II. CONSCIENCE, Their :sin was." written as with," etc., "on the ta hie of their heart" (eh. xvii. 1). Nothing could erase the memories they all had of their own grievous sin. It was written as if in rock, and as with a pen of iron and a point of diamond (allusion, probably, to the inscriptions on rocks, so frequent in tl,e East). What _a witness is conscience l It cannot be silenced nor sophisticated. It keeps a man's.sins" ever before" him. "My sin is ever before me," said David. 'l'he writing of our sin on the heart's tablets is so deep, so incisive, so clear, that nothing can destroy it. No storms will wash them out; no lapse of time obliterate and decay; no rush of business and occupation will fill up and conceal those deep engravings; no rough contact with the events of life will break them. There they stand, clearly legible, written on the tablets of our hearts--our conscience-as letters written by an iron or diamond pen on rock. To this evidence the prophet appeals (cf. our Saviour's app~al to conscience in the case of the accusers of the woman taken in a,\ultcry, John viii.), III. T1IEm WORSHIP. Not alone their conscience, but the horns of their altars, testified ag~i)lst· them. These horns, smeared with the blood of their idolatrous sacri- fices, blackeµed with the smoke of their altar fires, reeking continually with the fumes and smoke .9f their offered victims,---:these also were witnesses whose testimony could not be. set aside. And what a witness against a man will the worship he offers-the horns of his altar-often be: its coldness, its carelessness, its infrequency, its insincerity, its formality, and sometimes its hypocrisy l Yes; the horns of the altar will prove swift witnesses against all who worship God otherwise than "in spirit and in truth." IV._ THEIR CHILDREN. (Ver. 2.) (" They would ne.er lose the impression of that horrible idolatry which had snatched so many from their mi<lst. So deep was this impression that the mere sight of green trees and high hills was sufficient to refresh the hideous memory continually." Or it may mean that their children, retaining and practising the idolatry of their fathers, are witnesses agninst those fathers such as none can set aside. Children may become the means of their fathers' condemnation. They cannot help testifying ag\!,inst them. In their memories, their habiLq, their very bodies, their sins, they will declare what their fathers were. '!'hank God, they can nnd do testify for the godly and righteous parents, as Timothy di<l of his mother an(l hers. llut ho')V awful to think of having one's own children brought forward as witnesses against us I Let ungodly parents ponder this. . CoNOLUSION. With such weight of evidence against Judah, what wonder that her punishment was so severe! The sin of Judah, however, too much resembles, in itd aggravation and in the evidence brought against it, sin of which we may be all too conscious. What can we do but turn to him who has said," 'l'he sacrifices of God are a broken spirit," etc.; .and whose blood "cleanseth from all sin"? Blessed be God that we may do this; -but "how shall we escape if we neglect," etc.? -C. Vers. 1-4.-Domestic relations become a cu;rse. It is evidently implied that, even in the present deplora.ble state of Israel, there was much that appeared attr:1ctive and profitable in domestic relations. Jesus reminded his servants that, in the days beforn the Flood, there was" marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark ; " and so we may conclude that in the time of Jeremiah there was also marrying and giving in.marriage, down to the very coming of the invader on the land. Individuals would go on, following out the promptings of their affections, unaule to discern the signs of the. times, and tho approach of a calamity such ns would overwhelm every family existing when it came. When society is in its ordinary state, marriages ending in mil)ery a.re believed to be exceptional. But here there is r1 trouble which i:1 to come upon every li.ousehold. Every family is to bo smitten, nnd Jeremiah, in his loneliness, is called to notice how, though depri vcd of domestic relations, be is to gain o. compensation in other wnys. Perhaps at times he was inclined to murmur that he--a mau of strife and contention to the whole land-had no home where he mitht turn and find some refuge and relief, if only for a short interval. Even in those apostate days there must surely have been a few homes at least where there was fidelity to Jehovah; where tho parents taught his truth to tbo children, antl the children reverenced tho parents according to his commandment. But Jercmiah's way was closed up, so tlrnt Le 412 THE 13001{ OF Tl-:IE I'HOPttET JEREMIAH. [cu. xvr. 1-21.
httd no opportunity of forming such a household for himself. His celibate life did not come by his own selfish resolution, but by the will of God, clearly expressed, .and based on certain necessities of Jeremiah's prophetic mission. The prophet, therefore, while he lost some things, was sparc-d some great sorrows whon the long-predicted blow at last came on the nation. The external circumstances of life arc wonderfully equalized, when the sum of them is able to be calculated. \Ve can only be robbed of the best posses- sions by our own fault. Jeremiah, however lonely his path may have b~en, however like to that of him who had" not where to lay his head," was advancing to the state where" they neither marry nor are given in marria.ge."-Y. ,