The Pulpit Commentary — Jeremiah — Volume 1 — Section 126

of which, personally, they are not guilty; but every one he.s the opportunity of im- proving the world, by doing his best to keep his own heart right. Others are to blame, and there are times when they must be faced, blamed, and resisted; but there is given a daily need, duty, and opportunity to do in our own hearts what no one else 'l..'l.ll do for us. II. How COMPREHENSIVE AND .CONFIDENT THE CHALLENGE IS. It amounts to thi.:1, that there cannot be found in all Jerusnlcm one man who is just iu all his dealings, and a seeker after truth. Not one. Must we, then, take this literally? The answer is No, and Yes. It would have been strange if Jerusalem had become so utterly bad~ place that every soul within it was perverted from the ways of right and truth. There must have been some men desiring and striving to live a right life. We bear in mind what God said to Elijah when Elijah said, in the despair and bitterness of his !ieart, that only he was left to serve God. Not so by any means; tbe searchina God, who counts hearts where fallible men can only count heads, told his prophet there were still seven thousand with knees unbowed to Baal. And did not Jeremiah dis- cover from his own experience that there were some on Jehovah's side (eh. xxvi. 24; xxxix. 15-18)? But they were not enough to exert a leavening and recovering influence. And yet the very men whom we may call good and just and true, seeing something of the right, and trying to do it as far as they saw, would have drawn back in confusion and self-distrust if they bad been asked, in a.direct way and so that the question could not be evaded, "Do you answer this description?" "Are you doers of justice and seekers after truth?" In trying to answer such a question, would not the moments of unfaithfulness and hesitation come to mind-the occasions when they were tempted to escape from loss .and pain by some convenient compromise? It will never do for us to congratulate ourselves on being a great deal better than others so Jong as we come short of what God wants us to be. 111. The thing to be specially considered is, how TWB ACCUSATION APPLIES TO THE GREAT JIU.SB OF THE PEOPLE. Many would have said, cynically enough," Justice and truth are no concern of ours." 'l'hese are words that sound very well in general statements; but directly the attempt is made to bring them close to the individual, it is alleged that they do not apply, or else there is the name and not the thing. Things are called just which are not just, and true which are utterly false. Let men of noble minds talk of justice and truth, and only too many are found to allege that such s1•eaking is but cant and byprocrisy. When Jesus ·said to Pilate that be came into the world to bear wituess to the truth, Pilate answered him with the question, "What has truth got to do with the matter?" Men want to get on, to get rich, to get Jrnown, to live easily, to satisfy the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eye and tue pride of life; aud the claims of justice and truth would make sad havoc with such purposes. '!'hose who ha,e learned from Christ that justice and truth are great necessities of life, necessities in a far higher sense than food and clothing, have often to notice, with great pain and concern, the number of those who do not seem to have any conception of what it is really to do justice and seek after truth. 'l'hey do not comprehend the objects which God and Christ set before them any more than a blind man comprehends colours. Why, then, blame them? it may be asked. 'l'he blame is that they will not come to Christ that they may have sight. 'l'o Christians the power and disposition are given to do justice. 'l'he spirit is put in them to seek for truth as those who seek for hid treasures, and those who seek with such a zeal aud impulse can ne,·er seek in vain.-Y. Vcrs. 3-6.-<Jliaslisement tnwarted by universal stubbornness. I. THE FACT THAT GoD'B crrABTISEMENTS ARE THWARTED. The chastisements are evidently indicated as severe, and the reason of the severity is hinted in the 'preliminary ques- tion. God is looking for truth, looking for it in the midst of oaths broken nncl despised. He looks for faithfulness in all the ways in which it can be shown. 'l'!1~rc must be correspondence between promises and performances; there must be_ stab1h~y (,!'character; the character must Le such that men will be the samo out of sight a3 rn sight, working as ever in the Great Taskmaster's eye. Moreover, G.:id cannot be put o_fi by the most plausible appearance cf fidelity; he knows always whether the heart 1s ~tcndfast in its affection and zeal. And thus seeing all this insincerity among his en. v. 1-31.) 'l'HE IlOOK OF THE PROPHET JERE111All. 123