The Pulpit Commentary — Jeremiah — Volume 1 — Section 524

relying upon him. For faith it is which vitalizes our connection with him. '!'be wires of the elect.ric cable may stretch all the way beneath the ocean, and each shoro of tho Atlantic be joined together by them; but there is no communication until tho electric current is sent along that cable, and then the circuit is complete. Aud so the channel along which our faith may pass is provided; but until faith goes from our heart -that electric force of faith-the connecting bond may almost as well not be. Until then Christ is a Representative of man before God, but he is not our Representative. It is faith that vitalizes that connection, and he is not our Righteousness until we believe. Faith brings us into real union with him, reproduces in us the mind which was in him, lays hold on the grace which he holds out to us, leads us to repent, to love, to obey, to follow him in the daily walk and conversation. Remember, the Lord demands righteousness. \Ve have it not in ourselves. In this our destitution the Lord comes to us and offers to be our Righteousness. W o have but to appropriato and claim that which he offers. Shall we be so sinful, so mad, as to refuse? The great day when the banquet for God's saints shall be spread is hastening on, and we shall all of us be eager to crowd in and take our place there with the blessed. But what if, when the King comes in to view his guests, we have not on the wedding- garment, but are dressed in some robe of our own, which we think will answer as well? You know how he was dealt with who presumed so to do. Oh, then, that such may not be our doom, let us hasten unto Christ, and pray him now and for ever to be "the Lord our Righteousness,"-C. Ver. 28.-" Wnat is the chaff to," etc.? One seems to see the flash of the prophet's eye, the tremulous emotion, the indignant scorn, with which he bursts out with this scathing question; one can almost hear his loud, vehement tones as he taunts with it the false prophets, against whose wickedness he had been protesting throughout the greater part of this chapter. What sternness, what biting severity, characterize it! As one has said, "It cuts like the edge of a razor. As a sabre flashing over one's head; a sword gleaming to the very point ; a fire lurid with coals of juniper ;-we are appalled as we glance at it. It strikes with implacable resentment. There is no word of mercy toward the chaff; not a thought of clemency or forbearance. He bloweth at it as though it were a worthless thing, not to be accounted of-a nothing, that vanishes with a puff." It reminds us, as so much in Jeremiah's character and experience does, of our Lord's indignation against the false teachers of bis day. What terrible, burning words were those which he uttered agllinst the "scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites," who swarmed around him I Where there is deep love of God and of man, there cannot but be such holy hatred of such as aro what those were whom our Lord and the prophet denounced. Jeremiah in this chapter, from the ninth verse downwards, has been pouring out his soul against them. He declares himself broken-hearted because of them-by their conduct and the woes it was bringing upon his people. He laments the grievous wickedness of the nation, but charges it all upon these faithless prophets, who taught men to sin by their bad example, and encouraged them therein by their false teachingH. And as he thinks of the worthless- ness of the men and of their prophesyings, his sacred anger and scorn mount up and burst forth in these terrible ll'ords, "What is the chalT to the wheat? saith the Lord. Is not my word like as a fire? saith the Lord; and l:ke a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?" Yes, these are terrible words; but how applicable, how necessary they are to be insisted upon, even now I For, monstrous almost as it may appear, men are, as they have ever been, roost prone to care more for the chaff than for the wheat; to spend themselves on securing that which is worthless, whilst that which is most precious they despise. And the danger is increased because those things which are as the chaff to the wheat are often, as the chaff and wheat themselves, closoly associated together, have grown up together, are very difficult to separate, and are mutually dependent one upon another. It is easy enough, when we see the wind driving the chaff away, to discern the difference between it and the wheat, and the inferiority of tbe one to the other; but it is not so easy whilst the two arc together, and seeming do much as if they were all of one nature and value. Now, apply all this in regard t.o ~undry matters in which this discrimination needs sorely to bo made. And- I. To THE PllOPIJEBYING 01' TUE PRESENT' DAY. '!'he occasion nnd connection of the cu. xxin. 1-40.J THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREmAH. 531