The Pulpit Commentary — Lamentations — Section 66

V. THE 0URE FOR THIS BLlNDNESB. This is not su~gested hero. It is not the function of Lamentations to console and heal. But there is a remedy. For Christ came to "opon the blinc.l eyes" (Isa. xiii. 7). He is" the Light of the world," fl.od all who fol- low him "shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life" (.John viii.12). Ver. 15.-0ontam-ination. So horrible is the condition of Jerusalem after tlwi siege that men regard the holy city as an unclean place, like a haunt of lepers or an aborle, of the dead. They cry, " Go aside I Unclean I Go aside! go aside! " a~ they woul,l to one who incautiously approached too near to one of these banned spot11. The dread or contamination is a natural testimony to the instinct for purity; but it is often sadly perverted, for while no feeling shoulc.l be more related to truth and fact, it happens that no feeling is more subject to artificial, conventional regulations. "\Ve need to inquire what are the true causes of contamination and how real contamination may be avoided. I. WHAT ARE THE TRUE 0AUSES OF CONTAMINATION? It is uncleanness that defiles. The primitive notion of uncleanness is connected with material things-the dirt that soils a garment, etc. Then disease which is loathsome and offensive, and death with irs attendant corruption, are felt to be defiling. But to the soul true defilement can only come from what is morally impure. .As Christ teaches, it is internal not external (Luke xi. 38--40). Jerusalem, when in her prosperity she abandoned herself to idolatry and immorality, was more unclean than when she lay in ashes a charnel-house of slaughtered citizens. Yet no man cried," Unclean I" in the prosperons times. The degradati"n was thought to be defiling, while the sin which led to it was connived at. This robtake is common in various forms. The criminal with the brand of punishment upon him is shunned, while the far more vicious man who has contrived to keep himself safe is courted. Parents fear the corruption of manners which their children may contract by mingling with social inferiors, and yet permit them to mix with far more corrupt society if only the rank of it be higher than their own. Many people look with contempt ou certain kinds of honest business, who will engage in pursuits of very questionable morality without compunction. Thus some regard trade as degrading and betting as gentlemanly. They would be ashamed to be connected with a shop; they have no shame in their connection with the turf. We want a healthier conscience, that will declare no honest pursuit to be dishonourable and no immoral one to be respectable simply because patronized by rank and fashion. II. How IS REAL CONTAMINATION TO BE AVOIDED? Granted that we know what things are defiling and can distinguish them from the objects of conventional ostra,=isrn; how are we to behave ourselves in regard to tho unclean things? We are to avoid contact with them. But here a difficult question arises. .As Christians we are to be tho salt of the earth. It is our mission to purify the impure. But if we shun it, how can we change it? If we neglect politics because we see politicians to be acting dishonourably, and business because we wish to avoid tricks of trade, and society because we must escape the corrupting influences of unwholesome amusements and scandalous conversation, shall we not be handing over politics, business, and society to the unchecked influence of evil? The answer to this question seems to be that the departure must be in spirit and from the spirit of those things that are degrading. We are not to flee bodily. We may do so in vain. For the coITuption of the world may pursue the hermit to his cell and torment his mind with evil imaginations in the desert. But if we forsake all sympathy with the unclean our ioul cannot be touched by it. Thus Christ ate and drank with publicans and sinners and passed through their foul atmosphere without defilement. Especially if the object is to do good we may be sure that the consciousness of a mission and the cleansing influence of Christian charity will prevent contaminatic,n. Thus a pure-minded Christian woman is able to go into the haunts of vice on an errand of meroy and return scatheless as the snowdrop that lifts its head from the impure soil Ver. 22.-The end of punishmtmt. Here is a gleam of prophetic hope. From doleful lamentations the poet is able to look forward and see the end of the sad desolation of Jerusalem. I. PUNISHMENT HAS AN END. Nothing is everlasting but God, and the life which God gives and the goodness of that life. E\·il, darkness, pain, and death are temporal i2 THE LAMENTATIONS OF JEREMIAH. toa. 1v. 1-22.