The Pulpit Commentary — Jeremiah — Volume 1 — Section 222

soon detect the fallacy which underlies them. Outward events do not always correspond to inward experiences; the latter have their own separate conditions. God may deal mercifully with us now and in earthly things, but his present forbenr- ance is no proof that we shall never suffer from his righteous wrath in tho season of judgment. II. THE MOST HOPEFUL EXTERNAL EVENT DEEPENS THE SENSE OF TRE INTERNAL DISTRESS WITH wmcR IT 1s CONTRASTED. The harvest pnst, and yet undelivered I 1. .A new stage of time has gone, and the deliverance is still delayed. 2. Outside events ch1mge, but the essential condition remains unchanged. 3. Material good is enjoyed while real good is still unattained, and this makes the minor blessing seem but a mockery. 4. God is merciful, and yet we are not delivered! Some fearful evil must be at the foundation of such a strange condition. 6. .A time of rest is looked for but comes not. After harvest should come rest. Distress is heightened by the disappoint- ment of expected deliverance. 6. Approaching troubles increase the gloom of present distress. The harvest is past. Now we look forward to chill autumn, to stormy winter. Not saved in harvest! What are we to expect in less propitious times? Ver. 22.-" Balm in Gilead." I. 'l'HE WORLD NEEDS REMEDIES FOB 111:0R.AL .AND socr.AL HEALING. Jeremiah regarded the Jews as wounded by the cruel calamities which were to overwhelm them; but beneath the wounds he detected an unhealthy national condition which equally needed healing. Men suffer thus from the external wounds of adversity and from the internal disease of sin. How small a part of mankind can be considered in a thoroughly healthy condition I Men are not only imperfectly developed; they are suffering from positive disorders. The world needs medicine as well as food-the physician as well as the farmer. Nations need healing for political disorganization within and wrongs of subjection to a foreign yoke without. Society sadly requires to be purified, even regenerated. Individual men suffer from the smart of sorrow and -the disease of sin-both signs of an imperfect, disorganized condition, needing cure. The one disease which is at the root of all the chief maladies of man- kind is moral evil. The forgiveness of sins must come as a healing of sickness (Mark ii. 9). IL MANY PROFESSED BElll:EDIES ABE FORTHCOMING. Gilead has her balm. Every new physician has his patent nostrum. The world does not suffer from the small number of remedies which have been proposed to cure all the ills that flesh is heir to. It is rather in danger of being poisoned by a superabundance of most incon 6ruous drugs. Every religion brings its own remedy. Philosophy, in its highest a:noition, aims at a practical cure of society. Political innovations, social reforms, education, sanitary improvements,-all seek this result. - lll. No EARTHLY REMEDIES SUFFICE FOB THE NEEDED CURE. The balm of Gilead is fuund in abundance, but, alas I it will not heal the smart or Israel. Physicians advise, but their advice is futile. Nothing could effect the deliverance of the Jews in the dayR of Jeremiah, though lying prophets and astute politicians did their best. No earthly remedy can heal the widespread evil of the world (Isa. i. 6). 1. Earthly remedies are !Xternal. They may change the social order; they cannot cnre the false ideas, irregu- lated passions, and vitiated conscience of which the habits of society are but symptoms. Spiritual disease must be treated with spiritual medicine. The physici:-n for the body can do little in ministering to" the mind diseased." You cannot make men moral by the strictest puritanical legislation. (1) The disease of sin is in the heart, and the remedy must reach the heart. (2) So the deepe8t distress of mankind cannot be cured by the amelioration of physical comforts. A princely legacy is 110 consolation to a mother for the loss of her child. 2. Earthly remedies parfolce of the character of tl16 disease. Human religions bear on their faces the marks of that very moral corruption which they aim at destroying. Sin can only be cured by something outside the sinful world; sorrow, by something above the scene of human distresses. We must go further than Gilead for the true balm, for Gilead will share with Israel the trouble for which we seek a remedy. IV. Goo llA.S PROVIDED HIS OWN REMEDY FOR TIIE 111:0RAL .AND SOCIAL HEALING OF THE WORLD. Christ is •~ the good Physician." 'l'he miracles of healing which ho wrought on the bodies of men were signs of the work he came to e[ect for their souls. orr. VIII. 1-22.J 'l'HE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 221 ----------------------------- - - - - - - 1. Christ's remedy comes from higher than hwma;n sources. The healing of the sinless One is not tainted with the corruption which marks all simply human attempts at cure. 2. Christ's remedy goes to the root of the evil of mankind. His great work is not to effect an external revolution of society, but to cleanse the conscience (Heb. ix. 14) and heal the heart. 3. Individually, healing is brought to aU, and the worst cases are just those for which Christ chiefly came (Matt. ix. 12). When all other remedies fail, his is most effectual, because it is (1) most needed, and (2) most 11Iori.6ed by the result. 4. Society must be healed by the application of Christian principles to politics, to commerce, to literature, to recreation, to domestic life.