II. WHAT ARE THE COUNTERVAILING ADVANTAGES ·wmcH LIGHT UP THIS MYSTERY~ It cannot be wholly to the detriment of those in whom it is illustrated. The justice of God is involved in the question. 1. The keenest joys spring from or coincide with the deepest, purest sorrows. 2. By-and-by the sorrow will transfer itself to its objects, in the grace of repentance. 3. In at least one illustrious instance, it exerts an atoning, mediatorial influence/or sinners with God.-M. Vers. 2, 3.-The man of God's longing/or seclusion. I. IT IS THE NATURAL RECOIL OF A PURE nEAllT FROM WICKEDNESS. When the knowledge and love of God are in the heart, sin appears more loathsome. The love of goodness will show itself in a hatred of evil, and a desire to be separated from its workers. In some this love of God and goodness overpowers even the natural attachments and ties of life. And it may be carried to such an excess as to become a spiritual disease, in its way as sinful as the causes that give rise to it. Monasticism has its root in a good and proper feeling carried to excess, and without the restraining and modifying considerations that ought to accompany it. In the instance before ua (and like instances)- II. IT SPRINGS FROM NO SELFISH :MOTIVE. Jeremiah did not seek for tbe "luxury" of grief; sufficie11t the wanderer's tent, or the comfortless carava11serai of the desert. Nor has he any desire to attitudiniza. It is a loneliness that shall not be conspicuous ; a losing of himself amongst strangers who care not for him and notice him not. Nor did he seek to evado the duties of life. If he separated himself, it was not to escape from the impending dangers he had announced; nor to intermit bis spiritual activities. " He wished there to weep for them " (Zinzendorf); to study the problem in fresh anrl more hopeful aspects; to recover his mental and spiritual calm; to recruit his spiritual energies for a new and more successful effort. So in our own day, the underlying motive must ever determine the lawfulness, the character, and the continuance of our spiritual retirements. III. Goo DID NOT REOUKE IT, BUT HE DID NOT BEE FIT TO GRATIFY· IT. Here the longing, if it ever grew into a prayer, was not answered, at least at once, or in the way conceived of. Whilst the day of grace lasted, and God's people were open to repent and to be influenced by his words, be is detained amongst them. Wben o.11 possibilities were exhausted, then the dungeon of the king's prison or the shame of the Egyptian exile might serve the purpose. But even then the essential craving was satisfied. There is a longing that is its own answer. To some it is given to experience solitude and spiritual detachment in the midst of the busy throng of transgressors for whom they yet ceaselessly work. 'l'his centrifugal te11dency mRy be productive of greater concen- tration, real compassion, and capacity for usefuln~ss, when it is controlled nnd overcome by a sense of overmastering responsibility, and a. " heart's desire a11d prayer to God for Israel, that they may be saved."-M.
Vera. 2-6.-The self-opposition and/utility of the sinner's life. A strong argument against the practice of a thing may often be found in the supposition that it should become universal. This is valid in the case of the practices and desires of wicked men. The idea of Hobbes concerning the original state of human society is illgenious and conceivable from this very reason, were it not contradicted by the world's history. I. ONE BIN ENTAILS ANOTHER, AND CRIME LEADS TO CnIME. (Ver. 3.) II. UNIVERSAL WICKEDNESS PilODUOEB UNIVERSAL DISTRUST AND MISERY. (Ver. 5.) JII. EVIL--DOING IS A WEARY AND FRUITLESS TOIL. 'fl, ITS FUTILITY CULMINATES WREN IT ROBS A :MAN OF THE KNOWLEDGE AND ~'ELLOW- BHIP OF Goo, AND EVEN OF 'l'HE DESmE Fon THEM. (Ver. 6.)-M.
Vers. 12-16.-The affeiction of God's professed people an enigma to 'be explained. I. THE MYSTERY. This consists partly in the particular subjects of it, e.nd partly in the dc"'ree to which it has gone. It is spoken of here prophetically as a. futuro thing that h~s already taken place; and the problem is stated accordingly as o. realization, e.nd not a thin" only conceived of. From time to time the history of Israel nnd Judah presents s;ch scenes. It is_ by no_ me~ns one ?f uninterrupted prog~e_ss._ Ther~ o.re bnokwo.rd movements, standrngs still, 111terrupt1ons, sharp and hum1hatmg nat10nal disasters, and long epochs of civil war, political nonentity, or foreign ca1)tivity. 1. Yet 248 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. [oit. 11. 1--26.