 
 
294 
 
 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, ten, xi. 1-23. 
 
 Biasm to carry them home to the hearts of 
 the people. Hence It was that " the word 
 came to Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying, 
 Hear ye the worUs of this covenant, and 
 speak unto the men of Judah," etc. 
 
 Ver. 2.— Hear ye . . . and speak. To 
 whom 1« this addressed ? To Jeremiad nnd 
 his disciples. The i^eptuagint, indeed, fol- 
 lowed by Hitzig and Graf, read (instead of 
 "speak ye"), "Thou shalt speak unto 
 thein," adopting one different vowel-point. 
 But this involves an inconsistency with the 
 first verb, and is not .-vt all necessary, for why 
 should we suppose Jeremiali to have been 
 completely isolated? If the prophet had 
 well-wishers even among the princes, it 
 stands to reason that he must have liad 
 more pronounced adherents in the classes 
 less influenced by the prejudices of society. 
 Vei-. 3.— Here begins a series of direct 
 references to Deuteronomy, determining the 
 dale of the discourse. Cursed be the man, 
 etc.; alluding to Deut.xxvii. 26 (which has, 
 however, not " obeyeth,'' hut "oonfirmeth," 
 i.e. ratifieth as his own personal rule of con- 
 duct. The words of this covenant ; rather, 
 ilw. words of this ordinance. The rendering 
 "covenant," however, is not so much erro- 
 neous as unsuitable in this context; it is a 
 secondary meauiuM; of the Hebrew b'riih, 
 the original sense being rather " authorita- 
 tive appointment" (from harali, to cut, 
 hence to decide). Nothing, perhaps, is so 
 injurious to a correct understanding of the 
 Scriptures as persistently rendering a He- 
 brew or Greek word by the same sup- 
 posed equivalent. " Covenant " is no doubt 
 appropriate in some passages (e.g. Josh. ix. 6; 
 1 Sam. xviii. 3), because an " appointment" 
 between men, if equals, involves " giving and 
 takiut; ; " but is inadequate when the parties 
 are not equals, and most of all when the 
 superior party is the Divine Being. In these 
 eases we must clearly recur to the original 
 meaning of " appointment " or " ordinance ; " 
 and we have one such case here (see also 
 Hos. vi. 7; 2 Kings xi. 4; Job xxxi. i. ; 
 Va. cv. 10; but not Gen. xvii. 9'. Aio9^(C7) 
 (1, an arrangement ; 2, a will or testament ; 
 3, a covenant) is to some extent parallel (see 
 Cremej's ' Biblico-Theologioal Lexicon of 
 New Testament Greek,' «.«.). 
 
 Ver. 4. — From the iron furnace ; rather, 
 out o/the iron furnace. It is Egypt which is 
 thus described (comp. Deut. iv. 2U ; 1 Kings 
 viii. 51). The oppression in Egypt was like 
 the furnace in which iron is rendered mal- 
 leable by heat (so Isa. xlviii. 10, " I have 
 tested thee in the furnace of affliction "). 
 
 Ver. 5. — The oath which I have sworn 
 (so Deut. vii. 8 ; comp. viii. 18). As it is 
 this day ; a Deuteronomic formula (see e.g. 
 Deut. ii. 30 ; iv. 20), appealing to the test of 
 
 experience. So be it, lord. The Hebrew 
 has "Amen, Jehovah." "Amen' equivalent 
 to " true, faithful, trustworthy ; " or used in 
 this wav as a formula of asseveration, " may 
 it be verified by facts" (the Septuagint h,.B 
 yivono); comp. ch. xxviii. 6. 
 
 Yer. 6. Proclaim all these words, etc. 
 
 This command probably points to a mis- 
 sionary circuit of Jereuiiah, as suggested 
 above Others render, " read aloud " (comp. 
 2 Kings xxii. S, Hebrew); but Jeremiah 
 receives the direction to -'proclaim" or 
 "crv" elsewhere (ch. ii. 2; iii. 12, etc.). 
 So 'Gabriel, in the Koran, directs Moham- 
 med to "cry," i.e. to proclaim or preach 
 (Sura xcvi. 1). - , ..' 
 
 Vers 7, 8. — A condensation of ch. vii. 
 23 — 26. Imagination; rather, etubbomnest 
 (see on ch. iii. 17). I wiU bring ; rather. / 
 brought. All the words. " Word " sometimes 
 means "thing sp ken of;" here, for instance, 
 the curses specilied in Deut. xxviii. 
 
 Ver. 9. — A conspiracy. The language is 
 figurative. Jehovah is the King of Israel ; 
 to commit sin is "to rebel against" him 
 (Authorized Version sometimes weakens 
 this into "transgress"); and to encourage 
 one another in wickeduess is."to con.-ipire 
 against " God. We need not suppose any 
 open combination against spiritual religion : 
 it is enough if " the spirit of the time " was 
 directly contrary to it. 
 
 Ver. 10.— Their forefathers. The Hebrew 
 has "their fathers, the former ones." The 
 allusion is to the sins of the Israelites in 
 the wilderness, and in Canaan under the 
 judges. The prophets are constantly point- 
 ing their hearers back to those early times, 
 either for warning (as here) or for encour- 
 agement (ch. ii. 1 ; Hos. ii. 15 ; Isa. i. 26 ; 
 Ixiii. 11, 13). And they went after; rather 
 and they (themselves) have gone after. The 
 pronoun is expressed in the Hebrew, to 
 indicate that the prophet's contemporaries 
 are now the subject. 
 
 Vers. 1 1 — 13. — A summary of Jeremiah's 
 usual prophecies (comp. ch. iv. 6; vi. 19; 
 xix. 3 ; and especially ii. 2S ; vii. 17). 
 
 Ver. 13. — That shameful thing; rather, 
 the shame. The name Baal is changed, to 
 mark the abhorrence of the speaker, into 
 Bosheth (see ch. iii. 24). Manasseh, we are 
 told, " raised up altars for Baal " (2 Kings 
 xxi. 3). 
 
 Ver. 14. — Therefore pray not thou, etc. 
 First Jehovah declares that even the inter- 
 cession of the prophet will be of no avail 
 (see on ch. vii. 16), and then that the belated 
 supplications of the people themselves will 
 be ineffectual to avert the calamity. Tor 
 their trouble. The four most ancient ver- 
 sions, and some of the extant Hebrew manu- 
 scripts, read " in the time of their trouble " 
 (as in ver. 12). The confusion between the 
 
CH. XI. 1—23.] THE BOOK OF THE PliOPHET JEllEMIAH. 
 
 2'J3 
 
 two readings is easy, and the reading of the 
 versions is to be preferred. 
 
 Vcr. 15.— What hath my beloved to do in 
 mine house ? " My beloved " is evidently 
 the Jewish people, who in oh. xii. 7 is called 
 " the dearly beloved of ray soul." The 
 Divine Speaker expresses surpriso that one 
 who has now so pour a claim to the title of 
 " iny beloved" should appear in bis holy 
 house. It is spoken in the spirit of that 
 earlier revelation of Isaiah, " Wlien ye come 
 to appear before me, wlio hath required this 
 at your hand, to trample my courts?" (Isa. 
 i. 12). The Jews, it would seem, came to 
 the temple to pray, but their prayer is not 
 accepted, because it is associnteii with unholy 
 practices. They thought by formal prayers 
 and sacrifices to pay off their debt to the 
 Deity, and so be free to go on with their old 
 devices (iis in oh. vii. 15). This seems the 
 best view of the difficult words which follow, 
 but it implies a correction of the certainly 
 ungrammatical rendering of the Autliorized 
 Version — seeing she hath wrought lewdness 
 — into to work the wicked device. But here 
 begins the most obscure part of the verse. 
 With many cannot be right ; for " with " 
 has nothing corresponding to it in the 
 Hebrew ; the word in the original simply 
 means " the many," and as it is immediately 
 followed by a noun in the singular with 
 "and," and a verb in tlie plural, it is plain 
 that It must (if correctly read) be part of 
 the subject of the latter. The Septuagint, 
 however, has a different reading, which may 
 very well be correct, and out of which the 
 received Hebrew reading may easily have 
 <grown — " Can vows and holy [i.e. hallowed] 
 flesh remove from thee tliy wickedness [or 
 perhaps, ' tiiy calamity '] ? " The connection 
 thus becomes easy. " Vows and holy flesh " 
 (i.e. tlie flesh of sacrifices, Hag. ii 12), 
 naturally go together ; the only other pos- 
 sible way of taking the passage (assuming 
 the correctness of the received text)—" the 
 great ones and the holy flesh shall pass away 
 from thee " — is obviously inadmissible. 
 "Vows and sacrifices," however, precisely 
 express the true association of ideas. A 
 man made a vow, and lie generally paid it 
 in the form of a sacrifice. But, inquires 
 Jehovah, " Can such vows and such victims 
 please God, and expiate thy wickedness [or, 
 ' avert thy calamity '] ? Jlien thou mightest 
 rejoice." The latter words are not, indeed, 
 more exact than those of the Authorized 
 Version, but are in accordance with grammar, 
 and suit the preceding question. It is not 
 certain, however, that the text is right here ; 
 the Septuagint has i) roirois Siacpei^ri. 
 (Notice that Keil, conservative to a fault in 
 matters affecting the received text, agrees 
 ■with the above correction, which is also 
 adopted by Bwald, Hitzig, and Graf.) 
 
 Vcr. 16. — A green olive tree. The olive 
 tree is "one of the most thriving, hardy, and 
 productive trees in the East" (it was tho 
 first tree elected king in the parable, Judg. 
 ix. 8), and with its " foliage of a deep, 
 perennial green," furnishes a striking symbol 
 of healthful beauty. A psalmist, speaking 
 in the character of the typical righteous 
 man, compares himself to a "green olive 
 tree in the house of God " (Ps. Hi. 8). The 
 word rendered " green '' is one of those whicli 
 are the despair of translators ( see on ch. ii. 
 20). It gives a picture in itself. We seem 
 to see a flourishing, sappy tree, with abun- 
 dance of pliant, gracefully moving, peren- 
 nially green branches. With the noise of a 
 great tumult. Either the tumult of the 
 melee of battle is meant (the same uncommon 
 word is used with such a reference in Ezek. i. 
 21) or the crashing of tlmnder. " With a 
 rushing mighty sound" would be a more 
 foicible rendering. (For the concluding 
 figure, comp. Ezek. xxxi. 12.) He hath 
 kindled fire, etc. There is no occasion to 
 explain this as merely the perfect of pro- 
 phetic certituile. It was literally true that 
 the fire of war had already devastated the 
 fairest portion of the Holy Land. Israel 
 (expressly referred to in ver. 17) had already 
 beeu carried into captivity, and J udah was, 
 to the prophetic eye, as good as destroyed. 
 Hero, no doubt, that wonderful perfect of 
 faith does come in. 
 
 Ver. 17. — The lord of hosts, that planted 
 thee. He who " planted " Israel (comp. ch. 
 ii. 21) could also uproot it ; and though, for 
 the sake of his covenant with Abraham, he 
 would not destroy it utterly, yet he could 
 not but interpose as Judge to punish its 
 manifold transgressions. Israel and Judah 
 are mentioned together ; for the prophets, so 
 far as we know them from their works, did 
 not recognize the separation of the two 
 kingdoms. Against themselves ; rather, for 
 tkemseloes ; i.e. to please themselves. 
 
 Ver. 18. — Here, as Naegelsbach puts it, 
 begins the second stage of the " conspiracy." 
 Hath given me knowledge, etc. ; rather, gave 
 me knowledge, and I /crieio it. Then ; i.e. 
 when I was in utter unconsciousness. 
 Jeremiah had no piesentiiuent of tho 
 murderous purpose of his townsmen, till by 
 some "special providence" it came to his 
 knowledge. 
 
 Ver. 19. — Like a lamb or an oz; ratlier, 
 as a mild lamb (as one of the old translations 
 has it), equivalent to quasi agnus mansuetus 
 (Vulgate). Jeremiah says that he was as 
 unsuspicious as a tame lamb which has 
 grown up with its master's family (2 Sam. 
 xii. 3). The Arabs use the very same 
 adjective in a slightly different form as 
 an epithet of such tame lambs (Bochart, 
 ' Hierozoicon,' i. 520—522, edit. 16ti3). It 
 
296 
 
 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xi. 1—23. 
 
 is impossible to help thinking of that 
 " Servant of Jehovah," of whom Jeremiah 
 vras a type, who is said, in prophetic vision, 
 to have been "biouglit as a Iamb to the 
 slaughter," and " not to have opened his 
 mouth " (Isa. liii. 7). The tree with the fruit 
 thereof ; apparently a provcrliial exprtssion. 
 Giving the words their ordinary meaning, 
 the rendering would be, the tree with its 
 bread (b'lakhmo). Our translators appear 
 to have thought that the transition from 
 "bread" to "fruit" was as justifiable in 
 Hebrew as it is in Arabic (in which 'uklu 
 means properly " food " in general, but also 
 " date fruit "). Fruit, however, was not such 
 an important article of food with the 
 Israelites as with the Aiabs ; and we must 
 either, with Hilzig, suppose a letter to have 
 intruded into the text, and render (from a 
 corrected reading b'lekho), with its sap (comp. 
 Ceut. xxxiv. 7, Hebrew), or else appeal 
 to the etymology of lekhem (commonly 
 " bread "), which is " firm, consistent," and 
 render, tht tree with its pith (Hence lahmu 
 in Arabic means " flesh," and luhmaiu, " a 
 woof"). It is no credit to St. Jerome that 
 he followed the absurd version of the 
 Septuagint, "Let us put wood into his 
 bread." 
 
 Ver. 20. — (Parallel passage, ch. xx. 12.) 
 Unto thee have I revealed my cause. This 
 is the literal rendering, but a comparison of 
 
 Ps. xxii. 8 and Prov. xvi. 3, suggests that the 
 meaning is " Upon thee liave I rolled my 
 cause." This expression is certainly not 
 only more forcible, but more appropriite 
 than the other. Jeremiah's cause was not 
 a tecret whicli needed to be " revealed " to 
 Jehovah, but a burden too heavy for so finely 
 strung a nature to bear alone. Grammati- 
 cally, the preferred meaning is quite justifi- 
 able, thougii less obvious, as there are other 
 instances of an interchange of meanings 
 between two classes of verbs (see on ch. 
 xxxiii. 6). 
 
 Ver. 21. — Prophesy not, etc. The men 
 of Anathoth tried first of all to effect their 
 object by threatening. In the name of the 
 Lord should be ratlier, by the name, etc. The 
 phrase is exactly parallel to Ps. Iv. 1, " Save 
 me, God, by thy Name, and judge me by 
 thy strength." The Name of God is equiva- 
 lent to his revealed presence or personality. 
 Baal's prophets prophesied "by Baal" 
 (ch. ii. 8), i.e. by an impulse thought to 
 proceed from Baal; Jehovah's by the con- 
 sciousness of his revealed presence. 
 
 Yer. 22. —Their sons and their daughters, 
 etc. The lot of the weaker sex and of the 
 male children under the military age is 
 contrasted with that of the young warriors. 
 
 Ver. 23. — Even the year, etc. ; better, in 
 the year of their visitation (or, punishment), 
 taking the accusative as that of time. 
 
 HOMILETICS. 
 
 Vers. I — 8. — Tlie cmdent covenant. I. The object op the covenant. This was to 
 secure oliedience. No covenant was required on God's side, since he is ever willing to 
 bless and changeless in his beneficence. But for the sake of men's faith and to secure 
 their allegiance God graciously condescended to enter into covenant bonds. It-is there- 
 fore foolish to claim the fulfilment of God's promises irrespective of our conduct. They 
 are "covenant" promises — i.e. conditional and assured on certain terms. If we break 
 the terms we can no longer expect the fulfilment of the promises. 
 
 II. The sanctions of the covenant. 1. The obligations of gratitude. The past 
 mercies of God are recited ; eg. deliverance from Kgypt. 2. Promises of future good. 
 If faithful, Israel was to t.<\ke possession of the " land flowing with milk and honey." 
 3. Threats in case of disobedience. If they proved unfaithful, the people were to find 
 the land of promise full of troubles, and ultimately to be expelled from it (Deut. 
 xxviii. 15). 4. Constant Divine pleading. The covenant could not lapse through 
 forgetfulness. Prophets were sent again and again to urge its claims on the people 
 (ver. 7). 
 
 III. The obligation of the covenant. This was an ancient covenant ; yet it was 
 still binding. God was still fulfilling his part in blessing his people. The obligation 
 was not such as time could affect. What is inherently right once is right eternally. 
 Truth does not lose force with age. The Bible contains covenants which age has made 
 venerable, but not feeble. Its commands and promises are eternally fresh and living, 
 and when the merely local and personal exterior is laid aside, the essence of them applies 
 as much to us as to the Jews. The appetite for mere novelty which characterizes much 
 intellectual inquiry in the present day, as it did that of the Athenians of St. Paul's age 
 (Acts xvii. 21), ignores the fact that the most important question is " What is true?" 
 tiot " What is new ? " Old familiar truths must be noticed that they may be remem- 
 
C!T. XI. 1—23.1 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 297 
 
 bered and practised, though of course not to the exclusion of new truths. The New 
 Testament does not abolish but perfects the spiritual truth of the old. It contains that 
 and more. 
 
 IV. The breach op the covenant. The people are accused of disobeying the precepts 
 of the covenant (ver. 8). Disobedience involved both the loss of the promised blessings 
 and the execution of the threatened curses. They who accept special privileges incur 
 special obligations. They who enter into a Divine covenant will be judged by the 
 terms of that covenant. Christians will be judged, not simply by the common law of 
 righteousness in conscience and nature, but by the special requirements of the New 
 Testament, i.e. of the covenant of Christianity. 
 
 Vers. 11 — 13. — Idolatry confounded. I. Tkoublb is a touchstone fob eelighous 
 TRUTH. The idolatry that is played with in prosperity is found to be useless in 
 adversity. The Jews had regarded mere stocks and stones as their gods. But in the 
 season of real distress they turn from these and cry to the true God to arise and save 
 them. 1. The ground of confidence which gives way in the hour of need is worse than 
 useless ; it is treacherous and ruinous, and the discovery of its true character confounds 
 those who have relied on it. A religion which will not stand the test of trouble is a 
 mockery. 2. Trouble reveais the vanity of an insincere faith. In trouble we need the 
 true, the real; all false religiousness, all playing at devotion, breaks down then. If our 
 religion has been vain and ill founded, we are then discovered and made to be ashamed, 
 " like a thief when he is found " (oh. ii. 26). 3. There is a deep instinct which cries out 
 for the true God in the hour of distress. Old memories then revive, scouted faiths 
 reassert themselves, the first cry of the child to his Parent breaks out again involim- 
 tarily, and the godless man in his agony groans, " my God ! " 
 
 II. If we have fobsaken God in prosperity we have no eight to expect him 
 TO SAVE us IN adversity. The religion which we accept in ovu" general life is that 
 to which we should justly look in our hours of need. Here is the natural irony of 
 religion. A man is punished by being lett to the protection of the creed of his own 
 choice. It must always be remembered, indeed, that whenever we truly repent and seek 
 God spiritually he will receive and save us (Uos. vi. 1). But the mere cry for God's 
 help in distress is not repentance, nor is it a spiritual return to God. It is a selfish 
 utterance, and may be made while the heart is still far from God, and the sins which 
 drove us from him still unrepented oC. It would be neither just nor good for us that 
 God should respond to so degraded and unspiritual a prayer. 
 
 III. All grounds of religious confidence except faith in the true God 
 PROVE false at the TEST OF TROUBLE. This is the result of applying the touchstone 
 of trouble ; this is the lesson of bitter experience when men are left to cry to their false 
 gods in the hour of need. 1. If there were any worth in these grounds of confidence 
 it would be seen then. (1) They should answer to men's requirements, for men have 
 made them to suit their own wishes. (2) They should be sufficient in number for help. 
 " According to the number of thy cities are thy gods, Judah." How many religious 
 refuges have men made for themselves ! Shall all these human inventions I'ail ? (3) 
 They should be sufficiently various to attbrd the required help. Every city liad its 
 peculiar cult. The human notions of religion are infinitely varions. Cannot a man 
 find one to meet his need out of the wliole catalogue of creeds? 2. Experience 
 furnishes the answer to these questions, and shows the certain failure of all the creeds 
 of human invention. They must fail : (1) Because they are human. How can the god 
 whom a man has made save him ? (2) Because they are commonly materialistic — ■ 
 the stock and stone of the Hebrew idolatry find their counterparts in the materialistic 
 philosophy and schemes of merely physical amelioration of modern men, (3) Because 
 they are numerous, and therefore none of infinite value, but all limited in range^ 
 (4) Because they are reflections of our own thought, not higher influences to lead that 
 thought. Every city had its god embodying the ideas of the city. Men have their 
 sei'arate creeds corresponding to their inclinations and prejudices. Such creeds afl;'ord 
 no refuge when deeper questions open up in the dark night of distress. 
 
 Vers. 16, 17. — The olive struck ly lightning. Under the image of an. olive tree con- 
 Buiued by lightning fires the prophet portrays the devastation which will come upon 
 
20^' THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xt. 1— 23.i 
 
 Israel in sijite of former prosperity. This is a type of the similar doom which may 
 overtake the happy and prosperous. 
 
 I. The happy prospbkitt. 1. The olive tree was green — perennially green. Pros- 
 jierity may be constant and unbroken before the descent of judgment. 2. It was fair. 
 Prosperity may come with much honour and gladness. 3. It was fruitful. The life, 
 may abound in good to others. 4. It was planted by Ood. (Ver. 17.) All good comes 
 from him, and it is a great good to be established in our way of life by God's will and 
 help. Yet none of these good things sufficed to avert a terrible doom. Present pros- 
 Ijerity is no security against future adversity. The goodness of the past will be no safe- 
 guard against the punishment of sins of later years. The long-tried, honoured, useful 
 man who falls into sin at the end of his life must not delude himself into supposing 
 that his earlier career will shield him from all troublesome consequences. 
 
 II. The fearful devastation. The green and fair and fruitful tree was struck in 
 the thunderstorm, and its branches consumed with fire. 1. The devastation was from 
 libove — by fire from heaven. God who planted also destroj"ed. Punishment is sent by 
 God. 2. It was sutirfen. The lightning flash is instantaneous. The terrible ruin of sin 
 may fall in a moment. 3. It was irresistible. The tree is passive and helpless in the 
 storm. Its very magnitude only invites the blow which will destroy it. 4. It was 
 destructive. Fire consumed the branches. The fires of judgment are consuming fires — 
 they burn to destroy (Matt. iii. 12). 
 
 Vers. 18 — 23. — The conspiracy of Anathoth. This incident may afford tis some 
 lessons on the subject of persecution, in its occasion and character, the behaviour of the 
 persecuted and the righteous action of God in dealing with it. 
 
 I. The occasion of the conspikacy illustrates a common cause of persecution. 
 Jeremiah had been proclaiming unwelcome truths. He had exposed sin and threatened 
 judgment. Such preaching was unpopular, and the men of Anathoth sought to stay 
 it by force (ver. 21). 1. The faithful preacher must expect to meet with opposition. 
 Unpopulnrity is no proof of incompetence (i.e. if it arises from the subject-matter of the 
 teaching, not from the style of the teacher). Christ, who began his mission with public 
 favour, ended it amidst universal contumely. 2. The most needful truth is the most 
 unwelcome. The smooth words of false prophets of " peace " are acceptable. But they are 
 narcotics giveu to men who should be roused to flee for their lives. The only hope for 
 those who are spending wicked lives is in their being awakened to a sense of guilt and 
 danger. The effort to awaken them, however, stirs their resentment. 
 
 II. The conduct of the conspirators reveals the true character of pbese- 
 CUT0R8. 1. It is foolish. Truth cannot be destroyed by suppressing the voice that 
 utters it. Some day it will declare itself in spite of all hindrance. 2. It is unfair. 
 Words are met by force. To silence a voice is not to reply to it. Violent opposition to 
 the spread of ideas is a tacit confession of inability to meet them on their own ground of 
 reason, a virtual confession of their force of truth. 3. It is destructive of social order. 
 Jeremiah's fellow-townsmen conspiie against him. The persecuting spirit divides 
 nearest neighbours. It is the greatest enemy to brotherly charity (Matt. x. 36). 4. 
 It is treacherous. While Jeremiah was ignorant of their enmity — led like a lamb 
 to the slaughter — the men of Anathoth were plotting against his life. 5. It is 
 murderous. The tree is to be destroyed with its fruit. Professing a good purpose, 
 pejsecution is invariably possessed by a cruel spirit. 6. It covers enmity to Ood in 
 opposition to his servants. Jeremiah was bidden no longer to prophesy in the Name of 
 Jehovah. It could not be denied that he spoke with Divine authority. Therefore to 
 sili'nce him was to refuse to receive the message of God. 
 
 III. The behaviour of the victim exemplifies the right course to be pdksued 
 UKDEE PERSECCTION. 1. Not to dcsist from the duty which provoked the persecution. 
 Jeiemiah met with little but opposition throughout his long life ; yet he remained faith- 
 ful to the last. 2. Not to rashly embrace danger. Jeremiah sought deliverance. It is 
 childish to court persecution. 3. To seek help from Ood. Jeremiah at once com- 
 mitted his cause to God. God alone (1) can help; (2) has the authority to execute 
 vengeance (Rom. xii. 19) ; (3) judges righteously, impartially, without the bias of 
 passion ; and (4) discerns the motive of men and the degrees of guilt trying " the reins 
 and the heart." 
 
cit. xi; 1—23.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 299 
 
 IV. The action of God typifies the ultimate exec0tion of Divine judgment. 
 1. Punishment must follow such wickedness. Though it is delayed, the vengeance must 
 come. 2. This punishment will be severe. " The young men shall die by tlie sword," 
 the children by famine. Fearful sin must brinp; fearful penalties. 3. This punishment 
 will be without exception. No remnant of the men of Anathoth will be spared. All 
 are guilty; all must suffer. There is a popular impression to the effect that the 
 number of siuful persons lessens the blame attaching to each individual. It is a 
 mistake. If all sin, each will be punished individually as much as if one only were 
 guilty. No conspiracy of men, however widespread, however subtle in schemes, how- 
 ever violent in action, can defeat the ends of Divine justice (Prov. xi. 21). 
 
 HOMILIES BY VAEIOUS AUTHORS. 
 
 Ver. 5. — The response of the spiritual conscience to the words of God. " And I said, 
 Amen, Jehovah." This expression, uttered by Jeremiah with apparent originality, is 
 really an echo of Deut. xxvii. 15. There it expresses the agreement of the whole 
 congregation of Israel : here it is the word of one mouth. The adoption by the prophet, 
 at this juncture, of words so solemnly significant is very impressive. One stands sponsor 
 for many ; a righteous and earnest man for a nation of callous transgressors. And is 
 it not ofien so? What, indeed, would our poor, erring, depraved humanity do with 
 itself were it not for these individual, mediatorial spirits, whom God raises up from 
 time to time through the ages to interpret his will and to keep it in reverent obedience 
 und spiritual trust for them who as yet are ignorant and alienated from his life? The 
 service such men render is of vast importance and but imperfectly understood. 
 
 I. Only those who abe in communion with God can truly understand and 
 APPROVE HIS judgments. Tlio Commandment is inteUigently alluded to, and its 
 penalty stated. The correspondence of Judah's condition with that anticipated in the 
 original passage is pregnantly suggested. All the more so that the transgressors did not 
 feel or admit the correspondence. The prophet alone could say, " Amen; " but he said 
 it emphatically and representatively. How many of God's people find a similar 
 difficulty in acquiescing in his dispensations ? They do not examine themselves, or 
 their conscience is not sufficiently awakened, and consequently they fail to recognize 
 his judgments and to profit by them as was intended. 
 
 II. God raises up those who shall respond to his voice and maintain 
 
 PBIPVISIONALLY HIS COVENANT RELATIONS WITH THE WORLD. The prOphets Were not 
 
 only mouthpieces of Divine truth ; they were saints whose consecration was essential 
 to their spiritual discernment and the due exercise of their functions. The people 
 were for the most part spiritually asleep or dead. In their spiritual and moral 
 constitution a medium was provided sensitive enough for the perception and trans- 
 mission of Divine communications. It was no exaggeration to speak of these 
 messengers as " prepared, ordained, and sent." They were specially raised up for this 
 duty of sustaining the conscious relations of God with his people. This was a dim 
 foreshadowing of the Messiah-consciousness. In a certain sense the prophet repented, 
 believed, obeyed, for the whole people, even as the high priest made solemn offering 
 once a year for the sins of the whole people. Not that this spiritual condition of the 
 inspired .>ieer and saint could be effectual for individual salvation of others ; but that it 
 exercised a certain representative and general influence. The prophet held the truth 
 as it were in trust for others, ctntinually and energetically sought to mediate between 
 Jehovah and Israel, and urged the people to acts of repentance and obedience. With 
 each prophet it might be said that a new opportunity was given, a new day of grace 
 afforded, lor the return of the apostate nation to its primitive covenant relations with 
 God. And in the succession of the prophets a guarantee was given of the enduring 
 character of those relations, even when the covenant itself was flagrantly broken and 
 practically set aside by those whom it chiefly concerned. The essential point was that 
 there should be no age without some person or persons who should sustain a conscious 
 spiritual connection with Jehovah for themselves and their race. 
 
 HI. That which the few have understood and accepted shall become the 
 COMMON iNHEKiTAKCE OF AIL. The pEoiihct was for the most part a sulilary and 
 
300 THE BOOK OF THE PEOPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xi. 1—23;. 
 
 a lonely man. This isolation of his lot was his grief, but the persistence of the 
 succession of the prophets proved the unswerving purpose of God ultimately to save, 
 not only Israel, but the world. There might be from time to time but one or two who 
 could say " Amen " to his judgments, but some day the people as a vvhole would 
 themselves endorse and approve them. And soon in the " fulness of the time " Christ 
 would come, who is the faithful and true Witness, the " Amen " of all the Divine Law 
 iind promise. In his world-wide reign as our Representative, Prophet, Priest, and King, 
 through faith in him, the race will be constituted into a new Israel, to keep the word 
 of God. In this transfer of mfluence the law is that the communication shall proceed 
 from the higher consciousness and consecration to the lower ; the travail for souls, etc., 
 being but a detailed sponsorship, one day to be done away with, when " all should know 
 him, from the least even to the greatest." — M. 
 
 Ver. 10. — Spiritual atavism; or, the sins of the fathers. There are punishments and 
 consequences of ancestral sin which reach even to descendants of remote generations. 
 This seems to imply a descent of responsibility — a subject full of difficulty and mystery^ 
 The unity of the race in its sin and misery is, with St. Paul, an argument for the 
 ))robability and even certainty of its unity in the grace of salvation. The doctrine of 
 original sin is treated in Scripture as antecedent to the doctrine of salvation by faith in 
 Christ. In connection with this subject, notice — 
 
 I. The influence of heredity. In modern times the laws of heredity have been 
 scientifically investigated, and startling results brought to light. Tendency can be 
 traced from parent to child in gradually deepening lines and more confirmed manifesta- 
 tions. Spirit as well as body acknowledges this law, and, whether in health or disease, 
 its operation is now placed beyond all dispute. But another law or modification of this 
 law is perceived working alongside of it, namely, the law of atavism, in which not the 
 general tendency towards improvement or degeneration is observed, but an apparently 
 arbitrary and capricious recurrence of ancestral peculiarities that had long disappeared 
 from the race. Of this nature seems to have been the present sin of Israel. It was 
 not in the line of continuous succession, but a recurrent phase after intervals of normal 
 and religious life. Thus it showed that the power of evil had only been " scotched," 
 not killed ; and that it was ready on the slightest provocation to assert itself in the 
 rankest forms. How much that is mysterious in the conduct of individuals can be 
 traced to the influence of such a principle ! The two selves of every man represent 
 influences that have been at work in his progenitors from remotest time. 
 
 II. How SOLEMN THE EESPONSIBILITY OF PARENTS. No carc Can be too great in 
 relation to those we bring into the world. Our own nature and character should be 
 diligently cultivated, and the utmost attention paid to parental example, family influence, 
 and educative circumstance in their upbringing. It will not do to ignore the fact that, 
 irom generation to generation, there are transmitted both physical and spiritual 
 tendencies which have largely to do with the formation of character and the 
 determining ot destiny. For good or for evil, the parent exercises a despotic influence 
 upon all whom he brings into the world. 
 
 III. Yet the accountability of the children remains. In the sad entail of 
 evil there are many bright instances of bold and pronounced departure from ancestral 
 sin. The individual is not wholly subject to predetermining influences. If so, moral 
 freedom would be but an illusion. A power is required to break the tyranny of inherited 
 bin, and this is provided in the grace of God. The gospel is the development of this 
 grace as an effectual and adequate means of salvation. — M. 
 
 Ver. 14. — The staying of intercession. The desperate condition of Israel is shown in 
 this prohibition. How great must have been the sin of God's people, ere prayer on 
 their behalf could have been forbidden ! What could have been the reason of this ? 
 
 I. Whilst sin is persisted in there can be no removal of Divine judgments. 
 The righteousness of God has, after long-suffering mercy, brought these upon his people. 
 The wisdom of their imposition is infallible ; and they spring from the depths of an 
 inscruuble, infinite love. Whilst, therefore, the condition which involved their imposi- 
 tion is unchanged, it would be presumption to suggest their removal. It is rather for 
 the riiihteous conscience of saints sorrowfully to approve the action of the Supreme 
 
CH. XI. 1—23.] THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 301 
 
 Magistrate, as he draws his cordon round the transgressor and compels him to 
 capitulate. The real calamity in connection with these judgments is the spiritual 
 wronguesa which necessitates them, and not the physical conditions through which 
 they are executed. Most men suppose that if the pain or inconvenience is removed 
 the evil is at an end, and tlie question between them and God settled. They still go 
 on to sin. Impunity confirms and hardens them in their transgression. We have not 
 learned the real lesson of calamity until we have detected its moral sources or occasions, 
 and sought to rectify them before God. 
 
 II. Divine judgments may in certain instances be gkeater mercies than 
 THE REMOVAL OF THEM WOULD BE. Wiieu judgment Continues to rest upon the 
 transgressor, it is not mere vengeance which is represented, but mercy working on the 
 lines (if severity. It is God's emphasis upon his commandment which must be heeded. 
 Tlie blessing that is latent in it waits the appearance of a repentance not to be repented 
 of. Like pent-up waters, it will flow in an overwhelming stream when once the 
 barriers of law have been removed by the sinner's return to God. — M. 
 
 Vers. 18 — 23. — Perils of prophesying. The conspiracy of which these verses speak 
 seems to have been sudden as it was secret. It affected the mind of the prophet in a 
 peculiarly painful way, as it was the men of his own district who were concerned in it — 
 his friends, probably even kinsfolk, who looked upon him as their worst enemy. The 
 crime was all the more heinous that the means taken to execute it were underhand. 
 It is possitile that they greeted him with expressions of kindness and hospitality, and 
 that everytliing was done to prevent his suspecting his real danger. Upon his discover- 
 ing the plot, it is possible that they ceased to conceal their intentions, and, thinking 
 him in their power, urged him " prophesy not in the Name of the Lord." 
 
 I. The 1>EKILS OF the prophet arose from : 1. A hatred of the truth in his hearers. 
 There was something unpalatable in the continual denunciations of their wickedness. 
 Their S|jiritual and patriotic pride was wounded. The demands made upon them by 
 the righteousness uf Jehovah they did not care to yield to ; and the dislike of the 
 prophet arose from his association with his message. No vengeance, therefore, could lie 
 
 ,too great. It is not im ^jrisonment they seek to inflict, but death itself, and death in 
 such an obscure and ignominious way that " his name may be no more remembered." 
 2. Their fear of the consequences of his prophecies. The future which he described as 
 inevitable was not pleasant to contemplate. The words he spoke threatened to overturn 
 their most cherished designs and to rob them of their precious things. 3. Ignorance 
 as to how these might be averted. By an easy process of association they came to look 
 upon Jeremiah as not simply declaring, but in a sense causing, the evils of which he 
 prophesied. Tliey reasoned, therefore, to the foolish conclusion that if they could 
 destroy him they would free themselves from the dangers which he threatened. The 
 preacher has often to incur dislike of this sort from his hearers. It is of the nature 
 of the carnal mind so to misapprehend the things of God and the things that make for 
 peace. At certain times stern denunciation and declaring of the true consequences of 
 evil action are not to be regarded as enmity, but friendship. The word spoken by an 
 inspired mind is to be distinguished from the expression of mere bitterness and dislike. 
 Paul had to entreat bis converts not to count him their enemy when he sharply reproved 
 tliem. 
 
 II. These perils are warded off by : 1. Direct revelation. This is an advantage 
 which the ordinary servants of God may not count upon. It was vouchsafed occasionally 
 to prophets and apostles, but there is something in the spiritual mind which enables it 
 to detect more quickly than others the symptoms of hatred to the truth. Promptings 
 and suggestions to certain action in the midst of circumstances to ordinarily humau 
 eyes unsuspicious, have been too frequent in the history of the Church to be doubted. 
 And even where no direct information may be given as to the reason of certain courses 
 
 .of action, which God's saints may be moved to observe, the results clearly prove the 
 presence of a careful and ever-watchful Providence. 2. Faith in Ood. Jeremiah said, 
 " Unto thee have I revealed my cause " (better, " Upon thee have I devolved my cause "). 
 He evidently felt that his duty was to commit the whole matter into the hands of 
 Grod. And this is ever the safest way. The judgment, the prevision of man, are to 
 be distrusted. The soul should cast itself by faith. uppn God, who is able to save. 
 
,302 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xi. 1—23. 
 
 3. Greater loldness in the course of action asuumed. This was a distinct moral 
 advantage. The men whose action was inspired by fear were certain to be influenced 
 by it. Superstitious dread of the effects of his words would produce a reaction from 
 their cowardly plans. And they would feel themselves more and more helpless as they 
 saw how they aggravated their own punishment. So the preachers of the gos|iel and 
 the servants of Christ generally must not consult with flesh and blood, but be bold 
 m proclaiming the whole will of God, in preaching the Word, being "instant in season 
 and out of season." There are allies and reinforcements latent in the constitution even 
 of the worst enemies of the cross of Christ. — M. 
 
 Ver. 3. — The doom of disoledience. This new discourse, which begins with ch. xi, 
 is a continuation of the same sad monotone of denunciation and doom which goes on 
 throughout well-nigh the whole of Jeremiah's prophecies. The curse pronounced here 
 on the disobedient — 
 
 I. Is VERY TEBRiBLB. The words, " Cursed," etc., are fearful words to come from 
 the lips of the God of grace and mercy. And that which they threatened was terrible 
 also. What a catalogue of woes, which were denounced against the guilty people, 
 might be compiled from these chapters! And how exactly the event answered to the 
 prediction ! Eead the history of the destruction of Jerusalem and of the sufferings of 
 the people, which is given in the records of the times, for proof of this. It is a dismal 
 story, heart-sickening, and one from which we should at once turn away were it possible 
 for us to do so. But all this, which was written aforetime, was written for our learning, 
 and therefore we cannot but give heed. For not only is the curse terrible — 
 
 II. It is altogether just. What makes a sentence, such as is pronounced here, 
 just ? Is it not such considerations as these ? — 1. That the Law which has heen violated 
 should have heen altogether righteous. None can read over the moral Law given by God 
 to his people without confessing its righteousness. " The Law was holy, just, and 
 good." Those who disobeyed it and were punished by it could not dispute its righteous- 
 ness. 2. That it should have heen fully known. If ignorance could have been pleaded 
 the equity of the sentence might have been questioned. But amid all possible publicity 
 and solemnity the Law was given at the first ; and at a time (ver. 4) when their hearts, 
 by reason of God's exceeding goodness to them, were peculiarly susceptible to impression. 
 And ever since then, by repeated, prolonged, and earnest appeal (ver. 7) that obedience 
 should bo rendered. 3. When conscience consents to the Law that it is good. (Ver. 5.) They 
 said "Amen" to it. The prophet is not giving his personal account only, but referring 
 to the fact that all the people said "Amen" when the curse upon disobedience was 
 pronounced from Mount Ebal ; cf. also a more recent " standing to the covenant " to 
 which probably Jeremiah alludes (2 Kings xxiii. 3). 4. When the transgression has 
 heen notorious, (Ver. 8.) It was not simply that they would not obey, but they would 
 not even listen, and they went on in their own way, utterly disregarding the covenaTit 
 to which they had promised obedience (cf. also vers. 9, 10). 5. When ingratitude has 
 leen added to disobedience. (Ver. 4.) What had not God done for them ? How deep 
 was the obligation to obey ! 6. When forbearance has heen exercised. Fur a thousaml 
 years and more they had been suffered to occupy the land of promise (ver. 5, " As it is 
 this day "). Wherever, then, was there or could there be a righteous doom if this were 
 not? 
 
 III. And as necessary as righteous. Remember the purpose for which God had 
 chosen Israel — that they might be the channels of his truth and righteousness to all 
 other people. God was merciful to them and blessed them," that his way," etc. (Ps. Ix vii.). 
 " In thee and in thy seed," said God to Abraham, " shall all the nations," etc. But if 
 the men of the nation had rendered themselves incapable of this service, it was essential 
 for the well-being of the world that they should make room for more faithful men. 
 And this they had to do. 
 
 IV. And certain of accomplishment if the disobedience be not forsaken. 
 The judgment that came upon Judah and Jerusalem was not at all a solitary isolated 
 fact. The like of it had happened before, has since, happens now, and will again when- 
 ever like provocation is given, as it all too often is. God's way of dealing with Israel 
 is God's way of dealing with man everywhere and in all ages; therefore his way of 
 dealing with «s. God's Law, his demaud fur obedience, man's disubedionce, and the 
 
CH. XI. 1—23.] THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMTAH. 303 
 
 consequent doom, are all facts with which we are familiar. The history of Israel is 
 but an example of what is ever taking place. Even the gospel of the Lord Jesus, 
 however much it may avert the eternal results of our transgressions, will not save 
 us from the present temporal consequences in this world. " These all died in faith," 
 so we read in the Epistle to the Hebrews, of those " whose carcases," nevertheless, " fell 
 in the wilderness." " The way of transgressors is," has been, must, and ever will be, 
 "hard."— C. 
 
 Ver. 4. — The precious recompenses of obedience. " Obey my voice, . . . according to all 
 which I command you : so shall ye be," etc. The earlier verses of this chapter form 
 part of that earnest reminder which Jeremiah was commanded by Grod to address to 
 the men of Judah and Jerusalem concerning a transaction with which they had all had 
 very much to do. That transaction was their solemnly pledging themselves, as they 
 had done during King Josiah's recent reign, to observe tlie ancient covenant which tbe 
 Lord God had made with their fathers. The sixty or seventy years before King Josiah's 
 time had been years dreary and degraded in the national life of the people. Even 
 Hezekiah, the last pious King of Judah before Josiah, had secured only a very partial 
 reformation, and in the days of his godless son Manasseh, and in those of his even worse 
 grandson Amon, who " sinned more and more," the religious life of the people all but died 
 out. The sacred Scriptures iu which this covenant was contained had, during the.-e 
 miserable years, been neglected and put out of sight as writings for which they had no 
 longer love nor use ; as a book which we do not want is either got rid of or put away 
 on some high shelf, to make room for others which we more highly prize. " The nation 
 did not want to hear the Law which testified against their multiplied transgressions, nor 
 to listen to a condemnation of the idols they had chosen." But in King Josiah's reign, 
 in some out-of-the-way corner, buried beneath no one knows what worthless rubbish, 
 a copy of the despised Word of God was discovered. It produced on the pious monarch 
 a profound impression. He was overwhelmed with shame and dismay when he compaied 
 the commands of the covenant of God with the actual conduct of the people. He 
 shuddered to think of the judgments which must come upon them — and which had 
 already come upon the neighbouring nation of Israel — unless they repented and turned 
 to God. But he did not waste time in unavailing regrets. He at once took practical 
 measures to bring about that religious reformation which he saw to be so much needed. 
 He therefore summoned all the people of Judah to Jerusalem, and caused the book of 
 the Law to be publicly read to them ; then he made all the people nmew the covenant 
 which they had so long forgotten. For a time it seemed as if the reformation and 
 repentance were real ; but the old idolatries began to make their appearance again after 
 a while, and when Jeremiah was sent from God to remind them of their violated vows 
 they had fallen back into a condition as evU as, if not worse than, that of former days. 
 Therefore the prophet opens his commission by the awful denunciation of Jehovah's 
 curse upon the disobedient. He would startle and arouse them, if it might but be 
 possible, so that they might awake to righteousness and to God ere wrath arose against 
 them and there should be no remedy. And here he tells of the precious recompenses of 
 obedience, " So shall ye . . . God." Consider, then — 
 
 I. These pkomises. 1, " Ye shall he my people." Now, by this is meant, amongst 
 other blessings, that they shall be the object of his care. How many are the proofs that 
 this is a constituent part of the heritage of his people! Were not Israel so? Did he 
 not watch over them continuously ? " He suffered no man to do them harm ; yea, he 
 reproved kings for their sakes." " He gave his angels charge over them to keep them in 
 all their ways." The rage of Pharaoh, the cruel thirst of the hot, waterless sands, the 
 threatened famine of the breadless desert, the marauding Amalekite, the pestilence that 
 walked in darkness, and the destruction that wasted at noonday, — not one of these 
 was suffered to harm them. How full are the Law, the prophets, and the psalms with 
 sweet assurances of the tender care of God over his people ! Nor does the New Testament 
 come behind the Old in like gracious declarations. And the experience of all God's 
 people swells the volume of testimony to his loving solicitude and watchfulness over 
 us. " And such honour have all his saints." And to be of his people means also to be the 
 , abode of his Spirit. That Spirit should dwell in them, rule and mould them after the 
 Divine will. True, God's, aucieiit. people do one?, and. again seem tahave been uHuvly 
 
304 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xi. 1—23. 
 
 abandoned of that Holy Spirit. But there was ever a faithful remnant, ever a godly- 
 few, of whom the Lord was wont to say, "They shall be mine in that day when I 
 make up my jewels." And we must remember that there were long periods in Israel's 
 history when, as a nation, they lived under the blessed guidance of that Spirit. These 
 more happy periods are passed over in silence, as all such in the records of nations are, 
 so that the saying has passed into a proverb, " Happy the nation that has no history." 
 It is of the sad, troubled times that history tells, not of the long, eventless, peaceful 
 times. When at rest, they walk in the fear of the Lord, and possess the comfort of 
 the Holy Ghost, and are multiplied.' Oh the joy of this possession of his Spirit! The 
 thought of losing it made the contrite psalmist cry out in his agony, "Cast me not 
 away from thy presence, and take not thy Holy Spirit from me." " I will put my Spirit 
 within you " was ever one of the choicest promises of God to his people, and one of the 
 surest tiikens that they were his people. And it is so still. To be his is to be guided 
 aud governed of that good Spirit, to have our understandings purified, our afl'eclioiis 
 wisely controlled, our hearts, our wills, under his direction always, so that we turn 
 away from what is evil and cleave to that which is good. And it includes, furthermore, 
 the being madu the channels of his grace. Others shall be blessed through us, as it was 
 said to Abraham, "In tiiee and in thy seed shall all tlie nations of the earth be blessed." 
 God's people are the salt of the earth, the light of the world. How unspeakably great 
 and blessed is the influence of the true people of God! In their presence impurity, 
 profanity, selfishness, sin in all its forms, hide their shameful heads and slink away, 
 whilst all things lovely and of good report flock around them and attend upon theiu 
 continually. And finally they become the inmates of the home of God. The heavenly 
 inheritance, of which the earthly Canaan, the land promised to the fathers of Israel, 
 was the type and symbol, becomes theirs. They enter it through the gates of death, 
 and these gates once passed, they are in his presence, where " there is fulness of joy, ami 
 at his right hand there is," etc. Such are some of the elements of this great joy of God 
 taking us for his people, a joy which, of his infinite mercy, may he make us all to 
 know. 2. " J will he your God." This cannot mean less than that he mil be known 
 to them as their God. They shall be able to realize his existence, his presence, hi.-i 
 constant nearness to them. True, the God of Israel, whose promise this is, was not 
 known by any organ of sense ; he was no material God that their hands could handle ; 
 he spake with no human voice that their ears could hear ; he appeared to them in no 
 visible form that their eyes could see; he was manifested then, as now, only to their 
 spirits. But when they worshipped him in spirit they felt that he was at tlieir right 
 hand, so that they could not be moved. Hence they went about their daily work and 
 engaged in all the occupations of their lives, consciously realizing the presence of God ; 
 80 that they constantly spoke of him as "their God," "our God," "my God," — so 
 near, so real, so present was he to them. They could not if they would, and they 
 would not if they could, escape from his presence or withdraw from the observation of 
 his eye, or from the guidance and guardianship of his hand. In such manifestation of 
 himself to them did he fulfil his word, " I will be your God." Nor was this all. Not 
 only was he realized by them but rejoiced in. " I will go unto the altar of God, unto 
 God my exceeding joy," was the delighted declaration of the. saints of old and is so of 
 the saints to-day. Such joy had they in him that, when all earthly affairs were disastrous 
 for them, when the fig tree did not blossom, and when there was no fruit in the vine, 
 and the labour of the olive failed, and the fields yielded no meat, when the flock was 
 cut off from the fold and there were no herds in the stall, — when, that is, ruin stared 
 them in the face and met them on every side, nevertheless they could rejoice in the 
 Lord, and joy in the God of their salvation. " My soul shall make her boast in the 
 Lord," was their perpetual song ; and it is the song still of all those to whom God has 
 said, " I will be your God." And his word came true yet further by their coming to 
 resemble him. It is ever the result of worship to conform the worshipper to the deity 
 be worships. Hence it was said of the worshippers of idols, " They that make them 
 are like unto them, so is every one that trusteth in them." Accordingly it has ever been 
 found that they who bowed down to gods impure, cruel, and treacherous, became them- 
 selves impure, cruel, and treacherous. But, on the other hand, they who have worshipped 
 the God of Israel have liccome like him — righteous, just, and true, merciful, and pure, 
 aud good. " I will be your God " meant, thejcfoie. " 1 will make you like mysell," 
 
CH. XI. 1—23.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 203 
 
 and this promise God ever fulfils. And it means also, " I will he your rest." The soul 
 whose God the Lord is, reposes on him. The storms of life may rage, its tempests 
 beat, but "firm and unmoved are they who rest their souls on God." Everything 
 may appear to be slipping away from a man, and he may seem to be like one gliding 
 down a steep, smooth slope, ever faster and taster to the precipice over which he will be 
 hurled into destruction, unable to grasp any friendly rock or branch, or to find foothold 
 anywhere — aud men's circumstances are like that sometimes ; but they to whom this 
 word, " I will be your God," is fulfilled, do find foothold in God and can stay themselves 
 upon him. Hence, when heart and flesh fail, God is the Strength of their heart and 
 their Portion for evermore. 
 
 II. The condition of thbib fulfilment. They were faithfully to do the command- 
 ments which he had made known to them : " Obey my voice, so," etc. And this 
 condition is not abrogated ; it is in as full force to-day as it was in the days of old. But 
 when it is complied with, then, not merely by the gracious appoiiitment of God, but 
 also in the way of natural result, there follows the enjoyment of the promised 
 blessings. For : 1. Obedience tends to such enjoyment of God, inasmuch as H prevents 
 the rising of those mists whereby the sight of Ood is shut out from the soul. Travellers 
 along the Rhine or over the mountains of Switzerland know to their cost how often the 
 most glorious scenery the world contains is completely hidden from their view by the 
 uprising of some wretched mist, wrapping in cold, dark, impenetrable fog all that upon 
 which their eyes would have so delightedly rested. They want to gaze upon all that 
 loveliness ; they have come for that very purpose ; but they cannot for those thick 
 clouds. And oh, what a beautiful vision is the face of God ! How good it is to gaze 
 upon him, and to behold the shining of his countenance ! And this we' should do were 
 it not for those mists with which disobedience to God's will ever blots out all that 
 otherwise we should so delightedly see. " If our hearts condemn us not, then have we 
 confidence toward God ; " but when they do condemn us, confidence vanishes, and, as 
 by a veil of impenetrable cloud, the face of God is hidden from our view. We have 
 lost him ; we cannot realize him ■ he is as if he were not, and the soul is forlorn and 
 wretched and exposed to all manner of ill. Now, this sad experience, which is as 
 common as it is sad, shows how tnp obeying of the voice of God must tend to the enjoy- 
 ment of him, inasmuch as it prevents all that which hides God from our souls. 2. And 
 before obedience that wall of the rebellious will, which more than aught else displeases 
 and dishonours God and keeps him out from the soul, "falls down flat," as did the 
 walls of Jericho before the obedient tribes of Israel. That will must be subdued, that 
 stronghold of evil must be pulled down, and obedience is the strong hand that accom- 
 plishes this much-needed work. .That strong fortress cast down, the soul becomes the pos- 
 session of God, and the hitherto rebellious iorces of the soul own him as their God. Or, to 
 take another similitude, obedience unbars that fastened door before which the Lord Jesus 
 has stood so long and knocked, but in vain, for admission. He desires to enter and to 
 make us the glad partakers of his grace. But till that door be unbarred all this cannot 
 be. 3. Obedience, furthermore, keeps us in those paths along which alone God is to be 
 met. Full well we know that there are paths innumerable aloug which men go, along 
 which we have gone ourselves ; but God is never to be met with in them. But along 
 the path by which obedience leads us, there we do meet with him, and are blessed by 
 him. 4. And without this obedience God cannot carry out bis purposes of grace. 
 This is what we are told in the verse that follows our text. God asks for obedience, 
 " that I may perform the oath which I have sworn unto," etc. Therefore without this 
 he is held back from what he earnestly desires, and he cannot do the things that he 
 would. God cannot admit the ungodly and the disobedient into the blessed land of 
 iirornise. To do that would be to perpetuate for ever the sins and sorrows of time. 
 Therefore— 
 
 " Those holy gates for ever bar 
 Pollution, sin, and shame." 
 
 But "blessed are they that do his commandments, that they," etc. (Rev. xxii. 14). 
 Now, the first step of this obedience — that which introduces to all these recompenses— 
 is to surrender to the Lord Jesus Christ (John vi. 28, 29). — C. 
 
 Vers. 16, 17. — T!ie first last. Many, indeed, are the instances in which those who 
 
 JEREMIAH. 
 
 X 
 
306 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [en. xi. 1—23. 
 
 were placed first in opportunity have been found last in attainment. Privilege, favour, 
 education, help of all kinds, have been at their disposal, and yet the results which had 
 been designed for them, and which so surely should have been theirs, they have missed 
 (of. Miitt. xi., " Woe unto thee, Bethsaida ! " etc.). And in oniinary life, as well as hi 
 the records of the Bible, may we learn how frequently, not the strong and mighty, but 
 " the lame take the prey." The first are last and the last first. Now, of such sad and 
 shameful failures these verses supply a notable instance. Under the imagery of a green 
 olive tree, fair and of gocidly fruit, the prophet pictures the condition and prospects of 
 the people of God when he first planted them. No similitude could more strikingly 
 convey to the mind of the inhabitant of Judah and Jerusalem the idea of happy and 
 sure |irosperity. But, next, the prophet portrays a far different scene — that same tree, 
 but black and charred, its trunk riven, its fruit and foliage all gone, and its branches 
 broken down ; for the thunderbolt and the scathing lightning, the wild tempest and the 
 fierce wind, have all done their deadly work upon it, and now it stands a mere blackened 
 stump, instead of the beauteous and fruitful tree it once was. From that height of 
 favour to tliat depth of disaster were Judah and Jerusalem to fall. They who had been 
 first should be last. 
 
 I. They were first. The imagery employed by the prophet tells in what respects. 
 1. In the favour of God. The olive was a favourite tree, held in highest esteem by 
 the people of the lands where it grew ; hence it is used here and elsewhere as an emblem 
 of those whom God favours and has jileasure in (cf. " I am like a green olive tree in the 
 house of my God," Ps. lii. 8). The Bible seems to love the tree. It is the first named 
 of any known tree (Gen. viii. 11), and is the subject of the first parable (Judg. ix. 8). It 
 is everywhere spoken of as precious ; hence, when Judah and Jerusalem are thus named, 
 we regard it as a name of endearment, telling how precious they were in God's sight. 
 This is borne out by direct statements and by the recorded deeds of God, which show 
 the esteem in which he held them. 2. In heauty. No doubt the beauty of the olive 
 tree exists partly in the eyes of the beholder, who looks upon it with affection fur all 
 tlie service it renders him. But to others also there is unquestionable beauty in the 
 olive which, with its " noble groves, covered with foliage the whole year round, 
 spreading like a silver sea along the base of the hills and climbing their ascending 
 terraces, speaks loudly of peace and plenty, food and gladness " (see Buskin, ' Stones of 
 Venice,' vol. iii. pp. 175 — 177). And without doubt it was beautiful in the eyes of 
 those to whom the prophet wrote. But there is a moral beauty as well as that which 
 is material, and of which the material is a fit symbol. And, compared with the dis- 
 order, the violence, the foulness, the wickedness of all kinds, in which the rest of the 
 world was sunk, Israel was as a garden of the Lord — a green olive tree, " fair " and 
 comely to look upon. In them that which was lovely and of good report, that which 
 had virtue and praise, were found as nowhere else. Love to God and love to man, 
 justice, truth, and piety were held in esteem amongst them as amongst none others. 
 3. In usi fulness. The olive tree was not merely fair, but " of goodly fruit." From 
 that fruit came one of the commonest and most essential articles of the Eastern's 
 food. Its oil was employed in connection with almost everything that they ate. Its 
 berries gave flavour to the peasant's bread. The evening lamp was kindled with the 
 oil pressed from it. And that same oil was used to anoint their priests and kings, lor 
 the lamp in the holy place, and to mingle with many of their sacrifices. To "anoint 
 the head with oil " was deemed most delightful and refreshing (Ps. xxiii.). Wounds, 
 were dressed with it (Luke x. 34), and the sick were anointed with it (Mark vi. 13; 
 Jas. V. 4). The wood of the tree was employed in the sacred furniture of the temple, 
 and there seemed to be no part of the tree which did not in some way render service 
 to man. Now, such was the purpose of God in regard to his people, that in them 
 " should all the nations of the earth, be blest." They were to be the channel of blessing 
 to all people. Through them God's "saving health" should be known "amongst all 
 nations." 4. AnAin permanence. Their blessedness was to abide. The " greenness " 
 of tlie tree spoken of here refers to its perpetuity and strength. The olive is known to 
 live to a great age. It is not improbable (see Kilto) that some of the olive trees now 
 on the Mount of Olives are contemporaneous with our Lord. The tax paid on them is 
 that, which was assigned to sucli trees when first the Turks became masters of Palestine. 
 All trees planted since are taxed far more heavily. But of the great age to which the 
 
m. XI. 1—23.] THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 307 
 
 olive tree attains there can be no doubt. It brings fnrtb fruit in old ago, and its leaf 
 doth not wither (Ps. i.). It was, therefore, a fit emblem of permanent prosperity and 
 strength. Such was the Divine intent in regard to his people. Their blessedness was 
 to abi'le. Thus in all these and yet other ways were they first. But — 
 
 II. They became last. See the terrible similitude employed— the charred and 
 shattered tree. But not more terrible than true. The smouldering ruins, the devastated 
 citj', the desolate land, which a few years afterwards the prophet looked upon, showed 
 how true his word had been. They had become last indeed. Exalted to heaven, they 
 had been thrust down to hell. None can avoid inquiring — 
 
 III. The cause of all this. It is declared to be threefold. 1. The evil of the people 
 themselves. (Ver. 17.) Their persistence in idolatry in spite of all remonstrance, warning, 
 and every inducement which should have withdrawn them from their sin. " Do not 
 the abominable thing which I hate " had in every variety of manner been said to them 
 by God, but in vain. He hated it because it was the root of so many other sins, and 
 the destroyer of all the good he had purposed both for and through them. 2. Their 
 evil returning upon themselves. Ver. 17, " The evil . . . which they have done against 
 themselves." Tnis is ever the way of sin (Prov. viii. 36). It wrongs our entire nature. 
 What a man sows he reaps. The reason is debased, conscience trampled on, the 
 power of will prostrated, the soul imprisoned, the iiffections perverted, the imagination 
 defiled, the body often diseased, cliaracter ruined, substance wasted, all the true 
 springs of happiness poisoned or stopped. He has sown to the flesh, and of the flesh ho 
 has reaped corruption. Yes, sin is ever done against ourselves. 3. The woe which 
 comes from the provoked anger of Ood. Besides these natural results of sin — the reap- 
 ing which is according to the sowing, and which are terrible enough in themselves — 
 there come the punitive inflictions of the wrath of God. History as well as the Bible 
 is full of proofs of this on a large scale, and so are the experiences of individual trans- 
 gressors, though in more limited form. And wherever sin, the primary cause, is found, 
 there sooner or later will come these other causes which together work so dread a 
 doom. 
 
 CoNCLtrsiON. What effect should the contemplation of facts like these — and they 
 are written and wrought for our learning — have upon us ? Should they not cause us to 
 reject at once and for ever all those suggestions which Satan is ever plying us with — 
 that sin will not be punished, and the transgressor may, after all, go free? In view of 
 facts like these, how can that be believed ? And should they not lead us to offer as our 
 daily prayer the petition, " Give us a heart to love and dread thee, and diligently to 
 live after thy commandments"? And not only to druad and deprecate the wrath 
 which sin provokes, but to desir& and seek after that preoccupation of the heart with 
 the love of God which will bar out sin. 
 
 " Guard my first springs of thought and will, 
 And with thyself my spirit fill." 
 
 c. 
 
 Ver. 17. — The limits of long-sufering love. I. God's dealings with his ancient 
 PEOPLE WERE THOSE OF LOVE. That he should have chosen them and brought them 
 into covenant with himself; that he should have taken such precautions to preserve 
 them in that covenant. See the time selected for its establishment (of. ver. 4) — 
 when their hearts were susceptible and softened by his great goodness to them, and 
 therefore the more ready to receive and keep the impression of his will. And how 
 forbearing he had been! For more than a thousand years they had been in 
 possession of the land, though they had so olten sinned. See, too, the mighty motives 
 to which he appeals — fear of the curse pronounced on the disobedient, hope of the 
 precious recompenses promised to such as should obey. And he enlists conscience on 
 his side. They all said " Amen " to the covenant of God (ver. 5). And perpetually 
 he had been reminding them of his covenant (ver. 7). All this — and it is paralleled 
 by God's dealings with men now — proves the loving solicitude with which God 
 regarded his people. 
 
 II. And that love was lono-bufferino. It was not alone that he had allowed 
 them so long possession of the land promised to their fathers, though they had olten 
 
a08 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [cii. xt. 1— 23. 
 
 forfeited it ; but now, not till his forbearance had (vers. 8—10) manifestly failed in its 
 purpose and was being even perverted into an occasion for fresh sin, did he "change 
 his way" toward them. And even then, many years' respite was given in which 
 repentance and so forgiveness and restoration were possible. And to further this end 
 Jeremiah was sent to them. And all this is like God's dealings still. Take the 
 history of ancient and of all natious that have fallen, and the several steps of Israel's 
 career will be found to have been trodden by them also; a time of great favour; 
 disobedience ; warning, repeated, earnest, continued ; respite even at the last ; sin 
 persisted in notwithstanding all ; then the long-threatened destruction. And it is true 
 of families. Churches, individuals, to-day as of old. 
 
 III. But that love had its limits. The ruin that came upon Israel, upon Judah, 
 and lias so often come upon those like them, proves this. 
 
 IV. When these limits were keached, nothing could then avert the 
 threatened PUNISHMENT. (Cf. vers. 11 — 17.) Not: 1. The piteous "cry" o{ distress 
 (ver. 11). 2. Still less (ver. 12) any appeal to their idol-gods. "They shall not save 
 thera at all," no, although (ver. 13) throughout the whole land, " in every city," and 
 ill every street of every city the.se idol-gods had their altars, their inceose, and their 
 worship. 3. Nor even the acceptable prayer of the righteous. (Ver. 14 and ch. vii. 16.) 
 How dreadful this ! 4. Multiplied sacrifices. (Ver. 15 ; cf. Exposition.) The prophet's 
 meaning, which is quite obscured in our translation, seems to be to protest against 
 their flocking to the house of God, seeing how guilty they had been — it could do them 
 no good ; and also against their thinking that " the holy flesh " of sacrifices would 
 turn away wrath from a people who "rejoiced when they did evil." 5. Nor the fact 
 of past privilege and favour. (Ver. 16.) No, although God had made them as a green 
 olive tree (ver. 16). Himself " planted thee," yet be will himself kindle the fire that 
 shall rage and devour it. 
 
 V. From all which men everywhere are to learn : 1. To dread every sin. For 
 we cannot tell when and where those limits of God's long-suffering are reached. That 
 sin to which a man is tempted may be the overstepping of them so far as he is 
 concerned. If he do that, the word may go forth, " Let him alone " (cf. Rev. xxii. 11). 
 We are apt to think that any time will do to turn to God. It will not. It is not 
 universally nor commonly true 
 
 " That while the lamp holds out to bum, 
 The vilest sinner may retui'n." 
 
 It is imtrue ; for the probability of a man then, at the very last, turning his heart to 
 God, when up till then he has ever turned his heart away from God, is small indeed. 
 The limit was passed when the Spirit of God left him, and that may be long before 
 death comes. Probably death has nothing whatever to do with it either way. We 
 should then say to ourselves, when drawn to any sin against which God's Holy Spirit 
 is protesting and pleading, " If I disobey him now he may leave me altogether." 2. 
 To desire Ood. The clearing of the heart of sin is not sufficient, the heart must be 
 occupied. The house to which the evil spirit came back bringing others worse than 
 himself, was swept and garnished, but it was " empty." So if men's hearts be " swept " 
 from ill deeds, yet if they be not occupied, evil will come back. It is when the love 
 of God possesses our heart that there is no fear of our even approaching, still less of 
 overstepping, the limits of his long-suffering love. This is our sure, our only safe- 
 guard. — C. 
 
 Vers. 18—23. — The baffled plot. These verses are an episode. Like as the miracle 
 of the healing of her who touched the hem of our Lord's garment was an episode in 
 connection with the healing of the daughter of Jairus (Mark v. 21, etc.), so this 
 account of the plot against Jeremiah's life comes in here, breaking the thread --f his 
 discourse, which is not renewed again till ch. xii. 7. Sorijiture has many instances 
 of similar plots contrived against the servants of the Lord ; they are found in the 
 histories of Joseph, David, Nehemiah, Elisha, Paul, of our Lord, and of others. In 
 this one, note — 
 
 I. Its circumstances. Jeremiah had given dire offence to the men of Anathoth, 
 his own city, men who, like himself probably, were associated with the priestly office! 
 
CH. XI. 1—23.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 3a> 
 
 "Between the priesthood and the prophets there had hitherto been more or less of 
 conflict, but now that conflict was exchanged for a fatal union. ' A wonderful and 
 horrible thing was committed in the land ; the projjhets prophesied falsely, and the 
 pri«sts bore rule by their means;' and he who by each of his callinccs was naturally led 
 to sympathize with both, was the doomed antagonist of both — victim of one of the 
 strongest passions, the hatred of priests against a jjriest who attacks his own order, 
 the hatred of prophets against a prophet who ventures to have a voice and will of hi s 
 own. His own village, occupied by members of the sacred tribe, was for him a n est 
 of conspirators against his life. Of him first in the sacred history was the saying 
 literally fulfilled, ' A prophet hath no honour in his own birthjilace ' ('Ep rp vaTpiSi 
 auTov, Luke iv. 24) " (Stanley). They objected not so much to his prophesying, for 
 there were plenty of them who did this, but to his strenuous assertion — an assertion 
 that their own consciences assented to, that he spoke in the Name of the I ord (ver. 
 21). Warnings so faithful but yet so terrible were little liked, as they ever are by 
 those who so much needed them. And since they could not silence him in any other 
 way, they determined to take away his life. Secretly and craftily they laid their plot, 
 Jeremiah had not the least suspicion of it. " I was," says he (ver. 19), " like a lamb," 
 that is, a pet or house lamb, such as the Orientals often keep (see Exposition). He 
 went in and out amongst his brethren, trusting them, and thinking no ill, whilst all the 
 time this dark and deadly plot was being devised against him. And it would have 
 been successful, we can hardly doubt, had he not been " warned of the Lord " (ver. 
 18). The shock, the dread revulsion of feeling, which the tidings caused him is 
 evident in the almost unmeasured grief and indignation which the following verses 
 express. His first utterance is a cry for vengeance (ver. 20) on them, an appeal to the 
 righteous God to uphold his cause. Then comes a denunciation of the Divine doom 
 upon them, then an aggrieved remonstrance (ch. xii. 1) and complaint addressed to 
 God himself in view of the prosperity of these ungodly and wicked men, followed by 
 a fierce demand for revenge (ch. xii. 3) ; all which is replied to (ch. xii. 5) by a sharp 
 but loving rebuke,. a revelation of yet further treachery, and that on the part, not of 
 mere acquaintances and neighbours, but of his own brethren, the inmates of the same 
 home, children of the same father ; and finally (ch. xii. 6) God, who had already 
 baffled their first plottings against him, now puts him on his guard against all that 
 they should afterwards devise, bidding him " believe them not, though," etc. (ch. xii. 6). 
 Of the manner In which they purposed to carry out their deadly scheme, or how God 
 revealed to his servant what was going on, we are not told ; only the above noted facts 
 are stated. But these are full of interest and instruction. Note, therefore, some of — 
 
 II. The sugoested lessons. They are such as these. 1. " Having the form of 
 godliness but denying the power thereof, means subjection to the power of all ungod- 
 liness though denying the form thereof." See these would-be murderers of the 
 prophet ; they were consecrated priests. 2. " He that keepeth Israel shall neither 
 slumber nor sleep." The plotters against the prophet's life were discovered and 
 declared by him to whom "the darkness and the light are both alike," and so his servant 
 was forewarned and saved. Therefore, " They that trust in the Lord shall be," etc. 
 3. " The servant will often have to be as his Master, and the disciple as his Lord." 
 Like the Lord Jesus, Jeremiah was hated of his countrymen and brethren (cf. Homily 
 on ch. i. 1 — 3, p. 10, for more of these resemblances). Several of them are recorded in 
 these verses. The hatred felt towards him by his countrymen and in his father's house. 
 The cause of that hatred. The deadly plots which were devised against him. The 
 innocence and gentleness — "like a lamb," etc. — which characterized the hated one. And 
 such fellowship with Christ is the law of his service. 4. "Resemblance between the 
 Master and his servant may be often close but is never complete." However natural 
 Jeremiah's outburst of rage and indignation, we cannot help noticing how far short in 
 moral elevation he falls of him who prayed, " Father, forgive them," etc., and of the 
 fillet Christian martyr, who was taught of Christ to pray, " Lord, lay not this sin," etc. 
 The perfect Example is Christ; we can "call none good but One," that is, him. 5. 
 " Wrongs that God will suffer against himself he will not suffer against his people." 
 Jeremiah was avenged within a very little time and in ample manner, but the wrongs 
 Gad had suffered from the same people he had borne for centuries, and even then there 
 was a reserve of mef- y — he made not "a full end." 6. "Let our eyes be ever toward 
 
310 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xr. 1—23. 
 
 tie Lord, for he will pluck our feet out of every net" — Satan's, Sin's, Sorrow's, 
 Doubt's, Death's.— C. 
 
 Vers. 1 — 12. — The covenant with the fathers Unding on the children. Here it is 
 iiecessary to go back over all the history of Israel, and consider the great covenant 
 transactions between Uod and his people. Such transactions we find to have been filled 
 with great solemnity, so that they might malie a deep mark in history. We trace the 
 beginnings of the great covenant in God's dealings with Abraham. Indeed, the cove- 
 nant with Israel as a nation was the necessary consequence of the covenant with 
 Abraham as an individual. Then, as Jeremiah says here, there was a definite inter- 
 change of promise in the day when Jehovah brought Israel out of Egypt. He could 
 then ask them for an undertaking of obedience ami separation from the idolatrous and 
 impure heathens. While they wei;e in servitude to Egypt and manifestly crushed in 
 spirit, it was not possible to ask anything from them. But when Jehovah had 
 abundantly proved his power, his grace, and his nearness, when he took his stand amid 
 the freshness of glorious Divine achievements, then the covenant appeared, to the gene- 
 ration to which he proposed it, in all its fitness, as an instrument for the attainment 
 of further ends. The gracious purposes of this covenant are made strikingly apparent 
 in the continuance of it even after the people had lapsed into their riotous gathering 
 around the golden calf (Exod. xxxiv. 10). But this covenant in all its amplitude, and 
 with all the difficulties surrounding the observance of it, is nowhere set forth with 
 greater solemnity and particularity than in Dent, xxvii. — xxx. There we find the curses 
 and the blessings detailed and illustrated, and the provision made that hetween Bbal 
 and Gerizim, in the very midst as it were of the land of promise, the covenant should 
 receive a great national acceptance. " But" an Israelite might have said to Jeremiah, 
 " these things happened so long ago." Men think they can easily set aside claims that 
 rise out of the distant past. In the case of this particular claim, however, no such 
 rejoinder was possible. In 2 Kings xxii. we read of the discovery of the Book of 
 the Law in the reign of Josiah, and in ch. xxiii. we read of the decisive and compre- 
 hensive action which Josiah took upon making the discovery. The description in ver. 
 2 of how he gathered in the house of the Lord all the men of Judah and the inhabitants 
 of Jerusalem, priests and prophets, and small and great, reminds us of the gathering 
 long before, between Ebal and Gerizim (Josh. viii. 35). All the people, we are further 
 told, " stood to the covenant." Josiah was enabled to make a general overthrow of all 
 the external visible instruments of idolatry, and what is of particular moment to be 
 observed is the keeping of the Passover as arising out of this renewed covenant (2 
 (Jhron. XXXV. 1 — 19). It was like coming face to face with that great event in the 
 early history of the people, their deliverance from the iron furnace. Thus when we 
 bring into one view all these great transactions in relation to the covenant, we see how 
 weighty and urgent is the message Jehovah here sends Jeremiah to deliver. His cove- 
 nant was with a nation in the whole duration of its existence. Each generation as it 
 died handed on its /and, its possessions, its national customs, but in the midst of all it 
 hid to hand on this covenant. The land was Israel's only upon a certain condition. 
 The owner of a piece of land may covenant with some one that he and his heirs and 
 assigns shall have the use of the land in perpetuity, on the observance of certain con- 
 ditions. If these conditions are willingly, perhaps eagerly, accepted, there is no just 
 right to complain of forfeiture if the conditions are completely and carelessly set at 
 nought. God's works, we are made to observe, go on to their completion through the 
 service of many generations of his creatures. How many generations of insects have 
 died in making the beautiful coral islands ! We amid our spiritual light and advantages 
 are the inheritors of many privileges. We have the use of an estate, which has been 
 enriched by the toils and sufferings, the prayers and tears, of many ancestors. But we 
 can inherit no privilege, no joy, no promise, no hope, without inheriting the responsi- 
 bilities of a covenant. We may, indeed, neglect the covenant, but surely it requires 
 great audacity to assert that we have even the faintest pretence of right to do it. — Y. 
 
 Ver. 14. — Intercession unavailing. God here forbids Jeremiah to intercede for the 
 people in their sore trouble. Similar expressions are found in ch. vii. 16; xiv. 11; 
 
CH. XI. 1—23.] THE BOOK OF THE PBOPHET JEREMIAH. 3J1 
 
 IV. 1. It was evidently meant that the prophet should feel how uaavailing all interces- 
 sion was. 
 
 I. We have here a very painful exception to a vert important rule. The 
 rule is to pray, to pray continually, and to pray with not the least fervency and 
 devotion when our prayers are intercessions. God delights in the dependent and con- 
 fiding approaches of his people ; and intercession must be specially a joy to him because 
 it looks away from individual good, and exemplifies most effectively the loving of one's 
 neighbotir as one's self. Moses, Jub, Samuel, Daniel, are all found interceding for trans- 
 gressors. Hence the very forbidding here malses continual remembrance of the needs 
 of others all the more a duty. We have to pray for those who lack the faith or the 
 disposition to pray for themselves. And especially we have to bear in mind him " who 
 ever liveth to make intercession " for the spiritually needy. It is worth noting that, 
 while God here forbids Jeremiah to intercede for the people, he is represented in Bom. 
 xi. 2 — 4 as reproving and enlightening Elijah when he interceded against the people. 
 We must give special pains to say for sinners all that we can. And in order to do this, 
 we must be observant and pitiful ; for as a general rule we have a quick eye for faults, 
 and become censorious by a kind of second nature. It wonderfully suits the inclina- 
 tions of fallen man to be an accuser of his brethren. 
 
 II. Why the exception is here made. There are two considerations here. 1. The 
 petition, as to its literal aim, could not he granted. It was evidently a petition for the 
 delivery of Judah and Jerusalem from the special calamity now so near. That calamity 
 had become necessary. There was no choice for the people but to drink the waters of 
 the full cup now wrung out for them. God, in refusing to hear Jeremiah, had really 
 the same end in view as the prophet himself; but the prophet, in his keen sensitiveness, 
 wished the end to come by some less painful way than through desolated Jerusalem. 
 But God knew that this was the right way — just because it was the way of humili- 
 ation and loss, and thus, in refusing tlie special supplication of the prophet, God was 
 really taking the best way of answering it — paradox though it may seem to say so. 2. 
 Jeremiah's own position had to be considered. We may conclude that it was reckoned 
 one of the distinctions of a prophet that he could act as intercessor. Jeremiah, we 
 know, was asked to pray to God for the people (ch. xxxvii. 3 ; xlii. 2) ; and just at the 
 times when the refusal was most emphatic, the appeal for intercession may have been 
 most urgent. Well, then, was it that Jehovah should, as it were, stop the mouth of his 
 servant in his supplication, so that no one could take up a reproach and say, " If thou 
 wert indeed a prophet, thy petition for us would immediately avail." The honour of 
 Jeremiah as a faithful servant was dear to his Divine Master. This is brought out very 
 clearly by the reference to Moses and Samuel in ch. xv. 1. It was no shame to him to 
 fail where Moses and Samuel could not have succeeded. 
 
 III. Observe what lay beyond the present refusal. Though all is so stern and 
 forbidding here, we look further on in the book, and there is brightness again. Ch. 
 xxix. 1 — 14 is a beautiful contrast to the word we have been considering. Desolation 
 ami exile were a cheap price to pay for such a restoration into favour as God there pro- 
 vides. He has shut the gates of mercy for a while ; but only for a little while — seventy 
 years, two generations of men ! The permanent command, only to be set aside by a 
 special interference, is that which says, " Pray for the peace of Jerusalem : they shall 
 prosper that love tliee " (Ps. cxxii. 6). — Y. 
 
 Vers. 16, 17. — The fated olive tree. I. God's comparison of his people to the 
 olive tree. There would have been force in the comparison if applied to any 
 flourishing and fruitlul tree, but there was peculiar propriety in directing the thoughts 
 of the people to the olive. The olive was already associated in sacred history with 
 the return of hope after the Flood, and doubtless, in the times of Jeremiah, it was one 
 of the most valuable of trees, as it still is, for the richness of its produce, and the 
 variety of ways in which that produce meets the common wants of men. The exten- 
 sive olive- groves, composed of trees that reach no great height, and unattractive to a 
 mere casual glance, were yet more to the people than all the cedars of Lebanon. And 
 as the people were led to consider these olive trees, full of vigour, abounding in blossoms, 
 many of which never came to fruit, and yet, after all, left abundance of fruit behind; 
 as they recollected all the use of the plive, for food, for light, for anoiutiug, for soap- 
 
312 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xi. 1—23- 
 
 making ;— the thoughtful among them would feel that God could have employed no 
 better figure to suggest how full Israel was of productivity of the most practical sort. 
 Mention is made in Hosea (xiv. 6), as well as here, of the beauty of the olive tree. In 
 one sense the olive was not beautiful. As far as the picturesque was concerned, many 
 trees excelled it. But, after all, the deepest beauty, the only beauty that will bear 
 inspection, is that which comes from pleasant experiences and associations ; and those 
 who were rich in profits from the labour of the olive would see in it a beauty absent 
 from many trees otherwise more attractive. The olive, to one seeing it for the first time, 
 might seem a tree of small practical use. But experience proved that its performance 
 was great, and so it became more and more a name of honour. And this tree, having 
 in it such capabilities, Qod had planted. The olive tree needs a special soil to bring out 
 all its capabdities. Dr. Thomson says, speaking of a certain plain full of olive -orchards, 
 "The substratum of these plains is chalky marl, abounding in flint. . . . Jn such soil 
 the tree flourishes best, both in the plains and upon the mountains. It delights to 
 insinuate its roots into the clefts of the rooks and crevices of this flinty marl ; and 
 from thence it draws its richest stores of oil. If the overlying mould is so deep that 
 its roots cannot reach the rock beneath, I am told that the tree languishes, and its 
 hemes are small and sapless." And so God planted his people, being such as they 
 ■were in his eye, in a land promised and duly prepared. Nay, in a certain sense, they 
 were planted even before they reached the land of promise. They were planted and 
 became fruitful as soon as ever God took them in hand, fruitful even amid the pains of 
 Egypt and the desolations of the wilderness. 
 
 II. The destruction op this olive tree. All the wealth that came from this 
 olive tree was being used for bad purposes. The fatness of the soil went into the 
 olive, but the fatness of the olive did not come back to G-od in grateful and propor- 
 tionate service. Nay, rather, it was used against him ; and the harm it did was to 
 some extent measurable by the good it might have done. The axe is laid, not only at 
 the root of the tree that brings forth no fruit, but also at the root of the tree that brings 
 forth its fruit to be used in hostility against him who planted the tree. Israel might 
 say, " Is it not plain that God favours us, for are we not as the green, fair, fruitful olive ? 
 Why, then, should we believe threatenings that seem contradicted by these signs of 
 favour ? " These were signs of favour indeed, but they were also grounds of expecta- 
 tion. And when the expectation was utterly disappointed, and when the fruit of 
 Jehovah's gracious dealings was used to prop up the abominations of idolatry, it was 
 time for him to work in all the severity of righteous judgment. — Y. 
 
 Vers. 18 — 23. — Tlie prophet in his own country. This passage describes a peculiai 
 peril to Jeremiah, and a peculiar peril to those who conspired against him. 
 
 I. A PECULIAB PERIL TO Jeremiah. His life was full of perils — " perils from his own 
 countrymen" in many ways, perils from the palace with its great men, from priests and 
 false prophets, from every devotee of idolatry, from every one, in short, whose vices and 
 iniquities he lashed with the scourge of his Heaven-inspired tongue. He would ex|ieot 
 to make enemies in these directions. But here is peril from an unexpected source. 
 He was not at all prepared for it, and when the knowledge of it in all its hideous 
 reality came upon him, he was correspondingly excited. Yet, though the peril was 
 unexpected, it was by no means to he marvelled at. As soon as we look at the position 
 of Jeremiah and the consequent feeling of his kindred, we cease to wonder. Much may 
 be said, and justly, of the strength of natural affection ; but the selfishness so deeply 
 settled in every human breast, and so potent, is stronger than any tie of nature. 
 Perhaps a mother's love may be trusted to stand out against it, but Scripture shows, 
 in more than one instance, to what lengths a brother's jealousy will go. Think of Cain 
 and Abel, Joseph and his brethren, Moses and Miriam, and David and his elder 
 brethren. Christ said that " a man's foes should be they of his own household ; " but 
 this was not a new thing. It was but the continuing of an old and sad difficulty in 
 the way of regenerating the world. If things had gone as they ought to have gone, it 
 was in the comparative retirement of Anathoth that Jeremiah should have found some 
 slight opportunities of rest in the midst of his arduous public labours. That he had 
 some quiet place of rest and of converse with like-minded spirits is very probable, but 
 he would find it as Jesus did. Jesus, we know, found his nearest approaches to home 
 
en. XII. 1—17.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 
 
 S13 
 
 life in Capernaum and Bethany, and not at all in Nazareth. We may surmise that he 
 never had as much as one quiet day there after his public ministry begau. The rela- 
 tives of Jesus said that he was beside himself, and probably they feared that the 
 strange things he did and the ever-increasing hostility he provoked would bring sus- 
 picion on themselves. And so it was very awkward for these kinsfolk of Jeremiah in 
 Anathoth. Every one ran the risk of being pointed at as brother, or uncle, or cousin 
 of that madman the prophet. Further, this peril, being from an unsuspected source, 
 went on to its height without suspicion. The prophet puts his position very touchingly 
 and forcibly by the figure of the tame lamb. As the lamb goes along with those to 
 whose company it has been accustomed, all unconscious of their slaughtering designs, 
 so the prophet meets his brethren, those witli whom he played as a child, those whose 
 faces were among the first he could remember. Why should he suspect them ? True, 
 he knows that far too often brother has been the sworn and relentless enemy of 
 brother ; but let this be the experience of others. He cannot believe it till by actual 
 taste he finds the bitterness in his own cup. Jeremiah's experience stands here to 
 teach us, not to be suspicious, not to let caution and wariness degenerate into a cynical 
 putting on of armour against everybody, but to let both our safely and our peace of 
 mind lie in our nearness to Grod. The nearest of brother men is too weak, too 
 uncertain, to be made an olijeot of trust. 
 
 II. There was a peculiar peril to the conspirators. Though there was a 
 danger where Jeremiah never thought of looking, it was precisely upon that danger 
 that Jehovah had his observant eye (ch. xvii. 9, 10). What the conspirators would 
 reckon one of their greatest helps, namely, that the proposed victim did not in the 
 least suspect their designs, doubtless proved in the end a very material help to the 
 faith and endurance of the prophet. Had not God made a sure provision for him 
 where he did not even suspect that there was anything needing to be provided? Let 
 the wicked know this, that whatever they reckon to be their peculiar advantage will 
 assuredly turn out to be their peculiar weakness, difficulty, and, indeed, weapon 
 of decisive overthrow. The prophet's kinsfollt made the not uncommon blunder of 
 thinking that they would get rid of difficulties in getting rid of one peculiarly awkward 
 and irritating difficulty that lay close to them. There is one great difficulty we never 
 can get rid of, and that is the omniscience of God. Let there be a warning, then, to 
 all those who belong to the iraTpid of a prophet. Let them be careful how they set 
 themselves against anything strange and peculiar in any one belon^iing to them. Self- 
 delusion, of course, is possible, and a man may mistake some " Will-o'-the-wisp " for 
 the steady prophetic illumination. But he is not likely to be converted by threatening 
 and repression. It is only by Gamaliel's policy that either impostors or victims of 
 delusion can be truly exposed. The men of Anathoth, kinsfolk and neighbours alike, 
 were not required to believe in Jeremiah on his first appearance, but they were required 
 to wait and see whereto this thing might grow. What a pity they had not some 
 shrewd and commanding Gamaliel to keep them in the path of prudence ! — Y. 
 
 EXPOSITION. 
 
 CHAPTER Xn. 
 
 Yer. 1. — Painfully exercised by the mys- 
 teries of the Divine government, the prophet 
 opens his grief to Jehovah. Eighteons art 
 thou, etc. ; ratlier, Highteous wouldest tliou be, 
 Jehovah, if I should plead with thee ; i.e. 
 if I were to bring a charge against thee, I 
 should be unable to convict thee of injustice 
 (comp. Ps. li. 4; Job ix. 2). The prophet, 
 however, cannot refrain from laying before 
 Jehovah a point which seems to him irre- 
 concilable' with the Divine righteousness. 
 The rendering, indeed, must be modified, 
 ■yet let me talk with thee of thy judgments 
 
 should rather be, yet will I debate questions 
 of right with thee. The questions remind us 
 of those of Job in Job xxi., xxiv. Thus to 
 have been the recipient of special Divine 
 revelations, and to be in close communion 
 with God, gives no security against the 
 occasional ingress of doubting tlioughts and 
 spiritual distress. Wherefore are all they 
 happy, etc.? rather, secure. The statement 
 must be qualified by what follows. In the 
 general calamity the wicked still fare the 
 best. 
 
 Ver. 2. — Far from their reins; i.e. from 
 their heart (the seat of strong impulses and 
 desiresj ; comp. Ps. xvi. 7 ; xxvi. 2. 
 
314' 
 
 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [oh. xii. 1— 17. 
 
 Ver. 3. — Hast seen me, and tried ; rather, 
 ■teeKt me, and triest. Pull them out. Perhaps 
 this is correct, and there ia an allusion to 
 the figure of tlie plant iti ver. 2. But the 
 verb need mean no more than " separate " 
 (comp. ch. vi. 29). Prepare them ; literally, 
 mn«tcrate them, as victims for the sacrifice. 
 
 Ver. 4. — How long, etc.? The verse is 
 deciiled rather differently by the Hebrew 
 acoimts. Tlie question should end at wither, 
 and the following words run on. Every 
 field should be the whole field (i.e. open 
 country). The connection has caused 
 some difficulty. But drought is constantly 
 described as a judgment (oh. iii. 3 ; v. 24, 
 2.5; xiv. 2 — 7; xxiii. 10), and it is a pro- 
 phitic doctrine that the lower animals suffer 
 for tiie fault of man. Because they said; 
 rather, because they say. The spealiers are 
 the ungodly. The subject of the following 
 verb is uncertain. Souie think it is God ; but 
 when God is said to " see " (i.e. take notice 
 of) anything, it is always sometliing actually 
 existing. The subject must, tljerefore, be 
 the prophet, of whom the ungodly scoffingly 
 declare, He shall not see our last end, 
 because his predictions are mere delusions. 
 
 Ver. 5. — Jeremiah's impatience corrected. 
 Tlie expressions are evidently proverbial. 
 The opposition to the prophet will reach 
 a still hifiher pitch; and if he is so soon 
 discouraged, how will he bear his impending 
 trials 7 And if in the land of peace, etc. ? 
 a second figure, the translation of which 
 needs amen, i ing. If (only) in a land of peace 
 thou art confident, how wilt tjiou do in the 
 jiride of Jm-dan f The " pride of Jordan " 
 means the thickets on its banks, which were 
 notorious as the haunts of lions (ch. xlix. 
 19 ; 1. 44 ; Zech. xi. 3). " Lions' bones have 
 been found by Dr. Both in the gravel of the 
 Jordan. Lions are seldom or never found 
 now west of the Euphrates, although they 
 oooiisionally cross the river" (Rev. W. 
 Houghton, ' Bible Educator,' i. 22). 
 
 Ver. 6. — An example of the " treachery " 
 referred to in ver. 1 ; a conspiracy against 
 Jeiemiah in his own family. Have called 
 a multitude after thee; ruther, have called 
 aloud after tJiee, as one raises a hue and cry 
 alter a thief. 
 
 Vers. 7 — 17, — A separate prophecy. The 
 key to it is in 2 Kings xxiv. 1, 2, where it 
 is lelated that, after Jehoiakim's rebellion 
 ugiiinst Nebuchadnezzar, "Jehovah sent 
 against him bands of the Ohaldees,and bands 
 of the Syrians, and bands of tlie Moabites, and 
 bands of the children of Ainmon, and sent 
 them against Judah to destroy it." The 
 prophecy falls into two strophes or sections, 
 vers. 7 — 13 and vers. 14—17. In the first we 
 liave a complaint of t!ie desolation proiluoed 
 by the guerilla warfare; in the second, a 
 jjrediction of the captivity of the hostile 
 
 peoples, not, however, without a prospect 
 of their return home and conversion to 
 Jehovah. It is evident enough that this 
 passage stands in no connection with what 
 precedes. The whole tone is that of a de- 
 scription of present scenes and not of the 
 future. Sometimes, no doubt, a prophet, in 
 the confidence of faith, represents the future 
 as though it were already past ; but there 
 is always something in the context to 
 determine the reference and prevent am- 
 biguity. Here, however, there is nothing 
 to indicate that the description relates to 
 the future ; and it is followed by a predic- 
 tion which presupposes that the preceding 
 passage refers to the literal past. 
 
 Ver. 7. — I have forsaken mine house. The 
 " house " is here not the temple, but the 
 people of Israel, as the parallel clause shows 
 (see Hos. viii. 1, and comp. Heb. iii. 6; 
 1 Tim. iii. 15). Jehovah, not the prophet, 
 is evidently the speaker. I have left ; 
 rather, / have cast away. Into the hand of 
 her enemies. The Hebrew is more ex- 
 pressive: "Into the palm of the hand." 
 Bonomi (' Nineveh and her Palaces,' p. 191) 
 has an engraving from the monuments of 
 guests at a banquet, holding their drinking- 
 vessels in the deeply hollowed palm of their 
 hand. So here the people of Israel, In her 
 weak, fainting state, needs only to be held 
 in the quiet pressure of the palm of the 
 hand. The remark and the illustration are 
 due to Dr. Payne Smith. 
 
 Ver. 8. — The reason why Jehovah has 
 given up his people. Israel (or, more 
 strictly, Judah) has proceeded to open 
 hostility against his God. He is unto me— 
 or rather, has become unto me — as a lion in the 
 forest ; a familiar circumstance (comp. on 
 ver. 5 and ch. iv. 7). Therefore have I 
 hated it. "To hate" is a strong expression 
 for the withdrawal of love, shown by the 
 giving up of Israel into the power of his 
 enemies, as Mai. i. 3 (Keil). 
 
 Ver. 9. — The first part of this verse is mis- 
 translated. Instead of Mine heritage is unto 
 me, etc., it should be. Is mine heritage unto 
 me (i.e. to my sorrow, a dativus ethicus) a 
 coloured bird of preyi Are birds of prey 
 round about her ? The passage is difficult, 
 but the following seems the most plausible 
 expliination : — Jehovah is represented as 
 surprised to see his chosen people a prey to 
 the heathen (a strongly anthropomorphic 
 description, as if Jehovah had not antici- 
 pated that his " giving up " his people would 
 have such sad results). It seems to him 
 (adopting human modes of speech) as if 
 Israel were " a coloured bird of prey," the 
 bright plumage of which excites the ani- 
 mosity of its less brilliant comrades, who 
 gather round it and pull it to pieces. It is 
 an allusion to the phenomenon, well-known 
 
m. xu. 1—17.] THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 
 
 315 
 
 to the ancients (Tacit., ' Ann.,' vi. 28 ; Suet., 
 ' Ctes.; 81 ; Plin., ' Hist. Nat.,' x. 19), of birds 
 gathering round and attacking a strange- 
 looking bird appearing in their midst. The 
 pniphet might have simply said "a bird;" 
 why does he say " a bird of pny Qayit) " 1 
 Probably because he has just dtsoribed the 
 hostile attitude of Israel towards Jehovah 
 under the figure of a lion. Some particular, 
 rare kind of vulture seems to be intended. 
 Sennacherib apparently uses a cognate word 
 Qit) for the vulture (' Taylor Cylinder,' iii. 
 68). Bochart and Geeenius, following the 
 Septuagint, think " hyena," and not " bird 
 of prey," is the right rendering in the first 
 clause ; but Gesenms dots not oiler any other 
 passage for the meaning bentia rapax. Come 
 ye, assemble all the beasts of the field. There 
 is a parallel passage in Isa. Ivi. 9, wherci, as 
 here, the " beasts of the fluid " (i.e. the wild 
 beasts of the open country) are the heathen 
 powers employed as God's instruments for 
 chastising Israel (comp. also Ezek. xxxiv. 5, 
 wliere tlie same figure occurs). " The prophet 
 aiiopts the strongest way of exprcssiug that 
 Israel, utterly bereft of his natural defenders, 
 lies at the mercy of the great heathen em- 
 pire" (note on I.sa. Ivi. 9). Come to devour; 
 rather, bring them to devour. 
 
 Ver. 10. — Anotherslmplerand more natural 
 image, expiessiug the same ideu, as those in 
 ver. 9. The favourite way of representing 
 Jehovah's relation to his people is that of a 
 vine-proprietor to his vineyard (see on eh. 
 ii. 21). How would a vineyard be ruined if 
 a band of shepherds were to drive their flocks 
 among the tender vine-shoots 1 Tlie many 
 pastors (or, shepherds) are clearly Nebuchad- 
 nezzar and his generals (comp. ch. vi. 3). 
 My pleasant portion. Jehovah is the " por- 
 tion " of his people ; his people and its land 
 are the " portion " of Jehovah (see on ch. x. 
 16). The epithet " pleasant " expresses the 
 emotion of the surprised speaker. 
 
 Ver. 11. — Layeth it to heart; ratlier, laid 
 it to heart. Inconsiderateness is repeatedly 
 spiiken of as an aggravation of the moral 
 sickness of Israel (Isa. xlii. 25; Ivii. 1, 11). 
 
 Ver. 12. — Upon all high places through the 
 wilderness ; rather, upon all bare heights in 
 the wilderness (see on I'h. iii. 2). Hardly with 
 a reference to their pollution by idolatry ; the 
 mention of " the wilderness " (or pasture- 
 country) suggests that it is merely a feature 
 in the impoverisliment of the country (a 
 
 contrast to Isa. xlix. 9). The sword of the 
 Lord shall devour; rather, the Lord hath a 
 sword which devoureth. It is tlie Jieavenly 
 sword (Isa. xxxiv. 5), the symbol of Divine 
 vengeance (see below on ch. xlvi. 5). 
 
 Ver. 13. — A desciiption in proverbial lan- 
 guage of the absence of " peace " (literally, 
 soundness, i.e. prosperity, security), from 
 which "all flesh" in Judah at this time shall 
 suffer. The trouble of sowing has been in 
 vain, for they have reaped thorns (so we must 
 render graiumiitically, and not shall reap, 
 and in the next clause shall not profit ought 
 to be have not profited). And they shall be 
 ashamed of your revenues ; rather, be ashamed 
 then of your produce ; but it is more natural 
 to emend the pronominal suffix, and render, 
 and are ashamed of their produce (the 
 Authorized Version seems to have very 
 nearly taken this easy step). It is, of 
 course, the produce of husbandry which is 
 referred to. 
 
 Ver. 14. — Here occurs a trausition. The 
 prophet comes forward with a denunciation 
 in the name of Jehovah. All mine evil 
 neighours ; the hostile peoples mentioned 
 ill 2 Kings xxiv. " My neighbours," because 
 Jehovah "dwelleth in Zion." Pluok them 
 out of their land; viz. by deportation into a 
 foreign land. Judah and the neighbouring 
 nations shall sliare the same fate. This is 
 indicated by the use of the same verb " to 
 pluck out " in the nixt clause with reference 
 to Judah (cump. 1 Kings xiv. I.'), Hebrew). 
 In the case of Judah, however, to be " plucked 
 out" is a mercy as well as a judgment, con- 
 sidering who they are "out of" whose 
 "midst" the Jews are "plucked." 
 
 Ver. 15. — I will return, and have com- 
 passion. The rendering is too Hebraistic; 
 the sense is simply, 1 will again have com- 
 passion. The prophets offur no partial or 
 "nationalistic" view; of the mercy of God 
 (comp. on ch. xlviii. 47). 
 
 Ver. 16. — Israel has been converted and 
 restored, and if the other nations follow his 
 example and swear by my name, i.e. adopt 
 the religion of Jehovah (comp. Isa. xix. 18), 
 they shall be rewarded by being suifered to 
 dwell safely in Israel's midst. Observe the 
 contrast with ver. 14. Before, Israel had 
 dwelt amidst them to his own detriment; 
 now they shall dwell amidst Israel to their 
 profit. 
 
 HOMILETICS. 
 
 Vers. 1, 2.— Tlie prosperity of the wicked. I. The difficulty. The prosperity of 
 the wicked was a difficulty of peculiar force to the Jews, since it seemed to contradiot 
 an item of their peculiar faith — the doctrine of temporal rewards and punishments. 
 The difficulty Is less to us Christians ; but it is idle to deny its existence. It is thre^ 
 fold. 1. Th« mccess of wickedness. The treacherous plans of the wicked often succeed. 
 
SIB THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xn. 1—17* 
 
 Their violent actions are often unchecked and produce fatal results. How s it that 
 these evil things are not frustrated before they ripen to perfection ? That v?i ked men 
 should plot evil, should attempt evil, we can imagine ; but that they should be allowed 
 to carry it out — often only because many accidents are favourable — this is hard to 
 understand. " Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper ? " 2. The security of 
 the wicked. After they had succeeded we should expect that they would discover the 
 vanity of their most prosperous efforts. But they not only attain their obj ts. They 
 find these to be satisfactory, and are able to enjoy them with calm self-complacency. 
 Here is the greater mystery : after completing their bad deeds the wicked are left in 
 undisturbed enjoyment of the fruits of them. " Wherefore are all they secure that 
 ileal very treacherously?" 3. The Divine blessing apparently enjoyed hy the wicked. 
 Not only does their own work succeed, but Providence bestows favours upon them. 
 ( )utside events of life over which they have no control minister to their prosperity. 
 Mere is the greatest element of the difficulty. God has planted them, and they enjo.i 
 fruitfulness through his help. 
 
 II. The WAT TO treat the difficulty. 1. Face it, Jeremiah boldly confronted 
 his troublesome thoughts. People often try to hush up their doubts. The result is 
 that a subtle spirit of scepticism spreads unconsciously through all their ideas, and its 
 <lisintegrating influence undermines all solid faith. Suppressed doubt is fatal to sin- 
 cerity. It begets indifference to truth. We cannot hold firmly the tr ths we know 
 till we distinctly separate these from those we doubt. The suppress! n of doubt is 
 cowardly. Doubt can only be conquered by being boldly confron d. 2. Do not 
 charge Ood fuolishly. Jeremiah did not accuse the justice of God. We are dim- 
 siglited and weak in our judgment. Much of this great world must be a mystery to 
 us. We must not assume that, because we cannot justify the ways of God, they admit 
 of no justification. It is foolish as well as rebellious to presume to be the judge of 
 God. 3. Bring the difficulty to Ood. Doubt should drive us to prayer. God only 
 can enlighten our darkness. God graciously permits his children to plead and debate 
 with him (Isa. i. 18). Doubt is not necessarily a result of any misconduct. But, how- 
 ever it arises, it is best to confess it to God. 
 
 III. The directions in which to look fob a solution of the difficulty. 1. The 
 righteousness of God. Jeremiah sees the difficulty, but it does not drive hi n from faith 
 in the justice of God. Religion makes constant demands on faith — the personal faith 
 of trust in the character of God where appearances are against what we believe that 
 character to be. Confidence in the unwavering righteousness of God will help us to 
 look for certain indications of a solution of the difficulty occasioned by the prosperity 
 of the wicked. Right must and will be done, and if it is not yet accomplished it will 
 be ultimately. From the character of Gud we may thus reason to his certain action 
 (Gen. xviii. 25). 2. Hence we have an argument in favour of future rectification. 
 Jeremiah expects it to come even in this life, though it is long deferred (ver. 3). 
 The Christian looks for it in the great judgment, and the fruits of this in the life to 
 come. 3. The difficulty may be lessened even lor the present by the reflection that 
 material prosperity is not real pronperity. It may be well for a good man to suffer. 
 Prosperity may be an evil. True welfare consists not in success, not in security from 
 calamity, but in inward peace, in progress in the Divine life. 
 
 Ver. 2 (last clause). — Ood near to the mouth but far from the life. I. It is possible 
 
 TO HAVE THE NaME OF GoD ON OUR LIPS WHILE THE THOUGHT OF GoD IS ABSENT FROM 
 
 OUK MINDS. This is the case with mere formal worshippers, who use the languai^e of 
 deiotion without realizing to themselves its meaning. The danger of it besets us all. 
 Words come to be handled like coins, without any distinct recognition of what thev 
 represent. This applies especially to words which refer to God, since it requires a high 
 act of abstraction to keep constantly before us the ideas of the unseen Object of such 
 language. Understand that these empty words are worse than wasted breath ; they are 
 a mockery to God, a deception to men, and a source of self-delusion to the speaker of 
 them. 
 
 II. It IS POSSIBLE TO HAVE THE NaME OF GoD ON OUR LIPS WHILE THE LOVE OF GoD 
 
 rs ABSENT FROM OUK HEARTS. We may not fall into the first mistake. The language 
 may not be empty words. The thought of God may be present. Yet this may be a 
 
CH. XII. 1—17.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. S17 
 
 mere thought — a cold and barren idea, having no influence on our affections. This 
 religion of words and notions is a vain thing. Indeed, it is not a religion at all ; it is 
 only a theology. Religion does not begin till the heart opens to receive God. It 
 consists not in the intellectual recognition of God, but in the love of God (Deut. x. 12j. 
 HI. It is possible to have the Name of God on oub lips while the power op 
 God is absent from our conscibnoes. God may be spoken of, thought of, approached 
 with a certain affection, though not the true love of our hearts, and yet be practically 
 disregarded. His will may still be of no account to us. We may still not make our 
 lives subservient to his Law. There is then no evidence of God in our conduct. Though 
 our thought may be religious, our life is godless. 
 
 IV. It is possible to have the Name of God on our lips while the Spirit op 
 God is absent from our spirits. The deepest fact of religion is the indwelling of the 
 Spirit of God — the real presence of God. Gud inhabits the soul as a temple. We may 
 have much religiousness without this. The Name of God may be inscribed on the 
 portals of the temple while the shrine is empty of his presence. 
 
 V. It is possible to have the Name op God upon oor lips and to be vert 
 wicked. If the Name be only on our lips, this is no sign of moral and spiritual good- 
 ness. The wicked contemporaries of Jeremiah were many of them religious precisiou- 
 ists; yet their moral guilt was none the less for all their language of devotion. 
 
 VI. It is possible to have the Name of God on oub lips and to stipfbr ultimate 
 buin. Formalism and hypocrisy may prosper for a time. Those men who had the 
 Name of God on their lips were the wicked who prospered (ver. 1). Yet they wei e 
 doomed to ultimate punishment. It is important to remember this constantly, since 
 we are too ready to be deceived by professions and appearances. 
 
 Ver. 5. — A dark prospect. If Jeremiah was ready to despair when he discovered the 
 conspiracy of the men of Anathoth, how would he bear the news of the treachery of his 
 own brethren ? His condition under the lesser trouble made the prospect of greater 
 trouble most alarming. The Divine admonition which such a situation showed him 
 to need may be of value to others who may be repeating the experience of the prophet. 
 
 I. Despair undkr lesser trouble makes the anticipation of greater troubi-b 
 A dark prospect. 1. Greater trouble may reasonably be expected. God usually pre- 
 pares us for the endurance of trials by seiidius them by degrees, and reserving the 
 more severe till we have been trained to the endurance of milder ones. F'ew men can 
 say that they have drunk the cup of sorrow to the dregs, and none can know what 
 bitter drops may yet be in store for them. 2. The advent of greater trouble is not 
 itself an alarming fact. Trouble is fearful only in proportion as it strikes fear in'o 
 us. If we are prepared to meet it we need have no terror. God can give strength equal 
 to our requirement, and for the sterner trial the more abundant support. The man's 
 trouble is gieater than the child's, but so is the man's strength. 3. The one cause of 
 alarm is in our weakness. If this is revealed before slight tests, it must be much 
 worse when the strain is harder. The important point is not that after enduring the 
 foot-race we shall fail in contending with the chariots, but that, failing in the one trial, 
 we may expect only failure in the other. 
 
 II. The prospect op greater trouble should help us to bear the lesser. Some 
 of us are too ready to " give way " at once. But there is more power of endurance in 
 all of us than we are ready to acknowledge to ourselves. After the latest wrench of 
 the rack we cry out that we can bear no more ; yet another and still another turn is 
 given, and we do bear it. The prospect of this possibility should make us husband 
 our strength. The very sight of danger may be a stimulus to courage by inspiring a 
 heroic spirit. Life is generally pitched in too low a key, and thus men whine under 
 slight smarts and shrink before mean difficulties. If the same men saw more impera- 
 tive calls to energy and endurance, they would rouse themselves and call up latent 
 powers which as yet lie slumbering unheeded. 
 
 III. Failure before lesser trouble should lead us to seek better means fob 
 THE endurance OP THE GREATER. 1. It is more important that we should be able to 
 bear the greater trouble. This is a more serious matter, and defeat under it involves a 
 more overwhelming disaster. Therefore it is exceedingly needful to learn the lesson of 
 our weakness before this has brought us into a more terrible condition of distress. 
 
318 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEUEMIAH. [ch. xii. 1—17. 
 
 2. It is also more difficult to endure the severer strain. The strength which is barely 
 sufficient for the cares and toils of a quiet home life will fail utterly if a man has to 
 contend with lions in the wild thickets of the lonely Jordan valley. If health breaks 
 down before the soft breezes of summer, how will it stand before the frost and fog of 
 winter? If the young man falls into vicious habits while under the protection of his 
 father's home, what will become of him when he goes out into the woild ? If the 
 prospect of sickness and earthly sorrow fill one with hopeless distress, how will he pass 
 through the valley of the shadow of death? how will he endure death itself? 3. 
 These questions should not make us despondent, but should drive us through self- 
 difGdenoe to seek the help of God. Failure in small things will be good for us if it 
 teaches us a wholesoriie lesson on our own weakness, and so inclines us to turn to a 
 higher source of safety. Then we shall find that God's strength is made perfect in our 
 weakness (2 Cor. xii. 9). 
 
 Ver. 1 .— The forsahen heritage. I. God kbgakds his people as his heritage. 
 The temple was God's house, the Jews were God's heritage. The Church is now the 
 habitation of the Spirit of God, and her members are God's possession. This fact 
 implies: 1. That God dwells with his people. 2. That he takes delight in them. 
 3. That he may be expected to protect them from harm. 4. That he has rights 
 over them and claims their submission to himself. 5. That his honour is concerned 
 with his people's conduct, so that their wickedness is not a matter of indifference to 
 him, but is an insult to his Name. 
 
 II. God mat forsake his hbritaob. God's people have no such " vested interests " 
 that nothing can destroy their claims upon him. The present enjoyment of God's 
 favour is no guarantee that this will be perpetual. 1. History shows that God has 
 forsaken his heritage in the past ; e.g. the Jews, ancient Christian Churches of Asia and 
 Africa, individual Christians who have fallen from the faith. 2. It is reasonable to 
 expect that he will do this when honour and righteousness require it. Let us, there- 
 fore, not presume on the favour of God. 
 
 III. God only forsakes his hebitaqe when that has become corrupt. God 
 never leaves his people till they leave him. He is not changeable, capricious, arbitrary 
 in his favours. His love never wanes, his grace never fails, his help and blessings are 
 never limited. The change begins on man's side. It is found in rebellion against God. 
 1. In self-v)ill. The heritage becomes like a lion of the forest — i.e. no longer tame, but 
 swayed by its own wild passions. 2. In evil-doing. The lion is fierce and destructive 
 — a beast of prey. 3. In direct opposition to God. The lion " cries out against " God. 
 
 IV. God's heritage is in a terrible condition when it is forsaken by him. 
 Birds and beasts of prey come up to devour the heritage. 1. It needs no positive act 
 of God's to bring dtsolation on his sinful people. If he but withdraw his protection, 
 the natural evils of the world and the special evils which they have provoked will ba 
 enough to bring ruin on their heads. 2. God's people will suffer in an especial way by 
 the withdrawal of the Divine presence. The heritage is " like a speckled bird." It is 
 strange, and so it draws upon itself opposition. The Jews were a mark for the enmity 
 of the heathen through the singularity of their national customs. Christians are often 
 singled out for opposition from the world for similar reasons. If they have lost their 
 peculiar protection, their peculiar position and nature will invoke a peculiar ruin. 
 
 Ver. 13. — Profitless Inhour. I. Punishment will consist in part in the profit- 
 LESSNBSs OF LABOUR. This will perhaps be the special punishment of industrious bad 
 people. To them it will be peculiarly painful, for in proportion to the zest and earnest- 
 ness with which any work is carried on will be the bitterness of disappointment when 
 this is seen to fail. Thus the victorious general is punished by being robbed of his 
 conquests, the statesman by having his political schemes frustrated, the inventor by 
 finding his invention superseded or rendered futile, the literary man by seeing his pro- 
 ductions treated with neglect. 
 
 II. Labour mat be good in itself and yet profitless. It need not be mis- 
 taken in direction nor incompetent in execution. 1. It may be real sowing. " They 
 iiive sown" — have not simply run uncertainly nor beaten the air with indefiaile 
 
OH. XII. 1—17.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 319 
 
 energy. 2. It may be the sowing of good seed. " They have sown wheat." 3. It 
 may be assiduous and arduous. " They have put themselves to pain." 
 
 III. Labodb will be profitless IP IT BE CURSED BY GoD. " They are ashamed 
 of tlieir increase because of the fierce anger of Johuvali." 1. We cannot succeed in 
 our work without the blessing of God. This is necessary, not only for those things in 
 which we can do nothing and are wholly dependent on him, but also in regard to our 
 own efforts. Man sows, but God must give the increase. We cannot order the .seasons, 
 command the weather, determine the germinating power of nature. The farmer is but 
 the attendant of nature. The real work of the farm is Hone by nature, and nature 
 is a name we give to the action of God. If, therefore, God did nol follow with his 
 work, the farmer might as well scatter sand of the desert over his fields as sow 
 good wheat. So also all our labour depends on OoA's blessing for its fruitfulness. 
 2. The curse of Ood will destroy the fruits of labour. Tremendous destructive 
 agencies are in his hands. He can send frost to nip the tender buds, drought to 
 wither the growing plant, blight to destroy the filling ears, storms to beat down the 
 ripe corn. Sickness, commercial disaster, wars, etc., may frustrate the wisest, ablest, 
 most industrious efforts of men. Therefore let lis learn (1) to live so that we dare 
 ask for God's favour ; (2) to labour at such work as God will apjjrove ; and (3) to seek 
 the blessing of God upon our efforts (Ps. xc. 17). 
 
 Vers. 14 — 17. — General punishment and general restoration. I. Punishment is 
 general. It is not selective, it is impartially administered. 1. The people of Ood do 
 not escape. If the Christian falls into sin, the Law of God mast be vindicated on him 
 at least as rigorously as on the worldly man. Judah had sliared the sins of her neigh- 
 bours ; she must also share their punishment. If sin is general, so must be its penal- 
 ties. No religious position which does not secure us against wickedness will protect 
 us against its consequences. 2. The yodless do wit escape. The heathen nations are to 
 suffer with Judah. Though they were sometimes the instruments in the hands of God 
 for the chastisement of Judah, they were not on that account exonerated from blatna 
 for the bad motives of their conduct. The sin of others is no excuse for us in wronging 
 them. The executioner of the law is himself subject to the law. They who do not 
 admit the authority of God are not the less subject to his authority. Men who refuse 
 to submit to tl]e Law of God will be juriged by tliat Law as certainly as those who have 
 freely gone under its yoke. It is not for us to choose our government in spiritual 
 things, but to submit to the one righteous gnvernment which God has set over all men. 
 In the execution of this it will be found that all men have sufficient light to render 
 them accountable for their actions, though the degree of their responsibility will vajy 
 with the degree of their knowledge. 
 
 11. Restoration is general. This is offered to the heathen nations as well as to 
 Judah. As general punishment must follow general sin, so general restoration will 
 follow general repentance. Here, too, God is impartial. 1. This restoration is not 
 the less perfect for each individual by being general. " Every man " is to come and 
 each to his "own land" and his "own heritage." There are men who seem to fear 
 the broadening of the mercies of God, lest they should become less valuable to eacti 
 recipient, and so they would jealously narrow them to protect their full privileges for 
 a few. Such idgas are not only basely selfish — since the holders of them quietly 
 assume that they are amoni; the few — they are dishonourmg to the grace of God, which 
 is exceeding abundant, with enough for all who need it. 2. The general character of 
 the restoration is its most happy feature. It will mean the abolition of war, rivalry, 
 jealousy, separation, and the enjoyment of peace and brotherhood, the realization of the 
 glory of the unity of the race through harmony in the unity of faith. " Then shall 
 they be built in the midst of my people." Thus through the great restoration, i.e. 
 through the perfected redemption in Christ, we may look for the fulfilment of the great 
 ideal human brotherhood. 3. The conditions of this restoration are the same for all, 
 viz. (1) the compassion of God, and (2) repentance and amendment. They who taught 
 Judah to serve Baal must learn with Judah to follow the true religion. But if this 
 condition is not fulfilled, the restoration can never be enjoyed. 
 
320 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xii. 1—17. 
 
 HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. 
 
 Vers. 1 — 4. — Moral difficulties with the providence of Qod. The tone of this address 
 to Jehovah is strikingly contrasted with that to the men of Anathoth. To them he 
 is as a lion or a brazen wall. To Jehovah he is as a fretful child, ignorant, wilful, 
 perverse, and requiring to be corrected. 
 
 I. The prospbrity of the wicked a stdmblino-block to faith. (Vers. 1, 2.) 
 David even is envious over this, and many a saint has felt its bitterness in his soul. 
 That there are instances enough to make the idea plausible that wickedness is the best 
 policy, we all know. The difficulties that beset the honest trader or the conscientious 
 courtier and statesman are proverbial. And often just those measures which are most 
 clearly condemned by Scripture and conscience appear to be the means most justified by 
 the circumstances of the case. This view, however, is corrected by larger experience. 
 It does not take all the facts within its scope, or it does not rightly interpret them. It 
 is impossible for a mere outsider to judge of any one's actual happiness, or the private 
 conditions which most powerfully affect the possession and enjoyment of wealth or 
 high position. The teachings of history and of individual experience will in the end 
 lead to the conclusion, " Better is little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure 
 and trouble therewith " (Prov. xv. 16). 
 
 II. The impulse to force Jehovah's hand. (Vei. 3). This is the meaning of 
 Jeremiah's imprecation. To one who sees by supernatural aid the tendencies of 
 things, it must be very hard to refrain from this. Judgments that are justified to the 
 moral nature sometimes appear to be mysteriously delayed. What would be well 
 done had better be done quickly. But this is the presumption of the creature, the 
 promptings of ignorance and not of faith. God can afford to wait. It is his character 
 to have long patience, and the results more than justify this in the end. He will 
 work out his purposes in his own way and in his own time, notwithstanding the 
 impatience of his servants inquiring, " What or what manner of time ? " There is a 
 species of tempting Providence closely connected with this in many spiritual men. 
 They have the clearest conviction that certain things are right and proper for them 
 to do, and, without consulting as to seasonableness or the best means for their 
 accomplishment, they hasten to do them, and then expect that God will recoup 
 them for the loss they incur or extricate them from the difficulties in which they have 
 entangled themselves. This certainly is not waiting upon the Lord, but an arrogant 
 assumption of his preroaatives. It was the principle that lay at the root of Moses' 
 gi'eat transgression ; and even the disciples had to be rebuked because they knew 
 not what spiiit they were of. 
 
 III. The tone of the prophet's peaybr. Superficially it appears reasonable, con- 
 sidering the character and position of those to whom he refers. And there is at any 
 rate a ful-raal recognition of the righteousness of God to begin with. It is evident, too, 
 that the conscience of the prophet is without offence in the sight of God, and yet there 
 can be no doubt that the language he adopts is not to be justified. He is carried away 
 by excess of zeal, but it is zeal without knowledge, and he himself will be the first 
 bitterly to regret his presumption. It is a perilous thing for any man to attempt to 
 judge his fellows by infallible standards. One thing in the behaviour of the prophet 
 was to be commended. He did not conceal these thoughts within himself. He says, 
 " Let me talk with thee," conscious that in this openness of soul lay his moral safety. 
 A few minutes' honest communion with God will tap many a festering sore and correct 
 many a subtle error of spirit and life. The last lesson of Divine revelation is not 
 severity but love. — M. 
 
 Vers. 5, 6. — A prophet's foes they of his ovm household. These two verses are related, 
 and must be read together in order to get at their proper sense. The prophet had 
 complained of the treachery and prosperous circumstances of the enemies of Jehovah ; 
 whereupon he was told that worse things were in store for him — that his own family 
 would be his fiercest opponents. This was in a degree the lot of Christy it is experi- 
 enced by many of the true servants of God. 
 
 X. The Wobd of God is not accobdimg to the will of the flesh, and there- 
 
CH. XII. 1-17.] THE BOOK OF THE PEOPHET JEREMIAH. 321 
 
 FOBB MAY BE EXPECTED TO EXCITE HATRED AND OPPOSITION WHERE THAT ASSEIiTS 
 ITSELF. 
 
 II. The SERVANT OF God will often be tried by the failure and defection of 
 HIS most cherished friends. 
 
 III. It behoves all who are entrusted with Divine truth to ask themselves 
 what is the ground of their confidence. — M. 
 
 Vers. 7, 8. — Leaving all for Ood. (Naegelsbach is of opinion that the words of 
 vers. 7 — 13 "are to be understood as having a double reference," i.e. both to the 
 prophet's own feelings and to Jehovah's judgment. Zwingli and Bugenhagen consider 
 that Jehovah begins to speak at "Go" or "Come," in ver. 9. There is evidently an 
 intimate blending of the prophetic with the Divine consciousness throughout the 
 whole passage.) A hard duty, but one often devolving upon faithful servants of 
 Jehovah. Indeed, spiritually, it is the first condition of discipleship imposed by 
 Christ. Only thus can the soul preserve its equipoise and integrity in what may ba 
 required of it. The Master will brook no rival. 
 
 I. The reasons for such a sacrifice. It is possible that for one with the keen, 
 affectionate nature of Jeremiah, much intercourse with his family and friends would 
 have interfered with the performance of his duty. He was appointed to discharge an 
 anomalous function, for which the greatest concentration of energy and spirit was 
 required. Even though he had to weep as he spoke the words that God had com- 
 manded him, he must speak. His duty to the nation overshadowed or pushed into the 
 background the claims of friends. So the follower of Christ may be subjected to 
 discipline in providence, or to voluntary self-deprivation of a like kind by the demands 
 of spiritual work. And it behoves all who labour in the cause of truth to hold them- 
 selves spiritually detached from those things and relations which might impede true 
 usefulness. 
 
 II. Keen personal sorrow is frequently occasioned by it. That it was a real 
 trial to Jeremiah there can be no doubt ; and probably the special discovery made to 
 him (ch. xi. 18 sej.,) was intended to facilitate the transfer of attachment to Jehovali. 
 The endearing terms — " mine house," " mine heritage," " the dearly beloved of my 
 soul," and the manner in which he repeats the history of his estrangement, prove how 
 deeply the trial had affected him. 
 
 III. Thereby is tested the loyalty of the saint to God. In a question between 
 one's friends and Jehovah, the settlement ought not to be doubtful to the mind of the 
 saint. The reasons for withdrawal from entangling relations may not immediately 
 appear, but the believer can with confidence leave them in the hands of God, by whom 
 they will in due time be revealed. There is a danger in the midst of ordinary human 
 relations that Jehovah shall be considered simply as an addition to our obligntions, 
 instead of being the supreme and all-modifying influence of our life. In proportion to 
 the severity of the experience will be the consolations to be received. — M. 
 
 Vers. 14 — 17. — Mercy and jvdgment. In these verses we have one of the " larger 
 words " which make the whole world's testament of salvation and life. The threatenings 
 are stern and will be executed to the letter ; but the promises seem to transcend the 
 immediate occasion. A gate of hope and redemption was herein opened to multitudes 
 who at that date were not included in the covenant of Israel. The conditions upon 
 which their possible comprehension within the future Israel is based are moral and 
 spiritual, and therefore truly universal. 
 
 I. The greatest judgments op God upon the neighbours of Israel but 
 corresponded with their crimes. That grave evils were inflicted upon the enemies 
 of Israel cannot be denied. Multitudes were put to a painful death. Nations were 
 uprooted, and human life appeared to be looked upon as an insignificant thing. In 
 judging of this, however, it must be remembered that they had done and were ready 
 to do similar things to Israel and Judah. The moral platform, too, upon which they 
 lived has to he considered. Ages of depravity and barbarism, upon which higher 
 appeals would have been utterly lost, had to be imaginatively impressed and overawed. 
 And there were not wanting testimonies of conscience amongst the enemies of Israel 
 themselves to justify this course. But — 
 
 JEREMIAH. "■ 
 
322 THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xii. 1— 1 . . 
 
 II. Even in beinq punished for the sake op Israel, their destiny was linked 
 ■WITH HERS. If at first their lot would appear to be hard and inconceivably hopeless, 
 yet in the end there can be no question that they were gainers by the association. 
 In common life, with those whom they subdued they received manifold advantages, 
 especially of a spiritual kind, and the choice was set before them of good as well as 
 evil. On the principle, therefore, that it is better for one to suffer even severely at first 
 if afterwards he may retrieve his position and attain to a higher and more desirable one 
 tlirouijh the initial discipline, it was better for these nations to be brought to book in 
 tliis vfay for Israel's sake. Enemies to begin with, they might, and in many cases did, 
 become friends and fellow-heirs of the promise. 
 
 III. Apparent leniency towards Israel is jttstified by ulterior purposes op 
 UNIVERSAL BLEssiNO. As Compared with her neighbours, it might appear as if one 
 measure were meted out to her and another to them. But this is only contemporary 
 and relative. The punishment inflicted has to be estimated by the spiritual deprivations 
 which accompanied it. The deferring of Israel's hope must have been a keener sorrow 
 than any mere temporal reverse. It must be remembered that through Israel, the seed 
 of Abraham, all nrttions were to be blessed. To avert from her utter extinction was 
 indirectly to ensure the greater benefit to the future. But that to be made to cease as 
 a nation from the face of the earth would have been relatively less nainful than many 
 of the dispensations through which she had to pass, cannot but be allowed. 
 
 IV. In the midst of deserved judombnt the free mercy of God is the more 
 conspicuous. How unlooked for this promise concerning the future of Israel's enemies ! 
 The silver thread of hope traverses the dark labyrinth of judgment. It is only the 
 wisdom of infinite Love that could so disentangle spiritual possibilities from such 
 stupendous and widespread ruin. How glorious the mercy which can so assert itself! 
 The only phrase that can describe the phenomenon is "grace has reigned." The 
 individual sinner, in the midst of his deserved miseries, may take comfort from this. 
 However great the wretchedness and ruin which he has brought upon himself, and 
 however long continued his alienation from God, if he but turn now from his wicked- 
 uess, a way of escape will be opened up for him through the sacrifice of Christ. — M. 
 
 Ver. 1. — Perplexing questions. " Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper?" 
 etc. Unquestionably they very often do. Some of the reasons are — 
 
 I. They are more shrewd. " The children of this generation are wiser than the 
 children of light." They give more heed to the laws of success, are more alert to seize 
 opportunities and to guard against those men and things which would work them harm. 
 No amount of piety will compensate for inattention to the laws of success. 
 
 II. They are less scrupulous. Where success is thus won by some seemingly 
 short cut which a godly man hesitates to take, it will not seldom he found, after a while, 
 that the apparently long way round of the righteous was yet the nearest because the 
 truest road. But meanwhile the ungodly appear to have the best of it. 
 
 HI. Their attention is more concentrated and undivided. The godly man 
 cannot say in regard to the pursuit of this world's goods, " This one thing I do ; " but 
 the ungodly can. Whilst " not slothful in business," the Christian has also to " serve the 
 Lord." Whilst a citizen of this world, he is also a citizen of another country, even a 
 heavenly one, and by his faith he has avowed that he seeks that country. His attention 
 must therefore be divided, as his who sows only to the flesh is not. 
 
 IV. The lono-suffebinq op God. The ungodly are his children, though ungrateful 
 ones, and the heavenly Father would woo and win them back. Therefore in all gentle- 
 ness he deals with them, making his sun to shine and his rain to descend on them as 
 on his faithful children. The long-sufiering of God is to lead to repentance. 
 
 V. To test, improve, and declare the faith of the godly. If righteousness 
 were a royal road to riches, and faith infallibly led to fortune, where would be the room 
 for trust in God? how would such trust be tested and deepened, and how would it ever 
 be made manifest? The devil would have had reason for his taunt concerning Job, 
 " Doth Job serve God for nought ? " But that there may be such men as Job, heroes of 
 the faith, pure, noble, God-fearing souls, saints indeed, God does at times let such men 
 serve him for nought so far as this world is concerned, and hands over this world's 
 wages to the devil, that he miiy with them bribe, as he in vain sought to bribe our 
 
CH. XII. 1—17.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 323 
 
 Lord, those who will " fall down and worship him." But that these questions may not 
 perplex us, let us live day by day in view of the unseen and eternal, walking with God, 
 holding communion with him; so shall our estimates of this world's prosperity be 
 ^corrected, and we shall be able to behold with calmness the allotment of that prosperity 
 to the ungodly rather than to ourselves. — C. 
 
 Ver. 3. — Imprecatory prayers. " Pull them out like sheep," etc. There are many 
 of these. Some of them, like this one, are very terrible (of. Ps. cix. ; cxxxvii. 9, etc.). 
 How are they to be understood? how justified? Of what use are they to us now? 
 Questions like these cannot but be started in reading such prayers. The difficulty of 
 them has been felt by almost every Christian and even humane reader. To get rid of 
 8uoh difficulty — 
 
 I. Some have spiritualized them. The slaughter work which they call for is to 
 be done, not on human bodies, but on human wickednesses, those inward and deadly foes 
 which are so many and which hate us with cruel hatred. But whilst it is quite lawful 
 to so make use of these petitions, it cannot be said that this is what they who first 
 prayed them meant. 
 
 II. Others have tried to turn them simply into prophetic predictions — mere 
 announcements of what God would do. But such alteration would never have been 
 thought of but for the moral difficulty of letting them stand as they are. And the 
 alteration is not permissible. 
 
 III. Others, vert many, have explained them on the ground of the imperfect 
 SPIRITUAL condition OF God's ANCIENT PEOPLE. " They knew," it is said, " no better 
 True, their prayers are wroncc, unchristian, cruel, but they are to be excused because of 
 the dim light, the very partial knowledge, of those days." But, in reply, it is clear 
 that they were not ignorant ; they had plain laws against revenge (cf. Lev. xix. 8 ; 
 Exod. xxiii. 4, 5). And hence St. Paul, wlien arguing against revenue, cites the Old 
 Testament, as in Rom. xii. 19, 20, quoting from Deut. xxxii. 35 and Prov. xxv. 21 (cf. 
 also Prov. xx. 22; xxiv. 17). And Job (xxxi.) emjihatically disavows both the act 
 and thought of revenge ; and so David (Ps. vii. 4, 5). And see David's conduct in regard 
 to Saul twice. See, too, his gratitude to Abigail for holding him back from revenge 
 (1 Sam. XXV.). And they had numerous laws enjoining mercy (cf. also Balaam's 
 speech, given in Micah, " What doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to 
 love mercy" etc. ?). 
 
 IV Others have said that such revengeful utterances are but the human 
 ELEMENT IN THE Old TESTAMENT WRITERS — that they Were not inspired when they 
 thus speak. But David claims inspiration (2 Sam. xxiii. 1, 2). And the apostles claim 
 it for him ; and with especial reference to the hundred and ninth psalm, one of the most 
 notable of these utterances (Acts i. 16). And they were composed for the temple service 
 as acts of worship. Hengstenberg says of them, " They were from the first destined for 
 use in the sanctuary. The sacred authors come forth under the full consciousness of 
 being interpreters of the spiritual feelings of the community, organs of God for the 
 ennobling of their feelings. They give back what in the holiest and purest hours of 
 their life°had been given to them." Hence we are compelled to regard these utterances 
 as being only — 
 
 V. That which it would be right for a good man, placed in the like cir- 
 cumstances, BOTH TO FEEL AND UTTER. Let it be remembered : 1. They knew nothing 
 or but little of the great day of future judgment as we do. 2. The judgments implicated 
 are all temporal. It can never be right to pray lor the eternal damnation of any soul, 
 and this they never do. 3. Many of the expressions are poetical. 4. These desires fur 
 the overthrow of their enemies were : (1) Natural. Resentment against wrong, anger 
 on account of it, and desire that it may be punished, are implanted in us. Let us but 
 place ourselves in their position. How did we feel in the time, e.g., of the Indiiin 
 Mutiny ? (2) Necessary. In those fierce days a stern and fierce spirit was needed if any 
 people were to hold their own at all (cf. Isaac Taylor, on ' Spirit of the Hebrew Poetry'). 
 (3) Based on the eternal truth of God's retributive justice. God had declared by word 
 and deed this attribute of his. Could it, then, be wrong that they should call on hnu 
 to show himself what he had declared himself to be ? (4) Left to God to carry out. 
 " Unto God," says Jeremiah, " have I revealed [or, ' committed '] my cause. (5) And m 
 
324 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xri. 1— 17. 
 
 the New Teatamcrtt ive have some simiJar uiterancen. (Of. Matt, xxiii. 11.) (6) And we 
 ourselves in war— which we all allow to be at times lawful— ac< on these very principles, 
 and do for ourselves what the Old Testament saints only besought Grod to do. Hence 
 conclude that, in like circumstances and for similar reasons, such prayers as these are 
 not evil. What the New Testament condemns is reverge for private personal injuries, 
 for persecution when suffered for the gospel's sake ; but not war for defensive purposes, 
 and therefore not the stern spirit which is essential to war. And one practical lesson 
 from all such utterances is that they reflect what exists in God — a determined and 
 fierce hatred against wickedness — and therefore they awaken a salutary fear of that 
 vengeance and an earnest desire to " flee from the wrath to come." — 0. 
 
 Ver. b.— Failure in little things. " If thou hast run with the footmen," etc. ? The 
 prophet of God was weary hearted. Like Job, like the writer of the thirty-seventh 
 psalm, like John the Baptist, he was sore perplexed at God's dealings. The wicked 
 prospered,the righteous were cast down. Hence he sadly asks, " Wherefore doth," etc.? 
 (ver. 1). Now, God answers such questionings as these in different ways. Sometimes 
 by showing his servant the true state of the ungodly, making him " to understand their 
 end." Sometimes by revealing to the righteous the vast superiority of their portion 
 over that of the ungodly. Sometimes by gently soothing the rufHed spirit. At other 
 times, as here, by rousing rebuke and sharp remonstrance, bidding him bethink himself, 
 if he broke down under these comparatively small trials, how would he bear up when 
 much more terrible ones had to be endured? If running with "footmen" was too much 
 for him, then how would he " contend " with the swift " horses " ? If he could feel 
 secure only in a quiet land (see Exposition), how would he do in a region full of peril 
 like that of the jungle-land, the lair of the lion and other fierce beasts of prey, which 
 stretched along the banks of the Jordan ? Greater trials were to come to him than he 
 had as yet known ; how would he meet them if he failed in the presence of these lessei 
 ones? Now, in applying the principle here laid down, note — 
 
 I. God puts upon us first that which is less, and afterwards that which is 
 GREATER. In all departments of life. 1. Our physical powers are taxed first lightly, 
 afterwards more heavily. 2. Qo cmx mental powers ; the easy lessons first, then thuse 
 that are more difficult. 3. So with our moral life ; temptation comes " as we are able 
 to bear it." 4. ' So in husiness life ; the lesser responsibilities and duties first. 5. And 
 so in the spiritual life ; God does not expect from the young beginner that which the 
 veteran in his service can alone render. 
 
 II. And the less is to prepare us for the greater. Childhood Is to prepare for 
 youth, that for manhood, and all our life here for our everlasting life yonder. But — 
 
 III. Failure in that which is less carries with it failure in that which is 
 GREATER ALSO. This is the law implied by the question of ver. 5. And it is a uni- 
 versal law. Therefore we may ask this question, " If thou hast run," etc. ? 1. Of 
 such as are undble to hear the lesser trials of life. What unmanly complaining we 
 often hear, though In the presence of sorrows compared with which their own are as 
 nothing! If they fail here and now, what will they do there and then ? 2. Of such as 
 find a little prosperity do them harm. This is the reason why many are kept poor. 
 God sees that they would be pufifed up, spiritually injured in many ways, if worldly 
 prosperity were granted them; and hence he keeps it away. A little was given, as if 
 to test them, but they could not bear it ; and hence in God's love they were not tried 
 again. 3. Of such as fall before slight temptation. If conscience is set aside and 
 trampled on in lesser matters, it will be served no better in such as are greater. 4. Of 
 such as are looking for a more convenient season than now to yield themselves to God. 
 Will the opposition of your own heart, of the world around you, of the power which 
 habit has over you, become less? But if you yield thereto now, how will it be wheu 
 all these have become, as they will, more powerful still ? 
 
 IV. But the reverse op this law is true also. Victory over the less will lead to 
 victory over the greater. By the successful running with the footmen we shall be pre- 
 pared for the severer contest with horses. Hence little trials borne well prophesy our 
 bearing well such as may be greater, should God please to send them. And if, when 
 entrusted with but a few things, we are found faithful in thera, the Lord whom we 
 serve is likely to make us " ruler over many things." The lesser temptation resolutely 
 
cir. XII. 1—17.] TUB BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 325 
 
 withstood prepares for withstanding the greater when it comes; and the overleaping of 
 the frail barriers that now may oppose our self-surrender to Christ ensures that nothing 
 at any future time shall be able to keep us back from him, nothing shall " separate us 
 from the love of Christ." — C. 
 
 Vers. 7 — 13. — The hiding of Ood'sface. Here is a most terrible condition of things 
 set forth. It may be taken as telling of the calamities which ensue when God hides 
 his face from his people. It is terrible every way. Because — 
 
 I. Op him by whom his face is hidden. It is God. We feel such conduct from 
 our fellow-men according to our estimate of the person who manifests it. Now, all 
 tliese facts which make the hiding of his face giievous to us meet in God — righteous- 
 ness, goodness, wisdom, power. Were he devoid of these, could we question the 
 existence of any of them in him, we could bear with more equanimity his hiding his 
 face from us. 
 
 II. Op those from whom his face is hidden. Had they been enemies all along, it 
 would have been taken as a matter of course ; that he should have regarded them with 
 favour would never have been expected. Or had they been strangers and aliens to him, 
 tlien, too, his favour would not have been looked for. Or had that favour never beeu 
 known or enjoyed, then its absence would not have been felt, nothing that they had 
 been accustomed to would have been missed. But the reverse of all this is the truth. 
 They had been counted by him as friends, as dear children, as precious in his sight ; 
 and he had been wont to cause his face to shine upon them. See the endearing epithets 
 by which he describes them. He had counted them as " the dearly beloved of his soul" 
 (ver. 7), " his portion," " his pleasant portion," etc. (vers. 8 — 10). How dark, there- 
 fore,^must he the frown of God to such ! how intolerable to them his displeasure ! 
 
 III. Of that which accompanied the hiding of his face. There is withdrawal : 
 1. From the sanctuary. " I have forsaken mine house." The customary services went 
 on, but the glow, the unction, the power of them had departed. The place where his 
 honour dwelt, the dearly beloved of his soul, was forsaken by him. 2. From the people. 
 His heritage was no longer pleasant to him ; he delighted not to dwell amongst them. 
 All that joy, strength, prosperity, which belonged to them when God was amongst 
 tijem had departed. 3. From the land. " The whole land is made desolate." In the 
 outward circum.stances and surroundings of the people the effect of God's hiding his 
 face from them became terribly manifest. And there has gome a terrible revulsion of 
 feeling on the part of God towards them (see vers. 8, 9). And not only his mind, but 
 his hand, his providence, is awfully changed towards them. He calls on their enemies 
 to come (ver. 9). And they come (ver. 12). And the ruin Is complete : " The sword 
 of the Lord shall devour from the one end of the land even to the other" (ver. 12). All 
 their own plans — their sowing of wheat (ver. 13) — for their own good are miserably 
 defeated, they "reap thorns." Thus the inward displeasure of God manifests itself 
 oftentimes in the outward circumstances of a man or nation. 
 
 IV. Of that on account of which God's face is hidden. It was " because no 
 man layeth it to heart " (ver. 11). The lesser judgments of God, his repeated warnings, 
 had been disregarded — hearing they heard not, seeing they saw not ; and hence all this. 
 Had the cause of their woe been their misfortune, the result of mistake, or ignorance, 
 or lack of timely counsel, then there would have been some element of consolation 
 amid all they had to suffer. But to add to their distress was the ever-present reflection, 
 " It was all our own fault ; we brought it all on ourselves." With what intense hatred, 
 therefore, should we look upon all that grieves the Spirit of God! and with what 
 earnest haste should we endeavour to return unto God, if we have wandered from him! 
 These miseries which beset those from whom God hides his face are his loving scourgings 
 whereby we may be led to say, " I will arise and go to my Father, and will say unto 
 him, Father, I have smned," etc. — C. 
 
 Ver. 9. — The speckled bird. A great preacher relates the following incident: — He 
 says, " I had during my early ministry to preach one evening at a neighbouring village, 
 to which I had to walk. After reading and meditating all day, I could not meet with 
 the right text. Do what I would, no response came from the sacred oracle, no light 
 flashed from the Urim and Thummim. I prayed, 1 meditated, I turned from one verse 
 
326 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xii. 1—17. 
 
 to another; but the mind would not take hold, or I was, as John Bunyan would say, 
 • much tumbled up and down in my thoughts.' Just then I walked to the window 
 and looked out. On the other side of the narrow street in which I lived I saw a poor, 
 solitary canary bird upon the slates, surrounded by a crowd of sparrows, who were all 
 pecking at it as if they would tear it to pieces. At that moment the verse came into 
 my mind, ' Mine heritage is unto me as a speckled bird; the birds round about are against 
 her.' I walked off with the greatest possible composure, considered the passage during 
 my long and lonely walk, and preached upon the peculiar people and the persecutions 
 of their enemies, with freedom and ease to myself, and I believe with comfort to my 
 rustic audience. The text was sent to me, and if the ravens did not bring it, certainly 
 the sparrows did." But while the use here made of the text is a legitimate one, it 
 certainly is not its meaning. That, therefore, as in all cases, has the priority of claim 
 to be considered, and we note how it tells — 
 
 I. Of what may be the relation of God's heritage to himself. He who had 
 once so loved them as to call them by all endearing names, " the dearly beloved of 
 my soul " (ver. 7), " mine heritage " (ver. 8), " my portion," " my pleasant portion " 
 (ver. 10), and whose hand had been wont to follow the dictates of his he«irt, had now 
 completely changed towards them. His love had departed, and in place thereof had 
 come aversion and anger (cf. Homily on vers. 7 — 13). Sad as it is, this similitude shows 
 what may come to be the relation between God and his people. " Therefore have I 
 hated it" (ver. 8), saith God. We cannot but inquire the cause of so terrible a change. 
 It was because "no man layeth it to heart" (ver. 11); no man, i.e. would give heed 
 to God's words and signs of warning, but went on in sin just the same. They would 
 not repent, but persisted in their evil ways. But we may take the words also as 
 suggesting — 
 
 II. What will be the relation of God's people to the world. The world will 
 hate the Church. " The birds around " will come " against her." Sometimes it seems 
 as if it were not so. For unquestionably there are many portions of God's heritage that 
 the world does not persecute. The age of martyrdom is over. God has shut the lionn' 
 mouths. He puts his fear upon the world ; they see that God is with his people ; 
 or they are partly in sympathy with them. But at other times it is true as it was 
 with that poor bird amongst the sparrows. " Well may we pity a godly wife bound 
 to an ungodly husband ; alas ! full often a drunkard, whose opposition amounts to 
 brutality. A tender, lovinjg spirit, that ought to have been cherished like a tender 
 flower, is bruised and trodden underfoot, and made to suffer till the heart cries out iu 
 grief. We little know what lifelong martyrdoms many pious women endure. Children 
 aiso have to bear the same when they are singled out by Divine grace from deprave I 
 and wicked families. Only the other day there came under my notice one who loves 
 the Lord. I thought if she had been a daughter of mine I should have rejoiced beyond 
 all things in her sweet and gentle piety ; but the parent said, ' You must leave our 
 house if you attend such and such a place of worship. We do not believe in such 
 things, and we cannot have you about us if you do.' And nobody knows what godly 
 working men often have to put up with from those among whom they labour. Fre- 
 quently the working men are great tyrants in matters of religion. If a man will drink 
 with them and swear with them, they will make him their companion ; but when a 
 man comes out to fear God, they make it very hard for him." Yes ; God's heritage is 
 in the eyes of the world " as a speckled bird," etc. But let God's servants remember, 
 when they are thus tried, that they have fellowship with Christ. They were forewarned 
 of it ; Christ did not conceal the cross from them. " Behold," he said, "I send you forth 
 as sheep amongst wolves." But they cannot do you much harm (cf. Matt. 10). The day 
 is soon coming when their power will be for ever destroyed. Meanwhile, keep away from 
 them as much as you lawfully may. Do not needlessly provoke them ; whilst harm- 
 less as doves, be wise as serpents also. Do not be like them, and do not be afraid of 
 them. Go not alone with them ; have the Lord Jesus ever with you, and you will be 
 able to meet them in all holy and courageous wisdom and meekness. If the persecu- 
 tion be very great, ask the Lord to place you somewhere else, if so it may be. And till 
 he does, and always, pray for them — Sauls may become Pauls. 
 
 III. It is a relation in which God's heritasb must stand either to God ok to 
 THE WORLD. There cannot be compromise. " No man can serve two maslers." " If 
 
CH. XII. 1—17.] THE BOOK OP THE PEOPHET JEREMIAH. 327 
 
 any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." " The frienilshipof the 
 world is enmity against God." " Ye cannot serve Grod and mammon." Whose aver- 
 sion, then, will you have, since that of Grod or of the world you must have ? Your peril 
 is not that you should deliberately choose to have the aversion of God rather than that 
 of the world, but that you should seek to compromise. But that also is impossible. 
 In coming to a decision be sure you take eternity into view, and may God who com|iels 
 you to make this great choice help you — as he will if you seek his grace — to choose, 
 like Moses, " rather to suffer afBiclion with," etc. — C. 
 
 Vers. 14 — 17. — The tide that has no ebb, but ever flows. Such is the grace of God. 
 
 I. It has no ebb. It seemed to be going back in regard to those to whom the 
 prophet wrote. What terrible calamities were threatened and also came ! How dark 
 the face of God seemed towards them ! But they were to be restored Ver. 14, " I 
 will pluck out the house of Judah from among them." And even yet God's mercies to 
 his ancient people are not done. Another restoration is to be theirs. " The gifts and 
 calling of God are without repentance " (cf. Rom. xi.). And Israel is but a type of 
 humanity at large. God has not created all men in vain. Man, as such, is precious in 
 his sight; " the dearly beloved of his soul." And notwithstanding the dark records of 
 human history— man's sins and sorrows — God's love is upon him still. He " so loved 
 the world," and that love has not ceased. The tide of his grace has not ceased to flow. 
 But there may be barriers in the way of its onward progress. Human sin is such. It 
 is so in nations and in individuals, and not only do men by their sin bar for themselves 
 the inflow of God's grace, but for those who come after them. And to break through 
 and break down these barriers is a work of time. Ages and generations may elapse. 
 In mountainous regions you may often see a river flowing through what was manifestly 
 once the bed of a vast lake. But after the lapse of long ages the waters rose and burst 
 through the barriers that held them back from the valleys and plains beneath, and from 
 that moment the river has flowed on in the channel in which we now see it. So will 
 it be with God's grace to mankind at large. Its waters shall rise, and by-and-by the 
 rocky barriers of man's sins, and all that man's sin has built up, shall be broken through 
 and broken down, and then "the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as tlie 
 waters cover the seas." The tide has never gone back ; it has been but delayed. Wise 
 and holy fatherly love is at the root of all things, and is the key which unlocks, as 
 none else will, all the problems of life. That love held his people down to the suffer- 
 ings they had to endure until the evil mind departed from them, and so it holds 
 humanity down and individual souls down to what they have to endure until they 
 be changed in the spirit of their minds. But all this while the tide of his giacious 
 purpose is rising, and soon that which hinders shall be taken out of the way. Jiidah 
 was to go into captivity, but Judah was to be " plucked out " from thence, and that is 
 but a pattern of God's dealings with us all. 
 
 II. But not only has this tide no ebb, it flows on evermobb. Not only was Judah 
 to be restored, but forgiveness and salvation are offered to her "evil neighbours" (ver. 
 14), who had done her harm. God's purpose in the election of some is not the reproba- 
 tion of the rest, but the salvation of all. " In thee and in thy seed shall all the 
 nations of the earth be blessed." The " evil neighbours " had corrupted Judah (ver. 
 16), and they had persecuted her (ver. 14) ; but now the set time to favour them also 
 had come, and salvation is offered to them (ver. 16). Thus the tide of God's grace 
 flows on evermore, and where it seemed as if it would never come. From all wliicli 
 we may learn : The redemption of the world is the purpose of God. But every nation 
 and people in their own order. The elect are the flrstfruits ; those nearest to them 
 come next. If any refuse, their national life is lost (ver. 17). But the unfaithful- 
 ness of man shall not make the faith of God of none effect. Let us take this tide at its 
 flood ; it will lead us on to life eternal. It is the " tide in the affairs of men " which 
 calls us to launch forth upon it, that it may bear us to never-ending bliss. — C. 
 
 Vers. 1 — 5. — The prophet's complaint. The writings of the prophets are often as 
 much historic as f;hey are prophetic ; historic of personal as well as national experiences, 
 of inward thoughts and emotions as of outward incidents. In tracing the current of 
 events, the writers disclose the workings of their own spirits, and in expounding and 
 
328 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xii. 1—17. 
 
 vindicating God's ways with Israel or with other nations, they indicate the method of his 
 dealings with themselves. This was singularly true of Jeremiah, and we have here a 
 striking illustration of it. This passage probably marks the time when the people of 
 his own native city of Anathoth, and even his kindred, his " brethren of the house of 
 his father," could no longer bear his faithful rebukes, and he was compelled to take 
 refuge in Jerusalem (ch. xi. 21 ; xii. 6). Consider (1) the prophet's state of mind as 
 here made manifest ; (2) the meaning and force of God's remonstrance. 
 
 I. The prophet's state of mind. It contains a singular mixture of good and evil, 
 thoughts and emotions both noble and base. So conflicting and even contradictory 
 sometimes are the voices of the truest human heart. This outburst of hostility from 
 the men of Anathoth has plunged his spirit in confusion. liike a ship checked in its 
 course, with its sails taken aback by a sudden squall, its guiding principles and powers 
 are for a while disturbed, and its balance lost. Note different elements of feeling. 1. 
 Deep perplexity. He cannot reconcile the events that are taking place and the seeming 
 prosperity of the wicked with the known rectitude of the Divine character. " Righ- 
 teous art thou, Lord ; . . . yet let me talk with thee of thy judgments," etc. Why this 
 " yet " ? If he is thus convinced of God's righteousness, why this wish to reason with 
 him? There is a conflict between unbelief and faith, between the disposition to judge 
 by sensible appearances and the desire to judge by eternal principles. And the difficulty 
 is aggravated hy the fact that the designs of the wicked seem to succeed because God 
 smiles on them. " Thou hast planted them," etc. This fact of successful wickedness 
 under the wing of a Divine Providence is the deep and awful mystery that has been 
 a source of perplexity and trouble to thoughtful men in every age. David felt the full 
 force of it (Ps. Ixxiii.). His " feet had well-nigh slipped " because of it, " until he 
 went into the sanctuary of God," and then the problem was solved. It is when we get 
 away from our carnal reasonings into the sanctuary of spiritual contemplation and the 
 realm of faith that we can alone hope to understand these things. When God's ways 
 most perplex and confound us we must keep fast hold of right thoughts about himself. 
 His judgments are a mighty deep. But as beneath the heaving, storm-tossed ocean 
 there lie great mountains of the solid world, so does God's righteousness underlie all the 
 agitations and conflicting phases of human history. Faith in that will give us rest and 
 peace. 2. The sense of his own rectitude. "But thou, Lord, kno west me," etc. This 
 is not the utterance of vain self-righteousness. A " conscience void of offence," the 
 persuasion that our purpose is pure and our hearts right with God, is never to be con- 
 founded with spiritual pride. Without a shadow of vain-glory you may know well 
 that you are better than many around you, and could not do as they do. There are 
 times in a man's history when nothing but the sense of personal rectitude can sustain 
 him. When calamity comes upon him, when he falls, perhaps, from some high position 
 and is cast forth upon the world homeless and friendless, what a bitter ingredient in his 
 cup is an accusing conscience ! On the other hand, he may defy everything to rob him of 
 his peace, and, like Job, may preserve his soul in serenity in spite of blighted ho()es and 
 withered joys, a taunting world and scornful friends, if he can say, " My witness is in 
 heaven, and my record is on high" (Job xvi. 19). 3. The spirit of revenge. " Pull them 
 out," etc. He would fain antedate the day of slaughter. This may have been an 
 unguarded, momentary outburst of impatient resentment. But it was none the lesB 
 evil and irreligious. Why was he rebuked for it if it were not wrong ? (Similar 
 examples in Moses, Elijah, Jonah, the disciples James and John.) Let us beware how 
 we take Gud's judgments into our own hands. " Vengeance belongeth unto me ; I will 
 recompense, saith the Lord " (Rom. xii. 19). Never let us speak as if the punishmeut of 
 the wicked, which is the Lord's " strange work," were regarded by us with complacency. 
 4. Human sympathy. " How long shall the land mourn," etc.? The prophet is true to 
 himself here. He grieves for the misery inflicted on the innocent by the wrono'-doin" 
 of others. The humane heart groans with the " groaning creation," and sighs for the 
 time when all shall be renewed. He who " endured the contradiction of sinners against 
 himself" teaches us to take upon ourselves, as he did, the sius and sorrows of the 
 world. 
 
 II. The Divine rbmonsteance. " If thou hast run with the footmen," etc. (For 
 explanation of these references, see Exposition.) There is extreme gentleness in this 
 rebuke. It is interesting to note how uniformly gentle the reproofs God administered 
 
CH. XII. 1—17.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 329 
 
 to the prophets were. Two things are noticeable in this remonstrance. 1. It refirs to 
 Jeremiah's want of courage, and says nothing about his mental perplexity. We are 
 reminded that the best cure for our morbid conditions of thought and feeling is that 
 we should brace up the energies of our soul to bear whatever Providence may see fit to 
 lay upon us, and valiantly to contend for the cause of truth and goodness in the face of 
 all opposition. 2. It sppaks of severer trials that are in store for him in the future. Lite 
 is for us all a course of Divine discipline, in which all lesser tests of faith and fortitude 
 are intended to prepare us for sterner conflicts and nobler victories. — W. 
 
 Vers. 1 — 4. — The prophet puzzled hy theprosperity of the wicked. I. How this puzzle 
 ABiSES. It arises from the presence of a number of facts together, the coexistence of 
 which the prophet finds it impossible to explain. 1. There is his asxurance as to the 
 character of Jehovah. He speaks confidently as to the Divine righteousness. Observe 
 how it is the thing that he starts with. All our doubts will get cleared up in the end, 
 however long the process may be, if only we start with the sure practical conviction 
 that Jehovah is, and that he is righteous. " Thy righteousness is like the great moun- 
 tains." And as one would not doubt the existence of them, so neither must one doubt 
 the righteousness of God. Jeremiah could not but become acquainted with the cha- 
 racter of one who was so constantly manifesting himself to him. Besides, there was 
 the history of Jehovah's consistent and glorious dealings in the past to fall back upon, 
 and it was presumed that Jeremiah was well acquainted with that history. If it had 
 not been so, there would have been little use in referring him to Moses and Samuel (ch. 
 XV. 1). It was no earthly governor swayed about by all sorts of motives with whom 
 Jeremiah had to deal. 2. From the ma7iifest wickedness of the wicked and their equally 
 manifest prosperity. Jeremiah has no more doubt about the character and deserts of 
 his enemies than he has about the character of his God. He speaks as if there were 
 some close connection between the wickedness and the prosperity, and as if the unscru- 
 pulous man could boast himself without contradiction being possible as to the results 
 of his audacity. It seems to the prophet as if there should be an instant and complete 
 stoppage of all this pride and deceit. 3. From some special advantages they have had 
 not of their own procuring. " Thou hast planted them." This is a way of indicating 
 that all outward circumstances favoured men when they started on their knavery. 
 They were well placed for the attainment of prosperity, and the same kind of outward 
 circumstances had continued. They had grown and brought forth fruit. It seemed 
 that if they had been planted at random, planted anywhere else, these wicked purposes 
 would have been comparatively fruitless. Probably Jeremiah's notion was that God 
 located every r\ian in his starting-place, and if so, it is easy to see how such a considera- 
 tion would increase his perplexity. 4. From, the hypocrisy of the wicked. While 
 Jeremiah sees only too plainly their wickedness, they pretend to be righteous and 
 devout and God-honouring. The name of Jehovah is, perhaps, oftener on their lips 
 than on the lips of the prophet himself. They may be full of zeal for the temple, for 
 incense, for otfering; they may even make capital by reproaching Jeremiah for his 
 utterances on these subjects (ch. vi. 20 ; vii.). 5. From the suffering they inflict on 
 the land. The wicked may prosper, and yet in their very prosperity suck away the life- 
 blood of a nation. That is no true prosperity where the rich get richer and the poor 
 get poorer. The words of the prophet suggest that there was grinding and rapacity, 
 and thus no encouragement to the tiller of the soil to do his best. Truly have the 
 fruits of the earth been called " kindly," for they are kindly to one who will diligently 
 cultivate. But no one will diligently cultivate if the fruits of his toil are to come to 
 one who reaps where he has not sown, and gathers where he has not strawed. 6. From 
 the scorn these wicked heap on the prophet himself. " They said. He shall not see our 
 last end." Of course we are not to suppose that the prophet was influenced here by 
 considerations of personal resentment. Doubtless what chiefly moved him w^s to 
 maintain his sacred work. These wicked men were like the scoffers of whom Petrr 
 speaks, walking after their own lusts, and saying, " Where is the promise of h.i 
 coming ? " 
 
 II. How THE P0ZZLB WAS TO BE DIMINISHED. By the time we reach the end of the 
 Book of Jeremiah, God's judgments on all the prosperous wicked are amply manifested. 
 When Jeremiah came to close the roll of his prophecies, and reflect on all that God had 
 
3r,0 THE BOOK OF THE TROrHET JEEBMIAH. [ch. xii. 1— IT. 
 
 said in them and done even in Jeremiah's own time and under his own eyes, and 
 when further he recollected his own hasty complaints, he would surely feel that a 
 trustful and patient waiting for the full event would have been much wiser. Perhaps 
 no prophet ever saw more of the accomplishment of his own prophecies than Jeremiah 
 did. He did see the end of those who, in their pride and fatness, liad reviled him. Let 
 us be true and faithful to what the Spirit of truth has made known to us as the will of 
 God, and everything in the way of vindication will come if we only wait. We must 
 not mistake precipitation and impetuosity for zeal. God's people have to wait for their 
 own perfection and their own reward ; they have also to wait for the execution ot 
 God's judgment against his enemies. Through all the centuries that have passed since 
 Jeremiah's complaint here, oppression and robbery have continued, and they continue 
 still. And as we think of such things, it will be well for us if we can end our thoughts 
 where Jeremiah began : " Eighteous art thou, Lord." — Y. 
 
 Vers. 7 — 11. — The inheritance that has lost its charms, I. We have here 
 BEaRETFtJL THOUGHTS OP THE PAST. We Can See what the prophet once hoped and 
 desired. Not only what he had hoped and desired in those dreams of youth before God 
 had touched his heart and claimed the service of his lips, but also what he had hoped 
 and desired since becoming a prophet. Dear as Anathoth with its inhabitants may 
 have been before, it would become dearer still when he thought of impending 
 calamities to the whole land. There are cherished objects indicated by the words 
 " house," " inheritance," and " desire of the soul." What is precisely indicated by 
 these words it is of course impossible for us to say ; but any of us, thinking for a little 
 of the objects that lie nearest to our hearts, will comprehend that the prophet is here 
 speaking of separations he had found it very hard to achieve. He did not pretend 
 that alienation from house and heritage and kindred was an easy thing. Then we must 
 bear in mind that the references here have a deeper meaning than to Jeremiah's purely 
 human relations. It is pretty well agreed that the full truth of these words is only 
 reached when we think of Jeremiah as representative of Jehovah. God's separation 
 Irom his people was the 'thing of most serious moment. God had a house ; God had 
 HU inheritance ; God had a beloved object, an object of desire (Deut. xxxii. 9). Gcd 
 had been with these people now for many centuries, and there was much to make them 
 precious in his sight. They were the seed of Abraham, the descendants of those 
 whom he had delivered from Egypt and guided through the wilderness into the laud 
 where they now dwelt. Things might have been so different, if only the people had 
 been of a different spirit. There was no necessity in the nature of things that Israel 
 should have become so idolatrous, so hostile to Jehovah, any more than there was 
 necessity that Anathoth should become a place of mortal snares and perils to the 
 prophet. What a fall there was from the triumphal march across Jordan, under 
 Joshua, to the march at the heels of a conqueror all the way from Jerusalem to 
 Babylon ! Again we say things might have been so different. That which God had 
 cherished might have become a rich' earthly manifestation of his glory. The vineyard 
 'on a fruitful hill might have become what it was intended to be — a fruitful vineyard. 
 
 II. Prudent and decisive action in present necessities. Natural affection must 
 yield to spiritual duty. Jeremiah might doubtless have kept the good will of his kins- 
 folk, such as it was worth, if only he had been able and disposed to remain silent as a 
 prophet. Happily there is no hesitation, there is no sign of its even being possible. 
 Let us seize on every record that illustrates how strong, how immovable, those become 
 who put their trust in God. The path that Jeremiah had to tread was trodden after- 
 wards by Jesus himself. His kinsfolk would have interfered with main force to stop 
 what they reckoned the vagariesof one who was beside himself; and so as far as Jesus 
 could be said to have had any abiding-places, they were in Capernaum and Bethany, not 
 in Nazareth. So with Jeremiah. He had to give up all that on earth he had any natural 
 claim to, and throw himself on God, and those who perchance might help him for the 
 sake of God. Nor was he disappointed. There is certainly no indication here of the 
 compensations that came to the prophet for his fidelity and self-denial. It is hardly 
 the place to mention them. But we do see this clearly, that when once the lower is 
 relinquished, decisively relinquished, and a higher station taken up, the lower is seen 
 to be lower. Temporal and natural relations, that count for so much when one is in the 
 
CH. XII. 1—17.] THE BOOK OP THE PEOPHET JEREMIAH. 331 
 
 midst of them, are seen then in their comparative unimportance. Let it not be supposed 
 that, after cutting off the right hand, one must of necessity wait for the fulness of life 
 eternal to get anything like compensation. The compensation begins in the very act 
 of self-sacrifice. Does not the prophet here say that what had once been so loved had 
 come to put on such a threatening, maleficent aspect that he also had come to hate it ? 
 What has had to be relinquished for Christ only leaves so much the more of opportunity 
 to grasp and to use the spii'itual wealth which is in him. — Y. 
 
 Ver. 10. — Shepherds where they oiight not to he. The words of this verse suggest a 
 degradation of the vineyard, which may have been accomplished in one of two ways. 
 The prophet may have been indicating the miseries of his country by a scene from real 
 life, a literal spoiling of a vineyard by the literal flocks of careless or unscrupulous 
 shepherds. Either a vineyard becomes neglected by its owner, and so lays itself open to 
 the inroads of a roaming flock, or the shepherd comes, and, regardless of all right, breaks 
 his way in by sheer force. In a land where there were both vineyards and flocks, nothing 
 was more likely than that the oppression of the weak by the strong should be illus- 
 trated in some such way. And when we pass to the figure, recollecting that Israel was 
 reckoned as a flock and its rulers as shepherds, then we begin to discern how these 
 rulers are once more to be blamed. Neglect is the least thing to be laid at their door ; 
 they are chargeable with even more than neglect, even with high-handedness and 
 utter lack of regard for neighbourly rights. These rulers are charged in other places 
 tor their want of fidelity in making due provision for the flock ; here, while they make 
 a sort of provision, they do it in a way which indicates how little they think of the 
 real interests of their sheep. 1. There is presented to us here a picture of two occupa- 
 tions, two possessions, both right in themselves. It is not the robber who desolates this 
 vineyard, the man to whom violence is an ordinary element. It is the shepherd, the 
 man whose work is every whit as useful and commendable in its way as that of the 
 vinedresser. God made the surface of his earth for his creatures, animate and inani- 
 mate, and there is an appointed and sufficient place for all. There are pasture-grounds 
 where the sheep may grow and by its wool provide clothing for men, and there are 
 the tillage-grounds whence come the corn, the oil, the wine, which are equally for the 
 sustenance and pleasure of men. 2. 2%e mischief which may be done by a stlfish occu- 
 pation with one's own interests. In one sense the shepherd could not be too careful 
 about his own interest. He had food to search for, his flock to keep together, wanderers 
 to restore, wild beasts to drive away. This was all very difficult, but the difficulty 
 should have taught him to look sympathetically at the interests of others. The viner 
 dresser would have in his own way as hard and anxious a life as the shepherd. There 
 are difficulties enough in human existence from things which cannot be helped. Why 
 should they be added to by the thoughtlessness of those who can be thoughtful if only 
 they care to be, unselfish if only they care to be ? A shepherd with the heart of a brother 
 in him would be doubly careful when he came near a vineyard. It was easy for his 
 heedless sheep to do a damage which, once done, no amount of regret could undo. 
 3. Heedlessness of the interests of others works to our own serious damage in the end. 
 The position of these kings of Israel and Judah had to be set forth by more than one 
 image. Their people had to be looked at in the aspect of a flock and of a vineyard, 
 and so indeed each one of us has to look at his own life in more aspects than one. A 
 narrow, one-sided view is ruinous ; it may have temporary advantages, but they are soon 
 gone, and then the full folly of short-sightedness will appear. These kings lived a 
 self-indulgent life, and gathered round them a favoured few, whom they enriched and 
 pampered in like manner. Meanwhile the land was suffering from oppression and 
 injustice, and these great ones advancing to an overthrow, the completeness of which 
 would be intensified by the remembrance of past follies. That is the truly prudent 
 man who is always looking beneath the surface and beyond the present. To find an 
 easy, ready-to-hand way out of present difficulties may be the surest way of making 
 future difficulties altogether unmanageable. — Y. 
 
 Ver. 13. — Sowing wheat and reaping thorns. It is true that " whatsoever a man 
 soweth, that shall he also reap." It is also true that " men cannot gather grapes of 
 thorns, or figs of thistles." And at the same time it is emphatically true that men may 
 
332 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xli. 1—17. 
 
 BOW wheat and yet reap thorns. The contradiction is only on the surface ; it suggests 
 inquiry, and the further the inquiry is continued, the more it is seen what serious truth 
 is contained in the prophet's statement. Consider, then, the statement in two aspects. 
 
 I. As SHOWING THAT MEN DO NOT EBAP WHAT THEY HAVE SOWN. They SOW wheKt. 
 
 It is surely not to a mere semMance of wheat-sowing that the prophet here refers. It 
 is true that men sow unconsciously the seeds of misery, of a bitter and shameful 
 harvest, the gathering of which they cannot escape. It is true that the men who con- 
 sult present pleasure and the present appearances of things are every day sowing evil 
 seed, without having the least suspicion that they are sowing at all. It is even true 
 that men may be so led away by errors of education, or habits receive'd by mere tra- 
 mtion, as to go on all life through in what they suppose to be right, but which never- 
 theless is utterly wrong. All this, however, is rather to be classed under the sowing 
 of tares which are like wheat. The prophet is here dealing with the sowing of some- 
 thing really good, and something capable of truly satisfactory results. The truth he 
 would indicate is more fully set forth in our Lord's parable of the four different kinds 
 of seed. The seed which the sower went forth to sow was all good seed. The seed 
 ■which fell in the good ground was not one whit better than what fell by the wayside. 
 AVe see, therefore, that a large part of good seed is not reaped. Just according to the 
 area comprised by the terms " trodden ground," " stony ground," and " thorny ground," 
 is there force in the statement that wheat has been sown, and yet wheat not reaped. 
 The prophet's reference is to the great, unquestionable, and peculiar privileges of Israel. ' 
 The Lord had not dealt with any nation as he had dealt with Israel. Other nations 
 had found rising up amongst them men of genius and worldly wisdom and originating 
 power ; but no other nation of antiquity shows in its history any man like a Moses, a 
 iSamuel, oj: a David, or even the very least of the prophets. We look upon Israel, 
 therefoi'e, as representative of all who have enjoyed abundance of religious privileges, of 
 those whose early days have been in the midst of religious instructions and associations. 
 Yet out of this very class the worldliest of the worldly have come. For all the truth 
 that has been bountifully sown not one stalk of result is to be seen. Mark that what 
 io to be first noticed is the negation of good results. Is it not a sad thing that one 
 should have to read first of all of so much Divine truth coming down from lieaven, so 
 many glorious revelations, so many angelic visits, so many inspired prophets and 
 witnesses, and then, on the other hand, of so little manifest result in regenerated and 
 purified human lives ? 
 
 II. As SHOWING THAT MEN EBAP WHAT THEY HAVE NOT SOWN. Thoms, of COUrse, 
 
 could not be reaped unless thorns were planted, but no one would deliberately plant 
 thorns. That would be to .say, at the very beginning of one's possibilities of choice, 
 " Evil, be thou my good." But the heart of man, rich, deep, inexhaustible ground as 
 it is, has come under a curse of which Gen. iii. 18 is but a shadowy suggesti'-n. The 
 vicious willingness of the ground to bring forth thorns and thistles every husbandman 
 knows full well. Ch. iv. 3 needs to be borne in mind : " Sow not among thorns." Men 
 shrink from the toil and suffering needful to uproot the false and the injurious, and 
 still more difficult do they find the watchfulness and determination which would pre- 
 vent thorns from getting hold at all ; and yet it is perfectly certain that thorns, allowed 
 to continue, will in time destroy anything like abiding fruit from the good seed. Noie 
 the important difference between the tares and the thorns. The wheat and the tares 
 grow together till the harvest; then the tares are easily separated and burnt. 'I'lie 
 perfected wheat is as easily separated and garnered. But the thorns choke the wheat, 
 and there is never any real gathering at all. Wheat that does not reach maturity is 
 worth nothing as wheat. It cannot be put into the garner. Hence the keeping dawn 
 of the thorns is every whit as important as the pushing forward of the wheat, if the 
 negative conditions are neglected, the jiositive conditions are nullified. Israel was now, 
 as we see, sunk in the filthiest abominations of idolatry. But it had come to this through 
 a long neglect of the most earnest warnings. Note in particular Numb, xxxiii. 55, " If 
 ye will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you ; then it shall come 
 to pass, that those which ye let remain of them shall be pricks in your eyes, and tliorns 
 in your sides." The idolatry of , Israel was a far worse thing than the idolatry of the 
 heathen; just as a neglected garden overrun with weeds and briars is worse than a 
 weedy and briery corner of the wilderness (Lev. xxvi. 16 ; Deut. xxviii. 38 — 40 ; Micah 
 vi. 15 ; Hag. i. 6).— Y. 
 
ciT. xni. 1—27.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 
 
 EXPOSITION. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 The chapter falls into two parts — the one 
 describing a divinely commanded action of 
 the prophet, symbolical of the approachini; 
 rejection of the Jewish people, the other 
 announcing in literal language the ruin 
 especially of the king and the queen-mother, 
 and emphasizing the inveterate corruption 
 which rendered such a blow necessary. The 
 mentiou of the queen-mother (see ver. 18) 
 renders it probable that Jehoiachiu is the 
 king under whom the prophecy was com- 
 posed. It is true that other kings besides 
 Jehoiachin ascended the throne in the life- 
 time of their mother ; but the express and 
 repeated mention of tlie queen-mother in the 
 account of Jehoiachin (2 Kings xxiv. 12, 
 15; comp. ch. xxix. 2; xxii. 26) warrants 
 the inference that Nehushta, Jehoiachin's 
 mother, was a more powerful personage than 
 other queen-mothers. This will be con- 
 firmed if, with Hitzig and Bertheau, we 
 accept the statement of the text of the 
 Chronicles (2 Ghron. xxxvi. 9), that Jehoia- 
 chin was eight (not eighteen) years old 
 on his accession (see on ch. xxii. 28). 
 
