The Pulpit Commentary — Jeremiah — Volume 1 — Section 160

spiritual force. It ie by bearing the Word, and looking into the mirror it affords that a man is discovered to himself. ' 11. DETERMINE DESTINY. Sometimes in a good, sometimes in a bad sense. In the case before us it ie wholly the latter. As there was no reality or earnestness in Israel, so there was no point at which a commencement could be made towards rcforma.ti0n. They are all concluded guilty and worthless. It was a severe judgrnent, but was meant in mercy to the people themselves. They were thereby warned of the need of radical change, and the supernatural, saving grace of God. It is by the determinations and effects produced by the hearing of the Word that the future is influenced. There is a distinct moral responsibility incurred each time the truth is proclaimed i1. our hearing. Nothing else so searches into and potently ;affects the moral nature, because the conscience is most vividly aroused and reality in all its naked force bursts upon the soul. The furthest developments of personal character, interest, and occupa- tion may be thus conditioned: "See, then, how ye hear!" IIJ. ABE CAREFULLY ADAPTED, BY INCBEABINGLY SEVERE PROCESSES, TO EFFECT THEIR END. They result in rejection, and this is rendered inevitable by the utter worthlessness of character and work exhibited. If there is any good in a man, the truth will discover it, and sympathetically develop and reinforce it; if not, it will only the more utterly and unquestionably condemn him. The ear does not try words more delicately or decisively than words of God try the heart. According to their spiritual state will men be condemned, approved; received or rejected by the hearing of the gospel. Some men have been tried and condemned by it already; to others it opens more and more widely the door of hope.-M. Vers. 1-8.-A dreadful onlook. Such was the vision of Jeremiah which be saw concerning the coming wrath upon Judah and Jerusalem. It was the sad sight which the sinners in Jerusalem never, but the seer ever, saw clearly, vividly, heart-brokenly. The vision of Jeremiah for Jerusalem was the forerunner of our Lord's in substance, spirit, and result. Now, with regard to this awful onlook of the prophet which is here related, note- I. How SOLITARY IT WAS. The people of Judah and Jerusalem were in no fear, and for forty years and more this vision was not realized. Other eyes saw nothing to be troubled about, and men generally were at ease in Zion. It was only the purged vision of the prophet that pierced the future and portrayed the dread realities of that fast-coming day. He saw clearly what others saw not at all. And so it is always. But why is this? Why do sinners not see? Take an answer from those senseless exhibitions in which the performers place themselves in positions of frightful peril, so that a moment's unsteadiness of nerve, the slightest slipping of hand or foot, would lead to their immediate inevitable and dreadful death; running all this risk to aruuse the gaping, shameless crowds, who stare, stamp, and shout their applause at what never ought to be done. But let these performers provide us a reply to the question we have asked. They will tell you that at first they approached those dangerous places with great fear ; how it was long ere they could walk with ease along that slender cord, or stand fearless on that dizzy height. But they got at length so used to these things that now they go through their perilous performances without the slightest fear. Ami so is it with grievous sinners agninst God. They have got so used to the threatening of his anger that they think nothing of it after a while, and go on unconcernedly until almost the moment of hie vengeance bursts upon them. "Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore," etc. Their heart wishes that there may be nought to fear. The long-suffering and forbearance of God aro perverted, by the deceitfulness of sin, to foster that belief, and so they at lengtr persuade themselves that what God's servants see so clearly and warn them of so faithfully has no real existence, and "as it was in the days of Noah, so is it also in tho days when the Son of man cometh." Oh, what need for the prayer, "From all the deceits of the world, the flesh, and the devil, good Lord, deliver us " I II. How VIVIDLY BEEN. Jeremiah sees the hurried flocking of the Benjamites (see Exposition), the terrified inhabitants of Jerusalem, to some common centre in the city, and then their basting away out of the southern. gates towards Tokoa, one of tho pouthernmost cities of thu land, and furthest off froru tho dread invaders, who were  158 THE BOOK OF 'l'HE PROPHET JEREMIAH. [on. VI. 1-80.