eo bad as to make death desirable would seem to them to show that the threatener of such a doom was overdoing his warnings. ll, LIFE MAY BECOME SO FULL OF PAIN AND MISERY THAT THIS NATURAL DREAD MAY BE REVERSED. When the blow was struck and Jerusalem fell into the bands of the hosts from Babylon, thousands would be thankful that, amid so much destruction, their lives were spared. To lose possessions and go into exile would seem a light price to pay for the preservation of life. But with the increased experience of exile itself its dreadfulness became manifest. How could it be otherwise? The captivity anrl exile were not of an ordin:i.ry nation, but of one whose God was Jehovah. These people had been in the enjoyment of peculiar privileges and satisfactions, which they had come to accept as a matter of course ; and when they lost them, they ,vould then discern, if never before, something of their true value. It was out of a land of promise, a laud reserved for the people of God, that they had been cast, and no lapse of time could content them to be as other nations. It is just because man has within him such capabilities for enjoying life that he can be driven to the other extreme of desiring death. Life could not be so blessed as Christ holds out the hope of its being, unless there were also the possibility of its being correspondingly wretched. III. It is thus suggested that we should aim at reaching a state of mind such that EITHER LIFE OR DEATII SHOULD BE EQUALLY ACCEPTABLE. To prefer life to death is a natural feeling, but certainly not the feeling which a believer in God and Jesus should have. And to prefer death to life is the feeling which comes after a time of struggling, weariness, pain, and disappointment; but what darkness of the mind does this not prove I what inability to profit by the light which shines in Christ! The Christian medium lies between the two extremes. Not to wish to live, nor to wish to die, but to be in Christ's hands, so that as long as we are living there may be an availing of every opportunity of service, and when we die a fresh proof that faith in the Saviour who also died, but rose again, is no deluding vanity. It is one of the glorious aspects of Christ's salvation that he can save men from crying out for death rather than life,, just because he can lift them into an experience of joy and peace which overbear the sense of temporal pain and loss.-Y.
Vers. 4-7.-The unnatural conduct of Jerusalem. Still more humiliation for the proud, self-satisfied city. The prophet comes with a heavenly light, revealing the very foundations of her glory, and showing how unsubstantial they are, how easily exposed as contradicting truth and the highest propriety. What is aimed at here is to set before me.n, by the force of contrast, what he ought to be, in the sum of all bis faculties made one by a will which acts according to the commandment of God. And so we see- I. A LESSON FROM THE SUBORDINATE PART OF MAN'S NATURE. If a man falls, he instantly attempts to rise again. Even if there is some serious injury, it is commonly discovered by the failure of the man's llttempt to rise; and so from the subonlinale pl\rt of om nature there is a rebuke to the higher and governing po.rt. A very striking instance of such ll rebuko would be given in the falling of a drunken man to the ground. He staggers to his feet age.in if he can. If he remains on the ground it is a sign, to use the common expression, that " he is very far gone indeed;" and in such an instance may we not truly say that the body is rebuking the will for its imbecility and its base slavery to appetite? So if a man is going anywhere, and turns unwittingly from the straight path; such a turning may be made very easily, e.nd the wrong path be kept in for a while, but presently theru will _be some sign to show the error, e.nd with more or less delay there will be a return to the right path. Here, then, e.re two instances, levol with the experience of everybody, of what is natural for man to do, viz. come back from a wrong state as soon as ever he can; e.nd if the position be only looked at truly, it will be seen that it is as unnatural for a man _to remain in spiritual degradation as to con- tinue lying on the ground. II. A LESSON FROM THAT PART OF THE OREATION WIIICH IS SUBJECTED TO MAN. There is the horse. He can be so trained as to become a potont force in the battle-field, and if he becomes uncontrollable and rushes hither and thither, e.s dangerous to friend e.s to foe it is not because of any rebellious purpose, but a brief madness has seized on him. Let a few hours pass, and he may be submi~sive and serviceable as before. "We put bitf in the horses' months, that they may obey us; and wo turn about their whole body." 236 THE BOOK OF 'l'HE PROPHB'l' JEREMIAH. [011. vru. 1-22,