fashion, custom, society. What would be thought of them if they did not go to chw-ch? 3. Or a method of quieting conscience. '!'hey come awuy a11d think they have wiped off the score that was against them. '!'hey say (vcr.10)," We arc delivered [see Exposition] to do," etc. 4. Or to set au example t.o those they are pleased to call •• the lower orders; " like the philosophers of old, who, whilst they held all religions to be equally false, yet regarded them all as indispensably useful. 5. Or a.a a means -for so many regarded such things-of ;propitiating the Divine favour and securing 11 title to heaven by-and-by. Ilut there i.s no end to the motives which lcacl. such men to do that which, to more honest-hearted people, appears a. mockery, an absurdity, and yet worse. IV. LISTEN TO THE LoRo's WORD To SUCH. He tells them: 1. They were getting no good whatsoever from such worship (ver. 3). 2. They were completely deceiving themselves (ver. 4). 3. They were neglecting that amendment of their ways which would save them (ver. 5). 4. They were grossly insulting God (vers. 10, 11). 5. '!'hey were blind to notorious facts: e.g. Shiloh (ver. 12); Ephraim (ver. 15). 6. Thorough reformation was alone the way of life for thew (vers. 3, 7). "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting."-0. Vers. 9-11.-Sacrilege. I. WHAT :PO WE GENERALLY UNDERSTAND BY THIS WORD? 1. Some use it of disregard of ritual. 2. Others of secular employment of sacred places or things. 3. Others of those persons whom they regard as unauthorized presuming to minister in holy things. 4. Others of robbing churches, etc. But without discussing these, let us note- II. WHAT Goo COUNTS AS SACRILEGE. It is declared here (ver. 11). It is when men tum the Church of God into a den of robbers. Our Lord charged this upon the religionists of his day. Jeremiah charges it, in God's Na.me, upon those to whom he was sent. Costly, splendid, correct, continual worship was duly carried on. Irre- verence-and how much less sacrilege I-would seem to be a charge utterly unfit for those who worshipped in such manner. And yet, though the word be not here used, the thing itself is emphatically told of as the very crime which these people were flagrantly guilty of. Turning God's house, which was called by his Name, into a clen of robbers,-if that be not sacrilege, what else is? They robbed one another (vers. 5, 6). They robbed God. And the temple was their haunt, as their den is the robbers' haunt; and there they found rest, and prepared themselves for further crime (ver. 10), a.s does the robber in his den. It is an awful indictmeat. But under one or other of the counts of such indictment they a.re assuredly chargeable who frequent the house of God, not for the high and holy purposes for which the worship of God was designed, but that, a.s in ver. 10, they may get peace of mind in regard to their past sins and so be free to go and sin a.gain. "With such usal(e the temple is not a place of salvation, bnt a refu~e for robbers, where they purify themselves from the blood of their evil deeds, so as to be the readier for new ones." 'l'herefore all they who "make Christ a Minister of sin," who, instead of deliverance from sin, get comfort in it by their religious observances, who shelter themselves from all foa.r of God's anger and silence the warnings of conscience by "coming and standing before God in his house which is called by his Name," though their object be only "to be delivered to do all these abominations," and not a.t all to be saved from them,-these are the s11crilegious, and their profanation of holy things is the worst of a.II. III. THINK OF THE RESULTS OF suoII SACnILEGE. 1. How God is dishonoured I 2. How his service is ma.de hateful in the eyes of men I What a stumbling-block it is to those who would turn to God I 3. How it hardens the man's own soul I 4. How it necessitates the judgrnent of God I IV. WHAT SHOULD BU0H A BUBJEOT TEACII us? Surely, when in the house of God, to pray that if any have come there in sacrilegious manner, God's Spirit, the Lord of the temple, may meet with them and turn them from their evil way. Should we not also search and see if there be any such evil way in ourselves? And let our prayer be unto him who when on earth drove forth with scourges the "robbers" whom he fouad in the temple, that he would be pleased, by the scourge of his Spirit and his Word, to cu. vu. 1-34.J THE llOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 201
drive forth from all in his house now all in them that would rob him of his glory and their souls of eternal life.-C.