and sing when, perhaps, their feelings should rather tend to the other txtremc, of mourning and humiliation. A word on the warning to each of these classes. 1. The wise. The existence of the wise man is recognized. A wise man is not of necessity to be always contrasted with the foolish. He has a right to the name of wise if his practical faculties of mind rise above the common level. ,vhen such a ·one has shown himself foreseeing a::id cautious, patient to wait when action would be hurtful yet prompt to decide when decision is necessary-when, in short, he has obtained a ge~eral reputation for wisdom-it is then only mo:k-mo~esty for him to pretend tb,at ,his gifts are not beyond those of common men. Wisdom 1s the strength of the mind, and the man who has it cannot be unconscious of it, any more than the man stron"' in body can be unconscious of his strength. But this wisdom, while it is to be used, d~ciplined, made the most of, i.s not a thing to glory in. 'fhe more ·i.t is looked at, the more its limits will be seen. See how easily it can be misused; It was said of Burke that he gave up to party what was meant for mankind, although he would strenuously have maintained that, through party, he got his best means for serving mankind. But of many it is only too true that their great faculties of intellect, meant for the good of men and the glory of God, have been deliberately given up to that which hurts men, w·isdom, as wisdom, is not to be gloried in. It must be an instrument in a hi"'her hand before it can work out such a result as will fill the contemplating· mind ;,ith exultation and praise. 2. The strong. How much men admire strength-strength of body, or strength to maintain and carry out some settled purpose I The young men who contended in the Grecian games gloried in their strength, and so did their kins- folk and all the people who took pride in the land ,that produced such. And yet gloryiug of this sort would not bear reflection. .Assuredly it could not endure in a renewed mind to think that the prize of victory had been gotten by the defeat and humiliation of a brother man. Glorying in strength means looking back on victories of brute violence, such victories as Goliath was wont to rejoice in. Glorying in strength means sitting down at the banquet with tbe blood-stained conqueror, and singing of his achievements amid the flush and insolence of wine. And it means also the encouragement and the formation of similar hopes and purposes for the future. Such feelings of glorying in mere strength the beast of prey may have as he goes up and down in the forest, but they are not the feelings of a man considering the possible range of his thoughts and aspirations. A strong man must employ his strength usefully, recollecting that it was given so that, with a devout and obedient niit1d in a strong body, he might serve God in his day and generation. 3. The rich. Rich men glory in their wealth, and not without plausibility. They find that it stands excellently well in tho place of wisdom and strength. They can buy the wisdom and the strength of others ; and the more freely they expend, the more also, in certain ways, they obtain. He who professes to despise wealth never gets credit for sincerity; and yet it is pe1'fectly cer- tain that those wbo profess to glory in this same wealth are preparing for themselves, in one way or another, a terrible humiliation. Let them lose their wealth, and they will waken to the discovery that they have also lost their ·attractions. There is more to be said for glorying in one's wisdom and strength than in one's external' possessions ; for the wisdom and strength, whatever their shortcomings, are really a part of the man, while the external possessions are little better than an accident. III. MAN IS DIRECTED TO A OA.USE OF EXULTATION WHICH, WITH THE UTMOST CONFIDENCE, HE MAY ALLOW TO OPERA.TE FREELY ON ms MIND. There is a song for man to sing worthy of his highest powers-a song in which he may glory with respect to himself, because he has become somewhat of that which he ought to be. We are not allowed to sing exultingly and proudly of our own natural powers, even if·they were the powers of a Plato, a Shakespeare, or a Newton; but there is a sure· st11.nding- place for us to exult lawfully in what we have become. 'l'he least in the_ kingdom, 9f heaven is greater than the greatest born of women. W c may always magmfy humanity when we see one of ourselves coming to a true knowledge of God. 'l'he peculiar possibility of glory to man is that he is able to know his Maker. Understand and lcnow. Surely these words mean a great deal; one can hardly put too much of meaning and encouragement into them. Through Isaiah, Jehovah said, "The ox knowcth his owner and the a~s hie master's crib: but Israel doth· not know, my people doth not con~ider." And yet., if Israel will only consider and turn, it ie capable OII. x.1-25.] TIIE BOOK OF THE PROPHE'r JBREMIAH. 267
of knowing God as ho brute, however docile, attentive, and faithful it be, can ever come to know its master. 'l'he brute gives to its master a brute's recognition; it does the utmost its faculties enable it to do; but in coming to man we come to one who can be so altered as to know God even as a child knows its father. The true glory of the worst of men is that he can be regenerated. The glory of the best of men is that he has been regenerated. The great end to be aimed at is that every man shoul<l exult in his having been made a partaker of the Divine nature. The more he thinks of his Saviour, the more he will glory in this-that he, in spite of all his spiritual ignorance and blindness, has had in him a. power to be so renewed and uplifted ; that he has become one of the exceeding great multitude, who owe eternal blessedness to the work of Christ. To speak of the possibility of such glorying as comes from the knowledge of God was a- great matter in relation to these children of Israel. They had fallen into the most appalling errors as to the character and disposition of deity. They had come to have gods many-gods who were the patrons of cruelty, rapacity, tyranny, injustice, lust, and covetousness. They had to practise, as a matter of religion, things opposed to those very things in which Jehovah here represents himself as delighting. What was required from them, therefore, was to listen humbly and attentively to those prophetic expostulations which pointed towards light, truth, redemption, aod a. new song to be put in their mouths by Jehovah himself. And a similar way is to be ours if we would be sure of glorying in the Lord. The way of God in this matter is by tbe truth as it is in Jesus, and into that way God's Spirit must lead us, and keep us in it even to the end, amid all the difficulties arising from the natural pride of humau hearts.-Y,