The Pulpit Commentary — Jeremiah — Volume 1 — Section 205

our own land. And many still, perhaps, need sorely tbe admonitory counsel to ,, 0 to Shiloh, and see what the Lord has done there. But not in material edifices alon; nor even in those gathered communities to which more properly tbe name of Chu~ches belongs, need we go to find instances of God-forsaken shrines. For inasmuch as we all are "temples of the Holy Ghost," so St. Paul tells us, and our own experience confirms his word, it is possible to find only too many illustrations of this same mournful fact. Take the ever-memorable example and warning of the fallen apostle Judas. What a shrine of the Holy Ghost he once was I How richly gifted! how gloriously endowed I He came with the rest, saying," Lord, even the devils are subject to us through thy Name." He with the rest" ate and drank in Christ's presence, and in his Name did many wonderful works." He enjoyed the fellowship of Christ, and by him was sent forth in his Name. But behold him giving place to the devil, yielding his soul up to the demon of covetousness and worldly ambition, and then acting as the guide to them who arrested the Lord, betraying the Son of man with a kiss, and then, when too late he awoke to see the madness and horror of what he had done, rushing forth to seek and find a suicide's grave in the .Aceldama, "the fielu of blood," purchased by the price of his traitorous go.in. .And Ananias and Sapphira and Demas and yet others, what are they all but deplorable instances and names of these God-forsaken shrines? And have we not known such? Men who prayed, and worshipped, and taught, at1d preached, and then, having denied the Lord who bought them, fell away, and found henceforth nothing but "a fearful looking for of judgment" and of the "fiery indignation " of God destined to be poured out on all such as they. Ah! it is a sight which might well make angels weep, e.nd which drew forth the bitter tears of the Son of God himself. III. AND IN EVERY CASE THE CAUSE OF THIS FORSAKING OF THEM BY Gon WAS ONE AND THE SAME. It was always" wickedness." Not any outward circumstance, not any of those secondary causes which we a.re so apt to regard e.s the real ea.use. But this which these verses so plainly declare. It was so even in those ruined edifices to which we referred at the beginning of this homily. History will tell you how gross immo- rality and horrible corruption found o. too-ready home in those fair fabrics which had been reared for far other purposes and with far other desi_gn, But "wickedness" having made them its haunt and home, the people, roused to fierce wrath, rose up :i.nd tore them down, and their grey, ivy-clad stones utter forth to this day such message as that in our text. .And in all those other instances to which we have pointed, whether temples made with hands, whether Churches or individual men, it bas ever bee □ sin, sin, which has wrought all this evil. .And in that every-day fact of bodily death we have the standing type of this terrible truth, "'l'he wages of sin is death." That body once so bright, so foll of energy, so lit up with intelligence and love, so possessed too, it may he.ve been, with the Spirit of God, so fair, so lovely to look upon when life dwelt in it, now in death,-what is it but a God-forsaken shrine, and hence doomed to return," earth to earth, dust to dust, e.nd o.shes to ashes"? We are so accustomed to de:i.th that this its solemn lesson we are ever forgetting or puttir;g out of sight. IV. BUT ALL THESE SHlLOHB HAVE A MESSAGE FROM GoD UNTO UB, ACCORDING TO WHAT WE ARE. We every one of us arc either examples of these forsaken ones, or becoming so, or, blessed be God, still habitations for him through the Spirit. Now, if wo be already forsaken of God, then if this fact be-as surely it should be, and as we trus~ it is-a matter of sore distress to us, then there is a gracious word to us if we be willing to hear it. .All of us were once "temples of God." \Ve can lw,k back to the time when none of the unclean spirits that now haunt and harm us so terribly hod any home in our souls; when thoughts were pure, hands un<lofiled, and our lips unpolluted with evil. Our fathers e.nd mothers brought us to be bnptized, or in other ways recognized the blessed truth that we belonged to the Father, the Son, o.nd the Spirit. And in our childhood de.ye we, as all children a.re, were members of tho kingdom of heaven.. Ilut what are we now? 0 God, it is dreadful to think of what some are now I Tho desolate ruins of once glorious Churches; the lifeless bodies that we carry to the gra".e a.re but faint types of what some of these God-forsaken ones have become. And can 1t be the.t e.ny are willing to continue so, e.nd thus make it inevitable that God should sweep you a.way into the hell of e.ll corruption? Oh no; you cannot be willing that that should be. Well then, if you tremble at such doom, as well you may, listen: God will re-enter hia shri~e, and make you once again his temples. Yes, be will do that. Ilc will  204 'l'HE BOOK 01<' THE PROPHE'l' JEREMIAH. [on. vu. 1-34.