1 A. C. Benson, The Silent Isle, 381.
JEREMIAH vi. 16 23
God. It made it possible for men to find the old paths, the good way, and to walk therein.
And so Jeremiah is at one with Jesus in offering rest of soul to those who find the old paths and walk in them. Only Jesus had the power, which Jeremiah had not, of giving the rest. Jeremiah could only recall the people to the way which their fathers found good ; Jesus could call them to Himself. " Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; and ye shall find rest unto your souls." And how great is the difference between the memory of the past and the power of the present ; how great is the difference between the thought of the law that is dead and the thought of the living, loving, self-sacrificing Eedeemer.
TJ David said long ago when his heart had been ill at ease, and he had felt the burden of his sin, My soul, 0 God, can find rest only in Thee. " Stand ye in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls." And when you have found it, and when by-and-by you come to pass through the valley of the shadow, you will be able, like David of old, and with full assurance, to say : " I will fear no evil ; for thou art with me ; thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me." l
Tj The desire of rest planted in the heart is no sensual nor unworthy one, but a longing for renovation and for escape from a state whose every phase is mere preparation for another equally transitory, to one in which permanence shall have become possible through perfection. Hence the great call of Christ to men, that call on which St. Augustine fixed as the essential expression of Christian hope, is accompanied by the promise of rest ; and the death bequest of Christ to men is peace.2
Does the road wind up-hill all the way ?
Yes, to the very end. Will the day's journey take the whole long day ?
From morn to night, my friend.
But is there for the night a resting-place?
A roof for when the slow dark hours begin. May not the darkness hide it from my face ?
You canuot miss that inn.
1 E. Borland.
3 Ruskiu, Modern Painters, vol. ii. sec. i. chap. vi. (Works, iv. 114).
24 THE OLD PATHS
Shall I meet other wayfarers at night ?
Those who have gone before. Then must I knock, or call when just in sight?
They will not keep you standing at the door.
Shall I find comfort, travel-sore and weak ?
Of labour you shall find the sum. Will there be beds for me and all who seek ?
Yea, beds for all who come.1
1 Christina G. Rossetti, Poetical Works, 339.
The Call of Life.
95
Literature.
Gillies (J. R), Jeremiah: The Man and his Message, 104. Matheson (G.), Rests by the River, 84. Moffatt (J.), Reasons and Reasons, 45. Morrison (G. H.), The Unlighted Lustre, 102. Eamsay (A.), Studies in Jeremiah, 47. Voysey (C), Sermons, xxi. (1898), No. 1. Williams (I.), The Characters of the Old Testament, 255. British Weekly Pulpit, ii. 309 (G. A. Smith).
Christian World Pulpit, xxxvi. 273 (G. A. Smith); lxxxi. 301 (J. L. Munro).
2h
The Call of Life.
Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men ; that I might leave my people, and go from theml— Jer. ix. 2.
Jeremiah is the most human of all the prophets. He takes us into the secrets of his inner life, and we are made to know his misgivings and questionings. He had to be a prophet of God in the saddest and darkest day. It fell to him to speak for God when Jerusalem was hastening to its doom. His ministry is as the bright evening sun, which amid the gathering darkness sheds a glory over Judah, as it sinks into the night. We cannot imagine a situation more pathetic and painful. He has to watch the lingering agony of his exhausted land, to tend it during the alternate fits of despair and futile hope which precede the end. He is as the minister who has to accompany the condemned criminal to the scaffold, and who knows that the criminal is his own brother, flesh of his flesh. His heart is at war with his duty. He is in the cruellest dilemma. He would give all he has to make Judah happy and Jerusalem prosperous, and yet he has to declare their inevitable fate. How thankful he would be if he had never known the truth and if it had not been his to speak it. He is full of pity for the miseries of the people and the unhappy fate of his beloved fatherland, and yet he foresees the end and must declare it ; and, truest patriot who ever lived though he be, he must bear the stigma of a traitor to his country for the sake of God and of truth.
No wonder that in all the fellowship of the prophets Jeremiah is by far the most unwilling and reluctant. Other prophets, like Isaiah, with his "Here am I — send me," stand boldly forward, exulting in their gifts; but Jeremiah is always shrinking, protesting, craving leave to retire. Unassisted by circumstance, by nature timid, easily wearied and impatient, distrustful of his own gifts, he was kept to his great career