everything exactly as it is, and who puts into the mouth of those speaking his Word just those expressions which will describe the things essential to be known! God pub- lished the deeds and character of these false prophets that those who were true to him might guard against them. So Jesus warned bis disciples against the time-honoured, time-consecrated pretensions of the Pharisees. God puts into the hearts of those whc keep near him a feeling which guards them against all who for their own selfish ends make a pretence of being interested in holy things. III. '!'here is in this passage a special charge against the prophets, to which the pre- liminary and more general accusations lead up. 'l'he prophets are charged with making a CONFUSION BETWEEN THE HUMAN AND THE DIVINE IN THEIR UTTERANCES, This clu.rge is summed up in the question," What is the chaff to the wheat?" or, as it is more nearly rendered," \Vbat has the straw to do with the grain?" The straw and the grain, close together as they may be for a while, are separated at last; and one will by no means serve the purpose of the other. Grain is meant for man's support, and straw will not take its place. Straw has its own place, and may be very useful, so long as it is kept in it. But if straw and grain are to be all mixed up together, the result will be very unsatisfactory. We all need to bear in mind this illustration, for we may all have, to some extent, the duty and opportunity of being prophets of God. He is a rare man who can tell forth things exacUy as they are. It is not for man, by a plau- sible eclecticism, to take something of human experience and something of Divine revelation and mix them up into what he trusts may somehow prove acceptable to men. Human experiences and conjectures have their part. ·when a man honestly tells us what he thinks and feels, w~ know how to estimate his statement; and when he comes professedly with a Divine message we have some notion how to test him . .But what shall we do with him who claims to limit and modify Divine revelation, so that it may fit into what he is pleased to call the inexorable moulds of human reason? We must ever make the distinction between the straw and the groin in our search for truth. Some truth is discoverable by observation, experiment, deduction; other truth only by the spiritual intuitions of a devout and humble mind placing itself before the statements of Divine revelation. So with regard to human and Divine government. '!'here is no possibility of acting so as to please both God and men. There is no possi- bility of building up a perfect society out of such elements as we have nt present. On one hand, we have to bear in mind the limitations of society in the actual existence of it. What we make a law to ourselves, in our own individual relations to God, we cannot impose on others. On the other hand, we must not allow the low conceptions which others may have of God's claims to drag us down to their level. Let God's Law stand out distinct and authoritative before our minds to guide us in our individual life. Tho.t Law must not be in any way modified, under a notion that compliance with it is impossible of attainment. If we persevere in receiving God's Word and persevere in repeating it, we shall find that it will make its way mightily, not as by brute force, but because it is the Word of truth, the Word that has abiding fitness for the deepest needs of men.-Y.
EXPOSITION. cated, not only by the phrase, "Jehovo.h CHAPTER XXIV. showed me" (comp. Amoe vii. I, 4, 7 ; Age.in Jeremiah's ungrateful task is to viii. I), but by the contents of the vision. take up an attitude of direct opposition to the Ver. 1.-Two baskets of figs wore ■ et be- fore, etc. (comp. Amos viii. 1-3). Tho king(comp. eh, xxii. 13-30), though, indeed, description is apparently based on the law Zedekiah personally is so weak and depen- of firetfruits (comp. Deut. xxvi. 2), where dent on others that he neither deserves nor the "basket" is mentioned, though not tho receives a special rebuke. He and all the word here used. The baskets were set people that are left are likened to very bad down in readiness to be examined by the figs, the good figs-the exiles-having been priests, who rigorously rejected all fruH that woe not sound. The prinoes of Judah. pioked out and sent to Babylon, whence A short phrase for all the lee.ding men, they will one day be restored. The vision whether members or the royal family or heads la purely an interior prooess. This is indi· of tl1e priQcip.11 families (comp. eh, xxvii. 542 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. [oH. XXIV. 1-10
20). The carpenters and smiths; rntber, . Ver. 6.::--I will build them, etc. (comp. eh. tlui eraftsmcn a11d smiths ("craftsmen" in- 1. 10; xu. 16). As the next verse shows cludes wo1·kers in stouo nud metal as well H is not merely outwa1·d prosperity that ~ as wood; the Hebrew word is rendered meant, but spiritual regeneration. "smith" in 1 Sam. xiii. 19). Ver. 8.-And as the evil figs. (So eh. xxix. Ver. 2.-Like the figs that arc first ripe. 16.) That dwell in the land of Egypt. The early spring fig was considered a special Those who had fled thither during tho war delicacy (comp. Isa. xxvii. 4; Hos. ix. 10); (comp. eh. xiii., xliii.); hardly those who "ficus pr:ccox," Pliny rolls it(' Hist. Nnt.,' hnd been carried captive to Egypt with xv. 19, quoted by Trench). Tristram sug- Jehoahnz, who would presumably have been gests that the " bad figs " wero those of a of the better sort, such as are symbolized sycamore tree. by the good figs. • Ver. 5.-Aclmowledge tho1:1; or, take Yer. 9.-And I will deliver them, etc. k11ou,ledge (notice) of them (as Ruth ii. 10, (see on oh. xv. 4, nud comp. eh. xxix.; Deut. 19). :uviii. 37).