Ver. 23.-Fromfalse t-0 true salvation. I. THE NEED OF SALVATION. This seems Mi be confessed before as much as nftel' repentance. In both conditions Israel must turn somewhere for deliverance. 1. 'l'he need is universal. Israel wils in national ,1anger; but socially and privately men felt a vague sense of unrest and helplessness nnd their heathen rites were a proof of this. 'l'he mystery of existence the wearines~ oft.oil, the sorrow and disappointment~ of COilllllOn_experience, the terror ~f death make men feel their helplessness. All religions witucss to this fact. 2. The need is reit to be such that only 1·eligion can meet it. Meu instinctively cry to their gods· in the storm (Jonah i. 5). This element of religion is retained when every other vestige of it has ,anished. This elelllent is common to the most diverse forms of re!io'ion, 0 the most degraded equally with the most elevated. Is not such a fundamental fact of humau nature a ground for hope? Can we believe that such a deep, instinctive· cry will meet "·itb no response? II. 'lllE FALSE HOPE OF SALVATION. Israel had turned to the pagan worship on the hills for deliverance; but in vain. 1. Superficially regarded, there was much to recom- mend this. (1) It was conspicuous and imposing-on the hill-tops. (2) It was noisy; there was tumult on the mountains. The more noise and bustle there is in a thing the more important does it seem to those who forget that the real power is with "the still small voice" and the "gentleness" that makes great. (3) It was popular; in religious matters, as in all else, unthinking people go with the multitude. (4) It was multiform; not one temple service, but sacrifices on every hill. Unspiritual people put faith in the number of prayers, the amount of gifts, etc., rather than in the motive and spirit which prompt them. (5) It was easy to follow; it required no purity of life, no spiritual effort of faith. Men like a cheap religion. 2. Experience proved the hope to be false. The salvation was hoped for in vain. Heathen gods neither protected from external foes nor cured the internal wretchedness of Israel. '!'his must have been the case, because (1) they were not gods at all, the ground of the hope did not exist; (2) the corruption which was permitted and encouraged in the rites with which these gods were served was the very source of the nation's ruin. The hope of salvation was the cause of destruction. So is it whenever men turn from God to lower grounds of con- fidence. The very apostacy thus committed is the source of the ruin which it is expected to avert. It is a great thing to have made the discovery of this fact. To see the mistake of the false hope is the first step towards deliverance. III. THE TRUE HOPE OF SALVATION. '"fruly in Jehovah our God is the salvation of Isr&el." 1. God only can deliver, since he only can control nations and subdue tbo hearts of individual men. 2. God does deliver by bis providence in outward events and his spiritual help in the internal battle with sin. 3. God is known as the Deliverer by his actions in the past. Israel turns to "Jehovah our God," the· God who had often shown himself as a Saviour. He who rightly reads the story of hie own past life will see in it reasons for trusting God for the future. 4. God is sought as the Deliverer when all other refuges fail. After making the painful discovery mentioned in the earlier part of the verse, Israel comes to recognize the true salvation, but not till then. Trouble is good if it reveals the rottenness of our mistaken hope in time to set us free to seek the true hope. Yet how sad that men should need to have the veil thus forcibly torn from their eye~ I
Vera. 24, 25.-Shame. I. SHAME IS THE NATUilAL ACCOMPANIMENT OF GUU.T. l. Distinguish shame from modesty. Modesty is the fear of shame. Modesty shrinks from doing the thing which wbea done will result, or ought to result, in shame., Thus modesty pertains to innocence, shame to guilt. 2. Distinguish nat'IJ,ral shame from guilty shame. Natural shame results from the exposure of.what should be kept private but iH pure in itself-this applies to spiritual ae well as bodily delicacy'; guilty shame is associated with that which, whether revealed or not, ie morally bad. 3. Distinguish 0II. m. 1-25.J 'l'llB BOOK 01<' 'l'HE PROPHE'f JgltEMIAH. 5CJ
false from true shame. 'l'ho blush of innoeenco when falsely accused, the shrinkino- from the disapproval by others of conduct which wo feel consciontiously bo,md t~ pursue, and similar feelings, are instancos of the former. They simply result from weakness. Buch shame is a needless pain, but it is only oulpable when it leads to weak subserviency to what we know is not right-the fear of man which bringeth a snare. True shame is not simply the distressing consciousness of the disapproval of others, but the consciousness that this is well deserved. II. REPENTANCE LEADS us 'l.'0 REGARD SIN WITH SHAME. Israel then names Baal, the god of her former worship, "Shame." To the penitent "all things are new." The sins in which he gloried are now objects of the deepest shame. 1. Men must see sin in a tr~e light to regard it with shame. The Israelites are here represented as confessing sin; they feel it is their own act: "\Ve have sinned;" they feel that their fathers' sin does not extenuate the guilt of tho new sin of the children, but, on the contrary, adds to the cumulative guilt of the nation. 2. When sin is thus regarded, tho shame is overpowering and overwhelming : overpowering, for Israel says, "Let us li0 down in onr shame," there is no resisting the influence of it, it crushes to the dust in humiliation; and it is overwhelming, ,,_ i.ct our confusion cover us ; " such shame is no superficial and transient emotion. It is all-absorbing. III. TBE SHAME FOR SIN IS A WHOLESOME CORRECTIVE. Nothing is more painful. Self-love, self-conceit, and self-respect arc all cruelly wounded. Yet the bitter medicine is a true antidote to the sweet poison of sin. 1. It opens our eyes to the fatal conse- quences of wickedness. In regarding Baal as " shame," the people seem to discover for the first time that he had "devoured the labour of their fathers from their youth." The passion of sin throws a false glamour about it and its effects which shame dissolves. 2. It serves as a; strong deterrent from future sin. It makes our old ways look horrible, disgusting, contemptible. We wonder how we could have loved them, and so long as the shame lasts nothing could induce us to return to them. Unfortunately, shame soon dies away, and if disregarded leaves men harder than before. Therefore it should not be trusted in by itself, but used as a means to lead us to the enduring security against sin in Christ (Rom. viii, 1-5),