The Pulpit Commentary — Jeremiah — Volume 1 — Section 198

done still? It is to be feared that not a few suck a poisonous pleasure from the blessed doctrine of the forgiving love of God. Thus the gospel itself may become a "snvour of death unto death " to those who thus "make Christ the Minister of sin." And because religion has been seen so often severed from righteousness, and sometimes even minister- ing to unrighteousness, mauy have been and are eager to sweep it away altogether as a hindrance rather than a help to moral well-being. A highly educated German gentle- man, whom the writer met abroad, expressed it as his strong and deliberate conviction that the religiousness and the decay of a people stand related as cause and effect. He argued that England must sink because her leading statesman wo.s an eminently reli- gious man. And were religion necessarily or generally severed from righteousness, still more if it were necessarily or generally opposed to righteousness, then it would deserve the denunciation of all right-minded men, and the sooner it were swept utterly out of the ,my the better. But all we can say is that if righteousness be not found in company with religion, it is to be found nowhere else; and if the Church of God, the great com- pany of those who profoss to be actuated by religious motives and aims, do not furnish and nurture God-like and righteous souls, then there is no other company on the face of the earth that does so. Bad as the Church may be, the world is far worse. V. WHAT, THEN, IS OUR DUTY? Not to inveigh against religion, still less to seek its destruction, but to do all we can to restore the original and God-designed relationship between it and righteousness. "What God bath joined together, let," etc. And it is on this restoration of right relationship between the two that God so strenuously and sternly insists here and throughout his Word. If (ver. 3) they will amend their ways, then his ulessing; but if not, he will have no mercy. He cites the instance of Shiloh as a solemn warning to them (ver. 14). Ho forbids Jeremiah even to pray for them whilst they continue as they are (Yer. 16). He pours his contempt upon all their religion, their burnt offerings, and sacrifices (ver. 21), whilst severed from righteousness. He tells them that all along in their history, from the first until now, he had asked for, though be bad never received it from them, not religion merely, but righteousness- obedience to bis Word (vers. 21-28). Instead of that they had committed all abomi- nation, and therefore they should miserably perish (vers. 29-34). How dreadful, then, must be the separation, and yet more the antagonism, between these whom God united ! .As he gave Eve to be a help-meet to Adam, so did be give religion to be the help-meet of righteousness. Let us tremble with a holy fear if we find ourselves able to go on contentedly in religious observances, whilst conscience becomes less and less sensitive, and our love and loyalty to righteousness grow feebler day by day. Our subject shows us that such a disastrous condition is possible. But that we may escape it, let us resolve that, inasmuch as God has given us religion for our help-a help which.our blessed Lord himself ever made use of- " Cold mountains and the midnight air Witnessed the fervour of his prayer;" -we will know the possibilities of help towards holiness which undoubtedly it contain~. Let us set ourselves to seek the " baptism of the Holy Ghost" and" the enduements of power" which come therefrom. If we do thus set ourselves to seek these, they shall be ours, for they are most certainly promised; so shall religion and righteousness abide in that most intimate and hallowed union which God from the firijt designed for them, and our righteousness, ministered to by its God-given help-meet religion, shall faroxceed that of the scribes and Pharisees, yea, shall advance ever nearer to that most glorious attainment, in which we shall be as our Saviour bid us be-" perfect, as our Father in heaven is perfect."-C. Ver. 3.-The indispensahle conditio1?, of all grace. ".Amend your ways," etc. Se6 how this demand for amendment is reiterated in this chapter and throughout this prophecy. Aud we observe- L IT IB EVER so. 1. &e the Word of God. The prodigal had to come away from the far country first. John the Baptist, our Lord, and his apostles all preached repent- ance before pardon. The Law comes before the gospel. ::l. Conscience confirms the justice of this demand. We feel it to be a monstrous thing that, without any turning from 6in even in purpose, there should be an eipectation of God's grace. 3. Men mako 011. vu. 1-34.J THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAll. 191