Vers. 12-15.-The defence of the witness for the truth. I. AN APPEAL TO coN- 8CIENCE. The message repeated in its baldest form. Its genuineness insisted upon, and its reception earnestly urged upon men. A high moral standpoint is maintained, and there is no compromise or apology. He stands at the bar of human conscience. II. OnEDIBNCE TO LAWFUL AUTHORITY. He hands himself o\·er to them to deal with him as they will; is careful to state his case as God gives him ability; and appeals to no unlawful means of deliverance. III. REFERENCE OF THE WHOLE MATTER TO GOD. God sent llim-that is suffi- cient. He has been faithful to his instructions; is really not to be judged by man, but leaves all with God.-M.
Ver. 24.-Help raised up for God's servants in times of peril. I. OF WHAT SORT IT IS. 1. Unexpected. 2. Opportune. 3. Effective. 4. Not what man would choose. II. WHAT IT TEACHES us. 1. The infinite resources of God. 2. The weakness of evil. 3. Those who will not willingly obey God are made to sei·ve Mm unwillingly. 4. God chooses his own way of dea.ling with his servants and Ms truth.-M.
Ver. 11.-Jeremiah reckoned worthy of death. I. ·wno THEY WERE THAT PRO- NOUNCED THIS JUDGMENT. There is already a statement in ver. 8 that priests, prophets, and people had laid hold on Jeremiah with a threatening of death; but we must allow something for the feelings produced on the first reception of an exasperating and humiliating message. 'l'be case is worse when the priests and prophets, having had some time for consideration, however short, press upon the princes and people a demanu for the death of Jeremiah. The lead the priests and prophets here take goes a long way in showing who were mostly responsible for the deplorable state of things in the land. If things were to be put right, these two classes of men must be con- spicuous in repentauce. Those who were so ready to sentence Jeremiah to death were really most of all deserving of death themselves. Ile had simply spoken words against the city and the temple, words which were not his own; those who condemned him had so lived that their life had been a sedulous undermining of all that constituted tho prosperity and glory of their country. II. WHAT IT WAS THAT PROVOKED TIIE JUDGMEKT, Jeremiah had prophesied against the city. Observe, not simply that he had spoken blasphemous and contemp- tuous words against the city; but that he had prophesied against it. 'l'hus did tho priests and prophets 8how how little they understood the nature of true prophecy. 'l'hey did not under8tand that when the Lord sends forth n man to speak, he puts a en. xxvr. 1-24.] 'l'llE DOOK 01!' 'l'llG PllOPHET JEP.Gi'ilIAH.
word in his month which shall commend itself lo all who love truth an<l certainty. To the mind of these priests and prophets everything began with this postulate, that nothing must bo said against Jr.rusalem and the temple. And to them it was no sort of answer that the eins of Jerusalem deserved and demanded that something shoulcl be said against it. 'rhe good name of Jerusalem, however Jacking in any sort of corre- spondence with reality, had become a sort of point of honour. Thus we see how tho pride of men goes before their destruction. A conventional sense of honour leads them into paths thickly strewn with stumbling-blocks. These men had become so stuffc,l with spurious patriotism that they could not bear to have Jerusalem spoken against. Hence they arc logically compelled to imply that Jeremiah is a false prophet, and that God has not spoken at all. They were as those who shut their eyes, and then say there is nothing to be seen. III. THE DOOM THEY INVOKED. The man wl10 speaks against Jerusalem is reckoncll worthy of death. \Ve must not, of course, measure this judgment by our notions of what may require the death-penalty. 'l'o speak against a parent was by the Law of Moses to incur the death-penalty. As the Apostle James uses many forcible expressions to illustrate, great is the power of the tongue; an,l a bad man may do mischief with his tongue worthy of the severest punishment men can inflict. If Jeremiah had gone about among the people stilTing them up to rebellion and national <lis- cord, there would have been nothing very astonishing in an attempt to put him to <leath. But he gave no exhortation to the people save what each one could carry into effect without the slightest injury to any one; nay, rather the obedience of each would be to the real and abiding a<lvantage of all. He spoke not of anything he himself intended to bring about, but of what was going to happen altogether irrespective of him. His death, supposing he were slain, would make no difference; nay, it would only help to proclaim his message louder and more abidingly. 'l'hose who feel themselves attacked by the trnth, strike out recklessly with the first instrument they can get hohl of; but though they may seem thus to dest.roy God's agencies, it is found in the cad that they arc efficiently promoting his work. '!'hey that were seal tered abroad by the great persecution which arose at the time of Stephen's death, "went everywhere preachiug the Word."-Y.