The Pulpit Commentary — Jeremiah — Volume 1 — Section 346

they will know, e.nd he will be cast out as vile. 6. The thought of the misery and shame he will bring upon others. Perhaps he has wife, children, father, mother, a number of friends and relations, whom he knows he will drag down with him in his own rui11. 7. The temptation to recklessness born of despair. Satan is ever suggesting to him that, as he cannot regain ,v hat he has lost, he had better take his fill of such'pleasure as he lrns. And too often he yields. 8. The perversion of his understanding. It is his interest tu believe there is no God, e.nd hence his intellect is busy in gathering together materials for this "belief and for doubting and denying all religious truth. And so he sinks down into atheism and all ungodliness. Yes; his is an awful condition indeed. But consider- II. SOME COUNSELS TO THOSE WHOM THESE TERRIBLE TRUTHS CONCERN. 1. Remember you cannot be certain that you have come to this condition. Satan will endeavour to persuade you that there is no hope. But believe him not. You are lost if you believe him. Steadfastly refuse to believe. 2. If the thought that such should be your con- dition distresses you, take it as a token for good that God has not given you up. 3. Remember that others have been saved who were as near being lost as you. 4. Rouse yourself to use all means of help which God has given you. (1) Let there be special seasons of prayer. (2) Avoid the occasions of your sin. (3) Put eve1y hinclrance yon can in the way of your sin; such as altering your manner of life, :i.voiding being alone, reading such Scriptures and such books as will tend to deepen your sense of the. sin and show you how to escape from it. (4) Avail yourself of the counsels of some wise and godly friend. (5) Fill up your time, hands, and thoughts with useful and absorbing work. (6) Do not despise small victories ; they lead on to greater ones. (7) "Pray without ceasing." Remember that God is able and has promised to" save to the utter- most all that come unto God by Christ." 'l'hus doing, even thou shalt be saved.-O. Ver. 27.-The one thing needful. "Wilt thou not be made clean? When," etc.? I. MEN ARE SPIBITUALLY UN0LEAN. Like as the Lord looked down upon the occu- pants of the porches at Bethesda, and saw but 11. multitude of impotent folk (John v.); so now, e.s "his eyes behold the children of men," he sees a similar though a far more terrible sight-the mass of mankind spiiitually diseased. '!'his is manifestly true of the heathen world. The abominations and the cruelties that are practised there show the virulence of the soul's malady amongst them. And if we look at the mass of tl10se who profess and call themselves Christians, in how many of these is the profession llrofession only, a veneer of religious customs covering a corrupt and sin-loving heart. And if it be so with the professing Church, what must it be with those who reject all the means of grace which the Christian Church enjoys? II. BuT GoD GREATLY DESIRES THAT MEN SHOULD DE DELIVERED FROM THIS UNCLEANNESS. "IIe will have all men to be saved and to come to tho knowledge of the truth." He desires this: 1. From his very nature. He himself is the most holy God. Ilut all moral qualities ever strive to reproduce themselves in those around them. Let a man be characterized by orderliness, truthfulness, sobriety, purity, and in pro- portion ns he is so the contact of those of opposite character will ho painful to him, and he will endeavour to make them like himself. And so, because" good and upright is the Lord, therefore will he teach sinners in the way." 2. His righteousness nlso. 'l'ho sense of outrage and wrong which sin must produce in the heart of God makes him angry with the wicked every day. 3. His compassz'on. Sin is so1Tow. \Va wonder at the priests of Baal persisting-in cutting and wounding themselves. Bnt is not every sinner just such a one? And with this added sorrow-that their woumls aro for eternity, and not for the short life hero alone. On the other hand, to bo "made whole" spiritually is to be made blessed for ever. III. YET MEN WILL NOT. The tone of the question, the woe which precedes it, the comparison of the sinner with the Ethiopian nnd the leopard, etc. (ver. 23), the half- despairing cry, "When shall it once be?" (ver. 27),-nll this shows the prophet's con- viction of man's persistent clinging to his sin. Were the question concerning bodily disease it would be unnecessary. Who would not be delivered from that? Dut when it is spiritual healing, me:n, will not. From the consequences of their sin they aro wll\l~g to be delivered-the pumshment, the remorse, the shame, etc.-but not from the sin itself. True, at times, in the first keen pangs of remorse, and under the vivitl scusc uf 348 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. [cu. xm.1-21.