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remonstrance and appeal. Conscious of his own rectitude and of the rectitude of God, he was for a moment caught in the outer circles of the whirlpool of questioning which has ever agitated the minds of God's oppressed ones, concerning the unequal distribution of earthly lots.
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 ruffled 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, 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 lesser ones ?
The text is thus God's answer to the prophet's remonstrance. Let us look, first, at the Remonstrance, and then at the Divine Eesponse.
The Remonstrance.
Jeremiah is here kicking against the pricks which have wounded the feet of men for centuries — how to account for the fact that, in a world governed by a righteous God, righteousness should often have to suffer so much. But in the midst of the cruel experience he never lets go his grip of God. " Eighteous art thou, 0 God," he says — whatever comes, that is the first established fact of life. "Yet," he continues in holy boldness, " would I reason the cause with thee : wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper ? wherefore are all they at peace that deal very treacherously ? " His indignant soul, on fire for justice, cries
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out that it ought not to be so. But the undercurrent of the complaint is not the seeming prosperity of the wicked ; it is his own pain and sorrow and terrible adversity. We do not ask a solution of the universe till we are forced to ask a solution of our own place and lot in it. God's providence seemed perfect to Job till he was caught in the tempest and tossed aside broken. We are not much concerned about mere abstract injustice. Jeremiah's wherefore about the wicked is really a why about himself. Why am I bared to the blast in following Thy will and performing Thy command ? Why are tears and strife my portion ? Why am I wearied out and left desolate, though I am fighting the Lord's battle ? That is the prophet's real complaint.
T| Pain and sin, as we know them, cannot be dismissed by general considerations about the excellence of sympathy or moral victory ; we must find real sympathy for all real suffering, real conquest of all real eviL Let us consider the lesser problem of Pain. If God is revealed in Christ the sympathy and the con- quest are sure. God suffers, and God conquers. When we suffer, we share the experience of God. In all our afflictions He is afflicted, and all the pain is permitted for the joy that comes out of it, the joy of hearts united for ever in the bond that common suffering makes ; and because our fellow-sufferer is God, we can believe that for all innocent pain there is the sympathy that redeems it. This is not proved, of course, but it is credible ; it makes sense, and nothing else makes sense, of pain. It may be doubted whether suffering is altogether evil. It is apparently not only a condition of the realization of some forms of good, but also an essential part of much that is best in life — heroism and self- sacrifice.1
1. Jeremiah was conscious of his own integrity. — Of course, like all the other saints of God, he was poignantly aware of his own unworthiness. He must have had as deep a conviction of sinful- ness as any of the great prophets and psalmists of Israel. None could have lived so close to God as he did without an over- whelming sense of uncleanness. What Job felt, and Moses, and David, and Isaiah, must have been constantly present to his consciousness also. But in respect to this special outburst of hatred, he knew of nothing for which to blame himself. He had not taken pleasure in the disasters he announced, or spoken in the
1 W. Temple, in Foundations, 220.
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heat of personal passion. The sins of the people had procured the evils he predicted; and he had only sought to warn the reckless mariners of the rocks that lay straight in their course.
2. Jeremiah was perplexed at the inequality of human lot. — Every word of Asaph's complaint in Psalm lxxiii. might have been appropriated by Jeremiah. He had never swerved from the narrow path of obedience ; at all hazards he had dared to stand alone, bereft of the comforts and alleviations that come in the lot of men ; he did not scruple to bare his heart toward God, knowing that to the limit of his light he had done His bidding. But he was hated, persecuted, threatened with death ; whilst the way of the wicked prospered, and they were at ease who dealt very treacherously. Surely it was in vain that he had cleansed his heart and washed his hands in innocency. It was too painful for him. His feet were almost gone, his steps had well-nigh slipped.