 Vers. 1 — 11. — The entire people of the 
 Jews is like a good-for-nothing apron. 
 
 Ver. 1. — A linen, girdle ; rather, a linen 
 apron. " Girdle " is one of the meanings of 
 the Hebrew ('ezor), but is here unsuitable. 
 As ver. 11 shows, it is an inner garment that 
 is meant, one that " cleaveth to tlie loins of 
 a man " (in fact, the Trepi^a/ia of the Septua- 
 gint, the lumbare of the Vulgate). The 
 corresponding Arabic word, 'izdr, has, accord- 
 ing to Lane, the menning of •' waist-wrapper." 
 Israel was to Jehovah in as close a relation 
 spiritually as that in which the inner gar- 
 ment referred to is to him who wears it 
 materially. There is an Arabic proverb 
 which well illustrates this : " He is to me in 
 place of an 'izdr" (Freytag, ' Studium der 
 Arab. Sprache,' p. 298). " A linen apron " 
 may perhaps be specified, because linen was 
 the material of the priestly dress (Lev. xvi. 
 4), and Israel was to be spiiitually " a king- 
 dom of priests." But this is not absolutely 
 necessary. The common man used linen in 
 his dress as well as the priest; the only 
 difference between them was that the priest 
 was contined to linen garments. But an 
 " apron " would in any case naturally be 
 made of linen. Linen; literally, flax (a 
 
 product of Judah, Hos. ii. 5). Put it not in 
 water. Tlie object of the prohibition is well 
 slated by St. Jerome. It was at once to 
 symliolize the chnructtr of the people of 
 Israel, stiff and impure, like unwashed linen, 
 and to suggest the fate in store for it 
 (ver. 9). 
 
 Vers, i — 6. — After Jeremiah has woni the 
 aprim for some time, he is directed to take it 
 to P'rath, and hide it tliere iu a cleft (not 
 " hole ") of the rook. A long interval 
 elapses, and he is commanded to make a 
 second journey to the same place, and letch 
 away tlie apron. What docs this P'ralk 
 mean? It is by no means easy to decide. 
 Hardly "the Euphrates," (1) because tlie 
 common prefix, " the river," is wanting, 
 though in so extraordinary a narrative it was 
 peculiarly needed ; (2) because of the length 
 of the journey to Babylonia, which has ex 
 hyp. to be made twice; and (3) becausa 
 the Euphrates is not a rocky river. Ewald 
 suggested that " some wet place near Jeru- 
 Sitlem " probably hail the name of P'rath, 
 and indicates a valley and spring calhd 
 Forah, about six English miles north-east nf 
 Jerusalem. Mr. Birch appears to have hit 
 independently on the same spot, which he 
 identities with the Parah of Jush. xviii. 23, 
 about three miles north-east of Anatliotli, 
 and describes as a picturesque gorge between 
 savage rocks, with a oopinus stream {Quar- 
 terly Stateinent of the Palestine JCxpluratiun 
 Fund, October, ISSU, p. 230). Tliis com- 
 bination, however, involves an emendation of 
 the text (P'rath into Parah) — logically it 
 involves this, as Mr. Birch has seen ; Ewald's 
 comparison of the Arabic furdt, sweet water, 
 seems inconsistent with his reference t) 
 Parah — for which there does not seem 
 to be sufficient necessity ; and it is better 
 to adopt the view of the great old 
 French Protestant scholar, Bochart, th.it 
 P'rath is a shortened form of Ephrath, i.r. 
 at once Bethlehem and the district in which 
 Bethlehem lay (see 1 Chron. ii. 50 ; iv. 4 ; aud 
 perhaps Ps. cxxxii. 6). It need hardly be 
 said tijat the limestone hills of this region 
 afforded abundance of secluded rocks, 'i'liere 
 may, of course, be at the same timeanallusiou 
 to the ordinary meaning of P'rath, viz. 
 Euphrates, on the analogy of the allusion in 
 Isa. xxvii. 12. Those who hold the view 
 here rejected, that P'rath is equivalent 
 to the Euphrates, sometimes suppose that 
 the narrative is a parable or symbolical 
 fiction, such as Luther, Calvin, aud otheis 
 find in Hos. i., iii., the thing signified 
 being in this case the carrying captive of 
 the people to Uabylou ; aud this sceius tho 
 
334 
 
 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [oh. xiii. 1—27. 
 
 best way of making this interpretation 
 plausible. 
 
 Ver. 6. — After many days. To allow time 
 for the apron to become rotten. 
 
 Ver. 7. — I went . . . and digged. The 
 apron, then, had been covered with a thick 
 layer of earth. 
 
 Vers. 8 — 11. — Explanation of the symbol. 
 Conld there be a greater humiliation for 
 Judah and Jerusalem than to be compared 
 to a rotting linen apron ? The hard things 
 said of this evil people in ver. 10 must of 
 course be understood with the limitations 
 indicated in the njte on ch. ix. 15, 16. 
 Imagination should (as usual) be etuhbornness. 
 The explanation in ver. 11 is a strong argu- 
 ment for the rendering " apron " (see above, 
 on ver. 1). 
 
 Vers. 12 — 14. — ^Here another symbol is 
 introduced — a symbolic phrase rather than 
 a symbolic action. The first symbol referred 
 to tlie people as a whole ; the second repre- 
 tents the fate of the individual members of 
 tlie people. The words, Thus saith the Lord 
 God of Israel, are omitted in the Septuagint, 
 and certainly the form of the following 
 phrase seems hardly worthy of so solemn an 
 introduction. Every bottle. It is an earth- 
 enware bottle, or pitcher, which seems from 
 ver. 13 to be meant (comp. Isa. xxx. 14), 
 though the Septuagint renders here Ainccfj. 
 The kings that sit npon David's throne; 
 rather, that sit for David upon his throne ; i.e. 
 as David's heirs and successors. The plural 
 "kings" is to include all the kings who 
 reigned during the final period of impending 
 ruin. With drunkenness. The effeol of the 
 " wine-cup of [the Divine] fury " (ch. xxv. 
 15). Sash them one against another. "This 
 is merely the development of the figure of 
 the pitchers ; not a prediction of civil war. 
 The pitchers, when cast down, must of course 
 fall together into pieces. 
 
 Vers. 15 — 19. — An admonition to seize 
 upon the only means of escape. 
 
 Ver. IG. — Give glory, etc. Let your tribute 
 to your King be that of humble submission 
 to his will. The precise application of the 
 phrase must be derived from the context 
 (comp. Josh. vii. 19 ; Mai. ii. 2). Upon the 
 dark mountains ; rather, npon mountains of 
 twilight. A " mountain " is an image of a 
 great obstacle (Zech. iv. 7 ; Matt. xxi. 21). 
 As Judah is walking along, the hitlierto 
 even tenor of his way gives place to huge 
 mountains wrapt in an impenetrable dusk, 
 over which he will stumble and fall if he 
 does not repent in time. 
 
 Ver. 17. — Should all admonitions be in 
 vain, Jeremiah will return (like Samuel, 1 
 Sam. XV. 35) and give vent to his sorrowful 
 emotion. The Lord's flook. Jehovah is 
 likened to a shepherd (comp. Zech. x. 3). 
 Ver. 18. — The extent of the calamity 
 
 shown in individual instances. For tho 
 fulfilment, see 2 Kings xxiv. 15. After a 
 reign of three months, the young prince and 
 his mother were carried to Babylon. And to 
 the qneen ; rather, and to the queen-mofhp.r 
 (literally, the mistress). It will be noticed 
 that, except in two cases, the names of the 
 mothers of the reigning kings of Judah are 
 scrupulously mentioned in the Books of 
 Kings. This and the title of " mistress " 
 are indications of the high rank they enjoyed ' 
 in the social system. In the case of Asa, 
 we are told that he removed his mother, 
 Maachah, from her position as " mistress," 
 or queen-mother, on account of her idolatry 
 (1 Kings XV. 13). The political value of 
 the station is strikingly shown by the ease 
 with which Athaliah, as queen-mother, 
 usurped the supreme authority (2 Kings 
 xi.). From an historical point of view, 
 the " queen-mother " of the Jews is a most 
 interesting personage; she is a relic of the 
 primitive age in which relationship was 
 reckoned with regard to the mother (so with 
 the Accadians, Etruscans, Finns, etc.). It 
 should be added, however, that once (viz. 1 
 Kings xi. 19) the same title, " mistress," is 
 applied to the queen-consort. Humble your- 
 selves, sit down ; rather, sit down in abase- 
 ment ; i.e. take the station suitable for your 
 abased circumstances (comp. Isa. xlvii. 1). 
 Tour principalities ; rather, your head- 
 ornaments. 
 
 Ver. 19. — The rendering of the Authorized 
 Version is substantially right, as the events 
 referred to are obviously future. The tense, 
 however, in the Hebrew, is the perfect — viz. 
 that of prophetic certitude. Jeremiah sees 
 it all in prophetic vision, as if it were actually 
 taking place. The cities of the south; i.e. 
 of the dry, southern country of Judah, called 
 the Negeb — shall be [are] shut up — i.e. 
 blocked up with ruins (as Isa. xxiv. 10) — 
 and none shall open them (openeth them), 
 because all Judah will have been carried 
 captive. (For fulfilment, see ch. xxxiv. 7.) 
 
 Vers. 20, 21.— The captivity being still (iu 
 spite of the perfect tense) a thing of the 
 future, the prophet can seek to awaken the 
 conscience of the careless under-shepherd by 
 siiowing how self-caused is his (or rather 
 her) punishment. 
 
 Ver. 20. — Lift up your eyes. The verb is 
 fem. sing., the pronoun (in suiHx form) masc. 
 plu., — a clear indication that the person 
 addressed is a collective. Probably the 
 " dau;;hter of Zion " is intended, which, in 
 a certain sense, might be called the " shep- 
 herd " or leader of the rest of the nation. 
 From the north. Again this horror of the 
 north as the source of calamity (see on ch. 
 i. 14). 
 
 Ver. 21.— What wilt thou say, etc. ? The 
 rendering of the verse is uncertain, though 
 
CH. XIII. 1—27.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 
 
 335 
 
 the Authorized Version undoubtedly re- 
 quires correction. 'Jhe alternatives are, 
 What wilt thou fay lohen he ehall appoint 
 over thee {but thou thyself hast trained 
 them against thee) familiar friends as thy 
 head 1 and. What wilt thou say wlten he sltall 
 appoint over thee those lohom thou hast tamiht 
 to be thy familiar friends as thy head 1 The 
 rendering " familiar friends " is justified by 
 Ps. Iv. 13 ; Prov. xvi. 28 ; xvii. 9 ; Micah vii. 
 6. The "captains" of Authorized Version, 
 or rather " tribal chiefs," is unsuitable. 
 
 Ver. 22. — Thy heels made bare; rather, 
 treated with violence. The fate held out to 
 the daughter of Zion (trained to walk about 
 with " tinkling ornaments," Isa. ii. 18) is to 
 plod wearily along with bare feet (comp. Isa. 
 xlvii. 1). 
 
 Ver. 24.— As the stubble. "The word 
 means not what we call stubble, but the 
 broken straw which had to be separated 
 from the wheat after the corn had been 
 trampled out by the oxen. Sometimes it 
 was burnt as useless ; at other times left to 
 be blown away by the wind coming from 
 the desert, on which see oh. iv. 11 ; Job 1. 
 JO" (Payne Smitli). 
 
 Ver. 25 — The portion of thy measures ; i.e. 
 thy measured portion. But it ia probably 
 
 safer to render, the portion of thy garment, 
 the upper garment being userl instead of a 
 bag to hold anytliing (comp. Buth iii. 15; 
 2 Kings iv. 39). In falsehood ; i.e. in false 
 gods (ch. xvi. 19). 
 
 Ver. 26. — Therefore will I, etc. But the 
 Hebrew is much more forcilde, "And I 
 also," etc., implying, as Calvin remarks 
 (comp. Prov. i. 26), a certain retaliation. 
 Vpon thy face ; an allusion to Nah. iii. 5. 
 
 Ver. 27. — I have seen, etc. The Hebrew 
 is again more forcible than the English. It 
 runs, " Thine adulteries nnd tliy neighings," 
 etc. I (this is an exclamation as it were ; then 
 more reileetively), " I have seen thine abomi- 
 nations." Neighings; i.e. passionate craving 
 for illegitimate objects of worship (comp. ch. 
 ii. 24, 25 ; v. 8). In the fields. The Hebrew 
 has the singular. The "field," as usual, 
 means the open country. Wilt thou not, 
 etc. ? rather. How long yet ere thou be made 
 clean? In ver. 23 the prophet had vehemently 
 declared his people to be incorrigible. But, 
 like the tender Hosea, he cannot continue 
 to hold such gloomy thoughts ; surely Israel, 
 God's people, must eventually be " made 
 clean " 1 But this can only be as the result 
 of judicial affliction, and these afflictions 
 will be no slight or transient ones. 
 
 HOMILETICS. 
 
 Vers. 1 — 11. — The spoiled girdle. I. God's people aee like a girdle to God. 
 1. They are his peculiar property. The girdle is a private personal possession. It 
 belongs solely to the wearer. When all ordinary property is taken from him he retains 
 the clothes on his body. Even the bankrupt has a right to these. 2. They are near 
 to Ood. This girdle — really an under-garment — is close to tlie person of the wearer. 
 God does not simply hold his people as an absentee landlord holds his property. He 
 draws them near to himself. He cherishes them with affection, sustains the burden of 
 them, carries them with him in his glorious out-going to works of wonder and mercy 
 and in his blessed in-coming to Divine peace and sabbatic repose. 3. They are a glory 
 to Ood. (Ver. II.) Garments are worn, not only for clothing, but to add grace and 
 beauty. God's people are more than safe with him ; they are glorious. It is true that 
 they have no inherent grace which they can add to the splendour of God, but they can 
 adorn that splendour by reflecting it, as the clouds which gird about the rising sun 
 seem to increase its beauty by reflecting its own rich rays. 4. They are required to 
 cleave to Ood. God graciously takes his people near to himself; yet they must volun- 
 tarily bind themselves to him in love, in devotion, in submission, in obedience. 
 
 II. God's people, in their sin, are like a girdle defiled akd unwashed. 
 1. Jeremiah was forbidden to put the girdle in water (ver. 1). Whilst living in this 
 world the best men daily contract stains of sin ; but God has provided a fountain for 
 cleansing, and by daily penitence and faith in his purifying grace the soul may be 
 made and preserved pure (Zech. xiii. 1). As all have sinned and do sin, all need this 
 constant cleansing. To neglect it is to become increasingly foul and unfit for the 
 honour that God bestows upon his people. 2. This corruption is manifest (1) in 
 neglect of the will of God — " they refuse to hear my words ; " (2) in wilful obstinacy— 
 they "walk in the stubbornness of their heart;" (3) in positive disobedience and 
 impurity — ^they " they walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them ; " 
 (4) in inveterate impenitence — they " would not hear." 
 
 III. The punishment of God's sinful people is like the spoiling of the girdle. 
 
33G THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xiii. 1—27. 
 
 1. They are cast off. The unwashed girdle can be worn no longer. In their holiness 
 God's people were his glory; in their defilement they are his dishonour. God can 
 endure the presence of nothing impure (Heb. xii. 14). 2. They are left to their own 
 increasing defilement. The unwashed garment is buried, and becomes only worse. 
 The most terrible punishment of sin is to be left to sin unchecked. Vice then becomes 
 ingrained — a second nature. 3. They are disfionoured. The girdle is visibly marred 
 with the earth in which it is buried. Internal impurity is punished with external 
 shame. Punishment is appropriate to guilt. Pride is chastised by humiliation. 4. 
 Though their sin may be hidden for a time, it will be revealed at last. The girdle is 
 buried only to be exhumed. The longer it was buried the worse must have been its 
 condition when it was again exposed to view. The corruption of the heart cannot be 
 ultimately concealed ; it must reveal itself in the life. In the resurrection-life, wherein 
 the body is spiritual and fits truly and expresses clearly the soul that inhabits it, the 
 foul soul will be compelled to inhabit a foul body. 5. They are rendered worthless. 
 The girdle is utterly spoiled — profitable fur nothing. Sin not only dishonours, it 
 destroys. The girdle becomes rotten. As dirt rots a garment, so sin rots a soul. It not 
 only makes it foul and hideous, but it destroys its faculties and energies, degrades its 
 essential nature, and introduces the corruption of death (Jas. i. 15). 
 
 Vers. 12 — 14. — The parable of the wine-flagons. I, The peoud are like winb- 
 FLAGONS. Jeremiah is thinking chiefly of the aristocracy of his nation (ver. 13) and 
 their pride (ver. 17). The metaphor, therefore, specially designates the proud. These 
 are swelled-out and pretentious, but not solid, and do not contain anything good of 
 their own. They are brittle. Pride is itself a source of danger (Prov. xvi. 18). 
 
 II. The wrath of God is like FBRMENiEra wine. It is a disturbing influence, 
 breaking in upon the quiet of self-complacency. The more its natural tendency to 
 reduce us to repentance is suppressed by pride, the more terribly will its presence 
 agitate us. The larger the flagon, the more wine will it contain ; the greater the rank, 
 the greater the trouble when universal retribution comes. The more empty the flagou, 
 the more wine will it contain; so the less of real solid worth there is in a man's 
 life, the more room will there be for the exercise of Divine wrath against his wretched 
 condition. 
 
 III. The effect of the wrath op God on the proud is like the rolling op 
 wiNE-FLAQONS FILLED WITH FERMENTING WINE. The flagons are imagined to be drunken, 
 and to behave as drunken men would behave. In this condition they exemplify the 
 state of those into whom God has poured the vials of his wrath. This does not simply 
 work in them, leaving their exterior undisturbed. Spiritual though it is, it affects the 
 whole life. We cannot escape the effect of God's anger by ignoring spiritual facts and 
 living in the outside, worldly life alone. This and all our experience will be disturbed. 
 The flagons strike one another. Companions in the pleasures of sin become mutual 
 enemies in the punishment of it. Moral corruption leads to social discord. Civil war 
 is one of the greatest calamities which can overtake a nation, and when this arises, not 
 from any contention for right or liberty, but from the outburst of wild passions, selfish 
 greed, etc., it is doubly destructive. In such an event wickedness becomes its own 
 executioner. 
 
 Ver. 16. — Darkness. I. Sm plunges the soul into darkness. "Light is 
 sown for the righteous " (Ps. xcvii. 11). The darkness of evil thoughts and an evil will 
 throws its shadow out on the world, and ultimately brings gloom over the whole of life. 
 1. This darkness is distressing. The benipihted feel a horror of great darkness fallintr 
 upon them amid the wild and lonely mountains. When God withdraws the sunshine 
 of his grace this mournful condition must be the experience of the godless. 2. It is 
 confusing. They " stumble upon the twilight mountains." Without God we have no 
 true guide in life. There are mountains of difficulty to be overcome in our earthly 
 pilgrimage, steep and toilsome and dangerous. How dreadful to venture unenlightened 
 and unguided through such pathless wilds! If the life were to be spent in a paradise, 
 it would be sad to dwell amidst its beauties in perpetual gloom ; but, seeinf that it is 
 a pilgrimage over the mountains, it is fearful to be left in darkness. °3. It will 
 grow into deeper darkness. At first it is a twilight. Some hope that this is the 
 
CH. XIII. 1—27.] THE BOOK OF THE PKOPHET JEREMIAH. 337 
 
 herald of the dawn; hut they are mistaken — it is the portend of the nis;ht. The 
 mingled lights and shadows will melt into the blackness of midnight. The mixed 
 joys and sorrows, hopes and fears, of this life, which some sanguine souls suppose to be 
 the worst condition they will be in, and likely to give place to rest and joy hereafter, 
 will end to the sinner in the terrible darkness of a much worse future retribution. 
 4. The present light is no guarantee that the darkness is not approaching. The 
 brightest day may be followed by the blackest night. 
 
 II. The prospect of this darkness should warn men to avert it. 1. It is not 
 inevitable. It has not yet come. There is still time to escape. If there were no 
 remedy, all warnings would be useless. The very utterance of warnings implies that 
 the terrors to which they refer may be avoided. 2. The contemplation of its 
 approaching advent should urge men to seek an escape. The prospect is gloomy, and 
 many will not face a gloomy prospect. They dislike allusions to unpleasant subjects. 
 But it is necessary to contemplate such sad truths, that men may be roused by 
 selfish fear when they will not be moved by the love of God. 8. The way of escape is 
 to be found in " giving glory to God." It is returning from rebellion to the service 
 of God, humbling ourselves, rejecting the pride which clings to the old sin, and 
 regarding God alone as worthy of honour, and so submitting to his will and obeying 
 his commands as to glorify him by our acts. To the Christian all this is implied 
 in faith in Christ which involves the humbling of ourselves before him, and our trust 
 in his grace which glorifies his love, and loyalty to his will which honours his rights of 
 royalty. 
 
 Ver. 18. — Royalty humbled. 1. God is the JunaB of kings. They are as far 
 beneath God as are the meatiest beggars. Their rank is no protection against the 
 execution of Divine justice ; their power no security against the consequences of the 
 wrath of God. No earthly honour or power will serve men when they stand before 
 the great throne of judgment. 
 
 II. Wicked kings will meet with sbvebb punishment. The greater the privileges 
 they have had, the more have they been able to abuse them, and therefore the greater 
 their guilt. The larger their influence has been, the more harm have they done iu 
 usinc; that influence lor evil purposes. All who are entrusted with exceptional power 
 should remember that this incurs exceptional responsibility. 
 
 III. The pride of kikgs will be punished with humiliation. Every sin will 
 have its appropriate retribution. " Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap," 
 not only in the main characteristics, but in particular features. Pride thus naturally 
 sows the seed of shame (Prov. xxix. 23). 
 
 IV. The greatness of the present prosperity or wicked kings will enhance 
 the suffering of their future retribution. They who stand highest can fall 
 lowest. Fjverty is felt more keenly by people who were once in affluence than by 
 the children of the poor. The memory of his former luxuries must have added keen- 
 ness to the sufferings of Dives in Hades. We are not to infer from this that future 
 retribution is only a compensation for the inequality of the joys and sorrows of this life, 
 that kings will suffer for their very greatness (for the wicked poor will be wretched here- 
 after, while the good and great will be blessed in the future with heavenly treasures), 
 but that if we are unfaithful, the measure of future distress will necessarily bb partly 
 determined by that of present enjoyment. We need not, therefore, be envious of the 
 prosperity of the wicked. Bather it should fill us with horror, grief, and pity as we 
 consider what a fool's paradise they live in — what anguish will grow out of the contrast 
 of it with the certain retribution of all sin ! 
 
 Ver. 23. — The Ethiopian's skin and the leopard's spots. I. Sn? becomes inherent 
 IN THE NATURE OF MEN. The black of the Ethiopian's skin and the spots of the 
 leopard are natural. Sin is, of course, originally unnatural. Yet it is so ingrafted into 
 the very life of men that it becomes part of their nature. 1. Men inherit tendencies to 
 evil ; e.g. the child of the drunkard is likely to feel strong temptation to intemperance, 
 etc. We are not to blame for what we inherit ; but we do suffer through it. The 
 degraded moral nature is a fact, and one for which the possessor of it suffers, although 
 he will not be responsible for it, nor punished simply for having it, but only for the 
 
 JEREMIAH. 2 
 
338 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [oh. xiii. 1- 
 
 way in which, with his free-will, he yields to it, and, on his own account, makes it 
 still more coiTUiit. 2. Men /wWuaie themselves to sin. Habit is second nature. Ihe 
 sin which is wilfully chosen becomes a tyrannous habit. We are colourmg our very 
 being by the tone of our thoughts and actions. What we do to-day, that we will be 
 to-morrow. We are the result of our own past deeds. He who speaks or acts a lie 
 becomes a liar ; he who indulges in impurity becomes an unclean being ; he who follows 
 selfish impulses becomes a creature of selfishness. Thus every man is building up a 
 habitation for his soul by his own deeds. What shall this house be? A temple of 
 divinity? a palace of pure delights? a charnel-house of corruption? or a prison of 
 gloom ? 
 
 11. This inherent condition of sin makes it impossible fob ant man to irbadi- 
 CATE IT. 1. Self-reformation is impossible. Sin is not a mere defilement to be washed 
 I'ft'. It is ingrained. It is in the blood, in the life, in the nature. Action is according 
 to character. If the character is corrupt, so must be the action. It is true we are 
 free to do as we will, but so long as our nature is corrupt we shall will to do evil, 
 because the will is part of the nature. But apart from the vexed question of the 
 fi-eedom of the will, every man is conscious of the difficulty of overcoming opposing 
 habits, even when his will is roused against them. When he would do good evil is pre- 
 sent with him, and this evil is so strong that it can only be regarded as a law of (corrupted) 
 nature (Rom. vii. 21 — 'i'i). 2. Perfect reformation must be sought from Ood. This 
 must be regeneration (John iii. 3). Man can do much with himself, but only God can 
 " cieate " in him " a clean heart " and make him " a new creature." Therefore, to be bom 
 asjain, we must be born " from above." Regeneration must be the work cf the Spirit, 
 •which is the brooding source of all life. But this is possible for all (Matt. xix. 26). 
 The impossibility for self-reformation should not leave us in sullen indifference, but 
 should rouse us to seek the one sure means of renewal in crucifixion of the old life and 
 s|iiritual resurrection to a new life, through yielding ourselves up to the influence of the 
 grace of God in Christ Jesus. 
 
 HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. 
 
 Vers. 1 — 11. — The marred girdle. This and the following emblem are intended to 
 symbolize the characters and punishment of pride in spiritual and carnal men 
 respectively. The "girdle" of linen cloth worn by the priest represents the close 
 relation of Judah and Jerusalem to Jehovah. He had chosen them, and taken them 
 into closest fellowship. They were as his cincture to declare his character and glory to 
 men. But they had abused his confidence. For them, therefore, the fate was reserved 
 which is described in connection with the girdle. Where the cleft of the rook was, 
 in Ephrath or Euphrates, is not quite plain ; but the probability is that the last- 
 mentioned is really meant, and that a journey to it was indeed made by the prophet. 
 
 1. The dignity and ideal chaeaotek op God's people thus set forth. The linen 
 girdle worn by the priests was a portion of their appointed and consecrated garments. 
 It represented, therefore, the idea of consecration arising from nearness and closeness. 
 They were highly favoured amongst the nations as being brought into immediate rela- 
 tion with Jehovah. "As the girdle cleaveth to the loins of a man, so have I caused to 
 cleave unto me the whole house of Israel, and the whole house of Judah, saith the 
 Lord " (ver. 11). And as the girdle, by bracing the body, becomes a means of strength, 
 so Israel was to be the power of God amongst the nations of the world. They were to 
 1 (• IS kings and priests before God, to show forth his righteousness and to execute his 
 will. 
 
 iJ. The condition upon which these have to be maintained. Simply because 
 they had been so designed in the eternal purpose. They had no security for this position 
 being retained. It would not do for them to rely upon prestige. With spiritual 
 strength relaxed and moral purity lost, they were no longer fit for the honourable 
 Kervice to which they had been called. It was only as their spiritual life rose to the 
 height of their calling, and maintained itself from age to age by means of Divine truth 
 and continual exercise of faith, that they could expect to retain their privileges. But 
 Uiis Kraol was far from seeing. She required, therefore, to bo taught the ti \ith of it by 
 
CH. XIII. 1—27.] THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 339 
 
 experience, and nothing would do this better than that which the symbol suggested. 
 Their outward circumstances and position would be made to correspond with their 
 inward character, so that all men, and even they themselves, would cease to be deceived. 
 This is ever the order of the Divine government. He will set our secret sins in the 
 light of his countenance. 
 
 III. The messenger of God should spabe no effort to embody and enforce the 
 TBUTH HE HAS TO DECLABE. Whether Ephrath in Israel or Euphrates was meant, a 
 journey of considerable length had to be taken, and much trouble was involved. But 
 the prophet did not grudge this if thereby he might appeal through the imagination 
 the more forcibly to the heart of his people. So sometimes ancient prophets had to 
 submit to themselves being made signs that were spoken against. There can be no 
 question that the manner adopted by the prophet of illustrating his message was most 
 effective and striking. And it was clear even to the simplest understanding. An illus- 
 trative style of discourse is carefully to be distinguished from a florid one; and anything 
 which conveys more vivid impressions to one's self is more likely to add impressive- 
 ness and vivid force to what one has to say to others. This going to Euphrates 
 on the part of the prophet was quite an important business, but it was justified by its 
 result. And so preachers should spare no pains to link the truth of God with the 
 actions, the experiences, and the interests of men. — M. 
 
 Vers. 12, 15. — Broken pitchers; or, worldly sufficiency and its punishment. I. The 
 SIGNS of this DISPOSITION. The threatenings of God are interpreted as if they had 
 been truisms of blessing justified by the unbelievers' own experience. The prophet is 
 therefore despised, and his message wrested from its original meaning. The people 
 were so oblivious to their own guilt that they looked forward without fear to the 
 future, or they professed to do so. They had clothed themselves in triple armour of 
 self-sufficiency against Divine warnings. So the worldly mind continually prophecies 
 good for itself instead of evil, and inverts the messages of Divine grace. The sharpest 
 experiences and most signal reverses are not enough to rid it of this folly, and thereb}' 
 it condemns itself. 
 
 II. How IT IS DEALT WITH BY GoD. That this is provoking to the Divine mind is 
 evident. It is a fresh element added, to the guilt already denounced. The insult to 
 the messenger of God must be avenged, and this is accomplished: 1. By removing all 
 ambiyuity from his wards. Their real meaning is explained so that no one can mistake 
 it. In this pointed disillusion there is the greater emphasis imparted to the original 
 message. God will not suffer any one to remain in ignorance of his final destiny, 
 whether it be good or evil. 2. The doom already predicted is repeated with expressions 
 of Divine determination and avger. Civil discord and national destruction are plainly 
 set forth, and whilst these take place the ear of an offended God is turned away. He 
 will " not pity, nor spare, nor have mercy, but destroy them." 
 
 III. It is well, therbfobe, for men to give reverent heed to Divine warnings 
 AND instructions. Sometimes in the history of the Church omens, dreams, and 
 visions have been given whose meaning was not clear, but on prayerful solicitation it 
 has been revealed. Wilful blindness cannot escape punishment, because it provokes 
 the just anger of God. But to those who ask in humble inquiry what the will of the 
 Lord may be, he will return a gracious answer, and declare how the evil may be 
 averted.^ — M. 
 
 ■ Ver. 16. — Days of grace and how they should he fpent. The mind of the prophet was 
 full of the doom which he had predicted, and he was apprehensive of the spiritual 
 results of exile and confusion with heathen nations. The people themselves, however, 
 did not exhibit any such anxiety. They treated his words as idle tales, or as the 
 expression of ill nature and enmity. The relation of these two is a typical one. From 
 age to age the preacher of righteousness urges his pleas and presses for immediate 
 attention to reformation of life. As constantly those addressed put off the needed 
 repentance and waste the time which is afforded them for working out their salvation. 
 I. The present is to be bbgabded as a gracious opportunity for repentance 
 AND spiritual SERVICE. The element of time in these, as in other prophecies, is kft 
 for the most part inde6nite. Exact dates would defeat the purpose the message of the 
 
340 THK BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xiii. 1— 27. 
 
 prophet has in view. It was sufficient for him to impress upon them that there would 
 be but a short time between the present and the fate lie had described. It was a sign of 
 God's grace that he had been sent to warn them. 'I'liey were to listen to his voice as to 
 the voice of Jehovah. And in the event of rcpen aiice, that which was near at hand 
 might be indefinitely postponed or altogether averted. But in any case the really essen- 
 tial worlt of repentance ought to be done whilst they had clear views of the nature of 
 their sin and the requirements of God's Law. Prom Josh. vii. 19 it is evident that the 
 phrase, " Give glory to the Lord," meant nothing else than to repent. It suggests the 
 honour of God, which is acknowledged and felt by the humbled sinner as he bows 
 before the footstool of grace and tells out the dark history of his sin. The lower he is 
 in his own estimation the higher is that throne of glory before which he lies prostrate. 
 And at such a time the grandest conceptions are given of the greatness, the power, and 
 the love of God. His forgiveness shines forth in new, unspeakable splendour. And 
 the restored sinner is eager to declare to others the grace which he himself has received. 
 But all this is necessarily a work of time, and demands for its adequate fultilment the 
 full possession of our faculties and the clearest perceptions of truth. 
 
 II. The KisKS incurred bt delay in these duties are then described. The 
 figure is that of a traveller in a mountainous re>jion who loses his way amongst the dark 
 rocks until eventually the deepening gloom leaves him in despair and death. The picture 
 is very vivid, and ajipeals to the deepest human feeling. It suggested the mental and 
 spiritual confusion which were likely to arise from unlooked-for reverses, from captivity 
 in a heathen land, and from forgetfulness of the traditions of Israel. But it is even 
 more truly correspondent with the condition of those who have delayed making their 
 peace with God until they have suffered mental eclipse, or been overtaken by the terror, 
 the weakness, etc., of a death-bed. The worth of " a death-bed repentance " has been 
 rightly discounted by every preacher and writer of the Church. There is but one 
 in.stance of such a thing in Scripture. It is but seldom that resolutions formed under 
 such circumstances, in the event of restoration to health, avail against tbe temptations 
 and lifelong habits of the sinner. — M. 
 
 Ver. 17.— (See on ch. x. 19.)— M. 
 
 Ver. 23. — Moral helplessness : hno induced. I. The extent to which it mat go. 
 The metaphors employed are intended to illustrate the difficulty of getting rid of that 
 which has become a part of one's self, or which has become natural to one. It is evident 
 that superficial means would never produce the effect supposed, because that which 
 seems to be superficial has really its root in the nature, and would be reproduced 
 similarly in place of that which was removed. The doctrine is that there are certain 
 evils into which men fall which may appear to be external, matters of custom and 
 observance, but which have really their origin in the depravity of the heart. Any 
 merely external reform, like that of Josiah, would fail to effect a permanent change, 
 because the source of the errors and transgressions which were corrected was deeper 
 than the remedy could reach. And this is the case with the sins of men. To cease to 
 do evil we have not only to stay the hand but to purify the heart. To cease to do 
 evil we must cease to think it, to feel it, and to conceive it. So helpless is the sinner 
 when he stands face to face with the problem of reformation. Effort after effort is 
 made and fails. It is bound to fail because the source of the wrong-doing has not been 
 rectifitd. To change himself — who is capable of this feat? 
 
 II. Causes of it, real and unreal. Excuses readily suggest themselves to the 
 sinner who would avoid the humiliation of repentance. He may ask the question, as 
 if it were a mystery, " Wherefore come these things upon me ? " Or, ignoring the 
 witness of conscience, he may attribute his weakness to circumstances and external 
 influences. This is the error which the prophet refutes. With great skill he shows 
 the terrible power of habit: how men continue to do that which they have been 
 doing simply because they have been doing it. The feet acquire a fatal facility in 
 tranrgression, and the hands a skill in working evil. They almost act automatically 
 when things forbidden are suggested. But when the commandments of God are con- 
 cerned they are unfamiliar with the duties enjoined, and the will is not resolute enough 
 to persevere in them. 
 
CH. xiii. 1— 27.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 34] 
 
 III. Its great eemedt. Seeing that in himself the sinner is without strength, it 
 would appear at first as if he could only despair. But this is not the teacliing of the 
 prophet. He has already counselled vigorous effort, and implied that a commencement 
 and continuance in well-doing were possible. But the change could only begin at a 
 spiritual point, viz. repentance. And this, as Scripture abundantly shows, though 
 within the power of every one, is a supernatural grace. A true sorrow for sin may be 
 induced in answer to prayer, by the study of Scripture, and the contemplation of 
 Christ ; but it is always the work of the Holy Spirit. When that grace, however, has 
 once been attained, it is open to the sinner to reverse the process by which he has been 
 enslaved. After conversion evil habit will assert itself, and can only be met by con- 
 stant dependence upon Divine grace and constant effort after holiness. The good habit 
 formed by repeated and regular actions according to the Law of God is the best anti- 
 dote to the evil one. — M. 
 
 Vers. 1 — 12. — The ruined girdle ; or, it may he too late to mend. The much- 
 needed lesson of this section was taught by means of one of those acted parables of 
 which we have so many instances both in the Old Testament and in the New : e.g. 
 Zedekiah's horns of iron (1 Kings xxii. 11) ; the strange marriages of Isa. viii. 1, 
 Hos. i. 2; the two yokes (ch. xxvii. 2); and in the New Testament, our Lord's standing 
 the little child in the midst of the disciples; the washing the disciples' feet; the 
 withering of the fig tree; the taking of Paul's girdle (Acts xxi. 11), etc. The present 
 instance seems very strange, and to us it would have appeared unmeaning, uncouth, and 
 simply grotesque. But to Orientals, and especially to Jews, the dramatic action of the 
 prophet — for we regard what is here said as having been literally done — would be very 
 impressive. It was a strange garb for the prophet to be arrayed in. It would attract 
 attention, be the subject of much comment, and, when the prophet continued to wear it, 
 though soiled and in much need of washing, this would cause more comment still, and 
 would indicate to the people that the strange garb and conduct of the prophet had 
 meaning and intent which it would be well for them to give heed to. Then the taking 
 of the girdle to Euphrates — whatever place be meant— burying it there, leaving it; and 
 theu finding it and fetching it back, and no doubt exhibiting it, ruined, worthless, 
 good for nothing ; — all this would rivet the people's attention, and deeply impress their 
 minds. Now, one evident, if not the chief, lesson designed to be taught by this to us 
 curious procedure, was the irreparable ruin tliat would come upon the people through 
 the exile and captivity which they were by their sin bringing upon themselves. Many, 
 no doubt, had comforted themselves with the idea — as is the maimer of all transgres- 
 sors — that if trouble did come to them it would not be so bad as the prophet made out. 
 They would get over it, and be but little the worse. This dramatic parable was 
 designed to shatter all such notions, and to show that Judah, like the much-marred 
 girdle, would be, after and in consequence of their exile, " good for nothing." Note, 
 then — 
 
 I. The first part of the parable — the girdle worn. This would encourage 
 their delusion. For the likening of them to a girdle, especially to a linen girdle — a 
 priestly and therefore a sacred vestment — and to a chosen and purchased girdle, would 
 vividly declare to them how precious they were in God's sight, 1. For as the girdle 
 (ver. 11) was worn close to the person of the wearer, it denoted how very near to the 
 heart of Ood they were who by this similitude were set forth. The known favour of 
 God led them, as it had led others, to presume that they could never try God too much. 
 He would be sure to bear with them and forgive them, do what they might. 2. Then 
 the girdle was a portion of the dress most necessary to the wearer, and so denoted how 
 necessary his people were to Ood. Had not God said, over and over again, in every 
 variety of way, " How can I give thee up ? how can I make thee as Sodom ? " (Hos. 
 xi. 8; ch. ix. 7)? As the girdle was indispensable to the comfort, the decorousness, 
 the strength of the wearer, so God taught by this figure that he could not do without 
 his people. 3. Moreover, as the girdle was adorned and ornamented, and thus was a 
 most valuable portion of the dress, so it showed that his people were to God a cherished 
 ornament and praise. They were to be to him "for a name, and tor a praise, and for 
 a glory" (ver. 11). And as such God had worn this girdle and put it on him. Anu 
 his people knew all this, and presumed upon it. 
 
3i2 THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xiii. 1—27. 
 
 II. The second part — the girdle unoleansed. Tins would show wherefore their 
 ideas must he a delusion. " Put it not in water " (ver. 1). The prophet was hidden to 
 wear it in this soiled and foul condition, and no doubt he did so. It would provoke the 
 contempt, which adornments associated with uncleanliness ever excite. But its intent m 
 thus being worn unwashed was to depict the moral state of those to whom the prophet 
 was sent. As they would put away from them a soiled and unclean girdle, so they 
 were to learn that God, though he might bear long with a morajly unclean people, 
 would not always do so. And — 
 
 II r. The third part op the parable — the girdle put away. This would show 
 that their presumptuous ideas were actually a delusion. The girdle was so spoiled by 
 its burial by the Euphrates that it was henceforth " good for nothing." And ail this 
 came true. It was but a miserable remnant of the people that came hack from Babylon, 
 and as an independent nation they have never since regained the position that they 
 then lost. All their national glory came to an end ; the lesson of the marred girdle 
 was literally fulfilled. 
 
 IV. The whole a parable that has many applications. To Churches, to indi- 
 viduals, to all the gifted of God's grace in time, talents, opportunities, and, above all, 
 in the presence and help of the Holy Spirit. They will be tempted to presume, to 
 think they can never forfeit these things, that God will be ever gracious to them as he 
 has been in the past. This parable is a word for all such, and should prompt the 
 earnest and constant putting up of the psalmist's prayer, "Keep back thy servant . . . 
 from presumptuous sins," etc. — C. 
 
 Vers. 12 — 14. — Vessels of wrath. This is another similitude having the same general 
 purpose as the former one. " Every earthen flagon (cf. ch. xlviii. 12) — the inhabitants of 
 Jerusalem, her king, her priests, and prophets — will be filled with the wine of the 
 intoxicating beverage of God's wrath (cf. ch. xxv. 15 ; Isa. xxviii. 7 ; li. 17 ; Ezek. xxiii. 
 31 ; Ps. Ix. 3 ; Ixxv. 8) given them as a punishment for the pride and cruelty and 
 impiety which they drauk greedily as wine ; cf. Rev. xiv. 8 ; xviii. 3, where the 
 harlot drinks the wine of her own fornication and gives it to others, and intoxicates 
 herself and them with it (Rev. xvii. 2 ; xviii. 6), and therefore God gives her the cup 
 of his wrath, and she reels under it " (Wordsworth). The awful threatenings of these 
 verses teach us much concerning the characteristics of those whom the Lord " will not 
 pity. Dor spare, nor have mercy, but destroy " (ver. 14). 
 
 I. They gradually become vessels of weath. Not till they are filled with their 
 intoxicating sin are they certainly to be so called. But this goes on day by day. 
 
 II. They comb to jeer and mock at both the message and the mfssengebs God 
 bends to warn them. Ver. 12, " Do we not certainly know," etc., as if they would 
 say, " Tell us something we do not know." It is an utterance of unbelieving and 
 mocking contempt. 
 
 III. 'rHEY ARE as DRUNKEN MEN : bereft of reason, unable to help themselves or 
 their brethren, the sport of fools, and at the mercy of the most contemptible foe. Either 
 torpid and insensible to all that concerns them, or else filled with fury and lost to all 
 natural affection, hurting and destroying those nearest and dearest to them (ver. 14). 
 
 IV. All vessels, large and small, are filled alike. (Ver. 13.) Not alone 
 the common people were to he thus filled, but the magnates of the land — king, priests, etc. 
 
 V. They are mutually destructive. (Ver. 14.) Such is the doom of sin. 
 Conclusion. We all are vessels. We all shall be filled. But what with ? Pray 
 
 that it may not be with the wine of the wrath of God, but " with the lulness of God " 
 (Eph. iii.).— C. 
 
 Vers. 12—14. — The last results of sin. 1. God and his message mocked. 
 
 II. Our entire nature under its control. 
 
 III. All ranks and orders possessed by it. 
 
 IV. Every man's hand against his fellow. 
 
 V. God known only as the God op wrath. — C. 
 
 Ver. 15. — " Be not proud." It is difficult tn see what those whom the prophet wai 
 addressing had to proud of ; but it is certaiu that they were proud, and that thereby 
 
CH. XIII. 1—27.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 3lS 
 
 they were, more than by aught else, hindered from receiving the word of God. The 
 inflated shape, the mean material, and the easily destroyed nature of those " bottles " 
 to which he had likened them, as well as the arrogant boastful talk of the drunkard, 
 whose doings theirs he predicted should resemble ; both these comparisons show how 
 vividly the prophet discerned in them this besetting sin of pride, and the ruin it would 
 be sure to work them. Let us, therefore, note — 
 
 I. Some of the reasons fob this exhortation, " Be not proud." 1. The main 
 reason which the prophet here urges is its antagonism to the Word of Ood. Now, such 
 antagonism cannot but be, for : (1) The Word of God despises what men most esteem, (a) 
 Their own moral worth. How high men's estimate of this ! how low tliat of the Word 
 of God ! (6) Their own capacities. Man deems himself capable of self-support, self- 
 deliverance, and self-salvation. The Word of God tells him he is utterly dependent on 
 God for all things, be he who he may. (e) The world — its maxims, honours, wealth, 
 etc. (2) It esteems what men most despise, (a) Such qualities of mind as meekness, 
 forgiveness of injuiies, humility, indifference to the world, great regard to the unseen 
 and the spiritual. (6) Persons who have nothing but moral excellence to recommend 
 them, be they poor, obscure, and despicable in the world's esteem, (c) Courses of life 
 which may involve " the loss of all things," so only as we " may be accepteil of him." 
 2. Its other terrible fruits. Some of these are given in the verses following. Jt 
 will not suffer men to give glory to God ; it leads men into deadly peril (ver. IB). It 
 causes deep distress to those who care for their souls ; it will end in their utter ruin 
 (ver. 17). 
 
 II. How OBEDIENCE MAT BE EENDEBED TO IT. Probably there is nothing but that 
 threefold work of the Holy Spirit of which our Lord speaks which will ensure such 
 obedience. Pride is too deeply rooted in the hearts of men to yield to any lesser force 
 but: 1. The conviction of sin — destroying all man's self-complacency. 2. Of righteous- 
 ness — filling him at the same time with admiration of the righteousness of Christ, with 
 despair of attainment of it, but with joy that, though he cannot have it in himself, he yet 
 has it by virtue of his faith in Christ. 3. Of judgment— destroying the supremacy of 
 the world over his mind, and so delivering him from the temptation to its pride. 
 This work of the Holy Spirit lays the axe at the root of the tree, and ere long hews it 
 down. Let, then, this Holy Spirit be sought in all sincerity, and let his guidance be 
 ever followed ; so shall " the mind of Christ " be increasingly formed in us, and we shall 
 learn of him who was " meek and lowly in heart," and so find rest in our souls. — C. 
 
 Vers. 16, 17. — Lost upon tlm darh mountains. " Give glory to the Lord," etc. 
 
 I. The scene portrayed. It is that of unhappy travellers overtaken by night, 
 when crossing some of the perilous mountain tracks of Palestine. A traveller overtaken 
 as these seem to have been by a night storm, is in imminent danger of falling over 
 precipices and perishing miserably. Even by day the way is perilous : the paths are 
 easily lost, or are strewn with rocks, or they lead along steep and slippery slopes, or by 
 overhanging cliffs, where a single footslip may plunge the heedless passenger headlong 
 to a frightful death in the far depths below. But how much more dangerous such 
 iourney°must be when night overtakes the travellers, is evident. The fading light has 
 gone, but the journey has still to be pursued. And now comes that stumbling upon 
 the dark mountains, which is so terrible and inevitable. There is the anxious looking 
 for the fitful light of moon or stars, and occasionally hope arises that the clouds will 
 break and some glimmer appear. But this hope has been speedily quenched by the 
 clouds gathering over again, and with the added darkness of the rain-storm, so that the 
 darkness is " gross," like unto that of the shadow of death. Every step, therefore, is 
 fraught with frightful peril, and not a few thus benighted amid such mountam passes 
 perish miserably ere the morning dawn. Such is the scene portrayed. 
 
 II. That which it represents. 1. Tlie temporal calamities which God sends — as 
 to the Jews— in punishment for their sins. All earthly distress has the sad tendency 
 to unhinge the mind, to fill with foreboding fear, and greatly to perplex and over- 
 whelm ; but when to the natural effects of such earthly distress there is added the 
 consciousness of guilt and of having deserved what God has sent, then the dismay, 
 distress, and despair which are suggested by the prophetic picture are miserably increased. 
 2 The hardened sinner's desvair of God's mercy. Tlie visiou of judgment and wr:uli. 
 
344 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [oh. xiii. 1— 2T. 
 
 has come upon him, but the remembrance of his sins crushes hope of mercy (cf. 
 Judas " going out and hanging himself"). 3. Tlie entanglements of sin. It is a great 
 mistake to imagine that those who are enslaved by any sin are happy in it. Not a few 
 of them endure a very hell in their frantic but futile endeavours to break the chain 
 which long indulgence has forged and fastened around them. The bitter repentance, 
 the unavailing remorse, every gleam of hope of deliverance so soon quenched, the reck- 
 lessness of despair, the groaning as of the prisoner appointed to death, — all these are 
 realities known to the slaves of sin, and should make every soul shudder lest the like 
 should come upon him. 4. The procrastinator's death-bed. He who has been convinced 
 over and over again that he ought to seek the Lord, but has ever put it off,— his feet 
 are likely to " stumble upon the dark mountains " when the night of the shadow of death 
 draws upon him. 
 
 III. How sncH MiSEBT MAT BE AVOIDED. It was Very near: the prophet's words 
 imply that the oft-threatened doom was at their very doors. And so the like doom may 
 be near to many now. Bui yet it may he avoided. Giving heed to God's Word (ver. 
 15). We have much hope when we see an earnest heeding of that Word, a really 
 serious attention paid to it. But that by itself is not enough. There must be the 
 actual " giving glory to God ; " by confession of sin, acknowledging the wrong done ; 
 by casting the soul on God for forgiveness in lowly trust ; by forsaking the evil 
 that has roused the just anger of God. " Let the wicked forsake his way, and the 
 unrighteous man," etc. 
 
 IV. The qrbat reason fob fbak that this misekt will not be avoided after 
 ALL. It was and it ever is the accursed pride (vers. 15, 17) that will not allow of 
 such giving heed to the Divine Word and such giving glory to him. All the instincts 
 of the unrenewed heart are up in arms against such self-abaaement. Any sacrifice will 
 be brought rather than that of the broken and contrite heart. 
 
 V. The utterly hopeless condition or those thus lost. (Ver. 17.) See the 
 prophet's piteous tears. He can do nothing — every resource has been tried and failed, 
 and he can but " weep sore in secret places " for the " pride " that has ruined those he 
 would fain have saved. Oh then, sinful heart, down, down before thy God, and " give 
 glory to him," as he would have thee do, as it is so right and reasonable and good lor 
 thee to do, as the ministers of God entreat thee to do. — 0. 
 
 Ver. 20. — The neglected trust demanded. " Where is the flock that was given thee," 
 etc. ? This word is addressed to the rulers of Judah and Jerusalem. Their people, the 
 nation over whom they ruled, were God's flock, his " beautiful flock." That flock had 
 been entrusted to the rulers' care. The influence of those in power was very great. 
 As were the leaders of the people — especially the king — so were the people themselves. 
 They could be led like a flock, and were so. Tremendous, therefore, was the responsi- 
 bility of those in power, to whom was entrusted this flock of the Lord. But they had 
 used their great authority and power badly. Ruin had come or was about to come 
 upon the flock (cf. vers. 18, 19) ; they were to be scattered, scattered wholly, and the 
 greater portion of them lost. To these careless and guilty shepherds the Lord now 
 comes, and asks for the flock he had placed in their hands. " Give an account of thy 
 stewardship," was said to those who were to be no longer stewards because of their 
 faithlessness. Now, this question, " Where is the flock," etc. ? is one which should be 
 olten heard sounding ia the ears of many others besides those to whom it was first 
 addressed, e.g. — 
 
 1. To the pastors of the Church. The Church of God is his flock, his " beautiful 
 flock." Its members are very dear to him, "purchased with his own blood." The 
 Church is given, entrusted, to pastors. When Christ ascended up on high he gave 
 some " pastors." This method of ordering his Church is the one he has willed. His 
 blessing has evidently rested on it. What does not the Church of God owe to her 
 faithful pastors ? But whatever their character they cannot but have great influence. 
 They are trusted by the people. They have received special gifts for their work in 
 the form of mental and moral endowments. They are much prayed for. They are 
 specially set apart for the charge of the Church of God. They have every induce- 
 ment to fidelity. Faithful, the love o;' their charge will gather round them ; the fear 
 of God will dwell within them; the cro^vn of life awaits them. And these mighty 
 
cH.xin. 1— 27.] THE BOOK OF THE PEOPHET JEREMIAH. 345 
 
 motives, acting upon hearts already prepared by God's grace and devoted to this high 
 oEBce, have for the most part secured a great degree of fidelity in it. Hence a character 
 and reputation have become associated with the office, which cannot but invest with 
 much influence, as it does with much responsibility, all those who occupy, it. But in 
 spite of all this there may be, as there has been at times, great unfaithfulness. Hence 
 the flock has been scattered. The Church has suffered in numbers, in purity of 
 doctrine, in consistency of life, in spirituality of character. Its enjoyment in all holy 
 service goes ; its power for good in the neighbourhood where it dwells goes ; its regard 
 for all that marks vigorous life in a Church all goes ; and ere long its " candlestick is 
 removed out of its place." Perhaps its numbers may not greatly diminish. There shall 
 be the observance of the sabbath, its services, its sermons, its sacraments — orderly, 
 regular, frequent. Many things may conduce to this. Its name may live, but it is 
 dead. Oh, the awfulness of this ! And if it have been through the negligence and 
 unfaithfulness of the pastor, who shall deliver him from the charge of blood-guiltiness 
 which will lie at his door? What will he answer when the question is addressed to 
 him, as one day it surely will be, "Where is the flock that was given thee, thy 
 beautiful flock?" Let every pastor of Christ's Church consider this and pray — 
 
 " Chief Shepherd of thy chosen sheep, 
 From death and sin set free. 
 Let every under-sbepherd keep 
 His eye intent on thee." 
 
 II. To ALL PABENTS. Our children are the Lord's flock, his "beautiful flock." They 
 are very dear to him. He puts his arm round every one of them ; he takes them all up 
 in his arms and blesses them. He declares by his Word and by their baptism that 
 they are of his kingdom, and he both promises vast reward to those tliat receive them 
 in his Name, and threatens with dreadful doom all those who " offend " them. But 
 parents have unspeakable influence over them. They mould and fashion them, not in 
 outward form and habits alone, but in inward character. For a long time they are as 
 God to their children, who know no higher authority, no iiigher help. Hence they trust 
 their parents utterly. And to guard against the abuse of this tremendous trust, God has 
 implanted the instincts of parental love, and given every motive to parents to guard 
 and keep well those he has entrusted to their care. Now, if through parental unfaith- 
 fulness those children become renegades from God, he will surely ask this question, 
 " Where is the flock," etc. ? Let remembrance of this lead to earnest prayer and diligent 
 heed, so that each parent at last may have the unspeakable joy— as he may have — of 
 standing at last before God, and saying, with glad thankfulness, " Behold, here am I, 
 and the children, thou hast given me." 
 
 III. To EVEBT INDIVIDUAL SOUL. For the sum of all the faculties, opportunities, 
 talents, the whole of the varied gifts and capacities which together form our spiritual 
 nature— judgment, affection, conbcience, intellect, will,— all these are the flock of God 
 which is entrusted to every individual man ; and by due care and cultivation of them 
 he can preserve and develop them into an offering of worship and consecration which 
 Ood will ever accept and bless. Every man has the making of his own life by the 
 help of God. There is scarce any degree of honour and joy which he may not win by 
 faithfulness in the use of that which God has entrusted to him. Concerning them all 
 God says, " Occupy till I come." And how vast and varied is the help God gives tons 
 in this great work ! What means of grace are provided ! What recompense even here 
 and now is given ! Victory over self; a mind at peace; blessed influence over others; 
 the love and esteem of the good; free communion and intercourse with God himself; 
 the consciousness of the Divine love ; the bright and blessed hope of the eternal life 
 hereafter. So that even now " in keeping of God's commandments there is great reward. 
 But if we be unfaithful here and " waste " all our " goods "—these high gifts, faculties, 
 and opportunities— sowing to the flesh when we should be sowing to the Spirit, then 
 this question will be heard concerning all these things, " Where is the flock, etc. ( And 
 then we search in vain for any answer to the next question (ver. 21), " What wilt thou 
 say when he shall punish thee ? " Therefore let us each keep continually before our 
 minds such trutlis as those that are taught in the well-known hymn— 
 
346 THE BOOK OP THE PEOPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xiii. 1- 
 
 •' A charge to keep I have, 
 
 A God to glorify, 
 A never-dying soul to save 
 And fit it for the sky. 
 
 " Help me to watch and pray. 
 And on tliyeelf rely ; 
 
 Assured if I my trust betray 
 I shall for ever die." 
 
 Vers. 21, 22. — Sin its own scourge. I. Thekb akb other scourges fok sin. The 
 direct and positive inflictions of the Divine wrath. Not alone the Bible but the great 
 books of history and experience must all be denied if we deny such positive punish- 
 ment of sin. Never has there been yet any system of laws for moral beings which has 
 been left to be simply self-acting, and which therefore have had no positive sanctiou.s 
 of penalty for transgression added. And God's Law is not such. As the Jews and 
 other nations and individuals have found, and as the unrepentant will find hereafter, 
 if not now, God's Word upon this matter is most assuredly true. 
 
 II. But sin is its own scourge. That scourge is woven and knotted with many 
 cords. 1. Conscience, ever passing sentence of judgment. 2. Habits of wrong-doing, 
 hateful but fast clinging to the soul, and by which it is " tied and bound." 3. The 
 manifold difficulty of repentance. The man would heartily turn from his evil way, but 
 he has got into the current just above the falls, and it is bearing him on and down, 
 resist as he will. 4. Tlie sight of children, companions, etc., corrupted and perhaps ruined 
 }y oar evil example. Oh, what a horror is this : seeing those whom, for every reason 
 human and Divine we were bound to cherish and guard from evil, cursed by our sin ! 
 
 5. The moral disapprobation of the good around us. Their sentence of condemnation 
 is felt to have a binding power. What they "bind on earth is bound in heaven." 
 
 6. The "fearful looking for of judgment." Such are some of the cords which, woven 
 together, make up the dreadful scourge wherewith sin scourges itself. 
 
 III. And this self-made scourge is the most terrible of any. Deep and 
 unfathomable as were the sufferings of our Lord, he distinctly declared that those 
 coming on his enemies were worse. " Weep not for me," he said, " but weep for your- 
 selves, and for your children. ... If they do these things in a green tree," etc. It is 
 evident, therefore, that suffering in which the consciousness of sin enters must be worst 
 of all. Those " stripes by which we are healed," though they " ploughed deep furrows " 
 on the body of our blessed Lord, yea, upon his inmost soul, still there are stripes more 
 terrible even than they. The quenchless fire of God's positive inflictions would be 
 more tolerable were it not for the gnawing of that undying worm — the sinner's own 
 remorse. Are not they, then, " fools " indeed who " make a mock at sin " ? — C. 
 
 Ver. 23. — An awful condition indeed. " Can the Ethiopian change his skin," etc. ? 
 This verse tells of one who has brought himself to such a pass that he cannot cease 
 Irom sin. It is an awful condition indeed. Note — 
 
 I. Some op the elements which make it so. They are : 1. The memories of a 
 better past. There was a time when his soul was unsullied, his hands clean, his heart 
 pure, his life unstained; when he could hold up his head ia consci"'i« integrity by the 
 grace of God. But that is all gone. 2. The prostration of his wiL- He is continually 
 making resolves, but they are frail as cobwebs, they are broken through by the slightest 
 temptation now. The power to firmly and steadfastly resolve seems gone from him. 
 He has resolved so often, but in vain, that his will now refuses to rise to the endeavour. 
 
 3. The powerlessness of all means of deliverance. He attend's God's house, he reads 
 the Scriptures, he kneels in prayer, he goes to the Lord's table still it may be, but they 
 have lost their power to hold him back from his sin. They seem to be of no use at all. 
 
 4. The fearful onlooh to OocPs Judgment. He sees it coming swiftly upon him. He 
 is ever terrified at the near approach of the day when he will be utterly lost. " Lost ! 
 lost ! " he is ever saying to himself. He fears exposure, he fears the final doom, and 
 knows not how to escnpe. 5. Shame in the presence of the goad. He is haunted by 
 the feeling, " If tlicy but knew me as I am ! " ami he knows the day is coming whcii 
 
CH. XIII. 1—27.] THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. .SI7 
 
 they will know, and he will be cast out as vile. 6. The thought of the misery and shame 
 he will bring upon others. Perhaps he has wife, children, father, mother, a number of 
 friends and relations, whom he knows he will drag down with him in his own ruin. 
 7. The temptation to recJclessness born of despair. Satan is ever suggesting to him that, 
 as he cannot regain what he has lost, he had better take his fill of such pleasure as he has. 
 And too often he yields. 8. The perversion of his understanding. It is his interest to 
 believe there is no God, and hence his intellect is busy in gathering together materials 
 for this belief and for doubting and denying all religious truth. And so he sinks down 
 into atheism and all ungodliness. Yes; his is an awful condition indeed. But 
 consider — 
 
 II. Some COUNSELS TO THOSE WHOM THESE TERRIBLE TRUTHS CONCERN. 1. Remember 
 you cannot be certain that you have come to this condition. Satan will endeavour ti> 
 persuade you that there is no hope. But believe him not. You are lost if you believe 
 him. Steadfastly refuse to believe. 2. If the thought that such should be your con- 
 dition distresses you, take it as a token for good that God has not given you up. 3. 
 Remember that others have been saved who were as near being lost as you. 4. Rouse 
 yourself to use all means of help which God has given you. (1) Let there be special 
 seasons of prayer. (2) Avoid the occasions of your sin. (3) Put every hindrance you 
 can in the way of your sin ; such as altering your manner of life, avoiding being alone, 
 reading such Scriptures and such books as will tend to deepen your sense of the sin and 
 show you how to escape from it. (4) Avail yourself of the counsels of some wise and 
 godly friend. (5) Pill up your time, hands, and thoughts with useful and absorbing 
 work. (6) Do not despise small victories ; they lead on to greater ones. (7) " Pray 
 without ceasing." Remember that God is able and has promised to " save to the utter- 
 most all that come unto God by Christ." Thus doing, even thou shalt be saved. — C. 
 
 Ver. 27. — The one thing needful. "Wilt thou not be made clean? When," etc.? 
 
 I. Men are spiritually unclean. Like as the Lord looked down upon the occu- 
 pants of the porches at Bethesda, and saw but a multitude of impotent folk (John v.); 
 so now, as " his eyes behold the children of men," he sees a similar though a far more 
 terrible sight — the mass of mankind spiritually diseased. This is manifestly true of 
 the heathen world. The abominations and the cruelties that are practised there show 
 the virulence of the soul's malady amongst them. And if we look at the mass of 
 those who profess and call themselves Christians, in how many of these is the profession 
 profession only, a veneer of religious customs covering a corrupt and sin-loving heart. 
 And if it be so with the proftssing Church, what must it be with those who reject all 
 the means of grace which the Christian Church enjoys ? 
 
 II. But God greatly desires that men should be delivered from this- 
 UNCLBANNESS. " He will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of 
 the truth." He desires this : 1. From his very nature. He himself is the most holy 
 God. But all moral qualities ever strive to reproduce themselves in those around them . 
 Let a man be characterized by orderliness, truthfulness, sobriety, purity, and in pro- 
 portion as he is so the contact of those of opposite character will be painful to him, and 
 he will endeavour to make them like himself. And so, because "good and upright is 
 the Lord, therefore will he teach sinners in the way." 2. His righteousness also. The- 
 sense of outrage and wrong which sin must produce in the heart of God makes him 
 angry with the wicked every day. 3. His compassion. Sin is sorrow. We wonder at 
 the priests of Baal persisting in cutting and wounding themselves. But is not every 
 sinner just such a one? And with this added sorrow — that their wounds are for 
 eternity, and not for the short life here alone. On the other hand, to be " made whole "■ 
 spiritually is to be made blessed for ever. 
 
 III. Yet men will not. The tone of the question, the woe which precedes it, the- 
 comparison of the sinner with the Ethiopian and the leopard, etc. (ver. 23), the half- 
 despairing cry, " When shall it once be?" (ver. 27), — all this shows the prophet's con- 
 viction of man's persistent clinging to his sin. Were the question concerning bodily 
 disease, it would be unnecessary. Who would not be delivered from that ? But where 
 it is spiritual healing, men will not. From the consequences of their sin they are willing, 
 to be delivered — the punishment, the remorse, the shame, etc. — but not from the &m 
 itself. True, at times, in the first keen pangs of remorse, and under the vivid sense of 
 
348 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xiii. 1—27. 
 
 shame, they would be willing then to be rid of the sin itself. But their return to their 
 sin shows how momentary and superficial this feeling was. And men would be will- 
 ing, perhaps, if by some one act the whole cure could be effected ; if the being made 
 whole was not so slow, so difficult, so self-denying a process. And, in fact, they do hope 
 that by some one act — a death-bed repentance — the whole process will be accomplished. 
 
 IV. But without man's own consent he cannot be made whole. God does not 
 by a mere act of power make a man spiritually whole, as he makes one tree an oak, 
 another an elm. The will must consent. We have this awful power of compelling 
 (Jhrist to " stand at the door and knock ; " for the door of our hearts is opened from the 
 inside. We must undo the bolts and remove the bars. No view of the Holy Spirit's 
 influence which contradicts this can be a true view. We can, and alas ! do, say " No " 
 to Grod. But also we can, and he is ever pleading with us to, say " Yes " to his call. 
 
 V. B0T ONE DAT it SHALL BE GIVEN. " My people shall be willing in the day of my 
 power." Christ wept over Jerusalem, but yet he told them that when next he came 
 they should say, " Blessed be he that cometh in the Name of the Lord ; cf. also the 
 predicted repentance of the Jews, " They also which pierced him," etc. (Zech. xiv.). 
 But oh, what " everlasting burnings," what awful scourgings, has Jerusalem had to go 
 through before, like the prodigal, she came to herself! Let none abuse this doctrine. 
 If we will say " Yes " to God now, and come to Christ in loving self-surrender, we shall 
 find his yoke easy and his burden light ; but if we will say " No," then we shall have 
 to come to ourselves ; and what may not that involve ? Truly, " now is the accepted 
 time," etc. — C. 
 
 Ver. 16. — A solemn warning. This is an appeal to the fears of the people ; one of the 
 many instances in which the prophet seeks to win them to the way of righteousness by 
 the presage of impending woe. Utter destruction is before them (ver. 14), the twilight 
 is fast deepening into "gross darkness." But even now it is not too late for them to 
 avert the calamity by their repentance. It is not mainly through their fears that 
 Christianity exerts its influence over men. But, as many of the discourses of Christ 
 show, men may sometimes sink into conditions of moral insensibility from which only 
 an alarming voice will awaken them. And the gospel has its side of terror. Even the 
 gracious Saviour and his apostles spoke of " wrath to come." Consider (1) the duty, 
 (2) the motive. 
 
 I. The duty. " Give glory to your God," Several distinct elements of thought and 
 life are involved in this. 1. A recognition of the sacred and indissoluble relation in 
 which we stand towards Ood. However we may have forsaken him, he is still " the Lord 
 our God." We are still his dependent creatures, his needy children. To please him, 
 to serve his purposes, to show Ibrth his glory, must, in the very nature of things, be 
 the end of our existence. All religious life begins with the devout acknowledgment 
 of this supreme personal relationship. 2. A due sense of the claims Ood has, on the 
 ground of what he is in himself, on our regard. The true glory of the Divine Being is 
 his infinite moral perfections. When Moses said, " I beseech tliee show nie thy glory," 
 Gud answered, " I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and 1 will proclaim the 
 Name of the Lord before thee." We " give glory to God " when, gazing upon the beauty 
 and majesty of his intrinsic moral excellences, we yield back to him a due response of 
 reverence, and admiration, and trust, and love. 3. Practical surrender to his service. 
 " Glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's " (1 Cor. vi. 20). The 
 actual homage of a godly life is indicated here — the consecration of all the powers of 
 our nature as a " living sacrifice " upon the altar of the Lord. If the Name of the Lord 
 our God is hallowed in our hearts, we shall thus give ourselves and our all to him. 
 Practical goodness akin to his own is the best and most acceptable tribute we can pay. 
 We honour him most when we most strive to be like him in all holy character and 
 Godlike deed. 
 
 II. The MOTIVE. " Before he cause darkness," etc. Here is a prospect that may 
 well awaken fear. Something more than mere external calamity is suggested. There 
 is internal distress, mental perplexity and bewilderment ; a condition in which the 
 spirits of the people become a prey to all kinds of misleading and deluding influences, 
 wildly groping after a good that is lost and gone from them for ever. Few pictures of 
 iningiiiation could be sadder than that of men looking and longing fur the light, only to 
 
CH. XIII. 1—27.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 349 
 
 find the darkness growing more and more deep and dense around them. It is often 
 something like this when men .ire unfaithful to their real convictions and negligent of 
 the acknowledged claims of God. Trifle with truth and conscience, and you cannot 
 wonder that truth should become to you a mere mocking shadow, and conscience a per- 
 petual foe to your peace. Despise the sacred privileges and obligations of life, and you 
 make them to be sources of heavy condemnation. Let the light be scorned or abused, 
 and it turns into " the shadow of death." " Walk while ye have the light, lest dark- 
 ness come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he eoeth " 
 (John xii. 35).— W. 
 
 Ver. 23. — A moral imposaibility. This passage expresses the hopelessness of the 
 prophet as regards the success of any human effort to persuade the people to forsake 
 their evil ways, or by any efforts of their own to save themselves. It suggests— 
 
 I. The inveteracy of sin. 1. Arising from the depravity of nature. The dark 
 spots and the ebon skin have a hidden cause. Sins are the natural outcome of sin. 
 All forms of wrong-doing are but symptoms on the surface of a secret moral disease. 
 " Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts," etc. (Matt. xv. 19). 2. 3%e force of habit. 
 " Use is second nature." Custom has a power over men that rivals that of native 
 propensity. As good habit is a most effective educator of every form of virtue, so, on 
 the other hand, when habit has been allowed to foster the evil tendencies of a man's 
 nature, he becomes hopelessly " tied and bound with the chain of his sins." 
 
 II. The moral impotence it engenders. Sin not only corrupts the springs of a 
 man's moral life, but paralyzes all his nobler powers, robs him of the ability to act out 
 the better instincts of his nature. The voice of natural conscience may not be wholly 
 silenced, the natural heart may not be utterly destitute of good impulses ; but there is 
 no redeeming power in these. As well expect the darkness to give birth to liglit, and 
 life to spring spontaneously out of death, as suppose that a sin-loving, sin-hardened 
 man will of himself forsake his evil ways. He will never be able by his own hand " to 
 pluck the vicious quitch of blood and custom wholly out of him." The complete 
 moral helplessness of humanity was made abundantly evident before the full revelation 
 of gospel grace. It was when we were " without strength " that Christ " died for the 
 ungodly." 
 
 III. The woNDRons efficacy of the regenekatinq power op God. The most 
 defiled and degraded nature may be transformed by the touch of him who made it. 
 Even the skin of the Ethiopian and the leopard's spots must yield to the sovereignty 
 of the Divine energy. Deep-rooted and habitual as the evil in a man's heart and life 
 may be, the blood of .Jesus Christ cleanseth him from it, and when the Spirit of Christ 
 moulds the substance of his being he becomes " a new creature : old things are passed 
 away ; behold, all things are become new " (2 Cor. v. 17). — W. 
 
 Vers. 1 — 11. — The marred girdh. I. The significance of the girdle. This is set 
 before us clearly in ver. 11. God chose something which should illustrate the close 
 connection between Israel and himself, and yet which should illustrate at the same 
 time how easily that connection could be severed. The girdle was, of course, a familiar 
 part of an Israelite's apparel. Not exactly anecessity, for a man could perhaps do without 
 it ; and yet a necessity in this sense, that habit had made it so. The very function of 
 the girdle was to bind ; otherwise it was, as a girdle, of no use. Thus, by likening the 
 people to a girdle, God indicated that, in a certain sense, he had made them necessary 
 to himself. Ho had placed them in a conspicuous position, where the service they could 
 render was very important. He meant that he and his people should be viewed together ; 
 he always in relation to them, they always in relation to him. Hence the variety of 
 terms in which he indicates his purpose in making the children of Israel to be as his 
 girdle. " That they might be unto me for a people." Jehovah was to look on them 
 with a feeling of ownership and mastery which he was not able to feel with regard to 
 other nations ; and they, in turn, were to look up to Jehovah, feeling that all their 
 purposes and actions were to be determined by his will. Jehovah meant that one of 
 the most suggestive and comforting names by which he could be known should be that 
 of the God of his people Israel, and that in turn Israel should be known as the people 
 of Jehovah. In them Jehovah was to be praised; in them he was to be glorifieil. 
 
350 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. Cch. xiii. 1—27. 
 
 Other nations might play the part of girdle to their deities, but there was really nothing 
 of substance to gird. But when Jehovah drew Israel to himself, there was the oppor- 
 tunity of a real, glorious, and ever-extending service before them. Other nations chose 
 and fabricated their gods ; Jehovah chose and separated Israel, and in doing^ so 
 intended the conuection to be a very close one, and provided all the means by which 
 it might become such. 
 
 II. The instability of the girdle. The very Israelite who was to be taught lessons 
 by this girdle, when he chose a girdle for himself, was generally able to make it serve his 
 purpose. He would get it of some durable substance, to wear long. Elijah and John 
 the Baptist were girt with leathern girdles. The Israelite, in the girdle with which he 
 was familiar, dealt with that which was altogether under his control. The longer he 
 wore it, the easier he found it, and the more amenable to his touch. If it began to tear 
 and slip, and to slacken and hinder just when it should have been tightest and mosl 
 helpful, its owner would very soon get rid of it as a deceiving girdle. But while 
 Jehovah could bring his people very close, and compel them in a certain sense to 
 remain with him, he could not make them cleave to him. Cleaving could only be done 
 with purpose of heart, and must be a voluntary action. These people were not as a 
 piece of linen or leather, to be folded exactly as the wearer might choose. If they had 
 been they could not have rendered the service Jehovah wished from them, and in the 
 result they showed that they did not wish to cleave to God. He could not trust them. 
 Again and again he tried them, only to find that they cared nothing for their relation 
 to him, nothing for the golden opportunity of setting forth his praise and glory. 
 
 III. The humiliation op the girdle. Jeremiah was told to take this linen girdle 
 and bind it round his loins. Linen was the material of the priests' garments ; and was 
 not Israel a consecrated people ? Jeremiah, belonging to a priestly family, would easily 
 be able to get hold of a linen girdle ; although the directions given to him here would 
 seem to show that this particular girdle was, in some way, to excite special attention. 
 Notice how the instructions were given to the prophet bit by bit. At first he is 
 simply told to put on the girdle. It was there to teach its own lesson to all who had 
 eyes to observe and a disposition towards timely repentance. Q'hen with his girdle he 
 was to take a journey to Euphrates. That such a journey was long, difficult, and 
 dangerous, is true as men count length, difficulty, and danger, but to a prophet the 
 greatest difficulties and dangers come from refusing to take the way of God, however 
 long it may be. Jonah had to go to Nineveh ; what is there unreasonable in sup- 
 posing that Jeremiah had to go to the neighbourhood of Babylon ? It may have been 
 just as profitable a use of time to take long journeys there as to go on giving testimony 
 against those who resolutely closed their ears. Besides, it was by Euphrates that the 
 girdle Israel was to be marred. It was to be shown to them that, if they would not act 
 as a girdle, they could easily be made useless for any other purpose. If they would not 
 be God's people, they should achieve no position for themselves. If they would not 
 honour the name which he had given them, there was no other name by which they 
 could get distinction. If they would not be to his praise and glory, as the girdle 
 cleaving firmly and serviceably to him, then they should be to his praise and glory as 
 the marred girdle. If we will not do what God wishes us to do, then he takes care 
 that we shall not do what we ourselves wish to do. The girdle brought back from 
 Euphrates was Ibund profitable for nothing. That which is meant for salt of the earth 
 and loses its savour, is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and to be 
 trodden underfoot of men. — Y. 
 
 Vers. 15, 16. — A demand for the timely giving of luhat is due to Jehovah. It will be 
 observed that the previous verses of this chapter set forth the doom of Jehovah's 
 apostate people by two very expressive figures. There is the figure of the girdle, marred 
 and become good for nothing by lying so long in the damp recess of the rock. There 
 is also the figure of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, from those high in station down to 
 the common people, every one of them become as it were a living wine-skin, filled with 
 drunken fury, destroying one another and being destroyed. This figure, bordering on 
 the gi-otesque, presents as impending a very teiTible scene. But with the verses now to 
 be considered there returns what we may call an evangelical interval. Though in these 
 prophecies of Jeremiah gloom of necessity predominates, yet there are equally necessary 
 
CH. XIII. 1—27.] THE BOOK OP THE PEOPHET JEREMIAH. 351 
 
 intervals of light, intervals vphere the mercy of Jehovah is clearly revealed, and his 
 never-failing desire that his people should return to him. There is, of course, practi- 
 cally, no hope for these people so far as their present social state is concerned. They 
 will go on their own way ; but to the last God will also make his appeal. Notice now 
 the things which God asks for here. 
 
 I. Attention. " Hear ye, and give ear." These people have never really attended 
 to the import of the prophetic messages. Either they have been totally indifferent or 
 they have been irritated by some word they did not like, and so the complete messajie 
 has fallen uncomprehended upon their ears. For instance, the why and wiierefore of 
 the prophet's extraordinary journey to the Euphrates, they did not trouble themselves 
 to consider. And it is plain from ver. 12 how entirely they missed the meaning of the 
 prophet's saying respecting the bottles being filled with wine. The parabftlic sentence 
 was to them nothing more than mere commonplace. And of course, so long as attention 
 was lacking, truth was of no use. There is an analogy between the receiving of truth and 
 the receiving of bodily food. As food must be properly introduced into the physical 
 system, so truth must be properly introduced into the mind, brought before the under- 
 standing of the individual, firmly grasped by him in its reality, so that it may become 
 a real and benefieial element in the life. 
 
 II. Humility. There must be submission to the prophet as a proved messenger from 
 God. Pride is going to be the ruin of these people. The prophet himself was humbly 
 obedient to all commandments of God ; why, then, should his audience be proud ? 
 The grandees of Jerusalem do not like to be talked to by the comparative rustic from 
 Anathoth. The elders resent remonstrances from a man comparatively young. Those 
 whose boast it perhaps was that they had never been in bondage to any man, do not 
 like to hear of conquest and captivity. There is no getting at truth and right without 
 huinility. Because truth means, not only the reception of that which is true, but the 
 casting out of the old and the loved and the often boasted of. It is very hard for a 
 man to cut himself off from the past and show by a veiy diilerent future how he feels 
 the errors and follies of which he has been guilty. It is hard for the StSd<rKa?Ms like 
 Nicodemus to go down from his chair and become a /uoAtjt^s, stumbling among the 
 rudimentary principles of the kingdom of heaven. 
 
 III. The GiviNfl OF glory to Jehovah. "Give glory to Jehovah your God." 
 These people had been giving elsewhere what they reckoned to be glory, but which, so 
 far from being glory, was indeed their own deepest shame. Glory of a certain sort they 
 had plenty of, but they came short of the glory of God. They did not, in the conduct 
 of their life, show a proper response to the wisdom by which God had created them as 
 men and separated them as a people. By their present doings they were exposing the 
 Name of Jehovah to insult and scorn from all round about. This asking for glory to be 
 given was a request reasonable in itself. If a master is a good master, it is not right 
 that his servant should act so as to make the master's reputation suffer. If a father is 
 a good father, it is not right for his child to act as if he had been deprived of all 
 beneficial influences in the way of teaching and training. What is thought of a man 
 who basely forgets his nationality and laughs at the feelings that gather around the 
 idea of fatherland? And hence the Name of Jehovah was a name to be magnified in 
 word and deed and every outcome of life on the part of his people. We ourselves must 
 labour to praise God with our whole hearts. And more than that, we must live as those 
 who show the power of Ood, saving us and lifting us into an altogether higher life. 
 
 IV. The giving of this globy pbomptly on account of pekil to those who 
 REFUSE to give. The figure employed is that of a traveller on a journey. He gets 
 into the wrong road, gets indeed altogether out of any proper road ; but he persists iu 
 mere wandering, refuses to be warned, will not accept guidance back to the proper path. 
 He sees dangers, many dangers, but because it is daylight he manages to escape them. 
 And now, as the darkness momentarily increases, the warnings also increase in urgency. 
 When the darkness is fully come, where will he l>e? On the mountains, not able to 
 take one confident step in any direction, lest it be over the precipice. Furthermore, 
 in the case of a traveller, he has always this resort, that if darkness comes amid such 
 dangers he can stand still till the return of the dawn. But here is the contrast in that 
 the expected dawn will never come. This rebellious, God-dishonouring generation is 
 virtually walking into captivity of its own accord. As far as it is concerned, it will look 
 
353 THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xiii. 1— 27. 
 
 in vain for restoration. The restoration will belong, not to it, nor even to its children, 
 but rather to its children's children. Those who wander from God wander into a state 
 where they are self-destroyed, because the resources of which they boasted themselves 
 have come to nothing. Glorify God, willingly, in the light, or you will end by glory- 
 fying him unwillingly, in the darkness. Think of what came to Herod because he did 
 not give the glory to God. — Y. 
 
 Ver. 20.—^ searching question to the shepherd. The position of a king towards his 
 people was illustrated by the position of a shepherd towards his flock. Hence the 
 question here was doubtless meant for the special attention of the king. The nation 
 was largely in the hands of the king for the time being. Formal authority beloiiged 
 to him, and it was generally joined with corresponding power ; hence the responsibility 
 by which he was justly held for the exercise of his authority, and yet it is plain that 
 such a question as this could only have a partial application to the responsibilities of 
 any particular king. Whoever the king may have been at the time this prophecy was 
 uttered, it was no " beautiful flock " that had been handed to him. He had received it 
 after the neglect and abuse of many predecessors. The nation itself, considered in its 
 collective capacity and through all its past growth, is here impersonated and addressed. 
 Consider — 
 
 I. To WHAT CLASSES OP FERSONS SUCH A QUESTION AS THIS MAT BE CONSIDERED AS 
 
 STILL ADDRESSED. Evidently it bears on all who have to do with the government of any 
 people. Just, firm government has much to do — though how much cannot be exactly 
 expressed — with the welfare of every community. The personal conduct and example 
 of governors is also a very important matter. Better kings in Israel might have helped 
 to make a better people, and this influence of government becomes ever a more impor- 
 tant thing to recollect, because the people are becoming more and more their own 
 governors. Each individual has only an infinitesimal part, but it is a real part, and 
 therefore the conduct of each most surely affects the aggregate. It is plain how this 
 question bears on the parental relation. It did so bear on Israel of old, and it bears 
 equally on all who have offspring put in their charge, to train as far as they can, for 
 the service of Christ, in their day and generation. 2'eachers may be said to have a 
 " beautiful flock " in their charge. The deep influence of Dr. Arnold on his pupils shows 
 how a teacher may bring out all the beauty of his flock. The application to spiritual 
 teachers and pastors under Christ, the great Teacher and Pastor, is obvious. And, 
 generally, every one must consider those around him, on whom, by daily companionship 
 or any way of sufficient contact, he exercises influence. Every one is responsible, not 
 only for that which is formally handed to him, but just as much for all that he can in 
 any way keep. Let no one suppose that he himself has nothing to do but be cared 
 for. Just as we are every one of us sheep in one sense, so we are shepherds in another. 
 
 II. What is kequired in order to give the right answer to this question. 
 Nothing but this, that we can truthfully assert ourselves to have been faithful. It 
 cannot be required that we should lose none of the sheep. Not even the most faithful 
 shepherd that trod the pastures of Palestine could manage that. He could only do his 
 best to be provident, watchful, and courageous, so as to be himself free from blame if 
 a sheep was lost or fell a prey to the wild beast. And not one of the kings of Israel 
 or Judah could have said quite so much as this. Some of them, indeed, showed not- 
 the slightest notion that sheep had been put into their hands at all. Depend upon it, 
 if there were more of this faithfulness there would be more success in gathering and 
 preserving a flock for God. Faithfulness is the least that can be shown in our relations 
 to others. Of course, meddlesomeness, censoriousness, bigotry, must not be mistaken for 
 it. No good can be done if individual liberty is not respected, but nothing must prevail 
 on us to deviate in the slightest from the line Christ has marked out. Those of Christ's 
 sheep who, being most conscious of their own incapacity to make a way, keep their 
 eyes fixed on the way their Master makes for them, are really doing something of the 
 shepherd's work. Every one living and acting by the rule Christ has given is more of 
 a shepherd than he thinks. Then, for comfort, let it be kept in mind that no faithful 
 ness of ours will prevent the waywardness and wilfulness of others. Jesus warned 
 Judas, but Judas went obstinately off into his own way. Paul, faithful as none of us 
 can ever hope to be, had to bewail many who, professing faith, yet walked contrary to 
 
.H.xm. 1— 27.] THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 353 
 
 the will of Christ. The great thing to be aimed at is that we should be clear from 
 the blood of all men (Acts xx. 26 — 30). 
 
 in. It will be seen that this was a question for flocks as well as fob shepherds. 
 Rulers are responsible tor right leading, but subjects and followers are not altogether as 
 sheep, that they should blindly follow those in formal authority. Truth has not been 
 put within the formal shepherd's exclusive protection. We must take care whom we 
 follow. It is a delusion to suppose that we can hand ourselves over spiritually to the 
 guidance of any one less than Christ. Others may help and suggest; only he can 
 command. Paul came to his hearers with arguments and persuasions, laying before 
 them the truth, which they were able to receive because it was the truth, not because 
 the authority of the speaker made it true. All New Testament preaching goes on the 
 assumption that every one can be fully persuaded in his own mind. The same Scrip- 
 tures are open to reader as to preacher. None can have their eternal interests perilled 
 except by their own negligence. — Y. 
 
 Ver. 23.— A natural impossibility, I. The natural impossibilitt here presented. 
 It is a profound and momentous truth, God himself being the witness — the heart- 
 searching God — that man who is accustomed to do evil cannot turn to good. This 
 truth is not baldly stated here, but is illustrated in such a way that there can be no 
 possible doubt as to God's meaning. Observe that the impossibility referred to is 
 a natural one. It is not said that under no circumstances whatever can a man 
 accustomed to do evil be enabled to do good. The thing affirmed is that the power 
 of habit and custom is so strong that he cannot turn himself. If we are inclined to 
 doubt this, and indulge in that glorification of human nature which is at once so easy 
 and so perilous, we have only to think of the illustrations here employed. It is vaiu 
 to discuss with a man who is determined to magnify the power of the natural man 
 towards that which is right and good. The better plan is to assure one's own heart of 
 the truth which God would make plain by these illustrations of his own giving. If any 
 one asserted that an Ethiopian could change his skin or a leopard his spots, he would 
 be reckoned a fool past arguing with. But there are multitudes who think it is very 
 good advice to tell the poor slave of worldliness and passion to be a man and exert the 
 strength of his will and turn away from evil. Now, what God says here by his pro- 
 phet is that every such attempt must end in disappointment. No doubt there are 
 certain times and stages in life when it is hard to accept such a view. It is a humbling 
 and limiting view, one which exhibits in such an uncompromising way our weakness. 
 But the sooner we come to take such a view — to take it practically and not in a mere 
 speculative manner— to feel that the way of self-recovery and self-perfecting is closed 
 against us, the better it will be for us. 
 
 II. The consequent need of a gracious intervention. This is not stated here, 
 but we know that it is meant to be remembered. In all such emphatic assertions of 
 human inability there lies the suggestion that we may look confidently and ought to 
 look promptly for abundance of Divine help. God puts his hand on our mouths to 
 stop all proud words, but at the same time he would lead us to lay hold of his promises 
 and be filled with his strength. A clear vision of our own inability means a clear 
 vision of the need of Divine intervention, and a clear vision of the need of Divine inter- 
 vention may be expected to prepare for an equally clear vision of the reality of that 
 intervention. That which measures the impossibilities in the corrupted natural man 
 helps to measure the reasonable purposes and expectations of the man who is renewed 
 by the Spirit of God. When we have got the life that is hid with Christ in God, we have 
 something within us which defies the corruptions so powerful before. The Christian, 
 full of the Divine Spirit, is found able to utter all sorts ot paradoxes. Though he can- 
 not, of himself, make one hair white or black, ho c:'n be "suffering, yet alway rejoic- 
 ing ; poor, yet making many rich." There is a way, then, by which those accustomed 
 to°do evil can be brought to do good. There are resources which more than make up 
 for the greatest lack of natural strength. If we only seek for those resources in the 
 right place, we cannot fail to find them. 
 
 III. The teaching to be derived from the employment of these peculiar 
 ILLUSTRATIONS. Thousands of images were available to show natural impossibihties, 
 but these two are employed. It will be observed that they relate to the alteration of 
 
 .TK.TIF.MIAH. " * 
 
354 
 
 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xiv. 1—22. 
 
 external appearance. God could change the skin of the Ethiopian, could change the 
 spots of the leopard ; but he leaves them as they are, because no good purpose could 
 be served by the alteration. Where an alteration is really wanted, he can make it, 
 with results that are profitable now and promise a far greater profit in eternity. So far 
 as the merely agreeable is concerned, it would certainly have been pleasanter for the 
 ne^ro if those features which make him an object of ridicule to the ignorant, the proud, 
 and the fastidious, were taken away. But it is God's principle to interfere with nature 
 only where sin has made the interference necessary. Many negmes — God be thanked 
 — have found the better part, the one thing needful ; and, compared with this, what is 
 the most disturbing of surface discomforts? Continual comfort at the heart, a comfort 
 which cannot be taken from him, makes him forget all these. There would be no 
 object in changing the spots of the leopard ; let us rather rejoice that God takes away 
 from men the leopard-ferocity which makes them as dangerous as any beast of prey. 
 How often we seek vain and useless things, making ourselves miserable over physical 
 defects and peculiarities, and continuing quite indifferent to the washing of the heart 
 from wickedness. Instead of being anxious after things we cannot chance and need not 
 change, let us pray and strive after that possible, fundamental, radical change which 
 will bring in due time perfection of the whole man. God, working from the heart, 
 will cause that in due time we shall be perfect and entire, lacking nothing. — ^Y. 
 
 EXPOSITION. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 This chapter must be read in connection 
 with the following one. They describe 
 chiefly Jeremiah's twofold attempt at inter- 
 cession (see vers. 7^9 and 19 — 22) — a tender 
 and appeahng attempt indeed. The terrible 
 sufferings of the people during a drought 
 went to the prophet's heart. He even 
 ventured, when repelled the first time, to 
 intercede anew, on the ground of the cove- 
 nant, but in vain. On receiving (ch. xv. 
 2 — 9) a revelation of the bitter fate in store 
 for his people, he bursts out into a heart- 
 rending complaint that his own destiny 
 should throw him into such a whirlpool of 
 strife. His Lord at once corrects and con- 
 soles him (ch. XV. 10 — 21). There are 
 doubts, however, about the connection of 
 these latter verses.— The date of the drought 
 is not stated; but as the punishment of 
 Judah is described as future, and no refer- 
 ence is made to the captivity of Jehoiachin, 
 we shall probably be right in setting it 
 during the reign of Jehoiakim. 
 
 Vcr. 1. — The dearth ; rather, the drought, 
 or, more literally, the droughte, the plural 
 being used to indicate the length of time 
 the drought lasted. 
 
 Ver. 2. — The tenses in the following 
 description should be perfects and presents ; 
 the Authorized Version, by its inconsistency, 
 destroys the unity of the picture. The 
 gates thereof; i.e. the people assembled 
 
 there. They are black nnto the ground. 
 " To be black," in Hebrew, is " to be dressed 
 in mourning" (so e.g. Ps. xxxv. 14, "I 
 bowed down in black "). Here we must 
 understand the same verb which is expressed 
 in the psalm, " They bowed down in mourn- 
 ing attire to the ground." " Black," how- 
 ever, is not to be taken literally ; it means 
 rather " squalid, unwashed " (of garments). 
 
 Ver. 3. — Their nobles — i.e. the up[ier 
 classes of Judah and Jerusalem — have sent 
 their little ones ; rather, their mean ones; i.e. 
 theu' servants, or perhaps (as Naegelsbach 
 and Payne Smith) simply, "the com men 
 people ; " it was not a matter concerning the 
 rich alone. To the pits ; i.e. to the cisterns. 
 Covered their heads ; a sign of the deepest 
 mourning (2 Sam. xv. 30 ; xix. 4 ; Esth. vi. 
 12). 
 
 Ver. 4. — The gronnd is chapt. Perhaps ; 
 but it is more obvious to render, is dismayed, 
 according to the usual meaning of the word. 
 Words which properly belong to human 
 beings are often, by a " poetic fallacy," ap- 
 plied to inanimate objects (as in ver. 2). In 
 the earth ; rather, in the land. 
 
 Ver. 5. — Even the animals starve. Tea, 
 the hind also. The hind, contrary to that 
 intense natural affection for which she was 
 famous among the ancients, abandons her 
 young. 
 
 Ver. 6. — The wild asses ... in the hisfh 
 places; rather, on the bare Jieights. "The 
 wild asses," says a traveller cited by Rosen- 
 miiller, " are especially fond of treeless moun- 
 tains." Like dragons; render ratlier, lilcfi 
 jaelcah (as ch. ix. 11 ; x. 22). The allusion 
 is to the way jackals hold their head as they 
 howl. We are told that even the keen eyes 
 
CH. XIV. 1—22.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 
 
 355 
 
 of the wild asses fail, beoaiuse there was [is] 
 no grass ; rather, herbage. They grow dim 
 first with seeking it so long in vain, and 
 then from lack of nourishment. 
 
 Ver. 7. — The intercession of Jeremiah 
 begins. Do thon it ; a pregnant expression, 
 equivalent to " act gloriously " (as Ps. xxii. 
 81 ; Isa. xliv. 23). For thy name's sake. 
 Jehovah's " Name " pledges him to be merci- 
 ful to his people, and not to make a full end 
 of them, even when they have offended 
 (comp. " Our Redeemer was thy name from of 
 old"Isa. Ixiii. 16). 
 
 Ver. 8. — ^How pathetic a supplication I 
 Jehovah will surely not be as a stranger in 
 the land — the strangers, or " sojourners," like 
 the fifToiKot, enjoyed no civic rights, and 
 consequently had no interest in the highest 
 concerns of the state — and as a wayfaring 
 man that tnmeth aside — or perhaps, pitcheth 
 Ms tent ; for the traveller in Palestine doubt- 
 less carried his tent with him then as now — 
 to tarry for a night. With the latter figure 
 compare the beautiful comparison of the 
 hope of the ungodly to " the remembrance 
 of a guest that tarrieth but a day " (Wisd. 
 V. 14). 
 
 Ver. 9. — ^As a man astonied ; rather (com- 
 paring the Arabic dahamd), as one struck 
 dumb. But Dr. Payne Smith, with much 
 reason, is more than half inclined to follow 
 the Septuagint reading, equivalent to " as 
 one in a deep sleep." Leave us not ; literally, 
 lay us not down ; as if a burden of which the 
 bearer is tired. 
 
 Vers. ] — 16. — The answer of Jehovah. 
 
 Ver. 10. — Thus have they loved to wander, 
 . . . therefore the Lord doth not accept 
 them ; i.e. with such pertinacity have they 
 been set upon "wandering" (roving law- 
 lessly about), tliat the Lord hath no more 
 pleasure in them. " Therefore," is, literally, 
 and. " Thus," or "so," is used in tlie same 
 sense as in 1 Kings x. 12, which runs liter- 
 ally, "... there came not so [abundantly] 
 almug timber." The particle of compari- 
 son has given much occupation to the com- 
 mentators (see Payne Smith's note), but the 
 above view is at once simple and suitable to 
 the context ; for Jeremiah has already ad- 
 mitted that "our backslidings are multi- 
 plied" (ver. 7). The Lord doth not, etc. 
 (to the end of the verse), is quoted ver- 
 batim from Hos. viii. 13. Jeremiah puts 
 conspicuous honour on the older inspired 
 writers; he has no craving for originality. 
 Nearly all has been said already ; what he 
 has to do is chiefly to adapt and to apply. 
 He will now remember, etc. The emphasis 
 is on " now." Nothing is more remarkable 
 in the prophets than the stress laid on the 
 unerring justness of the time chosen for 
 Divine interpositions. When the iniquity is 
 fully ripe, it as it were attracts the punish- 
 
 ment, which till then is laid up in store 
 (comp. Gen. xv. 16 ; Isa. xviii. 5 ; xxxiii. 10). 
 
 Ver. 11. — Pray not for this people. So in 
 oh. vii. 16 (on which see note); ch. xi. 14. 
 
 Ver. 12. — Their cry. The word is very 
 forcible ; it is the shriek in which an un- 
 sophisticated man gives vent to his pain and 
 grief. An oblation. It is the vegetable 
 offering (Authorized Version, " meat offer- 
 ing ; " Luther, " speisopfer ") which is re- 
 ferred to in the so-called minkhah (literally, 
 gift). Though sometimes offered separately, 
 it regularly accompanied a burnt offering. 
 I will not accept tiiem. Dr. Payne Smith 
 tries to soften the rejection of these worship- 
 pers by the remark that " there isatimewhen 
 the most genuine repentance avails nothing 
 to avert tlio temporal consequences of sin." 
 But the analogy of other similar passages 
 (e.g. Isa. i. 15) warrants the view of Keil that 
 the ground of the rejection of the worship 
 is its hearlless formalism and insincerity, 
 which was equally a bar to Jehovah's favour 
 and the prophet's intercession. 
 
 Ver. 13. — " Pleading with Providence, 
 the good prophet lays the blame on ill 
 teaching, but the stem answer (ver. 14), 
 admitting the plea as true, rejects it as 
 inadequate (ver. 14), and denounces sorrows 
 which (vers. 17 — 22) the prophet passion- 
 ately deprecates " (Rowland Williams). Ah, 
 Lord Ood I rather, Alas I Lord Jehocali 
 (see on ch. i. 6). The prophets say untj 
 them. The greater part of the prophetic 
 order had not kept pace with its more 
 spiritual members (Isaiah, Jeremiah, etc.). 
 They still traded on those natural gifts nf 
 divination (Micah iii. 6) which were, no 
 doubt, where genuine, of Divine origin, but 
 which, even then, needed to be supple- 
 mented and controlled by a special impulse 
 from the Spirit of holiness. Jeremiah, how- 
 ever, declares, on the authority of a revela- 
 tion, that these prophets did not divine ly 
 any God-given faculty, but " the deceit of 
 their own heart " (ver. 14). The Deutero- 
 nomio Tordh, discovered after a period of 
 concealment at the outset of Jeremiah's 
 ministry, energetically forbids the practice 
 of the art of divination (Dent, xviii. 10). 
 
 Ver. 14. — A thing of nought. The word, 
 however, is collective, and means all the 
 various futile means adopted for prying into 
 the future. 
 
 Ver. 16.— I will pour their wickedness; 
 i.e. the fruits of their wickedness (comp. ch. 
 ii. 19, " Thine own wickedness shall cor- 
 rect thee "). 
 
 Vers. 17 — 21. — The prophet's grief, and 
 second intercession. 
 
 Ver. 17. — Therefore thou shalt say, etc. 
 There is something strange and contrary 
 to verisimilitude in the prefixing of this 
 formula, not to a Divine revelation, but to a 
 
356 
 
 THE BOOK OF THE PEOPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xiv. 1— 23. 
 
 mere expression of the pained human fepl- 
 iiigs of the prophet. It is possible that the 
 editor of Jeremiah's prophecies tliought the 
 paragraph which begins here needed some- 
 thing to link it with the preceding passage, 
 and selected his formula rather unsuitably. 
 Let mine eyes run down, etc. (comp. oh. xiii. 
 27). Jeremiah's tender compassion shows 
 itself iu his choice of the expression, the 
 virgin daughter of my people, just as we feel 
 an added bitterness in the premature death 
 of a cherished maiden. 
 
 Ver. 18. — A picture of the state of things 
 after the capture of Jerusalem : the slain 
 without, the famine-stricken within. The 
 latter are described allusively as " sicknesses 
 of famine " (so literally). As a peculiaily 
 striking evidence of the downfall of great- 
 ness, it is added that even prophet and 
 priest have to go about into a land that they 
 know not. The verb used here can obviously 
 not have its ordinary sense of going about 
 tVir purposes of traffic. Aramaic usage 
 suggests, however, a suitable meaning; 
 wimt the prophet sketches before us is a 
 company of these ex-grandees "begging 
 their way " into an uukuowu land. 
 
 Ver. 19, — We looked for peace, etc.; a 
 repetition of ch. viii. 15. 
 
 Ver. 20. — Our wickedness, and the ini- 
 quity of our fathers. There is a mysterious 
 connection between the sin of the past and 
 of the present. So in another prophet we 
 read, " Your iniquities and the iniquities of 
 your fathers together [will I requite]." 
 
 Ver 21. — The throne of thy glory; i.e. 
 the temple (ch. xvii. 12 ; Ezek. xliii. 7), or 
 Jerusalem (ch. iii. 17). It is the same con- 
 ception w here Jehovah is said to " dwell 
 between " [or, ' sit upon '] " the cherubim " 
 (Isa. xxxvii. 16; Ps. Ixxx. 1; xoix. 1). 
 
 Ver. 22. — None of the vanities, or false 
 gods (ch. iii. 17), of the heathen can deliver 
 us in this our strait (want of rain). " Bain- 
 makers" is still a common name of sooth- 
 sayers among savage nations. Thoii alone 
 art God, and our God; or, in Jeremiah's 
 phrase (not. Art not thou he, etc. ? but) Art 
 thou not Jehovah our Ood ? and the ground 
 of the appeal follows, Jehovah is the Maker 
 of all these things; i.e. all the heavenly 
 phenomena, especially the clouds and the 
 
 HOMILETICS. 
 
 Vers. 1 — 6. — A plague of drought. I. A PLAonE of drought is an instance op 
 A NATURAL CALAMITY OCCASIONING GREAT DISTRESS. Jeremiah gives a vivid picture 
 of the trouble such a plague causes. Men of all classes, from the noble to the plough- 
 man, suffer under it ; the animal world is driven from its natural instincts ; universal 
 desolation and agony prevail. Yet this is all natural. It is not the result of war nor 
 of any human interference ; it is a natural calamity. Nature is not always placid and 
 pleasing. She has her frowns, her storms, her droughts. The world is not a waste, 
 howling wilderness ; but neither is it a ganien of Eden. Thorns spring up among the 
 wheat. Even away from the perpetual deserts fertile fields are occasionally parched and 
 withered. We must expect a mixed experience in human life, as we meet with it in 
 nature. Showers of blessing are not always falling. There come also periods of dearth, 
 seasons of natural distress. 
 
 II. A PLAQUE OF DROUGHT IS AN EXAMPLE OP ONE FORM OP THE PUNISHMENT OP 
 
 SIN. Though the drought is natural, it is not, therefore, to be separated from all relation 
 to human and moral affairs. God rules Nature through her laws when he does not 
 supersede them. In his government of men God may overrule natural events to the 
 execution of his decrees. When such a calamity as a plague of drought falls upon a 
 land, it is well to ask whether there are no national sins for which it is sent as chastise- 
 ment. Sometimes the calamities of nature are the direct result of human conduct. 
 Thus Palestine now suffers from lack of water, partly becau.se the felling of trees has 
 diminished the rainfall, and partly because what rain there is is quickly drained off for 
 want of proper irrigation arrangements. Sl^ill, we must not assume that every natural 
 calamity is sent for the punishment of sin. This is but one among many Divine 
 purposes. Wholesome discipline, ulterior advantages, the avoiding of worse though 
 unseen calamities, etc., may enter into the Divine reasons for permitting the trouble. 
 Such calamities should make us examine ourselves, not humiliate ourselves without 
 thouglit and clear conviction of conscience. 
 
 111. A PLAGUE OF DROUGHT IN NATURE SHOULD SUGGEST THE POSSIBILITY OF 
 
 spiKiTUAL DROUGUT. Outward things are Symbolical of in Ward experiences. There is 
 a diought of the soul — when the soul is not partaking of the " water of life," and it is the 
 
CH. XIV. 1—22.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 357 
 
 most fearful kind of drought. Yet, while the physical calamity excites nil attention and 
 occasions universal distress, this calamity is olteu unheeded. But the effects of it are 
 not the less destructive. The soil becomes barren, unfruitful ; the heavenly graces 
 within, the instincts of Christian charity, are lost; the spiritual vision fails. It is 
 unnatural not to feel thirst in a season of drought. The soul that ii in this condition 
 will first come to itself with a feeling of deep distress, a pain of inward longing, a 
 panting and thirsting after God (Ps. Ixiii. 1). 
 
 IV. A PLAGUE OF DROUGHT SHOULD MAKE US MORE THANKFUL FOR THE COMMOK 
 
 BLESSINGS OF DAILY LIFE. The Commonest blessings are the most valuable. The first 
 necessary of lile is air, and air is the most abundant thing in nature. The next most 
 important requirement is water, and water is usually exceedingly plentiful. Gold and 
 diamonds are rare, but these can easily be spared. This very fact, which is a result of 
 God's providential care, induces an ungrateful neglect. We take without thought 
 that which we are always receiving. We must lose it to appreciate it. In sickness we 
 prize health ; in thirst we value water. It would be more wise and grateful to acknow- 
 ledge God's blessings while we have them, instead of requiring him to take them from 
 us to teach us their worth. 
 
 Ver. 7. — A plea for mercy in spite of guilt. I. We can only plead for God's 
 MERCY after A FRANK ADMISSION OF OUB OWN GUILT. The Common habit of people is 
 to take the opposite course — to excuse themselves, extenuate their faults, or ignore, or 
 even deny them. But this is vain before God, and while peniisted in it shuts the door 
 against forgiveness. God can only forgive sin that is confessed, can only have mercy 
 on the humble and penitent. This confession mnst be frank and full. Such a confession 
 is contained in the prayer of Jeremiah. 1. Personal guilt is admitted — " our iniquities." 
 
 2. The shame of increasing guilt is admitted — " our backslidings." If we feel we are 
 better than we once were, we excuse our present imperfection on the ground that it is 
 at least an improvement on the past. It requires a genuine penitence to admit that we 
 have been growing worse. 3. Sin is seen to be an offence ai/ainst Ood — " We have 
 sinned against thee." It is not a mere fault in ourselves ; it is a direct act of warfare 
 with Heaven. David said this (Ps. li. 4); so did the prodigal son (Luke xv. 18). 
 
 4. Sin is recognized as abundant — "Our backslidings are many." It is vain to confrss 
 some sins whilst denying others, or to attempt to represent them as less numerous than 
 they really are. This keeping back of part of the confession mars the whole of it. 
 
 5. Guilt is acknowledged to be open before God — " Our sins ttstify." 6. It is seen to be 
 a bar to our claim of simple right — they testify " against us." Condemnation, therefore, 
 may justly follow the plain evidence of guilt. Our own sins are witnesses to oppose 
 any plea we may found on our persona) deserts. 
 
 II. OUB OWN GUILT, WHEN FRANKLY ADMITTED, IS NO HINDRANCE TO THE MERCY 
 
 OF God. The only hindrance is impenitence. The ground of God's mercy is not our 
 desert, but his goodness. If there is anything in us which predisposes him to be gracious, 
 this is not our worth, but our want. The more wretched the condition to which our 
 sin has brought us, the more urgent the call to his pity. The one plea is " for his Name's 
 sake." 1. For the sake of God's character. His Name expresses what he is. His 
 highest name is " Love." By this name we plead for mercy. Because of what he is, 
 because of his inherent goodness, love, and pity, we implore his help. 2. Fur the sake 
 of God's honour. He has promised to have mercy on the penitent (^e.g. Deut. xxx. 
 1—10). Thus he has pledged his Name, bound himself by his own certain faithfulness. 
 
 3. For the sake of God's glory. His highest glory is his goodness. When he delivers his 
 children his own Name is glorified. Redemption honours God more than creation. The 
 song of the redeemed at the end of the world will be more sweet and nioro nolile 
 than the song of the sons of the morning at the dawn of creation. As Christians we 
 see these truths more clearly revealed in Christ. He is the " Word " incarnate, the 
 "Name," the highest manifestation of the character of God, the fulfilment of his 
 greatest promises, the expression of his brightest glory. For us to pray " for Christ's 
 sake " is the same as praying " for God's Name's sake." 
 
 Vers. 8, 9. The Bope of Israel a stranger in the land. I. God is the Hope and 
 
 Saviour of his people. 1. God is the Hope. (1) He inspires hope ; (2) in hiin is 
 
358 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xiv. 1—22. 
 
 the ground for the realization of hope ; (3) our highest hope is for the possession and 
 enjoyment of God himself; (4) this hope is justifiable in the people of God. He is the 
 Hope of Israel, truly the Hope of the spiritual Israel. 2. God is the Saviour in trouble. 
 He is remembered in trouble if he is forgotten in prosperity. In our greatest need he 
 is found nearest to us. Though he does not always prevent us from falling into trouble, 
 he is always ready to help us when we are in. There is to us no more important 
 character of God than that of the Saviour, since, as " man is born to trouble," we all need 
 a Saviour, and he alone can deliver from the great sorrows and sins of lile. 
 
 II. God may be with us as a stranger. 1. He may be with us and unknown — 
 like the stranger who passes through a country unrecognized. He was received by 
 Abraham as a stranger (Gen. xviii. 2). Hagar and Jacob failed at first to discern his 
 presence. Christ was treated as an unknown stranger by the two disciples journeying 
 to Emmaus. 2. He may be with us but for a season — like the traveller who sojourns 
 for a night and is gone the next morning. We may receive temporary visitations of 
 God without enjoying his abiding presence, casual glimpses of the Divine instead of a 
 constant walking with God, the light of Heaven falling now and again on our path 
 while earthly clouds fling long stretcbes of dreary shadow over the most of it. 3. He 
 may be with us without having communion with us — as a stranger, not as a companion 
 — as the traveller who pitches his tent in our land, not as the guest whom we welcome 
 to our hearth. Thus God may be near to us without our receiving him into our 
 hearts as our great Friend. 4. He may be with us without acting for our good 
 — like a mighty man slumbering. So he may see our need and yet we may not be 
 saved. 
 
 III. It is most sad that God should be with us as a stranger. 1. It is sad 
 because the blessings of his presence are then not received. (1) He must be known if 
 we are to benefit by his aid. (2) We need his constant presence for constant distresses. 
 
 (3) God helps by inward grace, which must come through close personal communion. 
 
 (4) We need the active aid of God, not the mere fact of his presence. 2. It Is sad 
 hecanse it is a violation of our natural relations with God. God is our Father. Shall 
 our Father be but as a stranger passing through our midst? He is changeless in his 
 eternal love to us. We are bound to him by close and perpetual obligations, and we 
 are in great and constant need of him. How, then, do we ever find ourselves in this 
 unnatural condition ? The cause is in us (ver. 10). Great sin cherished in impenitence 
 severs us from God, and makes it necessary that he*hould depart from us. God is a 
 stranger when with us, (1) because we are too earthly minded to discern his presence, 
 and too occupied with worldly things to think of it ; (2) because we do not open our 
 hearts to receive him in inward companionship; and (3) because we do not seek and 
 trust his help in our need (Bom. x. 21). 
 
 Vers. 13 — 16. — False prophets. I. Official teachers may be false teachers. 
 The false prophets belonged to the recognized order of prophets. No rank in the Church 
 confers infallibility. Popes have been heretics. The authority of a teacher must be 
 sought in his message, not in his office. It is our duty to try the spirits by their 
 correspondence with known revelation (1 John iv. 2), by the fruits of their lives and 
 doctrines (Matt. vii. 16), and by the standard of our own conscience (2 Cor. iv. 2). 
 
 IL Preaching which is not inspired by the Divine Spirit op holiness is likely 
 TO BE FALSE. The prophet may have a piercing intellect and a towering imagination. 
 Yet he will err if he be blinded by unholiness and excluded from the revelations of 
 spiritual communion. He speaks only out of his own heart ; but the heart is " deceitful 
 above all things." Attempts are constantly made to evolve religious truth out of the 
 inner consciousness of the thinker. No idle dreams are more delusive, since (1) men 
 have not the materials out of which to build a theology of their own ; (2) they have 
 not the faculties capable of using those materials — sin perverts the spiritual vision, 
 prejudice and self-interest distort views of truth. 
 
 ill. CoNscionsLY teaching false ideas of religion is A heinous crime. It is 
 using the Name of God in vain (ver. 14). It is abusing the trust of a high office for low 
 purposes. It is likely to involve many in the toils of a fatal deception. It is easy to 
 prophesy smooth things— easy thus to gain a vulgar popularity. But if this is done at 
 the expense of truth, it is an awful sin. All Christian teachers should beware of the 
 
CH. XIV. 1—22.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 3D9 
 
 temptation to degrade their mission by aiming at pleasing tlieir hearers instead of 
 faithfully proclaiming the will of God. 
 
 IV. False teaching in kelicuon will be punished by fatal results. It ought 
 to be clear to everybody that the first question concerning any teaching is whether it is 
 true. Yet this question is often ignored. The prophet is eloquent; the doctrine is 
 pleasing ; the prediction is inviting. But what of all that if it is false ? The prophecy 
 will be punished when truth is revealed by facts. Then the false prophet will suffer 
 by the fulfilment in himself of the prophecy he denied, and the people by the coming of 
 the evil day they were too ready to hear discredited. 
 
 Ver. 20 — ch. xv. 1. — Prayer for mercy rejected. I. The prater is based on urgent 
 PLEAS. 1. A complete confession of sin. (Ver. 20.) It is acknowledged as hereditary, 
 but as also personal. Therefore all claims must rest on Divine considerations, since no 
 ground for prayer can be found in anything human. 2. The plea of the Name of Ood. 
 This is a plea all men can urge. The character, the honour, and the glory of God are 
 suggested by his Name. For the sake of what he is, and the glory that his mercy will 
 reflect, we may plead for pardon. By his love we beg for his forgiveness. 3. The ph a 
 of disgrace to the throne of Ood's glory. This is a more special plea. The temple was 
 the house of God, wherein his glory was manifested. To destroy it was to put an end 
 to the manifestation of Divine glory associated with it. God's glory is reflected on his 
 Church. If the Church is humiliated, disgrace falls on the throne of God's glory. Yet, 
 note, it is only the throne that is directly disgraced, not the glory itself. The tarnished 
 mirror can no longer reflect the radiance of the sun ; this is a discredit to the mirror, 
 but not directly to the sun, since there is no diminution of the sun's brightness. Still, 
 indirectly, dishonour is done to the original source of glory. The sun is less admired if 
 its light is less reflected. God is less honoured if his glory is less manifested. 4. The 
 plea of the Divine covenant. This is the most special plea. God has made promises. 
 To the fulfilment of these his faithfulness is bound. He has made a covenant with his 
 own people. They who have accepted the covenant plead its special claims- The 
 Christian has not only the universal mercy of God to trust in ; he has the special piomises 
 of the gospel, the assurance of the privileges of God's restored children. 
 
 II. Nevertheless THE PRAYER is rejected. 1. Intercession is useless for those who 
 will not repent and seek mercy for themsdves. The prayer was that of the prophet on 
 behalf of his Impenitent countrymen. The intercession of good men is recognized as 
 powerful. Their character adds weight to their intercession (Jas. v. 16). But not only 
 must Jeremiah's prayer be rejected, even Moses the founder of the nation and Samuel 
 the father of the prophets could not prevail in the present case. The intercession of 
 one greater than Moses, of Christ himself, will not save those who are obstinately 
 hardened against returning to God. 2. The Name of Ood includes reference to his 
 justice as well as his mercy. For his Name's sake he must vindicate the right. The 
 one-sided view of God which excludes all reference to his wiath is dishonouring. Even 
 a man who can never feel righteous indignation is weak and imperl'ect. For a judge to 
 acquit all criminals would be fatal to justice. 3. The throne of God's glory is more 
 dishonoured ly sin than by external disaster. The Jews feared discredit to the temple in 
 its desecration by the heathen. It was more desecrated by their corrupt practices in it. 
 To make the temple a den of thieves is more dishonouring than to overthrow it so as not 
 to leave one stone upon another. The sins of Christ's Church are more dishonouring 
 to his Name than her sufferings, her willing subservience to the spirit of the world more 
 humiliating than her apparent lowly condition when trampled under the feet of 
 persecutors. The pure martyred Church is a glory to Christ, the corrupt prosperous 
 Uliurch a shame to his Name. 4. God's covenant ha^ human conditions. He condescends 
 to bind himself to bless us so long as we fulfil our obligations to submit to hiin. 
 Disobedience breaks the covenant. The faithless Christian cannot urge the pleas of 
 the privileges of the gospel. 
 
 Ver. 22. — Prayer for rain. I. Objections to prater for bain. 1. The universality 
 of law. It seems to have been vaguely imagined till recently that the weather was 
 not subject to laws of nature in the same strict form in which most material things 
 are thus bound. But this surmise was simply based on ignorance. Recently more 
 
360 THE BOOK OF THE PEOPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xiv. 1—22. 
 
 indications of law have been discovered, and we see the dawn of a meteorological 
 science. How, then, can we expect God to change the weather in response to our 
 prayers? 2. Tlie limitations of knowledge. We really do not know what weather is 
 best. What is good for one place is bad for another. The effects of rain and of 
 drought are so far-reaching that it seems vain for us to judge what is best regarding 
 them. But Grod knows all and is infinitely wise. Why should we not trust to 
 his unerring discretion? 3. The goodness of Ood. If God is well disposed to his 
 creatures, will he not give them what is for their good? Why, then, even if it were 
 possible for the weather to be affected by our prayer, and if we were wise enough to 
 know what was best for the world, should it be necessary for us to pray about the 
 weather, as if God needed to be urged to govern the world for our benefit ? 
 
 II. Reasons in rAvooR op pkatek for RAiif. 1. The control of Ood over the laws 
 of nature. God is not the slave of his own legislation. Without changing his laws, 
 he can act through them, as men who cannot alter the laws of nature can still alter the 
 facts of nature by their use of those laws. Moreover, are there no spiritual laws ? 
 Yet, without violating the principles of the constitution of the spiritual universe, we 
 believe that God can answer prayer for spiritual blessings. 2. The conditional character 
 of prayer. The limitation to our knowledge makes it necessary for us to pray on the 
 condition that God will only answer our requests so far as they agree with his wise and 
 righteous will. Prayer for rain, of all prayers, must not be an absolute demand, but 
 a submissive and humble request, accompanied by the desire that not our will but 
 God's be done. We have no right to dictate to God in prayer, and wisdom would not 
 desire such a right. But there need be no limit to the greatness of the objects of 
 prayer when the right condition of trust in God's higher will is observed. 3. The fact 
 that prayer alters our condition before Ood. It may be wise and right for God to do 
 after our prayer what it would not be well for him to do without it. The very prayer 
 may be a link in a chain of causation. Drought may be sent to us, as it was to Judah, 
 with a Divine purpose concerning our conduct. A change in our conduct will then 
 modify the action of that purpose. Prayer may be the best indication of such a change. 
 We have distinct promises that we may receive, when we seek them in prayer, blessings 
 which are withheld so long as we abstain from asking for them (Matt. vii. 7, 8). 
 
 HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS, 
 
 Vers. 7, 9. — A prayer for God's people in time of his judgments. The prophet's 
 words, as he intuitively places himself in the position of those who are about to be 
 afdicted. Not, therefore, to be regarded as an ideal prayer, but a true representation of 
 the spiritual state of those who are conscious of their sin and their need of salvation. 
 They explain the lack of apparent answer to, prayer, and truthfully interpret the 
 spiritual condition of the awakened sinner. 
 
 I. Prayer is an ikdex or the spiritual state. Here we have the oscillation 
 between fear and hope, doubt and faith, vividly portrayed. There is a flitting to and fro 
 of the soul between the extremes of dejection and of confidence. All real prayer ought 
 thus faithfully to represent the mind of the petitioner. It is a laying bare of secret 
 thoughts and moral convictions; an unconscious as well as a conscious confession. 
 Whilst it maybe said that a man's inner being is revealed in his prayer, he is not to be 
 judged by it by his fellow-men. It is only God who can truly understand the indica- 
 tions which it affords, and only he who has a right to interpret them. There is a 
 rising, a falling, and a rising again in the course of the prayer. It is the Name of God 
 which serves as a reminder and spiritual confirmation. 
 
 II. Prater is a spiritual exercise and a means op grace. There is evident in 
 this utterance a wrestling with unbelief. Memories of evil crowd upon the soul and 
 seem to darken the horizon. The sinful nation confesses that in itself there is no hope, 
 but as that conviction is arrived at, another asserts itself, namely, that God is the Hope 
 of Israel, and that in his name or character there is the promise and potency of restora- 
 tion. It is in spiritual transitions like these that the soul is lost and found a^ain. 
 Temptation is anticipated and overcome, sin is cast away, and God is throned in the 
 heart. It is better to make such honest discovery of ourselves to God, even in our 
 
OH. XIV. 1—22.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 361 
 
 weakness and lack of faith, than that we should carry these into the conduct of life. 
 It is in these transitions of despair and hope reaching to and resting in restored faith 
 and settled purpose of righteousness, that the overcoming of the world is already 
 accomplished. 
 
 III. The pbater that seems to be rejected now mat yet pkovb a condition of 
 ACCEPTANCE. Had Israel herself really adopted the words of this her representative 
 mediator, she would have escaped the awful abyss that yawned before her, but she 
 knew not the day of her opportunity. By slow stages of recovery, marked by many 
 relapses, was she to climb to the great truth from which she had fallen, that the Name 
 of Grod was her salvation and hope. So it is that many a prayer uttered without 
 apparent answer supphesin itself a spiritual condition of ultimate blessing. Its answer 
 is really begun in the change of attitude assumed, and the spiritual truth laid hold of. 
 By-and-by irresolution and uncertainty will give place to faith, and the windows of 
 heaven will be opened. — M. 
 
 Vers. 19, 22. — Prayer a fruit of chastisement. There is a deeper and more spiritual 
 tone in this utterance. The heart of Israel is conceived of as having been searched and 
 revealed. Repentance is felt, and confession made. The true source of peace and help 
 is sought after ; and the false ones which have been tested are rejected. 
 
 I. In the DISCIPLINE AND JUDGMENTS OF LIFE GoD TEACHES MEN HOW TO PRAT. 
 
 Thereby they learn in a stern school their own sinfulness ; the misery and desolation 
 of the soul that is alienated from the life of God and exposed to his wrath and curse ; 
 the incapacity of earthly things to deliver or console, and the power of God to forgive 
 and to save. It is in this estimate of themselves and their resources that the foundation 
 is laid for real spiritual desire. When sin has been felt and acknowledged, a relation 
 is established between the soul and God which is immediately recognized in its claims. 
 
 II. The SPIRIT which is thus produced is alone acceptable TO God. There are 
 many prayers which evidently ought not to be, and with due regard to the needs of the 
 sinner and the honour of his heavenly Father could not be, answered. The chief end 
 of prayer is not gained in the obtaining of the objects that are asked for, but in the 
 gradual assumption of a right relation to God and acknowledgment of his character and 
 authority. Thus it is that some prayers sound like wails of despair, whilst others are full 
 of the breathings of resignation, obedience, faith, and love. It is with this filial tone 
 that true prayer begins. And it is only when we have learned that " whom he loveth 
 he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth," that we are able to adopt 
 it. " Thy will be done " is the burden of every Christ-taught prayer, as it is the out- 
 come of all true spiritual discipline. — M. 
 
 Ver. 21. — Invoking the honour of God. Not along ago this phrase, " Do not disgrace 
 the throne of thy glory," was employed in prayer by a convert in a certain religious 
 meeting. Shortly after a letter was sent to the papers, inveighing against the " pro- 
 fanity" of the idea ; in apparently complete ignorance of its scriptural origin and warrant. 
 Often the language of humility may ccmctal a conception of real arrogance, and so, on 
 the other hand, the most daring appeals to the promises, the character, and the honour 
 of God may have their root in the profoundest reverence and faith. It is high ground 
 to take, simply because no other ground is available. 
 
 I. As sinners have no reason fob mercy in themselves, they must appeal to 
 God. Mere pity would be inadmissible as a motive to which to appeal. _ There is no 
 ground of acceptance in the sinner himself, and consequently there remams only that 
 course of action which will illustrate and glorify the character of God. That God had 
 chosen Israel as his servant, and Jerusalem as the seat and centre of the theocracy, are 
 the only reasons that are valid in approaching him for mercy. Any course of action 
 which would fail to give due respect to the attributes of his character or the purposes oJ 
 his grace in the world is already forbidden when it is stated. God has been at pains to 
 pled" e himself to the ultimate salvation of men. His Name is itself a promise that no 
 compromise shall be entered into or ineffectual means of salvation adoptea. iiieretore 
 the necessity of Christ's sacrifice and resurrection. In him the justice o) God is 
 honoured, and his Name revealed in the hearts of men. It is only as the gospel is per- 
 
362 THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xiv. 1—22. 
 
 ceived as the offspring of tlie purest, highest motives on the part of God that it can call 
 into existence corresponding motives in the sinner himself. 
 
 II. To THE SAINT THE HONOUB OF GoD SHOtTLD EVER BE OP MOEE ACCOUNT THAN HIS 
 
 OWN WELPAKE. " For Christ's sake " is a formula in which much of this feeling is 
 implicitly expressed. The exigencies of God's kingdom, the furtherance of his purposes 
 of love and grace, the recognition of the principles of righteousness, are essential to a 
 true Christian life as to true prayer. And the keenest susceptibility should be felt to 
 any conduct on the part of God's servants which would seem to injure his cause in the 
 world or to misrepresent his character. 
 
 III. God's Name is pledged to and bound up vtith the salvation op men. It 
 seems a daring and wondrous plea to urge in the presence of him with whom we have 
 to do ; but it is the only one which we can truly offer, and it is of infinite avail. If we 
 accept Christ as representing the honour and righteousness of God, are we not assured 
 that every prayer truly offered in his name shall be answered ? The welfare and useful- 
 ness of God's servants are guaranteed by such a consideration, and we cannot offer it too 
 often or insist upon it with too great earnestness. — M. 
 
 Vers. 1 — 9. — Thankfulness through contrast : a harvest sermon. These verses are a 
 terrible picture of drought and famine. Our thankfulness for what God has done for 
 us in the bounteous harvest he has given may be called forth the more by considering 
 the contrast with our happy lot which these verses present. Contrast is a great teacher. 
 It is the black board on which the teacher's white markings are more clearly seen, the 
 dark background of the sky on the face of which the stars shine out the more. Now, this 
 chapter is all concerning, not a bountiful harvest, but a dread famine. We cannot deter- 
 mine the date of this famine, but it appears to have been one of those premonitory judg- 
 ments of God sent to teach his sinful people wisdom, so that the more terrible judgments 
 of the future years might not be needed. " A terrible drought had fallen upon the land, 
 and the prophet's picture of it is like some of Dante's in its realism, its pathos, and in 
 its terror. In the presence of a common calamity all distinctions of class have 
 vanished, and the nobles send their little ones to the wells, and they come back with 
 empty vessels and drooping heads, instead of with the gladness that used to be heard 
 in the places of drawing water. Far afield the ploughmen are standing among the 
 cracked furrows, gazing with despair at the brown chapped earth, and out in the field 
 the very dumb creatures are sharing in the common sorrow. And the imperious law of 
 self-preservation overpowers and crushes the maternal instincts. ' Yea, the hind also 
 calved in the field, and forsook it, because there was no grass.' And on every hill-top, 
 where cooler air might be found, the once untameable wild asses are standing with open 
 nostrils, panting for air, their filmy eyes failing them, gazing for the rain that will not 
 come. It is a true description — so they say who know what drought in Eastern lands 
 is and does. How it distressed the earth, the beasts, and man, is all vividly por- 
 trayed." The pits, some of them natural hollows in the hard rock and in caves, where 
 evaporation was less speedy ; others of them dykes and cisterns, the works of man ; — 
 but all alike were empty. The ground was split by reason of the long drought into 
 wide and deep fissures ; earth's wounds for man's sin, mute mouths crying to Heaven 
 for pity, the lips of earth suffering, waiting for a drop of water to relieve the torment 
 of its awful thirst. And not the land only, but the dumb brutes were involved in the 
 common woe. The hind, driven down from her hish places into the fields in search of 
 the grass that has disappeared from the lofty heights, meets with disappointment here 
 also, and in her agony of hunger and thirst lorgot and forsook her young, whom she, 
 above most other of the beasts of the field, was wont to care for and cherish tenderly ; 
 and the hardy wild asses (ver. 6) found their hunger even greater than they could bear, 
 and panted in terror and distress. And man — all ranks and ages were smitten, the people 
 generally were languishing. The gates of the cities and other chief places of concourse 
 were " black unto the ground," with the sad, coloured garments of the mourners who 
 biut prostrate there ; and one long, loud, bitter cry went up from the whole city of God. 
 But what a contrast is our condition to theirs ! See it in the aspects of the fields ere 
 Imrvest was gathered in. In the gifts of all nurturing powers from heaven — rain, dew, 
 and fountains of water. In the abundance provided for man and beast, and in the con- 
 tentment and peace of the herds of the field. In the glad congratulations of all classes 
 
CH. XIV. 1—22.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 363 
 
 in the land, from the labourer to the noble, because of what God has giv- . The wholq 
 nation rejoices, a cry not of sorrow but of gladness goes up from the home of the rich 
 and poor, high and low alike. And this contrast is seen also in the thou; hts of God 
 prompted by the two events. " The dearth " made the people think that G^id was as a. 
 stranger in the land, one who knew nothing of them or their need. If we f> It concern- 
 ing our distresses that God was as a stranger to us, they would be much harler to bear. 
 But so Judah and Jerusalem thought. Nor was this the worst thought ; for if God 
 knew how they were suffering, and yet no help came, did not a yet darker su mise seem 
 warranted? "Was it not as if he were "as a wayfaring man that bat turned aside to 
 tarry for the night," and who therefore, having no interest in the place or the people, 
 would care but little for them ? This was a terrible thought indeed. If our mind be 
 haunted with the dread thought that God looks on unmoved at our afSiction, and cares 
 not for our distress — what, then, can we do ? But so they thought. The sun rose and set, 
 the stars looked down upon them just as they had done at other times ; but there was 
 no heart of love in their calm, unmoved gaze ; and so it seemed there was no heart in 
 God, and that he, unmoved by their appeal, left them to perish. Or could it be that, 
 after all their boasting in him as mighty to save. One mightier than he had arisen and 
 overpowered him ; that he was " as one astonied, as a mighty man that cannot save " ? 
 Was there some cruel fate which, after all, was ruling over their destinies, and so pre- 
 venting the mighty One, of whom their fathers told, from coming to their help as in 
 the days of old? Such dark and terrible thoughts float about the minds of men in the 
 hour of dire distress such as this dearth had brought upon them. And so all hope was 
 quenched, the voice of prayer was stifled, their hearts died down in complete despair. 
 The dearth in itself was bad enough, causing bodily a,o;ony beyond all description , but 
 its horrors were heightened and awfully intensified by the dark thoughts about God to 
 which the" distress gave rise. But in all this, what a contrast does our happier lot 
 present ? The thoughts of God which the harvest he has given prompt are the very 
 opposite of those which, as we have seen, haunted the minds of those who suffered 
 under the dearth. Not as a stranger ignorant of us and our wants does Gud appear, 
 but as One who " knoweth that we have need of all these things," and who openeth 
 his hand and fiUeth us with good. And still less as a wayfaring man, and who 
 therefore has no concern nor care for land or people. Every golden ear of corn 
 has been a tongue as well, and has told elocjueutly though silently of our Father's 
 care. The wide-stretching fields of corn have been filled with these myriad witnesses 
 to his love, and have stood up in their serried ranks, to give the lie to the unbelieving 
 heart, that would harbour hard thoughts of God. As all with one consent yield to the 
 summer breeze, so with like oneness of consent, do they attest his unfailing gocdness 
 and his ne . er-ceasing care. And they proclaim him, too, as the Hope of his people, and 
 their Savi ur indeed. He is no " mighty man that cannot save." For all the treasures 
 of the field, created, preserved, and ripened for our use, in spite of all adverse influences 
 which tnreatened them, all show that he is mighty to save. His hand held in check 
 every i ostile power, every destructive storm, every killing frost, every blighting mildew, 
 every creeping caterpillar, and all else that would have robbed us of the corn ho has 
 giver . Oh, what a gospel do the fields preach ! And how diiferently God might have 
 dea't with us! For whilst there is so vast a contrast between our harvest and that 
 dearth of which these verses tell, there has beeu no such contrast between our conduct 
 and that which brought upon Judah the calamity from which they suffered. Have we 
 not reason to make the same confession which was made concerning them ? — " Loid, 
 . . . our iniquities testify against us," etc. (ver. 7). "What, gratitude then, does such 
 long-suffering love call for from us ! Let, then, our harvest lead us to do that which 
 Judah's dearth led the prophet to do — to turn to God, and confess him as our Hope and 
 our Saviour in time of trouble. In this way he is again standing at our doors and 
 knocking for admission. The " miracle of the loaves " is done over again for our 
 Comfort and help. "We have " the joy of liarvest," let him have it also in gathering .»" 
 into the garner of his faithful souls for time and for eternity. — C. 
 
 Vers. 7 — 0. — An absent Ood deplored. The dearth told of in foregoing verses and 
 the misery caused thereby led to the conviction that God had abandoned his people. 
 In these verses and throughout this section down to ch. xv. 9 we find the prophet 
 pleading with God to return. In these verses we are shown — 
 
364 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [on. xiv. 1—22. 
 
 I. The causes which had BROuaHT about the Divine withdrawal fbom them. 
 Their " iniquities," " baokslidicgs," " sias " (ver. 7). Nothing else has such power ; 
 sin only can shut out Grod, but it always will and does. 
 
 II. The happy memories which made it so bitter. God had revealed himself to 
 them in such endearing manner. He had been ever " the Hope of Israel." He had 
 inspired, maintained, and justified that hope again and again. And he had become 
 the Hope of Israel through having shown himself so perpetually "the Saviour thereof 
 in the time of trouble." The memory of God's servants was stored with recoUectioTis 
 of such deliverances, national and individual, from troubles temporal and spiritual ; 
 vouchsafed, too, not because of Israel's deserving, but out of God's pure bounty. Now, 
 it was these happy memories which made God's present dealings with them so terrible 
 to bear. 
 
 III. The sad contrast between the Divine manifestations now and of old. 
 We have seen what he had been to Israel, but now, the prophet complains, he is to 
 them very far from what he was then. He is "as a stranger," "a wayfaring man," as 
 one " taken by surprise," as one strong but yet unable to help. Their enemies would 
 taunt them with the reproach that either God was as a stranger, and therefore did not 
 care for them ; or, if they denied that, then it must be that there was a stronger than 
 he, who had taken him by surprise and prevented his rendering help to his afflicted 
 people. Either he would not or he could not— on one of the horns of this dilemma 
 they by the force of their present circumstances were thrown. And there can be no 
 doubt that the great mystery of life, its sins and s<irrows, do often force perplexed and 
 troubled minds perilously near to one or other of these conclusions, which nevertheless 
 iaith affirms to be alike false, and will never admit for one moment. 
 
 IV. The sources of hope under circumstances like these. They are : 1. The 
 Name of Ood. This the prophet pleads (ver. 7). He confesses that all their own con- 
 duct is altogether against them. They can have no hope in themselves. But the Name 
 of God remains to be urged in his pleading, and therefore it is this Name that he 
 does urge. " Do thou it for thy Name's sake." Here is a fact which cannot change. 
 When driven out of all hope in ourselves by reason of our sins, we may yet hope in God, 
 and plead the grace and goodness that are evermore in him. 2. The presence of his 
 appointed ordinances and his chosen dwelling-place in their midst. This is the meaning 
 of ver. 9, " Yet thou art in the midst of us." The temple, the altar, the sacrifice, the 
 priests, the ark, were all there ; the appointed channels of communication hetween God 
 and his people. And so long as we may go unto his footstool, and the throne of grace 
 is open to us, there is hope in that. God will come to us again in the way of his holy 
 and appointed ordinances, if we will go along that way to seek him. 3. They were the 
 objects of his love. " We are called by thy Name." Israel was so. God had chosen 
 them at the first, " When Israel was a child, then I loved him." And it is because 
 of that undying love of God, they who for their sins have lost his presence may yet 
 win it back again. 
 
 V. The present duty. Prayer. The prophet betook himself hereto. " Leave us 
 not," he cries (ver. 9). And nothing barred the success of this prayer but that the 
 people for whom he prayed had no heart in it. God stood ready to forgive and restore. 
 The prophet's prayer was fully answered on the part of God. But those for whom he 
 prayed were not ready, and so their judgment went on. But for ourselves, if we 
 deplore an absent God, let us betake ourselves to these potent arms of all-prevailing 
 prayer, and God shall ere long be again known to us as of old as our Hope and our 
 Saviour in time of trouble.— C. 
 
 Vers. 13 — 16. — False teachers no adequate excuse for evil conduct. No doubt the 
 people to whom Jeremiah was sent had been encouraged in their ungodliness by the 
 faithlessness and sin of their prophets. Blind guides were leading the blind, and with 
 the inevitable result. And here Jeremiah pleads, as an excuse for his people's sin, that 
 they had been thus misled. But God refuses to admit the plea. Now, on this, note — 
 
 1. False tbachinq is some excuse for evil conduct. The deepest instincts of 
 our hearts affirm this. Our Lord himself does so, when he says, " He that knew not 
 his Lord's will and did it not, shall be beaten with few stripes." But this word of his, 
 whilst it allows that lack of teaching is some e.xcuse, denies that it is suflicient (cf. 
 
CH. XIV. 1—22.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 365 
 
 John xix. 11). St. Paul also says, concerning the heathen nations, " The time of this 
 ignorance God winked at." 
 
 II. But it is not an adequate excuse. For: 1. The taught are the creators 
 almost as much as the creatures of their teachers. The people who clamour for smooth 
 things to be prophesied to them will find such prophets forthcoming. Ahab's pro- 
 phets — all of them but Micaiah — were such. It is true, " like priest, like people ; " but 
 it is also true, " like people, like priest." The demand creates the .supply. The pastors 
 of the Church are the product of the Church, almost as much as the Church is the 
 product of the pastors. What a worldly Church wants it will have, for the woe both 
 of itself and its pastors alike. 2. They have a sure test by which to try all their 
 teachers. " To the Law and to the testimony," etc. Conscience also is ever on the side 
 of God, and is prompt to condemn all teaching that leads to sin. The Holy Spirit 
 likewise pleads in men's hearts for God. And the faithful words of those in whom 
 God's Spirit dwells. None, therefore, are shut up to any human teachers. 3. And 
 where evil teachers have been followed, it has been in spite of the protest which these 
 other higher and surer guides have uttered, or would have uttered had they been 
 suffered so to do. 
 
 III. But IP IT BE ILL FOB THE TAUGHT, IT IS YET MORE ILL FOR THE TEACHERS. 
 
 " His blood will I require at the watchman's hands." The most awful of our Lord's 
 denunciations were addressed to such evil teachers (cf. the oft-repeated, " Woe unto 
 you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! " cf. ver. 14, etc.). 
 
 Conclusion. 1. Let those who are taught by any human teachers test what they 
 receive by the Word of God. Be as the Bereans (Acts xvii. 11). 2. Let those who 
 teach watch anxiously and prayerfully against the temptation to conform their teach- 
 ings to the likings of their hearers rather than to their needs. Let them remember 
 that the causes of error and false teaching are much more moral than they are 
 intellectual. 3. Let teachers and taught alike sit daily at his feet who said, " I am the 
 Way, the Truth, and the Life."— C. 
 
 Vers. 17 — 22. — The distracting power of great distress. The prophet seems blinded 
 by his tears. The distress portrayed here is terrible indeed, and the prophet so realized 
 it that his mind appears to have reeled beneath his apprehensions of the comiug 
 calamities. Hence he falls into utterances which can only be regarded, however par- 
 donable and comprehensible under his piteous circumstances (cf. ver. 18), as exagge- 
 rated, and in many respects, as all such utterances are, incorrect. Every sentence in 
 ver. 19, etc., is open to grave question. It would be dreadful if they were not. 
 Note— 
 
 I. The prophet's expostulations. (Ver. 19.) Now, God did not " utterly reject 
 Judah," nor did " his soul loathe Zion." It was his love for his people that determined 
 him at all costs to purge them from their evil. 
 
 II. His complaints. (Ver. 19.) He complains that they had been disappointed 
 and implies that God was the cnuse why tiieir expectations had failed. They had 
 no right to look for peace, being what they were. 
 
 III. His confessions. Nothing could be more appropriate or more sure to gain the 
 mercy of God than such confession as this, if it were indeed sincere and general on the 
 part of those who had sinned. But this it was not ; it was because they would not 
 repent, would not return unto the Lord, that therefore his wrath arose against them 
 until there was no remedy. 
 
 IV. His ENTREATIES. (Vcr. 21.) God never " abhorred " his people, but only their 
 sins; and that God should be thought to "disgrace" the throne of his glory can only 
 be explained on the grounds we have stated. Nor either is it God's way to " break 
 his covenant." 
 
 V. His pi/EAS. (Ver. 22.) Here the prophet pleads truly. There was no hope in 
 any heathen deity, but in God alone. And had the people indeed " waited" upon God, 
 matters had gone more hajipily with them. But this was just what they did not do. Now, 
 concerning all such utterances as these : 1. Bear with them. God did so. He rebuked 
 not his servant, though that servant had spoken unadvisedly concerning him. 2. Be 
 very slow to believe them. Cf. Naomi, and her false forebodings of fear. How ill she 
 thou'ht God would deal with her ! How gracious, in fact, thai dealing was! And St. 
 
306 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. iit. 1— 22, 
 
 Paul assures us that " God hath not cast off his people." " All Israel shall be saved." 
 Let us wait on and wait for God. 3. Be ashamed if hy our sin we have caused such- 
 distress. Jeremiah had not sinned, but he mourns as if the sin were his own. Behold- 
 ing the sorrow our sin causes to those who love us will, if we be not utterly hardened, 
 arouse shame, sorrow, and contrition in our own hearts. 4. If those who know most of 
 tlie miud of God tremble for us, have we not reason to tremble for ourselves ? — C. 
 
 Ver. 21. — A dreadful apprehension. That God should " abhor " us. Such appre- 
 hension filled the prophet's mind, as it has other minds. 
 
 I. But this God never does. He is our Father ; he so loved us as to give Christ 
 for us. It is impossible, therefore, let our apprehensions be what they may, that he 
 can abhor us. 
 
 II. But he mat seem to. 1. No one will think thus of God by reason only of 
 temporal calamities. These have again and again come and do come to God's servants, 
 but produce no such distressing thought as this (cf. Ps. xxii., "He hath not despised 
 nor abhorred," etc.). 2. Nor will spiritual distress alone cause it. There may be loss 
 of comfort in God ; no enjoyment in prayer or worship. Sin may again reassert its 
 mastery, and fill the soul with sorrow. Doubts may insinuate themselves into the 
 soul. But none of these will of themselves lead to the thought that God abhors us. 
 3. They may do so, however, if the presence of sorrow, temporal or spiritual, he so 
 severe as to throw the mind off its balance. (Uf. former homily.) Despair has for a while 
 under such circumstances wrought this harm, and that in the holiest minds. Even 
 our blessed Lord knew somewhat of this awful experience (cf. the agony in the garden, 
 and the cry on the cross, "My God, my God," etc.). Elijah, John the Baptist, Jeremiah 
 here, and others have been instances. Cowper the poet also, and the not unfrequent 
 cases of religious melancholy leading either to settled gloom or even suicide. The 
 tenderest pity and compassion are to be felt for such. 4. Persistent disobedience and 
 repeated backsliding are the chief causes of this apprehension. When the world, the 
 flesh, and the devil fill the heart, especially the heart which has once been cleansed, 
 then "the last state of that man is worse than the first" (cf. Saul, Judas, Ahithophel). 
 Yes; such sin has power to turn the sun into darkness and tlie moon into blood, atjd 
 to make the very stars fall from heaven. Goil becomes the horror of the soul, and men 
 will " make their bed in hell " if but they may flee from his dreadful presence. 
 
 III. The great destroyer of this dread. It is suggested by the prophet's onn 
 words : " Abhor us not, for thy Name's sake." This is the antidote of all such fearful 
 dreiid. The Name of God, i.e. that by which he has made himself known. And what 
 lias been the verdict of all the witness concerning God, which his words and works and 
 ways have borne, but this, that he is plenteous in mercy to all that call upon him — to 
 all that call upon him in truth ? He is the " God of all grace." And if Israel of old 
 had proof of this, how much more have we in Christ ! Behold God in him ; he is the 
 Name of God to us men. Then, where this dread apprehension exists, let Christ be 
 preached, meditated upon, sought in prayer, confessed with the lip, served and followed 
 in the life, waited on continually, and soon this dread shall pass away. — C. 
 
 Ver. 14. — Lying prophets. Every divinely inspired prophet of the olden times was 
 emphatically a " seer," gifted with the power of looking, as other men could not, into the 
 inmost heart of things — passing events, natural laws. Divine providences — so as to dis- 
 cern their deeper meaning. The past, the present, and the future all came under his 
 survey, inasmuch as he had to do mainly with those absolute and universal truths which 
 are in no way subject to the conditions of time. As the prophet is called a seer, so the 
 subject of his prophecy is often called a " vision." It is remarkable how large a propor- 
 tion of the prophetic revelations of the Old Testament were of a pictorial, symbolic 
 character (see Numb. xxiv. 4 ; 1 Kings xxii. 17 ; Isa. vi. 1 ; Ezek. xxxvii. i. 10 ; Hah. ii. 
 1), and even when they were otherwise, similar phraseology is often used to indicate the 
 prophet's extraordinary power of moral and spiritual insight. But this passage speaks 
 of false prophets — men who assumed the prophetic function when not divinely called 
 to it, mere pretenders to the prophetic gift. Ezekiel calls them the "foolish prophets, 
 that follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing " (Ezek xiii. 3). Everv a^e has 
 had some such misleading witnesses. Christ warned the people against them°in his 
 
CH. XIV. 1—22.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 367 
 
 day (Matt. vii. 15 ; xxiv. 24). St. John spoke of their uprising as a characteristic of the 
 " last time " (1 John ii. 18 ; iv. 1). Our own ajre is certainly no exception. Men may 
 not claim Divine inspiration in the old prophetic sense, but never were there bolder 
 claims to deep spiritual insight, never such adventurous flights into the realms of mys- 
 tery, never so many dogmatic remedies for the intellectual restlessness or the moral 
 diseases of human nature. Note, here — 
 
 I. That fkbedom of thought and of speech which would seem to be a fixed 
 PRINCIPLE OP Divine government. There was nothing to prevent the false prophets 
 from speaking; the people were only forbidden to listen to them. Though it be 
 nothing but a vision of their own diseased fancy, a conceit of their own distempered 
 brain, that men have to deliver, they are allowed to deliver it. Better so, that the false 
 should come out to the light of day, confronting the truth, rather than that it should 
 be suppressed by an external force that may at another time be enlisted on its side. 
 The truth has nothing to fear from public conflict with error and all its forces. A 
 marvellous change, as regards the openness of the conflict, has taken place since the 
 days when Milton wrote his ' Areopagitica ' and Jeremy Taylor his 'Liberty of Pro- 
 phesying.' No doubt it is full of danger to the weak and wavering, to those whose 
 mental eagerness is not tempered by humility and whose hearts are not " established 
 with grace." But this is God's way of leadin;; the world on to fuller, clearer light. 
 And is it not in harmony with his whole moral administration of human affairs ? He 
 puts awful, destructive powers into men's hands, and he holds each one responsible for 
 the way in which he wields them. There are boundless possibilities of evil around us 
 all, moral as well as physical, and our case would be sad indeed if there weie iKit eqiuil 
 and still greater possibilities of good. It is well that the false prophets should tell out 
 their "dreams," if only that the light of God may expose their emptiness and the 
 breath of God may scatter them. 
 
 II. The need of a sure criterion of judgment. How shall we discern between 
 the false and the true? These supposed prophetic utterances of old were subjected to 
 certain tests. 1. Their verity. If they were falsified by the facts of history or the 
 inner consciousness of the i)cople, they could not be of God. 2. Harmony with Divine 
 Law. They must he favourahle to the cause of virtue and morality ; could not promise, 
 prosperity apart from repentance, or cry, " Peace, peace," wheu there was "no peace." 
 3. The personal character of the teacher. The messengers of a holy God must needs 
 be themselves holy. 'Ihe quality of their message would be reflected in their own life. 
 The same principles hold good now. Such an essential connection exists between 
 truth in thought and truth of feeling, character, life, that every form of doctrine must 
 be judged by its moral influence, both on the teacher and the taught. " By their fruits 
 ye shall know them." Moreover, Christianity relers us to a testing principle of still 
 higher qual'tv and completer efficacy — the presence of the Spirit of truth and grace in 
 our own souh. " He that is spiritual," etc. (1 Cor. ii. 15). " Ye have an unction from 
 the Holy One," etc. (1 John ii. 20, 21). There is no safeguard against error but this 
 Divine faculty. As regards an external standard, the Scriptures of eternal truth are 
 the touchstone. " To the Law and to the testimony," etc. (Isa. viii. 20). The voice, 
 the Law, the lij'e of God in your own soul, is a touchstone of still more delicate quality 
 and ready application. If what you read or hear will not bear this test, it is but the 
 " dream " of a false prophet, " the deceit of his own heart," and no true " burden of 
 the Lord." 
 
 III. God's sure vindication of the cause of his own truth, whatever forces 
 MAT ASSAIL IT. (See vers. 15, 16.) The ministry of the true prophets was a mar- 
 vellous revelation of the Divine power that sustained them and verified their words. 
 They were seldom called to do battle with the false prophets on their own ground, 
 directly to assail their errors by argument and disproof. They were simply called to 
 proclaim the truth, leaving it with God to make it victorious. The apostles of Christ 
 dealt with the abounding theoretical and practical evils of their day on very much the 
 same principle. The thing that is false gains its influence over men's minds by reason 
 of its resemblance to the true. The counterfeit circulates because it seems like the real 
 coin. There is no way in which we can so effectually rebuke it as by setting forth the 
 glory of that of which it is the perversion or the mocking shadow. In the full, clear 
 light and the spreading power of the truth error must, sooner or later, wither and die^ 
 
3fi8 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xiv. 1— 2'2. 
 
 Let us have faith in the triumphant force of God's own Word. " What is the chaff to 
 the wheat? saith the Lord," etc. (ch. xxiii. 28, 29). We may well trust in the ulti- 
 mate victory of that which is the product of infinite wisdom, and is backed by all the 
 resources of omnipotence. — W. 
 
 Vers. 1 — 6. — The miseries produced by lack of water. 1. The bittbh consciousness 
 THAT AN IMPERATIVE NiTBD CANNOT BE SATISFIED. Well might there be mouming, 
 langui.shing, and crying. When we are speaking of need, one of the first questions to 
 be asked is whether the need is natural or arti6cial. An artificial need, by continued 
 self-indulgence, may come to be very keenly felt ; and yet, when circumstances arise 
 which prevent the satisfying of the need, the artificiality of it is clearly seen. But a 
 natural need, when the supplies are stopped, soon shows how clamorous it can become, 
 how productive of unendurable pain. These Israelites had been multiplying artificial 
 needs. They thought they needed visible images, to be richly adorned and constantly 
 worshipped. They thought they needed large external possessions, and so the land 
 became full of covetousness. Rich men tried to increase their riches, and poor men 
 wanted, above all things, to get out of their poverty. But all the while the difference 
 between natural and artificial need was forgotten. The natural needs went on being 
 satisfied, because God, who gives rain from heaven, was long-suffering ; and the supply 
 came so habitually that the people did not reckon how there was a hand upon the foun- 
 tain of the waters which could seal them up in a moment. But now, no sooner is 
 the supply stopped than there is deep and inconceivable misery. The idolater will 
 go on living, even if you take his images away ; a rich man need not die because he is 
 stripped of his possessions ; but what shall one do who cannot get water to drink ? 
 The unendurable pain of Dives in Hades came not from the lost wealth and splendour 
 of earth, but because he could not get the least drop of water to cool his tongue. 
 
 n. The VANITY OP human ebsouroes. Jerusalem now abounds in pools and cisterns, 
 and the probability is that in the time of Jeremiah there was a similar abundance, both 
 within and without the city. Great cities have always had to see to the providing of 
 water, according to their judgment of what was necessary. A due supply of water is 
 one of the most important charges that can be entrusted to any municipality. The 
 authorities of Jerusalem may have done their best according to their lights ; but they 
 had forgotten that the most they could do was to provide receptacles for the Divine 
 bounty. They had hewn cisterns without considering that a time might come when 
 there would be no water to put into the cisterns. That time has come, and where is 
 now the wisdom of the wise and the strength of the mighty? Men may flatter them- 
 selves that they rule on earth ; but it is very plain that the spaces above, where the 
 clouds gather and whence the rains descend, are beyond their control. 
 
 IIL The nullifying of human industry. The work of the ploughman is in vain. 
 God requires man to work and study in order to get the fruits of the earth ; but it is 
 only too easy for him in all his work and study to forget God. He who expects a 
 harvest will not omit ploughing, sowing, irrigating — without these works expectation 
 would be idiotic — but he may very easily omit faith in God. He may neglect the 
 bestowment of the firstfruits, and all that service of God which the fruits of the earth 
 give us strength to render. Well may such a one be ashamed when the ground is 
 chapped and there is no rain in the earth. This is the sign of his own folly in attending 
 to certain secondary requisites and forgetting the one requisite most important of all. 
 When it is so required, God can feed thousands without any sowing and reaping at all ; but 
 no man is allowed to reckon that his sowing will assuredly be followed by reaping. He 
 may sow wheat bountifully, only to reap thorns bouutilully, because he has forgotten 
 God (ch. xii. 13). If the sowing is in prayer and humility, in gratitude for the past 
 and reasonable expectation for the future, then the sower will have no need to be 
 ashamed. Whatever other things God's servants may lack, God will put the true, 
 abiding glory upon them. 
 
 IV. The linking op man with the brute creation in a common suffering. 
 The hinds and the wild asses suffer, and doubtless they were prominent representatives 
 of many other classes of the brute creation ('The Land and the Book,' p. 172). A 
 common thirst not only brings down the noble to the level of the mean man, but man in 
 general to the level of the brute. It is well that we should have plain reminders, such 
 
CH. XIV. 1—22.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 369 
 
 as cannot be escaped, of the links that bind us to the lower creation. We cannot, at 
 present at all events, get above some of the wants of the briito, although certainly it 
 cannot rise to some of ours; but it is just the wants of the brute that seem to be the 
 only wants many feel. They have enough if they can eat, drink, and be merry. — Y. 
 
 Vers. 7 — 9. — An appral out of ike, depths of separation from God. I. The appeal op 
 
 THOSE WHO ADMIT THAT IN THEMSELVES THEY HAVE NO CLAIM UPON GOD. They have 
 
 no record of faithful service to present ; no array of good deeds goes before them to 
 plead for acceptance and approval. It is all the other way. Their iniquities testify 
 against them ; they have backslidden ; th^y have sinned against Jehovah ; at least, so 
 they say. There is the appearance of having come to themselves. It might seem as if 
 the prodigal nation, so long spending its substance in riotous living, had been brought 
 to a full stop and a place for repentance amid the privations of a waterless land. Why, 
 indeed, should there be any suspicion as to a genuine confession of gieat iniquities, a 
 genuine and swift submission to Jehovah ? Notice that the confession is correct 
 enough as far as the mere words are concerned. But after all, these words were not 
 unlike the statements extorted by the pains of the Inquisition. Confessions and pro- 
 fessions have been made by tortured men in their agonies which had no value as 
 genuine utterances of the heart. It is needless to say that, as far as purpose is con- 
 cerned, no resemblance is to be found between Jehovah depriving Judah of its water 
 and Rome torturing heretics to make them recant. There may be different purposes 
 where there are similar results. This cry of the people showed the severity with which 
 they had been smitten; it did not of necessity show the state of their hearts. All 
 that they said was true ; their iniquities did testify against them; they were apostates ; 
 they had sinned against Jehovah. Only when we look at past confessions of the like 
 sort, we see how little they meant (Numb. xiv. 40 ; xxi. 7 ; Judg. x. 10 ; 1 Sam. vii. 
 6). It was the parched tongue and not the broken heart that made them speak. And 
 therefore it is that their appeal has to be met with a refusal. Earnestly as they cried, 
 the cessation of chastisement would not have been followed by the renewal of a true 
 obedience. 
 
 II. The appeal of those who have become conscious of theib own helplessness 
 APAET FKOM Jbhovah. They want water, and there is no way of getting it apart from 
 the mercy of an all-powerful God. The very way in which they speak shows how 
 vain they feel all resources to be save one. But if other resources had been possible, 
 assuredly they would have tried them. They come to God's door, not because it is the 
 right one, but because it is the only one left to try. So passengers begin to think of 
 God and eternity when the captain says the tempest-beaten ship cannot be saved. So 
 sick people send for a minister of religion when the doctor says the disease is mortal. 
 So the doomed criminal makes a fashion of giving all his attention to the chaplain when 
 the plea for mitigation is rejected. What a humiliating position men take in making 
 an appearance of coming to God only when they can get nowhere else ! What wonder 
 is it that, under such circumstances, they fail to get a right relation established between 
 God and themselves ! Prayers in such circumstances, whatever the language employed, 
 may prove no more than the incoherent shriek of despair, a cry without any real turn- 
 ing to God, without any real trust in him. 
 
 III. The appeal of those who can call to mind God's chakaoteb as already 
 BEVBALED. The description of God in his deeds and disposition had ample warrant 
 from the history of his past dealings. He had been in the midst of his people, "the Hope 
 of Israel, the Saviour thereof in time of trouble," as a mighty man showing himself able 
 to save in the greatest danger. He who now fastened up the clouds and the springs 
 had given waters in the wilderness. He who now made the earth fruitless had given 
 manna which needed neither sowing nor reaping. Jehovah had been behind all the 
 visible agents towards deliverance, victory, and possession of the promised inheritance. 
 His tabernacle had been in the midst of his people, and his glory in the midst of his 
 tabernacle. How easy it is to remember, when necessary, that which, when convenient, 
 it seems just as easy to forget ! The clouds of heaven and the mountains in whose 
 secret depths he had wrought at the water-springs had been suffered to hide God ; but ■ 
 now that his gracious works are vanished for a while, men suddenly and painfully miss 
 the worker. They can flatter him whom they have not even despised, but rather 
 
 JEREMIAH. 2 B 
 
370 TIIK BOOK OF THE PROI'IIET JEP.EMrAH. [ch. xiv. 1—22. 
 
 simply ignored. When the cisterns are empty, when the land is chapped, when there is 
 no water anywhere for man and beast, then they can talk effusively concerning "the 
 Hope of Israel, and the Saviour thereof in time of trouble." What self-accusation is 
 implied in this appeal! It was not in ignorance of Jehovah's claims that they had 
 sinned against him. His past dealings were known and could be recollected under 
 stress of need. If God could speak to Jeremiah as one familiar with the deeds of 
 Moses and Samuel (ch. xv. 1), then we may be sure the God connected with those 
 deeds was also known in his historical manifestations — known to some extent at least 
 to the great bulk of the people. 
 
 IV. The appeal op those who have become keenly sensitive to God's separa- 
 tion FROM them. This is set forth by two figures. He has become as a stranger in the 
 land, as a wayfarer pitching his tent for the night. The people profess to wonder why 
 it is so, and yet they need not wonder. He who has been in their midst because, first 
 of all, he has gathered them around him as the recipients of measureless privileges, finds 
 rivals raised on every high place and in every grove. His special commands are shut 
 out from influence on the conduct of daily life. His messenger is scorned by rulers and 
 conspired against by his own kinsfolk. What is all this but to become even worse 
 than a stranger ? A stranger may advance through successive grades of acquaintance- 
 ship into bosom affection and trust ; but if he who is and ought to remain the centre 
 gets pushed out little by little, even beyond the circumference, what force is there 
 potent and exact enough to bring the former relation back ? God had told these people 
 how to treat the stranger, but instead of attending to his commands they had ended by 
 making God himself a stranger. Needless, then, was it to ask the question, " Why 
 shouldest thou be as a stranger in the land?" As well might the ebbing sea ask the 
 rock round which it rolled at flood, why it had forsaken it. Jehovah had remained the 
 same in truth, in love, aud in purpose. It was the people who had failed, and flowed 
 further and further away from him. They talked of him as a mere wanderer among 
 them, whereas they were the real wanderers, wandering in heart, drifting about from 
 one temporary satisfaction to another (Exod. xxii. 21 ; Lev. xix. 9, 10, 33 ; Matt. xxv. 
 35; Heb. xiii. 2).— Y. 
 
 Vers. 10 — 12. — The severities of Jehovah — sword, famine, and pestilence. I. The 
 occasion of these severities. This occasion is stated in ver. 10. The people have 
 spoken of Jehovah as a stranger and traveller, which way of speaking gives oppor- 
 tunity for asserting that it is they who are the real wanderers, straying from Jehovah's 
 highway of righteousness and appointed service ; and not only have they strayed, but 
 they have loved to stray. The making of a straight path for Jehovah has been very 
 hard and exacting, and the first voice of temptation to turn into an easier road has 
 been listened to. And even now, out of the midst of their agonies, their cry has no 
 repentance in it. They wish God to come into their midst and protect and comfort 
 them, forgetting that if he is to be really in their midst they must turn from their 
 iniquities. They must show clear signs of forssaking their sins before he can relax his 
 severities. Dreadful as this experience of a waterless land is, they must look for the 
 exciting cause of it in themselves. A disobedient child, suffering'punishment at the 
 hands of his parent, while he knows that one cause of his pain is the chastising instru- 
 ment, knows also that it is a cause which only operates because of the wrong that he 
 himself has done, if we would only give due attention, it is within our own power to 
 keep the worst pains out of life. 
 
 II. Vain dekences against the severities. 1. The intercession of good men. 
 Jehovah says once again to his prophet, " Pray not for this people for their good." 
 Jeremiah himself, naturally and commendably enough, is prompted to cry on their 
 behalf. But doubtless they themselves also urge the prophet's intercession. 2. Fasting. 
 Outward and visible humiliation ; such attire and such attitudes assumed as were con- 
 gruous with the cry of vers. 7 — 9. All this was easy enough without any humbling 
 or chastening of the heart. Fasting is too often Ibllowed by feasting. For a little while 
 the fleshly comforts of life are superstitiously put aside ; but there is the full purpose 
 of resuming them, and making up for lost time. 3. Burnt offerings and oblations. 
 The people insulted Jehovah by heaping before him the carcases of slain beasts. An 
 idol was best served, according to the teaching of its priests, by tlmse who made the 
 
OH. XIV. 1—22.] THE BOOK OF THE PDOPHET JEREMIAH. 371 
 
 largest offerings at its slirine. All these doings only emphasized the disobedience of 
 the people. They were very diligent in giving what Jehovah did not want, vainly 
 thinking it might stand in place of what he imperatively required. When God asks us 
 for repentance and obedience, it is the merest trilling both with his expectations and 
 our interests to bring some unusnal demonstration of will-worship. Let quality, nut 
 quantity, be the first thing. A little of the right is better than tiie utmost profession 
 of the wrong. A little of the right, firmly rooted, will increase and strengthen with 
 wonderful rapidity. 
 
 III. The shape op the sevbkities. Sword, famine, and pestilence are coming ; 
 coming, plainly set forth as the consuming agents of Jehovah. When Jehovah makes 
 men his sword, it is vain to contend against them. The history of God's people had often 
 shown how a few could be victorious and a multitude vanquished. It is he who can 
 put strength into the arm that wields the sword or take that strensth away. These 
 invading armies were, of course, not conscious that Jehovah was wielding them in this 
 way. They had their own selfish aims, which God could subordinate and mould 
 toward his own ends. It is the worst of blasphemy for the leader of an army to talk 
 as if he were going on God's errands. Attila was not the scourge of God because he 
 said so, though God may have used him in ways beyond Attila's power to conceive. 
 Famine, Here was a destroyer which there was no guarding against. The sword 
 could at least be drawn against the sword, however vain the result. But who could 
 stop a general famine ? And even supposing a few rich men could store up grain for 
 a while, there was a third foe in reserve — the pestilence. David had his choice as 
 to which of the three dread agents he would prefer ; but here they all come together. 
 God has a variety of weapons, and his enemies cannot evade them all. How wise 
 men would be if, instead of vainly trying to shut out alike Divine Law and penalty, 
 they would at once and for ever take up the attitude of entire submission to God ! 
 'J'hen they would be defended indeed. By sword, famine, and pestilence, these rich 
 men of Judah and Jerusalem were for ever separated from their ill-gotten gains. But 
 " who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Assuredly not famine or sword," says 
 the apostle ; nor pestilence either, he would have added, if he had thought of it. \\\: 
 may be persuaded that nothing has power to separate us from the love of God which is 
 in Christ Jesus our Lord. The mischief is that we reject the protections of that love 
 and all other benefits flowing from it. — Y; 
 
 Vers. 13 — 16. — TJie peculiar doom of the false prophets. I. The sin or the 
 PROPHETS. That they are found liars is, comparatively speaking, a small part of their 
 offence. Thoir lie is productive of so much that adds to the peril of the position — so 
 much that is peculiarly insulting to Jehovah. Their sin and the punishment of it 
 were not unlike the sin and punishment of Ananias and Sapphira. Ananias and 
 Sapphira were smitten, not because they had lied, but because they had lied against 
 the Holy Ghost. 8o with these false prophets here ; they prophesied falsely ; but that 
 in itself might not have brought a peculiar doom upon them. The offence lay in this, 
 that the false prophecy came at a time when it was peculiarly obnoxious to Jehovah. 
 It was not a distant danger that these false prophets made light of, but one close to 
 the door. The prophet's difBoulties, arising from the natural disposition of his auditors, 
 were already great enough. No false prophet was nee<led to come in with his contra- 
 diction. It must also be remembered that there was a peculiarly insulting sin in that 
 these men told their lies as prophets. What a dreadful thing for a man to go forth 
 with " Thus saith Jehovah " in his mouth, when the words are the deceit of his own 
 heart ! This expression, " the deceit of their heart," seems to suggest the possibility 
 that in some instances these false prophets were not deliberate liars, but were them- 
 selves deluded by a fanatical exaggeration of patriotism. Nevertheless, even so, the 
 sin was none the less, for the spirits of the prophets were subject to the prophets. We 
 had need be very sure that we are duly commissioned when we undertake to speak in 
 the Name of God, else we may land ourselves in most humiliating exposures, and come 
 to a most admonitory end. Thus we come to notice— 
 
 II. How THE SIN OF THESE PROPHETS WAS MADE CLEAR. Jeremiah Said one thing, 
 the false prophets said the direct contrary, and at the time there seemed no means 6( 
 vindicating the true prophet beyond all chance of cavil. Doubtless those who were 
 
372 
 
 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xv. 1— 21. 
 
 rightly disposed did listen and believe. Their very disposition was in itself a touch- 
 stone by which to discriminate between the false and the true ; while those disposed to 
 reject could make anything serve for an excuse. The important thing to notice is that 
 the occasion of this great sin was seized upon to predict in due time a terrible, an 
 indisputable, revelation of the sin. Thus an opportunity came for adding detail and 
 emphasis to the prophecy already given. What could not be made plain at the 
 moment would be made abundantly plain hereafter. Sword and famine were not only 
 certain, they were near ; coming within the lives of these living men, who would see 
 these very false prophets die by the sword and famine which they had sneered at as 
 impossible. Those who during life had told so many inexpressibly mischievous /afee- 
 hoods with their lips, were made the instruments, their own will not being at all con- 
 sulted, of uttering most impressive truth in their death. Gk)d and his truth and his 
 true prophets and faithful witnesses can wait. Time is increasingly on the side of all 
 truth, while false prophets are condemned out of their own mouths. 
 
 111. The deceived auditobs suffer jasT as mcch as the deceiving speakers. 
 The people were not at liberty to plead contradictions in the messages as a ground for 
 continued inaction in the matter of repentance. Such a plea was certain to be seized on, 
 but, while it might help to drug the con.science, it availed nothing to lighten the judg- 
 ments which Jehovah was bringing on his unfaithful people. That God who is to be 
 reol\oned true, though such reckoning makes every man a liar, has assuredly not left 
 himself without ample witness. False prophets can be tested at once by the heart 
 of each individual to whom they appeal, although their exposure before the whole 
 universe may not come for many ages. God gives us for our own sakes the present 
 means of guarding against them. As to his Name and glory, we may be sure he will 
 vindicate them in his own time and way. — X. 
 
 EXPOSITION. 
 
 CHAPTEE XV. 
 
 Vers. 1 — 9. — Second rejection of Jere- 
 miiih's interoessiou ; awfulness of the im- 
 pending judgment. 
 
 Ver. 1. — Though Moses and Samuel, etc. 
 It is a mere supposition which is here made ; 
 there is no allusion to any popular view of 
 the intercession of saints (=ee my note on 
 Isa. Ixiii. 1 6). If even a Moses or a Samuel 
 would intercede in vain, the case of the 
 Judahites must indeed be desperate. For 
 these were the nearest of all the prophets to 
 Jehovah, and repeatedly prayed their people 
 out of grievous calamity (oomp. Ps. xcix. 6). 
 Jeremiah had already sought to intercede 
 for his people (see on ch. vii. 16). Cast tliem 
 out of my sight ; rather. Dismiss them from 
 my presence. The people are represented as 
 praying or sacriiioing in the fore courts of the 
 temple. 
 
