reputation. The redeemed will no longer be tho11ght of in connection with the old associations of their sin and shame. 'l'hese will be forgotten, and a new name given to them, describing their holier character and happier condition. Consider the significance of this new name-" The Lord our lligbteousness." I. Gem Is THE RrGIITEous:NEss OF ms PEOPLE. 1. He jusli_fies his people in the faco of their maligners by proving the rightness of their cause. For this, like David, they may appeal to him (Ps. xxxv. 23, 24). 2. God's righteousness is the ideal of ri)!;ht- eousness for his people. True righteousness is that which is after God's mind. Men have their notions of right, which are often perverted by passion and prejudice. Ilut the redeemed have a vision of a higher law and a purer type of goodness. God is right- eousness to them. He is the Good, the only true Good (Mark x. 18). 3. God is the Source of righteousness to his people. None can make himself righteous; righteousness is an inspiration. Tliis idea is suggested by Plato in the 'Meno,' where he represents Socrates as saying, "To sum up our inquiry-the result seems to be, if we are at all right in our view, that virtue is neither natural nor acquired, but an instinct given by God to the virtuous;" and again, "Then, Meno, the conclusion is that virtue comes to the ,irtuous by the gift of God." How singularly near is this to St. Paul's teaching about "the righteousness of God without the Law" (Rom. iii. 21-2£() ! II. RIGHTEOUSNESS IS COEXTENSIVE WITH SALVATION. When the people are saved, they receive the new name. We are not delivered on account of our righteousness, but in our sin and need and ill desert. Nevertheless, salvation brings righteousness, includes the gift of righteousness-is, indeed, essentially a restoration of righteous- ness, a deliverance from sin to a state of holiness. The two ideas may be serarated in thought; they cannot be separated in experience. It would be unjust and unholy for God to deliver a man from the penalties of bis sin while be remained in the practice of it. But when deliverance comes, no part of it is more full of joy and blessedness to the redeemed, and none reflects more glory on the Redeemer than the salvation from the power of sin and the creation of a new nature of holiness. III. THE DIVINE RIGHTEOUSNESS IS CONFERRED THROUGH CHRIST. The giving of the new name follows the advent of the Messiah and the exercise of his kingly rule. Hero we are carried beyond the vague and apparently casual Platonic notion of the inspira- tion of virtue to the definite Christian doctrine of righteousness through Christ. 1. Christ secures redemption for us by his life-work and bis sacrificial death, and with this comes righteousness. 2. Christ is the incarnation of the Divine righteousness, and breathes that into us by bis vital contact with bis people. 3. Christ rules in righteous- ness over a people whom be teaches to follow and obey him with righteousness. There- fore, if we crave the honour and the blessedness of the new name, let us yield our souls in trust and obedience to the claims and grace of Christ.
Ver.16.-Uninspired prophecy. The Jews were warned not to listen to the prophets, because they were not inspired by God. This fact was considered to be a sufficient proof of their inefficiency, and necessarily so, since the prophets professed to be acting as the oracles of God, and not merely indulging in their own speculations and conjectures. Herein lay the danger of their position. They held official rank as religious teachers, their claims were backed by venerated tradition, they boldly professed to speak with Divine authority; yet they were not sent by God. 'l'he same danger accompanies the pretensions of men in our own day, who claim a right to be heard without question by reason of their high office in the Church, and yet have no Divine commission. The appearance of this uninspired prophecy in Jeremiah's age may, therefore, be a warning to modern times. L 'l'HE ORIGIN OP' THIS PBOPIIE0Y WAB PRIVATE SPECULATION. The prophets spoke "a vision of their own heart." Such a vision could only be a revelation of themselves. This is what uninspired religious speculation amounts to. It is a revelation of man, not a revelation of God. Attempts are made to arrive at truth in three ways. 1. Dy observation. Ilut observation cannot reveal (1) the future, (2) the Divine. 2. lly reasuning. This must be based on experience, and can bear no more strain than its ~asis. It is not found that we have sufficient data in normal experience to warrant important predictions of history and conclusions on vexed theological quostions. 3. By tntuition, Intuition does reveal truth, but only the truth of our own nat.ure. We en. um. 1-40.J THE BOOK. OF 'l'HE rnoPIIE'r JEREMIAH. 521