The Pulpit Commentary — Jeremiah — Volume 1 — Section 117

Ver. 30.-Departed c'harms t'hat cannot be restored. The figure here is of a woman, once beautiful and attractive. There is thus a return to the theme of eh. ii., where the idolatrous land is set forth as a wife departing from her husband. In the days of her beauty she has fascinated many lovers ; but now the beauty is gone, and she makes desperate attempts to compensate for vanished charms by external adornments; only to find her efforts cause for deeper humiliation, Consider- I. THE CHARM OF NATURAL ATTRACTIONS, There is a time when youth and beauty are comparatively independent of external aids. So there was a time in Israel when no special devices were needed to keep the admiration and envy of the world. David and Solomon made the kingdom great, not by a dexterous concealment of poverty and hollow- ness under external magnificence, but by a Rimple and scarcely avoidable exhibition of the greatness of real resources. The kingdom was one of strong men, valiant warriors, and overflowing material wealth. So it is with individuals still. They attract and influence, not by vain pretensions, but by what they really are. 'l.'he attractive clement in them may be overvalued, but at all events it is not a mere appearance, Nothing is gained by refusing to admit the success and charm of natural resources, Confidence in them is justified by the way in which the world receives and encourages thoi,e who possess them. II. 'l's:E FOLLY OF FORGETTING THAT NATURAL ATTRACTIONS HUST FADE AND DIII- APPEAB, Prouably they are but comparatively few-those vain men and women who use dyes, cosmetics, and paints, under the notion that thereby they conceal the ravages of time. Nevertheless, ludicrous as such devices are, there are only too many who do the same thing, so far as the essential principle is concerned, 'l'hey cannot be got to admit tlre failure of power and faculty. Habit is too strong to enable them rightly to apprehend their diminished resources. Hosea said of Ephraim, "Gray hairs are hero and there upon him, yet he knoweth not" (vii. 9). 'l'here may even be a nobler side to such a spirit, viz. the resolution not to give way before difficulties. But we must take care that an admirable element in conduct does not blind us to what may be dis- adva:itageous or even perilous in it; e.g. one hears sometimes of judges afflicted with deafness-a most dangerous infirmity in the administration of justice, and at least a most discommoding one to all who have to address the judge. What is needed is that, even in the days of youth and strength, of unimpaired faculties of sense and intellect, one shonld remember that far other days are coming, Consider in connection with this the last eighteen verses of Ecclesiastes. The spectacles and the speaking-trumpet are all very well in their way, so far as they make an easier, smoother slope to the grave; but what folly it is to be assiduous about these things, and utterly careless about that new, Di vine, and eternal life which shows itself in all the grandeur of its peculiar principle and strength, precisely amid the decays of the natural man I What sadder sight can there be than an old man, clinging to the worn, torn, weather-beaten, age-marked sidos of his ea1thly tabernacle, and doing his best to resist every incursion from the fore- runners of death ; simply because he knows of no better mansion, because ho is utterly ignorant of the "house of God not made with hands, eternal in the heavens" 1-Y. en. v. 1-31.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 113