The Pulpit Commentary — Jeremiah — Volume 1 — Section 98

hearts. If we knew of one who, when we were prostrate with disease, out of love cai"Ge to us, despising all risk of contagion, and watched over us night and day, on the akn at every tum and stage of the dread foe that was threatening oar life, who in every "a,,. showed himself heedless of his own comfort or safety, so only as he might win 11s bari, to health; how in after years should we regard such a one? Wonld not even tt.r, most selfish cherish a warm reganl, a grateful recollection? And most men would take care to let it be known what was their estimate of such self-sacrificing love. "But," saith God, "Israel doth not know; my people doth not consider." II. GOD DECLARING THAT MAN MUST DO HIS PART IF THAT SALVATIOY IS TO DE woN. If the whole matter rested with God, such language as our text, in which man is charged, importuned to bestir hi111,self, would have no meaning, would be what we will not even suggest. .And our text but embodies the same truth as to the need of man's co-operation with God which lies upon the surface of every" Corpe unto me" uttered by our Lord or by his apostles and ministers in bis Name. Our salvation is not a case in which God but speaks and all is done, and commands and all stands fast. The work of grace is not accomplished as one tree is made an oak, the other an elm. \Ve look with delight and wonder at the manifold triumphs of mind over matter which the varied discoveries of science have in this century achieved. But the salvation of a soul has-the higher glory of the triumph of mind over mind-that in strict harmony with the laws and liberties of mind, and in spite of inherent and inveterate opposition, the love of God shall conquer and subdue, and the "unruly wills of sinful men" shall cheerfully own and yield to the Divine sway. But in such a salvation man must do bis part; he is not left out in the scheme, and here, as in so many other Scriptures, he is called upon to be a worker together with God that he "may be saved." How this truth shatters the delusion and the fatal self-deception of those who comfort themselves in their dis- regard of God by a wresting of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit's work, as if it were one which absolved them from all endeavour, instead of prompting them thereto and aiding them therein. .And some Christian workers need also to be reminded of this same truth; for they are tempted at times to excuse and account for their want of success on the ground of the sovereignty of the Divine working-the Spirit, like the wind, blow- ing where it listeth-rather than on the ground of their own laggard following of tho Divine leading and their failure to co-operate with God. Man mu,st do hi!; part-this is the law writ large over all God's Word and works and ways. III. GoD SHOWING TO MAN WHAT ms PART IS. "Wash thine heart," etc. Then: 1. Wickedness is a defiling thing. It is to the soul what the mud and mire of the street, what all material foulness, are to the body. Sometimes this is mao.e manifest even now. On II man'd face may bo read the moro.l defilement of his soul. But generally men are too cautious for that, and in this world men take ea.re not to let the inwo.rd defilement appear. We are formed to love what is fair-looking and pure and whole- some, and we turn away from its opposite. And wicked men know this, and nro careful to maintain appearances. But if hereafter, as now, God "gives to every seed its own body," he shall then, as is plainly taught, give to every soul its own body -a body that will take its nature, shape, and form from the moral cbaracterislics of the soul. Oh, what transformations there may be then 1 'l'he charncter of the so11I determining what the body shall be. Some then, who here have had no form nor comeli- ness, shall be seen then as the angels of God; and others who here have lacked no natural beauty, shall be shunned as were those who in our Lord's days on earth were possessed with an unclean spirit. Oh for the purged vision, that we might sec our souls as God always sees them! Then surely we, seeing how wickedness ever pollutes and defiles, should turn from it with loathini!, as now we too seldom do. 2. And the defilement is such as cleaves to the soul. " Wash thine heart," etc. The abode from which the evil spirit went forth for II while, but then in his lordly mnnner declared he would re tum to it, as he did-that abode was only "swept," not washed; that dcfile- •'nent which lay looso and light about the houso could be thns got rid of, but that which cleaved to it continued there still. Ho who would be saved must deal thoroughly with his soul. No light, easy, partial amendment will do. This God teaches us by this ~arnest word, "Wash thine heart," eto. 3. And this cleansing must be of the heart. 'l'hc whole chapter is o. protest against the mere external purifying which tho sinful p~llplii were seeking tQ palm off upon God instca,l of the t1 ur, inwanl cleansing whioh 94 THE DOOK OF THE PROPHET JEimmA[I. [011. IV, 1--31,