The Pulpit Commentary — Jeremiah — Volume 1 — Section 251

ill, and "' with many tears," we are constrained to inquire the motive of such a life. But only one of three suppositions is possible. (1) Either he who labours is a deceiver. He is consciously acting a part. But this supposition in regard to prophets and apostles of God's " 7 ord has long been given up. " The world has renounced almost to a man this hypothesis. It refuses to believe in the possibility of a hypocrite whoso writings inculcate and whose conduct exemplifies the highest order of moral excellence; it refuses to believe in a benevolent, modest, self-denying, high-minded, humble magnanimous liar, in whom falsehood speaks ,vith the very tongue, looks through th~ very eyes, and personates the very gestures and tones of truth ; it refuses to believe that a man with no earthly mot.ive for it, and every earthly motive against it, should spend the best part of a lifetime in cheating men into truth and virtue which he had himself utterly renounced" (H. Rogers). But if this hypothesis be rejected, then there is another. (2) He has deceived himself. He is the victim of enthusiasm, the unconscious agent of a bewildered and disordered bra.in. But this hypothesis also will not bear investigation. For such enthusiasms are generally short-lived, they are soon detected, anJ the common sense of mankind refuses to participate in them, No instance can be found of a mere enthusiast persuading whole nations and convincing the purest, the most sober, and the most thoughtful of whole communities, and in such manner that tbe falsehood thus originated shall live on and acquire power over men's minds increasingly. Aud there are other tests whereby enthusiasm may be discriminated from the deliberate convictions of the sober mind, and every one of such tests, when applied to the history of faithful witnesses for God's truth, fail to show that these wit- nesses were, though not dishonest,, yet merely mistaken enthusiasts. There remains, therefore, (3) only the other alternative, that the message which they delivered with so much earnestness was true. Aud the tears of the prophet and apostle do alike bear this testimony, and its force men have everywhere felt. And would we convince an unbelieving world of the truths we profess to hold, we must manifest more: of a like conviction. If some wan, worn, emaciated preacher, bearing on him evidently the marks of the Lord Jesus, whose whole life had been, like that of Jeremiah or St. Paul, one long sacrifice for the truth,-if such a one could appear amongst us,..then would the world believe, as it now altogether refuses to whilst those who profess belief show such few tokens of the reality of their belief. 2. In regard. to the dread peril of those wfw disobey God. We know with what impassioned earnestness Jeremiah had pleaded with his infatuated countrymen; how he had exhorted, implored, and 'wept in his endeavour to win them from their wicked ways. And now, when it seemed all in vain, we behold him sunk in son·ow, dissolved in tears. W hcrefore this? Were the theory of the universalist true, that there is no "fearful looking for of judgment," that all will be made blessed in the coming hereafter,·irrespective of what they have been or what their conduct in this life,-then such tears as we are contemplating now would be unmeaning. Had the prophet held such views, had our Lord, had St. Paul, their deep distress would have been inexplicable, because altogether uncalled for. Or even if the theory of those who hold that "death ends all" been that of· God's servants, still ·such distress would be far more than could be accounted for. Or even if it were that only the blessedness of the righteous were missed, and all others would simply perish, then too the future of the un 6odly would call for no such sorrow. Or that by such devices as those of the Romish Church-Masses, indulgences, and the like-the guilty soul, thouO'h indeed its doom were terrible, yet it might by these devices be rescued from such doo~-thcu too there could have been no tears such as these. Ilut contemplating the overwhelming sorrow of men like Jeremiah when beholding the judgment of the ungodly, we nre shut up to the conviction, which evidently possessed him so profoundly, that it is a fearful thing for an unforgiven man to fall into the hands of the living God. 3. Jn regard to the exhaustion of all present resources of help. Could Jeremia!;i have done anything to turn aside that judgment which be so vividly and with such distress auticipated, he would not have given himself up to tears. '!'hey are the evidence that all resources are exhausted, that nothing more can be done, that as he says (eh. vi. 29), "The bellows are burned." '!'he language of such tears is the voice of God sayin~: concerning the bardeneJ and impenitent, " He is joined to his ~dols: let hiln a.l01Je. Gc.d save us all from having to shed, r.nrl still more from causrng, such tca.rs aa these. But they bear witness also- en. 1x. 1-26.J TIIE BOOK OF TUE PROPHET JEilEMIA.U. 2Gi