. 1 Phillips Brooks, Essays and Addresses, 226.
JEREMIAH xxxi. 31-34 143
is it that is central in the New Testament ? It is the cross of Jesus Christ. And why does that stand in the midst ? It is because we have here the propitiation for the sins of the whole world. That death of the Son of God in our room and stead is the full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice for our sins. That indeed was only dimly and confusedly prefigured in the animal sacrifices of old. One is more struck with the difference than with the resemblance. A lamb led to the altar, unwillingly and un- consciously, is no adequate type of the Lamb of God offering Himself for us, taking upon Him our guilt, standing beneath the condemnation of our sins, and magnifying the justice of God in bowing His head beneath our sentence. The real precursors of Him who suffered on Calvary are to be found in those who gave themselves for their fellows, whose sacrifices did something to draw men nearer to God, and by whose stripes some of mankind's sorrows were healed. All stories, red with the blood of real life, that tell of the innocent suffering for the guilty, are a clearer foreshadowing of the old, old story of Jesus and His love than all animal sacrifices. The old religion had a temple in which sacrifices never ceased, but none of these atoned for sin with God. Christi- anity centres in the supreme self-sacrifice of the cross, by which we have been redeemed. " We have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins." This great blessing of pardon becomes ours because Christ has died for us. The gospel can dwell on the forgiveness of sins. It vindicates and fulfils the great promise, " I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more." ,
Tj For the most part, we are, as it were, ready rather to steal forgiveness from God than to receive from him as one that gives it freely and largely. We take it up and lay it down as though we would be glad to have it, so God did not, as it were, see us take it ; for we are afraid he is not willing we should have it indeed. We would steal this fire from heaven, and have a share in God's treasures and riches almost without his consent : at least, we think that we have it from him " aegre," with much difficulty ; that it is rarely given, and scarcely obtained ; that he gives it out huv a'ixovri yi Ov/ty, with a kind of unwilling willingness — as we some- times give alms without cheerfulness ; and that he loseth so much by us as he giveth out in pardon. We are apt to think that we are very willing to have forgiveness, but that God is unwilling to
i44 THE NEW COVENANT
bestow it, and that because he seems to be a loser by it, and to forego the glory of inflicting punishment for our sins ; which of all things we suppose he is most loath to part withal. And this is the very nature of unbelief . . . Season's line is too short to fathom the depth of the Father's love, of the blood of the Son, and the promises of the gospel built thereon, wherein forgiveness dwells.1
Contrite to God I came in sore distress,
" I know," I cried, " that 'twas but yester-eve
This self-same fault I asked Thee to forgive,
And promised to renounce all sinfulness.
Yet I would even ask again Thy grace,
Save that I fear I've drained forgiveness dry
And reached Thy mercy's utmost boundary ! "
Then spake God's mighty Voice, and filled the place :
"With thy poor human tape, child, dost thou think
To measure My vast mercy's outer bound ?
With thy short plummet at Forgiveness' brink,
Dost think that thou can'st test its depth of ground ?
Drop in thy weightiest sin, and bid it sink,
To strike the bottom — there comes back no sound."
1 John Owen, An Exposition upon Psalm cxxx.
The Discipline of Change.
JER.-MAL. — 10
Literature.
Bennett (W. H.), The Book of Jeremiah (Expositor's Bible), 239.
Boyd (A. K. H.), The Graver Thoughts of a Country Parson, ii. 18.
Bushnell (H.), The New Life, 292.
Christopherson (H.), Sermons, 135.
Matheson (G.), Thoughts for Life's Journey, 185.
Spurgeon (C. H.), Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, xiii. (1867), No. 761.
Taylor (W. M.), The Limitations of Life, 358.
Wilson (S. L.), Helpful Words for Daily Life, 304.
Christian World Pulpit, lxxxii. 312 (C. S. Home)
*4«
The Discipline of Change.
Moab hath been at ease from his youth, and he hath settled on his lees, and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel, neither hath he gone into captivity : therefore his taste remaineth in him, and his scent is not changed. — Jer. xlviii. II,
Jeremiah, in levelling this indictment against Moab, throws his accusation into figures of speech which every Moabite would understand, because they were drawn from the industry most closely related to the life of that country. The process was a simple one. The wine-juice was strained out into a great vessel, and there allowed to stand until the lees — the dregs — settled at the bottom. Then it was emptied to another vessel, and other impurities were allowed to settle, and again it was strained off. This process was repeated many times until the wine-juice was perfectly pure and clear. The virtue of the wine depended entirely on this emptying from vessel to vessel. If the juice were allowed to stagnate, and remain settled on its lees, it would in- evitably grow sour. Something of the contamination of the dregs would be communicated to the wine. The dregs would never be disposed of, and the purification would never be achieved. To the eye of the prophet, here is a picture of the life of the Moabites. It is a life of stagnation and consequent defilement. They have not hearkened to the truths uttered in their hearing through the processes of their principal manufacture. Ignoble and igno- minious ease, with its consequent lethargy and indolence, has produced staleness. There is no virtue left in the life of Moab. He has become wholly selfish and averse to taking trouble or facing a sacrificial life. He has not been emptied from vessel to vessel. He has ceased even to be interesting. He has no gifts for the world ; he has no satisfaction for his own people. "His taste remaineth in him, and his scent is not