The Pulpit Commentary — Jeremiah — Volume 1 — Section 414

HOMILETICS. Ver. 1.-Engraved sin. I. Sm LEAVES A RECORD OP ITSELF. It is not an isolatco. act. It begets consequences, plants memories, creates guilt. The record remains even if we do not read it. God still notes it, and will some day confront us with it. Hence it is not enough to amend our ways for the future. We need to have past transgres- sions blotted out if we are to be restored to peace with God. H. 'l'IIE RECORD OF SIN IS ENGRAVED ON THE HEART OF THE SINNER. 1. It is written on the memory. · lllen who have forsaken the scenes of their evil deeds cannot shake oft the clinging burden of the memory of them. The criminal is haunted by his crimes. They people his dreams with horrors; they overshadow his waking hours with gloom, Even when sin is put out of mind it is probably buried in the secret chamber of memory, to be ultimately brought to the light of consciousness. The experience of those who have been recovered from drowning and from delirium suggests the idea that forgotten memories can be revived, and that probably the whole of the soul's experience is indelibly written upon the memory. No other recording-angel may be wanted. 'l'ho soul carries its own indictment in the record it bears of its own conduct. 2. This is also written on the affections. Sin begets the· passion for sin. Vice springs from the heart, and it corrupts the heart. That which is first committed under the stress of temptation comes at length to be sought with the hunger of a natural appetite. III. 'l'HE RECORD OF SIN IS ENGRAVED ON THE ALTAR OF SACRIFICE; Judah desp,crated the altar of Jehovah with idolatrous rites. We desecrate Divine things by sinful con- duct. 1. We cannqt leave our guilt behind us when we enter the temple of worship. If it is not repented of it will vitiate the worship. The sin of the week-day renders worthless the offerings of the Sunday. 2. Sin directly connected with religion is peculiarly wicked. The altar is defiled. Thus the offering of gifts from base motives, deceit, and unholiness in worship, stamps our sins with peculiar guilt on the altar of God. IV. 'l'rrIS )\ECORD OF SIN ~ NATURALLY INDELmLE. It is graven with an adamant. 1. It is, therefore, useless to ignore it. 2. It is vain to try to wash it away by any effort of our own. 3. It is foolish to expect peace with God till this terrible hindranc6 has been removed out of the way, 4. l;Ve have every motive to seek in penitence and in faith that God should blot out our: sin, not only from his book of remembrance, but also from our hearts, even though it is so deeply written there that nothing short of the creation of a new heart will remove it (Ps. Ii. 10). Vers. 6-8.-The desert shrub and the flourishing tree. L THE DESERT SHRUB EXEMPLIFIES THE CURSE OF WORLDLY CONFIDENCE, 1. Note the character of worldly confidence, (1) Trust in man. 1'here is a. trust in man that is natural and right. The foolish and wrong confidence is when man takes the l)lace of God, when the highest trust is in man, when the power of tho prince, the skill of the physician, or the astute- ness of the lawyer are .thought to be sufficient to secure us against the greatest dangers. (2) Reliance on the arm of flesh. 1'his illustrates the ultimate ground of such con- fidence as trust in man. •It twns to the flesh rather than to the spirit, i.e. to worldly influences rather than to ptinciples of truth, to the mortal rather than to the Divine, to the man who will perish rather than to the God who is eternal. (3) The departure of the heart from God. Vve cannot have a true confidence in God together with a supreme worldly confidence. The one excludes the other. The tree cannot be growing both i11 the desert and l;>y the water-course. This departure is of the heart. In the beart we trust. Outwardly we may still seem near to God, but if faith has gone the heart has forsaken God. • 2. Consider the curse of this worldly confidence. It makes one like a desert shrub. (1) Dwarfed and stunted in growth-a shrub, not a tree-a miserable shrub of the desert. Though departure from God doos not involve sudden destruction, it lowers the spiritual energies, dwarfs the whole life. (2) Not even benefited by blessings received. • The shrub "shall not see when good oometh." '!'he breath of spring, which brings fresh bloom and growth to other plants, passes over it with no rnoro fruitful effects than the chill blasts of autumu produce. Ho who has departed from God :ind Jives ouly in worldly confidence <lorives uo real benefit from the hlessings that Gull still sends him. (3) Suffering from lack of the chief goo<l. 'l'ho shrub is in a. p:irched land, 420 THE DOOK OF THE PROPHET JEHEMIAH. [cu. xvu. 1-27,