The Pulpit Commentary — Jeremiah — Volume 1 — Section 468

roused often become irrepressible. Many men of no ordinary meekness and self-control are overbome at such times-Jeremiah, Job, Moses, Elijah; and then they express themselves in unmeasured terms. It is as a llood broken loose. Its rushing, foaming waters pour along, and over all that lies in their path. Hence H is that the prophet here, not content with cursing the day of his birth, utters wild execrations on the messenger that announced it to his father. 'l'hus passionately does he protest against the misery and misfortune of his life. Nor has he been alone in such dark thoughts concerning life. Cf. Job iii., "'here the patriarch, in almost identical language, deplores the fact of his birth. And Moses prayed that God would kill him out of hand (Numb. xi. 15); and Elijah (1 Kings xix. 4). A.nd there have been a whole host· of men who have in the most emphatic way affirmed their belief that life is not worth living by refusing to live it any longer-San!, Ahithophel, Judas, and the suicides of all' ages declare this. And many more who have not given this dread proof of their sincerity have yet maintained the same. Sophocles said, "Not to be born is best in every way. Once born, by far the better lot is then at once to go back whence we came." Goethe; as he drew near his end, notwithstanding that all men regarded bis career as one which had been highly favoured and very enviable, is reported to have said, "They have called me a child of fortune, nor have I any wish to complain of the course of my life. Yet it has been nothing but sorrow and labour; and I may truly say that in seventy-five years I have not had four weeks of true comfort It was the constant rolling of a stone·tl:iat was always to be lifted anew. When I look back upon my earlier and middle life and consider bow few are those left who were young with me, I am reminded of a summer visit to a watering-place. On arriving one makes the acquaintance of those who have already been some time there and leave the week following. 'l'his .loss is painful. Now one becomes attached to the second generation, with which one lives for a time and becomes intimately connected. But this also passes away and leaves us solitary with the third, which arrives shortly before our own departure, and with which we have no desire to have much intercourse." And the gloomy musings of Hamlet," To be or not to be, that is the question," is another example, which has been followed by the whole tribe of those who are called pessimists, of representing life as a curse rather than a blessing. And we cannot deny that there are many now whose lot in life is so sad, that, if we looked only at the present, we could not vindicate the justice and still less the goodness of God in regard to them. And the terrible lottery that life is, a lottery in which the blanks far outnumber the prizes, goes far to account for the npatbetic indifference with which the deaths of such myriads of children are regarded. If all parents knew for certain that the lot of their children would be bright or maiuly so, how much more jealously would their lives be guarded and avenged I And there are many men who, whilst they stammer out some kind of thanksgiving for their" preser- vation and all the blessings of this life," fail utterly to feel thankful for their" creation." They would much rather not have been. So that there can be no doubt that there is a larger and it is to be feared an increasing number of people who are desperately or despairingly asking the question which stands at the bead or this homily, and which this passionate protest of the prophet against hie birth bas suggested, But bow is all this? Let us therefore inquire- !. WHAT ABE THE CAUSES OF SUCH CHEERLESS THINKING AND SPEAKING? \V C reply : 1. Temperament has a great deal to do with it. Some are born with a sunny, bright, cheerful disposition; let them go down on their knees and give God thanks for it, for it is a better gift to them, more surely secures their happiness, than thousands of gold and silver. But others are born with a temperament the very reverse-pessimists from their molbers' womb, always seeing the dark side of things, melancholy, fore- Loding, complaining. It is a positive disease, and calls for mingled pity and careful discipline. 2. llut more often still it is, the co11 tinued and sore pressure .of so1·row. So was it wilh Job and here with Jeremiah. And it is still the· bitter disappoint- ments, the miserable failures, "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune," trouble upon trouble,-tbese are prolific sources of the sad views of life of which we speak. 3. But ~ost of all, Bin-moral evil-is the reel cause. 'l'he "philosophy of melancholy" fiuds its true y,arc::ntage there. It is this which causes that unrest and torment of i;oul, that b_idi~:; of the face of God and uplifting of the scourge of conscience, which throws all hfe rnto shadow and blots out the sun l'rom the heavens. It is this which OlI. xx. 1-18.] 'l'HE BOOK OF 'l'HE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 475