Ver. 13.-God against Jerusalem. In the fact that God was agninst her, Jerusalem was to see thnt all resistance to the Chaldeans must fail. This terrible secret of hope- less ruin may be found in others besides the Jews. . I. IT IS POSSIBLE FOR Gon 'l'O BE AGAINST THOSE WHO WERE ONCE ms MOST FAVOURED PEOPLE. It is J erusalern, of all cities, 'that finds God to be her opponent. Therefore they who have enjoyed the friendship of God in the past have no right to presume that nothing can break that friendship. Moreover, God may be actively opposed to us. The opposition mny not be all on our side. Though God is Jove, he can be angry, since even lorn itself will rouse anger when it is abused; and thc;rngh ho desires µltimately nothing but good, he may first send partial and temporary evil as a means for effecting this. .. • II. 'l'HEY WHO OPPOSE THEMSELVES TO Gon WILL ULTIMATELY FIND GoD OPPOSED TO THEM. The original enmity is on our side, so is the offence, the ,.,rang-doing, tho evil passion which stirs up contention. God woul<l ever be at peac~ with his children, and it is they alone who have imported strife into his family. But after they have done so it is impossible for God to be indifferent to their conduct to him. Bis honour, insulted, must needs bo vindicated-not, indeed, in the selfish way,of personal pride, but in the righteous regard for the just and orderly government of qis kingdom. III. No MORE TERRIBLE FATE CAN BEFALL MEN THAN FOR GoD TO BE AGAINST THEM. The horrors of the sieges of Jerusalem are amongst the darkest scenes of history. Ye~ the moral effects of God's wrath are far more serious than the material. 1. If. God is against us, we lose all the help of his favour. It is irn:tiossible to measure the grace which, in multiform influences, streams into us and sustarns and strengthens us for duty and trial. If all were removed we should perish. If God wero wholly against any soul, that soul must at once be driven to outer darkness-be crushed and destroyed, and by negative causes alone; simply through the loss of God's light and life. But no man in this world has been so cursed. Yet even whilo God withdraws his special favours the loss is so great as to entail certain failure in life. The fruit may not be dashed from the t.rees, but the summer sun will never come to ripen it. 2. If God is against ns, terrible evi1s will befall us. God is ever active in his presence. If we are not blessed by it, we suffer from it. How fearful to have God for our enemy! All the laws and forces of the universe are then against us. Nature and providence, earth and heaven fulfilling his will, must direct their vast resources against the wretched outlaw. Our opposition to God will be to our own injury, but \\'hat m_uch more foarful result8 must follow his opposition to us! This dreadful fate is illustrated by our Lord's words, in wbichhe compares those who shall fall on tho stone with those on whom the atone shall fall (Matt. xxi. 44). IV. IF Goo 16 AGAINST us, REDEMPTION MUST INVOLVE A OBANGE OF_ Gon's RELATION TO us. The atonement must have on aspect towards God as well as one towards man. While man is reconciled to God, God must be propitiated to man. It is true that this language is only possible because we speak of God after the manner of man, and that the atonement does not originate in us or in an independent third party who seeks to reconcile man and God, but in God himself, who sent his Son to redeem the world to himself. Yet, though desiring to be only gracious to men, God must have recognized the necessity of that intercession and sacrifice of Christ which won the favour of the Father to his beloved Son, and so to mankind, of whom Christ was _the representative Priest. In Christ, therefore, we need not fear that God is against us (Rom, iii. 25).
HOMILIES BY VARIOUB AUTHORS. Vere. 1, 2.-Zedekiali's message; or, the prayer of the un,qodly. L AN EXAMPLE TO BE IMITATED. Whatever might be 1111id of the generRI behaviour of the king, his conduct on. XXI. 1-14.J THE BOOK OF TllE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 48S