The Pulpit Commentary — Jeremiah — Volume 1 — Section 287

how mighty, how manifold, how subtle, aro the difficulties in tho way! There is the ea.rth-bou~d h~art, that eyer clogs _onr souls wit~ its clinging clay; that makes them like t~e bird with the li~e. of the bird-snarer on !ts fe;athers, unable either to fly or go: when 1t would. soar aloft 1t 1s powerless to spread its wmgs, and so is as if chained to the ground. And incessant occupations clamour for attention, and are ever telling us we have no time. And indolence and sloth keep suggesting thoughts of ease and self- s12aring. And want of practice in this, as in overythi;ig elso, makes real prayer very difficult. And Satan, when he sees the soul threatenmg to escape him by means of such prayer-:--as by such means it ever will escape him-bends ·all his energies to thwart and hmder, to baffle and beat down, such prayer. All this is so, but .yet we must thus pray. And let us not be disheartened. All these difficulties have been overcome by ten thousand of the saints of God, and shall be by us. And for our help, remember our Lord's intercession. Join all our prayers-poor, weak thi~gs as at their best they are-on to his almighty, all-prevailing intercession, and in·this also we shall come off" more than conquerors through Christ who bath loved UB." So shall we be kept from being one of those wretched pastors who have become brutish, and ],ave, therefore, only scattered the Lord's flock; yea, we shall be made and be con- fessed, now and hereafter in our Lord's presence, as one of the pastors after his own lieart.-0. Vers. 23-25.-Fruits of a chastened spirit. From what foul soil do the fairest flowers spring! Beautiful as they are, they are rooted in that_ which is altoaether unbeautifnL The sweet perfume of many woods, seeds, flowers, will not be given°forth until they are gashed with the axe, or bruised, or crushed, or otherwise seemingly mal- treated. We could not have the many-hued arch of the exquisitely tinted rainbow were it not for the drear, dark clouds and the descending rai.n. The most precious of the psalms were wrung out of the heart of David when that heart was. well-nigh borne down with grief. And here, in these verses, it is the chastened spirit of Judah, per- sonified in the prophet who speaks, that utters itself in the lowly confession of the twenty-third verse, the holy submission of the prayer of the twenty-fourth verse, and the settled hatred of them who hate God which burns in the twenty-fifth. Consider, then, these fruits, and may God make. them to abound in ourselves. . I. THE ooNFESsroN. Ver. 23, "0 Lord, I know," etc. Now, this is a confession: 1. Of humbl,e dependence upon God. It is an aclmowledgment that, however much ma.n may propose, God will dispose; that man's goings are of the Lord. The life of each is, as God told Cyrus (Isa. xliv.), guided, governed by him. Illustrations are everywhere: the cruelty of Joseph's brethren; the oppression of Israel in Egypt; the crucifixion of our Lord ( cf. Acts ii. 23); the. persecution of the Church (.Acts viii 3); Paul's early life; etc. .All these are instances in which, whilst men. did exactly as they lik~d, acting with choice as unfettered as it was evil, they were never- theless made to subserve the Divine plans, nnd their evil was compelled to work out good. Man may have power to "walk," but whither his steps will lead he cannot "direct." "The way of man is not in himself." He is free to choose his way, and for his choice he is responsible; but he is not allowed to determine all that shall come of that choice or what its issues and results shall be. Every time that men find their plans turn out altogether differently from what they exvected or designed, pro_ves the truth of the prophet's word. God bas planned the life o! each one of UB, He !lltends certain results to be secured by our lives. "There's a divinity that shapes our ends, Rough-hew them how we will." And our wisdom is to sec and confess and conform ourselves to the Divine plan- happy they who do so !-and not to thwart or hindor it, as so many are bent upon doing, and hence, in the manifold sorrows of their lives, find it "hard to kick against the pricks." Our wisdom is daily to pray, "Cause me to know the way wherein I should walk; make plain my path before my face." 2. Of their own folly and 6in. Thero are many teachers who will instruct us in this truth of our own incompetence to order our ways; all that is needed is that we be willing to learn. Such teachers are: (1) ReaBon. It iB reasonable that, as we are the creatures of God, he should have  cu. x. 1-25.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 287