 Ver. 2.^Suoli as are for death, etc. ; a 
 sternly ironical answer. Death, sword, 
 famine, captivity, lie in wait for them in 
 every possible road. " Death " liere means 
 "pestilence" (oomp. "the black death" in 
 the Middle Ages), as in ch. xviii. 2] ; Job 
 xxvii. m. Similar combinations of evils 
 occur in ch. xlili. 11 ; Ezek. xiv. 21 ; xxxiii. 
 27. 
 
 Ver. 3. — ^Appoint ; i.e. give full power to 
 them as my vicegerents (ch. i. lOj. Four 
 
 kinds; literally, families; ie. kinds of 
 things. The first-mentioned has reference 
 to the living; Ihe remaining ones to the 
 unburied corpses (oh. xiv. 16 ; xix. 7 ; 
 xxxiv. 20). To tear ; rather, to drag along. 
 
 Ver. 4. — Cause them to be removed into ; 
 rather, make them a shuddering untn. So in 
 the Deuteronomio curses for disobedience 
 (Deut. xxviii. 25). 
 
 Ver. 5. — For who sl'xll have pity 1 or, for 
 who can hnve pity, etc. ? (the imperfect in its 
 potential sense). The iiorror which will 
 seize upon the spectators will effectually 
 preclude pity. Who shall go aside ? As 
 one turns aside to call at a house. So Gen. 
 xix. 2 (literally, turn aside, not " turn in "). 
 
 Ver. 6.— Will L stretch; literally, / 
 stretched— the perfect of prophetic certitude 
 (so in next veroe), I am weary with repent- 
 ing; i.e. with recalling my (conditional) 
 sentence of punishment (see on ch. xviii. 
 1—10). 
 
 Ver. 7.— The gates of the land. The 
 phrase might mean either the cities in 
 general (comp. Mioah v. 5 ; Isa. iii. 26) or 
 the fortresses commanding the entrance into 
 the land (comp. Nah. iii. 13). The context 
 decides in favour of the latter view. Ewald's 
 explanation, "borders of the earth" (i.e. the 
 most distant countries), seems less natural. 
 I will bereave them, etc. The proper object 
 of the verb is my pjople (personilied us 
 
CH. XV. 1—21.] THE BOOK OF THE PEOPHET JEREMIAH. 
 
 373 
 
 a mother). The population are to fall in 
 war (comp. the same figure in Ezek. v. 17). 
 The tensij is the perfect of prophetic certi- 
 tude ; literally, I have hereaved, etc. 
 
 Ver. S. — To me ; i.e. at my bidding. It is 
 the dative of cause. Against the mother of 
 the young men ; rather, upnn . . . young 
 man. The widow has lost her husband, the 
 mother her son, so that no human power 
 can repel the barbarous foe. The word 
 rendered " young man " is specially used 
 for "young warriors," e.g. ch. xviii. 21;' 
 xlix. 26; li. 3. Others, following Eashi, 
 take " mother" in the sense of " metropolis," 
 or "chief city" (see Authorized "Version, 
 margin), in which case " youn^ man " must 
 be connected with the participle rendered 
 " a spoiler ; " but though the word has this 
 sense in 2 Ssum. xx. 19, it is there coupled 
 with "city," so that no doubt can exist. 
 Here the prophet would certainly not have 
 used the word in so unusual a sense without 
 giving some guide to his meaning. The 
 rendering adopted above has the .support of 
 Ewald, Hitzig, and Dr. Payne Smith. At 
 noonday ; at the most unlooked-for moment 
 (see on ch. vL 4). I have caused him, etc. ; 
 rather, 1 have earned pangs and terrors to 
 fall upon her suddenly. 
 
 Ver. 9.^That hath borne seven ; a pro- 
 verbial expression (comp. 1 Slim. ii. 5; liuth 
 iv. 15). Her sun is gone down, etc. The 
 figure is that of an eclipse (comp. Amns ix. 9). 
 She hath been ashamed, etc. ; rather, site is 
 ashamed, etc. Ewald supposes the sun, 
 whicli is sometimes feminine in Hebrew, 
 to be the suV)ject (comp. Isa. xxiv. 23) ; liut 
 the view of the Authorized Version is more 
 probable. The shame of childlessness is 
 repeatedly referred to (comp. oh. 1. 12; 
 Isa. liv. 4 ; Gen. xvi. 4 ; xxx. 1, 23). 
 
 Vers. 10 — 21. — These verses come in very 
 imexpectedly, and are certainly not to be 
 regarded as a continuation of the preced- 
 ing discourse. They describe some deeply 
 pathetic moment of the prophet's inner life, 
 and in all probability belong to a later 
 period of the history of Judah. At any 
 rate, the appreciation of the next chapter 
 will be facilitated by reading it in close 
 connection with ver. 9 of the present 
 chapter. But the section before us is too 
 impressive to be cast adrift without an 
 attempt to find a place for it in the life of the 
 prophet. The attempt has been made with 
 some plausibility by a Jewish scholar. Dr. 
 Gratz, who considers the background of 
 these verses to be the sojourn of Jeremiah 
 at Eamah, referred to in ch. xl. 1, and groups 
 them, therefore, with another prophecy (ch. 
 
 xxxi. 15 17), in which Kamah is mentioned 
 
 by name as the temporary abode of the 
 Jewish captives. We are told in ch. xl. 4, 
 5, that Jcremi-ah had the choice given- hun' 
 
 of either going to Babylon with the exiles, 
 or dwelling with the Jews who were allowed 
 to remain under Gedaliah the governor. 
 He chose, as the narrative in ch. xl. tells us, 
 to stay with Gedaliah ; but the narrative 
 could not, in accordance with the reserve 
 which characterizes the inspired writers, 
 reveal the state of mind in which this 
 difficult choice was made. This omission ia 
 supplied in the paragraph before us. Jere- 
 miah, with that lyric tendency peculiar to 
 him among the propiiets, gives a vent to his 
 emotion in these impassioned verses. He 
 tells his friends that the resolution to go to 
 Gedaliah may cost him a severe struggle. 
 He longs for rest, and in Babylon he would 
 have more chance of a quiet life than among 
 the turbulent Jews at home. But he has 
 looked up to God for guidance, aud, how- 
 ever painful to the flesh, God's will must be 
 obeyed. He gives us the substance of the 
 revelation which he received. The Divine 
 counsellor points out that he has already 
 interposed iu the most striking manner for 
 Jeremiiih, and declares that if he will devote 
 himsL-lf to the Jews under Gedaliah, a new 
 and fruitful field will be open to him, in 
 which, moreover, by Divine appointment, 
 no harm can happen to him. Wliether this 
 is really the background of the paragraph 
 must remain uncertain. In a ease of this 
 kind, we are obliged to call in the help of 
 the imaginition, if the words of the prophet 
 are to be realized with any degree of vivid- 
 ness. There are some great difficulties in 
 the text, and apparently one interpolition 
 (vers. 13, 14 being in all probability an 
 incorrect copy of ch. xvii. 3, 4). 
 
 Ver. 10. — Woe is me, my mother ! This is 
 one of those passages (oomp. Introduction) 
 which illustrate the sensitive and shrinking 
 character of our prophet. 
 
 " If his meek spirit erred, opprest 
 Tliat God denied repose, 
 What sin is ours, to whom Heaven's rest 
 Is pledged to heal earth's woes ? " 
 (Cardinal Newman, iu ' Lyra Apos- 
 tolica,' Ixxxvui.). 
 
 I have neither lent on usury, etc. ; a speak- 
 ing figure to men of the ancient world, to 
 whom, as Dr. Payne Smith remarks, "the 
 relations between the money-lender and tlie 
 debtor were the most fruitful source of 
 lawsuits and quarrellings." 
 
 Ver. 11. — The Lord said. The prophets are 
 usuallysotenaciousof thesame formulae that 
 even their slight deviations are noteworthy. 
 "The Lord said," for "Thus saith the 
 Lord," occurs only here and in ch. xlvi. 25 
 (where, however, the phrase has possibly 
 been detuched by mistake from the preced- 
 ing verse). It shall be well with thy rem- 
 nant ; rather, Ihuee loosed thee for {ihj) gwid; 
 
374 
 
 THE BOOK OF THE PEOPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xv. 1—21. 
 
 or, thy loosing (shall be) for (thy good), 
 aocorcliag as we adopt the reading of the 
 Hebrew text or that of the margin, which 
 differs in form as slightly as it is possible to 
 do. If we accept the historical setting pro- 
 pose I by Gratz for this paragraph, the 
 refciuuctf will be to the "loosing" of Jere- 
 miah from hia chains mentioned in cb. xl. i. 
 The rendering given here is, however, only 
 a probable one ; it is in conformity with the 
 Aramaic usage of the verb (the Targum uses 
 it in this sense in eh. xl. 4), and is supported 
 by its suitability to the context and, philo- 
 logically, by the fact of the growing 
 influence of Aramaic upon Hebrew. Ge- 
 senius, in his anxiety to keep close to the 
 native use of tlie root, produces a rendering 
 (of the Hebrew marginal reading) which 
 does not suit the context, viz. " I afflict thee 
 for (thy) good." Jeremiah does not com- 
 plain of being afflicted by God, but that all 
 the world is against him ; Ewald, comparing 
 a different Aramaic verb to that appealed to 
 above, renders, " I strengthen thee," etc., 
 which is adopted by Keil, but does not ac- 
 cord witli the second half of the verse so well 
 as the rendering adopted. The Authorized 
 Version follows the Targum, the Vulgate, 
 Aquila, Symmachus, Bashi, and Kimchi, 
 assuming that sherith is contracted from 
 rh'erilh (as in 1 Chron. xii. 38), and that " rem- 
 nant" is equivalent to "remnant of life." 
 But, though the sense is not unacceptable 
 (com p. vers. 20, 21), tlie form of expression 
 is unnatural ; we should have expected 
 akharilh'ha, " thy latter end " (comp. Job 
 viii. 7). I will cause the enemy to entreat 
 thee well. This expression is as difficult as 
 the preceding, and our rendering of it will 
 depend entirely on our view of the context. 
 If " the enemy " means the Chaldeans, 
 the Authorized Version will be substantially 
 correct. Eashi has already mentioned the 
 view that the phrase alludes to Nebuzar- 
 adan's lespectful inquiry as to the wishes 
 of Jeremiah in ch. xl. 2 — 5. In this case, 
 the literal rendering is, I will cause the 
 enemy to meet thee (as a friend); comp. Isa. 
 xlvii. 3; Ixiv. 4. But if "the enemy" 
 means the Jews, then we must render, 1 
 will cause the enemy to supplicate thee, and 
 illustrate the phrase by the repeated appli- 
 cations of Zedekiah to the prophet (ch. xxi. 1, 
 2 ; xxxvii. 3 ; xxxvlii. 14), and the similar 
 appeal of the " captains of the forces," in 
 ch. xlii. 1—3. 
 
 Ver. 12. — Shall iron break, etc. ? Again an 
 enigmatical saying. The rendering of the 
 Authorized Version assumes that by the 
 northern iron Jeremiah means the Baby- 
 lonian empire. But the " breaking " of the 
 Babylonian empii'e was not a subject which 
 lay within the thoughts of the prophet. It 
 was not the fate of Babylon, but his own 
 
 troubled existence, and the possibility that 
 his foes would ultimately succeed in crush- 
 ing him, which disquieted this conscientious 
 but timid spokesman of Jehovah. The 
 Divine interlocutor has reminded him in 
 the preceding verse of the mercy which has 
 been already extended to him, and now 
 recalls to his recollection the encouraging 
 assurances given him in his inaugural vision 
 (ch. i. 18, 19). Bender, therefore. Can one 
 hreah iron, northern iron, and bronze 1 The 
 steel of the Authorized Version is evidently a 
 slip. The Hebrew word is n'khosheth, which 
 means sometimes (e.g. ch. vi. 28; Deut. 
 viii. 9 ; xxxiii. 25 ; Job xxviii. 2) copper, 
 but more commonly bronze, since " copper 
 unalloyed seems to have been but rarely 
 used after its alloys with tin became 
 known " (Professor Maskelyne). " Steel " 
 would have been more fitly introduced as 
 the second of the three names of metals. 
 " Northern iron " at once suggests the 
 Chalybes, famous in antiquity for their skill 
 in hardening iron, and, according to classical 
 authors (e.g. Stephanus the geographer), the 
 neighbours of the Tibareni, in the country 
 adjoining the Euxine Sea, the Tibareni 
 being, of course, the people of Tubal, whom 
 Ezekiel mentions (xxvii. 13) as trafficking 
 in vessels of bronze. Any Jew, familiar 
 with tlie wares of the bazaar, would at onee 
 appreciate the force of such a question as 
 this. Even if iron could be broken, yet 
 surely not steel nor bronze. Thus the verse 
 simply reaffirms the original promises to 
 Jeremiah, and prepares the way for vers. 
 20, 21. 
 
 Vers. 13, 14. — Thy substance, etc. These 
 verses form an unlooked-for digression. The 
 prophet has been in a state of profound 
 melancholy, and the object of Jehovah is to 
 rouse him from it. In vers. 11, 12, the most 
 encouraging assurances have been given 
 him. Suddenly comes the overwhelming 
 declaration contained in vera. 13, 14. And 
 when we look closely at these verses, two 
 points strike ua, which make it difficult to 
 conceive that Jeremiah intended them to 
 stand here. First, their contents are not at 
 all adapted to Jeremiah, and clearly belong 
 to the people of Judah ; and next, they are 
 repeated, with some variations, in ch. xvii. 
 3, 4. It should also be observed that the 
 Septuagint (which omits ch. xvii. 1—4) 
 only gives them here, which seems to indi- 
 cate an early opinion that the passage 
 only ought to occur once in the Book of 
 Jeremiah, though the Septuagint translator 
 failed to choose the right position for it. 
 Without price ; literally, jjo< /or a ^rice. In 
 the parallel passage there is another read- 
 ing, " thy high places," which forms part of 
 the next clause. Hitzig and Graf suppose 
 this to be the original reading, the Hebrew 
 
CH. XV. 1—21.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 
 
 letters having been partly effiioed and tlien 
 misread, after wliich " not" was prefixed to 
 make sense. However this may be, the 
 present reading is unintelligible, if we com- 
 pare Isa. lii. 3, where Jeliovah declares that 
 his people were sold for nothing, i.e. were 
 given up entirely to the enemy, without any 
 compensating advuntiigu to Jehovah. And 
 that for all thy sins, even, etc. ; literally, 
 und in all thy sins and in all thy borders. 
 The text is certainly difficult. Kxternally 
 a paiallelism exists between the two halves 
 of tlie clause, and one is therefore tempted 
 to reuder literally. As tliis will not make 
 sense, however, we are forced either to 
 render as the Authorized Version, or to 
 suppose that the text is not accurately 
 preserved. The parallel passage has a 
 different but not a more intelligible read- 
 ing. Ewald omits "and " in both halves of 
 the clause, which slightly diminishes the 
 awkwardness. And I will make thee to 
 pass, etc. The natural rendering of the 
 Hebrew is, " And I will make thine ene- 
 mies to pass," etc., which clearly cannot be 
 the prophet's meaning. The parallel pas- 
 sage (oh. xvii. 4) has, " And I will make 
 thee to serve thine enemies," etc. ; and so 
 the Septuagiut, the Syriac, the Targum, 
 and many manuscripts here. Tor a fire is 
 Mndlad in mine anger; a reminiscence of 
 Deut. xxxii. 22, suggesting that the judg- 
 ment described in the bong of Moses is 
 about to fall upon Judah. 
 
 Ver. 15. — lord, thou knowest, etc. 
 The prophet renews his complaints. God's 
 omniscience is the thought whifh comforts 
 him (comp. ch. xvii. 6 ; xviii. 23; Ps. Ixix. 19). 
 But he desires some visible proof of God's 
 continued care for his servant. Visit me, 
 equivalent to " be attentive to my wants " — 
 an anthropomorphic expression for the opera- 
 tion of Providence. Take me not away in 
 thy long-suffering ; i.e. " suffer not my per- 
 secutors to destroy me through the long- 
 suffering which thou displayest towards 
 them." " Take away," viz. my life (comp. 
 Ezek. xxxiii. 4, "If the sword come and 
 take him away "). Eebuke; rather, reproocfe ,- 
 comp. Ps. Ixix. 7 (Ps. Ixix. is in the style of 
 Jeremiah, and, as Delitzsch remarks, suits 
 his circumstances better than those of 
 David). 
 
 Ver. 16. — Thy words were found. Jere- 
 miah here describes his first reception of a 
 Divine revelation. Truth is like " treasure 
 hid in a field ; " he alone who seeks it with 
 an unprejudiced mind can "find" it. But 
 there are some things which no "searching" 
 of the intellect can "find" (Job xi. 7; 
 xxxvii. 23 ; Ecolea. iii. 11 ; viii. 17); yet by 
 ft special revelation they may be " found " 
 by God's " spokesmen," or prophets. This 
 is the train of thought which underlies 
 
 Jeremiah's expression here. The " words," 
 or revelations, of Jehovah are rugarded as 
 having an objective existence in the ideal 
 world of which God is the light, and as 
 " descending " from thence (comp. Isa. ix. 8) 
 into the consciousness of the prophet. So 
 Ezek. iii. 1, " Eat that thou tindest." I did 
 eat them ; I assimilated them, as it were 
 (comp. Ezek. ii. 8 ; iii. 3). I am called by 
 thy name ; literally, thy name hath been (or, 
 had been) called upon me ; i.e. I have (or, 
 had) been specially dedicated to thy servioi-. 
 The phrase is often used of Israel (see on 
 ch. xiv. 9), and, as here applied, intimates 
 that a faithful prophet was, as it were, the 
 embodied ideal of an Israelite. 
 
 Ver. 17. — In the assembly of the mockers ; 
 rather, o/ tte laughers. Tne serious thoughts 
 arising out of his sacred offiie restrained 
 him from taking part in the festive meet- 
 ings to which his youth would naturally 
 incline him (comp. on ch. xvi. 2). Because 
 of thy hand. The Hand of Ji hovah is a 
 figurative expression for the self-revealing 
 and irresistible power of Jehovah; it is, 
 therefiire, equivalent to the Arm of Jehovah 
 (Isa. liii. 1), but is used in preference with 
 regard to the divinely ordained actions and 
 words of the prophets. Thus we are told, 
 in the accounts of Elijah and Elisha, that 
 " the hand of the Lord came upon " them 
 (1 Kings xviii. 46 ; 2 Kings iii. 15). Such 
 a phrase was probably at first descriptive of 
 a completely passive ecstatic state, and was 
 retained when ecstasies had become rare, 
 with a somewhat laxer meaning. Isaiah uses 
 a similar expression but once (viii. 11) ; 
 Exekiel, however, who appears to have been 
 unusually filled with the overpowering 
 thought of the supernatural world, is con- 
 stantly mentioning " the hand of Jehovah " 
 (see Ezek. i. 3 ; iii. 22 ; xxxvii. 1 ; and espe- 
 cially iii. 14 ; viii. 3). We may infer from this 
 variation in the practice of inspired writers 
 that, though symbolical, anthropomorphic 
 language is not always equally necessary in 
 speaking of Divine things, yet it cannot be 
 entirely dispensed with, even by the most 
 gifted and spiritual teachers. Thou hast 
 filled me with indignation ; rather, thtm hadst 
 filled me. Jeremiah was too full of his 
 Divine message to indulge in impracticable 
 sentimentalities. There was no thought of 
 self when Jeremiah received his mission, 
 nor any bitterness towards those wlio up- 
 posed him. His " indignation " was that of 
 Jehovah, whose simple instrument he was 
 (comp. ch. vi. 11, "I am full of the fury of 
 the i.,ord "). 
 
 Ver. 18.— Why is my pain perpetual 1 One 
 who could honestly speak of himself in 
 terms such as those of vers. 16, 17, seemed 
 to have a special claim on the Divine pro- 
 tection. But Jeremiah's hopes have been 
 
376 
 
 THE BOOK OF THE PBOPIIET JEREMIAH, [cn. xv. 1— 21. 
 
 disappointed. Hia vexation is perpetual, 
 aud hia wounded spirit finds no comfort. 
 As a liar ; rather, as a deceitful stream. The 
 word "stream "has to be understood as in 
 Micah i. 14. Many of the water-courses of 
 Palestine are filled with a rushing torrent 
 in the winter, but dry in summer. Hence 
 the pathetic complaint of Job (vi. 15). The 
 opposite phrase to that used by Jeremiah 
 is " a perennial stream " (Amos v. 24). The 
 force of tlie passage is increased if we read 
 it in the light of Dr. Gratz's hypothesis. 
 
 Ver. 19. — If thou return, etc. Most com- 
 mentators regard these words as containing 
 a gentle rebuke to Jeremiah for his doubts 
 respecting God's care of him. It may be 
 questioned, howevtr, whether such passing 
 doubts could be described as a turning away 
 from Jehovah. If the word " return " is to 
 be interpreted in a spiritual sense, we must 
 surely conclude that the people is addressed 
 (comp. ch. iii. 12 ; iv. 1). But this does not 
 agree with the context. Hence Gratz's view 
 seems very plausible, that the reference is 
 to the proposal that Jeremiah should place 
 himself under the protection of Gedaliah 
 (comp. ch. xl. 5, " Go back also to Gediiliah," 
 etc.). Then will I bring thee again ; viz. 
 into the right relation to me, so as to be my 
 minister (Keil). But by altering one of the 
 vowel-points (which form no part of the 
 text), on the authority of the Septuagint, we 
 get a more satisfactory sense, I will give thee 
 a settled place. The verb must in any case be 
 coupled with the following one. Jeremiah 
 longs for a iijuiet home, only as supplying 
 the conditions of prophetic activity. Thou 
 Shalt stand before me. The phrase is taken 
 frotn the wont of slaves to stand in their 
 masters' presence, waiting for commands. 
 It is also applied to courtiers (Prov. xxii. 29) 
 and royal councillors (1 Kings xii. 6), to 
 angels (Luke i. 19) and to prophets (1 Kings 
 xvii. 1 ; 2 Kings iii. 14). Jeremiah was by 
 God's will to find a new and important 
 mission to the Jews with Gedaliah. If thou 
 take forth the precious from the vUe, etc. 
 The metaphor is derived from metallurgy 
 
 (comp. ch. vi. 27 — 30). The prophet is com- 
 pared to a smelter. By the fervour of his 
 inspired exhortations, he seeks to draw away 
 from the mass of unbelievers all those who 
 are spiritually capable of better things. The 
 "vine-dressers and husbiindmen," whom 
 Nebuzar-adau had left after the capture of 
 Jerusalem, though outwardly " the poor of 
 the land," might yet be ennobled by the 
 word and example of Jeremiah. [Some 
 explain " the precious " and " the vile " 
 difterently, taking the former to be the 
 pure Word of God (comp. Pa. xii. 6 ; Prov. 
 XXX. 5), the latter the base, human elements 
 which are apt to be mixed with the Divine 
 message (comp. ch. xxiii. 28). But was it 
 not the very fidelity of Jeremiah which 
 exposed him to the persecutions of which 
 he has been complaining ? Others suppose 
 an inward purification of Jeremiah himself 
 to be intended, " the vile " being those 
 human infirmities of which he had just 
 given evidence, as opposed to "the pre- 
 cious," i.e. the spiritual impulses which 
 come from above. But is not such an ex- 
 planation too evangelical, too Pauline, for 
 this context ?] Thou shalt be as my mouth. 
 For devoting himself to this possible 
 "mustard seed" of a better aud holier 
 people, the prophet should be rewarded (1) 
 by close prophetic intercourse with his God, 
 and (2), as the next clause states, by a 
 moral victory over his opponents. " Mouth " 
 for " prophet," as Exod. iv. 16 (comp. Exod. 
 vii. 1). Let them return unto thee, etc.; 
 rather, they shall return unto thee, hut thou 
 shalt not return unto them. They shall 
 come over to thy side, and thou shalt not 
 need to make humiliating advances to Ihem. 
 
 Ver. 20 — Aud I will make thee, etc. ; a 
 solemn confirmation of the promises in 
 oh. i. 18, 19. 
 
 Ver. 21. — Out of the hand of the wicked, 
 etc. The " wicked " (literally, evil) and the 
 " terrible " may be the banditti, composed 
 of desperate patriots, who ultimately as- 
 sassinated Gedaliah (ch. xii. 1 — 3). 
 
 HOMILETICS. 
 
 Yer. 2.— Various destinies of punishment. I. Punishment will be assigned A8 
 A DEFINITE DESTINY. It is not casual. It cannot be evaded. It is decidedly appointed 
 and inflexibly executed. The destiny it involves, though not original but a consequence 
 of voluntary actions, is as certain as if it were in accordance with a primary law of nature 
 (Gal. vi. 7, 8). 
 
 II. PdNISHMBNT WILL BE ASSIGNED IN A VARIETY OF DESTINIES. All the wicked 
 
 will not sufler alike. There will be various forms of penalty and various decrees of 
 suffering. Some are appointed to the painful death of the plague, some to the^sudden 
 death ot the sword, some not to death at all but to exile. Punishment will be various 
 (1) because meQ's constitutions, capacities, and susceptibilities arc Various, so that ihe 
 
CH. XV. 1—21.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 377 
 
 form of suffering which is ■ suitable for one may not be suitable for another ; and (2) 
 because guilt varies in degree (Luke .\ii. 47, 48). 
 
 III. Punishment will be assigned to all the guilty without exception. They 
 may be numerous, yet some penalty will be found for all. The variety of destinies might 
 suggest that among them some would find a way of escape, but, alas 1 they are all penal. 
 This variety will ever secure the punishment of all. They who escape one form of 
 punishment will only fall into another. Some hope to elude justice because their case 
 is very exceptional. But exceptional punishment is found for exceptional crime. 
 
 IV. Punishment will be severe in all oases. There is a choice of destinies, 
 but the list is given with somewhat of irony. How terrible is the mildest fate 1 All 
 future punishment must be inexpressibly awful (Heb. x. 31). Therelore let us not 
 delude ourselves with hoping that ours will be of the milder kind, but seek deliverance 
 from the certain fearful doom of sin in the forgiving mercy of God in Christ. 
 
 Ver. 6. — God weary of relenting. I. God often appears to repent. He seems 
 to repent of his merciful intentions when the conduct of men has called forth his 
 righteous indignation — even repenting that he had ever made men (Gen. vi. 6), and to 
 repent of his wrathful intentions when his children repent of their sins {e.g. Exod. xxxii. 
 14). Absolutely it cannot be said that God repents (1 Sam. xv. 29). He never does 
 wrong, never errs, is never moved from reason by passion, knows the end from the 
 beginning, and therefore never sees a new thing to modify his thoughts. Yet he acts as 
 if he repented, i.e. he grieves for the sorrow he has righteously brought, and desires that 
 it may cease as soon as possible; and he changes his action towards his children as they 
 change their conduct towards him. This fact is not inconsistent with the essential 
 Divine immutability. The sun does not vary in itself because, after developing a 
 flower in moist weather, it withers it in drought. A government does not change its 
 policy if it enters into amicable arrangements with a loyal dependency, though it was 
 carrying out warlike measures so long as the province was in revolt. So God does not 
 change in his own nature because his action is varied according to the varied require- 
 ments of his people. Such variation is rather a result of his essential changelessness. 
 Righteousness, which requires the punishment of the guilty, approves of the forgiveness 
 of the penitent; so that if the action of God did not change from wrath to mercy with 
 the change of the guilty person to penitence, it would seem as though the nature of 
 God had been turned aside from its essential righteousness. Because the sun is stationary 
 it appears to rise and set as the earth revolves ; if it did not so appear it must be moving 
 too ; and because God is eternally good it must seem to us, who are constantly giving 
 occasion for differences of treatment from the hand of God, that he repents. We can 
 only speak of God after the manner of men ; therefore we say he repents. 
 
 II. God mat be weary of repenting. Here is a second anthropomorphic expression, 
 which corresponds to a great and terrible fact. 1. We may cease to repent of our sin ; 
 then God will cease to repent of his wrath. 2. We may sin so deeply and so persistently 
 that he may no longer find it possible to withhold his threatened punishment. God is 
 long-suffering; he waits for the return of his children. Though the recompense of 
 evil-doing is due, it is deferred ; God spares the guilty for the sake of the intercession of 
 the righteous. But this cannot be for ever. We may sin away the grace of God. 
 Though God's mercy endureth for ever the enjoyment of it by the impenitent cannot 
 be perpetual. Eternal mercy may have to give place to eternal justice. 
 
 Conclusion. Consider (1) the wonderful love of God in repeatedly " repenting " of 
 his wrathful intentions, showing that he does not desire the woe of his children, but 
 does all that is possible to avert it ; (2) the great sin of persisting in impenitence after 
 God has shown so wonderful a love ; and (3) the danger that God may be weary with 
 repenting, and therefore the folly and presumption of relying upon our present immunity 
 for future safety. 
 
 Ver. 9. — Sunset at noon. A premature ending of any human affairs may be compared 
 to sunset at noon. 
 
 I. This is a common occurrence. A nation suddenly collapses ; a sovereign is 
 overthrown in the height of his power ; a life is cut off in middle age. How often do 
 we see these things ! 
 
378 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xv. 1—21. 
 
 II. This is an unnatural ocouekenoe. No such event could occur in the physical 
 world. Therefore it proves that the human world is deranged. 
 
 III. This is a calamitous occubrbnce. National modifications may be both peaceful 
 and profitable. Empires are slowly welded together, colonies gradually assume powers 
 and rights of independence, internal reforms are quietly effacing the old order. To the 
 individual natural death in old age is painless. It is the violent and premature end 
 that causes disaster. 
 
 IV. '1 HIS IS an occubeenob resulting from error or wrong-doing. We cannot 
 say that the cause is always to be traced immediately to the sufferers. With 
 nations it may be generally so, but not with individuals. But still a law of morality, 
 of social order of nature, has been broken, if not by the sufferers still by some 
 agent. 
 
 V. This is an occueeence that mat come as an act op Divine judgment. It 
 is not universally so, particularly in regard to individuals. But it often is the case. 
 Thus it was with the Jews, with Rome, in the dark ages, etc. Therefore let us beware 
 of presuming oa the apparent distance of the day of judgment. 
 
 Ver. 15. — The prayer of the persecuted. I. The grounds op his plea. 1. A 
 confessor's fidelity. Jeremiah was suffering for God's sake. This plea implies (1) 
 iimoceuce; (2) a special claim for God's help. He who can urge such a plea is the heir 
 of one of the great beatitudes (Matt. v. 10). It is important to note that the promise 
 of Christ rests, not on the mere fact of persecution, nor even on unjust persecution, but 
 on persecution fur righteousness' sake. The martyr is honoured, not for his suffering, 
 but for his fidelity. 2. The knowledge of Ood. " O Lord, thou knowest." When men 
 misjudge, Gud knows all. They who are cruelly maligned by men may take refuge in 
 the fact that God knows their innocence. It is better to have his approval in face of a 
 world's scorn and hate, than the flattery of the world for false merits together with the 
 anger of the all-seeing God. How happy to be in such a case that we can fearlessly 
 appeal to God's knowledge of our fidelity in suffering 1 Too often trouble is consciously 
 deserved. 3. The long-suffering of God. The best man can but ask for God's mercy. 
 Often has that been sought in the past. Yet God is not weary of hearing his helpless 
 children's repeated cries. " His mercy endureth for ever." 
 
 II. The objects op his prater. 1. To he remembered hy Ood. It is something 
 to know that God thinks of us. His sympathy is a great consolation. The traveller 
 in the desert is not utterly alone when he calls to mind those dear ones at home, in 
 whose memory he is constantly cherished, and who are therefore with him in spirit, while 
 the unfortunate man who is buried In a crowded city, neglected and forgotten by his old 
 friends, is essentially lonely and desolate. God's remembrance of us is the prelude to 
 his active help. He remembers " for good." If Christ remembered the dying malefactor 
 when he came into his kingdom, that fact carried with it the assurance that the poor 
 man should be with Christ in paradise (Luke xxiii. 42,43). 2. To he visited hy God. 
 Our consolation is not in a pitying though absent God, but in an abiding presence and 
 a close communion. If God visits he will come in power to save. 3. To be avenged of 
 his enemies. This was a natural desire, considering that (1) the prophet was in the 
 midst of his distresses, — it is easy to judge coolly from the outside when we are not 
 feeling the oppression of cruel persecution ; (2) he lived in Old Testament times ; and 
 (3) he did not desire to execute vengeance himself but appealed only to the great 
 Judge. For us Christians the right prayer is, not for harm to come upon our enemies, 
 but for their forf;iveness, as Christ and Stephen prayed. Still, we may rightly seek for 
 the overthrow of wicked powers, the frustiation of iniquitous schemes, and the jnsl 
 and necessary punishment of per.sistent evil-doers. 4. For life to be spared. Jeremiah 
 does not ask for triumph, for comfort and ease, for liberation from his arduous lifelong 
 task, but simply for life. The love of life is natural. Men have work to do, a mission 
 to fulfil, and it is ri^ht to desire to have time to complete this. Others were benefited 
 by the life of Jeremiah. He was the prophet of his age, ami a voice speaking lor all 
 ages. It is our duty to seek to escape persecution if we can do so honourably, that we 
 may continue to serve God and work for the good of mankind (Matt. x. 23). Courting 
 a, martyr's death is practically equivalent to committing suicide out of personal vanity, 
 ind much the same thing as falling under the second of Christ's temptsitions. Yet if 
 
CH. XV. 1—21.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 379 
 
 martyrdom is unavoidable without unfaithfulness, we may honour God and benefit men 
 more by our death than by our hie. 
 
 Ver. 16. — The words of Ood found and eaten. I. The words of God bequibe to 
 BE FOUND. They are not emblazoned on the face of the world that the most careless 
 may not miss them. They are hidden treasures to be dug for, pearls of great price 
 to be sought after. Divine truth in nature is only discoverable after thoushttiil 
 observation and reflection. The prophets were especially commissioned to toil in deep 
 mines of spiritual thought. Revelation was born in them with labour, fasting, 
 watching, praying. But the words of God are not so hidden that they cannot be 
 discovered by the earnest and prayerful seeker after truth. He that seeks shall find 
 (Matt. vii. 8). Many honest, earnest men pass through a season of doubt, biit few such 
 remain hopeless scejities all their lives. Of those who never find the light jirobably 
 some are sufi'ering from some moral or intellectual perver.sity which distorts their vision, 
 and others are not content to trust to the measure of light that has been given to them, 
 and remain restless and questioning because they desire satisfaction in a direction 
 wherein it cannot yet be afi'orded. IJut so long as all such men do not convert doubt 
 into settled unbelief, and are not satisfied with doubt, we may be assured that ultimately 
 the Father of lights will dispel the darkness that now troubles their souls. 
 
 II. The words of God are food. Truth is food for the soul. Christ, the " Word 
 made flesh," is the "Bread of life." Truth is not simply revealed to amuse our curiosity ; 
 it is intended to feed our starving souls. The object of relevation is practical. The 
 result of rightly using revelation is seen in an increase of spiritual vitality, in refresh- 
 ment, heightened energy and growth in the inner life. If the words of God have not 
 attained this end, they have failed of their object. They are food because they are not 
 empty breath but the vehicles of vital truths — of spirit and life (John vi. 63). God 
 is in his own words. They are inspired words. With the spoken words we receive the 
 life-giving Spirit. 
 
 III. The words of God must be eaten to profit us. It is not enough that they 
 are spoken, heard, understood, believed, remembered, admired ; they must be eaten. 
 1. We must apply them to ourselves. The starving man gains nothing by looking at 
 food through a shop-window. The external intellectual study of truth is profitless to 
 the soul. We must bring it to bear upon our own circumstances — hear the voice of 
 God speaking directly to us and in regard to our immediate conduct. 2. We must 
 meditate over the words of God. Food must be masticated and digested. Truth must 
 be analyzed, ideas separated and compared, " inwardly digested," hidden in the soul and 
 quietly thought over. Our common habit is to treat it too superficially and hastily. 
 3. We must abstract the vital ideas from the dry husk of words. Words are not 
 profitable so long as they are regarded from the outside as mere language. We must 
 break the shell and get at the kernel, casting aside the flesh that prufiteth nothing and 
 assimilating the spirit that quickeneth. 
 
 IV. The words of God bring joy when they are found and eaten. To some 
 they appear to be dull sayings, to some stern utterances of law, to some harsh messages 
 of judgment. This is because they are not properly applied. They must first be 
 truly found and eaten— applied, meditated on, spiritually assimilated. Then they lead 
 to joy, for : 1. All truth is essentially noble, beautiful, and glorious. 2. Even the 
 darker truth is wholesome as a warning, like nauseous medicine that cures pain and 
 restores the serenity of health. 3. The highest truth is a revelation of the love of God 
 — a gospel of good will to men. 
 
 V The secret of the joy and profit op God's words is in the relation op 
 the soul to God. Jeremiah is called by the Name of Jehovah, the God of hosts. If 
 we are straiu'ers to God, his words will seem distant and of little interest. We prize 
 the words of those we love. God speaks helpful and comforting words to his- own 
 reconciled children. 
 
 Ver 17 —The sadness and solitude of a propUt. I. A prophet's communion with 
 God dobs not preclude earthly sadness and solitude. Jeremiah was not plunged 
 into grief through any unfaithfulness; he was under no shadow in regard to heavenly 
 communications ; yet he was sad and solitary. 1. Consider the saAiess. While we are 
 
380 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JBEEMrAH. [cii. xv.l— 21. 
 
 in this world we suffer with it and from its action upon us, even though we may be 
 living very near to God. Christ was a man of sorrows ; he sighed and wept and groaned 
 in spirit. It is not sinful to grieve. It is not a proof of unbelief. Faith should engender 
 patience, resignation, peace, and hope ; but it cannot destroy natural sorrow. It. would 
 not be pious but simply unnatural for the Christian mother not to be wrung with grief 
 at the death of her child. 2. Consider the solitude. A good man will not be wrapped 
 np in himseir, for out of the love of Grod springs naturally the love of man. Godliness 
 rouses human sympathy, and this inclines to sociability. So Christ was remarkable for 
 his social habits. Yet there may be an inevitable solitude, and a solitude which is 
 good both for self and for others. The more a good man sympathizes for his brother 
 men the less can he sympathize with them when their conduct is wicked. 
 
 II. A prophet's communion with God mat lead to earthly sadness and 
 SOLITUDE. Jeremiah was sad and solitary because he was filled with Divine indignation. 
 His was no atrabiliar moroseness, no theatrical Byronic self-pity. The prophet's sorrow 
 and solitude were reflections of the grief of God for his people's sin and the aloofness 
 of God produced by their wanderings from fidelity. 1. A prophet's communion with 
 God will induce sorrow for the world's sin and wretchedness. Jeremiah was a young 
 man. The scenes of mirth which he shunned may have been pure, innocent, and 
 naturally attractive ; but his vision of the thought and heart of God made him look 
 behind this superficial joy to the wretchedness it sought to cover, and then it seemed 
 but a mockery to him. 2. This will lead to a separation from the world. It will cause 
 a perpetual separation from the spirit of the world as far as that is earthly and sensual, 
 and at times a complete withdrawal to solitude. The Christian is to live in the 
 world as its salt, its light, its leaven of righteousness, and not to flee to the wilderness, 
 selfishly cultivating his own soul for heaven, while he leaves his task undone and his 
 fellow-men in hupeless sin and ruin. But he will meet with occasions for solitude and 
 scenes from which he must withdraw himself, and sometimes feel an inner sense of 
 liineliness as he moves among the gay crowds, since he is a pilgrim and stranger, a 
 citizen of another country, possessed by thoughts and swayed by motives quite outside 
 those of worldly life. Thus Christ, in character and outward habit the most social of 
 men, was in inner life and in secret thought the most lonely. The Christian has a life 
 which is " hid with Christ in God " (Col. iii. 3). 
 
 Ver. 19. — A wide recognition of the good without compromise toith the evil. Jeremiah 
 is bidden to return from his solitude to his mission among his people, when he will be 
 owned and encouraged by God if he will see the goodness that still lingers among them, 
 and yet not enter into any unrighteous compromise with the wicked ways of the mul- 
 titude of them. 
 
 I. We SHOULD EXERCISE A WIDE RECOGNITION OP THE GOOD IN ALL THINGS — take Out 
 
 the precious from the vile. The gold-washer may find but a grain of gold in a ton of 
 gravel ; yet he will search diligently for it, and treasure it when he finds it. Care- 
 lessness and uncharitableness lead to an unjust, wholesale repudiation of what is no 
 doubt largely corrupt. But it is not right to judge of things thus " in the lump." 1. 
 Apply the principle to persons. Because ninety-nine men out of a company of a 
 hundred are guilty, it is grossly iniquitous to condemn the whole hundred— the one 
 innocent man with the rest. Jeremiah was directed to look out for the pious remnant 
 among the mass of the unfaithful people. We are too ready to ignore the existence of 
 the seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal. Goodness should be recog- 
 nized in bad society, in heathen nations, in corrupt Christian communities, in question- 
 able avocations. We should beware of sweeping condemnations of a whole class ; e.g. of 
 actors, of publicans, etc. 2. Apply the principle to religious systems. Few are wholly 
 good ; but lew are wholly bad. The dross and precious metal are mixed, though in 
 varying degrees, in all ot them. The various Church systems of Christendom partake 
 of this mixed character. Most Churches have some peculiarly precious ideas to which 
 it seems to be their mission each severally to testify. It is well if we have the insight 
 to seize on these, and the charity to begrudge none of their value because of the error, 
 the superstition, or the perversion with which they may be associated. Thus, not by. an 
 amorphous eclecticism which can minister to no deep, organic unity of life, but by a 
 genuine assimilating power, we should learn to gather from all. sources .the good .of, 
 
CH. XV. 1—21.] THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 381 
 
 spiritual thought. The same process should be observed in dealing; with non-Christian 
 religions. Beneath a vast heap of the vile a few glittering gems of precious merit may 
 be found in the Talmud, and also in the Zend-Avesta, in the Koran, in the religious 
 ■writings of Greece, India, China, etc. 3. Apply the principle to life generally. Take 
 the precious from the vile in literature, in conversation, in social usage, in recrt-ation, in 
 politics. Discriminate in all these things. Do not reject the whole of any of them, even 
 if the larger part may be bad, but select the pure and good and reject the evil. 
 
 II. We 6H0nLD MAINTAIN A STOUT REFUSAL TO COMPROMISE WITH THE EVIL IN ANT- 
 THING. Jeremiah is not to sacrifice principle for the sake of any advantage. He is not 
 to embrace the vile for the sake of the precious, but to separate the two. He is not to 
 yield his position of truth and right for the sake of winning the friendship of his 
 neighbours, but patiently to expect them to come over to him. It is the very love of 
 truth that should make us welcome it in the most unlikely quarters ; but if we go on to 
 receive the error that is closely associated with it, we at once become unfaithful to the 
 very motive of our search. The silver is useless so long as the dross is preserved with 
 it. The largest charity cannot sanction any compromise with evil. Compromise 
 belongs to the region of expediency, not to that of truth and righteousness. It is a 
 mistake to conciliate our enemies by yielding up our fortress. If we abandon the 
 essential mysteries of Christianity for the sake of winning over our opponents, we are 
 really only giving them the victory. Should we come to terms, this is at best on 
 their grounds, aud the peace we ratify is no record of a victory for Christ. In the 
 end the policy of compromise fails. It indicates weakness and leaves no decided 
 position about which to rally. We must dare to be firm to our principles, and wait 
 patiently till the world comes round to them. This was how Christ acted. If we 
 eao-erly recognize the good in everything and earnestly desire to take forth the precious 
 from the vile, we shall find our uncompromising fidelity to princiijle resting on a firmer 
 and safer basis than if we are narrowly jealous of all good outside our own little circle 
 of notions and habits. 
 
 HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. 
 
 Yer. 1. — Sins for which saintly intercession cannot avail. Moses is spoken of as an 
 intercessor inExod. xvii. 11 ; xxxii. 11 ; Numb. xiv. 13 ; Ps. cvi. 23 : Samuel in 1 Sam. 
 vii. 8 ; viii. 6 ; xii. 16 — 23 ; xv. 11 ; Ps. xcix. 6. Noah, Daniel, and Job are mentioned 
 similarly (Ezek. xiv. 14). It is, then, in their special intercessory character that these 
 fathers are referred to. At the time when their intercessions took place they were the 
 leaders and representatives of Israel, aud because of their saintliness they had favour 
 with G-od. But the sins for which Judah and Jerusalem are now to be punished are 
 by this reference declared of a more heinous description than any that took place in 
 those days. It is a mere supposition which is made, evidently no description of the 
 normal relation of glorified saints to Jehovah, but simply a hypothetical statement as 
 to what they, in their earthly capacity, would have failed to do. 
 
 I. The INTERCESSIONS OF RIGHTEOUS MEN AVAIL MUCH. Many a time in the wilder- 
 ness had Moses stayed the impending wrath of God because of murmuring and disobe- 
 dience ; and this not simply because he was the civil leader of the ptople, but through 
 his own saintly, high-priestly character. This is a principle of God's dealings with 
 men " The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much ; " and one of 
 the chief occupations of the Church is represented as praying for the salvation of the 
 world and the coming of the kingdom of God. It is because such men represent the 
 future hope of the race, being a kind of firstfruits of them that shall be saved, that 
 they have this power. In themselves too, because of what they are, they are piea,sing 
 to God, who delights in their prayers and praises. There is somethmg very striking 
 and touching in this spectacle of one standing for many, and we have to think ot how 
 great has been the blessing which has been thus secured to the world through its 
 saints. But they all appear trifling compared with that which Christ has secured 
 through the intercession of his prayers, obedience, and sacritice. In his case (what 
 could scarcely be said of any saint) his intercession has a solid objective worth because 
 of what it is in itself, and avails as a consideration with God for the cleansing ot all 
 who identify themselves with him througli fiiith. . 
 
382 THE BOOK OF THE PKOPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xv. 1—21. 
 
 II. But there are conditions which destroy the efficacy op such intercession. 
 Their influence is but partial and imperfect, depending as it does upon their own 
 inadequate fulfilment of the Law and will of God. If it were a question of strict 
 account, they themselves would not be able to stand in his presence. It is of his 
 grace that, even for a moment, they may be said to have influence for others. And it 
 may be said that their intercession is but provisional, and, if not followed up by the 
 obedience of those for whom they pray, it will be followed with the more condign punish- 
 ment upon the transgressors. It is a great tribute to the vicarious power possible to 
 saints that even the most eminent of them should he quoted in such a connection. But 
 it shows how inadequate such a mediatorship would be for the general sin of man. We 
 may do much, each of us, to avert just judgments, to secure opportunities of salvation, 
 and to bring the grace of God to bear upon the hearts of others ; but we cannot save 
 them by any communication of our own acceptance with God to them. They must 
 stand or fall according to their own relation to the will of God and the person of his 
 Son. And there are degrees of guilt which far surpass any intercession of this kind. 
 The sin of unbelief especially, if it be unrepented of, will prevent any benefit being 
 received. The permanent position of our souls with respect to Divine grace will 
 depend, therefore, upon their own action or belief. Even Christ cannot save if we do 
 not believe in his Name and obey him. — M. 
 
 Ver. 10. — The offence of faithful pleaching. That the preaching of the gospel 
 should stir up the evil passions of men would at first appear strange. It is the declara- 
 tion of good news to them that are perishing, and an eflbrt to restore men to happiness 
 and peace. But that it has been accompanied with such manifestations of ill will from 
 the beginning is sufficiently well known. The preaching of the cross has in every age 
 been resisted and resented by the world. It is " to the Jews a stumbling-block, and to 
 the Greeks foolishness ; but to them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ 
 the power of God, and the wisdom of God " (1 Cor. i. 23). 
 
 I. With what the faithful preacher compares himself. Jeremiah says that he 
 might have been a brawler, a dishonest debtor, or a usurer to have stirred up the strife 
 and hatred which he experienced. As has been said, lending and borrowing cause most 
 lawsuits. " ' I have not lent nor borrowed.' My dear Jeremiah 1 'J'hou raightest have 
 done that ; that is according to the custom of the country ; there would be no such 
 noise about that " (Zinzendorf). Elijah was reproached by Ahab, " Art thou he that 
 troubleth Israel ? " (1 Kings xix. 17). St. Paul was persecuted. Even Christ himself 
 was accused of stirring up sedition, and the preaching of the Word has often been 
 accompanied by demonstrations of violence. 
 
 II. To what this may be attributed. It is due chiefly to the dislilte of men to 
 the truth itself, in whatever shape presented. The natural heart is enmity against God 
 and his Word. Care must be taken to distinguish between accidental and essential 
 provocations of this spirit. The manner of the preacher should never be such as of 
 itself to dispose men unfavourably towards his message. The greatest care ought to be 
 taken to conciliate and to win. But the original hatred of men to truth must not be 
 ignored. It exists, and will have to be reckoned with in one form or another. One 
 man will object to it in toto ; another to the degree of obedience which it exacts. With 
 some the idea will be pleasing but the practice irksome. If men hated Christ, we need 
 not suppose that they will be more amiable towards us if we are faithful. 
 
 III. Consolations. These troubles need not afflict us if we remember, with respect 
 to our hearers, that it is not theirs but them we desire. The worst enemies have been 
 reconciled and the fiercest natures subdued by the power of the Word. It is well too 
 in the midst of sufiering to have the testimony of a good conscience. To him also 
 who is faithful in the midst of opposition and hatred is that beatitude, Matt. v. 11. 
 But perhaps the strongest consolation of all is in the fellowship of him for whose sake 
 the opposition is experienced. — M. 
 
 Ver. 15. — " ITiou knowest it." There is One to whom the true prophet and saint must 
 stand or fall. He is anxious, therefore, for his approval. He labours ever as in the 
 great Taskmaster's eye. " Thou God seest rae," which is the terror of the sinner, is the 
 chief reward and comfort of the saint. The prophet here consoles himself — 
 
cii. XV. 1—21.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 383 
 
 I. By an appeal to the judomeitt or G-od. In this connection it is as if conscience 
 itself had been invoked. And yet, better still, if conscience should vacillate God would 
 remain the same. In this way it is well for the best of men to test their motives by 
 continual reference to God. There is no better way of self-examination. 
 
 II. By a beference to the sympathy of God. The mere fact that the all-knowing 
 One was constantly regarding his sufferings for his sake, that he had put his tears in 
 his bottle, and that he was able to appreciate his motives, was a comfort to the prophet. 
 If possible, this source of consolation is deepened and enlarged by the greater nearness 
 of God in Christ. The fellow-feeling of our great High Priest and Elder Brother is real 
 and can be depended upon from moment to moment. It is a well of salvation from 
 which we can draw inexhaustible supplies. 
 
 III. By COMMITTING IT TO THE DiviNB RESPONSIBILITY. It Was in God's hands 
 because it was in God's knowledge. It was not for the prophet to trouble himself as to 
 means of retaliation. He could commit his cause to his Father. The wider issues of it, 
 nay, even its mightiest results, were beyond his own power. What he had to do was to 
 be faithful and trusting and diligent. — M. 
 
 Ver. 16. — Ood's words a heartfelt joy. In the midst of the prophet's sorrow this 
 passage occurs as a relieving feature — a memory of spiritual joy. At the same time it 
 is recalled as a consideration that will weigh with him to whom he addresses himself. 
 It defines his entire relation to God and to Israel, and describes his claim. 
 
 I. Thr words of God test and exhibit the inward loyalty of the saint. It is 
 not merely tliat a certain feeling has been excited in the mind, but that a welcome has 
 been given to God's revelation. A profound difference is thereby instituted between 
 the prophet and those who were opposed to him. As the psalmist cries, " Thy word 
 have I hid in my heart," in proof of his earnestness and his love of truth, so the prophet 
 would commend himself to God by the attitude he had assumed to the message when 
 it was revealed to him. It is as if he had said, " I have never resisted thy Word, but 
 ever held myself ready to utter and obey it." The test which they apply to the 
 spiritual nature is full of dread to the unworthy ; but to those whose hearts are right 
 with God it is a satisfaction and a source of confidence. " The thoughts and intents of 
 the heart" thereby disclosed are seen to be right and good. 
 
 II. They refresh and strengthen him for suffering and ddty. It is as if the 
 prophet were drawing comfort from recollection because his present circumstances are 
 so troublous. But many a time the Word of God comes in a time of perplexity and 
 darkness, bringing with it comforting light. It is greedily welcomed at such seasons 
 and is devoured as by one who has long fasted. It penetrates thereby mijre deeply into 
 the spiritual nature and more radically influences the springs and motives of conduct. 
 It comes as a distinctly superuatm-al aid and makes men masters of what had previously 
 overpowered them. 
 
 HI. They bind him more closely to their Author. The nature which has been 
 so affected by the words of God cannot be nor regard itself as in the same position with 
 others. Its whole character and destiny are altered. The life is leavened by that which 
 supports and nourishes it. The indwelling Word is a consecrating influence and with- 
 draws men fro3i the pursuits and fellowship of the world. In this way the saint becomes 
 identified with his Lord ; a child of grace ; a worker in the same great cause ; a subject 
 of like hatred and opposition, and an heir of the same kingdom. By producing the 
 character of holiness they inscribe the Divine Name upon the heart, and link the life 
 and destiny of the saint with the cause of God. — M. 
 
 Vers. 19 — 21. — The preacher's weakness and strength. I. Human motives often 
 LEAD HIM aside FROM THE PATH OF DUTY, ETC. The prophet Is a man like other men 
 and subject to the same passions. It is difficult for him to maintain the attitude of 
 continual spiritual loyalty. Flesh and blood will fail and he will fall into temptations 
 peculiar to his office. Of these he must be especially jealous, and a stricter standard of 
 holiness should govern bis conduct. Unfaithfulness in such a position will produce an 
 exaggerated effect upon those whom he influences. His influence itself will cease to he 
 purely spiritual, his love less certain, and his conduct less irreproachable. Deflection 
 like-this should be at once corrected, and he who " tries the reins " is especially watch- 
 
384 THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xv. 1— 21. 
 
 ful over those who have to deliver his message and represent his cause. "If thou 
 return." How instant and jet how gentle the reproof! 
 
 II. Repentant FiDELirY will be rewarded with ttsefdlness and strength. 1. 
 MeiiiatorsUp— to " stand before me." 2. Infallihility — " As my mouth." 3. Irresist- 
 ible power — a " brazen wall ; " " but not prevail over thee." 4. The presence and pro- 
 tection of Gtod. — M. 
 
 Vers. 1 — 9. — Fearful aspects of the Divine character. These verses and this whole 
 discourse reveal to us an implacable God. He will not turn away i'rom his wrath nor 
 be moved : 1. By the spectacle of misery presented (ch. xiv.). 2. By the remembrance 
 of former love (ch. xiv. 8). 3. By the earnest prayers of his faithful servant (ver. 1). 
 4. By the prospect of more terrible miseries yet to come (ch. xiv. 17 — ^xv. 9). 
 Therefore — 
 
 I. Inquire. Why is God thus ? The answer is, he will not change, because the 
 sinner will not. " To the froward he will ever show himself froward." 
 
 II. Learn. That while God's mercy is infinite to those who turn to him, for those 
 who refuse there is no mercy at all. — C. 
 
 Ver. 1. — The limits of intercessory prayer. " Though Moses and Samuel," etc. 
 1. This verse seems at first sight to be in contradiction to the many Scriptures which 
 assure us that the " effectual fervent prayers of righteous men avail much." The Bible 
 teems with promises that Gud will hear when we call upon him. But here is a decided 
 declaration that, let even the holiest and the most eminent for their intercessions stand 
 before God in prayer, they should not avail to secure what was denied. 2. And were 
 there only this verse, the difficulty would not be so great. But experience is con- 
 tinually supplying us with fresh instances in which blessings earnestly sought have 
 yet been denied. 3. And this also in regard to spiritual things. Were it only tem- 
 poral blessings God refused to give although we asked him for them, we could readily 
 understand that, though they seemed so good in our eye^i, in his they might be seen to 
 bo hurtful. We know that in such things we do not know what is best. But the 
 refusal of prayer is found in regard to things that we know are good and well pleasing 
 to God — in regard to things spiritual and eternal, e.g. in the prayers of parents for the 
 conversion of their children, of teachers and pastors for those committed to their 
 charge. 4. Hence from this verse and from such experience of rejected prayer, the sad 
 conclusion has been drawn that, in spite of the most earnest intercession, the souls we 
 pray for may be lost, our intercession be of no avail. For does it not say even to Jeremiah, 
 who himself was an eminent intercessor with God, that there were yet greater than he 
 —such as Moses and Samuel — hut that if even they, etc. (cf. references for instances of 
 their intercession). 5. And some have tried to escape the difficulty by drawing a 
 sharp contrast between the intercession of our Lord Jesus Chri.st and that of these 
 men of God. They have said, had Jesus interceded, it would have been otherwise. 
 But this is not true, for our Lord would not have interceded as Jeremiah did. He also 
 foretold ^reat calamities as overhanging Jerusalem and her people, but we have no 
 record of his ever having prayed that they might not come. He sought unceasingly 
 their eternal salvation, but he did not pray against the destruction of Jerusalem. It is. 
 not permissible, therefore, to account for the failure of such intercession as that of 
 Jeremiah, on the ground that it is only human intercession and not that of the Son of. 
 God. 6. But before we certainly conclude that intercession for the eternal spiritual- 
 well-being of others may after all be in vain, though the intercession have been such, 
 as that of the great servants of God here spoken of, who touched the utmost limits of 
 intercessory prayer, let us note (1) That it was not for spiritual blessings that Jeremiah 
 was interceding. His piteous entreaties were " concerning the dearth " (oh. xiv. 1), 
 that that might be removed. It was strictly a prayer for temporal mercies and deli-, 
 verancc'S. It is, therefore, unjust to conclude that intercession for things spiritual and 
 eternal may fail because, as we well know, it may fail for things material and temporal. 
 Note also (2) That the utmost limits of intercession had been reached. The prophet 
 himself had offered no scant or insincere petition, and the intercession of these great, 
 saints of God spoken of was, we know, of the mightiest order. Before, then, we con- 
 clude that such intercession in regard to spiritual things can be of no avail, let us be 
 
CH. XV. 1—21.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEKEMIAH. 385 
 
 sure that such intercession has been tried. Is our own such ? There may be cus- 
 tomary and too often formal prayers offered by parents, pastois, teachers, for the spiritual 
 good of those about them. But can we say that such prayers are mighty intercessions, 
 like those of Mosos and Samuel ? If we know they have not been such, let us pause 
 before we conclude that such intercession avails not. But in order to ascertain if our 
 intercession has been real, let us note if we are in earnest about our own soul's salva- 
 tion. If we care not for our own acceptance before God, how can we be solicitous for 
 that of others ? And are our prayers Ibllowed up by practical effort in the direction of 
 our prayers ? Do they lead us to see what can be done to secure the ends for which we 
 pray ? Or are they substitutes for such endeavour ? Hence it may very often be that 
 we ask and have not, because we ask amiss. We do not intercede in that real, believ- 
 ing, earnest way which alone has a right to expect the blessing it seeks. It is by no 
 means intercession such as that of Moses and Samuel. 7. But if intercession have 
 been such as theirs, then, though answer may be delayed, we are to believe that it will 
 yet come. Delay is not denial. 8. Neither this verse nor experience sets aside the 
 many promises which encourage such intercession. 9. And experience proves its worth. 
 The Churcli of to-day is in the main the product of the intercession. of the Church 
 that has passed into the heavens. Instead of the fathers have risen up the children. 
 10. Learn, therefore, (1) if God refuse us temporal blessings, it is because he knows 
 better than we do what is best; (2) how best to deal with transgressors God alone 
 knows, and what his wisdom determines none may set aside; (3) that intercession for 
 souls is well pleasing to God and lull of hope, since the beloved of God have been ever 
 distinguished for such intercession, and, above all, God's well-beloved Son. — 0. 
 
 Ver. 1. — Great intercessors. I. Such are mentioned herb. Moses, Samuel, e'c. 
 (cf. Exod. xvii. 11; xxxii. 11 ; Numb. xiv. 13; Ps. cvi. 23; 1 Sam. vii. 8; viii. 6; xii. 
 16 — -23; XV. 11; Ps. xo. 6; Ecclus. xlvi. 6). Noah, Daniel, and Job are mentioned in 
 similar way (Ezek. xiv. 14), and Jeremiah himself (2 Mace. xv. 14). And there 
 have been such oftentimes gianted to nations. Churches, families (cf. Mary Queen of 
 Scots saying that she feared John Knox's prayers more than all her enemies). And who 
 has not known such intercessors in connection with Christian Churches — men and 
 women whose prayers were amongst the main supports of the life, joy, and strength of 
 those for whom they were offered ? 
 
 II. Their value is unspeakable. Cf. Abraham praying for Sodom. Though the 
 cities of the plain were destroyed, yet what an amount of sin God was ready to pardon 
 in answer to his prayer, if but the conditions which should have been so easy to fulfil 
 Lad been forthcoming! And " tne few names even in Sardis" (Rev. ii.), who can 
 doubt that they, as all such do, warded off lor long periods those visitations of God's 
 anger which otherwise would have come upon that Church ? And it is not only the evils 
 from which they defend a Church, but the positive good they confer. Such power with 
 God is ever accompanied by a consistency and sanctity of character which is blessedly 
 attractive, inspiring, contagious; and as a magnet they gather round them a baml 
 of kindred souls, like as our Lord gathered his disciples round himself. And thus a 
 hallowed influence is sent throughout a whole community. 
 
 HI. Their qualifications. 1. Sympathy with Qod. They must srs sin as God 
 sees it — as utterly hateful and wrong. There must be no weak condoning of it or any 
 failure to behold it in its true character. If we ask God to forgive sin, indeed, if we 
 seek forgiveness for wrong done from a fellow-man, are we likely to be acceptable in 
 onr request if we regard him who has been wronged as not having much to complain 
 of after all ? No ; he who would wish God to forgive sin must see it as God sees it, and 
 consent to his judgment concerning it. 2. Deep love fur those for whim he intercedes. 
 And this cannot be created in a moment. It must be the result of much thought, 
 labour, and pains spent upon them. When we have thus given ourselves to them, we 
 aro sure to love them. Places, persons, things, most unattractive to others are deeply 
 loved by those who have devoted themselves to them. And all great intercessors 
 ijave been such, and must be such as become so, not on the spur of the moment or 
 from any mere movement of pity, but as the result of long and loving labour lavished 
 fir their good. 3. Freerlomfrom the guilt of the transgression, the pardon of which is 
 sought. Under the Old Testameut the priest first offered atonement for himself and 
 
 JEBKMIAH. 2 c 
 
386 THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEP.EJIIAH. [cii. xv. 1—21. 
 
 then for the sins of the people. Not until he was purged from sin himself could he 
 intercede for others. The intercessor must be one untainted with the guilt he prays to 
 be removed. Tiie prayer of the wickid can never aid. 4. Ej perimental kriowleilge 
 hoth of the hlessiwjs which he craves and of the sorrows and sufferings which he inter- 
 cedes against. Of our Saviour, the great Intercessor, it is said, " He himself took our 
 infirmities, and bare our diseases." He was made " in all points like unto his brethren." 
 The joy of God's love and also, by holy sympathy, the bitterness of the dregs of that 
 oup of which the wicked have to drink — were alike known to him. Thus, though he 
 knew no sin, he was made sin for us. It was to him as if all the sin of those he so 
 loved were his own, so intensely did its shame, its misery, its guilt, fi.ll up his soul. 
 And with human intercessors there must be like experience. 5. Faith in God, uhich 
 firmly holds to the helii-f that his love for the sinner is deeper than, his hatred of tlie 
 sin. Unless we believe this we can have no hope in interceding either for ourselves or 
 for others. Faith Id the infinitude of the love of God is esyential. 
 
 IV. Their great Exemplar — the Lord Jesus Christ. See Low all the qualifications 
 above named combine in him. 
 
 Conclusion. 1. To the sorrowful and sinful. You need a great intercessor. Tou 
 have one in Christ. " Give him, my soul, thy cause to plead." 2. To the iii-liever in 
 Christ. St-ek to become as Moses and Samuel, and, above all, as our Lord — mighty in 
 intercession. — C. 
 
 Ver. 4. — The sins of the fathers visited upon the children. This verse contains an 
 explicit declaration that such is God's rule. The calamities about to fall on Judahand 
 Jerusalem were " because of Manasseh the son of," etc. No doubt the sins of Manasseh 
 were flagrant in the extreme, and they were the more aggravated because he was the 
 son of the godly Hezekiah. No doubt his reign was one of dark disgrace and disaster. 
 The sacred writers dismiss it with a few short statements, hurrying over its lung stretch 
 of years — it was the lon<;est reign of all the kings of Judah — as it they were (as they 
 were) a period too melancholy and shameful to be dwelt upon. But why should we 
 lind that his guilt and sin were to fall upon those who were unborn at the time, and 
 who therefore could have had no share therein ? 
 
 I. Such visitation is an undoubted fact. It is plainly declared to be a Divine 
 rule, and that once and again (cf Exod. xx., etc.). And apait Iroiu the Bible — in tho 
 manifest law of heredity— there is the dread fact patent to all. Workhouses, prisons, 
 hospitals, asylums, all attest the visitation of God for the fathers' sins. 
 
 If. It is a great mystery. It is one branch of tliat all-pervading mystery into 
 which all other mysteries sooner or later run up — the mystery of evil. There is 
 nothing to be done, so far as its present solution is concerned, but to " trust," and so 
 " not be afraid." 
 
 III. But not without alleviations; e.g. 1. Jf the sins of the fathers are visited 
 on their descendants, yet more are Ood's mercies. The sins descend to " the third and 
 fourth generation," l)ut the mercies to "thousands " of generations — for this is meant. 
 2. The descent is not entire. The sins come down, it is true, upon the descendants, but 
 in their fruits rather than in their roots. A fiither cannot force on his child his wicked- 
 ness, though he may his diseases and tendencies. 3. The entail may be cut off in its 
 worst part at any moment, and very often is. Coming to Chribt may not deliver me 
 from physical suffering, but it will from sin. Grafted into Christ a new life will begin, 
 the whole tendency of which in me and in mine is to counteract and undo the results 
 of the former evil life. 4. And the visitation of the fathers' sins is but raiely because 
 of th^ fathers' sins only. The descendants of the age of Mimasseh did their woiks, and 
 what wonder that they should inherit their woes? 5. And it is a salulnry law. 
 Children are a means of grace to tens of thousands of parents. "Out of the mouth 
 of babes," etc. For, for their children's sakes, parents will exercise a watchfulness ami 
 self-restraint, will seek after God and goodness as otherwise they would never have 
 done. The remembrance of what they will inflict on their children by virtue of this 
 law fills them with a holy fear, as God desigutd it should. 
 
 Conclusion. 1. Parents. What legacy are you leaving for your children ? Shall 
 they have to curse or bless you ? father, mother, " do not sin ;;gainst " your " child." 
 2. Children. What have you received? Is it a legacy of evil example', evil tendency. 
 
CH. XV. 1—21.] THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 387 
 
 evil habit? God's grace will help you to break the succession. Refuse it for your- 
 selves, determine you will not hand it on to others. But is it a legacy of holy 
 example, tendencies, and habits? Blessed be God if it be so. What responsibility 
 this involves! What blessing it renders possible for you and those who come after 
 you ! — C. 
 
 Ver. 9. — Thf. darkened home. "She that hath borne . . . was yet day." Perhaps 
 in all the range of human sorrows there is none greater than that which befalls a 
 home when the dearly beloved mother of many children, yet needing sorely her care, 
 is early cut off. Such a piteous case is described here. The prophet, bewailing the 
 coming calamities of his country, adopts the heartbroken language of a husband 
 bitterly mourning the death of his wife and the mother of his many children. He 
 seems to think, of her who is gone, and all her sweetness and grace and goodness rise 
 xip belbre him. He thinks of their children and how they will need their mother's 
 care, terribly need it, though never more can they have it, and his heart dies down 
 within him. He thinks of himself and how utterly lonely his lot must be. At such 
 times heart and mind almost give way, and faith and love Godward receive a blow 
 beneath which they reel and sometimes never recover themselves. But this verse is 
 as a holy angel ol God, and enters that darkened home ; and — 
 
 I. It calls to memory what the lost one was. Her life was as the shining of 
 the sun — bright, cheerful, generous, inspiriting, attracting, healthful, and joy-giving 
 to all. 
 
 II. It denies not the fact which is so bitterli mourned. Her premature death, 
 her sun went down, etc. Nothing can alter that fact. And perhaps, as the very words 
 indicate, circumstances of peculiar sorrow may have surrounded her death. Like her 
 ti'ld of in this verse, ".she may have breathed out her life as if in lab-iured sighs, 
 expiring in heavy heart-breaths of grief." Not a calm, gradual, bright sunset, but the 
 very reverse, the sun going down in dark clouds. The power to utter those blesseil 
 parting words of counsel and comfort taken from her, and in darkness and silence 
 she had to wend her way to the unseen. But amid all this depth of gloom this 
 verse — 
 
 III. SuGOESTS MOST BLESSED TRUTH. The sun of her life has not perished but 
 shines elsewhere. We know that when the sun sinks below our horizon it has gone 
 to gladden and hless other shores. And so with the life of the blessed dead. Tliey 
 all live unto God. All that in them which was so pure, so sweet, so full of the grace 
 of God, has not perished; it is shining elsewhere, it has risen on another shore, the 
 eternal and the blessed. And on us it shall rise again, as the sunrise follows in due 
 time the sunset. That life is not lost but is hidden with Christ in God, and so " when 
 he who is our life shall appear" then shall that now hidden life "appear with him in 
 glory."— 0. 
 
 Ver. 12. — A vain contest. "Shall iron break the northern iron and the steel?" So 
 asks the Lord God of his, at this time not simply lamenting prophet, he was rarely 
 anything but that, but also his complaining prophet. And as we read these verses 
 with which the strikir]g inquiry contained in this verse is connected, we cannot help 
 fueling that his lamentations become him far more than his complaints. Still, who 
 are we, to criticize a great hero of the faith such as Jeremiah undoubtedly was? 
 Tliese verses, from the tenth onwards, are no doubt on a lower, a less spiritual and less 
 self-forgetful level than that which the common strain of his prophecies and prayers 
 maintain. It will be seen that these verses come at the close of a long and most 
 earnest appeal addressed by him to God on behalf of his countrymen. They wera 
 aulferiug fearfully from the dearth of which the opening of the fourteenth chapter tells. 
 Now, all this was then present before the prophet's mind, and these chapters record the. 
 expostulations, the pathetic appeals, and the almost agonized prayers which he pours 
 forth on behalf of his suffering land and people. He makes full confession of their 
 sins, but pleads the all-merciful Name of the Lord, and when that did not suffice, he 
 urges the evil teaching that they had received from their prophets and that therefore 
 they may be held guiltless or far less guilty, and when that plea also was rejected 
 he. returns to his confessions and earnest entreaties ; but it is all of no avail. At the 
 
388 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [cir. xv. 1—21. 
 
 opening of this chapter God says, "Though Moses and Samuel" — men who had once 
 and agrtin proved themselves mighty intercessors for the people, yet even if they — 
 "stood before me, my mind could not be toward this people." The crimes of 
 Manasseb, King of Judah, that king who reigned so long, so disgracefully, and with 
 such disastrous results over Judah, had never been repented of, and never really for- 
 saken. They were rampaut still, and therefore the Lord declares this judgment which 
 he had sent upon them must go oh— no prayers of his faithful servant could avail to 
 stay its execution. Upon this the prophet pours out a piteous lamentation over tlie 
 woes of his people, and then, turning to his own position, he complains bitterly o( the 
 hatred which was felt towards him by those whom he had soufht to bless. " Woe is 
 me, my mother, that thou hast borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to 
 the whole earth ! " He had been no usurer nor fraudulent debtor, " yet every one," he 
 cries, " curses me." Then to him the Lord replies, promising him deliverance in the time 
 of evil, and ask.s the question, " Shall irun break . . . steel ? " The ancients knew 
 comparatively little uf the manufactures of iron and steel. Amongst the Israelites it 
 was very coarsely wrought, bul the best iron was from the north. So bad was their 
 own that an admixture of brass, which among us would be rather thought to lessen its 
 value, was regarded as in improvement. But the iron and steel procured from the 
 people vvlio lived in the far north, on the shores of the Black Sea, was the most 
 celetirated lor iis tenacity and hardness. Against it the common iron of every-day use 
 could offer but little resistance, and when opposed to it could make little or no 
 impression ; it could not " break the northern iron and the steel." And the question of 
 this verse is a proverb denoting the impossibility of any force, though great in itself, ' 
 overcoming one which by its very nature and by its effects had been proved to be 
 greater stdl. Our Lord teaches tlie same truth when he speaks of the folly of that 
 king who thought, with his army of ten thousand, to encountei' and overcome another 
 king who came against him with twenty thousand. But whilst the meaning of this 
 verse is plain enough, its application is not so clear. If we connect it with the verses 
 that immediately precede, as many do, then it is a question whose tone is bright, 
 cheerful, and reassuring. But if we connect it with those that immediately follow, its 
 toue is altered and is full of solemn admonition and serious warning. In the first case 
 it refers to Jeremiah himself, and is for his comfort and confidence. It tells him that 
 the enemies wlio are against him, however ironlike they might be — cold, hard, fierce, 
 strong — and however much they may oppress and afflict him, yet assuredly they shall 
 not prevail against him; fur God will make' him as the northern iion and the steel, 
 against which all their might shall be in vain. God had promised at the very outset 
 of the prophet's ministry that he would thus strengthen him. Behold, he says, in the 
 first chapter, "I have made thee this day a delenced city, and an iron pillar, and 
 brazen walls against the whole land, . . . and they shall fight against thee, but they 
 shall not prevail against thee ; for I am with thee, saith the Lord, to deliver thee." 
 And in the twentieth verse of this chapter the like promise is given over again. So 
 that they have much reason on their side who regard these words as a heart-cheering 
 assurance conveyed to the prophet under the form of a question, and assuring him that, 
 let the power of those who hated him be what it might — as ironlike as it would — the 
 grace of God which would be given him would make him stronger still, would make 
 him as the northern iron and the steel. Let us, then, view these words — 
 
 I. As A REASSURING PROMISE, and make two or three applications of them. 1. And 
 first, to such as Jeremiah himself v\as at this time — a faithful servant of God, but 
 much troubled and tritd. What right have we to expect that all things will go 
 smoothly with us in this world, or to be surprised when sore troubles come ? Did not 
 our Lord say, " Behold, 1 send you forth as sheep amongst wolves " ? Well, it would be 
 strange if the sheep were to find all things just as they wished amid such surroundings 
 as that. But, as one has said, the sheep have beaten the wolves after all. There are 
 to-day tens of thousands of sheep for every wolf prowling on the face of the earth. It 
 did seem very likely, when the sheep wore so few, that the wolves would most certainly 
 have quickly made a clearance of them. But. though here and there one like Saul " made 
 havoc of the Church," the fiock, the Lord's fold, went on increasing and multiplying in 
 a marvellous way. Spiritually as well as literally the sheep outnumber the wolves 
 who would destioy them. And what is the explanation hut this, that to those who 
 
en. XV. 1—21.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. ?,P,0 
 
 have no might the Lord has increased strength ? He has let the wolves be indeed like 
 iron, but his sheep he has strengtliened as the northern iron, etc. And this he will ever 
 do. God can temper our souls to such decree of hardness and tenacity that they shall 
 blunt and beat back every weapon that is formed against them. The arrows hurled 
 against us shall fall pointless to the ground, and the armour of God wherein wo stand 
 engirt shall more than defend us from the adversary's power. The shield of faith is 
 wade, not of our enemies' uutempered iron, but of the northei'n iron and steel told of 
 here. Oh, then, child of God, how is it with thee ? Is the world frowning upon thee V 
 are circumstances adverse and involved, and thy way hedged with diflioulties? Has 
 death invaded thy home or is it about to do so, and is thy heart sadiitned thereby? 
 Does disappointment dog thy steps and bafiSe all thy best-meant endeavours? Is 
 anxiety creeping over thee and filling thee with foreboding fear? Hearken to this 
 word of God, " Can iron," etc. ? Can these things, hard and terrible as they are, break 
 down thy defence or break through thy shield? Oh, bring thy soul to Christ, tell 
 him how weak, how defenceless, in thyself, thou art ; come to him for the armour of 
 proof thou needest; ask liim to give thee good courage and to strengthen thine heart; 
 and then, as thou comest off more than conqueror over all these things, thou shalt 
 triumphantly ask this question for thyself. 2. And we may ask it ap;ain in reference to 
 the nppusiliun of the world against the Church of Ood. For that Church is girt with 
 invincible power, and stands like a rook amid the raging of the sea. In vain the 
 tempests hurl the mighty waves against it, in vain do they fiercely smite it as with 
 force sufficient to make it stagger and fall ; but whilst you look expecting to see it 
 overthrown, lo, the huge seas that smote it are shivered into clouds of spray, and 
 multitudes of foaming cataracts are seen rushing down its sides but leaving it 
 unharmed and immovable still. And — to return to the metaphor of this verse — the 
 iron of its adversary's weapon has broken against the steel of its impenetrable shield, 
 and the Church of God is unconquered still. Heresy has sought with insidious power 
 to turn it from the truth. Persecution with its fires and all manner of deadly 
 cruelties has threatened every member of its communion, and slain thousands upon 
 thousands of them. Superstition has come with its priestcraft and pretended super- 
 natural powers and taught men to worship idols in the name of God. Infidelity, the 
 sure offspring of Superstition, disgusted with the miserable shams and the mass of 
 wretched fables which Superstition has taught men for truth, has thrown off all belief, 
 and denied the very existence of God and the whole of the precious faith tliat the Church 
 has received. The world, a more deadly foe still, with her soft blandishments and her 
 mighty bribes, has done more to pervert the right ways of the Lord than perhaps all 
 the other enemies of the Church altogether; just as on the mass of iron used in the 
 construction of the great railway bridges which span so many of the valleys, straits, 
 and rivers of our land, it is found that a warm morning's sunshine does more to deflect 
 them from their true horizontal line than is accomplished by the ponderous weight of 
 the heaviest engines and trains rushing over them at their highest speed. Tlje soft 
 warmth does more than the heaviest weight. And again and again in the history of 
 the Church of God it has been found that when the world is most smiling then is it 
 most deadly to the best interests of the Church. And in our day, fresh forms of 
 unbelief or disbelief are gathering round the Church, and like a mist enwrapping the 
 minds and hearts of not a few, so that the blessed firmness of faith which once was 
 the common characteristic of the Church is giving way to a general doubt, vagueness, 
 and uncertainty, upon which no firm foothold can be had. But what is our confidence 
 iu view of all this? Is it not in the truth, made sure to us by the experience of all the 
 ages, that the Church of God is his especial care, and that therefore his omnipotence is 
 around it, and all the powers of hell shall not prevail against it. Here the Church of 
 God is to-day, in numbers, zeal, faith, charity, not one whit behind the former days. 
 Here in this' direction and that there may be loss, but if so, then in other directions 
 Ave find gain. And the witness of ail the history of the Church is this, that the forces 
 that oppose her are but as untempered iron, whilst the power that defends her is as 
 the northern, etc. And should there be any anxious heart who is in much doubt and 
 fear as to his own personal salvation because of the multitude and magnitude of his 
 sins, we would bid such a one take home to him the truth of our text. For although 
 his sins be all he thinks them, and even more — of strength like iron — yot the Saviour's 
 
390 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [en. xv. 1—21. 
 
 will to save is as the northern iron and the steel. True, the retrospect over the past may 
 be grievous, and since that was forgiven it may have been too often reproduced again. 
 " Thy backslidings," as God told Israel, " have been many ; " but art thou hoping in 
 God? dost thou grieve and mourn over sin and truly desire to be made whole? Then 
 it shall be so with thee; thy salvation shall be accomplished, for thine accusers' power 
 is but as the iron, whilst thy Saviour's is as the northern, etc. Therefore yield not to 
 doubt, still less to despair, but go to him who is mighty to save, and ask him to give 
 thee of his strength that thou mayst now conquer thy sin ; so shalt thou no more 
 doubt of his grace or of thine interest therein. Such are some of the applications of 
 this question which, taking it as an implied promise, we are justified in making. But 
 as we said at the outset, if we connect our text with the verses that follow, it will 
 rather supply lessons of serious warning and admonition. For thus understood, the 
 iron tells of the power of Israel and "the northern . . . steel" of the invincible power 
 of the Chaldean armies that were so soon to come against them, and therefore this 
 question is a declaration of the sure overtlirow of Israel when the time of conflict came. 
 The power of God was against Israel, and then what hope could there be ? Their poor 
 defence would be soon broken, and they would lie at the mercy of their foe. It is, 
 therefore — 
 
 11. A SAMPLE OP THE FATE THAT ATTENDS ALL BANGING OF MERE HUMAN POWERS 
 
 AGAINST THE WILL OF GoD. Whenever any such unequal contest is contemplated or 
 being carried on, this question may be fitly asked. And therefore we abk it : 1. Of 
 all these, and they are very many, who think that they can, unarmed of God, success- 
 fully wage ihe war with sin. We would be unfeignedly thankful that there is felt the 
 desire to wage this war at all, that there is np fatal apathy or content with sin, but 
 that there is a real purpose to subdue it and keep it under and to live in all righteous- 
 ness. Yes, wherever that purpose is, let thanks be given to God. But what all 
 such need to remember, yet what they very often do not remember, is that the evil of 
 their own hearts is as " the northern . . . steel," whilst all the strength of their own 
 resolves is but as common "iron," and when these two come in collision we know the 
 result. Remember that first of all there is the yuilt of sin to be provided for, and even 
 supposing you were to contract no further sin, what is to be said of all the past ? How 
 can your own right resolves and correct future conduct — if it be indeed correct — atone 
 for that ? But supposing it were' true that in an amended life there is atonement lor 
 the past, as we overlook the sins of youth, if the mature life be what it should be — 
 supposing that were true, which it is not, even amongst men, if the past crimes have 
 been of a serious kind — but supposing it were, and that if a man really turned over a 
 new leaf all the records of the foregoing leaves should be destroyed, no matter what 
 those records were — have you any guarantee that the future leaves will be altogether 
 different from those that went before? The Word of God, and experience also, teach 
 us that we have not. No doubt some sins may be given up, some evil actions forsaken, 
 especially if they be such as bring upon us the reproach of man, but the true nature of 
 the man remains unchanged — he is in himself what he was. " Can the Ethiopian change 
 his skin," etc.? " then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil." So speaks 
 the prophet of God ; so, too, speaks the experience of life. Of course we do not affirm 
 all this in regard to the coming up to the standard of society, or of maintaining an 
 external decency of life, but we do affirm it in regard to the attainment of that 
 renewed and alone morally excellent character to whicli God calls us and of which our 
 Lord Jesus Christ set us the example. You cannot bore through rock with wooden 
 tools ; you cannot with soft iron cut or pierce the hardened steel. And so you cannot, 
 by the power of your own resolves, break that heart of evil, hardened like very steel, 
 which every man carries about in him until it is regenerated by the Spirit of God. 
 The grace of God alone can help you. It is at the cross of Christ, where you gain 
 forgiveness from all the guilt of the past, that you gain also strength for the better life 
 of the future; and it is in daily coming to that cross, daily looking unto Jesus, that 
 blessed Lord who is both your Redeemer and your peifect Pattern, that you become 
 changed into the same imago and made like him. Iron is striving to " break the . . . 
 steel," whilst you are endeavouring of yourself to save yourself from the past results and 
 the present power of sin. You cannot do it, and iu view of the gracious help the Lord 
 Jesus Christ offers you it is a sin and an insult to him to persist in the attjmpt. 
 
OH. XV. 1-21.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 391 
 
 2. Finally, I think of another hopeless contest in which also many are slill engaged, in 
 which the iron is thinking to " break . . . steel." It is the contest with (Hod, the combat 
 with the Most ffi(/h. God has made us all for himself. Now, he himself so obeys the 
 law of truth and righteousness and goodness that we say he is righteousness. " The 
 Lord is righteous in all his ways and holy in all his works." " God is love." There- 
 fore he bids us surrender our hearts, our wills, to him, to obey, love, and serve him. 
 It is not simply rijht, but most blessed for us as for all his creatures to do thin, and the 
 vast majority of them do, and are blessed in consequence. But man has the power of 
 saying " Nay " to God's " Yea," and "Yea " to God's " Nay," and that power he has chosen 
 to exercise. In other words, he has set up his will against the Divine will, and refuses 
 obedience where the will of God and his own are opposed. This is the contest that is 
 ever going on — God seeking to win man's will, his heart to himself, and man pei'sis- 
 tently refusing. Man wants to have his own vray, believing and insisting that it is 
 the good way for him, whilst God knows well thai it is a way of evil and of evil only. 
 Therefore by all means God is seeking to draw us from that way to his own. By 
 the voice of conscience and of his Spirit pleading within us, by his providences, his 
 Word, his ordinances, and in other ways still, mostly gentle and gracious, others of 
 them of a sterner kind, but by them all he is aiming at but one result — this, of 
 inducing us to yield to him, to acknowledge his authority, and confess him Lord. 
 And remember this will of his is no passing wish, one which, when he finds he can- 
 not have it, he will cease to care for. Oh no, but it is his steailfast purpose, that upon 
 which his heart is set. " As I live, saith the Lord, all the earth shall be filled with my 
 glory." "To Jesus every knee shall bow, and . . . Father." Can we think, then, 
 that instead of this, God will be content with simply destroying man ? That would 
 be to confess failure on his part, and so would also the mere in diction of vengeance. 
 Therefore we feel sure that the rebel will have to yield, and the stoutest heart to bow. 
 The iron cannot " break . . . steel." Shall the will of man for ever defy God, and 
 hold out against him ? But ah! what of agony and woe will not the rebel will have 
 to go through ere it will own itself wrong ! AH the awful words of Christ about the 
 quenchless fire and the undying worm — those dreadful sayings of his at which the 
 soul shudders — still are his setting forth thereof. Oh, you whose hearts are still unsur- 
 rendered to him, will you provoke him to this ? will you force him to hold you down 
 to the consequences of your own doings until you come to see them as he sees them? 
 Then not alone because of the sorrow that must attend the refusal to yield to him, but 
 becau.se such yielding is so right, so blessed, let us cease from the vain and sinful con- 
 flict ; let the iron no more foolishly think to " break the northern iron and steel," but 
 " let us come and worship and bow down " — not with the knee alone, but in heart — 
 " before the Lord our Maker " and our Redeemer. — 0. 
 
 Ver. 16. — How to study the Scriptures. This verse declares — 
 
 I. How WE SHOULD DEAL WITH God's WORDS. 1. We are to "find " them. We are 
 not to be content with mere surface reading, but to "search the Scriptures." It is 
 certain that without this searching they will never be found. Now, it is this conviction 
 which has led to the recent revision of the Scriptures. They who underiook that 
 work were not ignorant of nor indifferent to the many objections which would be 
 brought against their enterprise. They knew it would be said that such revision would 
 disturb the faith of simple men and women, that it would provoke discord, that it would 
 encourage restless spirits to be ever seeking change, that it would destroy old and 
 sacred assuciations, that it was unnecessary because by means of commentaries and 
 sermons the true meaning of any passage could be given ; but they felt it to be their 
 duty to set forth, as clearly as possible, the very words of Scripture, so that men may 
 " find " them as before they could not do. They knew such work was needed, and they 
 were encouraged by the history of former revisions, that of Jerome and tliat of our 
 ]lre^ent Authorized Version, against which all the present objections were brought but 
 were soon seen to be futile. Faith has not been disturbed ; union and not discord has 
 followed, the meaning of Scripture has been made more manifest, and what is and 
 what is not of real authority — as the Apocrypha — has been declared. And they 
 were encouraged by the fact that the present was an especially favourable time for. 
 their work : the existence of so many capable scholars, not only to do the work, but 
 
392 THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xv. 1—21. 
 
 to test it after it was done ; the increased knowledge of the Greek language and lite- 
 rature — a knowledge that, in view of the growing disregard for the languages of anti- 
 quity, was not likely to be ever greater than at present ; the deepfelt love for the 
 English of our Bible, thus eusuring the preservation to a great extent of its pi^esent tone 
 and style ; the spirit of concord which the proposal has elicited between this country 
 and America, and between all sections of the Christian Church. Hence for all these 
 reasons it was felt to be a favourable time to set out afresh on the search for the very 
 words of God, in order that men might be enabled to " find " them the more readily. And 
 ■we may gratefully believe that to a large extent the ends proposed have been secured, 
 and that by the labours of the revisionists God's words in the New Testament Scriptures 
 have been " found " as they have not been heretofore. 2. But this which others have 
 done lor us we must do for ourselves. We must " find " God's Word. We must study 
 it, diligently read it, exercise ourselves in the Scriptures by carelul, frequent, continuous 
 reading, resolved that we will not merely read over the words, but know their meaning. 
 For the Word of God needs finding. It is hidden away beneath the sound of familiar 
 words and phrases which, from frequent hearing or repetition, have lost their power 
 either to arrest or arouse our thought. And prejudice, formality, indolence, indifference, 
 and other besetments of the soul beside, all do their part to hide from us the true sense 
 of God's Word. 3. And, when found, Qod's Word should be spiritually "eaten," i.e. 
 we must take his words so into our soul's life that, as our daily lood ministers to our 
 bodily life, these words of God shall minister to our soul's life. By the strength 
 derived from our daily food all the organs of our body, all its functions and forces, are 
 sustained in health and in working power — brain, heart, limbs, etc. And so, when 
 God's words are "eaten," they sustain and strengthen the functions and forces of the 
 soul — its faith, courage, hope, joy, etc. Abraham so believed God's word that he was 
 able to offer up his son Isaac in obedience to what he believed was God's command. 
 Job, by the same means, bore in glorious patience his heavy trials. Our blessed Lord 
 baffled and vanquished the tempter by his threefold thrust of the sword of the Spirit — 
 " It is written." And all the heroes of the faith have become heroes by reason of this 
 same " eating " of God's Word. Now, God's Word is thus taken into and made the life 
 of our souls, not by memory alone. Mere learning page after page by heart, as we say, 
 will not feed the soul. Let Sunday school teachers remember this. Nor will medita- 
 tion and reflection upon it be sufficient. There must be aiided fervent prayer that, by 
 the Divine Spirit, God's Word may be so inwrought in us that it shall be for us as a 
 sacrament, a veritable eating of the flesh of Christ. Now, if the Word of God be 
 thus found and eaten, see — 
 
 II. How God's Wokd will deal with trs. It will become " the joy and rejoicing of 
 our hearts." True religion is ever a joyful thing. "Her ways are ways of pleasant- 
 ness, and," etc. What is that entire hundred and nineteenth psalm but one con- 
 tinuous affirmation of joy in God's Word ? We shall see in the histories which the Bible 
 records the evidence of a Divine overruling, in its prophecies the proof that, the future 
 as well as the past is under the same control ; in its precepts and its holy Law the 
 righteousness of the Divine rule; and in the Gospels the love that is beneath, around, 
 amidst, and above all. And to the man of God, what can all this be but " the joy and 
 rejoicing of his heart "? God's words have done much for us when they have brought 
 us to repentance, more when we are led to trust in God, yet more when they enable us 
 to live the life of obedience ; but they have not done all they were designed and are 
 able and willing to do, until they have become " the joy," etc. But we cannot have 
 the joy first; repentance, trust, obedience, must precede and accompany; let these 
 be lacking, and joy cannot be. 
 
 III. The ground of this joy and eejoicing. " For I am called by thy Name," etc. 
 The prophet was known as the " man of God." He was so identified with God, so 
 notoriously consecrated to him, as to be called by his Name. It was the prophet's joy 
 and delight to be so called, and yet more to be so in reality. Therefore everything 
 that was the Lord's had interest for him, as an affectionate child rejoices in the letters 
 of his parents, reads them over and over again, treasures them, obeys them. And he 
 would joy in these words also because by them he had been led to the joy of his 
 present favour with God, and by them he was sustained therein. Hence, he being so 
 unreservedly and joyfully the Lord's, all the Lord's words could not but be what they 
 
OH. XV. 1—21.] THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. .?93 
 
 ■were to him. And it is ever so, in proportion as we are the Lord's by a living, loving 
 consecration, will his words be " the joy and," etc. — 0. 
 
 Ver. 1. — Fruitless intercession. These words are addressed to the prophet in his 
 character of intercessor for the people. He had already been told to plead no longer 
 for them (ch. xiv. 11), seeing that their case was hopeless, and the Divine sentence 
 that had gone out against them was iirevoeable. Observe — 
 
 I. The power that human interoessiom mat have with God. The fact that 
 such intercession is declared in this case to be vain implies that, under other conditions, 
 it might be effectual, Moses and Samuel often stood before the Lord as mediators on 
 behalf of the people whom they represented (Numb. xiv. 13-r-20 ; 1 Sam. vii. 9 ; Ps. 
 xcix. 6). Not that they had officially any priestly function. They were not priests ; 
 their power with God lay in the elevation of their character and the intimacy of their 
 fellowship with him. Every age has bonie witness to the reality and efficacy of this 
 power. " The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much" on behalf 
 of his fellow-men. Who can tell how much it is owing to such intercession that a 
 guilty world has been saved Irom hopeless abandonment? 
 
 II. The limit man"s obduracy puts to that power. There are times when no 
 human intervention is of any avail. Even the pleading of Moses and Samuel could 
 not have averted the threatened judgments. "My mind could not be towards this 
 people." Why ? Simply because of the obstinacy of their unbelief and irreligion. It 
 is not that God is not merciful and gracious and ready to forgive, or that the pleadings 
 of good and holy men have no power with him. It is that the inveterate obduracy of 
 men nullifies all the persuasive influence alike of Divine and human love. God's mind 
 cannot be towards those who with obstinate impenitence refuse his grace. There is a 
 limit beyond which even Divine patience cannot go. The very pleading love of the 
 great Intercessor is defeated in the case of those who will not forsake their false and 
 evil ways. It is not so much an irrevocable Divine decree, it is their own self-willed 
 perversity that dooms them and leaves the stern, retributive laws of God to take their 
 course. — W. 
 
 Ver. 16. — The living Word. The prophet, remonstrating with God on account of 
 the hardness of his lot, here looks hack reuretfully to the time of his first call to the 
 proplietic office. It is the languasie of one disuppointed and disheartened by the 
 apiiarent issue of his life, and the bitterness of whose grief is intensified by the remem- 
 brance of hopes unfulfilled, and a joy that has for ever passed away. It is as if God 
 were "altogether unto him as a liar, and as waters that fail." Apart, however, 
 from the peculiar experiences that called it forth, this passage is full of instruction. 
 Note — 
 
 I. The method op God's revelation of himself to men. "Thy words were 
 found." The term " found," in a case like this, is suggestive of that which comes to 
 the soul, not so much as the result of its own seeking, but of a spontaneous Divine 
 purpose. All those on whom the quickening light of Divine truth has shone feel 
 more or less distinctly the reality of this. The inspiration has come to them in 
 mysterious and unexpected ways. It has " pleased God to reveal his Son in them." 
 It is not so much that they " know God " as that they are " known of God " (Gal. i. 15, 
 10 ; iii. 9). The initiatory step in this gracious process is his, not ours. " Ye have 
 not chosen me, but I have chosen you," etc. (John xv. 16). 
 
 II. The vital relation truth bears to the divinely enlightened soul. 
 "I did eat it." No physical image could be more suggestive of the intimacy of this 
 spiritual relationsliip. It indicates : 1. The soul's preparation to welcome the truth. 
 There is a divinely awakened appetite. 2. The active participation of the powers of 
 the soul in the process. It is more than a mere passive reception. 3. The assimilation 
 of the truth into the very being of the man. As food is transformed into the living fibre 
 of the body, so that truth becomes a part of the very substance of his spiritual nature, 
 the stay of his strength, the inspiration of his lile. The word is translated into the 
 form of holy character and Godlike deed. 
 
 III. The GLADDBNIN& EFFECT OF DISCOVERED TRUTH. "Thy Word was unto me 
 the joy and rejoicing of mine heart." There can be no purer, nobler joy than that which 
 
394 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. Tch. xv. 1—21; 
 
 springs from conscious communion with tlie mind of God. His Word admits us to the 
 renlities of a world umiarkened by the shadows and undisturbed by the storms tliat 
 trouble this. Rising through it to the heights of Divine contemplation, the glory of 
 tlie unseen and eternal surrounds us, and we drink of " the river of the pleasures of 
 God." 
 
 IV. The self-consecration that is the result of the realized powbk of 
 Divine truth over the soul. " I am called by tliy Kame," literally, "Thy Name is 
 called over me." This was the seal and symbol of his personal dedication to his prophetic 
 work. The Word of the Lord dwelling richly in the soul is the unfailing spring of a 
 consecrated and holy life. " Sanctify them in thy truth : thy Word is truth," etc. 
 (John xvii. 17, 19).— W. 
 
 Ver. 1. — The uselessness of intercession once more emphatically stated. I. A reminder 
 OF God's long-sufkeking in the past. Moses and Samuel had stood interceding before 
 liim, and again and a'^ain he had glorified himself in mercy and pardon. The mention 
 of these two great historic names suggests to Jeremiah that God can appeal to all the 
 past, confident that no man can com|ilain of him as wantini; in loiig-suti'oring with the 
 waywardness of his people. They had wandered lar and often, and often needed mercy 
 and restoration ; but when God forgave them, they soon forgot the njercy and renewed 
 fivour. Thus we are enabled to feel how very bad their condition must have become 
 in the time of the prophet. To have listened to the plea of any intercessor would have 
 been to show a mercy which yet was no mercy — a mercy which, while doing no real 
 good to Israel, would have done evil in confusing the boundaries of truth and falsehood. 
 God's mercy must ever be shown as part of his wisdom, and the time comes when 
 severity to one or two generations may be the truest mercy to the whole world. 
 
 II. 'The honour done to the memory op the good. As servants of Jehovah, 
 Moses and Samuel were srreat in many ways, but in none greater than as urgent pre- 
 vailing intercessors. With regard to Moses, see Exod. xxxii. 11 — 14, 31, 32 ; Numb, 
 xiv. 13 — 19. With regard to Samuel, see 1 Sam. vii. 9 ; xii. 23. The listenings of 
 God to these men showed that his general will was that supplications should ever be 
 made on behalf of all sinners. God delights in seeing his servants pitiful towards all 
 the needs of men, especially those needs which arise from their forgetfulness of Gud 
 himself. This reference was surely meant to teach Jeremiah, for one thing, that God 
 I lot only permitted intercession but expected it. Further, the intercessions here referred 
 to were those of righteous men. Moses and Samuel fully appreciated the evil-doinns of 
 those for whom they interceded. Doubtless they quite apprehended that evil doing 
 might on certain occasions reach such a height that intercession could not be expected 
 to prove successful. Those who had had the opportunity of pondering God's dealings 
 in the Deluge and the destruction of Sodom would well understand that intercession 
 had its limits. 
 
 HI. Jeremiah was thus reminded op the difficulties of God's servants in 
 FORMER DAYS. Moses and Samuel were not only intercessors, they were intercessors 
 for those who had made life largely a burden and a grief to them. It was not upon a 
 scene where they were comparative strangers that they came In, did their interceding 
 work, and then passed out to return no more. The success of their intercession meant 
 the renewal of their struggles with a wayward and careless nation. If only Jeremiah 
 considered the whole history of Moses and the whole history of Samuel, he would be led 
 to say, " Who am I that I should complain ? " These conspiracies, this bitter oppo- 
 sition, this feeling of solitude, were nothing new. We can oidy serve God in our own 
 day and generation, and we must accept that generation with all its difficulties, only 
 let this be remembered, that there is no servant of God, in any generation, but will 
 need all his faith and meekness and endurance to encounter and vanquish these difficulties 
 in a riglit spirit. 
 
 IV. Honour was put upon Jeremiah himself. His influence with God as a 
 ■ faithful servant was shown every whit as clearly as if he had been successful in his 
 intercession. That influence, indeed, the people might fail to recognize ; but this was 
 a small matter if only the prophet himself was made to feel that his God respected the 
 si)irit of his prayer. God's way of honouring us is not by making us si and well with 
 the hckle crowds but by his own smile shiuiug into our hearts and making gladness 
 
OH. XV. 1—21.] THE BOOK OP THE PROl'HET JEREMIAH. 39.5 
 
 ■there. The mention of these two great historic names lifts Jeremiah in the esteem of 
 God to something like a level with them. — Y. 
 
 Ver. 10. — The man who felt he had teen horn to strife and contention. These words 
 of the prophet are not, of ovurae, to be talien too literally. They are the language of 
 excited feeling and of poetry, and would not be permissible as a prosaic statement to 
 which the man who makes it may be expected deliberately to adhere. The proper way 
 of regarding the words is to take them as vividly indicating a position which no words 
 could sufficiently describe. Jeremiah sometimes felt himself so hated and so isolated 
 that there seemed but one way of accounting for his experience, and that was that 
 he had been born to it. We know, indeed, that the truth was far otherwise (see ch. i. 
 5). There we see how Jehovah himself reckoned Jeremiah to have come into this earthly 
 existence, not for suffering, but for a career of noble and useful action, which, rightly 
 considered, was a high privilege. But a man who is constantly suffering from the sin of 
 his fellow-men in all its shapes and all its degrees, cannot be always looking at the 
 bright side and speaking in harmony with such a view. 
 
 I. A SERVANT OF GoD MAY HAVE TO LIVE A LIFE OF INCESSANT CONFLICT. Jeremiah's 
 
 case appears to have been an extreme one, and yet the history of the Church shows 
 that a company by no means few might be I'eckoued as companions in his peculiar 
 tiibulation. It is not for us to say how far our lives shall be marked by external con- 
 flict. We must not seek conflict ; but we must be ready for it if it comes. God gives 
 to every one who is willing to be his servant a way in which to walk, a way which does 
 not infringe on a single real right of a single human being. From beginning to end 
 that way may be trodden, not only without injury to others, but with positive benefit 
 to them. At the same time, nothing is more j^ssible than that treading in such a way 
 may expose him who strive* to walk in it to all the various forms which, according to 
 circumstances or opportunity, opposition may take. And therefore, when we are begin- 
 ning to feel our way to the carrying out of God's will, we must lay our account with 
 ojiposition. How much of it may come, huw far it may go, how long it may last, we 
 cannot tell ; and as we must not provoke it through mere exuberance of energy, so 
 neither must we avoid it for the sake of a temporary peace which is really no peace. 
 If opposition comes — oven intense opposition — to the truth faithfully proclaimed, this 
 only shows that the truth has proved itself an arrow, striking home and making its 
 wound, whatever the ultimate consequence of that wound may be. 
 
 II. The mkssage of God is not the only cause of strife and contention. 
 Jeremiah was reckoned as a troubler of Israel, and so in one sense he was ; but Israel 
 could only have been troubled by him because, first of all, it was in a condition which 
 admitted of commotion. The wind troubles the waters and raises the waves into 
 destructive fury ; but this is just because they are in a condition easily acted on. The 
 pro|ihet, however, has another answer, an answer which served to show how much he 
 marvelled at the universality and intensity of the opposition with which he was met. 
 He is far from being the only troubler of Israel. Suppose he becomes silent ; strife and 
 contention would not therefore cease. When he comes in with his reproofs, wandngs, 
 and threatenings, it is not upon a scene hitherto tranquil and harmonious that he 
 enters. He finds abundance of quarrelling already, and one fertile source of the 
 quarrelling lies in the relations between borrower and lender. They may cease their 
 strile, and join their forces lor a little while against the prophet who is their common 
 enemy ; but their mutual exasperation is not forgotten, their quarrel is by no means 
 CDmposed. They will return to it with as much bitterness as ever. The prophet, iC 
 will be noticed, speaks as if the hostility to him was a marvel. God has sent him to 
 these men for their good; he has come to turn their steps from the way leading to 
 destruction ; and yet, because he tells them the truth, he has become their enemy. We 
 see that his iaith in human nature, as easily knowing its own best interests, is hard to 
 shiike. He does not at all wonder that the borrower should hate the rapacious lender 
 and the lender hate the defaulting borrower ; but there is a deep mystery when the 
 man who comes to warn of danger is hated for his message, and hated all the more just 
 as he becomes more earnest and persistent in the utterance of it. 
 
 III. Wb see the prophet's consciousness of the purity of his own motives. He 
 is sure that in him there is no reason for hostility. He had defrauded none; he had 
 
3% THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch.xv.1— 21. 
 
 oppressed none. With all his complainings here, It was well that he hi\d no cause for 
 self-reproach. Difficulties we must ever expect from that action of others which we 
 cannot control ; but let them not be increased needlessly by our own selfishness, obsti- 
 nacy, and arrogance. — Y. 
 
 Vers. 15 — 17. — The 'prophet's claim upon Jehovah, and the grounds of the claim. 
 That which urged the prophet thus to cry to God for succour is stated with great 
 emphasis in ver. 18. He is suffering as from a perpetual pain ami an incurable wound. 1 1 
 is by such a cry as this that we are able to estimate something of the continuous reproach 
 which he must have had to endure. We know how, in later days, the Jews dogged 
 tlie steps of Christ and afterwards of Paul ; and these persecutors of Jeremiah were 
 their ancestors. Against them Jeremiah could do nothing himself. So far as human 
 sympathy was concerned, he was alone or nearly alone, not able to command even the 
 forbearance of his own kindred, and therefore he had to turn ail the more to God. It 
 was well, indeed, that he was thus shut up to the one resort. In his approach to God, 
 we find him statmg three chiims for God's immediate attention to his position. 
 
 I. Sdffering for Jehovah's sake. Every suffering man has a claim upon God, 
 even when his suffering comes by his own transgression. God is very pitiful to the 
 tortured conscience of the man who has been wakened up out of a selfish and dis- 
 obedient life. It can be no pleasure to him to see a being of such sensibility as man 
 suffering from any cause whatever ; and when a man is suffering for truth, for 
 righteousness, for the gospel and the kingdom of God, then we may be sure that there 
 is a peculiar movement of the Divine nature to help and strengthen such a sufferer. 
 God would help his servant in this very instance, by enabling him to look at his suffer- 
 ing in the right way. The suffering was an evidence of successful work : successful 
 because it had been faithfully and courageously done. If only the prophet had softened 
 some words the Lord had put into his mouth and omitted others, he might have escaped 
 reproach. But reproach smiting on a good conscience is belter than contempt falling 
 deservedly on the coward who trims to stand well with everybody. Then the prophet 
 would also be made to feel that it was a good thing to bear what God was bearing him- 
 self. His long-suffering towards his enemies requires that his friends should also be 
 patient. It is better to be abused in bearing testimony for God than to share in the 
 rancorous conflicts of selfish men. Prophet and apostle alike had this for their 
 experience, that they were compelled to suffer for the Lord's sake ; and he vi^ho bore the 
 clearest, purest testimony of all, viz. Jesus himself, was the one who suffered the most. 
 That good and true men, trying to serve God, should often become impatient under 
 biting, bitter words is not wonderful. The true thing to be desired in such a state of 
 mind is not to escape the reproaches, but to have the inward joy increased, so that it 
 may be an effectual counterbalance to all that comes from outside. " If j'e be reproached 
 for the Name of Christ, happy are ye " (I Pet. iv. 14). 
 
 II. The complete association of the prophet with the prophetic word. He did 
 not receive it into his mind reluctantly and listlessly, but as one who hungered and 
 thirsted after righteousness. As the word lell on his inner ear it was devoured. It 
 came to him as from the excellent glory ; he recognized it as Divine. He was not as 
 many, who will pamper and cram themselves with delicacies that are pleasant to the 
 taste, and turn away with unconcealed aversion from food full of nutrition and health. 
 Hence they became to him the joy and rejoicing of his inward life. All words of God, 
 apprehended in their real meaning, give strength, peace, satisfaction, harmony in the 
 nobler parts of human nature. Jeremiah is thinking of the parallel which may be 
 drawn between food for the body and food for the spirit. The food which we take, 
 jut-t because it is pleasant for the taste, may be anything but a joy and rejoicing to the 
 heart. We must eat what is really good for food, evidently intended for food, if we 
 would be kept from ill consequences. It was because these words were readily 
 accepted and fully received that they became a joy and rejoicing to the heart, and then 
 in the strength, fortitude, zeal, thus communicated, the prophet went forth to his 
 arduous work. Here surely is the secret of his steadfastness. God had put his words 
 in his servant's mouth (ch. i. 9) ; but that was all he could do. It was for the prophet 
 himself so to treat the words that he should give them with all the added force of his 
 own sauciiflcd perijouality. Oilier men uiight have uttered the same words, yet so as 
 
CH. XVI. 1—21.] THE BOOK OF TIIK PROPHET JKREMIAH. 
 
 i 
 
 397 
 
 to rob them of all force and sting. Notice in purtioiilar that if these worda of God to 
 the prophet — words mostly so stern, spoken ni'arly all from the judgment-seat — were 
 nevertheless the joy and rejoicing of his heart, how much more may such an experience 
 be expected from receiving the evident gospel words of the Lord Jesus 1 " The words 
 that I speak unto you, thoy are spirit and ihcy are life " (John vi. 63). 
 
 III. The puophet's life was consistent with his message. According to his 
 message, which was soon proved to be a word of truth, the whole land was advanc- 
 ing ever more swiftly into a season of the greatest suffering and sorrow. Yet the 
 people would not believe the message, but went on, just as usual, assembling for their 
 merry-makings. If now the prophet had joined in these merry-makings, the people 
 would have had some plea for their neglect. As it was, they could find no excuse 
 in any inconsistent conduct of his ; as he spoke, so he acted. Probably some of theiu 
 tried to draw him in, to get him away from wha,t, in their shallowness and haste, they 
 would reckon mere morbid fancies. Others would accuse him as being one who cared 
 for no pleasure of life himself, unless it was the pleasure of souring the pleasure of 
 others. And yet we see the prophet could be as thankful for joy and rejoicing of heart as 
 any one. It is the greatest possible mistake to suppose that those who keep away from 
 the world's pleasures are filled with gloom. A service of God, filled with jo3', may soon 
 become a real experience. But if talking about it stands instead of the reality, then 
 the pretence will soon be shown by the avidity of our tui'ning towards worldly 
 pleasures. — Y. 
 
 EXPOSITION. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 With this chapter should be taken the 
 first eighteen verses of eh. xvii. The head- 
 ing of the Authorized Version well ex- 
 presses the contents of vers. 1 — 9, provided 
 that " the types " are understood to be typi- 
 cal actions of the prophet himself. "The 
 prophet, under the types of abstaining from 
 marriage, from houses of mourning and 
 feiisting, foreshoweth the utter ruin of the 
 Jews." To the inquiry, why these calami- 
 ties should come upon them, the old and 
 well-known answer is to be given (vers. 10 — 
 12), accompanied by a definite prediction of 
 captivity (ver. 13). Then, to relieve the 
 picture, a glimpse of a happier future is 
 introduced (vers. 14, 15); but only a 
 glimpse, for already the Chaldeans, like so 
 many fishermen and hunters, are on the 
 track of the Jews, for a "double" retri- 
 bution must precede the Messianic promise 
 (vers. 16 — 18). Strange contrast — the hea- 
 tnen coming to the truth and the Jews 
 (those of the present, not of the future time) 
 deserting it (vers. 19—21)! We will take 
 up the thread of thought again at the open- 
 ing of the next chapter.— The date of this 
 prophecy would appear to be nearly the 
 same as that of the preceding one, the cir- 
 cumstances of which are similar. The 
 
 latter part of it will enable us to fix it more 
 precisely (see on ch. xvii. 1 — IS). 
 
 Ver. 2. — Thou shalt not take thee a wife. 
 So St. Paul, "I think therefore that tliis 
 is good by reason of the present distress, 
 namely, tliat it is good for a man to be as 
 he is " (1 Cor. vii. 26, Revised Version) ; and 
 Hosea has already drawn an awful picture 
 of " Ephraim brinfiing forth his children to 
 the murderer" (ix. 9). In ordinary times 
 it was a kind of unwritten law among the 
 Israelites to marry and beget children. 
 Most of the prophets (e.g Isaiah) appear 
 to have been married. In this place ; i.e. in 
 the land of Judah. A Jeremianio phrase 
 (comp. ch. vii. 3). 
 
 Ver. i. — Grievous deaths I litersMy, deatha 
 of sicknesses ; i.e. all kinds of painf(d deaths, 
 including (as ch. xiv. 18 shows) death by 
 starvation. They shall not be lamented. Tho 
 absence of sepulture has already been 
 pointed to several times as a feature of the 
 horror of the tihies (oh. viii. 2 ; xiv. IB ; 
 comp. ch. vii. 33), but this is a new and 
 aifecting touch. Dr. Payne Smith aptly 
 refers to the phigues of Athens and London, 
 in which the gentler elements of human 
 nature were for the time almost extin- 
 guished. 
 
 Ver. 5. — Compare this prohibition with 
 that given to Ezekiel (xxiv. 15—27). Tha 
 houBe of mourning ; literally, of screaming 
 (an uncommon word, only occurring again — 
 of banquetters — in Amos vi. 7). It is, no 
 douljt, tho wail of mourning relatives which 
 is meant. 
 
398 
 
 THE BOOK OF THE rEOPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xvi. 1— 21. 
 
 Ver. 6. — Nor cut themselves, nor make 
 themselves bald. Botli practices are for- 
 bidden in the Law (Deut. xiv. 1; Lev. xix. 
 2S ; xxi. 5), but the prohibition was at 
 iiny rate unknown to the masses (see, for 
 tiie former, ch. xli. 5 ; xlvii. 5 ; and for the 
 latter, ch. xlvii. 5 ; Isa. xxit. 12, " The Lord 
 Jehovah called . . . to baldness ; " Amus viii. 
 10 ; Micah i. 16 ; Ezek. vii. 18). St. Jerome 
 remarks, and incidentally gives a valuable 
 evidence of the tenacity of primitive cus- 
 toms, " Mos lilc fuit apud veteres, et usque 
 hodie in quibusilam permanet Jud8eorum,ut 
 in luctibus incidant lacertos," etc. 
 
 Ver. 7.— Tear themselves for them. The 
 verb is used in Isa. Iviii. 7 of breaking 
 bread (the accusative is there expressed), 
 and there is no doubt that this is the mean- 
 ing here. The only question is whether 
 lahem, for them, should not rather be 
 le'lthem, bread (this was read by the Sep- 
 tuagint, Peshito, Vulgate, Targum). St. 
 Jerome sees here an allusion to the funeral 
 feasts (comp. the parentalia), and surely he 
 is right. The Jews had a conception of the 
 nature of the lile of the other world only less 
 distinct than that of their Egyptian neigh- 
 bours. The funeral feast was not merely fur 
 the living, but for the dead. Indeed, it was 
 primarily intended for tiie spiritual nourish- 
 ment of tliose who had gone before to the 
 unseen world (comp. Bonwick, ' Egyptian 
 Belief and Modern Thought,' p. 48). Char- 
 din, the old traveller, asserts that "the 
 Oiiental Christians still make banquets of 
 this Uiud by a custom derived from the 
 Jews." The cup of consolation. It would 
 seem as if the funeral feasts had dwindled 
 among the Jews into liitle more than a 
 refection for the benefit of the mourners. 
 
 Ver. 9. — The voice of mirth, etc. ; a striking 
 description, repeated from ih. vii. 34. 
 
 Ver. 12. — Imagination; rather, etubborn- 
 nees (eh. iii. 17). 
 
 Ver. 13. — A grim irony. In the foreign 
 land ye shall serve your idols to your hearts' 
 cnalent, day and night if ye will, " because, 
 [not, where] I will not have mercy upon 
 mu " (by delivering you, and so calling you 
 bai'k from your idols). 
 
 Vers. 14, 15. — The text of these verses 
 occurs in a more chariicteristic form and in 
 a hotter connection in ch. xxiii. 7, 8. The 
 connection here would ije improved by in- 
 sirting the passage before ver. 18 ; and as 
 displacements are not unfamiliar phenomena 
 in manuscripts, tliis would not be a violent 
 net. The difficulty is not in the therefore 
 introducing the promise, which frequently 
 
 occurs in prophecies immediately after 
 threatenings (e.g. Isa. x. 23, 24), as if to say, 
 " Things being in such a miserable plight, 
 your God will interpose to lielp you ; " but 
 in the position of ver. 18. How can the 
 prophet say, "And firnt I will recompense 
 their iniquity double," when vers. 16, 17 
 contain a description of this very double 
 recompense? 
 
 Vers. 16, 17. — I will send for should rather 
 be, I will isend. Fishers and hunters, by a 
 divinely given impulse, shall "fish" and 
 "hunt" the unhappy fugitives from their 
 lurking-places. There may, perhaps, be an 
 allusion to the cruel ancient practice of 
 "sweeping the country with a drag-net" 
 (Herod., iii. 149), and then destroying the 
 male population: Samos, e.g. was thus 
 " netted " and depopulated by the Persians. 
 Habakkuk may also refer to this when he 
 says (i. 15), " They catch them in their net, 
 and gather them in their drag." 
 
 Ver. 18. — First — i.e. before " I bring them 
 back again into their land " — I will recom- 
 pense . . . double ; i.e amply, in full 
 measure (comp. ch. xvii. 18; Isa. xl. 2; 
 Rev. xviii. 6). With the carcases, etc. The 
 idols, which " defile the consciences " of those 
 who worship them, are compared to the most 
 unclean and loathsome objects. 
 
 Ver. 19. — Lord, my strength, and my for- 
 tress, etc. Jeremiah falls into the tone of 
 the psalmists (Ps. xviii. 2; xxviii. 8; lix. 
 17). All that is choicest and most^perma- 
 nent in Old Testament religion finds its 
 adequate lyric expression in the Book of 
 Psalms. The Gentiles shall come unto thee. 
 The article, however, is not expressed. 
 " Nations," i.e. a crowd of peoples, hitherto 
 ignorant of the true God, shall hasten to the 
 scene of Jehovah's great interposition ; they 
 have been couviuceil by Israel's unlooked- 
 for restoration of the unique divinity of 
 Jehovah. 
 
 Ver. 20.— But the Jewsof this generation, 
 in spite of the manifold proofs of the true 
 religion which have been vouchsafed to 
 tijem, are deserting the real divinity for the 
 unreal. In a tone of surprise the prophet 
 exclaims, Shall a man make gods unto him- 
 self, etc. 1 
 
 Ver. 21.— The final answer of Jehovah. 
 There will be no further grace-time. I will 
 this once cause them to know; rather, Iwill 
 this time (comp. on ch. x. 18) cause them to 
 acknowleilqe. The judgment whicii Jeremiah 
 has had the sad duty of announcing will 
 prove to the blinded Jews that Jehovah 
 alone is true God, alone can strike and heal. 
 
CH. XVI. 1—21.] THE BOOK OF TIIR PUOPIIET JEREMIAH. 399 
 
 HOMILETICS. 
 
 Ver. 2. — "Forbidding to marry." I. Celibacy is not a scriptural virtue. Mar- 
 riage is a Divine institution. It is natural, and God is tlie Author of nature; it is 
 recognized and regulated by inspired teaching and blessed by Christ ; it is a means of 
 human welfare. 
 
 n. Celibacy may be wisely observed in circumstances of pecdliae trouble. 
 Such were the circumstances of Judah in the days of Jeremiah ; such, in the opinion of 
 St. Paul, were the circumstances of his own time (1 Cor. vii. 26). Those were not 
 times for wedding festivities; the married would be encumbered and hindered from 
 doing their best for the public weal, and children born then would be born only to a 
 heritage of misery. Similar circumstances may recur. 
 
 ill. Celibacy may be wisely obsekved by men who are contemplatino tasks 
 OP peculiar loneliness, danger, or difficulty. There are risks that a man may 
 encounter for himself which he should avoid if others would be seriously involved in his 
 fate. There is work which precludes the enjoyment of domestic life. It is not right 
 to undertake obligations to another that cannot be fulfilled. The pioneer of dangerous 
 travel, the John the Baptist of wilderness missions, is better unmarried. 
 
 IV. Celibacy is a dctty for all until they are able to provide a suitable 
 maintenance for a family. It is not heroic but selfish to bring a family into a life 
 of certain hardship and misery. The principle which applied to the public circum- 
 stances of distress in Jeremiah's age applies to the private circumstances of distress 
 which are met with in every age. 
 
 Ver. 12. — " Worse than your fathers." I. Each generation should be better 
 than that which precedes it. The natural movement of all mankind should be 
 onward and upward. We have the lessons of past history to warn and to inspire u." ; 
 the continued, increasing, long-suffering mercy of God to urge us to serve him more 
 faithfully; and the growing light of slowly accumulating knowledge to guide us into 
 better paths. Later generations have more aids of Divine revtlation than were vouch- 
 safed to the earlier. The Jews under the prophets had more light, more Divine induce- 
 ments to fidelity, than the Jews under Moses ; and Christians have a much clearer light 
 and much more powerful motives in the revelations of God's will and of God's love in 
 Christ. To go back when we ought to go Ibrward is doubly inexcusable. Christiana 
 are bad Indeed if they fall lower than the men of Old Testament ages, and Protestants 
 of modern times if they do not live up to the attainments of the Mediaeval Church. 
 
 II. Evil inclines to grow worse from generation to generation. Men ought 
 to improve; but if they begin a course of evil they deteriorate in it. Nothing in the 
 world is stationary. Nations are either progressing or retrograding. Each generation 
 is either better or worse than its predecessor. Evil has a contagious property, and if it 
 is unchecked it is certain to spread like an epidemic. It is a leaven that, left to itself, 
 will surely leaven the whole njass. We should, therefore, seek to stamp out a sin in its 
 earlier stages. We must not trust to any necessary law of progress, any idea of the 
 inherent goodness of human nature, any thought of the temporary character of evil, but 
 seek at once to resist and overthrow the sin. Here is a warning to parents. Evil 
 tendencies are hereditary. The vice, which seems to do little harm in our own day, 
 taking root and spreading, will breiik out into worse fruits in our children's time. How 
 sad to leave only a bad examjile for our children to be referred to 1 
 
 HI. If evil is to be conquered it must be by some superhuman method. The 
 natural laws of progress fail here. Depravity unchecked grows more depraved. Innu- 
 merable practical reforms, new systems of morality, draconian codes, etc., have been 
 tried, and all in vain. Josiah made the espeiiment with his violent reformation, but it 
 faded of anything but superficial good. Some are now trusting to sanitary improvements, 
 to industrial progress, to popular education ; but these too will not touch the root of the 
 sore. The history of sin furnishes the greatest proof of the need of a Divine redemp- 
 tion if the world is ever to be saved. For this Christ came, and now the highest progress 
 of the world is to be traced to that new influence of life which he introduced to turn 
 the current of history from, deepening depravity to gra\ving truth and righteousness. 
 
400 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xvi. 1—21, 
 
 Vers. 14, 'iB.— The greatest gratitude for the latest blessings. The circumstances of 
 the Jews are illustrative of those of all of us in the fact that we all have occasion to 
 feel most thankful for the most recent gifts of God's goodness. The reasons for this are 
 manifold, viz. — 
 
 I. The latest blessings are most thoroughly appreciated. A present impres- 
 sion is stronger than a memory. Even if the good things we are now enjoying are not 
 equal to those we formerly possessed, the immediate good we derive from them is 
 greater than that which we derive from a mere recollection of better times. Thanks- 
 giving tends to become formal and conventional — the empty repetition of phrases which 
 had a deep signification when they were the spontaneous response of the soul to fresh 
 tokens of God's love, but which have become almost meaningless after the occasion for 
 them has fallen into the past. To be real, gratitude must refer to the real mercies 
 ■which we are now enjoying. 
 
 II. The latest blessings are additional proofs op the goodness op God. We 
 should " sing a new song " as we see new manifestations of Divine love. We have more 
 to be thankful for when we have received two gifts than we had when we were only 
 possessors of one of them. God is constantly adding to the vast pile of his favours to 
 us. The latest stands highest, is, so to speak, mounted on all that precc-de ; and there- 
 fore this calls for the strongest expression of gratitude. Inasmuch as the longer we 
 live the more we have to be thankful for, so also the more deeply should our hearts be 
 stirred with gratitude. The restoration of the Jews is an additional mercy following 
 that of the lixodus. One such stupendous deliverance should call forth never-failing 
 songs of praise, but a second should intensify the volume of those songs. 
 
 III. The latest blessings are also the greatest. The restoration is referred to 
 as containmg grander blessings than those of the Exodus. Gratitude should be propor- 
 tionate to favours. This is often not the case, because the best things are least appre- 
 ciated. Their merits are not superficial nor discernible at first. The spiritual blessings 
 are the highest ; yet to uns|iiritual men they are the least valued. Thus the chief 
 elements of the Messianic promises of restoration were spiritual, and therefore not so 
 acceptable to the mass of the people as the material blessings promised to the Jews in 
 the first possession of the " land flowing with milk and honey." We are too ready to 
 complain of the present and regret the lust past, ungratefully selecting the troubles of 
 our own time for notice and ignoring its bright features, while we forget the hardshi|.s 
 of the past and remember only its last pleasant features, like the Jews, who forgot 
 the rigours of the slavery from which they had escaped, but remembered with regret the 
 tiesh-pots of Egypt (Exod. xvi. 8). The Bible lavours no sentimental regrets for " the 
 good old times; " it teaches lis that God's goodness is increasingly manifest. The latter 
 times are better than the former, the Gospel age than the Old Tesiament era, the Inter 
 years of Christendom than the earlier. The best is not yet revealed. The songs of tlia 
 future should be sweeter than those of the past, since God has greater mercies in stoie 
 for us than any we have yet enjoyed. Already God has favoured us more highly than 
 our fathers. We need not search the musty annals of antiquity for proofs of the good- 
 ness ol God. 1'his is a present goodness, and the richest fruits of it are the latest. 
 
 IV. The latest blessings are given in spite of our gkbatest ill desert. We 
 have added to the tale of our sins while God has been adding to the tale of his mercies. 
 As his goodness has increased with many, their sin has also increased. The Egyptian 
 bondage overtook the innocent ; the Babylonian captivity was a punishment to the 
 guilty. Deliverance from the latter was an act of forgiving mercy. It was a proof of 
 Goo's forbearance that he continued to be gracious, and of his pardoning love that he 
 forgave the sinful people. Our greatest reason for praise is in God's latest mercy of 
 redemption, restoring us after our falls into sin. 
 
 Vers. 16 — 18. — Fishers and hunters. L The chase. The guilty will be sought 
 after for puai.shnieut. If they do uut seek God in penitence he will seek them in 
 judgment.' However far we may flee from obedience we cannot Hee from responsibility. 
 Jonah fled "from the presence of the Lord "(.Jonah i. 3), but he was overtaken by a Divine 
 judgment. If God's present long-suffering makes him appear indifferent, the day will 
 come when his wrath will be swift, searching, and lar-reaching. Then none of the 
 impcni lent can escape. None can hide from the approaching doom; hunters "shall 
 
CH. XVI. 1—21.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 401 
 
 hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the 
 rocks." It will be useless then to " call on the hills to cover us," etc. None will be over- 
 looked. Fishers will come with their drag-net, gathering all classes aa fish of all kinds 
 and of all sizes are collected in the sea. Rank counts for nothing when kings are 
 hunted like foxes ; intellectual ingenuity can then find no covert of sophistry beneath 
 which to elude the keen scent of the bloodhounds of justice ; exceptional originality 
 can secure no position beyond the reach of the broad sweeping net of a general judgment. 
 
 II. The reason fob expecting a fatal kbsult to the chase. God undertakes 
 the direction of it (ver. 17). He knows all ; he is ever watching every one of his 
 children, for their joy if they are obedient and submissive, for their f.hame if they are 
 rebellious and im]ienitent. 1. God's eyes are upon their ways. He does not depend 
 upon hearsay evidence, upon the testimony of his emissaries. Hence (1) none can elude 
 his searching gaze, and (2) we shall not be convicted on false evidence. 2. God's eyes 
 are upon their ways. He notes conduct, action, behaviour. 3. God's eyes are upon all 
 their ways. The moat secret do not escape his notice. Little faults are observed; hidden 
 sins are known ; all is fairly weighed and compared. God does not select conduct for 
 judgment ; he observes both the good and the bad, and judges of the whole. 4. Iniquity 
 is not hidden. God looks beneath the ways to the iniquities which prompt them ; he 
 reads the heart, and judges of conduct by motive. Who can escape such a searching 
 ordeal ? 
 
 III. The FATAL END to THE chase. (Ver. 18.) After conviction follows the sentence. 
 
 1. This is a recompens''. It is earned and it is fairly proportionate to guilt. None of 
 VIS dare ask for the siniijle reward of our conduct. 
 
 " Consider this — 
 That in the course of justice, none of us 
 Should see salvation : we do pray for mercy." 
 
 2. It increases in severity with the increase of sin. The successive sieges of Jerusalem 
 were successively more terrible ; so were the repeated raids upon Rome. The longer 
 we treasure up wrath for the day of wrath the greater must be the weight ot it that 
 will ultimately burst on our heads. 3. It is justly required by great sin. This was 
 (1) great moral and religious corruption ; (2) practised in " the holy laud " — in God's 
 inheritance, and therefore a sacrilegious defilement of Divine things ; and (3) an abuse 
 of God's blessings in the land God had given the people. The sin of those who enjoy 
 Divine privileges and hold positions in the Church by means of which they can glorify 
 or dishonour the Name of God is, on these accounts, especially culpable. 
 
 "Vers. 19^21. — God revealed to the heathen hy his judgment on his people. I. God 
 is EEVEALED IN JUDGMENT. Blessings reveal God's, love; judgments, his righteous 
 power. They who ignore the perennial tokens of God's loving-kindness may be roused 
 by startling manifestations of his justice. The judgments which fall on the professed 
 people of God are the most striking proofs of his unflinching and impartial justice. 
 
 II. The heathen mat learn the lessons which are lost to the people op God. 
 The heathen seem to be here described as returning to God before the Jews. Nothing 
 is so blinding as sin against light. The publican repents before the Pharisee. Worldly 
 men are more ready to receive religious impressions than people who were once religious 
 and have fallen away. 
 
 III. The revelation of God vouchsafed to the spiritual-minded is higher 
 than the revelation made to the heathen in judgment. The latter is grand and 
 striking, but it does not open up the choicer stores of the knowledge of God. Jeremiah 
 prizes these. To him God is a Strength, Fortress, and Refuge. God is not a mere 
 .Judge. He is a gracious Father, and this is his chief character. He is a Strength — 
 actively saving and inspiring energy; a Fortress — protecting us when attacked in the 
 hurd battle of life ; and a Ri-fuge in the day of afiliction, affording solace to his sorrowing 
 children. God's people enjoy personal relations with him very different from those of 
 men who simply recognize the terrible presence of God in judgment. Thus Jeremiah 
 says, " My Strength," etc. 
 
 JEREMIAH. 2 D 
 
402 THE BOOK OF THE rROPHET JEREMIAH, [en. xvi. 1— 21. 
 
 HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. 
 
 Vers. 1 — i. — Celibacy as an olligation (if the minister of Ood. This passage has 
 been quoted in support of the Romish doctrine of the celibacy of the clergy. Like 
 other favourite references of the advocates of this regulation, however, it only requires 
 to be examined to show that its bearins is quite of an opposite character. Its terms 
 are not by any means absolute or universal. Not even the whole lifetime of the 
 prophet nor his entire ministry are within the scope of the prohibition. It was a 
 special revelation for exceptional circumstances, and must not be converted into 
 a general rule. 
 
 I. The limitations imposed upoit the prophet, and theik reasons. 1. The com- 
 mand related to : (1) The prophet himself. It was in the second person singular. A 
 matter affecting himself alone. (2) The holy laud — " in this place." Should circum- 
 stances le;id him elsewhere, the inference is that the re.striotiiin would be withdrawn. 
 (3) The period of time elapsing between the delivery of the .special " word of Jehovah " 
 and its fulfilment. 2. That Jeremiah himself was alone required lo observe this restric- 
 tiiin might at first appear strange were it not for his exceptional position. (1) As a 
 symbol of the Divine attitude and intention towards Judah. Not only special actions, 
 such as the hiding of the girdle, were to be of this character, but the whole personality 
 of the prophet. He was representative both of God and the ideal Israel. Therefore 
 he represents the mind of God towards those who usurped the place of the latter. The 
 conditions of the then present relations of God and Judah were not such as warranted 
 an assumption of res pon si bib ties implying for their happy fulfilment the Divine 
 acceptance and favour. In the midst of a luxurious people his celibacy would be 
 impressive. (2) As an example to others. The inhabitants of Jerusalem and Judah, 
 whatever they might experience in the future, would not be able to say they had been 
 entrapped or deceived into a false security. The self-restraint and serious, sad aspect 
 he presented were intended to influence the action of the people at that juncture. The 
 calamities foretold would not come upon those who had been unwarned. 
 
 II. The bearing op these dpon the question of the " celibacy ok the clergy." 
 It is obvious that, as there were many other ministers of God in Judah and Jerusalem 
 at that time to whom the command was not given, it was intended for one occupying 
 an exceptional position. Further, there is no necessary permanent obligation attaching 
 to it. A certain contingency is re<rarded — a time of distress and bloodshed— and the 
 conduct of the prophet is directed with regard to that. But the celibacy of the clergy 
 is a permanent institution with those who uphold it. No ngard is paid to specinl 
 circumstances or times. And the office of the Christian minister is not to be con- 
 sidered as occupied for a season of short-lived, delusive peace, but instituted and main- 
 tained in a Avorld which is being reconciled to God ; in which the Holy Spirit is given 
 to them that ask it for direction and comfort ; and whose institutions are more and 
 more influenced by the laws of the kingdom of God. So in St. Paul's day it was the 
 "present distress" which gave rise to the injunction. The world was conceived of as 
 approaching a grand climaterie ; a sudden and overwhelmins; calamity was to inaugu- 
 rate Christ's reign amongst men. Much will depend upon this, viz. Is the minister of 
 the gospel a prophet of evil or a preacher of peace and glad tidings? If the latter, it 
 can hardly be necessary that he should assume the bearing of Jeremiah. And the 
 influence of a celibate clergy upon the general institutiotis of marriage has been 
 found to be pernicious, lowering its relative sacredness and violating the law of 
 nature, which is its greatest safeguard. 
 
 III. Principles of general obligation involved. The duties and restraints here 
 imposed upon the prophet are not rightly apprehended when supposed entirely peculiar 
 to office and position. They are not wholly those of a class or a special individual, but 
 rather the generally obligatory principles of the spirituid life intensified and special- 
 ized. Every Christian ought to hold himself ready to sacrifice and to adnpt himself as 
 the duties imposed upon him under given circumstances may require. 1. The responsi- 
 bilities of marriage. One's own happiness nierely is not to be consulted in marrying, 
 but the probabilities of comfort and right upbringing of children that may be born. A 
 season of calamity such as that now foretold was a sufficient reason against contracting 
 
CH. XVI. 1—21.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEnEMTAH. 403 
 
 marriage, as by that means its effects would only be the more widely extended. 
 2. Ounsciousness of Ood's displeasure ought to exert a restraining influence upon men. 
 The marriage feast and the usual rejoicings that take place on such occasions show that 
 tliey are regarded as of a joyous nature, and not amongst the sterner duties. It was 
 but fitting, tlierefore, that it should be refrained from in view of what was about to 
 take place. It would have shown a heedlessness of God's anger provoking the more 
 signal punishment. The " marrying and giving in marriage" of the antediluvians was 
 a sign of their godlessness and unbelief. 3. The rexponsihility of example is here pre- 
 sented in an extreme form. What would have applied to the case of a private person 
 thus forewarned was of greater force in that of one occupying an exceptional position 
 and necessarily of great public influence. If the declarer of the Divine message had 
 himself exhibited no sign of restraint or chastened severity of life, how could otliers be 
 expected to believe him? The life of the preacher is the best illustration of his 
 doctrine, and it naturally is regarded by others with special and critical attention. — M. 
 
 Vers. 10 — 13. — The destiny of sinners a self-created one. I. As it is in itself. 
 It is a fearful prospect which is here held oiU to the unbelieving Jews. They are to 
 -experience a complete change of condition. The land of promise, natiomil independence 
 and honour, family purity and happiness, and the institution and ordinances of true 
 religion are to be forfeited. The land to which they are to be exiled is unfamiliar to 
 them — full of strange scenes and customs; a scene of bondage and tyranny. This is 
 but an illustration of the eternal destiny of sinners. Much must necessarily be vague 
 in their conceptions of it, but it will be a greater change from their present circum- 
 stances and experiences than can be imagined. The parable of the rich man and Laz;\rus 
 teaches that there will be a complete reversal of relations and conditions. Ho\V 
 impossible for the lost to reconcile themselves to circumstances so different from those 
 to which they have been accustomed! Their nature will be wholly enslaved, and the 
 best service they can render will be exacted for objects unworthy of it and known to 
 be so. Hell, so far as Scripture allusion to it can be understood, is represented as 
 abnormal, unnatural, a state in which the soul shall be filU'd with fruitless regret, 
 and sink into lower and still lower derps of degradation and misery. It is depicted 
 as a strange and sunless land, irradiated by no celestial smile and no sunrise of hope. 
 
 II. As THE SINNER KEGAEDS IT. The picture drawn by Jeremiah is vague and yet 
 terribly suggestive. It is so foreign to the experience and expectation of his hearers 
 that they look upon it with incredulity and astonishment. Instead of evoking from 
 them expressions of repentance and fear concerning the way in which they are 
 walking, it provokes questions that exhibit the callous imlifi'erence and self-deception 
 of hardened hearts. They cannot conceive of such a fate awaiting them. What have 
 they done? Is it just that their conduct should be so dealt with? If any offence had 
 been committed, surely it was out of all proportion to such a judgment, and so on. Is 
 not this the attitude of the sinner to-day ? The more awful the future predicted for 
 him the more secure he feels in himself now. He fails to trace the definite line of 
 connection between the germ and the fruit of his sin. It is a part of his infatuation to 
 misapprehend the law ol the Divine rewani and punishment, and even the real outlines 
 and proportions of the Divine character. 1. A destiny in his view so disproportionate 
 to his offence becomes incredible. And just as the Jew could not conceive of the 
 features and characteristics of the life upon which he was to enter when this prophecy 
 should be fulfilled, the transgressor now fails to realize the position he must occupy 
 when circumstance will depend only upon character. Passing consequences may be 
 seen and partly estimated, but the final outcome of it all is, because of its very nature 
 and extent, unreal to him. 2. The future of the sinner is strange and unreal to him, 
 and therefore fails to impress him as it ought. 
 
 III. As EXPLAINED BY GoD. This is one of the main purposes of revelation, viz. to 
 connect the present with the future and to interpret their relations. Whilst it is true 
 that every sinner already contains within himself the elements of his future punish- 
 ment, it is also true that of himself he could not forecast the actual extent or nature 
 of the destiny he is working out. It is necessary, therefore, both for emphasis ami 
 enlightenment, t" supplement experience with revelation. 1. Their punishment was 
 but the natural develojimint of their sin. The latter was of old date. Their fathers 
 
404 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [en. xvi. 1—21. 
 
 forsook Jehovah, did not keep his Law, and went after other gods. The tendency was 
 inherited by themselves, and in aggravated degree : " Ye have done wor.se than 
 your fathers." They now paid more attention and honour to idols than to Jehovah, 
 and when this is the case it cannot last long. The veil of decency will be cast aside, 
 the real character will betray itself, and shame will cease. They became more ami 
 more " sold under sin." The vices of a false religion weakened their character ajid 
 made them a ready prey to the ambition and rapacity of their neighbours. The same 
 law is apparent in spiritual destiny. Let the sinuer be warned. He may be sure liis 
 sin will fiad him out. 2. It was but right that they should be so punished, as they had 
 added to their ancestral offence an intolerable personal aggravation. The terms of tlie 
 covenant were flagrantly violated, and they had forfeited the land by their moral unfit- 
 ness to occupy it. If an earthly country could be so hallowed as not to admit of being 
 occupied by unclean idolaters, how much less possible must it be for confirmed sinners 
 to stand in the presence of God amidst thii multitudes of redeemed! Heaven would be 
 hell to such persons. 3. The spiritual condition that was so dealt with presented no 
 ground for consideration, God said, " I will show you no favour." It was a deliberate 
 sin, and there were no signs of repentance. The day of grace, however, was with them 
 whilst the prophet spoke. So is it represented to be with the preaching of the gospel. 
 "Whilst God calls to us his mercy still continues. " Now is the accepted time ; . . . 
 now is the day of salvation." But in that day present obstinacy will be the worst 
 condemnation. " I called, and ye refused," etc. — M. 
 
 Ver. 13. — Sin a tyrannous and exhaustive service, L That which was at tibst a 
 FREE CHOICE WILL IN TIME BECOME A coMPaLSORT SERVICE. The waywaidness and 
 capricious eclecticism of the idolatrous Jews was to be sternly visited upon them. 
 They had toyed and compromised with idols ; soon it would be discovered that that 
 dalliance could not be prolonged. 1. Jehovah will not continue to accept a half-hearted 
 service. It was only his forbearance thiit had suffered it so long. Whilst it miglit 
 appear possible that Judah would repent, the imperfection of its service was overlooked; 
 but when that imperfection seemed likely to be stereotyped, or when it was increasing 
 with the growth of idolatrous practices, it was no longer to be endured. A mixed 
 worship is dishonouring to God. He refuses to accept half a heart. It is impossible 
 to servo him aright with divided attention and interest. Permission to worship and 
 know him even in part is a privilege which may be withdrawn. The " idolater" womd 
 not always be able to walk on the heights of critical spiritual eclecticism. 'I'he tinje 
 would come when what he thought .so irksome would be taken away. God would 
 send upon him " strong delusion to believe a lie." And this is rather to be looked 
 upon as a repudiation of J udah by God than as a departure from Jehovah permitted by 
 him to his own hurt. Spiritual power and hallowed circumstance would alike be for- 
 feited, and God would cast off the idolaters. For : 2. Sinful tendency, when let alone, 
 confirms and strengthens itself. Daily contact with the obligations and influence of 
 the Law and the temple was a real benefit to the Israelites. It kept them from settling 
 down utterly into idolatrous habits. That religious observance which is so wearisome 
 to the sinner is his safeguard ; it keeps him from complete abandonment to the inner 
 depravity of his nature. He is alarmed, warned, disturbed, whenever he is inclined to 
 more than ordinary licence; and even his ordinary lax and sinful life is constantly 
 judged and corrected hy the truth which he hears. The Spirit of God continues 
 to plead and wrestle with him, and although he does not wholly yield hiuiself to 
 its influence, he is prevented from wandering quite beyond recall. But let tins 
 restraining influence of grace once be withdrawn, the natural impulse to evil, all 
 unchecked, will begin to develop and gradually overmaster the entire nature. This 
 is the explanation of many a life that seems to linger long upon the debatable line 
 between duty and sinlul inclination — it is the Spirit of God that has not ceased to 
 strive with it, and not the mere power of the man over his own desires and habits. 3. 
 The circumstanc's and opportunities of Divine worship, if persistently neglected ami 
 abused, will be withdrawn, Palestine under the theocracy was a breathing-space for 
 the spiritual aspirations of man. It was a school of purest affection and the most 
 exalted righteousness. Divine power outside of, and also working within, Israel had 
 defended it against the most tremendous invading forces. Let that power be with- 
 
CH. XVI. 1—21.] THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 405 
 
 drawn, the possibility of every man worshipping God under his own vine and fig tree 
 would be taken away. The Jews would be overpowered by the laws and customs of 
 the idolatrous nations amongst whom they would be dispersed. How much do we Owe 
 to the (lolitical, social, and personal influences that make for righteousness around us ! 
 How slowlv and at what infinite cost have they been acquired! And they depend 
 upon uncea'ing efibrt for their support and advancement. Civilization is the product 
 of long, manifold, and harmonious effort and growth. It is a gossamer fabric which a 
 day might destroy. Yet is it bnt an outwork and coarse expression of religion. The 
 latter is the b.eath and inspiration of the Holy Ghost. Let that breath be withdrawn, 
 and it ceases to live ; and its most characteristic and essential institutions gradually 
 become obsolete and sink into a mockery and a snare. We shall probably never know 
 how much we o;pe to the mere circumstance of religion that surrounds us. Freedom to 
 worship God, encouragement to obey him, and sustaining power to give etlect to our 
 spiritual desires, nil result from the favourable position in which we are placed. Let 
 us, therefore, seek to foster the institutions and increase the social and political 
 influence of Chris ianity in the world. Without its presence amongst men, and tho 
 hallowed institutions, customs, and observances that embody its spirit, we should find 
 it infinitely more d ffioult to serve God with conscientious and honest service. 
 
 II. This sebvice will aitokd no real batisfactioh or peace. The exhaustive 
 and absorbing devotion which idolatry entails is not the sign of spontaneous enthu- 
 siasm. It arises from the nature of the idols, as senseless, helpless blocks. They, 
 indeed, must cry loidly who would be heard by such £;ods. In proportion as ritual is 
 more laborious than righteousness, so is idolatry more exacting than true religion. But 
 " the idol is nothing," only the representative of the lusts and ignorance of its wor- 
 shijjpers. It is in reality the latter that receive and demand the service. All sin is 
 idolatry in some form or other, and will prove as exacting of the attention and labour 
 of the sinner. Who is not willing to admit that sin is a hard taskmaster ? And yet, 
 what are its rewards? The poor soul, hurried and driven by its own overmastering 
 lusts and passions, has no rest, and no solid residuum of comfort is secured ; nay, rather 
 a sense of deepening gloom, indefinite, imquenchable craving, and aforebodiog of the 
 final wrath of him whom it has insulted and disobeyed. To the victims of wicked 
 habit, etc., as to the devotees of a false religion, the words of Christ are addressed, 
 " Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden," etc. — M. 
 
 Vers. 14, 15. — The old deliverance forgotten in the new. I. The greater and morb 
 inveterate the transgression, the greater will be the punishment. It was not 
 to be supposed that he past judgments of God, however great, were all that he could or 
 would do. He has many ways of bringing transgressors to their senses ; and it is 
 impossible to conceive a limit to his power of imposing penalty. His stern, uncom- 
 promising attitude to sin has been witnessed to by many an awful judgment and 
 destruction, even where previous calamities might seem to have exhausted his anger or 
 Lis invention. 
 
 II. The promise op God appears side by side with the first announcements of 
 HIS judgments, ilven in the way in which it is threatened there is encouragement 
 and hope. Jt will be an awful experience, but God will redeem his people. So in the 
 beginning of the curse our first parents received an anticipatory evangel. The failures 
 (1. God's people in social and political experiment were the occasion of the most glorious 
 jiredictions of Messianic times. This shows the real purpose of God's threatenings. 
 They are intended to produce repentance, and yet there is reality enough in them if 
 that repentance be not forthcoming. Fear is appealed to, but freedom of choice is 
 preserved, and spiritual power called into responsible action. 
 
 III. The merciful power of God will be more gloriously manifested in every 
 NEW calamity which HIS PEOPLE BRING UPON THEMSELVES. The Captivity of whioh 
 the prophet speaks will but give occasion for a grand deliverance, in comparison with 
 which the Exodus from Egypt will sink into insignificance. The judgments of God, 
 however great they may appear, are limited with the strictest exactness, and are 
 within his control. There is reason, therefore, to expect his interference whenever the 
 folly or unbelief of his people imperils his cause. He will preserve a people to praise 
 liim, and raise up a generation to call him blessed. So with the backslider from gospel 
 
406 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEPvEMIAH. [ch. xvi. 1—21. 
 
 privileges and obligations. He whom Christ has washed in his blood will not be 
 suffered wholly to pass into spiritual death. Grander exhibitions of the Divine grace 
 and power will be afforded. The good Shepherd will go over the dark mountains to 
 recover the wanderer. Those who have been entangled again in the yoke of boudajie 
 will be redelivered if they but turn with new obedience and faith to their Saviour. 
 They will be saved, if " as by iire." — M. 
 
 Vers. 19—21. — The hcatlien turning to the true God. The prophet, disappointed 
 and broken-hearted, is driven to Jehovah for his own comfort and support. We see 
 here how much it cost him to speak the words he had to utter. Every true minister 
 of Christ must feel in the same manner when he has to deal with hardened sinners, 
 .^ndto become the mouthpiece of Divine warnings and threats. The soul that stands up 
 for righteousness will olten find itself without sympathy and alone amongst unbe- 
 lieving men. Prayer is the refuge that is ever open in such hours. An extremity 
 like this is of alh others God's opportunity. Like Elijah in the wilderness, he will 
 receive unexpected succour. He will live, not on bread, but on words and revelations 
 of God. To Jeremiah was given this vision. 
 
 I. Whilst Jehovah is deserted by his own people the heathen will seek him:. 
 There is a law of displacement visible in God's dealings with his Church from a^e to 
 age. Like the man in the parable, who prepared the feast and bade many, he is 
 determined that his house shall be filled. 1. In this way God shows his people that he 
 does not specially need them. His favour depends upon their faithfulness ; if they fail 
 he has others to supply their place. His election is no blind favouritism or arbitrary 
 distinction, but proceeds upon spiritual conditions. 2. Apostasy from God is due to 
 imperfectly understanding him ; but the heathen who tarn to him do so with full 
 experience of the effects of their idolatry. The vanity and nothingness of idols drives 
 them in despair to the true God. Henceforth for them idolatry can have no power. It 
 has teen, as the Law was to Saul, a schoolmaster to bring them to Christ. Lessons 
 acquired in so stern a school are not soon forgotten ; and the half-hearted disciple, led 
 away of his own lusts and enticed, is supplanted by a steadfast and faithful convert. 
 So every day is the Church of Christ being recruited from the ranks of those who have 
 been the " chief of sinners." We caimot tell in what depths of degradation those may 
 now be sunk who are to shine as stars in the eternal firmament. Let the individual 
 Christian strive, therefore, to make his calling and his election sure. Let the Church 
 see that its candlestick be not removed. 
 
 II. Idolatbt is a system which EEFnTES itself. 1. It disappoints the expecta- 
 tions which it has awakened. 2. The conscience at last revolts against the excesses to 
 which it leads. 3. By-and-by the evident truism, that what man makes cannot he his 
 god, is realized and cuted upon. This process is going on to-day in the great seats of 
 idolatrous worship, and the fiercest iconoclasts are to be found amoncrst those who have 
 been brought up in heathenism. A similar process to this goes on in the lives of good 
 men as they are gradually freed from the illusions of life and the ensnaring influences 
 of worldly ideas and aims. The disappointments of life are so many waves casting us 
 upon the shore of a heavenly life, and the general drift of earthly experience is in many 
 and many an instance bringing men surely to God. 
 
 III. Failing a betteb revelation, the judgments of Jehovah tjpon his own 
 
 PEOPLE WILL show THE HEATHEN THAT HE IS THE ONLY HEAL GoD. This is not the 
 
 way in which God would prefer to show men his glory and his power. It is by his 
 saving grace he would commend himself to them. And the saints are the appointed 
 teachers of the world. They could tell of his power and his grace, of their own 
 deliverance. They could exhibit the blessings of a people whose trust is Jehovah. 
 But, f..iling this, they would be made examples. The justice of God will take the 
 place of his mercy which has been abused. In its exceptional severity, its evident 
 connection with and suggestion of supernatural agency, etc., it will attract attention 
 and arouse curiosity. Israel, therefore, even in its calamity and suffering, will serve 
 God. A vicarious virtue will lurk in its captivity, its desolation, and its persecution. 
 God is dealing thus with the unfaithful branches of his Church to-day. The perplexi- 
 ties, entanglements, and griefs that are due to worldly alliance and secular ambitions 
 and desires are well enough understood even by worldly men. Not from Eden, but 
 
CH. XVI. 1—21.] THE BO^K OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 407 
 
 from tlie wilderness to which she has banished herself, will the bride, the Lamb's wife, 
 be brought for her new espousals, and with lier shall come, as virgins in her train, many 
 who have been taught by her judgments and disciplines. — M. 
 
 Vers. 1 — 9. — Commands countermanded. There are three such in this section. 
 
 I. The command to marry. 1. In every way whereby the will of God can bis 
 expiessed — by his Word, his providence, his laws, written, moral, social, physical, God 
 has commanded that " a man shall leave his father and mother," etc. " A goud wife 
 is from the Lord," her companionship is the most blessed in the world. All artificial 
 hindrances to marriage are, therefore, to be condemned. The same enemy that destroys 
 such myriads of souls for eternity, ruins their haiipiness, oftentimes, in this life also. 
 For it is the world which frowns upon marriages, unexceptionable in other respects, in 
 which a certain style cannot be maintained or a certain amount of income be secured; 
 and all superstitious teachings that inculcate celibacy as a state more pleasing to God, 
 are equally guilty both in regard to God and man. Disobedience to this command 
 involves such frightful consequences as in themselves to clearly manifest the Divine 
 will, that " it is not good for man to be alone." 2. But here in these verses the prophet 
 is distinctly forbidden to marry. (Ver. 1, etc.) And the reasons were probably that, 
 by his abstaining from marriage, he might more powerfully confirm his words as to the 
 comins calan)ities. It would show his own belief in what he had foretold when it was 
 seen that he would not make for himself a home under such circumstances, it would 
 leave him more free for the arduous duty which he had to discharge. It would save 
 him great sorrow when the evil days should come. And so now there are special cases 
 iu wiiich God's will seems to be that a man should not marry. The poverty-stricken 
 ministers of religion, of whom there are so many ; the missionary exposed to daily peril 
 of climate, pestileuce, savage heathendom ; or any to whom it is evident that by their 
 marriage more evil than good will result ; — then, just as we may be called upon to do 
 without many other great earthly advantages, so we may be called upon to deny 
 ourselves this. And there may be physical conditions forbidding marriage. No man 
 has a right to transmit to others hereditary disease, whether of body or mind. And 
 there are spiritual hindrances. A man ought to marry only " in the Lord." But all 
 these exceptions are rare; God's general rule is tliat men should marry. 
 
 II. The command to " weep with them that weep." That there, would be no 
 stint of sorrow, no lack of mourners, the awful declarations of this section plainly show. 
 And generally God's will, shown in a thousand ways, is that we should, by sympathy 
 and condolence, " bear one another's burdens, and so fullil the Law of Christ." But here 
 such sympathy and " weeping with them that weep " is prohibited (ver. 5). This does 
 seem a stern command, and no doubt it is so. But we do not feel called on to condole 
 with criminals on account of the penalties they have to bear ; were any to do so, we 
 should regard it as misplaced and mischievous sympathy, calculated only to do harm. 
 And whilst those to whom the prophet was sent were hardened in their sin, sympathy 
 with them on account of their punishment would be also mischievous and wrong. We 
 have continually to be on our guard — for many never are — lest our sympathy for the 
 sinner's suffering should make us forget or think lightly of the sinner's sin. No matter 
 how glaring the crime, there are always some who are ready to agitate for a mitigation 
 of the penalty. Now, it is this hurtful sympathy which God here forbids the prophet 
 to show. 
 
 III. The command to "rejoice with them that do rejoice." This also is a 
 constant injunction of the Divine Word, as it is an instinct of the benevolent and 
 (Jhristiau heart. Jesus was as ready to go to the marriage festival as to the grave-side. 
 And so should we be. But here again the command is countermanded (ver. »). And 
 the reason is manifest. God would not sufler his prophet to be in any wise a solace to 
 sinful men. Too many professed Christians are. Nothing is a greater " comfort to 
 Sodom" than the sight of the serenity and joviality of men who profess to believe that 
 sinners are on their way to everlasting woe. The sinner argues— and it is an argument 
 very difficult to refute — that Christians do not believe this, no matter what they say, 
 and hence they, the ungodly, are in no such awful peril after all. The prophet of God 
 was commanded to abstain from all festivity and all outward joy, and no doubt the 
 reason was, lest by any sharing tlierein, he should tlirow doubt on the awful message be 
 
408 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xvi. 1— 21. 
 
 was charged to deliver. Are the ministers of God hound to do the like now ? Our Lord 
 did not. His apostles did not. ISowhere are we bidden to abstain from all earthly joy. 
 Bather are we assured that God has " given us all things richly to enjoy." And the 
 unbeliever's objection on the ground of the inconsistency of our calmness, and yet more 
 of our gladness, notwithstanding the awful peril of ungodly souls, may be met by the 
 reply that we cannot say of those whom yet we would lain see drawn much near ;r to 
 God than they to our eyes are, that they are, as those whom Jeremiah addressed, ibso- 
 lutely doomed. We are not forbidden to pray for them, as Jeremiah was ; nor to hope 
 that even yet they may turn to God and find mercy. The prophet had no hof i; we 
 have much, and it is on the ground of that hope which we cherish that our f aimer, 
 brigliter moods are justified. Still, one shrinks from saying aught that would s jem to 
 sanction the terrible indifference we all too much manifest in regard to the s^ iritual 
 condition of the world around us. But yet we may say that that condition is no ^ such 
 as to demand — even were it possible, which it is not, to comply with the demand — th 'it we 
 should all cease from joy, and clothe ourselves unceasingly in sackcloth and ashes. We 
 cannot do that ; we are not bidden to do that, nor would it be of use were we to do so. 
 We have a gospel to proclaim, a living Saviour to hope in, and a Holy Spirit's energies 
 to second all our prayers and endeavours to win men to God. But at the same time, 
 the believer in God and in his righteous Law cannot and ought not to find pleasure in the 
 rejoicings of the ungodly, or to give any countenance to their defiance of God. No ; we 
 are not to go " in the way of sinners," not to sit " in the seat of scorners," though it may be 
 a scene of festivity and mirth. From all such we must turn away. We cannot rejoice 
 with them when they rejoice; in their gladness we cannot share, but only mourn that 
 they do not mourn. Let them turn to God, and we will dwell among them, and in their 
 inv and in their sorrow we will gladly share. But until they do, for us as for God's 
 propnv,*. his ordinary commands as to sympathy with them are countermanded, and we 
 must stai.5 aside. Light cannot have fellowship with darkness, nor the children of 
 God with the children of the wicked one. — U, 
 
 Vers. 10 — 13. — Conscience dead. Conscience is given us of God, to serve as a faithful 
 sentry, warning of the approach of sin and summoning the energies of our souls to resist 
 and reject the intruder. Or as a just judge to unhesitatingly condemn sin, let it be 
 wrapped up in what specious disguise it may. It is the Ithuriel's spear which, the 
 moment it touches any moral action, compels such action to reveal itself of what sort it 
 is. Oh, the unspeakable blessing of an enlightened, healthful conscience that will not 
 suffer sin, any sin, even the least, without prompt and powerful protest ! God help us 
 all diligently to guard, profoundly to reverence and faithfully to obey this inward 
 monitor, this true bearer of "the light which lighteth every man that cometh into the 
 world." But these verses reveal a condition of things in which conscience is dead. It 
 has lost all power of perception, its voice is hushed, or rather, what is worse, it sees and 
 speaks falsely. It is a mockery of life, which would be grotesque were it not so pro- 
 foundly sad. A caricature and parody of what it once was, its powers utterly 
 perverted, bent, warped, so that they " call evil good, and good evil." Mote — 
 
 I. The fact. How else can such a question as this of ver. 10 be accounted for? 
 Was not their sin clear as the sun at noonday ? Had it not been for years crying aloud 
 to God for vengeance ? Had it not been condemned by all the servants of God, by the 
 ■written Law of God, by all the voices of God in long succession 'I And yet these people 
 are asking, " Wherefore hath the Lord pronounced all this great evil against us." It is 
 as if the convicts in our prisons were to begin to ask why they were so treated, and to 
 profess ignorance of their having done aught amiss. But in such case we should say 
 they were playing the hypocrite, pretending an innocence to which they well knew they 
 had no claim. In this case, however, there is no hypocrisy. 1'he question, monstrous 
 as it seems to us, is asked in all good faith. The prophet of God is bidden to give it a 
 serious answer, not to denounce those who ask it as a set of conscious hypocrites. Just 
 as in Matt. xxv. 44, which is a portentous parallel indeed, the condemned there are 
 heard asking when they had been guilty of the sins laid to their charge. It is evident 
 in that case and in this, not that they were consciously liars, but that conscience was 
 simply dead within them. The writer knew also of one who had cruelly defrauded a 
 large number of people, who, believing him to be an eminently religious man, had 
 
CH. XVI. 1-21.] THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 405) 
 
 entrusted to him their hard-earned savings, with all of which he had made away ; but, 
 when brought to justice, condemned, and imprisoned, he could not be got to confess 
 that he had done wrong, but would keep quoting, in regard to himself, texts which tell 
 of the afBictions of the ri;;hteous, and how " whom the Lord loveth he ohasteiieth." 
 
 II. The cause. Conscience is starved by neglect of that seeking of God's grace 
 which is its nutriment and strength. And it is stunneci by repeated acts of sin. Men 
 can and do nibble, if we may so speak, at conscience, and gradually rid themselves of 
 it. The clamour of sin drowns the still, small voice, and its protests, perpetually 
 unheeded, are at last withdrawn. So that at length men find themselves able to do evil 
 and think nothing of it ; the little rift that sin first made has widened and widened 
 until the whole torrent of waters bursts through, for the faithful dyke that held them 
 back has been gradually destroyed, and so now the whole nature of the man is over- 
 whelmed, submerged beneath the deluge of sin. And, what is most sad, the man feels, 
 no more than do the sunken cities and towns that lie at the bottom of the Zuyder 
 Zee, the rush of the waves that for centuries have rolled over them. 
 
 III. The cujbb. Thank God there is one. The sharp surgery of God's judgments 
 arouse the deadened conscience. The rags, the hunger, the degradation of the prodigal 
 woke up his conscience and brought him " to himself." And so it was with the Jewish 
 people. God's judgments made them hate and abhor, as they have done ever since, 
 the idolatries which brought those judgments upon them. It would be dreadful to 
 think that God had no resources whereby, in full harmony with its freedom, he could 
 bring into due subjection and order " the unruly wills of sinful men." Can we conceive 
 of God having created a force greater than himself, which can for ever defy him, and 
 ever maintain, as Milton's Satan in hell, a rebellious though wretched rule ? God knew 
 how to convert Israel, Saul, the penitent thief, ourselves, and we may trust him to find 
 means whereby at length to Jesus every knee shall be made to bow. Vers. 14 and 15 
 contemplate a converted Israel (cf. also Isa. xxx. 18 ; Matt, xxvii. 33 — 39). But let 
 a man tremble at the thought of compelling God to deal with him thus. Let him 
 beware how he wastes his conscience, lest it turn against him and suHer him to sin 
 unrestrained. — 0. 
 
 Vers. 14, 15. — Great mercies the forerunners of greater still. At first reading of these 
 verses their truth is hardly apparent to the ordinary reader of the Bible. The deliverance 
 from Egypt was so magnificent an event, accompanied by such manifestations of the 
 Divine glory, that the quiet return of but a comparatively few of the exiles from Babylon 
 pales into insignificance. Hence it is the latter event that seems not worthy to be 
 spoken of in comparison with the ibrmer, and not the former in comparison with the 
 latter. The second temple was so greatly inferior to the first that old men who bad 
 seen the first wept when they thought of those glories which to the second were quite 
 unattainable; and so the return from Babylon seems to fall far short in glory of the 
 redemption from Egypt. But these verses affirm that the glory of the return from 
 Bahylon was to be far the greater. Now, how could this be ? It may be said : 1. That 
 in this return there was a display of the moral power of God rather than his physical 
 miijht. That v/hich was needed to bring this about was the exercise of the Divine 
 power on men's hearts rather than any material force. It was by mighty miracles that 
 Isj-ael was brought out of Egypt ; it was by the action of God's Spirit on his people's 
 hearts that those who returned from Babylon were induced so to do. For their lot 
 was happy, prosperous, peaceful, so far as this world was concerned. The Books of 
 E.xther, Nehemiah, and Daniel show this. Hence it was a strong religious yearning 
 that led to the return of those who returned. The mass of the nation were content to 
 remain, and did remain, and formed " those of the Dispersion," of whom in so many ways 
 we hear in after ages. Hence, as Zechariah says (iv. 6), it was " not by might, nor by 
 power, but," etc. 2. Then, also, in this return there was a display of God's pardoning 
 love. Israel was a forgiven people. They had received at the Lord's hand double for 
 all their sins. But God is ever more glorified in the display of pardoning love than in 
 any manifestations of mere power. 3. And there was in it such a fulfilment of prophecy, 
 such a demonstration of the overruling power of God in and through all the movements 
 of difi'erent nations and ages, as proclaimed God's glory more than power alone could 
 ever do. Fur these reasons the return of the exiles was a more glorious event than the 
 
410 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEEEMIAF. [en. xvi. 1-21, 
 
 deliverance from Egypt. 4. And tliis will be seen j'et more if wn take the verses as 
 jiointing on to the ultimate restoratUm of Israel. Zechariah (xiii. and xiv.) speaks of this, 
 as do many other Scriptures. It was the "hope of Israel" of whicli Paul told, and he 
 places it in connection with the second advent and the resurrection. 5. And still more if 
 we understand by Israel the spiritual Israel, and regard all these promises as predicting 
 the triumph of the Church. Thus regarded, tlie deliverance from Egypt was by com- 
 parison a very little thing. But when that great triumph comes, wliere shall we he ? God 
 grant that it be amongst those whom on that day he will confess before his Father and 
 the holy angels. But" this notable instance in which jiast mercies promise greater ones 
 to come is only one out of many more. Apply the principle declared — 
 
 I. To THE Church at large. What mercies in the past, what deliverances, the 
 Church has enjoyed: from persecutors, " grievous wolves," superstition, infidelity, etc. ! 
 But all these are to be regarded as pledges of yet greater ones when they shall be needed. 
 
 II. To INDIVIDUAL MEMBERS OF THAT Church. Who of US cannot recouut, in the 
 course of our lives, temporal deliverances : from sickness, poverty, perplexity, sorrow, 
 death, etc.? We are to take them all as reasons to anticipate greater things still, more 
 to follow. And especially spiritunl deliverances: from living on in disregard of Gud, 
 from the power of the world, temptation, sorrow. But there are grea'er ones still. The 
 Church in its full redemption shall prove the truth of this, and so shall separate membrrs 
 of the Church. All shall confess that the Lord hath " kept the good wine until now." 
 
 Conclusion. 1. Be not dismayed at the troubles of the present; do not think God's 
 grace is exhausted. 2. See to it that you share in the first deliverance — that from guilt 
 and sin. Unless we have known the first, we cannot know the second and greater — 
 that final deliverance from all guilt, all sin, all sorrow, all death, in the presence of Gud 
 for ever. — C. 
 
 Vers. 16 — 21. — Sin found out. The striking imagery of these verses teaches us that 
 there shall be no hiding-place, whether by sea or land, where God will not find those 
 whom his vengeance pursues. The sinner may be sure that his sin will find him out. 
 
 I. Men DOUBT this. Reasons are: 1. Long impunity has made them bold. 2. Such 
 findings of them out as have taken place, in defilement of conscience, hardening of the 
 heart, loss of peace with God, etc., they do not care for. They only care for public 
 exposure and punishment. 3. They see others go on in sin unpunished. 4. The power 
 which we all have to believe what we wish to believe. 5. The direct agency of the 
 devil in fostering such (alse belief. 
 
 II. But THE DECLARATION OP GoD ON THIS MATTER IS NEVERTHELESS TRUE. 1. The 
 
 Scriptures affirm it (cf. all those which teach the omniscience and omnipresence of 
 God). 2. Conscience attests it. 3. There is nothing in sin to show wherefore it should 
 not be. 4. The revelation of the future life distinctly provides for it. 5. And even 
 now it is continually being proved true. A man's sin finds him out in many ways — in 
 body, mind, estate, reputation, etc. And in one or more of these sin does ever find a 
 man out, even now. ti. The apparent exceptions are accounted for on the ground of 
 (1) God's long-suffering to the sinful; (2) God's purpose to test and exercise the faith 
 of his own people. 
 
 III. A DEEP AND ABIDING CONVICTION OP THIS TO BE GREATLY DESIRED. 1. What 
 
 restraint it would exercise on the will! (cf. " How can 1 do this great wickedness, and 
 sin against God ? "). 2. How exceeding sinful it would make sin appear ! 3. What force 
 it would lend to all endeavours after the reclamation and reformation of the sinful ! 
 
 IV. And SUCH conviction may be had. It is the sacred and salutary power of 
 prayer thus to make God real to us. In prayer we look to him and we see him looking 
 upon us; we speak to him and he speaks to us; by aid of it we walk with him and he 
 walks with us. He who thus lives in daily fellowship with God can never be without 
 the conviction spoken of. 
 
 V. Because sin is sure to find us, let us at once seek and find Christ. — C. 
 
 Ver. 19 — ch. xvii. 3. — The accusers of the ungodly. The prophet appeals to — 
 
 I. 1'he anticipated conversion op the heathen. Ver. ly, "The Gentiles shall 
 
 come," etc. These heathen peoples will declare the vanity of those idols in which 
 
 Judah is now trusting (cf. Matt. xi. 20 — 21). 
 
en. XVI. 1—21.] THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 411 
 
 II. Conscience. Their sin was " written as with," etc., " on the tf>ble of their 
 heart" (ch. xvii. 1). Nothing could erase the memories tliey all had of their own 
 grievous sin. It was written as if in rock, and as with a pen of iron and a point of 
 diamond (allusion, probably, to the inscriptions on rooks, so frequent in the East). 
 What a witiH'SS is conscience! It cannot be silenced nor sophisticated. It keeps a 
 man's sins "ever before" him. "My sin is ever before me," said Uavid. The writing 
 of our sin on the heart's tablets is so deep, so incisive, so clear, that nothing can 
 destroy it. No storms will wash them out; no lapse of time obliterate and decay; no 
 rush of business and occupation will fill up and conceal those deep engravings; no 
 rough contact with the events of life will break them. There they stand, clearly 
 legible, written on the tablets of our hearts — our conscience — as letters written by an 
 iron or diamond pen on rock. To this evidence the prophet appeals (cf. our Saviour's 
 ajipeal to conscience in the case of the accusers of the woman taken in adultery, 
 John viii.). 
 
 in. Theik worship. Not alone their conscience, but the horns of their altars, 
 testified against them. These horns, smeared with the blood of their idolatrous sacri- 
 fices, blackened with the smoke of their altar fires, reeking continually with the fumes 
 and smoke of their offered victims, — these also were witnesses whose testimony could 
 not be set aside. And what a witness against a man will the worship he otters — the 
 liorns of his altar — often be: its coldness, its carelessness, its infrequcncy, its 
 insincerity, its formality, and sometimes its hypocrisy! Yes; the horns of the altar 
 will prove swift witnesses against all who worship God otherwise than " in spirit and 
 in truth." 
 
