The Pulpit Commentary — Jeremiah — Volume 1 — Section 465

than the treasures of Egypt." This is what we should strive after-inward oneness of heart and purpose with our Master. II. His EXPEBIENOE IS TRANSITIONAL. 1. From doubt to faith. (Vers.11, 12.) 2, From sorrow to foy. (Ver. 13.) 3. One day the struggle will end in triumph.-M. Ver. 9.- Why God's· servants labour on. "Then I said, I will not make mention," etc. It was under no small provocation that Jeremiah uttered these words. It was in no fit of mere indolence or infidelity that he cried," I will not make mention of God, nor speak any more in his Name." He had stretched out his hand, but the people to whom he was sent refused; he had called, but they would not answer. And this had been their wont persistently, until he was weary, utterly weriry, and out of heart, and then it was he spoke as we read here and declared be would try no more. If any one be inclined to judge him harshly, let us but read the story of his life-a story most sad, yet glorious too; so far as the grace of God and the true honour of his servant are concerned; but yet a sad story, and one which, when.we have read it, will most assuredly check all dis- position to censure, with anything like severity, the deeply tried servant of God who in his utter weariness said he would speak no more in the Name of God. Now, all of us who are familiar with our Bibles or who know anything of the way in which those who labour for God often fail, will know that Jeremiah by no means stands alone in his sense of hopelessness and weariness in his work. We remember l\Ioscs (Exod. v. 22; Numb. xi. 11); and how Elijah faltered beneath his burden (1 Kings xix. 4); and John the Baptist (Matt. xi. 3); and even the holy Saviour himself (John xii. 29; Luke xxii. 42). Such is the stress which doing the will of God amongst wicked men puts upon the human spirit; no wonder that it well-nigh gives way. From the e:i:perience, then, of our Saviour and of so many of his servants we must all of us who are his servants lay our account with manifold and often great discouragements, and yet more with being tried by the temptation on account of these discouragements to abandon our work altogether and to speak no more in the Name of the Lord. Now,where is the spii-it that will resist this temptation, that will prevent the half-formed resolve to cease endeavour from being wholly formed and carried out? 'l'here is such a spirit. 'l'his strong temptation may be and has been resisted again and again. What is the secret of Christian constancy and steadfastness in the work of the Lord? We have the answer in this verse. However much any of God's servants may be tempted, as Jeremiah was, to give up his work, he still will not do so if, as was the case with Jeremiah, "tho Word of the Lord is in his heart as a burning fire shut up in his boues;" then he will be" weary with forbearing," and be will find that he cannot stay. Even as Elihu (Job xxvii 18), who said, "I am full of matter," etc.; and as Peter (Acts iv. 20), and Paul {Acts xvii. 6; xviii. 6; 1 Cor. ix. 16); and our Saviour (Luke ii. 49 ; xii. 50). In all these utterances we have the expression of that spirit which alone can, but surely will, bear up the servant of God amid all his difficulties and hold him steadfast to his duty in spite of every discouragement. But dropping all metaphor, let us inquire into this excellent spirit which renders such service to the tried and desponding soul. It does erz:ist. The records of the mission work of the Church at home and abroad will furnish not a few instances of men and women whose hearts the Lord hath touched, and who, moved by this Divine impulse, have felt themselves constrained to be up and doing, to penetrate the spiritual darkness around them, and to resist tho power of the devil everywhere present. Under the influence of this holy zeal, sucli servants of God have looked upon, the heathen, the degraded, the vile, not with the natural cyo alone. 'l'hat revealed to them only a foul mass of vice and cruelty, sensuality and all h11m[1n degradation. From such scenes and people nature turns away and woulJ. let them alone. But amid and beneath all this moral, spiritual, and physical repulsiveness, the ardent soul of God's servant sees jewels which may be won for Christ, spirits which may be regenerated and restored. His cyo looks right on to what, through the grace of the gospel, these degraded ones may become; nnd absorbed, swallowed up by a holy Christ-like love, he determines to spend nnd be spent in bringing to bear on that mass of siu and evil the power of that gospel which bas done so much already and which is " the power of God unto salvation unto every one that believeth." "The Word of God has been in their heart as," etc. There have been times in our history when we havo known somewhat of this sacred impulse which fired the soul or the prophet Jeremiah.  472 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. [clI. xx. 1--18.