Why hast Thou made me so,
My Maker ? I would know Wherefore Thou gav'st me such a mournful dower; —
Toil that is oft in vain,
Knowledge that deepens pain, And longing to be pure, without the power?
"Shall the thing formed aspire
The purpose to require Of him who formed it ? " Make not answer thus !
Beyond the Potter's wheel
There lieth an appeal To Him who breathed the breath of life in us.
I know we are but clay,
Thus moulded to display His wisdom and His power who rolls the years;
Whose wheel is Heaven and earth; —
Its motion, death and birth; — Is Potter, then, the name that most endears ?
I grudge not, Lord, to be Of meanest use to Thee; — Make me a trough for swine if so Thou wilt; —
1 R. E. Welsh, Man to Man, 47.
JEREMIAH xvm. 4 93
But if my vessel's clay- Be marred and thrown away Before it takes its form, is mine the guilt?
I trust Thee to the end,
Creator, Saviour, Friend, Whatever name Thou deignest that we call.
Art Thou not good and just ?
I wait, and watch, and trust That Love is still the holiest name of all.
I watch and strive all night;
And when the morning's light Shines on the path I travelled here below;
When day eternal breaks,
And life immortal wakes, Then shalt Thou tell me why Thou mad'st me so.1
1 J. J. Murphy, Sonnets and other Poems.
The Lord our Righteousness.
98
Literature.
Alexander (W. L.), Sermons, 66.
Alford (H.), Quebec Chapel Sermons, ii. 215.
Brown (C. J.), The Word of Life, 154.
Buchanan (T, B.), in Sermons for the People, vii. 236.
Butler (G.), Sermons Preached in Cheltenham College Chapel, 389.
Collins (W.), Hours of Insight, 141.
Driver (S. R.), Sermons on the Old Testament, 204.
Henry (P.), Christ All in All, 71.
Hiley (R. W.), A Year's Sermons, ii. 301.
How (W. W.), Plain Words, ii. 249.
Keble (J.), Sermons for the Christian Year : Sundays after Trinity, ii. 430.
Kuegele (F.), Country Sermons, New Ser., v. 35.
Price (A. C), Fifty Sermons, ii. 25 ; vi. 361.
Purves (P. C), The Jehovah Titles of the Old Testament, 58.
Randall (R. W.), Life in the Catholic Church, 330.
Spurgeon (G. H.), Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, vii., No. 395.
Webb-Peploe (H. W.), The Titles of Jehovah, 152.
Whitelaw (T.), Jehovah- Jesus, 87.
Church Pulpit Year Book, 1904, p. 280 (J. C. Ryle).
Churchman's Pulpit : Twenty-fifth Sunday after Trinity, xiii. 486 (H.
Alford). Clergyman's Magazine, 3rd Ser., xii. 301 (W. Burrows). Literary Churchman, xv. (1869) 482.
The Lord our Righteousness.
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute judgement and justice in the land. In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely : and this is his name whereby he shall be called, The Lord is our righteousness. — Jer. xxiii. 5, 6.
When this prophecy was uttered, Judah was ten years from her fall. The good Josiah was in his grave — slain by the archers of Pharaoh-Necho of Egypt. Jehoahaz, his son, after three months' reign as successor, had been deposed. Jehoiakim, his brother, after acting as sovereign for eleven years, was a captive in Babylon. Jehoiachin, after three months of inglorious rule, was, like his father, carried off into exile. And now Zedekiah, his father's brother, occupied the throne. Still things in Judah went from bad to worse. Judah was on the down grade. " There was no remedy," " no healing more." Like a boat that has crossed the death-line on Niagara, Judah was in the rapids and hurrying to the brink of the fatal precipice. Its sun was going down in blood and darkness. Its day of grace was expiring. The thunder- clouds and lightning shafts of judgment were drawing near. No power on earth could save it.
In these circumstances Jeremiah sums up his verdict upon the kings and rulers of his day in general, under the figure of shepherds who have destroyed and scattered the sheep entrusted to them. The troubles which befell Judah, and led ultimately to its ruin, are traced by Jeremiah to the short-sightedness and studied neglect of those who were its responsible guides. "Ye have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them ; behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings, saith the Lord. And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds ; and they shall be fruitful jer.-mal. — 7
98 THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS
and multiply. And I will set up shepherds over them which shall feed them ; and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be lacking, saith the Lord." The unrighteous rulers will be deposed : wise and just ones, in the happier future which Jeremiah now begins to contemplate, will take their place. There follows the passage from which the text is taken : " Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute judgement and justice in the land. In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely : and this is his name whereby he shall be called, The Lord is our righteous- ness."