 IV. Theib childken. (Ver. 2.) " They would never lose the impression of that 
 horrible idolatry which had snatched so many from their midst. So deep was this 
 impression that the mere sisht of green trees and high hills was sufficient to refresh the 
 hideous memory continually." Or it may mean that their children, retaining and 
 ])ractising the idolatry of their fathers, are witnesses against those fathers such as none 
 can set aside. Children may become the means of their fathers' condemnation. They 
 cannot help testifying against them. In their memoi'ies, their habits, their very bodies, 
 their sins, they will declare what their fathers were. Thank God, they can and do 
 testify for the godly and righteous parents, as Timothy did of his mother and hers. 
 But how awful to think of having one's own children brought forward as witnesses 
 against us! Let ungodly parents ponder this. 
 
 CoNCLUSioir. With such weight of evidence against Judah, what wonder that her 
 punishment was so severe ! The sin of Judah, however, too much resembles, in its 
 aggravation and in the evidence brought against it, sin of which we may be all too 
 conscious. What can we do but turn to him who has said, " The sacrifices of God are 
 a broken spirit," etc. ; and whose blood " cleanseth from all sin " ? Blessed be God 
 that we may do this ; but " how shall we escape if we neglect," etc. ? — C. 
 
 Vers. 1 — 4. — Domestic relations become a curse. It is evidently implied that, even in 
 the present deplorable state of Israel, there was much that appeared attractive and 
 profitable in don)estic relations. Jesus reminded his servants that, in the days before 
 the Flood, there was " marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered 
 into the ark ;" and so we may conclude that in the time of Jeremiah there was also 
 marrying and giving in marriage, down to the very coming of the invader on the land. 
 Individuals would go on, following out the pi'om|itings of their affections, unable to 
 discern the signs of the times, and the approach of a calamity such as would overwhelm 
 every family existing when it came. When society is in its ordinary state, marriages 
 ending in misery are believed to be exceptional. But here there is a trouble which is 
 to come upon every household. Every family is to be smitten, and Jeremiah, in his 
 loneliness, is called to notice how, though deprived of domestic relations, he is to gain a 
 compensation in other ways. Perhaps at times he was inclined to murmur that he — a 
 man of strife and contention to' the whole laml — had no home where he might turn and 
 find some refuge and relief, if only for a short interval. Even in those apostate days 
 there must surely have been a few homes at least where there was fidelity to Jehovah ; 
 where the parents taught his truth to the children, and the children reverenced the 
 parents according to his commandment. But Jeremiah's way was closed up, so that he 
 
412 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xvi. 1—21, 
 
 had no opjwrtunity of forming suoli a household for himself. His celibate, life did not, 
 come by his own selfish resolution, but by the will of God, clearly expressed, and based 
 on certain necessities of Jeremiah's prophetic mission. The prophet, therefore, while 
 he lost some things, was spared some great sorrows when the long-predicted blow at last 
 came on the nation. The external circumstances of life are wonderfully equalized, when 
 the sum of them is able to be calculated. We can only be robbed of the best posses- 
 sions by our own I'ault. Jeremiah, however lonely his path may have been, however 
 like to that of him who had " not where to lay his head," was advancing to the state 
 where " they neither marry nor are given in marriage." — Y. 
 
 Vers. 5 — ^9. — The house of mourning and the house of feasting alike forbidden. It is 
 made plain upon the surface of this command that the house of mourning and the house 
 of feasting are not forbidden in themselves. The man on whom the injunction is laid is 
 a special man, and he is spoken to in special circumstances. All others may cross the 
 threshold of such houses; the prophet alone must remain outside. Tliis peculiar 
 conduct was meant to emphasize his pi'edictions. Every time there is a funeral or a 
 marriage-feast, the terrible judgments shortly coming on the land are once more set 
 forth. The worst sorrows of the present are but as a child's shallow grief compared 
 with the univei-sal and dreadful experiences that are yet to come ; and in the joys of the 
 present it would be unseemly for the man to share whose breast is filled with the sense 
 of how soon these joys must pass away. A man who had to live as Jeremiah lived, in 
 such an age, with such a message, seeins; visions of so much woe, how could he receive 
 pleasure from any festive gathering, or bring pleasure to it ? The more he advances in 
 his mission as prophet the more he has to walk alone. Q'bis commanded attitude 
 towards the house of mourning and the house of feasting indicates to us the spirit in 
 which those who may have to make such visits should pay their visits. We must not 
 go to fall in with the wishes of those who are visited, but rather to do the will of God, 
 at whatever cost, and with whatever difBculty. Consider this — 
 
 I. With hegakd to the house of mourning. One feels that the prophet must have 
 been exposed to much misapprehension in carrying out this command with the sym- 
 bolic prophecy involved in it. It would be said that he was not only an unpatriotic 
 man but an unfeeling one. Happily we have abundant proof that, whatever the imper- 
 fections of Jeremiah, a cold inditlerence to the griels of others was not one of them. 
 He may often have had to do violence to his own impulses in keeping away from the 
 homes where the dead were lying ; and yet he only did by command what we should 
 sometimes like to do by preference, if it were only possible to do it without wounding 
 the feelings of others. Think of the houses of mourning where little or nothing can 
 be said that is comforting. What could have been done to comfort stricken parents that 
 night when there was one dead in every Egyptian household ? There is a way of offer- 
 ing symi-iathy which, well intended as it is, only exacerbates insti-ad of mollifying. 
 What false consolations, what hackneyed commonplaces, are made use of in the house 
 of mourning ! There is a falling back on what is called the good moral character of the 
 dead. Death-bed repentances may be made too much of The chamber of mourning 
 is the stronghold of an immense amount of very dangerous error in the attitude of 
 man towards God. The temporary pain of the freshly wounded heart of man is more 
 considered than the abiding truth of God. Then what censurable regrets there are ! 
 what utter and unconcealed selfishness on the part of survivors ! It is not a feeling of 
 pain for what the departed may have lost, but rebellious wrath for what the survivor 
 may have lost. And so we may say that, to enter into a house of mourning where there 
 is the right and Christian spirit, is a matter for joy and not for grief, lieoause indeed the 
 peace and the loving-kindness and mercies of God are there. Let us aim so to live, in 
 such uuworldliness and heavenliness of life, that survivors shall not be tempted into 
 vain consolations when we are gone. 
 
 II. With keoard to the house ofpbasting. The absence of Jeremiah from festive 
 gatherings would be as a most significant presence; seeing that he was absent, not by 
 accident, not from any personal feeling, not from any ascetic dislike to such gatherings, 
 but by the special command of God. Not only was he forliidden to become himself a 
 bridegroom, he could not even congratulate any other. It will be noticed that the 
 marriage-feast in particular is referred to. The wedding was a time for a special gather- 
 
CH. XVI. 1—21.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 413 
 
 ing, and invited guests would make special efforts to be present. Jesus, for instance, at 
 the wedding-feast at Cana. Mere rioting and revelling, and the laughter of fools and 
 such merry-making as cost the Baptist his life, were at all times forbidden. There is 
 much of rebuke to us in this command of the propliet here. He did not take part even 
 in an innocent festive gathering. It jarred on him as he thought of the future, so 
 different and yet so near. And possibly, if we thought more as we ought to think on what 
 has yet to come in the way of judgment and destruction, we should walk through the 
 world feeling that we had no heart even for what is reckoned innocent merriment. We 
 can never be sufficiently serious when the burden of human_ life, with all its vast and 
 varied trials, comes to lie upon our thoughts. — Y. 
 
 Vers. 14, 15. — Two great recollections. Here once again we come upon the evan- 
 gelical elemer,t in Jeremiah's prophecies ; and once again we have to notice that, when 
 this element does appear, it makes up for its infrequency by the brilliance and emphasis 
 of the prediction. The prophet has just been compelled to speak of domestic suffer- 
 ing, national exile, and the withdrawal for a season of Divine favour. These necessary 
 judgments must be magnified and stated in all their severity ; not one of them can be 
 omitted ; the cup poured out by Jehovah must be drunk to its last drop. But when 
 all these experiences are over, terrible and yet full of discipline, a glorious future 
 remains. The manner of tlie prophecy is full of encouragement, and not least in this, 
 that there is such a sudden turning from the deepest darkness to the brightness of 
 noon. We have to consider— 
 
 I. The indication of what had been one of the most customary forms op oath 
 HITHEKTO. On important occasions, when a promise had to be made or an assertion 
 verified, it was the Israelite's habit to make a solemn appeal to the living Jehovah. 
 "As Jehovah liveth" was the general formula, to be combined with more particular 
 references, agreeing with the occasion, as to what this living Jehovah had done in the 
 past. The reference might be to something that had happened in the experiunce of the 
 individual, and probably still more frequently to greater events in the larger ex]jeri- 
 ence of the nation. To give such an appeal all possible solemnity it was needful to 
 think of Jehovah in the most magnifying way ; and what could raagnily him more than 
 a recollection of the great deliverance from Egypt, which he had wrought out for Israel ? 
 That deliverance gave Israel its great chance of service and glory as the people of ijiod. 
 Up to that time a nation of helpless slaves and sufferers — helpless, that is, for anything 
 they could do — they nevertheless became in a very few days a nation of free men, 
 travelling towards a land of their own. And all this was by direct Divine interven- 
 tion ; and not only was it a great deliverance in itself, but all the circumstances made it 
 doubly memorable. The narrative of what had been done needed no embellishments 
 to grave it indelibly on the memory of each generation. Moreover, Jehovah himself 
 had made provision for the continued recollection of the deliverance by tlie institution 
 of the Passover. He wished it to be remembered. We may well conclude that such a 
 form of oath as appealed to him in his character as the Deliverer of Israel from 
 Egyptian bondage, was peculiarly agreeable; it being always presumed, of course, that 
 the oath was uttered sincerely. 
 
 II. The indication of how this venerated oath was to be superseded. Probably 
 at the time of the deliverance from Kgypt many Israelites may have said to themselves, 
 " Nothing can ever happen in the history of our nation more memorable than this. 
 Whatever our vicissitudes, whatever our perils, we cannot be more in need of Jehovah's 
 intervention than we have lately been." But when either nations or individuals speak 
 thus, it is in utter ignorance of how deep and terrible human need may become. 'There 
 was a worse bondage than that of Egypt ; it came with no external inconveniences, it 
 was invisible to the outward eye, and, worst of all, it was heedlessly accepted by the 
 bondman himself. The Israelites had fallen into the bodily slavery ot Egypt by no 
 iault of their own; there was no point at which it was possible for them to stop the 
 process. But the spiritual enslavement to idols and to every sort of consequent evil 
 came by their own act. They had stooped to the yoke. It is a greater thing that has 
 to be done now, so far as the result to the Israelite is concerned, than was done when he 
 was taken out of Egypt. Then he was delivered from Pharaoh and his host — a simple 
 matter coinparatioely, lor the destruction of Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea did all 
 
414 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xvi. 1—21. 
 
 that needed to be done. But now the Israelite has to be delivered froni Mmttelf. There' 
 has to be some sort of change within him, and this we may well believe was brought 
 about by the exile in Babylon. It is not enough to say that, after a time of exile, God 
 brought them back to Jerusalem. The mere transport from one place to another would 
 have been no whit more memorable than the deliverance from Egypt. Surely there 
 must have been a state of heart in the returning generation which made them very 
 different from the generation going away into captivity seventy years before. That 
 they came back to a true, spiritual, steadfast service of Jehovah is not to be supposed ; 
 but neither would they come back to the old idolatry. The sin into which they were 
 hereafter to fall was a formal service of the true God, mere ceremonialism and Pharisaism, 
 not apostasy to idols. The great effect of the exile in Babylon was deliverance from 
 formal idolatry, evidently a matter to be more celeK-ated than the deliverance, centuries 
 before, from bondage in Egypt. But in the future beyond there was something greati r 
 still to be looked for. There was a possibility of yet another form of oath, if Jesus had 
 not recommended his disciples to dispense with all additions to the simple, veracious 
 " Yes " and " No." Israel needed to be delivered, not only iVom formal connection with 
 false gods, but from a mere furmal connection with the true God. The Lord lives, who 
 brought Israel out of Egypt. The Lord lives, who further delivered Israel from tempta- 
 tion to fabricate idols and grovel before them in licentiousness and cruelty. And we 
 may also add that the Lord lives, who makes individuals of every nntion his children by 
 the accepted indwelling of his Spirit ; makes them partakers of the Divine nature, with 
 all the glorious consequences thereof. Further, we may say that Jesus lives, who made 
 the blind to see and who raised the dead. But it is a still greater thing to say, Jesus lives, 
 who died to restore men to his Father, and rose again to bring life and immortality to 
 light.— Y. 
 
 Vers. 19 — 21. — The confession of the idolatrous Oentiles. I. The prophet's desceip- 
 TION OF Jehovah. God, he says, is his Strength, his Fortress, and his Refuge. 1. T/ie 
 way in which the descriher individualizes himself. To the propliet individually Jehovah 
 has a sati.sfactory relation. So far as external sufferings and losses are concerned, the 
 jirophet cannot cscajie some share; but so far as concerns his most important interests, 
 be is effectually separated from his fellow-countrymen. When the invader comes they 
 lose everything; but just then the prophet will be able to say more than ever that 
 Jehovah is his Strength, Fortress, and Eefuae. What he has learned to value most 
 cannot be spoiled by any human hand whatever, and so it is seen that each one of us 
 may be in the midst of a perishing multitude and yet not of them. These people had 
 long boasted of their resources, their securities, and their satisfaction in life. They had 
 virtually said to the jirophet, " What better are you than us ? Though you speak 
 differently and live differently, your end will be the same." But the end was not the 
 same. The invaders took from the people all that was precious to them, and then it was 
 made evident that what was most precious to the projihet remained secure and unin- 
 jured with him. 2. The necessity that the prophet should he (Me to say this. Strength, 
 defence, and security for the individual — even in the midst of a nation having none of 
 these things — was not only possible but necessary. In the last resort, no amount of 
 strength in the community in which we live will do us any good. There may be 
 strength of a certain kind all around, hut that may only emphasize our own weakness. 
 Sup[iose the position of Jeremiah reversed. Actually he was living almost a solitary 
 hi liever amid a nation of unbelievers ; and yet this was far better than to have been an 
 unbeliever amid a nation of believers. There is no way to make God our Strength, 
 Fortress, and Refuge, save by personal trust and obedience. 3. The sufficiency of that 
 in which the prophet here expresses his confidence. It is when we really address 
 Jehovah, thinking of what we need and of what he is, that the feeling of an inexhaust- 
 ible sufficiency will come to us. And this is the way one may come to speak who 
 knows history, who has had somewhat in personal experience both of need and supply, 
 and, above all, who looks heavenward, assured by a leoling of the heart which rises 
 above all reasoning, that he is connected with One able to do exceeding abundantly 
 beyond any conceivable need of man. 
 
 II. The anticipated confession of the Gentiles. The woids here are words of 
 Btruug contrast. The Gentile is openly mentioned, but the children of Israel aie thought 
 
CH. XVII. 1—27.] THE BOOK OF THK PROPHET JEPBMIAH. 
 
 415 
 
 of at the same time. 1. The Gentiles are represented as coming to Jehovah. They have 
 piroped their way out of darkness and disentansled themselves from superstitions, while 
 the very people whnm Jehovah had brought to himself with so much power and patience, 
 making their way clear and safe, would not inwardly come, even though they were out- 
 wardly brought. Their hearts were not changed with tlieir changed circumstances. 
 And it is a thing which cannot be too much remarked, that the Gentiles have long had 
 an understanding, not only of the New Testament, but equally of the Old, which the 
 children of Israel have been utterly unable to reach. And not only are these Gentiles 
 to come ; they are to come from the ends of the earth. God's drawing power is felt 
 everywhere. Jerusalem is the centre from which light and truth in their great historical 
 manifestations have gone out. But God can make his centre of spiritual light any- 
 where, according to the necessities of the individual and of the time. 2. When these 
 Gentiles come they have a confession to make. They have to confess the utter empti- 
 ness and falsehood of their idolatries. They have, indeed, been taught all these things ; 
 sucked them in with their mothers' milk ; but this makes their own turning from them 
 all the more reinarkable, for what a man is taught he too often clings to, just because 
 he has been taught. It is to be further noticed that these idolatries have always had 
 the same character. The conception is not of gods who once were strong and true, but 
 who have at last come into dotage and are unable to help their worshippers. The lies 
 that tend to deceive and ruin the present generation have actually deceived and ruined 
 many generations before. And yet those things which the Gentiles show signs of for- 
 saking Israel clings to with a mad persistency. Israel has chosen lying, vanity, and 
 loss, and forsaken that great Jehovah whom their fathers inherited. The lesson is, not 
 to value tradition for its own sake, seeing it may only hand down lies. A tradition is 
 nothing unless it is something more than a tradition. There must be the personal 
 experience of God, the personal reception of truth. Every man must come out of Egypt, 
 cross the flood, and come to Sinai for himself. To every such one tradition will becnme 
 invaluable ; for of the things handed down he will know which to receive and transmit, 
 and which to reject. Each of us who comes to reject — intelligently and ilecidedly, 
 courageously and opeply — a iying and empty tradition, at the same time weakens the 
 force of that tradition just as far as our individual influence may extend. — Y. 
 
 EXPOSITION. 
 
 CHAFTEE XVII. 
 
 Vera. 1 — 18 are closely connected with 
 the preceding chapter. We have just been 
 pointed to the striking contrast between the 
 conduct of the heathen and that of the 
 backsliding men of Judah. The inspired 
 orator's indignation swells as he thinks 
 of the inveterateuess and indelibleness of 
 Judah's sin (vers. 1 — 4 are, however, omitted 
 in the Septuagint). Then he passes to a 
 subject immediately suggested by the policy 
 of the court, viz. the true source of safety in 
 dangerous times. Trust in man brings a 
 curse ; trust in Jehovah a blessing (vers. 5 — 
 13). From this portion of the prophecy we 
 can venture to fix the date of tlie whole. 
 Ver. 11 is, in fact, a shorter form of the 
 denunciation in ch. xxii. 13 — 19, which is 
 directly addressed to Jehoiakim; and the 
 most natural view of vers. 5 — 10 is to regard 
 them as a warning against the negotiations 
 
 with Egypt entered into by Jehoiakim after 
 his revolt from Nebuohailnezzar (seeEwald, 
 ' History of Israel,' iv. 261). The emphasis 
 on the deceilfulness of the heart, in ver. 9, 
 is readily intelligible in this connection; it 
 reminds us of the woe pronounced by Isaiiih 
 against those who " seek deep to hide their 
 counsel from Jehovah " (xxix. 15), and which 
 undoubtedly refers to a projected Egyptian 
 alliance. 
 
 Ver. 1. — The sin of Judah, etc. " Judah's 
 sin " is not merely their tendency to sin, but 
 their eiufid practices — their idolatry. This 
 is said to be graven upon the table of their 
 heart, for it is no mere form, but carried oii 
 with passionate earnestness, and as indelible 
 as if engraved with an iron pen. How un- 
 lilie, however, is this record to that of whiclr 
 the same expression is used in Job xix. 24! 
 With the point of a diamond ; or, with a point 
 of adamant (harder than ilint, as Ezek. iii. 
 9 siys). Fragments of adamant, says Pliny 
 (' Hiat. Nat.,' xxxvii. 15), are sought out by 
 engravers aud euclosed in iron ; they easily 
 
416 
 
 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xvii. 1—27. 
 
 overcome every liarrlness. TTpon the horns 
 of your altars. First of all, what altiirs are 
 referred to ? Those erected for the worship 
 of idols or Ihe two in the temple of Jehovah, 
 which had been defiled by idolatry ? And 
 why is the sin of Judah said to be engraved 
 upon the horna of the altars? Probably 
 because the "horns," i.e. tlie projections at 
 the four upper corners (Exod. xxviii. 2) were 
 smeared with the blood of the victims. The 
 direction in Exod. xxix. 12 and Lev. iv. 7 was 
 doubtless not peculiar to the ritual of the 
 Law. 
 
 Ver. 2. — Whilst their children remember, 
 etc. The connection of this with tht- pre- 
 ceding verse ia rather obscure. Pi-obably it 
 is intended as an exemplification of the " sin 
 of Judah," the inveterateness of which is 
 shown by their thoughts spontaneously turn- 
 ing to the altars and symbols of the fiilse 
 gods whenever they are near a leafy tree or 
 a high hill (probably "under the green 
 trees " is the right reading ; comp. 1 Kings 
 xiv. 23 ; BO Targum). To make " their sons " 
 the accusative (with Hitzig and Keil), ren- 
 dering, "As they remember their children, 
 [even so they i-emember their altars]," seems 
 unnatural; why should "children" and 
 "altars" be associated in idea? Groves; 
 rather, idoli of Ashirah, the Canaanitish 
 goddess. 
 
 Ver. 3.— my mountain in the field; a 
 still more obscure passage. The question 
 is whether " my mountain in the field " is a 
 vocative or an accusative depeudent ou " I 
 will give." If the former, then the phrase 
 will mean Jerusalem (cump. "rook of the 
 plain," ch. xxi. 13). This, however, does not 
 suit with the second half of the verse ("tliy 
 high places," etc.), and still less with ver. 4, 
 which evidently refers to the people of 
 Judah. Added to this, if Jerusalem were 
 here addressed we should certainly expect 
 feminine suffixes. It remains to take " my 
 mountain," etc., as an accusative. It 
 describes, not Jerusalem, but Mount Zion as 
 the site of the temple, the mountain of the 
 house of Jehovah (Isa. ii. 3 ; Zeoh. viii. 3 ; 
 Ps. xxiv. 3). Kender, therefore, my mountain 
 in the field will I give. The prophet mag- 
 nifies Zion into a mountain with a widely 
 extended prospect (comp. ver. 12 and ch. xxi . 
 13). Thy substance and all thy treasures; 
 i.e. those of the people. The part of the 
 verse which begins here is almost tiie same 
 as oh. XV. 13 (see note). And thy high 
 places for sin. Keil explains, Jehovah de- 
 clares that he will, on account of tlio sinful 
 pvttclices upon them, deliver up the high 
 places throughout the land. Gesenius, " He 
 will deliver up the high places with the sia 
 attaching to them;" Hitzig, "... as a sin 
 oft( ring." There is a question, however, 
 whLtkc;r there is »ot a corruption in the 
 
 text, and whether we should not read, with 
 Ewald, "without price for thy sins" (as in. 
 the parallel passage, ch. xv. 1.3). 
 
 Ver. 4. — (Comp. oh. xv. 14.) Even thyself; 
 literally, even with thyself, i.e. with thy bavi 
 life (if' the text, ^'hioh is here evidently 
 rather out of order, is correct). Shalt dis- 
 continue. The word involves an allusion to 
 the Law in Exod. xxiii. 11 and (especially) 
 Dent. XV. 2 (see the Hebrew). The latttT 
 passage suggests a correction of the difficult 
 "even with thyself," just preceding, into 
 "thy hand." Thus we get for the opening 
 of this verse, "And thou shalt let loose thy 
 hand " (i.e. as Authorized Version, " shalt 
 discontinue "). 
 
 Vera. 5 — 11. — In the higher gnomic or 
 proverbial style. God and man, flesh and 
 spirit, are natural antitheses (comp. Isa. xxxi. 
 3 ; Ps. Ivi. 4). The prayer of the believer 
 is, " Be thou (O Jehovaii) their arm every 
 morning ; " not Egypt, not Assyria, not 
 any "arm of flesh." 
 
 Ver. 6.— Like the heath in the desert; as 
 forlorn as some well-known desert plant. 
 But which plant ? St. Jerome explains, " Et 
 erit quasi myrice [' tamarisk '], quae Hubraice 
 dicitur Aroer (?) sive, at interprefatus eut 
 Syrus, lignum infructuosum." The versions 
 agree in supposing the comparison to be to 
 a plant ; and a very similar word in Arabic 
 (ghargar) means the mountain juniper; 
 Tristram, the dwarf j*iniper. Most, however, 
 take the word to be an adjective equivalent 
 to " destitute." Dr. Thomson tells a story r f 
 a poor destitute woman he found in the 
 desert (comp. ch. xlviii. 6— the form there is 
 Aroer, here it is ar'dr ; Ps. cii. 18). Shall 
 not see ; i.e. shall not perceive, or feel any 
 evil consequences (comp. Isa. xliv. 16, "I 
 have seen the fire," equivalent to " I feel the 
 flame "). A salt land ; i.e. one entirely bar- 
 ren (comp. Deut. xxix. 23). 
 
 Ver. 8. — Shall not see ; rather, shall not 
 fear — this is the reading of the Hebrew text, 
 and of the Septuaudnt, Pcshito, and Vulgate. 
 The Authorized Version represents that of 
 the margin, which is conformed to ver. 6, but 
 is against the parallelisms. 
 
 Vers. 9, 10. — The crooked devices of the 
 human heart, which is characterized as 
 deceitful above all things (or, as Uelitzsch, 
 ' Biblical Psychology.' English translation, 
 p. 340, " proud ; " literally, uneven or rugged ; 
 comp. Isa xl. 4; Hab. ii. 4, Hebrew; Ps. 
 cxxxi. 2, Hebrew), and desperately wicked, 
 or rather, desperately sink (see ch. xv. IS, 
 where it is exi]lained by the words, " which 
 rofnseth to be healed "). The Septuagint 
 reads this verse difterently, " The heart is 
 deep above all things, ami "it is a man." 
 
 Ver. 11.— As the partridge . . . hatcheth 
 them not; rather, as Ihe pnriridge gitteth on 
 eggs which it ha,h nut laid; a proverbial 
 
CH. XVII. 1—27.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 
 
 417 
 
 illustration of the Divine retvibutive justice. 
 The prophet assumes the truth of a popular 
 belief respecting the partridge (still a 
 common bird in Judsea), that it brooded 
 upon eggs which it had not laid. As the 
 young birds soon leave the false mother, so 
 unjustly acquired riches soon forsake their 
 possessors. [Canon Tristram rejects this 
 explanation, on the ground that the state- 
 ment is not true to natural history; the 
 partridge neither steals the broods of others 
 nor needs to do so, as it lays a very large 
 number of eggs. But grammar requires us 
 to translate us suggested above, and conse- 
 quently excludes any other explanation. 
 May not the unusually large number of the 
 eggs laid by the partridge have led to the 
 fancy that they could not be all its own ?] 
 
 Vers. 12, 13. — An address to Jehovah in 
 two parts, the first specially referring to the 
 temple regarded as the sacramental symbol 
 of the Divine presence (comp. Ps. v. 7), the 
 second to Jehovah himself. It seems to 
 us, no doubt, singular thus practically to 
 identify Jehovah and his temple; but the 
 prophet's meaning is that God can only be 
 addressed in so far as he has revealed him- 
 self. The temple was not, strictly spe.iking, 
 the "Name" or revelation of God, but it 
 was " the place of the Name of Jehovah," 
 and in the language of strong feeling might 
 be addressed as if it were really the Divine 
 Name. The disciples of the incarmcte Name 
 were familiar with the idea that their Master 
 was in some sense the antitype of the tem- 
 ple (Matt. xii. 6 ; John ii. 19). In proposing 
 this explanation, it has been tacitly assumed 
 that the Authorized Version, A glorious high 
 thioue ... is the place of our sanctuary, is 
 wrong. Grammatically, indeed, it is not 
 indefensible; but it is a weak renderins in 
 such a context. Bender, therefore, Thou 
 throne of glory, a height from the beginning, 
 thou place of our sanctuary, thou hope of 
 Israel, Jehovah. The temple is called " the 
 throne of thy glory " in ch. xiv. 21 ; "height" 
 is a common synonym for heaven (Ps. vii. 
 8, Hebrew ; Isa. Ivii. 15, Hebrew), but is also 
 applied to Mount Zion (Ezek. xvii. 23 ; xx. 
 40, quoted by Keil), which is also in Isa. Ix. 
 13 called, " the place of my sanctuary." By 
 adding the concluding words of the address 
 (at the opening of ver. 13), the prophet 
 prevents the suspicion that he attached 
 importance to the mere outward buildings 
 of the temple, like those formalist Jews, 
 whose words are quoted in ch. vii. 4. 
 
 Ver. 13. — They that depart from me. 
 Ttie abrupt change of person is extremely 
 harsh ; the Vulgate, followed by Ewald and 
 Olshausen, supposes that a final caph has 
 dropped out, rendering, " they that depart 
 from thee." Shall be written in the earth ; 
 a contrast to that which in recoidud for all 
 
 time "with a pen of iron" Tver. 1). The 
 fountain, etc. ; a favourite phrase of our 
 prophet (see oh. ii. 18). 
 
 Vers. 14 — 18. — A prayer of the prophet in 
 this liis hour of need. He who makes his 
 boast of Jehovah may reckon upon his help. 
 This is Jeremiah's principle. He prays for 
 healing. Heal me, . . . and I shall be— rather, 
 lliat I may he — ^healed, He is one of those 
 " broken in heart," whom Jehovah alone 
 can "heal" (Ps. cxlvii. 3). 
 
 Ver. 15. — The occasion of this prayer is 
 the hostility of his neighbours, and their 
 mocking question. Where is the word of the 
 Lord } The prophecy seems to be floating as 
 it were in mid-air, uaable to alight (Isa. ix. 
 8) and fulfil itself, so that Jeremiah could 
 be plausibly treated as a false prophet (Deut. 
 xviii. 22). Hence, as KeU remarks, the dis- 
 course of which this forms the conclusion 
 must have been spoken before the first 
 Babylonian invasion of Judah. 
 
 Ver. 16. — I have not hastened from being 
 a pastor to follow thee ; i.e. I have not 
 eagerly withdrawn from following thee £i3 a 
 shepherd (or prophet). Tiie prophet does 
 not follow his own vague inclinations ; he 
 is but an under-shepherd, and waits on the 
 will of his superior. He is, as Hosea calls 
 hiin (ix. 7, Hebrew), " the man of the 
 Spirit." If God leads any one, whether 
 people or individuals, it is through the 
 agency of the Spirit (Isa. Ixiii. 11, 12) ; and 
 it is the characteristic of the typical prophet 
 that his ear is " wakened morning by morn- 
 ing " to receive his daily lesson. Only by 
 thus "following" the Divine Leader, can 
 a prophet act as pastor to his people. [The 
 construction is, liowever, rather simplified 
 by the rendering — a perfectly legitimate one, 
 . . . from following thee as a companion.^ 
 The woeful day. The word for " woeful " 
 is the same rendered " desperately wicked " 
 (ver. 9) ; the " day " of Judah's calamity is 
 metaphorically "sick," like the heart of 
 man. So, other words being used, Isa. xvii. 
 11 (end). Was right before thee; rather 
 (since some adjective must be supplied), loaa 
 manijesl before thee. He appeals to the all- 
 seeing Eye as a witness to his fidelity to his 
 mission. 
 
 Ver. 17. — Jeremiali reckons on Jehovah's 
 protection ; he therefore entreats that his 
 God will not bring hira to shame by leaving 
 his prophecies uufuIfiUed. A terror is a 
 weak rendering; a consternation would be 
 better. 
 
 Ver. 18. — (On this terrible execration, 
 with reference to Jeremiah's character, sea 
 the geneial Introduction.) Destroy them 
 with double destruction. " Double " here 
 means " amply sufiiclent " (comp. Kev. xviii. 
 6, aud see on ch. xvi. 18). 
 
 Vers. 19 — 27. — An exhortation to a mora 
 2 h: 
 
4J8 
 
 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [en. xvii. 1—27. 
 
 strict observance of the sabbath. The 
 reward held out is Jerusalem's continuance 
 in all its old pomp, both temporal and 
 spiritual, and the penalty the destruction 
 of the city by fire. This passage stands In 
 absolutely no connection ■with the preceding 
 and the following prophecies ; and we have 
 just the same sense of suspicion in meeting 
 with it here, in the midst of perfectly general 
 exhortations, as in reading the parallel 
 exhortations to sabbath-keeping in Isa. Ivi. 
 and Iviii., surrounded as they are by the 
 moving and almost evangelical rhetoric of 
 the second part of Isaiali. Geiger and Dr. 
 Eowland 'Williams have hence been led to 
 conjecture that this section (or part of it) 
 was introduced iuto the roll of Jeremiah's 
 prophecies to assist the reforming movement 
 of Kzra and Neliemiah. Certainly the re- 
 gard for the sabbath, so conspicuous in the 
 later Jmlaism, dates, so far as we can see, 
 from the time of Ezra and Nehemiah (see 
 Neh. xiii.), though it is credible enough 
 that the perception of the high importance 
 of this holy day (comp. Heine's ' Princessin 
 Sabbath ') began to acquire greater distinct- 
 ness as the other parts of the social and 
 religious organization were seen to be fading 
 away (cnmp. art. " Sabbath " in Smith's 
 ' Bible Dictionary '). 
 
 Ver. 19. — In the gate of the children of 
 the people. It is uncertain whii'h of the 
 gates of Jerusalem is meant, and not per- 
 fectly clear what is the meaning of the title. 
 Does it mean Israelites asoppoaed to foreign- 
 ers, or laymen as distinguished from priests ? 
 Whereby the kings of Judah eome in. Jeie- 
 raiah appears to use the phrase " kings of 
 Judah " in a particular sense (see on ver. 
 20). He may, no doubt, simply mean to 
 say that those who are from time to time 
 sovereigns of Judah enter by this gate. 
 But once grant that the prophet does some- 
 times use the phrase in a sense of his own, 
 and that in the very next verse, and it is 
 very difficult to avoid interpreting it so in 
 this passage. 
 
 Ver. 20. — Jeremiah addresses himself first 
 of all to the kings of Judah. As it would 
 be very unnatural for a public orator to 
 appeal to the yet unborn members of the 
 reigning dynasty, and as there are several 
 indications that the " house of David " was 
 able at this period, as also in that of Isaiah, 
 to exercise a decisive political and civil 
 influence, even, as appears from ch. xxi. 11, 
 12, monopolizing the judicial functions, it 
 is natural to suppose that " kings of Judah " 
 is here used in a very special sense, viz. of the 
 luembers of the various branches of the royal 
 family (" The sons of the king," Zeph. i. 8 ; 
 oump. oh. xxxvi. 26, " Jerahmeel, a king's 
 son"), and their detcendants, who received 
 the royal title by courtesy (parallels for this 
 
 will be found in Gesenius's ' Hebrew Thesau- 
 rus,' e.v. mdeJc). The queen-mother was pro- 
 bably the leader of this clan; "the mistress," 
 as she was called (see on ch. xiii. 18), and the 
 royal princes (among whom the " house of 
 Nathan," Zech. xii. 12, would doubtless be 
 reckoned), constituted in fact a body almost 
 as numerous as they did (according to 
 Brugsch Bey) in Egypt, and politically 
 much more influential ; so much so indeed 
 that only a king of unusual force of character, 
 like Hezekiah or Josiah, could venture, and 
 that timidly, to oppose them. The weak- 
 principled Zedekiah seems to have been 
 entirely dominated by this powerful caste, 
 and to have been little more than a maire du, 
 palaix (the same sense of the phrase is 
 required in ch. xix. 3, and probably in ch. 
 XXV. 18). 
 
 Ver. 21. — Take heed to yourselves ; rather. 
 Take heed heariUy, conscientiously ; literally, 
 ill your souls. So in Malaohi (ii. 15, lU), 
 " Take heed in your spirit " (not, " to your 
 spirit," as Authorized Version). 
 
 Ver. 22. — Neither do ye any work; ac- 
 cording to the fourth commandment (Exod. 
 XX. 10 ; Deut. v. 14). 
 
 Ver. 23. — This verse is modelled on ch. 
 vii. 26, 2H. 
 
 Ver. 25. — Parallel passage, oh. xxii. 4, 
 where, however, we simply meet with " Icings 
 sitting upon the throne of David,"not, as here, 
 " kings and princes." Has the latter weird 
 come in by accident, owing to the fiequeiit 
 combinution of kings and princes in Jeremiah 
 (i. 18; ii. 26; xxv. 18; xxxii. 32; xliv. 17, 
 21) ? Shall remain for ever ; rather, shall be . 
 inhahitedfor eier. 
 
 Ver. 26. — Paraltel passage for the cata- 
 logue of the districts of Judah, ch. xxxii. 41. 
 Three divisions are mentioned. (1) The 
 neighbourhood of Jerusalem (including the 
 "cities of Judah"); (2) the land of Ben- 
 jamin, i.e. the northern part of the kingdom ; 
 and (3) the tribe of Judah, with its three 
 subdivisions — the Sheiela or lowland countiy 
 by the Mediterranean Sea, the hill coun- 
 try, and the Negeb or " dry " south country 
 (comp. Josh. XV. 21 — 62). The sacrifices 
 are described with equal explicitness ; they 
 fall into two classes, the bloody (burnt offer- 
 ings and other sacrifices) and the unbloody 
 (the vegetable offering or minlchah, and the 
 incense which was strewed upon the min- 
 khah, Lev. ii. 1). And bringing sacrifices of 
 praise. This was, no doubt, the title of a 
 particular variety of sacrifices (Lev. vii. 12 ; 
 xxii. 29) ; here, however, it seems as if all 
 the preceding sacrifices were summed up 
 under this designation. St. Paul says, " In 
 everything give thanks ; " and this seems to 
 have been the prophet's ideal of the sacri- 
 fices of the future. 
 
CH. XVII. 1—27;] THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 419 
 
 HOMILETICS. 
 
 Ver. 1. — Engraved sin. I. Sin leaves a record of itself. It is not an isolated 
 act. It begets consequences, plants memories, creates guilt. The record remains even 
 if we do not read it. God still notes it, and will some day confront us with it. Hence 
 it is not enough to amend our ways for the future. We need to have past transgres- 
 sions blotted out if we are to be restored to peace with God. 
 
 II. The record op sin is engraved on the heart of the sinner. 1. It is written 
 on the memory. Men who have forsaken the scenes of their evil deeds cannot shake off 
 the clinging burden of the memory of them. The criminal is haunted by his crimes. 
 They people his dreams with horrors ; they overshadow his waking hours with gloom. 
 Even when sin is put out of mind it is probably buried in the secret chamber of memory, 
 to be ultimately brought to the light of consciousness. The experience of those who 
 have been recovered from drowning and from delirium suggests the idea that forgotten 
 meroories can be revived, and that probably the whole of the soul's experience is 
 indelibly written upon the memory. No other recording-angel may be wanted. The 
 soul carries its own indictment in the record it bears of its own conduct. 2. This is 
 also written on the affections. Sia begets the passion for sin. Vice springs from the 
 heart, and it corrupts the heart. That which is first committed under the stress of 
 temptation comes at length to be sought with the hunger of a natural appetite. 
 
 III. The record of sin is engraved on the altar of sacrifice. Judah desecrated 
 the altar of Jehovah with idolatrous rites. We desecrate Divine things by sinful con- 
 duct. 1. We cannot leave our guilt behind us when we enter the temple of worship. 
 If it is not repented of it will vitiate the worship. The sia of the week-day renders 
 worthless the offerings of the Sunday. 2. Sin directly connected with religion is 
 peculiarly wicked. The altar is defiled. Thus the offering of gifts from base motives, 
 deceit, and unholiness in worship, stamps our sins with peculiar guilt on the altar of God. 
 
 IV. This record of sin is naturally indelible. It is graven with an adamant. 
 1. It is, therefore, useless to ignore it. 2. It is vain to try to vjash it away by any 
 eifort of our own. 3. It is foolish to expect peace with God till this terrible hindrance 
 has been removed out of the way. 4. We have every motive to seek in penitence and 
 in faith that God should blot out our sin, not only from his book of remembrance, but 
 also from our hearts, even though it is so deeply written there that nothing short of the 
 creation of a new heart will remove it (Ps. li. 10). 
 
 Vers. 5 — 8. — The desert shrub and the flourishing tree. I. The desert shrub 
 EXEMPLIFIES THE CURSE OP WORLDLY CONFIDENCE. 1. Note the character of worldly 
 confidence. (1) Trust in man. There is a trust in man that is natural and right. The 
 foolish and wrong confidence is when man takes the place of God, when the highest 
 trust is in man, when the power of the prince, the skill of the physician, or the astute- 
 ness of the lawyer are thought to be sufficient to secure us against the greatest dangers. 
 (2) Eeliance on the arm of flesh. This illustrates the ultimate ground of such con- 
 fidence as trust in man. It turns to the flesh rather than to the spirit, i.e. to worldly 
 influences rather than to principles of truth, to the mortal rather than to the Divine, to 
 the man who will perish rather than to the God who is eternal. (3) The departure of 
 the heart from Ood. We cannot have a true confidence in God together with a supreme 
 worldly confidence. The one excludes the other. The tree cannot be growing both in 
 the desert and by the water-course. This departure is of the heart. In the heart we 
 trust. Outwardly we may still seem near to God, but if faith has gone the heart has 
 forsaken God. 2. Consider the curse of this worldly confidence. It makes one like a 
 desert shrub. (1) Dwarfed and stunted in growth — a shrub, not a tree--a miserable 
 . shrub of the desert. Though departure from God does not involve sudden destruction, 
 it lowers the spiritual energies, dwarfs the whole life. (2) Not even benefited by blessings 
 received. The shrub " shall not see when good cometh." The breath of spring, which 
 brings fresh bloom and growth to other plants, passes over it with no more fruitful 
 effects than the chill blasts of autumn produce. He who has departed from God and 
 lives only in worldly confidence derives no real benefit from the blessings that God still 
 sends him. (3) Suffering from lack of the chief good.. The shrub is in a parched land, 
 
420 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xvu. 1— 27. 
 
 is withered for lack of water (see ch. ii. 13). (4) Lonely. " In a salt land, and not 
 inhabited." The soul that is separated from God is essentially solitary, deserted, desti- 
 tute though immersed in the tumult of worldly society. 
 
 II. The flourishing tree exemplifies the blkssedness of tbust in God. 1 
 Note the character of trust in Gud. (1) It is intelligent. It is trust in God revealed 
 as Jehovah, as supreme, self-existent, eternal, known in the past for merciful helpful- 
 ness. (2) It is whole-hearted. It is a simple trust in God, not divided by partial 
 worldly confidence. (3) It is hopeful. " Whose hope the Lord is." The strongest faith 
 rises into hope. 2. Consider the blessedness of this trust in God. (1) Full and 
 flourishing life — a tree, not a shrub. He who trusts in God is not only endowed with 
 external blessings, he is enlarged and developed in his own life. (2) Nourished and 
 refreshed. The tree is planted by the waters, etc. Trust in God brings and plants us 
 near to the " river of life." (3) Secured against trouble. " And shall not see when 
 heat Cometh," etc. While the shrub derives no benefit from the most favourable 
 weather, the tree planted by the water does not sutler from the most trying. Trust 
 in God does not prevent the approach of trouble, but it fortifies us against sufl'ering real 
 harm from it. Hidden sources supply the Christian with spiritual nourishment when 
 outwardly the heavens are as brass and the earth as iron. (4) Perpetual fruitfulness. 
 " Neither shall cease from yielding fruit." Fruitfulness is a sign of health, perpetual 
 fruitfulness of unbroken health. Fruitfulness is a blessing. The Christian is most 
 blessed in being able to work for good, and to distribute blessings to others as the chief 
 glory of the tree is its fruit-bearing. 
 
 Vers. 9, 10. — The evil heart searched and judged. I. The evtl of the heart. 
 1. The most important question concerning a man is as to the state of his heart — his 
 thoughts, affections, intentions. In the heart we find the true man. The outer life is 
 but the clothing and may be the mask of the man. From the heart spring all the 
 actions of life. The character of the fountain determines that of the stream (Matt. xv. 
 18, 19). 2. The root of the evil of the heart is self-will. It is rugged above all things, 
 proud, not compliant with God's will, wrapped up in self. 3. The character of the evil 
 oi the heart is desperate sickness. (1) Sickness, for sin is a disease of the soul, though 
 one for which we are responsible, and it results in suffering, general derangement of 
 life, and finally death ; (2) desperate .sickness, for sin is no simple scratch on the skin of 
 life, no mere temporary functional disorder, but heart-disease, an organic constitutional 
 disease, terrible iu its present condition, alarming in its future prospects. 4. The evil 
 oi the heart is inscrutable to man. " Who can know it? " This is the case, (1) because 
 we cannot read the hearts of our fellow-men, but only judge from external conduct, 
 which is often deceptive; (2) because we are blinded to our own sin by pride, prejudice, 
 and self-admiration ; (3) because there is an intricacy and subtlety about all wickedness 
 which makes it difficult to trace it out, a shamefacedness that seeks concealment, and 
 an essential falseness that belies its own nature; and (4) because the disease has made 
 so great progress, has penetrated so deeply, ramified so far, and infected every function 
 of the soul so completely, that it is beyond all measure. 
 
 II. The Divine search and judgment. The heart is difficult to understand, but 
 God thorouglily searches it. " Who can know it?" " I the Lord." 1. God searches 
 and tries (1) by his own silent, all-penetrating gaze that detects the darkest secrets ; 
 and (2) by the outward action of providence in events v hich test a man's nature and 
 reveal It to the world, for the judgment of God is ultimately open and with a fair trial, 
 that all may see and acquiesce in the righteousness of the sentence. 2. God knows the 
 heart. The search is effectual. The trial is fruitful. God knows us, while the world 
 1.S deceived. How foolish, then, to play the hypocrite! for it matters little what men 
 think of us, but God's thoughts concerning us are of infinite moment. God will judcre 
 justly and reasonably, for he knows all. 3. God will administer judgment according to 
 the character of men's actions revealed by his searching and trying. God's knowled<'9 
 IS followed by his action. He is not simply a great contemplative Being. He has an 
 arm to make bare for action as well as eyes to see the evil and the good. Judgment 
 will be for our actions, but according as these are read in the light of the state of oui 
 heart. God searche-s and gives to men according to their ways. This jud-rment is 
 uuiversui—' t»j eveiy man," discriminating— to each "according to his ways" and 
 
CH. XVII. 1—27.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEKEMIAH. 421 
 
 natural — " aconrding to the/ruit of his doings, according to their natural products, each 
 in its own kind, so that men shall reap what they sow as by a law of nature. 
 
 Ver. 11. — Partridge-neats. I. Ill-gotten riches betoken an unnatural con- 
 dition OP society. It is not natural that strange eggs should be found in a partridu-e- 
 nest. Violence and fraud and more subtle sharp-practice are proofs of a disorganized 
 state of society. 
 
 II. Ill-gotten riches may be mingled with just gains. It may not be that all 
 the eggs are strange. The business man who is dishonest in some transactions may be 
 honest in others ; but his very correctness may be only a cloak for his fraud. 
 
 III. Ill-gotten riches may prosper for a time. The eggs are hatched. Schemes 
 of fraud succeed. The wicked prosper. 
 
 IV. Ill-gotten riches will ultimately be lost. How often does the ablest 
 device of dishonesty fail of ultimate success ! The swindler is taken at the height of 
 his prosperity. If he is not discovered he cannot take his wealth with him when 
 he dies. 
 
 V. Ill-gottbn riches leave the possessor of them convicted of folly. He 
 thinks himself supremely clever, and smiles with contempt on his credulous victims. 
 But he is really the greatest dupe of his own devices, since in the end all his labour is 
 wasted and his ultimate condition ruinous (Luke xii. 20, 21); " Honesty is the best 
 policy " in the long run, though, as has been shrewdly observed, no man is truly 
 honest who only acts on this maxim. 
 
 Vers. 12^14. — The Ilope of Israel. I. The revelation of the Hope of Israel. 
 1. God is revealed as the Hope of his people ; i.e. as the source (1) of their highest good 
 — a " fear " at first (Gen. xxxi. 42); but when better known a " hope ; " (2) of a good not 
 yet attained — a hope, not a full fruition ; but (3) of a good assured for the future — a true 
 hope resting on good promises, not a vain dream. 2. God is thus revealed in connection 
 with the sanctuary, (1) because the worship of God enlarges the knowledge of God ; (2) 
 because the sanctuary is the centre of religious instruction, either by symbolic service 
 as that of the temple, or by direct teaching as that of the Christian Churches. God must 
 be known to be loved and trusted. They who neglect the duty of public worship lose 
 the privilege of receiving light on Divine truth which would be a comfort and help to 
 them. 3. Experience confirms this revelation of God. The glorious character of God 
 has been true of him " from the beginning." The antiquity of the temple was the 
 proof of this to the Jew, the history of Christendom should be more so to the 
 Christian. 
 
 II. The folly of forsaking the Hope of Israel. 1. It is foolish to forsake God. 
 We know that it is wrong ; we have to learn that it is also injurious to ourselves. The 
 character of God should make this apparent. Such a character as has been above 
 ascribed to him shows that he is " the Fountai-n of living waters," i.e. the one Source of 
 pure, life-giving energy. Though no true religion can be founded on low motives of 
 self-interest, self-interest should at least show us the mistake of irreligion. 2. The 
 results of forsaking God are sAcume and destrnction : (1) nhame, because the stay of 
 confidence which was chosen in preference to God is seen at last to be a rotten reed, 
 while God is manifested as worthy of all trust ; and (2) destruction, for " they shall be 
 written in the earth ; " sin is graven as with a pen of iron upon a rock, but the life of 
 the sinner is written in dust, to be dissipated and forgotten, a wasted career, with 
 nothing solid and lasting about it. 
 
 III. The prayer of confidence in the Hope of Israel. (Ver. 14.) 1. A prayer for 
 healing. Though we hope in God we may suffer at present. We need not so much 
 improved circumstances as a bettering of the condition of our own souls — not so much 
 wealth as health. 2. A prayer for salvation. The prophet feels himself in danger. 
 Dangers of various kinds wait on all of us. Salvation is a large word, meaning 
 deliverance from all real harm. It is a large thing to ask for, but not too much for 
 faith. 3. A prayer of assurance — " I shall be healed." What God does he does 
 effectually. 4. A prayer of humble thankfulness — " For thou art my Praise." True 
 faith rests, not on our merits, but on God's mercy, and therefore all prayer should 
 confess his goodness and all supplication be mingled with thanksgiving (Phil. iv. ti). 
 
422 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xvii. 1—27. 
 
 Vers. 19 — 27. — The sabhath. As Gentilps we were never under the special regulations 
 of the Jewish Law, and as Christians we are free from all formal laws of " ordinances," 
 and called to free spiritual obedience. Like St. Paul, we may be able to see that no 
 one day is more sacred than other days (Rom. xi v. 5) ; and if we are unable to go so 
 far as this, we must admit that there is, in the New Testament, no direct command to 
 Christians to observe the first day of the week just as the Jews observed the seventh. 
 Still, to him who is in sympathy with the thoughts of God and desires to do the 
 will of God rather than to seize excuses for liberty only to exercise his own self-will, 
 there is much in the Old Testament sabbath requirements which must command the 
 reverence of his conscience as springing out of Eternal Divine counsels, and representing 
 what is inherently good and profitable. 
 
 I. Consider in what the observance or the sabbath consisted. 1. Jtest. " Bear 
 no burden." Work is holy, but so also is rest, and if work usurp the place of rest it 
 becomes unholy, as anything does which is in the wrong place. Men bear burdens on 
 their minds. If the shop is shut but the mind of the tradesman continues devoted to 
 business cares on the Sunday, he is making no more sabbath of the day than if he were 
 openly buying and selling. The rest needed for refreshment is rest from the toils and 
 anxieties of the mind, quite as much as a cessation of manual labour. 2. Sallowing 
 the day. The Jew treated the sabbath day as essentially holy. We may have freer 
 notions. But we, too, can hallow the day if we devote it to sacred uses. We should 
 remember that it is not the day that hallows the conduct, but the conduct that hallows 
 the day. Sacred days, like sacred places, are not endowed with a mystical consecration, 
 which transfers its grace to whatever is done in them, but they are simply made sacred 
 by the acts of goodness to which they are devoted. 3. Personal care to observe the 
 rest and sanctity of the day. " Take heed in your souls ; " " diligently hearken." The 
 observance of the sabbath was to the Jew a duty to be personally regarded and con- 
 scientiously executed. If we feel any corresponding duty, the example of the more lax 
 conduct of others should not affect us, nor should we be content with the outward 
 decorum which satisfies the world. 
 
 II. Consider the obligation to keep the sabbath. 1. The sabbath was instituted 
 by the command of Qod. It was required by one of the ten commandments, and thus 
 exalted to a position of peculiar sanctity. To the Jew who felt that this law of God 
 was binding on him, the duty of implicit obedience was imperative. When once we 
 know God's will no valid excuse can be found for neglecting it. Though the letter of 
 the Mosaic Law was limited and temporal, the spirit of its obligations is eternal, since 
 they spring from the changeless character of God. It is for us to discover the eternal 
 Divine principle which led to the institution of the sabbath, and see that this is 
 obeyed. 2. It corresponded to the constitution of nature. Changes in nature are 
 recurrent. Rest and labour alternate in the physical world. 3. It was designed to 
 henefit men. (Mark ii. 27.) The wealthy might not have felt the requirement, but the 
 burden-bearers and hand-labourers did, and must have enjoyed the repose it afforded 
 them. Do we need this ? If in quieter times such a rest was necessary, is it needless 
 in the rush and roar of our wearing modern life ? If seasons set apart for religious 
 observances were ever profitable, are they useless amid the pressing claims and innu- 
 merable distractions of the age we live in ? 
 
 HI. Consider the blessedness of observikg the sabbath. The Jews had promises 
 of blessings to the court, the city, the country, and the Church (see Matthew Henry, in 
 loc). 1. This might be expected as the reward of obedience. It is always blessed to 
 do the will of God, though the first doing of it is often painful. 2. This might also be 
 expected, because the sabbath was made for man. It was a beneficent institution. It 
 is found by experience that the observance of a weekly day of rest is conducive to the 
 prosperity of a people. 3. Accordingly, the neglect of the sabbath might be expected 
 to bring disaster (ver. 27). This was the case with the Jew, not because of the 
 inherent sanctity of the day or of the essential immorality of working on it, but 
 because the breach of tlie sabbath was a breach of the Law, an act of overt rebellion 
 against God. If we disobey what we believe to be the will of God, this must be to our 
 own hurt. 4. The biesseduess of the observance of the Jewish sabbath teaches us all 
 to avoid treating the day of rest as a gloomy day, and making childreU and dependants 
 dislike it on account of the formalism or harshness of our behaviour. The day of rest 
 
CH. xvii, 1—27.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 423 
 
 should be the brishtest day of the week. To the Christian, Sinday is "the Lord's 
 day," the day of Easter gladness, commemorating the joy of the Resurrection. 
 
 HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. 
 
 Vers. 1,2. — Sin's record. I. The beoobd is ineffaceable. This is contrary to tlie 
 notions of very many. Sin, when it is comaiitted, wears the aspect of insignificance 
 and triflingness. It is the gratification of a momentary impulse, of a personal and 
 individual character ; and it is not supposed that any one else, or at any rate any large 
 number of persons, can be affected by it. The sinner supposes that he himself will be 
 able to condone it, and that, when the active prompting of which he is conscious retires 
 into the background, he will be as he was before. All sins, e.g. idolatry, which deeply 
 engage the affections and the highest capacities of men, have a lasting influence upon 
 their character. And when they are systematized into a religion they exert a daily 
 influence which at last fixes itself. But the same is true, in a very serious degree, with 
 all sins. They are contradictions of conscience and the Law of God, and can only be 
 repeated without scruple by inverting and hardening the moral nature. In this sense 
 we are all guilty before Grod. Our every sin has had its influence upon us, and has 
 left its indelible impress. Conscience stores the guilty memory in its archives; 
 habit perpetuates the evil impulse in conduct ; and our relations and associations are 
 involved io the wicked practices which ensue. 
 
 II. How USELESS, THEEBFOKE, ATTEMPTING TO EXCULPATE OURSELVES ! This arrange- 
 ment, by which sin leaves its impress upon the character and life, is of God. It is a 
 law of nature, atid cannot be set aside by private understanding. Bveu where it 
 appears to be inoperative, its effects are only accumulating themselves in a more hidden 
 manner, and some day they will be the more overwhelming in their manifestation. It 
 is the common question of the sinner, when addressed by the ministers of God, 
 " Wherein have we sinned?" But this only shows a dulness of spiritual self-know- 
 ledge and a general lowering of the moral standard. Others are not so oblivious to the 
 fact. They have witnessed the excesses and been involved in the complications of 
 their immorality. In this case the children whose companions had been sacrificed to 
 Moloch looked on the horns of the altars with aversion and loathing. It was a memory 
 of horrid cruelty never to be effaced. There is every reason to believe that the sin we 
 commit does not cease its work when its immediate outward eflects take place. An 
 ever deepening and widening circle of influence results. And, just as now it is 
 impossible for us to plead innocence with so many proofs of our guilt staring us in 
 the face, in the great day of judgment the secret sins will be set in the light of God's 
 countenance, and the thoughts and intents of the heart revealed. Our character 
 will be our condemnation, and many witnesses will rise on every side to swell its 
 testimony. 
 
 III. How NECESSAET, TOO, THAT THE PRINCIPLE OF SALVATION SHOULD BE BADICAL 
 
 AND THOROUGH ! The siuner needs a saving power that can penetrate to his inmost 
 nature, cleansing the conscience, rectifying the character, and making the weaknesses 
 and defects created by sin a means of grace. And this is supi'lied by the gospel, which 
 furnishes a new motive and principle to the character and a new law to the conduct. 
 So profound is its effect that it may be said by the saved sinner, "Old things are 
 passed away ; behold, all things are become new." It is as a character-power that the 
 " cross " asserts its pre-eminence over every other principle of reformation. There is 
 nothing superflcial, partial, or one-sided about it. — M. 
 
 Vers. 9, 10. — Heart mysteries and their Interpreter. The repudiation of his charges 
 by Judah and Jerusalem leads the prophet to advert to the causes of this behaviour. 
 They not only declare their innocence when guilty, but pursue after unholy aims on 
 the plea of serving God. How are such ignorance and infatuation produced? The 
 reply is that the natural heart is deceitful and corrupt above everything else. 
 
 I. The mystery op the heart. 1. It is a " mystery of iniquity." The heart 
 is affected by what it contains. It is itself the greatest dupe and sufferer. And, 
 being so inextricably bound up with evil, it is involved in its danger and judgment. 
 
424 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xvii. 1—27. 
 
 2. Exceeding human diagnosis. No one is so ignorantof his own depravity as the sinner 
 himself; and no earthly eye can read the true sigiiificance of the symptoms. 3. Pre- 
 eminent in this respect. It is the source of it all. The master is greater than his 
 work. The centre contains all the threads of connection. 
 
 II. Its Interpreter. 1. Jehovah. Because (1) he made it ; (2) he is related to it in 
 its constitution and conscience ; (3) " All things are naked and laid open before the 
 eyes of him with wliom we have to do." 2. This qualifies and authorizes him to' judge. 
 It is not his only qualification, nor is that the sole reason for his knowledge. But it 
 is obvious that, as knowing man so intimately, he also is able to judge of his state. 
 And he alone has the standard of perfect righteousness. — M. 
 
 "Vers. 12, Vi.— The saints Befuge. The construction of the clauses of the twelfth 
 verse is very difficult, and it is not easy to determine their exact relations. It may be 
 better to take them as simple and independent exclamations, united in their being 
 addressed to a common object rather than by any grammatical nexus : " throne of 
 glory, height from the beginning, place of our sanctuary ! " But, taken by itself, this 
 would have no particular sense. It is only as a preface to ver. 13 that we can 
 thoroughly understand its bearing. Jeremiah, full of anxiety and distress at the 
 general depravity, looks instinctively upon Jerusalem, and reflects that only through 
 that which it represents can the future of Israel be secured. There is a gradually 
 ascending climax of spiritual reference, culminating in the words, " Hope of Israel, 
 Jehovah." 
 
 I. The savino power of the holy city is derived prom him op whom it is the 
 SHRINE. It is obvious that the descriptions of Jerusalem are all relative to this, which 
 gathers up and concentrates everything in a person. The series of epithets of vers. 12 
 and 13 are cumulative, and express a gradually deepening spiritual insight. Through 
 the material the prophet looks until his eye rests upon the spiritual. Ood is the centre 
 of attraction and the Saviour of the worshipping soul. Everything in the ritual and 
 teaching of the temple pointed to him. The glory of the temple was his. It was only 
 as he condescended to use it that men could find therein the spiritual rest and safety 
 they needed. And the same is true of the Church of Christ. It is not the institution 
 which saves, but Christ working in and through it. There is danger of this being 
 overlooked by non-spiritual men. Association connects the grace of salvation with the 
 means or instrumentality, and ignores the original source. It is the virtue of the 
 prophet's insight that it penetrates the veil of rites and ordinances, and fastens itself 
 upon God as the only saving power. 1. Spiritual men should examine themselves and 
 see whether they rent upon this true spiritual foundation. The process of the prophet's 
 mind is one through which all true saints have to go. In many instances there will 
 not be the eajjle-like directness and happy immediacy of his discovery. There may be 
 clouds and difficulties. But no true satisfaction can be attained until he be discovered 
 and rested in. We are all prone to stay ourselves upon prescription, antiquity, 
 authority, that are merely human. The doctrine, the rite, the priesthood, may inter- 
 vene, not to unite, but to separate. 2. It behoves those who call themselves by Qod's 
 name to exalt and honour him. If there is danger of his being ignored or pushed into 
 the background, the more need is there of a bold and frequent assertion of his power 
 and grace. 3. It is only by a living, experimental, practical faith that this connection 
 with Ood can be sustained. The sorrow and trouble of Jeremiah drive him inwards 
 for comfort. His meditation was like a voyage of the soul through the straits and 
 shallows of ceremonialism into the great ocean of the personal presence and love of 
 God. 
 
 II. The threefold claim op God's city to the regard of men. Jerusalem, as 
 the seat of the theocracy, was : 1. The seat of authority and splendour. The power of 
 Israel amongst and against the nations consisted in the spiritual influence emanating from 
 Jerusalem and its temple. The houefe of God, as the centre of all rule and influence, is 
 a throne. It is its own protection, and its authority is self-sustained and self-commended. 
 It is a refuge for the oppressed and a place of justice for the wronged. " Go round about 
 her : tell the towers thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks ; " for this city is our city, and 
 " this God is our God for ever and ever." " Because thou hast made the Almighty 
 thy habitation ; there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come ni^h thy 
 
CH. XVII. 1—27.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEllEMIAH. 425 
 
 dwelling." And this power to enToroe its mandates and its authority brought with it 
 the glory of security, honour, and respect. Its whole history had been one of growing 
 lustre and renown, and its influence had ever "made for righteousness." The saved 
 sinner breathed freely within its precincts, and the victories of Ui vine love were celebrated 
 within its courts. Those who believe in Christ constitute a Church which is his abode 
 and " the praise of his glory." The distinction and eternal glory of God is that he is 
 "just, and yet the Justifier of the ungodly." 2. It is chosen from eternity. Although 
 only for a few centuries the actual centre of Divine rule in the earth, it was not by acci- 
 dent it had become so. From the beginning it was foreseen in God's thought : " It was 
 set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the world was." This was a convic- 
 tion deeply fixed in the hearts of all true Israelites. The eternal purpose of God had 
 not only determined upon Jerusalem as his dwelling-place, but, through Jerusalem, that 
 purpose was being carried out in the redemjition of mankind. And the Church of 
 Christ must be regarded in like manner as the abode of God's Spirit, chosen from 
 eternity. It is a new dignity for the saints that they bad been set ajiart for this long 
 ere sin bad desolated the world. It links the Church with celestial and eternal institu- 
 tions, and precludes the possibility of its ever having originated in accident or human 
 contrivance. — M. 
 
 Vers. 14 — 18. — Divine prophecy and human impatience. I. The credit of the 
 PKOPHET IS BODND UP WITH HIS MESSAGE. He is consoious that this is the case. It is 
 the test laid down by the Law (Deut. xviii. 21, 22), and that it should be so is bene- 
 ficial. This is the universal law for all who declare the will of God. It is tried by 
 human experience, by spiritual i-esults. The prophet is expected to " heal." 
 
 II. Men thy him by challenging a speedy fulfilment. Just as in nature men, 
 as Bacon says, would anticipate, so in grace. There is a lack of patience, or impatience 
 is made a mask for unbelief. In either sign it is a lack of faith. So men manufacture 
 tests for prayer, for reality of conscience. 
 
 III. He finds EBF0GE AND COMFORT : 1. In the answer of a good conscience toward 
 Ood. It was not idleness, love of filthy lucre, or eagerness for pre-eminence that led 
 him to the work, but a consciousness that he was speaking God's own word, no man's 
 fancy or device. 2. In earnest prayer that Ood will make good his word. There are 
 elements in this prayer from which we shi-ink. But should we ? The fulfilling of evil 
 prophecy may sometimes be anational benefit. 3. In the unshaken faith that what Ood 
 willeth will he. He appears to be sore distressed. Perhaps personal perplexity enters 
 into his grief. But there is no sign of lack of faith in its ultimate fulfilment. What 
 a support is that to him who foretells or does the will of God ! " In due season we shall 
 reap if we faint not." " Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass 
 away." — M. 
 
 Vers. 19 — 27. — The sabbath and its obligation. I. It was of universal obligation. 
 The prophet was to stand in " the gate of the children of the people " and " all the 
 gates " to proclaim its sanctity. The laity and the priests, the princes and the people, 
 were all bound to observe it, as one of the patrinrchal and Mosaic institutions. It is 
 expressly enjoined in one of the " ten words," and without reservation of any class. 
 
 II. How it should be observed. 1. By rest. Labour was to cease as far as prac- 
 ticable. The body was to be set at liberty from its burden. Traffic was to cease. The 
 constant stream which flowed out and in the gates of the temple might still go on, but 
 for a different purpose. Care and worry were to be laid aside. The mind was to 
 abstain from business. 2. £y religious exercises. (Ver. 26.) It is worthy of remark 
 that this portion of the command is not spoken of as a binding duty like the other, 
 or a merely negative one. It is referred to as part of the blessing that would ensue on 
 thorough sabbath observances ; that they should have sacrifices to give, and be willing 
 and eager to offer them. With the cessation of secular traffic the religious instincts of 
 the people would recover themselves, and their natural channel would be filled. The 
 true rest of man consists, not in mere abstinence from labour, but in the free play of his 
 higher faculties — a chanse of occupation and interest. And the real wealth and success 
 of man will show itself in his religious gifts. They are poor who have nothing to spare 
 for God. 'i'heir conception of life is such that the true riches exist not lor tiicm, how- 
 
426 THE BOOK OF THE PliOPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xvn. 1—27. 
 
 ever they may have succeeded in accumulating material resources. The chief end of 
 man is thus to be secured in the increase of Divine service and the hearty dedication of 
 himself and his substance to Jehovah. 
 
 III. The blessings that would attend upon sabbath observance. 1. National 
 perpetuity. Jerusalem, the centre of the theocracy, should remain for ever. This indi- 
 cates the essential and fundamental position occupied by the sabbath amongst Mosaic 
 institutions. It was in this way that the idea and authority of Jehovah were to be 
 impressed upon the lieart of Israel. But to the preservation of this primitive revelation 
 was due the strength of Israel within herself and against the heathen. 2. National 
 prosperity. It is a goodly spectacle that is presented in this promise. 'J'here is no lack 
 of gifts nor of willingness to give. Only a time of profound peace and of abounding 
 harvests could furnish such a demonstration. • 3. National unity. Jerusalem is the 
 convergent point of many pilgrim trains : " from the places about, . . . from the land of 
 Benjamin, and from the plain, and from the mountains, and from the south." In this 
 way the brotherhood and the solidarity of the people would be sealed. 4. National 
 piety. This is the natural outcome even of rudimental religious observances. It is the 
 tendency of true religion to increase upon itself. It cannot remain stationary. There- 
 fore this outburst of enthusiasm and Divine service. 
 
 IV. How IT IS eepbesentbd in EVANGELioAii TIMES. So far as it was a physical 
 requirement for the health and efficiency of man, it must still be observed. This is a 
 question for comparative physiology. But the essence of the sabbath is rather in its 
 religious observance. What becomes of that? The spirit of it is still preserved in the 
 Lord's day, although under new associations and under other obligations. — M. 
 
 Ver. 1. — " The sin of Judah." That which the prophet has to say concerning it in 
 this part of his prophecy is in answer to the question of ch. xvi. 10, 11, where Judah 
 inquires what their sin is. In reply, the prophet — 
 
 I. Recites their iniquities. (Vers. 11, 12.) 
 
 II. Denounces G-od's judgments. (Vers. 13 — 18.) 
 
 III. Cites witnesses against them. — 0. 
 
 Ver. 12. — " The place of our sanctuary^ Some four hundred years had passed 
 between the date of these words and the marriage of Solomon with the daughter of 
 the Egyptian king. But that remote event, fruitful of consequences as it was at the 
 time, was fruitful also in results for generation after geueration in the centuries to come. 
 And it is to one of those results that this verse has reference, or rather was occasioned 
 by it. For ever since that marriage there had been an Egyptian party in the court of 
 Judah, which sought to sway the affairs of Judah in harmony with those of Egypt. 
 On the other hand, there were the representatives of another near and mighty 
 monarchy which sought to render Judah subservient to their interests. This was 
 the Assyrian power. There was consequently a perpetual tendency on the part of 
 Judah, when trouble came, to make alliance with one party or another. Now the 
 Egyptian alliance was preferred, and now the Assyrian — Isa. xxx. and the history of the 
 reign of Josiah and his death are instances in proof. But the prophets of God were 
 ever against these alliances, and lifted up their voices, though in vain, in protest. These 
 verses, 5 — 12, are one of those despised utterances, denouncing the false trust and 
 exhorting to the true. This twelfth verse — 
 
 I. Speaks op the temple at Jerusalem. 1. For that temple has a throne. It 
 was the earthly throne of God. There was the mercy-seat and the cherubim bow- 
 ing in profound homage ov.er it, and between them was the visible presence of the 
 glory of God, that Shechinah, that wondrous appearance so bright and awful that but 
 one out of all Israel, and he only once a year, could look thereupon and live. " la Salem 
 was his tabernacle, and his dwelling-place in Zion." 2. And it was a glorious throne. 
 By reason of its external magnificence ; but more especially of the glorious manifesta- 
 tions of God which had been seen in connection with it. 3. And a high as well as a 
 glorious throne. Not only because Jerusalem was a mountain-city, the loftiest in the 
 world, so high and lifted up was the " mountain of the Lord's house," but also because 
 of the siiiritual glory— so far excelling all other— which belonged to it. The ancient 
 psalmists and prophets were never tired of declaring and demonstrating how the Lord 
 
CH. XVII. 1—27.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 427 
 
 was " King above all gods." 4. Venerahle also : " from the beginning," from the first 
 days of their national life, God had chosen a place for his Name — beneath the rugged 
 cliffs of Sinai then, and now in the magnificent temple, the place of their sanctuary. 
 But— 
 
 II. Is DESIGNED TO SUMMON God's PEOPLE TO TRUST IN HIM. 1. Por tO aSSert that 
 
 the place of their sanctuary was a " throne," was to assert that Jehovah was a King. 
 Kings occupy thrones. The sovereignty of God is declared by the prophet's words. 
 And what a King! How glorious, let all the records of their race declare. How pre- 
 eminent over all the gods of the nations, let the gods of Egypt, of Philistia, of Tyre, 
 and others confess. And he was the eternal Ood. " From the beginning " his rule and 
 majesty had been confessed. But the prophet reminds his countrymen of all this that 
 they might see and own the folly of trusting in gods of the heathen as they were so 
 prone to do. 2. And he reminds them of the nearness of Ood. For the place of their 
 sanctuary was his court, his throne, his abode. Therefore to forsake such a God, and 
 one so near, for idol-gods, and they afar off, — what folly, what ingratitude, what sin 
 that ! But the same memory cherished concerning God, his glorious sovereignty, his 
 all-superintending power and his nearness to us, — how would this strengthen and cheer 
 our hearts oftentimes! Our sins and sorrows, our faint-heartedness, our fears and 
 dismay, are all largely owing to our forgetfulness of that glorious and precious truth 
 which the prophet here declares. And — 
 
 III. Mat be taken as a setting forth op what our sanctuaries should be. 1. 
 For Ood should rule in them. A Christian Church, whether we speak of the fabric or the 
 people, should be a throne of God. His Law supreme, his will the rule confessed of all. 
 Human governance in any shape or form which will infringe on the Divine authority, is 
 forbidden. Christ is the Head of the Church, and the " crown rights of the Redeemer " 
 should be jealously maintained. 
 
 " Let CsBsar'a dues be ever paid 
 To Caesar and his throne, 
 But consoienoes and souls were made 
 To be the Lord's alone." 
 
 2. And if our churches be the Lord's throne, he will make it " a glorious high throne." 
 We should try to make our churCh buildings glorious outwardly, so far as we may, 
 coveting what is splendid, majestic, beautiful, in architecture, music, adornment, to lay 
 as a tribute at our Sovereign's feet. Where, consistently with other claims, this may be 
 done, it should be. But he himself will make our Churches his " glorious high throne," 
 by coming into their midst. On how many a Sunday his people have known that he 
 has been with them ! 
 
 " The King himself comes near 
 And feasts his saints to-day." 
 
 And by asserting his power over men's hearts. This is his most glorious power — to 
 sway the spirit, to lead the will, to bend the heart. And this, by his Spirit in connec- 
 tion with the proclamation of the Word of his grace, he will do, and so the Church will 
 become " a glorious high throne " of the Lord. 3. And because of " the communion 
 of saints," and the consequent union of the Church of to-day with the Church of all the 
 ages past, therefore the Church is God's throne which has been "from the beginning." 
 The Church of to-day is in the honoured succession of the Church of the first days, 
 through its long line of patriarchs, prophets, martyrs, saints, and thus may claim to 
 have been the " glorious high throne " of the Lord " from the beginning." Let us cherish 
 and seek to hand on this succession, and thus justify our claim to the august title con- 
 tained in these words. But most of all these words — 
 
 IV. Remind us op Christ and his cross, the trdb sanctuary op souls. The cross 
 of the Lord Jesus Christ — type of all ignominy and shame, though it was — has become 
 the Lord's " glorious high throne." From it and by it he has wielded a sovereignty 
 so glorious, so wide, so holy, so enduring, that, far more than the mercy-seat, its ancient 
 symbol, it deserves' thus to be described. Whether we consider the number of his 
 subjects, their character, the means by which his rule over them has been won and is 
 sustained, or the nature of his rule, — all justify the ascription to his cross and to hiui 
 
428 THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xvii; 1—27. 
 
 the supreme reference of these words. Let each one ask in conclusion — Is the cross of 
 Christ the place of our sanctuary, the place where we worship, the beloved retreat of 
 our souls ? God grant it may be 1 — C. 
 
 Ver. 17. — " Be not a terror unto me." It is a common observation how all things are 
 affected by the medium through which we view them. This is true in regard to the 
 natural vision, but yet more true in regard to that which is mental and spiritual. Thus 
 Grod, whom the prophet speaks of (ver. 13) as " the Hope of Israel," the " Fountain of 
 living waters," and as the alone true Healer, he now prays not to be " a terror " unto 
 him. 
 
 I. God is so to the ungodly. All his attributes are terrible to them. His holiness, 
 for it condemns their sin. 'Eis justice, for it demands their punishment. His power, for 
 it reveals the means whereby he can requite them. His love, for it makes their sin with- 
 out excuse. His wisdom, for it renders them unable to deceive him. Hence it is that 
 of the wicked it is said, " God is not in all his thoughts." They like not to retain 
 God in their knowledge. To think steadily of them must be a terror to their souls. 
 Bu^- 
 
 II. He seems so at times even to the godly. God is to them what in their 
 happier moments they delight to call him — their Father, their Redeemer, their 
 Strength, their Refuge (cf. ch. xvi. 19). But at times he seems to be " a terror " unto 
 them. The causes of this are sometimes : 1. Morbid state of health. 2. Lack of sub- 
 mission to the Divine will. 3. Backsliding. 4. False theological teaching. 5. Dwelliug 
 too much on the darker and more mysterious aspects of the Divine providence. 6. 
 Depression of spirits. 7. Prolonged affliction. 
 
 in. But truer and brighter thoughts op God mat be regained. Various means 
 may be suggested. 1. Dwellvig resolutely on the mercies and loving-kindnesses of Ood. 
 This is why St. Paul bids the " careful," those weighed down with care, to make known 
 their requests to God, not only "by prayer and supplication," but "with thanks- 
 giving " also. And elsewhere he bids us " in everything give thanks." For this com- 
 pels us to go over in our minds the happier circumstances of our lot, and when we do 
 this we shall find — 
 
 « Our cheerful cry will oftener be, 
 ' See what the Lord hath done for me.' " 
 
 2. And, as the words of St. Paul teach, "prayer" will help us. Wa 
 
 " Kneel and cast our load, 
 E'en while we pray, upon our God, 
 Then rise with lightened cheer." 
 
 The public worship of God in his sanctuary, in union with his people, — how often, like 
 Hannah, the soul has come to God's house burdened but gone away " lightened " ! 3. 
 And " supplication." This tells of the more private, personal outpourings of the soul 
 
 before God. Like the supplication in Gethsemane compared with the prayer the 
 
 Lord's Prayer — given for the common united use of his people. Here, too, vast relief is 
 found, and the cloud clears away between us and God, and his face shines upon us 
 once more. 4. Careful conscientious obedience and perseverance therein. 5. Seeking 
 to comfort others. We learn in teaching, and this is true of the love of God as well 
 as of other truths. 6. Coming again to the cross of Christ as having nothing, but look- 
 ing for all in him. — C. 
 
 Vers. 19 — 27. — Sabhath sanctification. I. In what it consists. Not in the mere 
 Judaic strictness of the Old Testament Law, or of that set forth in these verses. All 
 that might be, and yet in its true sense the sabbath be flagrantly violated and its pur- 
 pose destroyed. But in : 1. Mest. This to be both of body and mind. The student may 
 no more pursue his studies than the labourer his toil. Rest both of body and mind 
 from their ordinary pursuits ; rest, not mere slothfulness, but such as will recreate the 
 e.\hausted limbs or brain. 2. Worship. Not that it is to absolve other days from 
 worship or to sanction tlieir unhallowed use, but to lead to the more religious reo-ard of 
 all our days, thu one day in seven is specially set apart. 3. Charity. In works of 
 
CH. xvu. 1—27.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 429 
 
 mercy and love to our fellow-men. Proclaiming the gospel, teaching the young, visiting 
 the sick, relieving the poor. 
 
 II. It is of Divine command. It is coeval with the creation of man (Gen. i. 31 ; 
 ii. 1 — 3 ; Exod. xx. 8 — 11). And its embodiment in the moral Law seems to denote its 
 permanence and abiding obligation. 
 
 III. Its tkansfbb to the first day of the week does not alter its obligation. 
 Our Lord taught us " the sabbath was made for man," and therefore, though for various 
 reasons its observance was in substance transferred from the seventh day to the first, yet, 
 because the need is permanent, the obligation is likewise. 
 
 IT. All God's laws — as well as his written Law — sanction it. Those that are : 
 1. Physical. The body requires it, is blessed by it, harmed if deprived of it. 2. Heligious 
 Religion demands set times and observances. Without these it will die out. The 
 sabbath, therefore, is imperatively needed if religion is to be maintained amongst any 
 people. 3. Moral. Secular pursuits tend to absorb all the energies of the soul. World- 
 liness is dominant enough as it is in every man ; but the break of the sabbath does 
 much to hold these mighty but malevolent forces in check, and gives opportunity for the 
 exercise of other and counteracting ones. 4. Social. The indebtedness of happy family life, 
 of prosperous national life, of friendship between man and man, to the weekly day of rest 
 is unspeakable (cf. prize essay, ' Workman's Testimony to the Sabbath '). 5. Spiritual. 
 What records have the sabbaths of spiritual blessing gained on and through the holy 
 observances of that day? Sinners won to God, burdened consciences blessed with 
 peace, tempted souls strengthened, sad and troubled ones made joyful in God, believers 
 helped forward in the heavenly road, etc. All these facts attest the graciousness and 
 the obligation of the command to hallow God's sabbath. And, on the other hand, its 
 disregard has ever been followed by moral and spiritual and often secular deterioration. 
 It has been ill with those who have set at nought this sure law of God. Therefore let 
 us each one do what we may to preserve to our land the unspeakable blessing of the 
 weekly sabbath. Better to err on the side of strictness in its observance than on the 
 side of laxity. But let us not think that we have hallowed the sabbath unless the ends 
 for which it was designed have been secured by us. It is but a means, not the end, 
 and, unless it have furthered in us love to God and man, each sabbath as it returns 
 is but a lost day. — 0. 
 
 Vers. 5 — 8. — Trust ; human and Divine. The prophet here presents before us a vivia 
 contrast between two types of human character. He does this by the use of suggestive 
 images drawu from the realm of nature, as one accustomed to see the great lessons of 
 man's moral life and destiny reflected in visible forms in the sandy desert and sterile 
 places of the wilderness, and in the fertile valleys and woody banks of the flowing river. 
 The imagery is peculiarly Oriental. We can all appreciate it in some measure, but those 
 who have seen the scanty, stunted vegetable growths of the desert side by side with 
 the rich foliage that clothes the moist ravines and the borders of the water-courses, can 
 best understand the exquisite truth and fitness of the analogies. Consider these two 
 opposite kinds of trust — (1) trust in man, (2) trust in the Lord. 
 
 I. Trust in man. To " make flesh one's arm " is suggestive of personal reliance on 
 merely human and earthly resources, in neglect of the spiritual and Divine. It takes 
 the form of undue self-confidence — confidence in one's own wisdom and strength, or 
 confidence in our fellovt-creatures, who are as ignorant and weak and fallible as ourselves, 
 or confidence in that which is outward and circumstantial — worldly riches, sensible 
 gratifications, material guarantees. The features of such a trust are : 1. Vanity. Its 
 hope is false and delusive. It has no sure foundation. It seeks life in the region of 
 death. As the plant finds nothing to nourish it in the barren sand, so man can never 
 draw the nutriment his being needs from mere human and earthly resources. 
 
 "Unless above himself he can erect himself, 
 How mean a thing is man ! " 
 
 And how can that which is fleshly, and therefore perishable, ever satisfy the necessities 
 of an immortal spirit? 2. Loss : " He shnll not see when good cometh." As the influences 
 that come down upon it from the heaven above are lost upon the plant that is rooted 
 
430 THE BOOK OF THE PEOPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xvu. 1—27. 
 
 in the desert ground, so this earthly trust rohs a man of the power to use aright even 
 the opportunities of higher good that are within his reach. Heavenly influences appeal 
 to him in vain. He knows not the richer possibility of good that surrounds him, fails 
 to apprehend it, cannot see when it cometh. 3. Fruitlessness, The " parched places 
 in the wilderness " yield no solid food. Labour bestowed on them is profitless. Such 
 is the " curse " that rests upon the man who makes the " arm of flesh " his trust — a vain 
 hope, destitution of the good that might be his, a withered, wasted life. 
 
 II. Tkdst in the Lobd. Blessed is the man whose whole being is rooted and 
 grounded in God. His is a life fed at the unseen and eternal fountains. " Your hearts 
 sball live that seek God " (Ps. Ixix. 32). The image of the " tree planted by the waters " 
 is suggestive of certain important aspects of that life. 1. Orowth. As the tree, by 
 the mysterious prolific energy with which it is endowed, strikes its roots deeper, and 
 spreads forth its branches over a wider space, so the freshness and force of Divine life in 
 the soul manifests itself in ever-deepening, enlarging, heightening forms of moral and 
 practical goodness. This is a matter both of Divine purpose and of natural organic 
 tendency. Spirit-life, like plant-life, knows no stagnation. Where there is no growth 
 there is decay. 2. Beauty. Of all the fair objects of nature, a well-grown tree is one 
 of the fairest. The symmetry of its proportions, the blending in harmonious negligence 
 of its forms and colours, the play of light and shade among its leaves and branches, all 
 combine to malse it the fitting type of moral dignity and loveliness. We cannot wonder 
 at the graceful imagery of Hebrew poets and prophets when we remember how they 
 dwelt in a land of olives and palm trpes, of cedars and lign aloes and pomegranates. 
 Godly character is supremely beautiful. The actual forms of religious life that one 
 sometimes meets with are intensely displeasing. But these are caricatures, not just 
 representations. Only as our piety is pleasing and attractive to men is it divinely true. 
 " Whatsoever things are true, . . . honest," etc. (Phil. iv. 8). 3. Strength. Here is the 
 idea of a resistive force. The tree, in the vigour of its life, is able to resist the pressure 
 of unfriendly climatic influences. It fears not the scorching heat, or the driving blast, 
 or the rushing torrent. It is as though it " saw " them not. All religious life is a con- 
 flict with difficulties. It flourishes just so far as it is able at once to appropriate the 
 good and repel the evil that environs it. Christ gives " the spirit of power " to them 
 that believe in him — power to overcome the most oppressive and the most seductive 
 influences of a hostile world. 
 
 " Where is true faith, all change comes graciously." 
 
 And neither providential trials nor the assaults of evil can shake the steadfastness of 
 him whose heart is thoroughly " established with grace." 4. Productiveness. " Neither 
 shall cease from yielding fruit" (see also Ps. i. 3 ; xoii. 14). The fruit of the producing 
 tree is the final development, the end and aim of its life. All religious thought and 
 feeling, and all Divine methods of spiritual culture, point to this as their ultimate issue 
 — the production of enduring forms of practical goodness. "Herein is my Father 
 glorified, that ye bear much fruit " (John xv. 8). If Christ is our living root, there can 
 be no limit to this process. The new-born soul knows no decay of its vital energies, 
 but rather an eternal enlargement. " It gives, but still increases." The more it gives 
 the more it increases. " As the outward man perisheth, the inward man is renewed 
 day by day." And when death comes and cuts the body down and lays it in the dust, 
 it only sets the spirit free to put forth the powers of its sanctified life in new forms 
 of service in a nobler sphere, to bear fruit for ever in the paradise of God. — W. 
 
 Vers. 1 — 4. — The profound impression of Judah's sin. I. There is implied Jctdah's 
 OWN INDIFFERENCE TO ITS SIN. With Supernatural clearness of vision, the prophet saw 
 tlie sin of Judah ; and he spoke concerning that sin with words which Jehovah had put 
 into his mouth. And yet it is evident the people would not admit his representations 
 as being correct and as needing urgent attention. The great bulk of them thought that 
 he was inventing or at least exaggerating. They had lived so long amongst evfls as to 
 have become quite used to them ; nay, more, they made a pleasure and a profit of them. 
 And this is just one of the great difficulties in preaching the gospel and tryin" ta 
 jjeisuade men to repentance. They cannot be brought to see that there is anythin" lo 
 
CH. XVII. 1—27.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 431 
 
 ■repent of; that, as far as the east is from the west, so far are they from being in aright 
 state. 
 
 II. Over against this evident indifference there must he set the prophet's emphatic 
 
 STATEMENT OF THE HOLD WHICH SIN HAS UPON THE PEOPLE. I'hat We do UOt See the 
 
 evil of our life proves one of two things — either that there is no evil to see or that we 
 are spiritually blind and cannot see the evil which there is. Now, spiritual blindness 
 has for its usual concomitant spiritual pride ; and the man spiritually blind is the very 
 last who will admit that he is so. If we are left to ourselves we shall never discover 
 the original cause and fountain of all our troubles ; something outside of ourselves must 
 come in and lead to an altered view of the purposes and possibilities of life. This is not 
 the place to speak of all that is required to produce that alteration of view; but it is 
 very plain that statements such as that of the prophet here must be helpful to produce 
 it. Is it not a great matter for preachers to be able to fall back upon the thorough- 
 going, uncompromising statements of the Word of God ? For, though these may find no 
 present practical response in the consciousness of the hearer, yet this very failure is a 
 reason for repeating them over and over again, until in some critical hour the faculty 
 is given of seeing ourselves as God sees us, which is a faculty much more to be desired 
 than the one so often commended of seeing ourselves as others see us. Two things are 
 here referred to — the inscribing instrument and the substance on which the inscription 
 is made. There is a necessity for both in order to make a deep, abiding, noticeable 
 impression. A pencil may make upon a stone a mark of some sort, but it is a mark 
 very easily rubbed out ; a pen of iron may write some great truth upon the sand of the 
 seashore, but one wash of the rising wave sweeps it all away. But when you have the 
 materials for a deep inscription, then something is produced which can only be destroyed 
 by destroying that on which it is written. Little wonder was it that these people of 
 Judah would not face the task of inspecting their hearts. Sin is so intimately mixed 
 with the heart that you cannot get it away save by aprocess tantamount to the removal 
 of the old inward life and the substitution of a new one. Hence the fitness of the peti- 
 tion, " Create in me a clean heart, God, and renew a right spirit within me." But there 
 is something more to show the hold which sin has on these people, and that is the 
 terrible effect upon their children. A great many details might have been heaped up 
 to show the reality of Judah's idolatry, but one crowning illustration was better still. 
 Not even the most hostile to the prophet could well deny that the force which compelled 
 them to inflict such cruelties on their children in the name of religion was a hideous 
 force. Every evil, in default of ability immediately to see its real nature, must be 
 measured by its worst visible effects. And this is just what the prophet does here, 
 when he puts in the front of his accusation the sufferings of the little ones of Judah. 
 As if these little ones had not enough of unavoidable pain to suffer, without suffering 
 being sought out for them. 
 
 III. The effect of all this deeply kooted evil as seen in Jehovah's 
 CONSEQUENT INFLICTIONS. (Vers. 3, 4.) The people may cry, in professed amazement, 
 " Why all these sufferings ? What have we done that we should be treated in this way?" 
 The answer is that all this spoiling, all this turning of the promised inheritance into a 
 place not worth having, all this bitterness of exile, were not produced in some arbitrary, 
 incomprehensible way. The prophet was not astonished at these judgments coming ; 
 he saw them approaching, and knew why they came. Great effects always have great 
 and appropriate causes ; and great causes, left to operate freely, will produce great and 
 proper effects. Every human heart holds within it enough to make indescribable 
 misery; and unless that greater cause which God offers to put in certain operation 
 comes in with its counteracting force, we may be sure that indescribable misery will be 
 produced. Wherefore let us pray that more and more we may have eyes to see and 
 perceive, ears to hear and understand. — Y. 
 
 Yer. 6. — The curse upon the man who trusts in man. In considering this passage it 
 is important to bear in mind that two different Hebrew words (la; and din) are ren- 
 dered by the one word " man." A recollection of this difference will bring much more 
 meaning out of the passage. 
 
 I. There is suggested for consideration man in his own opinion of himself. He 
 reckons himself as ~as., the strong one. He likes to estimate his great resources and use 
 
432 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [en. xvii. 1—27. 
 
 them for his own aggrandizement. He is filled with the ambition of achieving great- 
 ness in many ways. It is by his strength that he builds Babel and the Pyramids and 
 all the great structures of both ancient and modern times. He gathers great armies and 
 makes extensive conquests. He leans to his own understanding and is wise in his own 
 conceits. And it must be admitted that it is hard for a man in the full strength of 
 body and mind to take in, as a practical check upon all his castle-building, the necessary 
 weakness of human nature. The discovery of our weakness will always be a humili- 
 ating thing, at least in the first aspect of it. We do not like to relinquish the glory 
 which comes from physical strength, intellectual skill, in short, from the employment 
 of all those faculties enabling a man to achieve what is called a successful career. 
 Genius is semi-deified, while the Spirit of Grod working through some common man, 
 who would be nothing without that Spirit, is despised or neglected. Successful mili- 
 tary an*! naval commanders are made into nobles with the general approval. Every 
 fresh application of natural forces is hailed as a tribute to the glory of mankind. Even 
 those who are not deceived by the coarser forms of human power are deceived readily 
 enough by the finer ones. 
 
 II. Man in God's estimate of him. This is set forth by a threefold indication of 
 man's folly and wickedness. 1. He trusts in man ; man as set forth by the word oiH. 
 The strong man is assuredly no stronger than that upon which he leans. A building 
 may be of substantial materials, but all its strength will avail nothing if the foundation 
 be weak. Mark that it is not a question of trusting in sinful and fallen men. God 
 does not find fault with us for trusting in bad men rather than good ones. He is speak- 
 ing of all that essential defectibility, that susceptibility to temptation, which belonged 
 to man even before he fell. We might put the matter thus: Cursed is the man who 
 trusts in Adam, who forgets that he himself is beset with temptations, and that in a 
 moment of heedlessness and vain self-confidence he may fall into shame, confusion, and 
 perhaps despair. 2. Se makes flesh his arm. All strength must act through an arm 
 of some sort. A great deal of human power makes itself felt in a very literal way 
 through the arm. Sheer streni!th in wielding the sword or the hammer ; skill, as in 
 holding the painter's brush, the sculptor's chisel, the musical instrument, and the 
 innumerable tools of all sorts of handicraftsmen. Thus the arm becomes a great repre- 
 sentative, showing all the varieties of human strength in action. Now, where man 
 shows his folly is in this — that wishing to get his own way, to work out his own 
 pleasure and glory, he has no better instrument than fiesh. What a poor, uncertaiiV 
 creature man is, if he has nothing better to depend upon than his natural faculties I 
 The eye may lose its vision, the arm its strength, the hand its skill, and then where are 
 the schemes and projects of the ingenious brain ? The thing intended by God is that 
 man should be as an arm to carry out into action the wise and loving projects of the 
 Divine will. Then there is no failure, no disappointment. What cannot be done in 
 one way will assuredly be done in another, if only the will and counsel of God stand 
 supreme in our regard. 3. Eis heart departs from Jehovah. The great privilege given 
 to Israel was that they had been brought near to Jehovah. Fallen Adam had been cast 
 out of Eden, but believing Abraham had been drawn near to God. And his descend- 
 ants in particular, the chosen nation in the wilderness, had been made to approach to 
 Jehovah, the great I Am, the Source of whatsoever strength and energy are to be found 
 in his universe. Thus, then, we see the peculiar folly of the children of Israel. All men 
 are fools because they trust in man and make fiesh their arm ; but the Israelite is a fool 
 more than others because his heart departs from Jehovah. He cannot depart alto- 
 gether; he cannot get away from the constraints of the Omnipotent; he must go 
 through all the sufi'erings that are coming upon the guilty land ; and even when he 
 departs to Babylon he will not leave Jehovah behind. What folly, then, that he does 
 not make an instantaneous clearance of his miseries by cleaving with purpose of heart 
 to Jehovah as Jehovah desires to cleave with fulness of blessing to him ! And let us 
 recollect that, however far. from Jehovah our hearts may depart, from his judgments and 
 penal visitations it is impossible for us to depart. 
 
 III. The curse which rests on all this mistaken SELr-coNFiDENCB. Though 
 there seems some uncertainty as to the meaning of ver. 6, it is best for practical pur- 
 poses to take it in contrast with ver. 8. If we plant ourselves down confidently among 
 our own resources, deceived by the smiles and attractions of first appomances, we must 
 
CH. XVII. 1—27.] THE BOOK OF THE PROniET JEREMIAH. 43.3 
 
 not be astonished if in duo time the appparanccs vanish and leave the cheerless realities 
 of the wilderness. Where man by his natural vision sees the garden with all manner 
 of rich possibilities, God teaches the believer to discern the desolation and barrenness 
 that lie underneath. Gardens very soon become wildernesses if the heart of the culti- 
 vator departs from Jehovah. Men who in the days of their prosperity draw aroimd 
 them crowds of flatterers and dependents no sooner fall into adversity than they fall 
 also into comparative solitude. The time is coming when, if we have nothing better 
 than the help of man to trust to, we shall really have no help at all. — Y. 
 
 Vers. 7, 8. — The blessing on the man who trusts in Jehovah. I. Man's claim to be 
 
 BECKONED AS STRONG NEED NOT BE AN EMPTY ONE. He deserveS the appellation of 134 
 
 if only he will set the right way to obtain it. Weak as he appears from the point of 
 view given, when his natural resources are fully opened up and tested, he may never- 
 theless become strong by the favour of Jehovah to perform the most extraordinary 
 achievements. From one extreme where the strength of the godless is found to be but 
 a mockery, we are taken all the way to another extreme, illustrated by the confident 
 assertion of the apostle that he could do all things through Christ who gave him 
 inward strength. We are every one of us meant to be strong with a strength which 
 can meet the severest tests ; and those who are the weakest in other respects often prove 
 the strongest in spiritual life with what it requires both of activity and endurance. 
 And it is of particular importance to be observed that the man weak of will, easily 
 yielding to temptation, bound these many years by the chain of some dehumanizing 
 liabit, can be made strong enough to overcome his enemies and trample them under his 
 feet. There is that in him which can be so renewed, so vivified, that he will become 
 steadfast and energetic in attaining the Divine purpose of existence. Recollect the 
 instance of the man who was above forty years old when his feet and ankle-bones 
 received strength. Jesus of Nazareth did not bring this about merely for this man's 
 physical benefit ; but chiefly that those who were inwardly lame should be stimulated 
 to seek him, and have the feet and ankle-bones of the inward man strengthened for a 
 holy and a truly manly service. God must needs pour contempt upon the boastings of 
 the natural man, in order that, when he has effectually humbled him, he may then exalt 
 him into the possession of true strength. 
 
 II. The kbqdisitb fok the attainment of true strength is pointed out. 
 Pointed out clenrly and simply. He is the strong man who trusts in Jehovah, and he 
 is strong just as far as he does trust. Notice how the requirement of trust is expressed 
 twice over, first by a verb and then by a noun, both of which have the same root-letters. 
 It is as if we first saw the man in the active exercise of trust, and then the habitual 
 confidence of his nature. We see the man trusting and we also see the trusting man. 
 "All things are possible to him that believeth." When God speaks, the trustful hearer 
 readily acts upon the strength of God meaning what he says. The statements of the 
 gospel transcend human powers of discovery, and they can only be believed because 
 God makes them — he whose regular and beneficent waj-s in nature prove him to be so 
 true. Man by faith puts himself in the hands of God, his Maker, and then he can 
 do things far beyond what he has hitherto imagined to be practicable. Look at the 
 sublimest illustration of this ever given upon earth; when the man Christ Jesus 
 believingly said, " Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit." Then, in a very few 
 hours, the strength imparted even to the dead was revealed by the resurrection of Christ. 
 
 III. The illdstration of how the blessing combs. Possibly there is here a 
 reference to some regular practice of the foreseeing planter of trees. The necessity of 
 planting trees near water-courses is not obvious to us, seeing that in our moist climate 
 we often see noble umbrageous trees far enough from anything of the kind. The 
 children of this world are wise in their generation. They bear in mind — they have to 
 bear in mind — the scorching heat, the rainless, cloudless heavens, or, if clouds there be, 
 too often waterless clouds, mocking, tantalizing beauties of the sky; and so they plant 
 their trees where they may stretch out their thirsty roots to the passing stnam. And 
 yet these same children of this world, prudent for their trees, may yet be foolish for 
 themselves, taking up a position in life admirable for the gaining of temporal ends, but 
 leaving at a sreat distance the river that flows from "the throne of God and of the 
 Laniti.'' 'I'hus there is here a lesson from the tree which canuot chooso to the man wh6 
 
 JliltKMlAH, 2 P 
 
434 THE BOOK OF THE PEOPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xvii. 1— 27. 
 
 I ^ . 
 
 can choose. We all have our choice of the essentials of position. There are two sets 
 of circumstances — those we cannot choos6 and those we are bound to choose. It is in the 
 power of us all to be planted by the waters. God's gifts of grace flow through fixed 
 and well-defined channels, and to these we must go. We are not allowed to make 
 compromises. A very little seeming difference may, in reality, make all the difference 
 between wisdom and folly in this matter. It did not need that the tree should be 
 planted very far away from the water, a few yards more or less might determine the 
 result. There is also in this illustration the notion of a hidden means of supply. 'J'o 
 outward appearance there is no connection between the tree and the river ; the connection 
 is underneath, and it is real, increasing, and constant. — Y. 
 
 Vers. 9, 10. — The searching and knowing of the heart. One is reminded here of the 
 oft-quoted piece of advice, " Know thyself." The prophet's assertion places man before 
 us as the victim of self-ignorance, self-confidence, and self-deception. He talks of truth 
 when his mind is full of error, and thus he is prevented from taking the only real way by 
 which he can attain to the knowledge of truth. In the prophet's assertion and ques- 
 tion, and the Divine answer given to the question, there is much which upon the first 
 aspect may humiliate. But the humiliation will itself prove a cause for rejoicing if only it 
 leads us to profit by God's certain knowledge in matters when we are profoundly ignorant. 
 
 "I. Think of the vast and iNCREASiNa extent or human knowledge. If a man 
 be ignorant of his own heart it surely cannot be because he himself is unfitted for the 
 knowledge. He may have become unfit, and the unfitness may, by neglect, become more 
 pronounced, but he cannot be unfit by reason of his original constitution. One may 
 say that God must have intended him to have sufficient knowledge to keep his inward 
 life right. Otherwise we have this curious contradiction — that man has achieved an 
 immense amount of knowledge with respect to his physical constitution, but is doomed 
 to remain in uncertainty and bewilderment as to the laws of a healthy and a happy 
 inward life. " Who can know the heart ? " says the prophet. And yet even with the 
 limited knowledge of his age there were many men, doubtless, who knew many things. 
 We all have the powers of observation, comparison, and experiment, and it is the largest 
 pleasure of some minds to exercise these powers. And yet it is just to minds that 
 are most trained, most confident in the principles of science, and most stored with the 
 results of it, that this question might be put. It is not a question for the child just 
 beginning to learn or for the savage unaccustomed to think ; let it be put to man in 
 his highest civilization, and then the fact will be seen that the question is no vain and 
 inappropriate one. 
 
 II. Thus we are led to notice the dreadful ignokanoe which mat prevail in 
 THE MIDST OF ALL THIS KNOWLEDGE. The progress of the world does not make the 
 prophet's question one whit less pressing. Nay, it becomes more pressing than ever. 
 Other objects of knowledge have an ever-increasing light cast upon them, and by the 
 very force of the contrast man's inward life appears in still deeper darkness. What- 
 ever the cause of the continued ignorance may be, that ignorance does continue, so far 
 as man's unaided effort to remove it is concerned. In one single mind we too often see 
 exemplified vast intellectual knowledge and complete spiritual ignorance. He who 
 seems to know everything does not know his own heart, and apparently does not care 
 to know it ; reminding one of the man who had travelled over the whole world and yet 
 had never beheld a scene as wonderful as any which was visible from a point on his 
 own estate. The time is coming when knowledge will vanish away. But the neglected 
 heart will still remain to force itself, in a way which cannot be resisted, upon the thoughts 
 of its long indifferent possessor. 
 
 III. The cause of this iqnoeancb is made plain. It all lies in the deceitfulne^s 
 and utter corruption of the human heart. And notice in particular that it is by the heart 
 that the heart is to be known. Heart-knowledge is not like other kinds of knowledge ; 
 it depends on the character of him who knows. There is no essential contradiction 
 between high intellectual acquirements and a hard, selfish, and perhaps even, in some 
 instances, a profligate life. Men of refined tastes and great intellectual sensibilities may 
 be thoroughly selfish, careless about the toil and suffering of the world, so long as these 
 plant no thorn in their pillows, infuse no bitteruess into their cup. But one who would 
 know the heart must be very sure of his own motives, otherwise he may make human 
 
CH. XVII. 1—27.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 43.^ 
 
 'nature to appear better in some respects and worse in others than it really is. The 
 description here may, therefore, be taken as applyins; even more forcibly to the heart 
 that knows than to the heart that is to be known. Here the great difficulty and danger 
 lie. For the deceitful and corrupt heart can be known, if not by any one else, at all 
 events by Jehovah himself. But the deceitful and corrupt heait cannot know; it does 
 nut, in the fullest sense of the word, know anything at all. With hearts put right, 
 what a wonderful increase of knowledge and of the profit and pleasure of knowledge 
 will there be ! But till then we are not unlike those who suffer from diseased intellects. 
 They come into great contrast with sane people from the way in which their minds get 
 filled with hallucinations and incongruities. And so, if we try to compare ourselves in 
 our notions of things with Christ's teaching, we shall see the difierence between the 
 view taken by a sincere sound heart, such as was that of our Lord, and the view taken 
 by corrupt, deceitful hearts, which ours are and must be till we discover the need of a 
 new and pure life to be put into them. 
 
 IV. God's perfect knowledge stands in the place of cub ignokanoe and 
 EBBOR. God knows us in all our motives, through all our concealments, and can set 
 our secret sins — the operation of destroying causes that lie even below our conscious- 
 ness — in the light of his countenance. When once we discover how competent God is 
 to search and try, we shall then see that it is vain lor us to deny what he affirms, to 
 excuse what he condemns, and to make out that we are not responsible when he lays 
 evil at our doors. Jeremiab's scornful audiences may have said to him, " How come 
 you to know these things about us ? How come you to be so uncliaritable as to bring 
 these dreadful charges ? " But then we know that they were not the prophet's own 
 charges, but came from God himself. It was part of Jeremiah's grief that, on Jehovah's 
 authority, he should have to believe things so bad of his nation. What God did to 
 Israel was just ; and more and more, as time went on, it was seen to be just. In all 
 great exhibitions of Divine wrath we must be silent, recollecting that God knows what 
 we cannot know, and perceives necessities where we can perceive none. — T. 
 
 Ver. 11. — Riches wrongly gotten, and the consequence. Here is an instance of an 
 illustration which, so far as our knowledge is concerned, is more obscure than the thing 
 to be illustrated. But there was, no doubt, with regard to some bird a popular opinion 
 which made the prophet's reference very suggestive to his hearers. The fact supposed 
 is that some bird gathers the young of other birds, despoiling the nests of the real 
 parents, only to find, when the young ones get sufficiently strong, that they can no 
 longer be kept to its nurture and control. Whether there was a real fact corresponding 
 matters very little. If we want a familiar andrsufficiently corresponding instance, we 
 may find it in the not unfrequent one of a hen hatching a brood of ducklings, only to 
 find how soon their alien nature is manifested when a pool of water comes within 
 reach. Note — ■ 
 
 I. There is a eightful getting op wealth. External property occupies a 
 position of approval in the Old Testament which is denied to it in the New. All the 
 way through the New Testament the perils and deceptions attaching to mere external 
 wealth are strongly insisted on. If not condemned per se, which of course is not 
 possible, it is yet put forward as a heavy burden and perpetual stumbling-block to the 
 Christian who has it. But in the Old Testament that very wealth is magnified, 
 doubtless as a symbol of those better riches which would appear in something of tlieir 
 proper glory and satisfying power through the energetic ministrations of Christ's Spirit. 
 God saw fit for a time to recognize ability, industry, and integrity in a way which 
 would be plain to the most carnal of men. Take Job, for instance. And even in the 
 New Testament a sharp line is drawn between wealth gotten honestly and that which 
 came by extortion and cheating. There is a standard of integrity recognized by the 
 natural man ; and God also recognizes this standard, so far as it goes. Miserably 
 short does it fall of his appointed height of perfection, but it is better than nothing. 
 Those who fall short of even the moderate requirements of their fellow-men God will 
 condemn. On them he will set an utimistakable mark. But in order to do this 
 there must be some sort of modified approval of those who, in seeking wealth, strive to 
 keep their integrity and refrain from doing that which may degrade and impoverish 
 their fellow-men. 
 
436 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xvii. 1—27. 
 
 II. The PEcnLiAK unceetaintt op ill-gotten wealth. All external wealth is 
 uncertain. " Riches take to themselves wings and flee away." They furnish one of the 
 most impressive testimonies to the instability of terrestrial society. But ill-gotten 
 gains are peculiarly unstable. Every rich man is envied, aod few such escape slander. 
 But he who becomes rich by unscrupulous methods has to lay his account with 
 hostility on the part of all whom he has spoiled. Methods of unjust gain cannot but 
 provoke the resolute, persevering, and ultimately successful opposition of all who hate 
 injustice. Recollect the sudden and complete loss which came to the slave-holders 
 of America, when their slaves were freed as a matter of military necessity. It is true 
 that unjust gains seem to be often as stable as just ones ; but still the peculiar 
 uncertainty remains. A Christian possessing external wealth bears in mind the 
 uncertainty of it, just as he bears in mind the uncertainty of his own natural life ; but 
 the heaper-up oi filthy lucre has to reckon, not only with the perils of all human life, 
 • but also with those inseparable from his own evil courses. In some great storm, 
 fatally threatening the ship of state, such a one may have to be thrown overboard, 
 Jonah-fashion, in order to secure the safety of the rest. — T. 
 
 Vers. 12, 13. — An inspiring invocation. We must take ver. 12 as invocatory 
 rather than indicative. The prophet speaks suitably in the language of apostrophe 
 as he refers to the throne of Jehovah and the holy heights where he dwells. " throne 
 of glory, height of heginning, place of our sanctuary I " It will be felt that this 
 apostrophe is well fitted to make the Hope of Israel a. source of real hope in the hearts 
 of Israel. 
 
 I. The throne op glory. This may be taken as having, by contrast, a double 
 reference. He who sits on this throne is the Deity, Jehovah ; hence all the seats of the 
 Gentile gods may in like manner be considered as thrones. And because he who sits ou 
 a throne is reckoned as a king, there is also a contrast with human kings. This 
 reference to the throne of glory amounts, therefore, to a condemnation of all idol shrines 
 and human thrones as places to be ashamed of. The shrines were richly decorated 
 and regarded with the utmost veneration, but this did not make them glorious. The 
 practices of those Connected with the shrines and the character of the worshippers 
 showed that instead of glory there was shame. It has been the mark of all who have 
 turned from formal idolatry or from the equally real idolatry of a worldly spirit to the 
 living God, the God of Sinai and the tabernacle, of Calvary and of Pentecost, that they 
 have become more and more ashamed of their ungodly past. Its defilement and 
 unworthiness have been seen in a new light and with new eyes. When the slave 
 becomes a freeman, servitude is more and more seen to be inexpressibly degrading. And 
 so with regard to the thrones of human kings : these are just the places where human 
 selfishness and pride are most conspicuous. To see how base and fiendish a man can 
 become, we have only to select from the occupants of thrones. It is not meant that 
 kings have been worse than common men ; but their elevated position has both 
 enlarged their opportunities for mischief, and also exposed them to the gaze of all 
 succeeding generations. A Tiberius or a Nero gets an immortality of infamy, whereas 
 an obscure villain of the same age passes swiftly into oblivion. Those kings who have 
 really glorified thrones did so only as far as they were viceroys to him who is the 
 King of kings. Human thrones may or may not be thrones of glory so far as glory 
 can belong to the creature. Jehovah's throne must be glorious seeing that it is for 
 ever transfigured with the effulgence of him who sits thereon. 
 
 II. The height of bbginking. " In the beginning God made the heaven and the 
 earth." It is man coming in afterwards who has misemployed and degraded what 
 God fashioned with certain Divine and supremely beneficial ends in view. Out of that 
 which God has made for his glory man raises up things to glorify himself. The 
 proudest system of idolatry, the system most deeply rooted in the hearts of millions, is 
 but of yesterday when compared with those heavens which are God's throne and that 
 earth which is his footstool. Measured against this height of beginning, the most 
 ancient of human families is only an upstart. It is like the mushroom of a night when 
 set over against some immemorial tree. The abode where and whence the°glory of 
 Jehovah is manifested is not a Babel edifice, which, however high it may rise, is 
 humiliatingly conditioned by the unstable foundation on whicli it rests. Human 
 
CH. svii. 1—27.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAtt 437 
 
 power, at the summit of its splendour^ has traversed and conquered large tracts of the 
 earth ; and so kings get the name of great ; but the greatness is only a momentary, 
 unsubstantial swelling. Their power, like that of the sudden torrent, swiftly passes 
 away. One can imagine how the prophet, while he talked of this height of beginning, 
 looked to the heavens, so unaffected by all the strife and pride of the generations 
 ■which succeed one another in this lower world. Jehovah has not climbed through 
 long struggles to his height of glory. There may be evolution and graduation among 
 the creatures of his hand, but such conceptions of progress are nothing less than 
 blasphemous when we try to apply them to him. 
 
 111. The place of oue sanctitakt. The place which God had- condescended to 
 make holy in his special connection with Israel — the place where the ark of the 
 covenant rested — had become also a place (the history of Israel being witness) where 
 the people of Israel might have every confidence in God. The temples of idols had 
 not an invariable connection with the triumphs of their worshippers ; but just in 
 proportion as Israel honoured the ark of the covenant and the Gtod of the ark, in the 
 same proportion they were made to see the effect of their conduct in triumph over 
 their enemies and success in their own affairs. It was because they forsook the ark 
 that they themselves were forsaken, in humiliation, adversity, and shame. Not, of 
 course, that the prophet is thinking of the ark only here. The true place of sanctuary 
 is also in his mind — the invisible abode of the invisible Jehovah. — Y. 
 
 Ver. 13. — " Written in the earth." I. An indication of wht men depart from 
 God. " Those who depart from Jehovah," says the prophet, " shall be written in the 
 earth." Therefore we conclude that their aim is to be written in some more durable and 
 trustworthy substance. When they are spoken of as departing from God, the description 
 is one accommodated to our thoughts rather than exactly correspondent with reality. 
 The connection has beenreaZ so far as mere opportunity and privilege were concerned, 
 but nominal also, because the opportunity and privilege were never seized. God has 
 drawn near to the man ; the man has not been inclined to draw near to God. It has 
 seemed to him that in drawing near there would be such a subordination of self as 
 would amount to- self-effacement. The lusts of the natural man are everywhere 
 checked and contradicted by the commandments of God. Hence man strives to get 
 away from God and into such relations with his fellow-men as will, he thinks, cause 
 his name to be counted for more. It may be that it is self-glory he is seeking for ; 
 to have his name deeply graven on the world's memorial tablets as one who has 
 achieved much and stood out like a Hercules- from the common crowd. It may be 
 that he hopes for great power ; to have his name written on the hearts of thousands 
 whose interests will be boimd up with his so that they cannot succeed if he fails. It 
 is very gratifying to the pride of man to feel that others cannot do without him. 
 
 11. The sure result op departure prom God. Men- go away from God expecting 
 to have their names written in the marble, and a very short experience shows that they 
 are written, as it were, on the most shifty of all materials. From a certain point of 
 view, nothing seems more irregular than the preservation of what was written in 
 ancient ages. Deep letters on haid stones are long faded away, while characters written 
 on parchment or even paper survive to this day, and are now watched with an atten- 
 tion which bids fair to preserve them for many a. year to come. But every one can 
 see that what is written in the earth must, in, the very nature of things, be quickly 
 obliterated. Such writing may be the amusement of a child ; it could never Ije the 
 serious occupation of a man. And yet it is just by this figure that the folly of 
 apostates from God is set forth. They write their names on a spot exposed to the 
 trampling crowd of their fellow-men ; and in their own selfishness they forget of how 
 little account they are to others as selfish as themselves. And yet, in spite of such a 
 warning to those who depart from God, they go on complaining because men forget 
 them. It is just the way in which they must expect to be treated. It is the way of 
 the world. After all, we are but weak creatures, with very limited powers, and we 
 may well be excused if we cannot keep constantly in our minds those who have some 
 clami on our sympathy and help. It is no fault of earth that it is earth instead of 
 adamant. The fault lies with these who allow their names to be written there instead 
 of in the enduring place which God has provided for them. 
 
438 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xvii. 1—27. 
 
 in. The equally subb eesult from cleaving to God. Though not stated in 
 so many words, it is cheeringly implied that those cleaving to God have their names 
 ■written whence they can never be erased. For their names are indeed written, as it 
 were, on the heart of God himself. He cannot either forget or forsake them. They 
 are ever rememberei in the wisdom of his thoughts and the resistless movements of 
 lis ways. The best thing that can happen to us in purely human relations is to be 
 written in the hearts of those who love us; when they remember us, not because it 
 is their interest to do so, but out of an unselfish fulness of desire for our welfare and 
 happiness. But how much better is it to be thus remembered by God, seeing that 
 with him there abides a love inexpressibly deeper than any human affection, and, 
 along with this love, a wisdom and power with which even the highest human wisdom 
 and power are not for a moment to be mentioned 1 — Y. 
 
 Ver. 14. — Be whom Qod heals is really healed. I. The consciotjsness op individual • 
 need. The prayer is " heal me ; " " deliver me." The prophet shows how deep and 
 pressing is his own need by the use of two figures. He feels the need of something 
 being done internally and externally. Internally he is sick at heart, wounded and 
 bruised in spirit. He needs healing from the state of mind produced through being 
 despised and rejected by his fellow-countrymen. Still worse is the gnawing pain pro- 
 duced as he views the wickedness of the land and takes knowledge of the steadily, 
 advancing calamities. But we cannot doubt that beyond all this there was the conscious- 
 ness of his own heart's pollution and unworthiness. So far as natural constitution and 
 natural tendencies were concerned, he who spoke was no better than those to whom hd 
 spoke. Thus, in trying to waken others from their lethargy, he became more thoroughly 
 wakened to his own state. The word which God had put into his mouth was spoken, 
 not only to the outside audience, but down to his own sinning and ignorant heart. 
 God cannot take for prophets and apostles those who care little about their own 
 spiritual need. Paul became a better apostle because he reckoned himself, in such 
 sincerity, the chief of sinners. It ought to be no marvel that those to whom we speak- 
 are indifferent to their state, if we who speak to them are largely indifferent to our own. 
 
 II. The vanity of seeking elsewhere than to God. The very confidence which 
 Jeremiah expresses that, if only God heals him, he will be truly healed, seems to indicate 
 that he had someexperienceof other modes of healing, such as had looked very promising 
 at first, but proved utterly vain in the endi As a general rule, we have to be disappointed 
 in human agencies of healing before we can be satisfied with the Divine one. It 
 cannot be said that the nature and depth of the disease are adequately discovered, 
 until we discover, from experience, how vain human resources are against it. "We 
 may be able to mitigate symptoms, to deaden pain, to rouse into a temporary cheerful- 
 ness ; but in the end the relapse is certain and more confirmed than ever. It was a 
 great thing for the prophet to be brought to feel, as he evidently was, that anywhere 
 else he went would be with the probability of failure. With God there is not only the 
 certainty of success, that success is with him alone, 
 
 III. The prophet's confidence in God as a Healer. The way in which he 
 expresses this confidence is most worthy of notice. His confidence is, not that God will 
 do something for him, but that whatever God does will be adequate for the end in 
 view. It is much to feel that one may count upon Divine sympathy and effort ; it is 
 still more to feel that whatever help God gives will rise to the intensity of the need. 
 He who gives the spirit of conviction, working deep in the natural heart and showing 
 its diseased state and defiling, polluting activity, gives also the spirit of a real healing. 
 The great ground of apprehension arises, not from the magnitude of the spiritual 
 disease, but from the indifference of the sufferer and his indisposition to submit his 
 heart to God's searching, healing power. The moment we are willing to submit our- 
 selves to the great Physician, that moment the worst disease becomes a manageable 
 and a virtually conquered thing. The course of the healing process may be long, 
 tedious, and painful; but what matter these, if the end be perfect healing and ever- 
 lasting health ?— Y. 
 
 Ver. 15. — "Where is the word of the Lordf" I. The pretext and aim of this 
 question. The prophet's subsequent comment on the question shows with what bitter 
 
CH. XVII. 1—27.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 4S!) 
 
 hatred to tim it was asljed. Sad, indeed, it is to reflect that these very words miglit 
 be asked in a far different spirit; that they might come from the depths of an 
 ignorant seeking heart, wandering long amid idolatries and human systems of philo- 
 sophy, without hearing anything to serve as bread of heaven for the deep hunger 
 within. There are people upon whom God's Word has been pressed in every variety 
 of appeal and representation. The Word has sought them out again and again ; and 
 yet in the end all they can do is to cast a scornful doubt on whether it is the Word of 
 God at all. It may, indeed, be allowed that they did not mean to insult Jehovah ; all 
 they had in view was to express, in the most stinging way, their bitter hatred of 
 this pertinacious, plain-spoken prophet — this man who had come as a comparative 
 youth from little Anathoth, rebuking those who were high in rank, old in years, and 
 looked up to by the bulk of the people. No fallacy infecting the regions of practical 
 life is more pernicious than that which, professing to admit the authority of him who 
 sends, yet discredits the status of his professed messenger. It is thus very easy to 
 evade unpleasant, humiliating messages. So the Jews of our Lord's time were fanatic- 
 ally solicitous to honour their conception of Jehovah, and, as part of this devotion, they 
 ended by crucifying Jesus as a blasphemer. The very people who asked, " Where is 
 the word of Jehovah ? " may have been the first to frame plausible repudiations of any 
 wish to blaspheme him. Their great aim and purpose was to put this upstart Jeremiah 
 in his proper place. They probably thought that these scornful speeches might become 
 at last as a gag in his mouth. The lesson is plain : do not reject truth, or in any wise 
 try to evade it because it comes through some one you do not like. What Jeremiah 
 said here, respecting the character and work of these men, was true ; and they do not 
 deny the truth. They sira ply ignore the charges, and by one scornful question hint that 
 the threatenings connected with the charges are but as empty words. 
 
 II. The ways in which this question mat be answered. Jeremiah, we perceive, 
 has his own answer appropriate to his individual circumstances. He falls back on his 
 integrity. God knows the fidelity and obedience of his heart. God had put into his 
 mouth the words he had spoken. They did not rise out of his personal feeling ; they 
 were not the breathings of an egotist, a fanatic, a madman, an enemy of his country. 
 But inasmuch as this question is ever being asked by a certain class who will not 
 believe in a Divine plan of the world — partly revealed in Scripture and the partial 
 execution of which is shown in history — it is well to remember how Jehovah has 
 honoured his servants who have had in any way to fill the ofBce of prophets. He who 
 has gone forth to threaten the persistently impenitent has never been without some 
 achieved judgment of God which he might adduce as an illustration. The sliadows 
 cast forward into the future have their correspondences in the substances belonging to 
 the past. If we could only summon out of the invisible world the generation which 
 perished in the Flood, the dwellers in the cities of the plain, Pharaoh and his army, 
 those who were destroyed in the gainsaying of Korah, and many others, they would be 
 able to give no uncertain answer to the question, " Where is the word of Jehovah ? " 
 The kingdom of God is not in word only ; it has in it a power which can be manifested 
 in all needful abundance, with all needful rapidity, and in whatever aspect may 
 be proper to the occasion. God's Word becomes a complete and plainly perceptible 
 deed exactly when the time is ripe. Shall man be able to arrange a time-piece so that 
 when the hour hand and minute hand together point to twelve there shall be the 
 striking which signifies noon has arrived ; and shall not God be able to order the 
 mysteries and complexities of the world so as to bring out the intended results just 
 when he wants them? It is not for us to know times and seasons ; but most emphatic- 
 ally it is for us to believe that every word of God is true. These very scorners of 
 Jeremiah were about to add, in the course of a few short years at most, an illustration 
 as forcible as any that what God has spoken may be taken as already done. God's 
 calm advancing of his kingdom should do much to make his people calm. It is our 
 fault if the sarcasms of the uubelieving become anything more than words ; and mere 
 words are best met by a silent, patient, and believing continuance in well-doing.— Y. 
 
 Vers. 16— 18.— The prophefs consciousness of integrity. We may take it that this 
 one question, " Where is the word of Jehovah ? " stands for a great deal in the way of 
 taunt. The appeal to God, With which the prophet follows up the mention of this 
 
440 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [cn. xvii. 1- 
 
 qiiestion, shows how much he felt the attacks made upon him. It would be too much 
 to say that he did not expostulate with his enemies upon their injustice ; but evidently 
 his great resort was to ihe God who had sent him. If men perversely attributed to him 
 daring imposture and bitter malignity, he could do nothing but fall back on God's know- 
 ledge of his course and motives. Four points are noticeable. 
 
 I. His office as a pkophet was not the result op discoktent with a 
 PKEVious ocouPA'iiON. He had not hastened from being a shepherd. He was perfectly 
 ■willing to have continued as a shepherd at Anathoth. It was not he who, looking out 
 on the larger world, had wished to become conspicuous on a busier sceue. He left his 
 slieep because God had called him, as he called Moses, David, and Amos. It is true 
 that, if a prophet would do his work ex animo, he must choose it; but first of all he 
 must be chosen. It must be made perfectly plain to him, in a sober, wakeful moment, 
 when all the faculties of life are collected, that he, and not some other person, was 
 called to this work ; to this work, and not to some other work. The ofBce ol a prophet, 
 with all its toils, sufferings, perils, and temptations, was assuredly not an office to be 
 grasped at. It needed that one should count the cost. We are riot told much of the 
 earlier history of the prophets, but some of them, at least, must have known long 
 periods of discipline. For Jeremiah to say that he had not hastened to be a prophet 
 really means that he had gone into the work with great deliberation, slowly and 
 steadily following where God slowly and steadily walked before him. There is no haste 
 in God's deahngs, though in crises there may be suddenness and rapidity of action ; and 
 1 lierefcire there can be no haste with those who are the instruments and messengers of 
 God's dealings. 
 
 I I. The repudiation of evebtthing like personal malignity. He was com- 
 pelled to speak of a calamitous day, but he spoke as one whose inexpressibly painful 
 duty it is to break bad news. Moreover, it was bad news which concerned him as much 
 as every other member of the nation. He was not a mere outsider, looking on with 
 pity at events which did not concern him individually. The calamities of his native 
 land, although he might be free fiom their worst effects, could not leave him altogether 
 unsmitten. Doubtless there were moments when he, like Paul, could have wished 
 himself accursed for his brethren's sake. His feelings when he had to speak of impend- 
 ing calamities would be of the same kind (not, of course, so pure and intense) as those 
 which Jesus had when he apostrophized Jerusalem, rushing to its fail, and careless about 
 the things which made for its peace. Terrible truth may be spoken very tenderly and 
 beseechingly. Juries find verdicts condemning to death, and judges pass the corre- 
 sponding sentences,. which they would all of them gladly escape if fidelity to truth and 
 duty left au open way. That tenderness which sliirks duty because of present pain 
 and difficulty, often proves in the end to be the worst of cruelty. 
 
 III. The words op the prophecies are expressly attributed to God. It is a 
 natural course to hold a man responsible for all that comes from his lips. The prophet 
 could not escape this responsibility. It was not his to complain that his auditors 
 cliallenged him as the constructor of these unpalatable speeches. If they looked to 
 him, he in turn did the wise thing, the only thing that could be done — he looked to 
 God. He was able to do this because he had been laithful. He had not garbled or 
 mutilated his message to make it more tolerable. He understood perfectly well what, 
 nevertheless, many fail to understand, that truth depends, not on what men are able to 
 understand, but on what God clearly reveals. The prophet was in no manner of doubt 
 as to the authority by which he spoke. Looking back and reviewing his utterances, he 
 was perfectly sure that he had not confused his own thoughts with the commanded 
 words of Jehovah. If what God reveals for us to speak, we speak ; and if what he 
 reveals for us to believe and act upon, we do believe and act upon ; then with the 
 utmost confidence we can go to him for support and defence. What could Jeremiah 
 have done in his extremity if he had not been conscious of his fidelity as a prophet 
 of God? 
 
 IV. God knew the truth of all that thr prophet was asserting. "Thou 
 knowest." God knew his servant's heart; knew the sincerity and simplicity of his 
 service. It was of no use arguing with men. Either they were unable to discern how 
 true and apposite were his words, or, discerning, they were not willing to make a 
 corresponding acknowledgment. But where men were ignorant Gud had perfect 
 
CH. XVII. 1—27.] TPIE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 441 
 
 knowledge ; where men were indifferent God showed the deepest interest. Hence the 
 prophet could look to him confidently for continued support and ample vindication. 
 Kishtly considered, there is nothing revengeful or merely personal in ver. 18. We may 
 well helieve that the prophet's great anxiety was tliat the truth of Jehovah should be 
 honom-ed, even though it might be by terrible judgments upon despisers and unbe- 
 lievers. — Y. 
 
 Vers. 19 — 27. — The hallowing of the sabbath day. I. The place foe announcing- 
 THE MESSAGE. 1. It was a place where the king, as much as the people, would hear. 
 Whatever else may be signified by " the gate of the children of the people," it seems 
 clear that it was a gate in which, at certain times, the king would be found. In his 
 own house it might be impossible to gain access to him ; but tlie gate was open to all ; 
 and there he could not choose but listen to a man who would speak earnestly and 
 commandingly ; because the word of Jehovah lodged in him, came from the depths of 
 his concurring heart. The kings, doubtless, by their own individual leadership and 
 encouragement, were responsible for much of the evil of sabbath-breaking. The state 
 of Jerusalem in particular would be largely influenced by them. A corrupt court 
 makes a corrupt capital, and a corrupt capital is not without effect towards the making 
 of a corrupt nation. 2. It was the place for the greatest general publicity. One gate is 
 specified, hut not one of the gates was to be omitted. The king, with his peculiar 
 responsibilities, was warned in a peculiar way ; but there was no one in such a private 
 and irresponsible position as to be without concern in the message. The ten command- 
 ments were commandments for every individual among the people; hence the need of 
 a warning which, in the mode of giving it, shuuld be likely to arrest the attention of all. 
 It was Jehovah's message delivered at least as many times as there were gates in 
 Jerusalem. We may well believe that it was delivered over and over again. No note 
 of time is given, but of course the prophet would choose the time when there were most 
 passengers; nor would he omit to deliver the message upon the sabbath day itself. 
 S. The message was given upon one of the most conspicuous scenes of transgression. 
 If the prophet went to one of the most frequented gates on a sabbath, there he found 
 transgressors, crowds of them, in the very act of transgression. They could not deny 
 the act, and all be needed to* do was to adduce the commandment against it. God can 
 always make it clear that he does not send forth his prophets without occasion. 
 
 II. The message itself. This command with respect to the sabbath day seems 
 to come in very abruptly here. And yet no one who considers the prominence of 
 Jehovah's injunction to " remember the sabbath day to keep it holy " will wonder at the 
 definiteness and emphasis of the prophet's message. The details of his message make 
 it only too sadly evident how far the jjeople had departed from the original command- 
 ment. Here we have one of two extremes of disobedience in which the practical 
 attitude of Israel towards this commandment appears. The sacred day which God had 
 hallowed both in word and deed was recklessly and shamelessly made into a common 
 day. If a stranger went into the streets of Jerusalem on a sabbath, he might have 
 great difficulty in discerning by any external sign that it was a sabbath. The people 
 would be going into the city and coming out of it much as on any other day. The other 
 extreme is seen in the reasonless and fanatical formalism of the Jews, who so often 
 attacked our Lord. There is certainly a great difference externally between these two 
 extremes. It is very wonderful to consider tliat such a transition should be possible 
 from the careless crowding of the gates with burdens on the sabbath, to the savage 
 bigotry which attacked Jesus for healing sick folk on the same day. Yet underneath 
 external differences there was the same unabated, worldly, ungodly spirit. Those whom 
 Jesus had to denounce for their shameless trafficking in the holy precincts were the 
 children of those whom Jeremiah had to denounce for doing their own selfish will and 
 needless acts on God's sabbath. And so we see that this passage from the prophet 
 needs to be considered along with those passages in the Gospels where Jesus deals with 
 the Sabbatarianism of his time. His painful experiences of such professedhonourers 
 of God, and his searching exposures of them, need to be complemented by this message 
 of Jeremiah. We shall always find in Scripture something to check us from " the false- 
 hood of extremes." Sabbatarians twist a commandment; sabbath-breakers trample it 
 underfoot. The evil which Jeremiah deals with here is dealt with even more solemnly 
 
442 
 
 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [oh. xvin. 1—23. 
 
 by Bzekiel (xxii. 1 — 12, wliere in ver. 8 sabbath-breaking is particularly referred to as 
 one of many terrible transgressions. See also Neh. ix. 14 ; xiii. 15 — '11 \ Isa. Ivi. 2 ; 
 Ezek. XX. 12—24 ; xlvi. 1— 5).— Y. 
 
 EXPOSITION, 
 
 CHAPTER XVm. 
 
 This chapter is the introduction of a 
 group of prophecies (extending to ch. xxv.) 
 of various dates ; their sequence has evidently 
 not been determined by chronological con- 
 siderations. The prophet's iirst object is, 
 perhaps, to refute the scoffing inquiry (ch. 
 xvii. 15), " What has become of the 
 [threatening] word of Jehovah?" and to 
 justify the glorious promise given at the 
 conclusion of the last chapter. The fulfil- 
 ment of tlireatenings and promises alike is 
 conditioned by the moral attitude of the 
 people (comp. Ezek. xxxiii. 11). God, as 
 it were, holds them in either hand, and 
 there is still time (contrast ch. xvi. 21) to 
 choose the sweet and reject the bitter by 
 sincerely turning to their true Friend. 
 Unhappily the people misuses its day of 
 grace, and, instead of listening to God's 
 messenger, seeks to rid itself of him by 
 persecution. Upon this, Jeremiah falls 
 again into the tone of bitter complaint, and, 
 so far from interceding for his people, does 
 the very opposite; on which painful and 
 mysterious phenomenon, see remarks in 
 general Introduction. 
 
 Vers. 1 — 6. — The simple and familiar 
 craft of the potter becomes a parable of 
 religious trutl) (comp. Isa. xxix. 16; xlv. 9; 
 Ixiv. 8; Ecclus xxxiii. 13; Rom. ix. 20; 
 and the account of man's creation in Gen. 
 ii. 7, which has doubtless given rise to the 
 figure). God has the sovereign right to do 
 as he wills with his own handiwork ; thus 
 much can be expressed by tiie figure. But 
 the moral element in Jeremiah's teaching 
 stands outside this, viz. that the Divine 
 action is governed, not by mere caprice, but 
 a regard for character. "The thought is not 
 so much the arbitrariness as the patience of 
 God, who will bring men to be what he 
 would have them be in the end, as the potter 
 eventually twists the clay to the shape he 
 originally intended, stubborn as the clay 
 may be." But whether Jeremiah meant tlie 
 lesson which Mr. Maurice deduces from his 
 ■woj-ds may be gravely doubted. It is not of 
 individuals that the prophet is thinkiug, 
 but of the nation, and not of the nation as 
 
 destined to be all but certainly saved, but 
 as placed before a serious and awful decision. 
 (For different lessons derived from the 
 same figure, see the 'Rabbi Ben Ezra' of 
 Browning.) Egypt and Palestine were, aa 
 it seems, at one in the extreme simplicity 
 of the potter's art. Dr. Birch has given us 
 an account of the Egyptian pottei' at his 
 work, as lie appears in the pictorial 
 representations at Beni Hassan ('Ancient 
 Pottery,' pp. 33 — 35), and Dr. Thomson has 
 described the procedure of a potter in 
 modern Palestine (' The Land and the 
 Book,' p. 520). The chief diiference between 
 them seems to be that in Egypt the wheel 
 was turned with the left hand, and the 
 vase shaped with the right, while in 
 modern Palestine the wheel is turned with 
 the foot. " Taking a lump in his hand," 
 says Dr. Thomson, " he pLiced it on the top 
 of the wheel (which revolves horizontally), 
 and smoothed it into a low cone, like the 
 upper end of a sugar-loaf; then thrusting 
 his thumb into the top of it, he opened a 
 hole down through the centre, and this he 
 constantly widened by pressing the edges 
 of the revolving cone between his hands. 
 As it enlarged and became ihiuner, he gave 
 it whatever shape he pleased with tlie 
 utmost case and expedition." It should be 
 observed that in ver. 3 the "wheels," or 
 rather " two wheels," spoken of are simply 
 the two round plates wliich formed the 
 horizontal lathe of the potter. 
 
 Ver. 4. — And the vessel that he made, 
 etc. ; rather. And, whensoever tlie vessel . . . 
 was marred in the hand of the potter, he 
 made it again another vessel. 
 
 Vers. 7, 8. — At what instant, etc. ; rather. 
 One instant I may speah . . . hut if that 
 ■nation, against which 1 have spoken, turn 
 from their evil, I repent of the evil tliat I 
 thought to do unto them. A similar render- 
 ing for the next verse. 
 
 Ver. 12. — And they said ; rather, Bui they 
 go on saying (comp. Ezek. xxxiii. 17, 20). 
 There is no hope. The rendering may bo 
 easily misunderstood. The speakers are 
 not, as we might suppose, despondent about 
 their state and prospects, but tliey seek to 
 check the troublesome preacher by the 
 warning that he has no chance of success 
 (so ch. ii. 25). Imagination; rather, stub- 
 bornness (as constantly). 
 
 Ver. 14. — Will a man leave the snow of 
 Lebanon, etc? This passage is unusually 
 
CH. xviii. 1— 23.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEPvEMIAH. 
 
 443 
 
 obscure. Literally we must, it would Beem, 
 render, Voth the enow of Lebanon fail from 
 the rock of the field (or possibly, cease t{i flow 
 from the rock unto the field) ? This is 
 explained as pointing a contrast to the 
 infidelity of God's people. " The snow 
 never leaves the summit of Lebanon ; the 
 waters which take their rise therein never 
 dry up; but my people have forgotten the 
 law of their being, the source of their 
 prosperity." The rendering of the first 
 clause is, however, grammatically dubious 
 (tliere is no example of this construction of 
 'dzabh), and all the old versions point to (or 
 at least favour) a reading, Shaddai (the 
 Almighty) instead of sddai (the field). 
 If we keep the text, we must explain " the 
 rock of the field" on the analogy of "my 
 mountain in the field" (oh. xvii. 3), as 
 meaning "the rock which commands a 
 wide prospect over the open lowland 
 country," i.e. Mount Lebanoa. The cold 
 flowing waters; i.e. the numerous "streams 
 from Lebanon," referred to in Cant. iv. 15. 
 That come from another place ; i.e. whose 
 sources are foreign. But as this does not 
 suit the connection, it is better to take the 
 Hebrew word (zdrlni), usually reudered 
 "foreign," in the sense of "pressing or 
 hurrying along," with Ewald, Graf, and 
 virtually Henderson. It thus becomes 
 descriptive of these streams "as contracted 
 within narrow channels while descending 
 through the gorges and defiles of the rocks." 
 Comp. " like an onpressing stream," Isa. 
 lix. 19 (a cognate verb). Be forsaken. The 
 Hebrew text has /' be plucked up " (i.e. 
 destroyed?); but as this is unsuitable, we 
 must transpose two letters (as in not a few 
 other cases), and render, dry up. So 
 Gesenius, Graf, KeU, Delitzsch, and Payne 
 Smith. 
 
 Ver. 15. — Because my people hath for- 
 gotten me; rather, Surely, etc.; or better 
 still, Yet surely It is not uncommon for a 
 particle of asseveration to acquire a contrast- 
 ing force from the context; see e.g. ch. iii. 
 20; Isa. liii. 4; and, still more completely 
 parallel, Isa. ii. 6; ch. ix. 1, where Authoiized 
 Version, with substantial correctness, has 
 "nevertheless." Israel "forgot" Jehovali (as 
 ch. ii. 32) ; no doubt he was responsible for 
 so doing, but still it was not "of malice 
 prepense." To vanity; i.e. to the unreal 
 idol-gods. And they have caused them to 
 stumble ; viz. the idol-gods ; these are 
 responsible (for they have a real existence 
 in the consciousness of their worshippers) 
 for this interruption of Israel's spiritual 
 progress (comp. 2 Chron. xxviii. 23). In 
 their ways from the ancient paths. " From," 
 however, is interpolated by the Authorized 
 Version ; the Hebrew places " the ancient 
 paths " in apposition to " their ways." 
 
 " Stand ye in the ways," Jeremiah cried at 
 an earlier period, " and see, and ask for 
 the old paths, which is the good way " 
 (ch. vi. 16). These "old" or "ancient" 
 paths were ideally "their ways," the ways 
 appointed for the Jews to walk in. To 
 walk in paths; rather, in tracks, footpaths 
 leading up and down and often ending in 
 nothing ; or, in other terms, in a way not 
 cast up (Isa. xl. 3, 4, gives a graphic picture 
 of the operation of " casting up a way "). 
 
 Ver. 16. — The effect of this is to make! 
 the land of the transgressors an object of 
 horror and astonishment (so render rather 
 than desolate). 
 
 Ver. 17. — As with an east wind. The 
 east was a stormy wind (Ps. xlviii. 7 ; Job 
 xxvii. 21). I will show them the back; as 
 they have done to Jehovah (ch. ii. 27 ; 
 xxxii. 33). 
 
 Vers. 18 — 23. — A fresh conspiracy (comp.' 
 ch. xi. 18), called forth by the preceding 
 discourse; Jeremiah's prayer. 
 
 Ver. IS. — The law — or rather, direction, 
 instruction, which was a special function of 
 the priests (Deut. xxxiii. 10; xvii. 9 — 11) 
 — shall not perish from the priest. The Jews 
 were but obeying the Deuterouomic Law 
 (on which Jeremiah, as we have seen, laid 
 so much stress) in alluding to the priests. 
 Unhappily, the priests in Jeremiah's time 
 (ch. ii. 26), as in Isaiaji's (Isa. xxviii. 7), 
 were forgetful of their high mission. Nor 
 counsel from the wise. The wise men 
 formed an important order in Jewish society, 
 the importance of wliich in the Divine 
 education of Israel has not been suflBciently 
 recognized. It was their custom to sit in 
 public places, generally in the chambered 
 recess in the city gate, and give advice on 
 questions of moral practice to those who 
 applied for it. But there were wise men 
 and wise men. Some appear to have 
 "mocked" at the earnest preaching of the 
 prophets (hence the solemn rebukes in the 
 Book of Proverbs), others to have as it were 
 prepared the way for the latter by a more 
 or less distinct recognition of the religious 
 foundation of morality, and of these we 
 have ample monuments in the canonical 
 Proverbs. There may also have been other 
 shades and varieties of wise men, for their 
 characteristic was not a faculty of intuition, 
 but rather of reflectively applying funda- 
 mental n:oral principles. One highly 
 esteemed branch of " wisdom " would, of 
 course, be political, and this would be the 
 most liable to perversion. It is of such 
 that Isaiah, like Jeremiah, says that "the 
 wisdom of their wise men shall perish" 
 (xxix. 14). Nor the word from the prophet. 
 "The word" is agenejal term for prophesy- 
 ing. Of course, the speakers take no 
 account of the advance in prophecy froio 
 
444 
 
 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xviii. 1—23. 
 
 the time, at any rate, of Amos. They are 
 Siitisfied with the lower order of prophets 
 ("false prophets," as the Septuagint calls 
 them) ; hut still they are afiaid of Jeremiah, 
 much as balak was afraid of Balaam, wlien 
 that soothsayer was blesaing Israfl (Numb, 
 xxiii. 25). Smite Mm with the tongue ; i.e. 
 by slanderous accusations. The same figure 
 as in ch. ix. 3, 8. 
 
 Vers, 19, 20. — Them that contend with me. 
 Shall evil, etc. ? Compare the phraseology 
 of Ps. XXXV. 1 — 12 (either Jertmiah imitated 
 this psalm or vice versa); and for another 
 point of contact with this psalm, see on ch. 
 xxiii. 12. They have digged a pit, etc. 
 Comp. Ps. Ivii. 6. To speak good for them. 
 See Jeremiah's intercessions in ch. xiv. 
 7—9, 19—22. 
 
 Ver. 21.— Ponr out their blood hy the 
 foroe, etc ; rather, spill them into the lumdt 
 
 of, etc. (see Ps. Ixiii. 10) ; a phrase akin to 
 that in Isa. liii. 12. The sword is personified. 
 Let their men he put to death ; another 
 personification, for the Hebrew has " slain 
 of Death " — ^pestilence is referred to, as ch. 
 XV. 2. 
 
 Ver. 23. — let them be overthrown before 
 thee ; i.e. count them as those who have 
 been brought to ruin. This explanation 
 seems required by the parallelism, the 
 companion clause meaning "do not regard 
 their sin as cancelled." The ruin may be 
 either spiritual or temporal ; the parallelism 
 favours the former (comp. ver. 14; Hos. 
 xiv. 10, where " fall " should be "stumble"). 
 Deal thus with them. "Thus" is inter- 
 polated by the Authorized Version ; " deal " 
 should rather be deal terribly ("deal" is 
 constantly used in a pregnant sense ; see on 
 ch. xiv. 7). 
 
 HOMILETICS. 
 
 Vers. 1 — 6. — The potter and the day. The relations of tbe potter to his clay afford 
 a familiar and apt illustration of the relations between God and his human family. At 
 first sight this illustration suggests a harsh view of providence and a hopeless prospect 
 for human endeavour. But on closer consideration, while it teaches lessons of liumility 
 and reverent submission on our part, it also throws light on the merciful goodness of 
 God, and encourages us both to hope and to act for that which will lead to our highest 
 • blessedness. 
 
 I. Men are under the absolute power of God, like clay in the hands of the 
 POTTER. The potter has power to leave the clay untouched or to make out of it either 
 a vessel of honour or a vessel of dishonour, a beautiful vase or an ugly piece of crockery, 
 a dainty cup for a prince's banquet or a coarse culinary utensil. God has absolute power 
 over us. He is the Almighty. No man can eventually succeed in resisting the will of 
 God. No Divine purpose can be eternally frustrated. God has also absolute authority 
 over us. He has the ultimate right of supreme sovereignty to do as he will with his 
 subjects. Yet there is nothing alarming in this fact, but rather an infinite consolation. 
 For God is not a heartless, conscienceless despot, displaying arbitrary power by mere 
 caprice ; he is holy, and exercises his sovereignty according to principles of strict 
 justice, truth, and right. He is gracious, and rules with purposes of love for the good 
 of his creatures. Our dependence on God is, like that of the inlant on its mother, the 
 security of our own welfare. Those horrible applications of the doctrine of Divine 
 s )vereignty which attribute to it designs that would be accounted cruel in any 
 responsible being are blas|jhemous insults to the impartial justice and love of God's 
 character. If God's actions are not limited by any physical compulsion or constitu- 
 tional law, they are governed by his regard to eternal righteousness and by the benefi- 
 cence of his nature. 
 
 II. Men can no more attain a worthy end in life without God than the 
 CLAY CAN BECOME A SHAPELY VESSEL WITHOUT THE POTTER. There lies the clay — 
 a dead, heavy, amorphous mass, with no possibility of spontaneously generating forms 
 of beauty, with no secret principle of evolution to work it into something orderly. 
 We are as clay. Except God wrought in us and upon us, we could simply lie helpless, 
 only to waste away with the flux of circumstances. If we are more than clay, it is 
 because God breathes his life into us and sustains us every moment by his 
 indwelling Spirit. If we seem to effect anything actively, it is because he first works 
 in us both to will and to do. 
 
 III. God has a purpose in every life as the potter has with the clay. 
 There is a meaning for the strange discipline of providence. God is si aping us into 
 
CM. XVIII. 1—23.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 445 
 
 that form which he deems most fitting. Every life has not the same purpose. The 
 potter malies vessels of innumerable shapes. Yet each life is successful as its own 
 particular purpose is fulfilleci. The homely jug may he perfect, though it is very 
 diiferent from the graceful vase. A life is no failure because it is lowly and put only 
 to lowly uses so long as it attains the end for which Grod designed it. It is important 
 to note that God's first work with us is in forming our own souls aright. The firdt 
 question is not as to what we do, but as to what we are. The potter is making vessels ; 
 God is making characters, souls, lives. Aftei- this we may be put to some further end 
 — used for good after we have been made right, as the vessel is of service after the 
 potter has done his work with it. 
 
 IV. God shapes our lives bt the discipline of providence as the potter 
 The clat upon his wheels. The wheel of time spins fast, but not carrying us away, 
 changing but not destroying each separate individuality. In providence there are 
 wheels within wheels. We do not understand their meaning. The clay is pressed now 
 below into a solid base, now above into a dainty rim, but it is difBcult to see what the 
 final outcome will be till all is finished. So our lives are pressed on one side and 
 on another — something which in our eyes is indispensable is taken away, something 
 which to us seems needless is added. But out of the dizzy whirl, the rush and con- 
 fusion of life, God is steadily working out his purpose. 
 
 V. God will ultimately accomplish his purpose in us, though at first it 
 SEEMS to fail. CVer. 4.) The clay is refractory. It must be broken up and remodelled. 
 Man is more than clay. He has free-will, mysterious as may be the connection of this 
 with the almighty sovereignty of God. In a much more terrible way he too is refractory, 
 wilfully and stubbornly. For this he must be broken. His life must be disturbed and 
 shaken up, but only that God may begin again to fashion him for his destined end. 
 Great disappointments, destructive events, the failure of a man's work, the disruption 
 of a Church, the revolution of a nation, may seem simply disastrous. I5ut we see how 
 that by mians of these things God, in his infinite patience and gracious perseverance, 
 will finally effect his own great purposes, and so secure the true blessedness of his 
 creatures. 
 
 Vers. 7 — 10. — Ood'if action determined hy man's conduct. These verses may be read 
 as balancing those that precede. The illustration of the potter at his work shows us 
 simply the Divine side of life. The following verses take us round to the human side, 
 and the human conditions in accordance with which God exercises the rights and power 
 of his absolute sovereignty. 
 
 1. God DETERMINES HIS ACTION ACCORDING TO THE CONDUCT OF MAN. He doeS 
 
 not act blindly, inconsiderately, on general principles alone, without regard to indi- 
 vidual cases, nor with one changeless course irrespective of the changes in the beha- 
 viour of his creatures. He takes note of these changes and modifies his treatment 
 of men by their varying requirements. 1. This fact is not derogatory to the absolute 
 sovereii/nty of God. A just sovereign considers his people. God acts according to his 
 own will; but his will, though inflexible in moral principles, varies in the choice of 
 particular actions according as the application of those principles varies with the 
 circumstances of the world. 2. This fact is not inconsistent with the definiteness of the 
 purjioses of God. The potter has his definite design, yet he proceeds with his work to 
 the conclusion or breaks up the clay and begins again, according as he finds it plastic 
 or brittle. 
 
 II. A CHANGE ON MAN'S PART FROM REBELLION TO PENITENCE WILL BE MET BT A 
 
 CHANGE ON Goo's PART FROM WRATH TO MERCY. God's threats are conditional. 
 Forgiveness is the result of no after-thought, of no change in the " temper " of God. 
 It is contemplated by God from the first, and promised on condition of repentance 
 whenever repentance is genuinely experienced. Therefore there is every encouragement 
 to repentance and hope. The darkest denunciations of judgment refer only to the 
 impenitent. It is not too late to expect the forgiving mercy of God, so long as it is 
 not too late for us to repent. This is reasonable, since the end of punishment is not 
 vindictive but remedial. The mere paying of a penalty is of no good in itself. It might 
 please a vain and vengeful despot, but not a merciful father. If the restoration of his 
 child is effected without it the father will gladly acknowledge that it is needless. 
 
446 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xviii. 1-23. 
 
 III. A CHAKGB ON MAN's PART FROM FIDELITY TO APOSTASY WILL BE MET BY A 
 
 CHANGE OS God's part from mercy to wrath. This is a necessary consequence of 
 the preceding principles. God's promises are as conditional as his threats. It would 
 be neither just nor merciful to us for God to continue his favours unabated after we 
 had departed from him. The removal of them is a wholesome warning to us. It 
 springs naturally from the personal relation of God to his people, one which depends 
 on reciprocal sympathy. Therefore it is vain to presume on our past experience of 
 God's goodness for immunity from the consequences of our later sins, or to suppose 
 that a happy condition of peace with God once attained can never be lost. We may 
 lose it and be in a worse condition than if we had never had it (Heb. vi. 4 — 6). 
 
 Ver. 12. — Rejected preaching. I. The best preaching may be rejected. Jeremiah 
 was a true messenger of God and an able preacher, yet he was unpopular. Christ, 
 who " spake as never man spake," was " despised and rejected of men." No greater 
 mistake can be made than to judge of the value of any preaching by the popularity 
 of it. 
 
 II. It is the duty of tub faithful preacher to bear his testimony even 
 IF IT be rejected. He must not be unfaithful to his mission in order to catch the 
 ears of his audience, nor must he silence his voice because it is unheeded. His duty is 
 to speak, whether men will hear or whether they will forbear. If he loyally discharges 
 this duty his conscience is clear. 
 
 III. The rejection of the preaching of truth is often to be attributed 
 TO THE PRIDE OF INTELLECT. People have their "own devices." Divine truth does 
 not require the contradiction of intellect nor the suppression of it, but it requires the 
 submission of intellect to well-grounded faith in a God who is worthy of trust, even 
 when he requires our acceptance of dark and painful doctrines. 
 
 IV. The rejection of the preaching of truth is often to be attributed 
 TO stubbornness op will. The Jews are represented as saying, "We will every one 
 practise the stubbornness of his evil heart." The excuse of intellectual doubt may be 
 sought as a cloak for moral aversion to Divine truth. Many who have no doubt of the 
 truth of the message of the servant of God refuse to accept it from sheer opposition to 
 Its spiritual requirements. 
 
 v. The truth preached is not affected by the rejection of it. If the 
 word would be true when accepted it would remain true when rejected. We cannot 
 alter facts by closing our eyes. If we refuse to hear the words of faithful ailmonition, 
 we shall not escape the doom against which they warn us, but only the more surely 
 run into it. We shall then simply rush blindfolded to meet our fate. 
 
 VI. The bbjkotion of the preaching of Divine truth is itself a great sin. 
 If the truth is recognized as Divine, rejection of this is rejection of the voice of God. Jt 
 is an act of direct resistance to the will of Gud. It is sinning against light. It is 
 refusing to accept offers of mercy, and returning insult for favours. 
 
 Ver. 14. — Mountain snow. Any one who has found himself in the valley of 
 ChauH.unix on a sultry summer afternoon must have ielt the striking contrast between 
 the eternal winter of the vast snow-fields of Mont Blanc, spread out in blazing sunlight 
 high above his head, and tfiedust and heat of the parched land around. The perma- 
 nence of this mountain snow is suggestive of spiritual lessons. 
 
 I. Mountain snow is an emblem of spiritual life maintained in the midst 
 OF WORLDLY SCENES. Mountain snow is found in the hottest countries. You need 
 not travel to arctic regions for perpetual snow, it may be found in the tropics. 
 Christians neeil not be transported to heaven in order to live a pure Divine life. The 
 duty of the Christian is to preserve this fresh and holy in the midst of the world, not 
 to flee from the world. By remaining in the world the Christian is a means of blessing 
 it as the mountain snow descending in glaciers and streams refreshes and fertilizes the 
 valley. But the Christian's mission to the world is dependent on the preservation of 
 his unworldly spirituality, as the rel'reshiiig streams that flow down the gorges of the 
 mountain are dependent on »he snows high above them. If the snow fails the stream 
 is dried up. If tlie spirituality fails the Christian work becomes barren. 
 
 II. Mountain snow is an emblem of spiritual lifj; maintained in the most 
 
CH. xviii. 1— 23.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 447 
 
 TETINO TIMES. The remarkable fact about the mountain snow is that it is perpetual. 
 It is nothing that there is snow on the hills in winter ; are not the plains then equally 
 snow-clad? The Christian who only remains faithful under favourable circumstances 
 is but superficially religious. The difficulty is to be true when all things are adverse, 
 in the heat and burden of work, under the fierce onslaught of temptation, while the 
 spirit of the age is against us, when Christianity is out of fashion, out of season. Yet 
 we are to be instant out of season as well as in season (2 Tim. iv. 2), to be independent 
 of the weather, of the social atmosphere, in the chanfieless purity of a spiritual life. 
 III. The causes of the persistekoe of mountain snow are suggestive of 
 
 THE CAUSES OF THE PEESERVATION OP THE FRESHNESS AND PURITY OF THE SPIRITUAL 
 
 LIFE. How is it that we find snow in the tropics, snow in summer ? 1. Great elevation. 
 A few thousand feet in height will produce climatic changes equal to those caused by 
 a distance of many degrees of latitude. The Christian must find his fidelity preserved 
 by elevation of life. He must live on high, a risen life, with affections above the earth, 
 with a treasure in heaven, and his heart there also. By constant communion with 
 heaven constant purity on earth may be maintained, as the silent solitudes of snow 
 remain through the summer in the cool regions of their great elevation. 2. Gonstantly 
 renewed supplies. The snows melt under the sun and send roaring torrents down 
 the hillsides, and in course of time they would disappear unless they were renewed. 
 But clouds gather round the mountain summits and descend in fresh snows, and winter 
 on its return makes up for the partial loss of snow in summer. So the Christian must 
 maintain his spiritual life, not only by the elevation of his own thoughts, but by 
 receiving repeated supjilies of heavenly grace. He maybe thankful that he is favoured 
 by " times of refreshing " when the fierce beat of trial is abated, and strength is accu- 
 mulated for the time of need. 
 
 Ver. 18. — The opposition of officials. I. It is common to see official persons 
 RESISTING THE WORK OF GOOD AND GREAT MEN. The prophcts usually met with this 
 opposition, and it forced them to become nonconformists. Christ received the most 
 bitter enmity from the official classes. This opposition may be traced (1) io pedantry 
 — the official only believes in what comes in the regular way of officialism; (2) to 
 jealousy — the official is jealous of the greater influence of the unauthorized teacher ; (3) 
 to conviction of unfaithfulness — the true prophet exposes the faults of his official con- 
 temporaries. The inevitable result is discredit and shame to them, rousing a spirit of 
 revenge. 
 
 II. The opposition op officials finds excuse in officialism. Have they not their 
 appointed office? Are they nut discharging their regular functions? They have been 
 so accustomed to the unbroken routine that this seems to them part of the eternal 
 order of things. They can believe in nothing better. They cannot conceive the pos- 
 sibility of any alteration in it. True, the spirit of the Law has evaporated from the 
 service, but the droning of the letter of it shall not depart from the priest. The wisdom 
 of spiritual insight is no longer enjoyed by the wise man, but there is no end to his 
 casuistical pleading with old worn maxims. Prophecy in its higher flights is denied 
 to the professional prophet, but there seems to be no abatement of the power to echo 
 the cries of the day and win the popular favour by flattery and hollow rhetoric. Why, 
 then, listen to the disturbing words of the new teacher? Thus officialism is always 
 excusing its opposition to new good movements on the plea of its own self-sufficiency. 
 
 III. The opposition of officialism is powerful for harm. For how many scenes 
 of martyrdom is it responsible ! It was this that crucified Christ. It has peculiar 
 weapons of its own. It carries the weight of prestige. It is very effectual with the 
 thoughtless, who are ready to submit to the voice of the recognized authorities, partly 
 out of indolence, partly out of fear, partly out of ignorance. It needs independence of 
 thought and courage to recognize that this may be all wrong, and truth and right with 
 the irregular minority — the jjeasant apostles rather than the haughty Sanhedrim, the 
 plain German njonk rather than the cardinals of Rome, the simple teachers of truth 
 rather than the recognized masters of the world. 
 
448 THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. , [ch. xviii. 1— 23. 
 
 HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. 
 
 Vers. 1— Id.— The potter and the clay. The revelations of God are often given in 
 unlikely places, and common circumstances and scenes may symbolize the diviuest 
 mysteries. The profoundest things in God's universe are side by side with the 
 simplest. If the mind be open and the spirit susceptible we shall see God in every- 
 thing. Is there not a fitness in this ancient handicraft of the potter becoming the 
 symbol of the eternal action of God ? The potter's clay suggests — 
 
 I. The influence of God upon human destiny. Some of the forms into which 
 human life builds itself impress the imagination with the presence of a power greater 
 than human, which conditions and determines them. The race, the nation, the 
 Church, represent relations and affinities which are not of merely human origin. But 
 even the individual life, if properly studied, will be found to be associated with tlie 
 same mystery and full of the same suggestion of a Divine influence. In the case before 
 us it is the Jewish nation which is suggested to the mind of the prophet. The hand 
 of God is apparent in its formation and history. God's influence upon these is felt to 
 be (1) omnipotent, (2) sudden, (3) irresponsible, (4) io create vr to destroy. 
 
 II. CiKOUMSTANCES IN HUMAN NATURE THAT AFFECT DESTINY. The clay in the hand 
 of the potter was marred and had to be remoulded. The allusion here was to the 
 idolatrous practices of the Jews in Jeremiah's own time. The causes at work, there- 
 fore, in the marring of the vessel are not mechanical or constitutional in their nature, 
 but moral. The history of the same people has shown that external circumstances are 
 of little account in this question. The cliief hindrances to God's purposes with man in 
 nations, institutions, and individuals arise from (1) original depravity and (2) wilful 
 disobedience. The free-will of man may thwart even the grace of God. 
 
 III. The purpose op God with eegaed to man. This is essentially and persistently 
 a creative one. The first effort of the potter is formative ; and when, through the 
 marring of the vessel, he has to reduce the clay into the lump again, there still remains 
 an intention to form anew. The effects of sin are shown to be profound from the fact 
 that the potter is obliged to remake what has been marred. The effort of restoring love 
 succeeds upon another, and " where sin abounded grace did much more abound" (Rom. 
 V. 20). There is no nation which has not had many opportunities of recovering its 
 position and influence ibrfeited by unfaithfulness and unbelief, and there is no sinner 
 hardened in his sins who has not repeatedly rejected a heavenly voice. Each procla- 
 mation of God's Word is a fresh opportunity which may avail for salvation to every 
 one who will embrace it. — M. 
 
 Vers. 11, 12. — The fatalism of the wiched. The conception of God's judicial omni- 
 potence furnished in the parable of the putter is misinterpreted by the wicked. It is 
 made a reason for continuing in their sin, they arguing that it is their late, or needs be, 
 to follow in the path they have chosen. 
 
 I. In this we have an illustration of the power of evil habit. Sin has 
 acquired such influence over the nature that it becomes its ruler. A recklessness born 
 of desperation takes the place of prudent and hopelul counsels. The inward indisposi- 
 tion colours the view that is taken of the possibilities of the situation. Instead of the 
 sinner seeing that his condition is due to a continual withdrawal from God, he declares 
 that he is " past feeling," that God's grace cannot save him, and that it is " no use." 
 But — 
 
 II. It is not justified by: 1. The condition of Ood's opposition. It is the per- 
 verseness and unreality of man. He refuses to suffer. False religion God will not 
 accept. 2. The circumstances of the sinner. So long as life continues there is hope. 
 The repetition of the gospel's appeal has the same significance. Are there any signs 
 of relenting in his mind now ? any stirrings of heavenly aspiration ? any shame and 
 sorrow for past sin? God's Spirit has not ceased to strive with him, and he may yet 
 be saved. 3. The means of salvation that offer themselves. Christ is both able and 
 willing to save. His sacrifice on the cross is a finished work and a complete atonement 
 fur our sin. "The Spirit helpeth our infirmities." He is able to save "unto the 
 uttermost," etc. 
 
CH. XVIII. 1—23.]' THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH; 44& 
 
 III. It ISA SUPREME EXPRESSION OF WICKEDNESS AND WILL BE PUNISHED AS SDOH; 
 — M. 
 
 Vers. 14, 15. — Jehovah an unfailing Help to his 'people; or, the " snow of Lebanon." 
 One of the most striking scenes visible from a great distance is Hermon, with its 
 snow and vapours. It is covered with white snow all the year round, and from its 
 MUumitS flow down cold, pent-up streams to the valley beneath. God asks why 
 Israel has forsaken him ; whether there was any failure of his grace and power. 
 Has he not been constant and ever ready to help? How is it, then, that he is for- 
 saken? The snow of Lebanon is, like the dew of Hermon, a symbol of the grace of 
 God abiding upon Zion, from which the streams of grace flow forth in inexhaustible 
 supply. 
 
 I. Those who forsake God do so becadsb of their own perversity and not 
 BECAUSE op God's neglect. " Is his arm shortened that it cannot save ? " is a question 
 we ought to ask ere we make up our minds to leave God. The secret of spiritual 
 disaffection and apostasy is in ourselves and not in God. 
 
 II. Apostasy prom God is a transcendent instance op ingratitude. 1. The 
 providences of God have been unceasing, manifold, and overflowing. They have come 
 without efl'ort of man. Yet the sinner has gone away and obstinately continues in his 
 sin. 2. But in the grace of God there are elements that appeal to our deepest affection 
 and trust. It is so rich, undeserved, and free. "Why should he have chosen any one ? 
 How often has he healed the backslidings of his people ! The cross of Christ is the 
 grandest expression of love of which we know. It " passeth knowledge." 
 
 III. When sinners forsake God it is to their own injury. 1. By their pursuit 
 after sinful gratifications they forfeit the emjoyment of Divine mercy. Providential 
 mercies may not always be withdrawn, but their beneficial effect is destroyed. The 
 fellowship and presence of God are lost. His favour and help cannot be expected. 
 2. Tlie sources of pleasure they apply thtmselves to are disappoiriting and fatal. Sinful 
 pleasures soon pall. There is no enduring rapture in the gratification of sense, but an 
 enduring sting remains. The constitution of the sinner is sapped and undermined by 
 his excesses, and the general, social, and political life of the nation corrupted. There 
 is no sorrow so profound and incurable as that which results from the abuse of reli- 
 gious privileges and the loss of the heavenly birthright ; it " worketh death." But, in 
 addition to all this, the anger of God is kindled, and who shall extinguish it? He 
 himself can. "With him is forgiveness that he may be feared, and plenteous redemption 
 that he may be sought unto. " His mercy endureth for ever." It is only needed that 
 we change in heart and life to recover our lost estate and experience again more than 
 our lost joy. — M. 
 
 Ver. 18. — Ecclesiastical succession versus individual ministry. The spirit of these 
 words is not hard to divine. " We have a succession of priests, teachers, and prophets 
 assured to us by our traditional institutions ; so there is no great loss if Jeremiah be 
 discounted ; and we need not fear the cessation of the Divine revelation, — is it not pro- 
 vided against by a sacred succession ? " 
 
 I. 'J'here are many who believe in the office of the ministry as ah inde- 
 pendent SOURCE OF inspiration. AND TRUTH. 
 
 II. This is alleged in excuse for : 1. Bef using support to special religious effort. 
 2. Contempt and opposition of individual ministers. 
 
 III. In correction of this error may be noted : 1. That it is not countenanced hy 
 God. 2. History has frequently shown its falsehood. 3. It is really a reliance upon 
 the human and not the Divine. 4. God does his special work nearly always through 
 individuals. 5. The dishonour done to the servant is done to his Master. — M. 
 
 'Vets. IS, Vd.^-The preacher's foes ; or, false tongues and deaf ears. I. These oppose 
 more or less every true ministry. The persecutors of Stephen " stopped their oars 
 and ran upon him." ■ 
 
 II. They are an indirect testimony to the truth and faithfulness 'of the 
 message delivered. 
 
 III. They may retard, but they cannot stifle, the Divine message. TLo 
 
 JEl^llMIAU. 2 U 
 
*50 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xviii. 1—23. 
 
 Blander can be lived down. The voice of just men done to death will speak when they 
 are dead. Magna est Veritas et prevalebit. 
 
 IV. Theke is a silent witness who shali, take account of all. 1. It is of less 
 consequence to us that men approve and attend than that God should do so. The 
 preacher addresses not only a visible, but an invisible, audience. Of every word that 
 ]iroceeds from his servants' lips God takes note. 2. He vjill protect his servant until 
 his work has been accomplished. 3. The slanders and indifference of those to whom the 
 Word is spoken will be punished. (Matt. xii. 36, 37.)— M. 
 
 Vers. 1 — 10. — The blessed parable of the potter and the day. Few passages of Scripture 
 have been more misread or with sadder results than this one. Krom St. Paul's 
 reference to it in Eom. ix. it has been thought that it taught the absolute sovereignty 
 of God, his right to dispose of men as he pleases ; that, in the exercise of that 
 sovereignty, he makes some vessels unto destruction, and that the vessels so made have 
 no ground of complaint whatsoever. Now, we affirm that, whilst there is much truth in 
 these representatii ms, they are not " the whole truth," still less are they " nothing but the 
 truth." God is Sovereign, we cheerfully confess, and has right to dispose of us as he 
 will. But that he exercises these rights in any arbitrary, or capricious, or cruel way, 
 as is taught by this misreading, or that if he did the vessels made for destruction 
 would have no ground of complaint, we altogether deny. Such teaching has clouded 
 the face of God to many souls and made God our Father " a terror " to them. But 
 blessed be his Name, this misreading is not the truth. Let us try to see what that 
 truth is. In passing, we may note how the command to the prophet to go down to the 
 potter's workshop teaches us how workshops and our common work may have precious 
 lessons about God to teach us if we be like as was the prophet, willing to learn them. 
 The star-studying Magi were led by a star to Jesus. The centurion by his soldier-life 
 gained true comprehensiou of Christ. The fishermen-apostles of how they were to 
 be " fishers of men." Manifold are the ministers and ministries of God to attentive 
 souk. 
 
 " There is a book, who runs may read, 
 Wbicli lieavenly truth imparts ; 
 And all the lore its scholars need. 
 Pure eyes and Christian hearts." 
 
 That is said of the book of nature, so it may be of the book of our lawful work. Now 
 let us go down to the workshop told of here and learn what we may. And we are 
 taught — 
 
 I. That " it doth not yet appear what we shall be." We are the clay. But 
 who can tell what is to be fashioned out of that mere mass of material ? Every human 
 soul is but as clay in process of formation into some designed result. 
 
 II. God has wise and gracious intent in regard to all. The meanest vessel 
 that the potter makes is an advance in worth and excellence on the clay ere it was 
 fashioned by bim. How much more, then, in the case of the " vessels of honour " ! 
 
 III. But the clay can for a while mar and frustrate the potter's purpose. 
 The vessel the prophet saw was marred in the making. What innumerable instances 
 there have been and are of this ! Not Israel and Judah alone, but other nations, other 
 churches, innumerable separate souls. And they have had to be broken up and set 
 down from the place of honour for which they were at first intended. They have with 
 ahame to take a lower place. But — 
 
 IV. Eventually the Maker's will will be done in regard to them. " So he 
 made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it." It is never 
 " all the same " to a man if he sins against God. He may not be destroyed, but his 
 will be " another " jwsition and a worse one. 
 
