The Pulpit Commentary — Jeremiah — Volume 1 — Section 389

2. Fina.Uy, I think of another hopeless contest in which also many are still en<ra"ed in which the iron ie thinking to "break . . . steel." It is the contest with God, the ~on:bat with the Most High. God has made us all for himself. Now, be himself so obeys the law of truth and righteousness and goodness that we say he is righteousness. "Tho Lord is righteous in all' his ways and holy in all his works." "God is love." Tberc- foro he bids us surrender our hearts, our wills, to him, to obey, love, and serve him. It is not simply right, but most blessed for us as for all his creatures to do this, and the vast majority of them do, and are blessed in consequence. But man has the power of saying" Nay" to God's "Yea," and "Yea" to God's" Nay," and that power he has chosen to exercise. In other words, he has set up his will against the Divine will, and refuses obedience where the will of God and his own are opposed. This is the contest that is over going on-God seeking. to win man's will, his heart to himself, and man persis- tently refusing. Man wants to have his own way, believing and insisting that it is the good way for him, whilst God knows well that it is a way of evil and of evil only. Therefore by all means God is seeking to draw us from that way to his own. By the voice of conscience and of his Spirit pleading within us, by his providences, his ,vord, his_ordinances, and in other ways still, mostly gentle and gracious, others of them of a sterner kind, but by them all he is aiming at but one result-this, of inducing us to yield to him, to acknowledge his authority, and confess him Lord. And remember this will of his is no passing wish, one which, when he finds lie can- not have it, he will cease to care for. Oh no, but it is his steadfast purpose, that upon which his heal't is set. "As I live, saith the Lord, all the earth shall be filled with my glory." "'l'o Jesus every knee shall bow, and . . . Father." Can we think, then, that instead of this, God will be content with simply destroying man? That wonlJ. be to confess failure on his part, and so would also the mere intliction of vengeance. 'fherefore we feel sure that the rebel will ho.ve to yield, and the stoutest heart to bow. The iron cannot " break . . . steel." Shall the will of man for ever defy God, and hold out against him? But ah! what of agony and woe will not the rebel will have to go through ere it will own itself wrong I All the awful words of Christ about the quenchless fire and the undying worm-those dreadful sayings of his at which the soul shudders-still are his setting forth thereof. Oh, you whose hearts are still unsur- rendered to him, will you provoke him to this? will you force him to hold you down to the consequences of your own doings until you come to see them as he sees them? '!'hen not alone ,because of the sorrow that must attend the refusal to yield to him, but because such yielding is so right, so blessed, let us cease from the vain and sinful con- flict; let the iron no more foolishly think to " break the northern iron and steel," but "let us come and ·worship and bow down "-not with the knee alone, but in heart- " before the Lord our Maker" and our Redeemer.-0. Ver.. 16.-How to study the Scriptures. 'l'his verse declares- !. How WE SHOULD DEAL WITH GoD'B WORDS. 1. We are to "find" them. ,ve am nut to be content with mere surfo.ce reading, but to "se!\rch the Scriptures." It is ce!'to.in that without this searching they will never be found. Now, it is this conviction which has led to the recent revision of the Scriptures. They who undertook that work were not ignorant of nor indifferent to the many objections which would be brought against their enterpl'ise. 'l'hey knew it would be said that such revision woulJ. disturb the faith of simple men and womon, that it would provoke discord, that it woulJ. encourage restless spirits tci be ever seeking change, that it would destroy old !\nd sacred ass_ociations, •that it was unnecessary bcc!\use by means of commentaries ancl sc!'mons the true meaning of any passage could be given; but they felt it to be their ,luty to set forth, as clearly as possible, the very words of Scripture, so that men may "find" them as before they could not do. 'l'hey knew such work was needed, and they were encouraged by the history of former revisions, that of Jeromo and tho.t of our present .Authorized Version, against which all the present objections were brought but wero soon seen to be futile. Faith has not been disturbed; union o.nd not disco!'d has followed, the meaning of Scripture has been mo.de more mo.nifest, and what is anc;. what is not of real authority-as the Apocrypha-has been declared. And they were encouraged by the fact that the pl'esent w11s nn especially favourable time for their work : the existence of so many capable scholars, not only to do the work, but  392 THE nooK OF THE l'ROPHE'l' JEHEMIA.ll. [ell. xv. 1~'.!1.