consider Paris. And this self-confidence carries weight with othc.rs; for the world is indolent and thoughtless enough to take people very much at their own estimato of themselves. Nevertheless it is vain. (3) It was in spite of the supposed protection of God. The Jews were the elect nation. Hence the expectation of their immunity• but a vain expectation. No Divine favouritism will save us from the consequences of our sins. 3. The question suggests no possibility of help from the nations. . 'l'hey may pity, but they can do nothing. The stare of the crowd only aggravates the calamity. Well may such a prospect strike grief into the people interested. II. THE ANSWER. (Ver. 9.) 1. The cause of this calamity may be known. Even the heath~n nations may know it. Providence is not so mysterious as we suppose. No study 1s more lofty or more useful than the study of the moral philosophy of history. Treated only on secular grounds, it may be perplexing and unsatisfactory. But regarded in the light of the principles of the Bible, it may be fruitful in sound results. 2. The cause is mo1·al. The hosts of Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem. Swarms of northern races and Asiatic hordes swept away the power of imperial Rome. Paris fell before the guns and discipline of the German army. Yet in each of these cases moral corruption was behind tb.e physical cause of ruin, sapping the streµgth of the doomed city and provoking the onslaught of its foes. 3. The special cause was unfaitlif1Llness to God: (1) forsaking God-for God never withdraws bis protection from his people till they have abandoned their fidelity to him ; (2) breaking the covenant- for this had two sides, and God's promised grace is conditioned by the conduct of his people; and (3) positive idolatry-for tho unfaithful servant of God never rests with the abandonment of his God. He must serve some master. Such moral and religious corruption justifies punishment and requires chastisement. We may believe that a right understanding of the guilt and necessities of men will ultimately con:vi,nce us of the righteousness and wisdom of God's sterner d~alings, which at first naturally excite our wonder and dismay.
Ver. 10.-Misspent tears. I. WHY NOT .WEEP FOR THE DEAD? It is natural to do so. The religion of the Bible is not stoicism. Christ wept by the grave of Lazarus. Yet there are times aud circumstances which make it fitting not to weep for the dead, and there art, always grounds for the mitigation of such grief. 1. The. dead are taken from the evil to come. This is the idea of Jeremiah. If death. was ,a, calamity, the fate of the living at the overthrow of Jerusalem would have been a worse one. If an evil, death is still the less of two evils. Even if we only think of the dead as leaving the sun~. light of this upper world and passing to the dim land of shades, still ,they go to the J?laco "where the wicked cease fron, troubling, and the weary are at·rest.' In less calaip1tous times we should feel that, as God knows all, he may have taken oqr loved ones to. save them from some fearful evil which be, though be alone, saw in their path. 2. The dead are removed according to the will of God. David wept for his child. while it Ii ved; after it was dead he dried bis tears, for then he kn!)w God's will and resigned himself to it (2 Sam. xii. 22, 23). 'This resignation is more than a sensible recognition of the inevitable; it is a calm and trustful acquiescence in the will of God as righteously supreme-for if the Lord gave, may he not take away ?-wise, and good. 3. The dead have fallen into the hands of God. In what better hands can they be? How much better to fall into the hands of God than into the bands of man! We dare not dogma- tize concerning the deep mysteries of futurity. But one thing we know-" 'l'he mercy of the Lord endureth for ever." He is just, he may seem stern; the impenitent must Huffer punishment, which can be nothing else but fearful, though fair. Ye.t may not tl,i£ be the very beHt thing for them, even during their sufferings? For it is better for us to suffer for sin than to sin without suffering; And who knows what ultimato ,lesigns God may have ? 4. The dead in Christ never need our tears. We may weep for our own loss, but this is their gain, Weep that the battle is over and victory won'? Weep that the pilgrimage is finished and the pilgrim safe at home? Weep that the toil and sorrow, the temptation and sin, of this world are left behind, and tho joys of heaven inherited? that the night bas ended, tho shadows flown away? that the. light of the celestial city is beaming on the weary wanderer? Such tears aro teai's of unbelief. II. W1u WEEP FOR THE LIVING? This may bo required by special causes.. Lifo is a blessing. God gives many joyn to his children in tLi:i world, 'l'ho continuance of on. xxu. 1-30.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ~EREMIAH.