The Pulpit Commentary — Jeremiah — Volume 1 — Section 480

"To at.eel his melting heart, To act the martyr's sternest pa.rt; To watch with firm, unshrinking eyo His darling \'isions as they die ; 'l'oo happy if, that dreadful day, His lifo bo given him for a prey." (Keble). Now- I. TRlS DREAD .NECESSlTY IS 0:KE WIIICH MAY BE SEBN CONTINU ,!.LI,Y rriEBSING ON MEN. Illustrations are numerous: the thro,Yiug over the cargo in storui 'at sea; th«i abandoument of outposts to concentrate strength on the key of the position; the cutting off a limb to save the life; the giving up a less important branch of trade ,to safeguard one more so. And in the religious life we are perpetually sl1mruoned to such sacrifice. "Whoso lovcth his life shall lose it, but he that 1oveth his life for my sake shall find it;" "Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die," etc. All, ventures of faith, And death~" for corrnption canilo't inherit inc·orruption," .and therefore that the true life may be ours the fleshly life must die. .And our Lord represents the awful doom of the wickelto be a "cutting off of a diseased part," a KOAAr.um, that-so it should secm~eutire destruction may not be needed. It· is ~n awful process, but sternly necessary. God save us from it! .And what is the sub- mission of our will to God, the self-surrender for which· he ever ·asks, but the prudent conduct of that king who feels that with bis puny force of ten thousand he cannot meet the king who comes 11.gainst him with twenty thousand, and thcrcfore·strnightway senils an embass:1ge desiring conilitions of peace? But---' , II. MEN SHRINK FROM IT. Those before whon.1 Jeremiah placed this" way of life"' shrank from it. They would •not listen to him; They crnelly persecuted their far- seeing and God-inspked prophet. .A:.nd it is so still. In common life the proverbial' sa..ying, "Nothing venture; nothing have," implies 'that me'n are loth to venture .. Many a craft hugs the shore, thinking to find safety there, and is driven on the rocks an,l wrecked, when by putting bolilly ont to sea the storm'might have been safely weathered., The historian of the Crimean ,var finds fault, once and again, with our generals for their timid policy, which he maintai11s brought so· great Bufferings and losses on our army, whilst had a more daring strategy been adopted-as ii;i 'our recent Egyptian campaign' at Tcl-el-Kebir-tbe war might have been speedily and gloriously ended. And, fo. tli.e religioUB life, how men shrink from tbis self-surrender! 'What Cran.tic but 'futile efforts there are to serve God and mami:non, notwithstanding our Saviour has sai'd, "There is· no man that bath left house, or lands," etc. (Mark x. 29) I B_ut men cann()t be per- suaded to believe this. 'l'he young rti,ler who had great possessions (Matt. xix.)\vent away sorrowful, because he could not ti:J(tke'the gl'eat renture; And the feeble religioiJ~ life of so many, the absence-·-0f all joy 'in' God'.s sei,vi'ce,' is owing to this, same cause. M.en are ever trying to fi.ncl a-via media- between the "'way of life'' and "way of death." 'l'he hllBba.ndm.an does not'refuse to east into the cai-th all he has left of lastyear'.s c_orn; in the trust that it will yield him a bounteous harvest; B'ut we arc slow to believe. iri the wisdom of such sowing in ~piritual tbin'gs: • • . ·, .. IlL BUT THE REFUSAL TO SUilMIT IS FATAL, It was SO in fase of those to whom Jeremiah preached, and it has Leen so a thousand times since. .A ship was sinking. A man leaped from her deck into the sea. He was a good swimmer, but he had fastened round him a belt containing gold, which he could not bring himself to abandpn, and i,ts weight sank him ere he could reach the boat for which he ";as making. Our Lord bade him who should be on the house-tops when Jerusalem was besieged" not go down to fetch his clothes." Such carefulness might cost him his life.. Our Lord tells of !llany of the Pharisees who believed on him, but were afraid to confess him, lest they should be pnt out of the synagogue. .And perhaps thero are few of the worldly and irreligiou~ amongst us who ha,•e not sunk down to where they are now, and will sink down. to lower depths still, through this same refusal to give up all for Christ. It may po humiliating and inv-0lve present Joss, and therefore men let go the eternal gaiil. • 'l'o refuse such sacrifice is the way of death. But- _IV. To CONSENT TO IT IS LIFE. 'l'ake our Lord as the supreme example, whl;\;·not for ~tmself but for us, threw away that infinite glory, that equality with God, which, beina Ill "the form of God," was ever liis; but St. Paul tells us (Phil. ii. 6) he counted c11. xxr. 1-14.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 487