The Pulpit Commentary — Jeremiah — Volume 1 — Section 345

"A charge to keep I have, A God to glorify, A ,cc,cr-dying soul to snve And fit it for the slcy. "Help me to watch nnd prny, And on thyself rely; Assured if I my trust betray I shall for ever die." c. Vers. 21, 22.-Sin its own scourge. I. THERE ARE o·rHER SCOURGES FOIi BIN. 'l'he direct and positive inflictions of the Divine wrath. Not alone the Bible but the great books of history and experience must all be denied if we deny such positive punish- ment of sin. Never has there been yet any system of laws for moral beings which has been left to be simply self-acting, e.nd which therefore have had no positive sanctions of penalty for transgression added. And God's Law is not such. As the Jews and other nations and individuals have found, and a.s the unrepentant will find hereafter if not now, God's ·word upon this matter is most assuredly true. ' II. BuT SIN IS ITS OWN SCOURGE. '!'hat scourge is woven and knotted with many cords. 1. Conscience, ever passing sentence of judgment. 2. Habits of wrong-doing, hateful but fast clinging to the soul, and by which it is "tied and bound." 3, The manifold difficulty of 'repentance. The man would heartily turn from his evil way, but he has got into the current just above the falls, and it is bearing him on and down, resist as he will. 4, The sight of children, companions, etc., corriipted and perhaps ruined by our evil example. Oh, what a horror is this: seeing those whom, for every reason human and Divine we were bound to cherish and guard from evil, cursed by our sin I 5. The moral disapprobation of the good around us. Their sentence of condemnation is felt to have a binding power. What they "bind on earth is bound in heaven." 6. The "fearful looking for of J°udgment." Such are some of the cords which, woven together, make up the dreadful scourge wherewith sin scourges itself. ill .A.ND THIS SELF-MADE SCOURGE IS THE MOST TERRIBLE OF .ANY. Deep and unfathomable as were the sufferings of our Lord, he distinctly declared that those coming on his enemies were worse. "Weep not for me," he said, "but weep for yoUl'- selves, and for your children .... If they do these things in a green tree," etc. It is evident, therefore, that suffering.in which the consciousness of sin enters must be worst of all. Those "stripes by which we arc healed," though they" ploughed deep furrows" on the body of our blessed Lord, yea, upon his inmost soul, still there are stripes more terrible c'l'en than they. The quenchless fire of God's positive in0ictions would be more tolerable were it not for the gnawing ot' that undying worm-tho sinner's own remorse. Are not they, then, "fools" indeed who "make a mock at sin" ?-C. Ver. 23.-.An awful condition indeed. " Can the Ethiopian change his skin," etc.? 'This verse tells of one who bas brought himself to such a pass that he cannot cease from sin. It is an awful condition indeed. Note- I. SOME OF THE ELEMENTS WHICH MAKE IT so. They are: 1. The memories of a better past. There was a time when his soul was unsullied, his hands clean, his heart pure, his life unstained; when he could bold up his head in consci""1• integrity by the grace of God. But that is all gone. 2. The pro.~tration of his wiZ:. lie is continually making resolves, but they are frail as cobwebs, they are broken through by t-he slightest temptation now. The power ·to firmly and steadfastly resolve seems gone from him. He has resolved so often, but in vain, that his will now refuses to rise to the endeavour. 3. The powerlessness of all means of deliverance. He attend's God's house, he reads tlie Scriptures, he kneels in prayer, he goes to the Lord's table still it may be, but they liave lost their power to hold him back from his sin. '!.'hey seem to be of no use at all. 4. The fearful onlook to God's fudgment. He sees it coming swiftly upon him. He is ever terrified at the near approach of the day when he will be utterly Jost. "Lost! lost ! " he is ever saying to himself. He fears exposure, he fears the fine.I ·doom, and knows not how to escape. 5. Sha= in tlte presence of the good. He is haunted by tl.c feeling, "If tbey but knew me as I am!" and he knows thEI day is corning wheu un. xm.1-27.J THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 817