the ground for the realization of hope; (3) our highest hope is for the possession and enjoyment of God himself; ( 4) this hope is justifiable iu the peoplo of God. Ho is the Hope of Israel, truly the Hope of the spirilual Israel. 2. God is the Saviour in trouble. He is remembered in trouble if he is forgotten iu prosperity. lu our greatest need he is found nearest to us. Though he does not always prevent us from falling into trouble, he is always ready to help us when we are in. There is to us no more important character of God than that of tho Saviour, since, as" man is born to trouble," we all need a Saviour, and he alone can deliver from the great sorrows and sins of life, . II. GoD MAY BE WITH us AS A STRANGER, 1. He may be with us and unknown- like the stranger who passes through a country unrecognized. He was received by Abraham as a stranger (Gen. xviii. 2). Hagar and Jacob failed at first to discern his presence. Christ was treated as an unknown stranger by the two disciples journeying to Emmans. 2. He may be with us but for a season-like the traveller who sojourns for a night and is gone the next morning. We may receive temporary visitations of God without enjoying his abiding presence, casual glimpses of the Divine. instead of a constant walking with God, the light of Heaven falling now and again on our path while earthly clouds fling long stretches of dreary shadow over the most of it. 3. He may be with us without having communion with us-as a stranger, not as a companion -as the traveller who pitches his tent in our land, not as the guest whom we w.elcomc to our hearth. Thus God may be near to us without our receiving him into our hearts as our great Friend. 4. He may be with us without acting for our good -like a mighty man slumbering. So he may see our need and yet we may not be sa.ed. I III. IT IS MOST SAD THAT Gon SHOULD BE WITH us AS A STRANGER. 1. It is sad because the blessings of hi,s presence are then not received. (1) He must be. known if we are to benefit by bis aid. (2) We need his constant presence for constant distresses. (3) God helps by inward grace, which must come through close personal conimimion. (4) We need the active aid of God, not the mere fact of his presence. 2, It is sad because it is a violation of our natural relations with God. God is our Father. Shall our Father be but as a stranger passing through our midst? - He is changeless in his eternal love to us. We are bound to him by close and perpetual obligations, and we are in great and constant need of him. How, then, do we ever find ourselves in this unnatural condition? The cause is in us (ver.10). Great sin cherished in impenitence severs us from God, and makes it necessary that he should depart from us. God is a stranger when with us, (1) because we are too earthly minded to discern-his presence, and too occupied with worldly things to think of it; (2) because we do not open our hearts to receive him in inward companionship; and (3) because we do not seek and trust his help in our need (Rom. x. 21).
Vers. 13-16.-False prophets. I. OFFICIAL TEACHERS MAY BE FALSE TEA0HERS. The false prophets belonged to the recognized order of prophets. No rank in the Church confers infallibility. Popes have been heretics. - The authority of a teacher must be sought in his message, not in his office. It is our duty to try the spirits by their 'Orrespondence with known revelation (1 John iv. 2), by the fruits of their lives and uoctrines (Matt. vii. 16), and by the standard of our own conscience (2 Cor. iv. 2). 11 P.REACHlliG WfilCH IB NOT INSPIRED BY THE DIVINE SPIRIT OF HOLINESS 18 LIKELY TO BE FALSE. The prophet may have a piercing intellect and a towering imagination. Yet he will err if he be blinded by unholiness and excluded from the revelations of spiritual communion. He speaks only out of his own heart; but the heart is "deceitful abtJve all things." Attempts are constantly made to evolve religious truth out of the inner consciousness of the thinker. No idle dreams are more delusive, since (1) men have not the materials out of which to build a theology of their own; (2) they have not the faculties capable of using those materials-sin perverts the spiritual vision, prejudice and self-interest distort views of truth. IJI. CONSCIOUSLY '.l'EACHING FALSE IDEAS OF RELIGION 18 A HEINOUS CRIME, It is using the Name of God in vain (ver.14). It is abusing the trust of a high office for low purposes. It is likely to involve many in the toils of a fatal deception. It is easy to J>rophesy smooth things-easy thus to gain a vulgar popularity. But if this is done at the ex1,ense of truth, it is an awful sin. All Christian teachers should beware of the 011. xiv. 1-22.] 'l'llE BOOK OI!' THE PROPHET Ji1llEMIAH. 359