Vers. 19-22.-The only resoorce acknowledged to be in God. It will be felt that this prayer is a fitting conclusion to the book. What could be more proper than that these people, having looked all around with an ever-deepening sense of loss and humiliation, should now look above 1 Upon earth, in strength or skill of man, there is uothing to be looked for; if anything is to be got, it is by looking to heaven. J. AMID ALL TIIE8E CHANGES THE CONTINUANCE OF JEHOVAH IS PERCEIVED. Zion has become desolate, but the true throne of God is not there. That God Ii ves, unchange- able, unaffected by our lapses and losses, is the last safeguard of hope, and it is an impregnable one. Much is it to be desired that, amid all the vicissitudes of life, we should have this sense of something unchanging. II. 'IHE SENSE OF SEPARA'l'ION FROM Gon. 'l'his was the crown of troubles to some of the people, that God seemed to have forgotten them and forsaken them. Ilut when God remembered them and manifested his presence, all that the people in general did was to take his gifts and think nothing of the Giver's will and purpose. God, of 'course, had neither forgotten nor forsaken. What the people called forgetting was only a uifferent kind of remembering. What th"'y called forsaking was only a closer presence. Ill. 'l'HE UNQDENCIIADLE HOPE OF THOSE WHO TAKE THE RIGHT VIEW OF Goo. This chapter has had in it the tones of penitence and contrition. It is admitted that the cause of all this desolation is the people's turning away from God. And now there is the petition which results from a full self-discovery. lnward weakness is discovered. 'l'he last cry of the book indicates that the turning of men to God is the great thing to be desired. Not a restoration to external possessions and comforts, but a turuin~ to G, d consequent on his turning to us. '!'he results that come from our being turned to God by his power will one day be seen to justify all the loss and paiu needed to brin;; thelll ubout.--Y. HOMILETICAL INDEX TO
THE LAMENTATIONS OF JEREMIAH.
CHAPTER I. THEME P.lGll TBEIIIB PAGE "No Vision n 21 The Solitary City . . . 3 The Vision of Falsehood and F"olly 22 Comfortless 4 The Triumph of the Foe 22 The Abandoned Feasts 5 Ruin from God 23 Her Beauty departed from Zion 5 A Cry to God in the Night Watches... 24 Pleasant Things in the Days of Old .. . 6 The Anger of the Lord 25 Sorrow unequallee, yet unheeded 7 Retribution in Church and State 25 Fourfold Trouble from God .. , 7 Law and Prophecy suspended 26 The Righteousness of God confessed .. , 8 Commiseration 26 The Contrasts of Adversity... 9 The Glory and Sha.me of Jerusalem 27 The Decline of Nation.al Religion 9 The Entreaty of Anguish . . . 27 Mournful Memories 10 Consideration besought 27 Spoliation and Profanation ... 10 The Manifestation of Jehovah's Wrath Unparalleled Woe... 11 against Israel .. . 28 "The Lord is Righteous" ... 11 Jehovah reckoned as an Enemy 28 The Cry of the Contrite 12 The Prophetic Office suspended 29 Widowhood ... the Emblem of Loneli- The Silence of the Elders .. . 30 ness 12 The Sn1fering of the Children 30 Nights of Weeping explained 13 The Share of the Prophets in ruining Zion forsaken as a Religions Centre .. . 14 Jerusalem 31 The Real Need of the Soul made The Completeness of Jehovah's Visita- manifest 14 tion 31 !'he Observation of Suffering 15 The Aoknowledgment that Suffering is deserved 16 CHAPTER III. A Wicked Gladness 16 "The Man that has seen Aflliotion 11 ... 35 "Dark Places" 36 OlIAPTER II. Hedged about 37 Strength and Hope perished 38 God not remembering his Footstool 19 God taking Notioe of Man's Affliction 38 The Lord as an Enemy 20 The Unoeasing Mercies of God 39 The Rejected Altar .., 20 The Secret of Hope 40 ii INDEX.
'flll-:.MR PAOlt CHAPTER IV, Quiet Waiting 41 TR~Mlt PA.OR
Youth 41 Fine Gold ditnmed G7, 721 ChlllStisement only for a. Sea.eon 42 The Violation of Maternal Instinds .. . 68 How Evil a.nd Good both proceed from Reverses of Fortune 68 God 43 Incredible Calamities 69 Self-Examination . . . 44 Blindness 70 God covering himself with a Cloud 4-4 Contamination 71 Te1trs which only God can wipe away 45 The End of Punishment 71 " Fear not! " 46 " Precious Sons ... Fine Gold ... be- The Great Appeal . . . 46 come Earthen Pitchers" ... 73 Afflicted by God .. . 47 The Horrors of Famine 73 The Way of Life hedged and built The Impregnable taken 73 up 48 The Degradation of the Prophets and Unheard Prayer ... 48 the Priests 74 Prosperity forgotten 48 Vain Help and Hope 74 R.emem bering Affi.iction 49 The End is come ! ... 75 Hope reviving 4-9 Fallen Reputation 75 Spa.ring Compassion 60 Natural Affection gone 76 " New every Morning " 50 Social Revolution ... 76 The Portion of the Godly 51 The Sin of Sodom ... 77 Waiting for Salvation 51 Sword and Hunger 77 The Yoke in Youth 52 A Seeming Impossibility achieved 78 The Cheek to the Smiter 52 Shedding the Blood of the Just 78 Divine Benignity .. . 52 A Disappointed Confidence and aDese- The Source of Evil a.n.d of Good 53 orated Sanctity ... Why murmur P 53 .Bepenta.uoe 54 CHAPTER V. "Snrsum Corda! " 54 A Prayer of Distress 81 Sympathetic Sorrow 54 The Lost Inherita.noe 81 The Cry from the Dungeon... 55 Orphanage and Widowhood .. . 82 Prayer heard and answered] 55 Children enfi'ering for the Sins of their The Lord's Knowledge of his People's Pa.rents 83 Sufferings and Wrongs ... 56 Consolation in the Supremaoy of God 84 Righteons Recompense 56 Qllestioning God .. . 84 The Snm of a Terrible Experience 57 Renewal... 85 !low Hope rises from the Depths of The Lord's Remembrance besought ... 86- Despair 57 The Moral Continuity of Nations 86 The Unfailing Compassionsof Jehovah 58 None to Deliver 87 Those who have Jehovah for their The Cessation of Joy 87 Portion 58 The Degradation of Sin 87 God's Goodness to the Hop<1fnl and The Eternal Throne 88 the Patient (19 " Turn 118 again ! " 88 The Discipline of Yo11.th 60 The Fate of Inheritance and Houses... 89 God's Good Purposes in cansing Pain 60 The Sin of the Fathers e.nd the Suffer- Approaching God in Sincerity 61 ing of the Chilcll-en 89 The Eye and the Life 61 The Occupation of the Elders gone 90 Jeremiah calling out of the Dungeon... 62 Discrowned Jerusalem 90 Jeremiah and his Enemies .. . 62 The Faint Heart and the Dim Eyes 91 The Mnsic of the Wicked ... 63 The Only Resource acknowledged to The Principle of Retribution 63 be in God 91