The Pulpit Commentary — Jeremiah — Volume 1 — Section 93

weedy, thorny desolation. To be ruined, to sink into a state of utter poverty and ba1Tcnncss and destitution of all satisfying good, the souls of men only nee,l to be left alone. "\Vhile men sleep the enemy sows tares." "What shall it profit a man," etc.? (l\Iark viii. 36). Our Lord speaks of the soul as being "lost" simply through l>eing forgotten in the cager pursuit of a kind of good which can never of itself enrich and saLisfy it. '!'his implies that its native propensities are for the most part of a down- ward tendency. It bears within it the seeds of moral decay. 'l'he "fallow ground" spontanronsly produces "thorns." !II. fr IS VAIN TO SOW SEEDS OF TRUTH AND GOODNESS IN HEARTS PREOOOUPIED WITH OTHER AND IKCOKGRUOUS THINGS. How many there are whose religious career may well be described as a "sowing among thorns" I They have religious susceptibilities; they are familiar with religious influences; but th.iir secret hearts are the home of mean ambitions, tainted with the "lust of the eye and the pride of life," or they are , ntangled with a network of worldly associations or bound by the chains of some bad habit, from which they have not the courage or the strength to set themselves free. And so their spiritual condition is a strange medley of good and evil. Every better affection and impulse within them has some form of moral weakness by its side that nullifies it. Strong as their heavenward aspirations may sometimes be, there is nothing like whole-heartedness in their pursuit of the nobler good. No wonder they are" barren and unfruitful in the knowledge of Christ." The ground must be cleared before a better result can be expected. How many a sower, going forth in the name of the Great Husbandruan, is oppressed in spirit with the thought that much of the seed that he scatters falls" among thorns"! He has to contend with a thousand obstructive forces in men's hearts, and knows well that, unless some mightier force goes with his mes- sage to overbear all these, they will" choke the Word." Let the young especially watch and pray against the encroachment upon them of influences fatal to their higher lifo. It is a comparatively easy thing to overmaster the sins and follies of youth. Far otherwise when they have become the confirmed and cherished habits of the man. "Break up your fallow ground 1" It is hard to do this. It involves much sclf- crucifixion. We all like to live at ease-to yield to the strongest influences of the passing hour, as the sluggard does, who allows himself to be overcome by the spell of sleep, and to dream a1vay the hours and moments that _ought to be spent in the wakeful activities of life. But this is not t.he way to reach the heights of heavenly glory and blessedness. It is the certain road to poverty and ruin, to despair and death. Not on grounds of self-interest alone is the appeal of the text to be urged. Consider what a loss to the world is involved in every barren, undeveloped human soul and life. It is a great calamity to a country to have large tracts of its territory lying waste and desolate, while many of its people, perhaps, are perishing for lack of bread, or compelled to flee to other lands to find a field and reward for their labour. How sad that, in a world of such overwhelming spiritual need and destitution as this, the powers of any human soul, that might exercise a redeeming influence upon it, should be left idle or allowed to run to waste 1-W. Ver. 14.- Vain thoughts. I. THE LIFE OF EVERY MAN IB GOVERNED BY HIS THOUGHTS. "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he" (Prov. xxiii. 7). 'l'rue as it is that the essenti_al moral quality of the man will always determine the order or his thinking, tho converse also is equally true. Thought is the formative principle of nil rersonal life- Lindles feeling, touches the springs of purpose, guides the course of moral action. What arc cl,aracter and conduct but the definite expression of secret thought? "That snbtle husbandman, That sows its little seed of good or ill In the moist, unsunncd surface of tho heart. And what it there in secrecy doth plant, Stands with its ripo fruit at the judgment do.y." II. EVERY MAN IB RESPONSIBLE FOR THE TENOR OF IIIB TllOUOHTB, If not, there could be no room in this matter for remonstrance or appeal. 'l'he law of the associa- tion or ideas may be such that it is as impossible to prevent some particular thought from recurring to tlie 111ind as to stay the tide of tho o~n ; but it is certainly possible 011, 1v. 1-31.J TIIE llOOK OF TllE PnOPHET JEnm,IIAII. 8D