~er. 11.-Tl.e real need of the soul made manifest. I. REAL NEED OAN ONLY BE JUDE MAlHFEBT BY PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE. The greatest need of the natural life is bread, taking the word "bread" as representative of all food. Clothing and shelter, while they may indeed be reckoned as needs, are not needs after the same imperative fashion as food; and every one, however easily hiB daily bread comes to him, will assent to this i;ame genera.I truth that food is the great need of natural life. But he will only really foel this in such circumstances as are indicated in this verse. For a long while these 1.eople of Jerusalem had found bread lying to their hands when they were hungry. They could buy it and have abundance of pleasant things beside. The feeling ot their on. 1. 1-29..J 'l'HE LAMEN'fATlONS OF ,JEREMIAH.
hearts WIii'. that they could not clo without th~se plcaRaut thiugs, ancl when at last they gl\ve them up to keep bocly and soul together, it must have been with terrible pain they macle the surrender. And what is true of bread for the natural life is also true of the Bread co:uing down from heaven for the spiritual life. Christians, living in the midst of all maTJ.uer of pleasant things of this world, with no lack of money to buy them and fao•>lty to enjoy them, try to feel at the same time that more than all pleasant thin~s 11,re the grace, the life, the wisdom, the everflowing fnlness of the Spirit, which come irum Ghrist. But all the testimony of believers proves that the pleasant things nee,1 to be withdrawn before it can be apprehended that Christ is emphatically the Bread. It is when we lose relish of nature's best contributions to our happiness that Christ comes forward, confident as ever in his power to satisfy us. II. 'fHE VALUE OF TREASURES OAN ONLY BE KNOWN BY WHAT THE OW}<'ER IS WILLING TO DO TO RETAIN THEM. All the pleasant things belonging to the community were already gone. The sanctuary had been desecrated and pillaged. Much private property had doubtless gone. But some the owners would be able to bide-jewels nnd such-like wealth as went into small compass. Among these pleasant things would be family heir- looms, loving gifts, possessions with respect to which the receiver had said to the giver, "I will keep this,,thing till I die." But now the great pressure comes, and one plea.;;a.nt thing after anothlir ,goes for a few handfuls of corn. 'fhe soul is threatening to depart from the body anjl,it . must be turned back; "for what shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?" And now notice that there are treasures of the heart, such treasll!'es as come from faith in Christ and fidelity to him, which are not given up even to -preserve natural life. Multitudes have gone willingly to death that thereby they might ~estify to the truth as it is in Jesus. They have la.id firm hold of his own word, '' Whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it" (Matt. xvi. 25).-Y. Ver. 12.-77ie obser'IJation of suffering. L A SEEMINGLY UNREASONABLE COMPLAIXT. " Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by?" So speaks Jerusalem, personified under the guise of the weeping widow, with the tears on her cheeks and tbe beauty faded, deprived of all her pleasant things, and left in solitude so far as her familiar support; and consolations are- concerned. She sits, as it were, by the highway, and the crowd passes on, taking no notice. Why, indeed, should it take notice ? The spectacle of a conquered nation and a pillaged capital was r.ot a rare thing. The nations asked to sympathize had been through the same experience themselves. We are all prom pte I to say," Surely no trouble bas been like our trouble;" and yet, as our observation of human affairs enlarges, we see how human nature, in every individual instance, is made to know its extra.ordinary capacity for suffering. Nevertheless, the piteous appeal here is not a baseless one. The trouble of the children of Israel had not come upon them after the manner of a common nation. They were peculiar in constitution, privileges, and history. If only there had been eyes to see it, there was something very signifi- cant to demand attention. But the thing to be seen did not lie on the surface, nor was it to be discovered save by faculties specially illuminated. The downfall and the sufferings of Israel, as they are to be seen both in the Scriptures and subsequent history, belong to the things that are to be spiritually discerned. Therefore this complaint, while superficially it may be called unreasonable, is yet reasonable enough, if we onl_v consider the position and mission of Israel, and the work which, even in her degrada- tion, she has done for the world. II. THE NEED THERE IS TO MABK JEHOVAH'S SURE VISITATIONS ON THE DISOBEDIE~'T. This is the critical element in the appeal that widow-like Jerusalem makes to the passers-by: "Look at me 'as the greatest illustration of the certainty with which Jehovah punishes those who rebel against him." We must, of course, beware of the conclusion that suffering always means punishment; but where we can see that it i8 punishment we must mark it as such, so that we ourselves may be admonished and may also more effectually admonish others. Here was a nation that in obedience might have rested confidently and happily in Jehovah's promise. The power behind that promise was more than all the armies of the great empires round.about. But when the power was withdrawn it meant not merely suffering; the withdrawing had in it the nature of a. judicial, solemn sentence from Jehovah himself.-Y. 16 THE LAMENTATIONS OF JEREMIAH. [err. 1. 1-22,