The Pulpit Commentary — Jeremiah — Volume 1 — Section 304

consequent doom, are all facts with which we a.re familiar. The history of Israel is but an example of what is ever taking place. Even the gospel of the Lord Jesus, however much it may avert the eternal results of our transgressions, will not save us from the present temporal consequences in this world. "These all died in faith," so we read in the Epistle to the Hebrews, of those" whose carcases," nevertheless," fell iu the wilderness," " The way of transgressors is," has been, must, and ever will be, "hard."-C. Ver. 4.-The precious recompenses of obedience. "Obey my voice, ... according to all which I command you: so shall ye be," etc. 'rhe earlier verses of this chapter form part of that earnest reminder which Jeremiah was commanded by God to address to the men of Judah and Jerusalem concerning a. transaction with which they had all had very much to do. That transaction was their solemnly pledging themselves, as they had done during King Josiah's recent reign, to observe the ancient covenant which the Lord God had made with their fathers. The sixty or seventy years before King Josiah's time had been years dreary and degraded in the national life of the people. Even Hezekiah, the last pious King of Judah before Josiah, had secured only a very partial reformation, and in the days of his godless son Manasseh, and in those of his even worse grandson Amon, who "sinned more and more," the religious life of the people all but died out. 'l'he sacred Scriptures iu which this covenant was contained had, during these miserable years, been neglected and put out of sight as w1itings for which they had no longer love nor use; as a book which we do not want is either got rid of or put away on some high shelf, to make room for others which we more highly prize. "The nation did not want to bear the Law which testified against their multiplied transgressions, nor to listen to a condemnation of the idols they had chosen." But in King Josiah's reign, in some out-of-the-way corner, buried beneath. no one knows what worthless rubbish, a copy of the despised Word of God was discovered. It produced on the pious monarch a profound impression. He was overwhelmed with shame and dismay when be compared the commands of the covenant of God with the actual conduct of the people. He shuddered to think of the judgments which must come upon them-and which had already come upon the neighbouring nation of Israel-unless they repented and turnecl to God. But be did not waste time in unavailing regrets. He at once took practical measures to bring about that religious reformation which he saw to bo so much needed. He therefore summoned all the people of Judah to Jerusalem, and caused the book of the Law to be publicly read to them; then he made all the people renew the covenant whieh they hnd so long forgotten. For a time it seemed as if the reformation and repentance were real; but the old idolatries began to make their appearance again after a while, and when Jeremiah was sent from God to remind them of their violated vows they bnd fallen back into a condition as evil o.s, if not worse than, that of former days. Therefore the prophet opens his commission by the awful denunciation of Jehovah's curse upon the disobedient. He would startle and arouse them, if it might but be possible, so that they might awake to righteousness and to God ere wrath arose against them o.nd there should be no remedy. And here he tells of the precious recompenses of obedience, "So shall ye . . . God." Consider, then- I. THESE PROMISES. 1. " Ye shall be my people." Now, by this is meant, amongst other blessings, that they shall be the ob,ject of his care. How mnny are the proofs that this is a constituent part of the heritage of his people I Were not Israel so? Did he not watch over them continuously? " He suffered no man to do them harm; yen, ho reproved kings for their sakes." "He gave his angels charge over thom to keep them in all their ways." 'l'he rage of Pharaoh, the cruel thirst of the hot, waterless sands, tho threatened famine of the breadless desert, the marauding Amnlekite, the pestilence that walked in darkness, and the destruction that wasted at noonday,-not one of these was suffered to harm them. How full are the Law, the prophets, and the psalms with sweet assurances of the tender care of God over his people! Nor docs the New 'l'estament come behind the Old in like gracious declarations. And the experience of nil God's people swells the volume of testimony to bis loving solicitude and watchfulness over us. "And such honour have all his saints." And to be of his people means also to be the abode of his Spirit. That Spirit should dwell in them, rnlo and mould thorn after tho Divine wil1 True, God's ancient people do onco and again seem to have been utterly  THE DOOK OF 'l'IIE rrrorl:IET JEUEMIAH. [ell. XI. 1-23.