intervals of light, intervals where the mercy of Jehovah is clearly revealed, and his never-failing desire that his people should return to him. There is, of course, practi- cally, no hope for these people so far as their present social state is concerned. They will go on their own way; but to the last God will also make his appeal. Notice now the things which God asks for here. .• I. ATTENTION. "Hear ye, and give ear." These people have never really attended to the import of the prophetic messages. Either they have been totally indifferent or they have been irritated by some word they did not like, and so the complete message has fallen uncomprehcnded upon their ears. For instance, the why and wherefore of the prophet's extra.ordinary journey to the Euphrates, they did not trouble themselves to consider. And it is plain from ver. 12 how entirely they missed the meaning of the prophet's saying respecting the bottles beiag filled with wine. The parabolic sentence was .to them nothing more than mere commonplace. And of course, so long as attention was lacking, truth was of no use. There is an analogy between the receiving of truth and the receiving of bodily food. As food must be properly introduced into the physical system, so truth must be properly introduced into the mind, brought before the under- standing of the individual, firmly grasped by him in its reality, so that it may become a real and beneficial element in the life. II. HullILITY. There must be submission to the prophet as a proved messenger from God. Pride is going to be tbe ruin of these people. The prophet himself was humbly obedient to all commandQJ.ents of God; why, then, s)lou!d his audience be proud? The grandees of Jerusalem do not lik,e to be talked to by the comparative rustic from Anathoth. The elders resent remonstrances from -a man comparatively young. Those whose boast it perhaps was that they had never been in bondage to any man, do not like to hear of conquest and captiv~ty. There is no getting at truth and right without humility. Because truth means, not only the reception of that which is true, but the casting out of the old and the loved and the ofteu boasted of. It is very hard for a. man to cut himEelf off from the past and show by a very different future how he feels the errors and follies of which he has been guilty. It is hard for the li,1ida-1Clll\os like Nicodemus to go down from his chair and become a i,.a.Dr,r/is, stumbling among the rudimentary principles of the kingdom of heaven. III. THE GIVING OF GJ.0R.Y TO JEHOVAH. "Give glory to Jehovah your God." These people had been giving elsewhere what they reckoned to be glory, but which, so far. froni bei:ng glory, was inde11d their own deepest shame. Glory of a certain sort they had plenty of, but they came short of the glory of God. They did not, in the conduct of their life, show a proper response to the wisdom by which God had created them as men and separated them as a people. By their present doings they were exposing tbe Na.me of Jehovah to insult and scorn from all round about.. •This asking for glory to be given was a request reasonable in itself. If a master is a .good master, it is not right that his servant should act so as to make the master's reputation suffer. If a father is a good father, it is not right for his child to act as if he had been deprived of all beneficial influences in the way of teaching and training. What is thought of a man who basely forget.s his nationality and laughs at the feelings that gather around tho idea. of fatherland? And hence the Name of Jehovah was a name to be magnified in word and deed and every outcome of life on the part of his people. We ourselves must labour to praise God with our whole hearts. And more than that, we must live as those who show the power of God, saving us and lifting us into an altogether higher life. IV. 'fHE GIVING OJI' THIS GLORY PROMPTLY ON ACCOUNT 01!' PERIL TO THOSE WHO REFUSE TO GIVE. 'l'he figure employed is that of a traveller on a journey. He gets into the wrong road, gets indeed altogether out of any proper road ; but he persists in mere wandering, refuses to be warned, will not accept guidance back to the proper path. He sees. dangers, many dangers, but because it is daylight ho mnnages to escape them. And now, as the darkness momentarily increases, the warnings also increase in urgency. When the darkness is fully come, where will he be? On the mountains, not able to take ono confident step in any direction, Jest It be over tho precipice. l!'urthermore, in the case of a traveller, he has alway11 this resort, that if darkness comes amid such <langers he can stand still till the return of the dr1wn. But here is the contl'l'st in that Lhe expected dawn will ne~e_r como. 'l'his rebollious, God-~is?onouring ge~er~tion is virtually walking into captmty of its own I\CQOrd, As far as 1t 1s co!lcerned, 1t w11l look THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. [oH. xm. 1-27.
in vain for r<'storntion. The restoration will belong, not to it, nor even to its children, but rather to its children's children. Those who wander from God wander into a state where they are self-destroyed, because the resources of which they boasted themselves have come to nothing. Glorify God, willingly, in the light, or you will end by glory- fying him unwillingly, in the darkness. Think of what came to Herod because he did not give the glory to God,-Y.