The Pulpit Commentary — Lamentations — Section 38

the hir,hest obedience is not the restraint of out will before God's will, but the R.Ssiml- lation of the two. We learn to will what God wills. Then we keep within the Di-ine limitations, and yet they cease to be limitations to us. 'l.'hey never touch t:.11 bec,rnse we never attem-pt nor wish to cross them. Here lies the ~ocret of peace ns well as of holiness. So lofty an attainment can only be reached through that one- ness with Christ of which he speaks when he prays that his disciples may be one with him and the Father, as he is one with the Father (John xvii. 21). Ver. 18.-Strength a:nd hope peri,shed. The sufferer feels as though his strength, or rather in the expressive word of the Hebrew, his "sap" were destroyed, nnd with it his hope also; and he attributes this desperate condition to the action of God. It is a con- dition of spiritual affliction the pathology of which demands careful investigation, for it is symptomatic of a great progress of inward trouble. I. lT Th-UICATES THAT EXTERNAL CALAMITIES HAVE PRODUCED INTERNAL DISTRESS, Every calamity assails the soul. But for a while the citadel holds out. Without the storm beats furiously. Within there is security and comparative quiet. At length, after a certain force of trouble is attained, in the addition of wave upon wave as in Job's case, or in the access of some one overwhelming disaster as in the destruction of Jerusalem, the defence fails, the enemy enters the breach and pours in a flood over the whole fortress. Sorrow of heart follows the loss of wealth, sickness, or other trouble of outer life. Il. IT INDICATES THAT DISTRESS OF SOUL HAS UNDERMINED THE POWERS OF ENDURANCE. The " sap " perishes. For a time a. man holds on bravely, though with bleeding heart. But as the grief grows upon him he "breaks down," he can stand it no more, he says he cannot bear it. In one sense he can bear any amount of trouble that does not extinguish his being. He can pass through it and come out of it a.live. But to bear trou.ble in the sense of keeping self-possessed and calm under it may be no longer possible. Wild and reckless anguish takes the place of sober, patient grief. The strength of soul is gone. The spirit that bore up against the blast is broken. Crushed and helpless, the swferer no longer contends with the storm, but permits himself to be tossed and dashed a.bout a.t the sport of the cruel waves. III. IT Th-UICATES THAT THE LOBS OF STRENGTH HAS ENDED IN DEBPAm. Hope also perishes. .A broad line must be drawn between sorrow that is lightened by hope and sorrow without hope. So long as the faintest ray sUll glimmers on the horizon the prospect is not utterly dark. When hope goes the soul is indeed abandoned to its dis- tresses. The most acute pain may be borne with comparative equanimity so long as there is prospect of relief. Directly that prospect is destroyed a much smaller trouble becomes unendurable. Now and again we meet with a. soul that has lost hope; we see it drifting on the wild sea of life without rudder or compass, a mere wreck of its former self. IV. IT IS AN INTEllNAL CONDITION THAT SHOULD NOT BE TAKEN AS INDICATIVE OP COBBESP01''DING EXTERNAL FACTS. We need not assume that there will be no bright future, for the, desponding despair is not its own justification. It is often irrational, almost insane. It springs from grief that is big enough to bide all prospect of better things, but not to destroy the possibility of their ultimate arrival. The very fact that the trouble is traced to God-this trouble is "from the Eternal "-should help us to dis- trust the doleful prophecy of despair. If God our Father sends trouble, it is well. He will surely bring good out of it. For one who has faith in Christ no distress should be allowed to end in despair. Vers. 19-21.-God taking notice of 'TTWlfl,'B a.fftiction. In his distress the sufferer cries to God, calling upon his great Helper to note his condition and remember it. Then he is calmed by prayer, and rests in the assurance that God does not forget his trouble. Recalling this thought to mind, he recovers hope. 1. THE CRY FOB Goo's NOTICE. 1. It is to God. At first it seems as though God had forgotten his afflicted child. The vision of the Divine countenance is clouded ; no voice speaks out of the darkness. Desolate and despairing, in misery that is bitter as wormwood and gall, the troubled soul seems to be deserted of God in the hour of greatest need. Then the swferer cries out to God. Here is instinctive wisdom. We may or cu. nr. 1-66.) THE LAMENTATIONS OF JEREMfAII. ?,!)