 V. And all this in harmony with the nature op the material wrought 
 UPON. As the potter's work was in harmony with the day out of which he fashioned 
 his varied vessels, so God's work will be in harmony with the mental and moral nature 
 which he has given to ua. It is to us an inexplicable problem — the haimony of the 
 Divine sovereignty and human freedom. We cannot tell how it will be done, only that 
 it will be doae. 
 
cH. XVIII. 1—23.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 451 
 
 VI. The lessons of the whole abe : 1. Of inquiry. Are we, by obetlience lo 
 the Divine will, furthering the work designed in us or by disobedience binderini;? 
 Ver. 9 teaches that, however good and gracious a purpose God may cherish concerning 
 us, if we " do evil" then God's work will be marred. 2. Of wlmonition. Seeing how 
 terrible a process is the " making again " of the marred vessel — -what was it not to 
 Judah and Israel? and the process is not finished yet — let us repent of sin and turn 
 to God now, and so be delivered from so great a woe. It has been said that the most 
 terrible part of the road to heaven is that which the sinner goes over three times — 
 once in his first following of Christ, next when he by sin goes back that way, and the 
 third time when in bitter repentance he travels over it again. 3. Of praise to 
 God, that he has revealed so gracious a purpose concerning man, and that his will 
 shall be done. 4. Of prayer, that we may be found not resisting but ever obedient 
 to that will.— 0. 
 
 Vers. 8 — 12. — A never-to-he-forgotten principle of interpretation. These verses 
 plainly teach that all God's tlircatenings, even the most terrible, and all God's 
 promises, even the most blessed, are conditional on the continuance of the moral 
 character to which they wrre addressed. Now, this is — 
 
 I. A CORDIAL AGAINST DESPAIR. When the convicted sinner — as the men of 
 Nineveh — hear the awl'ul denunciations of God's judgment, all hope seems to be 
 forbidden. The Ninevites, to encourage themselves in a forlorn hope, could only say, 
 '• Who can tell whether God will be gracious?" But this and the like Scriptures, 
 confirmed by so many facts of experience, forbid all such despair. 
 
 II. A CHECK TO PRESUMPTION. How many prate concerning final perseverance who 
 are not persevering at all except in sin and worldliness? But they need to be reminded 
 of this sure condition, one which the great adversary of souls is ever striving to make 
 us forget. 
 
 III. An EXPLANATION OF THE STERN WORDS OF SoRiPTURE. When one would give 
 the alarm of fire he does not whisper Lhe word. So when God would warn sinners he 
 does not soften his words, but in most vivid manner sets before men the awful doom of 
 the ungodly. Thus would God, by his terrors, scare men — if uauglit else will do — 
 to "flee from the wrath to come," so that "he may repent of the evil he thought to 
 do unto them." Such words are not the utterance of absolute decrees against any 
 soul to whom they are addressed, but loving warnings to such soul to turn to God and 
 live. 
 
 IV. A REASON FOB ITS WORDS OF WARNING. These are found in varied form, 
 addressed to disciples of Christ, to those to whom the most glorious promise had been 
 made. See the sermon on the mount ; how full of warnings ! Therefore this condi- 
 tionalness of God's words speaks : 1. To the believer, and bids him " Be not high-minded, 
 but fear." " If God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not 
 thee." 2. To the ungodly. See the sure end of thy way : how awful 1 But see, too, 
 God's earnest desire that thou shouldest forsake that way. — 0. 
 
 Ver. 12. — Despair, its causes, consequences, and cure. "And they said, There is no 
 hope," etc. There is a show of humility about this word. The man has evidently no 
 hope in himself, nor in any Church, nor in any human help whatsoever. Now, this 
 so far so good. To get men away from trusting in an arm of flesh is ever one of God's 
 purposes. And when a man is thus weaned from self and all human reliance it is a 
 good sio-n. But such distrust at times goes beyond this, to belief that there is no hope 
 anywhere, which is despair. Now, this a sore evil (of. homily on ch. ii. 25, " A dread 
 snare of the devil "). And to help in overcoming it we would speak — 
 
 I. Of its causes. They are of varied kinds, but a man is near to despair when he 
 sees: 1. That his sin is inveterate. When year after year goes by and still there the 
 sin is. 2. That it is continually successful in reducing his will to consent to It. 3. 
 That his defences are only those derived from considerations of the conseiiuencos and 
 punishment of his sin. Motives of love to God and Christ, hatred of the sin itself, 
 have ceased to rule him ; it is otdy the fear of what may happen that holds him back, 
 though, indeed, such defence is weak enough. 4. That his sin has rendered inetfectual 
 many special dealings of Gpd with him in regard to it. He has broken through j»11 
 
452 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JERBMTAH. [ch. xviii. 1—23. 
 
 these gracious barriers one after another. All these are dreadful facts to coatemplate, 
 and tend to fill a man with the belief that " there is no hope." The good Lord 
 fcfrbid that we should ever have such facta to contemplate concerning ourselves. 
 
 II. Its consequences. They are dreadful in the extreme. They produce sullen 
 obstinacy in evil. " They said . . . bat we will walk after our own devices." Also 
 unrestrained licence. The thought comes, " We can but be lost ; we will have what 
 enjoyment we may." This is a frightful fruit of despair. If, then, any considering 
 these dread consequences of despair tremble lest they should yield to it, but yet 
 by reason of such facts as those above named are sore tempted thereto, let them 
 remember there is deliverance for them. Consider, therefore — 
 
 III. Its ohke. It can only be, it ought only to be, by good hope of deliverance 
 from that which is the cause of thy despair — thy .sin. But whence can come this 
 deliverance? Wise and godly men have counselled after this manner. 1. Seek to 
 gain and beep before the mind a deep sense : (1) Of the guilt of thy sin. You who have 
 received such light and grace are involved in far deeper guilt and your sin is far more 
 heinous than that of others. (2) Of the danger of it. The danger of being hardened by 
 its deceitfulness. Of bringing down on thyself some great temporal judgment as God's 
 ] unishment of thy sin. Of losing thy peace with God and strength to serve him. 
 Of eternal destruction. (3) Of tlie evils of it. It grieves the Holy Spirit of God. 
 The Lord Jesus Christ is wounded afresh by it. All thy usefulness will be destroyed. 
 God will neither bless thee nor make thee a blessing. 2. Wrestle in prayer. 3. 
 Watch against occasions and advantages of sin. 4. Go again to the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 especially to him as your dying, crucified Lord. Live near his cross, for "his blood 
 cleanseth from all sin." Cleave to him and let thy faith fasten upon him. So — his 
 Word assures and experience proves, for there is no instance to the contrary, but 
 innumerable ones in proof — the chain of thy sin shall be broken, and the sight of this 
 shall so cheer thy heart that the demon of despair shall spread its dark wings and 
 depart and leave thy soul unclouded. (See on all this, Owen on the Mortification 
 of Sin.)— C. 
 
 Vers. 18 — 23. — Persecution. The cruel sufferings of God's prophet which here and 
 in other parts of his prophecy are recorded throw not a little light on all like perse- 
 cution. For, though its rough and brutal forms have for the most part disappeared, 
 still in others it yet lingers, and is the source of much distress. Note, then — 
 
 I. Its causes. They are ever the same — hatred to the faithful Word which the 
 persecuted one persists in preaching. Persecution, therefore, is inevitable where a 
 faithful messenger of God comes into collision with those who hate and will not submit 
 to his message. 
 
 II. Its pretexts. Zeal for the Church and for sacred institutions imperilled by the 
 prophet's preaching. We see them standing up for the priests and the Law and the 
 prophetic order, all which, of Divine appointing, were wronged and injured by the prophet. 
 Persecutors never will own, even to themselves, their own true motives. Those who 
 sought to kill our Lord ever insisted on the highest motives for their conduct. Perse- 
 cution is such an odious thing that, unless some fair disguise be thrown over it, no one 
 would have anything to do with it. And no doubt some persecutors — like Saul of 
 Tarsus — have been deceived by this disguise, and have sincerely thought they were 
 doing God service. There is never any need for persecution, though our forefathers 
 thought there was ; for if any doctrine be of man only it will come to naught. The 
 facts of life, the Word of God, reason and conscience, are all against falsehoods, and 
 will expose and so extinguish them without persecution. For the nature of man is 
 made for truth, and hence what is contrary to truth cannot long live. 
 
 III. Its intent. Revenge and the forcible silencing of an adversary. 
 
 IV. Its METHODS. 1. iJe/amaiton. "Let us smite him with the tongue." 2. Ostentatious 
 disregard of his teaching. "Let us not give heed," etc. (ver. 18). 3. WJiatever "devices" 
 will most of all tell against him. Sometimes open hostility is not safe. It was not 
 against John the Baptist, nor our Lord, nor here (cf. ch. xxvi. 16). And then other 
 devices have to be sought out, and the finding, when sought by the persecuting spirit, 
 does not take long. ° 
 
 V. Its eelikf. Not compromise. To give way where conscience commands stead- 
 
OH. XVIII. 1—23.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 453 
 
 fastness is to incur such spiritual shame and distress, such hiding of the face of God, as 
 to be more intolerable than the fiercest persecution (cf. the history of Cranmer and his 
 piteous misery). But — as with Jeremiah — turning to the Lord in prayer. We cannot 
 commend the spirit of his prayer, it is all unlilie our Lord'is in regard to his enemies, 
 and therefore not a pattern for us to follow ; but it was right, and ever is so, when 
 persecuted by man to turn to him '* who endured such contradiction of sinners against 
 himself." His grace will keep us from being wearied and faint in our minds. Patience, 
 too, will greatly help. Persecutors soon tire when they find that their methods are of 
 no avail. Prudence, likewise, should not be forgotten. Sometimes we may get out of 
 its way, and at no time is there need to provoke persecution by imprudent, ill-timed, 
 and ill-toned obtrusion of the distasteful theme. There are times when at all costs a 
 man must stand to his post and speak out, but there are other times, and more of 
 them, when the quiet, consistent life will do more for G-od and his truth than the 
 longest and loudest speech. ' But in such difBcult circumstances it is well to keep near 
 to God in constant prayer for counsel and direction how to bear one's self wisely as ha 
 would have us. Rehef also is found in contemplation of— 
 
 VI. Its sure results if faithfully endured. It makes us have real fellowship with 
 Christ. It wins for us a glorious recompense at his coming. Even now the soul is 
 cheered by the communications of his approval and the clear vision of the shining 
 of his countenance upon his faithful servant. And not seldom likewise by beholding 
 the lion turned into the lamb, the persecutor becoming an apostle and preacher of the 
 faith he once destroyed. These are consolations indeed. And confirmation in the 
 truth for which we have suffered is gained by seeing the manifest displeasure of God 
 against the persecutors. How it hardens them in their sin ! How it fills up the cup of 
 their iniquity I How sore the vengeance that befalls them ! These considerations are 
 derived from the contemplation of the persecution of the Lord's servant Jeremiah. 
 They will be all of them strengthened if we mark the sufferings of the Lord himself. 
 Here, but there most vividly, are seen warnings most solemn against this great sin, 
 and consolations most precious to all the " blessed " who endure.: — U. 
 
 Vers. 19 — 23. — Tlie prophet's prayer for vengeance on his enemies. (Cf homily on 
 " Imprecatory prayers," ch. xi. 20.) — 0. 
 
 Ver. 6. — The potter and the clay. The analogy here instituted enshrines truths that 
 are of universal application. They have their individual quite as much as their 
 national bearings. Nowhere does the representative character of the house of Israel 
 appear more clearly than in this passage ; nowhere do we get a more striking view of 
 the general method of the Divine dealings with the human race. It suggests — 
 
 I. God's absolute soveeeigntt over the BBiNa and life of every man. The 
 figure of the potter and the clay is one of Irequent occurrence in Holy Scri])ture (^vide 
 Job X. 9 ; Isa. Ixiv. 8 ; Eom. ix. 10). It vividly represents the subjection of our 
 nature and our personal history to the Divine control. The fact of our moral freedom, 
 the mysterious prerogative that belongs to us of choosing and following our own way, 
 must needs make the comparison defective. There is some point at which all such 
 physical analogies fail duly to set forth the realities of moral and spiritual life. But it 
 is deeply true as suggestive of the power God has over us to mould us as he pleases. 
 Free as our will may be, is not our whole nature as plastic material in the hands of 
 him who made us ? Free as we may be to pursue our own chosen course of life, can 
 we ever escape the "Divinity that shapes our ends"? There is a hidden power, 
 whether we acknowledge it or not, the mastery of which over thought, feeling, purpose, 
 and action is the deepest reality of our existence. 
 
 II. His formative purpose. Distinguish between a sovereign power and one that 
 is arbitrary and capricious. Complete as the Divine mastery over us may be, it is not 
 lawless or purposeless. It has always a definite end in view,, and that end is wise and 
 holy and good. As the potter seeks to fashion the clay into some beautiful or useful 
 form that his own brain has first conceived, so God, by his providential and spiritual 
 control, seeks to work out a Divine idea in our being and life, to body forth in us some 
 aichoty])e of ^Oral beauty that exists in his own eternal mind. He would fain fashion 
 lis into. a noble form and fit us lor some nuble use. In God's " great house " there are 
 
454 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xviii. 1—23. 
 
 many utilities. And even the vessel " unto dishonour " has its place and its purpose. 
 Our faith in the infinitely vpise and holy love that governs all leads us to rest in the 
 thought — 
 
 "That nothing walks with aimless feet; 
 That not one life shall be dt-stroyed 
 Or cast as rubbish to the void, 
 When God hath made the pile complete." 
 
 But he who formed us for himself would not have any of us to be content with an 
 inferior position and a lower aim. He would so mould and fashion us that we shall be 
 " vessels unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the Master's use " (2 Tim. ii. 21). 
 
 HI. His long-sufferinq patience. When the potter's work is marred, he presses 
 the clay into a shapeless mass and casts it upon the wheel again. We are reminded of 
 the various methods God employs in moulding us to his will, and how if one fails he 
 •will often subject us to another. There are events that sometimes break up the whole 
 form of a man's life ; old ties are severed, old associations pass away ; he begins an 
 altogether new career, with new responsibilities, new moral tests, new possibilities of 
 good. There are afflictions that change the whole tenor of a man's inward life ; his 
 spirit is crushed, wounded, softened, that it may the better receive Divine impressions. 
 •' God maketh my heart soft," etc. (Job xxiii. 16). " My heart is like wax " (Ps. xxii. 
 14). Thus does God " humble us to prove us, to know \\ hat is in our heart, whether 
 we will keep his commandments or not " (Deut. viii. 2). There may come a time when 
 all these Divine methods fail and the soul is found to be reprobate. In ch. xix. 
 1 — 11 Tve have a figurative prophecy of the ultimate abandonment of the Jewish 
 people to their fate. In this case the vessel has been baked in the fire ; it is incapable 
 of taking a new shape, and is broken so " that it cannot be made whole again." Such 
 is the doom of the finally impenitent and intractable. But God's patience is very 
 wonderful. In this world at least the door of mercy is always open. There is always 
 the possibility of a new and nobler life. He " is long-suffering to usward, not willing 
 that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance" (2 Pet. iii. 9). — W. 
 
 Vers. 1—10. — The day in the potter's hand. I. The pueposb of this pkacticaI 
 ILLUSTBATION. It is a practical illustration in the most suggestive sense of the word 
 "practical.* Jeremiah had not to go out of his way to produce a sufficiently impressive 
 figure of what God was about to do. He had to go through a very peculiar and pro- 
 tracted experience to bring out the lesson of the marred ginlle. But here he has only 
 to go down to the potter at his wheel, a thing he could do at any time ; and there is a 
 ksson particularly plain and forcible, as coming out of the daily life, the simijle and 
 common life, of the people. Notice, then, that Jeremiah was not sent down to learn 
 just what his own unaided observation might tell him concerning the potter and the 
 clay. He might, indeed, have drawn out many important lessons, yet overlooked the 
 one that was most important of all. God wished the prophet clearly to understand and 
 then distinctly to impress upon the people this truth, that as the potter is to the clay, 
 iu respect of the control which he has over it as clay and in its plastic condition, so 
 Jehovah is to Israel in respect of his control over its temporal destiny as a nation. 
 Hence we have to look at the potter's action upon the clay, positively and negatively. 
 We have to recollect both what he can do and what he cannot do. Within certain 
 limits his power is resistless ; outside those limits he has no power at all. Give the 
 potter a piece of moist plastic clay ; he takes it up, designing to make from it a vessel 
 of a certnin shape and for a certain use. Suddenly he finds it desirable to change the 
 shape, and because the clay is still moist and plastic he can do this with the rapidity, 
 expertness, and success which come from long practice. It is this particular power of 
 the potter which God would have us to understand is his power over us. What the 
 potter does is limited by the nature of that with which he works. He cannot turn clay 
 into something else than clay. Clay it is when he first touches it : clay it remains when 
 its shape is finally decided. Let the vessel be baked in the furpace and come out hard, 
 its shape caimot then be altered. If it is thrown to the ground it will be broken, it 
 may even be shivered " so that there shall Dot be found in the bursting of it a sherd to 
 take fire Iroui the hearth, or to take water withal out of the pit" (Isa, xxx. 14). No 
 
CH. XVIII. 1—23.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEKEMIAH. 455 
 
 volition or power of the potter will f;ive to the clay vessel the qualities of a wooden 
 vessel or one of metal. He may fashion it for a vessel of liouour or dishonour, just as 
 he pleases ; but whatever its use its material is still of clay. And similarly we must 
 recollect that, whatever God does with us, he does in harmony with our nature. He 
 finds us, as to the affections and purposes of our hearts, free agents, and, however 
 great the changes he may affect in our circumstances and our future, all must be done 
 without touching this freedom. The Divine potter here was changing the circum- 
 stances of the human clay, just because that clay was so stubborn in submitting to his 
 \xiU so clearly, so lovingly, so often expressed. If we refuse to be moulded into the 
 sliape that means for us true peace, glory, and blessedness, then we must be moulded 
 into the shape which will secure at tlie least peace and blessedness in God's kingdom, 
 and manifest glory to his great Name. 
 
 il. Thic gkeat result which should be phoduoed. by oub consideration of 
 THIS ILLUSTRATION. Too readily is it said by many, " If we are as clay in the tiands 
 of the putter, then we need not trouble ourselves. God will shape om- destiny, what- 
 ever we do." But if we look honestly and humbly at this illustration, we shall see that 
 what God would have us above all things to learn from it is that the shaping of our 
 destiny lies practically with ourselves. In selfish and ignorant obstinacy we wish our 
 life to take a certain mould. Strenuously, and heedless of all Divine counsel and warn- 
 ing, we try what self can do toward the shajjing. Then at last our purpose comes to 
 be broken off. All that we have been and all that we have done prove useless so far 
 as our aims are concerned. But for all that we cannot be useless to God. God wishes 
 to work in us a change which would make all our circumstances those of liberty. He 
 wishes to renew our hearts and establish in them a holy love as the central principle. 
 If we refuse this Divine appeal, then we must come under ever-narrowing constraints. 
 We are asked to walk in the liijerty of Gud's children ; if we refuse and confess our- 
 selves the enemies of God, then we must be loaded with- chains and put in the inner- 
 most dungeon. Our wisdom is to turn from our hardness and impenitent hearts, and 
 allow God to lead us into the full juerocoia (Rom. ii. 4). Then with understanding shall 
 we address God, " We are the clay, and thou our potter " (Isa. Ixiv. 8). If we by repent- 
 ance come back to God and make ourselves clay, such as will have in it a peculiar 
 responsiveness to the touch of God, then we may leave ourselves to his loving-kindness. 
 He will fashion us into just that shape wliereby we shall be meet for ihe Master's 
 service. And if ujen say in their ignorance that we are turning out but vessels of 
 dishonour, let us recollect that of honour and dishonour God alone is judge. If we only 
 stoop from our pride to do the will of God, God will take care of our position. For is 
 not God he who exalts the humble and abases the proud ? — Y. 
 
 Vers. 18 — 23. — Jeremiah's enemies and his prayer against them. I. The cause or 
 HIS supplication. His enemies have entered into a plot against him, and he has 
 heard of the plot. He has to do, we may imai;ine, not only with the 0|ien threats of 
 passionate men, face to face, but also with secret wiles. The language of intense 
 provocation in which he speaks must be remembered in trying to estimate the extent, 
 depth, and bitterness of the hostility against him. , tVho were they that thus proposed 
 to join together iu ruining the prophet f Doubtless the three classes embraced by the 
 reference that is made, namely, priest, wise man, and prophet. The priest would go 
 to the wise man and prophet, saying, " See how this fellow speaks against us all." 
 A common hatred and a common peril swallow up for a time all jealousies amongst 
 bad men, and constitute a strong bond of union, a strong incitement to all the 
 ingenuity and designing powers of the mind. We are not left without means of 
 judging as to the motives of these three classes of men and their methods of proceed- 
 ing when we consider the similar conspiracies against Jesus himself. Men belonging 
 to conspicuous classes of the community attacked him, and they are constantly 
 mentioned as being joined together. This attack gives the strongest evidence, both 
 of the appropriateness of Jeremiah's message and his fidelity in delivering it. Such 
 truth as a prophet has to speak must be met either with penitent friendliness or with 
 bitter and active enmity. It must be reckoned no strange thing if the faithful 
 proclainier of truth is exposed, not only to reproaches, misrepresentations, and loss of 
 old associates, but even to deep-laid conspiracies. These men, while they were bent oa 
 
466 
 
 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. [ch. xix. 1—15. 
 
 mining Jeremiah, wished also to do it in a safe and plausible way. It was to be done 
 by a plan. They were going to smite him with tlie tongue. Very likely they hoped to 
 got him put to death under judicial Ibrms. Again, one asks — How came the prophet to 
 hear of these plans ? The wise men must have shown a very imperfect kind of wisdom 
 in not being able to keep their designs secret. Indeed, they may have thought that 
 they were secret. The Jews who swore not to eat or drink till they had killed Paul 
 did not reckon that Paul's own nephew had discovered their designs. 
 
 II. The supplication itself. In reading this supplication, we vainly tiy to escape 
 from feeling what a ferocious, savage tone the words have. The dreadful meaning uf 
 the words, taken in their natural signification, is only too plain. We must by no 
 means try to defend the prayer ; we can only do something to extenuate the language 
 by remembering the provocation the prophet had received, and the spirit of the age in 
 which he lived. It is at least important to remember that he is distinctly conscious of 
 having had good motives towards these enemies. He knew that God meant their good, 
 and he, in speaking, had meant the same. It must be noticed also that, whatever his 
 feelings, he expresses them as a prayer to God. He does not take retaliation into his 
 own hands. His rights and interests, whatever they are, he leaves in the hands of 
 Jehovah. He has, indeed, his own estimate as to what his enemies deserve, but he seeks 
 that they may get their deserts in the way of manifestly Divine judgments. Then he 
 evidently spoke in great excitement. The wrath even of a good man may boil over 
 into language which he would not wish to be held by in cooler moments. We may be 
 perfectly sure that if, in after years, Jeremiah had been reminded of this prayer, and 
 asked if he really, seriously meant that the innocent connections of his enemies should 
 be ruthlessly slaughtered, he would have been quick to plead that his words were those 
 of excitement. Shall it be thought wonderful that he should utter such a wish when 
 the disciples of the meek and lowly Jesus had drunk in so little of the spirit of their 
 Master as to wish fire from heaven to come down upon the inhospitable Samaritans ? 
 The passage under consideration is just one of those which strongly shows the difference 
 which has been made by the sermon on the mount. If Jeremiah had been a Christian 
 apostle instead of a Jewish prophet, his prayer would have been a very lamentable 
 utterance indeed. — Y. 
 
 EXPOSITION. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 With this chapter, vers. 1 — 6 of the next 
 ought undoubtedly to be connected to com- 
 plete the narrative. Jeremiah here comes 
 before us performing another symbolical 
 action. By breaking a potter's vessel he 
 foreshows the ruin impending over Jerusalem 
 for the idolatry practised in the valley of 
 Hinnom. Not (remarks Graf) as if the 
 worship of Molooh had been restored after 
 the death of Josiah ; ver. 13, in fact, euf- 
 iicieutly shows that the Tophet had, ever 
 since Joslah's time, continued to be an un- 
 clean place, and the sins which are here 
 rebuked are the unexpiated abominations 
 of Mauasseh's reign (described in ch. xv. 4, 
 as the immediate causes of the Captivity). 
 Jeremiah's prophecy on the Tophet is fol- 
 lowed by one on the fate of a certain Pas- 
 hur, a high oflicer in the temple. 
 
 The principal prophecy presents striking 
 
 points of contact with oh. vli. (comp. vers. 
 4—6 with ch. vii. 30—32 ; and ver. 13 with 
 ch. vii. 18; viii. 2), and we may presume 
 that the events here related belong to the 
 time to which we have already referred ch. 
 vii., viz. the early part of the reign of Je- 
 hoiakim. The same date is confirmed for 
 the narrative of Pashur by the office which 
 is therein given him ; for according to ch. 
 xxix. 25, 26, the oflSce was not held by him, 
 but by Zephaniah. 
 
 Ver. 1.— A potter's earthen bottle. Dr. 
 Thomson speaks of the extreme cheapness 
 and brittleneas of the common pottery of 
 Palestinei(comp. Isa. xxx. 14). The ancients 
 of the people. The natural popular repre- 
 sentatives (comp. Bxod. iii. 16; 2 Sam. 
 xix. 11 ; 1 Kings viii. 1 ; xx. 7). It was 
 an announcement concerning the whole 
 people that Jeremiah was about to make. 
 The ancients of the priests (comp. 2 Kings 
 xix. 2). 
 
 Ver. 2.— The valley of the son of Hinnom 
 (see on ch. vii. 31). The east gate ; rather. 
 
OH. XIX. 1—15.] THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 
 
 457 
 
 the potsherd gate, i.e. the gate where pot- 
 sherds were wont to be thrown. Another 
 possible rendering is "sun gate," of which 
 " east gate " is but a paraphrase. But there 
 is evidently a oouneotion between the name 
 of the gate and the action performed by 
 Jeremiah. The Authorized Version seems 
 to have misled Captain Warren into identi- 
 fying the valley of Hinnom with that of 
 Kedron. He coniirms Ids view, it is true, 
 by the Arabic nomenclature, which speaks 
 of the Kedron as the Wady Jehiunam — a 
 nomenclature, however, which is by no 
 means uniform (see Robinson, ' Biblical 
 Researches,' ii. 396, 403). The situation of 
 the " potsherd gate " must remain uncertain. 
 
 Ver. 3. — kings of Judah ; i.e. the nume- 
 rous clan of royal princes, kings by courtesy 
 (see on ch. xvii. 20). His ears shall tingle 
 (so 2 Kings xxi. 12; comp. 1 Sam. iii. 11). 
 
 Yer. 4. — Have estranged this place; 
 rather, have treated this place as strange ; 
 i.e. as one that did not belong to their God, 
 that was unholy (comp. ch. xvi. 18, 
 " They have defiled my land "). With the 
 blood of innocents ; comp. " Innocent blood, 
 even the blood of their sons and of their 
 daughters" (Ps. cvi. 38)— the children 
 sacrificed in Hinnom to Moloch. 
 
 Ver. 5. — Baal. This seems to be used 
 loosely for Moloch (comp. on ch. ii. 8). 
 
 Ver. 6.— (Comp. ch. vii. 32.) Tophet; 
 rather, the Tophet (see on ch. vii. 31). 
 
 Ver. 7. — I will make void; literally, / 
 will pour out, alluding to the etymology of 
 the word rendered " bottle " in ver. 1. 
 
 Ver. 8. — (Comp. ch. xviii. 16.) 
 
 Ver. 9. — The same description, almost 
 
 verbatim, is given in Deut. xxviii. 53; 
 (comp. Lev. xxvi. 29 ; Ezek. v. 10). For ti.e 
 fulfilment, see Lam. iv. 10. 
 
 Ver. 11. — As one breaketh a potter's 
 vessel (comp. Isa. xxx. 14). Dr. Thom- 
 son speaks of the utter indifference with 
 which the common pottery of Palestine is 
 handled. It is not only brittle, but so 
 cheap that no one is distressed at breaking 
 it. And they shall bury them in Tophet, 
 etc. These words form the conclusion of 
 oh. vii. 32 (see note), the greater part of 
 which is repeated in ver. 6. They are cer- 
 tainly out of place here, and are wanting in 
 the Septuagint. 
 
 Ver. 12. — As Tophet ; i.e. an unclean spot, 
 avoided by mankind. 
 
 Ver. 13. — The houses of the kings of 
 Judah ; i.e. the palaces and other buildings 
 which together made up " the king's house " 
 (oh. xxii. 6). Shall be defiled as the place 
 of Tophet. This is one of the few places in 
 which the Authorized Version has allowed 
 itself to interfere with the received text; 
 for the Hebrew has " which are defiled," etc. 
 The common reading, in fact, seems un- 
 translatable. Because of all the houses; 
 rather, even all the houses. 
 
 Vers. 14, 15. — Here begins a fresh section 
 of the narrative. Jeremiah has executed 
 his commission, and now proceeds to the 
 temple, where he repeats before the assem- 
 bled people his announcement of the awful 
 judgment. 
 
 Ver. 15. — TTpon all her towns. The cities 
 of Judah are regarded as in a manner subject 
 to the capital. 
 
 HOMILETICS. 
 
 Vers. 1 — 13. — The hrohen bottle. That was a strange scene — the royal family, the 
 nobles, the chief priests, together with the populace of Jerusalem, gathered, at the 
 summons of a prophet whose power could not be ignored though his teaching was 
 opposed, in the valley of Hinnom, now reeking with the odours of foul crime ; and the 
 prophet facing them, alone and fearless, with d common potter's vessel in his hand, 
 while he draws a most awful picture of impending calamity, and sternly charges his 
 audience with the terrible wickedness which is bringing it upon their heads, and 
 brings his discourse to a dramatic climax by breaking the vessel to pieces. 
 
 I. CoNsiDEB THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE DiscouESE. 1. It was addressed especially 
 to the leaders of the people (ver. 1). " To the poor the gospel is preached," but to the 
 great sterner messages must often be declared. Nothing in the history of the prophets 
 is more exemplary than the directness of their accusations of guilt in high places. 
 They were no flattering court preachers. Yet they were court preachers. They did 
 not reserve their harsh words for the poorest and lowest of the people, as modern 
 popular preachers are too apt to do. The leaders were first in crime ; they should be 
 first in responsibility. 2. It was spoken on the site of the greatest wickedness. The 
 guilty people had the memorials of their crimes before their eyes while judgment was 
 being pronounced for them. Men naturally shun these valleys of Hinnom, these scenes 
 of old sins, the sight of which stings the conscience. But they must revisit them. 
 It is sometimes the duty of the preacher to take his hearers back in memory to the 
 
458 THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [cii. xix. 1—15. 
 
 circumstances of the past which they would gladly forget. 3. It was dearly and 
 holdly expressed. 'J'he language was precise, detailed, and graphic, the description of 
 the approaching ruin vivid and appalling. Jeremiah used no euphemisms. His words 
 are enough to make our blood curdle as we read them, more than a score of centuries 
 after they were spoken. How must they have sounded in the ears of the criminals 
 who heard them as the sentence of their own doom ? Lurid pictures of future punish- 
 ment frequently strike one as unreal, as though only drawn for effect; they rouse 
 unbelief in some, despair in others, or a hardening in sin. Yet a clear and uncompro- 
 mising statement of the scriptural revelation of the horrors of the future is not to be 
 set aside for more pleasing doctrines, especially in preaching to the great and the self- 
 Batisfied. 4. It was accompanied by a siynificant action. Jeremiah broke the bottle 
 in the presence of his audience. This would strike tlie eye and impress the imagina- 
 tion. It is not enough that we convince the reason of a truth ; we must rouse the 
 imagination to realize it before it will be effectual. 'J'he Eastern imagery of the Bible 
 is useful to us in this way. 'J'he preacher finds the value of illustrations in making 
 truth vivid and interesting. Ideas may be received through the eye as well as through 
 the ear. 
 
 II. Consider the subject op the discourse. 1. It accused of sin, (1) in for- 
 saking God and (2) in practising vice and cruelty. We must feel the intensity of 
 guilt to realize the justice of punishment. 2. It denounced a most terrible doom. This 
 was to correspond to the crimes committed. The Tophet of sin was to be the Tophet 
 of punishment. They who had sacrificed children to Moloch would eat the flesh of 
 their sons, etc. 3. It exposed the rottenness oi false confidtnce. " I will pour out the 
 counsel of Judah." People imagine that somehow, without repentance, by ingenuity or 
 by daring, they may escape the consequences of their sins. They will find that all such 
 devices must end in ignominious failure. 4. It was accompanied by a symbol of hope- 
 less destruction. The bottle was broken. (1) Tliis potter's vessel was a comparatively 
 worthless thing : wickedness robs men's lives of all value. (2) It was very brittle : 
 nothing is so unstable as the security of the wicked before their sins have wrought out 
 their natural consequences. (3) It was broken to pieces : the punishment of sin is 
 destruction — the destruction of a nation for national sin as seen in the breaking up of 
 the Jewish people, the destruction of a soul in the killing out of' it of spiritual activi- 
 ties and all the higher capacities of its being. 
 
 Vers. 14, 15. — The warning confirmed. The warning of the discourse in the valley 
 of Hinnom is confirmed by a repeiition of it under more ordinary circumstances. 
 
 I. The OIHCUMSTA^'OES of the confirmation of the warning. 1. It was repeated. 
 The scribe must bring from his treasury things old as well as things new. Men need 
 " line upon line." Unpopular truths must not only be revealed once for all, they must 
 be impressed upon people until they are accepted. 2. It was repeated in the temple. 
 The horrible associations of Tophet were wanting there. All was decorum, order, 
 propriety. Yet the message was not the less true there than in a more congeiji>il place. 
 U'errible truths must be uttered in face of the relit:ious respectability of our Church 
 worship. Such outward correctness should not make us forget the true condition of 
 men's hearts, wliich is apparent enough in the darker scenes of life, in the Tophets of 
 iniquity. We are tempted to be deceived by the appearance of religious assemblies 
 into a blindness to the greatness of sin which is visible enough in common life. 3. 
 It was reiieatcd in the ears of all the people. The leaders were first selected to hear 
 the warning (ver. 1). But it was not confined to them. The people generally were 
 guilty. They had quietly acquiesced in the wickedness of their great men. Nay, they 
 liad furthered them in it (ch. v. 31), had followed their example, and become guilty of 
 similar crimes. They, too, must not expect to escape in the hour of judgment. 
 
 II. The form in which the warning was confirmed. 1. It was epitomized. 
 Truth needs to be broken up into detail that it may be clearly understood and vividly 
 conceived by the imagination. But it is possible to lose ourselves in details and miss 
 the drift of tliesum of them. Hence the advantage of broad, sweeping enunciations of 
 principle. 2. It was re|ieated as a prediction of real facts. The warnin<^ was not to be 
 regarded as an empty threat, nor as the indication of a danger that might be evaded. 
 '■ 1 will bring ... the evil that I ha\ c pronuunced," etc. It is both weak and cruel to 
 
OH.xix. 1— 15.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 453 
 
 threaten without the intention of executing the threat — weah, for the hoUowness of 
 the alarm is soon discovered by experience, and then it is impotent; cruel, for why 
 create distress about a mere " bogey " danger ? God is merciful, but firm. His threats 
 are conditional, but, while the conditious subsist, the execution is as certain as any 
 event that depends on the uniform laws of nature. 3. It was repeated without dimi- 
 nution. All the evil pronounced will fall on all the towns. The effect of stern warn- 
 ings fades with the lapse of time. We are tempted to think that things will not be 
 so very bad as at first seemed likely, and to take comfort from such reflections. But 
 danger is not lessened by our growing indifference to it. 4. It was strengthened by 
 an appeal to the increasing necessity lor it. " Because they have hardened their necks, 
 that they might not hear my words." A deep consciousness of guilt makes the just 
 punishment of it seem inevitable. Wilful persistence in wickedness after warning can 
 only increase the guilt and make the punishment the more certain and the more 
 severe. 
 
 HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. 
 
 Vers. 1, 2, 10, 11. — The hreaking of the potter's vessel. Another symbolic action, 
 but in this case the revelation to the mind of the prophet was not dependent upon its 
 being performed. It is because of the public significance of it he is enjoined to perform 
 it. The " elders of the priests " and the " elders of the people " are invited to the 
 scene. 
 
 I. The symbol. This was a "potter's earthen bottle [or 'vessel']," and thus had to 
 be carefully distinguished from the " clay " spoken of in ch. xviii. The latter is soft 
 and unshaped, and may be moulded as the potter wishes ; but the vessel is already 
 formed and hardened into a certain definite sliape, which it is impossible materially to 
 alter. As that represented the stuff or material of which nations and institutions 
 could be made, this must stand for the Jewish nation, with its character historically 
 matured and fixed. Jehovah had already given it the form he intended it to assume, 
 and placed it in certain relations with himse.f as a theocracy. The historic institutions 
 and nations of the world are the creation of God. He has raised them up and con- 
 ♦■•olled the forces that moulded and determined their speoifio character and work. 
 "The powers that be are ordained of God." The position, character, and life of 
 individual men are also his work. No man is " self-made " in any fundamental 
 sense of the word. A gracious providence has nurtured and cared for him ; and, it 
 may be, saving grace has redeemed and sanctified him. He " is the noblest work of 
 God." 
 
 II. The aotioit. This was threefold, viz : 1. The veisel was bought. " Get ; " 
 literally, " buy." Jehovah had redeemed Israel to be a people for himself. The outlays 
 of Diviire love and mercy are suggested. The providence and grace of God are now 
 being expended. The blood of Christ was shed for all nations, " the Jew first, and 
 afterwards the Gentile;" and for every man born into the world. "Ye are not your 
 own : ye are bought with a price." A deeper obligation is thereby incurred to hinj, 
 and a grander authority on his part justified. We are all made and saved, or, as it may be 
 expressed, made and remade by him. 2. It was probably poured out. Ver. 7, " I will 
 make void [literally, 'pour out']." This action would be natural under the circumstance;;, 
 and highly impressive. And if it be objected that the vessel was empty, that very 
 fact might still render the action the more emphatically sianificant. Their counsels 
 were also vain and empty. God suffers wicked nations and men to devise evil, but 
 only as it works out his own ends is it allowed to be executed. He will bring to 
 naught the counsel of the ungodly. That which is devised without his blessing will 
 come to no successful issue. 3. It was broken. (Ver. 10.) This was intended to depict 
 the extreme and final character of the impending judgment — "As one breaketh a 
 potter's vessel, that cannot be made whole again" (ver. 11). The nationality of the 
 Jews was to be destroyed. The Babylonion captivity, although only .obscurely pre- 
 dicted, is apparently alluded to ; but some hold that, as this was but an incomplete 
 fulfilment, the Roman conquest must have been meant. All nations and individuals 
 are on their trial, and may be subjected to this extreme penalty. God Ix^lds the 
 sovereign power in his own hand. There is no remedy ; the past is irrevocable. And 
 
460 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xix. 1— 15. 
 
 there is no appeal from his sentence, when the limit of his forbearance has been passed. 
 4. It was disgraced by being cast into Tophet. A double purpose was thereby ex- 
 pressed. The scene of idolatrous rites was to be disgraced by being made the burial- 
 place of the slaughtered thousands of Jerusalem, as, on the other hand, such a burial 
 and the necessity for it would he hnmiliating to the metropolis of the faith. 
 
 III. The attendant circumstances. 1. It was done in presence of the represen~ 
 tatives of the nation. " Take of the ancients [elders] of the people, and of the ancients 
 of the priests." They were probably responsible for the national guilt, and by their 
 personal and official influence might be able to avert the catastrophe. Those who 
 influence a nation's life — kings, princes, statesmen, ministers of religion, authors, 
 etc. — should be specially appealed to in cases of national sin. So the parent for the 
 child. It is both respectful and just that such persons should be addressed in the first 
 instance. But every man is responsible for his own sin. His intelligence and moral 
 nature must, therefore, be addressed. 2. The language used was such as to recall the- 
 general penalties to be incurred by breaking the Law. (Deut. xxviii.) The fact was thus 
 suggested that the judgment was wilfully and knowingly incurred. There is nothing 
 Dew about the evils that come upon transgressing nations and individuals, or about 
 their history. It is not for man to judge.' Grbd knows the reasons for his procedure, 
 and the sinner himself is not ignorant. 3. The meaning of the breaking of the vessel, 
 is fully explained beforehand. This is ever the Divine order. There is " space for 
 repentance " given even to the worst sinners. No man will go wholly unwarned into 
 perdition. Nay, even the historic and so-called secular character of nations, institu- 
 tions, and individuals is precious in God's eyes, and effort is constantly made to con- 
 vert it into an influence of blessing. The sinner is offered the " means of grace " that 
 he may become a saint and a servant of the Most High. And it is only as he obsti- 
 nately continues in his sin that the irrevocable judgment falls. — M. 
 
 Vers. 1 — 15. — Denunciations of doom. This chapter is filled with these awful 
 warnings of the prophet. And they are made the more awful by the reflection that, 
 fitted as they were to rouse the most careless and hardened, yet they failed with those, 
 to whom they were addressed. And so this sad chapter teaches us such lessons as 
 these: 1. The earnest purpose of Ood to save man from his sin. Hence these warn- 
 ings. 2. The awfully hardening power of the sin which could despise them. 3. What 
 loise methods are to be employed in the endeavour to arouse and alarm the ungodly. 
 On this we will dwell awhile. This chapter shows — 
 
 I. That those most likely to influence them should be specially appealed 
 TO. Of. ver, 1, " Take of the ancients," etc. No doubt this was because of their 
 influence over the people generally. If they could be won the rest would follow. 
 
 II. We should avail ourselves of any localities likely to lend force to 
 WHAT is said. The prophet led forth his audience to " the valley of the son of 
 Hinnom." It was the Tophet, the Gehenna, the place haunted with memories of 
 Divine wrath against idolatry, and whose ever-burning fire and gnawing worm sym- 
 bolized the quenchless anger of God against it. With what added power, then, would 
 the prophet's message come when spoken in such a place ! 
 
 III. Such modes op address should be adopted as would be most likely to 
 impress. The prophet was bidden take an earthen bottle, and, after he had solemnly 
 denounced the doom of God against the idolatrous city, he was to dash the bottle on 
 the ground and shatter it utterly, past all possibility of mending. By this dramatic 
 action he was to declare the coming destruction of Judah and Jerusalem. Thus 
 vividly and powerfully to the minds of such as witnessed him would the awful truth 
 he had to tell be impressed on their minds. But also in clear words and in full 
 copious detail he set forth what was to come. Now, such symbolic action as that of 
 the prophet might be of very little service to such as we speak to, however impressive 
 to the Oriental mind, but it teaches us that whatever is likely to deepen the effect of 
 our words upon men's minds we are to use, and fearlessly, as did the prophet, set 
 forth the coming judgments of God. And most of all — 
 
 IV. Our message must be God's message. God put into the prophet's mouth the 
 words he was to speak and taught him how to speak them, and he obeyed. Here is 
 the groat essential. If denunciations of judgriient be spoken simply as part of an 
 
CH. XIX. 1—15.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 461 
 
 orihodox sermon, or for any other reason than that God has borne in upon our souls the 
 conviction that we must speak such words, we are likely to do but little good — indeed, 
 harm rather thaa good. And let such servant of God who speaks as God bids him 
 remember that, even when speaking thus, his words may fail in the effect designed and 
 desired. " Lord, who hath believed our report," etc.? They did so here. But they 
 will never entirely fail. God's promise is agaiast that. Some will receive them. 
 Some did even in Jeremiah's day. There was a faithful relnnant. And the preacher 
 will have delivered his own soul, and God's righteousness in the doom of the impeni- 
 tent will be vindicated before all. May we be delivered from the necessity of declaring 
 such doom as that which Jeremiah had to speak of; but if we have to, may we be 
 taught of God, as he was, and have better success. — C. 
 
 Ver. 14 — oh. xx. 6. — The sin and punishment of Paahur. This man is to be dis- 
 tinguished from him of the same name mentioned in ch. xxi. 1. The Pashur mentioned 
 here was a priest, and one holding high office in the temple. After Jeremiah had de- 
 livered his discourse at Tophet, he seems to have returned to the city and temple, and 
 then to have spoken in substance the same predictions of woe. Whereupon Pashur, with 
 less patience tban those who heard the prophet and had seen his symbolic declaration 
 of the coming ruin when he broke the earthen bottle at Tophet, falls upon him and 
 smites him, and tortured him by putting him in what is called the stocks (see Expo- 
 sition). Thus — 
 
 I. He cbdellt persecuted the prophet of God. It was sad that any one 
 should do this. But yet more that it should be the act of a priest of God, and hold- 
 ing high position amongst the priests. What hope cau there be of the people when 
 their appointed leaders and those to whom they are wont to look up for instruction 
 and example in what is good thus prostitute their office? Thus the " wicked husband- 
 rnen beat " the servants who were sent to them (Matt. xx. 35). And it was the same 
 order that ever opposed, and yet more fiercely, our Lord himself. The sanctity and 
 authority attaching to the priest's office have ever been fatal to the integrity of 
 unworthy holders of the office, and have caused that amongst the most infamous of 
 mankind not a few priests should be found. But — 
 
 II. He failed to seoube the ekd he had in view. Jeremiah was not silenced, 
 but goaded, as it were, to declare yet, more terrible judgments in which Pashur himself 
 should be awfully involved (cf. Paul, " God shall smite thee," etc.. Acts xxiii. 3). 
 The stout heart of a true servant of God is an anvil on which many hammers may 
 fiercely smite, but it will wear them out long before they wear it out. Saul of Tarsus 
 found that the persecution he had done so much to further in connection with Stephen, 
 only made matters worse. The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church. And 
 the reason is that a faith for which men are willing to die convinces all beholders that 
 it must be exceedingly precious and well founded, and inspires them with an irresis- 
 tible desire to know and possess it for themselves, or at least to know what it is. 
 
 III. He bkought down on himself soke judgment. Jeremiah declares to him 
 that the Lord " has changed his name to Magor-Missabib, for he will be given up a 
 prey to the torments of mortal anguish, his friends shall be slain before his eyes, Judah 
 carried away to Babylon, all its treasures plundered ; he himself shall witness all this 
 and die and be buried in Babylon, " There thou, and all thy friends, to whom thou hast 
 prophesied lies." Thus, look where he would, he should see nothing but terror. Above 
 — the anger of God; beneath — a dishonoured grave; around — calamity and woe on 
 all near and dear to him, and of which he had been largely the procuring cause; 
 within — a conscience tormenting him day and night. It was an awful doom. " Let 
 persecutors read it and tremble ; tremble to repentance before they be made to tremble 
 to their ruin." — C. 
 
 "Vers. 1 — IS.— The Irealcing of the potter's vessel. I. The pbeliminakibs of the 
 BKBAKINS. Spectators of the pro|jer sort needed to be deliberately gathered together in 
 the proper place. We may suppose that the elders of the people and of the priests 
 were [leculiarly responsible for all that concerned the safety of the city. This symbolic 
 action was best performed before the select responsible few. As they went forth with the 
 prophet they had time to ask themselves what the meaning of this unusual summons 
 
462 THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xix. 1—15. 
 
 might be. It is, perhaps, a little to be wondered at that they should have gone with the 
 prophet at all. And yet, although none might have quite the right motive for going, 
 each would have his own motive, and so an acquiescent assembly be formed. God 
 knows how to subdue and blend the motives of men for his own purposes. In some 
 minds there would be a superstitious regard for the prophetic office ; in others, curiosity 
 would operate ; and in a few there mi^ht be somewhat of the hearing ear and under- 
 standing mind. We are, then, to imagine this company going forth ; and they do not 
 go forth at random. It is not for mere seclusion they go out of the city. They are led 
 to the very place which, because of the abominations practised in it, is to be one of the 
 principal causes of future woe. Thus we see how carefully God arranges the circum- 
 stances in which his truth is to be proclaimed. 
 
 II. This bbbakinq had a heason. The thing was not done in mere wantonness 
 and thoughtlessness, nor in passion, nor in carelessness. The prophet did not draw 
 his lesson from a jar which some one else had happened to break. He got the vessel 
 with the deliberate purpose, divinely put into his mind, of breaking it. This was far 
 enough away from the purpose with which it was made, and the vessel, once shattered, 
 could be of no further use for this first purpose ; but in its destruction it served a far 
 nobler end than if it had been carefully kept to carry water for many long years. 
 Rightly considered, indeed, the vessel was not destroyed, but only its service divinely 
 and wisely changed. So, lookmg from the symbol to the reality behind it, we must 
 bear in mind that the capture of Jerusalem and the conquest of the land of Israel served 
 certain purposes of God. He did not separate this people and give them this land that 
 at last they might be scattered, even beyond the usual scattering of a conquered people. 
 Hut when the scattering did come, he sought to make it evident that it was from his 
 hand. It was not a mere chance of war, but something prepared for and prophesied — 
 something to teach and warn the thoughtful among all nations. 
 
 III. The reasons why this vessel was thds shattered before these spectators. 
 ] . To show the ease with which Ood can shatter any construction of man. One lesson 
 had already been drawn from the potter's vessel (ch. xviii. 1 — 10). That lesson was 
 drawn from the plasticity of the raw material. Now another lesson has to be drawn 
 from the fragility of the finished article. This fragility was part of the nature of the 
 article. The potter could not be blamed because the result -of his work was so fragile. 
 I'ragility, indeed, is a relative quality. An insect could no more have broken this 
 vessel than men by a single blow could level a forest tree. Men talk of their power to 
 do and their power to resist; but this is only in ignorance of the immense, exhaustless 
 power which God in mercy hides from the eyes of man. A potter's vessel may be pre- 
 served for millenniums if it is sufficiently guarded ; but it has no strength in itself. 
 These people of Jerusalem were reckoning on the natural position and artificial securities 
 of their city. Yet these very things would only heighten their calamities and miseries. 
 For they would persist in defence, ever hoping against hope, until, in their extremity, 
 they were forced to devour their very children. We need to bear in mind that, however 
 great our natural advantages, our prudence and foresight, we, as far as our natural life 
 is concerned, are but as this fragile vessel in the prophet's hand. 2. To show the 
 impossibility of man retrieving the disaster. " That cannot be made whole again " (ver. 
 11). This vessel was not merely cracked. It was more than simply broken. It not 
 only fell, but was dashed to the ground with special force and determination. These 
 people of Israel, once scattered, could not gather themselves together again. God could 
 do it, but only God. And God would not do it ; because that would only have been 
 to reconstitute the fragile. The breaking of this vessel is only one of many lessons by 
 which God would teach man his natural weakness. He destroys the old and the fragile, 
 that he may put in its place the new and the indestructible. Our wisdom is not to 
 waste time in trying to strengthen what is inherently weak; but to accept with glad 
 thankfulness that real mercy of God which, in destroying the old Jerusalem, makes way 
 for the new and heavenly Jerusalem, that city of God based on the truly everlastiua 
 
 hills.— y. ^ 
 
'H. XX. 1—18.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 
 
 463 
 
 EXPOSITION. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 Ver. 1. — The continuation of the preceding 
 narrative. Pashur the boh of Immer. This 
 man belonged to the sixteenth of the sacer- 
 dotal families or classes (1 Chron. xxiv. 14). 
 Another of the same name is referred to in 
 ch. xxi. 1 (see note). The one here men- 
 tioned was "chief overseer" (there were 
 several inferior overseers, 2 Cliron. xxxi. 
 13); the eminence of the position appears 
 from the fact that Zephaniah, Pusliur's 
 successor (ch. xxix. 2K), is second only to 
 the high priest (ch. lii. 21). Heard that 
 Jeremiah prophesied ; rather, lieard Jeremiah 
 prophesying. 
 
 Ver. 2. — Pashur, being charged with the 
 police of the temple, smites Juremiah, i.e. 
 causes stripes to be given hiiu (a legal 
 punishment, Deut. xxv. 3 ; comp. 2 Cor. 
 xi. 24), and then orders him to be put into 
 the stocks; literally, tlMt which distorts — 
 some instrument of punishment which held 
 the body in a bent or crooked position 
 (comp. ch. x.xix. 26). The "stocks" were 
 sometimes kept in a special house (2 Chron. 
 xvi. 10); these mentioned here, however, 
 apparently stood in public, at the high — or 
 rather, upper — gate of Benjamin, which wa.s 
 hy — or, at — the house of the lord. The 
 gate, then, was one of the temple gates, and 
 is called " the upper " to distinguish it from 
 one of the city gates which bore the same 
 name (ch. xxxvii. 13 ; xxxviii. 7). It is 
 presumably the same which is called " the 
 new gate of the Lord's house " (ch. xxvi. 10 ; 
 xxxvi. 10), as having been comparatively 
 lately built (2 Kings xv. 35). 
 
 Ver. 3.— Symbolic change of name. Not 
 . . . Pashur, but Magor-missabib ; i.e. tenor 
 on every side. There is probably no allusion 
 to the (by no means obvious) etymology of 
 Pashur. Jeremiah simply means to say 
 that Pashur would one day become an 
 object of general horror (see on ver. 10). 
 
 Ver. 5. — The strength; rather, the stores. 
 The labours; rather, the fruits of labour; 
 i.e. the profits. 
 
 Ver. 6. — Comp. the prophecy against 
 Shebna (laa. xxii. 18). Since we find, in 
 ch. xxix. 26, Ptishur's ofiSce occupied by 
 another, it is probable that the prediction 
 was fulfilled by the captivity of Fasliur with 
 Jehoiachiu. To whom thou hast prophesied 
 lies (comp. ch. xiv. 13). Pashur, then, 
 claimed to be a prophet. 
 
 Vers. 7 — 13. — A lyric passage, expressing 
 the conflict in the prophet's mind owingtothe 
 mockery and the slander which his preach- 
 ing has brought upon him, and at the same 
 time his confidence of victory through the 
 
 protection of Jehovah ; a suitable sequel to 
 the narrative which goes before, even if not 
 originally written to occupy this position 
 (see general Introduction). 
 
 Ver. 7. — Thou hast deceived me, etc. ; 
 rather, thou didst entice me, and I let myself 
 he enticed. Jeremiah refers to the hesita- 
 tion he originally felt to accepiing the 
 prophetic office (ch. i.). The verb does 
 not mean " to deceive," but " to entice " 
 (so rendered in ver. 10, Authorized Version), 
 or " allure." The same word is used in that 
 remarkable narrative of "the spirit" who 
 offered to "entice" (Authorized Version, to 
 "persuaile") Ahab to "go up and fall at 
 Ramoth-Gilead " (1 Kings xxii. 21). In 
 Ezekiel, too, the same case is supposed as 
 possible of Jehovah's "enticing" a prophet 
 (Ezek. XV. 9). The expression implies that 
 all events are, in some sense, caused by 
 God, even those which are, or appear to be, 
 injurious to the individual. Was Goethe 
 thinking of this passage when he wrote tlie 
 words, " Wen Gott betriigt, ist wohl be- 
 trogen " ? Applying the words in , a 
 Christian sense, we may say (with P. W. 
 Robertson) that God teaches us by our 
 illusions. Thou art stronger than I, and 
 hast prevailed ; rather, thou didst take hold, 
 on me, and didst prevail. The expression 
 is like " Jehovah spake thus to me with a 
 grasp of the hand " (Isa. viii. 11). 
 
 Ver. 8. — Per since I spake, I cried out, 
 etc. ; rather. For as often as I speak, I must 
 shout ; I must cry. Violence and spoil ; I can 
 take up no other tone but that of indignant 
 denunciation, no other theme but that of 
 the acts of injustice constantly committed 
 (not merely, nor indeed chiefly, against the 
 prophet himself). Was made ; rather, i» 
 made. 
 
 Ver. 9. — Then I said, etc.; rather. And 
 when I say. I will not make mention of him, 
 etc., then it hecomeih (i.e. I am conscious of 
 a feeling) in my heart as a burning fire shut 
 up in my bones ; and I weary myself to hold 
 it in, but cannot. The prophet has repealedly 
 been tempted to withdraw from the painful 
 duty, but his other and higher self (comp. 
 'Old Srlf and New Self in the 'Lyra 
 Apostolica') overpowers these lower crav- 
 ings for peace and quiet. The fire 
 of the Divine wrath against sin burns so 
 fiercely within him that he cannot help 
 resuming his work. 
 
 Ver. 10. — For I heard, etc. ; rather. For I 
 have heard the whispering of many ; there is 
 terror on every side. Injorm (soy they), and 
 let us inform against him. This gives us 
 the reason for his momentary iueliuatioua 
 to silence. He was surrounded by bitter 
 
464 
 
 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xx. 1—18. 
 
 enemies, who were no longer content with 
 maliciuus words, but urged each other on 
 to lay an information against him with the 
 authorities as a public criminal. The first 
 clause agrees verbatim with patt of Ps. 
 xxxi. 13 (this is one of the psalms attributed, 
 by a too bold conjecture, to Jeremiah). 
 " There is terror on every side " (see above, 
 ver. 3, and also note on ch. vi. 25) means 
 "everything about me inspires me with 
 terror." All my familiars is, literally, all 
 the men of my peace; i.e. all those with 
 whom I have been on terms of friendship 
 (same phrase, ch. xxxviii. 22). Watched for 
 my halting; i.e. either laid traps for me or 
 waited for me to commit some error for them 
 to take advantage of. The phrase, " my 
 halting," is borrowed (?) from Ps. xxxv. 15 ; 
 xxxviii. 18 (Hebrew). He will be enticed; 
 viz. to say something on which a charge of 
 treason can be based. 
 
 Ver. 11. — Asa mighty terrible one; rather, 
 as a formidable warrior. They shall not 
 prevail. This was, in fact, the Divine 
 promise to Jeremiah at the outset of his 
 ministry (ch. i. 19). For they shall not 
 prosper; rather, because they have not pros- 
 pered. 
 
 Ver. 12. — Repeated, with slight variations, 
 from ch. xi. 20. 
 
 Ver. 13. — In the confidence of faith Jere- 
 miah Bees himself alieady delivered. He 
 writes in the style of the psalmists, who 
 
 constantly pass from the language of prayer 
 to that of fruition. 
 
 Vers. 14 — 18. — Jeremiah curses the day 
 of his birth. The passage is a further 
 development of the complaint in ch. xv. 10, 
 and stands in no connection with the con- 
 solatory close of the preceding passage. 
 There is a very striking parallel in Job iii.' 
 3 — 12, and the question cannot be evaded 
 Which is the original ? It is difficult to 
 believe that Jeremiah copied from an earlier 
 poem. Deep emotion expresses itself in 
 language suggested by the moment; and, 
 even after retouching his discourses, Jere- 
 miah would leave much of the original 
 expression. But impressions of this sort 
 cannot be unreservedly trusted. The argu- 
 ment from parallel passiiges is only a 
 subsidiary one in the determination of the 
 date of books. 
 
 Ver. 16. — As the cities which the lord 
 overthrew. It is, so to speak, the " technical 
 term" for the destruction of Sodom and 
 Gomorrah which Jeremiah employs. So 
 deeply imprinted was the trndition on the 
 Hebrew mind, that a special word was, appro- 
 priated to it, which at oncecalledupthoughts 
 of the awful justice of God (see Gen. xix. 
 25 ; Isa. i. 7 (?) ; xiii. 19 ; Amos iv. 11 ; Deut. 
 xxix. 23 [22] ; ch. xlix. 18 ; 1. 40). The cry 
 ... the shouting. The cry of the besieged 
 for help; the shouting of the suddenly 
 appearing assailants (comp. ch. iv. 8). 
 
 HOMILETICS. 
 
 Vers. 1 — 6. — Pashwr. At length the smouldering opposition to Jeremiah breaks out • 
 into open persecution. Hitherto, though he has been answered by words (oh. xviii. 18) 
 and threatened with violence, no overt act has been committed. Secret enemies 
 have elaborated dark designs, which are alarming enough but come to no serious 
 issue. But now violent hands are laid upon the prophet; and it is not an obscure 
 band of illegal conspirators who contrive evil against him, but the official head of the 
 temple guards formally arrests him and e.xeoutes upon him the recognized punishment 
 of a criminal. This action bears testimony to the excitement produced by the burning 
 words of the discourse in the valley of Hinnom. So overawing were the utterances of 
 the prophet that no one dared to touch him then ; but when he coniirmed them in the 
 temple courts the circumstances were altered, and, either from alarm or from rage, 
 Pashur, the chief of the temple police, laid hold of the prophet and brought him'to 
 severe punishment. The conduct of Pashur and the fate that is threatened him deserve 
 our careful examination. 
 
 I. The conduct of Pashur. 1. Pashur was a priest and of high rank in the service 
 of the temple of Jehovah. Such a man should have been able to recognize a true 
 prophet of Jehovah as his fellow-servant. Yet he was first in persecuting him. 
 Official religious positions are no guarantees for spiritual wisdom. But it is scandalous 
 when the professed leaders of the Church are foremost in resisting the declaration ol 
 Divine truth and the execution of the will of God. 2. Pashur was a responsible officer 
 of justice. Such a man should not have allowed himself to be carried away by a flood 
 of popular indignation, influences of class jealousy, or impulses of personal spite; 
 Judicial crimes are always the most aitrocious crimes. They poison justice at its very 
 fountain, they abuse hiijh trusts, they disorganize society, and all this in addition to 
 
OH. XX. 1—18.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 4c,5 
 
 the inherent wickedness of the acts, which is the same in all who commit them with 
 similar motives. 3. Pashur replied to the words of prophecy with the arm of force. 
 He could not answer Jeremiah, so he attempted to repress him. Unable to refute the 
 arguments of the prophet, he endeavoured to restrain the utterance of them. Here we 
 recognize the folly, the injustice, and the cruelty of such persecution: the folly, for to 
 silence a voice is not to destroy the unpleasant truth it declares ; injustice, for nothing 
 can be more unf.iir than to do violence to a man for uttering words which we cannot deny 
 to be true ; and cruelty, for it is a man's duty to make known what he believes to be 
 important truths. 
 
 II. The threatened fate of Pashue. Jeremiah stood alone, unpopular and unpro- 
 tected. Pashur was strong in the powers of office and supported by the sentiment of 
 the country. Yet the prophet was more than a match for the officer. Sensitive and 
 naturally retiring, Jeremiah was bold in the conviction of truth, the sense of duty, and 
 the consciousness of the Divine presence. Pashur's policy proved a failure. Jeremiah 
 was not silenced by scourge and stocks. Either Pashur had too much sense of justice 
 left to retain the prophet in prison, or he feared that such an action would be recognized 
 as illegal and damage his position, or he thought the severe but brief corporal punish- 
 ment of the prophet sufficient. Jeremiah was set at liberty on the day after he was 
 arrested, and then, instead of cautiously measuring his language, he boldly threatened 
 Pashur with a share of suffering in the coming calamity. This was peculiar. Pashur 
 was not to experience the worst, but to witness it. 1. He was to be punished hy fear. 
 Tyrants are cowards. A long-enduring, harassing fear is more painful to bear than a 
 short, sharp, visible trouble. Many evils are worse in prospect than in experience. 
 Courage and active resistance may make the facing of danger easy, but to be haunted with 
 vague terrors, powerless to do anything to avert them, lashed and stung by innumerable 
 ideal and therefore intangible torment.", — this is torture. You can fight a foe of flesh and 
 blood, but a fear is like a ghost. The blow aimed at it passes through it, and it remains 
 still glaring at Its victim till his blood freezes with horror. May God deliver us from 
 the awful punishment of an eternal fear ! 2. He was to see the words of the prophet 
 verified by experience. He tried to silence the warning voice ; he could not stay the 
 aipproaohing evil. They who have rejected warnings will be dismayed and confounded 
 when they see them realized in facts. 3. He was to witness the calamity of his nation. 
 Probably there was a genuine love of his country in this man. His attack on Jeremiah 
 may have been influenced by a sincere desire for the national welfare. But if so he had 
 put his country before his God. His punishment would come in the humiliation of his 
 nation. Patriotism is no excuse for resisting the will of God. The godless patriot 
 may be punished by seeing the troubles that are brought on his country through its 
 irreligion. 
 
 Ver. 7. — Enticed and overpowered hy God. I. God entices his servants. Jeremiah 
 had been led to undertake the prophetic mission with assurances of success and victory 
 (ch. i. 17 — 19), and he was surprised when he met only with contempt and apparent 
 failure. So others have entered God's service with much confidence in the joy and but 
 little anticipation of the trouble it would bring. There is really nothing either lalse or 
 unkind in this. 1. Nothing false ; for (1) though all the future trouble is not predicted, 
 its approach is not denied ; we are simply left in the dark in regard to it; and (2) 
 ultimately the servants of God will triumph, and the trouble will be all forgotten and 
 swallowed up in victory. But if the darker experience were clearly revealed at first, it 
 would throw such a shadow over the future thait the ultimate triumph would be 
 scarcely thought of, and thus a more false idea of the whole course of life would be 
 produced than that which comes from hiding from us some of its darker scenes. 2. 
 Nothing unkind. If the trouble must be faced it need not be anticipated (Matt. vi. 
 34). If God hides approaching trouble from us he does not forget to provide against it. 
 He takes the burden of it upon himself, so that when the trouble is revealed the grace 
 to endure it is also revealed. Moreover, on the whole, the blessedness of the service of 
 God vastly outweighs its distresses. If the alarm of the latter drove us from the service, 
 the result would be loss to ourselves. It is, therefore, merciful in God to condescend to 
 our weakness and thus lead us on through partial views of truth until we are strong 
 enough to grasp the whole. Still, when the prospect of trouble is revealed it should be 
 
 JEBEMIAH. 2 H 
 
466 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [oh. xx. 1—18. 
 
 faced. Something of this must be considered by us or we may make an ignominious 
 failure. Jeremiah was warned of opposition. Christ discouraged rash, heedless 
 enthusiasm (Luke ix. 57, 58), and bade men count the cost of his service. 
 
 II. G-OD 0VERP0WEE8 HIS SERVANTS. Jeremiah complained that he was not only 
 enticed but prevailed upon by God by force. " Thou art stronger than I." God never 
 forces a man's will. But still he hedges a man in and uses such influences upon him 
 that many of the experiences of his life may be ascribed to God's supreme power rather 
 than to the man's spontaneous action. If these result in shame and apparent failure, 
 as they olten may, at first sight it seems as though God had been dealing harshly with 
 his servant. 1. But we should remember that it is a blessed thing to suffer for Ood. 
 It is an honour to be a true martyr to God's will (Matt. v. 10, 11). 2. We should 
 understand that good purposes are being effected through such suffering. It is not 
 without its end. God is honouring us as he glorifies his Son, by making us the 
 sacrifices for the accomplishment of a blessing to mankind. 3. We should believe tliat 
 a great reward in heaven will compensate for the patient endurance of these brief 
 earthly troubles. Without this the problem would be inexplicable. With it all wrongs 
 will be righted. 
 
 Ver. 9. — The burning fire of inspiration. I. These wobds akb a proof op the 
 GENUINE INSPIRATION OF THE PROPHET. He is not thinking of convincing others of the 
 fact uf his inspiration, but simply pouring out the trouble of soul that it occasions. 
 The ingenuousness of the utterance and the indirect allusion to the inspiration make 
 them the more valuable. Then, the words of prophecy gained the prophet no power 
 nor popularity, but only contempt and persecution. It is impossible to study the 
 language of Jeremiah without feeling that he was overwhelmed with the consciousness 
 of a Divine spiritual influence, while the dignity, vigour, and moral sublimity of his 
 prophecies make it unreasonable to suppose tuat he was a self-deceived fanatic. 
 
 II. These words are an illustration of the powerful influence of inspiration. 
 This was not a mere illumination ; it was a power. The inspired prophet was not 
 simply gifted with insight into truth ; he was swayed by the might of it. He did not 
 feel at liberty to deal with it as he pleased, to mediate on it by himself, to suppress it, 
 to utter it only as his convenience was suited ; it was his master, a hand laid heavily 
 upon him, a fire burning in his bosom, that must come out. The same experience is 
 felt by all men who have spiritual relations with truth. They do not hold truth ; they 
 find that truth holds them. That inspiration influences the will as well as the intellect 
 is strikingly proved in the case of Balaam (Numb. xxiv.). The reason of this is 
 found in the real presence of the Spirit of God. Revelation is by inspiration, and 
 inspiration is the breathing of God's Spirit into a man's spirit, so that he becomes 
 possessed by it. The tremendous importance of the truth revealed increases this com- 
 pulsion of utterance. Jeremiah had revealed to him no barren, abstract dogmas, no 
 trivial religious notions, no empty answers to curious prying questions of little practical 
 moment, but terrible truths concerning his people and their highest interests. How 
 could he hide such truths as we have seen he had been entrusted with ? If God speaks 
 it must be to utter important words. The burden of them urges their custodian to 
 declare them. 
 
 III. These words abb an evidence of the painful effects op inspiration. No 
 man need desire to be a prophet from motives of worldly ambition or selfish pleasure. 
 The high privilege of inspiration carries with it danger, toil, anguish, terror. Prophecy 
 has its Gethsemanes and its Golgothas. If its mission is faithfully carried out it leads 
 to the cross. If this is faithlessly abandoned the prophet is consumed with inward fires. 
 Inspiration is no substitute for mental labour, no excuse for intellectual indolence. On 
 the contrary, it rouses the whole soul, quickens its energies, and works them to- weari- 
 ness. In so far as any of us are possessed in varying degrees by spiritual influences we 
 shall fiud the Word of God a fire within us, which burns till we have discharged the 
 mission it brings. 
 
 Vers. 10, 11. — A prophet persecuted by spies. I. The persecution by spies. 1, 
 Consider the persons persecuting. (1) They were mean and weak. Their name's are' 
 t.ot given ; we know little of their characters and actions ; yet the despicable conduct 
 
OH.XX. 1— 18.] THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 467 
 
 here ascribed to them proclaims them to have been of low and shallow natures. Only 
 such can play the part of a spy. Yet these men could trouble Jeremiah. A spy can 
 persecute a prophet. A guat can sting a lion. Mean and despicable creatures that can 
 do little good have considerable power of doing harm. This fact is humiliatiug to our 
 common human nature, and it shows the great need of a Providence to restrain ihe 
 outrages of wickedness which are so easily executed. (2) They were numerous. The 
 prophet stood alone beset on every side with malicious spies. How difBcult to be 
 faithful in that dreadful solitude of a crowd of unsympathizing persons! (3) They 
 were Jeremiah's familiar acquaintances. Religious and political differences separate 
 the best of friends. When a man's own near acquaintances turn against him the very 
 ground he stands upon seems to be breaking away from beneath his feet. Such men 
 have peculiar power for harm, because (a) they have been trusted and (V) they know the 
 weak places in a man's armour. 2. Consider the character of the persecution. The 
 persecution of spies must have been peculiarly harassing. (1) It was not open. It is so 
 much easier to meet a frank foe in the field than to cope with the secret devices of spies. 
 (2) It must have been tainted with untruth. The spy would hear enough to misunder- 
 stand, and would unconsciously misrepresent in the effort to make his report consistent 
 and telling. The " whispering " would heighten the colour of every tale as it passed 
 from one to another. (3) It was perpetual. The spies were always on the watch, 
 ready to take advantage of the first unguarded moment. (4) It was malicious. The 
 spies were eager for Jeremiah's halting, hoping to entice him to some mistake. 
 
 II. The refuge fbom this pebsboution. Jeremiah found his refuge in God. 1. He 
 could do so because he was innocent and because he was suffering in the service of Ood. 
 How happy to be able thus fearlessly to challenge the arbitration of God between our- 
 selves and our detractors ! 2. The help of God is sought because he knows all. He 
 sees " the reins and the heart." If the spy is watchful, with his prying looks capable 
 of seeing only the surface of things and with only partial views, and listening ouly to 
 catch up broken fragments of speech to distort and misrepresent, God is righteously 
 watchful of all that his creatures say and do. 3. The help of God is trusted in because 
 he is " a mighty terrible one." " The God is a man of war." The might and majesty 
 of God — so terrible to the godless — are the refuge of his people. It should be remembered 
 by all of us that God is actively concerned with human affairs, and in his providence, 
 without requiring what we call " miracle," can frustrate the devices of the wise and 
 defeat the efforts of the strong. 
 
 Ver. 13. — ITianksgiving for future hlessings. I. We mat be thankful foe bless- 
 ings NOT TBT KECBIVBD. Jeremiah closes his prayer with praise. JSio sooner has he 
 asked ^or God's help than he feels so assured of receiving it that he anticipates it in 
 imagination, and breaks forth into grateful song as though he were already enjoying it. 
 This is a proof of genuine faith. Faith makes the absent seem near and the future appear 
 present (Heb. xi. 1). It influences our whole being — the imagination among other 
 faculties — so that it enables us to conceive the good thing trusted for so vividly and 
 so confidently that the thought of it affects the mind just as strongly as if we saw the 
 object with our eyes and grasped it in our bands. Such an effect is a test of the 
 earnestness and faith of prayer. Some people could not be more surprised than by 
 receiving the exact answer to their prayers. 
 
 II. The full deliverance from all harm is a future blessing for which we 
 MAY BE GRATEFUL. 1. It is 3, future Uessing. Jeremiah was not delivered immediately. 
 His life was beset with danger to the end. After the time to which our text refers, he 
 met with worse troubles than any that had hitherto befallen him. The Christian must 
 not expect a sudden and perfect escape from all distress and temptation the moment he 
 prays to God for help. Perfect deliverance can only come with the conquest of the last 
 enemy, death, " Now is our salvation " — our perfect deliverance — " nearer than when 
 we first believed" (Rom. xiii. 11), but it is not yet enjoyed. 2. It is, nevertheless, 
 a blessing for which we may be truly thankful at once. For it is positively assured 
 to the Christian. The heir of a great inheritance may rejoice in his prospects, though 
 for the present he is in want. But earthly pleasures of hope are checked by fears of 
 possible disappointment. The buds may be nipped by frost ; the promising young man 
 may break down before achieving any great work. Nevertheless God is too powerful, 
 
468 THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [oh. xx. 1—18. 
 
 as well as too faithfal, to fail in fulfilling his promises. Therefore we should anticipate 
 the praises of heaven on earth, sing the songs of Zion in the strange land, and enjoy 
 the vision of the celestial city from Beulah heights though valleys of humiliation and 
 waters of death may lie between. 
 
 III. It is a good thing to express cub gratitude for future blessings. 1. All 
 gratitude should find utterance in praise. The grateful heart should rouse the singing 
 voice. Of all feelings thankfulness should be the last to be mute. We may pray fur 
 mercy in secret communion with God ; we should utter praise as a public testimony 
 to others and as an uncontrollable gladness that must relieve itself in song. 2: The 
 utterance of praise for future blessings is an assurance of our faith. It will react 
 upon us and strengthen faith. It will be a solace for the dark hours that may yet 
 intervene before the enjoyment of the anticipated good. 
 
 Vers. 1 4 — 18. — Jeremiah cursing the day of his birth. I. Trouble mat lead a good 
 MAN to the verge OF DESPAIR. Jeremiah was a prophet, a good man, a man of faith, 
 a man of prayer. Yet he cursed the day of his birth. Jeremiah was not without pre- 
 cedents for his conduct. Not to mention Jonah, whose character is by no means 
 exemplary (though, poor man, he may have been good at heart), the patient Job and 
 the courageous Elijah had both regarded existence as a curse, and cried pas.sionately for 
 death. Jeremiah had great provocations to despair. His mission seemed to be a failure ; 
 his old friends had become spies in league with his inveterate foes ; he stood alone, watched, 
 maligned, hated, cruelly misjudged. We cannot be surprised that his patience broke 
 down. Though impatience and a yielding to despair are proofs of weakness, they are 
 far less culpable than unfaithfulness. Many would have quietly declined the tasks 
 which Jeremiah manfully performed, though they led him to the verge of despair. It 
 must be noted that, though the prophet cursed the day of his birth, he did not ilee from 
 the mission of his life ; though he longed for death, he did not commit suicide. From 
 his experience, (1) the sorrowful may learn that deeper depths of sorrow have been 
 traversed than any they are in, and yet the light has been reached on the further side ; 
 (2) the desponding may see how good men have been near despair before them, and so 
 be encouraged by knowing that their despondency is not a sin of fatal unbelief. 
 
 II. It is foolish and wrong for a man to curse the day of his birth. He 
 may be a good man who falls into despair, still his despair is a failing. This condition 
 of Jeremiah must be distinguished from that of Simeon. Simeon was ready to depart 
 when his life's work was finished and at God's time. His prayer was one of placid 
 submission to the will of God (Luke ii. 29). But Jeremiah had not finished his life's 
 work; life itself was regarded by him as an evil; his despair was contrary to a spirit 
 of resignation to the Divine will. Jeremiah's language should also be distinguished from 
 that of St. Paul when he expressed his longing to " depart and be with Christ " (Phil, 
 i. 23). The apostle was inspired with a hope of heaven, the prophet moved only by a 
 loathing of life; the apostle was willing patiently to remain and do his work, the 
 prophet felt impatient of life. 1. Such conduct is foolish, for the whole value of life is 
 thus judged by one hasty thought in a mood of gloom and distress. Life is too large 
 and multifarious to be estimated in this way. There are recuperative enerijies in all of 
 us beyond what we can imagine in our moments of weakness. Besides, if the present 
 is dark, who knows what the future will produce ? 2. Such conduct is wrong. We are 
 not the judges of our own lives. To despair is to complain of the justice of God. The 
 mistake of Jeremiah's hasty impatience is apparent when we consider the value of his 
 life. Jeremiah's life worthless ! Why, it was the most valuable life of the age. There 
 may be persons of whom it; can be said that it were better for those men if they had 
 never been born. But these are not the men who are usually most ready to despair of 
 tlieir lives. The despondent may take courage from the mistake of Jeremiah, and 
 know that when they think their lives most worthless they may really be of most 
 service. 
 
 III. The Christian has strong inducements not to curse the day of his birth. 
 Jeremiah lived before the light and grace of Christianity had been bestowed. We 
 should be without excuse if, while enjoying higher advantages, we imitated his despair, 
 1. Christianity sheds liyht on the purpose of sorrow. This was a profound mystery 
 to the Jew. Christ has shown us the blessedness of sorrow, the glory of the cross the 
 
CH. XX. 1—18.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 469 
 
 utility of sacrifice. 2. Christianity brings new grace to help in the endurance of sorrow. 
 Christians have the example of the suffering Christ, the sympathy and healing of the 
 great Physician and the new baptism of the Spirit, to help them to endure the baptism of 
 sorrow. 3. Christianity reveals fresh ground for confidence in Ood in the darkness of 
 trouble. God is seen as our Father. His will must be wise and good. All life must be 
 wisely ordered by him. Thus we are taught to bend submissively to the higher will 
 that we cannot understand. 4. Christinnity inspires hope in the "final triumph over 
 trouble. It lifts the veil from eternal things and makes known the " far more exceeding 
 and eternal weight of glory." It assures us that no true life can ultimately fail, that 
 no true man lives in vain, that, though evil may vaunt itself in the present, ultimately 
 truth and right shall triumph. 
 
 HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. 
 
 Vers. 1 — 3. — ITie hehaviour of the wicked towards the truth. I. They eegakd the 
 TRUTH AND ITS MINISTERS AS THEIR GREATEST ENEMIES. If Pashur had known better 
 he would have refrained from such exhibitions of temper. The prophet would then 
 have been accounted the greatest benefactor of his country. Not the soldier on the 
 battle-field nor the statesman in the councils of empire could have rendered so sigtial 
 a service as Jeremiah did in simply but persistently telling the truth. Much of what 
 he said was patent to every honest observer. By saying what he did the prophet did 
 not bring into existence that which did not exist before ; and, if it really existed, it was 
 better that it should be recognized and reckoned with. The evils he denounced were 
 the real enemies of the country, and not those who pointed them out and suggested 
 their reform. It is, however, unpleasant to the carnal mind to have its faults and sins 
 exposed. With many the calamity is not that evil should be done, but that it should 
 be found out. 
 
 II. ThET are not scrupulous as to THE MEANS THEY EMPLOY TO SILENCE THEM. 
 
 He " smote Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks." These means of punish- 
 ment were at hand, and he used them at once. It was legal power used illegally, or 
 law employed to the detriment of righteousness. Passionate hatred is shown by the 
 whole course of action. Could anything else be expected of those who tried to subvert 
 righteousness ? They must needs do it unrighteously. Even the condemnation of 
 Christ was legal only in appearance. 
 
 III. The behaviour op the opponents op the truth is frequently condemned 
 BY ITS own inconsistency AND VACILLATION. " It came to pass on the morrow, that 
 Pashur brought forth Jeremiah out of the stocks." 1. The course dictated by passion 
 is seen to be impolitic and foolish. 2. The guilty intention is weakened by the outcries 
 of conscience. It is this conscience which makes cowards of us all — or heroes. Here 
 it led to vacillation, which discredited the policy to which Pashur was already com- 
 mitted, and made its author ridiculous. This is one of the reasons why men can do 
 nothing against the truth. It shines by its own light and confounds the machinations 
 that have been wrought in darkness. 3. Truth has a powerful ally in the bosoms of its 
 worst enemies, 
 
 IV. Opposition to the truth is certain to fail. " Then said Jeremiah unto 
 him," etc. (ver. 3). The prophet is only the more vehement and enthusiastic. Ill-timed 
 antagonism to his rriessage has provoked him to coin a nickname for Pashur, which 
 linked the impending judgment inseparably with his memory. It was a bad eminence 
 richly deserved. He was to be the refutation of himself, to see all his predictions 
 falsified, and to reap the curses of those he had deceived as they perished in their sins. 
 How often in his disgraceful exile he must have wished he had let the messenger of 
 God alone (Acts v. 38, 39) I— M. 
 
 Vers. 3—6. — Magor- Missahib ; or, the fate of a false prophet. The person here 
 mentioned cannot with certainty be identified. He will the better serve as a type 
 and repressntative of his kind. There is no age or country that has not had its 
 Pashur. 
 
 I. The influence he exercised. 1. Its character. Absolute and despotic. At 
 
470 THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. [oh. xx. 1—18. 
 
 the suggestion of his own evil heart. Capable of destroying civil rights and character 
 itself. The whole civil and sacred machinery of the land was at his disposal. The 
 public trusted him. The state of things condemned by Jeremiah it was his immediate 
 interest to support, and in turn he could rely upon official support. He identifies 
 himself with the ruling party and becomes its representative and mouthpiece. Vested 
 rights, traditional religion, etc., are his watchwords, because he owes everything to 
 them. 2. How it was acquired. Family connection — " the son of Immer the priest." 
 Not by striving to reform abuses, but by fostering and upholding the status quo. He 
 who was so oblivious to the wrongs of which the prophet spoke could not have been 
 scrupulous as to the means by which he rose to position and influence. Oriental cor- 
 ruption and intrigue had doubtless had their part in securing his elevation. (" Pashur " 
 probably means "extension," "pride," "eminence.") 3. Bow it was employed. Hastily, 
 on the passionate impulse of the moment. Without regard to the essential justice of 
 the case. And when the error is discovered no true repentance or effort at amends is 
 visible. Cf. the time-serving policy of Agrippa (Acts. xxvi. 32). 
 
 II. The chabacteb and dbstint he earned. By making himself the champion 
 of apostate Judah, and insulting the prophet of God, he is sentenced to the same fate, 
 but in a peculiar and aggravated degree. 1. It would he Ms fortune to be looked upon as 
 the represeiitative and embodiment of the system of falsehood which had ruined his 
 country. He who prophesied falsely will be justly punished by such an association. 
 Instead of saying, " It was Moloch or Astarte that deceived us," the victims of the 
 C'lmmon disaster will say, " It was the prophet of these false gods who led us astray." 
 IIow readily does personal influence acquire such a representative character! There are 
 n>any evil forces and influences at work in society, the state, the Church, etc., which 
 would cease to exist were it not for their accidental connection with some personage 
 who becomes their advocate or their bulwark. 2. His character and influence would 
 be exposed. The assurances he had given would one by one be falsified by the fulfil- 
 ments of Jeremiah's predictions. Instead of being honoured and looked up to, he would 
 become a loathing and a byword. He would outlive his credit, his self-esteem, and 
 his happiness. Shunned by others, he would be unable to trust himself. Each fresh 
 catastrophe would deepen his disgrace and remorse. A " terror round about " would be 
 the name he would earn. 3. His eaoemption from immediate destruction would but 
 enhance his punishment. Like the criminal obliged to stand in the dock and hear all 
 the counts of his indictment made good by the evidence of witnesses, he should outlive 
 the first effects of the national ruin, see all his statements falsified, bear the reproach of 
 his own wicked lies, and yet linger on when life had ceased to be desirable. There is a 
 grotesqueness about this punishment that would make it ludicrous were it not so sad 
 and awful. A more severe punishment could hardly be conceived. And yet it is not 
 more than Pashur deserved. Would that our modern " prophets of lies " could be com- 
 pelled to witness the consequences of their advice and example 1 A modified degree of 
 this experience has, indeed, been the sentence inflicted upon many a good man. But 
 Christ takes up the entail of sin and breaks it. We may do better than to stand by 
 and see the evil consequences of former folly; it is for us to strive to rectify them. 
 So the past may be retrieved and the evil days redeemed by those who have been 
 servants of sin " turning many to righteousness." — M. 
 
 Vers. 7 — 18. — The sorrow and joy of Ood's servant. There are many such photo- 
 graphs of the inner heart-life of God's people. It is the touch of nature which brings 
 tliem near to us. The words and work of Jeremiah become more living and influential 
 when we witness his spiritual struggles. 
 
 I. The spiritual necessity of his position is alternately complaisted of and 
 ACQUIESCED IN. The saint cannot always continue amidst his highest experiences. 
 There are ups and downs, not only of our actual outward circumstances, but of our 
 inward spiritual states. Do not condemn Jeremiah until you are able to acquit your- 
 self. The heavenly mind is not formed easily or at once. There is an inward cross in 
 every true heart, upon which it must needs " die daily." But " the powers of the 
 world to come" ever tend to increase their hold upon the believer. This alternation 
 of mood and feeling is a necessary accompaniment of spiritual growth. Some day the 
 heart will be fixed. " The reproach of Christ " will then be esteemed " greater riches 
 
CH. XX. 1—18.] THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 471 
 
 than the treasures of Egypt." This is what we should strive after — inward oneness 
 of heart and purpose with our Master. 
 
 II. His EXPERIENCE IS TRANSITIONAL. 1. From douht to faith. ("Vers. 11, 12.) 2. 
 From sorrow to joy. (Ver. 13.) 3. One day the stmgtjh will end in triumph. — M. 
 
 Ver. 9. — Why Ood's servants labour on. "Then I said, I will not tnalie mentinn," 
 etc. It was under no small provocation that Jeremiah uttered these words. It was in 
 no fit of mere indolence or infidelity that he cried, " I will not make mention of God, nor 
 speak any more in his Name." He had stretched out his hand, but the people to whom 
 he was sent refused ; he had called, but they would not answer. And this had been their 
 wont persistently, until he was weary, utterly weary, and out of heart, and then it was 
 he spoke as we read here and declared he would try no more. If any one be inclined 
 to judge him harshly, let us but read the story of his life — a, story most sad, yet glorious 
 too, so far as the grace of Grod and the true honour of his servant are concerned ; but yet 
 a sad story, and one which, when we have read it, will most assuredly check all dis- 
 position to censure, with anything like severity, the deeply tried servant of God who 
 in his utter weariness said he would speak no more in the Name of God. Now, all of 
 us who are familiar with our Bibles or who know anything of the way in which those 
 who labour for God often fail, will know that Jeremiah by no means stands alone in 
 his sense of hopelessness and weariness in his work. We remember Moses (Exod. v. 
 22 ; Numb. xi. 11) ; and how Elijah faltered beneath his burden (1 Kings xix. 4) ; and 
 John the Baptist (Matt. xi. 3) ; and even the holy Saviour himself (John xii. 29 ; Luke 
 xxii. 42). Such is the stress which doing the will of God amongst wicked men puts 
 upon the human spirit ; no wonder that it well-nigh gives way. From the experience, 
 then, of our Saviour and of so many of his servants we must all of us who are his 
 servants lay our account with manifold and often great discouragements, and yet more 
 with being tried by the temptation on account of these discouragements to abandon 
 our work altogether and to speak no more in the Name of the Lord. Now, where is the 
 spirit that will resist this temptation, that will prevent the half-formed resolve to cease 
 endeavour from being wholly formed and carried out ? There is such a spirit. This 
 strong temptation may be and has been resisted again and again. What is the secret 
 of Christian constancy and steadfastness in the work of the Lord ? We have the answer 
 in this verse. However much any of God's servants may be tempted, as Jeremiah was, 
 to give up his work, he still will not do so if, as was the case with Jeremiah, " the 
 Word of the Lord is in his heart as a burning fire shut up in his bones ; " then he will 
 be " weary with forbearing," and he will find that he cannot stay. Even as Elihu (Job 
 xxviL 18), who said, " I am full of matter," etc. ; and as Peter (Acts iv. 20), and Paul 
 (Acts xvii. 6 ; xviii. 5 ; 1 Cor. ix. ] 6) ; and our Saviour (Luke ii. 49 ; xii. 50). 
 In all these utterances we have the expression of that spirit which alone can, but surely 
 will, bear up the servant of God amid all his difficulties and hold him steadfast to his 
 duty in spite of every discouragement. But dropping all metaphor, let us inquire into 
 this excellent spirit which renders such service to the tried and desponding soul. It 
 does exist. The records of the mission work of the Church at home and abroad will 
 furnish not a few instances of men and women whose hearts the Lord hath touched, 
 and who, moved by this Divine impulse, have felt themselves constrained to be up and 
 doing, to penetrate the spiritual darkness around them, and to resist the power of the 
 devil everywhere present. Under the influence of this holy zeal, such servants of God 
 have looked upon the heathen, the degraded, the vile, not with the natural eye alone. 
 That revealed to them only a foul mass of vice and cruelty, sensuality and all human 
 degradation. From such scenes and people nature turns away and would let them 
 • alone. But amid and beneath all this moral, spiritual, and physical repulsiveness, the 
 ardent soul of God's servant sees jewels which may be won for Christ, spirits which 
 may be regenerated and restored. His eye looks right on to what, through the grace 
 of the gospel, these degraded ones may become ; and absorbed, swallowed up by a holy 
 Christ-like love, he determines to spend and be spent in bringing to bear on that mass 
 of sin and evil the power of that gospel which has done so much already and which is 
 " the power of God unto salvation unto every one that believeth." " The Word of God 
 has been in their heart as," etc. There have been times in onr history when we have 
 known somewhat of this sacred impulse which fired the soul of the prophet Jeremiah. 
 
472 THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. [ch. xx. 1—18. 
 
 Have we not known seasons when the impulse was strong on us to say something for 
 God ? It has come when we have been preaching or teaching, and we have broken 
 away from the calm, not to say cold, tone in which we have been going on, and have 
 s|)oken to those before ua words which have come up from the very depths of our soul, 
 and we have seen in the countenances of our children or our congregation that they, 
 too, were conscious that they were being spoken to in a manner other than usual, and 
 that portion of the day's lesson or the sermon has been remembered when all the rest 
 has been forgotten. And sometimes this impossibility of keeping silence for God has 
 come to us on the railway journey, in the quiet walk with a friend or child, or in 
 social converse, or in the casual talk with a stranger into whose society we may have 
 been for a while thrown ; and then we have felt we must say something for God, and it 
 hns been said feebly, weakly perhaps, but nevertheless the testimony has been borne, 
 the endeavour has been made. God would not let us be silent ; we could not stay from 
 speaking; necessity was laid upon us. These are in their measure instances of the samu 
 Spirit as that which moved the prophets and apostles of old, though in a far less degree. 
 But it is evident how well it would be for us all who bear Christ's name to possess in far 
 larger measure than we do this holy and irresistible impulse. The spur is what we too 
 often need ; how rarely the bridle ! not the holding back, but the urging on. Whence, 
 then, comes this sacred and mighty Spirit, under whose influence so many of the saints 
 of God, even as the Son of God, have laboured on in spite of all discouragement and 
 suffering and wrong ? It is evident, from the history of Jeremiah and of all other 
 faithful servants of God, that the method by which God impelled them to their work 
 was by bestowing on them such gifts as these — 
 
 I. The knowledge of sin. For he who has this knows how appalling is the evil 
 under which men live. To him this present world and its inhabitants present but 
 one aspect, that of being under a yoke which no man can bear. He has seen the vision 
 of sin, and it was a sight so terrible that he can never forget it. It haunts him, for he 
 knew it was no dream of the night, but a dreadful reality of the day and of every day. 
 It was no chimera, no fiction of his own imagination, but a real and awful power that 
 has ruled men and still is ruling over men. "What scenes of beauty it has destroyed ! 
 What fearful misery it evermore produces. There was the garden of Eden in all its love- 
 liness, with every fair flower and noble tree, with luscious fruit and every herb fit for 
 the food of man or beast ; it was all beautiful, so beautiful that even God pronounced 
 it " very good." And as chief over this fair inheritance there were the first created of 
 our race, in form and mind and soul harmonizing with the beauty and goodness that 
 was all around them. How blest their condition ! But the scene changes. We see 
 no longer the garden of Eden, but a weary land bearing thorns and briars ; we see, too, 
 haggard and careworn people bending in sore agony over the murdered corpse of their 
 child, murdered by his own brother, their eldest born. What hath wrought this 
 change ? An enemy, without doubt, but what enemy ? It is sin— the heart of man 
 in rebellion against God. The Bible is full of scenes like these— misery, shame, ruin, 
 death, all, all the work of sin. And sin reigns yet, as he to whom God has given to 
 see the vision of sin knows full well. Who can recount its doings? Who can 
 descnbe the woes it causes ? What ocean would be vast enough to receive the tears 
 It has made to flow? What colours dark enough to depict the moral and spiritual 
 evil it has engendered ? And then the sorrows of the souls that are lost, the doom 
 of the accursed of God— the antitype of that which Jesus describes as the " fire that is 
 never quenched, and the worm that never dies." It is the vision of this,— the appallino- 
 evil, past, present, and most of all to come,— that has risen up before the soul of him 
 who, beholding those around him under its dominion, finds himself utterly unable 
 to forbear telling them of the Word of the Lord to the end that they may be saved. 
 No wonder that, in view of these dread calamities, " the Word of the Lord was in 
 his heart," etc. 
 
 «7^^' ^^^ * further knowledge has been given to him to contribute to this same result. 
 Were the vision ol sin all, utter and dreadful despair would be alone left to him; but it 
 IS not all. Along with the knowledge of sin there is given to him the knowledge op 
 THE GOSPEL in the Word of the Lord. It is brought home to his soul, by evidence he 
 cannot question, that the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is the sure remedy for all 
 human ill. He has a deep conviction that trust in the Redeemer, reliance on his 
 
CH. XX. 1—18.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 473 
 
 atoning death and sacrifice, will bring peace to the conscience, purity to the mind, 
 strength to the will, hope to the heart, and final and eternal acceptance in the presence 
 of God. Very much of what it can do for the soul in this life he knows it has done 
 for him, and he has seen it do yet more for others. He sees, not only the need of such 
 great salvation as God has provided in Christ Jesus for guilty and miserable man, but 
 also the fitness and adaptation and the actual power of this grace of God. Such is his 
 conviction concerning the Word of the Lord, the gospel of the grace of God; and, thus 
 persuaded of its power to bless and save mankind, he hears on all sides, and coming up 
 irom all depths of sorrow and sin, the imperative summons to him to tell of this Saviour 
 and this salvation, and by no means to keep silence. From every hospital and asylum 
 where the victims of vice and sin are reaping what they have sown ; from every prison 
 cell ; from every place where the ruined in health, in fortune, in character, and in soul 
 are dragging out the remainder of their wretched life ; from every gallows-tree ; from 
 every im penitent's grave; and from the sinner's hell; — there comes the solemn adjuration 
 which the apostle so keenly felt, " Woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel ! " And 
 not the sins alone, though they most, but the sorrows of mankind also, utter forth the 
 same appeal. For the gospel of the Saviour is a healing balm to the sick at heart, oil 
 and wine to the wounded spirit; it is the gospel of consolation, of hope, and of peace to 
 the sorrowing myriads of mankind. Peeling all this, how can it be otherwise that "the 
 Word of the Lord is in his heart as," etc. ? 
 
 III. But there is one other gift needed to the full possession of that Divine Spirit 
 which finds expression in our text. It is the knowledge of Ghkist. By this is 
 meant, not merely an acquaintance with and belief in the truths concerning our Lord's 
 nature and work, nor even simply such belief in him as will save the soul, but such 
 knowledge of him as is involved in deep love to him and sympathy with those objects 
 on which his heart is set. To know Christ as your own loving Saviour, who has died 
 for you, redeemed and pardoned and accepted you, and given you an inheritance 
 amongst his own ; to know him by oft and earnest communion with him, by toil and 
 suffering for him ; — this is that knowledge of Christ which, when added on to that 
 other knowledge of sin and of the gospel of which we have already spoken, will lead to 
 that irresistible desire to serve him which his true servants have so often felt and 
 shown. The love of Christ must be the constraining motive, and then there will come 
 love and labour for the souls for whom Christ died. 1 do not know that it is possible 
 for us to have a deep regard and concern for those whom we have never seen or known 
 unless we see in each individual member of mankind one of the brethren or sisters of 
 Christ, part of Christ's body, one of his members, he being the Head of all. If this be 
 believed, then we see that the soul of each of these men and women, though they may 
 be of different clime and colour, and be altogether strange and perhaps repulsive to us, 
 still, the soul of each of them is as precious to Christ as our own, and as capable of 
 honouring and as ready to honour him as was our own. This love of Christ will lead 
 to the love of Christ in all men, for indeed he is in all men, and this will beget a 
 Divine charity which will be' ever a mighty motive to seek their good. Then shall we 
 possess the mind which was in him who wept over Jerusalem and prayed for his very 
 murderers. Then shall we willingly bear disappointment, reproach, loss, or aught 
 other ill which may come to us as we toil on in our Master's service. Here, then, in 
 this deep knowledge of sin, of the gospel, and of Christ, have we the secret of that 
 burning zeal which consumed the heart of Jeremiah and of others like minded to him. 
 May God, of his mercy, give to all who labour in his cause this holy and quenchless 
 zeal! Labouring under such impulse, let come what will to us in this world as the 
 result of our toil, we will still labour on. Blessed Lord Jesus Christ, let thy Word 
 be in our hearts as a burning fire, so that when tempted to forbear making mention of 
 thee and speaking any more in thy Name, we may be weary of such forbearing and 
 feel we cannot stay. — C. 
 
 Vers. 14 — 18. — "Is life worth living f" Here is one who evidently thought it was 
 not. How bitterly he grieves over the fact that he was ever brought into existence ! 
 It is an illustration, as has been pointed out, of the maddening force of suffering. _ It 
 drives a man to the use of wild language. For great sufferings generate great passions 
 in the soul. They rouse the whole man into action. And these great passions thus 
 
474 THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xx. 1—18. 
 
 roused often become irrepressible. Many men of no ordinary meekness and self-control 
 are overborne at such times — Jeremiah, Job, Moses, Elijah ; and then they express 
 themselves in unmeasured terms. It is as a flood broken loose. Its rushing, foaming 
 waters pour along, and over all that lies in their path. Hence it is that the prophet 
 here, not content with cursing the day of his birth, utters wild execrntions on the 
 messenger that announced it to his father. Thus passionately does he protest against 
 the misery and misfortune of his life. Nor has he been alone in such dark thoughts 
 concerning life. Of. Job iii., where the patriarch, in almost identical language, deplores 
 the lact of his biith. And Moses prayed that God would kill him out of hand (Numb. 
 xi. 15) : and Elijah (1 Kings xix. 4). And there have been a whole host of men who 
 have in the most emphatic way affirmed their belief that life is not worth living by 
 refusing to live it any longer — Saul, Ahithophel, Judas, and the suicides of all ages 
 declare this. And many more who have not given this dread proof of tljeir sincerity 
 have yet maintained the same. Sophocles said, "Not to be born is best in every way. 
 Once born, by far the better lot is then at once to go back whence we came." Goethe, 
 as he drew near his end, notwithstanding that all men regarded his career as one which 
 had been highly favoured and very enviable, is reported to have said, " They have called 
 me a child of fortune, nor have I any wish to complain of the course of my life. Yet it has 
 been nothing but sorrow and labour ; and I may truly say that in seventy-five years I 
 have not had four weeks of true comfort. It was the constant rolling of a stone that 
 was always to be lifted anew. When I look back upon my earlier and middle life and 
 consider how few are those left who were young with me, I am reminded of a summer 
 visit to a watering-place. On arriving one makes the acquaintance of those who have 
 already been some time there and leave the week following. This loss is painful. Now 
 one becomes attached to the second generation, with which one lives for a time and 
 becomes intimately connected. But this also passes away and leaves us solitary with the 
 third, which arrives shortly before our own departure, and with which we have no desii e 
 to have much intercourse." And the gloomy musings of Hamlet, " To be or.not to be, 
 that is the question," is another example, which has been followed by the whole 
 tribe of those who are called pessinpists, of representing life as a curse rather than a 
 blessing. And we cannot deny that there are many now whose lot in life is so sad, 
 that, if we looked only at the present, we could not vindicate the justice and still less 
 the goodness of God in regard to them. And the terrible lottery that life is, a lottery 
 in which the blanks far outnumber the prizes, goes far to account for the apathetic 
 indifference with which the deaths of such myriads of children are regarded. If all 
 parents knew for certain that the lot of their cliildren would be bright or mainly so, 
 how much more jealously would their lives be guarded and avenged ! And there are 
 many men who, whilst they stammer out some kind of thanksgiving for their " preser- 
 vation and all the blessings of this life," fail utterly to feel thankful for their "creation " 
 They would much rather not have been. So that there can be no doubt that there is 
 a larger and it is to be feared an increasing number of people who are desperately or 
 despHiringly asking the question which stands at the head of this homily, and which 
 this passionate protest of the prophet against his birth has suggested. But how is all 
 this? Let us theielore inquire — 
 
 I. What are the causes op such cheerless thinking and speaking ? We reply • , 
 1 Temperament has a great deal to do with it. Some are born with a sunny, bright 
 cbeerfiil disposition; let them go down on their knees and give God thanks for it for 
 It IS a better gift to them, more surely secures their happiness, than thousands of gold 
 and silver. But others are born with a temperament the very reverse— pessimists 
 from their moihers womb, always seeing the dark side of things, melancholy, fore- 
 bodmg, complaining. It is a positive disease, and calls for mingled pity and careful 
 discipline. 2 But more often still it is, the continued and sore pressure of sorrow. 
 So was It with Job and here with Jeremiah. And it is still the bitter disappoint- 
 ments, the miserable failures, " the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune," trouble 
 upon trouble,— these are prolific sources of the sad views of life of which we sneak 3 
 But most of all, szn— moral evil-is the real cause. The « philosophy of melancholy " 
 finds Its true parentage there It is this which causes that unrest and torment of 
 soul, thathidmgof thefaceof God and uplifting of the scourge of conscience, which 
 throws all hie into shadow and blots out the sun from the heavens It is this which 
 
CH. XX. 1—18.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 475 
 
 leads it to be said of and felt by a man, tbat it had been better for him that he had 
 never been born. 
 
 11. What is the truth on the matter ? Such conclusion as that of the pessimist 
 never can be right, for our deepest moral instincts teach un that, if life were more of 
 a curse than a blessing, he who is the God of mercy and righteousness would never 
 have given it ; and that if it were better for a man that he had not been born, he 
 would not have been born. Life must be a blessing or it would not be given. 
 1. Universal instinct says so. See how men cling to life. The law of self- 
 preserviitionis the first law of nature. 2. The summing up of the hours in which 
 we have enjoyed peace and satisfaction, and of those which have been darkened by 
 ] ain and distress, would probably in all lives show a vast balance on the side of the 
 former. Let any one honestly make the calculation for themselves. 3. The laws 
 of life all tend to produce happiness ; " In keeping of ■ God's commandments there 
 is great reward." 4. Good men who may have held dark views of life have done 
 so " in haste," as Ps. xxxi. 22 and oxvi. 11 ; or through looking at one point of their 
 lives only (cf. the joyous praise of ver. 13 ; what a contrast and contradiction to the 
 verses that follow !) ; or in ignorance of the truths and consolations which the gospel 
 has introduced. Thus was it with Job and the Old Testament saints generally, and, 
 of course, with all pagan nations. 5. Evil men are not to be credited. They have 
 themselves poisoned life's springs, and whilst they speak truly enough concerning 
 their own life, they are not competent witnesses as to what all life is. 6. Then "it is 
 the Lord that hath made us, and not we ourselves;" and because of this all lands are 
 bidden "be joyful in the Lord" (Ps. c). Now, how could this be if life were not worth 
 living ? 7. The future which Christ has prepared. Let that be taken into view and 
 qtujestio coedit. Life is but the porchway to that which is life indeed — the eternal 
 life. Our afflictions, therefore, which here we suffer are light, and "but for a moment," 
 and so, "not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed." (1) Then, 
 "Sursum corda," "Lift up your hearts ;"" 5e joyful in the Lord," because he hath made 
 us. (2) Be reticent of such thoughts and words as these of Jeremiah. How far short 
 he fails of the apostles of our Lord! They rejoiced in tribulations. Jeremiah had 
 better not have so spoken ; better have copied him who said, " If I speak thus I shall 
 offend against the generation of thy children." (3) Pray to be kept from temptation 
 so to speak or even think, for such temptation is hard to overcome. — C. 
 
 Ver. 9. — A burning fire within. The mental condition of the prophet here recalls 
 the beginning of his ministry. Just as he then shrank from taking its resjionsibility 
 upon him, so now he is ready to throw it up in despair. His life seems to him 
 altogether a failure. He is a disappointed and defeated man. He will " make mention 
 of the Lord no more, nor speak any longer in his Name." Many an earnest ministering 
 spirit has felt like this, overborne by the force of the world's evil, impatient of the slow 
 progress of the kingdom of truth and righteousness. But the prophet cannot so easily 
 throw up his work. God, as at the beginning, is " stronger than he," and holds him 
 firmly in his grasp ; holds him to his ofBce and ministry by the force, not so much of 
 outward circumstance as of a spiritual persuasion, by the strong necessity of an 
 inward law. " His Word was in my heart as a burning fire," etc. Note here — 
 
 I. The inherent property op the Word of God as a living power in the 
 BOULS OF MEN. " A burning fire" (see also ch. xxiii. 29). All Divine truih pos- 
 sesses a quality that may justly be thus represented. The Law that came by Moses 
 was a " fiery Law," of which the thunders and lightnings of Sinai were the appropriate 
 associations (Deut. xxxii. 2). And even the inspiration of gospel truth was fitly 
 symbolized by " cloven tongues of fire " (Acts ii. 3). There is not only light but heat, 
 not only a flame but fire. The moral effects are manifest. 1. Melting. Icy coldness, 
 hard indifference, stubborn self-will, impenitence, etc., — all these are softened by the fire 
 of God when it really enters into the soul. A tender sensibility is thus created that 
 prepares it to receive all Divine impressions. 2. Kindling. Heaven-tending affections 
 are awakened by it that did not exist before. Latent germs of nobler and better 
 feeling are quickened into new life. There is no limit to the holy energies that may 
 be developed in our nature by the inspiration of the truth of God. In this good sense 
 we may say, " Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth ! " 3, Consuming. It 
 
476 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xx. 1—18. 
 
 destroys everything in us that is destructible. All that is false, selfish, sensual — all 
 that is " of the earth, earthy " — has in it the elements of dissolution and decay, and 
 cannot resist the purging, purifying force of Divine truth. The dross is consumed that 
 the precious gold may come forth in all its beauty and purity. The solid grain is 
 quickened into fruitful life, the chaff is burnt up as with unquenchable fire. 
 
 II. The OBLiaATiosr it imposes. " I was weary with forbearing," etc. (see ch. 
 vi. 11). The soul of the prophet was acted upon by a force that overcame, not only 
 the weakness of his fears, but the strength of his self-will and of every motive that 
 would induce him to relinquish his work. Every earnest, heroic servant of truth is 
 sensible of this inward constraint. It is the constraint (1) of a Divine call, (2) of a 
 masterful conscience, (3) of conscious power to benefit others, (4) of an instinctive 
 impulse to communicate the good one's own soul possesses. St. Paul stands belore 
 us as a conspicuous example of this when he says, " For if I preach the gospel, I have 
 nothing to glory of: for necessity is laid upon me," etc. (1 Cor. ix. 16). There is no 
 clearer mark of a noble, Christ-like nature than submission to such a constraint as 
 this.— W. 
 
 Vers. 1 — 6. — A changed name and a drea/lful doom. The change here, from Pashur 
 to Magor-Missabib, reminds us of other divinely indicated changes of name in Scrip- 
 ture ; e.g. from Abram to Abraham, from J acob to Israel, from Simon to Peter, from 
 Zacharias to John. These changes, however, were indicative of advancement and 
 honour ; were suggestive of the rise out of nature into grace. But here is a name 
 which becomes at once the memorial of great wickedness and of the sure judgment 
 following upon it. 
 
 I. The name before the change. Whatever doubt there may be as to the 
 precise signification of the name Pashur, it seems quite clear that the very meaning 
 of the word had in it something peculiarly honourable. The man himself beloni;ed to 
 a privileged order and held an office of influence and honour ; and the name must have 
 been given to him because of something auspicious in the circumstances of his birth. 
 An honourable name is an advantage to its bearer, and to a certain extent also a 
 challenge. He who bears it may so live that in the end there will be the greatest 
 contrast between the name and the character. A less suggestive name, one less pro- 
 vocative of contrasts, might have saved Pashur from the new and portentous name 
 which, once given, would never be forgotten. We are bound to consider well the 
 associations which will gradually gather around the name we happen to bear. Now, 
 at least, the particular name has very little signification in itself; but the longer 
 we bear it the more significant it becomes to all who know us. Every time it is 
 mentioned it brings to mind, more or less, our character. Even on prudential con- 
 siderations one must ever become increasingly careful of what he does, for a single 
 act may obliterate all the associations of respect and confidence which belong to his 
 name. Instead of becoming, what every one may become, the object of respect and 
 confidence to at least a few, he may end in being an object of execration far and wide. 
 
 II. What brought the change. His treatment of Jeremiah. His treatment of 
 him, bear in mind, as a prophet. We feel that Jeremiah was not put in prison on even 
 a plausible allegation that he was an evil-doer. That he was a false prophet was the 
 only ijossible charge to lay against him. Now, Pashur must have known that he 
 himsdf was a false prophet, speaking as God's truth what was only the fabrication 
 of his own self-willed and deceitful heart. If Jeremiah was speaking falsehood, 
 Pashur's duty was to convince him of error, and show the people that he was either 
 a fanatic or a mere impostor. We are not allowed to suppose that what Pashur did 
 he did from some excusable outbreak of zeal on behalf of the building of which he 
 was custodian. A great punishment from the hand of God always argues a corre- 
 spondingly great offence. It is not so amongst men ; there may be a great punishment 
 and a very small offence ; sometimes, indeed, no offence at all, measured by the highest 
 law. But when God punishes severely it lets in light upon the character of him 
 whom he punishes. We know that Pashur must have been a bad man ; we know 
 it as well as if all his iniquity had been detailed in the most forcible language. 
 
 III. The significance op the change. We have not information enough to give 
 us the exact meaning of Pashur ; and one might almost think this was meant to 
 
CH. XX. 1—18.] THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 477 
 
 heighten the certainty as to the meaning of Magor-Missabib. At present Pashur was 
 in a positiou of comparative security. If security can be claimed for anything in this 
 world, it seems sometimes to belong to such as hold official positions. But with 
 regard to Pashur all depended on the continuance of Jerusalem. The Lord's house 
 where he was governor was to be destroyed, and then where would he be ? Hitherto 
 Pashur has been a nameless unit, involved, but not peculiarly involved, in the general 
 doom. But now he has a prediction all to himself. Henceforth he will be known, 
 must be known, as the man whom Jeremiah threatened with this new and dreadful 
 name. Evidently the name stuck. Some speakers and writers have had this power 
 of giving names that stick. It is not an enviable one, and has often been cruelly used. 
 But God, on whose lips it will always be rightly used, can make it to serve good 
 purposes. The best proof that the name stuck is seen in this, that the prophet's 
 enemies tried straightway to fix the name on him (ver. 10). But everything depends 
 on who gives a name. Jeremiah's enemies might speak of terror, but they could not 
 terrify. God both spoke of terror and in due time brought the terrifying realities 
 around the doomed man. There was nothing at present, and might not be for some 
 time, to show what was coming. But God can wait. We have no doubt that in due 
 time Pashur was forced to the confession that the name was fully justified. — Y. 
 
 Vers. 7 — 9. — A conflict not to be avoided. The heart of the prophet is here revealed 
 to us as the scene of a bitter conflict between two sets of motives ; one set originating 
 with the vehement will of God, the other in the utterly un sympathizing dispositions 
 of men. 'i'he prophet makes us feel that it is utterly insufficient to describe his work 
 simply as difiBoult. It is done amid a continuity of reproaches, some of which a less 
 sensitive man might not have felt, but which were peculiarly irritating to a man of 
 Jeremiah's sensibilities. Generally it may be observed that God did not send thick- 
 skinned men to be his prophets. 
 
 I. The divinely produced conviction under the force of which he began 
 THIS WORK. The people might say, " You speak irritating words to us, and you 
 must not complain if we speak irritating words to you. Those who live in glass houses 
 must not throw stones." Thus it is well for the prophet to assert most emphatically, 
 as he does in ver. 7, that he spoke from a divinely produced conviction of duty. God 
 impressed — as God alone can impress — certain irresistible considerations on his mind. 
 Not only was he persuaded, but it was Qod who had persuaded him. The reasons for 
 his prophetic action were not such as he had sought out and discovered for himself. 
 God put them before him in their proper aspect, order, and totality. 
 
 II. 'i'HE FIRST PAINFUL RESULT OF FIDELITY TO GoD. Perhaps in the youthful 
 confidence with which he began his prophecies he would anticipate that since God had 
 so clearly sent him, the people would as trustfully and obediently receive him. But 
 not all the genuineness of a Divine message can commend it any more to the selfish 
 man who naturally hates to be disturbed and threatened. The prophet intimates that 
 the reception he met with was daily, universal, invariable. He seemed to be ordained 
 to stir up the nests and dens and hiding-places of every noxious being amongst men. 
 He who goes among hornets and scorpions must not complain if he has to suffer great 
 agonies from their venomous sting. We are sure, indeed, that the prophet must have 
 had some sympathizers, but the treatment which caused him such agony would also 
 have the effect of making friends keep silent, lest they might be the next to sufftr. 
 It is no strange thing that men should become resentful and savage under the home- 
 thrusts of spiritual truth. Men who love evil resent even the gentlest approaches of 
 God in trying to take that evil away. 
 
 III. The earlier result produced by this intolerable treatment in 
 Jeremiah's own mind. It is easy to criticize the prophet, and say that he should not 
 have been so much affected by all these hard words. But it was just the inultitude of 
 them that made them intolerable. A man would be cowardly to complain of being 
 stung now and then ; but if he is to be exposed to stinging insects every hour of the 
 day, that is an altogether different matter. God made one of the terrible plagues of 
 Egypt out of multitudes of tiny creatures, such as, individually, counted for almost 
 nothing. Let us not, then, talk condemningly of this proposed repression of the pro- 
 phetic message. He had reached a crisis in which, we may well believe, Jehovah, who 
 
478 THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. [ch. xx. 1—18. 
 
 sent Mm, was peculiarly near to him. May we not reverently say that even as Jesus 
 reached the inexpressible culmination of his mental agony in Gethsemane, so the 
 prophets, in their lesser measure, may have had crises, not unhke that of Gethsemane, 
 when the forces arrayed against them seemed more than they could possibly resist? 
 Proiound should our feeling be that it may become a very hard thing to bear faithful 
 testimony for God in an ungodly world. 
 
 IV. The final result. The risk of unfaithfulness is put beyond Jeremiah's 
 control. He is put between two great "cannots." He cannot bear the reproaches 
 of the people. That on the one hand. But, on the other hand, he finds that he caiinot 
 keep unexpressed the message of Jehovah. God takes his Word into his own keeping. 
 The pain of prophesying, great as it was, was less than the pain of withholding the 
 prophecy. It is not till we come to deal with God that we learn the real meaning of 
 the word " intolerable." It is ever a mark of God's true servants, that in times when there 
 is great need of testimony they cannot keep silent. Better to burn at the stake than 
 to have one's true, inner life burnt up in resisting God. Paul is a grand example of a 
 man who was forced to speak by the fire within. He could not be silent ; be could not 
 temporize, compromise, or postpone. Luther is another instance. Those destitute of 
 tlie fire in their hearts cannot understand those who have it ; and therefore it is the 
 very height of ignorant audacity to censure it. Nothing is more to be desired, what- 
 ever pain it may bring with it, than that we should have God's truth as a living and 
 growing fire in our hearts ; and in order to do this, we must be careful not to quench 
 it in the beginnings of its risings within us. — Y. 
 
 Vers. 10 — 13. — The name Magor-Missahib wrongly applied. I. The hopes of 
 Jbhemiah's enemies. We have seen in the preceding passage (vers. 7 — 9) how the 
 prophet was incessantly exposed to exceedinijly irritating taunts from his enemies; 
 and how the pain of these taunts in a measure tempted him to try if he could not 
 escape the pain by ceasing to prophesy. Jehovah perfectly preserved him from this 
 danger. The prophetic fire within him, divinely kindled and sustained, was too strong 
 to be thus extinguished. It grew more and more, and the very taunts of the utigodly 
 became as fuel to make it burn more fiercely. But this very faithfulness of the prophet 
 only increased his danger as an object of persecution. His enemies will themselves begin 
 to feel in danger from this continual reference to their evil doings. Mere mockery has 
 itself a tendency to go further. Bengel, referring to the development of the persecuting 
 spirit, as illustrated in the apostolic days, says, " The world begins with ridicule ; 
 then afterwards it proceeds to questioning ; to threats ; to imprisoning ; to inflicting 
 stripes ; to murder " (see ' Gnomon ' on Acts ii. 13). Jeremiah has already been for a 
 night in prison, and he knows not how soon a longer and worse imprisonment may 
 come. He hears threatenings on every hand. The name Magor-Missabib tliat, by 
 Divine direction, he has applied to Pashur, is retorted on him, as being, in the opinion of 
 his enemies, a name eminently appropriate to his present circumstances. So far as 
 the human elements were concerned, his chances of safety appeared very poor indeed. 
 His enemies are numerous and crafty ; and, sharpened by self-interest, they needed no 
 exhortation to be watchful. Those who compare these confessions of the prophet at 
 diflferent times with the experiences of Jesus at the hands of his enemies, will notice a 
 remarkable parallelism. What Jesus said with respect to the scribes and Pharisees is 
 peculiarly forcible when considered in the light of Jeremiah's trials : " Ye are the 
 children of them which killed the prophets " (Matt, xxiii. 31). 
 
 II. The sufficiency of Jeremiah's protection. Here is the man of strong faith, 
 and of a speech full of confidence and calmness. He may well be depre.-ised ; beset as 
 he is with so much malice, brought into close contact with the worst wickedness of the 
 human heart. But, on the other hand, he has this for his comfort, that, the closer 
 wicked men come to him, the closer he finds himself to God. This is the service the 
 wicked render to the witnesses of God, that, the more they persecute them, the more 
 they press them towards the great Helper. The ungodly little dream of the service 
 they render in this respect. So far as abiding results are concerned, the spirit of intoler- 
 ance has done the direct contrary of what it was intended to do. The purposes of evil 
 might have been better served if the Church of Christ had had an easier time of it in 
 the beginning. He who is potentially the mighty, terrible One in the midst of his people, 
 
CH. XX. 1—18.] THE BOOK OP TPIE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 479 
 
 needs the opposition of the wicked in order that all his power to defend his people may 
 be known. This, indeed, is one of the lessons ta\ight by the sufferings of Jesus even to 
 death. Darkness was to get its hour and its power, that so the Light of the world might 
 be more fully glorified. Never was it more emphatically true than when Jesus was 
 laid in the grave, that Jehovah was with him as a mighty, terrible One. We look with 
 the natural eye, and we see a cold corpse apparently .none the way of all flesh ; we look 
 with the eye of faith, and we discern One standing by who at the appointed hour will 
 raise that corpse, and make it the channel of manifestations of life such as were not 
 possible before. — Y. 
 
 Vers, li— 18.— The prophet cursing the day of his birth. It is very perplexing to 
 find these words following so closely upon the confidences expressed in vers. 11—13. 
 And yet the perplexity is to some extent removed when we recollect how largely man 
 is the creature of his moods. That he is bright and confident to-day may not hinder 
 him from being in the depths of despair to-morrow. It is well for us to see how low a 
 real and faithful prophet of God can sink. One is reminded at once of the similar worda 
 put into the mouih of Job. We have advantages, however, in considering this expres- 
 sion of Jeremiah which we lack in considering the similar expression of Job. Of Job 
 we know nothing except as the subject of one of the sublimest poems in the world. 
 What substance of fact may have suggested the poem it is beyond our powers to deter- 
 mine. But Jeremiah stands before us unquestionably a real man, a prominent character 
 in the highway of history. 
 
 I. The feblino that underlies this terrible imprecation. The form of the 
 imprecation is not to be too much regarded. The same feeling will be very differently 
 expressed in different languages and among different races. What Jeremiah means is 
 made clear in ver. 18. Just at this particular time it seems to him that life has been 
 nothing but one huge failure. He has no heart to accept suggestions such as might 
 mitigate his gloom. He will not even allow that life has had any other possibilities 
 than those of failure and shame, and therefore the congratulations attending his birth 
 were misplaced. The more we look into his language here, the more we see that it was 
 very wild and foolish. The important matter is that, in approaching the consideration 
 of these words, we should have a distinct impression of how recklessly even a good man 
 may talk. A rtcoUection of Jeremiah's utterance here will keep us from wondering 
 that there should be so much of foolish and impious talk in the world. 
 
 II. 'J'he fact was as fab as possible fkom corresponding to the feeling. 
 We look at Jeremiah's career as a whole, and at the permanent value of his prophecies, 
 and then we see how little moods and feelings count for just by themselves. We gain 
 nothing by saying of any man that it might have been better for him if he had never 
 been born. It is true that Jesus spoke thus of Judas, but we are not at liberty to say 
 what he says ; and besides, he was speaking in the language of necessary hyperbole, in 
 order to emphasize the dreadful wickedness of the traitor. The safe ground for us to 
 take is that entrance upon human life in this world is a good thing. Even with all the 
 trials of life, the position of a human being in this woiid is a noble one, and his possi- 
 bilities for the future are beyond imagination. While it is right that we should have 
 the deepest compassion for the deformed, the defective, the infirm, w^ must also 
 recollect that it is better to be the most deformed of human beings than the shapeliest 
 and healthiest of brutes. In face of all the present affiictions of human nature, one 
 thought should be sufficient to brighten them all, namely, the thought of how perfectly 
 comprehensive is the renewing power of God. Within its grasp it comprehends the 
 most imperfect and distorted of human organizations. Jeremiah was making the huge 
 blunder of looking at things entirely from the point of view of his own feelings, and his 
 present feelings. His actions were better than his words. Speaking out of his own 
 feeling-s, he talked great folly and falsehood; speaking as the prophet of God, his 
 utterances were those of wisdom and truth. The fact was that of no one belonging 
 to his generation could it be more truly said than of him that his birth was a guud 
 thing ; good for the nation, good for himself, good for the glory and service of Jehovah. 
 We must not bemoan existence because there is suffering in it. Suffering may be very 
 -protracted and intense, and yet lile be full of blessing. Jesus had to suffer more than 
 any man. He shrank from the approach of death with a sensitiveness which we cannot 
 
480 
 
 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. [en. xxi. 1—14. 
 
 conceive, who have in us the mortal taint by reason of indwelling sin. Nothing recon- 
 ciled him to the thought of all he had thus to endure save that it was the clear will of 
 God. What was Jeremiah's mental suffering compared with that of Jesus ? And yet, 
 though the life of Jesus was to be one of peculiar and unparalleled sufferinsss, his hirth 
 had angels to announce and celebrate it. — Y. 
 
 EXPOSITION. 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 The chapter falls into three parts, two of 
 which seem to be in some sort of connection, 
 while the third is isolated. First comes a 
 warning to the messengers of Zedekiah of 
 the unfortunate issue of the rebellion against 
 Babylon ; this is followed by a counsel to 
 the people to give up their futile resistance, 
 and " fall away " to the Chaldeans. The 
 last four verses contain an exhortation to 
 the " house of David " to fulfil their high 
 duties with greater conscientiousness, for 
 fear of the judgment which had already 
 begun to take effect when the former part of 
 this chapter was written. Compare Zede- 
 kiah's embassy to Jeremiah with that of 
 Uezekiah to Isaiah on a similar emergency 
 (Isa. xxxvii. 2). 
 
 Ver. 1.— Pashur. A different Pashur from 
 the one mentioned in ch. xx. 1. This one 
 reappears in oh. xxxviii. 1 ; he belonged to 
 the fifteenth of the sacerdotal families, 
 named after Melchiah (comp. 1 Cbron. ix. 
 12). Zephaniah; mentioned again in ch. 
 xxix. 25 ; xxxvii. 3. He was of the priestly 
 family or class of Maaseiah (comp. 1 Chron. 
 xxiv. 18), and was next in rank to the high 
 priest (ch. lii. 24). 
 
 Ver. 2. — Nebuchadrezzar. Tliis form pre- 
 dominates in Jeremiah and Daniel, and is 
 the only form found in Ezekiel. It is, in 
 fact, the correct way of spelling the name, 
 which is in Babylonian Nabu-hudura-ugur, 
 i.e. " Nebo, protect [or perhaps, ' has made '] 
 the crown." According to all his wondronB 
 works ; e.g. the destruction of Sennacherib, 
 which must have occurred in the first in- 
 stance to the minds of devout Jews. 
 
 Ver. 4. — I will assemble them into the 
 midst of this city ; i.e. I will compel the 
 warriors to give up resistance, and shut 
 themselves up within the walls. 
 
 Ver. 7. — And such as are ; rather, left 
 which are left. (There has been an obvious 
 error in the repetition of " and.") 
 
 Ver. 9. — He that abideth in this city, etc. 
 No doubt Jeremiah often gave this counsel 
 to liis fellow-citizens (comp. ch. xxxviii. 1, 
 17), and it appears from ch. xxxviii. 19; 
 xxxix. 9 ; lii. 15, that many of the Jews acted 
 in accordance with it. Talleth; more dis* 
 tinctly, falletk away (as ch. xxxvii. 14, 
 Authorized Version) ; i.e. goeth over to. 
 
 Ver. 11. — And tonching the house, etc. 
 The formula with which this section is 
 introduced shows that it was attached to 
 vers. 1 — 7 at. the same time as vers. 8 — 10, 
 although obviously written at a much earlier 
 period. 
 
 Ver. 12. — house of David. The " house 
 of David" here, as in Isa. vii. 13, means the 
 various branches of the royal family, the 
 same, in fact, which are called by courtesy 
 " kings of Judah " in ch. xvii. 20 (see note). 
 They appear from the present passage to 
 have monopolized the judicial function. 
 Deliver him that is spoiled, etc. The poor 
 man would have no advocate to plead for 
 him ; in this case the judge was to see that 
 he suffered no injustice in consequence. 
 
 Ver. 13. — Jehovah, standing, as it were, 
 on the Mount of Olives, addresses the proud 
 city beneath him. inhabitant of the val- 
 ley, and rook of the plain ; rather, inluibi- 
 tress ; Jerusalem is personified as a virgin. 
 The poetical description of the capital as a 
 "valley" (the word, however, signifies a 
 valley as wide as a plain) reminds us of 
 " the valley [or rather, ' ravine '] of vision " 
 (Isa. xxii. 1, 5); while "the rock of the 
 plain " recalls " my mountain in the field " 
 (eh. xvii. 3). So, as Graf points out, Baby- 
 lon is called " a mountain " in metaphorical 
 language (ch. li. 25). It is, however, singu- 
 lar that the prophet should call Jerusalem 
 a " valley " and a " rock " in the same pas- 
 sage. In the former, perhaps, Jeremiah is 
 thinking specially of the lower city, and in 
 the latter of Mount Zion. Who shall come 
 down against us? viz. from the "hills round 
 about Jerusalem." 
 
 Ver. 14. — In the forest thereof; i.e. in the 
 forest of houses, (comp. ch. xxii. 6, 7). 
 
 HOMILETICS. 
 
 Vers. 1, 2.—Ood consulted in vain. I. It is vain to seek God's help without 
 REPENTING OF OCR SIN. Zedekiah sends to Jeremiah in his alarm. But he gives no sit'n 
 
OH. XXI. 1—14.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 481 
 
 of repentance. The dread of coming trouble and the desire to escape it are not penitence ; 
 the fear of hell is not penitence. All men naturally desire to be safe from suffering. 
 But God will only deliver those who also desire to be free from sin, who regret the eiil 
 they have done, not merely that which they endure. 
 
 II. It is vain to seek God's help without submitting to his will. Zedekiah 
 consults God as an oracle ; he wants information. But he i;i ves no indication of a willing- 
 ness to obey the command of God. He would bo glad of Divine aid for his own plans, 
 but he has no thought of yielding himself up to the execution of God's will. Many 
 men would have God for their servant ; their prajer is that God would do their will. 
 Such presumptuous conduct must be rebuked by failure. 
 
 III. It is vain to seek God's help fok delivebance from that which is morally 
 NECESSARY. There is a moial neces.sity as well as a physical. No sane man would 
 pray that two and two might make five. There are moral impossibilities equally 
 impregnable. A just God cannot forgive the impenitent. All that God does must be 
 for the best, and nothing can induce him to turn from what he knows is best. If 
 men need chastisement God will give it them, though they may most earnestly desire 
 to be delivered from it. It was good for the Jews as a discipline, as well as just as a 
 punishment, that they should be carried captive to Babylon. Therefore, even if all 
 thoughts of intiictiug the penalties of justice were in abeyance, God's merciful intentions 
 to his people would make their prayers for escape vain. 
 
 Vers. 8 — 10. — The choice Mween life and death. I. The choice was free. It was 
 left to the Jews to choose which course they would take. God has endowed every 
 man with freedom of will, opening up to him a vast range of possibilities. All of iis 
 have opportunities for choosing life and blessedness if only we will seek tliem. A 
 Divine vocation marks out for us a course which we ourjht to follow in preference to 
 the fancies of our own inclination, and a Divine destiny sets us down in a certain 
 sphere bounded by definite limitations beyond which we cannot go ; but within these 
 limits we are I'ree from compulsion, and even in regard to the vocation no force is 
 exerted to make us follow it. We are under moral obligation to do so, but we are left 
 to freely acknowledge or reject the claims of that obligation. 
 
 II. The choice was momentous. It was between life and death. These were the 
 great alternatives of the Deuteronomic covenant (Dent. xxx. 19). The same alterna- 
 tives are set before us spiritually (Rom. vi. 28). Life is not to be played with; tre- 
 mendous issues depend on the manner in which it is conducted. Religion is no mere 
 topic of abstract speculat;on for learned leisure, no empty toy for idle sentiment; it is 
 of vast practical moment, for it deals with the choice of the greatest possible alterna- 
 tives — life and death. 
 
 III. The choice was limited. The choice which was set before the Jews by Jere- 
 miah was gloomy enough. The best prospect offered to them was escape from massacre 
 indeed, but escape to exile and captivity. We may come to such a condition that no 
 eflbrt will restore the lost possessions and gladness of the past. Even though there is 
 no ground for despair, though the worst may be avoided, our conduct may bear such 
 inevitable fruits in poverty, loss of position, alienation of friends, sickness, etc., that our 
 best prospects may be far from satisfactory. This is necessary, for moral choice cannot 
 undo past facts nor overleap the barriers of physical law. It is wise, for the disagree- 
 able fruits of sin may be useful medicines in the form of chastisement. Yet the New 
 Testanjent offers us a freer choice for the ultimate future ; as the alternative of death 
 not captivity and a life of sorrow, but eternal life and liberty, the full restoration to 
 the blessings of God's favour (1 John v. 11, 12). 
 
 IV. The choice of life involved safety with submission. Jeremiah said that 
 death would await those who stayed in Jerusalem to resist the invader from behmd the 
 city walls, while they who went out to the field to yield themselves up without fight- 
 ing would be spared. For this advice the prophet was regarded as a traitor. It was 
 justified, because (1) resistance was utterly hopeless, (2) submission was required by 
 God to a divinely appointed chastisement, (3) the Divine aid with which the Jews 
 had won their victories in the past would not be forthcoming in this case. It is never ' 
 dishonourable to submit to the will of God. True patriotism will seek the good of the 
 nation rather than its transient glory. The method of escape offered to the Jew* 
 
 JEREMIAH. 2 I 
 
482 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xxi. 1—14. 
 
 illustrates the Christian method of salvation. The Jews were to escape by leaving 
 their ramparts and meeting their foes defenceless in the open field. We are to save 
 our life by losing it. The Jews found safety in submission. The Christian salvation 
 is secured, not by fighting and grasping at our rights, but by yielding to the will of 
 God in Christ, and submitting to this even when it brings chastisement. 
 
 Ver. 13. — Ood against Jerusalem. In the fact that God was against her, Jerusalem 
 ■was to see that all resistance to the Chaldeans must fail. This terrible secret of hope- 
 less ruin may be found in others besides the Jews. 
 
 I. It is possible fok God to be against those who were once his most pavouked 
 PEOPLE. It is Jerusalem, of all cities, that finds God to be her opponent. Therefore they 
 •who have enjoyed the friendship of God in the past have no right to presume that 
 nothing can break that friendship. Moreover, God may be actively opposed to us. 
 The opposition may not be all on our side. Though God is love, he can be angry, since 
 even love itself will rouse anger when it is abused ; and though he desires Ultimately 
 nothing but good, he may first send partial and temporary evil as a means for 
 effecting this. 
 
 II. Thet who oppose themselves to God will ultimately find God opposed 
 TO them. The original enmity is on our side, so is the offence, the wrong-doing, the 
 evil passion which stirs up contention. God would ever be at peace with his children, 
 and it is they alone who have imported strife into his family. But after they have 
 done so it is impossible for God to be indifferent to their conduct to him. His honour, 
 insulted, must needs be vindicated — not, indeed, in the selfish way of personal pride, 
 but in the righteous regard for the just and orderly government of his kingdom. 
 
 III. No MORE TERRIBLE FATE CAN BEFALL MEN THAN FOR GoD TO BE AGAINST THEM. 
 
 The horrors of the sieges of Jerusalem are amongst the darkest scenes of history. Yet 
 the moral effects of God's wrath are far more serious than the material. 1. If God is 
 against us, we lose all the help of his favour. It is impossible to measure the grace 
 which, in multiform influences, streams into us and sustains and strengthens us for duty 
 and trial. If all were removed we should perish. If God were wholly against any 
 soul, that soul must at once be driven to outer darkness — be crushed and destroyed, and 
 by negative causes alone ; simply through the loss of God's light and life. But no man 
 in this world has been so cursed. Yet even while God withdraws his special favours 
 the loss is so great as to entail certain failure in life. The fruit may not be dashed 
 from the trees, but the summer sun will never come to ripen it. 2. If God is against 
 US, terrible evils will befall us. God is ever active in his presence. If we are not 
 .blessed by it, we sufler from it. How fearful to have God for our enemy ! All the laws 
 and forces of the universe are then against us. Nature and providence, earth and 
 heaven fulfilling his will, must direct their vast resources against the wretched outlaw. 
 Our opposition to God will be to our own injury, but what much more fearful results 
 .must follow his opposition to us ! This dreadful fate is illustrated by our Lord's words, 
 in which he compares those who shall fall on the stone with those on whom the stone 
 shall fall (Matt. xxi. 44). 
 
 IV. If God is against us, redemption must involve a change op God's relation 
 TO us. The atonement must have an aspect towards God as well as one towards man. 
 While man is reconciled to God, God must be propitiated to man. It is true that this 
 language is only possible because we speak of God after the manner of man, and that 
 the atonement does not originate in us or in an independent third party who seeks to 
 reconcile man and God, but in God himself, who sent his Son to redeem the world to 
 himself. Yet, though desiring to be only gracious to men, God must have recognized 
 the necessity of that intercession and sacrifice of Christ which won the favour of the 
 Father to his beloved Son, and so to mankind, of whom Christ was the representative 
 Priest. In Christ, therefore, we need not fear that God is against us (Rom. iii. 25). 
 
 HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. 
 
 Vers. 1, 2, — Zedelciah's message; or, the prayer of the unqodly. I. An example to bk 
 luiTA'j'ED. Whatever might .be .said jof, the general behaviour of the king, his conduct 
 
en. XXI. 1—14.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 483 
 
 on this occasion appears at first highly sagacious and commendable. 1. For its 
 acknowledgment of Jehovah as the only Deliverer. A tremendous danger threatened tlie 
 state. Zedekiah " counted the cost " and sent to the representative of Jehovah. He 
 did not waste his resources in useless expedients, but frankly accepted the calamity as' 
 sent from God, appealing through God's prophet for deliverance. Most men in similar 
 circumstances lose themselves in secondary causes. " It is this unfortunate accident 
 or that. In time circumstances will be better, and we shall right ourselves." 2. Itf 
 respect for God. Great officers of state sent to a poor prophet. Keligion after all may 
 be the chief concern ; at least a very important matter, and worthy the attention of 
 the highest in the land. 
 
 II. An example to be avoided. 1. It was tardy. The warning of the prophet 
 .had been given long before, but it was not believed. Not until the visible proof of hii? 
 veracity appeared before the city was Zedekiah eager to come to terms with the God he 
 had offended. However great the alacrity of men to betake themselves to the offices of 
 religion in times of calamity, their earnestness has not the spontaneous character to 
 which it pretends. They are spurred on by fear. 2. The power instead of the grace 
 of Ood was appealed to. A compliment to Jehovah's past achievements is delicately 
 suggested. No petty business would bring him to ask a favour of God, but this 
 trouble is great and urgent, and beyond human means of dealing with it ; therefore 
 God is called in. "It is worthy of his interference who always 'doeth wondrously.' " 
 Now, there is no real humiliation here. Recognition of God's claims is grudgingly and 
 of necessity made, but no word is mentioned of sin or repentance from it ; no appeal is 
 made to the forgiving love of God. Human nature is proud even in its necessities and 
 prayers. " Help me now, at this juncture, and — afterwards I shall be able to help 
 myself." God will not accept us unless we come humbly as well as prayerfully. Sin 
 must be confessed. 3. It contained no promise of amendment. Jehovah is summoned 
 as a Deus ex machina for the solution of a humanly impossible problem ; but there is 
 no indication that the " desperate resort " will grow into a course of constant waiting 
 upon God. 4. The duty which ought to have been personal was delegated to others. 
 Under the garb of respect religion is often really evaded. The Bible teaches the great 
 doctrine of mediation, but it does not tell us how to perform our religious duties by 
 proxy. 5. Certainty, the note of Divine faith, is conspicuous hy its absence. " If so 
 be that." The case is stated as a distant possibility. The language sounds respectful ; 
 it is so diffident, so unpresuming; but it really veils a profound scepticism. There 
 ought to be, there is, no " perhaps " in believing prayer. The king was told that if he 
 and bis people repented, God would instantly avert the calamity or convert it into 
 blessing. Perhapses like this are profanities. Besides, the suggestion is dishonouring 
 to God, viz. that he should stay his judgments and the sinner nevertheless continue 
 impenitent. 6. The whole tone of tfie m.essage is false and unsatisfactory. It is that of 
 one driven up into a corner by an unexpected exigency, but resolved that what he is 
 obliged to do shall be barely done, and in such a manner as to give it quite another 
 aspect to those who look on. A moral distance is observed, as of one who is unwilling 
 to allow that religious duties are of personal as well as official and conventional obliga- 
 tion. It is the courtly language of diplomacy, and does not come hot-burning from a 
 heart full of sorrow, faith, and love. What wonder it should not be answered save in 
 scorn and added severity ? The sarcasm is sublime. — M. 
 
 Vers. 13, U.— God's answer to earthly presumption. The indifference and callousness 
 of Judah and her kmg would appear to have reached a climax. Ignorance could not 
 be alleged in excuse of it. It had become ingrained systematic unrighteousness ; and 
 had added this to itself, that it had rejected the warning counsels of God's prophet. 
 How was it to be dealt with ? 
 
 I. It could, kot be let alone. 1. The long-suffering mercy that had already 
 leen shown had been misunderstood. To delay longer was therefore impossible. 2. For 
 all sin is a contradiction of the Divine Spirit and rule in the earth. It is a direct 
 challenge to Heaven. Especially is this the case when a positive law has been re- 
 vealed, and a direct intimation of God's will made by a living representative. God's 
 honour is therefore involved in the issue. 3. The interests of truth and the kingdom of 
 God on earth would suffer. The transgression of one child of God is a stumbling-block 
 
 2 I 2 
 
48i THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xxi. 1— 14. 
 
 to many, and those who enjoy Divine privileges should he especially careful as to how 
 they behave. The world of heathenism wimessing the behaviour of Judah would be 
 confirmed in its unbelief, or would misinterpret the genius of the religion of Jehovah. 
 It might suppose that Jehovah was but a likeness of one of its own gods, full of 
 partiality. This impression must be dissipated, and it could only be so by firm and 
 prompt dealing with the offence. 
 
 11. A FINAL PBKEMPTOET SUMMONS TO EEFOKMATION IS GIVEN. It might be 
 
 supposed enough to have dealt silent and summary punishments upon the guilty land 
 and its king. But this would not consist with : 1. Qud's revelation of rig/iteousness. 
 In blessings as well as in punishments a rational connection had to be shown with the 
 behaviour and deserts of their subjects. The sinner's own conscience had to be 
 addressed ere he was cast off for ever ; and the indictment was of world-wide concern. 
 A warning and an example were required for the general guidance of men, and for their 
 apprehension of the justice of Heaven in punishing those upon whom the calamity came. 
 2. God's mercy. The scheme of redemption does not exclude the possibility of the 
 sinner himself being saved. Oa the contrary, this is its chief aim. Just as it would 
 not be consistent with God's character to suffer unrighteous practices to continue 
 unrebuked, so "God would not be God" were the penalty to be unannounced and 
 without alternative of salvation. With many sinners of to-day he deals in like 
 lashion. The warning is given with gentle, repeated, and terrible emphasis, and the 
 way of escape is pointed out so plainly that " the wayfaring man, though a fool, may 
 not err therein." 
 
 HI. He himself will be the antagonist. "I am against thee" (cf. ver. 5). 
 1. This was a reversal of his normal relation to Israel. It would be hard for people of 
 their habits of thought to realize ; and it is stated boldly in order to emphasis. Not 
 mere neutrality. He is to be a belligerent — the belligerent with whom they have to do. 
 They must have felt foredoomed to failure. They knew his power and resources, for 
 had they not been employed on their own behoof in the past? Is not this the present 
 consciousness of many ? They know that God is against tliem. Are they prepared to 
 carry the war on to the end? 2. Jt represented the utter wrongness and hopelessness of 
 their cause. The " rock of the [ilain " would be of little avail against him. The forces 
 of the world were at his command ; and their own hearts would fail them for fear 
 against this ghostly combatant. Against the righteous one the sense of an evil cause 
 would be the parent of discomfiture. 
 
 IV. Yet the punishment was to comb from within themselves. "I will 
 punish you according to the fruit of your doings ; " "I will kindle a fire in the forest 
 thereof." It is not easy to gather from these vague statements the precise form the 
 punishment would assume. But the description agrees best with the circumstances of 
 Jehoiakim's leign, who built palaces of cedar, and ruled with despotic violence. A 
 literal rendering of the terms of the judgment is scarcely permissible. Is civil war 
 meant ? Or court intrigues, that may issue even more disastrously ? In any case it 
 would be the result of a reaction against the tyranny and wrong-doing of the court. 
 1. The elements of destruction are within the sinner himself. Many already know 
 something of what hell is in themselves. 2. The results of sin will be its punish- 
 ment. — M. 
 
 Vers. 1 — 14. — Saved so as hy fire. This chapter has been by some means put out of 
 its proper place ; for it treats of King Zedekiah, whilst in later chapters circumstances 
 connected with the reigns of the kings who preceded him are given. But being placed 
 here it serves to show how God's servants, despised at first, come to be honoured at last. 
 The stocks had been good enough for Jeremiah— so the last chapter tells — and his 
 enemies had smitten him as if he were a common felon. Here we find the king and 
 high officers of the court coming and beseeching his intercession and help to avert the 
 calamity which was so last coming upon them and the nation at large. " Give us of 
 your oil," said the foolish virgins to the wise. And again and again has it been and 
 will it be that the ungodly shall come to covet earnestly the place in God's favour 
 which his servants only enjoy, but which, together with them who sougiit it when they 
 did not, they have heretofore despised. Those who honour God he will honour, and 
 will cause their enemies to come and confess that God is with them of a truth. Thus 
 
CH. XXI. 1—14.] THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 485 
 
 did the enomi^s of Jeremiah at this time acknowledge him as the true servant of GoH. 
 But it was too late to secure what they desired. " The door was shut." But as the 
 foolish virgins were bidden go to them that sell and buy for themselves, so the prophet 
 of God has one counsel to give them whereby they might be " saved, yet so as by fire." 
 " Behold, I set before you the way of life, and the way of death " (ver. 8). But when 
 we come to see what that way of life was, we see how far different it was from what 
 the king and his people would have chosen for themselves. Note, therefore — 
 
 I. What this way of life was. 1. It was hare life—\\h only. They were to 
 suffer defeat; their weapons to be of no avail, their strong fortress to be taken, their 
 city and their temple in which they gloried to be burnt with fire, and they themselves 
 led into captivity. That now was all that was possible for them. It was too late to 
 avert their calamities, much less to gain victory, or honour, or glory in the war which 
 they were waging. A glorious deliverance such as Hezekiah had known was out of the 
 question. 2. And even this hare life on hard conditions. They must surrender them- 
 selves to their enemies when the summons came, and meanwhile they must reform 
 their ways (ver. 12). On these terms they should be allowed to live. Refuse them, 
 as many did, and they perished miserably. It was indeed a salvation " so as by fire." 
 
 II. Its moubnfulness. How full of this it was is seen by the plaintive psalms of 
 the Captivity : " By the rivers of Babylon we sat down and wept," etc. And that 
 which made it so mournful was the remembrance of how different their lot might have 
 been. Had they but hearkened to the pleadings of those prophets of God, whose prayers 
 ■when it was too late they importunately sought, how happy had it been with them 
 then ! Salvation in fulness, as their fathers had experienced and rejoiced in again and 
 again, they too might have known. But now — 
 
 III. Its plain teaching fob ourselves. Life may be retained, but made so wretched 
 that only one thing could be worse — to have lost it altogether. This certainly true of 
 the present life, it is probably true of the life after this. Beware of that lalse doctrine 
 ■which encourages men to believe, that if only they can get within what they are 
 pleased to call " the door of heaven," they need desire no more. This is not humility, 
 but the evil desire to escape that faithful following of Christ which alone will win " the 
 prize of our high calling." And since salvation in fulness is offered to us and God 
 desires it to be ours, let us be content with nothing less, lest we be "ashamed before 
 him at his coming," and have " w ith shame to take a lower place." To any now 
 suffering under judgment of God this history says, '"Humble yourselves under the 
 mighty hand of God.' Accept his terms, see in them your only hope." — C. 
 
 Ver. 8. — A sad hut common necessity. The surrender of a part to save the whole. 
 ■This was the " way of life " the prophet put before the people. The way of death 
 would be their refusal. " If they would submit to the irresistible pressure of the 
 Babylonian power, then whatever blessings were bound up in the preservation of the 
 house of David and, of the holy city would remain intact" (cf. Stanley, 'Lectures on 
 the Jewish Church,' Lect. xi. vol. ii. p. 533). But to resist would not merely be useless, 
 but mischievous in the extreme. It would rouse the rage of their conquerors and 
 involve the destruction of all they held most precious. It would be " a way of death." 
 At the final siege of Jerusalem the Christians retired, but the Zealots drew down upon 
 themselves the rage of the armies of Vespasian and Titus, and so hurried on the ruin of 
 the whole Jewish state. Stanley says of Jeremiah, " It was not indifference to his 
 country, but attachment .to' its permanent interests, with the yet larger consequences 
 wrapt up in them, which induced him to counsel submission. It was his sense of the 
 inestimable importance of that sacred spot, with its sacred institutions, which caused 
 him to advise every sacrifice for the sake of retaining it. He had the courage, so rare 
 in political leaders, to surrender a part for the sake of preserving the whole — to embrace 
 in his view the complete relations of the great scheme of the world, rather than fix his 
 attention exclusively on the one pressing question of the moment. As there are times 
 when the constitution must be broken to save the commonwealth, when the interests 
 of particular nations or doctrines must give way to the preponderating claims of 
 mankind or of truth at large, so Jeremiah staked the eternal value of the truths which 
 Jerusalem represented against the temporary evils of the Chaldean dominion. It was 
 . a bitter pang, but the result seemed to him worth the cost." 
 
486 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xxi. 1—14; 
 
 " To steel his melting heart, 
 
 To act the martyr's sternest part ; 
 
 To watch with firm, unshrinking eyo 
 
 His darling visions as they die ; 
 
 Too happy if, that dreadful day, 
 
 His life be given him for a prey;" 
 
 (Eeble). 
 Now— 
 
 J. This drbad keobssitt is one which may be seen continually pressin& oh 
 MEN. Illustrations are numerous: the throwing over the cargo in storm at sea; the 
 abandonment of outposts to concentrate strength on the key of the position ; the 
 cutting off a limb to save the life; the giving up a less important branch of trade to 
 safeguard one more so. And in the religious life we are perpetually summoned to such 
 saciifice. " Whoso loveth his life shall lose it, but he that loveth his life for my sake 
 shall find it ; " " Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die," etc. All 
 ventures of faith. And death — " for corruption cannot inherit incorruption," and 
 therefore that the true life may be ours, the fleshly life must die. And our Lord 
 I'epresents the awful doom of the wicked to be a " cutting ofif of a diseased part," a 
 KoWaais, that — so it should seem — entire destruction may not be needed. It is an 
 awful process, but sternly necessary. God save us from it! And what is the sub- 
 mission of our will to God, the self-surrender for which he ever asks, but the prudent 
 conduct of that king who feels that with his puny force of ten thousand he cannot meet 
 the king who comes against him with twenty thousand, and therefore straightway sends 
 an embassage desiring conditions of peace? But — 
 
 II. Men shrink from it. Those before whom Jeremiah placed this " way of life " 
 shrank from it. They would not listen to him. They cruelly persecuted their far- 
 seeing and God-inspired prophet. And it is so still. In common life the proverbial 
 saying, " Nothing venture, nothing have," implies that men are loth to venture. 
 Many a craft hugs the shore, thinking to find safety there, and is driven on the rocks and 
 wrecked, when by putting boldly out to sea the storm might have been safely weathered. 
 The historian of the Crimean War finds fault, once and again, with our generals for their 
 timid policy, which he maintains brought so great sufferings and losses on our army, 
 whilst had a more daring strategy been adopted — as in our recent Egyptian campaign 
 at Tel-el-Kebir — the war might have been speedily and gloriously ended. And in the 
 religious life, how men shrink from this self-surrender ! What frantic but futile efibrts 
 there are to serve God and mammon, notwithstanding our Saviour has said, " There is 
 no man that hath left house, or lands," etc. (Mark x. 29) ! But men cannot be per- 
 suaded to believe this. The young ruler who had great possessions (Matt, xix.) went 
 away sorrowful, because he could not make the great venture. And the feeble religious 
 life of so many, the absence of all joy in God's service, is owing to this same cause. 
 Mea are ever trying to find a via media between the " way of life " and " way of death." 
 The husbandman does not refuse to cast into the earth all he has left of last year's com, 
 in the trust that it will yield him a bounteous harvest. But we are slow to believe in 
 the wisdom of such sowing in spiritual things. 
 
 III. But the refusal to submit is fatal. It was so in case of those to whoia 
 Jeremiah preached, and it has been so a thousand times since. A ship was sinking. A 
 man leaped from her deck into the sea. He was a good swimmer, but he had fastened 
 round him a belt containing gold, which he could not bring himself to abandon, and its 
 weight sank him ere he could reach the boat for which he was making. Our Lord bade 
 him who should be on the house-tops when Jerusalem was besieged " not go down to 
 fetch his clothes." Such carefulness might cost him his life. Our Lord tells of many of 
 the Pharisees who believed on him, but wore afraid to confess him, lest they should be 
 put out of the synagogue. And perhaps there are few of the worldly and iiTelifious 
 amongst us who have not sunk down to where they are now, and will sink iom to 
 lower depths still, through this same refusal to give up all for Christ. It mav be 
 humiliating and involve present loss, and therefore men let go the eternal gain." To 
 refuse such sacrifice is the way of death. But — 
 
 IV. To CONSENT TO IT IS LIFE. Take our Lord as the supreme example, who not for 
 himself but for us, threw away that infinite glory, that equality with God, which bein" 
 in " the form of God," was ever- his ; but St. Paul tells us (Phil. ii. (j) he counted 
 
CH. XXI. 1—14.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 487 
 
 it not a thing to be grasped at, a prize which he should cling to with eagerness and 
 retain with tenacity, but "emptied himself of it, and made himself of no reputation." 
 Tims for the time of his incarnation submitting himself to the cruel might of sin and 
 Satan, he gained thereby that infinite exaltation, that salvation of mankind upon which 
 his loving heart was set. " Let this mind," therefore, " be in us which was also in 
 Christ Jesus." And whenever it is found, God rewards it. Self-sacrifice, the cross, is the 
 way to supreme reward. The shepherds were told, at the Nativity, that there was born 
 to them " a Saviour, Christ the Lord." And when they came to Bethlehem they found 
 a Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, and lying in a manger. What correspondence 
 was there between that saying of the angels and that sight of the infant Jesus ? To 
 the outward eye none, but to the eye instructed by God's Word and God's providence, 
 there is every correspondence. For those outward signs of poverty and humiliation 
 which were the characteristic of his life, have formed his title-deeds, his royal right, to 
 the homage of every human heart. " Blessed are the meek," etc. ; " He that humbleth 
 himself shall," etc. It is ever so ; and especially when we humble ourselves before 
 God, giving up self and sin, giving up and losing, as the world would say, our very life, 
 — tnen it is we find it, as God grant we may. — C. 
 
 Vers. 1 — 7. — A Jcing appealing for a prophet's intercession. I. A king's acknow- 
 ledgment THAT HUMAN RESOURCES ARE UNAVAILING. The hour and the danger so long 
 and often predicted, referred to all the more earnestly as the hour draws nigh, has come 
 at last. Ho time is here taken up in narrating the attempts Zedekiah may have made 
 himself to repel the invader. The Scriptures were not meant to give us details of 
 sieges. The likelihood is, however, that it was long before Zedekiah reached anything 
 like an extremity that he made this appeal to the prophet. When an unusual danger 
 comes close at hand it is easy to exaggerate. The man who has been indifferent, 
 imprudent, heedless of all hints that have been given him to make provision for the 
 future, is the very man who, when peril comes, rushes into panic and becomes unable 
 to use the resources he has. 
 
 II. A king's PRESUMPTUOUS ATTEMPT TO AVAIL HIMSELF OF DiVINE RESOURCES. 
 
 Nothing is more beautiful than to see one who has found out the vanity of human help 
 turning to God. Only he must come in a right spirit, having made a clear discovery of 
 why it is that man could not help him. Anything of this sort was utterly lacking in 
 Zedekiah's approach. There is no sign of repentance, no word of confession, no resolu- 
 tion of amendment. The only thing in the shape of acknowledgment is that Jehovah is 
 the God who does wondrous works. This is an acknowledgment which we find often 
 in the Old Testament, but it is acceptable to God only when accompanied with a sense 
 of why it is that God does his wondrous works. The more we consider Zedekiah's 
 request, the more will the blindness and audacity of it appear. Here is the king in 
 Jerusalem, bound, if any man ever was, to know the significance of the history of 
 Israel as a whole ; and yet he can only see certain great manifestations of power which 
 encourage him to hope that a similar manifestation may now come for his own deliver- 
 ance. There is no real coming to God, unless we come for things that are according 
 to his will. His power cannot wait upon our selfish needs. There is no telling 
 what might have happened, even at this more than eleventh hour, if Zedekiah had only 
 come with something of true penitence. God knew beforehand that this could not be 
 expected; and thus there is no clearer evidence of the righteousness of Jerusalem's 
 doom and of Israel's expatriation than is furnished from Zedekiah's own lips. He 
 shows that he has lost all sense of the meaning and the necessity of God's great 
 covenant with his people. If only they had been obedient they would never have 
 lacked the benefit of many wondrous works. 
 
 III. The PLAIN AND NECESSARY ANSWER OF Jehovah. We See through all that God 
 here says a purpose to make plain that he is now full of activity against his apostate 
 people. The object was not to be attained simply by leaving them, in their natural 
 1-esources, to the natural resources of the Chaldeans. The contest is not of man against 
 man, but of the man who has forsaken God against the man whom God has taken to 
 "be the instrument of his righteous indignation. God must specially intervene and 
 make his presence manifest, to show that all this visitation of suffering is from him. 
 If God has, for a time, to forsake his people, he. must needs oppose them. If God be 
 
483 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [en. xxi. 1— 14. 
 
 not for us, ho is against us ; and so here the defenders of .Jerusalem are represented 
 as having difficulties to deal with such as have arisen through Uod's own operation. 
 Their weapons of war do not produce the usual effect. God turns them back upon 
 those who wield them. This may be more than a mere general figure of speech. It is 
 quite possible that either the arm wielding the heavy, sharp sword becomes as the arm 
 of the little child, or else, that remaining strong, the weapon becomes but as the child'.s 
 toy. Thus the Chaldeans themselves would learn that some mysterious power was at 
 work, and that the glory of the victory was not theirs. Furthermore, God was to fight 
 against these apostates with a weapon of his own. He can make the wicked and the 
 ambitious his sword, but pestilence is of his own sending. Not all the might of the 
 Chaldeans could bring a pestilence, nor take it away once it had come. Thus we see 
 how all this dread combination of events was intended to impress on all, alike amongst 
 i-'Ssiegers and besieged, who had minds to understand that God himself was terribly at 
 ■•'3rk. He was indeed dealing with the people according to his wondrous works; works 
 i ticessitated in order to prevent his holy and reasonable wrath from being nothing more 
 than empty wind. — Y. 
 
 Vers. 8 — 10. — Escape for the individual among the calamities nf the nation. Even 
 amid all the thick, impending horrors indicated in the previous passage, a clear and 
 immediate way of escape is indicated for the individual. Every one going over promptly 
 and resolutely to the Chaldeans would be at least safe. , What might be reserved for 
 him in the future it was not proper to say. Enough for him to know that he had 
 security for the present. He who is made safe may expect further communications of 
 positive blessing in due time. We are not, indeed, to suppose that every one who remained 
 in the city, exposed to sword, famine, and pestilence, would assuredly perish. That 
 can hardly have been the case. But this certainly is meant, that every one so remain- 
 ing would have to take a tremendous risk. Whereas every one who took the suggestion 
 as to what is here called the way of life, found that the great Preserver of life had thereby 
 entered into a .special covenant with him. 
 
 ■ I. The place left foe individual eesponsibilitt. God is dealing with a whole 
 nation. His representative and the representative of this nation's king have just been 
 in conference. His dreadful, necessary decision as to the nation's fate is communicated. 
 But now each individual is impressively informed that God is thinking also of him. The 
 individual must, to some extent, share in the suffering of his people. How far he shall 
 share depends, however, on his own choice. We cannot be dragged into the worst 
 ex|ierienccs of human life merely as sufferers from the wrong-doing of others. The 
 worst pains, the gloomiest hours of life, can only come from our own wrong-doing. 
 \Vhatever faithful remnant there might now be in Jerusalem had a great chance given 
 to them. Complete exemption from suffering was not possible; but they were offered 
 a kind of shelter, where the great storm of God's wrath would leave them untouched, 
 however much it m.ight affect their temporal belongings, 
 
 II. At.l that the best of men mdst expect for the present is a mitigation op 
 SUFFERING. Whatever advantages come from our connection with the temporal body 
 politic must be accepted with the risk of corresponding disadvantages. Even while 
 Israel was in this doomed degenerated state it was the medium of benefits to those who 
 could use it aright. No Israelite needed to regret that he had belonged to Israel ; if 
 only he had the wisdom to accept all uncomfortable experiences as part of a discipline 
 that would work out unmixed and abiding good in the end. Those here addressed had 
 nuich reason to be thankful that at such a terrible crisis God did so much to make 
 their position safe. He who has got safe to land from the sinking ship would be 
 reckoned a monster of ingratitude if he did nothing but grumble because all his 
 property was lost. He may still have the opportunity of a prosperity as great as he 
 tad in the past, or even greater. 
 
 III. This requirement gave a searching trial to the faith of the believing. 
 If any good was to come out of the proposition it must be by acting on it at once. And 
 such action could not but have some appearance of cowardice and desertion. Indeed, 
 under certain circumstances, it would have been cowardice and desertion. If Israel 
 could have been looked on as a human state and nothing more, if the Chaldeans had 
 been a human encnjy and nothing more, then such a departure, self-prompted, would 
 
CH. xxn. 1— 30.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 
 
 489 
 
 have been notliing less than apostasy from national duty. The sentiment is a noble 
 one : better to die a freeman than to live a slave. This aspect of things vanishes, how- 
 ever, when we recollect that Jerusalem was divinely doomed. This Chaldean army was 
 nothing less than the sword of God, and a timely surrender to the Chaldean was 
 really a timely surrender to him. To go over to them might look questiotiahle enough 
 on a mere hasty, superficial glance ; but time would show that it was the right, trustful, 
 obedient course. The real bravery is to withstand the taunts and misrepresentations 
 of unbelieving men ; enduring " as seeing him who is invisible." Some, indeed, who 
 escaped to the Chaldeans did so, we doubt not, in a really cowardly spirit. But the 
 Lord knows who are his ; and their motives would be revealed in the end. A brave 
 heart cannot be for ever misrepresented ; and a mere outward appearance of obedience 
 will have to pass through that fire which tries every man's work, of what sort 
 it is.— Y. 
 
 EXPOSITION. 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 Ch. xxii. and xxiii. are connected to- 
 gether by similarity of subject. The tem- 
 poral and spiritual leaders of the people, 
 who are mainly responsible for the national 
 catastrophe, receive their merited castiga- 
 tion. Vers. 1^8 of ch. xxiii.; properly 
 Bpea,king, belong to oh. xxii. ; thus we get 
 a well-rounded discourse on the conduct of 
 the kings, with four symmetrical parts or 
 strophes— vera. 1—12, 13—19, 20—30, and 
 ch. xxiii. 1 — 8. Each begins with a general 
 exhortation or meditiition, and continues 
 with a poetical description of the fates, suc- 
 cessively, of Jehoahaz, Jehoiiikim, and 
 Jehoiaohin. The prophecy is concluded, 
 according to the good old rule of Isaiah, by 
 a Messianic promise. 
 
 Ver. 1. — Go down. Not literally, for the 
 royal palace was probably the highest build- 
 ing in the ci ty (comp. ver. 6) ; but because of 
 the spiritual eminence of the temple (comp. 
 ch. xxvi. iO, " They came up from the king's 
 houbO unto the house of the Lord "). 
 
 Ver. 2. — And thy people. The Septuagint 
 reads, " And thy house and thy people ; " 
 tims the passage will agree with ch. xxi. 
 11,12. 
 
 Ver. 4. — Parallel passage, ch. xvii. 25. 
 
 Ver. 5. — I swear by myself. " Because 
 be could swear by no greater, he sware by 
 liimself" (Heb. vi. 13). A synonymous 
 expression is, " As I live, saith Jehovan " 
 (ver. 24). 
 
 Ver. 6.— Unto the king's house of Judah ; 
 rather, concerning the house of tlie King of 
 Judah; i.e. the royal palace, which, on ac- 
 count of its height and its being constructed 
 St) largely out of cedar-wood (comp. vers. 14, 
 23), is called " Gilead, and the summit of 
 l^ehanoti," just as Solomon's palaco was 
 frilled " the house of the forest of Lebanon" 
 
 (1 Kings vii. 2). Of Gilead in general. 
 Canon Tristram writes, " No one can fairly 
 judge of Israel's heritage who has not seen 
 the luxuriant exuberance of Gilead, as well 
 as tlie hard rocks of Judsea." And again, 
 '• Lovely knolls and dells open out at every 
 turn, gently rising to the wooded plateau 
 above. Then we rise to higher ground and 
 ride through noble forests of oak. Then for 
 a mile or t^vo through luxuriant green corn, 
 or perhaps through a rich forest of scattered 
 olive trees, left untended and uncared for, 
 with perhaps patches of corn in the open 
 glades " (' Bible Places,' p. 322). The cedars 
 of Lebanon, however diminished, still bear 
 witness to the ancient fame of tlds spleudiil 
 mountain district. A wilderness, and cities 
 which are not inhabited. The comparison 
 has a leriible significance when read in the 
 li^ht of De Vogiie's and Freshfleld's dis- 
 coveries. For Gdejid itself is full of ruined 
 cities of massive stone architecture. ' " It is 
 no uncommon thing," says Mr. F. A. Eaton, 
 " to see these houses in a complete state of 
 preservation, built of huge blocks of black 
 basalt, with slabs of the same for the roof, 
 twelve feet long, a foot and a half wide, and 
 half a foot thick, and entrance doors also of 
 basalt . . . great solid stones of the same 
 materialbeiiigused as lintels at the top and 
 bottom " (Speech at the meeting for setting 
 on foot the survey of Eastern Palestine, 
 November 30, 1880 : Statement of Pales- 
 tine Exploration Fund, January, 1S80, p. 
 11). Cities lohich are itot inhabited; not, 
 indeed, the cities of Gilead of the time 
 of Jeremiah, but constructed of materials 
 which may reasonably he presumed to have 
 been cliiselled in a far more remote an- 
 tiquity. (The date of the cities in their 
 present state is subsequent to the Christian 
 era.) 
 
 Ver. 7. — I will prepare ; literally, I will 
 consecrate; the Babylonians being instru- 
 ments of the Divine vengeance (see on ch. 
 vi. 4). 
 
 Vers. 10—12. — There is a fate worse than 
 
490 
 
 THE BOOK OF THE PEOPHBT JEREMIAH, [ch. xxu. 1— 30. 
 
 that of the dead Josiah. "Weep not, in com- 
 parison, for him, but weep sore for him that 
 goeth away (or rather, that is gone away). 
 The king referred to is probably Jehoahaz, 
 who, though two years younger than Jehoia- 
 kim (2 Kings xxiii. 31 ; comp. 3G), was pre- 
 ferred to him by the people on the death of 
 Josiah. The counsel to " weep sore " for this 
 royal exile wns carried out, as Mr. Samuel 
 Cox observes (and we have, perhaps, a speci- 
 men of the popular elegies upon liim in Kzek. 
 xix. 1 — 4) : " A young lion of royal strain, 
 caught untimely, and chained and carried 
 away captive, — this was how the people of 
 Israel conceived of Shallum " (' Biblical 
 Expositions,' p. 120). The conjecture is 
 incapable of proof; and Ezekiel, we know, 
 was fond of imaginative elegies. But pro- 
 bably enough he was in harmony with 
 popular feeling on this occasion. The 
 identification of Shallum with Jehoahaz is 
 confirmed by 1 Chron. iii. 15 (Shallum, the 
 youngest son of Josiah); the name appears 
 to have been changed on his accession to 
 the throne, just as Eliakirn was changed to 
 Jehoiakim (2 Chron. xxxvi. 4). There is, 
 therefore, no occasion to suppose an ironical 
 allusion to the short reign of Jehoahaz, 
 which might be compared to that of the 
 Tsraelitish king Shallum (somewhat as 
 Jezebel addresses Jehu as "OZimri, mur- 
 derer of his lord," 2 Kings ix. 31). This 
 view has the support of P. Junius (professor 
 at Leyden, 1592), of Graf, and Eowland 
 Williams; but why should not the Chroni- 
 cler, though writing in the Persian period, 
 have drawn here, as well as elsewhere in the 
 genealogies, fromancient traditional sources? 
 There is notliing in ver. 11 to suggest an 
 allusion to the fate of the earlier Shallum. 
 
 Ver. 13. — Shallum, or Jehoahaz, in his 
 short reign of three months, had no oppor- 
 tunity of distinguishing himself for good or 
 for evil. It was otherwise with Jehoiakim, 
 whose eleven years were marked by the 
 worst characteristics of idolatry and des- 
 potism. He "had, besides, a passion for 
 building splendid aud costly houses; and as 
 he esteemed his own position secure under 
 the protection of a superior power, he did 
 not scruple severely to oppress his helpless 
 subjects, and wring from them as much 
 tnoney as possible" (Ewald, 'History of 
 Is-rael,' iv. 252 ; see 2 Kings xxiii. 33 — 35). 
 The building mania, to which Oriental 
 sovereigns have always been prone, had 
 seized upon Jehoiakim. The architecture 
 of the original palace no longei-, perhaps, 
 suited the higher degiee of civilization; the 
 space was as confined as that of a Saxon 
 mansion would have appeared to a Norman. 
 That buildeth his house by unrighteousness ; 
 i.e., as the second half-verse explains, by not 
 paying the workmen (comp. Hub. ii 12). 
 
 Ver. 14. — A wide house ; literally, a house 
 of extensions. Large chambers. The Hebrew 
 specifies " upper chambers " — the principal 
 rooms in ancient houses. Cutteth him out 
 windows ; and it is cieled with cedar ; rather, 
 . . . his windows, roofing it with cedar. (This 
 involves no change of letters, but a very 
 slight rearrangement, and the alteration 
 of one point ; grammar gains greatly by the 
 change.) " Cutteth out " is, literally, rend- 
 eth ; it is the word used in ch. iv. 30 of the 
 apparent enlargement of the eyes by putting 
 powdered antimony upon the eyelids. Win- 
 dows are, as it were, the eyes of a building 
 (Graf compares Eccles. xii. 3). Beams of 
 cedar wood were used for the roof of the 
 palace, as being the most costly and durable 
 (comp. Isa. ix. 10). And painted — rather, and 
 painting it — with vermilion ; a taste derived 
 from the Egyptians rather than the Baby- 
 lonians, who seem to have had a difficulty in 
 procuring red. 
 
