is led to regard his mission, and the troubles of Israel, with which this is 80 much concerned, as means for testing the character of the Jews. I. THE STANDARD OF MEASUnEMENT 18 DIVINE TRUTH. The prophet is to be an assayer. Men are to be judged by the truths of righteousness which he is inspired to see and to declare. God has revealed standards of judgment. \Ve are not free to shape our lives according to fancy, taste, or unaided private judgrnent. The truths of Scripture constitute the standard by which we shall be measured. This will be applied according as it is known. Jeremiah was the watchman before he was the assayer. He blew the trumpet, preached the truth he saw. They who have not received the fuller revelation will be judged by what light they possess (Rom. i. 18-20; ii. 12). IT. THE TEST IS APPLIBD IN THE FIRES OF AFFLICTION. Trouble is not only sent for discipline and chastisement; it is a test, a revealer of character. It reveals a man to himself and to others. If he has any true spiritual life, any precious metal, it must come out when, one after another, the worthless ideas and feelings fail before the search- ing flames of the baptism of fire. Trouble shows: 1. Whether religion is real and heartfelt, or formal and superficial. 2. How far faith is a practical trust, and how far it is a barren conviction. 3. Whether love and devotion to God are deep enough to stand against the temptation to rebel or despair. III. THEY ARE UTTERLY WORTHLESS WHO DISPLAY NO GOOD QUALITillS AFTER THE SEARCHING TRIAL OF AFFLICTION. This follows from the preceding statements. It was terribly applicable to Israel. We should ask how far it applies to ourselves, and beware of two delusions, viz.: 1. The delusion that merit may be still hidden after God has applied his most thorough test. .A religion which is completely secret, never discoverable, must be a poor and worthless thing. The heart cannot be right if it never gives proof of good qualities when tested in all ways. 2. The delusion that trial can destroy spiritual worth. The silver is not burnt if it is not forthcoming. True religion will survive the hardest test that may be applied to it. It is only the superficial, unreal sentiment of religion that is scorched up by persecution and affliction; the growth on the barren rock, not that in the good soil (Matt. xiii. 5, 20, 21). IV. Gon WILL REJECT NONE WITHOUT FULL TRIAL. Character is to be assayed. God judges before he condemns. The reprobate silver has been well tried. No soul is reprobated by Goe. till every means has been used to search for some good in it. See, then, the merciful intention of trial. The fires are fierce because the intention is to discover some small good thing hidden from every milder test, if only this exists. Gou is not anxious to find the evil, but to find the good, in men, as the assayer is searching for silver. He will gladly welcome the faintest indication of the least good. No genuine silver can miss the .Assayer after his most searching tests. God will aban<lon no soul till he has sought for all that can be brought in its favour. He is loth to givo his chifdren up (Hos. xi. 8). -
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS .AUTHORS. Vers. 4-8.-The apostate city that cannot be let alone. Godlessness is condemned by its impracticableness as a universal and thorough-going principle of human life. H is also an evil that defies ordinary restraints, and constantly becomes worse. "This is the strongest and most dangerous mining-powder of cities and fortres~es when sin, shame, vice, and wantonness get the upper hand" (Cramer). The city that has for- saken God is- I. .A SOURCE OF MISCHIEF AND UNCLEANNESS. It is likened to a fountain casting forth wickedness. It is an originative agent of evil. Its private, social, and public life multiplies occasions and causes of sin. There is no power within itself sufficient to restrain or purify. Its very laws and regulations tend to foster vice. As of the natural heart our Saviour said that out of it "proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, etc.," so, where there are multitudes of such, thcro will be an exaggeration of the individual tendency and influence. .As the leader of fashion, and dominant !Luthority in new customs and ideas, there is an lclat transferred from it to what is evil. Its existence becomes, therefore- IT. AN OCCASION OF INJURY AND DANGER TO ALL WllO llAVE TO DO WITII IT. Jt 1u4 THE BOOK OF THE PHOPHE'l' JEREMIAH. (en. vr. 1-30.