The Pulpit Commentary — Jeremiah — Volume 1 — Section 72

love, all the glorious attributes of his eternal reign. 'fhe transactions at Jerusalem are incomparable. No transactions in any one nation, however much they may aITcct the career of that nu.tion, can rival the transactions at Jerusalem. The Englishman as an Englishman may feel his deep concern in Magna Charta and the Bill of Ri:;hls. 'fhe American as an American thinks of Philadelphia and thu Declaration of Inde- pendence. Th3 negro as a negro remembers Lincoln and the proclamation which gavo frceoom to the slaves. But undernealh the natural, the peculiar, the merely terrestrial, there is another man, the man who has to think of sin within him, and death arnl eternity before him. Such a man, if he thinks rightly, will feel that it is toward! Jerusalem that his most earnest considerations should gather. All who truly ponder ths great questions of life must gather there, and thence in faith their thoughts will ascend to the true, the heavenly, the everlasting Jerusalem.-Y. Ver. 21.-.A sincere repentance in an appropriate place. How came this voice to be heard on the high places-this weeping and this supplication? The answer seems to lie in ver. 20, where there is interposed a suggestion that Israel, because of its past defec- tions, would fail to prove capable and worthy of that glorious future which has been just depicted. How then can Israel reply except by an abundant outflow of the signs of penitence? There is weeping; there is deprecation of any such withdrawal of Jehovah's contemplated goodness; there is a most emphatic declaration that they had indeed been utterly perverse and had forgotten Jehovah. The submission to him, tho acknowledgment of him, shall now be complete. The words put into the lips of the repentant people (vers. 22-25) are not extorted and grudging words, with a counter- resolution underneath to back out if any chance should offer. The eyes of the apostates have been opened ; Israel has come to itself. What has been sought in vain on hills and mountains in the cruel service of heathen deities is to be got in full and abiding power from God. Observe now how- THESE HIGH PLACES WEllE MOST APPROPRIATE FOR THESE TEARFUL ACKNOWLEDG- ?dENTS AND THESE ENTREATING APPROACHES TO Goo. 1. The thing done had been a great public WTUll,g, Where men have sinned is the place for them to confess their sin. Now, this was not a sin in some secret place; it was not a sin confined to the thoughts of the heart, and known only to God; it was not some private, domestic wrong-doing. The whole nation shared in the sin of the high places. Even if some were not actually idolatrous, yet by their silence and inaction they condoned the idolatry. All sur- rounding nations must be cognizant of it. Sins in public cannot be got rid of without an equally public repentance and suffering. Who can tell what audacious and mockinp; words may have been spoken concerning Jehovah by the heathen around?-" Why, this Jehovah, whose temple and service are in Jerusalem, and who has no image, has really no power over the people I He has a name to Ii ve, but surely he is dead I " Elijah mocked the priests of Baal, and he had cause, for, unhappy men that they were, they had believed in a, lie. But priests of Ilaal might also many times have mocked thCl people of Israel, for in one sense they had the truth, but they did not believe in it. Of course, in the end, such people were bouncl to make a very public acknowledgment of their folly and unbelief. 2. By this weeping, etc., on the high places, there was a par- ticularly impressive condemnation of idolatry. He who forsakes a course of action necessarily condemns that action, and reproaches all who still continue in it, reproaches them none the less because reproach may not be u.t all intended. Such a return lo Jehovah as is indicated in the concluding verses of this chapter is also, by tho very act, a downright blow against idolatry. Let men who will persist in wrong courses know that they must be prepared for painful experiences when their companions, every now and then, desert them. There will always be some one discovering that tho courso is wrong, and going over to the other side. Take a very important instance of such exposure as we find it in the New Testament. Pharisaism and Jewish pride are thero condemned from two great sources of judgment. One of these we find iu Jesus, who spoke, we know how severely, against the Pharisees and their doings. From his words we feel how bad their spirit must have been and their inner lifo. But perhaps it is not too much to say that Saul's condemnation of them is still more striking; shmrn not in words so much, but oh, how clearly in dcccl I when he came out from them, /:ihowing he wa~ no more of tbcm. 3. There is thus a ::;rcat warnin~ !o all who are 68 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEHEl\IIAH. [cu. m. 1-25.