 Ver. 15.— Shalt thou reign — rather, dost 
 thou reiqn; i.e. dost thou prove thy royal 
 qualities) — because thou closest thyself in 
 cedar I The second part of the clause must 
 at any rate be altered. Some render, " be- 
 cause thou viest (with thy forefathers) ■ in 
 cedar" {i.e. in building cedar palaces). Hit- 
 zig would strike out " in cedar," as having 
 intruded from the preceding line (such a 
 phenomenon meets us occasionally in the 
 received Hebrew text), but this does not 
 help us to a connected translation of the 
 passage. Grafs rendering is grammatical, • 
 and not against usage; it is, "Dost thou 
 reign because thou art eager about cedar- 
 wood ? " and yet the impression left on the 
 mind is that there is some error in the text. 
 The Septuagint finds a reference to one of 
 Jchoiakim's predecessors, " because thou 
 viest with Ahaz " (so the Vatican Codex), 
 or, "... with Ahab " (so the Alexandrine 
 and the Siuaitio or B'riderioo-Augustan). 
 The latter king is celebrated in the Old 
 Testament on account of his buildings, ■ 
 especially his ivory palace (2 Kings xxii. 
 3!)). The former was at any rate addicted 
 to the imitation of foreign ways (2 Kings 
 xvi. U ; XX. 11). Did not thy father eat aud 
 drink ? There was no call upon Jehoiakim' 
 to live the life of a Nazarite. " Eating and 
 drinking," i.e. enjoying the good tliiugs 
 within his reach, was perfectly admissible 
 (Eccles. ii. 24) ; indeed, the Old Testament 
 view of life is remarkable for its healthy 
 naturalness. There was, however, one per- 
 emptory condition, itself as much in accord- 
 ance with nature as with the Law of God, 
 that the rights of other men should bo 
 studiously regarded. Josiah " ate and 
 drank," but he also " did judgment aud jus- 
 tice," aud so "it was well with him." 
 Ver. 17.— But thou, O Jehoiakim, art the 
 
CH. xxii. 1— 30.] THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 
 
 491 
 
 opposite of thy father. For (not, But) thine 
 eyes and tMne heart are not but for 
 thy oovetousuoss. " Covetirasness " inolurlos 
 the ideas of injustice and violence (oornp. 
 cli. vi. 13 ; viii. 10) ; hence the second liulf 
 of the verse emphasizes the cruel tyranny 
 wliioli marked the internal policy, of Jehoia- 
 kim. 
 
 Yer. 18. — Josiah had been bitterly missed 
 and universally lamented (2 Chron. xxxv. 
 25); and so, only perhaps with less 
 heartiness in most cases, Jehoiakim's other 
 predecessors (ch. xxxiv. 5). The Baby- 
 lonian kings, too, received the honours of 
 public mourning, e.g. even the last of his 
 race, who surrendered to Cyrus, according to 
 the British Museum inscription translated 
 by Mr. Pinches. Ah my brother! or, Ah 
 Bister ! The Septuagint omits the latter 
 part of this phrase, apparently because it 
 seemed inappropriate to the death of 
 Jehoiakim; but the parallelism requires a 
 two-membered clause. According to Movers, 
 the funeral procession is to be conceived of 
 'as formed of two parts, condoling with each 
 other on having to share the same fate ('Die 
 Phonizier,' ii. 248). Or perhaps mythology 
 may supply a reason ; it is possible that tlie 
 formulae of public mourning were derived 
 from the ceremonies of the Adonia ; Adonis 
 was an androgynous deity (Lenormant, 
 ' Lettres assyriologiques,' ii. 209), and 
 might be lamented by liis devotees as at 
 once "brother" and "sister." (For another 
 view, see Sayce's edition of G. Smith's 
 ' Chaldean Genesis,' p. 267). Ezekiel (viii. 
 13) testifies to the worship of Tammuz, or 
 Adonis, and the highest compliment a king 
 could receive might be to bo lamented ill 
 the same terms as the sun-god. Jeremiah 
 does not approve this ; he merely describes 
 the popular custom. The recognition of 
 the deeply rooted heathenism of the Jews 
 before the Exile involves no disparagement 
 to Old Testament religion ; rather it in- 
 creases the cogency of the argument for its 
 . supernatural origin. For how great was 
 the contrast between Jeremiah and his 
 semi-heathen countrymen 1 And yet Jere- 
 miah's religion is the seed of the faitli 
 which overcame the world. Ah lord! or, 
 Ah his glory ! Lord is in the Hebrew ddon 
 (oomp. Adonis and see above). His glory 
 is against the parallelism; we should expect 
 " lady " or " queen." 
 
 Ver. 19. — Jehoiakim's miserable death, 
 without even the honour of burial. The 
 prediction is repeated in ch. xxxvi. 30, 
 where the statement is made in plain 
 language. At iirst sight it appears to 
 conflict with 2 Kings xxiv. 6, " So Jelioiakim 
 slept with his fathers : and Jehoiachiu his 
 son reigned in his stead;" but it is only 
 appearance, and when we remember that 
 
 the complete formula for describing the 
 natural death of a king of Judah is, " slept 
 with his fathers, and was buried with his 
 fathers in the city of David" (1 Kings xiv. 
 31 ; XV. 24 ; xxii. 50 ; 2 Kings viii. 24 ; xv. 
 7, 38; xvi. 20), and tliat tlie phrase, "slept 
 with his fathei-s," is used of Ahab, who fell 
 on tlie field oi battle (1 Kings xxii. 40), we 
 are naturally led to the conjecture that 
 Jehoiakim did not die a natural death, but 
 fell in battle in some sally made by the 
 besieged. Buried with the burial of an ass ; 
 i.e. cast out unburied. Beyond the gates; 
 rather, far from tlie gates. 
 
 Ver. 20. — A new strophe begins here, 
 relative to Jehoiachin, the son and successor 
 of Jehoiakim. Go up to Lebanon, and cry. 
 The people of Judah is addressed, personi- 
 fied as a woman (eomp. ch. vii. 29). The 
 penetrating cliaraoter of the long-toned cry 
 of an Arab has been mentioned by Dr. 
 Thomson. In Isa. xl. 9 a similar command 
 is given to Zion ; but in what different cir- 
 cumstances 1 From the passages ; rather, 
 from Abarim. The range of Abarim — Nebo, 
 from which Bloses surveyed the land of 
 Israel, belonged to it (Deut. xxxii. 49)^ 
 completes the circle of mountain stations; 
 Lelianon was in the north, Bashan in the 
 nprth-east, Abarim in the south-east. All 
 thy lovers; viz. tlie nations wliom self-interest 
 had combined against Ifebuohadrezzar, and 
 between whom and Juilah negotiations had 
 from time to time been entered into (ch. ii. 
 36 ; xxvii. 3). " Lovers " (cump. ch. iv. 30 ; 
 30; Ezek. xvi. 33, 37). 
 
 Ver. 21. — From thy youth; i.e. from the 
 time that thou dilst become a nation 
 (comp. ch. ii. 2; Hos. ii. 15). It is the 
 Exiidus which is referred to. 
 
 Ver. 22.— Shall eat np all thy pastors. 
 The verb is that connected with the 
 participle rendered " pastors ; " strictly, there- 
 fore, shall pasture upon all thy pasture. The 
 "wind" referred to is doubtless the parching 
 east wind, the symbol of calamity, which is 
 actually called- a "sharp" wind in ch. iv. 11. 
 
 Ver. 23. — inhabitant— rather, in- 
 hahitress — of Lebanon. It is tlie people of 
 Jerusalem which is meant ; the " Lebanon " 
 are the palaces of cedar-wood whicii together 
 are called " the house of the King of Judah" 
 (ver. 6). How gracious shalt thou be ! 
 rather. How wilt titou sigh I 
 
 Ver. 24. — Coniah. A shorter form of 
 Jeooniah (1 Chron, iii. 1), found again in ch. 
 xxxvii. 1. Perhaps this was the name this 
 king bore prior to his accession, after which 
 it was certainly Jehoiachin ; Jeremiah has 
 already spoken of one king by his earlier 
 name in ver. 11. The Divine speaker 
 solemnly announces that though, as the 
 representative of Israel's invisible King, 
 Cuuiah were — or rather, be — the signet upon 
 
492 
 
 THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xxii; 1—30. 
 
 his right hand (a most valued jewel), yet 
 would — or rather, loill — he pluck liim thence ; 
 i.e. depose him from liis high dignity. The 
 same figure is used in Hag-, ii. 23, " I will 
 take thee, Zerubb ibel, and make thee as 
 a signet; " and Ezek. xxviii. 12, where there 
 is a well-attested reading, " Thou (0 King 
 of Tyre) art a deltly made siunet-ring." 
 (For the fulfilment of the prediction in this 
 verse, see 2 Kings xxiv. 12, 15; ch. xxiv. 
 1 ; xxix. 2.) 
 
 Ver. 26. — Cast thee out. The Hebrew is 
 stronger — ^"hurl thee" (comp. laa, xxii. 17, 
 Hebrew). And thy mother ; i.e. the queen- 
 mother Nehushta (comp. ch. xxix. 2 ; 2 
 Kings xxiv. 8). Slie seems to have been 
 particularly influential (see introduction to 
 oh. xiii.) 
 
 Ver. 28. — Is this man Coniah, etc. ? The 
 prophet's human feelings are stirred; he 
 cannot withhold his sympathy from the sad 
 fate of his king. What I he exclaims ; is it 
 possible that this Coniah is treated as a 
 piece of ill-wrought pottery ware (comp. ch. 
 xviii. 4), and " hurled " into a strange land? 
 He and Ms seed. These words have caused 
 some difficulty, owing to the youth of 
 Jehoiacbin. According to 2 Kings xxiv. 8 
 he was only eighteen when he was carried 
 captive, whde 2 Chron. xxxvi. 9 makes him 
 still younger, only eight (Josiah's age on 
 his accession). Hitzig thinks the latter 
 number is to be preferred; his chief reasons 
 are the prominence given to the queen- 
 mother, and the fact that the length of 
 
 Jehoiachin's reign is given with more 
 precise aicuracy in 2 Chronicles than in 2 
 Kings. It id true that the king's wives are 
 mentioned in 2 Kings xxiv. 15. 13ut that 
 he had wives may, according to Hitzig, 
 have been inferred by the late compiler of 
 Kings from the passage befje us; or the 
 '"wives" may have been those of Jehoiachin's 
 predecessor (comp. 2 Sam. xvi. 21). Grafs 
 conjecture is, perhaps, the safest view of the 
 case, whether we accept the number eighteen 
 or the number eight ; it is that the " seed " 
 spoken of was born to Jchoiachin in his 
 captivity, and is reckoned to him by 
 anticipation. It should be mentioned, how- 
 ever, that the Septuagint omits " he and his 
 seed" altogether. 
 
 Ver. 29. — earth, earth, earth. The 
 repetition is for solemnity's sake (comp. clr. 
 vii. 4). 
 
 Ver. 30. — Write ye this man childless; 
 i.e. enter him in the register of the citizens 
 (comp. Isa. iv. 3) as one who has no heirs. 
 He may have cliildren, but none of them 
 sliall succeed to his place in the community. 
 This is all that tne passage means ; there is 
 no discrepancy with history : how should 
 there be, wlien Jeremiah himsi-lf has 
 mentioned the posterity of Jelioiachin (ver. 
 28 and the latter part of this verse)? Yet 
 the Septuagint thought it necessary to 
 avoid the appearance of such a discrepancy 
 by rendering, not "childless," but "one 
 proscribed " (jKniipiiKTov). 
 
 HOMILETICS. 
 
 Vers, l—'j.— Court preaching. Jeremiah has been preaching in the valley of 
 Hinnom, m the temple courts and in the streets of Jerusalem; now he is called to 
 enter the king's palace with a message from God. The preacher must not wait for 
 his audience to run after him, but he must create it. He must make his work public 
 not hiding it in modesty, but bringing it to bear on the widest possible field. He' 
 must not be content to maintain his unopposed ministry in the Church, but must boldly 
 carry out his mission in the world. Religion is not a concern for reli<Tiou.>i people alone • 
 people who will not come to church may be supposed to need it more than those who 
 manifest their interest m it by attendance at regular services. If the court is irrelifiuus 
 there is the more need for the prophet to go into its midst. ° 
 
 I. The highest rank should not be exempt fhom the most faithful preaching 
 The Hebrew prophets were remarkable for their clear and bold utterances before kiiifs 
 —often at the peril of their lives {e.g. Amos vii. 10—13). Christ expects his servants 
 to be equally laithful and tearless (Acts ix. 15). When court preachers descend to 
 become court flatterers they are doing their utmost to ruin their patrons. Kini^s may 
 not often need to be addressed in the style of John Knox, in his sermons before Mary- 
 Queen of Scots; but they certainly should not be treated only to the drawino--room 
 delicacies of Atterbury. The fastidiousness which makes strong words about unplea- 
 sant subjects seem in "bad form" in fashionable congregations is really a siori of 
 sacrificing truth and right to mean pleasantness. Kings are men, and have human 
 failings and sins. Rank confers power for evil as well as for good. Tlie privileges and 
 talents of a high position involve such great responsibilities, that the iie-'lect o° abuse 
 
CH. XXII. 1—30.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 493 
 
 of them is a crime of first magnitude in the sight of God. To ignore these truths is to 
 act cruelly to the persons whom the preacher deceives by his smooth words. 
 
 II. The chaeacteb of the court is of great interest to the natiom. As 
 men, the king and his courtiers have a risht to be dealt faithfully with by the preacher. 
 But as persons in authority, their influence makes their condition of importance to all. 
 The people are largely responsible for the condition of the court, since popular applause 
 and popular censure always carry great weight there. Thus Jeremiah associates the 
 people with the king in the address which is intended chiefly for the king. Even 
 under a constitutional government such as that of our own country, the court has 
 immense influence especially in social circles, and it is of vital interest to us all that 
 this influence should be pure and (rue and righteous. 
 
 III. The prosperity of a country largely depends upon the moral character 
 OP ITS government. This great truth is one of the chief lessons to be derived from 
 the Bible accounts of the history of Israel. We commonly rely too much on physical 
 resources, wealth, commerce, military power, etc. ; on political resources, legislative 
 schemes, diplomatic complications, etc. We in England have yet to learn how much of 
 our prosperity dejiends on honesty m trade, fairness in dealing with foreign nations and 
 a high tone of political morality. To jud^e by some of our newspapers, it would seem 
 that religion has no business with politics ; that a county is glorified when her leaders 
 stoop to underhand work that would disgrace the name of the most unscrupulous 
 lawyer. The doom of Israel should warn us against this political atheism. Three 
 duties are specially to be noted in the discourse of Jeremiah. 1. To execute judgment 
 and righteousness ; not only to pronounce just verdicts, but to carry out an active 
 policy of justice. 2. To deliver the oppressed ; non-intervention may be cowardly and 
 selfish when the weak claim our help. 3. Not to oppress the weak ; this applies to 
 Eationalities' as well as to individuals, and is a warning for our conduct with depen- 
 dencies, and the native races with which we come in contact in the colonies. For 
 righteousness in these respects the promised reward is, not a mere deliverance from 
 approaching calamities, but glory, riches, triumph. 
 
 Vers. 8, 9. — On visiting the ruins of a city. What a picture we have here! Many 
 nations passing by on the high-road between Egypt and the East struck with amaze- 
 ment at the ruins of Jerusalem. Is not the sight of a city in ruijis always a source of 
 pathetic interest? As we wander about the silent streets of Pompeii the stillness 
 of death is appalling by contrast with the tumult of pleasure and commerce which 
 formerly thronged those once busy thoroughfares. Such a nielancht)ly spectacle rouses 
 thought and inquiry. Gibbon tells, us that it was while seated among the ruins of the 
 Capitol that he first thought of writing the history of the decline and fall of the city of 
 Rome. The magniflcent ruins of Carnac and of Persepolis naturally lead us to ask 
 how prosperity and power came to pass away from Persia and Egypt. So must it have 
 been in ancient times with the ruins of Jerusalem. Jeremiah warns the citizens that 
 their city, now brilliant in splendour and prosperity, will soon astonish all beholders 
 with its overthrow. We have in the words of the prophet a question and an answer. 
 
 I. The question. (Ver. 8.) It is put by the heathen nations. These peoi)le who 
 cannot understand the religion of Jerusalem can see clearly enough her ruin. Th» 
 world has eyes for the shame of the Church in her overthrow, though none for her 
 hii'hest glorv, that of the beauty of holiness. The question is asked by many nations. 
 The spectacle is open to all, and so startling that many are arrested by it. How true 
 is this even in the case of individual men ! If a Christian falls into sin and shame the 
 scandal rings through the world. 1. This question bears witness to the horrible doom 
 of sin. The ruins are so extensive and so comiiletely wrecked, that all who pass by 
 are fascinated and appalled by the sight of them. If strangers are so struck, bow must 
 the children of the city feel? Well may they hang their harps on the willows, and 
 sit them down in despair by the waters of Babylon. Yet the temporal ruin of a city 
 is slight compared with the spiritual ruin of a soul. 2. The question bears witness to 
 the surprise that this calamity excited. (1) It was in contrast to former prosperity. 
 We are too ready to see in prosperity the promise of its continuance. But no delusion 
 can be greater. (2) It was in opposition to the boasts of the Jews. They had regarded 
 their city as sacred and invulnerable. So the French under the empire were taught te 
 
494 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xxii. 1— 30. 
 
 consider Paris. And this self-confidence carries weight with others ; for the world is 
 indolent and thou-ihtless enough to take people very much at their own estimate of 
 themselves. Nevertheless it is vain. (3) It was in spite of the supposed protection of 
 .Ood. The Jews were the elect nation. Hence the expectation of their iraminiity; 
 hut a vain expectation. No Divine favouritism will save us from the consequeuces of 
 our sins. 3. The question suggests mo ^ossiWiiy o/'Ae/p from the nations. They may 
 pity, but they can do nothing. The stare of the crowd only aggravates the calamity. 
 Well may such a prospect strike grief into the people interested. 
 
 II. The answer. (Ver. 9.) 1. The cause of this calamity may he known. Even 
 the heathi-n nations may know it. Providence is not bO mysterious as we suppose. 
 No study is more lofty or more useful than the study of the moral philosophy of history! 
 Treated only on secular grounds, it may be perplexing and unsatisfactory. But regarded 
 in the light of the principles of the Bible, it may be fruitful in sound results. 
 2. The cause is moral. The hosts of Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem. Swarms 
 of northern races and Asiatic hordes swept away the power of imperial Rome. Paris 
 fell before the guns and discipline of the Grerman army. Yet in each of these cases 
 moral corruption was behind ttie physical cause of ruin, sapping the strent;th of the 
 doomed city and provoking the onslaught of its foes. 3. The special cause was 
 unfaithfulness to Ood : (1) forsaking God — for Grod never withdraws his protection from 
 his people till they have abandoned their fidelity to him ; (2) breaking the covenant — • 
 for this had two sides, and God's promised grace is conditioned by the conduct of his 
 people ; and (3) positive idolatry — for the unfaithful servant of God never rests with 
 the abandonment of his God. He must serve some master. Such moral and religious 
 corruption justifies punishment and requires chastisement. We may believe that a right 
 understanding of the guilt and necessities of men will ultimately convince us of the 
 righteousness and wisdom of God's sterner dealings, which at first naturally excite 
 our wonder and dismay. 
 
 Ver. 10. — Misspent tears. I. Why not weep fob the dead? It is natural to do 
 so. The religion of the Bible is not stoicism. Christ wept by the grave of Lazarus. 
 Yet thei'e are times and circumstances which make it fitting not to weep for the dead, 
 and there are always grounds for the mitigation of such grief. 1. 'J'he dead are taken 
 from the evil to come. This is the idea of Jeremiah. If death was a calamiiy, the fate 
 of the living at the overthrow of Jerusalem would have been a worse one. If an evil, 
 death is still the less of two evils. Even if we only think of the dead as leaving the sun- 
 light of this upper world and passing to the dim land of shades, still they go to the place 
 " where the wicked cease froiu troubling, and the weary are at rest." In less calamitous 
 times we should feel that, as God knows all, he may have taken our loved ones to save 
 them from some fearful evil which he, though he alone, saw in their path. 2. The dead 
 are removed according to the will of Ood. David wept for his child while it lived ; 
 after it was dead he dried his tears, for then he knew God's will and resigned himself to 
 it (2 Sam. xii. 22, 23). This resignation is more than a sensible recognition of the 
 inevitable; it is a calm and trustful acquiescence in the will of God as righteously 
 supreme — for if the Lord gave, may he not take away ? — wise, and good. 3. The dead 
 have fallen into the hands of Ood. In what better hands can they be ? How much 
 better to fall into the hands of God than into the hands of man ! Vv e dare not dogma- 
 tize concerning the deep mysteries of futurity. But one thing we know — "The mercy 
 of the Lord cndureth for ever." He is just, he may seem stern ; the impenitent must 
 suffer punishment, which can be nothing else but fearful, though fair. Yet may not 
 tills be the very best thing for them, even during their sufferings ? For it is better for 
 us to suffer for sin than to sin without suffering. And who knows what ultimate 
 designs God may have? 4. The dead in Christ never need our tears. We may weep 
 for our own loss, but this is their gain. Weep that the battle is over and victory won? 
 Weep that the pilgrimage is finished and the pilgrim safe at home ? Weep that the 
 toil and sorrow, the temptation and sin, of this world are left behind, and the joys of 
 heaven inherited? that the night has ended, the shadows flown away? that the light 
 of the celestial city is beaming on the weary wanderer? Such tears are tears of unbelief. 
 
 II. Why weep foe the living? This may be required by special causes. Life is 
 a blessing. God gives many joyn to his cliildren in this world. The continuance ui 
 
OH XXII. 1—30.] THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 495 
 
 life is a privilege carrying with it the extension of advantages for faithful service. The 
 brave and loyal servant of God will not selfishly crave a premature release from the 
 duties of his life. Btill there is a pathos about all lite. " Our sincerest laughter with some 
 pain is fraught." Special circumstances may make it fitting to weep for the living. 
 There are calamities that are worse than death. Such seem to have been realized in 
 the horrors of the sieges of Jerusalem. It is worse to live in sin than to die. The lost 
 and ruined life claims our pity far more than that which is cut off by an early death. 
 What curse could be greater than that of the "Wandering Jew"? Matthew Henry says, 
 " Dying saints may be justly envied, while living sinners are justly pitied. And so dismal 
 perhaps the prospects of the times may be, that tears even for a Josiah, even for a Jesus, 
 must be restrained, that they may be reserved for ourselves and our children (Lukexxiii. 
 28)." Why should not this situation Justify suicide ? Because (1) we are not the masters 
 of our own lives ; (2) no man can tell what may follow the gloomiest prospects in the 
 boundless possibilities of life, even in this world ; (3) the man who lays violent hands on 
 himself in rash, cowardly, and wilful rebellion against God, may expect a worse condition 
 in the future life than that of the man who is called away by Providence, and possibly 
 far worse than any he is attempting to escape. 
 
 Ver. 13. — Dishonest bnilders. In no age could these words of Jeremiah be more 
 appropriate than in our own. Whilst we must bo most careful to discriminate and not 
 to vent wholesale censure, there can be no doubt that the building trade of our day 
 furnishes numerous instances of an unrighteousness in business transactions which is a 
 scandal to the commercial character of our nation, and which, if it becomes general, must 
 be a sure presage of ruin. 
 
 I. The wickedness op the dishonest builders. 1. It is seen in had work. 
 Attempts are made to palm oiT wretched work with external decorations. There is a 
 double crime here— lying and stealing; the work pretends to be what it is not, and 
 undue payment is wrung out of the purchaser. Is not this commercial immorality to 
 be witnessed in many branches of trade? In how many instances is it impossible to 
 draw the line between the trader and the swindler '! We find people accepting it as a 
 maxim that every advantage should be taken of the ignorance, weakness, and trustful-, 
 ness of others. It is forgotten that work should be done well for its own sake and in 
 justice to others. Remember, God judges us more by the character of our work in the 
 week than by the appearance of our worship on Sunday., 2. This wickedness is seen ia 
 the treatment of workmen. Those who live in rapidly growing neighbourhoods know 
 how common it is for poor tradesmen to be ruined by the speculative builders to whom 
 they have supplied materials, and for the artisans to have the utmost difficulty in 
 obtaining their wages. This is especially bad, because it is the oppression of the poor 
 and the abuse of confidence. We have no right so to speculate as to risk the property 
 of other people. The cruelties of slavery which accompanied the gigantic building 
 operations of antiquity (e.g. in the building of the Pyramids) may be equalled in 
 wickedness by the crime of those who steal the work of the poor to increase the chance 
 of their own aggrandizement. 
 
 II. The euin of the dishonest builders. " Woe unto him," etc. ! Undue anxiety 
 to get rich overreaches itself and ends in bankruptcy. Dishonesty in trade is poison to 
 successful business in the ultimate issue, for it cuts at the root of the mainspring of all 
 business — trust. The abuse of confidence must finally destroy confidence. No doubt, 
 commercial depression is largely due to this cause. If the abuse were general, there 
 could be no commerce in the form that this must assume if it is to be carried on largely 
 with the complicated civilization of modern life. We may be assured, too, that God 
 will not overlook this wickedness. Success may be attained at first. The rich man 
 may have built his palace and may be enjoying its luxuries. The commercial man may 
 have brought his dishonest transactions to a successful termination. Yet the fraud and 
 the cruelty are noted in heaven ; and if there is a Judge above, the palace of the great 
 will be no citadel to protect the guilty man from the thunders of Divine judgment. 
 
 Yer. 21. — The voice of God disregarded in prosperity. I. God speaks to us in our 
 peospeeity. 1. There are important words which need to be spoken to us at such 
 a time. We can never have all the wants of our souls supplied by thq richest abundance 
 
496 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xxii. 1—30. 
 
 of material good things, and we need heavenly words for our soul's sustenance then as 
 much as in the conscious helplessness of trouble. We have special duties belonging to 
 the time of prospeiity. Prosperity brings talents, opens up opportunities for enlarged 
 service, calls for renewed devotion of love and gratitude. 'J'here are also peculiar 
 . dangers attending prosperity, and it is well that we should hear a Divine voice warn 
 us against them, and heed a Divine counsel which will direct us how to conquer them. 
 2. There are means by which God speaks to us in prosperity. He is ever speaking to 
 us, even when we do not hear his voice — by the Bible we should be reading, by the 
 ordinances of the Church and the institution of preaching, by the course of providence, 
 by the life of nature, by the still small voice of conscience. But there are special voices 
 of prosperity. Prosperity speaks to us of the goodness of God exercised towards us ia 
 spite of our ill-desert and in a degree beyond all reckoning. 
 
 II. There is danger lest we should disregard the voice of God in prosperity. 
 God does not thrust his messages upon unwilling ears. We may refuse to' hear. Yet he 
 speaks so that we may always hear, so that if we do not heed his voice it must be 
 because we will not hearken to it. 1. Prosperity may disincline us to do this because 
 it seems to satisfy us without God. Really satisfy us it cannot. But temporarily it acts 
 as an opiate, and when we do not feel the need of God we are tempted selfishly to dis- 
 regard his voice. 2. Then prosperity is distracting. Sorrow is lonely and silent, and 
 leaves us in the dark night to listen to heavenly voices and gaze on the wonders of the 
 world above. The garish day of prosperity, with its noisy and dazzling distractions, 
 withdraws our attention from such things. 3. Further, prosperity legets pride. It 
 leads us to think much of self, to yield to self-will, and to rebel against the requirement 
 to act as God's servants and stoop beneath the yoke of his will. Hence it inclines us 
 to a rebellious disregard for his voice. 4. If men have been hardened against God from 
 their youth, it is not likely that they will heed his voice in the time of prosperity. The 
 longer we neglect this voice the more deaf do we become to it. It is terrible to think 
 of the folly and wickedness of persistent disregard to God's truth while he is patient and 
 long-suffering and persevering in seeking access to our hearts. Bome great shock 
 seems to be required to disturb this habit of hardened indifference. An earthquake 
 of adversity may be required to break up such fallow ground. If trouble comes wifh 
 this end it is a great blessing. The adversity of the Captivity was such a blessing to 
 the Jews ; it led them to regard the voice that was unheeded in their prosperity. So 
 our sorrows are often blessings if they make us to hear the voice of our Father m heaven. 
 
 HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. 
 
 Vers. 1 — 23. — Truth-speaking under difficulties. The prophet is commanded to go 
 down to the king's palace and deliver his prophecies in the royal audience. His mission 
 did not admit of time-serving or evasive utterance. Like that prophet who said to 
 David, " Thou art the man," he had to speak to the king face to face and with great 
 plainness. 
 
 I. God's children are often called upon to witness to him in difficult places. 
 In king's courts ; in society ; in unbelieving homes ; in the office, workshop, etc. 
 
 II. Their witness is often in sheer contradiction to the actions and habits 
 THAT PREVAIL THERE. The sin of Judah was flagrant and open, affecting the most 
 elementary laws of righteousness. The Law of Moses guarded the widow and the 
 orphan. The Law of God, in its righteousness, purity, and love, is still strange to the 
 ■world's life, and is constantly- violated in it. But the duty of witnessing is only 
 rendered the more imperative. 
 
 III. They ARE SUSTAINED BY : 1. The consciousness of inner rectitude and duty. 2. 
 The witness of conscience in the transgressors. 3. The presence and promises of him who 
 sends them. — M. 
 
 Vers. 5, 7, 13, 14. — Building in unrighteousness. The building of a house, be it 
 small or great, is always an interesting and suggestive process. It is a lencfthened 
 operation, expensive, and representing a great part of a man's aims and efforts. Various 
 purposes may be sought in it according to the character, circiunstances, etc., of tiia 
 
(jH. XXII. 1—30.] THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 497 
 
 buiMer — mere shelter, comfort, splendour, protection. As these come into view the 
 object in which they are to be realized becomes representative of the living personality 
 and character with which it is associated. Jehoiakim was a despot, bent upon aggran- 
 dizement, and so he sought to build a magnificent palace with forced, unpaid labour. 
 The ambitions of unspiritual men, the exclusive and absorbing projects of earthly life, 
 resemble the palace-building of this Hebrew tyrant in — 
 
 I. The union of bxteavaoant desires and dishonest, unlawful methods. Easy 
 for Jehoiakim to " go in " for a splendid palace, as he is not in the habit ot paying his 
 employes'. Are there not many in modern life who act on the same principle ? The 
 desire for self-advancement and aggrandizement overtops every other consideration. 1. 
 Unlawful methods of securing these are employed. Speculation; getting on in busi- 
 ness in order to get out of it ; adulteration ; insufficient wages ; prices that do not 
 admit of honest manufacture ; clap-trap advertisements, etc. 2. Imagining that others 
 exist for the sake of onis self. This reverses the golden rule and the spirit of Christ's 
 life. 
 
 ' II. Its fundamental sin. This is selfishness — self-glorification, neglect of G-od and 
 of human claims. The great principles of the Divine kingdom are contradicted ; — ^jus- 
 tice, mercy, brotherly sympathy, etc. 
 
 III. Its results. 1. The ruin of the huilding ; i.e. the life-project — the unhallowed 
 aim. 2. The ruin of the huildei — for time, perhaps for eternity. — M. 
 
 Vers. 8, 9. — Monumental judgments. I. Exceptional penalties will attend thk 
 ABUSE OF exceptional PRIVILEGES. 1. As a measure of Justice. The position attained 
 by Jerusalem was due not so much to its site as to its being the centre of a theocracy. 
 The foundation of its prosperity was a spiritual one. It was God's elective favour which 
 had lifted it up above tbe cities of the earth. Presuming upon this, the first laws of 
 righteousness had been violated and the whole conditions of the covenant relation 
 ignored. This assumption of the inalienability of Divine blessings is at the root of 
 every great apostasy. It is doubly unrighteous. (1) As a robbing of God. (2) As a 
 misuse ot a falsely acquired advantage and reputation. The robbery of such things is 
 of infinitely greater heinousness in so far as they transcend in their value merely earthly 
 treasures, and differ from them in the terms of their acquisition. It is free grace and 
 irarequited love that are tranipled on, and the punishment must therefore be the more 
 Exemplary. 2. As a necessary precaution. Pretensions so great are apt to mislead 
 others. People who say, " The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are we," may 
 be taken at their own estimation if no marked change takes place in their external con- 
 dition. God, therefore, uses his judgment in its external signs as an index of his repro- 
 bation. Other nations than Israel have illustrated this principle in their decline and 
 fall. The great peoples of Christendoni are on their trial. There is nothing more hateful 
 i'n the sight of God than a people that has outlived its religion and yet retains the pro- 
 fession of it. Although the chief penalties of unfaithfulness in spiritual things must 
 be inward, external evidences will not be wanting of what has taken place. How 
 colossal the ruin of a power that has once been Christian, and has been exalted through 
 Divine grace for the fulfilment of pledges which have never been redeemed (Matt, xxiii. 
 '61 ; xi. 23)1 
 
 II. The judgment of God will be endorsed by the verdict of the world. Even 
 the ruins of Jerusalem would be a thing to gaze at. Its desolation would be unlike any 
 otlier. The epitaph of a forfeited spiritual supremacy would seem to he graven on the 
 very stones. There is ever something unmistakable and peculiar in the condition of 
 those who are rejected by God. Their misery is not as other misery, their ruin not 
 as other ruin. 1. The spectacle will be self-explanatory. Not that every sin and 
 failing of God's people would be written in earthly chronicles, but the causes of their 
 decay would be broadly apparent. So is it with the Church from which God removes 
 his candlestick, and the soul in whom the light has become darkness. 2. It will be 
 morally impressive. Even in its misery the people of God will instruct the nations ; 
 and the Church of Christ will be a spectacle to angels and to men in its failures as in 
 its successes. — M. 
 
 Vers. 10 — 12. — Fafesworse than death. Josiah's death wasstill fresh in the memory 
 
 JEREMIAH. 2 K 
 
i98 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xxii. 1—30- 
 
 of the people. But their hopes were reviving at the accession of the younj; Jehoahtiz, 
 his son. For three months he reigned in Jerusalem, following the evil and not the 
 good of his predecessor, and " Pharaoh-Nechoh put him in bands at Riblah in the land 
 of Hamath, that he might not reign in Jerusalem." After appointing Eliakim, another 
 son of Josiah, to reign in his stead, he took the captive prince to Egypt, where he died 
 (•J Kings xxiii. 31—35). The exile of " Shallum " was quite recent at the time of this 
 prophecy, and the nation was naturally more concerned over the tragic fate of Josiah 
 tlian the evil fortune of his son. Jeremiah hastens to correct this mistake by assuring 
 them of the miserable death of Shallum in Egypt. From this we learn that — • 
 
 I. Death is not the greatest calamity that can bekall men. Shallum living, 
 but in shameful exile, was really more to be pitied in himself and to be deplored for 
 the sake of his country, than Josiah dead. The latter was free from the degradations to 
 which his descendants were exposed, and saved the pain of seeing his country rendered 
 tributary ; he had also children to occupy his place. But Shallum experienced all his 
 nation's shame, as it were, vicariously, and was helpless to rescue it from the foreign yoke 
 under which the intrigues of his brother had brought it. The hopes of Israel had in 
 a special but easily understood way centred upon Shallum, in whom it trusted to see 
 the restoration of ancient glory. All these are cut off by a decree more than human. 
 He became, therefore, the type : 1. Of forfeited possibilities of usefulness. 2. Of 
 national ignominy. 3. Of an irremovable curse. The apostate professor of religion, 
 the impenitent sinner, etc., are worse than dead. It were better for the offender of 
 the little ones that he had never been born (cf. Heb. x. 26 ; 2 Pet. ii. 20, 21). 
 
 II. The compassion of men should be called forth fob the misery ok those 
 WHOSE wrong-doing thet HAVE SHARED. 1. Because of its vicarious character. 2. 
 Because if the Divine displeasure widch it represents. This extends to themselves, even 
 although they are not personally punished. Shallum, in this respect, is a type of him 
 who was " made sin for us." 3. In order to practical measures being taken for its 
 relief. There are many in our own day who, like Shallum, are the victims of national 
 crimes and social sins. It is for those who have escaped the penalty to seek, by practical 
 measures and the earnest presentation of the gospel, to redeem them to a hap|iier life. 
 The outcast and the fallen will be the brightest gems in the crown of the Church 
 which gives itself to their redemption. — M. 
 
 Vers. 15, 16. — True royalty. The contrast between Josiah and his son has had many 
 a parallel. The family emerges from honest homespun into splendid dishonour, dro|i- 
 ping its virtues and its religion as it goes. In all periods of external development and 
 material civilization it is well to remember that true greatness must be in the man and 
 not in his circumstances, and that the richest amongst us cannot afford to do without 
 the graces and benevolence that dignify and adorn even the humblest life. 
 
 I. Sham royalty. "Shalt thou reign, because thou closest thyself in cedar?" 
 With such persons the pomp of circumstance is everything. Autocratic imperiousness 
 is mistaken for empire. The whole superstructure is unsafe because the foundation is 
 false. The ground is undermined. In propoition as men lose the reality of power they 
 grasp at its shadow. 
 
 II. True royalty. Essentially a spiritual thing. 1. In what it consists. In moral 
 authority and real influence over men. This is never impaired by mere loss of external 
 circumstance. The true king does not require his crown. 2. How tt is secured. By 
 (I) dependence on God, (2) simplicity of personal wants, (3) singleness of patriotic 
 purpose, (4) sympathy with the ruled. " It was well with him." This repetition is 
 intended to impress. " 2'hen it was well with him " — an emphasis of time that was to 
 be noted. Josiah himself had gone away from this ideal life and God cast him otT. M. 
 
 Vers. 1—10.— The mighty pleadings of God. These verses contain record of what 
 we may fitly term a Divine wrestling with his sinful people to induce them to abandon 
 their wickedness and live, so intense and urgent are the motives which he brings to 
 bear upon them. Note — 
 
 I. Fob what God pleads. " That they should execute righteousness and Judgment." 
 It is the King Jehoiakim who is addressed specially, a monarch one of the worst who 
 filled the throne of David. " He remained fixed in the recollections of his countrymen 
 
OH. XXII. 1—30.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 499 
 
 as tlie last example of those cruel, solfish, luxurious princes, the natural products of 
 Oriental monarchies, the disgrace of the monarchy of David." For the estimate 
 formed of him, of. ver. 13, etc. To him, therefore, God thus appeals. Now, this appeal 
 is one God is ever making. Righteousness is his supreme solicitude (of. homily on ch. 
 vii. 1 — 34, on " Helation of religion and righteousness "). False or corrupted religions 
 are ever characterized by indifference to righteousness. So long as outward adhesion 
 to the creecis and customs they enjoin is given, a vfide margin is allowed for the indul- 
 gence of the natural and evil propensities of humanity. But a constant characteristic 
 of the religion taught us in God's Word is its demand for righteousness. The gospel is 
 no less stringent than the Law, yea, is more and justly more so, as it has brought to our 
 aid a Divine force by which the demands of righteousness may be more readily met. 
 It does not make void the Law. So far from that, it establishes the Law. If we 
 understand by " belief " that which a man " lives by," which some say is the etymology 
 of the word, and at any rate its meaning, then the scornful lines of the sceptic may 
 be admitted to be true — 
 
 " For creeds and sects let senseless bigots fight ; 
 His can't be wrong whose life is in the right." 
 
 For if those principles of conduct, those governing motives of a man's life, lead him 
 to right, then, though encrusted with what amount of error and superstition soever 
 they may be, they nevertheless, because bearing such fruit, cannot be wrong at the 
 root. And, ou the other hand, however orthodox and scriptural the professed creed, 
 if it do not tend to right conduct then that fact proves that the professed belief is not 
 the real one, but one far other. " Be ye holy as I am holy," is ever God's demand. 
 Note— 
 
 II. How HE PLEADS. See what forcible arguments he employs. 1. The mighty 
 attraction of hope. Thus he would draw men off from sin. If those to whom li^j 
 appeals would but hearken, he would work what would be virtually a miracle for them. 
 He would stay the progress of ruin and decay which were now threatening the state ; he 
 would turn back the tide of events which was now rushing on in such vast volume 
 and force to overwhelm the throne and people, and he would re-establish the ancient 
 monarchy of David in all its pristine glory (cf ver. 4). To do this now that matters 
 had gone so far would be as great a moral miracle as the cleaving of the waters of the 
 ]-ied Sea, and the Jordan, and the destruction of Seiinacherib's army, were physical ones. 
 But God would do that if but the wicked king would turn from his wickedness and 
 execute righteousness and judgment. 2. The mighty compulsion of fear. Thus he 
 would drive them off from their present evil ways. See the terrible threatenings 
 of ver. 5, etc. Wtiat a picture the prophet draws of calamity and of shame, which 
 would be theirs if they did " not hear these words " ! And to prevent the force of this 
 threat being dirainiKhed, he distinctly warns them that his affection for them and the 
 joy he ever had in them will not hold him back from doing what he said. They had 
 been as Gilead and as Lebanon for beauty, fertility, majesty — his choice possession, 
 his precious heritage ; nevertheless his wrath would go forth against them if they 
 i-efused his words. And this appeal to the King of Jiidah is like the Divine appeal 
 addressed to sinful men now. What promises to draw men to himself, what threaten- 
 ings to drive them from their sins, the Bible is filled with ! So intent is the Divine 
 mind upon righteousness. In face of this earnestness of God in this matter, what fools 
 they must be who make a " mock at sin " I 
 
 III. Why he thus pleads. Because of: 1. His love of righteousness. It is the 
 element in which God lives and moves and has his being. He cannot live in an 
 atmosphere of unrighteousness. It is hateful to him. Bighteous men feel thus ; how 
 much more, therefore, the righteous God ! 2. Eis love of men. How would a father 
 feel towards any one who was ever causing distress and ruin to his children ? How 
 he would detest such a person ! And, on the other hand, how would he desire that which 
 ever furthers his children's good I Thus God must, out of love for us his children, hate 
 that which ever hurts and harms us, and desire that for us which ever ministers to our 
 good. 3. His love for the sinner. God separates, between the sinner and the sin, 
 and wliilst his love yearns over the sinner, his wrath burns against the sin. All his 
 dealings with us are designed to effect a severance between the two. Death is the 
 
300 THE BOOK OT' THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xxii. 1—30} 
 
 last and most efFective separater ; its keen sickle cuts the last tond that binds God's 
 children to the dominion of sin. " He that is dead hath ceased from sin.'- lilessed lip 
 God that it is so ! His providence, his Word, conscience, tlie strivings of his Spirit, are 
 all designed to the same end, and our Lord was called Jesus heoause he should" save his 
 jjeople from their sins." 
 
 IV. With what eesdlt he pleads. In this case it was of no use (cf. 2 Chron. 
 xxxvi. 16, etc.). And — alas that it should be so ! — it is often the same. When sin has 
 got a certain hold on the will, no considerations will stay its course. No promises, no 
 threats. How solemn a fact this ! How it calls us to resist the beginnings of sin, to 
 ■dread lest it should become such a habit of the soul as that God should say, " He is 
 joined to his idols: let him alone"! But what is the result of God's pleading on 
 ourselves ? That is the question. God grant we may be able to answer it as he 
 would desire ! — C. 
 
 Ver. 10. — Misplaced sorrow. "Weep ye not for the dead," etc. Reference is to 
 Josiah, the pious and patriotic King of Judah, who died deeply lamented (2 Chron. 
 XXXV. 24, 25), being spared the pain of seeing and sharing the disgrace and suffering 
 of his country (2 Kings xxii. 20). And by " him that goeth away " Shallum is probably 
 meant. He was a younger son of Josiah, and was raised by the people to the throne 
 ■under the name of Jehoahaz, but was soon carried captive into Egypt, never to return 
 !(2 Kings xxiii. 31 — 35). Taking the words of this verse generally, we note — 
 
 I. We do weep fob the dead. Not, however, in the same hopeless way in which 
 the dead were mourned ere Christ brought life and immortality to light by the gospel. 
 Still, though in a very real sense Christ has abolished death, we yet weep for the 
 dead. 1. For the beloved dead. We can hardly comprehend how, if they be conscious, 
 they can be happy without those they have loved here on earth. We know how much 
 her children were to the fond mother of whom they have been bereaved, how she 
 delighted in them and they in her, and hence we cannot see how she can be happy 
 and blessed apart from them. And the fearful vacancy which the removal of the 
 beloved dead causes in the circle of those who mourn them, the constant and dreary 
 sense of irreparable loss, — all this is sufficient to make us weep for the dead. 2. And 
 for the holy dead, as we think of the influence they exerted, the power for good they 
 were to the family, the Church, the neighbourhood. 3. And for all who die we 
 mourn. For life itself is a blessing : " All that a man hath will he give for his life." 
 If, therefore, they have been cut off in the prime of their existence, their " sun gone 
 down while it was yet day," we grieve over the possibilities of honour, happiness, and 
 usefulness which are thus lost to them. And if they have been unbelieving and godless, 
 we weep yet more. So far as we can see, the door of heaven is shut on them ere ever 
 they hai e sought entrance there. It is a fearful thing for a man to die unforgiven, 
 impenitent, and unbelieving. But it is not of such that mention is made in this verse. 
 How can the thoughtful soul do nught but weep for them? But — 
 
 II. We should at times weep more fob the living. Great blessing as life 
 is generally, there are times when death is less a reason for tears than life is. It is so 
 when life is a prolonged sorrow, or shame, or suffering, or, especially, sin. Our Lord 
 himself bade the women of Jerusalem weep not for him, but, etc. (Luke xxiii. 28). 
 He thus declared that death — even such as his was to be — was preferable to life such 
 as theirs would soon be. And death is a relief in cases not a few. Has not many a 
 mother, heart-broken by the wild, wicked ways of a godless son, felt often that had 
 he been taken from her when a little child, that sorrow had been less than his life 
 now causes her? And our Lord said of Judas, " It had been better for that man if he 
 had never been born." If sore sorrow can make life to be more pitiable than death — 
 and it can— how much more grievous sin? Such a one is making the worst of both 
 ■worlds. What is our life ? 
 
 III. But is not death, foe the godly, always prefekable to life ? Is it not 
 always the living who are to be pitied? St. Paul says, "To depart and be with Christ 
 ... is far better." And the author of Eccclesiastes declares, " Better is the day of 
 one's death than the dny of one's birth." And without doubt the condition of the 
 blessed dead is better than any earthly lot whatsoever. An old divine represents one 
 such as saying to those who mourned hiin, " Weep not for me. For," he says, " con- 
 
CH. xiii. 1— 30.J THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 5(W: 
 
 sider the evils I am freed from. I had a sickly, crazy body, especially toward my 
 latter end; wearisome days and nights were appointed me. What would I have givea 
 many times for an hour's rest? But now all this is at an end. I shall be no more 
 sick, no more pained ; my head shall now ache no more. And are you sorry for this ? 
 I had ray sliare also of worldly losses and crosses in my worldly affairs. I had one 
 house burned over my head, and almost all that was in it, in a few minutes, and have 
 had other cares and troubles besides ; but now farewell all such cares. And are you 
 sorry lor this ? You know that as long as I was able I was laborious in my particular 
 calling. I never ate the bread of idleness, but of honest diligence ; but now all that 
 toil is over. I am got to bed, where I rest from my labours — from all my labours of 
 that kind — never to return to them again. And will you grieve for this ? A great 
 deal of pains I have taken in travelling and attending upon holy ordinances, on sabbath 
 days and on week-days, sometimes above and beyond my strength ; but I am now where- 
 I have communion with Gud at the spring-head, without the conduit-pipes of ordi- 
 nances. And will you grieve for this? You all of you have, and I doubt not some of 
 you feel, a body of death. I am sure I did ; and many a time it made me cry out, ' O 
 wretched man that I am ! ' You know what I mean — the corrupt nature in the carnal 
 mind, the sin that dwells in us, a proneness to evil, a backwardness to good ; but death 
 has eased me of that burden. When the health went out of the body that indwelling 
 Bin went out of the soul. There was an end of the leprosy that was in the walls. 
 What all the praying and hearing, the sabbaths and sacraments, the care and watch- 
 fulness, of forty years would not do, death has done at one blow. Weep not for me, 
 then. I had daily grief in my heart for my own sins, for the sins, of others, and for 
 the afflictions of my friends, and for the troubles of the Church of God ; but now all 
 tears, even those of godly sorrow, are wiped away from mine eyes. Therefore let none 
 be in yours upon my account. And, lastly, the bitterness of death is past with me. I 
 have shot the gulf ; that last enemy, that son of Anak, is vanquished, and I am triumph- 
 ing. '0 Death, where is thy sting?' And, therefore, weep not for me. But this is 
 not all. If you consider the happiness I am entered into, that fair palace in which 
 death was but a dark entry, you would not weep for me, but rejoice rather. Would you 
 know where I am ? I am at home in my Father's house, in the mansion prepared for 
 me there. I am where I would be, where I have long and often desired to be ; n» 
 ■longer on a stormy sea, but in a safe and quiet harbour. Would you know how it is 
 with me ? I am made perfect in holiness. Would you know what I am doing?. I see 
 God. I see him as he is ; not as through a glass darkly, but face to face. I am in the 
 sweet enjoyment of my blessed Redeemer, whom my soul loved and for whose sake I 
 was willing to part with all. Would you know what company I keep ? Blessed com- 
 pany, better than the best on earth. Here are holy angels and the spirits of the just 
 made perlect. I am set down ' with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the- kingdom, of 
 God,' with blessed Paul, and Peter, and James, and John, and all the saints. And hers 
 I meet with many of my old acquaintance that I fasted and prayed with, who got 
 before me hither. And, lastly, will you consider that this is to continue ? It is a garland 
 that never withers, a crown that fadeth not away." 
 
 IV. Still wb aee to choose life, if it be God's will. St. Paul did so ; and we 
 all, notwithstanding the blessed revelation of the gospel, desire life. And it is a 
 natural and lawful desire. God has placed us here ; he has visited us here ; he has 
 given us something to enjoy and something to do here. He expects us to value what 
 he has bestowed. Christ did not desire that his disciples should be taken out of the 
 world, but only kept from its evil. Paul desired to abide in the flesh, even when he 
 was ripe for glory, and they are the healthiest Christians who in this matter tread in 
 his track. 
 
 V. How, THEN, SHOULD THE TWO CONDITIONS OF LIFE AND DEATH BE REGARDED BY 
 
 US? Are we, as this verse implies, and as is the common way, to count death a great 
 misfortune? Certainly not. The world does, but the believer in Christ should not, 
 "Then, on the other hand, should we count life a misfortune, and weep and moan over 
 it ? As certainly not. In morbid, unhealthy, and therefore unhappy moods (cf. oh. 
 XX. 14 — 18), a man may lung to die and to have done with the weary woefulness of his 
 life. And at such times— and they do occur— he has felt some sort of sympathy with 
 the ancient stoic, who said that " the best gift the gods had given us in this life was the 
 
502 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xxii. 1— 30. 
 
 power of putting an end to it." But the universal instinct of man condemns this, and 
 life is valued even for its own sake, and so it ought to be. " All the days of my 
 appointed time will I wait till my change come " — such should be the soul's language, 
 even under the heaviest trial. But the right regard of life and death is that of St. Paul. 
 He was "willing to wait, but ready to go" (Phil. i. 23, 24). To be in his "strait" is 
 the best position for us. To be evenly balanced between the two desires for life and 
 for death — that is the happiest mood in which a man can be. For the desire bf life 
 greatly to preponderate is to come under that fear of death which makes some " all their 
 lifetime subject to bondage." And a preponderating desire for death is certainly not 
 good. The strait of St. Paul is the place. God bring and keep us there ! His desire 
 for the " far better " lot of companionship with Christ was met and counteracted by his 
 desire to glorify Christ in life through being helpful to his brethren, for whom it was 
 " more needful " that he should abide in the flesh. And so he was kept in equilibrium, 
 as it were, by these opposed forces, and the result was, as it ever will be, a saintly and 
 devoted life. Paul's " strait " is the only easy position on the earth. Oh, to be in it ! 
 If you are held by both of these bonds you will not fear a fall on either side. " Although 
 your life, instead of being in your Father's hands, were at the disposal of your worst 
 enemy, in his utmost effort to do you harm he would be shut up between these two — 
 either to keep you a while longer in Christ's work or send you sooner to Christ's pre- 
 sence. That were indeed a charmed life that should tremble evenly in the blessed 
 balance. This way, we shall do good to men ; that way, we shall be witli the Lord." 
 Weep not, then, either for the blessed dead or for the holy living.; bemoan neither, but 
 bless God for both. But we may weep sore for him that goeth away an exile from God, 
 never in this life, so far as we can see, to return. That sorrow is just ; aU other is 
 misplaced. — C. 
 
 Ver. 13. — The Nemesis of oppression. " Woe unto him that buildeth his house by 
 unrighteousness!" It is one of the many precious characteristics of the Bible that it 
 ever represents God as the Avenger of the poor and oppressed. It tells over and 
 over again how God " plentifully rewardeth the proud doer." And it is interesting 
 and most instructive to note the manner in which God does this. Not so much by 
 direct punitive inflictions of his wrath as by the results of those laws according to which 
 his universe is ordered. That law of his universe is against the oppressor, and sooner 
 or later overtakes and overwhelms him. 
 
 " Though the mills of God grind slowly. 
 Yet they grind exceeding small." 
 
 Now, here, in these verses, we have a Divine denunciation of oppression : " Woe unto 
 him," etc. ! And we note — 
 
 I. There has been, and yet is, oppkession. We trust that there is far less of it 
 than once there was, but that it has disappeared we cannot affirm. Here, in our own 
 land of liberty, we may know but little of it, but in the lands of the East, its original 
 home, it prevails still to terrible extent. And the ancient kings of Israel were sorely 
 tempted to allow themselves in it, and often did so, and would have more largely had it 
 not been for the perpetual protest maintained against it by the prophets of God. But 
 if we feel, as we do, that a tyrant and an oppressor would meet but with short shrift in 
 such a liberty-loving land as our own, how was it that oppression became so easy and 
 so common in other lands ? Therefore note — 
 
 II. The causes op oppression. These will be most readily seen by noticing the 
 lands wherein it has most prevailed. It has ever been where the earth has brought 
 forth fruit of itself abundantly and without demanding much labour from the culti- 
 vator. And these lands, with scarce an exception, lie along that belt of the earth's 
 surface which reaches from the East Indies and on westward to Mexico and Peru. It 
 includes the Euphrates valley, Egypt, and then, crossing the Atlantic, it comprises the 
 extinct civilizations of Equatorial America. It may be remarked in passing that Judah 
 and Jerusalem were, at the time of Jeremiah's prophecy, in alliance with Egypt, one of 
 these lands of oppression, and whence the evil lesson would be easily learnt. But it 
 will be asked, Wherefore was oppression more rife in these lands than in others ? It 
 
CH. XXII. 1—30.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 5(.ti 
 
 has never been so in Northern countries as in these more favoured lands. The expla- 
 nation lies in such facts as these : 1 . All these lands have abundance of heat and 
 moisture. The tropical sun furnishes the one and their magnificent rivers the other. 
 And sometimes, in addition to these rivers, if not in place of them, as in the Gulf 
 of Mexico, a large extent of coast-line ensures that vapours shall 3j-ise plentifully from 
 the .sea, which, descending on the already heated soil, provides the moisture it "needs, 
 2. In consequence of all this tlie soil becomes very fruitful, and yields such abundance, 
 and that with so little cost of labour, that it permits the formation of a leisure class. 
 Who subsist on its superfluous wealth. .3. These have become the intelligent and 
 learned, and so the powerful, classes. 4. Meanwhile the wage-receiving population has 
 multiplied greatly, and the wage fund having to be spread over so much larger surface, 
 the sliare of each labourer has become less and less. 5. Here, then, on the one hand is a 
 vast swarm of impoverished people, and as ignorant as they are poor, and on the other a 
 rich, intelligent, and therefore powerful minority. And as the rich grew richer and 
 richer the poor grew poorer and poorer, and gradually sank down, as in these countries- 
 they have ever done, into a mass of slaves, the ready victims of the oppressors' power. 
 No doubt other forces were -at work at the same time to favour the growth of this 
 oppression — the superstition of the people and the enervating influence of the climate. 
 But thus oppression grew, and its fruits are still visible in the huge Pyramids, temples, 
 palaces, and the like, which remain to show the abundance of labour and the prodigality 
 with which it was used. 6. But in the colder climes of the Nortli the more ni.i:gard 
 soil demands continuous,' careful, and laborious cultivation, and thus the growth of 
 population was checked and the distribution of wealth became more equal ; and at the 
 same time the rugged soil seemed to impart its character to those who cultivated it, 
 and rendered it impossible that such men should ever become the passive victims of 
 o()pression. And so, whilst the soft, luxurious climes such as those referred to have 
 never been favourable to the development of the people inhabiting them, those more 
 stern and inhospitable regions, where toil, severe and continued, is necessary would 
 men live, have nurtured races of men who, more than any others, have approached the 
 true ideal of manhood. But whilst the I'acts now noted became the occasion, oppor- 
 tunity, and temptation to oppression, other laws have been at work, securing that, 
 where this temptation has been yielded to, as it has been so often, there the oppressed 
 shall ere long be avenged. Note — 
 
 III. The Nemesis op oppression. There is such an avenger. For oppression ever 
 kills patriotism and loyalty. What can a horde of wretched slaves care for a country or 
 a rule which has never been other than horribly cruel to them and theirs? Patriotism 
 and loyalty are the offspring of freedom and righteous rule, but never of the oppressor's 
 rule. And thus, sooner or later, " woe " ever cometh " to him who buildeth his house 
 by unrighteousness." For when such a land is invaded, or insurrection arises, or in 
 any way the authority of the rulers is threatened, they have no support in the people 
 who are altogether indifferent as to who their rulers may be, and feel that almost any 
 change must be for the better. See this illustrated in the revolt under Jeroboam, 
 whereby Israel was lor ever separated from Judah ; in the fall of Nineveh and of 
 Babylon, and in the oft-recurring revolutiims and invasions amid the dynasties and 
 thrones of the Bast (cf. also Buckle's ' History of Civilization ' for further illustration). 
 Thus in nature and in providence, as well as in his written Word, God has pronounced 
 " woe " on oppression and the oppressor. Learn from all this : 1. To accept gratefully the 
 sterner conditions of life which may be appointed for us. Sunny skies, warm climates, 
 and prolific soils nurture slaves rather than men. No cross, no crown, is a universal 
 law. 2. Adore and trust in that God who has said so emphatically that he will judge 
 the poor and needy, and hurl the oppressors from their seats. 3. Remember that the 
 woe against unrighteousness falls on every house that is built thereby. — C. 
 
 Vers. 13 — 19. — Son and father : a sad contrast. A wicked son. Jehoiakim is not 
 only reproached with his wickedness, but reminded of the very different conduct of his 
 honoured lather. The contrast is very striking, varied, and instructive. It is seen — 
 
 I. In the pabbntage ov the two pkinces. Jehoiakim had the great advantage of 
 being the son of an eminently gocd father. All the impulse and help that could come 
 from such a fact was his. Josiah, on the other hand, was the son of a pre-eminently bad 
 
B04 THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xxii. 1— 30i 
 
 man — of King Amon, of whom it was said, " Amon sinned more and more." Yet, in 
 spite of his godly parentage, Jehoiakim became so evil, whilst Josiah, notwithstanding 
 his evil parentage, became so good. T. Fuller, noting in connection with the genealogies 
 of our Lord a similar fact, quaintly remarks, " I find a good father had a bad son ; that 
 is ill news for me : but I find also that a bad father had a good son ; that is good news 
 for my son." For further consideration of facts like these, see homily {infra) on 
 " Exceptional facts in the law of transmission of character." 
 
 II. In their conduct. Jehoiakim lived in splendour amid the misery of the nation, 
 and amused himself with building palaces when the whole land was ground down 
 by heavy taxation (cf. 2 Chron. xxxvi. 3; 2 Kings xxiii. 25). He also took the 
 people's forced labour without pay for these buildings, in violation of Lev. xix. 13 ; 
 Dent. xxiv. 14, 15 (cf. also vers. 13 — 15). But Josiah his father did "judgment and 
 justice ; " " he judged the cause of the poor and needy " (ver. 15). 
 
 III. In chabaotbb. Jehoiakim's is summed up in the short, stem sentence, " He 
 did evil in the sight of the Lord his God" (2 Chron. xxxvi. 5). And the facts above 
 noted show his rapacity, cruelty, and oppression. But what a contrast to what his 
 father Josiah was (cf. 2 Chron. xxxiv.) ! 
 
 IV. In happiness. With all his tyranny Jehoiakim could not command happiness 
 for himself. The mutterings of the thunder of the Divine judgments were continually 
 being heard, and the rebukes of the prophets of God, together with those of his con- 
 science, which could not have been silent, and the sullen discontent of his people, all 
 combined to haunt his palace with omens of wretchedness and to fill his heart with 
 fear. On the other hand, it is said of King Josiah that he "did eat and drink, and it 
 was well with him ; " the meaning of which is, that he was no ascetic, that he enjoyed 
 life and lived prosperously and joyously. It is ever so. " In keeping of God's command- 
 ments there is great reward " — in the sunshine of the soul which comes from the con- 
 sciousness of the Divine approval, and the testimony of a clear conscience, and the love 
 and esteem of those over whom rule is exercised. 
 
 V. In their death.'- The actual circumstances of Jehoiakim's death are not declared. 
 But sufficient hints are given to show that his sun went down in clouds and darknes.=, 
 that his end was miserable. "According to one account," says Stanley, "his memory 
 was held in detestation ; there were no funeral dirges over him, as there had been over 
 his father and brother, but his corpse was thrown out, like that of a dead ass (cf. ver.' 
 18), outside the walls of Jerusalem, exposed to the burning sun by day and the biting 
 frost by night. And this prophetic curse was darkened with a yet deeper hue by the 
 legend which described how, on the skin of the dead corpse, as it thus lay exposed, there 
 appeared in distinct Hebrew characters the name of the demon Codonazer, to whom he 
 had sold himself. He remained fixed in the recollections of his countrymen as the 
 last example of those cruel, selfish, luxurious princes, the natural proiluct of Oriental 
 monarchies, the disgrace of the monarchy of David." But of King Josiah the record is 
 far otherwise. " So mournful a death had never occurred in the Jewish annals. All 
 the population of the city and the kingdom attended the funeral. There was an eleuy 
 over the departed king, probably as pathetic as that which David had sung over Saul 
 and Jonathan. It was by Jeremiah, the most plaintive of the prophets, who then first 
 appears on the scene of public acts. Long afterwards was that sad day remembered,, 
 both as it was celebrated on the field of battle and at Jerusalem. The lamentation of 
 Jeremiah was preserved in the memory of the male and female minstrels as a national 
 institution, even till long after the return from the Captiviiy. Every family shut itself 
 up and mourned apart. In the prospect of the heaviest calamity that could befall the 
 nation, this was the mourning which recurred to them, mourning as one mourneth for 
 his only son, in bitterness as one is in bitterness for his firstborn. The childless mother 
 laid herself down to die ; the sun of her life went down as at midday, as in the total 
 eclipse of that fatal year. Josiah was the last royal hero of Israel." Such are some of 
 the contrasts presented by these two careers of the son and father. They teach us : 1. 
 That whilst we should be thankful for the blessings of a pious parentage, we are not to' 
 presume upon it as if it were a sure safeguard or a certain prophecy of what our end' 
 shall be. 2. That should it be our lot to be the child of ungodly parents, the same, 
 grace that made Josiah what he was can surmount all early disadvantages, and make' 
 us far other and better than what our start in life may have' led men to expect. He' 
 
CH. Sin. 1—30.1 THE BOOK OF TBE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 505 
 
 who, as did Josiah, will set himself whilst he is yet young to seek the Lord shall surely 
 find him, and also that he who honours God, God will honour. — 0. 
 
 Ver. 18. — Exceptional facts in the law of transmission of character. " Concerning 
 Jehoiakira the son of Josiah King of Judah." The law is that like hegets like. It is 
 so physically and mentally to large extent, and morally and spiritually as well. Generally, 
 blessed be God, the children of his servants become his servants too. And, on the other 
 hand, the habit of sin in the parent is reproduced in the child, so that we have criminal 
 classes, hereditary drunkards, profligates, and much else of a similar sad sort. But the 
 law has frequent exceptions on both sides. The two names in this verse are both of 
 them instances of such exception. Now, how are we to account for them ? We have 
 frequent instances in the Old Testament. The sons of " Aaron the saint of the Lord ; " 
 of Eli, the devout high priest ; of Samuel, the upright jud<:;e. What a set David's 
 children were 1 And here we have Josiah the good, father of the infamous Jehoiakim. 
 But we have nothing of this in the New Testament. It does not seem to be recognized 
 tliere that the children of the godly can be otherwise than godly themselves. Even 
 when one of the parents was an unbeliever, a heathen, the faith of the other was held 
 to have such virtue that of their children St. Paul says, " Now are your children holy." 
 We have very many instances of whole households being believers, but none of the 
 children of believers being other than what their parents were. Would to God it were 
 always so now ! And, on the other hand, we have, as in the cases of the pious Heze- 
 kiah, son of the wicked Ahaz, and Josiah, son of Amon, who " sinned more and 
 more," instances of ungodly parents having godly children. Now, how are these to 
 be accounted for ? Consider the sad case — • 
 
 I. That godly parents should have nNOODLT children. We are accustomed to 
 as.sent to the possibility and frequency of this as an unquestionable truth. But is it 
 so ? We would ask two questions with a view to a better understanding of the matter. 
 1. Is it meant that godly parents who have been both able and anxious to train their 
 children for God may yet have ungodly children ? (1) Some godly parents are not 
 thus able. Probably Josiah was not. The might of evil, the fearful sweep and 
 rush of its tide, was probably in those days, and in that court and city, too great 
 for even the godly king to withstand, and it bore away his son before his eyes. 
 For a prince in that age to be godly was almost a miracle. And that which we 
 have suggested as perhaps and probably accounting for the ungodliness of Josiah's 
 son may explain some similar cases now. (2) But more are not really anxious 
 about it. If parents were as anxious about the godliness of their children as they are 
 ■about their health, education, and start in life, and took as much pains to secure it, 
 such cases as we are considering would be more rare than they are. (3) The 
 children of believers ought not to need conversion. They should grow up in the 
 kingdom of God in which their baptism declared them to be already members. But 
 there is a deadly doctrine all too influential in thousands of Christian homes, that 
 children must go into the far country first, and there live more or less prodigal-like, 
 and then afterwards come to themselves, be converted, and return. And of course 
 what is expected of such children happens, as far as the going away is concerned : not 
 always the return. But why should they ever go into that far country ? The elder 
 son, though, like Jonah and many a devout Jew (cf. Paul's " I bear them witness that 
 they have a zeal for God," etc.), he was perplexed at the Father's gracious way of 
 dealing with repentant sinners, was the elder son still who had been ever obedient, and 
 to whom the father said, " Son, thou art over with me, and all that I have is thine ; " 
 as much as to say, " Why do you complain of my treatment of your poor wretched 
 brother ? Tours is far the better lot ; you are so much the happier that you assuredly 
 ought not to complain." So did the lather " entreat him," and, no doubt, success- 
 fully. But from most mournful forgetfulness of the fact that there is no need that our 
 children should go away, and that they ought not to go away, many parents let 
 them go, or at least acquiesce in their going as something that is inevitable. Hence, 
 as it is of no use to be anxious and guard against the inevitable, they take no such 
 pains about their children's godliness as they do about those other more temporal 
 matters which concern their welfare, and which they know do very largely depend 
 upon the endeavours they, their parents, put forth. Their cannot avoid desiring 
 
606 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xxii. 1—30; 
 
 their children's highest good, and in family prayers and private ones it is rememhered 
 before God. But the energies of the tvill are never roused up to seek it as other 
 and lesser things are sought. Would to God they were ! Now, we say that if you 
 have a case of real ungodliness in the children of the godly, it is to be accounted 
 for by the fact that either the parents were not able or else not really anxious 
 to train them for God. More often the latter is the sad truth. 2. But we ask, also — 
 \¥liat is meant by ungodly ? Do you mean those who for a while go astray, but after- 
 wards come back ? Of course, if the sin be like Manasseh's, very flagrant and long- 
 continued, then, even though there may be the after coming back, as there was in his 
 case, it must be allowed that such are ungodly. But that stern word should generally 
 be reserved for a life wholly without God, ami not be cast carelessly on those who, like 
 so many of God's saints have done, may fall yet rise again ; still less on children 
 because of their natural thoughtlessness and incapacity of thinking sericusly for a 
 long time about anything. God forbid they should ! But if the word " ungodly " be 
 confined, as it should be, to those whose lives are wholly or for the most part without 
 God, then we affirm that such children do not spring from parents both able and really 
 anxious to train them for God. To affirm that they are would be to contradict : (1) God's 
 woi-d ; e.g. " Train up a child . . . and when he is old he shall not depart from it ; " 
 " Ask, and ye shall receive ; " and the many promises to answer prayer. Now, we 
 know that the godliness of our children must be in accordance with the Divine will, 
 therefore all these promises must be set aside if, etc. And St. Paul bids parents train 
 their children "in the nurture and admonition of the Lord;" and he never hints 
 that such training may after all be thrown away. What was the constant baptism 
 of households but an indication of the apostolic and primitive belief that, as a 
 matter of course, in the faith of the father the children would share ? The promise 
 was to them and their children. (2) Analogies. If there be real pains to train 
 children in a given manner educationally, socially, morally — as there is on the part 
 of parents — success is gained nearly always. And so it would be in things spiritual. 
 There is no slight done to the truth of the Holy Spirit's agency in this great matter, 
 but all that is urged is that we obey the laws of the Spirit. (3) Facts. No instance 
 can be shown where there has been real solicitude and opportunity on the part of 
 the parents that their children should be godly, of such cliildren having been perma- 
 nently ungodly. There has not been permanent failure, though there may have been 
 temporary. It would be horrible to believe that God had drawn forth the earnest 
 yearning of the parent's heart for the salvation of their children — a yearning attested 
 by all loving and consistent endeavour in the way of example, education, influence, 
 direct and indirect — and yet, after all, such desire to be miserably and for ever dis- 
 appointed. We will not believe it. And, on the other hand, there are innumerable 
 instances which show that it is the rule that godly parents should have godly children. 
 Nearly all the godly to-day are the children of the godly. Instead of the fathers have 
 risen up the children. Such is God's blessed order, and we should be slow to believe 
 that he ever sets It aside. It is well for every father and mother to take it to heart 
 that if their children turn out ungodly the fault is, in all probability, theirs. But now 
 note the opposite case — 
 
 II. That ungodly parents should have godly children. We have referred 
 above to such cases. And they frequently occur. The chaff nourishes the wheat in 
 its bosom. The ungodly home nurtures godly 'children. How is this? 1. Sometimes 
 it is because ungodly parents are more careful than even others about the companion- 
 'Ships of their children. They try to gain a good for their children which they know 
 they have not for themselves. Many a bad parent wishes his child to be good. 2. 
 Sometimes the children, seeing how wretched sin makes their home, are led to seek "a 
 more excellent way " for themselves. The ways of godliness seem like paradise to 
 the victim of the ungodliness of many a home. How Sunday school children — many 
 of them from terrible homes — love their school ! 3. God willing to show them that 
 there is nothing too hard for the Lord. Can a man bring forth a clean thing out of an 
 unclean ? Certainly not. But God can, and in these instances does. And the reasons 
 for such gracious action may be : (1) Pity for the children. (2) Instruction to his 
 Church. They are to despair of none. (3) The glory of his Name. Hence he 
 snatches these, trophies as it were, from the lery gates of hell,; plucks them as brandfi 
 
CH. xxu. 1—30.] THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 507 
 
 from the burning. 4. Conclusion. Let us give God thanks that he does this. That 
 Amons have Josiahs for children; Ahaz, Hezeliiah; Henry VIIL, Edward VI. 
 That from such a court as that of the previous reigns our own beloved queen should 
 have come. God be praised for this and every such instance ! — C. 
 
 Ver. 29. — The impassioned cry of Ood to man. This cry, " earth, earth, earth," 
 etc., sounds out like the alarm of fire, or some bitter cry of distress. It startles by its 
 enrnestness, arrests and demands attention, and compels us to inquire into its cause. 
 Note, therefore — 
 
 I. The occasion op it. This will show us what word of the Lord's is meant. It 
 was wrung out from the prophet's heart by the sight of the calamities now so swiftly 
 coming upon his beloved land. To think of that land overrun by the cruel armies of 
 Babylon, the holy city burnt with fire, the temple of the Lord desecrated and destroyed, 
 and her kings, one after another, ending their days in misery ; Josiah, the happiest 
 of them, slain in battle ; Shallum, his son, exiled in Egypt, and dying there; Jehoia- 
 kim carried off by Nebuchadnezzar, and perishing at a very early age, and in some 
 miserable manner — " buried with the burial of an ass " (ver. 19) ; Jeooniah, with his 
 mother, seized by the Chaldeans, torn from his home and taken to Babylon, and there 
 living and dying in drear exile — he the last of the royal race, after whom none other 
 filled the throne of David. It was the sight of all these calamities, and the shame 
 and disgrace attached to them, and especially the remembrance of the cause of them 
 all, that extorted this loud cry of pain, this impassioned appeal. (Cf. Stanley's 'Lectures 
 on Jewish Church,' Lect. xl., for history of period.) Would we realize the prophet's 
 distress, let us endeavour to imagine that the circumstances were our own; that it was 
 our own land, people, temples, princes, thus threatened, thus exiled, thus miserably 
 perishing. What should we think then? No wonder that Jeremiah was "the weeping 
 pniphet ; " that he felt the woes of his country to be so great that he could appeal to 
 all who witnessed them, " Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? behold, and see if," 
 etc. (Lam. i. 12). And, like Dives in hell, who bethought himself of his five careless, 
 godless brethren, and would have them warned ; so the prophet of God, knowing how 
 all the world was heedless of God, even as his own land had been, to its sore cost, now 
 passionately cries, "O earth, earth, earth," etc. He would have siimers everywhere take 
 heed, by Judah's awful fate, of how God will surely punish sin. The word he would 
 have them hear was the word of warning. This is the lesson which the occasion of 
 this appeal teaches us. There are many other words which G"d addresses to us — 
 words of mercy, promise, instruction, and the like; but unless we take heed to this word 
 and dread the sin which works such woe, all the others will be but lightly esteemed. 
 And that which makes this word yet more emphatic is the position of privilege and 
 honour and security which those now judged of God once occupied (cf. ver. 24). 
 Coniah was as God's signet-ring, precious, honourable, and guarded with all care. But 
 it made no difference : as a ring might be plucked off and cast away, so now God 
 would root out and cast away these evil-doers, though once so dear to him. It matters 
 not, then, what position of privilege, profession, reputation, service, and the like we 
 fill, disobedience to God's commands will cast us down and work our ruin. " Let him 
 that standeth take heed lest he fall ; " " Be not high-minded, but fear ; " " If God 
 spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee." 
 
 II. The manner of it. This will show how disregarded this word of the Lord too 
 commonly is. There would have been no need of such impassioned appeal if men were 
 eager to listen. But the cry has to be loud, repeated, and ever louder still. The world 
 has but to whisper; the lowest accents of pleasure, self-interest, and often of sin, are 
 caught in a moment and obeyed. But the word of the Lord finds no such reception 
 ready. How different this from all other creatures of God!— from the holy angels that 
 " excel in strength and do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word," 
 down to the meanest and humblest of all the works of his hands. Man alone stands out 
 in disgraceful exception. One should have thought that the near approach of danger 
 woiild°quicken the sense of fear and lead to increased caution. As when the ship nears 
 a perilous coast how frequent the soundings, how sharp the look out ! But the ungodly, 
 the nearer they come to the shore of the, for them, awful other world, the less concerned 
 they seem to be, the more dull of hearing the word of the Lord. Like the cold, which 
 
608 THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xxn. 1— 30; 
 
 benumbs and paralyzes the more intense it becomes. Hence, if man is to be awakened 
 fiom hiM spiritual slumber, God must cry aloud, lift up his voice with strength, as here, 
 " U eaith, earth, earlh," etc. Does not our own conscience bear witness to the truth of 
 our backwardness to hear God's word which the manner of this appeal implies. How 
 often God has called to us, by his Word, his Spirit, his providence, and we have not 
 answered! 
 
 III. Those to whom it is addbbssed. Thus we shall learn the importance and 
 imiversality of this word. For by the earth which is appealed to we may understand: 
 1. Inanimate nature. As Isa. i., " Hear, heavens, and give ear, earth." As if the 
 prophet would call on the very stones to cry out and attest the momentous importance 
 of this word of the Lord ; as if the earth might be trusted to hear though man would 
 not. And is not this word important, in these days especially, when the sense of sin 
 has become so feeble, and men trifle with it as a matter of indifference ? It is every day 
 ensnaring souls and hardening them more and more. And the time for awakening 
 them is short. The crash of the gates shutting against them will arouse them, but then 
 .it will be too late. Wljen the ship has struck, the shock of the blow is but the prelude 
 to the cry of despair, which tells that there is no hope, for there is no time to escape. 
 Yes, men need to be warned, need to hear this word of the Lord ; and woe to them 
 whose duty it is to declare it if they fail so to do. 2. But earth or land tells of the 
 people who dwell thereon — the inhabitants of the world. The prophet appeals to them 
 all, not to a mere section of them. Not to Palestine, still less Judah only, but to the 
 whole earth. For it is a word which all need to give heed to : the believer, that his 
 compassion for sinners may be aroused ; the undecided, that his indecision may come 
 to an end ; and the ungodly, that they may tremble with a holy fear. Lastly — 
 
 IV. The Author of it. This will show to us the heart of love that utters itself 
 in it. The stern " threats of God do not lessen his love but enhance it. They are the 
 crowning marks of mercy. A shepherd, foreseeing a snowstorm that will drift deep into 
 the hollows of the hill, where the silly sheep, seeking refuge, would find a grave, pre- 
 pares shelter in a safe spot and opens its door. Then he sends his dog after the 
 wandering flock to frighten them into the fold. The bark of the dog behind them is a 
 terror to the timid sheep ; but it is at once the sure means of their safety and the mark 
 of the shepherd's care. Without it the prepared fold and the open entrance might have 
 jiroved of no avail. The terror which the shepherd sent into the flock gave the finishing 
 touch to his tender care, and effect to all that had gone before it. Such precisely, in design 
 and effect, are the terrible things of God's Word " (Arnot). It is because God is so 
 intent on moving us from impending woe that he utters his impassioned appeals, and 
 draws, in such terrible descriptions, the portraiture of his wrath. A mother seeking 
 Tier child lost in the bush does not once whisper its name, but she repeats it again and 
 again, with shrill, clear, loving, strong cry. And it is the like cry of God that is heard 
 in all his warning words, awful as some of them are. God wants that we should be 
 saved. 
 
 Conclusion. But by the earth which is bidden hear the word of the Lord, our 
 thoughts have suggested to them the company of the dead. They are in the graves. 
 They are jzone " earth to earth ; " and concerning them our Lord says, " Behold, the 
 hour Cometh when all that are in the graves shall hear the voice of the Son of man,' and 
 shall come forth " (John v. 25—28). What shall be the manner of that awakening, 
 when the trumpet shall sound and the cry, " earth, earth, earth," etc., is again heard"? 
 What ? Shall it be unto life and immortality, or to shame and everlasting contempt? 
 All depends on how we hear the Word of the Lord now. May he grant that we may 
 both hear it and hear it aright ! — 0. 
 
 Vers. 1 — 9. — A king addressed in mingled promise and warning. Here is the 
 announcement of what Jehovah requires from the king and his executive in particular- 
 although it will be seen that exactly the same principles apply to the conduct of the 
 Idng as to the meanest of his subjects. But inasmuch as the king was in circumstances 
 of special power, responsibility, and temptation, it was just what might be expected 
 from the Divine consideration for every man's position, that the king should receive 
 special counsels. If he acted wrongly, his conduct would be quoted and his example 
 followed by every o^e who wished to act in the same way. This warning message here 
 
CB. xxn. 1— 30;] THH BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. ftOO 
 
 however, so timely and so plain, would talte away all ground from ttose who thought 
 they might do what a king did. Jeremiah, preaching rigbieousness to the meanest of 
 the people, could insist on this, that he aslied no more from them than he had been 
 specially enjoined to ask frorti the very king himself. Note — 
 
 I. Those who wekb -^o be apphoached. Tliis is a message for the king and for 
 such people as live in palaces. Remarkable to notice how God's messengers hive been 
 brought into contact with the kings and grandees of the earth. Divinely guided, they 
 have been able to find their way where others, even with large worldly influence, have 
 been excluded. So Moses comes to deal with Pharaoh ; Jeremiah with this king here ; 
 John the Baptist with Herod ; Jesus with Pontius Pilate ; Paul with Felix, Festus, and 
 Agrippa. As Grod can make a way for his servants out of prisons, so he can also make 
 a way for them into palaces. And once entered into the palace, the prophet was to 
 address himself first and chiefly to the king. Kings have many counsellors, and their 
 temptation is to say, what may be agreeable to the royal ears. This king, maybe, had 
 not one honest, disinterested man about him; if so, all the more need lor Jeremiah's 
 counsels. Further, the king is reminded of a former distim^uished occupant of his 
 throne. In pondering this expression, " the throne of David," there was much to fill 
 the heart of a king, who was also a true man, with noble purpose and endeavour. 
 David, even with all his transgressions and vicissitudes, was a fine example of the 
 success and glory following on sensitiveness to God's commandments. If David had 
 not been enabled to do so much that was good, his successors would not have found 
 scope for the doing of so much that was evil. Then from the king there is a turning 
 to those around them. Kings cannot help being a great deal influenced and even 
 limited by those wlio stand next to them. God, who knows all conditions of life, sees 
 the peculiar difficulties of kings and .sympathizes with them. One of the greatest 
 troublers of David's life was his headstrong servant Joab. 
 
 II. God's demand upon those who hold positions op authoeitt. He sent his 
 servant to show how a king's government may become stable, glorious, and happy. 
 Nothing is said about victorious armies and increased territories. These were the tilings 
 the Gentiles sought after, but God wished the powers and opportunities of the kings of 
 his people to be used for far other ends. There was plenty of room lor this king to make 
 conquests, and conquests not easily made. He had his own selfish inclinations to 
 repress, and the selfish proceedings of many of his people to undo. He is commanded 
 to execute judgment and righteousness. He must not neglect the ever necessary 
 functions of a judge ; righteous principles must rule in all his decisions ; and thirdly, 
 he must see that tlie decisions are carried into effect. How can any human government 
 be approved of God unless there are both righteous laws and a resolute execution of 
 them? The king must also be the vigilant guardian of the weak and defenceless. 
 I'rom out of his palace his servants should go forth commissioned to cham|iion those 
 who are unable to protect themselves. Never should a strong man more exult in his 
 strength than when it enables him to become sword and shield to the feeble. A 
 righteous government will not wait until it is dinned with importunities. In many- 
 instances the king was the only one who could rescue from the hand of the oppressor. 
 Every temporary occupant of the throne of David was in his turn a type of that 
 abidin<J King and anointed One, of whom it is true in the highest sense that salvation 
 is in no'other (Acts iv. 12). And as the king was to deliver from the oppressor, so he 
 was to be careful not to oppress. Ko subtle is selfishness in its influence upon us that 
 we need to be peculiarly on our guard against taking advantage of the weak. Lastly, 
 the kinf is not to be a shedder of innocent blood. He must not be weakly indulgent 
 as to thi blood of the guilty. If a man by the laws of the land has deserved to die the 
 death, there must be no tampering with just deserts. And so, on the other hand, a 
 king was not to allow his fury free course against some one who had oliended him, and 
 seek his death simply to gratify resentment. It is easy to see that the despotic character 
 of Eastern kin-'S in ancient times would make this injunction against the shedding ot 
 innocent blood^to have an application such as it fails to have with the constitutional 
 sovernments we are accustomed to. 
 
 Ill The prophet has to point out that according to the reception or these 
 
 CODNSELS there WILL BE CORRESPONDING RESULTS. The king IS plainly tO d that it 
 
 ^for him to determine whether his reign shall be glorious and his palace continue an^ 
 
610 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xxn. 1— 3a 
 
 increase in splendour. The king who can rise above all temptations to mere outward 
 show ; who can be gloriously independent of selfish traditions and examples ; who can 
 show the spirit of a real king by living for his people, instead of expecting his people 
 to drudge and sweat and groan for him ; — this is the king whom God will reward. 
 The reward will come in the very way such a man will desire. His throne will become 
 more stable for his successors ; the land more prosperous and better worth living in. 
 On the other hand, if there is negligence of these counsels, the ruin of the negligent 
 ruler will be correspondingly teirible. No man, however great his resources, can build 
 up anything glorious and satisfactory on a foundation of disobedience to God. Against 
 that tree of temporal prosperity which has been planted in selfishness and nurtured in 
 selfishness, a consecrated axe is laid — laid at the root of the tree to cut it down 
 altogether. The greatness of the prosperity measures the greatness of the ruin. We 
 must delight in the Law of the Lord if we would be as trees of God's own planting; 
 and then, assuredly, no weapon formed against us can prosper. — Y. 
 
 Vers. 10 — 12. — The mistakes of the mourner. Two persons are presented here as 
 furnishing occasions for lamentation. One is Josiah, King of Judah, lately dead ; the 
 other is Shallum.his son, just succeeding him, and taken into captivity by Pharaoh- 
 Nechoh, King of Egypt. The prophet, therefore, looks upon his countrymen as soiTowing 
 both for the dead and the living. Moreover, he sees that, in accordance with all the 
 natural tendencies of the human heart, a deeper sorrow is professed for the dead than 
 for him who has been taken away into a foreign land. And yet this was not accord- 
 ing to the necessities of the position. The captivity of Shallum, rightly considered, 
 was a more distressing event than the death of his father. It may be truly said that we 
 always exaggerate death as a calamity. In the instance of Josiah, his comparatively 
 early death — for he seems to have been no more than forty when he perished in battle — 
 produced peculiar feelings of pity. He seemed to be one whose " sun had gone down 
 while it was yet day." But we must remember that this very death had been prophe- 
 tically spoken of as a blessing (2 Kings xxii. 20): " Thine eyes shall not see all the 
 evil that I will bring upon this place." For one who is faithfully trying to serve God, 
 it can matter very little when he dies. His service goes on. A man may benefit the 
 cause of God more by the faithful testimony of a Christian death than by fifty years 
 of continued work. If a man has come to death by his own folly and recklessness, we 
 do well to grieve over him ; but death in itself is an event which we may only too 
 easily come to look at in a distorted, exag.^xerated way. There are things far worse 
 than death. Again and again it happens tliat people fall into severe illnesses, recover, 
 and then return into the world, only to find that the years seemingly added in mercy 
 to life have become a period of disaster and shame. In the midst of a world of misery, 
 we cannot be too pitiful, too sympatl)etic, but we must be careful not to make erroneous 
 estimates as to what most deserves our pity and sympathy. We can do nothing for 
 the dead. When the last breath is breathed, there is straightway a great gulf fixed 
 between us and them. But we may do much for the living, if only in a self-denying 
 spirit we keep them in our recollection and strive to help them; seizing every oppor- 
 tunity, and economizing our energies so as to make the most of it. — Y. 
 
 Vers. 13 — 19. — A right aim pursued hy a wrong and cruel method. I. A eight 
 AIM. What this aim was is indicated in ver. 15. Jehoiakim wanted to be a king. 
 In one sense he was a king, without any effort of his own, for he had succeeded to the 
 position and honours of his father. But very rightly he sought to be reckoned a king 
 by virtue of something more than mere rank. He wished to do something which 
 would mark off his reign as peculiar. He wished something more to be said of him 
 than that he merely reigned so many years. His office would have made him to be 
 refnembered in a certain way, but he preferred that his office should be a mere vantage- 
 ground to give him the chance of showing what he could do as a man. Bad as 
 Jehoiakim was, he had individuality of character — a strong feeling that a king was 
 bound to do something more than just sit on a throne, wear a crown, and hold a 
 sceptre in his hand. There is nothing pleasing to God in our being mere colourless 
 copies of those who have gone before us. Jehoiakim was right in so far as he wished 
 to go in a way that was more than the mere beaten track of others. 
 
en. xx\ri. 1— 40.] THE BOOK OP Tilli PROPHET JEREMIAH. 511 
 
 II. A WRONG NOTION OF HOW THIS AIM WAS TO BE ATTAINED. Jehoia'kiin thought 
 
 he could get great renown for himself indiviiiually by building a splendid palace. 
 There would be such a contrast between it and the common houses in Jerusalem as tc 
 make people ask at once, "Whose abode is that?" and, in so acting, Jehoiakim 
 showed that he understood pretty well the way in which popular opinion is most 
 easily influenced. The way of the world is to estimate men by the visible splendours 
 they can gather around them. One who lives in a wide house is looked at through the 
 medium of his possessions, and thus becomes correspondingly magnified himself. But 
 with all the worldly shrewdness of Jehoiakim, he was taking the wrong way to become 
 really celebrated. Even supposing he had not been guilty of the peculinr wickedness 
 rebuked in this passage, he would not have attained his end. The building of a big 
 house sufBcieatly showed his ambition ; but it did not of necessity show any of those 
 peculiar powers by which men live lives that are remembered. Many of those whose 
 fame will last as long as the world lasts, lived and died poor men. At least, they did 
 not reside in wide houses. And thus the careers of such men, whenever they are 
 considered, cast a permanent irony on the pursuit of mere external wealth. 
 
 111. The PECULIAR WICEBDNESS consequent on the taking of this WEONG WAT. 
 
 Jehoiakira's scheme was not only vain-glovious and delusive in itself, but very op- 
 jiressive to his subjects in the carrying of it out. What we read of here makes us regard 
 very dubiously many of the monuments of architectural power belonging to ancient 
 civilizations. We may suspect that only too many of them were constructed by forced 
 labour. How much of unrequited toil there must have been, not only in temples, 
 palaces. Pyramids, but also in such plainly useful works as roads, bridges, and 
 aqueducts! The results have been pleasing enough to the eye, and rich in givini; 
 resources to the lovers of art ; but their beauty becomes only deformity, if we have 
 reason to believe that force, fraud, and cruelty had a considerable share in the pro- 
 duction of them. Even Christian cathedrals and churches may have been built in 
 tins way to a greater extent than we should like to think possible. There must always 
 he a great temptation to the natural greed of man to get the largest amount of labour 
 with the least remuneration. And this prophecy here shows that Gud has his eye on all 
 such doings. His prophet sets forth principles which are the condemnation of slavery 
 in all its forms, and by which every extortionate and greedy spirit will have to be 
 
 judged. . • 1 J r, 
 
 IV. A CONTRAST WITH ONE WHO TOOK THE RIGHT WAT. Jehoiakim had been 
 favoured with constant nearness to a good example of how a king should live and act, 
 which made his wickedness the greater. Josiah, succeeding to a throne, had also 
 wished to be more than a nominal king. But he had very different notions from his 
 son as to how authority should be exerted. He was just and righteous, and paid 
 special attention to the poor and humble, and the result was that all went well with 
 him. Jehoiakim may have been feared, but he would be hated at the same time, or, 
 if loved, loved only by those who found their chances in .helping his pretentious 
 schemes. Josiah was feared, but by tlie extortioners and knaves among his subjects. 
 And he would be equally loved by all who, needing justice, knew that at his throne it 
 was never sought in vain. j j 
 
 V. The disgracbful end op Jehoiakim's pride. He would die unregretted, and 
 he buried like a beast. None of all who had been his associates while alive, would 
 pay the slightest regard to hira when dead. The prophecy here does not, of course, 
 mean that^God approves of such indecency to a corpse. He is simply pointing out 
 how httle selfish men may expect fiom their selfish associates. He who squeezes 
 others like sponges, and throws them away when he can squeeze no more, only meets 
 what may be expected when he comes to be thrown away iu turn.— Y. 
 
 EXPOSITION. 
 
 CHAPTEE XXIII. 
 
 The first eight verses form the necessary 
 cunclusion of the group of discourses Bum- 
 
 marized in oh. xxi., xXli. Like Isaiah, our 
 prophet follows up denunciation with con- 
 solation, and will have the mind rest on 
 the sure promises of God for the Messianie 
 
612 
 
 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xxra. 1—40. 
 
 future, A part of the people has been 
 already scattered abroad. In oh. xxiv. 8, 
 " thiiBe who dwell in the land of Egypt " 
 are a section no less important than " those 
 who remain in this land ; " and the Babylo- 
 nian Captivity is an event only too certain 
 to take place (comp. ver. 8j. Unhappy 
 Jiidahl for though not free from responsi- 
 bility, it is the kings who are the prime 
 authorsof the calamity. Yet happy Judah! 
 for " the days come " that an ideal king 
 shall arise, even the promised Messiah. 
 (Comp. Ezek. xxxiv., which seems like a 
 development of this section.) Some have 
 represented the promises of this chapter as 
 fulfilled in the return from Babylon, with 
 perhaps the Maccabeau glories ill addition. 
 The fulfilment would in this case correspond 
 but ill to the prediction; the context, too, is 
 equally opposed to it. For, as Hengstenberg 
 points out, the " gathering" and "bringing 
 back " of Israel is in ver. 4 closely connected 
 with the raising up of good shepherds; and, 
 according to ver. 5, that promise is to find 
 at any rate its culminating fulfilment in 
 IJavid's " righteous Branch," the Messiah. 
 The mistake has been partly caused by a 
 reluctance to increase the number of pro- 
 phecies still awaiting their fulfilment, and 
 partly by the false supposition that the 
 events described must take place simul- 
 taneously (against this view, see vers. 7, 8). 
 Hengstenberg himself thinks tliat the ful- 
 filment lies in the conversion of Israel to 
 the gospel. " Canaan had such a high value 
 for Israel, not because it was its fatherland 
 in the lower sense, but because it was the 
 land of God, the place where his glory 
 dwelt." To be in Christ ia to be in the 
 true Canaan. 
 
 Ver. 1. — Woe be unto the pastors, etc. I 
 This " woe " is a pendant to the " woe " 
 upon Jehoiakim in ch. xxii. 13. The original 
 furiu of tlie verse sijows tlie strong feeling 
 with which the prophet both wrote and 
 B|iiike: "Woe! shepherds who destroy," etc. 
 By " shepherds " Jeremiah means rather 
 the civil than the spiritual authorities, 
 especially tlje kings— iroi/ieves Xawv, as Hi- 
 mer calls them. This is, in fact, the generul 
 Old Testament application of the term (see 
 on ch. ii. 8). That destroy. If it is true of all 
 sin that no one can calculate its issues, this 
 is specially true of the sins of rulers. l)e- 
 linmt rerjes, pleclunlur Achivi ; or, as an 
 inspired teacher puts it, " The leaders of 
 
 this people became false guides, and those 
 whom they led were lost men" (Isa. ix. 16). 
 How these evil shepherds " destroyed " the 
 people we are not here told ; but from ch. 
 xxii. 3, 13, it is clear that sins of injustice, 
 ranging from oppressive exaction to mur- 
 der, are specially intended. Scatter; the 
 captivities of the Jews being directly owing 
 to the want of good government and teach- 
 ing. How could the prophets stem the tide 
 of popular corruption, when the ruling 
 classes opposed their efforts ? The sheep of 
 my pasture ; or, the sheep of my pasturing — 
 the " pastors " are Jehovah's under-shep- 
 herds. The figure is a favourite one, espe- 
 cially with the psalmists of the school of 
 Asaph (s-ee Ps. Ixxiv. 1; Ixxvii. 20; Ixxviii. 
 52 (comp. 70—72) ; Ixxix. 13 ; Ixxx. 1). 
 
 Ver. 2. — The lord God of Israel ; strictly,, 
 Jehovah the God of Israel. This national 
 title of Jehovah suggests, in such a connec- 
 tion, that the crime of the kings is nothing 
 short of sacrilege. Ye have scattered, etc. ; 
 i.e. been the cause of their scattering. Have 
 not visited them, " To visit " often, by a 
 natural associa tion of ideas, means " to give 
 attention to." By an equally natural asso- 
 ciation, it means " to fall upon, to punish." 
 Hence, in the next clause, I will visit upon 
 you. We have the same combination of 
 meanings in Zech. x. 3. 
 
 Ver. 8. — Parallel passage, Ezek. xxxiv. 
 12 — 15. I will gather the remnant. For 
 the ill usage of foreign oppressors has sup- 
 plemented that of home tyrants, so that 
 only a " remnant " is left. And they shall 
 be fruitful and increase. The fertility of 
 the Jewish race in modern times has been 
 a frequent subject of observation, and sup- 
 plies the best comment upon Jeremiah s 
 prophecy. 
 
 Ver. 4.— And I will set up shepherds; 
 i.e. rulers, not necessarily kings (see on 
 next verse). Which shall feed them. For 
 the evil shepherds " fed themselves, and ted 
 not my flock " (Ezek. xxxiv. 8). And they 
 shaU fear no more. Ezekiel again contri- 
 butes an essential feature to the description. 
 The neglect of the shepherds left the flock 
 exposed to the ravages of wild beasts (Ezek. 
 xxxiv. 8). Neither shall they be lacking. 
 A speaking phrase. Too many of the sheep 
 had fallen down precipices or been carried 
 oif by lions. Yet tiie context rather favours 
 a slight and palaographioally natural emen- 
 dation of Hitzig, "Neither shall they be 
 terrified." Tlie Septuagint omits the word 
 altogether, which favours the supposition 
 that they read as Hitzig would read, for 
 they are apt to condense by omitting sy- 
 nonyms. 
 
 Vers. 5, 6. — (Comp. the parallel passage, 
 oh. xxxiii. 15, 16.) ' 
 
 Ver. 6. — Behold, the days come. The use 
 
CH. xxra. 1—40.] THR BOOK OP THE PROPHET JERKMIAH. 
 
 513 
 
 of tlie analogous phrase, " And it shall come 
 ti) pass in tliat day," would lead us to sup- 
 pnsB that this verse describes a fresh sta^e 
 in the progress of events, as if the faithful 
 . shepherds (ver. 4) were to precede the 
 " righteous Branch " (ver. 5). Such a view, 
 however, is not very plausible, for the Mes- 
 siah, according to prophecy, is to appear in 
 the darkest of times. The prophet simply 
 means to impress upon us the greatness of 
 the revelation which he is about to commu- 
 nicate. I will raise unto David. The pro- 
 mised Messiali, then, is certainly to be of 
 the family of David (comp. Isa. ix. 7 ; xi. 1 ; 
 Micah V. 2). A righteous Branch ; rather^ 
 o righteous Plant : tlie root means " to bud, 
 or sprout." This is the first time in which 
 the title " the Plant " is unmistakably ap- 
 plied to the Messianic King (possibly, but 
 less probably, to tlie Messianic kings). It 
 indicates that this great personage stands 
 in connection with the divinely ordained 
 and ancient royal family, but that he is in 
 some way unique, and far surpasses his 
 human ancestors. He " sprii igs forth ; " 
 therefore he is not a sort of meteoric appear- 
 ance, without any natural home among men, 
 but rather the blossom of the Jewish nation, 
 the embodiment of its highest qualities. 
 And yet there is something extraordinary 
 about him, for it is needful that Jehovah 
 himself should "raise" this Plant from the 
 almost worn-out stock of David. Mote that 
 the word rendered here in the Authorized 
 Version " Branch " is not the same as that 
 in the parallel passage in Isaiah (xi. 1). It 
 is, however, the word employed in Isa. iv. 2, 
 wJiioh is taken by many, especially the 
 older interpreters (but with very doubtful 
 justice), to be a prophecy of the Messiah. It 
 is also the word used by Zechariah (iii. 8 ; 
 VI. 12), as a proper name of tlie Messiali, 
 which is one strong reason for rejecting the 
 view mentioned above that the word ren- 
 dered " the Branch," or " the Plant," is 
 to be takeu collectively as equivalent to 
 " branches," or rather " plants " (the article 
 is not expressed iii the Hebiew). lii short, 
 this passage and the prophecies referred to 
 in Jeremiah are exceptions to the general 
 Old Testament usage of the Hebrew word 
 (fema/i/j), which is elsewhere a collective 
 term equivalent to " plantation." It is true 
 that in ver. 4 " shepherds," in the plural, 
 are spoken of, but there is no reason why 
 this title should be confined to kings— it 
 miiy as fairly be extended to the chief rulers 
 under a king as the term " king " itself (see 
 on ch. xvii. 20); and true, further, that in 
 ch. xxxiii. 17 a oontinuous succesoion is 
 promised of Davidic heirs to the throne, but 
 tills is not deceive iu favour of the collec- 
 tive meaning, any more than Isaiah's later 
 prophecy tliat "the [reiijuinti Davidic] 
 
 king shall reign in righteousness " disproves 
 the strictly Messianic reference of his earlier 
 promise in Isa. xi. 1. All prophecy is con- 
 ditional ; there may have been moral reasons 
 why a continuance of the Davidic dynasty 
 was held out by Jeremiah at one time as a 
 possible prospect. (It is, however, extremely 
 probable that ch. xxxiii. 14 — 26 is the work 
 of some other inspired writer ; see ad loo.) 
 Tlie thirty-fourth chapter of Ezekiel, which 
 is so closely parallel to this section, appears 
 to interpret the proplieoy of a single Mes- 
 sianic king (Bzek. xxxiv. 23). And a Kiag 
 shall reign; rather, and he shall reign as 
 king ; i.e. he shall be the realized ideal of 
 an Israelitish king — a benond David. And 
 prosper ; or, and deal wisely. There is the 
 same doubt as to the rendering of the verb 
 in Isa. lii. 13 a. The radical idea is that of 
 wisdom, and the analogy of Isa. xi. 2 favours 
 the alternative rendering here. Shall exe- 
 cute judgment; in contrast to the neglect- 
 ful conduct of jehoiakim (ch. xxii. 3). 
 
 Ver. 6. — Israel shall dwell safely. In the 
 parallel passage (oh. xxxiii. 16) we read 
 "Jerusalem," and there can hardly be a 
 doubt that "Jerusalem" ouglit to be re- 
 stored here. This is not the only instanco 
 iu which, by mistake, the scribe h.is written 
 "Israel" instead of "JeruSHlom" (see ch. 
 xxxii. 30, 32 ; li. 49 ; Zeph. iii. 14 ; Zeoh. 
 xii. 1). In Zeeh. i. 19 the scribe discovered 
 his mistake, and wrote the right word, " Je- 
 rusalem," after the wrong one, " Israel," but 
 without cancelling the latter (Griilz, 'Mj- 
 natsschrift,' 1880, pp. 97—101). And this 
 is his name whereby he shall be called. 
 There is a various reading, wiiich may be 
 rendered either, whereby they shall call (him, 
 or ker)f or, which they shall proclaim, sup- 
 ported by the Peshito, Targum, Vulgate, and 
 a few manuscripts (St. Jerome, too, mentions 
 this reading). There is also a more impor- 
 tant dift'ereuce among the commentators as 
 to the person who was to bear the name. The 
 older Ohi'istian interpreters contended with 
 all their might for the view that the name 
 belonged to the Messiah, partly on real 
 phihilogi.'al grounds, partly with the illegiti- 
 mate thiologhal olijeet of obtaining a proof- 
 text for tlie orthodox doctrine of the person 
 of the Messiah and (in the case of Prote^itant 
 writers) of justification. It is much to the 
 credit of Hengsteuberg that he sets this 
 object aside, and while maintaining the 
 Messianic referenceof thepronouu, interprets 
 the name with a single eye to tlie require- 
 ments of the context, " He by whom and 
 under whom Jehovah will be our righteous- 
 ness." The obj(^ction is, that iu the parallel 
 passage (ch. xxxiii. 16) Jeremiah assigns 
 the name " Jehovah-Tsidkenu," not to tho 
 Messiah, but to Jerusalem. The prophet 
 must be allowed to be his best i >terpreter, 
 
 21. 
 
514 
 
 THE BOOK OF THR PROPHET JEREMIAPI. [ch. xxiii. 1— fa 
 
 so that we must, it would seem, at any rate, 
 reject the Messianic leferinoe. But theii 
 how are we to explain the pronoun ? It is 
 light to refer the pnrallel pronoun in ch. 
 xxxiii. 16 to "Jerusalem," beeanse the pro- 
 noun there is feminine, and eviilrntly refers 
 to a city, but it is not natural in our pas- 
 sage to explain " his name " of " Israel," 
 seeing tbiit the subject of the noun in the 
 parallel line is, not Israel, but the Mi ssiiih. 
 But is the text here correct 1 A comparison 
 of the parallel psalms xiv. and liii., and 
 of the corresponding cliapters in Samuel, 
 Kings, and Chronicles, will show how easily 
 errors made their way into duplieate copies 
 of the same passage. Granting that we 
 have such dujjlicate copies of this ijrophecy 
 in Jeremiiih, there can be no doubt wliich 
 is the more original ; the form of ch. xxiii. 6 
 has a difficulty from which ch. xxxiii. Ki is 
 free — II difficulty of interpretation and a 
 difficulty also of grammar. F.ir, as Ewald 
 has already pointed out ('Hebrew Grammar,' 
 § 249 6), the contracted suffix is very rarely 
 attached to 1Iiesinipleimperfeot,andtheclear 
 style in whicli this section is written justifies 
 us in regarding any unusual form with sus- 
 picion. "Israel" thus was probably written 
 by mistake for "Jerusalem," and this enor 
 soon led to others- first, the omission of 
 " her," and then tlie prefixing of " his name " 
 for clearness, and (on the part of the autiiors 
 of the point.-i) the mispointing of the verb 
 (so as to include in the form the pronoun 
 "him"). It is some confirmntion of this 
 view that tl ere are several other passages 
 in which the words " Isriiel " and " Jeru- 
 salem" appear to have been confounded (see 
 preceding note). Read, tlicrefoie, as iu 
 ch. xxxiii. 16, And this its the name where- 
 with she shall he called. THE LOBS OUa 
 EIGHTEOUSNESS; Hebiew, Yahveh (Je- 
 hovah) Tsidlte u. The name is formed on 
 the analogy of other symbolic names, such as 
 El-elohe-Israel (Gen. xxxiii. 20), Jehovali- 
 Nissi(Exnd.xvii.l5),andc specially Jehovah- 
 Shammah (Ezek. xlviii. 35), also a name of 
 Jerusalem. These names are, in fact, sen- 
 tences; Jehovah-Shammah, for instance, 
 means "The Lord (is) there;" and the 
 name in the present verse, "The Lord (is) 
 our Righteousness " (Hengstenberg's view 
 mentioned above seems less natural). It is 
 singular that Zedekiah's name should como 
 so near to that annornioed by the prophet. 
 But there is still a difference between t.,era. 
 Zedekiah must mean " The Lord (is) 
 righti ousness," i.e. is ever faithful to his 
 revealed principles of action. But Jehovah- 
 TsidkenJi may be correctly paraphrased, 
 " The Lord is the author of our prosperity," 
 or, more strictly, '• of the justification of our 
 claims in the sight of our enemies" (comp. 
 I»a.xlv. 24; 1.8; liv. 17; Iviii. 8 ; Ixii. 1,2). 
 
 Similar applications of forensic language 
 are familiar, e.g. "When they speak with 
 th( ir enemies in the gate " (Ps. cxxvii. 5), 
 
 Vers. 7, 8. — This is another of Jeremiah's 
 repetitions 'see ch. xvi. 14, 15). Either rlie 
 Sepiuag nt translator or the copyist of the 
 Hebrew manuscript which he used appears 
 to have tliougnt that the passage might, 
 therefore, be dispensed with. In the Sep- 
 tuagint it is placed at the end of the chapter 
 (being possibly supplied from another He- 
 brew manuscript), and the form given in 
 tliis version to the close of ver. 6 ('laiireSe/t 
 iy TOis irpo(pi]Tais, coinbining the opening 
 words of viT. 9) shows that ver. 9 followed 
 immediately upon ver. ti in the Hebrew 
 manuscript. 
 
 Vers. 9—40. — These verses form a complete 
 prophecy, the title of whicii Jeremiah him- 
 self supplies in the wonls, " Concerning the 
 (filse)prnpbet.<"(scebeln.r); comp. ch. xlvi. 
 2; xlviii. 1 ; xlix. 1, 7,23, In. It is true the 
 rendering of the Authorized Versiim (ver. 9), 
 Mine heart within me is broken because 
 of the prophets, is not purely arbitrary ; it 
 is favoured bj' the exegetical tradition re- 
 presented by the Hebrew accents. But it 
 is not probable that two entirely diiferent 
 causes should be given for the propliet'a 
 deep emotion (.^ee the latter part of the 
 verse). Besides, " breaking of the heart " is 
 nowi.ere a sign of anger (as Authorized 
 Version would suggest), but cither of grief 
 (see on ch. viii. 21), or, as the context im- 
 plies here, physienl disturbance at the 
 solemn message of Jenovah (comp. ch. vi, 
 II ; XX. 9). All my bones shake. It is a 
 very uncommon verb, occurring only twice 
 elsewhere (Gen. i. 2; Dcut. xxxji. 11, in 
 Piel). The words of his holiness; or, hU 
 toi'rds of huliness; i.e. his holy words, tlie 
 words of the Holy One on the unholy doings 
 of the talse prophets. 
 
 Ver. 10. — The land is full of adulterers. 
 The false prophets connive at flagrant im- 
 moralities, one of which is mentioned as a 
 typical sin. As to the nature of the adul- 
 tery, see note on ch. v. 7. Because of swear- 
 ing; rather, because of the curse; thvi curse, 
 namely, with which God punishes the guilty 
 larlh (comn. Zech. v. 3; Dan. ix. 11; and 
 especiidly Isa. xxiv. 6, where in the original 
 there is a paronomasia very similar to that 
 here). The land mourneth; a figurati\e 
 expression, suggested partly by the asson- 
 ance of the word for "curse." Drought is 
 what is meant (comp. ch. xii. 4; xiv. 1, 2). 
 The pleasant places of the wilderness; 
 rather, the pastures of the praiiic-land 
 (" wilderness " suggests ideas vi ry alien to 
 the context). Their oourse; litemlly, /fcetr 
 running (comp. ch. viii. 6). The subject is 
 " the iuliabitant.s of the land." Their force 
 is not right ; rather, thnr might (or, heroism) 
 
CH. xxiii. 1—40.] THE J300K OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 
 
 615 
 
 «■« untruth. They are " mighty men " only in 
 telling untruths (comp. oh. ix. 3 ; Isa. v. 22). 
 
 Ver. 11. — Both prophet and priest are 
 profane; i.e. are unholy, disobeying the 
 Divine coraiiiands (see on ch. v. 7). The 
 same two important classes specified as in 
 oh. vi. 13. Yea, in my house, etc. Evidently 
 some sin specially incongruous with its 
 locality is referred to, either idolatry (comp. 
 ch. yii. 30) or the totemistio worship of 
 figures of animals (Bzek. viii. 10, 11). 
 Gump, note on ch. v. 7. 
 
 Vi r. 12. — Their way shall be unto them 
 as slippery ways, etc. ; rather, slipperi/ 
 places. Tlie passage has a manifest atlinity 
 ■with Ps. XXXV. 6 (in one of the Jeremian- 
 jzing psalms; see on ch. xviii. 1 9, 20). They 
 shall be driven on; or, as Ewald, taking 
 over the last word of the preceding clause, 
 they shall be thrust into the darhness. This 
 involves a reminiscence, probable enough, of 
 Isa. viii. 226. It is against the accentual 
 tradition, but improves the rhythmical divi- 
 sion of the verse. If we ask who " thrusts " 
 tliem, Ps. XXXV. 5 supplies the answer — it 
 is not merely external circumstances, but 
 " the Angel of Jehovah," i.e. Jehovah him- 
 self. As Bishop Hall says, " God wounds us 
 by many instruments, but with one hand." 
 I will bring evil upon them, etc. Favourite 
 expressions of Jeremiah (comp. ch. xi. 23). 
 
 Vers. 13, li. — The prophets of Samaria 
 were no doubt guilty enough, but their 
 otfcnces dwindled by the side of the "hor- 
 rible " transgressions of those of the southern 
 kingdom. The prophet apparently means, 
 not only that the former, having fewer 
 spiritual advantages, were less responsible 
 tlian the latter, but also that they had not 
 violated the moral code so conspicuously. 
 
 Ver. 13.— I have seen folly ; rather, 
 absurdity or unseemliness ; literally, that 
 which is unsavoury (comp. Job vi. 6). The 
 word occurs with a similar reference to 
 Jehovah in Job i. 22 ; xxiv. 12. To " pro- 
 phesy by Baal " was absurd," " unseemly," 
 because Baal was a "non-entity" (Isaiah's 
 word for an idol). In Baal ; rather, by, or 
 hy means of, Baal (see on ch. ii. 8). 
 
 Ver. 14. — I have seen also, etc. ; rather. 
 But in the prophets of Jerusalem I liave seen. 
 Horrible; as in ch. v. 30. They commit 
 adultery, etc. ; lileriilly, the commitlinq adul- 
 tery and the icallcing in lies — a much more 
 forcible way of putting it. They are all of 
 them; rather, '/]tey have become all of them; 
 viz. either the prophets or the people in 
 general. The inhabitants thereof; viz. of 
 Jerusalem. 
 
 Ver. 15. — On the punishment here threat- 
 ened, see note on ch. ix. 15. 
 
 Vers. 16 — 22. — A warning addressed to the 
 people a'-'aiust the false prophecies (comp. 
 Ezek. xiii.). 
 
 Ver. 16.— They make you vain; i.e. fill 
 you with vain imaginations. A similar 
 phrase occurs in ch. ii. 5, on which see note. 
 A vision of their own heart ; the heart being 
 the centre of the intellectual as well as of 
 the moral life, according to the Hebrew 
 conce[)tioa. 
 
 Ver. 17. — Unto them that despise me. The 
 lord hath said. The Septuagint and the 
 Syriao render the same text (tlie consonants 
 are iilone the text) with ditlerent vowels, 
 thus : " Unto those who despise the word of 
 the Lord." In favour of this it may bo 
 urged that the phrase, " The I/5rd hath 
 said," is nowhere else used in this abrupt 
 way to introduce a real or supposed revela- 
 tion, and Hitzig and Graf accordingly 
 accept it. Ye shall have peace ; as ch. 
 vi. 14. After the imagination ; rather, in 
 the stubbornness (see on cli. iii. 17). 
 
 Ver. 18. — For who hath stood in the coun- 
 sel of the lord ; rather, in the council. 
 This verse is connected with ver. 16; it gives 
 the reason why the false propliets were not 
 to be listened to. None of them had been 
 admitted to the secret council of the Lord ; 
 the interrogation is here a form of denial. 
 " To stand in the council " is not the same 
 as "to sit" (Ps. i. 1); the latter phrase 
 implies taking an active part in the consul- 
 tations. It is specially applicable to the 
 true prophets, iiccnrding to ver. 22, anil this, 
 as we gather from other pai-s;iges, in a two- 
 folil sense. Sometimes the prophets had 
 visions, in wliich their inner eye was granted 
 a sight of Jehovah in consultation with his 
 trusted servants (isa. vi. 1, comp. 8 ; 1 Kings 
 xxii. 19); and the words of Elipliaz, "Wert 
 thou listening in the council of God ? " 
 (Job XV. 8), appear to be descriptive of a 
 similar experience. But the phrase may 
 also be used in a wider sense of entirely 
 unecstatic revelations. Amos says (iii. 7), 
 " Surely the Lord Jehovah will do notliiug, 
 but he revealeth his secret counsel unto 
 his servants the prophets; " and a psalmist 
 extends the term " secret counsel " to the 
 communion which God grants to the pious 
 in general (Ps. xxv. 14 ; comp. Prov. iii. 32). 
 Thus there is no hard and-fast line between 
 the experiences of the prophets and those 
 of humliler believers. In so far as the 
 latter aie " disciples of Jehovah " (Isa. 
 liv. 13), tliey too may be truly paid to 
 " stand," at least in the doorway, " in the 
 council of Jehovah ; " just as a well-known 
 collect inherited from the Latin Church 
 beseeches that " by God's holy inspiration 
 we may think those things that be good." 
 Who hath marked his word t A Jewish 
 tradition, represented by the marginal notes 
 in the Hebrew Bible, has taken offence at 
 this variation in the expression, and would 
 correct the reading to 'my word." Bui 
 
ol6 
 
 THE BOOK OF THE.PTiOPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xxm. 1— 40. 
 
 such changes of person are of frequent 
 occurrence, aurl we know tliat the prophets 
 were thoroughly assured that the word 
 which they spoke was not theirs, but tliat 
 ■of him who sent them. 
 
 Vers. 19,20. — These two verses seem to be 
 connected with ver. 17. The false prophets 
 «ay, "Ye shall have peace." How different 
 the message of the true ! (A dupl cate of 
 these verses occurs in ch. xxx. 23, 21.) 
 
 Ver. 19. — A whirlwind of the Lord, etc. ; 
 rather, A storm of the Lord, even fur;/, is gone 
 forth, and a whirling storm — upon the head 
 of the wicJced shall it whirl. Tlie Inirricane 
 has already bmken out ; it will soon reach 
 .Jerusalem. This seems to be the force of 
 Jeremiah's expressive figure. 
 
 Vt^r. 20.— The anger of the lord. The 
 prophet's interpretation of the image. It is 
 the judicial anger of Jehovah, personified as 
 JJivine manifestations so often are (hence 
 " shall not return "). The form of the verse 
 reminds us of Isa. Iv. 11. In the latter 
 days ; rather, in future days, as Dr. Hen- 
 derson rightly renders. It seems better to 
 restrict the term " latter days " to the 
 Messianic period (•• the coming age," Matt. 
 xii. 32), to which, in fact, it is often applied 
 (e.g. Isa. ii. 2 ; Hos. iii. 5). The phrase in 
 itself simply means " in the sequel of the 
 days," i.e. in ' the future ; its Messianic 
 reference, when this exists, is inferred solely 
 from the.context. In the passage before us, 
 and in Deut. iv. 30, xxx. 29, there can be 
 no intention of pointing to the Messianic 
 age. Piecisely the same phrase occurs in 
 an Assyrian inscription, where its meaning is 
 clear from tlie context (ono alihrat yumi 
 irib, •' For a sequel of days — i.e. for a future 
 time — 1 deposited"). In the present case it 
 is no distant period to which the prophet 
 refers, for he continues. Ye shall consider it, 
 etc., or rather, ye shall understand it clearh/, 
 viz. that the calamities whicli will have 
 come upon you are the Divine judgmeut 
 upon your sins. 
 
 Vers. 21, 22.— In vers. 17—20 Jeremiah 
 has shown that these cannot be true pro- 
 phets, because tlieir message is diametrically 
 opposed to the true revelation. He now 
 proves it from the absence of any moral 
 effect from their preaching. 
 
 Vers. 23 —■S2. — Jehovah has observed and 
 will punish the false pretenoious of the 
 prophets. 
 
 Vers. 23, 24.— Am I a God at hand, etc. ? 
 (■' At hand" t qnivalent to '■ near.") Eliphaz 
 may again assist us with an illustration. 
 '' And thou sayest "—he is expostulating 
 with Job — " What doth God know ? can lie 
 judge through the dark oloud ? thick clouds 
 are a covering to him, that he seeth not; 
 yea, he walketh upon the vault of heaven " 
 {Job xxii. 13, 14). It might seem, from the 
 
 preponderance of the false prophets over 
 the true, as if Jehovah were unaware cf the 
 mischief. Not so ; Jehovah is omnipresent. 
 
 Ver. 25. — I have dreamed. Jeremiah 
 mentions it as one of the marks of a false 
 prophet that he appealed to his dreams 
 (comp. ch. xxix. 8); true prophecy con- 
 tented itself with less ambiguous media of 
 communication with the unseen world. It 
 may be objected that Abraham (Gen. xv. 
 12), at aiiy rate, and Abimeleoli (Gen. 
 XX. 3) received Divine revelations in dreams; 
 hut these were not oflScially prophets. Na- 
 than and the contemporaries of the author 
 of Job had messages from God by night, 
 but these are called, not dreams, but visinns 
 (2 Sam. vii. 14, comp. 17; Job iv. 13 1. 
 Deuteronomy fand this is one of its htriking 
 points of agreement with Jeremiah) ex- 
 pressly descrilies a false prophet as " a 
 dreamer of dreams" (Deut. xiii. 1; comp. 
 1 Bam. xxviii. 6). Two passages in the Old 
 Testament seem inconsistent with this dis- 
 couragement of dreams as a medium of 
 revelation — Numb. xii. 6, where the Lord is 
 said to make himself known to prophets by 
 visions and dreams, and Joel ii. 28, where 
 the prophetic dreams of the old men are 
 one of the features of a Messianic descrip- 
 tion ; but it is noteworthy that the first of 
 these refers to the primitive period of Israel's 
 history, and the secund to the distant Mes- 
 sianic age. In its classical period prophecy 
 kept itself sedulously aloof fiom a field on 
 which it had such compromising companion- 
 ship (comp. Eech s. v. 7). 
 
 Ver. 26. — How long shall this be in the 
 heart, etc. ? i.e. how long shall this be their 
 purpose, viz. to piophesy lies? But this 
 rendering leaves out of account a second 
 interrogative which in the Hebrew follows 
 '• how long." It is better to translate this 
 difficult passage, with De Dieu and many 
 moilerns, thus : " How long (quousqne durahit 
 hii'c ipsorum impudentia) ? Is it in tiie 
 heart of the propliets that prophesy lies, and 
 the prophets of the deceit of their own 
 heart ; are they thinking (I say) to cause 
 my people to forget," etc.? On this view, 
 ver. 27 resumes the question interrupted in 
 ver. 20. 
 
 Ver. 27. — Every man to his neighbour. 
 Nut nicely one prop et to another prophet, 
 for it is "my people" wliom they caute to 
 forget my Nnme (comp. ver. 32), but the 
 p ophct to his fellow-man. Have forgotten 
 my name for Baal ; or, forgot my name through 
 Biml. 
 
 Ver. 28. — Let him tell a dream ; rat' er, 
 let him tell it as a dream; let him tell hia 
 dreams, if he will, but not intermix them 
 with Divine revelations. Jeremiah, then, 
 does not deny that there is a measure of 
 truth .u wiiat these piuphcta snj' ; he only 
 
to. xxiii. 1— -10.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 
 
 517 
 
 demands a distiBot deoliiration that ihnr 
 dreams are but drenras, and not equal iu 
 autliority to the Divine word. For, as he 
 continues. What is the chaff to the wheat 1 
 What right have you to mix tlie worthless 
 chaff with the pure, winnowed grain ? How, 
 he implies, can siioh an adulterated messao;e 
 produce the di sifjned effect of a prophetic 
 revelation? (St. Paul hns a somewhat similar 
 fiRure, 1 Cor. iii. 10 — 13.) So Naegelsbach. 
 Keil, however, denies that there is any 
 thought of an adulteration of the Divine 
 word by the " false prophets." According 
 to liim, the question in this verse is simply 
 meant to emphasize the eoatriist between 
 the false, dream-born prophecy of Jeremiah's 
 opponents and the true revelations. How 
 can the false prophecy pretend to be the 
 true? They are as different as chaff and 
 wheat. Both views are admissible. Naegels- 
 bach introduces %new element by suggesting 
 the intermixture of false and true in the 
 utterances of the " false prophets ; " but 
 his \iew is not inconsistent with what the 
 prophet has stated before, and it is favoured 
 l)y ver. 30 and by the command. Let him 
 speak my word faithfully ; i. e. in its genuine 
 form; comp. ch. ii. 21, "A faithful or trust- 
 worthy [i.e. a genuine] seed ; " also, for the 
 general sense, 2 Cor. ii. 17. 
 
 Yer. 29. — Is not my word like as a firet 
 As in vers. 19, 20, so here, the prophet cim- 
 trasts the messaf^e of the false prophets with 
 that of the true. The former flatter their 
 hearers with promises of peace ; the latter 
 speak a stern but potent word, which burns 
 like a Are, and crushes like a hammer. 
 Observe, the prophet does not define the 
 activity of the fire as he does that of the 
 hammer : for the fire has a twofold effect — 
 protection to God's friends and destruction 
 to his enemies. On the figure of the ham- 
 mer, Cfimp. ch. 1. 23 : Ii. 20. 
 
 Vers. 30—32 — The punishment solemnly 
 introduced by a three times repeated. Behold, 
 I am against, etc., corresponding to three 
 several features of the conduct of the false 
 prophets. First we are told that the pro- 
 phets steal my words every one from his 
 neighbour. The latter part of the phrase 
 reminds us of ver. 27, but the " neighboiir " 
 in this case must mean, at any rate primarily, 
 a fellow-prophet, one who has really received 
 a revelatiun at first-hand from Jehovah. 
 The " false prophets," not trusting to their 
 "■dreams" alone, listen greedily to the dis- 
 ciiurses of men like .Teremiah, not with a 
 view to spiritual profit, but to making I heir 
 own utterances more effective. We must 
 remember that they lived by their prophesy- 
 ing (Micah iii. 5). 
 
 Ver. 31. — That use their tongues; literally, 
 that take their tongue, like a workman's tool 
 —as if prophecy could be turned out to 
 
 order. And say, He saith. The word 
 rendered " he saith " is one which the pro- 
 phets habitually used to affirm the revealed 
 character of their teaching. It is the par- 
 ticiple of the verb rendered " say." Adopt- 
 ing a Miltimic veib, we might render, " and 
 oracle oracles." The "false prophet*" adopt 
 the same forms as the true; but they are to 
 them only forms. 
 
 Ver. 32. — That prophesy false dreams 
 (see on ver. 25). By their lightness. The 
 word is an uncommon one, and implies 
 arrogance or boastfulness (comp. Zeph. 
 iii. 4); t;he root means "to bubble over." 
 Therefore they shall not profit ; rather, and 
 they cannot profit. 
 
 Vers. 33 — 40. — The abuse of a consecrated 
 phrase. The prophets were accustomed to 
 apply the term massa to their prophetic 
 declarations in the sense of " oracle," or 
 "utterance" — a sense derived Xrom the use 
 of the cognate verb for " to lift up the voice," 
 i.e. to pronounce clearly and distinctly. 
 But the word massa was also in common use 
 for " load, burden," and hence tlie " false 
 prophets" applied the term derisively to 
 Jeremiah's discourses. " Rightly does he 
 call his word a massd; it is not merely a 
 solemn utterance, but a heavy burden ; " as 
 De Wette puts it, not merely a We'issagung, 
 but a Wehsagung. The passage is important 
 as indicating the sense in which the true 
 prophets understood the term. It should be 
 added that the term massa is prefixed to at 
 least four Biblical passages which, not being 
 of threatening import, do not admit of being 
 entitled " burdens "(Zech. ix. 1; xii. 1; Prov. 
 XXX. 1 ; xxxi. 1 ; comp. Lam. ii. 14). How 
 remarkable is the line adopted by Jeremiah! 
 He simply abandons the use of the term 
 massa, consecrated as it was by the practice 
 of inspired men I Better to adopt a new 
 phrase, than to run the risk of misunder- 
 standing or, even worse, profanity. 
 
 Ver. 33.— What burden? etc. The He- 
 brew text, as usually read, is extremely 
 difficnlt ; the Authorized Version is entirely 
 unjustifiable. It is just pnssiblo to explain, 
 with Ewald, " As to this question. What 
 is the burden ? the true meiiniug of the 
 word is that," etc. But how harsh and 
 artificial 1 By a change in the grouping of 
 the consonants (which alone constitute the 
 text), we may read. Ye are the burden. So 
 the Septuagint, Vulgate, Hitzig, Graf, Pajne 
 Smith. We must in this case continue, and 
 I will cast you off, as the same verb is to be 
 rendered in oh.'vii. 29; xii. 7. Instead of 
 carrying you with the long-suffering of a 
 fatlur (Dent. i. 31 ; Isa. xlvi. 3, 4 ; Ixiii. 9 ; 
 Ps. xxviii. 9), I will cast you oft' as a trouble- 
 some load (Isa. i. 14). 
 
 Ver. 35.— What hath the Lord answered? 
 i.e. a simpler phraseology ii to be used, 
 
618 
 
 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMFAH. [ch. xxiii. 1— 40. 
 
 Jehovah hath answered, saying, or, Jehovah 
 hath spoken, according as a definite question 
 had been put before the propliet or not. 
 
 Ver. 36— And the burden of the lord, 
 etc. ; i.e. ye shall no longer use the word 
 massd at all. Every man's word shall be 
 his burden ; rather, the burden to every man 
 shall be his word; i.e. his derisive use of 
 the word massa shall be a burden which 
 shall crush him to the ground. Ye have 
 perverted ; " i.e. have turned them round, 
 and put them into a ridiculous light " (Payne 
 Smith). 
 
 Ver. 38. — But since ye say, etc. ; rather, 
 J3ut if ye say, etc. In case the false pro- 
 phets disobey, and persist in using the old 
 
 expression, the threatening already uttered 
 shall come into operation. 
 
 Ver. 39.— I, even I, will utterly forget 
 you ; rather, I will even take yon up, and 
 cast you off. This involves a slight differ- 
 ence in the pronunciation of the text Iroin 
 that adopted by the Massorete3,but js adopted 
 by the Septuagint, Peshito, Vnlgnte, a few 
 manuscripts, and most critics ; it is, in fiict, 
 almost required b.v the il^'ure wliicli fills tlie 
 verse. And cast you out of my presence. 
 "And oast you" is not in the Hebvuw; nor 
 is it necessary to supply the words, if the 
 preceding clauses be rightly translated. 
 
 Ver. 40. — With this verse, comp. ch, 
 
 XK.11. 
 
 HOMILETICS. 
 
 Vers. 1 — 4. — The character of leading men. The character of its leading men is a 
 matter of first importance to a people. Israel had been led astray by his kinss ; one 
 of the first blessings promised to him on his return is the possession of good leaders. 
 In the most free state there must always be leading men — men exercising influence by 
 reason of their ofBce, their rank and position, or their capacities. Observe this in regard 
 to tlie various classes of leading men. 
 
 I. Political leaders. On their character depends the questions (1) whether lawa 
 shall be justly framed and justly executed, (2) whether the welfare of the subjects 
 shall be honestly worked for, and (3) whether the dealings with foreign nations shall 
 be just and peaceable. 
 
 II. Social leaders. The moral influence of the court is always great and wide- 
 spread ; how important that this should be pure ! There are people whom rank or 
 personal attractiveness, or powers of persuasion, endow with power to influence the 
 customs of their age. These need be well advised that their influence may be on the 
 side of truth, purity, and humanity. 
 
 III. Intellectual leaders. Shall the reformer be a Luther or a Voltaire ? the poet 
 a Wordsworth or a Byron? the historian an Arnold or a Gibbon? the philosopher a 
 Butler or a Hume? Surely for the real welfare of a people the moral tendency of its 
 literature is more important than the intellectual brilliancy. 
 
 IV. Eeligious leaders. Are these men barren controversialists, or earnest practical 
 guides to their flocks? Are they loyal to truth, or merely bigoted defenders of their owu 
 crotchets ? Are they spiritual-minded servants of Christ, or ambitious priests ? Are 
 they true shepherds, or wolves in sheep's clothing? These questions touch the welfare 
 of a people very closely. Note, the one essential is that the leading men should desire 
 to serve the good of others and not simply to increase their own power and honour; to 
 feed the flock, not to scatter it by reckless indifference, selfish ambition, or tyran- 
 nous cruelty. The power of leading men is a great and dangerous gilt, only entrusted 
 by Providence to those who possess it for the sake of the good it may be the means of 
 conferring on the community at large. The state is in a healthy condition only when 
 public characters are inspired by public spirit. 
 
 Ver. 5. — The Branch of David. The glorious prophecy of the Messianic future which 
 here bursts forth from Jeremiah, after his denunciation of his nation's sin and lamenta- 
 tion over its approaching calamities, is necessarily clothed in the language of the age, 
 and viewed in an especial relation to contemporary wants. The people are suffering 
 from bad rulers and an unrighteous government. A good king, administering his 
 kingdom happily and justly, is promised for the golden age of the future. Associated 
 with this king is, no doubt, that succession of righteous sovereigns referred to in the 
 fourth verse. It was not given to anticipatory visions to show how unique and solitary 
 Bud eternal was to be the kingship of the Messiah. Yet even there he stands forth in 
 
dH. XXIII. 1—40.] THE BOOK OP THE PllOPHET JEREMIAH. 519 
 
 Tiiarked prominence, and towers above his successors, who are only regarded as following 
 his initiative. Regarding the prophecy with the fuller light of Christian times, we may 
 See how it is a true foreshadowing of the nature and work of Christ, though, of course, 
 imly partial and limited, as the shadow can only indicate the general form of its object, 
 and that in but one aspect. 
 
 I. The origin of tub Messiah. 1. He comes from a human stock. He is called 
 a " Branch," or, rather, a " Sprout." Christ entered the world by birth ; he was " made 
 of a woman." Hence his oneness wirh us, his human sympathy, true example, and 
 ivpresentative character as the Hi;;h Priest of the race. 2. He comes of the/amily of 
 David. This historical fact is significant. Christ is a born King, a rightful Sovereign. 
 He realizes the ideal which the kings of the Jews liad failed to attain, but which the 
 best of them had aimed at. 3. He comes quietly and gradually. The sprout springs 
 from a bud by slow growth. Christ began his life as an infant, and grew in physical, 
 mental, and spiritual powers (Luke ii. 52). He did not astonish the world with a 
 sudden apparition of majesty. His kingship is like his kingdom, a quiet and gradual 
 growth as that of a tree from a seed (Matt. xiii. 31 — 32). 4. He comes with close 
 relations to the circumstances of the world. The sprout is vitally connected with the 
 earth and the atmosphere. It grows in the natural season of growth. Christ is asso- 
 ciated with all human interests. The ages before his advent were preparing for him. 
 He is the representative of their highest aspirations, the satisfaction of their deepest 
 needs. He comes in the " fulness of time." 5. He comes from a Divine origin. God 
 raises up the lighteous Kranch. The text tells us no more than that the coming of 
 Christ is providential and through special Divine influences; but we know that God 
 not only raised him, but was in him, as one with his very being. 
 
 II. The ciFFicE OF the Mkssiah. He is to be a King. It was natural that the 
 Jews should anticipate a temporal sovereign, and natural, therefore, that they should 
 liave been disappointed at the appearance and conduct of Jesus of fsazareth. Yet was 
 he not, is he not, a King? He professed to be a King (John xviii. 37). The apostles 
 claimed submission to him as to a King (Acts xvii. 7). His influence is kingly. The 
 essence of kingship is not seen in the sitting on a material throne and wearing a visible 
 crown, but in the exercise of power over men. Christ is the one true King, because he 
 rides the thoughts and affections and wills of men. Human sovereigns can only com- 
 mand external obedience. While the slave cringes before the throne he may be cursing 
 his master in bis heart. Christ is satistied with no such superficial loyalty. He seeks 
 the allegiance of the heart, and he wins it from all his people. We must, thcrelure, 
 recognize this great fact — Christ is a King as well as a Saviour. While he delivers us 
 Irom ruin, he expects .submission to his authority. He is a Saviour partly by being a 
 King, lor his royal influence is one means of his deliverance of mankind. Therefore the 
 selfisli Christianity which would accept escape from ruin, but would not accord loyal 
 oliedience, is a delusion. We cannot even be safe, cannot even escape from the ruin 
 of our sin, except by bowing to the rule of Christ. We can only find rest unto 
 our souls by taking on us his yoke. True faith, therefore, includes trust in the king-' 
 sliip as well as la the redemption of Christ, i.e. active fidelity in addition to passive 
 confidence. 
 
 III. The chaeaotek of the Messiah. 1. He is righteous. This was much in 
 contrast to the unrightenusiiess of contemporary rulers. Taking the word "righteous" 
 in the largest sense, we have assurance of the truth, justice, holiness, and goodness of 
 Christ, if this righteousness of the Messiah is a ground of rejoicing to the prophet, 
 how much more shall we Christians rejoice in witnessing his gentleness, compassion, and 
 love y 2. He ruUs righteously. 'J'he character of the government is necessarily deter- 
 mined by that of the ruler. The great King comes to live not for himself, but for his 
 )'uople,aiid not to execute stern judgments upon them, but to secure their highest good. 
 Christ reigns for the good of his people. If we submit to his rule we find our own 
 blessedness secured thereby. 
 
 Ver. 6. — The new name. (See also ch. xxxiii. 16.) God's people are to have a new 
 name. In the epistle to the Church at Pergamos, every one " that overcometn '' is 
 assured that he will receive " a white stone, and in the stone a new name written " 
 (Itev.ii. 17). This is suggestive, not only of a change of character, but of a change of- 
 
620 THE BOOK OP THE PHOPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xxiii. 1—40, 
 
 reputation. The redeemed will no longer be tlioiight of in connection with the old 
 associations of their sin and shame. These will be forgotten, and a new name given to 
 them, describing their holier character and happier condition. Consider the significance 
 of this new name — "The Lord our Eighteousness." 
 
 I. God is the Pighteousness of his people. 1. He justifies his people in the face 
 of their maligners by proving the rightness of their cause. For this, like David, they 
 may appeal to him (Ps. xxxv. 23, 24). 2, God's righteousness is the ideal of right- 
 eousness for his people. True righteousness is that which is after God's mind. Men 
 have their notions of right, which are often perverted by passion and prejudice. But 
 the redeemed have a vision of a higher law and a purer type of goodness. God is right- 
 eousness to them. He is the Good, the only true Good (Mark x. 18). 3. God is the 
 Source of righteousness to his people. None can make himself righteous; righteousness 
 is an inspiration. This idea is suggested by Plato in the 'Meno,' where he represents 
 Socrates as saying, "To sum up our inquiry — the result seems to be, if we are at all 
 risht in our view, that virtue is neitlier natural nor acquired, but an instinct given by 
 God to the virtuous ; " and again, " Then, Meno, the conclusion is that virtue comes to 
 the virtuous by the gift of God." How singnlarly near is this to St. Paul's teaching 
 about " the righteousness of God without the Law " (Rom. iii. 21 — 26)! 
 
 IL Righteousness is coextensive with salvation. When the people are saved, 
 they receive the new name. We are not delivered on account of our righteousness, 
 but in our sin and need and ill desert. Nevertheless, salvation brings righteousness, 
 includes the gift of righteousness — is, indeed, essentially a restoration of ri.^hteous- 
 ness, a deliverance from sin to a state of holiness. The two ideas may be separated in 
 thought; they cannot be separated in experience. It would be unjust and unholy for God 
 to deliver a man from the penalties of his sin while he remained in the practice of it. 
 But when deliverance comes, no part of it is more full of joy and blessedness to the 
 redeemed, and none reflects more glory on the Redeemer than the salvation from the 
 power of sin and the creation of a new nature of holiness. 
 
 III. The Divine righteousness is conferred through Christ. The giving of the 
 new name follows the advent of the Messiah and the exercise of his kingly rule. Here 
 ■we are carried beyond the vague and apparently casual Platonic notion of the inspira- 
 tion of virtue to the definite Christian doctrine of righteousness through Christ. 1. 
 Christ secures redemption for us by his life-work and his sacrificial death, and with 
 this comes righteousness. 2. Christ is the incarnation of the Divine righteousness, and 
 breathes that into us by his vital contact with his people. 3. Christ rules in righteous- 
 ness over a people whom he teaches to follow and obey him with righteousness. There- 
 fore, if we crave the honour and the blessedness of the new name, let us yield our souls 
 in trust and obedience to the claims and grace of Christ. 
 
 Ver. 16. — Uninspired prophecy. The Jews were warned not to listen to the prophets^ 
 because they \yere not inspired by God. This fact was considered to be a sufficient proof 
 of their inefficiency, and necessarily so, since the prophets professed to be acting as the 
 oracles of God, and not merely indulging in their own speculations and conjectures. 
 Herein lay the danger of their position. They held official rank as religious teachers, 
 their claims were backed by venerated tradition, they boldly professed to speak with 
 Divine authority ; yet they were not sent by God. The same danger accompanies the 
 pretensions of men in our own day, who claim a right to be heard without question by 
 reason of their high office in the Church, and yet have no Divine commission. The 
 appearance of this uninspired prophecy in Jeremiah's age may, therefore, be a warning 
 to modern times. 
 
 I. The origin op this prophecy was private speculation. The prophets spoke 
 " a vision of their own heart." Such a vision could only be a revelation of themselves. 
 This is what uninspired religious speculation amounts to. It is a revelation of man, not 
 a revelation of God. Attempts are made to arrive at truth in three ways. 1. By 
 observation. But observation cannot reveal (1) the future, (2) the Divine. 2. By 
 reasoning. This must be based on experience, and can bear no more strain than its 
 basis. It is not found that we have sufficient data in normal experience to vrarrant 
 important predictions of history and conclusions on vexed theological questions. 3. 
 By intuition. Intuition does reveal truth, but only the truth of our own nature. We 
 
CB. xxiii. 1—40.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 531 
 
 have no reason for supposing that this is always a counterpart to the facts of the larger 
 world. 
 
 II. Private speculation was especially likely to import error into this 
 PROPHECY. It was always fallible, but in the present instance it was peculiarly likely 
 to err. 1. It %yas attempting too great a task. The prophets were venturing to 
 jiredict the future of their nation under the most difficult circumstances. 2. It was 
 biassed by prejudice, passion, and interest. The prophets were swayed by their own 
 inclination. In religious questions personal considerations blind men to pure truth. 
 
 III. Nevertheless this prophecy was very popular. 1. It was recommended 
 by the official teachers. 2. It was recommended by the majority of the prophets. 
 Jeremiah stood almost alone ; his opponents were numerous. 3. It was flattering to 
 the people ; it represented them as less guilty, as deserving less punishment than was 
 threatened by Jeremiah. 4. It was pleas'int. The prophets spoke smooth words and 
 promised comfortable things. Such teaching is only too popular. 
 
 IV. No PROPHECY IS reliable WHICH IS NOT INSPIRED BY GoD. The prophecy is 
 condemned simply for want of this one fundamental condition. The history of religious 
 speculation proves the helplessness of all attempts to solve the great problems of the 
 future and of the spiritual by bare human intelligence. If, therefore, we believe that the 
 Bible is inspired, weigfit should be given to its teaching as to an authority. In our 
 own thought, and our meditation on the Scriptures, we need those lesser degrees of 
 inspiration by which all Christians may be led into truth (John xvi. 13). 
 
 Vers. 23, 24. — The omnipresence of Qod. I. The fact. God must be thought ot 
 as fully present everywhere; not as a great Being who fills a great space with, however, 
 only distinct parts in each section of space. The whole of God is present everywhere. 
 He is as much present in every separate locality as if he existed nowhere else. All 
 his infinite attributes of knowledge, power, and goodness are present, to be brought to 
 bear on each individual of the infinite variety of things in the universe. God is as 
 much present in the less seemly places as in those that are recognized as fitting 
 temples for him to dwell in. He is in the earth as well as in heaven. Heaven is 
 described as his throne, earth as his footstool. He is present with the godless as well 
 as with the godly, in the heathen world as well as in Christendom. More particularly : 
 
 1. God is present with those who do not recognize him. The sunlight is not limited 
 by man's vision ; it shines as clearly about the blind man as about one with keen eye- 
 sight. So, though we may not think of God's presence, it is not the less near to us. 
 
 2. God is present with those who refuse to obey him. We cannot remove ourselves 
 from the observation and control of God by forsaking all allegiance to him. Jonah 
 could flee from his mission, but he could not flee from his God. God's eyes are on the 
 evil as well as on the good. 3. God is present with those who are far from enjoying 
 the blessedness of the full manifestation of his presence. God is present with the 
 Christian all through his earthly pilgrimage. Though God appears to hide himself 
 for a season, though thick chmds intervene between the soul and that beatific vision 
 which is reserved for the future state, God is as truly with his people on earth as he 
 will be in heaven. 
 
 II. Practical lessons. 1. It is foolish to expect to escape from the judgment of 
 Olid. God never abdicates his right to be the Judge of all his creatures. There is no 
 possibility of hiding from him. God searches us and knows our deepest heart-secret. 
 Will it not, then, be best for us to be true and open and frank with him ? 2. We 
 must not ascribe the confusion of the world to Ood's indifference. If he knows all 
 and does not set it right, this must be (1) partly because he gives large liberty to his 
 creatures for the possibility of attaining higher good than would be reached by the 
 exercise of any irresistible power, and (2) partly because he must have higher ultimate 
 designs than any we can conceive of in the present imperfect condition of the world. 
 
 3. N(i change of place will bring us nearer to Qod. " He is not far from every one of 
 us" (Acts xvii. 27). Therefore (1) it is needless to wait for some better time for 
 approaching God. No time will be better than the present. He will never be nearer 
 to lis than he is now. He only waits that we should open our eyes. (2) It is a 
 mistake to suppose that any outward event will lead us nearer to God. Death will 
 not bring us more closely into his presence. No journey to a heavenly world will do 
 
522 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMTAn. [o:i. xxm. 1— 40. 
 
 this. We only need a change of heart to recognize and enjoy the eternal presence of 
 God, which will make heaven wherever it is felt. 4. Christians need fear no harm. 
 They must meet with troubles and temptations, but God is present to uphold them. 
 They must go through the valley of the shfidow of death, but God is there. They 
 must enter the strange land of departed souls, but he is there also. And wherever 
 God is it must be well with his faithful children. 
 
 Vers. 33, 34. — The abuse of a word. This is not a mere play upon a word, but a 
 mocking abuse of the meaning of it, designed to convey a sinister insinuation. It 
 illustrates what a dangerous and uncertain weapon language is. We are all inclined 
 to attach too much importance to words, forgetting that they are not rigid landmarks 
 of thought, but variable in meaning with the variations of the ideas we import into 
 them. 
 
 I. The wokds of truth mat be used in the service op falsehood. The Jews 
 repeated the phrase of Jeremiah, but with a new and false signification. The " burden " 
 as an utterance, was entirely distinct Irom the " burden " as a weight to be borne. Of 
 course, mendacity belongs to our thought and intention, not to our mere langua.e. Wa 
 ujay tell a lie by using true words in such a way as to infuse into them a false mean- 
 ing. Such conduct is peculiarly mean and dishonourable. It* is robbing the armoury 
 of truth to turn its wea[ions against itself. No condemnation can be too strong for 
 the treachery and dishonesty of those persons who appropriate the consecrated phrases 
 of Christianity as a subterfuge under which to attack its siiiritual truths. Let us be 
 careful in using the Bible, not to read our own thoughts into the text, but to search 
 simply for the original meaning of it. 
 
 I I. Controversy becomes dishonest when it is maintained by the confusion op 
 WOKDS. This is the essence of sophistry. A word is spoken with one meaning; it is 
 re|ilied to with another. Often and often this is done unconsciously. Indeed, a large 
 jjart of our contentions rest on nothing but " misunderstandings." Under such circum- 
 istnnces we may deplore the error, but we cannot severely condemn the moral conduct 
 of the misguided dis|jutants. But it may be done deliberately, to throw dust in the 
 eyes of an opponent, to raise a laugh without justification, to gain a point by mere 
 word-fencing. When this is the case it is untruthful and ungeniTous. If we must 
 dispute, let us be frank and fair, u.-ing every effort to understand our opponent, care- 
 fully guarding against misrepresenting him. So Img as a word is used as the 
 embodiment of a thought, it is a sacred thing to tamper with which may be to murder 
 a truth. 
 
 III. No verbal bolwarks will preserve the integrity of truth. This Is just 
 a corollary on what precedes. But it is sufficiently important to claim distinct and 
 emphatic notice. Trutli must find its expression in words, and to be intelligible these 
 should be clear and definite. Hence the need of formula. But nothing is more 
 unreliable than a formula. Since it may be used against truth with all ihe lorce of its 
 prestige if a new false meaning is foisted into it, we need to be constantly considering 
 it aliesh in the light of facts. Creeds may be useful as the expression of " views" of 
 truth, but history proves that they are of little good as defenders of the faith. 
 
 IV. When a word has given trouble in controversy it may be well to 
 abandon it. Jeremiah is bidden no longer to use the word " burden." We are too 
 jealous of words. There is a superstition of phrases. It is foolish to fight for a word. 
 Anxiety about words is generally a sign of the loss of hold upon truth. If we are sure 
 or possessing the truth and feel the living reality of it, we can aiibrd to abamion any 
 form of langua;;e, and can soon find other words in which to clothe it. Truth will 
 not suffer. If it loses the aid of old associations, it loses also the hindrance of mis- 
 understandings and antagonisms, and it gains the Ireshness of new suggestions. Let 
 us be careful not to be the slaves of a vocabulary. We shall often" find it wise to 
 melt down our theological phrases and cast them in a new form, or rather to bury the 
 old ones and let new ones naturally spring up as the embodiment of fresh livin^ 
 thoughts. Remember, " the letter killeth." 
 
 Vers. 33 — iO.— The "lurden." I. It is a mistake to regard the revelation 
 OF truth as a burden. It comes to lighten our bu jens. At first it may seem to 
 
PH. xxiii. 1— 40.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 
 
 increase them by making us conscious of thorn. It opens our eyes to our own condition. 
 The very light may serve to reveal the existence of the deep mystery all around ua, 
 -wliich was not felt while the soul slumbered in darkness. Yet the light does not make 
 the darkness that fringes its radiance. Revelation does not create the burdens of 
 which it makes ua conscious. It has rather the opposite effect. 1. All truth clears 
 away some of the burden of superstition. Men people the unknown with horrors. 
 IMidnight shadows shroud dread nightmares. Daylight dispels the shadows, and 
 the evil dreams melt away. 2. Divine truth is expressly designed to liberate the soul 
 from spiritual burdens. It is a light of blessing, not a message of death ; an 
 evangel promising consolation to the weary. Even the darker elements of truth have 
 this object to attain, since the evil that they reveal is only made manifest that we 
 piay see how to escape it, or be prepared to endure it, or receive it so as to profit by it. 
 Qu the whole and in the end the truth of G-od is revealed for the loosening of the weary 
 weight of men's greatest burdens, the burden of unforgiven sin, the burden of impos- 
 sible duty, the burden of unendurable sorrow, the burden of unintelligible mystery. 
 . II. Men who do not ekoeive the revelation of truth may regard it as a 
 BURDEN. Thus these Jews derided Jeremiah by mocking his language with words, 
 however, which expressed their own sentiments if not their deeper convictions. To 
 them his word was a weariness, a very burden. Is it not so regarded by many ? We 
 should note the causes of this sad mistake. 1. Ignorance. The word is heard, but 
 it is not understood. On the outside it is harsh. This is the characteristic of much 
 Divine truth. Par off it sounds like grating thunder, terrific and repellant. We must 
 be near to hear its sweet but hidden music. 2. Want of sympathy. All truth is 
 burdensome to those who have not sympithy with it. Spiritual truth is a weariness 
 to the unspiritual. 3. Partial faith. Jeremiah's words produced enough conviction 
 to rouse fear, but not enough to lead to confidence in the wisdom, righteousness, aud 
 goodness of God in his acts of discipline and chastisement. A weak faith always 
 makes truth a burden. To be joyous and exultant we must be trustful. 
 
 111. The rejection of truth will bring a burden. The revelation is not a 
 burden, but the neglect of it will make one (ver. 36). Men turn fi'om God's truth 
 for the trouble they think it threatens. They will find that this very act will bring 
 the greatest trouble upon their heads. 1. This involves the loss of the blessimj that 
 truth is designed to bestow upon us. If we reject the truth we must bear the 
 inevitable which the acceptance of it would have lightened. We then go our own way 
 to meet unaided the, crosses and toils of life. 2. This invdlves the aildilion of a neio 
 burden of guilt for the sin of rejecting truth. A wilful rejection of light is, of course, 
 wicked and most culpable in the sight of God. It must bring trouble. 
 
 HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. 
 
 Vers. 1 — i. — False shepherds and the true. The reference here is to the kings of tho 
 house of David, as the leaders of a theocratic people ; and secondarily, to the spiritual 
 pur|;ose of all true kingship. 
 
 I. The mischief of false shepherding. This is twofold, viz. scattering and 
 destroying. The false .shepherd has no real interest in the sheep; being but a hireling, 
 his chief consideration is a selfish one. The kings of Judah had sought to realize their 
 own ambitions and to indulge their own lusts. The moral and spiritual advancement 
 ol the people— the foundation of all real material prosperity— was not sought. The 
 royal example which ought to have been influential lor righteousness was directly 
 cpjiosed to this, and all classes of the people were infected with the licentiousness of 
 prince and noble. The results appeared in crime, idolatry, and banishment. 
 
 II. Its judgment. The calamity was to come chiefly upon those who had been 
 unfaithful stewards of great responsibilities. Oflice which is thus abused will soon be 
 taken away. According t > responsibility will be punishment. He who causes to 
 offend is worse than the offender, and will meet with corresponding severity of judgment. 
 The nation outlives the dynasty. Unfaithful shepherds of the theocracy sink in 
 ignominy and ruin, hut God preserves a seed to serve him, and a generation to call 
 him blessed. 
 
524 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xxiii. 1—40: 
 
 III. Its correction. The deceived of God's people, being distinguished from the 
 deceivers, will undergo a kindlier discipline. The shepherd's care, as the symbol of 
 royal responsibilitj', is intended as an ideal corrective. It teaches the principle that 
 tlie king exists fur the people, and not vice versa. It is under Christianity that popular 
 liberties, national development, and social purity have become the aims of rulers. In 
 modern times there have been many who have illustrated this ideal of royalty ; but 
 Christ alone is the Head of redeemed humanity — the good Shepherd that lays down 
 his life for his flock. In him the throne of David is eternally restored. Not yet do 
 ■we see all things put under him, but the time draws nigh when he shall reign from 
 shore to shore, and from the river even unto the ends of the earth. Ancient Israel 
 depended for its very existence upon spiritual obedience to God's Law. The Church of 
 Christ in all its offices must respect his authority and be actuated by love to him. 
 Its character and influence must be purely spiritual, or its message will be neutralized 
 ^nd soon perverted to unholy ends. — M. 
 
 Vers. 5, 6. — " The Lord oui Sighteousness." I. The righteousness of God would 
 RULE IN THE MIDST OF HIS PEOPLE. The question of the singular or plural interpretation 
 of the word " scion " need not trouble us. To the prophet it was enough to declare that 
 the offspring of David would yet reign in righteousness. All lesser fulfilments of this 
 pr(i]ihecy are thrown into insignilicatice by the great Son of David, who so grandly 
 fulfilled the essential conditions of the prediction. 1. Sighteousness would yet become 
 the law of human life. 2. This would be achieved throut/h a personal influence. The 
 King of men will wield a spiritual sceptre, but his influence will be the more real. 
 Righteousness will be manifested as a life and vindicated in sacrificial death. 3. The 
 house of David would he restored in him as its offspring. 
 
 II. The kiohteousness op God would be transferred to his people. " The Lord 
 our Righteousness," be it the title of Prince or people, is sufficiently significant to pxplaia 
 its own essential meaning. There would be a transfer of the righteous character of the 
 Ruler to the ruled ; their spirit and aims would be identical with his ; and he would 
 embody their ideal life and present it to God. Through him the Divine righteousness 
 would be the possession of the least saint. This evidently could only be perfectly 
 accomplished in Christ. Nothing less than a unity of spirit and life with Jesus Christ, 
 through faith, could achieve such a result. 
 
 HI. The righteousness of God thus embodied and commukicated will save 
 HIS people. 1. 2^he power of this righteousness. 2. Its desirability. 3. Its attainable-^ 
 mess. The ideal future of Israel and the Church. — M. 
 
 Vers. 16 — 18, 22. — " Trying the spirits." In ver. 18 read, " For who hath stood in 
 the counsel of Jehovah ? Let him see and hear his word : who hath marked his word ? 
 Let him proclaim it." 
 
 I. Hearers are to discriminate between false prophets and true. A very 
 gerious permission. But not for an occasion only : to be exercised whenever the 
 witnesses conflict. The essential principle of Protestantism. The prophet is one who' 
 speaks in God's Name and reveals his will. 1'he question, therefore, is of interest for 
 all time; is exceedingly important, but; not morally dilficult. 1. The effect of false 
 prophecy is disastrous. 2. Earnest and prayirful discrimination is the best safeguard 
 against religious indifference. 
 
 IL A distinguishing test is furnished. It is a moral one. By their relation to 
 the Law of Moses were the different prophets to be judged of. 1. The marks of the falsa 
 prophet. His influence is an unrighteous one. He encourages evil-doers, either by 
 directly unrighteous teaching or through the indirect influence which he exercises. 
 2. 'ITie marks of the true prophet. He is as unmistakably in favour of morality and 
 religion. He is distinguished : (1) By his reverence. " He who hath stood in the 
 counsel of Jehovah." To sit in that counsel would be to pretend to be equal and advise; 
 but the true prophet has no word from himself. His messages proceed from God, and 
 in his Name he speaks. In every age the messenger of God is one who has communion 
 with him, is conscious of a living Presence and a revealing Spirit. " That which I 
 received of the Lord, delivered I unto you : " not " I think ; I am of opinion," etc. 
 No pretence of infallibility. (2) By diligent and devout attention to God's fevelatious. 
 
CH. xxni. 1—40.] THE BOOK OF THE PnOPHET JEREMIAH. 62S 
 
 In the first place the written Word, and in the next the spohen. Of the latter, only the 
 prayerful and studious soul can be the vehicle. "We have to be silent that God may 
 speak. The Word of God already revealed will be respectfully and faithfully observed. 
 Consecration and quietness are marks of waiting upon God. And the message delivered 
 will be faithful to .the original that was seen or heard, and agreeable to what is already 
 known of the will of God. The careless arrogance of the false prophet is soon corrected 
 by what God has already revealed of himself. It is the devout "hearer" who alone 
 has right to speak in God's TSfame, and his testimony will be approved by the spiritual 
 sense of believers and "signs following." The spiritual character of the messenget 
 of God — how much of his message does it represent ? — M. 
 
 Ver. 21. — Unauthorized ministry. The credentials of the ministers of God are eyer 
 a matter of consequence. Exceptional service iu the Church demands exceptional 
 qualifications, and amongst these a direct Divine call is imperative. The wickedness 
 of those who usurp sacred office is that they ignore the necessity for such a call, and, 
 adding deliberate falsehood to impiety, they speak in the Name of God without having 
 heard his voice. 
 
 I. The conditions of legitimate service in God's Name. 1. Those who minister 
 in his Name must be appointed by himsflf. " I have not sent them." For the sake of 
 order an outward and conventional human recognition of office may be requisite. But 
 that is not the essential thing. The minister of God — prophet, priest. Christian 
 minister — must be sent and set apart in the first instance by God. This is an imme- 
 diate spiritual. Divine act. It may be performed variously, as we find in Scripture 
 it actually was ; but the original impulse and impression of obligation are from the 
 ■Spirit of God. It may be impossible to define the mode, yet the fact and the nature of 
 it cannot be mistaken. So as to the degree of intensity with which the " call " should 
 be attended difference of opinion may exist ; but the greatest ministers of God have 
 been those who waited until the Divine ordination was certain and confirmed. A feeble 
 impulse at the outset is less likely to result in a grand consecrated ministry. And yet 
 there is a sense in which the "calling" cannot'^be made sure until after it has been acted 
 upon. So little is it a mechanical act that sinks iuto historical background, — the 
 individual must ever have it present to his consciousness and crescent through active 
 fulfilment of it. And the " call " is ever a differentiated one, having regard to special 
 service. It is not enough for one to assume the minister's office merely because he is 
 fired with the general spirit of Christian enthusiasm. 2. Only as he reveals it to men 
 can they declare his truth. " I have not spoken to them." The prophecies of the Old 
 Testament were the outcome of s[)ecial and particular inspirations, as a reference to the 
 descriptions of prophets themselves will prove. With some the period of active inspired 
 utterance was comparatively brief; others were visited by the inspirations of God all 
 through life. But even the (generally) inspired prophet might be destitute of inspira- 
 tion on particular occasions, or might outlive it. In such cases silence is highest 
 duty and truest wisdom. " The Word of God " on special occasions, as generally, is a 
 finely organized spiritual emanation, a delicate creation or outbirth of the infinite 
 Spirit, and may be misrepresented by unsympathetic, unenthusiastic reception. He must 
 first be a reverent, believing " hearer " who would worthily prophesy or preach (the 
 modern phase of the same essential work). It is only as the Spirit takes the "things 
 of Christ " and shows them to us that we can understand, appreciate, and livingly 
 piesent them to others. This necessary experience is finely expressed in the old phrase, 
 " It was laid upon me," or, as Jeremiah has it, " But his word was in my heart as a 
 burning fire shut up in my bones " (ch. xxv. 9). 
 
 II. He who tjbdkps the sacked office is guilty or the gravest sin. It is 
 instructive to observe that that which, when worthily fulfilled, is pleasing to God, is 
 altogether otherwise if illegitimately performed. Because: 1. I'rue prophets are thenhy 
 discredited. 2. Divine truth is misrepresented. By bald unsympathetic literalism, etc. 
 3. Divine truth is actually contradicted. 
 
 III. God will repudiate and discredit all such. Through genuine revelations. 
 In the event. By the results attendant upon faithful preaching. In the great day 
 of account. — M. 
 
■526 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHKT JEREMIAH, [ch. sxm. 1— 40. 
 
 Vers. 23, 24. — The omnipresence of Ood. I. A personal attribittb. 1. Infinitely 
 near to all his creatures. 2. All-seeing. 3. Filling all in all. 
 
 II. A MORAL INFLUENCE. The question is asked. Every conscience confesses it. 
 The dispensation of tlie Spirit which convinces the world " of sin, of righteousness, and 
 of judgment" is the latest expression of this. 1. Deterrent. 2. Intensifying. 3. 
 Mncouraging. — M. 
 
 Vers. 25 — 27. — Dreams that make the Name of God to he forgotten. This is a very 
 difficult passage, but its general sense is plain. It seems to be this : The false pi'ophets 
 whom Jehovah bad not sent imitated the form of inspired utterance — the dream as 
 distinct from the vision — which could most easily and with least chance of detectioa 
 be iabricated. This vehicle of communicating their false doctrines they strongly 
 affected. " I have di'eamed, I have dreamed." Although delivering these utterances 
 in the Name of Jehovah, they thereby sought to alienate the people from him, and to 
 cause his Name to be forgotten. 
 
 I. Persons may speak in G-od's Name who are really his enemies. These false 
 prophets used the Name of God to commend their own deceitful doctrines and practices. 
 The latter would have no permanent influence apart from this association. It is a 
 favourite device of Satan to appear as an angel of light. There is nothing more 
 diabolical, and the pretence should ever be regarded with critical suspicion, and exposed 
 without hesitation when discovered. " Take heed that no man deceive you. For 
 many shall come in my Name, saying, I am Christ ; and shall deceive many " (Matt. 
 XX iv. 5. 
 
 II. It is easy to impart a religious aspect to that which is opposed to true 
 religion. Here one of the chief vehicles of inspiration is employed for quite another 
 purpose than the revelation of God's truth. Its mystery, vagueness, etc., imposed upon 
 the people ; and detection was rendered difficult, as no one could be sure whether the 
 ])rophet dreamt or not. The real messaae they delivered was one of jjersonal ambition, 
 lust, etc. So men baptize their carnal dreams and desires with Christian names. It is 
 very necessary to discriminate and to be sincere. Now it is a dream, anon an ordinance, 
 at another time a doctrine. 
 
 HI. Falsehood is most to be dreaded when it simulates truth. 1. Because it 
 is essentially unaltered. By sayina; this is truth, it is really no more so than at first, but 
 it gets the character of it. 2. The association thus cnated greatly increases its power. 
 The sanctions of religion are given to ungodly and sinful practices. Delusion is most 
 inveterate when it blends with superstition. 3. It destroys those whom it professes to 
 Mess. The mental habit is thereby corrupted, and the spiiitual nature rendered unfit 
 lor renl Divine communications. The danger is not discovered until it has made fearful 
 advances and worked irrevocable mischief. 
 
 IV. It specially provokes the anger of God. It is blasphemy ; mocks him ; and 
 arrogates his place and functions, becoming moie daring with apparent impunity. — M. 
 
 , Vers. 28, 29.~ The faithful utterance of Divine revelation. If God in very deed 
 reveals his will to men, it is essential that it be dimply and truthfullyconveyed. 
 
 I. Human intermixtures with Divine truth are hurtful and weakening in 
 THEIR influence. The word of human origm is placed on the same level with the 
 Divine. When the former is proved fallible or untrue, the latter is discredited. Efforts 
 after novelty and strangeness generally ensue ; and these are condemned by the "Word 
 of God (vers. 30, 31). 
 
 II. These are wholly unnecessary, as the "Word of God is sufficient for its 
 purpose. " God's Word shall not return unto him void " (Isa. Iv. 11). It is the truth, 
 and must prevail. 
 
 III. The spurious intermixture will be revealed by the difference of its 
 effects. " What has the straw to do with the <;rain ?"— a question sure to arise in 
 tliose who receive such messa-ies. The connection of the one element with the other 
 is evidently incongruous. The stalk sustains the ear which develops from it whilst 
 growing; but when the field has been harvested the two are separated, and have to be 
 used apart. To mix up the chopped straw with the grain would only be to spoil the 
 latter. And so it is when human ideas are mixed with Divine revelations : the mixture 
 
CH. XXIII. 1—40.] THE liOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 527 
 
 fails to edify or satisfy. And in its effect upon tlie moral nature the true message dis- 
 tiiip;uishea itself from the false. "Fire," in its sourohini, consuming power, cannot 
 well 1)6 counterfeited; but such is the effect of the Word of God. The " hammer that 
 lireaketh the I'ook in pieces" demonstrates its loaitimacy as an instrument of grace by 
 its power upon the hard and impenitent heart (Heb. iv. 12). — M. 
 
 Vers. 33 — 40. — Despisivg propliest/infis. I. The honour of God is bound up with 
 HIS Word. 1. It expnssen his character. A careful, gradual uufoldiug of himself in 
 his attributes and jieisonal relations. 2. It declares his will. (1) His Law; Ci) his 
 gospel; both of which express his purjjose. The propheoit's of Gud with liis promises 
 and appeals. 3. In its loftiest embodiment — Jesus Christ — it is identijied with himself. 
 
 (joim ;. 1.) 
 
 11. He WILIi NOT SUFFER IT TO BE TREATKD LIGHTLY. To do SO WOuld be tO COUrt 
 
 contempt, if not to condone the offence. As a sign of liis disjileasure : 1. lie will give 
 til e false prophets another message to deliver. This is said satirically (ver. 33) ; their 
 circumstances will prove that the true message is not one of acceptance but of rejection. 
 The whole nation will be thrust out of covenant relation.shi|j. 2. Special penalties will be 
 inflicted upon particular offenders. (Ver. 34.) Handling the Word of God deceitfully 
 will bring upon a man evident tokens of the Divine displeasure. 3. The word " burden " 
 itself will have a new and fearful significance. It was a spiritual offence to talk about 
 " burdens " so lightly. People to whom the true message of God had no awful impressive- 
 ness would be taught reverence and fear by that which he would inflict upon them. 
 It would be a true " burden," not so readily got rid of (vers. 39, 40). — M. 
 
