needs the oppositiou of the wicked in order that all his power w defend his people may be known, This, indeed, is one of the lessons taught by the sufferings of Jesus even to death. Darkness was to get its hour and its power, that so the Light of the world might be more fully glorified, Never was it morn emphatically truo than when Jesus was laid in the grave, that Jehovah was with him as a mighty, terrible One. We look with the natural eye, and we see a cold corpse apparently gone the way of all flesh ; we look with the eye of faith, and we discern One standing by who at the appointed hour will raise that corpse, and rr.ake it the_ channel of manifestations of life such as were not possible before.-Y. ' Vera; 14-18.-The prophet cursing the day of his birth. It is very perplexing to find these words following so closely upon the confidences expressed in vers. 11-13. And yet the perplexity is to some extent removed when we recollect bow largely man is.the creature of his moods. That he is bright and confident to-day may not binder bim from being in the depths of despair to-morrow.· It is well for us to see how low a real and faithful prophet of God can siuk. One is reminded at once of the similar words put· into the mouth of Job. We have advantages, however, in considering this expres- sion of Jeremiah which we lack in considering the similar expression of Job. Of Job we know nothing except as the subject of e>ne of the sublimest poems in the world. What substance of fact may have suggested the poem it is beyond our powers to deter- mine. But J ercmiah stands before us unquestionably a real man, a prominent character in the highway of history. I. 'l'HE FEELING THAT UNDERLIES THIS TERRIBLE IlllPRECATION, The form of the imprecation is not to be too much regarded. The same feeling will be very differently expressed _in di!Terent languages and among different races. What Jeremiah means is made clear in ver. 18. Just at this particular time it seems to him that life has been nothing but one huge failure, He has no heart to accept suggestions such as might mitigate his gloom. He will not even allow that life has had any other possibilities than those of failure and shame, and therefore the congratulations attending his birth were misplaced. 'l'ho more we look into his language here, the more we see that it was very wilt.l and foolish. The important matter is tJ:\at, in approaching the consideration of these words, we should have a distinct impression of how recklessly eveu a good man may t.'\lk. A recollection of Jeremiah's utterance here will keep us from wondering that there should be so much of foolish and impious talk in the world. • 'I}. 'J'HE FAOT WAS AS FAR AS POSSIBLE FROM OORRESPONDING TO THE FEELING. ·we.look at Jcremiah's career as a whole, and at the permanent value of his prophecies, and then we see how little moods and feelings count for just by themselves. We gain nothing by sayiag of any man that it might have been better for him if he had never been born. It is truo that Jesus spoke thus of Judas, but we are not at liberty to say what he says; and besides, he was speaking in the language of necessary hyperbole, in order to emphasize the dreadful wickedness of the traitor, 'l'he safe ground for us to take. is that entrance upon human life in this world is a good thing, Even with all the trials .of life, the position of a human being in this world is a noble one, and his po~si• bilitics for the future are beyond imagination, While it is right that we should have the deepest compassion for the deformed, the defect.ive, the infirm, we must also :recollect that it is better to be the most deformed of human beings than the shapeliest and healthiest of brutes. In face of all the present afflictions of human nature, one thought should be sufli,;ient to brighten them all, namely, the thought of how perfectly comprehensive is the renewing power of Gc,d, Within its grasp it comprehends the most imperfect and distorted of human organizations. Jeremiah was making the huge blunder of looking at things entirely from the point of view of his own feelings, and his present feeliogs. His actions were better than his words. Spe:1king out of his own feelings, ha talked great foily and falsehood; speaking as the prophet of God, his utterances were those of wisdom and truth. The fact was that of no one belonging to his generation could it be more truly said than of him that his birth was a good thing; good for the nation, good for himself, good for the glory and service of Jehovah, We must not bemoan existence because there is suffering in it. Suffering may be very protracted and intense, and yet life be full of blossing. Jesus had to suffer more than any man. flo shrank from the approach of death with a sensitiveness which we cannot 4S0 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. [on. XXI. 1-14.
c?ncei~e, who have in us the mortal taint by reason of indwelling sin. Nothing recon- c1led him to the thought of all he had thus to endure save that it was the clear will of God. What was Jeremiah's mental suffering compared with that of Jesus? And yet though the life of Jesus was to be one of peculiar and unparalleled sufferings, his birth had angels to aunounce and celebrate it,-Y,