VOL. II. — 11
any hide himself in .secret places that I shall not see him '! ' (23^- ^). Positively, Jeremiah expresses his idea of religion when he says, 'Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, whose hope the Lord is' (17°*-). The principle of religion is faith.
(3) The Future. — Jeremiah's first and continued conviction is that the nation is doomed to destruc- tion. There is something inexplicable to us in this certainty. It might seem mediated by his profound sense of the national sin (4"- •'■"'•), just as he was assured that his fellow prophets were false becau.se of their ethical shallowness, and their healing the hurt of the people sli<'litly (23" 28'). But then this dillerence of ethical standard between him and other prophets is equally inexplicable. His judg- ment, botn of the prophets and the people, seems the unconscious retlection of his own religious relation to God. But he does not analyze ; he knows his consciousness, and it is given directly by God. In his earliest days Judah seems to hira a nia.ss of perdition ; a man could not be found in the streets of Jerusalem (5') ; the furnace had failed to separate silver from lead^there was no silver (G'""-). Yet it was impossible that God should make a full end of His people (ch. 32) ; and his hopes seem for the time placed on Israel of the North. Backsliding Israel was justified above treacherous Judah. And in the name of J" he proclaims to the north, ' Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings' (3'''-"); and his prophetic ear catches a voice from the bare heights, the weeping and the supplications of the children of Israel, ' Behold, we come unto thee, thou art the Lord our God' (3"). With the first captivity of 597 the prophet's judgment on Judah seems softened ; there wa.s hope for the nation in the captives, and he predicts their restitution : J' will give them an heart to know Him (24""). And, finally, during the last times of the siege, when the destruction of the nation was at hand, lie embraces both Juilah and Israel in his promise of restoration (chs. 30-33). All antagonisms between him and the people were now over ; his human feeling had ceased to struggle against the irrevocable decree of God, and he looked forward with comjiosure to the city's fall. His composure and certainty of the future were but the reflexion of his own experience, as in the case of all OT sainU (Job 19^"-, Ps 73^''-). The relation to God of which he is conscious is indissoluble ; it outlives all forms of national existence. Indeed, from Hosea downwards the pro]ihets become more and more indifferent to the lorm of a state, their ideal is that of a community witli a right mind towards God. Jeremiah does not place reliance on the purifying trials of the Exile ; his hope is In the creative hand of God, who will give the people a heart to know Him (24'), and write His law in their inward parts (3P'). The true shepherd whom He will raise up to lead them shall be called Jehovah ^idki-nu, ' tlie Lord is otu righteousness' (23"'-).
(4) Jeremiah's Piet;/. — There were pious men before Jeremiah, but the long drawn out stru''gle of his life revealed piety more than ever before. Verj- dillerent judgments have been pa-ssed on his natural character. The lachrjMiio.se nature tradi- tionally ascribed to him is b.a»ed parti}' on the idea that he was the writer of the Lamentations, and partly on his own references to his tears. A difl'ercnt view is expressed by Darmesteter {Lej rriiphi'les, 67), who says : ' During his 40 years of jirophesying he preaclies, he aet.s, ho curses : he weeps little' The contrasts revealed in his life have been epigramniaticnlly expres.Hed by calling him a figure 'cost in bro-ss, <lis.Holving in tears. Probably his fundamental human characteristic wa-s weakness. In those piuvyiges where he speaks of hiinsih as a wall of brass against hia opiioueiii^
678
JEREMIAS
JEREilY, EPISTLE OF
anil where J' promises him victory over thuni, we see not a sense of strength but a feelinj; of \vu:ik- ness. They reflect what he feels he must be, but is conscious he is not, what J" tcill do for liim, thuiigh it is not done. Isaiah was strong in him- self : the divine strength came to him unconsciouslj- as lie threw himself into action, and was not dis- tinguishable from his own. But Jeremiah wa.s conscious, introspective, distin^^uishing between himself and Uod. The strength he had wius from without, hence it was lluetuating and convulsive. In moments of conflict he was strong. When dragged before the |)rinees it was given him what to speak ('J6'-" ). lie cDuld run with the footmen, or even like Elijah with llie chariots, and not be wearied ; but when the confliit was passed and ho took his life and history with him into hours of stillness and solitude, tlie tide of divine strengtli receded, and he was weakness itself.
On the one hand, he had let himself be induced to be a prophet. J" had revealed His mind to him. His verdict on the people, and His purpose, and he had entered into His mind, and stood on His side. But this looking at people and things, as miglit be said, from the standpoint of J " isolated him ; he neither borrowed nor lent, married nor was a father, rejoiced witli the joyful nor sorrowed with the sorrowing (16'"). Besides isolating him, it brought persecution upon him. He felt the hardness of J"'s service. Gladly would he have laid Ills oHice at His feet. He would have been thankful had he never known the truth. He cursed the day of his birth, becau.se his fellow- ship with J" isolated him from all other fellowship, and crushed down all that was human in him. For, on the other hand, he profoundly sympathized with the people. He was an Israelite indeed. Israel in him struggled against its doom. The dumb mind of the people found a voice in him. He int'irceded for it, and his intercession was just •,ne resistance of his human heart to the idea of the nation's destruction. He palliated its oftences, saying it was misled by the prophets (14"). He expressed its better self in the confessions which he put into its mouth (14'-» U'""- 10^-"). He wept over it (9' 13" 14"). He was told, it is enough ! He was in the cruellest dilemma. If he pleaded for the people it was to be false to J", to be false to his own convictions of truth, false to what he knew to be the irrevocable will of tiod. On the other hand, to threaten, above all to threaten with zeal for God, was treason against his own heart and against his people. Thus both God and men seemed to reject him. But his repulse by men drove him to God, and his repulse by God made him press closer to Him. And thus his life became a fellowship with God, his thoughts and feelings a dialogue between him and God.