 Ver. 6. — " The Lord our S ighteonsness." How pleasant it is, after a traveller has for 
 long days of travel been occupied in passing throuiJih a dreary, monotonous country, to 
 come to a region where Nature puts on her loveliest and most attractive aspect ; whore, 
 instead of fiat plains, unrelieved by hill or dale, or any olject on which the wearied eye 
 can fasten with delight, you find yourself in a land of noble rivers and rushing torreut.s, 
 lufty mountains and exquisite valleys, flourishing cities and noble buildings! With 
 what pleasure does the traveller enter such region atier the far different and far \e>s 
 dolighiful scenes he has been fatigued with for so long ! Now, akin to such pleasure is, 
 that of the persevering student of these prophecies of Jeremiah, when at length, quitting 
 the monotonous and painful recitals of Israel's sins, and the distressing records of the 
 dread judgments of God which were to come upon them inconsequence, with which the 
 foregoing chapters have been mainly filled, he enters, in these verses which belong to 
 our text, on a portion of the prophet's writings which tells, not of sin, but of righteous- 
 ness; not of the Lord the Avenger, but of the Lord the Eedeemer and Saviour; the 
 Restorer because the llighteousness of his people. It is like an oiisis in the desert ; like 
 what Elim must have been to the Israelites after their weary journey to Marah, where 
 burning heat and thirst and much distress had been their continued lot. And no 
 doubt Jeremiah and the faithful few who adhered to him were wont to solace their 
 saddened minds by turning their thoughts, as they do here, away from the dark and 
 terrible present to the bright and happy future when Israel should dwell safely under 
 the rule of the Lord their Kighteousness. That was a bright onlook, by nieans of 
 which the heavy burden of the days in which the prophet actually lived and 
 laboured became more endurable, and their spirits were kept from being utterly 
 overwhelmed. Now, concerning this glorious name of Jehovah, "the Lord our 
 Righteousness," we will first show that — 
 
 I. This name belongs to the Lord Jesus Chkist. It is impossible to conceive 
 of any devout Jew ascribing the name of Jehovali to an ordinary earthly monarch, 
 however great or famous he might be. Every Israelite would count it blasphemy so 
 to speak of him. Moreover, the extravagance of the assertions here made, if regarded 
 as descriptive of an earthly monarch, preclude the po>sibility of their having been so 
 intended. How could any such be called the righteousness of his people '! Zerubbabel 
 was undoubtedly a noble prince, and in such measure as was possible to him answered 
 to the prophetic description. He was a branch of the house of David, and nothing is 
 known a-rainst hiin. But his power was very limited, and in no sense did he fill np 
 the portraiture that is given here. Jew and Christian alike agree that neither he nor 
 
528 THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xxiii. 1—iO. 
 
 any of his otscure descendants could possibly answer to this name of " the Lord our 
 Righteousness." Both alike affirm that the promised Messiah is meant, and to hira 
 alotig can it belong. And that our Lord Jesus was that Messiah the Scriptures con- 
 stantly assert. He was " the Root and the Offspring of David," was born " of the house 
 and lineage of David " according to the flesh. He was the tender Shoot, the Sprout 
 that sprang from the original rout when all the stock and branches of the stately tree 
 that had once grown on that root had died down, decayed, and disappeared. But he 
 was more than the Branch of Jesse : he was the Lord from heaven, the Son of God. 
 Therefore to speak of him as Jehuvah is consistent with all the Scripture representa- 
 tions of his Divine dignity. And although the day of his complete triumph has not 
 yet come, nor is his kingdom fully set up, still we clearly see its beginnings, its 
 advance, and its continual growth, so that it is not hard to believe in all those coming 
 glories of his reign on which the ancient prophets, as Jeremiah here, loved to dwell. 
 On all these grounds, therefore, we claim this high and sacred title for the Lord Jesus 
 Christ. He the Church has held all along is " the Lord our Righteousness " whom the 
 inspired prophet ioretold. And — 
 
 H. This name is altogether appkopbiate to him. Not because of the 
 righteousness of his character alone, nor either because of the happy condition to 
 which he would one day bring the Jewish people. We believe that he will do for them 
 all that is here said. We see no objection to the taking of the promises made concern- 
 ing them in their literal meaning. But if this were all that is contained in this name, 
 then St. Paul could not be jusiified in claiming, as he perpetually does, the rigliteous- 
 ness of Christ to be to and upon all them that believe. This view is limited to no 
 one age, no one country, no one people, but reaches out to all everywhere and of 
 every age. But the true justification of this glorious title lies in such facts as 
 these : 1. The Lord Jesus makes us righteous in God's esteem. God ever demands 
 righteousness. It is his incessant appeal here in all those prophecies. But it is here 
 that men have ever tailed. They have evaded this Divine demand, and have 
 endeavoured to substitute all manner of thin£;s in its place, and so to compensate for 
 it. They have refused nothing so long as they miuht be let off this. Hence the 
 word of the Lord, " There is none righteous, no, not one." It is in this emergency that 
 " the Lord our Righteousness " comes forward, takes up our case, and causes us to be 
 esteemed righteous before God — causes us to be looked ujion as what we really are 
 not; as righteous when there is much unrighteousness in us all, and scarce aught 
 else in some. Of course this is objected to and cavilled at not a little, and many 
 fail to see how it can righteously be. But all the while the like is occurring every 
 day. Does not (he government of a land continually do things which involve the 
 whole peoi^le of the land, although many of them may entirely disapprove ? Siill it is 
 the whole country that is regarded as acting by and through its guvernnieut. And 
 yet we assent to this arrangement, this principle of representation, as equitable, just, 
 and necessary. And not merely in dealings between man and man, but in those 
 between God and man, this same principle of representation may be seen perpetually at 
 work. Assuredly the whole human race was represented in its first parents, and God 
 held it to be so, so that the consequences of their actions have passed over to their pos- 
 terity right down to the present day. And in each family the head of it involves all 
 the members, so that there are many innocent victims of their fathers' sin, and more, 
 we trust, who are recipients of favours won by their fathers' virtues and obedience to 
 God's will rather than their own. It is the principle of representation again. Is it, then, 
 a thing to wonder at that a good and gracious God should devise another system of 
 representation to meet and counteract that which has wrought so much ill ? That is, 
 is it to be wondered at that the Lord Jesus Christ should be constituted as much the 
 Head and Roprcsentative of his people as Adam was constituted the head and represen- 
 tative of all who have descended from him ; that there should be a second Adam as 
 well as a first, and that Christ should be that second Adam, as St. Paul declares he is ? 
 Surely there is nothing unreasonable in all this. It is in harmony with what we per- 
 petually see. And if he who is our Representative dedred so to be, as our Lord did — 
 I'or he yearned to draw all men uuto and into him — surely this, his own desire, makea 
 his bein;i constituted our Representative more reasonable still. And because he 
 iiualified himself for this uiEco so perfectly. He came aud_was one of us, lived our 
 
CH. XXIII. 1— iO.] THE BOOK OF THE PROrilET JEREMIAH. 5Q!) 
 
 life, bore our burdens, submitted to our sorrows, bore the penalty of our sins, "was in 
 all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." Now, if the principle of repre- 
 sentation be just at all, surely it is still more .so that the Lord Jesus should be that 
 Representative. But if he be, then, because he is altogether righteous, acceptable, and 
 well pleasing before God, we must be so too; yea, we are so, for he is " the Ijord our 
 Righteousness," God looks not upon us, but he beholds Christ, who is "our Shield ; " 
 he looks on "the face of bis Anointed." "We are accepted in the Beloved." "Chri'st 
 is mHdo unto us righteousness." 2. And he makes un to he as the rightious in our con- 
 ditimix. So only can the paramount and predominant, features of God's dealing with 
 us now be accomited f»v. Man being wbart he is, why slio'nld he be dealt with so mer- 
 cifully as he is ? The answer is, because it is the Lord who is our Righteousness. Il I 
 see a number of poor destitute people taken, and clothed, and fed, and dealt with in all 
 kind and beautiful ways, and 1 ask the explanation, I am at once pointed to some one 
 who has secured all this favour for them, and by whose kindness it has become theirs. 
 And when I see man, despising God, prayerless, sinning daringly day by day, ungrate- 
 ful, evil, disobedient continually, destitute of all goodness, and yet treated with all kind- 
 ness and love, must I not conclude that the righteousness of another is the secret of 
 his mercies, and the real cause of the goodly portion he enjoys? 3. But Christ is "the 
 Lord our Righteousness" because he makes us riijhteous in ourselves. If it were possible 
 that God could for ever esteem and deal with as righteous, not only those who were 
 not righteous, but who never could become so, we should find it difficult to maintain 
 the truth taught us by this name. But God's counting us righteous in Christ is 
 reasonable and right, because we are in the sure way to become so. For when any 
 come to the Lord Jesus Christ in living faith, a new will U given them. They are, as 
 our Lord says, " born again." It is as on a railway, where by one movement of the 
 points the whole train is turned on to another line, and proceeds afterwards iu quite 
 a difierent direction. So by this coming to Christ the man is placed on another line, 
 started in a new direction ; a new will is his, and he is a new man. When- the 
 turbid stream of the Rhone falls into the Lake of Geneva it loses its old character, 
 and its wate-rs Eissimilate themselves to the exquisite clearness and colour of that lake, 
 so that when they flow out at the other end they are as a new river altogether — " old 
 things have passed away, and all things are become new." So is it in the great change 
 when a man comes to Christ. And when we remember that whilst man looketh at the 
 outward appearance, God looketh at the heart, it is easy to see that God may count 
 a man to be righteous whom we should not think so at all. If the will, the heart, be 
 Christ's, though it may be once and again overborne by the fierce rush of temptation, as 
 David's was, yet, because the heart is right, God counts that man righteous still. And 
 this new will, the new heart, ever tends to embody and express itself in act. It will be 
 like a hidden fire, struggling and struggling on till it can find vent and work its good 
 desire. And it shall do this in due time. Meanwhile God but anticipates ; looks on 
 to the harvest as the husbandman does even when the blade has not shown itself as 
 yet above the ground. But he imputes the rigliteousness of the harvest to those fields 
 though not a blade appears. The parent imputes the righteousness of the intelligent, 
 loving youth to the little infant just born, not because it has it, but because he believes 
 it will have it. And God counts us as righteous, not alone because Christ is our Repre- 
 sentative, but because he will restore our souls. He will make us righteous in our- 
 selves as well as before God. And he does this by setting before us ih his own life the 
 perfect example, and attracting us thereto by an ever-increasing attraction; and by 
 imparting to us his own Spirit, who nourishes us in all goodness ; and by bringing to 
 bear upon us the mightie&t motives widch cau ever control or influence the human 
 heart — love, gratitude^ holy fear, bright, blessed hope, — all these and yet others ; so 
 day by day does he strengthen and confirm the good will which, when we first came 
 to. him, he gave us as his first gift. Thus does he make those righteous whom God for 
 his sake now counts to be so. And Jow — 
 
 III. Can we sat that the Lord is " ouh " RiaHTEousNESs ? We may have correct 
 views oa this great doctrine, we may believe in a general and abstract way that the 
 Lord is the Righteousness of his people, but all this is far short of being able to say 
 that the Lord is our Righteousness. We can only say this as we daily ami habitually 
 trust him — as we " keep touch " with him, as it were, continually looking to him and 
 
 JBEEMIAH. 2 M 
 
530 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xxiii. 1—10. 
 
 relying upon him. For faith it is which vitalizes our connection with him. The wires 
 of the electric cable may stretch all tlie way beneath the ocean, and each shore of the 
 Atlantic be joined together by them; but there is no communication until the electric 
 current is sent along that cable, and then the circuit is complete. Aiid so the 
 channel along which our faith may pass is provided ; but until faith goes from our heart 
 — that electric force of faith — the connecting bond may almost as well not be. Until 
 then Christ is a Representative of man before Goii, but he is not our Representative. 
 It is faith that vitalizes that connection, and he is not our Righteousness until we 
 believe. Faith brings us into real union with him, reproduces in us the mind which 
 was in him, lays hold on the grace which he holds out to us, leads us to repent, to love, 
 to obey, to follow him in the daily walk and conversation. Remember, the Lord 
 demands righteousness. We have it not in ourselves. In this our destitution the Loid 
 comes to us and offers to be our Righteousness. We have but to appropriate and 
 claim that which he offers. Shall we be so sinful, so mad, as to refuse ? The great 
 day when the banquet for God's saints shall be spread is hastening on, and we shall 
 all of us be eager to crowd in and take our place there with the blessed. But 
 what if, when the King comes in to view his guests, we have not on the wedding- 
 garment,. but are dressed in some robe of our own, which we think will answer as 
 well? You know how he was dealt with who presumed so to do. Oh, then, that 
 such may not be our doom, let us hasten uuto Christ, and pray him now and for 
 ever to be " the Lord our Righteousness." — C. 
 
 Ver. 28. — " What is the chaff to," etc. f One seems to see the flash of the prophet's 
 eye, the tremulous emotion, the indignant scorn, with which he bursts out with this 
 scathing question ; one can almost hear his loud, vehement tones as he taunts with 
 it the false prophets, against whose wickedness he had been protesting throughout 
 the greater part of this chapter. What sternness, what biting severity, characterize it ! 
 As one has said, " It cuts like the edge of a razor. As a sabre flashing over one's 
 head; a sword gleaming to the very pomt ; a fire lurid with coals of juniper; — we are 
 appalled as we glance at it. It strikes with implacable resentment. There is no 
 word of mercy toward the chaff; not a thought of clemency or forbearance. He 
 bloweth at it as though it were a worthless thing, not to be accounted of — a nothing, 
 that vanishes with a puff." It reminds us, as so much in Jeremiah's character and 
 experience does, of our Lord's indignation against the false teachers of his day. 
 What terrible, burning words were those which he uttered against the " scribes, 
 Pharisees, hypocrites," who swarmed around him ! Where there is deep love of Gud 
 and of man, there cannot but be such holy hatred of such as are what those were 
 whom our Lord and the prophet denounced. Jeremiah in this chapter, from the ninth 
 verse downwards, has been pouring out his soul against them. He declares himself 
 broken-hearted because of them — by their conduct and the woes it was bringing upon 
 his people. He laments the grievous wickedness of the nation, but charges it all 
 upon these faithless prophets, who taught men to sin by their bad example, and 
 encouraged them therein by their false teachings. And as he thinks of the wortiiless- 
 ness of the men and of their prophesyings, his sacred anger and scorn mount up and 
 burst forth in these terrible words, " What is the chaff to the wheat ? saith the Lord. 
 Is not my word like as a fire ? saith the Lord ; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock 
 in pieces ? " Yes, these are terrible words ; but how applicable, how necessary they 
 are to be insisted upon, even now ! For, monstrous almost as it may appear, men 
 are, as they have ever been, most prone to care more lor the chaff than for the 
 wheat ; to spend themselves on securing that which is worthless, whilst that which ia 
 most precious they despise. And the danger is increased because those things which are 
 as the chaff to the wheat are often, as the chaff and wheat themselves, closely associated 
 together, have grown up together, are very difficult to separate, and are mutually 
 dependent one upon another. It is easy enough, when we see the wind driving the 
 chaff away, to discern the difference between it and the wheat, and the inferiority tjf 
 the one to the other ; but it is not so easy whilst the two are together, and seeminj^ 
 so much as if they were all of one nature and value. Now, apply all this in regard 
 to Buudry matters in which this discrimination needs sorely to be made. And — 
 
 1. To TUE PROPHESYIKQ 01' THE PRESENT DAT. The occasion and connection of the 
 
CH. xxiii. 1—40.] THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 531 
 
 words we are considering at once suggest this application. And let ua be grateful to 
 Goil that, amid the much prophesying of our own day, we have much of that " sure 
 Word " to which St. Peter bids us give heed, as to a light shining in a dark place. Yes, 
 there are faithful ministries, blessed be God for them ; and that they are like the precious 
 wheat, in contrast to the worthless chaff, has been proved over and over again by the 
 testimony God himself has given to tliem. For, like the pure grain, they nourish the 
 souls that are fed upon the Word they minister. The instruction that builds up, 
 consolidates, and strengthens the spiritual frame is sh(iwn by that very fact to be 
 not as chaff, but as wheat. And he would not only be ungrateful, but untruthful, 
 who should deny that God has given and is maintaining many who minister to 
 his people, whether young or old, in the congregation, the family, or the school, 
 the pure Word uf God. And the other striking characteristics of the true Word 
 of God which are here spoken of are also found in their prophesyings. The Word 
 of God which they minister is as a fire. How it enlightens, how it cheers, as on a 
 cold wintry day ! How it consumes the dross of the evil nature, burning on until 
 all the evil in us be burnt out ! Ah, yes, the pure Word of God-^which still, thank 
 God, is preached — is as a fire consuming the miserable pretences of self-righteousness 
 in which the souls whom it touches have hitherto been trusting, and compelling them 
 to hasten for shelter to him who is " the Lord our Eiiihteousness." And it is a hammer, 
 which, smiting the obdurate heart, causes the tears of true repentance to flow forth and 
 refresh those who long have been thirsting to see such living waters. As at Pentecost 
 the hammer of that Word fell upon those hearts which had been hard enough to crucily 
 the Lord, and it so smote them as to break them, rook-like thouuh they were, and they 
 cried out, " What shall we do ? " These are the signs of the Word of God, and they 
 are not wanting still. But yet there is much of instruction given that is far different 
 from this — as unlike it as chaff is unlike wheat. It may be the ministry of eloquence, 
 or of ritual, or of philosophy, or of human learning, or of taste, or of fashion ; and not 
 a little of such ndnistry there is in the present day. It is brilliant, attractive, 
 followed by crowds, admired, applauded ; it is associated with all that art, culture, 
 music, and ritual pomp can supply ; it is very fashionable ; for the sake of it humbler 
 worship is abandoned, though that which is abandoned may be purer and more whole- 
 some by far. But because in connection with all this ministry so pleasing to hunian 
 likings there may be lacking that which alone nourishes the soul, and which has upon 
 it the sure tokens of the Word of God, therefore, when there is this lack, God calls it 
 chaff, and despises it accordingly. Do not think that all these things are in themselves 
 to be despised. No ; we would fain have the ministry of the Word of God surmunded 
 with all that can serve to win attention, command reverence, and excite interest ; we 
 should be alert to look out for such things, and to secure them so far as we may ; but 
 let us see to it that they be but subordinate, that they all are used as aids to what 
 is far higher and more important than themselves — that within this husk the pure 
 grain of .God's Word is enshrined and preserved. What is the good of any preaching or 
 instruction, however pleasing or attractive it may be, that does not set the pure wheat of 
 God's Word before hungry souls ? Souls must live, and they cannot live on chaff. Oh 
 that all those who preach and teach may more and more hear ever sounding in their 
 ears this startling word, " What is the chaff," etc. ! Apply this word — 
 
 II. To OUR OWN INDIVIDUAL CHAEACTEE — what We, each one, are. If we are the 
 children of God, believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, and humbly striving da.y by day 
 to do his will and to be well pleasing to him, then there is much that is wheat- 
 like in us. That repentance, that faith, that regenerating grace, that law of the 
 Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, its meekness, patience, zeal, love,— all these things are 
 as the wheat, and blessed be God they are to be found in some measure — would that it 
 were larger — in us all. But there is so much of a contrary nature, so chaff-like, as well. 
 Yes, verily, as chaff lying close by the side of our heart, wrapping it round, long 
 associated with it, grown up with it, hard, hard indeed, to be parted from it ; so is the 
 evil of our hearts, the fleshly nature, the carnal mind, which yet clings to us as the 
 husk does to the grain. And often we are at a complete loss to tell whether there is 
 more of wheat or chaff about us— whether our destiny is to be stored in the garner, 
 or to be as the chaff which the wind driveth away. But do we think about the chaff 
 and the wheat as God thinks about them ? Arc we willing— yea, longing— to be utterly 
 
532 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xxiii. 1— 40. 
 
 rid of the cha£f ? Are we content to bear " the bruising flails of God's corrections " until 
 they have " threshed off from us our vain affections " ? Do we desire that every portion of 
 this chaff may be got rid of, and " that we, wholesome grain and pure may be," and tliat 
 only? Perhaps God's flails are laid upon us now, or his winnowing work is stripping 
 off much from us, and mailing " our very spirit poor." Oh, if it be but tp rid us of this 
 chaff, let us not complain. Death itself is but God's chief flail " to purge the husk 
 of this our flesh away, and leave the soul uncovered." Complain not, for " what is the 
 chaff," etc. ? And not only the sin in us, but much that looks and is reckoned as far 
 other than sin, may be, after all, only chaff. Much of that feeling and conduct 
 which is associated with our religious life may be of itself of a very worthless sort. 
 Those tears which flow so freely when the preacher is in a pathetic mood, — what 
 are they all worth if they never lead to a genuine repentance, a real turning of the 
 soul to Christ? And that open profession of religion, coming to the table of the 
 Lord and partaking of the sacred bread and wine, what is that if it be not the index 
 and outward sign of a heart that trusts, that loves, that is consecrated to Christ ? 
 And that correct and orthodox creed for which we are so ready to show fight, and the 
 deniers or doubters of which we so eagerly condemn, what is the good of it if it be 
 not the guardian of a God-fearing and righteous life ? And that giving of money — for 
 it is to the amount kept back after we have given, and to the motive which prompts the 
 gift, that God looks to determine which is wheat and which is chaff. And that eager 
 activity in many forms of Christian work which some show, unless it be the outcome 
 of a heart aglow with love to Christ, counts for very little with him who here asks, 
 " What is the chaff," etc.? Again we say we do not despise these things — we would 
 that there were more of them ; but if at the heart of them there be not faith and 
 love towards Christ, which alone are the wheat which these things are intended to serve 
 and minister to, then they are but as the chaff' which the wind driveth away. We are 
 apt to think a great deal of them, and to rely upon them not a little for ourselves and 
 for others. But they are not the wheat, only its husk, and " what . . . Lord." Apply 
 this question — 
 
 IIL To THE FELLOWSHIP OT THE Church. And without doubt it may be affirmed 
 that if the pure wheat of God's garner be not to be found in the fellowship of the 
 Church, it is to be found nowhere. What our Lord said of his Church at the begin- 
 ning, " Ye are the salt of the earth ... ye are the light of the world," is true still. Oii, 
 how many, thank God, of meek, pure, devout, consecrated souls has the Church ever 
 numbered in her fellowship, and does so-even yet 1 But still, even on the best threshin<<- 
 floors the chaff is mingled with the wheat. Even those Churches which claim to be 
 most careful over admission to their fellowship, and demand valid evidence to be 
 given that there has been a real change of heart, a true conversion to God — even those 
 can no more keep out the chaff than others who throw the responsibility of religious 
 profession entirely on those who make it. But the presence of the chaff along with 
 the wheat could be better borne if the two were always estimated as they should be. 
 But it is not so. Let an unspiritual, worldly minded, hard, and unloving man find h s 
 way into a Church — and many such do — and if he be rich, or hold a good position in the 
 world, he will at once be allowed an influence and an authority which he ought not to 
 have — no, not for an hour. And if a Church can get hold of a number of such people, 
 if wealthy and social influence, and education, and fashion flock to their doors, there you 
 have the Ohurah of Laodicea reproduced in most exact form. They will count them- 
 selves, and others also will count them, to be " rich, and increased with goods, and to 
 have need of nothing." But what will the Lord say when he cometh with his winnowing 
 fan to throughly purge his floor ? We are sorely tempted, all of us, to crave with a 
 great craving the presence amongst us of persons of influence, wealth, and power. And 
 all well and good if they be earnest, godly men at the same time. But we are in danger 
 of welcoming them even if this great qualification be largely absent. And that we do 
 too often find this sad intermixture of the worthless with God's wheat, is seen in the 
 quick falling off of some of those who once were gathered with the Church of God. A 
 little persecution, loss of worldly advantage, desire to stand well with those around, — 
 these have all served as pretexts for not a few to break away altogether. Like " the 
 nautilus, which is often seen sailing in tiny fleets in the Mediterranean Sea, upon the 
 smooth surface of the water. It is a beautiful sight, but as soon as ever the tempest 
 
CH. XXIII. 1—40.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 5.33 
 
 ■begins to blow, and the first ripple appears upon the surfuce of the sea, the little mariners 
 draw in their sails and betake themselves to the bottom of the sea, and you see them no 
 more. How many are like that I When all goes well with Christianity many go sailing 
 along fairly in the summer tide, but no sooner does trouble, or affliction, or persecution 
 arise, than where are they? Ah, where are they? They have gone." Let us see to it 
 that we esteem the wheat, however poor its surroundings, above all chaft', however 
 richly it may be endowed. And above all, let us by our own loyalty to God, our 
 sympathy with Christ, our love to our brethren, our cheerful self-sacrifice, our daily 
 obedience, show that we are of those whom the Lord will own at the last, and not 
 as the chaff which he will despise and destroy. 
 
 IV. To God's final estimate op us all. For the great question which concerns 
 every man who reads or hears these words is— Which am I, chaff or wheat ? And that 
 question is to be decided, not according to man's estimate, but God's. It is what he 
 will judge, not what we may. Here in this world we are all mingled together, in every 
 Church, family, town, village, society, or community whatsoever. In all places, 
 under all ciicumstances and in all ways in this world, this commingling of the evil and 
 the good is found ; the chaff is ever closely associated with the wheat. " Let both 
 grow together until the harvest," is our Lord's command, and no endeavour of ours can 
 sever the two completely. But the very word " until " which our Saviour employs 
 shows that there shall be a separating time ; the two shall not for ever be conjoined as 
 they are now. " Then two shall be in the field ; the one shall be taken, and the other 
 left. Two men shall be in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left." 
 In the same church, sitting side by side in the same pew, there may be found both 
 chaff and wheat. Anticipate that awful separating time. It will come upon us as it 
 came upon those ten virgins, five of whom were wise and five were foolish, but which 
 was which none knew until the cry was heard, " Behold, the bridegroom cometh ! " And 
 so, though now none of us can tell what those are who gather with us, and join in the 
 same holy service, listen to the same gospel, and unite in the same prayers, praises, and 
 confessions, though outwardly we are all as the wheat of God, yet whether we be so or no 
 God alone can tell. But do any ask — How can I, though consciously worthless as the 
 chaff, yet become as the wheat? Blessed be God, such a great change is possible. Go 
 to the Lord Jesus Christ ; tell him how poor, wretched, evil, you know yourself to be. 
 Cast yourself down at his feet. Call upon him for his aid. Thou shalt become a new 
 creature in Christ, old things shall pass away, all things shall become new. The chaff 
 shall be changed into the wheat, death shall be exchanged for life, and now, worthless 
 once, thou art in Christ precious for ever, and the garner of the Lord shall be thine 
 everlasting home. Come unto Christ in faith and love, for the heart so yielded is alone 
 . God's wheat; but if when the great separating day comes thou seekest to find safety in 
 aught else, however precious you and others may deem it, he will spurn both it and 
 you. For " what is . . . Lord." — C. 
 
 Vers. 5, Q.— Jehovah- Tsidkenu. It is in his kingly character that the uprising of 
 the Messiah is hitre predicted. The shepherds that destroyed and scattered the flock 
 of God were the corrupt rulers of the line of David. God was visiting upon them one 
 after another " the evil of their doings ; " and after them he would raise up men of a 
 nobler sort— men like Ezra, Nehemiah, and the Maccabees, who should be true leaders 
 and commanders of the people (ver. 4). But these, again, would but prepare the way 
 for One far greater. Beyond all these changes the eye of the prophet is fixed on the 
 time when out of the seemingly withered root of David a sapling shall arise, " the 
 ri-'hteous Branch;" One who shall perfectly realize the Divine idea of' a ruler ot 
 men" (2 Sam. xxiii. 3, 4)— the King who shall "reign in. righteousness, and of the 
 " increase of whose governtnent and peace there shall be no end ' (Isa. ix. 6, 7 ; xi. 
 1-6- xxxii 1 • Zech. ix. 9). Towards him the hopes of loyal hearts through every 
 previous age reached forth. In him the "desire of all nations" finds its glorious 
 fulfilment. "And this is the name whereby he shall be called, 1 he Lord our 
 Ri<rhteousness " In unfolding the full significance of this name, consider (1) the personal 
 righteousness of Christ, (2) the way in which that righteousness becomes ours. _ 
 
 I His peesonal eighteodsness. He is emphatically " Jesus Christ the Righteous, 
 the one only absolutely righteous being ever born into the world. Our liuinan nature. 
 
534: THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xxiii. 1—40. 
 
 the beauty and harmony of which, in the person of Adam, the father of our race, the 
 touch of moral evil had defaced and destroyed, appeared again in him, the "second 
 Adam," in all its sinless, faultless perfection, absolutely free from the taint of evil. 
 And this not as a development, but as a new Divine revelation ; not as the consum- 
 mate product of moral forces inherent in our nature, but as a supernatural phenomenon, 
 a miracle, in the sphere of man's moral life. In him the " righteousness uf God " 
 appeared, embodied and illustrated in human form. Our faith in this historic fact 
 rests on different grounds. 1. The angelic testimony (Luke i. 35). 2. The direct 
 testimony of ti.e Father (Matt. iii. 17 ; xvii. 5). 3. His declarations respecting himself 
 (.lohn viii. 29, 46; xiv. 30; xv. 10; xvii. 4). 4. 'I'he witness of his enemies (Judas, 
 Herod, Pilate and his wife, the Roman centurion). 5. The apostolic testimony (Acts 
 iii. 14 ; 2 Cor. v. 21 ; Heb. vii. 26 ; 1 Pet. ii. 22 ; 1 John ii. 1 ; iii. 5). 6. The pro- 
 found impression left on our spirits by a careful study of the Gospel records. The 
 absolute sinlessness of Jesus is one of the foundation-stones in the fabric of Christian 
 doctrine, and to doubt or deny it is to undermine and destroy the whole. But his 
 righteousness means more than faultless personal character. It includes the positive 
 fulfilment of the Father's purposes and of the work the Father had given him to do. 
 "I have glorified thee on the earth," etc. (John xvii. 4). "Wherefore when he 
 Cometh into the world, he saith. Sacrifice and offering," etc. (Heb. x. 5 — 10). His was 
 a righteousness wrought out through all the patient obedience of a blameless life, 
 consummated in the vicarious shame and sorrow of the cross. As the sunbeam 
 receives no contamination from the foulest thing on which it may chance to fall, so 
 did he pass triumphantly through all the evil of the world and go back to the bosom 
 of the Father with a purity as unsullied as that in which he came. " Declared to be 
 the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection 
 from the dead " (Rom. i. 4). 
 
 II. How HIS BIGHTEOUSNESS BECOMES OURS. 1. As the groundof OUT forgiveness. Faith 
 in him as our righteous "Advocate with the Father" delivers us from condemnation. 
 We believe in no " transference of a moral quality." As a man's sins are his own and 
 not another's, so whatever of virtue there may be in him belongs to himself alone. 
 But is it incredible that God should deal with sinful men in the way of mercy because 
 of the perfect righteousness of " the man Christ Jesus " ? " He was made sin for us, 
 who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him " (2 Cor. 
 V. 21). There is an instinctive witness in our souls to the fact that if " grace reigns" 
 towards us it must be " through righteousness." This is God's answer to that Instinct : 
 ". P^ *^^ righteousness of One the free gift came upon all men unto justification ol 
 life" (Rom. v. 18). 2. As the inspiring cause of our personal sanctiflcation. The 
 gospel is God's method of making men righteous, not a scheme by virtue of which he 
 reckons them to be so when they are not. Faith in Christ's mediatorial work as the 
 ground of forgiveness draws the soul irresistibly into living sympath/ with himself. 
 It is impossible to dwell in fellowship with him without sharing his spirit and becoming 
 "righteous even as he is righteous." Not more surely does the prepared surface 
 receive the picture the sun's rays paint upon it, than does the reverent, trustful, loving 
 soul reflect his image. " We all, with open face beholding as in a glass," etc. (2 Cor. 
 iii. 18). Thus does his righteousness become ours. 3. As the rectifying power in the 
 general life of the world. " A sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of his kingdom," 
 and wherever he reigns the discords of the world are resolved into a blessed harmony. 
 He is the Creator of " the new heavens and the new earth, wherein dwelleth righteous- 
 ness." — W. 
 
 Vers. 23, 2i.— The omnipresent God. It is an essentially heathen concepHon of 
 the Deity against which these grand words bear witness. There were two false ten- 
 dencies of the heathen mind to which the Hebrew faith was a perpetual rebuke — one 
 was that of thinking of the Deity as dwelling remote from the ways of men, " throned 
 in sequestered sanctity," too lofty to take any interest in the affairs of earth ; the 
 other that of localizing and limiting the Deity, conceiving of him as exercising a 
 partial jurisdiction, as belonging to a particular place and people. The God of the 
 Jews was no mere distant abstraction, but an evor-present, ever-active power ■ not the 
 God of one nation only, but of the " whole earth." Consider — 
 
CH. XXIII. 1—40.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 53.5 
 
 I. The truth about God here indicated. Two attributes — omnipresence and 
 onmisoienoe — are asserted. But they are so mutually dependent and so inseparable 
 as to be virtually one. By the very necessity of his Being as the infinite Spirit, God 
 is not more in one place or sphere of existence than another, but alike in all, "afar 
 off" as well as " at hand," filling heaven and earth ; and wherever he is, there he is in 
 all the fulness of his perlect intelligence, not observant or cognizant of some things or 
 beings more than others, but having infallible knowledge of all Note respecting this 
 divine attribute: 1. Its mystery. The being of One who is thus superior to the 
 limitations of space and time and to- all our finite conditions — to whom there is no 
 nearness and no distance, neither past nor future, nothing new and nothing old, to 
 whom "all things are naked and opened," — must needs 6e inscrutable to us. Our 
 boldest images are but the veil of our ignorance, and even the subliraest representations 
 of the inspired Word leave the problem as insoluble as ever. The celebrated dictum, 
 " His centre is everywhere and his circumference nowhere," in no way helps us to 
 any real comprehension of infinity; and such grand poetic utterances as those of 
 the hundred and thirty-ninth psalm, however much they may find their echo in the 
 depths of our spiritual consciousness, only call forth the confe-ssion, " Such knowledge 
 is too wonderful for me ; it is high, I cannot attain unto it." 2. Its moral significance. 
 The moral conditions involved, the moral attributes associated with it, and their direct 
 relation to ourselves, clothe it with profound interest and solemn importance. If God 
 were at an impassable distance, it might little signify to us what his moral attributes 
 were. But now that he is thus near — a presence from which we cannot escape, an eye 
 that is always searching us through and through, a hand that is always laid upon us — 
 the question as to what his dispositions towards us are is one of unspeakable moment. 
 His absolute knowledge of us is connected with, a present secret act of judgment, 
 prophetic of the open judgment to come. And it is his perfection that is thus coming 
 into perpetual contact with our imperfect thoughts and ways. His holy love is the 
 light that searches into us, the fire that tries us. This attribute of omniscience derives 
 tremendous importance from the fact that " our God is a consuming fire." 3. The 
 individuality of its application. "Can any hide himself?" Like all other Divine 
 truths, this is nothing to us until we bring it to bear on our own personal condition 
 and doings. The fact itself is independent of all our thoughts about it, and even of 
 our very existence. But for it to have any real influence over us we must reduce it 
 from its vague generality to the narrow compass of our own being, and concentrate 
 the force of it upon the single line of our own daily history — " Thou God seest me." 
 We apprehend the universal truth aright only so far as that cry of Hagar expresses 
 our soul's deepest consciousness — as if the whole world of accountable beings around 
 us were annihilated, and we stood, as in the solitudes of a desert, alone with God. 
 
 11. The practical effect that truth mat be expected to produce. We 
 cannot imagine one more fitted to have a salutary influence in every way upon us. 
 Let God be to you only a distant object of contemplation, as .he is to the mere theo- 
 logical disputant, and with whatever attiibutes you may clothe him, they touch no 
 part of your being with any living power. Conceive of him, io a dreamy pantheistic 
 way, as a mere impersonal, all-pervading force, and there is nothing in your belief to 
 elevate your moral character and ennoble your life. But believe in the God of the 
 Bible, whose voice is heard in the text, and you embjace the grandest and most 
 influential truth the human soul is capable of entertaining. The truth, rather, will 
 possess you, as no other truth can, moulding and governing your whole nature, a,ud 
 adapting itself in an infinite variety of ways to every aspect of your being and life. 
 Chiefly two lessons are enforced : 1. Self -scrutiny. We shall be concerned to become 
 acquainted with ourselves that we may know how far the spirit and tenor of our 
 moral life is in harmony with the will aa<i the Jife of God. Not that a mere curious 
 and anxious habit of testing the quality of one's own feelings, and weighing and 
 measuring one's motives, has necessarily any healthy moral etfect. It may be the 
 reverse. But the sense of God will naturally awaken a desire that the relation in 
 which we stand towards him may be a right and happy one. " If our heart condemn 
 us, God is greater than our heart," etc. (1 John iii. 23, 24): The loyalty of the heart 
 to God is the essential principle of a religious life. The sin of these false prophets 
 was the loosening of the bond of their spiritual allegiance to him. " They stood not 
 
536 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JE.^EMIAH. [en. xxiii. 1-40. 
 
 in the counsel of the Lord." In the case of the Pharisees, their external proprieties 
 were but the veil of internal hollowness and corruption and death ; and Christ said to 
 them, "Ye are they that approve yourselves unto men, hut Ood knoweth your hearts." 
 Let our hearts be right with God, let the main stream of our inner life be flowing 
 heavenwards, and we need not tremble to know that " all things are naked and opened 
 unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do." 'I. Earnest preparation for the. future 
 and final judgment. " He hath appointed a day," etc. (Acts xvii. 31) ; " We mu.st 
 all appear," etc. (2 Cor. v. 10). Your personal alienation from God may give you 
 little trouble now, but " what will you do when he riseth up? when he visiteth, what 
 will you answer him?" (Job xxxi. 14). There is no way of preparation for the 
 solemn judgment of the future but in that personal torgivfiness and reconciliation, that 
 jnoral clean.-iing and righteoiis>uess of life, that comes through fellowship with the 
 SavioTir<Phil. iii. 9). 
 
 " Low at his cross we view the day 
 When heaven and earth shall pass away, 
 And thus prepare to meet him." 
 
 W. 
 
 Vers. 1 — i. — Shepherds, had and good. I. The sentence on the unfaithful 
 SHEPHERDS. This is perhaps the most special and emphatic of all Jeremiah's references 
 to the unfaithful shepherds. Nowhere does he go into such detail as Ezekiel does 
 (ch. xxxiv.). But whatever may be lacking in illustrative detail, the essential facts 
 are mentioned. Here are men upon whom is laid a charge such as is laid on a shepherd 
 by the owner of the pasture and the flock. The business of such a man is to provide 
 lood for the flock, defend it from beasts of prey, prevent as far as he can any of the flock 
 Irom wandering ; and if any should wander do his best to restore them. This might be 
 a task of do small difficulty to the literal shepherd of the literal sheep. It required 
 courage, watch I'uhiess, patience, promptitude, and above all, fidelity. And yet even a 
 shepherd enriched by these virtues might have many losses and failures. God knew, 
 indeed, that for kings and persons in authority to guide those under them was a task 
 more arduous far than that of shepherding sheep ; and it was not mere failure that he 
 complained of. He complained because there had been no serious attempt to attain 
 success. The very men who should have ruled firmly and righteously and with fidelity 
 to Jehovah had been spoilers of the sheep, using them to serve their own ends, and 
 leaving every one to do what was right in his own eyes. The rulers had thus rejected 
 the authority and service of Jehovah and set up self in his place. Self was to rule, self 
 was to be served. The sentence upon this traitorous conduct is given in very general 
 terras, but was none the less real and effective. God did visit on these rulers the evil 
 of their doings. It wjis necessary to give a hint of this in passing, to show that, while 
 God delights in mercy, he must also always be just. The great matter to be spoken of 
 ht're is the restoring and securing of the scattered flock, and if the judgment on those 
 who have heljied to make the mischief is simply mentioned in passing, it is enough. 
 Besides, we must remember that the sheep also had their share of the shame. The rulers 
 could not have done so much harm if under them there had been a people of a widely 
 different spirit. 
 
 II. The restoration of the scattered. The pastors are spoken of as those who 
 have destroyed and scattered the sheep. The mischief they do is therefore not confined 
 to a simple scattering. That which is destroyed cannot be restored. But the part that 
 has been scattered, God has in his keeping; and in due time he will bring it together 
 again. Note how Jehovah, who announces punishment to the unfaithful shepherds 
 because they have scattered and dispersed his flock, goes on to say that his own hand 
 has been concerned in this same dispersion. Here is a beautiful illustration of how God 
 overrules calamities. Though it is the recklessness of evil men that has scattered 
 Israel, yet the good hand of God is stronger than any hand of man ; and the dispersion 
 has been into such directions as God saw to be best. Though these remnants of the 
 flock were far from their proper pasturage, they were nevertheless in safe places, where 
 they would be exercised in a truly profitable discipline. They were perhaps but a very 
 feeble remnant as man counts feeblene-is, and yet in God's hands a small part may be more 
 effectual for his purposes than the incon;jruous wholv. from which it has been separated. 
 
CH. 3iin. 1—40.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 637 
 
 There may be in it a peculiar coherency and submissiveness, and a peculiar energy of 
 growth ; so that the promise of fruitfulness and increase will be amply fulfilled. The 
 Divine course of action with this remnant seems to be much the same as that followed 
 with Noah and his family in the repeopling of the world after the Deluge. 
 
 III. The sufficiency of pastoral oversight promised fok the futueb. Of bad 
 shepherds there have been only too many, and of good shepherds none have been so 
 good but what they might have been a great deal better. The cause of all these bitter 
 experiences has, however, lain with tlie people themselves. Wanting to be like nations 
 roundabout, they desired kings ; and God gave them these desires to the full, to show 
 what the end would be. Then when the folly of the sheep, in trying to choose shep- 
 herds of their own devising, has been illustrated sufiSoiently, God sends shepherds who 
 shall be true shepherds. He alone is able, as he alone has right, to appoint such 
 shepherds as will be equal to all the serious charge put into their hands. No pastors 
 will be able to do anything for God's flock save those who are indubitably of God's 
 appointment. Our wisdom is to allow God to provide out of his knowledge, rather 
 than try ourselves to provide, seeing how ignorant we are. The acceptance of God's 
 true teachers and guides has to come at the last, and many disappointments and 
 vexations would be spared if this acceptance were allowed to come at the first. — Y. 
 
 Vers. 5, 6. — The righteous Scion of David. What is general in vers. 3 and 4 now 
 becomes exceedingly definite. Attention is directed to one particular person in whom 
 shall centre all the blessmgs that can come through a king worthy of the name. The 
 days are coming in which he will rule in the midst of a kingdom worthy of him. 
 Jehovah sees these days coming as a watchman might observe people approaching in 
 the far distance and moving steadily in the right direction. These days are on the 
 way, and the actual experience of them is only a matter of time. In these days will 
 appear — 
 
 I. A Scion of David. " Branch " is a somewhat misleading word here, especially con- 
 sidering the use which is made of the branch in the New Testament. The branch is 
 properly taken in relation to the trunk, both being parts of a living whole. " I am the 
 Vine, ye are the branches." Instead of the Christ being spoken of as a Branch from 
 David, David is rather to be spoken of, by virtue of his faith in the coming One, as a 
 branch of the Christ. The real meaning, of course, is that, at some time in the future, 
 one of the lineal descendants of David will fulfil these purposes of God and the conse- 
 quent hopes of devout men. Hence the importance which belougs to the genealogies 
 in Matthew and Luke. The more the Gospels are looked into, the more it will be seen 
 how they are constructed on certain lines indicated in the prophecies. The two Gospel 
 genealogies become additionally credible when we reflect what a motive there was to 
 preserve the record of lineal succession from David. Considering how uncertain it is 
 that any man will have lineal descendants centuries alter his own times, it is a 
 peculiarly noticeable miracle that he who appeared something like a thousand years 
 after David to do such great works, should have been unquestionably Uavid'a 
 descendant, born at Bethlehem and named as Son of David by the common people. 
 
 II. A BiaHTEOus Scion of David. In a not unreasonable sense of the word, David 
 was himself a righteous man. We cannot say anything lor him, any more than for 
 ourselves, if we contrast him with the righteous God. But we have also to look at him 
 over against the vile men with whom he was so often in confiiot, men who appear not 
 to have had one generous feeling or upward aspiration. Especially we must contrast 
 him with some of his own descendants. When we look down the line as far as history 
 f;ives the opportunity, we see first good men and then bad men. And it is a great mystery 
 in the Christ's human nature that he should have been a Scion of the bad as well as the 
 good in this line. We are, therefore, obliged to recollect : 1. That David, who was 
 righteous in a modified sense, was in due time followed by a descendant who was com- 
 pletely righteous. He who was ever reaching forward, trying to approximate more and 
 more to the will of God, was followed by One who revealed that will in all the conduct 
 of his life on earth. 2. That even as a bad father had a good son (or take, as a very 
 striking illustration, the bad grandfather Manasseh and the good grandson Josiah), so 
 all these bad kings had in due time a successor in Jesus of Nazareth, who was undefiled 
 by any taint that might reasonably be supposed to have come down from them. As 
 
538 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [oh. xxiii. 1—40. 
 
 we think of the contrasts thus furnished, the use of all these deplorable records in the 
 Books of Kings aud Chronicles comes manifestly out. The mischief and rni.sery which 
 wicked kings can work must be seen in all their hideousness, so that all the more a 
 disposition may be excited to attend to the blessings which Jesus will secure and 
 multiply when he comes to reign as King. 
 
 III. The PEosi'EBiTY OF THIS BioHTEOtJs KiNO. It must be made clear in some 
 great and everlastingly conspicuous instance that practical righteousness is fiUuwed by 
 prosperity, and that nowhere is the connection more sure between a cause allowed fully 
 to operate and its full effect. The most hurtful kind of wickedness, the men who commit 
 it do not delight in for its own sake. Their aim is outward prosperity, to secure riches 
 in the easiest and most rapid way ; and this may necessitate a degree of wickedness of 
 which oftentimes they seem not in the least conscious. Then, of course, in the end the 
 prosperity proves corrupt and ruins the man who risked everything for it. But now 
 turn to the individual experience of Jesus. His course in this world had nothing in it 
 of prosperity as some count prosperity. He lived in poverty ; he did not live long ; and 
 he died as criminals die. All these experiences, however, only bring out the real 
 prosperity. After the cross the manifestation of his glory and power began in the 
 acceptance of him by hearts that he had completely subdued. There never has been 
 such a king as Jesus of Nazareth ; never any one who has elicited such whole-hearted 
 homage, such complete, faithful, self-denying service. He prospers and he makes his 
 servants prosper. The more his glory shines, the more their lives are brightened. This 
 surely is indeed a royal prosperity. 
 
 IV. The peosperitt of the people is indicated : 1. By the king's own action in 
 judgment and righteousness, or, as we might otherwise put it, in righteous judgment. 
 As one in authority and power, he has to give decisions, and these decisions are always 
 righteous. Human kings were arbitrary and capricious ; their likes and dislikes, their 
 political necessities, had much to do with the decisions they gave. But with this 
 righteous Scion of David it is very different. He lays down great principles which, if 
 men would only attend to them and take in the spirit of them, would stop all dis- 
 putings and litigations. 2. By the security of the people. The subjects of Jesus have 
 true safety. They are safe in themselves and safe in their spiritual possessions. He 
 who enables them to acquire the true riches shows also how to hold them fast ; else the 
 riches would not be true riches at all. And it is not the least boon that he gives them 
 the power, if only they have faith to exercise it, of living without anxiety and distrac- 
 tion. It is very dishonouring to our great King not to believe that all our best interests 
 are perfectly safe in his charge. — Y. 
 
 Ver. 14.— Prophets strengthening the hands of evil-doers. Jeremiah had much to 
 say at differeiit times on the unfaithfulness of the prophets— how flatly opposed they 
 were in all their conduct to that required by the duties of their office, how utterly 
 negligent they were of the great opportunities of rebuke which were peculiarly their 
 own. And tiiere stands in this verse an expression which gives a climax to their evil- 
 doings. A prophet shows himself most of all an evil-doer when he upholds the hands 
 of evil-doers. 
 
 I. The peophet is eequibed in a special manner to do what he can to 
 WEAKEN THE HANDS OP EVIL-DOERS. All who respcct the will of God, and feel 
 sym pathy with what is right and true and Divine, are bound to hinder bad men in their 
 actions ; but he who held the office of a prophet among the people of God was looked 
 to as speaking with an authority higher than that of a private person. OfBcialisra, with 
 all Its drawbacks and perils, with all its risk of self-assertion, has been of great advan- 
 tage to practical religion. It is true, on the one hand, that to put a bad man into a 
 holy office is to bring that office into contempt, but surely it is also true, on the other 
 himd, that a good man in a holy office has his power for good much increased. Here 
 m Israel at this time there was a multitude of evil-doers, doing evil with both hands 
 earnestly. At the same time, there were doubtless those who did evil with weak and 
 uncertain hands. It is matter of thankfulness that evil-doers are so often practically 
 restrained in this way. Disposition is willing, but resolution is weak. There is the 
 desire to do very bad things, but the courage is lacking. We have an instance of this 
 m those enemies of our Lord who were so often hindered in their designs because they 
 
cai. XXIII. 1—40.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JETIEMTAH. 539 
 
 feared the people. If all the evil could bo done that is desired to he done, sooioty would 
 become intolerable. Now, the peculiar mischief that these prophets did was in strength- 
 ening the hands of wicked men who were, also weak. They spoke encouragingly, 
 and perhaps drew them on by example. Hence evil was done openly that otherwise 
 might have been done secretly. Conspiracies and alliances became more practicable. 
 Evil was made to put on the aspect of good, and men did energetically with perverted 
 consciences what otherwise they might liave done with much hesitation, and therefore 
 with diminished force. There are certain men always to whom evil-doing becomes 
 easy when it becomes respectable. Tims we see how great were the responsibiUties 
 and opportunities of the old Hebrew prophets. 
 
 II. Hence we see something of what A dutt and oppoetunitt belong to alj 
 Christian people. Are not all the Lord's people prophets, if only they choose ta 
 regard their opportunities ? With regard to evil men, it is especially laid on us to 
 hinder their action by alt wise and rightful means. The formation of their designs we 
 cannot hinder ; we cannot see beneath the surface, and prevent the germination of the 
 poisonous growth ; but when it appears above the surface, we may do our best to pluck 
 it out. Under the specious guise of love for individual liberty we may tolerate the 
 greatest evils till they grow beyond our control. The man who took a tiger's cub for a 
 pet found it become perilous long before he expected. We should do all we can to 
 strengthen those who are the modern equivalents to the Hebrew prophets. Such men 
 appear from time to time, and we should pray for insight that we may discern their 
 mission and claims. Such men are sent to weaken, and ultimately to paralyze, the 
 strong hands of the wicked. They are the representatives of great causes ; and if 
 through cowardice, self-indulgence, and fear of being thought peculiar, we neglect 
 them, then we may do much harm. 
 
 in. The great importance of strengthening the hands op all who want 
 TO BE GOOD. They are so often weak in action. " The spirit is willing, but the flesh is 
 weak " They are hindered by strong temptations which come in their way, when they 
 are striving to get nearer God's ideal for them. They are in need of sympathy. They 
 have to be helped in reaching encouraging views of Divine truth. They need to be 
 remembered in prayer, and generally to have more heart and spirit put into them ; 
 then, having abundant life within, they will not lack force, steadiness, and persistency 
 of hand. If we are actively engaged in strengthening the hands of the good, we are to 
 this extent weakening the hands of the evil. And, finally, it is very consoling to recollect 
 that when those who profess to be good are found strengthening the hands of evil- 
 doers, this is precisely the time when God's indignation is aroused and his opposition 
 most effective. " If Grod be for us, who can be against us ? " — Y. 
 
 Ver. 16. — Speaking the vision of one's own heart. Observe — 
 
 I. There is the putting of one's own imagination in the place of God's 
 TRUTH. A prophet, divinely sent, expresses the words which God has put into his 
 mouth, or reports the vision which God has made to rise before him. If, then, it was 
 true that these prophets, as prophets, were speaking only the vision of their own hearts, 
 it was quite enough to condemn them. It is very possible that they had brought 
 themselves to believe that they were speaking the truth. In the days when prophetic 
 vision was vouchsafed to man nothing was easier than for a heated imagination to see 
 whatever it wanted to see ; and then the subject of this vision w.mld persuade himself 
 that the vision was of God. How, then, was a prophet to know that what he had seen 
 was truly of Qod ? U'he answer is very largely to be found in considering the sense 
 of burden aud responsibility which evidently rested on true prophets. About a true 
 prophet there was nothing egotistic, conceited, or impetuous. Generally, too, he had to 
 say things which were painful for a sensitive man to speak, and humiliating for self- 
 willed people to hear; whereas these prophets against whom Jeremiah warns the people 
 managed to say things very agreeable. We read that they proclaimed peace and pros- 
 perity to the evil-doer. Now, whatever peculiarity there was in the visions given to the 
 prophets, it is plain that there could be nothing contradictory to God's holiness and 
 hi.'! laws, so clearly expressed, for human life. When prophets came with visions 
 contradicting human self-will and human expectations, there was in this a presumption 
 that they were sent of God. David desired to build a house for God in place of the old 
 
540 THR BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xxiii. 1—40. 
 
 tabernacle, and doubtless the desire .seemed to be one to wtioh there could be no pos- 
 sible objection. Nathan, however, had a vision by which David was forbidden to build. 
 It would have been pleasanter to go to the king with a messa;.;e more accordant to his 
 wishes, but he could only speak what God had shown him — a word requiring submission 
 of the human will to a higher arid a wiser one. So, turning to the New Testament, we 
 find Ananias at Damascus and Peter at Joppa receiving visions which seemed to them 
 full of incredibility, going right in the face of all their previous experiences and con- 
 victions. Furthermore, it must not be forgotten that some, at least, of these lying 
 prophecies were purchased with money. People paid the diviners to hear pleasant 
 things, and pleasant things must be told them even if they were false. 
 
 II. There were effective tests foe these vain imaginations for ant who 
 CARED TO EMPLOY THEM. Honest minds know how to receive a true prophet. There 
 is a subtle sympathy between speakers of the right sort and hearers of the right sort. 
 God, who sent so many prophets to Israel, was not likely to leave Israel without a sure 
 way of testing them. So it the prophet or dreamer of dreams gave the people a sign or 
 wonder, and then told them to go after other gods, they might thereby know that he 
 was a deceiver. No sign, however specious and wonderful it be, can make that a truth 
 to-day which yesterday was a lie. Every fresh prophet must be in harmony with the 
 tried and approved prophets who have gone before him. There is, indeed, no greater 
 peril than to turn away from any true messenger of God; and happily there is no need 
 to do so, through uncertainty as to his credentials. Any one who points out a present 
 wrong in our lives that needs to be put right immediately, is to that extent a prophet 
 of God ; and if, in addition, he ventures on certain predictions, then all we can do is to 
 wait. Gamaliel's shrewd advice cannot be too constantly kept in mind. What we 
 cannot be certain about while a thing is in the seed will be made clear when it comes 
 to the fruit. The most important matters are ever those on which we have to decide 
 at once; and Gnd never fails to send forth his light and truth so as to make the 
 dtcision right, — Y. 
 
 Vers. 23 — 32. — The giving forth of the word of man as the word of Ood. I. God's 
 unfailing observation. All the reasonings within the minds of these false prophets 
 are open to God. They themselves, audacious, and to some extent self-deluded, 
 leckon on not being detected. They speak what the people wish to believe, and are 
 thus pretty certain of finding acceptance from them. But they forget, or rather they 
 have never properly understood, the omnipresence of God. If this attribute of God 
 had been a reality to their minds, they would not have come so much under idolatrous 
 influences. The possibility of lying or in any way distorting and manipulating the truth 
 seems to depend on an utter forgetfulness of the fact that God is indeed everywhere, 
 filhng all space, so that his eye and ear are everywhere. When we read of God appear- 
 ing to men in different places, we know that the men travelled from one place to 
 another ; but God, even when he appeared to them in the new place, was not a whit the 
 less remaining in tlie old. That God is everywhere is a truth meant to have a most 
 coM6rming and cheering influence upon the mind of man; but because this truth is not 
 apprehended man both loses what he was meant to enjoy, and becomes presumptuous 
 and reckless in his practical denial of Gud's authority. God, therefore, makes his assur- 
 ance through the true prophet that his eye is upon every movement of the false ones. 
 'J hose who assure themselves that God is ignorant would be far wiser in reckoning on 
 the ignorance of the most vigilant and penetrating mind among their fellow-men. 
 
 IL God's observation being such, the proceedings of these prophets can be 
 EXACTLY KNOWN. What is here said of the false representations of these prophets is 
 given forth, not as the result of human inquiry, but of a divinely perfect observation. 
 Not all that God thus saw was here described, but only such things as the needs of the 
 times demanded to be made known. Far more might have been told that was true, 
 but there was no need to tell it. God does not publish the wickedness of these prophets 
 for any delight that he has in exposing them, but that he may be justified in the sight 
 of the people for the things that he is about to do. In their hearts, the prophets must 
 liave known that the thoughts of those hearts were discovered. How important it is 
 to bear in mind that many of the indications as to the wickedness of wicked men m 
 the Scriptures come from him who is the omnipresent and omniscient One, who sees 
 
CH. XXIV. 1—10.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIxVH. 
 
 541 
 
 everything exactly as it is, and who puts into the mouth of those spealsing hia Word 
 iust those expressions which will desci-ibe the things essential to be known 1 God pub- 
 lished the deeds and character of these false prophets that those who were true to him 
 might guard against them. So Jesus warned his disciples against the time-honoured, 
 time-consecrated pretensions of the Pharisees. God puts into the hearts of those who 
 keep near him a feeling which guards them against all who for their own selfish ends 
 make a pretence of being interested in holy things. 
 
 III. There is in this passage a special charge against the prophets, to whicli the pre- 
 liminary and more general accusations lead up. Tlie prophets are charged with making 
 
 a CONFUSION BETWEEN THE HUMAN AND THE DiVINB IN THEIR UTTEBAKCEB. This 
 
 charge is summed up in the question, " What is the chaff to the wheat V " or, as it i.s 
 more nearly rendered, " What has the straw to do with the grain?" The straw and 
 the grain, close together as they may be for a while, are separated at last ; and onp will 
 by no means serve the purpose of the other. Grain is meant for man's support, and 
 straw will not take its place. Straw has its own place, and may be very useful, so long 
 as it is kept in it. But if straw and grain are to be all mixed up together, the result 
 Vfill be very unsatisfactory. We all need to bear in mind this illustration, for we may 
 all have, to some extent, the duty and opportunity of being prophets of God. He is a 
 rare man who can tell forth things exactly as they are. It is not for man, by a plau- 
 sible eclecticism, to take something of human experience and sometiiing of Divine 
 revelation and mix them up into what he trusts may somehow prove acceptable to 
 men. Human experiences and conjectures have their part. When a man honestly 
 tells us what he tbinks and feels, we know how to estimate his statement ; and when 
 he comes professedly with a Divine message we have some notion how to test him. 
 But what shall we do with him who claims to limit and modify Divine revelation, so 
 that it may fit into what he is pleased to call the inexorable moulds of human reason ? 
 We rnust ever make the distinction between the stiaw and the grain in our search for 
 truth. Some truth is discoverable by observation, experiment, deduction ; other truth 
 only by the spiritual intuitions of a devout and humble mind placing itself before the 
 statements of Divine revelation. So with regard to human and Divine government. 
 There is no possibility of acting so as to please both God and men. There is no possi- 
 bility of building up a perfect society out of such elements as we have at present. On 
 one hand, we have to bear in mind the limitations of society in the actual existence of it. 
 What we make a law to ourselves, in our own individual relations to God, we cannot 
 impose on others. On the other hand, we must not allow the low conceptions which 
 others may have of God's claims to drag us down to their level. Let God's Law stand 
 out distinct and authoritative before our minds to guide us in our individual life. 
 That Law must not be in any way modified, under a notion that compliance with it is 
 impossible of attainment. If we persevere in receiving God's Word and persevere in 
 repeating it, we shall find that it will make its way mightily, not as by brute force, 
 but because it is the Word of truth, the Word that has abiding fitness for the deepest 
 needs of men. — Y. 
 
 EXPOSITION. 
 
 CHAPTEE XXrV. 
 
 Again Jeremiah's ungrateful task Is to 
 take up an attitude of direct opposition to the 
 king(comp. ch. xxii. 13—30), though, indeed, 
 Zedekiah personally la so weak and depen- 
 dent on others that he neither deserves nor 
 receives a special rebuke. He and all the 
 people that are left are likened to very bad 
 figs, tlie good figs — the exiles— having been 
 picked out and sent to Babylon, whence 
 they will one day be restored. The vision 
 is purely an interior process. This is indi- 
 
 cated, not only by the phrase, " Jehovah 
 showed me " (comp. Amos vii. 1, 4, 7 ; 
 viii. 1), but by the contents of the vision. 
 
 Ver. 1. — Two baskets of figs were set be- 
 fore, etc. (comp. Amos viii. 1—3). The 
 description is apparently based on the law 
 of flrstfruits (comp. Deut. xxvi. 2), where 
 the " basket " is mentioned, though not the 
 word here used. The baskets were set 
 down in readiness to be examined by the 
 priests, who rigorously rejected all fruit 
 that was not sound. The princes of Judah. 
 A short phrase for all the leading men, 
 whether members of the royal family or heads 
 of the principal families (comp. uh. ixvii. 
 
542 
 
 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xxiv. 1—10 
 
 20). The carpenters and smiths ; rather, 
 the craftsmen and smiths (" craftsmen " in- 
 cludes worlsers in stone and metal as well 
 as wood; the Hebrew word is rendered 
 "' smith " in 1 Sam. xiii. 19). 
 
 Ver. 2. — Like the figs that are first ripe. 
 The early spring fig was considered a special 
 delicacy (comp. Isa. xxvii. 4 ; Hos. ix. 10); 
 " fious prfecox," Pliny calls it (' Hist. Nat.,' 
 XV, 19, quoted by Trench). Tristram sug- 
 gests that the ',' bad figs " -^eie those of a 
 sycamore tree. 
 
 Ver. 5. — Acknowledge them; or, tal-e 
 hnowledge (notice) of them (as Euth ii. 10, 
 19). 
 
 Ver. 6. — I will hnild them, etc. (comp. ch, 
 i. 10 ; xii. 16). As the next verse shows, 
 it is not merely outwurd prosperity that is 
 meant, but spiritual regeneration. 
 
 Ver. 8. — And as the evil figs. (So ch. xxix. 
 16.) That dwell in the land of Egypt. 
 Those who had fled thither during the war 
 (comp. ch. xlii., xliii.); hardly those whb 
 had been carried captive to Egypt with 
 Jehoahaz, who would presumably have been 
 of the better sort, such as are symbolized 
 by the good figs. 
 
 Vev. 9. — And I will deliver them, etc. 
 (see on ch. xv. 4, and comp. ch. xxix. ; Dent. 
 xxviii. 37). 
 
 HOMILETICS. 
 
 Vers. 1 — 10. — Two lashets of jigs. I. Morally men aeb divisible into two 
 DISTINCT CLASSES. The two baskets of figs represent two classes of Jews : the basket 
 of good figs, Jeconiah and his followers ; the basket of bad figs, Zedekiah and his party. 
 The great distinction between these was moral. There were princes in both classes ; 
 yet the one stood far higher in the sight of God than the other. 1. The deepest line of 
 cleavage which runs down through all sections of mankind is moral; all other sepa- 
 rating marks are more superficial. 2. There are in the main hut two classes — the good 
 and the bad — though, of course, within each of these great varieties occur. 3. Both of 
 these classes tend to grow extreme. The good figs are very good, the bad are very bad. 
 Character is tendency. As character develops it moves further on along the lines on 
 which it is founded. Grood men incline to grow better and bad men worse. Like the 
 rivers which flow down the two sides of a great watercourse, lives that begin in similar 
 circumstances and are near together for a season, if they once diverge, are likely to 
 separate more widely as the years pass. 
 
 II. The BEST MEN MAT BE THE GREATEST SUFFERERS. ITie good figs represent the 
 Jews who suffered most severely from the invasion of Nebuchadnezzar, who were torn 
 from their homes, robbed of their property, driven into captivity; the bad figs represent 
 the .seemingly more fortunate Jews over whose head the tide of invasion passes, leaving 
 them still in their homes and in quiet, and also those who escaped from it entirely by 
 a flight into Egypt. We may often notice that very good people are not only not 
 spared, but suStr the most severe calamities. The sinless One was a " man of sorrows, 
 and acquainted with grief." No greater mistake can be made than that of the three 
 friends of Job. Great misfortunes are certainly not indications of great guilt ; often of 
 the reverse. 1. Hii^h character may directly invoke trouble. It rouses the opposition 
 of the wicked ; it feels called to dangerous tasks and to a mission which excites enmity; 
 it maintains a fidelity that excludes many avenues of escape which would be open to 
 men of lower moral principles. 2. God may bless and honour his better children by 
 sending to them the seveirer trials. " Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth." There- 
 fore chastisement is an evidence of God's love. Good men should understand this, and 
 not be surprised at the advent of trouble, but expect it ; not be dismayed at the incon- 
 gruity of it, but recognize its fitness; not despair of themselves, and think that they 
 itmst be hypocrites after all, nor doubt and distrust God, but submit to what is clearly 
 foretold and wisely arranged. 
 
 III. God looks favourably on those who submit to his chastisements. The 
 good figs represent those Jews who obey the message of Jeremiah and submit to the 
 invasion of the Chaldeans as to a Divine chastisement ; the bad figs stand for those 
 Jews who resist. It requires faith to recognize the wisdom and duty of submission. 
 On the face of it such conduct would appear unpatriotic and cowardly, while resistance 
 would seem noble and brave. It may take more courage, however, to submit than 
 to resist. There is a yielding which is calm and reasonable and really brave, since it; 
 involves the curbing of instinctive oombativeness and the pursuit of an unpopular 
 
CH. XXIV. 1-10.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 5-13 
 
 course— one sure to be misunderstood and to provoke calumny. The sole guide must 
 be sought in the question of what is right, what is God's will. We are not called to a 
 fatalistic passivenoss. There are circumstances in which self-defence or flight may be 
 evidently right. What we are to submit to is not all opposition, all possible trouble, 
 but God's will, the trouble which we know he has sanctioned. All the good fruit of 
 chastisement will be lost if we rebel against it. No greater proof of laith in the 
 goodness of God and loyalty to the majesty of God can be found than a quiet, unmur- 
 muiing acceptance of his harder requirements. 
 
 IV. The hardest sufpeking may lead to the happiest results. The captives 
 are to be restored. Those Jews who remain in the laud are ultimately to be driven 
 forth as " a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse." The short, sharp suBering 
 will end in ultimate good. The temporary escape will be followed by final ruin. 
 1. God's chastisements are temporary ; they will give place to lasting blessedness. The 
 preseiit aflJiction is light just because it endures " but for a moment" (2 Cor. iv. 17). 
 Even if they outlast the present life, what is this brief span of earthly trial compared 
 with the blessedness of an eternity ? 2. God's chastisements work our good. They 
 directly tend to produce the happier future. The tearful sowing is the cause of the 
 joyful harvest. The spiritual improvecQent wrought in the soul by the discipline of 
 sorrow is at once a source of future blessedness and a justification for it. " It is good 
 for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth." 3. A culpable avoidance of Divine 
 chastisement is highly dangerous. The escape from temporary trouble must incur greater 
 future trouble • for (1) it prevents the chastisement from working the good in us which 
 ■would have led to a happier future, and (2) it adds a new offence of direct rebellion 
 against God which must invoke upon the head of the offender a terrible judgment. 
 
 Vers. 6, 7. — Prosperity restored. I. After chastisement has been rightly 
 received, God looks favoukadly on his children. He sets his " eyes upon them for 
 good." Men shrink from the eyes of God as from a keen and fatal scrutiny. But God 
 is not always looking as the Judge. He beholds his children with love. There is a 
 wonderful tenderuess in this gaze, like that of a mother fondly watching over her suf- 
 fering infant — a deep pity for sorrow, an earnest care to ward off harm, a kindly will 
 to bestow all real good. It is blessed indeed to be so beheld by God. There are men 
 possessed of such great power and influence that some consider a favourable look from 
 them sufficient to make their fortune. What must be the effect of God setting eyes 
 on a man for good? 
 
 II. When God looks favourably on his children he may secure their tem- 
 poral prosperity. This will not always happen, for it will not always be for tho 
 real good of men. Still, it does often occur. We are too ready to confine the recognition 
 of God's action in our lives to the sterner sides of it. God sends prosperity as well as 
 adversity. If he banishes, he restores ; if he pulls down, he builds up again. And the 
 joy of the restoration and the glory of the latter building exceed those of earlier times. 
 If earthly prosperity comes from God it is real and solid. God can maititain it after 
 he has bestowed it. He will build so that none shall pull down. The man who is 
 innocently enjoying a prosperity sent by God need have no superstitious tears of a 
 jealous Nemesis. He is not secure from trouble ; but he has no special ground for 
 apprehending it simply because he is happy at present. 
 
 III. When God looks favourably on his children he will certainly secure 
 their spiritual prosperity. This is seen in a restoration of a true knowledge of God. 
 1. It is good for us to know God. The knowledge of God is here represented not so 
 much as a subject of duty as in tlie light of a form of spiritual blessedness. The loss 
 of this knowledge leads to the darkness of a godless life. The enjoyment of this know- 
 ledge is eternal life (John xvii. 3). 2. A true knowledge of God is the recognition of 
 God as he is — quite another thing from our common conception of his nature. Then we 
 see and feel the grandeur, the mystery, the glory of " the eternal." 3. This knowledge 
 of God depends on the condition of our hearts. The " heart " represents the whole 
 inner life. When this is rightly disposed we can know God, and only then. What 
 we need, therefore, is not a new revelation, but a change of heart. When our soul is in 
 sympathy with God, when our spiritual vision is open, we can see indications of God's 
 presence and character which would otherwise be obscure. 4. The right condition of 
 
544 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xxiv. 1— 10. 
 
 heart for knowing God must be produced by Qod. God promises to give them a heart 
 to know him. He only can create the heart anew. The greatest blessing of redegription 
 is that he will do this. 
 
 IV. The welfare of God's childken is eestoeed by the ebstosation of the 
 CLOSE RELATIONS BETWEEN HIM AND THEM. "They shall be my people, and I will be 
 their God." This relation is twol'old. God exercises paternal influences, they engage 
 in filial duties. 1. Ood takes them under Ms care. They are his people, to be guarded 
 and blessed by him. So Christians are God's peculiar people (1 Pet. ii. 9). 2. 'I'hi-y 
 take Ood for their portion. He is their God — theirs to worship, serve, love, rejpice in. 
 
 V. The RESTORATION OF TRUE PROSPERITY DEFENDS ON THE GENUINE BETDEN OP 
 
 God's people to theie fidelity to him. The restoration was not a mere compensa- 
 tion for the troubles of the exile. Happiness does not necessarily follow trouble. The 
 father runs to meet the prodigal sou when he returns, but cannot regard him favour- 
 ably before this. 1. This return must be with the heart. Repentance, of all acts, 
 must be genuine and heartfelt. A formal acknowledgment of God without a change of 
 heart is a mockery and an insult to him, which can bring us no good. 2. This return 
 must be with the whole heart. A partial return to God is no true return. He claims 
 the whole heart or none of it. 
 
 Ver. 10. — Sword, famine, and pestilence. I. Tequblb begets trouble. War devas- 
 tating the fields, checking industry, rubbing stores, etc., leads to- famine; famine- aBA 
 war create horrible causes of pestilence. Trouble does not tend to relieve itself, but 
 the reverse. The poor become poorer, the wretched more miserable. Hence the need 
 of a salvation outside ourselves. 
 
 II. Trouble is cumulative. The full force is not often felt at first. One by one 
 the blows fell upon Job. Thus each is felt most acutely. Though we can bear present 
 calamities unaided, we still need a refuge for the future. 
 
 III. Trouble is various in form — sword, famine, pestilence. If we are not touched 
 by one kind of trouble, we may fall under another. Of what avail is it to escape the 
 sword, only to perish of the pangs of hunger or to fall a victim to the ravages of pesti- 
 lence? Future punishment will probably he various in kind, yet so adapted to all 
 varieties of character and condition that none of the impenitent will be able to escape. 
 
 IV. Trouble must be conquered by redemption, not evaded by flight. We 
 may flee from some trouble, but cannot from all. When this is judicial it is searching 
 and penetrating, so that none can elude it. It is vain to rest in the assurance that we 
 have been able to devise means for resisting many troubles. The army of them is so 
 vast that no victory over scattered detachments can affect our ultimate condition. 
 This fact should not induce desfjair, but urge us to turn to the full deliverance of 
 Christ's redemption (Rom. viii. 1). 
 
 HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. 
 
 Vers. 1 — 10. — The two baskets of Jigs; or, predetermining influences. These are 
 not to be understood of the opposite development of character in two sets of persons 
 in slightly differing circumstances, but rather of the primary influence of Divine faith 
 as contrasted with the want of it amidst the trials of life. The people left behind 
 were disposed to felicitate themselves over their brethren who had been carried off into 
 Chaldea, but this impression is corrected by Jeremiah. The exiles were the true 
 people of God, and were to be under his constant supervision and loving care ; the 
 others were to be cast off, to become a prey to inner corruption and the unchecked 
 destructive influences of the world. 
 
 I. The mystery op the Divine election. Prom comparatively similar circum- 
 stances to evolve distinct types of character and destiny. Out of the same clay to mould 
 the saint and the sinner. It is the old lesson of the potter in another form. There is 
 nothing in a man himself to account for God's favour. He chooseth whom he will and 
 rejecteth whom he will. Yet is it true that he willeth not the death of a sinner, but 
 rather that all should come unto him and live. 
 
 II. The manner in which elective grace manifests itself. 1. EecalUng. (Ver. 
 
cfl. XXIV. 1—10.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 545 
 
 6.) How unlikely under the circumstances ! Yet rendered crediWe by the remarkable 
 individuality of the Jewish people from age to age. Reconstituting. (Ver. 6 ) The 
 figure is twofold— building and life-growth (ci; Eph. ii. 21, 22). Spiritiwdly recreating. 
 (Ver. I.) Ihe aim of the previous discipline; but the beginning of great national 
 glory and blessedness. For connection of these proccsBes, cf. Rom. viii. 28—30. 2. 
 Circumstances are made to subserve a merciful purpofe. The immediate condition of 
 the Chaldean exiles might appear a harder one than that of their compatriots at home ; 
 but in the end this would turn to their salvation. Not only will God overrule all 
 things for the good of his people, but he will use them for their spiritual education. 
 The influence of circumstances is thus shown to depend for the most part upon the 
 spiritual state of those who are surrounded by them. 3. Circumstances are appointed 
 for the destruction of the obstinately impenitent. Moral reprobation and political 
 annihilation were to come upon these. There would be no swerving or slackening in 
 the execution of their sentence. This is agreeable with the character of him who 
 hates sin with an eternal hatred. The climax of misery here indicated is but a faint 
 suggestion of that which will follow upon rejection of the gospel. And yet how- 
 simple are the elements of such a punishment ! God has but to withdraw his grace, 
 and the inner depravity of nature will work unchecked its fearful consequences^ 
 accelerating and directing the external circumstances of life. And all this has another 
 aspect, which is full of comfort to those who are spiritually inclined. The faintest 
 dawn of repentance is the opening of the " door of hope ; " and when the heart is 
 changed the tendency of untoward circumstance at once is altered, and the positive 
 blessings of God again return. — M. 
 
 Vers. 1 — 10. — Calamity with Ood and without him. I. To the child of grace. 
 1. It is a chastening. 2. A restoration. 
 
 II. To THE DNQODLT. 1. An influence depreciating character. 2. A source of 
 restlessness and fresh transgression. 3. An ever-increasing evil. 4. An ultimate 
 destruction.— M.. 
 
 Vers. 1 — 10. — Punished for salvation; left alone for destruction. A general principle 
 of God's moral government. The flower of Judah, about to be deported to Babylon, 
 are followed by the prophet with wistful gaze. They are the seed of the true Israel ; 
 whereas those who are allowed to remain quietly at home are to be of no account in 
 God's purpose. 
 
 I. How DIFFEEBNT OFTEN AKE THE EXTERNAL FROM THE SPIRITUAL PROSPECTS OF" 
 
 MEN ! Jeconiah and his companions might have been pitied by their friends lelt behind. 
 The outward position of any one is no index of his relations with God. 
 
 II. Present trial may be a proof op Divine love, and present immunity from 
 
 MISFORTUNE IS NOT ALWAYS TO BE TAKEN AS AN EVIDENCE OF DiVINE FAVOUR. " Whom 
 
 the Lord lovelh he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth." Punish- 
 ment was needed to atone for the past and purify for the future. The exile in Babylon, 
 with its deprivation of political and religious privilege, was a new point of view for 
 the captives. It is a familiar experience to hear men who have done well in the world, 
 or who have had a comparatively smooth life, say, " God has blessed us." This statement 
 is often open to question. God may simply let alone those whom he has given up. The 
 lethargy induced in many by good fortune is to be guarded against. Count them 
 happy that " endure, as seeing him who is invisible." Inward depravity will soon work 
 the destruction of those in whom it remains. 
 
 III. The glory of the Divine in man is evolved from the humiliation of the 
 HUMAN. A mere remnant. How few of those who went forth would return ! Children's 
 children might be blessed, but not they themselves. And even then it would require 
 not only reorganization, Ijut rebirth in spirituality. It is ever so. A profound and 
 radical change is needed ere any one can become a member of the true eternal Israel; 
 Israel after the flesh is sentenced to death, that Israel alter the Spirit may Uve for 
 ever. — M. 
 
 Ver. 6. — " / will set mine eyes upon them for good." The distressed and afflicted for 
 his sake he ever regards with special attention and interest. " The captives are dearest 
 
 JEREMIAH. 2 K 
 
546 THE BOOK OF THE PliOPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xxiv. 1—10. 
 
 to God." Banished from Palestine, tliey ave still " his banished ones," and he will 
 make them to retuin. Those who are undergoing severe trials, in circumstances, in 
 faith, etc., but who are truly seeking after God, are to be comlorted with this word. 
 It is a promise that has beau gloriously fulfilled. It pledges — 
 
 I. God's care. 1. Frotection. 2. Provision, temporal and spiritual. Although we 
 Bee him not, he ever sees us and regards us with complacency and love. 
 
 II. God's favode. This indicates interest, but because of something evoking it— 
 the first germs of faith and repentance. When others see them not, he sees the 
 longings of the soul and its efforts after hetter thinis ; and he will further them. 
 
 III. God's guidance. Although they were led away into a strange land and amidst 
 an alien people, he would never lose sight of them; but, -directing their footsteps, 
 would bring them back again to the lnnd they had left and to himself. It was a 
 strange way, but it was God's way, and his influence would be continually in them and 
 upon them for flood. It is the surest proof that God's eye is upon us for good when 
 his Spirit is within us. As many as are led of the Spirit are the children of God. — M. 
 
 Ver. 7. — The conditions and relations of salvation. I. The ability to know God 
 IS THE GIFT OF GoD. Not more facts, external, historical, etc., are required. Not a 
 new Bible— the letter of the Bible is probably completed already. Nor even a new mode 
 of spiritual demonstration. But a new heart. We cannot make a new heart. God 
 will save us by renewiu;.j : 1. The moral nature. 2. The whole life through it. 
 
 II. The BLESSINGS OF SALVATION CAN ONLY BE SECURED IN ABSOLUTE CONSECBATION. 
 
 " They shall return unto me with their whole heart." Complete salvation is impossible 
 without complete faith. To believe — to believe simply, to believe wholly, — this is the 
 condition of perfect salvation. 
 
 III. The ideal Israel must ever be a theocracy. In the obedience of faith they 
 shall be God's people, and he will be their God. That upon which we depend in faith 
 is that which we observe and res))ect in practice; it is tlie law and inspiration of life. 
 Chri.st leads us to the Father that he and we may be one in God ; not merged, confounded 
 with Deity, but in eternal and ever-blessed subordination to him. — M. 
 
 Vers. 1 — 10. — The two baskets of figs; or, our character and destiny independent of 
 our circumstances. I. The symbols employed. The two baskets of figs — one very 
 good, the other very evil. But : 1. They had each the same advantages and disad- 
 vantages. The same seed, soil, training, climate, sunshine, and other influences teeming 
 on them. 2. They were of directly opposite character. (Ver. 2.) 
 
 II. The people bepresented by them. The men of Judah and Jerusalem. Now : 
 1. The circumstances of all these were the same. Parentage, religion, teachers, dis- 
 ciplines, privileges, opportunities. 2. But some of these people were symbolized by 
 the good figs, and the other by the evil. Those who had been carried off to Babylon 
 were the good ; those who remained still in Jerusalem were the evil. 3. The reverse 
 results might have been looked for. For the good had been dealt with more sternly 
 than the evil. How terrible and sad their lot appeared ! Torn away from all their 
 wonted privileges ; made to endure a fate which others deserved far more than they ; 
 surrounded with idolaters and blasphemers of God. But the evil continued in the 
 possession of all those aids to religion and piety of which those others were deprived. 
 So that the circumstances of the good were less favourable, and those of the evil far 
 more so. Exile, which might have been thought to injure the captives, had done 
 them good ; whilst exemption from it, which might have been thought to benefit the 
 evil, had wrought them harm. " With the exiles were some of the choicest spirits 
 ^f the nation. Ezekiel, second only to Jeremiah himself in the prophets of this 
 epoch ; and, probably, the ancestor of Mordecai ; and Daniel, with his three companions." 
 " The exiles became humble, repentant, reformed. The resident Jews became insolent, 
 self-secure, defiant. The former became worthy of comparison with ' the first ripe flgs ;' 
 the latter as the ' naughty flgs, which could not be eaten.' " 
 
 III. The lessons taught thereby. That (haracler and destiny do not depend en 
 circumstances. We should have thought that either all would be alike, or else that 
 the characters and destinies would have been the reverse of what they were. 1. Let 
 the good who may be placed iii adverse circumstances take encouragement from this 
 
CH. XXIV. 1—10.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 547 
 
 fact. They can surmount and triumph over all the evil influences which surround and 
 oppose them (of. ver. 7.) 2. And the evil are to take warning. Prolonged privile^fe 
 and opportunity have no necessary saving power. Such advantages may leave them 
 worse than before. It was so here. 
 
 IV. Obsbkve the great illustration of the truth taught herb in Christ and 
 HIS Church. 1. Christ was " as a root out of a dry ground." How utterly opposed to 
 all prospect of his becoming great, and his Name above every name, were the early 
 circumstances in his history 1 And yet he has triumphed over all. 2. And so with 
 the history of the Church. It was small as " a grain of mustard seed," feeble as 
 " sheep amidst wolves," was as a thing of nought and despised. And yet what has it 
 not become, what will it not become ? And what is true of Clirist and his Church 
 shall be true likewise of all that are his. " Fear not, little flock," said our Lord ; " it 
 is the Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." — 0, 
 
 Ver. 7.— A heart to know the Lord. It was " for good " that God sent the captive 
 portion of his people " into the land of the Chaldeans " (ver. 5.) The germs of the 
 better life of the future were preserved in them, and their very tribulations were the 
 
 instruments of his gracious purpose and blessings in disguise. In the " evil figs " the 
 
 refuse left behind — there was nothing worth preserving (ver. 8). Of all the beneficent 
 Divine purposes, this had in it the promise of highest good — " I will give them an heart 
 to know me, that I am the Lord." 
 
 I. A true knowledge op God has its seat in the heart. Intellect cannot solve 
 the mystery of his being. Reason alone cannot even demonstrate his existence. 
 " Who by searching can find out God ? " " The world by wisdom knew not God." It 
 is a matter of pure spiritual sensibility. Moral sympathy is the true key to this 
 knowledge. Eeverence, humility, love, trust, submission, affections of the heart, are its 
 conditions. Even right idaas of God depend very materially on the state of the heart 
 towards him. The exhalations of a vain, frivolous, corrupt, or carnal heart pervert the 
 soul's vision and obscure his glory. Only as our hearts are purged from every form of 
 earthly defilement can we behold him as he is. " Blessed are the pure in heart ; for 
 they shall see Gud." 
 
 II. God himself can alone impart this knowledge. " I will give them," etc. It 
 is a matter of direct Divine revelation; a Divine science in which mere human teaching 
 is of little avail. A secret, silent, gracious power above all natural influences can 
 alone awaken in us those moral affections which lie at the root of it. A true knowr 
 ledge, like a true Christian faith, must stand " not in the wisdom of men, but in the 
 power of God." The blindness of the man of science to the deeper meaning of nature, 
 and of the sceptical philosopher to the manifestation of God in Christ, and of the 
 worldling to the Divine presence in his own life, does but indicate the lack of this 
 power. God must unveil himself to us, by drawing our hearts into lowly and loving 
 fellowship with himself, before we can truly know him. — W. 
 
 Vers. 1 — 10. — The good and lad figs. I. Consider the figs generally. W? 
 cannot, of course, say why figs should be chosen rather than another fruit, though the 
 choice can hardly be a mere accident. Some reason probably appeared to the observant 
 of that time which we are without sufficient information to discover. Possibly the 
 goodness of good fruits was more obvious against the badness of bad ones, in the case 
 of the fig than in the case of other fruits. It is to be noticed also that the figure 
 chosen to set forth the difference between the good and the bad in Israel is taken from 
 fruit. It was something presented as the result of growth and in connection witlr 
 culture. The question was suggested how such a difference should come between th_ 
 good and the bad. For if trees of the same sort grow in the same soil and have the 
 same attention, and the same external influences, how comes some of the fruit to be 
 very good and some very bad ? Notice also the sharpness of the -distinction. These 
 fruits were either good or bad. To be excluded from one is to.be included in tho 
 other. There is no third, no rnedium class. This exactly agrees with the way of 
 Speaking in the New Testament, especially by Jesus himself: e.g. the seed in the good 
 and bad ground, the sheep and goats, the good kinds of fish and the bad ones, the 
 five wise and the five foolish viigins. It is of the first importance to bear in mind, 
 
-548 'THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xxv. 1—38. 
 
 that the imperceptible gradations, as we reckon them, count for nothing with God. 
 There are only two kinds of hearts, the good and the bad. 
 
 II. Consider the blessings on that class in Isbael set forth by the good figs. 
 Painful external experiences cannot destroy the blessing comina from satisfactory 
 
 , internal character. These people represented by the good figs might say, "If we are 
 
 (indeed as good figs, why make lis pass through such pains?" To this it might be 
 
 answered, in the first place, that it was because of this very goodness that God thus 
 
 treated them. They were being pruned and cleansed that they might bring forth 
 
 : more fruit. Secondly, when they looked on the fate of those represented by the bad 
 
 figs, even captivity in a distant land would be seen as a blessing. God bends every 
 
 word that he here speaks through his prophet so as to form a total of strong consolation 
 
 and hope. 1. Though these people are called captives of Judah, yet this is only the 
 
 conventional mode of description. In reality, Jehovah himself sends them into the 
 
 land of the Chaldeans. So Joseph was made to feel that it was God who had brought 
 
 ihim into Egypt. 2. God's eye is upon his people for good. That which God sees to 
 
 •be good he always regards for good. Whosoever has, to him is given more. Note, 
 
 •too, that the people were not merely remembered, as if God had stayed behind in 
 
 ■the land of Israel. He was equally in Israel watching over it against the day of his 
 
 people's return, and in the land of the Chaldeans watching over his faithful ones there. 
 
 3. There is to be in due time a restoration. He who sends away can also bring back. 
 
 The external circumstances of his people are completely under his control. He was 
 
 • speaking to those in whose history was written down all the marvellous things of the 
 
 Exodus from Egypt. 4. There is to be a Divine building and planting. What others 
 
 had built God had pulled down, what others had planted he had uprooted. Every 
 
 plant not of the heavenly Father's planting must be rooted up. All this was done, not 
 
 for any delight God took in the ruin and the wilderness, but that a nation miglit be 
 
 built up in righteousness, and bring forth only good fruit. 5. The giving of a true 
 
 ■knowledge of God. God must give this knowledge, for it can only come to a renewed 
 
 heart. The mere exhibition of God's name and person to the natural man is not 
 
 enough. There may be very elaborate intellectual conceptions of Deity without the 
 
 slightest profit or comfort. When the renewed heart begins to know, then God begins 
 
 to be truly known. His love must not only be set before us, but must be shed abroad 
 
 in our hearts by the Holy Spirit given to us. 
 
 III. The curse on those set forth by the bad figs. There is the greatest pos- 
 sible contrast between the treatment of good fruit and bad fruit. And so there was the 
 ■greatest possible contrast between the treatment of the people taken to Babylon and 
 the treatment of those remaining at home and nearer home. Upon the surface and at 
 the first aspect it might seem as if these latter had the best of it. And, indeed, there 
 might be no immediate way of making clear the diiference. But a difference there 
 assuredly was, and every succeeding year would manifest and emphasize it the more. In 
 the mean time here stood the contrast between the good and bad figs, which would be 
 quite enough for the eye of faith. How the history of the Jewish people justifies the 
 bitter words of vers. 9 and 10! Again and again the Gentile has treated the Jew 
 according to the words of this prophecy, and found in them and similar words a justifi- 
 cation of his treatment. Not, of course, that the prophecy did really justify the treat- 
 ment, but God could speak beforehand of the way in which human passions would 
 assuredly work. — Y, 
 
 EXPOSITION. 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 This chapter may be illustrated by a 
 comparison of it with oh. xlvi. There Jere- 
 niiaji exults over the destruction of a nation 
 (Egypt) wliich was one of the chief enemies 
 of GrRl's people, and on hearing or reading 
 the inspired elo^acnefe of the pr'bphet flie 
 
 heart of a Jew could not but be moved with 
 the liveliest sympathy. But it is another 
 strain which meets us in this chapter, and 
 one which to a Jew would certainly neutral- 
 ize the favourable feelings which prophecies 
 like that referred to must have awakened. 
 Here Jeremiah announces that the last 
 moment of grace for Judah is past, and the 
 
cii. XXV. 1—3^.] THE BOOK OF THE PROFHET JEUEMTAH. 
 
 54» 
 
 time for judgment come. The long-suffering 
 of Jehovali has been exhausted ; the fall of 
 the commonwealth cannot any longer be 
 deluyeil. Such was the strange destiny of 
 the prophet ; he was sent to " pull down " 
 and " to build,' but the destructive element 
 (as ch. i. 10 suggests) was largely predomi- 
 nant. Specially predominant is it in this 
 importnnt chapter, in which the prophet 
 begins to fulfil the mission to the heathen 
 with which twenty-three years ago he had 
 been entrusted. One by one, "all the 
 nations" directly or indirectly connected 
 with Israel are called up to hear their 
 punishment. There is no iudulgenoe, no 
 respite ; only a gleam of hope in the 
 promised final destruction of the tyrant- 
 city Babylon (vers. 12—14). The prophecy 
 falls naturally into three parts, vers. 15 — 2& 
 forming the centre. The date assigned to 
 this chapter in the first verse is remarkable : 
 it is the fatal year of the battle of Car- 
 chemish, which brought Syria and Palestine 
 within the grasp of Babylon. 
 
 Ver. 1. — The fijst year of Nebuchadrezzar 
 (coinp. 2 Kings xxiv. 12 ; xxv. 8 ; ch. lii. 
 12; xxxii. 1). 
 
 Ver. 3. — From, the thirteenth year; etc. ; 
 alluding to the chronological statement iu 
 ch. i. 2. The three and twentieth year ; 
 counting ninfte>n years under Josiah and 
 four under Jehoiachin, and including the 
 three months of Jehoahaz. 
 
 Vers. 4,5. — (Comp. ch. vii. 25 ; xi. 7; xxxv. 
 15.) They said; liierally, saying. The pro- 
 phet meutally resumes the statement of ver. 
 4, "He hath sunt his servants the prophets." 
 Turn ye ; rather, return ye, conversion being 
 the return of the sinner to his natural home. 
 
 Ver. 9. — The families of the north (comp. 
 ch. i. 15, note). And Nehuthadrezzar the 
 Jang of Babylon, my servant. This is the 
 rendering of the Targum, the Syriac, and 
 the Vulgate, and corresponds with the read- 
 ing of a few extant manuscripts. The re- 
 ceived text, however, reads, "and unto 
 Nebuohailrezzar," etc. Neither reading is 
 satisfactory. The latter oue is intolerably 
 harsh ; the former makes Nebuchadrezzar a 
 mere adjunct of the tiibes of the north. In 
 the other passages, moreover, where this king 
 is solemnly entitled "myservant," the clause 
 is the most prominent one in the sentence 
 (see ch. xxvii. 6 ; xliii. 10). Tiie words in 
 question have a sort of family resemblance 
 to the elosses which meet us occasionally 
 both in the form of the Hebrew text repre- 
 sented by the Mussoretic recension, and 
 those by ihe principal ancient versions. The. 
 
 words are omitted by the Septuagint. My 
 servant. Generally to be a " servant " of 
 Jehovah or of any supposed deity is to be 
 a worshipper. TIiub Daniel is called by 
 Darius, "servant of ihe living God" (Dan. 
 vi. 20), and thus Abdallah, " servant of 
 Allah," lias become a favourite surname of 
 the followers of Mohummed. In the Book 
 of Jeremiah itself (xxx. 10; xlvi. 27, 28), 
 and in Ezekiel (xxxvii. 25), "my ser- 
 vant " is the form in which Jehovah ad- 
 dresses his chosen people ; and iu the second 
 part of Isaiah the surt'ering Messiah is so 
 styled. Here, however, a foreign king is 
 thus entitled. How is this to be explained? 
 Cyrus, no doubt, in Isa. xliv. 28, xlv. 1, is 
 called " my shepherd" and "my anointed 
 one ; " but then Cyrus, in the view of the 
 prophet, was a genuine though unconscious 
 worshipper of the true God (Isa. xli. 25)^ 
 whereas Nebuchadrezzar was known to be a 
 polytheist and an idolater. We must, there- 
 fore, take " servant " to be applied to Nebu- 
 chadrezzar in a lower sense tlian to the other 
 bearers of the title. The Hebrew 'ebhed, 
 in fact, may be either " slave " in something 
 approaching to the terrible modern sense, or 
 in the sense in which Elii zer was one (i.e. 
 little less than a son, and a possible heir,, 
 Gen. xxiv. 2 ; Gal. iv. 1), and which is still 
 in full force in Arabia. An astonishment 
 (see on ch. ii. 11). An hissing (comp. ch., 
 xviii. 16 ; xix. 8). 
 
 Ver. 10.— The sound of the millstones. 
 Modern travel enables us (so conservative is 
 the East) to realize the full force of this 
 image. The hand-mill is composed of two 
 stones. As a rule, "two women (comp. Matt, 
 xxiv. 41) sit at it facing each other; both 
 have hold of the handle by which the upper 
 is turned round on the ' nether ' millstone. 
 The one whose riglit hand is disengaged 
 throws in the grain as occasion requires,, 
 tiirough the hole in the upper stone" (Dr. 
 Thomson). " The labour," remarks Dr. 
 Kobinson, " is evidently hard ; and the 
 grating sound of the mill is heard at a dis- 
 tance, indicating (like our cofl'ee-mills) the 
 presence of a family and of household life " 
 (' Biblical Besearehes,' ii. 181). Add to this 
 the light of tlie candle (or rather, lamp), and; 
 we have two of the most universally cha- 
 racteristic signs of domestic life. No family 
 could dispense with the hand-mill, and, as 
 the sermon on the muunt implies, the, 
 poorest household had its "lamp" (Matt. v. 
 15— the poverty of the family is indicated; 
 by the various uses to which the lamp-stand 
 was applied). Comp. this vtrse witii the imi- 
 tation in Itev, xviii. 22, 2i. 
 
 Ver. 11. — Shall serve the Mng of Babylon 
 seventy years. Widely different opinions, 
 are held as to the meaning of this prophecy.' 
 The most probable view is that "seventy": 
 
S50 
 
 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xxv. 1-38. 
 
 IS an indefinite nr round number (as in Isa. 
 xxiii. 17), equivalent to " a very long time." 
 This is supported by the analogy of ch. xxvii. 
 7, where the captivity ia announced as last- 
 ing through the reigns of Nebuchadrezzar, 
 his son, and his grandson — a statement evi- 
 dently vague and indefinite (see ad loo.'), 
 and in any case not answering to a period of 
 seventy years. Besides, we find the " seventy 
 years " again in ch. xxix. 10, a passage 
 wiitten probably eleven years later. Others 
 think the number is to be taken literally, 
 and it is certainly true that trom B.C. 606, 
 tlie fourth year of Jehoiakim, to tlie fall of 
 Babylon, B.C. 539, sixty-seven years elapsed. 
 But is it desirable to press this against the 
 internal evidence that Jeremiah himself 
 took the number indefinitely ? 
 
 Vers. 12 — 29. — The judgment upon Judah 
 and the nations. 
 
 Ver. 12. — rerpetual desolations. Thus, too, 
 we read.in Isa. xiii. 20, that Babylon "nhall 
 never be inhabited." There ia a dispute 
 between Dr. Keith and Dr. Kay on the one 
 side, and rationalistic commentators (e.g. 
 Kuenen) on the other, whether these pro- 
 phecies have received a circumstantial fulfil- 
 ment. The truth is that authorities are not 
 entirely agreed ou the area covered by the 
 site of Babylon. General Chesney remarks 
 that, so far from being uninhabited, " A town 
 of considerable population, villages, date 
 groves, and gardens, are found still on the 
 very site of ancient Babylon " (extracts from 
 a private letter in B. W . Newton's ' Baby- 
 lon : its Kevival and Final Desolation,' pp. 
 iJ8— 42). Similarly M. Menant, a veteran 
 French Assyriologist, remarks that "Hillah, 
 according to M. Oppert, was a quarter of 
 Babylon, probably that which was inhabited 
 by the working population, without the pre- 
 cincts of the royal palaces. Numberless traces 
 of ancient habitations indicate this origin of 
 the modern town " (' Baby lone,' p. 177). Mr. 
 George Smith, however, in his ' A>8yrian 
 Discoveries,' simply states that, " A little 
 to the south rose the town of Hillah," ap- 
 parently assuming (what is impossible to 
 prove, as the walla of Babylon have not 
 yet been discovered) that Hillah lay just 
 outside the city enclosure. But even he adds 
 that it was " built with the briuka found in 
 the old capital," which is, strictly speaking, 
 inconsistent with the absolute abandonment 
 of the site of Babylon implied in Isa. xiii. 
 20 — 22. The dispute is an unfortunate one, 
 as it tacitly implies that circumstanti.il ful- 
 filments are necessary to the veracity of 
 prophecy. The truth seems to lie in the 
 mean between two opposing views. As a 
 rule, the details of a prophetic description 
 cannot be pressed; they are mainly imagina- 
 tive elaborations of a great central truth or 
 fact. Occasionally, however, regarding the 
 
 prophecies in the light of gospel times, it 
 is almost impossible not to observe that 
 "the Spirit of Clirist which was in" the 
 prophets (1 Pet. i. 11) has overruled their 
 expressions, so that they correspond more 
 closely to facts than could have been rea- 
 sonably anticipated. Such superabundant 
 favours to believers in inspiration occur re- 
 peatedly in the prophecies respecting Christ. 
 They may, of course, occur elsewhere for a 
 sufficient reason, but we have no right to be 
 surprised if we do not meet with them. The 
 general truth of the prophecy is that the 
 empire of Babylon shall fall for ever. As 
 Dr. Payne Smith remarks, it was practically 
 the work of one man (Nebuchadrezzar), and 
 after his death it only lasted for a few years, 
 during which its history is a series of mur- 
 ders and usurpations. 
 
 Ver. 13. — And I will bring, etc. Clearly 
 this verse cannot have formed part of the 
 original prophecy, but must have been added 
 whenever the collection of prophecies against 
 foreign nations finally assumed its present 
 form (see introduction on ch. 1., li.). It 
 should be mentioned that the Septuagint 
 separates the last clause of the verse, " that 
 which Jeremiah prophesied," etc., and makes 
 it the heading of the group of prophecies 
 against the nations, which in the Hebrew 
 Bible stand at the end of Jeremiah's pro- 
 phecies, but which, beginning with " Elam," 
 the Alexandrian Version inserts at this 
 point. 
 
 Ver. 14. — For many nations . . . shall 
 serve themselves of them also ; i.e. put 
 forced labour upon them also. The same 
 phrase is used of the conduct of the 
 Egyptians to the Israelites (Exod. i. 14). 
 0/ them also; and "also" suggests that 
 the calamity of the Chaldeans is a retri- 
 bution (corap. Isa. Ixvi. 4), as the next 
 clause, in harmony with ch. 1. 29, li. 24, 
 emphatically declares. 
 
 Ver. 15. — For thus saith, etc. Out of 
 this verse and the following, to the end of 
 the chapter, the Septuagint makes the 
 thirty-second chapter, ch. xxv. being com- 
 pleted by the prophecy against Elam (ch. 
 xlix. 34— 39). Tlie symbolic act which the 
 prophet is directed to perform is mentioned 
 in order to explain the word of threatening 
 just uttered. So, at least, we must under- 
 stand it, if we accept the arrangement of 
 the Hebrew text. But the connection is 
 certainly improved if we follow Graf, and 
 omit vers. 11 6^14 ; ver. 15 thus becomes 
 an explanation of the threat against Judah 
 and the ether nations in vers. 9 — 11 a. 
 The wine-cup of this fury ; or, this wine-cup 
 of fury. The wine with which the cup 
 is filled is the wrath of God. The figure 
 is not an nn frequent one with the prophets 
 and the psalmists (comp. ch. xlix. 12; li. 7;' 
 
CH.xw. 1— 08.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 
 
 551 
 
 lea. li. 17,22; Ezek. xxiii. 31— 31; Hab. 
 u. 16; Ps. Ix. 3; kxv. 8). 
 
 Ver. It). — And be moved, and te mad; 
 rather, and reel to and fro, and hehave 
 themselves madly. The inspired writers do 
 not scruple to ascribe all phenomena, the 
 "bad" as well as the "goo.l," to a Divine 
 operation. " Shall there be evil in a citv, 
 and Jehovah liath not done it ? " (Amos iii. 
 6). "An evil spirit from Elohim came upon 
 Saul, anil hu becunie frenzied " (1 Sam. xviii. 
 10 ; see also Isa. xix. 14 ; xxix. 10 ; 1 Kings 
 xxii. 19 — 23, and especially the very remaric- 
 able prologue i^f tlie Book of Job). To un- 
 derstand this form of expression, we must 
 remember the strength of the reaction 
 experienced by the prophets against the 
 polytheism of the surrounding nations. It 
 was not open to tliem to account for the 
 existence of evil by ascribini; it to tlio ac- 
 tivity of various divinities ; tliey knew Je- 
 hovah to be the sole cause in the universe. 
 To us, " sicklied o'er with the pale cast of 
 thought," sucli a doctrine occasions " great 
 searchings of heart," and is sometimes a 
 sore trial of our faith. But tlie prophets 
 were not logicians, and their faith, compared 
 to ours, was as an oak tree to a sapling; 
 ■hence they can generally (see, however, 
 Isa. Ixiii. 17) express tlie truth of the uni- 
 versal causation of Jehovah with perfect 
 tranquillity. Because ol the sword. Here 
 Jeremiah deserts the tigure of the cup, and, 
 as most commentators think, uses the lan- 
 guage of fact. It is not, however, certain 
 that "tlie sword" means that of God's 
 human instruments; Jehovah himself 1ms 
 a sword (oh. xlvi. 10 ; xlvii. 6 ; 1. 35—38 ; 
 Isa. xxvii. 1 ; xxxiv. 5 ; and elsewhere), just 
 as he has a haml (Isa. viii. 11 ; lix. 1) and 
 an arm (Isa. xl. 10 ; liii. 1). All these belong 
 to a group of childlike symbolic expressions 
 for the manife^talion of the Deity. Jehovah's 
 " sword " is described more fully in Gen. iii. 
 24 ; it " turns hither and thither," like the 
 lightning— a striking figure of the com- 
 pfeteness with which God performs his work 
 of vengeance (see also on ver. 27). 
 
 Ver. 17. — Tnen took I the cup . . . and 
 made all the nations to drink. It is too pro- 
 saic to suppi.se either that Jeremiah made 
 a journey to " all the nations," or that lie 
 actually went through the form of present- 
 ing the cup to the ambassadors who (it is 
 . conjectured, comp. eh. xxvii. 3 &) had come 
 to Jerusalem to take measures against the 
 common foe (so J. D. Michaelis). But the 
 sujiposition arises (us Keilhas well observed) 
 out of an imperfect corapreheubion of the 
 figure. It is not a cup with wine wiiich 
 tlie prophet receives from Jehovah, but a 
 ■wine-cup filled with the wine of God's fury, 
 which wine (one may add) is no more a 
 literal wine thun tlie " sword of Jehovah 
 
 is a literal sword. The "making all tie 
 nations to drink " is simply a way of ex- 
 pressing the prophet's firm faith that the 
 word of Jehovah will not " return unto hini 
 void " — that a prophecy once uttered must 
 fulfil itself; and "sent me," in the last 
 clause, merely means " entrusted me with a 
 message " (cump. Prov. xxvi. 6). For the 
 fulfilment of this iletailed prediction, see on 
 oh. xlvi. — li. 
 
 Ver. 18. — The kings thereof (see on ch. 
 xix. 3). As it is this day. As to the meaning 
 of this phrase, see on ch. xi. 5. The words 
 evidently presuppose that the prediction 
 has already been fulfilled (comp. ch. xliv. 6, 
 23); coiiseiiuently, they cannot have stood 
 here in the orifriuiil draft of the prophecy. 
 An early editor, or even Jeremiah himself, 
 must have inserted thein. They are omitted 
 in the Septuagint. 
 
 Ver. ly. — i-haraoh king of Egypt. After 
 leaving Judah and Jerusalem, tlie prophet 
 turns to the far south — to Egypt; then ho 
 ascends to the south-east (IJz), and the 
 south-west (the Philistines) ; thence he 
 passes to the east (Edom, Moab, Animon) ; 
 and thence to the west of the Holy Land 
 (Phoenicia). This suggests the maritime 
 lands "beyond the sea" (including espe- 
 cially Cyprus) ; a sudden transition brings 
 the prophet to the Arabian tribes (Dedan, 
 etc.), from whence he passes by the road of 
 the north-east (Elam, Meilia) to the imiefi- 
 nitely di;,tant north. Last of all, in solitary 
 grandeur or infamy, Babylon is mentioned. 
 
 Ver. 20. — The mingled people; Septua- 
 gint, Ka\ Trdi/ras robs (rvfiixlxTovs : Vulgate, et 
 universos generaliter. The Hebrew ^erebh 
 probably means, nut '' mingled [i.e. 'motley'] 
 people," as the Authorized Version, but 
 " foreign people," i.e. a body of men be- 
 longing to some particular nation intermixed 
 or interspersed among those belonging to 
 another. This explanation will account for 
 the use of the word in all the passages in 
 which it occurs (here and in ver. 24 ; also 
 Exod. xii. 38 ; Neli. xiii, 3 ; ' 1 Kings x. 
 15 ; ch. 1 37 ; Ezek. xxx. 5 ; and perhaps 
 2 Chron. ix. 14). The context here aud in 
 1 Kings X. 15 seems to imply that the name 
 was given especially to the tribes (probably 
 Bedawin tribes) on the frontier of Judah 
 towards the <lesert, though in Ezek. xxx. 5 
 it is evidently applied to a people wiiich 
 in some sense belonged to Egypt. In 
 Exod. xii. 38 it may be doubted whether 
 the phrase is used from the point of view 
 of Egypt or of the Israelites; in ch. 1. 37 it 
 
 ' In Exodus and Nehemiali the word is 
 pointed 'erebh (with fere instead of seglwl), 
 but no one will think of denying that the 
 word is the same as in Jeremiah, Ezekiel, 
 aud 1 Kings. 
 
552 
 
 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xxv. 1— 38, 
 
 ia, used of the forei^eis in Babylon in 2 
 Ohron. ix. 14 the Massoretio ciitics have 
 puinted the consonants of the text wrongly 
 ('arafc/i, Arabia, instead of 'erebli), but 
 without injury to the sense ; the Vulgate 
 and Syriac have done the saine in 1 Kings 
 X. 15. The notion that the word means 
 'Huxiliary troops " arises (as Thenius on 1 
 Kings X. 15 runjaiks) from the free rendering 
 <if the Targum at 1 Kings x. 15 and ch. 1. 
 37. TTz. The land associated with the name 
 of Job, and probably east or south-east of 
 Palestine, and adjacent to the Edomites of 
 Mount Seir (Lam. iv. 21). Of the Philistines. 
 Observe, Gath is alone omitted of the five 
 Philistine towns (Josh. xiii. 3; 1 Sam. vi. 
 17). It had been reduced to complete in- 
 ■Bignificance (Amos vi. 2), through Uzziah's 
 Jiaving "broken down" its walls (2 Chron. 
 xxvi. 6), and is equally passed over in 
 Amos (i. 6 — 8), Zepbaniah (ii. 4), and 
 Zechariah (ix. 5, 6). Azzah; i.e. Gaza, 
 the Septiiagint form (the G representing 
 the initial ayin), which is everywhere else 
 adopted by the Authorized Version. The 
 remnant of Ashdod. A significant phrase, 
 which can be explained from Herodotus (ii. 
 157): For twenty-nine years Psamnutichus 
 " pressed the siege of Azotus without intei- 
 mission." We can imagine that he would not 
 •be disposed to lenient dealings with the town 
 upon its capture. (An earlier and shorter 
 siege of Ashdod is mentioned in Isa. xx.) 
 
 Ver. 22. — Kings of Tyrus . . . kings of 
 Zidon. Under the names of the two leading 
 cities, the prophet includes the various de- 
 pendent Phoenician commonwealths. Hence 
 tlie plurul " kings." The isles. The Hebrew 
 has the singular, " the isle," or rather, "the 
 coast-land " (more strictly, the region), i.e. 
 perhaps either Tarlessus in Spain, or Cyprus 
 (which Esarhnddon describes as "lying in 
 the midst of the sea," and as having two 
 kiuiis, 'Eecords of the Past,' iii. 108). 
 
 Ver. 23. — Dedan, and Tema, and Buz. 
 Three tribes of North Arabia, bordering on 
 Edom. The two foimer are mentioned as 
 commercial peoples in Isa. xxi. 13, 14 ; Ezek. 
 xxvii. 15, 20; xxxviii. 13; Jobvi.19. Elihu, 
 Job's youngest friend, wasof Bu2(Job xxxii. 
 2). All that are in the utmost comers; 
 rather, all the corner-clipped (see on ch. 
 ix. 26). 
 
 Ver. 24. — All the kings of Arabia. Not 
 " Arabia" in our sense (which is never found 
 in the Old Testament), but the desert region 
 to the east and south-east of Palestine, oc- 
 cupied by nomad or " Ishmaelitish " tribes. 
 The mingled people ; ratlier, (/te intermingled 
 people (see on ver. 20); i.e. probably in this 
 passage ])opulations of a different race in- 
 terspersed among the Aramaic tribes to 
 wjiich nicst of the inhabitants of the desert 
 Lelonired. 
 
 Ver. 25. — Zimri. The Zimri were a people 
 to the north-east of Assyria, against whom 
 various Assyrian kings wajed war {Trans- 
 actions of the Society of Biblical Archxology, 
 1878, pp. 13, 15, 34; ' Records of the Past,' 
 v.. 41). Whether they are to be connected 
 with the Zimran of Gen. xxv. 2 seems 
 doubtful ; their locality hardly suits. Elam. 
 Elam, one of the most ancient monarchies 
 in the world (comp. Gen. xiv.), is again 
 coupled witli Media in Isa. xxi. 2. It was 
 a region on the east of the lower Tigris, 
 bounded westward by Babylonia, northward 
 by Assyria and Media, southward by the 
 Persian Gulf. To say that it is put either 
 here or anywhere else in the Old I'estament 
 for the whole of Persia seems a mistake, as 
 the Persians were hardly known before the 
 time of Cyrus. 
 
 Ver. 26.— The kings of the north. The 
 distant, mysterious north. Far and near, 
 one with another. The Hebrew has, " the 
 near and the far, the one to the other ; " i.e. 
 whether near or far in relation to each other, 
 for of course with regard to Judah they were 
 all " the far north." All the kingdoms of the 
 world, etc. This is far from being the only 
 instance in which a special judgment upon 
 a nation or nations is apparently identified 
 with a great final judgment upon the world 
 (see Isa. ii. 12 ; iii. 13 ; xiii. 9 ; xxiv. 1 — 12). 
 The truth is that every great self-manifesta- 
 tion of the Divine Governor of the world is 
 a fresh act in that great drama of which the 
 universal judgment will be the close. Hence 
 the prophets, whose perspective was neces- 
 sarily limited, seeing the end but not all 
 that was to precede it, speak as if the end 
 were nearer at hand than it really was. The 
 king of Sheshach, etc. This clause, however, 
 is omitted in the Septuagint, and is too mani- 
 festly the insertion of an unwise copyist 
 or editor. For, though perfectly true that 
 Babylon was to sutler punishment after- 
 wards, it is most inappropriate to mention it 
 here at tlie end of a list of the nations which 
 Babylon itself was to punish. " Sheshach," it 
 should be explained, is the form assumed by 
 the word " Babylon " in the cypher called 
 Athbash (A = T, B = SH, etc.). It happens 
 tu convey a very appropriate meaning, viz. 
 " humiliation " (comp. Isa. xlvii. 1). A 
 similar instance of cypher allegory occurs 
 in ch. Ii. 1. " Sheshach " occurs again in 
 ch. Ii. 41, where, however, it is omitted by 
 tho Septuagint. [Dr. Lauth, of Munich, 
 thinks that Sheshach is equivalent to 
 Siskii, the name of a district in Babylonia ; 
 but the reading Sisku is uncertain. (Si^e 
 Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archas- 
 oluf/y, 1881, p. 48.)] 
 
 Ver. 27. — Therefore thou shalt say, etc. ; 
 rather. And ihrni shall say, etc. Thi.s vt-rse is 
 probably a continuation of vers. 16, 17, vers. 
 
,CH. XXV. 1—38.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 
 
 553 
 
 18—26 beine: apparently inserted by an after- 
 thought. The message given to Jeremiah 
 to deliver is that the judgment is both over- 
 poweiingly complete and irreversible. If 
 God's own people has not been spared, liow 
 should any other escape (comp. ch. xU.'t.l2)? 
 Ver. 29. — I will call for a sword. It is 
 probably that awful sword referred to in 
 ver. 16 (see note). 
 
 Vers. 30 — 38. — The judgment upon the 
 -world. 
 
 Ver. 30. — Therefore prophesy thou, etc. 
 Babylon, like the smaller kingdoms which 
 it absorbed, has fallen, and notliing re- 
 mains (for nothing had been revealed to tho 
 prophet concerning an interval to elapse 
 previously) but to picture the great assize 
 from which no flesh should be exempt. As 
 the lion suddenly bursts, roaring, from his 
 lair, so Jehovali, no longer the " good Shep- 
 herd," shall roar from on high (comp. Amos 
 i. 2 ; Joel iii. 16) even upon Ms habitation, 
 or rather, against Ms pasture, where his 
 flock (ch. xxiii. 1) has been feeding so se- 
 curely. He shall give a shout. It is the 
 technical term used at once for the vintage- 
 shout and for the battle-cry. In Isa. xvi. 9, 
 10, there is aheautiful allusion to this double 
 meaning, and so perhaps there is here 
 (comp. ch. li. 14). 
 
 Ver. 31. — A noise. The word is used 
 elsewhere for the tumultuous sound of a 
 murcbing army (see Lsa. xiii. + ; xvii. 12). 
 He will plead ; rather, he loill hold judgment. 
 Jehovah's " contending " sometimes involves 
 the notion of punishing, e.g. Ezek. xxxviii. 
 22 ; Isa. Ixvi. 16. In 2 Chron, xxii. 8, the 
 same verb in the same conjugation is forcildy 
 rendered in the Authorized Version, "to 
 execute judgment." 
 
 Ver. 32.— A great whirlwind; rather, a 
 great storm (as oh. xxiii. 19). The coasts of 
 the earth ; rather, tlie furthest parts of the 
 earth. The storm, as it appuirs on the 
 horizon, comes as it were from the ends of 
 the earth ; perhaps, too, there is an allusion 
 to the distant abode of the foe (comp. ch. 
 vi. 22). 
 
 Ver. 33. — The slain of the Lord ; i.e. those 
 slain by the Lord, as Isa. Ixvi. 16, where his 
 sword is .ftirther spoken of as the agent (see 
 on ver. 16). They shall not be lamented, 
 etc. ; parallel to ch. viii. 2 ; xvi. 4. 
 
 Ver. 34. — Wallow yourselves in the ashes. 
 Supply rather, in the dust (comp. Micah i. 
 10), as more suitable to the figure (see on 
 ch. vi. 26). The shepherds, and the prin- 
 cipal (or, noUe ones) of the flock, are, of 
 course, merely difierent forms of expression 
 for the rulers. The days of your slaughter 
 and of your dispersions are accomplished; 
 rather, yoiir days for heing slaughtered are 
 fulfilled ; and I will scatter you (or, dash you 
 in pieces). This is the reading of an old 
 and valuable manuscript at St. Petersburg, 
 and is partly favoured by the pointing; it is 
 adopted by most modern critics, tlie form in 
 the text being ungrammatical. Pleasant; 
 or, precious (comp. Dan. xi. 8, Authorized 
 Version). Compare the figure in ch. xxii. 28. 
 Vers. 36, 37.— The prophet seems in his 
 spirit to hear the lamentation to which in 
 ver. 34 he summoned the " shepherds." A 
 voice of the cry should be, Sark I the cry 
 (omitting "shall be heurd"); the clause is 
 an exclamation. Hath spoiled ; rather, is 
 spoiling (or, laying waste). The peaceable 
 habitations ; rather, the peaceful fields (or, 
 pastures). Are out down ; rather, are de- 
 stroyed ; literally, are brought to silence 
 (comp. ch. ix. 10). 
 
 Ver. 38.— Close of the prophecy with a 
 fuller enunciation of the tliouglit with wiiich 
 the paragraph was introduced. He hath 
 forsaken ; comp. ver. 30, and notice the im- 
 pressive non-mention of tlie subject (as ch. 
 iv. 13, etc.). Their land; i.e. that of the 
 shepherds. The flerceness of the oppressor. 
 A various reading, supported by some manu- 
 scripts, the Septuagint and the Targum, 
 and accepted by Bwald, Hitzig, and Graf, 
 and is "the oppressing sword" (so ch. 
 xlvi. 16; 1. 16). The text reading is very 
 difilcult to defend, and the punctuation 
 itself is really more in favour of the variant 
 thau of the received text. 
 
 HOMILETICS. 
 
 Vers 1—1.— A melancholy review of twenty-three years ofworh. I. The chabacter 
 oi.' THE WORKER. A three and twenty years' experience fiirniahes a good test ot character, 
 bo Ion.' a time is quite sufficient to. eliminate the accidents of passiori and temporary 
 enthusiasm, and to bring to light the general principles of a man s conduct. T-^ese con- 
 stitute his character; they reveal the true features of him. We should not jud.^e a 
 man by his latest action, perhaps a hasty an.l quite uncharaotenstio one; to be fa , 
 not to say charitable, we should consider the whole course of his life, lo k"""; our- 
 selves we must look back on the years of our lives, and not pass a superficial judgment 
 on our present mood. The character of Jeremiah, revealed by the test ol t^venty-th ee 
 years of work under the most harassing circumstances, is worth our reverent stud> 
 Consider the salient poit.ts in it : 1. Fidelity. All this time he was working a. God a 
 
554 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [on. xxv. 1—38. 
 
 servant, in opposition to the spirit of the age, provoldng enmity, calumny, hatred. The 
 hearer of a message which it must have been a pain for him to deliver, a message of 
 denunciation and menace, Jeremiah boldly declared it and adhered to it, in spite of 
 -every inducement to follow tlie fashion of the prophets of flattery. We meet with 
 men who are proud of representing the spirit of their age. Nothing is easier. Nothing 
 is more simple than to be an echo, a reflection, a mouthpiece to the general voice. The 
 difficulty is to utter a contrary voice, not out of stubbornness, or a spirit of wilful anta- 
 gonism, but out of calm fidelity to duty. This is the task of the great. 2. Persever- 
 ance. For tliree and twenty years Jeremiah had persisted in his unpopular course. We 
 know that he continued equally staunch for many more years. Here is the great test 
 It is possible to bo an Elijah, and stand alone facing the howling multitude of priests and 
 slaves of Baal in one supreme moment of conflict and speedy triumph, and yet after this 
 to flee to the wilderness, and to feel unequal to the task of constant fidelity, in season 
 and out of season, through long dreary years, without the excitement of a dramatic 
 scene of heroism, worn and fretted by incessant, petty, spiteful enmity. Yet this was 
 the experience of Jeremiah. 3. Earnestness. " I have spoken," he says, " vising early 
 and speaking " The prophet is not a passive martyr, nor a mere confessor who dares 
 to speak out his conviction when it is directly challenged. He goes forth on a mission 
 urging his message upon men. ' He is a model preacher. He is no perfunctory official 
 droning through a dreary task, no mere professional preacher, honestly discharging his 
 work, but with little interest in it, like a hired pleader. His heart is with his work. 
 He has an end in view, and he sets himself with all his might to accomplish it. In all 
 this the prophet reveals to us the long-sulTering and earnest desire of God to deliver his 
 children. All this wliile God was inspiring Jerejniah, as he had inspired a succession 
 of prophets, to rouse and urge the people to reiientance. 
 
 II. The results of the wouk. Apparent failure. " Ye have not hearkened, nor 
 inclined your ear to hear." It would seem that all this labour, earnestness, persist- 
 ence, and fidelity had been so much wasted work. 1. The preacher must not be blamed 
 fur ap2iarentfruitlessriess. No greater mistake can be made than that of judging a man 
 by the manifest effect of his work. The most popular preacher is not necessarily the 
 niost faithful servant of God. The unpopularity and seeming failure of a preacher is 
 not in itself a reason for condemuing him. No fault can be found with the preaching 
 of Jeremiah, yet it was not successful. Christ spake as never man spake, and " the 
 Pharisees derided him." He was popular for a season, but ultimately " all men forsook 
 him." The most important truths may be the least popular. 2. The preacher must 
 'iiut be too confident in expecting time to reoeal the fruits of his work. Twenty-three 
 years made no such revelation to Jeremiah. A faithful man may toil on through the 
 long night of a whole lifetime of difliculty, and die without seeing the results of his 
 labour. It is well to be prepared for this possibility. 3. The responsibility of rightly 
 receiving a Divine message rests with the hearers. We are always lecturing the preachers. 
 " Take heed how ye speak."' These words are not in the Bible. Christ was more 
 anxious about the hearers. " Take heed how ye hear." Of course the preacher has his 
 high responsibilities, but so have the heaiers. The poorest sermon of a good man who 
 is trying to expound Divine truth may contain something of profit to a devout listener, 
 who is more anxious to receive the good in it than to pass a barren criticism on its 
 defects; for if the messenger is sadly wanting, and his language and thought as poor as 
 possible, the message which he handles so badly is not the less God's truth. But if the 
 preachmg of a Jeremiah, of a Christ even, is unheeded, what qualities in the preacher 
 can command success with an unsympathizing audience ? 4. Still no good work ulti- 
 mately fails. Jeremiah did not speak lor nothing. His message bore good fruit with 
 niaijy of the captives — perhaps with Daniel. Preserved to our time, it has been a bless- 
 ing to generations. 
 
 Vers. 5, 6. — Tlxe chief purpose of prophecy. Jeremiah here sums up the general 
 
 purpose not only of his own ujission — extending now over twenty-three years but of 
 
 that of the whole series of Hebrew prophets. We may thus see the one great aim 
 towards which all their labours were directed. 
 
 I. PiiOi'JtJicY IS PitACTicAL. Jcrcmiah's summary takes the form of an exhortation. 
 I'Lc prophets were preachers, not philosophers. Their aim was not to salisly curiosity 
 
CH. XXV. 1— 3-i.] THE BOOK OF THE PnOPHF.T JERKMrAIT. 
 
 but to affect conduct. In this they are an example to all preachers. The preacher's 
 duty IS to lead men not merely to teach doctrines. Still the exposition oi' truth is 
 necessary to effect th,s end. The prophets did not content the.nselves with simple 
 exhortations to good conduct. These exhortations needed the enforcement of clear 
 conviction. Their authority was not magisterial (a mere command of superior power) 
 nor pnestly (an influence of spiritual rank erected on unquestioning faith), but reason- 
 able (the authority ot truth seen and felt). Hence tlieir revelations of Cxod and of the 
 luture. Yet these were all given for a practical end. The preacher should make hia 
 mos-t abstract expositions ot truth point towards some course of conduct 
 
 II Prophecy is a call to eepentance. This urgent call rings through the me::sa<res 
 r A.^! P'-ophets It was revived by John the Baptist (Matt. iii. ^), adopted by our 
 Lord (Matt IV. 17) and his apostles (e.g. St. Peter, Acts ii. 38; and Sr! Paul, Acts 
 XVII 30), and by all great reformers, such as Savonarola, John Knox, John Wesley etc 
 1. Men must be preached to about their own condition as well as about God's will We 
 want a Divine revelation that we may know ourselves just as much as that we may 
 know. God. A large part of the Bible is occupied with revelations of human nature, 
 ^. logether with these revelations there comes the call to turn and change. The result 
 ot the exposure of mankind to itself is not satisfactory. This exposure alone is a call 
 to turn Irom our evil ways. The mere exposure, however, is of little use. A Juvenal 
 is not a Jeremiah. A satirist is not a prophet. There must be the call to a better life 
 and a declaration of the way to lind it. 3. The prophets imply that men not only 
 need to change but can change. The most fundamental change of heart must be 
 through the influence of God. Yet this is only possible when men freely and willingly 
 turn to him in repentance. 4. The special sin denounced was apostasy from Gud ; the 
 special repentance called for was a return to God. These are always the fundamental 
 elements of sin and repentance. 
 
 ■ III. Peophecy is a voice of warning and op promise. Evil is denounced to the 
 impenitent ; good is promised to the penitent. This is the simplest form in which the 
 motives to repentance can be put. But the tracing out of it is not simple. It required 
 an inspiied prophet to detect the seeds of ruin in riotous prosperity and the dawning of 
 a day of redemption in the stormy night of adversity. The prophets not only detect 
 these facts, they discern the principles that govern them. Thus they speak for all 
 ages. They show us how sin is ruinous ; how God has a sure blessedness in store for 
 his faithful children — a blesstdness which is eternaU 
 
 Ver. 9. — " Nthuchadrezzar . . . my servant." A strange expression ! It is not found in 
 many manuscripts and versions. But it is more likely that dull officious scribes should 
 erase such an " improper" phrase than that any should insert it in the manuscripts 
 and Targum where it is preserved. We cannot suppose that Nebuchadrezzar is called 
 God's servant in consideration of any characteii-'tics of his later career, such as the 
 repentant slate following his insanity recorded in the Book of Diuiiel (iv. 33 — 37). 
 ihe prophecy of Jeremiah belongs to a much earlier period. Nebuchadrezzar, a 
 heathen, an idolater, entirely ignorant of the religion of the Jews, just appearing as the 
 great conqueror and oppressor, and striking Syria dumb with terror by his victory at 
 (Jarchemish — this man is called God's servant. The expression is significant. 
 
 I. God's authority extends to all mankind. He is not the God of the Jews 
 only, nor of the Christians only, nor of the leligious only. He is the God of heaven 
 and earth, the Sovereign and supreme Master of all creatures. We talk of the godless 
 heathen. They may be living without the knowledge of God, but not without his 
 knowledge of them, his care, his influence. 
 
 . II. God can use foe his purposes men who do not know him. Nebuchadrezzar 
 did not know the true God. Yet he was an instrument in God's hands for the chastise- 
 ment of the Jews. Many a man is unconsciously working out God's will even when 
 he thinks he is fighting against it. God's purposes are deeper than our thoughts. 
 
 JII. God can make bad men do his will. Such men do not do God's will in 
 themselves, but by doing their own evil will they produce results which fall in with 
 God's larger designs. Of course this is no justification for their conduct, since our 
 responsibility turns on our motives, not on thu unexpected results of our conduct. It 
 must not be supposed that God sanctions the wicked passions that drive a man to an 
 
556 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xxv. 1—38. 
 
 action which f^od overrules for good. Nebuchadrezzar is to be punished for the very 
 act in which God uses him as his servant (ver. lii). Yet the relation between God 
 and his wiclted servants is wholly mysterious. 
 
 IV. God exercises authoiiity over the most ireesponsible tyrants. Nebu- 
 chadrezzar is the greatest monarch of the world. He is just inflated with one of the 
 grandest victories in all history. Naturally he Is an autocratic tyrant who makes an 
 idol of his own will. This man is really God's slave. God overrides all kings, shapes 
 and moulds all history, and mauifests his providence in the great onward march of 
 humanity. This fact should give us confidence in the midst of the darkest events. 
 It should humble the great to feel that they are as nothing before God. 
 
 V. The dkconscious servants op God do not know the blessedness op his 
 HIGHER SERVICE. As they do not willingly serve, so they do not reap the spiritual joys 
 of service. The service is nothing to them, though much to the world. The true ser- 
 vant of God knows hi.s master's will and delights to do it, sacrifices his own will and 
 submits obediently to the higher will. To fulfil such service is the highest privilege 
 of mankind. In the accomplishment of it is peace and blessedness (Ps. xl. 6 — 8). 
 
 Ver. 15. — The wine-cup of fury. I. The wrath op God is like intoxicatino wine. 
 
 1. It is powerful. The wine is strong drink. We are too ready to close our eyes to 
 this aspect of the Divine nature. The love of God is so treated by some that it leaves 
 no room for anger. But God is not weakly indulgent ; if he were so, even his love 
 would be found wanting, for there is no wrath more terrible than that of outraged love. 
 
 2. The anger of God produces terrible effects. The wine intoxicates. It cannot be a 
 matter of no concern to us to know how God feels towards us. All affections tend to 
 actions. The anger of a man is not likely to waste itself in aimless fury ; it will flow 
 out in deeds. God is a King whose wrath will find expression in acts of sovereignty, 
 a Father whose anger must necessarily affect his treatment of his children. If there 
 are men at whose anger we may smile, there are others who cannot be safely despised. 
 But who dare disregard the wrath of God? Once it is outpoured it must be Over- 
 whelming, must take possession of men. 3. It will not only produce outward distress, 
 but inward confusion and helplessness, so " that they shall reel to and fro, and behave 
 themselves madly." Therefore the man who is smitten by Divine wrath has not those 
 internal som'ces of comfort and strength with which we try to bear up under outward 
 calamity. 
 
 II. There are times when the wine-cup op fdry is poured out. It is not 
 always flowing. Though " God is angry with the wieked every day," he is forbearing, 
 and restiains his wrath till it cannot longer be justly withhold. Then we may suppose 
 that the longer it has bt-en accumulating the worse will be its outflow. Men have 
 been treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath. Such seasons of the outpouring of 
 the cnp of fury may be noted in history ; e.g. in the invasions of Nebuchadrezzar, the 
 destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, the sacking of Rome by Alaric. It is important to 
 note that this happens in seasons. It is not always harvest. But the spring sowing 
 prepares for the autumn reaping. We may be now preparing for an outburst of wrath. 
 How foolish not to guard against it because it has not yet come ! Delay of judgment 
 is no excuse for doubt about it, for this is part of the Divine method of action. 
 
 III. All the guilty must drink of the wine-cup op fury. Jeremiah summons 
 the various nations to partake of it. The Jews are not spared though they are the 
 "elect people." The heathen are not excluded though they do not recognize God 
 truly. God is still the impartial Father of all, and must execute judgment upon all 
 classes, while, of course, he has due regard to the light and opportunities of each. 
 " Religious " people will have to drink of the dreadful cup, if they are morally corrupt. 
 Worldly people will also have to receive it, though they may profess to have nothing to 
 do with God and his laws. There is no escape in the day of judgment. Men may 
 refuse to taste of God's love ; they cannot refuse to partake of his wrath (ver. 28). 
 
 IV. The bittkh cup which Christ drank is an antidote to the wine-cup of fury. 
 God could never have been angry with his beloved ISon. He must have regarded him 
 as he was in his pure goodness ; could not have imputed to him sins, of which he was 
 not guilty, nor have looked wrathfully upon him when he was regarding him with 
 nothing but love and approval. But Christ was so one with us, so took our place as our 
 
CH. XXV. 1—38.] THE BOOK OF THE PllOPHET JEIIEMIAH. 557 
 
 High Priest, that he ipust have felt, as the most guilty man never felt, the horror of 
 the wrath of God against the sinful world ot which he stood forth as the Hepreseiitative. 
 He drank to the dregs the bitter cup of spiritual woe as well as that of his bodily passion. 
 The gospel of his grace proclaims to us that they who are liable to the outpourings of 
 a Divine judgment on their sins may find through Christ's sacrifice peace with God. By 
 faith in Christ we are reconciled to God, and find that his anger is put away for ever 
 in the free pardon of our sins. 
 
 Ver. 29. — The ineffectual palladium of a great name. Jerusalem was called by 
 God's name ; yet Jerusalem was not to be spared in the general outpouring of the 
 wino-oup of fury. The Jews were vainly trusting in their name. We aie all inclined 
 to think too much of mere names. Certainly there is something in a name ; it 
 may command respect, influence, etc. Yet this applies only in regard to human 
 considerations ; it can have no weight with God. Even with men it is less potent 
 than its possessors would fain believe. The influenge of it is slowly won, easily lost, 
 and only recovered with the utmost difficulty, if at all. 
 
 I. A NAME MAT BE GREAT BECAUSE IT REPKBSENTS CONNECTION WITH THE GREAT. It 
 
 may indicate relationship to a family, a clan, a nation. We are proud of the name of 
 Englishmen. St. Paul, professing himself a Roman, was able to claim the rights of 
 Roman citizenship (Acts xxii. 25). But the name is here useful only in so far as the 
 privilege it implies extends. St. Paul had a right not to be scourged, but none to 
 save him from being beheaded by the order of the emperor. We may claim undue privi- 
 leges because we bear the name of Christian, because we were born in Christendom, 
 are citizens of a Christian state, are members of a Christian Church. These associations 
 count for notbing before God. We shall " all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ, 
 that every one may receive the things done in his body " (2 Cor. v. 10). It will be vain 
 then to say, " Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy Name," etc. ? if Christ must 
 answer, " I never knew you : depart from me, ye that work iniquity " (Matt. vii. 
 23, 24). 
 
 II. A NAME MAT BE GREAT BECATTSE IT REPRESENTS HIGH BANK. Socinl distinctions 
 
 cannot be ignored while they exist, and in them the favoured necessarily enjoy many 
 amenities that are denied to the commonalt}'. But they are snares when they tempt 
 their owners to expect peculiar privileges with Heaven. In spiritual matters we 
 approach God, not as rich or poor, not as prince or beggar, but as man. Rank goes for 
 nothing there ; character is everything. This applies to ecclesiastical rank. They 
 who hold high office in the Church are tempted to expect exceptional judgment. They 
 will be judged, not as officials, not as popes, bishops, priests, but as men, and will find 
 that their holy office will be no sanctuary when the awful sword of Divine judgment 
 is unsheathed. 
 
 III. A NAME MAY BE GREAT BECAUSE IT REPRESENTS A GOOD REPUTATION. If the 
 
 reputation is justly earned, the name is a real honour. " A good name," says the wise 
 man, " is rather to be chosen than great riches " (Prov. xxii. 1). Shakespeare's Cassio 
 exclaims, " Reputation, reputation, reputation ! Oh, I have lost my reputation ! I have 
 lost the immortal part of myself, and what remains is bestial." Yet, if reputation is 
 " got without merit," it is a poor refuge to flee to Irom before the all-seeing God. Even 
 when it is solid and honest it stands only as a record of the past, and a presumption 
 in our favour when our conduct is eijuivocal. But it does not mitigate the guilt of 
 subsequent offences. We are judged by our conduct, not by our fame. It is vain to 
 have a name to live if we are dead ; the name will not galvanize us back into life. 
 
 IV. A NAME MAT BE GREAT BECAUSE IT REPRESENTS A GREAT PROFESSION. _ Men 
 
 assume big names and flourish them before the world in pretended evidence of their own 
 excellence, and the world, being too blind and too indolent to make very searching 
 inquiries, commonly takes men much at their own reckoning. The advantage of such 
 a deception can only be superficial and transitory. The foolish boast will soon be 
 exploded. Before God it matters little what a man calls himself. The one question 
 is as to what he is. 
 
 ' Vers. 34 — 38. — Howling shepherds. In the general calamity of the nation the 
 shepherds are especially called upon to howl and cry and wallow in the dust. The 
 
558 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xxv. 1—38. 
 
 shepherds are the leaders of the people. These leaders, therefore, are not to be exempt 
 from the distresses of the common people ; on the contrary, trouble is to fall upon them 
 in an aggravated degree. 
 
 I. High eank is no sboueitt against teouble. It may free a man from many- 
 annoyances, it cannot defend him from all kinds of calamity. It is chiefly a safeguard 
 against the smaller vexations of life ; the more serious troubles sweep over it unchecked. 
 It is like a small breakwater that will keep back the little waves of a fresh sea, but is 
 overwhelmed in the storm. When it is most needed it is of least use. Rank is no 
 protection against disease and death, against general human calamities, such as the 
 desolation of an earthquake, the ravages of a plague, the devastation of a war. Never- 
 theless men do trust to rank unreasonably, and find it a snare when their false con- 
 fidence is exposed. 
 
 II. Leaders of men suffer from the troubles that fall upon their fol- 
 lowers. The shepherd sutlers with his flock. The patron is dependent on his clients. 
 .The king is great with the greatness of his people, and brought into trouble by his nation's 
 distress. This is more than sharing a general calamity. It is experiencing a trouble 
 that is directly caused by the distress of dependants. History has proved the mistake 
 of those tyrants who have thought to secure their own grandeur by the brutal degra- 
 dation, the bondage and misery of their subjects. The truly prosperous sovereigu is 
 not the Pharaoh reigning in lonely magnificence over a nation of slaves, but the beloved 
 ruler of a free and eulightened people. 
 
 III. Persons in exalted positions are liable to peculiar troubles from which 
 ORDINAKY MEN ARE EXEMPT. Not Only are they not free from the common distresses of 
 mankind, not only are they directly affected by the distresses of those beneath them ; 
 they are also subject to special dangers arising from their high and prominent position. 
 1. They are burdened with a rtsponsibility that is proportionate to their elevation. If 
 much has been given to them, much is expected of them. Every eye is upon them. 
 Any mistake of theirs which might pass unnoticed in obscure men, is dragged into 
 the full blaze of jealous criticism. If such meu abuse a great trust they may exptct 
 to be visited with a great judgment. 2. They are liable to special attacks of animosity. 
 Like ofBcers in the field, they are picked out by opponents. Kings have dangers of 
 assassination which ohscure men need never fear. The highest tree catches the fiercest 
 blast of the gale, while humble shrubs grow at peace in sheltered nooks. 3. They/eeZ 
 the blow of trouble most acutely. They who stand Idghist can fall lowest. Poverty is 
 not the calamity to a born pauper that it proves itself to a bankrupt prince. 
 
 HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. 
 
 Vers. 1 — 7. — Messages recapitulated. I. Careful reminder of the extent of his 
 MINISTRY. (Vers. 1 — 3.) 1. T/ie moral value of this is great. It is no vague indict- 
 ment, but one made out with all accuracy and conscientiousness. We ought to take 
 note of the extent of our privileges and opportunities, for we shall have to give an exact 
 account of them all. 2. Jts eoidential value is equally great. The date of the pre- 
 diction is thus fixed, and history becomes a long verification of his prophetic truth. 
 
 II. Assertion of his own and of God's diligence and faithfulness. (Vers. 3 — 6.) 
 1. Ood has been diligent. He has " risen up early." Ttie welfare of his people is of 
 intense interest to him. The delays of his dispensations are only seeming. No earnest- 
 ness on the part of the creature can ever anticipate or outrun his love or readiness to 
 provide. 2. His servant thejirophet was so also. It was God's Spirit in him that they 
 heard. He was obedient to the heavenly Spirit, and announced its messages as they 
 were received. 
 
 III. The persistent unbelief and disobkdiencb of the nation denounced. 
 (Vers. 3—7.) There is something very impressive in the repeated "Ye have not 
 hearkened." It defines and characterizes the guilt of the apostate. There was not 
 even the beginning of serious uttention (vers. 5, 6); and their indiiference had become 
 systematic and habitual. What wonder that God should have been provoked to 
 wrath ? And this is the sinner's position to-day. It would be impossible to fathom 
 the depths of our depravity by nature, or to truce it to its ultimate issues. 
 
CH. XXV. 1—38.] THE BOOK OF THE niOPHET JEREMIAH. .^.-9 
 
 IV. The spirit and substance of thb message is repeated. How gi-eat is the 
 long-suffering of God ! The unbelief of the people had been marvellous, considering 
 the signs which had been given. Another opportunity, however, was afforded ere the 
 catastrophe should take place. No details of the teaching are entered into, but great 
 plainness of speech is used. The emphasis is upon essentials and permanent principles. 
 The "spirit of prophecy" is intensely moral; and this is why the " testimony of Jesus" 
 represents it. It is the grand resultant of all the forces working through ancient 
 prophecy, and casts its revealing light backward upon the prophetic page. These 
 repentances so often urged but never forthcominar, these " returns " and obediences 
 which were to crown with blessing and surround with Divine favour, are only possible 
 through his Spirit. The future of the world, as of every individual and nation, is 
 inextricably associated with the cause of righteousness, and therefore with the 
 gospeL — M. 
 
 Vers. 7 — 11. — Judgment plainly declared. The agents of the visitation are more 
 precisely defined than hitherto, and the leader of the invasion is actually named. 
 The extent also of the region to be devastated, and the time the captivity is to last, 
 viz. .seventy years, are set forth. 
 
 I. This tended to heighten the mobal consciousness of the people. A vague 
 indefinite calamity or series of calamities would have failed to strike deeply enough 
 into the conscience of the transgressors ; whereas a precisely marked off and defined 
 set of occurrences could not be misunderstood. 1. The nearness and ineoitahk character 
 of the judgment are thereby realized. 2. It is seen to be imposed by the moral govern- 
 ment of Ood. " My servant." God permits, nay, appoints, Nebuchadrezzar. 
 
 II. It pbesented the period of calamity as part of an ordered whole, with 
 A definite outcome and object. Great as the trial would be, it was nevertheless 
 a measured and therefore a bearable one. There need be no wild abandonment to 
 desjjair. The believer could possess his soul in patience. The alluremeuts of heathenism 
 would lose much of their power. A quiet, reverent, and repentant study of the mean- 
 ing of the dispensation would be' encouraged ; and in this way it would act as disci- 
 pline for the future. We can never be certain as to the limits of our trials; but we 
 have the assurance that our Saviour, who has a fellow-feeling with his people, will nut 
 impose anything above what we are able to bear. And through the revelation of 
 spirituality in the gospel, and the greater spiritualizatiou of our hopes and aims through 
 its teaching, we are able with greater calmness to contemplate our "light affiiction, 
 which is but for a moment." 
 
 III. The prophecy was thereby proved to be genuine, and the providence of 
 God revealed beyond dispute. As if conscious of this, Jeremiah for the first time 
 calls himself " the prophet," when he has fairly committed himself to exact dates 
 and personages. It would be open to the survivors of that predicted dispensation to 
 denounce him an an impostor, and to discredit the practice of prophesying. But the 
 seer was certain ; and the verdict of history confirms his forecast, and demonstrates 
 that it was no ex post facto fabrication, but real Divine foreknowledge of events yet 
 future. — M. 
 
 Ver. 29.— Judgment beginning at the house of God. I. The order of God's judgment. 
 1. It begins with his own people. 2. Reasons for this are : ( 1) The harmony of the Divine 
 rule in the earth. The Church is his own house. It ought, therefore, to be m perfect 
 order first. His authority ou?ht to be recognized among those whom he calls his own. 
 He will therefore deal with them first, and then with better grace address the impenitent 
 and unbelieving world. (2) The purity of God's character. He carinot endure wrong 
 —cannot look upon sin. Yet he is to dwell in the Church, in mdividual believers It 
 is necessary, therefore, that they be made pure as he is pure. Their d.sciplme must Ixj 
 immediate if they are to become vessels prepared unto honour. (3) The justice of God. 
 Immediately the sin of the child is worse than that of the stranger, because 1 is done 
 in the midst of light and privilege. Sharp and immediate chastisement is the only, 
 way in which he can show his sense of the wrong done (Amos .11. Z). (4) The mercy 
 of God If it begins with the children of God, it is that they may the sooner be saved. 
 He embitters thi breast of the world to wean them (Leiahton). It is because he 
 
G60 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [oh. xxv. 1— 38. 
 
 loves he rebukes and chnstens. But the grief of sin begins first in the breast of God 
 and in the person of his Son. It is of the nature of Divine love to suffer for the sinful, 
 even to die, that he may be made a cliild of grace. 
 
 II. The extent of it. "All the inhabitants of the earth." Thus early— nay, 
 from the first sin onwards — does he hegin the judgment of the whole earth. The sin 
 of one is but a symptom of the universal depravity of all. The oneness of the world 
 in its fall and tlie evolution of its sin, is constantly declared in Scripture. 1. This 
 is demanded by the justice of God. "Should ye be utterly unpunished?" It would 
 be manifestly unfair that the child of God alone sliould suffer for that which is 
 primarily a sin of all mankind. 2. It is founded upon the solidarity of the race. There 
 is a universal kinship in sins. " In Adam (they) all die" (1 Cor. xv. 22). 
 
 III. The MEASOKE OP IT. "A sword" (cf. ver. 33). This signifies destruction, death. 
 That which opposes itself to him will be utterly destroyed. He begins his judgment 
 upon his own, but it passes from them and rests for ever upon his enemies. The 
 picture painted by Jeremiah (vers. 30 — 38) is but one of many similar ones in the Bible. 
 The utter holiness of God cannot endure the sinfulness of men ; it must consume it 
 and all that identify themselves with it. In the New Testament the horizon widens, 
 and the spiritual world participates with the living upon earth in the sentence of the 
 Judge. The first duty, therefore, of every awakened sinner is to fiee from the " wrath 
 to come." Whilst he remains unconverted he is a " child of wrath." Punishment 
 has a different significance to him from what it would have if he were "in Christ." 
 It is the same principle of solidarity which condemned us that now avails for our 
 salvation. "For as in. Adam all die, even so ia Christ shall all be made alive" 
 (1 Cor. XV. 22).— M. 
 
 Vers. 30 — 38. — Tlie vision of final Judgment. A sublime and terrible description; 
 corresponding with many others throughout the Old and New Testaments. 
 
 I. It serves a great ethical purpose. The sense of wrong-doing is thereby 
 intensified, and some idea is given of the awful consequences of sin and its hatefulness 
 to the mind of God. 
 
 II. An evidence of the historic significance of sin and salvation. By such 
 visions as these the ages of the world are linked together and shown to be convergent 
 In one point. There are not to be so many judgments of isolated offences, but one 
 judgment, towards which all the world has looked forward. Sin increases with the 
 
 lapse of time, and develops into a more pronounced opposition to truth and goodness 
 Only in final judgment can all its significance bo comprehended and its issues be stayed. 
 
 III. An evidence of the reality of the prophetic gift and its spiritual end. 
 This vision is corroborated by the universal instincts of man, on the one hand, and by 
 the endorsement of Christ on the other. The various minor judgments which have 
 intervened between that time and this are so many proofs of the correctness of the 
 prophet's intuition. And the manner in which he and other seers have laid chief 
 emphasis upon this event exhibits the fundamental moral purpose of all prophecy. 
 Its intention is to reveal the righteousness of God, and to lead men into its practice 
 and love. — M. 
 
 Vers. 1 — 7. — A twenty-three years' ministry. Here we get a statement, brief but 
 not at all uncertain, of what had been done in the prophetic way during twenty-three 
 years. Three parties are concerned in this statement : (1) God ; (2) the prophet ; 
 (3) the people. 
 
 1. God. Nebuchadrezzar, who is to act as the servant of God (ver. 9) in the great 
 overthrowing work, has just come to his throne, and is unconsciously preparing for 
 that to which God had appointed him. Hence it was fitting that, just at this crisis, 
 God should point back over the past and show how very much he had done to brin" 
 . about a different result. Not that this comprehensive view was likely at the eleventh 
 hour to make any change in Israel itself; but it is well that it should stand recorded 
 in the history. It is well that wo who come after should be made to see clearly how 
 continuously God protested against the wickedness of his people. Jeremiah himself, 
 out of his own experience, speaks as a witness of what had been going on for twenty* 
 three years; and lie knew further that he was only oufi out of many agents by whom 
 Gud had been doing the same kind of work. 
 
CH. XXV. 1—38.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 561 
 
 II. The prophet. Not Jeremiah peculiarly, but Jeremiah as representative of all 
 the faithful prophets ; those to whom he here refers as having been engaged in the 
 same kind of service. He brings against the people a serious charge of persistent 
 neglect; but it also involves a serious confession vfith respect to himself. A serious 
 confession, but not a shameful one. Though his long ministry has not had tho 
 desired end, it is by no means a failure. For twenty-three years the worli has been 
 laid upon him of denouncing national apostasy and individual transgression, in all the 
 varieties of it. The substance of this long ministry is written down and tlie spirit of 
 the ministry made evident. We know the things he spoke of, and how he spoke of 
 them; the enemies he made, the sufferings he endured, the pangs with which his 
 heart was torn. In his ministry he gave himself, without stint. Nor does his work 
 stand alone. He was not the first to exhort to repentance. He succeeded men who 
 had been as faithful as himself, and engaged as long a time in the service of Uod. 
 And yet, after so many remonstrances, the nation remains stubborn in its apostasy, 
 infatuated as ever in its rapid descent to ruin Hence we learn how chary we should he 
 in talking of unsuccessful ministries. No ministry, whatever its other results may be, 
 can be unsuccessful in the sight of God, if only there is unshaken fidelity to him. It 
 is fidelity that he rewards, not obvious results. In spite of all the husbandman's care, 
 digging about the tree and dunging it, it may yield no fruit ; but the fidelity of the 
 husbandman deserves a reward all the same. Industry cannot overcome the bad 
 elements in what is given him to cultivate. All who have to engage in preaching and 
 prophesying duties must learn the lesson, that more is needed for success than mere 
 perseverance. Perseverance is like the dropping water which wears away the stone ; 
 but what is here required, is that the stone should be changed as to its nature, not 
 worn away. If Jeremiah had been able to prophesy twenty-three centuries, instead of 
 twenty-three years, the result would have been the same. All he could do was to 
 reiterate, in the ears of the people, the necessity of repentance. It is in the light of 
 a jiassage like this that we learn more of what Jesus meant when he said he came to 
 fulfil the prophets. It was his not only to accomplish their predictions, but do what 
 they could not possibly do by all their appeals — turn the hearts of the disobedient to 
 G-od. Compare the barren ministry of Jeremiah, prophet of Jehovah, with the fruitful 
 ministry of Paul, apostle of Jesus Christ. Yet Paul did not speak one whit more 
 earnestly concerning righteousness and repentance and submission to God. The 
 difference lay in this, that Paul was not only a preacher, but when he preached there 
 was a subduing atid renewing Spirit. 
 
 III. The people. This is a serious charge brought against them, that one man 
 had been in their midst for all these years, with one message, never varying and never 
 slackening, and yet that they had paid, as a nation, not the slightest heed to it. When 
 Nebuchadrezzar did come, there was no chance for them to say that they had not 
 received proper warning. They could not blame Jeremiah. Their very persecution 
 of him was a witness against themselves. Thus there is a warning to those who are 
 hearers of the gospel with all the voices with which it is addressed to them. It is not 
 outside of themselves they must look for explanations of why the truths of the gospel 
 have found no lodgment in their hearts. The cause is within. How many have been 
 listenint' to the news of Jesus Christ for many more years even than twenty-three, 
 and every year seems to bring a lessening probability that they will treat the message 
 as having a practical concern for themselves ! — Y. 
 
 Ver. 9.— Nebuchadrezzar, the servant of God. I. The contrast with other ser- 
 vants Observe the mention, in ver. 4, of those very different servants of God, the 
 prophets (so mentioned elsewhere). God had sent many of them and many times, aiid 
 hardly any attention had been paid to them. Higher motives had been appealed to m 
 vain. Considerations of duty and prudence were thrown to the winds. And iiow the 
 miehtv king Nebuchadrezzar comes, with a very diff'erent sort of force— not looking at 
 all like a servant of God ; and yet he is just as much the servant of God as is any of the 
 woDhets. Indeed, king of a great people though he was, his rank in the service ot God 
 was not so high as that of the prophets. He appears in this place as nothing more 
 than the final executioner of justice. 
 
 II. None the less ErFiciENi a servant because the service was rendered 
 
 JEREMIAH. 
 
5G2 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xxvi. 1— 24 
 
 UNCONSCIOUSLY. Nebuchadrezzar, despot as he was, would have been very wrathful 
 if he had known exactly how he appeared in the sight of God. He had certain purposes 
 of his own, and he succeeded in effecting them ; but the very energy with which he 
 worked for himself only made him to render his service to God more complete. And 
 may it not be happening in the world, a great deal more frequently than we think, that 
 the very success of selfish and domineering men is being so handled by God as all the 
 more to serve his purposes? 
 
 III. The limitations op Nebuohadrezzae's service. The service, with all its 
 completeness, was only within certain limits. It does not require much intelligence to 
 destroy what is destructible. But if there is to be a building-up work for God, then 
 there must be a conscious, voluntary, and devoted service. Israel was meant to be a 
 servant of God in the fullest and noblest sense of the word. It had been instructed 
 in the will of God and borne with patiently in many failures to obey that will. Hence 
 the description of Nebuchadrezzar as a servant is an implied rebuke of those who had 
 refused to be servants. Note the great contrast found in the New Testament, wheie 
 Christ's apostles, at the beginning of their Epistles, hasten to proclaim themselves as 
 the servants of God. — Y. 
 
 Ver. 31. — Jehovah's controversy with '■■he nations. This necessary controversy 
 explains all the proceedings described from ver. 15 to the end of the chapter. Jeremiah 
 is not a prophet to Israel only, but to all who are guilty of similar transgressions. The 
 cup of God's holy wrath goes on filling wherever he beholds wrong-doing. It is easy 
 to see, if we only ponder a little, that some such outburst as this must come in all true 
 prophecy. As the Apostle Paul puts it, the nations that sinned without law perished 
 without law. The peculiar light vouchsafed to Israel was not the only light for which 
 men were responsible to God. Accordingly we find that it seems to have been one 
 main ground of appeal taken by the apostle to the Gentiles that God had not left him- 
 self without witness amongst them. If, on the one hand, he could denounce Israel for 
 bein-j so indifterent to the Law he had formally given, so, on the other hand, he could 
 denounce the Gentiles for their negligence of the light of nature. Idolatry, as we perceive, 
 had produced the most fearful results in Israel ; but everywhere else it must, of course, 
 have produced results quite as bad, only they do not happen to occupy such a prominent 
 position in history. And thus we have indicated to us here, as indeed in so many 
 places elsewhere, the way in which to consider the decline and fall of great nations. It 
 is not enough for the Christian to rest in the consideration of secondary causes. And if 
 a nation's decadence be so gradual and imperceptible as to show no obvious sign of what 
 secondary causes may be operating, then there is all the more need to rise to the height 
 of a tiue faith in God and believe that his judgments are assuredly at work. Wherever 
 there is unbridled self-indulgence, still spreading wider and wider, there we may be sure 
 God is carrying on those judgments which cannot fail. But is there not also a brighter 
 side suggested by one passage in this chapter? As we read of all these lands to which, 
 in a kind of apocalyptic vision, Jeremiah presented the cup of Jehovah's fury, we cannot 
 but think of that other list so graciously represented on the day of Pentecost. Nations, 
 in the manifold wisdom of God, may rise, decline, and fall ; but such a fate will trouble 
 none save those who exaggerate patriotism into a cardinal virtue. The serious matter 
 is when the individual will not show a timely wisdom, and in humble repentance put 
 away his mistaken past, and in humble faith accept the redemption and guidance which 
 God alone can provide. — Y. 
 
 EXPOSITION. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 Jeremiah's Trial and Deliverance. 
 The prophecy in vers. 2 — 6 is a summary 
 of that contained in ch. vii. 1 — 15 ; the nar- 
 rative, which stands in no connection either 
 with ch. xxiv. or ch. xxvii., relates the oon- 
 
 eeqnences of that bold declaration of the 
 word of the Lord. The present position of 
 the chapter is only surprising to those who 
 assume that the works of the prophets were 
 necessarily arranged chronologically. Hciw 
 many violations of chronological order meet 
 us in other hooks, e.g. in Isaiah ! It is only 
 
CH. XXVI. 1—24.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 
 
 5G3 
 
 reasonable to expect similar phenomena in 
 the Book of Jeremiah. 
 
 To estimate the circumstances of the 
 prophecy aright, we must remember that 
 in Jehoiakim's reign a Chaldean invasion 
 was the danger by which all minds were 
 constantly preoccupied. 
 
 Ver. 2. — Jeremiah is to take his stand in 
 the court of the Lord's house ; i.e. the outer 
 court, where the people assembled (comp. 
 oh. xix. 14), and preach unto all the cities 
 of Judah ; i.e. to the pilgrims who had come 
 from the provincial towns (comp. ch. xi. 12). 
 His discourse is not to be an eloquent 
 appeal to the feelings, but a strict and 
 puremptory announcement; he is to diminish 
 (or, subtract) not a word (comp. Deut. iv. 2 ; 
 xii. 32; Rev. xxii. 19). 
 
 Ver. 3.— That I may repent; literally, 
 and I will repent; the idea or object is 
 derived from the context. (On the Divine 
 repentance, see note on ch. xviii. 8.) 
 
 Vers. 4—6. — The contents of the dis- 
 course (see especially on ch. vii. 12 — 15). 
 The priests and the prophets interfere, 
 arrest Jeremiah, and accuse him of a capital 
 crime. It would appear that some at least 
 of the " false prophets " were priests ; thus 
 Pashur, we are told, was a priest (ch. xx. 6). 
 
 Vers. 7 — 11. — To all devout Jews this pre- 
 diction of the destruction of the temple 
 must have been startling ; but to those who 
 placed their confidence in the mere exist- 
 ence of a consecrated building (ch. vii. 4), it 
 was like a blow aimed at their very life. 
 Besides, were not the majority of the prophets 
 of Jehovah of entirely another way of think- 
 ing? Did they not promise peace? And 
 what could justify Jeri.miah in announcing 
 not merely war, but the downfall of the 
 Divine habitation itself ? Hence no sooner 
 had the prophet concluded his discourse, 
 than he was arrested, accused, and con- 
 demned to death. 
 
 Ver. 8. — Had made an end of spealdug. 
 They allowed Jeremiah to finish his dis- 
 course (of which we have here only the 
 briefest summary), either from a lingering 
 reverence for his person and ofiice, or to 
 obtain fuller materials for an accusation 
 (comp. the trial of Stephen, Acts vi. 12 — 14). 
 All the people. The "people" appear to 
 have been always under some constraint. 
 As long as the priests and prophets were 
 alone, they dominated the unofficial classes, 
 but when the princes appeared (ver. 11), 
 the new influence proved superior. In 
 ver. 16 princes and people together go 
 over to the side of Jeremiah. Thou shalt 
 surely die. Death was the legal penalty 
 both for blasphemy (Lev. xxiv. 16) and 
 for presuming to prophesy without having 
 received a prophetic revelation (Deut. xviii. 
 
 20). Jeremiah's declaration ran so entirely 
 counter to the prejudices of his hearers that 
 he may well have been accused of both 
 these sins, or crimes. True, Isaiah and 
 Amos had already predicted the destruction 
 of Jerusalem (Isa. v. 5, 6 ; vi. 11 ; Amos ii. 
 4, 5 ; vi. 1, 2) ; but it may liave been 
 contended that the timely repentance of 
 Judah under Hezekiah and Josiah had 
 effectually cancelled the threatened doom, 
 and though Isa. Ixiv. 10, 11 evidently refers 
 to a time later thim Josiah, and represents 
 the ruin of Jerusalem as practically certain, 
 it would seem that tlie prophetic book (Isa. 
 xl. — Ixvi.) to which this belongs (to say the 
 least) was not generally known. 
 
 Ver. 9. — Were gathered against; rather, 
 assembled themselves unto; i.e. oonstitiiteil 
 themselves into a legal qdhal, or assembly 
 (see on ver. 17). 
 
 Ver. 10. — The princes. The term will 
 include the members of the various branches 
 of the royal family, who acted as judges 
 (see on ch. xxi. 12), and the "elders," or 
 heads of families (see ver. 17). Without 
 the presence of the former, Jeremiah could 
 only have had a mock-trial. Came up, etc. 
 (see on ch. xxii. I). Of the lord's hout-e ; 
 better simply, of the Lord. The gate is the 
 same which is referred at ch. xx. 2. 
 
 Ver. 11. — This man is worthy to die ; liter- 
 ally, a sentence of death (belongs) to this 
 man. 
 
 Vers. 12—15, — Jeremiah's defence. He is 
 conscious that he has not spoken unoorn- 
 missinned, and leaves the result. He urges 
 the people to amendment of life, while there 
 is time, and warns them that his own un- 
 merited death will bring a curse upon them- 
 selves. 
 
 Vers. 16 — 19.^The truth makes an im- 
 pression upon the princes and the people, 
 who declare Jeremiah to be a true prophet, 
 and therefore innocent. 
 
 Ver. 17.— The elders of the land add their 
 voice in favour of Jeremiah, not, however, 
 without first of all consulting the people 
 whose representatives they are. The whole 
 verse is thoroughly technical in its phrase- 
 ology. The word (qahdl) rendered "as- 
 sembly " is the traditional legal term for 
 the " congregation of Israel " (Deut. xxxi. 
 30); comp. ver. 9, where the verb is tho 
 corresponding one to qahdl. Thus, with all 
 the faults of the government of Judah, 
 which Jeremiah himself reveals to us, it 
 was very far removed from the Oriental 
 despotisms of our day. The "elders" are 
 still an important element in the social 
 system, and form a link with that earlier 
 period in which the family was the leading 
 power in the social organization. Originally 
 tlie term denoted, strictly and in the full 
 seuse, heads of families; they have their 
 
56i 
 
 THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [cii. xxvi. 1—24. 
 
 analogue in the oonneils of the Aryan 
 ■village communities. " References to tlieir 
 
 Earliamentnry status (if the phrase may 
 e used) occur in Exod. iii. 16; 2 Sam. 
 xix. 11; 1 Kings viii. 1 ; xx. 7. The insti- 
 tution lingerijil on during and after the 
 Babylonian Exile (cli. xxix. 1 ; Ezek. xiv. 1 ; 
 XX. i ; Ezra v. 5 ; vi. 7 ; x. 14 ; Matt. xxvi. 
 3. 47 ; Mark xiv. 43 ; Acts iv. 5, etc.)." We 
 find another reference to their quasi-judicial 
 authority in Deut. xxi. 2. 
 
 Vers. 18, 19. — Micah the Morasthite, etc. 
 The " elders " appeal for a precedent to the 
 case of Micah (called after his native place, 
 Moreshetli-Gath, to distinguish him from 
 other Micahs), who had been equally ex- 
 plicit in his declarations of woe to Jeru- 
 salem, without incurring the charge of 
 blasphemy. Tlie prediction refeiTed to is 
 in Micah iii. 12, the form of which agrees 
 verbally with our passage. 
 
 Ver. 19. — Thus mi§flit we procnre, etc.; 
 rather, and we are about Ut commit a great 
 evil against our souls (not merely " against 
 ouiselves"). The blood of the slain would 
 cry for vengeance against his murderers, 
 who would come to an untimely end, their 
 " souls " being sent down to lead a miser- 
 able parody of a life (/3ios &&uis) in Sheol or 
 Hades. 
 
 Vers. 20 — 23.— The murder of the prophet 
 tJrijuh. At first sight, these four verses 
 appear to belong to the speech of the elders, 
 but the appearance is delusive, (1 ) because the 
 issue of the atfair of Urijah cannot possibly 
 have taken place " in the beginning of the 
 reign of Jehoiakim" (ver. 1); and (2) because 
 the passage stands in no connection with what 
 preceeds, whereas it is related, and that very 
 closely, to ver. 24 (see below). The case is 
 similar to that of certain passages in St. 
 John's Gospel, where the reflections of the 
 evangelist are put side by side with the 
 sayings of our Lord. Jeremiah, writing 
 down his experiences at a later time, intro- 
 duces the slory of Urijah to show the mag- 
 nitilde of the danger to which he had been 
 exposed. The notice of Urijah has an 
 additional importance, as it shows incident- 
 ally how isolated a spiritual prophet like 
 
 Jeremiah was, and how completely the order 
 of prophets had fallen below its high ideal. 
 We have no further knowledge of the 
 prophet Urijah. 
 
 Ver. 20. — Kiqath-jearim ; a city in the 
 territory of Judah, on the west frontier of 
 Benjamin. 
 
 Ver. 21.— His mighty men. The " mighty 
 men '* (^gibhorim') are not mentioned again 
 in Jeremiah, and the Septnagint omits the 
 word. But it is clear from Isa. iii. 2 that 
 the " mighty men " were recognized as an 
 important part of the community. From 
 
 1 Chron x. 10 it appears that the term 
 indicates a position of high command in the 
 army, which is in accordance with the 
 notice in 2 Kings xxiv. 16. Went into 
 Egypt- Egypt was the natural refuge for 
 a native of Palestine (oomp. 1 Kings xi. 17, 
 40 ; Matt. ii. 14), just as Palestine was for 
 a native of Egypt. The latter, however, 
 proved to be not a safe asylum for Urijali, 
 as Pharaoh was the liege lord of Jehoiakim 
 (2 Kings xxiii. 34), and the extradition of 
 Urijah as a criminal naturally followed. 
 
 Ver. 22. — Elnathan. The name occurs 
 again in oh. xxxvi. 12, 25. Possibly this 
 man was the " Elnathan of Jerusalem " 
 mentioned in 2 Kings xxiv. 8 as the father- 
 in-law of Jehoiakim. 
 
 Ver. 23. — Into the ^aves of the common 
 people; literally, of the song of (he people 
 (comp. ch. xvii. 1 9 ; 2 Kings xxiii. 6). " The 
 graves" is equivalent to "the graveyard," 
 as Job xvii. 1. 
 
 Ver. 24. — Nevertheless the hand of Ahi- 
 kam, etc. ; i.e. in spite nf the prepossession 
 against prophets like Jeremiah which this 
 incident reveals, Ahikam threw all his 
 Influence into the scale of toleration. The 
 same Ahikam is mentioned in circumstances 
 which reflect credit on his religion in 
 
 2 Kings xxii. 12 — 14. One of his sons, 
 Gemariah, lent Baruch his offieial room for 
 the reading of the prophecies of Jeremiah 
 (ch. xxxvi. 10); another was the well-known 
 Gedaliah, who became governor of Judah 
 after the fall of Jerusalem, and who was 
 himself friendly to Jeremiuh (cb. ssxix. 
 14 ; xl. 5). 
 
 HOMILETICS. 
 
 Ver. 2. — The duty of declaring the whole truth. I. The duty. Jeremiah is com- 
 manded to " diminish not a word " from the Divine message. A similar obligation 
 rests upon every man who is called to speak for God to his fellow-men. The duty 
 is urgent for two reasons: 1. Truth is a trust. Thus Timothy is admonished by 
 St. Paul to keep that which is committed to his trust (1 Tim. vi. 20) ; and the apostle 
 speaks of the "gospel which was committed to my trust" (1 Tim. i. 11). 2. Truth 
 is needed hy the world. It is not a private monopoly ; it belongs to mankind. The 
 world is Aymz for lack of it. He who has possession of it and refuses to reveal it 
 to others is like a man who has discovered a secret spring of abundant water and 
 
CH. XXVI. 1—24.] THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 5G5 
 
 cWrhshly keeps his knowledge to himself though his companions are perishing of 
 thirst. Divine truth is of practical moment. It is not a mere curiosity, to be exposed 
 or hidden as its owner thinks fit, as though his treatment of it made little difference 
 to other men. When the four lepers of Samaria found the Syrian camp deserted their 
 first impulse ^yas to pillage it quietly and hide the treasures, keeping the great discoverv 
 secret; but wiser thoughts prevailed, and tliey hastened to acquaint the citizens with 
 their unexpected deliverance (2 Kings vii. 3—11). So every one who has seen the 
 redemption of Christ has no right to keep his knowledge to himself while the world 
 IS m sore need of it. The Church is entrusted with the gospel, not for her own enjoy- 
 ment alone, but for the good of the world. The same duty applies also to the posses- 
 sion of darker truths. It is evident, indeed, that a certain liberty and discretion are left 
 with us. It IS for us to arrange and present truth as it seems best to us ; to "ive 
 relative prominence to its various parts according to our idea of their importance" to 
 lead men up to the reception of it by degrees. It may be that there are truths which 
 the teacher sees, but which the scholar is not yet fit to receive. If they were declared 
 to him he would not understand them, and they would only injure him. A wise 
 teacher will reserve these. We act in this way with children. It may be ri'fht some- 
 times to do the same with those who are babes in knowledge. But is not thTs a viola- 
 tion of the duty of the text ? By no means. For : (1) If we are sure the truth will be 
 misunderstood we cannot really teach it; for to teach a thing is to make another 
 understand and know it, not merely to speak out unintelligible words about it. We 
 are not to cast our pearls before swine, though we are to remember that no human 
 beings are to be regarded as hopelessly and for ever swinish. (2) Truth may be with- 
 holden for a time with the object, not of suppressing it, but of the better leading them 
 up to the ripe reception of it. (3) The vision of truth must be distinguished from the 
 mission to declare it. No doubt the one directly leads to the other. But they may 
 not be contemporaneous. Questions of method, order, seasonableness, come between. 
 The duty is to diminish nothing of the prophet's message. 
 
 II. The temptation to fail ik this duty. 1. Fersonal fear may tempt a man 
 to " diminish " part of the Divine message. Jeremiah knew that the full utterance 
 of his message would provoke violent opposition. He was warned not to shrink from 
 declaring it on that account. In Christian lands and quiet times we do not feel the 
 same terrible temptation to unfaithfulness. But it comes to us in another form. There 
 are ideas which we believe to be true, but we fear they are unpopular ; they will excite 
 controversy, they will provoke ridicule, they will lead to neglect of the preacher. He 
 is tempted to shun these truths that he may swim with the tide of popularity. 
 But he is guilty of gross unfaithfulness if he thus shuns to declare the whole counsel 
 of God. 2. It may appear that men will not receive the message. Of course, as has 
 been remarked, we must use wisdom and discretion, seeking rather to convince men 
 than to provoke them. But it may even be a duty to declare a truth as a testimony 
 against men. In any case the responsibility for rejecting it will lie with them, as it 
 should. But who can tell whether or no his work will be fruitless? The most 
 unsympathetic hearers have sometimes been reached and affected and subdued by the 
 truth which they came to mock or oppose. When the bow is drawn at a venture it may 
 hit the most unlikely marks. It is certain that more good has been missed by our 
 faithlessness in not " sowing beside all waters " than harm done by our rashness m 
 blurting out truths in unseemly circumstances. 3. Certain truths may seem to be 
 of no practical use. We are inclined to neglect these for those that are plainly 
 profitable. Now, there can be no doubt that some truths are of more practical impor- 
 tance than others, and these should naturally receive our more earnest attention. But 
 it is a mistake to neglect any truth on this account. Truth should be loved and taught 
 for its own sake. It is degraded when it is regarded solely from a utilitarian stand- 
 point. It is well that men should be true philosophers — lovers of wisdom. Moreover, 
 it is impossible to tell what will be the future practical influence of a truth. Some 
 of the most abstruse scientific inventions have led to results of great, though unexpected, 
 human advantage. If research were confined within the limits of the evidently 
 practical, it is certain that many of the most important discoveries^discoveries of tlia 
 greatest use to man — would never have been made. Thus, if electricity had not been 
 studied for purely scientific purposes we should never have had the telegraph. We 
 
566 . THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEllEMIAH. [ch. xxvi. 1— 24. 
 
 do not know all tlie effects of Divine truth. It may not affect others as it does us. 
 It may have special effects in the future, not felt as yet. It is our duty to preserve 
 and transmit it to the ages when it may bear most fruit. 4. Some truths may 
 ap[jear difficult and mysterious. Of course, if a truth is wholly unintelligible, it cannot 
 be taught. We are only uttering words when we try to expound it. But without 
 being unintelligible it may be mysterious, it may be inexplicable; it may come, 
 so to speak, with trails of dark shadows. The temptation is to leave this and only 
 touch what is clear throughout. But the very sense of mystery may be beneficial. 
 So much of the truth as is clear may be useful. If we are convinced that a thing is 
 true, we may accept it without explaining the whole rationale of it. The mystery may 
 grow clearer as we practise what we know of the truth. In any case the Christian 
 teacher is God's ambassador, commissioned to declare his Master's message entire, 
 unmutilated, whatever opinions he may have of the utility of it. 
 
 Vers. 8 — 19. — A scene in a Jewish court of law. We have here a graphic picture 
 of the procedure under the Hebrew criminal law, for it would appear that Jeremiah 
 ■was indicted and tried in accordance with correct legal order. The details of such 
 a trial are not unimportant to the student of constitutional history. But they are also 
 full of human interest. The law-court is a strange mirror of character. Many as are 
 the objections to the publication of police news in the daily papers, it does at least 
 serve to open our eyes to the eccentricities as well as the enormities of our variegated 
 human world. Let us see what light this trial of Jeremiah throws upon the various 
 persons concerned. 
 
