,ms charged to deliver. Are the ministers of God bound to do the like now? Our Lord did not. His apostles did not. No,vhere are we bidden to abstain from all earthly joy. Rather are we assured that God has "given us all things richly to enjoy." And the unbeliever's objection on the ground of the inconsistency of our calmness, and yet more of our gladness, notwithstanding the awful peril of ungodly souls, may be met by the reply that "'e cannot say of those whom yet we would fain see drawn much neap rr to God than they to our eyes are, that they are, as those whom Jeremiah addressed, 1bso- lntely doomed. We are not forbirldeu to pray for them, as Jeremiah was; nor to hope that e,en yet they may turn to God and find mercy. The prophet had no hoy t; we have much, and it is on the ground of that hope which we cherish that our c aimer, brighter moods are justified. Still, one shrinks from saying aught that would s rem to sanction the terrible indifference we all too much manifest in regard to the S\ dritual condition of the world around us. Ilut yet we may say that that condition is no'· such as to demand-even were it possible, which it is not, to comply with the demand-tl. \t we should all cease from joy, and clothe ourselves unceasingly in sackcloth and ashes. We cannot do that ; "·e are not bidden to do that, nor would it be of use were we to do so.- ·we have a gospel to proclaim, a living Saviour to hope in, and a Holy'Spirit's energies to second all our prayers and endeavours to win men to God. But at the same time, the believer in God and in his righteous Law cannot and ought not to find plea'sure in the rejoicings of the ungodly, or to give any countenance to their defiance of God. No; we are not to go" in the way of sinners," not to sit" in the seat of scorners," though it may be a scene of festivity and mirth. From all such we must turn away. We cannot rejoice with them when they rejoice; in their gladness we cannot share, but only mourn that they do not mourn. Let them turn to God, and we will dwell among them, and in their _i":" and in their sorrow we will gladly share. But until they do, for us as for God's propn~•:· bis ordinary commands as to sympathy with them are countermanded, and we must stai.:< aside. Light cannot have fellowship with darkness, nor the children of God with the ~hildren of the wicked one.-C.
Vers. 10-13.-Conscience dead. Conscience is given us of God, to serve as a faithful sentry, warning of the approach of sin and summoning the energies of our souls to resist and reject the intruder. Or as a just judge to unhesitatingly condemn sin, let it be wrapped up in what specious disguise it may. It is the Ithuriel's spear which, the moment it touches any moral action, compels such action to reveal itself. of what sort it is. Oh, the unspeakable blessing of an enlightened, healthful conscience that will not suffer sin, ar~ sin, even the least, without prompt and powerful protest I God help us all diligently to guard, profoundly to reverence and faithfully to obey this inward monitor, this true bearer of "the light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world." But these verses reveal a condition of things in which conscience is dead. It has lost all power of perception, its voice is hushed, or rather, what is worse, it sees and speaks falsely. It is a mockery of life, which would be grotesque were it not so pro- foundly sad. A ~caricature and parody of what it once was, its powers utterly perverted, bent, warped, so that they" call evil good, and good evil." Note- L THE FACT. How else can such a questior., as this of ver. 10 be accounted for? Yi' as not their sin clear as the sun at noonday? Had it not been for years crying aloud to God for vengeance? Had it not been condemned by all the servants of God, by the ,uitteu Law oJ God, by all the voices of God in long succession? And yet these people are asking, " \\'herefore bath the Lon.I pronounced all this great evil against us." It is as if the convicts in our prisons were to begin to ask why they were so trented, and to iirofess ignorance of their having done aught amiss. But in such case we should say they were playing the hypocrite, pretending an innocence to which they well knew they had no claim. In this case, however, there is no hypocrisy. 'l'he question, monstrous as it seems to us, is asked in all good faith. The prophet of God is bidden to give it a serious answer, not to denounce those who ask it as a set of conscious hypocrites. Just as in Malt. xxv. 44, which is a portentous parallel indeed, the condemned there are ~eard asking when they had been guilty of the sins laid to their charge. It is evident 11:1 that case and in this, not that they were consciously liars, but that conscience was simply dead within them. The writer knew also of one who had cruelly defrauded a large number of people, who, believing him to be an eminently religious wan, had dU. XVI. 1-21.j 'i'Irn noot( OF 'tI-tE rnoPl-lET JEP.EMIAH.