t!ie _inheren~ wickedness of the a_cts, which is the same in all who commit them with s1m1lar motives. 3. Pashur replied to the words of prophecy with the arm of force, Ho could not answer Jeremiah, so he attempted to repress him. Unable to refute the arguments of the prophet, he endeavoured to restrain the utterance of them. Here we r~cognize the folly, the injustice, and the cruelty of such persecution: the folly, for to silence a voice is not to destroy the unpleasant truth it declares; injustice, for nothing can be more unfair than to do violence to a man for uttering words which we cannot deny to be true ; e.nd cruelty, for it is a man's duty to make known what he believes to be important truths. II. THE THREATENED FATE OF PAsnua. Jeremiah stood alone, unpopular and unpro- tected. Pashur was strong in the powers of office and supported by the sentiment of the country. Yet the prophet was more than a match for the officer. Sensitive and naturally retiring, Jeremiah was bold in the conviction of truth, the sense of duty, and the consciousness of the Divine presence. Pashur's policy proved a failure. Jeremiah was not silenced by scourge and stocks. Either Pashur had too much sense of justice left to retain tho prophet in prison, or be feared that such an action would be recognized as illegal and damage his position, or he thought the severe but brief corporal punish- ment of the prophet sufficient. Jeremiah was set at liberty on the day after he was arrested, and then, instead of cautiously measuring his language, he boldly threatened Pashur with a share of suffering in the corning calamity. 'l'his was peculiar. Pashur was not to experience the worst, but to witness it. 1. He wa8 to be punished by fe,ar. Tyrants are cowards. A long-enduring, harassing fear is more painful to bear than a short, sharp, visible trouble. Many evils are worse in prospect than in experience. Courage and active resistance may make the facing of danger easy, but to be haunted with vague terrors, powerless to do anything to avert them, lashed and stung by innumerable ideal and therefore intangible torments,-this is torture. Yon can fight a foe of flesh and blood, but a fear is like a ghost. 'l'he blow aimed at it passes through it, and it remains still glaring at its victim till his blood freezes with horror. May God deliver us from the awful punishment of an eternal fear! 2. He was to see the words of the prophet verified by experience. He tried to silence the warning voice ; he could not stay the approaching evil. They who have rejected warnings will be dismayed and confounded when they see them realized in facts. 3. He was to witness the calamity of his nation. Probably there was a genuine love of his country in this man. His attack on Jeremiah may havo been influenced by a sincere desire for the national welfare. But if so he had put his country before bis God. His punishment would coruo in the humiliation of his nation. Patriotism is no excuse for resisting the will of God. The godless patriot may be punished by seeing the troubles that are brought on his country through its irreligion.
Ver. 1.-Enticedandoverpoweredby God. I. GoD ENTICES ms SERVANTS. Jeremiah had been led to undertake the prophetic mission with assurances of success and victory (eh. i.17-19), and he was surprised when he met only with contempt and apparent :failure. So others have entered God's service with much confidence in the joy and but little anticipation of the trouble it would bring. There is really nothing either false or unkind in this. 1. Nothing false; for (1) though all the future trouble is not predicted, its e.pproa.ch is not denied; we are simply left in the dark in regard to it; and (2) ultimately the servants of God will triumph, and the trouble will be all forgotten and swallowed up in victory. But if the darker experience were clearly revealed at first, it would throw such a shadow over the future that the ultimate triumph would be scarcely thought of, and thus a more false idea of the whole course of life would be produced than that which comes from hiding from us some of its darker scenes. 2. Nothing unkind. If the trouble must be faced it need not be anticipated (Matt. vi. 34). If God hides approaching trouble from us he does not forget to provide against it. He takes the burden of it upon himself, so that when the trouble is revealed the grace to endure it is also revealed. Moreover, on the whole, the blessedness of the service of God vastly outweighs its distresses. If the alarm of the la.tter drove us from the service, the result would be loss to ourselves. It is, therefore, merciful in God to condescend to our weakness a.nd thus lead us on through partial views of truth until we are strong enough to grasp the whole. Still, wbcm th~ prospect af trouble is revealed it should be JERE?41AH, 2 II 4.GG THE BOOK OF THE l'IlOPllET JtmEMIAll. (cH. xx. 1-18,