 I. The accuseks. The leading accusers are priests and prophets. The priests, also, 
 were foremost in the accusation of our Lord. Jeremiah had threatened the temple ; 
 it is not wonderful that temple ofiScials should be enraged with him. Eeligious 
 persecution is generally instigated by the professional clerical class, whose vested 
 interests have been attacked by the reformer. The prophets were directly opposed 
 by the teaching of Jeremiah. If orthodoxy is to be decided by the vote of the majority, 
 they were the orthodox of their day. They were annoyed by the contradiction of the 
 greatest man of their order. Unable to answer him, they tried to suppress him. The 
 conduct of these men may suggest some general lessons, viz. (1) fidelity to the ordinances 
 of worship is no proof of fidelity to God; (2) professional religiousness may be far removed 
 from religiousness of character ; (3) they who claim to be regular teachers of religion 
 may be the^last to recognize fresh truth ; (4) they who are interested in a controversy 
 are bad judges of the merits of the case. 
 
 II. The accused. 1. Jeremiah remains faithful to his message. He reiterates it 
 with new emphatic warnings. His defence is that he is sent by God to speak as he 
 has spoken. He rests on innocence, truth, Divine authority. With such a plea 
 he dare not recant. The true servants of God will know that they ought to " obey 
 God rather than men," and therefore, like St. Peter and St. John, that they " cannot 
 but speak the things which they have seen and heard" (Acts iv. 20). 2. Jeremiah 
 showed indifference to his own life (ver. 14). He was a brave man, though his enemies 
 accused him of advocating a coward's policy. It is noble thus to have strength to act 
 on the conviction that truth is more precious than life. 3. Jeremiah warned the 
 people of the consequences of injustice (ver. 15). This he did more for their sakes 
 than for his own. Nothing can be more fatal to a country than the corruption of 
 justice. 
 
 III. The judges. The princes and elders seem to have the position of judges. 
 They are cool and impartial. In the Jewish state the ofiice of judge came with birth 
 and rank. The most radical friend of the people may see that the superior culture and 
 freedom from popular passions of these men may have fitted them in some measure for 
 their work. Unhappily, Jeremiah has exposed another side of their character. It 
 speaks well for them, however, after the severe castigation he had given "the shep- 
 herds " {e.g. ch. XXV. 34 — 38), that they had the magnanimity to lend the prophet an 
 impartial hearing, in spite of the virulent opposition of the priests. But possibly these two 
 classes of leading men were not on the friendliest of terms with one another. Even if 
 this be the case it is well that, unlike Herod and Pontius Pilate, they did not come to 
 an agreement through the sacrifioa of an innocent victim. Some of the elders cited the 
 
,CH. XXVI. 1—24.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH: 567 
 
 precedent of Micah's case. We see here the value of suc'h an illustration. It serves 
 to detach the principle under consideration from the prejudice of the passions of the 
 hour. 
 
 IV. The jury. The assembly of the people seems to have acted as a jury. The 
 priests and prophets present their accusation to them and the princes. The people and 
 the princes pronounce the opinion that Jeremiah is innocent. The elders address them- 
 selves exclusively to the assembly of the people. This assembly shows the weakness 
 of a popular concourse. The people are swayed from side to side. First they side with 
 the priests, then with the rulers. It also shows its advantages. The people are open 
 to impression ; they do not care for formal consistency to a previous conviction ; they 
 like to see fair play. When their broad human instincts are appealed to they respoud 
 rightly. 
 
 Vers. 20 — 23. — The story of an ohscure martyr. I. Unoriginal men mat do good 
 SERVICE IF THEY follow GOOD LEADERS. Urijah had no new message; but he fol- 
 lowed Jeremiah fully and firmly. Accordingly, though not especially inspired, he was 
 able to prophesy " in the Name of the Lord." It is more important to be true than to 
 be original. It is the duty of the Christian teacher to speak in the Name of God, but 
 only according to the teachini^ of prophets and apostles, and above all, Jesus Christ. 
 If we do this we can speak " with authority." 
 
 II. Small men may exert great power when they are on the side of right 
 AND TRUTH. Lfrijah is an insiguiKcant ptrsonage, yet all the court is in dismay at his 
 preaching. There is irony in this fact, if not intended by the language with which 
 it is described. We have " Jehoiakim the king, with all his mighty men, aud all his 
 princes," alarmed and enraged at the preaching of one obscure man. What a testimony 
 to the power of truth ! Magna est Veritas et prevaiebit. 
 
 III. Obscure men may suffer when greater men are spared. Urijah is killed ; 
 Jeremiah is acquitted. The Jews were overawed by Jeremiah ; Urijah was an enemy 
 small enough to be made a victim without danger. There is something terribly humi- 
 liating to human nature in this. How often do we see the same meanness choosing the 
 underling rather than the leader for spiteful but safe revenge I 
 
 IV. It is sometimes safer to face danger than to flee from it. Jeremiah held 
 his ground, and his li!e was spared ; Urijah fled to Egypt, and he was dragged back to 
 Jerusalem and ignominiously slain. The dauntless courage of ihe one man overpowered 
 opposition ; the cowardice of the other tempted it. It is always better even for our- 
 selves to be brave and faithful. After his previous recantations Archbishop Cranmer 
 could feel little of the triumph of a Ridley and a Latimer in the flanees of his mar- 
 tyrdom. 
 
 Ver 24. A friend in need. Ahikam proves himself to be a true friend to Jeremiah 
 
 by standino- by him in the hour of danger. He is not like Joseph of Arimatha^a, who 
 was unheard of till he came and begged the dead body of his Lord. When the danger 
 was greatest, he first made himself known on the side of the prophet. 
 
 I. 'He was just. Jeremiah had been maligned. But Ahikam knew him to be 
 innocent To have allowed him to perish would have involved complicity m the 
 murder of the prophet. Yet how many would have washed their hands and coutenied 
 themselves with taking no active' part in a public crime! It is not enough to refram 
 from joining in an injustice ; duty requires us to resist it. 
 
 II He was independent. Jeremiah was unpopular. Though the unanswerable 
 truthfulness of his defence secured him a verdict of acquittal at the regular tiial, there 
 can be no doubt that his life was in imminent peril from unscrupulous conspirators, 
 now that the general sentiment was against him. It is a proof ot staunch fidelity to 
 stand by a man when he is unpopular. There is little merit in showing friendship for 
 
 men who are fawned upon by fashion. „ , ^ • . ^ ^i. -i f i,;„ „,„„ 
 
 HI He was courageous. He could only defend Jeremiah at the peril of his own 
 life ■ Bv sidinff with the prophet he allowed his name to be associated with all that was 
 disliked and feared in the persecuted man, and he must have ^nown this, ior a 
 person in high station to come out in this way by himself and defend a solitaiy. 
 persecuted man required no little boldness. 
 
568 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xxvi. 1—24. 
 
 IV. He was usbfuIi. Ahikam could not prophesy ; but he could save a prophet's 
 life. Possibly but for him Jeremiah's mission would have been cut short. To him, 
 therefore, we owe the possibility of all the remainder of the great prophet's work. It 
 is noteworthy that Ahikam had shown respect for the prophetic orderbefore this, when, 
 with bis father and others, he went on an important mission from King Josiah to consult 
 the prophetess Huldah (2 Kings xxii. 12 — 14). Many a man who can do little directly 
 may be the means of securing immense good by fostering and furthering the work of 
 others. It would be happy for us to think less of our own prominence and more of the 
 accomplishment of God's will, no matter who may be the honoured instrument. We 
 may look beyond the human friend and see the hand of Providence in this deliverance 
 of the prophet. God raises up helpers when we least look for them. Among all the 
 blessings of life none should command more thankfulness to God than the gift of good 
 friends. 
 
 HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. 
 
 Vers. 1 — 3. — God's mercy shown in his messages. I. In their being eepeated. It 
 wns substantially the same message as had been delivered before and been rejected. 
 TTie question was not finally closed. Jehoiakim might show a disposition to repent and 
 alter the policy of his father's government. In any case a new chance is afforded him 
 and his people. God is slow to anger (Rom. x. 21). The invitations of his love are 
 still extended to us, notwithstanding the sins of the fathers and our own repeated vio- 
 lations of his Law (Heb. iv. 6—9). Even the backslider is addressed with frequeiit 
 warnings and appeals — a proceeding which would have no meaning apart from God's 
 reserved purpose of grace. 
 
 II. In their timeliness. It was not only at the middle or end of Jehoiakim's 
 reign, when he might have thought himself involved too deeply to retrace his steps, but 
 at the very beginning. With a new king a fresh opportunity is offered for the nation 
 also to return to its allegiance. Similarly does he stand at the threshold of every life 
 aiid the opening of every career. He has " risen up early " and anticipated the trans- 
 gressor in his evil way, or guided his faithful child into the paths of peace (cf. John i. 9). 
 
 III. In their faithfulness. " Stand in the court of the Lord's house, and speak 
 unto all the cities of Judah; . . . diminish not a word." To declare "all the words of 
 this life " is the commission of Christ's servants, and to do this " in season and out of 
 season." The exact situation of men, and the relation into which sin has brought them 
 with respect to God, must be plainly stated ; there is no room for flattery. It is absui d 
 to suppose that such a policy is due to vindictiveness. It can only be explained on 
 the hypothesis of an earnest and thorough-going scheme of salvation. Sinners require 
 to be faithfully dealt with, in order to awaken their conscience and constrain them to 
 take advantage of the means provided for their deliverance. 
 
 IV. In their revelation of his willingness to save. It might almost appear 
 weakness, yet is not Jehovah ashamed ot this long-suffering. The attribute of mercy 
 does not detract from the dignity or authority of Divine character; rather is it its 
 glory. This forbearance and hesitation to inflict punishment can be attributed to no 
 base motives. It is in harmony with his behaviour at all times. How important is it 
 that the repentant sinner should know the merciful disposition of him with whom he 
 has to do! It is essential in every preaching of the gospel that this impression should 
 be produced. The failure of one generation, again, is no reason for another being con- 
 demned before probation. God is " not willing that any should perish " (2 Pet 
 iii. 9).— M. 
 
 Vers. 1 — 17, 24. — The prophet of Ood arraigned hy the nation. Jeremiah's position, 
 as that of all -^irophets, was necessarily a public one ; to every man is he sent with the 
 message. It is inadmissible for him to soften or lessen what he has to speak, which is 
 nothing else than an indictment of the entire people (vers. 4 — 6). In default of their 
 repentance his arraignment by them is, therefore, all but inevitable. Indifference could 
 not well be feigned ; words like his were certain to produce an effect. 
 
 I. His reception. It is tumultuous and threatening. He is treated as a criminal. 
 The people, under the influence of his enemies, the priests and the prophets, said, 
 
CH. XXVI. 1—24.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 
 
 569 
 
 1 hou Shalt surely die, and were " gathered together against » him (vers. 8, 9). It was 
 to be expected that the priests and the prophets should have been his accusers (ver. 
 11) and they already anticipate an unfavourable verdict. It is the educated and influ- 
 ential amongst the laity who are his judges (ver. 10)-a fortunate thing for him, as the 
 event showed. Itey seem to have been more open to conviction, as they were probably 
 better acquainted with the moral condition of the court and the political situation. 
 Ihe opposition of men is to be expected by the follower and witness of truth, for 
 
 the carnal mind is enmity against God " (Rom. viii. 7). But some will ever be found, 
 if not convinced by him, yet, through the work of the Spirit, open to conviction. There 
 IS nothing which true religion demands in these crises but a fair hearing and an impar- 
 tial judgment. ° ^ 
 
 -. o";r?'l "f ??'5^; ^® declares the reality of his mission-" the Lord sent me " (vers. 
 y, 15; ; his laithtulness to his instructions, and the merciful aim which he had in view 
 (ver. 13) ; his helplessness and indifference to personal consequences (ver. 14) ■ and 
 his own innocence of any evil design against the nation. God's servants, when thus 
 arraigned, ought to be gentle and yet faithful to their message; the issue is to be left 
 to him. The fear of man is to be forgotten in the fear of God and the enthusiasm of 
 salvation. 
 
 III. His deliverance. 1. The verdict is sensible and wise (ver. 16), and receives 
 the adhesion of the people. It is the false prophets who are most obstinately opposed, 
 who would probably have aroused the popular prejudices, had it not been for the' 
 
 interference of certain elders who recalled previous instances in point (vers. 17 23) ; 
 
 and the strong personal influence of Ahikam, son of Shaphan. We are reminded of 
 our Saviour's experience at the bar of Pilate (Matt, xxvii. 19—25). 2. The most 
 prominent feature of the judgment is its consequence. God's children must frequently 
 be disappointed in their appeals to men and their expectation of results from his Word. 
 His ways are hidden, inscrutable, and hard to acquiesce in. A clear and intelligent 
 verdict is not to be expected from those who are nut prepared to yield themselves to 
 God's anthority. The clearest and most faithful expositions of truth will frequently 
 appear to fail of immediate effect. The servant of God is to care chiefly to deliver his 
 soul ; his personal safety may be left to God. God can raise up influential friends for 
 his people in critical times, but he will work out his schemes in his own way M. 
 
 Ver. 6. — Spiritual prerogative not inalienable. The utterance of these words is the 
 chief charge against the prophet ; only, as in the case of Stephen (Acts vi. 13), the 
 statement is mutilated in the accusation, the condition of the prophecy being entirely 
 ignoreil (vers. 9, 11). The principle of indestructible consecration is still clung to by 
 many in the face of the plainest declarations of Scripture. It may be well, therefore, 
 to discuss its bearings in the present instance. 
 
 I. The circumstances op its bestowai,. It was Divine grace to which it was due ; 
 but for this Jerusalem would have been like other cities. This favour had to be con- 
 tinued from moment to moment, being indeed only secured by the continued indwelling 
 of the Holy Spirit. What was due to grace could be freely withdrawn by its Donor. 
 As a matter of history, the most sacred places of Israel were repeatedly ruined and pro- 
 faned. This destruction is matter of ancient prophecy, as in the present instance (Dan. 
 ix. 26 ; Mark xiii. 2). 
 
 II. The terms op its tenure. The repeated warnings and injunctions given prove 
 that the consecration of the sacred places depended upon their occupancy by God's 
 Spirit, and this in turn upon the faithfulness of his people. Either these had no mean- 
 ing or the grace could be taken away. Jeremiah said, " If ye will not hearken to me, 
 then will I make this house like Shiloh." The testimony of 1 Kings ix. 6 — 8 is pre- 
 cisely similar (of. Ps. Ixxviii. 60 ; ch. vii. 12). 
 
 III. Its own essential nature. Strictly speaking, all things made by God are 
 good and holy, but they may be desecrated, in a secondary sense, by being misused, pro- 
 fened, or defiled. Institutions, buildings, or material or mechanical structures of any 
 sort, are at best but secondary receptacles of Divine grace. " God dwelleth not in 
 temples made with hands." It is the person occupying these who is the true temple, 
 and when he is defiled by sin or unfaithfulness there can be nu virtne inherent in the 
 places which he frequents. Consecration is alone transmissible through the operation 
 
570 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xxvi. 1—24; 
 
 and presence of the Holy Spirit, and ceases with the withdrawal of the same. It cou- 
 sists primarily in the personal character through which it is expressed, and only 
 secondarily in places and things, through the uses and practices carried oji by holy men 
 in connection with them. To the unholy, therefore, every place and thing will be 
 unholy, and vice versa (Titus i. 15). Material edifices, organization, and official preroga- 
 tive, are nothing apart from this personal consecration associated with them ; and the 
 loss of that involves the loss of usefulness, of peace, and of saoredness, even in connec- 
 tion with that with which they have been most identified. — M. 
 
 Vers. 8, 9. — TJie perils of prophesying. I. The pbophet of God meets with 
 
 UNIVERSAL OPPOSITION. 
 
 II. He is in personal danger. 1. The responsibility of the judgrrients predicted 
 is attached to himself. This is due to a false principle of association, having its root in 
 human ignorance and depravity'. Not even Ood is responsible. The sinner must blame 
 himself (Gal. iv. 16). 2. The worst consequences are threatened. Hatred to God 
 expresses itself in hatred to his servant. It is, therefore, violent and in defiance of 
 all justice. Transgressors think to escape judgment by denying it and destroying its 
 witnesses. 
 
 III. Character is jeopardized. The verdict was but a half-hearted one, and did 
 not meet with general assent. Tlie worst charges are brought against Christian men 
 who are faithful to their convictions ; and it is not always the case that their ground- 
 lessness is made clear. This is part of the " reproach of Christ." — M. 
 
 Vers. 12 — 15. — The defence of the witness for the truth. I. An appeal to con- 
 science. The message repeated in its baldest form. Its genuineness insisted upon, 
 and its reception earnestly urged upon men. A high moral standpoint is maintained, 
 and there is no compromise or apology. He stands at the bar of human conscience. 
 
 II. Obedience to lawful authority. He hands himself over to them to deal 
 with him as they will ; is careful to state his case as God gives him ability ; and 
 appeals to no unlawful means of deliverance. 
 
 III. Reference of the whole matter to God. God sent him — that is suffi- 
 cient. He has been faithful to his instructions ; is really not to be judged by man, but 
 leaves all with God. — M. 
 
 Ver. 24. — Belp raised up for God^s servants in times of peril. I. Op what sort it 
 IS. 1. Unexpected. 2. Opportune. 3. Effective. 4. Not ivhat man would choose. 
 
 II. What it teaches us. 1. The infinite resources of God. 2. The weakness of 
 evil. 3. Those who will net willingly obey God are made to serve him unwillingly. 
 4. God chooses his own way of dealing with his servants and his truth. — M. 
 
 Ver. 11. — Jeremiah reckoned worthy of death. I. Who they were that pro- 
 mounced this judgment. There is already a statement in ver. 8 that priests, 
 prophets, and people had laid hold on Jeremiah with a threatening of death ; but we 
 must allow something for the feelings produced on the first reception of an exasiieratinf 
 and humiliating message. The case is worse when the priests and prophets, havin° 
 had some time for consideration, however short, press upon the princes and people a 
 demand for the death of Jeremiah. The lead the priests and prophets here take goes 
 a long way in showing who were mostly responsible for the deplorable state of th?ngs 
 in the land. If things were to be put right, these two classes of men must be con- 
 spicuous in repentance. Those who were so ready to sentence Jeremiah to death were 
 really most of all deserving of death themselves. He had simply spoken words against 
 the city and the temple, words which were not his own ; those who condemned him 
 had so lived that their life had been a sedulous undermining of all that constituted the 
 prosperity and glory of their country. 
 
 II. What it was that provoked the judgment. Jeremiah had prophesied 
 against the city. Observe, not simply that he had spoken blasphemous and contemp- 
 tuous words against the city ; but that he had prophesied against it. Thus did the 
 ]>riosts and prophets show how little they understood the nature of true prophecy. 
 They did not understand that when the Lord sends forth a man to speak, he puts a 
 
CH. XXVI. 1—24.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 571 
 
 word in his month which shall commend itself to all who love truth and certainty. To' 
 the mind of these priests and prophets everything began with this postulate, that 
 nothing must be said against Jerusalem and the temple. And to them it was no sort 
 of answer that the sins of Jerusalem deserved and demanded that something should be 
 said against it. The good name of Jerusalem, however lacking in any sort of corre- 
 spondence with reality, had become a sort of point of honour. Thus we see how the 
 pride of men goes before their destruction. A conventional sense of honour leads them 
 into paths thickly strewn with stumbling-blocks. These men had become so stuffed 
 with spurious patriotism that they could not bear to have Jerusalem spdken against. 
 Hence chey are logically compelled to imply that Jeremiah is a false prophet, and that 
 God has not spoken at all. They were as those who shut their eyes, and then say 
 there is nothing to be seen. 
 
 III. The doom they invoked. The man who speaks against Jerusalem is reckoned 
 worthy of death. We must not, of course, measure this judgment by our notions of 
 what may require the death-penalty. To speak against a parent was by the Law 
 of Moses to incur the death-penalty. As the Apostle James uses many forcible 
 expressions to illustrate, great is the power of the tongue ; and a bad man may do 
 mischief with his tongue worthy of the severest punishment men can inflict. If 
 Jeremiah had gone about among the people stirring them up to rebellion and national dis- 
 cord, there would have been nothing very astonishing in an attempt to put him to death. 
 But he gave no exhortation to the people save what each one could carry into effect 
 without the slightest injury to any one ; nay, rather the obedience of each would be 
 to the real and abiding advantage of all. He spoke not of anything he himself intended 
 to bring about, but of what was going to happen altogether irrespective of him. His 
 death, supposing he were slain, would make no difference ; nay, it would only help to 
 proclaim his message louder and more abidingly. Those who feel themselves attacked 
 by the truth, strike out recklessly with the first instrument they can get hold of; but 
 though they may seem thus to destroy God's agencies, it is found in the end that they 
 are efficiently promoting his work. They that were scattered abroad by the great 
 persecution which arose at the time of Stephen's death, "went everywhere preaching 
 the Word."— Y. 
 
 Ver. 16. — Jeremiah reckoned not worthy of death. The contrast is very decided 
 between ver. 11 and ver. 16. In ver. 11 there is what appears an irresistible and 
 deadly accusation, coming from men who hardly knew a check of any kind. In ver. 
 16 there is the answer of those to whom they speak, refusing to ratify their demand. 
 What has happened between ? Only the appeal of one who was strong in the conscious- 
 ness that he had been a faithful servant of God. If we consider his words carefully, 
 we shall see that underneath them there are three considerations, of which the first is 
 more important than the second, and the second more important than the third. 
 
 I. We may say that, first of all, he is thinkino of the God who had sent him. 
 That which threatened him at the same time insulted and tried to thwart Jehovah. 
 Not that Jeremiah was careless about his own safety, but the glory of his God was 
 paramount in his thoughts. He had in him the true spirit of apostleship ; the claims 
 he had to make were not his own claims ; he was a sent man, and sent of God. ' Just 
 in proportion as a man feels that God has sent him, must be his distress to find that 
 others do not recognize the credentials of the messenger and the importance of the 
 messacre. On one side the prophet was dealing with God, on the other with men. 
 Every day deepened on him the impression of God's intimate presence with him ; and 
 yet this same God who was so much to him was nothing to these people ; the name 
 that thrilled and subdued his susceptible heart, was perhaps the least potent ot sounds 
 in their ears. Hence the need of appealing to them again and again, if perchance 
 there might be roused in them some sort of apprehension that they were dealing, not 
 with a brother man, but with the almighty and holy God. While they were all 
 absorbed in considerations of their own territorial dignity, God in his justice was 
 cominT ever nearer. Whatever happens to the people or to the prophet himself that 
 DroDhe°t will at all events exalt God before them to the latest hour of his existence. 
 If he has to die, the message of God shall live more gloriously in his closing hours. 
 
 II Hk is thinking OV the interests of this APPAlvENTLY OBDURATE PEOPLE. 
 
572 THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [oh. xxvi. 1—24. 
 
 Though at the present moment it is he who seems to be in dano;er, he well knows that 
 his peril is but a surface trifle when compared with that attaching to the scowling 
 enemies who are crowded around hira. He can be rescued, if so it please God ; but 
 who is to rescue those who are striding onwards, ever more swiftly, to a righteous 
 doom ? God can deliver the prophet from his enemies, for the prophet himself inter- 
 poses no obstacle to his deliveiance ; but these people of Judab and Jerusalem interpose 
 insurmountable obstacles, in that they will not amend their ways and doings and obey 
 the voice of God. More than that, it seems as if they were about to add a fresh 
 obstacle by shedding the innocent blood of God's latest messenger. The persecutor is 
 always in greater peril than the persecuted. Physical pain and physical death are 
 transitory and unreturning ills, but the evil-doer has to face the worm that dieth not. 
 Compare with the words of the prophet here the words of Jesus as he was being led to 
 crucifixion : " Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and 
 for your children " (Luke xxiii. 28). 
 
 III. He is thinking op his own peesent position. (See ver. 14.) This verse 
 reveals a calm, intermediate position between the reckless fanaticism that even courts 
 death and the spirit that turns back the moment threatening is heard. " I am in your 
 hands," says the prophet. He admits their power to the fullest extent, and he does 
 not in any way dare them to the exercise of it. He is neither anxious for life nor afraid 
 of death. This surely is the spirit to be gained if one would be a true witness for God. 
 Jeremiah seems to speak here as one who had gained, for the moment at least, some- 
 thing of the calm of eternity. And his very calmness must surely have been a con- 
 siderable element in determining the rapid change of feeling among the multitude. 
 Perfect presence of mind, when it comes from an all-sufficient Divine stay within, must 
 have a wondrous power in checking those whose fury is roused by an attack on their 
 base and selfish interests. — Y. 
 
 Vers. 17 — 23. — An argument from, history. A prophet, a king, and a people 
 belonging to a past generation are brought forward to justify the conclusion to which 
 the princes and the people here had come. Here, then, is an eminent instance of what 
 a practical study history may become. One must be so acquainted with the past as 
 to seize just that completed event which will cast light on the duties and necessities of 
 the present. 
 
 I. An instance op a prophet's unpalatable message. No word could have been 
 more provocative of resentment than this. It threatened those to whom it was spoken 
 in the closest possible way. It meant that they were to be subjected to their enemies, 
 driven from their homes, and deprived of their most substantial possessions. The 
 message being such, what comfort Jeremiah might obtain from recollecting that his 
 predecessors treading his thorny path before him were now remembered in such an 
 honourable way I Micah had been faithful to his God, his message, and his audience ; 
 and the impression of his faithfulness is still deep when something like a century has 
 elapsed. These people now listening to Jeremiah were thus made responsible for M icah's 
 words as well as Jeremiah's. What harmony there is in true prophecy ! False pro- 
 phets, from their very position, cannot be got to agree ; but here Jeremiah's words at 
 once recall to mind Micah's similar words, and help to drive them with a deeper 
 impression into some at least of this subsequent generation. Thus also, reciprocally, 
 Micah's words help Jeremiah's. And not only was there harmony between the pro^ 
 phecies ; there was harmony between the characters of the prophets as well. All the 
 prophets would have understood one another perfectly if they had been gathered 
 together in one assembly. , 
 
 II. An instance of how a pkophet should ever be received. Jeremiah is able 
 to look back on a man of like spirit with himself in the prophet Micah, but the present 
 leaders of Israel have their thoughts turned to a very different king from Jehoiakim. 
 We can guess how Hezekiah behaved toward Micah from the way in which he behaved 
 toward Isaiah. The narrative here concerning the fate of Urijah seems to be intro- 
 duced to show that, though Jeremiah escaped from peril at the hands of these priests 
 and prophets, their nature and the nature of Jehoiakim remained the same. When 
 Hezekiah heard the truth, bitter as it was, he humbled himself and averted doom. 
 But Jehoiakim and his profligate and rapacious circle hated every one who spoke the 
 
CH. XXVII. 1—22.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 
 
 573 
 
 truth. Hence it was not enough for them that Urijah fled ; they followed him and 
 brought him back to suffer their vengeance. Thus it is made evident how Jehoiakim 
 was a man of very diB'erent spirit from Hezokiah. — Y. 
 
 Ver. 24. — A friend in need. I. The evident peril of Jeremiah. A large body of 
 the people had been somehow influenced to take his side, but how long their favourable 
 mood of mind might continue, who could tell ? There was no Hezekiah on the throne 
 to encourage such a feeling and make it permanent. Moreover, there is an ebullition 
 of fury wliich is fatal to one who, as far as the record enables us to judge, occupied a 
 far less prominent position than Jeremiah. If Urijah was slain, how could Jeremiah 
 hope to escape? We must try to get a distinct iiupression of all the peril in which 
 Jeremiah was in order to appreciate the services rendered to him by Ahikam. 
 
 II. The timely help of Ahikam. Nothing is told us save the bare fact of pro- 
 tection. We must not assume that Ahikam was fully in sympathy with Jeremiah. 
 We have no means of judging as to his character and his motives, as to the risks that 
 he ran, and the ultimate results to him. The one clear thing is that at this time he 
 was a man of power, and was for some reason disposed to shield the prophet. It may 
 be that, if we could lay bare and analyze his motives, they would be found very 
 mixed as to their kind. But, whatever the motives, the practical service was the 
 same. Jehovah could, of course, have protected his servant by supernatural means, but 
 it is his principle of working not to employ the supernatural when the natural would 
 serve the purpose. Hezekiah could do more than Ahikam, seeing that he turned to 
 God and kept back the dreadful visitations. But Ahikam did all tliat was necessary 
 for the present occasion. Compare the position of Ahikam here with that of the Duke 
 of Lancaster towards Wioklitfe and the Lollards. — Y. 
 
 EXPOSITION. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 This and the two following chapters are 
 closely connected. They all relate to the 
 early part of the reign of Zedekiah, and con- 
 tain warnings arising out of the deepening 
 gloom of the political horizon. It must, 
 however, be noted that there is evidently 
 some mistake in the first verse of ch. xxvii., 
 and also that the contents of ch. xxix. point 
 to a somewhat earlier time than ch. xxvii., 
 xxviii. (viz. the first or second year of King 
 Zedekiah). To understand the circum- 
 stances of ch. xxvii., we must remember 
 that Zedekiah had accepted the throne as 
 the vassal of Nebuchadnezzar (2 Kings xxiv. 
 17). The self-righteousness and formalism 
 of the people, however, would not allow 
 them to remain quiet under such a humi- 
 liation. Deuteronomy, it seemed to them, 
 had promised success and prosperity to an 
 obedient performance of the Law, and the 
 priests and the prophets assured them that 
 these conditions had been complied with. 
 In the fourth year of Zedekiah (comp. ch. 
 xxviii. 1) the popular discontent was still 
 further stimulated by the presence of am- 
 
 bassadors from the neighbouring nations, 
 who had come to organize a common move- 
 ment against the common enemy. Jeremiah 
 believed that he could not give more forcible 
 expression to the Divine warnings of which 
 he was the bearer than by a symbolic act 
 akin to that related of Isaiah in Isa. xx. 
 2. He appeared in some public place, 
 where the ambassadors would be sure to 
 pass, with a yoke upon his neck, and in 
 this strange guise delivered an impressive 
 exhortation to the foreign visitors. It would 
 appear as if Jeremiah's exertions on thii 
 occasion were successful, so far as Judah 
 was concerned ; for we are informed (oh. li. 
 59) that, in the fourth year of his reign, 
 Zedekiah took a journey to Babylon, doubt- 
 less to renew his oath of fidelity to the King 
 of Babylon. 
 
 It is instructive to compare this chapter 
 as given in the Hebrew Bible with the form 
 in which it appears in the Septuagint. We 
 must not too hastily assume that the (Jreek 
 is incorrect, but examine in each case which 
 form gives most force and expressiveness to 
 the prophecy. 
 
 Ver. 1.— In the beginning of thb reiga 
 
574 
 
 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xxvii. 1— 22, 
 
 of Jehoiakim. The Syriao substitutes for 
 " Jehoiakim " " Zedekiah," to bring the 
 passage into conformity with ch. xxviii. 
 
 I, where the fourth year of the reign of 
 Zedekiah is expressly mentioned. But is 
 this emendation sufficient? Can the fourth 
 year be called " the beginning of the reign 
 of Zedekiah," when that reign lasted alto- 
 gether only eleven years ? Is it not probable 
 that the transcriber has inadvertently copied 
 the heading of oli. xxvi., which corresponds 
 verbally with ch. xxvii. 1, except that " unto 
 Jeremiah" is wanting? 
 
 Ver. 2. — Hake thee bonds and yokes; 
 rather, bands and poles ; i.e. the bands which 
 secured the two pieces of wood placed 
 respectively above and beneath the neck of 
 the ox, so forming a yoke. Hence, in Lev. 
 xxvi. 13, we find the phrase, "the poles 
 [Authorized Version wrongly, ' the bands '] 
 of your yoke." It is clear from oh. xxviii. 
 10 that this account is to be taken literally. 
 
 Ver. 3. — And send them, etc. The letter 
 of the text certainly suggests that Jeremiah 
 actually delivered a separate yoke to each 
 of the five ambassadors. Some commen- 
 tators, however, finding such an act almost 
 incredible, suppose the statement to be 
 allegorical, and the " sending of the yoke" 
 to mean the declaration of the subjection of 
 tlie nations to Nebuchadnezzar which fol- 
 lows, somewhat as in oh. XXV. 15 the "causing 
 all the nations tn drink " means the utterance 
 of a prophecy of woe to the various peoples 
 concerned. But we can hardly pronounce 
 upon this passage by itself. We have to 
 consider whether a whole group of similar 
 statements is or is not to be taken literally. 
 It may be enough to instance ch. xiii. 1 — 7. 
 "Which come ; rather, wfiich are come. 
 
 Vers. 5, 6. — Jehovah is the Creator and 
 Proprietor of the earth and all tiiat is tliere- 
 in. Therefore he can give any part of it to 
 whomsoever he will. Therefore, Jeremiah 
 being his trustworthy prophet, the kings 
 are called upon to take notice tliat Jehovah 
 has transferred their kingdoms to Nebu- 
 chadnezzar. Observe, in chs. xxvii. — xxix. 
 the form employed is not "Nebuchadrezzar," 
 but "Nebuchadnezzar" (so also ch. xxxiv. 
 1 ; xxxix. 5). (See on ch. xxi. 7.) 
 
 Ver. 6. — My servant (see on oh. xxv. 9). 
 The beasts of the field ; i.e. the wild beasts. 
 This last feature indicates the unlimited 
 character of Nebuchadnezzar's power. 
 
 Ver. 7. — Him, and his son, and his son's 
 son. This is intelligible only if the seventy 
 years predicted by Jeremiah in ch. xxv. 
 
 II, 12, xxix. 10, are a round number. 
 Nebuchadnezzar died in B.o. 561, and was 
 succeeded by his son Evil-Merodach, who, 
 after two years, was put to death by Neri- 
 glissiir. In B.C. 555 Laborosoarohod (?) be- 
 came king, but after nine months a usurper 
 
 belonging to another family, Nabonedus or 
 Nabunita, ascended the throne, which he 
 occupied till b.o. 538, the year of the fall of 
 Babylon. " Seventy years," taken literally, 
 only brings us to B.o. 555, seventeen years 
 short of the conquest of Babylon by Cyrus. 
 Until the very time of his land come ; rather, 
 until the lime of his own land come. Nebu- 
 chadnezzar cannot ensure his realm against 
 captivity. Shall serve themselves of him. 
 (For the meaning of the phrase, see on ch. 
 xxv. 14.) 
 
 Ver. 9. — Your dreamers; rather, your 
 dreams. So in ch. xxix. 8 the " dreams " of 
 the people are expressly distinguished fron^ 
 the utterances of the prophets and sooth- 
 sayers. In our passage the " dreamers " 
 are appropriately mentioned between the 
 " diviners " and the " enchanters," because 
 the skill of the soothsayers partly lay iu 
 the interpretation of dreams (oomp. Gen. 
 xli. 8; Dan. ii. 2). 
 
 Ver. 10. — To remove you far; or, more 
 distinctly, that 1 may remove you far. So 
 Isa. vi. 12, "(Until) Jehovah have removed 
 men afar ofi'." The deportation policy of 
 the Assyrians and Babylonians was over- 
 ruled by God for his own deep purposes. 
 
 Ver. 11. — The nations that bring their 
 neck, etc. The Hebrew has, " The nation 
 that shall bring its neck," etc. 
 
 Vers. 12— 15.— But the warnings of Jere- 
 miah were not confined, far from it, to the 
 neighbouring kings. Zedekiah had received 
 a precisely similar message. Bring your 
 neoks. The plural is used, for Zedekiah 
 was but an individual among a number of 
 much more vigorous personalities (comp. on, 
 ch. xxii. 2). 
 
 Vers. 16— 22.— The warning to the priests 
 and to the rest of the people. The last four 
 verses of this section appear in a much short- 
 ened form in the Sept uagint, and it must be 
 admitted that the description is singularly 
 lengthy. It is, therefore, quite conceivable 
 that this is one of the oases in which the 
 Hebrew text has been disfigured by wilful 
 interpolation. On the other hand, it is also 
 possible that the description was filled out 
 by an editor, e.g. by Baruch, conscientiously 
 for the benefit of later readers. 
 
 Ver. 16.— The vessels of the Lord's hoTue; 
 i.e. the golden vessels which Solomon had 
 made, and which Nebuchadnezzar had taken 
 away (1 Kings vii. 48—50 ; 2 Kings xxiv. 13> 
 Mow shortly. These words are wanting in 
 the Beptuagint, and, considering that the 
 Greek is also without the prediction in ver, 
 22, that the vessels of the temple and of the 
 palace should be brought back in the day 
 of visitation (which seems inconsistent with 
 ch. lii. 17), the question arises whether the 
 words " now shortly " here arc not due to 
 a hasty copyist. 
 
CH. XXVII. 1-22.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 
 
 575 
 
 Ver. 18.— But if they be prophets, etc. 
 The " false prophets," so Jeremiah declares, 
 have neglected one of the principal functions 
 of a prophet, viz. intercessory prayer (comp. 
 on ch. vii. 16). Seeing that a part of the 
 sacred vessels had been carried to Babylon, 
 nil true prophets ought to intercede with 
 Jehovah that tliose still left might be 
 spared. The end was that the remaining 
 vessels were carried off on the capture of 
 Jerusalem (2 Kings xxv. 13). 
 
 Ver. 19. — This and the two following 
 
 verses are thus given in the Septuagiut; 
 " For thus saith the Lord, . . . and the reht 
 of tile vessels which the king of Babylon 
 took not, when lie carried Jeconiah captive 
 from Jerusalem; they shall come to Babylon, 
 saith the Lord." This bhortened form 
 throws a light on the fact of the absence of 
 "now shortly" in ver. 16 (see note). The 
 pillars, etc. ; i e. the two bronze pillars called 
 Jaohin and Bouz (1 Kings vii. 21). The 
 sea; i.e. the molten "sea," or basin (1 Kiu"T3 
 vii. 23). The bases (1 Kings vii. 27). " 
 
 HOMILBTICS. 
 
 Ver. 5.— The rights of the Creator. This address on the rights of the Creator is 
 made to heathen men because God has rights over all men, and because they who 
 cannot yet understand his higher character may be able to recognize his natural rights. 
 
 I. The foundation of the bights of the Cebatoe. 1. They rest on the fact°that 
 all things that exist were created. It is a fundamental axiom of science that everything 
 that has a beginning must have a cause. The universal testimony of experience is 
 against the notion that existences could spring forth spontaneously from uothiug, or 
 that organisms could come of themselves from a lawless chaos. The theory of an end- 
 less chain of causation is illogical. If this is regarded as cyclic we have nothing to 
 account for the motion of the whole cycle. The notion is parallel to that of a wheel 
 revolving because the several parts of the circumference press on those which are before 
 them — a mechanical absurdity. If, however, the chain is regarded as infinitely long, we 
 have another absurdity. Since it is made up of finite links each of which is no perfect 
 cause in itself, we have not solved the question, we have only driven it bick to the 
 infinite distance. It is the grand lesson of the first chapter of the Book of Genesis — 
 whatever we may think of the details of that chapter — that it conies to our rescue with 
 the assertion of a personal Creator, the only doctrine that will fit the requirements of 
 the case. 2. The rights of the Creator rest on the fact that all thint;s were created by 
 his energy. We do not know what subordinate agencies God may employ. But in auy 
 case the fundamental power must be his. He cannot delegate powers of creation in the 
 sense of investing any beings with them without any dependence on his power. The 
 power must be God's, though the channel through which it flows may be some lower 
 agency. The doctrine of evolution would not touch this fact. The important question 
 is not as to the method of creation, but as to the originating power. This lies behind the 
 question of design. It is the question of primitive causation. Whether with succes- 
 sive sudden emergencies or through gradual development, it is equally true that God has 
 created the world by his great power and by his outstretched hand. 
 • II. The natdee of the eights of the Ceeatoe. They are absolute. We know 
 nothing like them among men. A man is supposed to have a right to dispose of the 
 work of his own hands. But his work is not creation. If he has built a house he has 
 not made the ground on which it stands, nor the stone and wood of which it is con- 
 structed. But by Divine creation we understand not merely building up the materials 
 of the universe into new forms, but the original making of these materials and the 
 determination of the laws of nature. Prom this fact comes the right of God to dis- 
 pose of his creation as be thinks fit, to give the world and its contents to whomsoever 
 he pleases. But in admitting this we are saying that he will do that which is best fur 
 the world itself. For God is just and good and merciful. He will please to do that which 
 is right, and that which will bless his creatures. God exercises his rights through his 
 will. Jf creation reveals the rights, Christ reveals the will. Through this higher reve- 
 lation we see reasons for acquiescing in God's exercise of sovereignty, not with mere 
 resignation to the inevitable, nor even only with dutiful yielding to recognized law and 
 authority, but with thankful submission to the care of a merciful Father. Thus we see 
 that the exercise of God's rights is limited by his character; limited by his justice, so 
 that he can never dispose of things arbitrarily or cruelly ; limited by his love, so that 
 
576 THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xxvii. 1—22. 
 
 he will dispose of them so as to secure the welfare of his children. This is a consider- 
 ation of the first importance. The neglect of it has led to the interpretation of such 
 words as those of our text so as to represent God as an arbitrary, capricious Sovereign, 
 who may be feared and must be submitted to, but cannot be loved or freely adored. 
 
 Vers. 6, 7. — God's disposal of man's possessions. I. God has a eight to dispose of 
 man's possessions. He made them, and they are always his, only lent to be withdrawn 
 or transferred when he wills. If the Lord gave, he has a right to take away (Job i. 
 21). If he takes much, we should be thankful for what he leaves — for this even we 
 have no claim. Nations should feel that God has rights over them. Their liberties are 
 subieot to his government, their territory to his disposal. 
 
 II. God does dispose of man's possessions. He exercises his right. He is no roi 
 faineant. God does not reserve his interference for the last day of judgment. He is 
 always working among the nations. In a national disaster we should recognize the 
 hand of Providence ; so should we in the advent of national glory. God does not only 
 overthrow; he appoints, prospers, gladdens. 
 
 III. GOD DOES NOT ALWAYS GIVE THE GREATEST POWER TO THE BEST MEN. Nebuchad- 
 
 nezzar was a bad man ; yet God gave him the largest dominion in the world. We may 
 believe that he was best suited for the work that was required of him. His mission 
 was to be a scourge of the nations. An augel would find himself ill at ease in such 
 a work. In appointing a hangman we do not expect to get the most high-souled 
 person in the kingdom tor the post. God can overrule the evil nature of bad men and 
 make it serve some good end, as we can employ the refuse of one factory as useful 
 materials in another. 
 
 IV. God does not always give the most abundant possessions to the best men. 
 We see bad men enriched, good men pauperized. Goodness seems on the whole to be 
 favourable to temporal prosperity, but with innumerable exceptions. Therefore we 
 must conclude that God does not value earthly prosperity so highly as we value it. 
 He regards it as subordinate to higher interests. 
 
 V. God's disposal of man's possessions does not hinder the free exercise op 
 man's powers. God gave Nebuchadnezzar his powers, but the king put these forth of 
 his own will. By his daring, his energy, the use of his resources, he won his brilliant 
 victories and conquered his vast dominions. God works through our work. He gives 
 to the diligent. 
 
 VI. God's disposal of man's possessions does not limit man's responsibility. It 
 Nebuchadnezzar got his territory by violence and rapacity, he was not the less guilty 
 because God assigned it to him. For he was responsible for his own actions and their 
 motives, irrespective of any unknown design that God might work out through them. 
 We cannot throw the blame of our misconduct on the providence of God. He over- 
 rules the issue of our actions, but he does not fetter or force the choice of our wills. 
 
 Ver. 11. — The duty of non-resisfance. Again and again in various forms Jeremiah 
 recurs to the advice of submission to Nebuchadnezzar. In the present instance he 
 addresses it to representatives of foreign nations, and urges it as politic, while to the 
 Jews he was more anxious to show that it was in accordance with God's will. Viewed 
 from various standpoints there were several grounds for non-resistance. 
 
 I. The will of God. This was the highest reason. It could not be fully appre- 
 ciated by the heathen ; yet even they were reminded that the Creator was the supreme 
 disposer of the destiny of nations. The condition of the Jews, however, was peculiar. 
 They were living under a theocracy. The prophets were the ministry of the Divine 
 King. Their utterances were revelations of law for the government of the people. To 
 resist Nebuchadnezzar in opposition to these utterances was to rebel against the decree 
 of the supreme Sovereign of the nation. We do not stand in the same outward circum- 
 stances. But we should learn that the first thought in public as well as in private 
 affairs should be as to what is right, what is God's will ; and all considerations of glory 
 etc., should be subordinate to this. We cannot learn God's will from oracular teachers 
 but we can ascertain it from a devout study of revelation, prayer, and honest thought 
 
 II. Sound policy. Events proved that Jeremiah was politically as well as morally 
 right. Religious duty lies nearer to useful policy than either fanatic dreamers or worldly 
 
cu. xxvir. 1— 22.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 577 
 
 statesmen are able to see. History shows that all resistance to the mighty flood of the 
 Babylonian invasion was futile. Timely submission alone could secure a mitigation of 
 its violence. It is foolish for a nation to flourish empty notions of glory above con- 
 siderations for the welfare of the people. The loyal statesman will care less for the 
 fame of a great name, or the splendour of brilliant achievements, than for the peaceful 
 prosperity of his fellow-countrymen. The first interest of a nation is this peaceful 
 prosperity. There may be times when to maintain it self-defence becomes a duty. But 
 when self-defence cannot secure it, when it is rather hindered than helped by resistance, 
 it is foolish to resist for the sake of mere pride. 
 
 III. Wholesome moral good. The Jews were taught that the invasion by Nebu- 
 chadnezzar was sent by God as a chastisement for sin. To submit to it was to submit 
 to profitable correction. In the end the nation might hope to be the better for it. We 
 have no right to complain of troubles which our own misconduct has brought upon us. 
 We may " count it all joy " that we have fallen into tribulation if this works our higher 
 and lasting good. Temporal distress should be patiently borne in the prospect of 
 eternal blessedness, material adversity calmly endured when this is the means of 
 securing inward spiritual good. 
 
 Ver. 18. — Prophecy tested hy prayer. I. It is the duty op a prophet to pray. 
 He should be spiritually what the priest can only be ceremonially, the mediator 
 between man and God. Mediation has two sides. It implies the work of the interces- 
 sor as well as that of the prophet — the speaking to God for men as well the speaking 
 to men for God. The former work, however, is in more danger of falling into neglect. 
 It is more spiritual, it requires more humility, it gains less credit from men. But no 
 prophet can even discharge his mission to men aright unless he is also a man of prayer. 
 God reveals himself to those who seek him. Revelations firom Heaven are vouchsafed 
 to those who live in communion with Heaven. 
 
 II. Inspiration is requisite por prayer as well as fob prophecy. The true 
 prophet is the inspired man ; he also has the first requisite for prayer. We need inspi- 
 ration for prayer to bring us into sympathy with God. Prayer is more than asking 
 for the satisfaction of our wants — it is communion with God ; and communion implies 
 sympathy. Like the bird which soars aloft because its wings rest on the surrounding 
 air, we can only rise heavenwards as we bear ourselves up through an atmosphere of 
 heavenly thought. Without the breath of God's Spirit in us we cannot withdraw 
 from the world and attain to the vivid consciousness of spiritual things. For prayer 
 involves the rising above our common, our ordinary life. Thus we may understand 
 the mission of the Spirit as an intercessor. Christ intercedes for us with God. The 
 Holy Spirit intercedes for God in us, helping our infirmities, teaching us what we 
 should pray for, and how to pray, and breathing into us yearnings deep and unutterable 
 (Eom. viii. 26). 
 
 III. Divinely inspired prayer will be reasonable and according to God s 
 WILL. If the prophets were inspired they would not ask for the impossible; they 
 would not pray for that which they knew was contrary to God's will ; they would not 
 utter prayers of greed and pride. Inspiration does not make a man irrational ; on the 
 contrary, it makes him see facts as they are. If these prophets were inspired they 
 would see the folly of asking back the lost vessels. Inspiration is concerned with the 
 present and the future. It is foolish to waste time in lamenting the irretrievable. Let 
 us see that we preserve what still remains with us, and secure what is best for the 
 future. It is absurd to be boasting of great things when we cannot secure small ones. 
 If the prophets could not protect the vessels in Jerusalem, much less could they recover 
 those which had been already removed to Babylon. They might be uttermg great 
 prayers about the lost treasure; but while they made no prevaihng prayer to secure the 
 treasure still in hand they only exposed their own incompetence. 
 
 IV Prayer and its results are tests of a man's spiritual condition. If it can 
 be said of a person, "Behold, he prayeth! " we may know much of him. Prayer is 
 the barometer that rises or falls with the changing tone of the spiritual atmosphere. 
 When we " restrain prayer " this is a sad sign that our better life is failmg. It is use- 
 less to boast of spiritual attainments such as those of the professional prophets; these 
 are nothing but delusions if the prayer-test reveals a condition of spiritual deadness, 
 
 JEREMIAH. ^ 
 
578 THE BOOK OF THE PKOPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xxvii. 1—22. 
 
 The results of pvayer are a further test. We cannot say that a particular prayer is not 
 acceptable to God because it does not bring us the particular thing we seek, since we 
 are always making foolish requests, and Q-od mercifully deals with us according to his 
 wise and good will rather than according to the letter of our language. Still, if no 
 answer is ever received to prayer, something must be wrong. Either all our prayers 
 aie mistaken, which shows we could not be receiving the help of God's inspiration; or 
 our spiritual condition is one of separation from God, in which condition no prayer 
 could be answered. If not in every detail, yet in the main, religious experience may be 
 tested by the facts of life. The prophet must find his prediction confirmed by history. 
 The man of prayer must show some fruits of his devotion. 
 
 HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. 
 
 Vers. 1 — 22. — Divine judgments not to be resisted. A conference of ambassadors 
 from neighbouring nations had been held at Zedekiah's court to consider plans of 
 revolt against Nebuchadnezzar. The king himself and a patriotic party were bent 
 upon resistance. This movement Jeremiah checked at its very outset by his symbolical 
 warning. 
 
 I. God is Ruler op all the kingdoms or the earth. He made them, and con- 
 trols their destinies. Of the earth he says, " I have given it unto whom it seemed meet 
 unto me." His control over human interests, possessions, and destinies is absolute and 
 unlimited. 
 
 II. Even the ungodly mat be instSumbnts of his purposes. " Nebuchadnezzar, 
 my servant," — a remarkable title when applied to a heathen prince. The character of 
 the authorities, the agents, and the instrumentalities by which we are opposed is not 
 in itself a reason for resisting them if they are evidently of Divine appointment. In 
 such a case we should be fighting against God. Moral evil is ever to be resisted and 
 witnessed against, but that which God appoints must be acknowledged and submitted to. 
 
 III. In such cases oihgumstanoes will clearly show whether the appointment 
 is op God or not, and now we must be guided in cub conduct. The advice of the 
 prophet is not to be interpreted as an expression of mere political prudence. It was the 
 moral significance of Nebuchadnezzar's supremacy to which he appealed. In default of 
 revelation our own conscience and common sense must be our guides. 1. In cases of 
 unmistalcaUe Divine dispensations the law of submission is clearly taught. Of this 
 class is the rule of submission to the powers that be ; of cheerful contentment with 
 one's lot in life, so far as it seems beyond our own legitimate control or to be provi- 
 dentially arranged. 2. The ordinary miscellaneous trials and difficulties of life are not 
 to be regarded in this way. Where there is not witness of conscience enjoininc sub- 
 mission, energetic effort must be made. The Bible is no book of fatalism. It inculcates 
 self-help, manly fortitude, and believing, intelligent enterprise. 
 
 IV. Guidance and instruction may be granted to men even whilst under 
 Divine discipline. 1. Injunctions. To be punished does not mean to be cast off ; 
 quite the contrary. And therefore, if there be any gracious purpose in the dispensa- 
 tion, it is well that it should be explained. False prophets have foretold favourable 
 turns of fortune with mischievous effect. These must be contradicted, and their 
 tendency exposed. The Bible is full of instruction to the perplexed in all a-^es, and 
 the Spirit of God still speaks to the hearts of his children. 2. Signs. Sometimes 
 these will be of one kind, sometimes of another. Here a crucial test was proposed 
 viz. the challenge to the false prophets to bring back the vessels of the temple from 
 Babylon. If God heard their prayer, then it would appear that their advice was sound 
 Signs will never be wanting to those who earnestly seek to know God's will, s! 
 These are to be sought through prayer and waiting upon God. M. 
 
 Ver. 18.— Prophets tested by prayer. I. By this their disposption was dis- 
 covered. Prayer is one of the most vital indications of the presence of spiritual life 
 It IS only by constant devotion and spiritual intercourse with God that any one can be 
 truly acquainted with him or know his will. The taunt of the prophet is to the effect 
 that they are not over addicted to this practice, but prefer to indulge in political 
 
CH. XXVII. 1-22.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 
 
 579 
 
 trifling and bombast. They had no pleasure in the exercises of true piety ; and it 
 might be were even afraid directly to invoke Jehovah. It was the neglect of the latter 
 by themselves and their idolatrous followers which had entailed the present evils upon 
 Judah. The prophet points out, therefore, the true method of discovering the will of 
 God, and of restoring, not only the vessels to the temple, but the exiles to their land. 
 II. Their pretensions would be tested by the efficacy of their intercbs* 
 SIGN. This is the most disinterested form of prayer. By betaking themselves to it 
 instead of prophesying lies, they would do real service to the nation. Because he who 
 can effectually intercede : 1. Is a source of blessing to all who are about Mm. He has 
 true sympathy and insight, and can bring down forgiveness even upon the undeserving. 
 'J'he grandest promises of Holy Scripture are encouragements to this practice. 2. Is 
 thereby acknowledged and accepted by Ood. As Elijah provoked with a similar 
 challenge the prophets of Baal, so Jeremiah taunts his enemies with their spiritual 
 impoteucy. The restoration of the vessels under the circumstances would be nothing 
 short of a miracle, and supernatural aid would be required. He alone is truly great 
 who can prevail with God. And the greatest of the prophets is he who makes inter- 
 cession for mankind according to the Divine will. — M. 
 
 Vers. 1 — 11. — Jehovah's consideration towards some neighbours of Israel. I. God 
 foresees the natural probability of a struggle. Nebuchadnezzar and his hosts 
 are not to drop from the clouds on the land of Jehovah's people whom Jehovah has 
 now doomed. These hosts come from a distant land, and have many intervening lands 
 to pass through; and how can they pass through in any but a destroying, impoverishing 
 fashion ? If the King of Babylon is to reach Jerusalem, the lands here mentioned 
 must assuredly suffer from him scarcely less than Judah itself. And naturally they 
 will prepare to meet him. Alliances will be formed ; resources will be accumulated ; 
 the greatest strain will be put on every one in order to make the defence successful. 
 These attacked people cannot assume that, because Babylon is such a mighty power, it 
 is folly to think of resisting it. Thus they seem to have sent to Zedekiah, hoping to 
 make a confederation strong enough to drive the invader back. 
 
 II. Natural as the struggle might be, it was doomed to certain failure. 
 Doomed, not because it was the strength of many against the weakness of few, but 
 because God's great purposes required that any scheme of defence should be a failure. 
 If the defenders had become as the invaders in point of strength, and the invaders as 
 the defenders, this apparently decisive exchange of resources would have left the result 
 unaffected. 
 
 III. The struggle, therefore, being vain beyond all doubt, the true wisdom was not 
 even to attempt it. These nations, persevering in a vain struggle, were only com- 
 mitting self-slaughter. If the issue had been in any way uncertain, self-respect 
 would have said " fight." But the issue was clear ; and to make it clear and impres- 
 sive by some visible symbol, God commands his prophet to send these yokes. to the 
 kings of the nations by their messengers. When the yoke is seen on the neck of the 
 ox labouring at the plough or drawing the waggon, that yoke signifies, not only sub- 
 mission, but a submission that is inevitable. The ox is made for the service of man, 
 and although when young it may rebel and defy for a while, it must submit at last. 
 The superior intelligence and the ordained master cannot but conquer. And what the 
 ox is in the hands of man, that every nation, even the strongest and bravest, is in the 
 hands of God. Babylon, conqueror and spoiler as it was, was no more free from God's 
 yoke than any of the nations it defeated. It is quite compatible with the carrying 
 out of God's great purpose that there should be the most striking disparities in the 
 temporal conditions of both individuals and nations. That Babylon should be the 
 victor and these other nations the vanquished, was in his eyes a matter of very 
 secondary moment. He cannot recognize, as a state of things to obtain even a modified 
 permanence, that any nation should have the right to any particular territory. Men 
 count it a great matter that they can show a title, as they call it, to a piece of land. 
 This simply means that for the purposes of present society it is better for one particular 
 person to have the piece of land than any one else. But wars and revolutions make 
 short work of these so-called rights of property. The Lord has given the earth in 
 trust to the human race, and one division he puts here and another there, one man 
 
580 
 
 THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [cu. xxviii. 1—17. 
 
 here and another there. Prom the throne where Jehovah sits in his righteousness, 
 human patriotism and mere territorial pride are esteemed as nothing more than the 
 feelings of ignorant children. We also, as tauglit of Gtod, must become less interested 
 in the traditions and rivalries of the kingdoms of earth, and more interested in that 
 great procedure of God by which the whole earth will become a part of the kingdom 
 of heaven. — T. 
 
 EXPOSITION. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVin. 
 
 Hananiah's false prophecy; his reprimand 
 from Jeremiah ; and his fate. The precise- 
 ness of the date in ver. 1 is to emphasize 
 the supernatural character of Jeremiah's 
 prediction. The latter was uttered in the 
 fifth month of the fourth year of Zede- 
 kiah, and Hananiah died in the seventh 
 month of the same year (ver. 17). 
 
 Ver. 1. — In the beginning of the reign of 
 Zedekiah. It seems strange that the fourth 
 year of a reign which only lasted eleven 
 years in all should be called "the be- 
 ginning. Is it not probable that the clause 
 was interpolated here by a later copyist on 
 account of ch. xxvii. 1, where at present a 
 similar clause (see note) is found? Origin- 
 ally placed in the margin as a gloss upon 
 the words " the same year," it would very 
 easily find its way into the text. Eanamah 
 . . . the prophet (see on ver. 15). Oiheon. 
 This was a priestly city (Josh. xxi. 17), so 
 that Hananiah was probably himself a priest 
 like Jeremiah (ch. 1. 1) and Pashur (ch. xx. 
 1). The modern El Jib, on an isolated, 
 rocky hill, doubtless represents the ancient 
 Gibeon. In the presence of the priests and 
 of all the people. Apparently the event 
 took place on either a new moon or a 
 sabbath, when the people would throng to 
 the temple. 
 
 Ver. 2. — Hananiah opens his prophecy 
 with the usual formula, claiming Divine 
 inspiration in the fullest sense. His mes- 
 sage is short and sweet: I have broken — 
 i.e. I have decreed to break (the perfect of 
 prophetic certitude) — the yoke of the king 
 of Babylon. Had Hananiah stopped here, 
 he might, perhaps, have escaped Jeremiah's 
 indignant rebuke. But with light-hearted 
 arrogance he ventures to fix a time close at 
 hand for the event, which, no doubt, was 
 destined to occur, but after a long interval. 
 Dr. Payne Smith suggests that he probably 
 cherished the belief that the confederacy 
 then on foot (ch. xxvii. 3) would defeat 
 Nebuchadnezzar. 
 
 Ver. 4. — And I will bring again . . . 
 Jeconiah. Hananiah thus directly contra- 
 dicts the assurance of Jeremiah (ch. xxii. 
 26, 27) that Jehoiachin would not return, 
 b\it would die in a foreign land. Has he a 
 
 political object in his favourable prognosti- 
 cation for the deposed king? Does he, in 
 short, belong to a Jehoiachin party opposed 
 to the friends of Zedekiah ? The view is 
 possible, and may seem to be confirmed by 
 the emphatic repetition of the fall of Ne- 
 buchadnezzar, the liege lord of Zedekiah; 
 Still there is evidence enough in modem 
 history that the return of an exile is not 
 necessarily tantamount to his reinstatement 
 in his office. 
 
 Vers. 5 — 9. — Jeremiah'sreply. He heartily 
 wishes that Hananiah's prediction were 
 capable of fulfilment, but it runs directly 
 counter to the declarations of all the older 
 prophets. " War, and evil, and pestilence " 
 was their constant burden, for the people 
 to whom they prophesied were unworthy 
 of the golden age of felicity in which the 
 prophets so firmly believed. Only by a 
 terrible judgment could the people of Israel 
 be purified for the Messianic age. This 
 appears to be what Jeremiah means by 
 ver. 8. True, he speaks of " countries " and 
 " kingdoms " in the plural, but all the great 
 prophets include the nations best known to 
 them within the range of their preaching, 
 and even of their Messianic preaching. 
 Isaiah, for instance, threatens sore judg- 
 ment upon Egypt and Assyria, and yet he 
 holds out the cheering prospect that Egypt 
 und Assyria will have a part in the Mes- 
 sianic felicity. Thus Hananiah's prediction 
 has probabilities very strongly against it. 
 He not only prophesies "peace," but 
 attaches no condition to his promise, which, 
 therefore, lias double need of verification by 
 the event (comp. Deut. xviii. 22). 
 
 Vers. 10, 11. — Instead of any rejoinder, 
 Hananiah has recourse to violence, tears 
 off and breaks the yoke on Jeremiah's neck, 
 and repeats his declaration of the fall of 
 Nebuchadnezzar within two years. Jere- 
 miah meekly suffers. 
 
 Vers. 12 — 17.— No long time after this 
 the prophet is commissioned to tell the 
 bitter truth more fully than he had done 
 before, and to warn Hananiah of his coming 
 punishment. 
 
 Ver. 13.— The yokes of wood; rather, o 
 yohe of wood. The word rendered in the 
 Authorized Version " yokes " means properly 
 " poles," two of which, with the " bands," 
 composed a "yoke" (see on ch. xxvii. 2). 
 
CH. XXVIII. 1-17.1 THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 
 
 581 
 
 But thou Shalt make; rather, hut thou Jiast 
 made. The sense in which Hananiah is 
 said to have made "a yoke of iron" (we 
 should render in the singular) comes out in 
 ver. 14. The point is that there was a 
 certain justiBoation for Hananiah's violent 
 act, but not that which he supposed. Jere- 
 miah's wooden yoke was really an inadequate 
 symbol ; the prophet was too tender to his 
 people. Thus God made the truth appear 
 in still fuller brightness from the very per- 
 Yerseness of its enemy. 
 
 Ver. 14.— The beasts, of the field (see 
 on oh. xxvii. 6). 
 
 Ver. 15.— The prophet Jeremiah unto 
 Hananiah the prophet. In one sense 
 Hananiah waa a prophet as much as 
 Jeremiah. He claimed to have received 
 tne prophetic call, and God alone, who 
 searoheth the heart, could pionounce upon 
 the j ustice of his claim. Whatever training 
 was regarded as necessary for the office he 
 had probably gone through, and now for a I 
 
 number of years he had been universally 
 recognized as a member of the prophetio 
 class. Probably he had those natural gifts, 
 including a real, though dim and not un- 
 errmg, " second sight," which seems to have 
 formed the substratum of Old Testament 
 prophecy; but he certainly had not the 
 moral backbone so conspicuous in Jeremiah, 
 and he lacked that intimate communion 
 with God (this became clear on the present 
 occasion) which alone warranted the assur- 
 ance that "Jehovah, the God of Israel, hath 
 sent me." 
 
 Ver. 16.— I wiU cast thee; rather, I send 
 thee away. Possibly, as Hitzig suggests, 
 there is an allusion to the preceding verse, 
 in which the same verb occurs. Thou hast 
 taught rebelUon ; literally, thou hast spoken 
 turning aside. To "speak turning aside 
 (or, ' rebellion ') " is a phrase of Deuteronomy 
 (xiii. 6), where it is used, as here, of op- 
 position, not to Jehovah, but to revealed 
 truth. 
 
 HOMILBTICS. 
 
 Vers. 1—17.— The story of Hananiah the prophet. Hananiah, priest and professional 
 prophet, now presents himself as the rival and opponent of Jeremiah. A rude and 
 Bhallow man, he probably thrusts himself forward unasked, as the representative of the 
 ■popular prophets of smooth things whom it is the true prophet's painful duty to, refute 
 and rebuke. His own conduct and Jeremiah's behaviour to him are both clearly 
 brought before us in this chapter. 
 
 I. The conduct of Hananiah. 1. Ke uUeTs a, pleasing prophecy. He promises a 
 speedy overthrow of the tyranny of Nebuchadnezzar. Even Jeremiah heartily echoes 
 the wish that the prediction could be true. It is always easiest to prophesy smooth 
 things, to soothe and flatter rather than convince men of sin and persuade them to 
 accept the darker truths. 2. Hananiah speaks with great positiveness. He boldly 
 claims the authority of God for what he says (ver. 2). His assertions are definite, 
 minute, inherently consistent. Daring assumptions such as those of Hananiah carry 
 the unthinking as by storm. A brazen face, a loud voice, a positive assertion, are 
 enough to convince many people without the slightest ground in reason. You have 
 only to say a thing very strongly and to repeat it very often, and the mere force of utter- 
 ance will make way for it where calm, measured reasoning quite fails. Hananiah is 
 definite in detail. People have a tendency to believe what they can understand clearly 
 and imagine vividly. We must be warned, therefore, (1) that they who make the 
 loudest claims to speak for God may have least right to do so ; (2) that the truth of a 
 statement must be measured, not by the vehemence with which it is asserted, but by 
 the strength of the grounds on which it rests ; and (3) that the reality of things cannot 
 be ascertained by reflection on the consistency, clearness, and fulness of our subject! ve 
 ideas about them. 3. Hananiah manifests a stupid insolence under contradiction. He 
 cannot reason with Jeremiah, he cannot refute the great prophet's words, he has no new 
 thoughts to contribute; he can only repeat his former assertion with loud words and 
 passionate actions. He is a poor, unintellectual creature, whose notion of controversy 
 is like that of foolish people we sometimes meet with — people who imagine that to argue 
 is just to repeat an assertion with dogged obstinacy. Hananiah loses his temper and 
 behaves with rudeness to Jeremiah. The last refuge of the helpless controversialist is 
 insolence and abuse. 
 
 II. The behaviouk of Jeremiah to Hananiah. 1. He heartily assents to the 
 false prophet's desire for the happiness of the nation. " Jeremiah said. Amen : the 
 Lord do so," etc. (ver. 6). He had been accused of a traitorous wish .to see his 
 
682 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xxviii. 1—17, 
 
 country humiliated. No charge could be more false. The preacher who feels it his 
 duty to threaten Divine punishments to wiclied men should not be accused of wishing 
 them evil. He may speak with grief and regret, as Grod also punishes reluctantly 
 (Ezek. xxxiii. 11). 2. Jeremiah appeals to the example of the older prophets. He 
 is true to their teaching, while Hananiah contradicts it. This appeal should be 
 unanswerable to one who, like Jeremiah's opponent, professes to be the successor of these 
 men. Amongst men who believe in the Bible the appeal to Scripture should be a first 
 resort. How can a Christian teacher maintain his ground if he is contradicting this 
 highest authority ? Jeremiah was fond of " the old paths," the traditions and examples 
 of earlier prophets. There is a consistency in prophecy, a common spirit, common 
 ideas and principles in the prophets, and in revelation generally. 3. Jeremiah appeals 
 to the confirmation of facts. (Ver. 9.) He dares to await the verdict of history; he 
 challenges Hananiah to do the same. We are too hasty in following the loud and 
 pushing popular spirits of the hour. Wait and see the issue of their work when the 
 first excitement has died away. 4. Jeremiah meets the insolence of Hananiah with quiet 
 courtesy. He calmly reasons with him at first. When he finds his opponent proof 
 against arguments which only rouse his temper, he quietly leaves him. There are times 
 when men are too heated for argument, and there are men with whom it is always 
 useless to argue. Under such circumstances the interest of truth, our own rightful 
 dignity, and charity to our opponent, caution us to leave him in silence. 5. Jeremiah 
 reiterates his prediction at a later time, with more stringent threats, and pronounces a 
 solemn sentence of death on Hananiah. This he does after receiving fresh communications 
 from Heaven and under the urgency of a Divine commission. It is always our duty to 
 forgive our enemies ; but if they are also the enemies of God, we may recognize the 
 justice of God's judgment on them. It is to be noted that Jeremiah did not compass 
 the death of Hananiah ; he only foretold it, and this under a Divine impulse. The 
 words of Jeremiah were verified. Hananiah died long before events proved the futility 
 of his own prophecy. Perhaps this was best for him. His death is a solemn warning 
 to people who may be tempted to sacrifice truth for popularity. 
 
 Ver. 8. — An appeal to ancient prophecy. I. The principles op the appeal. 
 Several important principles are here illustrated. 1. The value of a precedent. Novel 
 circumstances demand novel actions. The spirit of progress should teach us to improve 
 on the conduct of our forefathers. Yet the most radical progressionist must often see the 
 use of a precedent. It is an appeal from the confusion and excitement of the moment 
 to an example which can be studied more calmly. If the precedent is respected by 
 both parties of a quarrel, there is in it a common meeting-place for a reconciliation. 
 The Bible is usefid to us in this way for its great examples. 2. The duty of referring 
 to Scriptv/re. Jeremiah did not simply refer to antiquity ; he referred to ancient pro- 
 phecy — to the authority of a series of inspired teachers. This is the justification of our 
 appeals to the Bible. It is not that the Bible is an old book, but that it is the fountain 
 of special Divine illumination. 3. The unity of Scripture. The most original thinkers 
 have usually started on the foundation prepared by their predecessors. But such men 
 as Kepler and Newton have left their teachers far behind, and exposed the error of much 
 of their teaching. It is different with the Bible. Here, too, there is the progressive 
 development of thought, the growing light of revelation. But while the outer husk 
 of the earlier ideas of the Bible is cast aside, those ideas themselves are not discarded, 
 but enlarged and glorified by a fuller evolution. Definite laws are changed, but vital 
 principles remain. Thus there is a marvellous unity in the Bible. 
 
 II. The result op the appeal. This led to a confirmation of the darker view of 
 the future. It was a sad result. It is only too true that the old prophets were preachers 
 of repentance, threatening wrath and judgment. Their visions of the brighter future 
 were few compared with their more stern predictions. The former, too, referred to 
 distant times, the latter to circumstances of immediate interest. It is a terrible thought 
 that an inspired view of human nature should lead so many great and good men to this 
 gloomy conclusion. If these men rose from their graves and lifted up their voices in 
 our own cities would they completely change their lone? Such a man as Thomas 
 Carlyle seemed to realize something of the spirit of these old Hebrew prophets, and to 
 him the condition of the modern world suggested the gloomiest forebodings. Happily, 
 
OH. xxvm. 1— ir.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 583- 
 
 we do not look to the verdict of a prophet for our salvation. Christ has come. Wa 
 listen to the teachins; of apostles as well as to that of prophets. We have a New Testa- 
 ment. If the prophet exposes our sin and threatens our ruin, the gospel teacher points 
 to the remedy in the redemption of the world by our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 
 
 Vers. 13, 14. — Yokes of iron. Hananiah broke the wooden yoke which Jeremiah 
 wore in token of the approaching servitude of the Jews. In return he was told that the 
 real yoke of Babylon would be much more severe — a yoke of iron. 
 
 I. Pacts ahe more important than opinions. If the rule of Babylon really 
 would be us a yoke of iron, what was the use of circulating milder views of the future ? 
 We are too much inclined to judge of ideas by their fitness for our own previous notions, 
 instead of testing them solely by their consistency with facts. 
 
 II. The F17TOEB MAY BE WORSE THAN WE EXPECT. There are dreadful events in 
 past history. May there not also be dreadful events in future experience ? Life is not 
 a harmless plaything, nor the earth a thornless garden. There are terrors, judsmeuts, 
 agonies, in this strange world of ours. Who knows what may be in the next ? This 
 much we should all know : God is not the easy, indulgent Being of lax principles 
 that shallow optimists fancy him to be, but wisely firm as well as infinitely merciful 
 where mercy can be justly exercised. 
 
 III. Neglect of timely warning will increase future suffering. If the yoke 
 of wood is broken, a yoke of iron shall be forged to take its place. The longer we delay 
 hearkening to the warnings of God the worse must be our future punishment, because 
 our sin is increasing while we remain inapenitent ; because to sin against light, against 
 admonition, is to sin more plainly and wilfully ; and also because the rejection of a 
 warning sent in mercy is itself an act of resistance to the will of God. 
 
 Ver. 16. — " This year thou sTralt die." It is a great mercy that God has hidden from 
 us the date of our death. If this were known all life would be deranged ; some would 
 grow reckless, some negligent of their highest duty till death was near, some despondent 
 and unfit for all work, some overclouded with grief for the approaching separation 
 from loved friends. We may be thankful, therefore, that God keeps the secret to him- 
 self. " Our times are in his hand." Still, it may be profitable for us to question our- 
 selves how we should act if such a revelation were made — if an angel came to us with 
 the message, " This year thou shalt die." What would be the effect of such a message ? 
 
 I. It would urge us to put our temporal affairs in readiness for death. 
 We' should wish to " put our house in order," to see that all was left right and straight 
 for those who come after us, to do all in our power to provide for those who are depen- 
 dent on us. But none of us knows but that he may die this year. We should not, 
 therefore, delay in providing for those who will be left. It is foolish for a man not to 
 make his will till he knows he is dying. Cruel injustiee has often been done through 
 the postponement of this duty until too late. 
 
 11 It would ukge us to be ready for another world. It would matter little 
 what happened to us for the few months that remained of our earthly course. This 
 life would then seem a poor shadow, its treasures not worth a thought. All anxiety 
 would be fixed on "that undiscovered country." But we do not know but that we 
 shall die this year ; and we do know that life is fast fleeting. Should we not be ready 
 in any case ? Should we not feel as pilgrims and strangers, and seek for better treasures 
 than those of earth, which all lie a prey to thief and moth and rust ? Besides, spiritual 
 preparation for death is not the simple, mechanical thing it appears to be m con- 
 ventional language. Do we know we shall ever be able to fit ourselves for another 
 . world if we postpone all considerations of this momentous sub.ieet? It should be 
 remembered, too, that he who is not fit to die is not fit to live ; that spiritual condition 
 which is real preparedness for heaven is just the condition for servmg God here; if we 
 are riahtlv living now we are fit to die— then and only then. 
 
 IlTlT woulI urge us to a diligent completion of oub life's ^ork It 
 would be a call to earnest effort to redeem the short remainder of our days There 
 wou d be much that we should desire to see finished. It would be sad o let he task 
 feU from our hands unaccomplished. But the same appeal is made to all of us Life 
 is short and the work of life is great. There is much for the longest life to do. In 
 
584 THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xxviii. 1— IT. 
 
 any case there is no time for idle postponement of service. Every day has its duty ; 
 neglect this, and you can never return to it without neglecting the duty of the morrow. 
 Let us all " work while it is day," seeing that " the night cometh, when no man can 
 work " (John ix. 4). 
 
 IV. It should not thoublb the Christian with ant fear. To him death has 
 lost its sting. The natural human shrinking from it may remain, but this should be 
 overwhelmed by the thought of the home beyond. For him to die is to end " the heart- 
 ache, and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to," and to enter the rest, the 
 safety, the joy of heaven. But to the spiritual man it is more than this. All his better 
 days he has been seeking to be nearer to God ; for God he has been panting and yearn- 
 ing. Death will be the fruition of this his heart's hunger ; it will make him " for ever 
 with the Lord." Earthly ties will still be strong, but he will feel that all is well that 
 is God's will. If God's will be that he live, he will rejoice in the privilege of service ; 
 if it be that he die, he will feel this as " gain," so that, " whether he live or die, he is 
 the Lord's." 
 
 " Lord, it belongs not to my care 
 
 Whether I die or live ; 
 To love and serve thee is my share, 
 
 And this thy grace must give." 
 
 HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. 
 
 Vers. 1 — 17. — How to answer those who oppose the truth. Where the light is there 
 will be the deepest shadow ; the truth is ever sharply defined against falsehood. Just 
 when it was most important that the will of God and the real position of Israel should 
 be ascertained, there were many striving to deceive and misrepresent. The behaviour 
 of Jeremiah on this occasion was twofold. 
 
 I. According to human knowledge and judgment. 1. With moderation, 
 " Amen : the Lord do so." Under such trying circumstances the behaviour of the 
 prophet is praiseworthy in the extreme. The contradiction and indignity to which 
 he had been subjected might have excused a hot rejoinder. He is willing to have 
 the dispute settled in a very effectual way. Meanwhile he is careful to make it clear 
 that he too desired what his opponent had prophesied. This was the disposition of the 
 Master, and should be copied by all his disciples. "A soft answer turnett away 
 wrath;" "The servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men." 
 2. By an appeal to the great principle that the event will determine the truth of their 
 predictions or the wisdom of their conduct. (Vers. 8, 9.) This was an appeal to the 
 conscience of his opponent. 3. Quiet submission to the will of Qod. " And the 
 prophet Jeremiah went his way." When there is no sign of reasonableness in our 
 antagonists, or no prospect of immediate success, it is well to submit quietly and to 
 wait God's time. This is the test of spiritual reality. True Christianity will show 
 itself in earnest, unobtrusive actions and patient waiting for Christ. The most eloquent 
 enforcement of the gospel is a quiet, consistent life. 
 
 II. As INSPIRED. Whilst he had no direct message he was silent. But God, who 
 will not leave his servants without a witness, and who resents the slightest dishonour 
 to which they are subjected, came to his rescue. The whole attitude of the prophet 
 is now changed. With certainty he recovers also his vivacicy, energy, and fearless 
 power of denunciation. He is now the minister of judgment. 1. To the nation. The 
 yoke of wood gives place to one of iron. The complicity of the people in the guilt of 
 the false prophet must be punished. Their resistance to the will of God and disbelief 
 of his servant involves them in a heavier sentence. So it is with all impenitence and 
 rejection of God's Word. The position of the transgressor cannot remain the same. 
 With each step he plunges into deeper guilt and more fearful judgment. 2. To the 
 originator of the offence. In this case the sentence is proportionately heavier and more 
 immediate. Death is pronounced against the offending prophet with terrible brevity 
 and clearness. There is ever a distinction between offenders and those who cause them 
 to offend. Primacy in disobedience will ensure a special and unmistakable mark of 
 God's anger. This announcement of doom, simple as it was in itself, must have been 
 
CH. xxviii. 1— 17.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. RSf. 
 
 appalling to its hearer, whose inner sense of degradation and falseness would enhance 
 its force. It is possible that the time and manner of this communication may have 
 been intended to awaken repentance; failing which it was carried into effect. All 
 around us such judgments are taking place, and it is well for men to examine what 
 manner of spirit they are of ere they presume to occupy sacred ofBces or to set them- 
 selves against the laws of God's kingdom. — M. 
 
 Vers. 10, 11. — Presumption increasing with impunity. The meekness of Jeremiah's 
 reply emboldened the false prophet, and he forthwith proceeded from words to actions. 
 ■ i'he symbol appointed by God was publicly removed from the shoulders of Jeremiah 
 iud destroyed. Opposition to the spirit and will of God could scarcely go further. 
 The interpretation given to the action reveals how false and dangerous the position 
 assumed. 
 
 I. The sbbvants of God are frequently at apparent disadvantage as 
 COMPARED WITH THE SERVANTS OP Satan. The action was so sudden and unex- 
 pected that Jeremiah had but little to say, and eventually went his way, sad but silent. 
 Everything seemed to favour his opponent. The " patriotic party " was enthusiastic, 
 and not to be restrained. The wisdom of this world is prompt and versatile because it 
 is unprincipled ; and it is bold because it is profane and unbelieving. Yet this is the 
 condition under which the followers of the truth are to contend. 
 
 II. The servants of Satan are thereby encouraged to more pronounced 
 BEHAVIOUR, AND COMMIT THEMSELVES BEYOND RECALL. Hauaniah's case illustrates 
 this in two ways, viz. : 1. Sacrilegious action. Touching the person of the prophet. 
 Deliberately destroying the yoke which he must have known was of Divine appoint- 
 ment. 2. Its definitive interpretation. He not only rebelled against the Lord, but 
 committed himself to a prediction with a fixed date, and one that must soon arrive. 
 The necessity of the position he had assumed was upon him. Woe to the prophet of 
 lies who ventures upon definite and verifiable prophecies 1 There is no halting-place 
 to those who begin systematically to oppose God's truth. They must ere long be 
 caught in their own snares. With the sense of reverence the fear of consequences is 
 forgotten and caution is discarded. 
 
 III. By so DOING THEY HASTEN THEIR OWN JUDGMENT. The triumph Is brilliant 
 but short-lived, and purchased at terrible cost. Let sinners pause when their crimes 
 are made easy for them and excess follows upon excess. The motion of the rapid may 
 but precede the fall (Jude 8 — 13). When human resources and precautions are 
 exhausted, it may be a sign that God will undertake his own cause. His servants are 
 justified at such a time in looking for and invoking his help, which is likely to be of a 
 very signal and determining kind. — M. 
 
 Vers. 1—17. — A false prophet and his fate. 1. Hananiah's presumption. Note 
 his direct challenge to the true prophet. He seeks out Jeremiah in the house of 
 Jehovah, " in the presence of the priests and of all the people." A prophet was, of course, 
 bound to make his utterances in public, but Hananiah waited his chance until he found 
 an opportunity of bearding the hated Jeremiah in as open a way as possible. He 
 speaks explicitly in the Name of Jehovah. He is not afraid to take the great Name in 
 vain. Let us be warned lest we heedlessly utter, under the pretended authority of God, 
 what is nothing more than the daring imagination of our own hearts. The false 
 prophet ventures on the very figure which had been employed by the true prophet. It 
 would almost seem as if Jeremiah had habitually borne something in the shape of a 
 yoke, and if so, it must have been a very irritating sight to the false prophets. Little 
 wonder that, under the pretence of a prophetic mission, he ventured on the remova,l of 
 this yoke Above all things, there is the confident assertion with respect to time. 
 Notwithstanding all the manifest difficulties of the achievement, Hananiah is not 
 afraid to say that in two years Judah will again be firmly resting on its o d founda- 
 tions Thus from all these indications of presumptuous action, we have an illustration 
 of how confident heretics are in their error. Too often we are doubtful and partial in 
 our statements of truth. We lack that faith and that thorough-going assertion of the 
 truths God has revealed which are so necessary to make those truths full of operative 
 and irresistible force. Hananiah here is as confident as he can be m all his deadly 
 
536 
 
 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. Xxix. 1— 32v 
 
 errors. He has not the least fear of plunging into the greatest responsibilities with 
 regard to definite predictions. He passes from the ground of mere expostulations and 
 remonstrances, and ventures on statements which in a very short time must either 
 make him or ruin him. Let us learn from our enemies, and labour to he confident and 
 determined in our assertion of truth, seeing there is no lack of determination on the 
 part of those who. have cast in their lot with error. 
 
 II. Hananiah's PER8ISTKNCE. It Is Very noticeable that Jeremiah does not meet 
 him in anything of an angry or denouncing manner. It would have well pleased the 
 true prophet to see the predictions of the false prophet brought about ; for it is made 
 abundantly evident that the sufferings of his country were an unspeakable grief to 
 Jeremiah. An angry reply served no good purpose. The true prophet could manifest 
 a dignified patience, and leave time to vindicate both the validity of his prophetic 
 claim and his fidelity in speaking the truth. Meantime, he can only recommend 
 Hananiah to consider well the lessons of history, and how the prophets of old had 
 spoken of stern dealings with many wicked nations. Unfortunately, bad men are 
 hardly ever discriminating students of history. Hananiah was here given an oppor- 
 tunity of repentance, if only he had chosen to avail himself ot it. But so full was he 
 of his own devices that gentle treatment only increased his audacity, and he drew 
 public attention more than ever to himself by removing the symbolic yoke from 
 Jeremiah's neck. That he was allowed to do all this should teach us a lesson of 
 patience and trust when we see wicked men pursuing, undisturbed, their chosen path. 
 They are only climbing higher that their ultimute ruin may become more widely 
 manifest. 
 
 III. Hananiah's doom. The first result of his presumptuous conduct is to bring a 
 more emphatic prophecy with regard to the captives. The second is to bring a 
 sentence of death on the false prophet himself. He who has dealt rashly with the 
 ordering of times and seasons is to know by a bitter experience that God has these 
 times and seasons in his own hands. He is to die within the year. Notice the sin 
 which he is charged with committing. He is doomed to death, not simply for the 
 falsehood or the profanity, but for this, that he had taught rebellion against Jehovah. 
 His words were an incitement to make a useless and premature attempt at liberation. 
 God's prediction with regard to the captivity in Babylon "had in it the nature of a 
 command. 
 
 IV. Hananiah's death. It came very quickly. Two months at the outside was 
 the space between the utterance of a false rebellious statement and the confirming of 
 a true one. The death came at such an interval as was very impressive. Compare the 
 relations between Jeremiah and Hananiah here with those between Peter and Ananias. 
 Both Hananiah and Ananias dealt presumptuously with the holiest of things. — Y. 
 
 EXPOSITION. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 Despised and rejected at home, Jeremiah 
 turned his thoughts to those distant brethren 
 in captivity, whom he had already likened to 
 " good figs, very good " (ch. xxiv. 3, 5). He 
 had heard with sorrow that they could not 
 readily submit to their altered circumstances. 
 Judah, with its consecrated associations, was 
 still too near to them in spirit. Probably a 
 rumour of the expected confederacy (oh. 
 xxvii. 3) had troubled their minds, and the 
 discontent was increased by the pernicious 
 discourses of prophets and soothsayers similar 
 to that Hananiah of whom we have just 
 heard. Two of these in particular are 
 
 mentioned, and a terrible fate is held out to 
 them. The appendix (vers. 24—32) deals 
 with another prophet of the same type, who 
 had not. Indeed, offended so deeply as his 
 companions, but had stirred up those at 
 home to persecute Jeremiah in revenge for 
 the preceding letter. 
 
 The chapter is evidently, what it professes 
 to be, a letter, at any rate in substance. From 
 the looseness of its structTire (see especially 
 on vers. 16 — 20) it has been thought to have 
 been dictated, like those Epistles of St. Paul, 
 of which it may be regarded as a precursor 
 (Ewald). The date seems to be a little 
 earlier than that of the two preceding 
 chapters (comp. ver. 2 with ch. xxiv. 1) ; 
 
CH. XXIX. 1—32.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 
 
 587 
 
 the messengera in ver. 3 are therefore not 
 to be regarded as Zedekiah's compaaious 
 in the journey mentioned in oh. li. 59. 
 
 Ver. 1. — The residue of the elders; i.e. 
 the surviving elders. Some may, perhaps, 
 have died from natural causes, some by 
 violence, some from grief. 
 
 Ver. 2. — The queen ; rather, the queen- 
 mother (see on ch. xiii. 18). The eunuohs, 
 the princes of Judah and Jerusalem. A 
 inarginal gloss appears to have intruded 
 itself into the text, for there is no other 
 passage in which the " eunuohs," or (as the 
 word may equally well be rendered, with 
 the margin), "chamberlains," are called 
 " princes of Judah." 
 
 Ver. 7. — Seek the peace of the city, etc. 
 Interest yourselves in the "peace" or 
 welfare of the city, whether Babylon or 
 any other place where ye may be in exile, 
 and pray for its welfare, for your own well- 
 being is insepurable from it. 
 
 Ver. 8. — Let not your prophets and your 
 diviners, etc. It seems as if the Babylonian 
 " Jewry " were a copy of that at home. It 
 had not only its " princes " and its " elders," 
 but its " prophets " and its " diviners," who 
 encouraged the same false hopes as those in 
 Judah (comp. ch. xxvii. 9 ; xxviii. 2). Your 
 dreams which ye caused to be dreamed ; or, 
 which ye cause yourselvee to dream (comp. 
 ch. xxvii. 9). 
 
 Ver 10. — Seventy years (see on ch. xxv. 
 11). At Babylon ; rather, for Babylon. A 
 long period, such as seventy years, is ap- 
 pointed for Babylon " to enjoy " the fruits 
 of her ambition ; when this is over (comp. 
 Gen. XV. 13—16), God will pay heed to his 
 people. Visit you. To "visit" frequently 
 has the sense of "taking notice of," or 
 "paying heed to" (e.g. ch. xxiii. 2). My 
 good word. "Word," equivalent to "pro- 
 mise ; " the allusion is to eh. xxiv. 6. 
 
 Ver. 11. — For I know the thoughts, etc. ; 
 i.e. though seventy years must pass over 
 you in exile, yet do not apprehend that I 
 have forgotten you, for I know full well 
 what my purpose is towards you— a purpose 
 of restoring to you " peace " and prosperity. 
 " An expected end ; rather, a future and a 
 hope ; i.e. a hopeful future (comp. ch. xxxi. 
 17, "There is a hope for thy future"). 
 That unexpectant apathy which is the 
 terrible accompaniment of so much worldly 
 sorrow was not to be an ingredient in the 
 lot of the Jews. 
 
 Ver 12.— And ye shall go and pray unto 
 me. " Go," that is, to the places " where 
 prayer is wont to be made." The clause 
 seems to refer to common prayer for a 
 common object. Comp. striking passages 
 in Solomon's prayer (1 Kings via. 48), and 
 in Deuteronomy (iv. 29, 30). 
 
 Vers. 15—23. — Jeremiah's denunciation 
 of two leading false prophets at Babylon, 
 with a digression in the fate of ZedeMah 
 and Jerusalem. Some eminent critics main- 
 tain that vers. 16 — 20 are an interpolation, 
 and this view is certainly supported by the 
 omission of these verses in the Septuagint. 
 It must also in fairness be admitted that 
 the natural connection of ver. l.i is with 
 ver. 21, not with ver. 16. But it does not 
 follow that vers. 16—20 are an arbitrary 
 interpolation. They may be regarded either 
 as a digression in the original letter, or 
 as inserted by an after-thought when the 
 substance of the letter was brought into its 
 present form. 
 
 Ver. 16.— Know that thus saith the Lord ; 
 rather, Surely thus saith the Lord. 
 
 Ver. 17. — I will send upon them, etc.; 
 alluding to ch. xxiv. 10. Vile figs ; liter- 
 ally, figs exciting a shudder. The figure 
 involves an allusion to ch. xxiv. 2, 8. 
 
 Ver. 19. — But ye would not hear. The 
 prophet, by a very natural illusion, falls out 
 of the style of letter-writer into that of the 
 prophet. For the moment he fancies him- 
 self addressing an audience of his country- 
 men (comp. ch. xxv. 3, 4, 7, 8). 
 
 Ver. 21. — Zedekiah. The name is inte- 
 resting; it shows that this prophet belonged 
 to a famUy which took pleasure in the 
 thought of Jehovah and his righteousness. 
 Doubtless, too, he did so himself; but he 
 under-estimated the demands of that right- 
 eousness, which extended to the heart as 
 well as to the outward conduct. 
 
 Ver. 22. — A cuise ; i.e. a formiila of curs- 
 ing (comp. Isa. Ixv. 15). There is here a 
 play upon words, such as the Biblical 
 writers delighted in, partly with the view 
 of assisting the memory. "A curso" is in 
 Hebrew kelalah, and "to roast" is Tialah. 
 Boasted in the Are. "Casting into the 
 midst of a burning fiery furnace" was a 
 common punishment both among the As- 
 syrians and the Babylonians, see e.g. ' Be- 
 cords of the Past,' vol. ix. p. 56 ; and comp. 
 Dan. iii. 
 
 Ver. 23. — An important and melancholy 
 addition to our knowledge of these false 
 prophets. They were not only misleading 
 prophets, but immoral men in their private 
 capacities. Villany; rather,/oiiy, as the word 
 is always rendered elsewhere. The phrase 
 "to commit folly in Israel" is always 
 (except Josh. vii. 15) used of sins of un- 
 ohastity. . , 
 
 Vers. 24 32. — A threatening oracle 
 
 against the false prophet Shemaiah. Great 
 excitement had been caused among the so- 
 called prophets in Babylon by the emphatic 
 language of Jeremiah. Accordingly one of 
 thorn, named Shemaiah, wrote letters to the 
 Jews at home, and especially to a higli 
 
C88 
 
 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xxix. 1—3?. 
 
 official called Zephaniah (see on ver. 26) to 
 put a Btop to Jeremiah's bold agitation. 
 Zephaniah, however, was not the man for 
 whom Shemaiah took him, and read the letter 
 to the intended viutim. Upon this, Jeremiah 
 received a special revelation, announcing 
 dirt! punisliment to Shemaiah and his 
 family (according to the principle of the 
 Uiviue goverument described in Exod. 
 sx. 5). 
 
 Ver. 24. — To Shemaiah ; or, of, concerning 
 (as the same preposition is rendered in vers. 
 16, 21, 31). The oracle itself speaks of 
 yheraaiah in the third person (vers. 31, 32). 
 The Authorized Version, however, can be 
 defended by its accordance with ver. 25. 
 The Nehelamite. This is evidently a patro- 
 nymic, but whether of the family or the 
 locality of the bearer cannot be decided. 
 The analogy of " Jeremiah of Anathoth " 
 (ver. 27), however, favours the view that it 
 is local. 
 
 Ver. 26. — In the stead of Jehoiada the 
 priest. iSome (Grotius, Hitzig, Graf) think 
 that this Jehoiada was the famous high priest 
 of that name, who is said to have "appointed 
 officers over the house of the Lord " (2 Kings 
 xi. 18 ; 2 Chron. xxiii. 18). It is true that 
 Zephaniah was not literally the successor 
 of Jehoiada, but he was so in the same 
 metaphorical sense in which the scribes 
 are said by our Lord to "sit in Moses' seat" 
 (Matt, xxiii. 2). It is safer, however, to 
 suppose that another Jehoiada is meant, of 
 whom we liave no further information. It 
 is not said that either Jehoiada or Zephaniah 
 was high priest, and as the special object of 
 the elevation of the latter is said to be the 
 supervision of the temple police, it is more 
 probable that Jehoiada and he were succes- 
 sively " second priests," or, to use a phrase 
 which seems to be synonymous, "deputy 
 governors in the house of the Lord " (ch. xx. 
 1). The passage may thus without violence 
 be harmonized with ch. lii. 24 ; 2 Kings 
 XXV. 18, where Seraiah is called " the chief 
 priest" and Zephaniah "the second priest." 
 It is possible that Jehoiada had been fa- 
 vourable to the better class of prophets. In 
 tliis case there will be a delicate hint to 
 Zephaniah that God had his own purpose 
 in promoting him to honour, viz. that 
 unruly prophets like Jeremiah might be 
 held in with a tighter hand (Ewald). That 
 ye should be officers; rather, that there 
 ehmld he officers. Zephaniah himself was 
 an "officer" or "deputy" (see above); but 
 he was also " chief in the house of the 
 Lord," and had the appointment of inferior 
 "officers," whose duty it was to preserve 
 order in the temple. To understand the 
 
 following words, we must remember that the 
 outer court of the temple was a favourite 
 place for prophetic teaching (comp. ch. vii. 
 2 ; xxvi. 2). Por every man that is mad, and 
 maketh hunself a prophet; i.e. to keep an 
 eye upon ** madmen " and prophetizers. 
 The term "mad" is used in a disparaging 
 sense (as 2 Kings ix. 11 ; comp. Hos. ix. 7), 
 with regard to the apparently senseless 
 behaviour of those who were overpowered 
 by the spirit of prophecy. In earlier times, 
 no doubt, the phenomena of prophecy were 
 more violently opposed to everyday life than 
 in Jeremiah's time ; but such symbolic acts 
 as appearing in public with a yoke upon 
 his neck would at least excuse the applica- 
 tion of the epithet even to Jeremiah. It is 
 more than probable, however, that it was 
 not so much the abnormal actions as the 
 contents of Jeremiah's prophecies which 
 stirred up such vehement opposition; ob- 
 serve how in the next verse only the sound 
 of these descriptive nouns is retained 
 ("which maketh himself a prophet"). It 
 was the making prophecy a reality which 
 disturbed the men of routine, and Shemaiah 
 well knew this when he made this appeal 
 to Zephaniah. There was no harm in 
 being nominally a " prophet," but to " make," 
 or rather, " show one's self as a prophet," to 
 be an energetic prophet, a prophetizer (if 
 the word may be invented), — this was worm- 
 wood to those who cried, " Peace, peace," 
 when there was no peace. In prison, and in 
 the stocks ; rather, in the stocks (see on ch. 
 XX. 2) and in the collar. The meaning 
 seems to be that Jeremiah was subjected to 
 botli forms of punishment at once. 
 
 Ver. 27. — Beproved ; i.e. threatened with 
 punishment. 
 
 Ver. 28. — For therefore, etc. ; i.e. the con- 
 sequence of Jeremiah's not having been 
 kept within bounds by authority is that he 
 has even ventured, in his fanatical zeal, to 
 trouble the exiles in Babylon. This cap- 
 tivity is long ; rather, It (is) long ; a more 
 forcible expression. 
 
 Ver. 29.— And Zephaniah the priest, etc. 
 This should rather be printed as a paren- 
 thetical remark. 
 
 Vers. 30 — 32. — Then came the word of 
 the Lord, etc. A fresh introduction of the 
 Divine oracle was rendered necessary by 
 the long description of Zephaniah's letters. 
 The reason for Shemaiah's punishment, 
 however, is stated here a little differently. 
 Of course, it was equally contrary to the 
 will of God to deliver a false prophecy and 
 to stir up persecution against his true 
 prophet. Taught rebellion (see on ch. xxviii. 
 16). 
 
CH. XXIX. 1—32.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 589 
 
 HOMILETICS. 
 
 Vers. 4 — 7. — TIow to make the hest of adversity. Jeremiah advises the captives in 
 Babylon to take a course that is eminently brave and wise. The first inclination would 
 be to stir up a useless revolt, the second to sit down in sullen despondency. When 
 trouble overcomes us we are tempted to follow one or other of these courses — to rebel 
 or to despair. Jeremiah teaches us, as he taught the Jews of his day, that neither 
 is right. He indicates a better way. 
 
 I. Submit patiently to inevitable adveesitt. We are not required to court 
 trouble, nor to yield weakly when we might successfully throw it off. But when it is 
 plainly inevitable resistance is wrong as well as foolish. 1. It is foolish. "Why dash 
 our heads against the prison walls ? The brain will suffer before the granite. The 
 Jews could not successfully revolt against Babylon ; to live on the eve of rebellion, as 
 restless conspirators, would be dangerous and futile. The mistake of such misplaced 
 patriotism was seen later in the wretched failure of the fanatic attempts of the Jews to 
 throw off the yoke of Rome. The folly of the Jews would be the greater that the 
 lengthy duration of the Captivity had been predicted and revealed as a Divine judgment. 
 "When we know the providential assignment of adversity, to resist this is to resist the 
 power of Heaven. 2. This resistance is wrong. The Captivity was ordained by God 
 (ver. 4). It was sent as a wholesome chastisement. To those who understood the 
 teaching of the prophets on this point, rebellion was at once disobedience to God's will 
 and the refusal of a useful corrective. We should remember this when we grow 
 impatient under trouble, and learn to bow silently before the will of our King and our 
 Father, to receive without complaining the discipline which is intended to cleanse and 
 strengthen our spiritual life. 
 
 II. Seek the brightest course under the darkest ciRcnMSTANCBS. The captives 
 could not return home. They were not, therefore, to treat the land of their exile as a 
 hopeless desert, but to build and plant and eat the fruit of it. 1. How often trouble is 
 worse in prospect than in experience ! The Captivity loomed in the distance as a very 
 purgatory ; when it came it was found to contain many of the fruits and flowers of 
 quiet happiness. 2. Our lot in life will be very much what we make it for ourselves. 
 If we treat it as a " waste, howling wilderness," it will be that to us. But the hardest 
 lot wUl prove to have many alleviations for him who searches for its mercies rather than 
 for its grievances. Surely it is best to do this. Mourners are inclined to nurse their 
 sorrows with a melancholy satisfaction in aggravating the pain of them, or as though 
 any abatement of grief were a sacrilege. But we should learn a more robust treatment 
 of adversity. There is no virtue in distressing one's self beyond necessity. 
 
 III. Cherish hopes for the future under the most trying present ciecum- 
 8TANCES. The Jews were to remember the promise of the restoration. They were not 
 to allow their race to die out (ver. 6). A great future was still before them. History 
 has confirmed the prediction of the prophets. The scattered and ruined people were 
 recalled to their homes. From the stock of the despondent exiles there sprang not 
 only all that was great and good in later Jewish history, but also Jesus Christ and 
 Christianity. In our darkest moments we should not forget that, though not a ray of 
 light has yet appeared on the horizon, the sun will surely rise and tbe day return. 
 Christianity is peculiarly a religion of the futute; it encourages us to press forward to 
 the golden age which is yet to come. 
 
 IV Find our happiness by seeking the welfare of others. beek the peace 
 of the city ... for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace." The alien was to act 
 with the loyalty of a citizen. Though a nation may be under the unrighteous rule of a 
 conqueror, it should still remember that it has duties to the government under which 
 it lives, aAd claims of charity in regard to the people of the superior power If it is 
 our duty to seek the peace of a strange city, how much more are we bound to interest 
 ourselves in public duties for the good of our own country ? Private citizens will find 
 their personal condition improved through the successful discharge of public duties. 
 The citizens reap the fruits of the peace of the city. In ministering to others generally 
 we shall discover th? secret of our own blessedness. 
 
590 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. [ch. xxix. 1—32 
 
 Ver. 7. — Civic duties. From the duty of the Jews to the cities of their exile we 
 may deduce the still more urgent duties of citizens to their own city. 
 
 I. One op the first interests of a people is peace. There are times when 
 war is necessary and right — to defend the hearth and home, to save the weak from 
 oppression, etc. But such war must only be the means for securing a better, more 
 lasting peace. The glory of war is an empty dream. The people gain little and suffer 
 much, though the liings may win fame and power. 
 
 II. Peace is to be sought by the action op citizens. Individual men cannot 
 wage a war or declare a truce. But the units constitute nations. If each is peaceable 
 the nation is peaceable. Insignificant people have vast power for harm if they choose 
 to execute it. It should be understood that seditious conduct is not only a political 
 offence, it is a sin in the sight of God, a cruelty to the many people whom it disturbs 
 and injures. 
 
 III. Private men have public duties. "We all reap benefits from the state. It 
 is mean to accept them without taking our part in bearing the burdens of the state. 
 There are people who deny the right of Christian men to take part in "worldly politics," 
 yet these people are glad to avail themselves of the protection and other advantages 
 which are provided for them by the secular government they affect to despise. The 
 neglect of public duty evidences a narrow and selfish disposition. 
 
 IV. Private men abb benefited by public prosperity. We are members one 
 of another. There is a general harmony and health of the whole body, over and above 
 the well-being of each member, when all work together for the mutual good. As 
 individual men, we have great reason to be thankful for the general prosperity of the 
 nation and for the maintenance of public peace. 
 
 V. We should discharge our duties to the state though we may not approve 
 OF the government. To be in opposition is no excuse lor being in sedition. Unless 
 we can change the government it is foolish and wrong to revolt against it. The nation 
 is larger than the government. 
 
 Ver. 10. — Seventy years. I. Seventy years are a limited time. Babylon was to 
 tyrannize for a limited period only ; the Jews were to suffer for a limited period. 1. 
 God has set a limit to the triumph of evil. The storm rages ; yet God says to. it, 
 " Hitherto shalt thou come, and no further." The lions roar, but they are chained. 
 Wicked men fling the reins to their passions, break through all restraints of respect for 
 the will of God and appear to be at liberty to work evil and revel in the fruits of sin ad 
 libitum ; but God has put bounds about their course. In due time he will lay his hand 
 upon them and arrest them. 2. God has set a limit to the duration of trouble. The 
 sorrow of God's people is temporal ; their blessedness will be eternal. Every trouble is 
 weighed and measured by God. " Our times are in his hand." 
 
 II. Seventy years are a short time in the history of a nation. The Captivity 
 was to last for seventy years ; prosperity had been enjoyed for hundreds of years before 
 this, and would return and endure long after. The troublesome times are conspicuous, 
 while the quiet times glide by unnoticed. Hence we are likely not to note how 
 much more we have of the latter. History reads like a record of wars and com- 
 motions, because the happy but dull annals of prosperity do not contain many striking 
 events. It is much the same in private life. For most of us the blessings greatly 
 outnumber the troubles, the times of quiet far exceed those of distress. Yet it is 
 difficult to recognize this, because what hurts us impresses our memory more than what 
 pleases us. 
 
 III. Seventy years are a lifetime. Few, if any, of the first captives would 
 survive the exile. To the individual man it was as bad as if it were perpetual. "Yet if 
 they were true patriots the national hope must have been a great comfort in the darkness 
 of personal suffering. And the patriotic hope of Israel was one of the grandest features 
 in the Hebrew character. We are all too selfish in our hopes. Christians should consider 
 the cause of Christ and the interest of humanity as of far more importance than their 
 private prosperity. If in the end Christ will triumph, and the world will be lifted out of 
 the sin and sorrow which have overwhelmed it, should not we rejoice, though our lot 
 may not be to live till this is accomplished ? Moses rejoiced in the Pisgah-vi'ew of the 
 land he could never enter ; Simeon was glad at seeing the infant Saviour, and could 
 
CH. XXIX. 1-32.] THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 
 
 591 
 
 a^'^rtate*' SeT=^^ ^ — P^-^^ed. Still, the 
 
 compared with eternUy ' Xen theseTwifr H l'"' /«^«°'y /ears !-but a span 
 
 01 laws, the totality ot being, etc., is to misapply it. Either God is cersonal nr thpm 
 IS no God, for the conception of personality is essential to that of divinity I God is a 
 person he may be "without parts or passions." The anthropomorphSarof repentance 
 Zh,'o r'!5'^w?i,^r°'' ""''" metaphorical images as those of the eyes nd the 
 hands of God; but thinking is essential to the nature of what we understand by a 
 person by a spiritual being. Unless God thinks, he is no spirit, no person ^ 
 
 II. God thinks about tjs. As far as he is revealed to us in the Bible and in Christ 
 and as far as we may verify this revelatiou by experience, he is directly concerned wkh 
 his works and his children. His thoughts are not to be imagined as only conslstin^of 
 vast abstractions, infinite ideals. They may soar to lonely heights where no fiSite 
 intellect can follow, but they can also stoop to humble concerns of human life He is 
 but an imperfect thinker who is so absorbed with philosophic speculation that he has 
 no room m his mind to consider his family. The greatest thinker will be wide as well 
 as lolty, ab e to take in small details in addition to grand abstractions, and, above all 
 wise to apply the highest thinking to the simplest practical necessity. It is a great 
 comfort lor us that God so thinks. With sublime ideas of eternity, and innumerable 
 cares of the universe in his infiuite mind, God has yet room for thoughts about us and 
 condescension to concern himself with them. 
 
 III. What God thinks about us is of great importance to us. 1. God thinTjs 
 what is true arid wise and good. If, therefore, we can know God's thoughts about 
 anything we shall see the thing in its true light. Our thoughts are blinded by 
 prejudice, coloured by passion, limited by ignorance, broken, fragmentary, perverted. 
 God's only are clear and perfect as truth. 2. God's thoughts are the prelude to his 
 actions. _ If we know what he thinks concerning us we know how he intends to act. 
 God's thinking is not the contemplation of the philosopher, it is the consideration of 
 the king. We forget this when we are so very anxious about what the world will 
 think of us and so very indifferent about God's thoughts concerning us. A brave man 
 will learn to dare the world's misjudgment, its scorn, its condemnation. But who can 
 face God's thoughts if they mean evil to us ? 
 
 IV. God thinks thoughts of peace concerning us. So Jeremiah saw in the 
 case of the Jews ; so we may see for all mankind how that Christ " has broken down 
 the middle wall of partition between us." Even when God finds it necessary to 
 punish his desire is to bless, and when he chastises it is in mercy, that he may reclaim. 
 But this is not seen at the time. There are things which prevent us from seeing that 
 God's thoughts are of peace. Thus — the peace is not yet enjoyed; when God 
 chastises us it looks as though he meant evil to us, because we feel the blow before we 
 see the good fruit of it ; we cannot see God's thoughts, and must accept them in faith, 
 waiting for a later confirmation of experience. Yet if God does think thoughts of 
 peace concerning us, is it necessary for us to know the exact nature of them ? They 
 are known to him if they are not known to us, and he can carry them out without 
 any previous understanding of them on our part. 
 
 V. God's thoughts or peace will be ultimately realized. God promises that 
 he will make " a future and a hope." God's best thoughts are not memories, but hopes, 
 promises, intentions. The grandest page of revelation is prophecy. But though these 
 thoughts refer to the future, we must not lose faith in their practical interest. 1. The 
 realization is delayed by our fault, not by God's will. He thinks, intends peace. But 
 he is hindered from carrying out his intention by our conduct. He waits to be 
 gracious. If, therefore, we prepare ourselves for the accomplishment of God's thoughts, 
 there is nothing further to prevent us from enjoying the peace they presage. 2. God 
 is as great in power as he is wise and good in thought. He has bestowed upon ns the 
 noble but perilous faculty of free-will, and we cannot measure the limits of this faculty. 
 
592 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [en. xxix. 1—32. 
 
 Yet we may rest assured that by some means the infinite God can and will ultimately 
 accomplish all his great designs of peace for his children. 
 
 Ver. 13. — Seeking Ood with the whole heart. I. GoD must be found before he 
 CAN BE KNOWN AND ENJOYED. " He is not far from each one of us : for in him we live, 
 and move, and have our being." Yet this natural nearness of God may be unrecognized 
 by us, and may not be sufficient to bring us into the spiritual communion with him. 
 The God of nature may be " the unknown God," or he may be recognized and yet 
 not enjoyed as the " Portion " of the soul. 1. Sin hides the vision of God, and drives 
 the soul into remote spiritual banishment from God, even though it cannot affect his 
 physical presence. 2. Our natural limitations of thought and experience surround 
 the idea of the Divine with mystery, and make us feel that though God is partly 
 known there are still ways of God that are far beyond our ken, so that we exclaim in 
 bewilderment and distress, " Verily, thou art a God that hidest thyself! " (Isa. xlv. 15). 
 
 II. To BE FOUND, God must be sbaeched foe with the whole heart. 1. He must 
 be searched for. God does discover himself to men unexpectedly, as to Hagar in the 
 desert and to Moses on Horeb, though we may rest assured that even such exceptional 
 revelations were made to souls whose habit it was to seek alter him. Nevertheless before 
 such experience, God draws near to those who do not seek him, to urge them to search 
 and find him (Isa. Ixv. 1). He seeks us before we seek him. Our search is the response 
 of our hearts to his invitation (Ps. xxvii. 8). But this search must be made. The 
 promise of finding is attached to the condition of seeking (Matt. vii. 7). The prodigal 
 must return to his father before he can receive the welcome home. Men are waiting 
 for God to visit them, reveal himself to them, do something that will bring them back 
 to him. They may wait for ever, and in vain. God is waiting for us. It is our part 
 to arise and seek him. 2. This search must be with all the heart. The reason why 
 we are disappointed of the answers of our prayers is often that our prayers are so 
 insincere, so cold, so half-hearted. It is reasonable to expect God, the all-seeing, to 
 answer our prayers, not according to the vigour of the language, but according to the 
 fervency of our desires. If we value the knowledge and communion of God aright, 
 we shall seek him with all the heart : (1) with the heart, i.e. sincerely, spiritually, 
 inwardly, not with mere formal inquiries ; and (2) with the whole heart, i.e. with 
 singleness of purpose, intensity, earnestness. 
 
 III. The reward of seeking God with all the heart will consist in FiNDiNa 
 HIM. 1. The search will be successful. God may not be found at first, or, being found, 
 may not be recognized in the way expected. But Scripture and experience both 
 testify to the utility and fruitfulness of the soul's search after God. If we have not 
 yet found, that may be because (1) we have not sought with " all the heart ; " or (2) 
 have not sought in the right way as far as our light and knowledge have indicated it — 
 i.e. humbly, penitently, and as Christians through Christ. 2. The success of the search 
 will be its own reward. The finding of God is described as a blessing of the restora- 
 tion. It will bring other and lower benefits in its train (ver. 14), but it is itself the 
 greatest boon. " Blessed are they that seek God with all the heart, for they .shall find 
 him," — that is enough for a perfect beatitude. To find God is to find our light, our 
 rest, our home. To know him is life eternal ; to commune with him is the joy of 
 heaven. 
 
 Vers. 20 — 32. — Sliemaiah. I. His action. 1. He is irritated at the letter of 
 Jeremiah. From Babylon he writes back in a rage. It is foolish to be thus angry 
 with those who tell us unpleasant truths, but it is very common. 2. He describes 
 Jeremiah as mad. People often depreciate the intelligence of those who differ from 
 them. Weak men set down strong words to the excitement of the speaker because 
 they have not the imagination or the nerve to receive them as true. 3. He urges the 
 temple officials to arrest and punish Jeremiah. We have here another instance of the 
 common effort to suppress those whom we are unable to answer. 
 
 II. His MORAL CONDUCT. 1. He usurps the name of a prophet, though he is not sent 
 by God. His pretence to speak in the Name of God is unwarranted. A prophet is one 
 who acts as God's messenger, as an apostle is one who acts as the messenger of Christ. 
 No man has a right to enter the ministry of Christ unless he is called to it, nor to 
 
CH. XXIX. 1—32.] THE BOOK OF THE PBOPHBT JEREMIAH. 593 
 
 speak as God's ambassador unless he is convinced in his conscience that he is sent by- 
 God. 2. He deceives the Jews into " trusting in a lie." It is not only that he falsely 
 claims to be a prophet; his prophetic message is also false. Truth is sacred ; to tamper 
 with it is a sin, but to deceive others to their hurt increases the sin. 3. He instigates 
 revolt against God. If it is wrong to utter a falsehood to serve a good end, it must be 
 more wrong to do so with a bad intention. But all false religious teaching tends to 
 induce disobedience to the will of God. 
 
 III. His doom. 1. He is to be punished. The evil that he discredits shall fall upon 
 him. This is a severe but an appropriate punishment for a deceiving prophet. 2. His 
 children are to share his doom. There is a great mystery in the hereditary character 
 of punishment, and it is increased in some respects by the fact that tendencies to sin 
 ■ are also hereditary. But the fact is as clearly visible in nature as it is revealed in 
 Scripture. 3. He is not to see the joy of the restoration. They who refuse wholesome 
 chastisement cannot receive the happy fruits that follow it. It is natural and reasonable 
 that the wilful rejection of Divine warnings should be followed by a severe judgment. 
 
 HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. 
 
 Yers. 1 — 14. — Duties and consolations of Goi's captivity. I. Theib duties. The 
 imposition of definite lines of conduct and policy upon the exiled, was one proof that 
 they were not cast off; the promise of deliverance was another. Although amongst 
 the heathen, they were not to be as the heathen ; neither were they to be wholly given 
 over to despair. As children of God they were to exhibit the virtues of: 1. Industry. 
 (Ver. 5.) Misanthropy and despair are the parents of idleness ; Divine faith endues men 
 with energy. The exiles had a testimony to bear before the heathen. It was a present 
 duty to achieve an honest independence. 2. Domestic attachment. (Ver. 6.) The family, 
 with all its joys and responsibilities, is still to be cared for. If the present be forfeited 
 the future is still capable of being redeemed. The new generations would reap the 
 advantages of which the fathers had been deprived. 3. Public spirit. (Ver. 7.) They 
 were not to abstain from the duties of citizenship merely because they were amongst 
 heathen conquerors. Even there they might exert an influence for good. The funda- 
 mental law of God's kingdom is to seek the good of all men. Work faithfully rendered 
 to the commonwealth would not be vain or without its reward. Even the heathen 
 and the men of this world can appreciate good citizenship. That a distinctive work 
 and testimony still remained to the Church as a Church, is no reason for neglecting 
 those less direct and more general duties which so powerfully commend the rehgious 
 profession that inculcates them. 4. Cheerfulness This is not so much to be classified 
 along with the preceding as to be understood as the spring and governing principle of 
 them all What more natura. than a spirit of resentment under the circumstances? 
 How easy to hang the harp on the willows ! But this would only be to misunderstand 
 God and thwart his purposes. He seeks the happiness and prosperity of his people- 
 even here and now, and notwithstanding the discipline to which he may be subjectmg 
 them Not resignation merely, but cheerful acquiescence and co-operation, are, there- 
 fore to be expected of his people. " I opened not my mouth, because thou didst it." 
 
 li Theik CONSOLATIONS. These Were partly to consist m the natural results ot the 
 course of conduct enjoined, or the happiness inseparably associated with the observance 
 of it • but chiefly in the anticipation of the future. 1. A definite term was set to their 
 cantivitv ever. 10.) It was one that could easily be verified, and was not too far 
 Ztant to ^exttaguish hope. Some of those who as children were taken to Babylon, 
 m ght in their old age return to the land of promise. There is measure as well as 
 meaning in all God's discipline. He never imposes upon his people a burden greater 
 Than ?bey can bear. The darkest night is illumined by light beyond. When they 
 sorrow their borrow is not without hope. 2. The present washnked with the future 
 They ^i-ht be comforted in the fulfilment of their daily tasks by the knowledge that 
 evervthfeg done in obedience to God and the spirit of true benevolence would have its 
 influence upon the promised deliverance. At the very worst, what was done m his 
 dlp™n would not retard that event or rob it of its fulness of blessing. In like 
 Sner theTwidren of God are assured that this earthly life is but a "sopurnmg,' 
 
 JEREMIAH. 
 
594 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xxix. 1—32. 
 
 and that " all things work together for good." This life will have an immense influence 
 ■upon the complexion of the next. The duties of every day are therefore to be attended 
 to in the full conviction of their absolute worth and avail in the sight of God. They 
 have the promise not only of the life which now is, but of that which is to come. 3. 
 Spiritual blessings were promised. (Vers. 11 — 14.) The good will and faithfulness of 
 God ; the restoration of religious communion ; the gathering and reconstitution of the 
 theocracy. — M. 
 
 Vers. 12 — 14. — Signs that Ood's favour is restored. I. What he does in his 
 PEOPLE. 1. In turning their hearts to himself. They had been worshipping Baal and 
 the gods of heathendom. Only now and then did they offer a half-hearted wor- 
 ship to Jehovah. The idolatries that pandered to their lusts were uppermost in 
 their thoughts, and it was only occasionally, in seasons of desperate need, they 
 bethought themselves of Jehovah. Now he was to assume a higher place in tiieir 
 regard. Their views of life, its purposes and destinies, would be elevated, and he would 
 become their chief desire. The new era of favour and happiness would be distinguished 
 by intense personal love for God. In Nehemiah's day a measure of spiritual affection 
 like this showed itself, but it could only be fully developed through the personal mani- 
 festation of Christ, who was to draw all men unto him. 2. In pouring forth the spirit 
 of true prayer. Where the heart's affections go forth towards God the spirit of true 
 prayer commences. It is that which cries within us, " Abba, Father," which is the 
 spirit of prayer and supplications. It has been supposed that the first clause of ver. 12 
 refers to private and the second to public prayer. The habit and delight of devotion 
 were to be restored. Where these are there is already the earnest of all substantial 
 and eternal good. Pentecost was prefaced and penetrated with prayer. 
 
 II. What he dobs fob his people. 1. In revealing himself. They who seek for 
 him with their whole heart will find. him. The veil will be withdrawn, and calamity, 
 understood as fatherly chastisement, patiently borne. In the subsequent history of 
 Israel this was largely experienced; but the fulness of the spiritual meaning of the 
 promise was only realized in Christ and the outpourings of his Spirit. 2. He will 
 hearken to their petitions. The sense of acceptance will come, even in the midst of 
 captivity. Faithful hearts will fill with presage of coming deliverance, and prayer will 
 not only be effectual but be felt to be so. It is in this exercise the true relationship of 
 God and his people becomes evident, and the blessings of a present and ultimate 
 redemption are secured. There can be no more marked proof of God's favour towards 
 any one than answers to his prayers. 3. Se will bring hack to the promised land arid 
 the privilege of covenant relationship. That is a matter of course, seeing he already 
 hears them. And yet none the less imposing will their redemption be. How complete 
 the restoration ! how miraciilous I Its supernatural character is to be as evident as 
 that of their dispersion. That which under anomalous circumstances has been a 
 difficult, unauthorized, or intermittent exercise will become easy, honourable, and 
 constant, as they will return to their own land, where every man will sit under his own 
 vine and fig-tree, none daring to make him afraid. In the case of the Christian this 
 promise will be fulfilled in either the gradual conquest of the world by the Church, or 
 entrance into heaven. But there is a foretaste of this in the self-conquest and perfected 
 spiritual life of the regenerate soul. — M. 
 
 Vers. 20—32.-2^6 punishment of false prophets. The opposition between Jeremiah 
 and the false prophets is one of the most interesting phenomena of the period to which 
 these prophecies belong. It is a real battle, albeit not with earthly weapons. The 
 question between them could not be suffered to remain doubtful, as it involved 
 immense consequences. A striking correspondence is discovered in the antagonism to 
 the labours of the apostles. There is the same barefaced, fearless lying and dishonesty, 
 the same terrible denunciation of judgment. (We are reminded of the sentence on 
 Simon Magus, " Thy silver perish with thee," etc.. Acts viii. 20 — 24 ; and the reply to 
 Ananias, the high priest, " God shall smite thee, thou whited wall," Acts xxiii. 3.) 
 How is the latter to be regarded? Evidently as the word of Gud through his true 
 servants, and not as the expression of vindictive feeling. lu regard to this punishment 
 notice— 
 
CH. XXIX. 1-32.] THK BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 
 
 595 
 
 o'ouBeomiZ^ ZZLl^ t ' °^ ^^^ 'y'°S prophets, even apart from its associated 
 ekmeTof L™ Ahah nL '^ ''■ """' '•^^"' '" '^' '^'''"^'' '^"'^ P^''^''"'^ hardly an 
 e temHv of sh^L it uLl Q? <=°«r°'°" ^™ '^^J^^'^"^ '« ^ f^'^^f"! death and an 
 !l r»„o^/ V T '''if ''^l- Shemaiah is consigned to effaoement and deprived both 
 as regards himself and h>s posterity, of the promised blessings. 2. Exemplary Unmis- 
 
 hon^be ZZh rn- ''"' '^'^ ^'^-^T °' '"'^"y °f ^'"'^ ^'^^' -d '* was'^intended t" y 
 t^ritd tn^inh f 1 ' p'i"^' retribntion. Their fate wonld appeal to the imagina- 
 trr. 1^ f f^ "^ °^'^'"" K°^^^' ^""^ '° «'*her case it corresponded closely with 
 
 rnd^f r^M ^n" '°1.'^".°'- ^^*''''^ '"^^'^''' "^"^ they were to be taught that 
 God s hand con d still reach them and that au exact justice waited upon their actions. 
 Ahab and Zedekiah so lived th;.t even a heathen monarch had to make them examples. 
 6. U-raduated according to heinousness of offence. 
 
 II. Its justification. 1. The opposition to God's truth was necessarily direct and 
 mahctous Nothing could well be more consciously wicked than their whole behaviour 
 It occurred at a critical period, when great destinies were determined. The prophet of 
 hod was thereby discredited and hindered, and the people jjre vented from receiving and 
 acting upon his message. In every season of critical consequence and great spiritual 
 activity such manifestations occur. Merely to overcome them is not sufficient. The 
 victory must be signal and conspicuous. 2. The offence was one to which God himself 
 ts ever most sensitive. It affected his character and prerogatives, and was therefore 
 nothing else than blasphemy (cf. Matt. xii. 32. " Even I know, and am a witness, saith 
 the Lord," ver. 23). 3. The interests of truth required the penalty. The people had 
 to beoverawed by the presence of the supernatural ; their obedience had to be won to 
 the direction of the true prophet, and the spiritual ends of the Captivity were thus to be 
 secured. A moral demonstration like this was requisite, and enables the human mind 
 more completely to realize the Divine conceptions of righteousness and truth. — M. 
 
 "Vers. 4 — 7. — God's message to the captives. There is an encouraging tone in this 
 Divine message to the captives in Babylon that must have been strikingly fitted to call 
 forth every better element of thought and feeling within them. They were not, 
 indeed, to dream of deliverance. The appointed time must run its course. The gene- 
 ration then in their prime could not hope ever to see their own land again. But their 
 children should. Their wisdom, therefore, lay in making the best of their condition, 
 and nourishing, as far as possible, the resources and the strength of their family life. 
 Let them build, and plant, and marry, and enjoy the good of that strange land as if it 
 were their own. Let them sow, though it be with many tears, for the better and 
 happier future. Let them so live as to commend themselves to the good will of their 
 conquerors, that even " their enemies may be at peace with them," identifying them- 
 selves with the interests of the place of their captivity, seeking by their prayer to 
 bring down blessings upon it from above, seeing that in its well-being and peace they 
 would find their own. This is strictly in harmony with the genei-al Divine purpose as 
 to the relation in which the Jews should stand towards other nations. They were 
 called to bo a separate and peculiar people only that they mi^ht the better be instru- 
 ments of blessing to the world. The Captivity was not merely a punishment for their 
 sins, but a part of the method by which God taught them to fulfil their mission. 
 Important lessons are suggested respecling the relation the people of God should always 
 maintain towards the world in which he has placed them. Note — 
 
 I. The fkbb use it is permitted them to have of this world's good. " Build 
 ye houses, and dwell in them," etc. In being cariied beyond the bounds of Israel these 
 captives were not passing beyond the domain of Israel's God. He is the " Lord of the 
 whole earth." And whether in Jerusalem or in Babylon, all resources, all materials, 
 all power to labour, and all products of labour, are his. Shall not the children of the 
 heavenly Father make themselves " at home " in their Father's world, free to use and 
 to enjoy whatever good he puts within their reach? Remember St. Paul's counsel to 
 the Corinthians, " Whatsoever is sold in the shambles," etc. (1 Cor. x. 25, 2G). All 
 
596 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. [cH. xxix. 1—32. 
 
 natural good has the stamp of God's ownership upon it. Whatever, therefore, comes 
 to you in the honourable commerce of life do not shrink from it or refuse it. It is 
 yours to enjoy because he made it ; it is yours because it is his. The freedom of the 
 earth is given to his true children. There is a sense in v^hioh it may be said of all out- 
 ward good that they who know best how to use it aright have most right to its use. 
 There is no " possession " of these things like that which springs from spiritual affinity 
 and sympathy with him who gave them, and from the power to discern and appreciate 
 their inner meaning. There is no "right" like that of Divine sonship. " All things 
 are yours," etc. (1 Cor. iii. 21 — 23). We dishonour our Christian faith when we move 
 about in the world timidly or gloomily, as if we had no right to live in it, or as if it 
 were a mere "house of bondage;" hedged in on all sides with painful restrictions, 
 bound with fetters of restraint ; afraid to share with a free, hearty, childlike gladness 
 any of its innocent delights. If this is " Emmanuel's land," have we not the range of all 
 its delectable mountains ? Is it a world that our Father's hand has made and filled with 
 the tokens of his beneficence, and that has been trodden by the feet of the great 
 Eedeemer, and shall we throw over it the shadow of our discontent or fear (Neh. viii. 
 10 ; Eccles. ix. 7 ; 1 Tim. iv. 4, 5) ? 
 
 II. The identity of intkkbst subsisting between them and the wokld. " Seek 
 the peace of the city," etc. Captives and bondmen as these Jews were, they were never- 
 theless involved in all that affected the welfare of the Babylonian state. The administra- 
 tion of its affairs for good or ill, for peace or war, must needs be a matter of great interest 
 to them, since they would so largely share the consequences. (See illustrations in Joseph 
 and his brethren, Daniel and the three Hebrew youths, Esther and Mordecai, etc.) 
 The citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem have also an earthly citizenship to main- 
 tain, the bonds of which are not broken through their being raised spiritually to a 
 higher level than that of the worldly life around them. Eather are those bonds cor- 
 respondingly raised and made more sacred and binding. Their Christian faith elevates 
 the character of their earthly citizenship, invests it with a new dignity, attaches to it 
 higher and diviner sanctions. " In the peace thereof shall ye have peace." All paits 
 of the social system are so linked together by a law of mutual dependence and influence 
 that the well-being of one is, in a measure, the well-being of all. " The eye cannot 
 say to the hand," etc. ; " Whether one member suffer," etc. We are all personally 
 affected for good or ill by the political order and the general tone of the moral life 
 around us. There are deep rankling wounds in the body politic — ignorance, drunken- 
 ness, roving beggary, domestic vice and violence, the systematic training of the young 
 in crime, the oppression of the hireling in his wages, etc. — which it is to the interest of 
 us all most earnestly to seek to heal. No class of the community can escape the ill 
 effect of these things, and religion does but bring us into the deeper sympathy with 
 those who most suffer by such forms of wrong. 
 
 III. Thbib responsibility to live for the world's highest benefit. " Seek the 
 peace of the city, . . . and pray to the Lord for it." Real peace is the fruit of righteous- 
 ness. There can be none while the Divine order is violated and the Divine will set at 
 nought. The gospel is in every way God's message of peace to the world. The Church is 
 called to be the " light of the world " and the " salt of the earth," as a witness for God's 
 truth and righteousness. The Christian philanthropist alone has in his hands a thorough 
 cure for the diseases and wounds of our humanity ; and of all the weapons he can wield 
 in his conflict with them, none so mighty as prayer, inasmuch as that unseals the fount 
 of all blessing, and brings down from heaven the healing, saving power. Well may a 
 Christian apostle enlarge and emphasize the old prophetic message, saying, " I exhort 
 therefore, first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercessions, thanksgivings, be made 
 for all men," etc. (1 Tim. ii. 1— 4).— W. 
 
 Ver. 11. — Thoughts of peace. Such is the consoling word that God sends to his 
 " banished ones " in their affliction. He bids his servant " speak comfortably " to 
 them, even now that their " warfare " is only beginning, and they are having their first 
 taste of the bitterness of exile. Blending with the lamentation s of the weeping cap- 
 tives as they " hung their harps on the willows by the waters of Babylon," we can 
 imagine that this gracious word would have a more salutary effect u^xjn them than the 
 living voice of the prophet ever had. ^Jhat message has it for us ? 
 
CH. XXIX. 1-32.J THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 597 
 
 I. The mind of God is a pnorotrND mystery to ns, but he knows his own 
 COTTNSELS. 1. Qod has his " thoughts," even as we have ours. We believe in a God who 
 IS no mere philosophic abstraction, but a living, personal being, of whose infinite intelli- 
 gence ours IS but the dim and distant reflection. 2. Eis thoughts are immeasurably 
 higher than ours. " As the heavens are higher than the earth," etc. (Isa. Iv. 9). We 
 cannot solve the mystery or trace the course of our own mental processes, and how 
 should we be able to comprehend his? Our minds, with all their utmost range and 
 activity, move but upon the outskirts of the glorious realm of the infinite and eternal 
 thought of God. 3. His thoughts are all conformed to the eternal truth of things. 
 Indeed, they are themselves the eternal truth of things. For what are all created 
 existences — material and spiritual, all laws, forces, etc., but embodiments and reflections 
 of the " thoughts " of God ? And whatever his purposes may be they are not variable ; 
 they partake of the immutability of his essential nature. " The counsel of the Lord 
 standeth for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations " (Ps. xxxiii. 11). 
 
 II. God's ways of dealing with us ake often perplexing, but a gracious 
 PURPOSE governs ALL. " Thoughts of peace and not of evil " lie concealed within his 
 darkest providences. 1. The constitution of the universe, in spite of all its discords, 
 tears abundant witness to the benign spirit that inspires it. We have no sympathy 
 with that gloomy and morbid view of it according to which, for aught that appears, it 
 might have been fashioned by some spirit of cruelty and hate. True as it may be that 
 " the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together," there is proof enough 
 that " God's tender mercies are over all his works." 2. The Bible has its anomalies, hut 
 it is the unfolding of a redemptive purpose. The revelation of God's mercy towards 
 a guilty, ruined world in the person of the Christ is the key to all its historic dispen- 
 sations. As every chastisement inflicted on the Jewish people had some gracious 
 design in it as regards themselves, so the whole course of their national life and eccle- 
 siastical polity played its part in the development of that world-wide plan. And 
 through all the changes and storms and conflicts that may yet be in store for the 
 Church and the world, Scripture keeps alive the blessed hope of the future. The pro- 
 phetic word is " as a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawn and the day-star 
 arise in our hearts " (2 Pet. i. 19). 3. The saddest experiences in our personal life have 
 their beneficent Divine intent. Every cloud has its "silver lining." Our keenest 
 sorrows otten prove to be " celestial benedictions in a dark disguise." God's " thought 
 of peace " is at the heart of all our earthly tribulations (Heb. xii. 6 — 11). 
 
 III. The issue always justifies God's thoughts and ways. The " expected end," 
 when it comes, never fails to solve the mystery of the path that led to it. The 
 gracious purpose, hidden in the secrecy of the Eternal Mind, veiled under many forms 
 of dark disguise, is then made manifest. God is his own Interpreter, and the day of 
 his glorious self-vindication will surely come. 
 
 " His ways are love — though they transcend 
 Our feeble range of sight, 
 They wind through darkness to their end 
 In everlasting light." 
 
 W. 
 
 Ygrs 1 7. The letter to the captives. Notice the mention of those who bore this 
 
 letter ' We inay conclude they were not mere messengers having no interest in the 
 message they conveyed, but those who themselves would have much to say over and 
 above what was written. „ , 
 
 I. God's consideration for his people in their captivity He not only means to 
 hrincr that caotivitv to an end in his own time, but while it lasts it is to be made as 
 Slike captivity as possible. It was not enough that he sho.uld leave the nation m 
 Babylon tin the time of his chastisement expired. While they remained there, they 
 were to have the largest opportunities compatible with the circumstances in which he 
 were to "/■*«'■'''; '^ - , Xce them And so when the circumstances of any life are 
 Soward when perhaps ^e have made them so by our own folly, God shows his 
 untowam, wnen pel p ^ ^ i^ our own hearts, and such ample 
 
 ''$^::t:St:y\tTlTZt:..r, iJ^l^e helplul. God will notbwshcircun. 
 
598 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [ch. xxix. 1— 32. 
 
 stances merely beoaiTse we find them hard ; but this we may always be sure of, that he 
 will enable us to make the very best of them. 
 
 II. God's assertion of his part in beinotng this captivity about. He had 
 caused his people to be carried away from Jerusalem to Babylon. The place of their 
 present abode was by his arrangement. It was their own fault as a nation that they 
 had had to leave Jerusalem ; but it was in God's own wisdom tliat they were planted 
 in Babylon rather than another place. Clearly to perceive that the omnipotent God was 
 disposing their outward relations, would enable them to listen all the more attentively 
 to what instructions he had to give them for making the best of their present circum- 
 stances. 
 
 III. God's plan for the profit and comfort of the present generation. The 
 people are plainly told that they are to be there for seventy years. No enerfiy of their 
 own can get them away a year sooner ; and no might of their captors can keep them 
 a year later. Hence it is the true wisdom to accept the divinely settled positiun. No 
 man among them was to neglect the possibilities of his brief temporal life by reason of 
 a baseless expectation that he might soon return to his own land. He might indeed 
 say, " If I show signs of settling down here, I shall be reckoned a very poor patriot." 
 And so over against all temptations to restlessness and utter waste of existence 
 there is this explicit direction from Jehovah. If any Israelite lives a wasted life in 
 Babylon it will be his own fault. So to speak, God makes Babylon, for the time, a sort 
 of substitute for the promised land. If the Israelite has only sufficient of the spirit of 
 true faith and obedience in him, he may make even the land of captivity a place of 
 blessing. For the nation Babylon was a mere place of sojourning, but for the indi- 
 vidual it was to be his chief abode on earth. Hence the loving-kindness of God is 
 manifest in telling him he might build a house and make a home and plant fields, thus 
 settling down to a useful and cheerful life. 
 
 IV. God's will with regard to the relations between Israel and Babylon. 
 Israel was to seek the peace of Babylon. It was to support everything that promoted 
 peace and security. Naturally Israel would expect to find its chance in the difficulties 
 of Babylon. If any formidable foe threatened the country, or the equal danger of civil 
 war, it might only too easily seem to Israel that this would give the chance for liberty. 
 But 60 far from this being really the case, God assures his people that Babylon's peace 
 is their peace. This sets before us a principle of action which Chiistian people cannot 
 too diligently observe. While it is true that we are not of this world, but must con- 
 stantly rise superior to its habits and maxims, yet at the same time we cannot do too 
 much to maintain the stability of governments and the public order of the land in 
 which we live. While Christ would have us turn away from the cant of what is called 
 patriotism, he would also have us to abhor everything that tends to anarchy. While 
 the Spirit of God promotes the highest individuality, he also promotes the greatest order 
 (1 Tim. ii. 1— 4}.— Y. 
 
 END OF VOL. I, 
 
HOMILETICAL INDEX 
 
 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 
 
 VOLUME L 
 
 
 
 THEBIE 
 
 rAGB 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 
 Jehovah's Indictment against Israel 36, 39 
 
 THBSIE 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Sinner's Attempt to wash away 
 
 
 The External Surroundings of the Life 
 
 
 his Sin 
 
 37 
 
 of Jeremiah 
 
 4,9 
 
 A Dread Snare of tho Devil 
 
 37 
 
 Predestination ... ... 
 
 5 
 
 The Restlessness of Sin 
 
 37 
 
 DifBdence overcome 
 
 5 
 
 God's Estimation of his People's Love 
 
 38 
 
 The Power of Prophecy 
 
 6 
 
 First Love to God 
 
 38 
 
 The Almond Rod... 
 
 7,17 
 
 Guilty Instruments of Divine Judg- 
 
 
 Tlie Seething Pot 
 
 8,17 
 
 ment ... 
 
 38 
 
 Encouragements to Fidelity 
 
 8 
 
 The Marvel of Unbelief 
 
 40 
 
 Introductory Statements concerning 
 
 
 The Unreasonableness of appealing to 
 
 
 Jeremiah's Parentage, etc. 
 
 10 
 
 Worldly Assistance in Spiritual 
 
 
 The Dread Commission 
 
 11 
 
 Enterprises 
 
 40 
 
 The Ministry for a Corrupt Age 
 
 13 
 
 God's Method of punishing Apostasy 
 
 41 
 
 Jeremiah's Visions 
 
 13 
 
 The Shameless Shame of Idolatry ... 
 
 41 
 
 Jehovah calls Jeremiah, etc. 15, 1 
 
 19,20 
 
 " Lords many and Gods many " 
 
 41 
 
 The Vast Compass of the Prophet's 
 
 
 Rejecting the Chastisements of God 
 
 41 
 
 Work ... 
 
 16 
 
 The Plea of Innocence a Culminating 
 
 
 A Protracted Ministry 
 
 18 
 
 Sin 
 
 41 
 
 " What seest thou ? " 
 
 20 
 
 Israel's Desertion of Jehovah viewed 
 
 
 Hastening Ills 
 
 20 
 
 in the Light of the Past ... 
 Heathendom gives an Unconscious 
 
 41 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 
 Rebuke to Apostate Israel 
 
 42 
 
 Becolleotions of the Happy Past 
 
 28 
 
 Forsaking the Foimtain of Living 
 
 
 The Ingratitude of Sin 
 Wickedness in lea ling Men 
 
 29 
 30 
 
 Waters 
 A Shame to be ashamed of 
 
 44 
 45 
 
 Broken Cisterns ... 
 
 30 
 
 Why the Coniidenoes of Men do not 
 
 
 Sin Self-Corrected 
 
 31 
 
 prosper 
 
 46 
 
 The Stains of Sin 
 
 32 
 
 The People's Sin ... 
 
 47 
 
 False Confidence ... 
 
 A Sweet Remembrance embittered ... 
 
 33 
 33 
 
 CHAPTER HL 
 
 
 The Divine Ideal, how lost and re- 
 
 
 Filial Reminiscences of God ... 
 
 sa 
 
 gained 
 
 35 
 
 Insincere Repentance 
 
 H 
 
INDEX 
 
 THEME PAGE 
 
 God inviting the Eeturn of his Sin- 
 ful Children ... ... ... 55 
 
 Religious Individualism ... ... 56 
 
 The Blessings of Eedemption ... 56 
 
 Invitation and Eesponse ... ... 57 
 
 From False to True Salvation ... 58 
 
 Shame ... ... ... ... 58 
 
 A Call to the Young ... ... 59 
 
 "Backsliding Israel" ... ... 60 
 
 Tlie Offer of a Great Forgiveness ... 61 
 Israel's Cry to the Father and the 
 
 Friend ... ... ... 62 
 
 Actions speak louder than "Words ... 63 
 God will provide Pastors according to 
 
 his own Heait ... ... ... 64 
 
 The Superseding of the Ark ... 65 
 The Gathering of the Nations to 
 
 Jehovah's Throne ... ... 66 
 
 A Sincere Kepentance in an Appro- 
 priate Place ... ... ... 67 
 
 Sin, Law, Grace ... ... ... 68 
 
 An Old and Sad but very True Story 69 
 The Comparative Advantages of Judah 
 and Israel; Professors and Non- 
 Professors ... ... ... 70 
 
 Confession of Sin the Indispensable 
 
 Prerequisite for its Pardon ... 71 
 
 Married to God ... ... ... 73 
 
 The Great Difficulty overcome ... 74 
 God's Way of Eestoration ; or, tho 
 
 Experiences of a Young Convert ... 76 
 Supercession of External Eeligious 
 
 Ordinances and Institutions ... 77 
 
 " Put among the Children " ... 77 
 
 Typical Penitence .,i ... 78 
 
 CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 Fallow Ground ... ... 82, 87 
 
 Divine Illusions ... ... ... 83 
 
 The Cleansing of the Heart a Neces- 
 sary Condition of Salvation ... 83 
 The Folly of Misdirected Wisdom ... 84 
 Chaos the Result of Sin ... ... 85 
 
 The Abject Helplessness which resorts 
 
 to False Pretensions, and its Failure 85 
 Tiie Duty of Eeality in Eeligious Pro- 
 fession ... ... ... 86 
 
 Human Uncertainty co-existing with 
 
 Divine Illumination ... ... 86 
 
 The Wisdom of this World ... 87 
 Vain Thoughts ... ... 88,94 
 
 The Peril of Profession without Posses- 
 sion of Eeal Religion ... ... 89 
 
 THEME PAOE 
 
 The Proclamation of Woe ... ... 91 
 
 Inflicted Infatuation ; or, the Deceived 
 
 of God 91 
 
 The Loving Charge of the Great 
 
 Searcher of Hearts ... ... 92 
 
 God's Reserve of Mercy ... ... 95 
 
 A Surely Coming Confession com- 
 pelling a Present Serious Question 99 
 "The Fellowship of Christ's Suffer- 
 ings"... ... ... ... 100 
 
 Broken Eecds ... ... ... 102 
 
 " There shall be Weeping " ... 103 
 The Kind of Eeturn wliioh Jehovah 
 
 requires ... ... ... 104 
 
 Jehovah's Eequirement with Eespect 
 
 to the Oath ... ... ... 105 
 
 Thoroughness in Spiritual Culture ... 106 
 
 Despair among the Leaders in Israel 107 
 
 The Uses of the Wind ... ... 108 
 
 The Unwashed Heart and the Vain 
 
 Purposes cherished in it ... 109 
 
 Those who are Wise to do Evil ... 110 
 A Threatened Return from Cosmos to 
 
 Chaos... ... ... ... Ill 
 
 Departed Charms that cannot be re- 
 stored... ... ... ... 112 
 
 CHAPTEE V. 
 
 Forgiveness for Many through the 
 
 Eighteousness of One ... ... 116 
 
 Fruitless Chastisement ... 116, 122 
 
 Culpable Unbelief ... ... 117 
 
 Suitable Eetribution ... ... 118 
 
 Man rebuked by Nature ... ... 118 
 
 The most Appalling Condition to 
 
 which a Nation can sink ... 119 
 
 A Wicked City spared for the Sake of 
 
 One Saint ... ... ... 119 
 
 What God requires of Man ... 120 
 
 Sparing Mercy ... ... ... 121 
 
 God's Power in restraining the Forces 
 
 of Nature ... ... ... 121 
 
 Can a Eighteous Man be found in 
 
 Jerusalem? ... ... ... 121 
 
 The Vineyard spoiled because of the 
 
 Degenerate Branches ... ... 123 
 
 Those who call the Word of Jehovah 
 
 a Lie ... ... ... ... 124 
 
 A Lesson from the Eaging Sea ... 125 
 The Worst Kind of Wickedness found 
 
 among the People of Jehovah ... 126 
 
 Mutual Helpers in Wrong-Doing ... 127 
 
INDEX. 
 
 iii 
 
 THEME 
 
 True Manhood ... 
 An Unfailing Appeal 
 The Sorrow of Sorrows 
 
 PAGE 
 128 
 
 131 
 131 
 
 The Eioh and the Poor meet together 132 
 
 The Moral Disadvantages of the Poor 133 
 
 How Men curse their Blessings ... 134 
 
 Battlements not the Lord's ... 135 
 
 The Silken Fetter ... ... 136 
 
 God's Gifts of the Eains and the 
 
 Harvest ... ... ... 138 
 
 The Devil's Lure 142 
 
 A Wonderful and Horrible Thing 
 
 indeed ... ... ... 142 
 
 Nature's Witness against Blind Eyes 
 
 and Kebellious Hearts ... ... 143 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Wells of Wickedness ... ... 149 
 
 The Indifference of Men and the 
 
 Burden of Truth ... ... 149 
 
 False Peace ... ... ... 150 
 
 The Old Paths 151, 155, 171 
 
 Watchmen ... ... ... 152 
 
 Worthless Sacrifices ... ... 152 
 
 Testing Fires ... ... ... 152 
 
 The Apostate City that cannot be let 
 
 alone ... ... ••• . ••• 153 
 
 The Ministry of Deceit ... ... 154 
 
 The Eeasonableness of the Divine 
 
 Judgments ... ... ... 156 
 
 The Prophet a Spiritual Assayer ... 156 
 
 A Dreadful Onlook ... ... 157 
 
 Signal-Fires ... ... ... 159 
 
 The Lord's Pasture ... ... 159 
 
 Sorrow because of Eventide ... 160 
 How the Kingdom of Heaven is to be 
 
 taken ... ... ••• ••• 163 
 
 The Real Director of Human Affairs 163 
 
 Sin compared to a " Fountain " ... 164 
 
 Tlie Worst Woe of the Wicked ... 165 
 
 " Turn back thine Hand "... ... 1 65 
 
 The Preacher's Bitter Cry ... ... 166 
 
 The Uncircumcised Ear ... ... 167 
 
 The Vampires of the Soul ... ... 168 
 
 The Sin against the Holy Ghost ... 170 
 
 At the Meeting of the Ways ... 173 
 
 God's Appeal for Vindication of his 
 
 Vengeance ... ••• ••• 1'* 
 
 The Fruit of Thought ... ... 174 
 
 Abhorred Sacrifices ... ••• 175 
 
 "The Bellows are Burned" ... 175 
 
 The Good Way ... ... ••• 176 
 
 TIIEJtB PAGE 
 
 Jerusalem like a Fountain casting 
 
 forth Evil 177 
 
 Covetousness a Universal Sin ... 178 
 
 Healing the Huit slightly ... 179 
 The Ancient Paths to be sought and 
 
 walked in ... ... ... 180 
 
 Sweet and Fragrant Things made 
 
 Abominable to Gud ... ... 181 
 
 " Reprobate Silver " ... ... 182 
 
 CHAPTER Vri. 
 
 Preaching Repentance. ... ... 187 
 
 The Confidence of Superstition ... 188 
 
 The Voice Unheeded ... ... 188 
 
 Forbidden Prayers ... 189, 206 
 
 Declension ... ... ... 190 
 
 Horrors of Retribution ... ... 190 
 
 Keeping the Temple Gate ... ... 191 
 
 Who shall dwell in the House of the 
 
 Lord? 192 
 
 " Rising up early " ... ... 192 
 
 Idolatry a Detailed Insult to Jehovah 193 
 
 The Desecration of Tophet ... 194 
 The Relations of ■Righteousness and 
 
 Religion ... ... ... 194 
 
 The Indispensable Condition of all 
 
 Grace 190 
 
 How Men deceive themselves ... 197 
 
 Strange Church-Goers ' ... ... 199 
 
 Sacrilege ... ' 200 
 
 Warning Voices ... ... ... 201 
 
 Shilol), or the God-Forsaken Shrine ... 201 
 
 The Divine Long-Suffering worn out... 204 
 Idolatrous Worship both a Warning 
 
 and a Model .j. ... ' ... 206 
 
 The Recoil of Sin ... ... 207 
 
 The Innocent Victims of Sin ... 208 
 The Indispensable Condition of Well- 
 being ... ... ... ... 209 
 
 The Harvest of Sin ... ... 209 
 
 "Lying Words" ... ... ... 210 
 
 The Doom of the Temple ... ... 210 
 
 The Family joined in Idolatry ... 211 
 The Inveterate Disobedience of 
 
 Israel ... ... ... ••• 212 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Persistent Depravity 
 
 A Lesson from the Birds ... 
 
 Untrustworthy Literature ... 
 
 Despair ... 
 
 Harvest Contrasts... 
 
 217 
 217 
 218 
 219 
 219 
 
INDEX. 
 
 THEME PAGE 
 
 " Balm in Gilead " ... 220, 232 
 Apostasy an Anomalous and Incal- 
 culable Thing ... ... ... 221 
 
 •' Peace, Peace ; when there is no 
 
 Peace" ... 221 
 
 SFalse Hopes ministering Despair ... 222 
 Occasions of Hoped-for Salvation that 
 
 have not availed ... ... 223 
 
 "Physician, heal thyself" ... ... 223 
 
 Befooled indeed ... ... ... 224 
 
 Backsliding in its Worst Forms ... 226 
 
 The Way Home 227 
 
 The Prophet's Grievous Lament ... 229 
 
 Christ and the Holy Ghost Realities 230 
 The Bones of the Dead Idolaters cast 
 
 out before their Cities ... ... 233 
 
 A Pitiable Condition : Death Prefer- 
 able to Life ... ... ... 234 
 
 The Unnatural Conduct of Jerusa- 
 lem ... ... , ... ... 235 
 
 The Exposure of Pseudo-Wisdom ... 236 
 
 The Serpeuts which cannot be charmed 237 
 
 "The Life is more than the Meat" ... 238 
 
 Why the Hurt of Israel is not healed 239 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Grief for Others ... ... ... 243 
 
 Falsehood ... ... ... 243 
 
 A Visitation of God ... ... 244 
 
 The Causes of National Disaster ... 244 
 
 False Boasting and True Confidence 245 
 
 Impartial Justice ... ... ... 246 
 
 Vicarious Grief ... ... ... 246 
 
 The Man of God's Longing for 
 
 Seclusion ... ... ... 247 
 
 Tlie Self-Opposition and Futility of 
 
 tlie Sinner's Life ... .., 247 
 The Affliction of God's Professed 
 
 People an Enigma to be explained 247 
 The Death of the Wicked contrary to 
 
 Nature ... ... ... 248 
 
 The Knowledge of God the only Real 
 
 "Glory "of Man ... ... 249 
 
 The Testimony of Tears ... ... 249 
 
 The Moral Degradation of Women ... 251 
 
 Sighings after the Wilderness ... 252 
 
 The Doings and Doom of Deceit ... 253 
 
 The Terrible Threateuings of Love... 254 
 The Inquest on the Slain of Judah 
 
 and Jerusalem ... ... ... 256 
 
 Hereditary Sin Real Sin ... ... 257 
 
 Death's Doings ... ... „., 258 
 
 THEME FAGB 
 
 "Whereof to glory" ... ... 259 
 
 The Chief Good 260 
 
 Incessant Weeping over the Calamities 
 
 of Israel ... ... ... 261 
 
 The Lodging-Place in the Wilderness 262 
 Wickedness prevailing, and why it 
 
 prevails ... ... ... 263 
 
 The Social Bond a Rope of Sand ... 264 
 Exultation of Heart and Life accord- 
 ing to the Will of God ... ... 265 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 The Folly of Paganism ... ... 271 
 
 The Incomparable Greatness of God 271 
 
 The Nature of God ... ... 272 
 
 God the Portion of Israel ... ... 272 
 
 Confession and Correction ... ... 273 
 
 The Helplessness of Heathen Gods a 
 
 Conclusive Argument against them 274 
 
 The Uniqueness of Jehovah ... 274 
 
 Grief borne that cannot be cured ... 274 
 
 Idolatry ... ... ... ... 275 
 
 "The Portion of Jacob" ... ... 277 
 
 Wherefore God doth judge the World 280 
 
 Submission ... ... ... 281 
 
 The Ruin wrought by the Prayerless 
 
 Pastor.... ... ... ... 283 
 
 Fruits of a Chastened Spirit ... 286 
 
 " The Way of Man " 288 
 
 What Men fear and what they ought 
 
 to fear ... ... ... 289 
 
 The Dismay of the Heathen at the 
 
 Signs of Heaven ... ... 290 
 
 The Way of Man not in himself ... 291 
 
 God's Correction of his People „. 292 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 The Ancient Covenant ,,. ... 296 
 
 Idolatry confounded ... ... 2B7 
 
 The Olive struck by Lightning 297, 311 
 The Conspiracy of Anathoth ... 298 
 The Response of the Spiritual Con- 
 science to the Words of God ... 299 
 Spiritual Atavism ; or, the Sins of the 
 Fathers ... ... ... 300 
 
 The Staying of Intercession ... 300 
 
 Perils of Prophesying ... ... 301 
 
 The Doom of Disobedience... ... 802 
 
 The Precious Recompenses of Obe- 
 dience 303 
 
 The First Last ... ... ... 3Q5 
 
INDEX. 
 
 ™™" PAOE 
 
 The Ijimits of Long-Suffering Love... 307 
 
 The Baffled Plot 308 
 
 The Covenant with the Fathers Bind- 
 ing on the Children ^. ... ,sio 
 
 Intercession Unavailing ... ... 310 
 
 The Prophet in his own Country ... 312 
 
 CHAPTEE XII. 
 
 The Prosperity of the Wicked ... 815 
 God Near to the Mouth but Far from 
 
 the Life ... ... ._, 3jg 
 
 A Dark Prospect ... ... ... 317 
 
 The Forsaken Heritage ... ... 318 
 
 Profitless Labour ... ... ... 313 
 
 General Punishment and General Re- 
 storation ... ... ... 319 
 
 Moral Difficulties with the Providence 
 
 of God ... ... ... 320 
 
 A Prophet's Foes they of his own 
 
 Household ... ... ... 320 
 
 Leaving All for God ... ... 321 
 
 Mercy and Judgment ... ... 321 
 
 Perplexing Questions ... ... 322 
 
 Imprecatory Prayers ... ... 323 
 
 Failure in Little Things ... ... 324 
 
 The Hiding of God's Face... ... 325 
 
 The Speckled Bird ... ... 325 
 
 The Tide that has no Ebb, but ever 
 
 flows ... ... ... ... 327 
 
 The Prophet's Complaint ... • ... 327 
 The Prophet puzzled by the Pros- 
 perity of the Wicked ... ... 329 
 
 The Inheritance that has lost its 
 
 Charms... ... ... ... 330 
 
 Shepherds where they ought not to be 331 
 
 Sowing Wheat and Ecaping Thorns 331 
 
 CHAPTEE XHL 
 
 The Spoiled Girdle 335, 338, 341, 349 
 
 The Parable of the Wine-Flagons ... 336 
 
 Darkness ... ... ... 336 
 
 Eoyalty Humbled ... ... 337 
 
 The Ethiopian's Skin and the Leo- 
 pard's Spots ... ... ... 337 
 
 Broken Pitchers ; or, Worldly Suf- 
 ficiency and its Punishment ... 339 
 Days of Grace, and how they should 
 be spent ... ... ... 339 
 
 Moral Helplessness : how induced ... 340 
 
 Vesselsof Wrath ... ... ... 342 
 
 THEHE 
 
 The Last Results of Sin ... ... 342 
 
 "Benot Proud" ... ... ... 342 
 
 Lost upon the Dark Mountains ... 343 
 
 The Neglected Trust demanded ... 344 
 
 Sin its own Scourge ... ... 346 
 
 An Awful Condition indeed ... .<i46 
 
 The One Thing Needful ... '.,. 347 
 
 A Solemn Warning ... ... 343 
 
 A Moral Impossibility ... ... 349 
 
 A Demand for the Timely Giving of • 
 
 whatisdue to Jehovah ... ... 350 
 
 A Searching Question to the Shepherd 352 
 
 A Natural Impossibility ... ... 353 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 A Plague of Drought ... ... 356 
 
 A Plea for Mercy in Spite of Guilt ... 357 
 The Hope of Israel a Stranger in the 
 
 Land ... ... ... . _ 337 
 
 False Prophets 358,366 
 
 Prayer for Mercy rejected ... ... 359 
 
 Prayer for Rain ... ... ... 359 
 
 A Prayer for God's People in Time of 
 
 his Judgments ... ... ... 359 
 
 Prayer a Fruit of Chastisement ... 361 
 
 Invoking the Honour of God ... 361 
 Thankfulness through Contrast: a 
 
 Harvest Sermon ... ... 3g2 
 
 An Absent God deplored ... ... 363 
 
 False Teachers no Adequate Excuse 
 
 for Evil Conduct ... ... 354 
 
 The Distracting Power of Great 
 
 Distress ... ... ... 3gg 
 
 A Dreadful Apprehension ... ... 366 
 
 The Miseries produced by Lack of 
 
 Water 368 
 
 An Appeal out of the Deptljs of Sepa- 
 ration from God ... ... 369 
 
 The Severities of Jehovah— Sword, 
 
 Famine, and Pestilence ... ... 370 
 
 The Peculiar Doom of the False 
 
 Prophets 371 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Various Destinies of Punishment ... 376 
 
 God Weary of Repenting ... ... 377 
 
 Sunset at Noon ... ... ... 377 
 
 The Prayer of the Persecuted ... 378 
 
 The Words of God found and eaten ... 379 
 
 The Sadness and Solitudeof a Prophet 379 
 
INDEX. 
 
 A Wide Eecognition of the Good 
 
 without Compromise witli the Evil 380 
 Sins for which Saintly Intercession 
 
 cannot avail ... ... ... 381 
 
 The Offence of Faithful Preaching ... 382 
 
 "Thouknowestit" ... ... 382 
 
 God's Words a Heartfelt Joy ... 383 
 The Preacher's Weakness and 
 
 Strength ... ... ... 383 
 
 Fearful Aspects of the Divine Cha- 
 racter ... ... ... ... 384 
 
 The Limits of Intercessory Prayer . . . 38i 
 
 Great Intercessors ... ... 385 
 
 The Sins of the Fathers visited upon 
 
 the Children ... ... ... 386 
 
 The Darkened Home ... ... 387 
 
 A Vain Contest ... ... ... 387 
 
 How to study the Scriptures ... 391 
 Fruitless Intercession ... 393,394 
 
 The Living Word ... ... 393 
 
 The Man who felt he had been born 
 
 to Strife and Contention ... ... 395 
 
 The Prophet's Claim upon Jehovah, 
 
 and the Grounds of the Claim ... 396 
 
 CHAPTER XVL 
 
 " Forbidding to marry " ... ... 399 
 
 "Worse than your Fathers" ... 399 
 The Greatest Gratitude for the Latest 
 
 Blessings ... ... ... 400 
 
 Fishers and Hunters ... ... 400 
 
 God revealed to the Heathen by his 
 
 Judgment on his People ... ... 401 
 
 Celibacy as an Obligation of the 
 
 Minister of God ... ... 402 
 
 The Destiny of Sinners a Self-Created 
 
 One ... ... ... ... 403 
 
 Sin a Tyrannous and Exhaustive 
 
 Service ... ... .., 404 
 
 The Old Deliverance forgotten in the 
 
 New ... ... ... ... 405 
 
 The Heathen turning to the True God 406 
 
 Commands Countermanded ... 407 
 
 Conscience Dead ... ... ... 408 
 
 Great Mercies the Foreiuuners of 
 
 Greater still ... ... ... 409 
 
 Sin found out ... ... ... 410 
 
 The Accusers of the Ungodly ... 410 
 
 Domestic Relations become a Curse ... 411 
 The House of Mourning and the House 
 
 of Feasting alike forbidden ... 412 
 
 THEBIB FAGS 
 
 Two Great Recollections ... ... 413 
 
 The Confession of the Idolatrous 
 
 Gentiles ... ... ... 414 
 
 CHAPTEK XVn. 
 
 Engraved Sin ... ... ... 419 
 
 The Desert Shrub and the Flourish- 
 ing Tree ... ... ... 419 
 
 The Evil Heart searched and judged 420 
 
 Partridge-Nests ... ... ... 421 
 
 The Hope of Israel ... ... 421 
 
 The Sabbath ... 422, 425, 428, 441 
 
 Sin's Record ... ... ... 423 
 
 Heart Mysteries and their Interpreter 423 
 
 The Saint's Refuge ... ... 424 
 
 Divine Prophecy and Human Im- 
 patience ... ... ... 425 
 
 "TheSinof Judah" 426 
 
 " The Place of our Sanctuary " ... 426 
 
 " Be not a Terror unto me " ... 428 
 
 Trust : Human and Divine... ... 429 
 
 Tlie Profound Impression of Judah's 
 
 Sin ... ... ... ... 430 
 
 The Curse upon the Man who trusts in 
 
 Man ... ... ... ... 431 
 
 The Blessing on the Man who trusts 
 
 in Jehovah ... ... ... 433 
 
 The Searching and Knowing of the 
 
 Heart ... ... ... ... 431 
 
 Riches wrongly gotten, and the Con- 
 sequence ... ... ... 435 
 
 An Inspiring Invocation ... ... 436 
 
 "Written in the Earth" ... ... 437 
 
 He whom God heals is really healed 438 
 
 "Where is the Word of the Lord?" 438 
 The Prophet's Consciousness of In- 
 
 tegrity 
 
 439 
 
 CHAPTER XVill. 
 
 The Potter and the Clay 
 
 444, 448, 450, 453, 454 
 God's Action determined by Man's 
 
 Conduct ... ... ... 445 
 
 Rejected Preaching ... ... 446 
 
 Mountain Snow ... ... ... 446 
 
 The Opposition of Officials ... 447 
 
 The Fatalism of the Wicked ... 448 
 
 Jehovah an Unfailing Help to his 
 
 People ; or, the " Snow of Lebanon " 449 
 Ecclesiastical Succession versus Indi- 
 vidual Ministry ... ... 449 
 
INDEX. 
 
 '•'"•ME PiOI, 
 
 The Preacher's Foes ; or, False 
 
 Tongues and Deaf Burs .. . ... 449 
 
 A Never-to-be-forgotten .Prmciple of 
 
 Interpretation ... ... ... 451 
 
 Despair — its Causes, Consequences, 
 
 and Cure ... ... ... 451 
 
 Persecution ... ... ... 452 
 
 Jeremiah's Enemies and his Prayer 
 
 against them ... ... ,„ 455 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 The Broken Bottle ... 457, 459, 461 
 
 The Warning Confirmed ... ... 458 
 
 Deuunciationd of Doom ... ... 4iiO 
 
 The Sin and Punishment of Pashur 461 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 Pashur ... ... ... ... 464 
 
 Enticed and overpowered by God ... 465 
 
 The Burning Fire of Inspiration ... 466 
 
 A Prophet persecuted by Spies ... 466 
 
 Thanksgiving for Future Blessings ... 467 
 Jeremiah cursing the Day of his Birth 
 
 468, 479 
 The Behaviour of the Wicked towards 
 
 the Truth ... ... ... 469 
 
 Magor-Missabib ; or, the Fate of a 
 
 False Prophet ... ... ... 469 
 
 The Sorrow and Joy of God's 
 
 Servant ... ... ... 470 
 
 Why God's Servants labour on ... 471 
 
 "IsLife worth Living?" ... ... 473 
 
 A Burning Fire within ... ... 475 
 
 A Changed Name and a Dreadful 
 
 Doom ... ... ... ... 476 
 
 A Conflict not to be avoided . . . 477 
 The Name Magor-Missabib wrongly 
 
 applied ... ... ... 478 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 God consulted in Vain ... ... 480 
 
 The Choice between Life and Death 481 
 
 God against Jerusalem ... ... 482 
 
 Zedekiah's Message; or, the Prayer 
 
 of the Ungodly... ... ... 482 
 
 God's Answer to Earthly Presumption 483 
 
 Saved so as by Fire ... ... 484 
 
 A Sad but Common Necessity ... 485 
 
 A King appealing for a Prophet's In- 
 
 turcession ... ... ... 437 
 
 Escape for the Individual among the 
 
 Calamities of the Nation ... 488 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 Court Preaching ... ... ... 492 
 
 On Visiting the Ruins of a City ... 493 
 Misspeut Tears ... ... 494, 5u0 
 
 Dishonest Builders ... ... 495 
 
 The Voice of God disregarded in Pros- 
 perity 495 
 
 Truth-Speaking under DifBculties ... 496 
 
 Building in Unrighteousness ... 496 
 
 Monumental Judgments ... ... 497 
 
 Fates worse than Death ... ... 497 
 
 True Royalty ... ... ... 49s 
 
 The Mighty Pleadings of God ... 498 
 The Nemesis of Oppression ... 502 
 Son and Father : a Sad Contrast ... 503 
 Exceptional Facfs in the Law of Trans- 
 mission of Character ... ... 505 
 
 The Impassioned Cry of God to Man 507 
 A King addressed in Mingled Promise 
 
 and Warning ... ... ... ggg 
 
 The Mistakes of the Mourner ... 510" 
 A Eight Aim pursued by a Wrong 
 
 and Cruel Method ... ... 510 
 
 CHAPTER XXin. 
 
 The Character of Leading Men ... 518 
 
 The Branch of David ... ... 518 
 
 The New Name ... ... ... 519 
 
 Uninspired Prophecy ... ... 520 
 
 The Omnipresence of God ... 521, 526, 534 
 
 The Abuse of a Word ... ... 522 
 
 The "Burden" ... 522 
 
 False Shepherds and the True ... 523 
 
 " The Lord our Righteousness " ... 524 
 
 " Trying the Spirits " ... ... 524 
 
 Unauthorized Authority ... ... 525 
 
 Dreams that make the Name of God 
 
 to be forgotten ... ... 526 
 
 The Faithful Utterance of Divine 
 
 Revalation ... ... ... 526 
 
 Despising Prophesyings ... ... 527 
 
 " The Lord our Righteousness " ... 527 
 
 " What is the Chaff ? " ... ... 530' 
 
 Jehovah-Tsidkenu ... ... 533 
 
 Shepherds, Bad and Gond ... ... 536 
 
 The Righteous Scion of David ... 537 
 
INDEX. 
 
 THEMR I'AGK 
 
 Prophets strengthening the Hands of 
 Evil-Doers ... ... ... 538 
 
 Speaking the Vision of one's own 
 Heart 539 
 
 The Giving Fortli of the Woid of Man 
 as the Word of God 540 
 
 CHAPTEE XXIV. 
 
 Two Baskets of Figs 542, 544, 546, 547 
 
 Prosperity Restored ... ... 643 
 
 Sword, Famine, and Pestilence ... 544 
 
 Calamity with God and without him 545 
 Punished for Salvation ; left alone for 
 
 Destruction ... ... ... 545 
 
 " I will set mine Eyes upon them for 
 
 Good"... 545 
 
 The Conditions and Relations of Sal- 
 vation ... ... ... ... 546 
 
 A Heart to know the Lord ... 547 
 
 CHAPTEE XXV. 
 
 AMelancholy Review of Twenty-Three 
 
 Years of Work 553, 560 
 
 The Chief Purpose of Prophecy .... 554 
 " Nebuchadrezzar . . . my Servant " 
 
 555,561 
 
 The Wine-Cup of Fury 556 
 
 The Ineffectual Palladium of a Great 
 
 Name ... ... ... ... 557 
 
 Howling Shepherds ... ... 557 
 
 Messages Recapitulated ... ... 558 
 
 Judgment plainly Declared ... 559 
 Judgment beginning at the House of 
 
 God 559 
 
 The Vision of Final Judgment ... 560 
 Jehovah's Controversy with the 
 
 Nations ... ... ... 562 
 
 CHAPTEE XXVI. 
 
 The Duty of Declaring the Whole 
 
 Truth 564 
 
 A Scene in a Jewish Court of Law ... 566 
 
 The Story of an Obscure Martyr ... 567 
 A Friend in Need ... 567, 573 
 
 God's Mercy shown in his Messages 568 
 
 The Prophet of God arraigned by the 
 
 Nation ... ... ... 568 
 
 Spiritual Prerogatire not Inalienable 569 
 
 The Perils of Prophesying... ... 570 
 
 The Defence of the Witness for the 
 
 Truth 570 
 
 Help raised up for God's Servants in 
 
 Times of Peril ... ... ... 570 
 
 Jeremiah reckoned Worthy of Death 570 
 Jeremiah reckoned not Worthy of 
 
 Death... ... ... ... 571 
 
 An Argument from History ... 572 
 
 CHAPTER XXVn. 
 
 The Eights of the Creator ... ... 575 
 
 God's Disposal of Man's Possessions 576 
 
 The Duty of Non-Resistance ... 576 
 Prophecy tested by Prayer ... 577, 578 
 
 Divine Judgments not to be resisted 578 
 Jehovah's Consideration towards some 
 
 Neighbours of Israel ... ... 579 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 The Story of Hananiah the Prophet 581 
 
 An Appeal to Ancient Prophecy ... 582 
 
 Yokes of Iron ... ... ... 583 
 
 " This Year thou shalt die^' ... 583 
 How to answer those who oppose the 
 
 Truth 584 
 
 Presumption increasing with Impunity 585 
 
 A False Prophet and his Fate ... 6^5 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 How to make the Best of Adversity ... 589 
 
 Civic Duties ... ... ... 590 
 
 Seventy Years ... ... ... 590 
 
 God's Thoughts concerning us ... 591 
 
 Seeking God with the Whole Heart ... 592 
 
 Shemaiah ... ... ... 592 
 
 Duties and Consolations of God's Cap- 
 tivity ... ... ... ... 593 
 
 Signs that God's Favour is restored ... 594 
 
 The Punishment of False Prophets ... 594 
 
 God's Message to the Captives ... 595 
 
 Thoughts of Peace ... ... 596 
 
 The Letter to the Captives ,., 597 
 
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