The Pulpit Commentary — Jeremiah — Volume 1 — Section 129

prophet spoke. He hoo. to deal with an actual present as well as a foreshadowed future. The present in which he and his audience lived teemed with idolatry, perjury fraud, and oppression. These things were not lies. It was no lie to point to th~ manifest seed that Israel was sowing, and surely thllre was nothing more really reason- able than that there should be a reaping according to the sowing. At this height of rejection, then, God steps in to vindicate and honour his fuithful servant. It is a melancholy kind of distinction, but a distinction nevertheless. His words were not only true words, but most terribly near to their fulfilment. It wa.s not that Jeremiah himself was an agent in destroying, but his words became so immediately true, there was such a rapid production and concentration of the a.gents of destruction, as to make it quite proper to say that these words of the prophet were as consuming fire. But a fow years, and many of these despisers found that the allegcJ lies were only too pain- folly true. It is not over lapsing centuries that we have to look for the fulfilment of Jeremiah'e gloomy prediction. Isaiah long before had sounded the note of warning, and now the peril is close at hand. It was inevitable that Jeremiah should speak with an urgency and excitement absent from the messages of his great predecessor. As the time of chastisement drew nearer, the warnings had to be louder, more disturbing, possibly more continuous. The mariner setting out on his voyage may be warned of some special danger lying in his track; but the adviser, while he may speak very earnestly, will not speak as does the man who, when the helmsman is close upon the danger, shouts to him, with utmost excitement and agitation, at once to change his course. God gave to Jeremiah this melancholy satisfaction, that while he had been, to his heart's deepest sorrow, a messenger of woe, he had yet been approved, on the surest evidence, as a messenger of truth.-Y. Ver. 22.-.A lesson from the raging sea. I. WE OBSERVE Goo FIXING LIMITS WITHIN WIIICH HIS CREATURES EXEROISE THEIR POWER. Jehovah speaks here of the sea in particular, but just because it happens to be an excellent representative, for the pur- pose in view, of the rest of his creation. We may notice God's boundaries in many places and at different seasons, and surely it must often strike thoughtful minds, us they walk by the mighty deep, tha.t there is, in the arrangement of sea. and land, an exquisite illustration of the unfailing wisdom of God. Here is this vast mass of water, covering the surface of the globe, ever in motion and yet ever keeping its place. Tho true state of the case is even more wonderful than that which was presented to Jeremiah. To him the earth was a fiat expanse, and the beach would have the aspect of au embankment which really kept the water back, We, aided by the discoveries of science, know that the real limiting forces of the sea work in a much more mysterious manner. But, of course, the fundamental truth is the same. There must be a great aud loving intelligence at work, keeping the waters within their appointed boUllds. II. OnsEBVE THE 0OlllPABISON WlllCH IS MADE BETWEEN DISOBEDIENT MAN AND THB BEA IN A STATE OF STORM. The sea. easily gets a kind of personality, and the sea in a storm is very like a proud man chafing against tho barriers which confine him, and trying to break them down. More than that, when God looks down into human society, underneath the (to us) often calm surface, he must see little else than stormy agitation, one human billow dashing against another, each individual in his self- assertion contributing to make a general disturbance, and a disturbance which appa- rently will not soon have an end. And yet the sea, with all its fury and roar and threatening, with all the destruction it may work out in its own sphere, is powerless to overwhelm the solid land. In the strength of their confidence, men would build large cities close to the ocean-brink and inhabit them without fear. 'l'hey will go down and look at the tempest in its utmost fury, sure that they are safe. A few ye.r<ls make all tho difference between tho agony of deadly peril and perfect ease of mind. The mora furious the storm is, the grander it makes the sight without in any wise diminish- ing the feeling of safety. Ill. HENCE THERE 18 INDICATED THE FOLLY OF ALL HUMAN OPPOSITION TO Goo. The storm rises; it may destroy many ships and lives; but in due time the calm returns and the great features of tho sceno appear tho same. The land is still there. And sn men may chafe arrninst the commandments and purposes of God, and nll\y go ou witliout int!Jrvalsof cp.lm, even eii:cccding t\lc s<:a in the contiuuity of their violl'I\CQ. 12G THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. [on. v.1-31.