Ver. 31.-Jehovah's controve,·sy with .'lie nations. This necessary controversy explains all the proceedings described from vcr. 15 to the end of the chapter. Jeremiah is not a prophet to Israel only, but to all who are guilty of similar trans"ressions. The cup of God's holy wrath goes on filling wherever he beholds wrong-doing. •It is easy to see, if we only ponder a little, that some such outburst as this must come in all truo prophecy. As the Apostle Paul puts it, the nations that sinned without law perished wilhout law. The peculiar light vouchsafed to Israel was not the only light for which men were responsible to God. Accordingly we find that it seems to have been ono main ground of appeal taken by the apostlo to the Gentiles that God had not left him- self without witness amongst them. If, on the one hand, he could denounce Israel for king so indifferent to the Law he had formally given, so, on the other hand, he could denounce the Gentiles for their negligence of the light of nature. Idolatry, as we perceive, had produced the most fearful results in Israel; but everywhere else it must, of course, have produced results quite as bad, only they do not happen to occupy such a prominent position in history. And thus we have indicated to us here, as indeed in so many places elsewhere, the ,rny in which to consider the decline and fall of great nations. It is not enough for the Christiau to rest in the consideration of secondary causes. And if a nation's decadence be so gradual and imperceptible as to show no obvious sign of what secondary causes may be operating, then there is all the more need to rise to the height of a true faith in God and believe that his jndgments are assuredly at work. Wherever tbere is unbridled self-indulgence, still spreading wider and wider, there we may be sure God is carrying on those judgments which cannot fail. But is there not also a brighter side suggested by one passage in this chapter? As we read of all these lands to which, in a kind of apocalyvtic yision, Jeremiah presented the cup of Jehovah'a fury, we cannot but think of that other list so graciously represented on the day of Penteco~t. Nations, in the manifold wisdom of God, may rise, decline, and fall ; but such a fate will trouble none save those who exaggerate patriotism into a cardinal virtue. The serious matter is when the individual will not show a timely wisdom, and in humble repentance put away his mistaken past, and in humble faith accept the redemption and guidance which God a.lone can provide.-Y.
EXPOSITIO~. sequences of tl1at bold doolaration of tha CHAPTEil XXVI. word of tho Lord. The present position of JEREMlill'B 'fnIAL AND DELIVERANCE. the cl,apter is only surprising to thosll who The prophecy in vers. 2-6 is a summary 11ssumo tlm,t tho works of the prophets wero of that contained in eh. vii. 1-15; the nar- necessarily arranged chronologically. How rative, which stands in no connection either many violations of chronological order meet with eh. xx.iv. or eh. xxrii., relates the con- us in other books. e.g. in Isaiuh I It ie only OH. xxv1. 1-24.] 'l'llE BOOK 011' 'rHE PilOPHE'l' JEREMIAH.