III. DY WIIOM Tim TUnNIN0 MUST DE EFFECTF.D, The prayrr is unto the Lord ; for h~ al?no cnn ~urn the wancl~rer unto himself. By the authority of his L<1w, by tho wrnnmg, meltmg power of ·his gospel, by the sweet constraint of his Spirit, he alone cnn transform the heart, revers~ the steps, and renew the olden days of those who have transgressed but have now at length sought his favour and forgiveness.-T. Ver. 2.-Tliefate of inheritance and houses. The Israelite reckoned a great deal on his inheritance, that. which came to him as an Israelite; and in this he did quite right, seeing how he was bound to dwell on the promises made to Abraham. There was th•~ national territory, sanctified and made a peculiarly valuable thing by the manner in which it first came into Israel's hand. Then there were the tribal inheritances and the family inheritances. So that altogether inheritance was continually before the faraelite mind; inheritance:became almost a part of self. Doubtless many tracts of land had run down in the same families for generations. And now the foreigner comes in to reap the riches of these lands and dwell in the houses built on them. What the Israelites failed to recollect was that the inheritance they esteemed so much was not the real mheri- tance in the eyes of God. The visible iand, out of which comes the corn, the wine, the oil, is only the type of that deeper, that truly exhaustless spiritual land, where we are to sow plentifully, assured that a harvest cannot fail. There is the inheritance, cor- ruptible, defiled, that doth fade away. There is the house made with hands, temporal, on the earth. And then, all unconscious of the pains we are preparing for ourselves, we let our heart's best affections get round these things. The loss of the inheritance, the loss of the houses, was the way to gain, if only the loser could see it. Doubtless what we may fail to possess of temporal things some one else gets hold of; but his getting is not with a firm, abiding grasp. These lamenting Israelites would reckon that the loss of inheritance and houses, which made them so miserable, would make the new possessors correspondingly happy; and such would be the case for a time, but only so long as the brightness of the first delusion lasted. God does not mean that we should ever say of any really good thing that our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens. Of the really good things there is enough ar:d to spare for all. Christ sends out his apostles to urge every one towards the inheritance of the saints in light; nnd in the house of him who is Father of Jesus and of all that believe in J erus there are many mansions, many abiding-places, a place for every one wishing to dismiss the restless, craving spirit, and abide in such a. place.-Y. Ver. 7.-The sin of the fathers and the suffering of the chi1dren. This chapter is the complaint of those who suffer. "We," "us," "our,"-these are the prominent words. The complainers are those who have lost inheritance and houses, become fatherless, and entered into a galling servitude. And now what do they give as the reason of a.ll this terrible experience? This-that "our fathers have sinned." I. THE MEASURE OF TRUTH IN Tms. The fathers had sinned. That was an historical fact. The utterances of former prophets, recorded, perhaps, in far greater abundance than we have any idea of, attested the iniquities of past generations. No generation of which there was any record had been without its disobedience. And had it not also been said that the sins of the fathers should be visited on the children? Hence there is plain logic in these words, "Our fathers have sinned, ... and we have borne their iniquities.'' Great is the suffering in bodily pain, in privation, and in emotion, of every generation ; and each generation has a right to say that some, at all events, of this suffering would ho.ve been escaped if only preceding generations had lived according to the full law of righteousness. Hence the appeal to us, when self-indulgence presses with all its energies, to consider others. Indulging self, we have to make ready for after-pains; but those pains cannot he kept wit,hin the limit of our own lives. II. True as thi1 statement is, there is A MEASURE OF DEFECT IN IT. Note exactly how the point is put : "Our fathers have sinned, and are not;" that is, "they cannot suffer 11ny more, and now the suffering comes on to us." In such an aspect of the situation there is great pathos, but we need to travel round to the other aspects also. There is a difference between retribution and suffering. Some kinds of pain and injury may be inherite«i to the third and fourth generation, but a guilty conscience belongs to the inJi- vidual. The worst pain1:1, the worst consequences, and those on which the Saviour looks 90 THE LA'MENTA'l'IONS OF JEREMIAII. [on. v. 1-22.
with the most pit~', Mc surely those coming out of onr own wronii;-doing; 11nd eel\rching illto the connection between the 11ins of past generations and the suffering of the pre. t-ent one will do h1trm rather than good, if such a scarchin~ tends to obscure our own lawlessness, our own want of attention to the requirements of God. '!'here is, indeed, a great dillC'rC'nce in J..ind between the suffering coming on us from the wickedness ot others and that which comes from our own.-Y.