Ver. 10.-The si)ence of the elders. I. TREm FORMER BPEECB. They are said to lceep silence now; this, of course, suggests that silence had not been their former habit, Old men have a peculiar right to speak, are often expected to speak, and can always plead that years have given them experience and many op)?Ortunities of ob~ervation, and with respect to these particular elders here it is not difficult to imagine what the topics a:rid the manner of their former speech might be. For instance, imagine younger men gcnng to them and asldng what their opinion was as to the predictions of Jeremiah. 'l'hey would not all have the same opinion, but many, it is to be feared, would make v_ery light of what he said. Nor is it likely that they spoke of him in a very con- siderate way. The elders of Israel were, according to a national custom, largely the teachers of history. It was their business to tell their sons and their son's sons the great things that bad been done in the days of old. And we know how easy it is to remember only success and forget disaster. Jeremiah coming in with his denunciations and threatenings would exasperate the elders not least. The chances are that again and again they had given advice at the foundation of which lay their unbelief in Jeremiah. Besides this, they would be advisers in general, and in particular matters would often be right enough. Thus when they cast discredit on a prophet of Jehovah others would take up their words as words of authority and soberness. II. TB:Em PRESENT SILENCE. They neither speak of their own accord nor do they answer when addressed. They keep silence. It is the silence of grief; humiliation, wounded pride, and shame. The only thing they could say, if they did speak, would be to confe!'ll in the amplest manner their sins, their blunders, their egregious self-con- fidence. But in truth their very silence spoke as if with loudest voice. It was as if they said~" We abdicate any right we have had to advise and lead. We admit to the full our responsibility in having done so much to bring disaster on the people." Old age is not necessary to bring wisdom and insight into the problems of life. Jeremiah, who had gone out to prophesy when little better than a lad, was right, and old men with an egotistical and absorbed confidence in their own opinions were wrong. If we would avoid being stricken with a shameful silence in our old age, it must be by listening obediently in earlier years to far other voices than those which come from the promptings of the natural man.-Y. Ver. 12.-The suffe.ringof the childrffl. It must be noticed how the mention of the children follows on the mention of the elders. '!'here is suffering at each extreme of life, and hence we are to infer that there is suffering all between. The elders suffer in their way and the children and the sucklings suffer in theirs. The elders are bowed down with confusion, shame, and disappointment. The children know nothing of this, but they are tormented with the pangs of hunger; and what a pathetic touch is that which represents them as breathing out their little lives into the bosom of their mothers! The sins of the parents are being visited upon the children. It has often been represented as a monstrous iniquity that things should be put in such a light, but is it not an undeniable fact that the little ones suffer what they would not suffer if progenitors always did what was right? These children were not clamouring for dainties and luxuries. Corn and wine, the common food, the pleasant grape-juice, what they had been used to and what all at once they began to miss. What is here said is a strong admonition to us to consider how the innocent and unsuspecting may be affected by our unrighteousness. All our conduct must affect others, and it may affect those w-bo cannot lift a hand to avert ill consequences. The sufferings of children and infants, the immense mortality among them,-these are things awful to contemplate ; and yet nothing can be more certain than that the clearing away of prejudice and ig110• ranee and hurtful habits founded on bare tradition would bring into child-life that abundance of joy which a lo-ving Creator of human nature meant children to attain. But even with all the suffering there are compensations. These hunger-stricken children cried for bread, and getting none they poured out their lives into their mothers' bosoms; but they had no self-reproach. Remone did not add another degree of agony on, 11. 1-22.] 'fllE LAMENTATIONS OF JEREMIAH. :n
to etarvation. The suffering which touches the conecience is the worst, and the little ones escape it altogether.-Y.