JEREMIAH ii. 13 13
True rest consists not in the oft revying
Of worldly dross; Earth's miry purchase is not worth the buying;
Her gain is loss; Her rest but giddy toil, if not relying
Upon her cross. How worldlings droyl for trouble ! That fond breast
That is possessed Of earth without a cross has earth without a rest.1
1 Francis Quarles.
The Old Paths.
15
Literature.
Aitken (W. H. M. H.), Mission Sermons, iii. 163.
Cremer (F. D.), The Swing of the Pendulum, 1.
Denny (C), The Validity of Christian Experience, 1.
Fox (W. J.), Collected Works, iii 317.
Gibbon (J. M.), in Sermons by Welshmen in English Pulpits, 147.
Gibson (E. C. S.), The Old Testament and Its Messages, 238.
Gray (W. H.), Old Creeds and New Beliefs, 1.
Greenbough (J. G.), Half-Hours in God's Older Picture Gallery, 202.
Gutcb (C), Sermons, 18.
Home (C. S.), in Sermons and Addresses, 24.
Matheson (G.), Bests by the Biver, 205.
Montefiore (C. G.), in Jewish Addresses, 149.
Ryle (J. C), The Upper Boom, 72.
Sand ford (C. W.), Words of Counsel, 38.
Schulman (S.), in Sermons by American Babbis, 36.
Sbelford (L. E.), By Way of Bemembrance, 143.
Spurgeon (C. H.), Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, xlvii. (1901), No. 2748.
Steffe (T.), Sermons on Several Subjects, 88.
Christian Age, xxv. 148 (T. de W. Talmage) ; xxxiii. 34 (D. F. Lancing).
Christian World Pulpit, vii. 170 (H. W. Beecber) ; xxxii. 257 (C. H.
Spurgeon) ; lxxvii. 7 (R. Borland) ; lxxx. 409 (H. W. Slader). Church Pulpit Year Book, 1904, p. 13. Homiletic Beview, lv. 294 (T. Spurgeon).
The Old Paths.
Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the godl way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls.— Jer. vi. 16.
In the Pilgrim's Progress we are told that Christian and Hopeful " as they went on they wished for a better way. Now, a little before them, there was on the left hand of the road a meadow, and a stile to go over into it ; and that meadow is called By-path Meadow. Then said Christian to his fellow, ' If this meadow lieth along by our wayside, let's go over into it.' Then he went to the stile to see ; and, behold, a path lay along by the way on the other side of the fence. ' 'Tis according to my wish,' said Christian ; 1 here is the easiest going : come, good Hopeful, and let us go over.' Hopeful : ' But how if this path should lead us out of the way ? ' ' That's not like,' said the other. ' Look, doth it not go along by the wayside ? ' So Hopeful, being persuaded by his fellow, went after him over the stile. When they were gone over, and were got into the path, they found it very easy for their feet ; and withal they, looking before them, espied a man walking as they did (and his name was Vain-Confidence); so they called after him, and asked him whither that way led. He said, ' To the Celestial Gate.' ' Look,' said Christian, ' did not I tell you so ? By this you may see we are right.' So they followed, and he went before them. But, behold, the night came on, and it grew very dark ; so that they that went behind lost the sight of him that went before. He, therefore, that went before (Vain-Confidence by name), not seeing the way before him, fell into a deep pit, which was on purpose there made by the prince of those grounds to catch vain-glorious fools withal, and was dashed in pieces with his fall." We need not be re- minded how the story goes on to tell of the finding of the two pilgrims by Giant Despair, and all they suffered at his hands, nor how they did not recover their full joy and rest of soul again until,
JER.-MAL. — 2
18 THE OLD PATHS
as Bunyan has it, " they came to the King's highway again, and so were safe."
1. " See, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein." We know quite well how ninety-nine people out of every hundred interpret this passage. It is one of the great texts of the Bible, and it has been appealed to again and again through all the generations. There are many who say that the old paths are the paths in which our fathers and forefathers walked, and they say to us, " If we are to do the right thing, and if we are to realize the great end of life, we must follow closely in the footsteps of those who have gone before us. There must be no change in our theological belief ; we must believe just what our fathers before us believed. If we do not do that we are leaving the old paths. And there must be no change in our forms of worship ; we must worship God precisely as our fathers did."
Is that the meaning of the text? There are reasons for believing that it is not.
(1) Jeremiah himself is the first reason. Jeremiah was the great religious reformer of his day. In the midst of a stolid and stiff-necked generation, he was the great mouthpiece of progress. He was a religious agitator. He gave neither king, nor priest, nor people any rest. He was probably a priest himself. He was what we should call a regularly ordained minister. It is true he got very little support from his brethren. They looked askance at him, and asked where this young man was going to lead them. He was very unsparing in his denunciation of their cold and hard formalism and their worse sins of covetousness. They were willing to condone the sins of their people for the sake of a pecuniary consideration. Now, Jeremiah was a very thorn in the side of these men, who, no doubt, called themselves old-fashioned Jews. He was intensely social and political in his teaching. He dealt with subjects that were startlingly modern. He was interested in the present-day life of the people. When he began to prophesy, he was, apparently, just a young man in close touch with his time : with his fingers on the nation's pulse, prescribing Divine remedies for her slackness and dulness of spiritual life as well as for the fevered restlessness of