The Pulpit Commentary — Jeremiah — Volume 1 — Section 586

llatural good has the stamp of God's ownership upon it. Whatever, therefore, comes to you in the honourable commerce of life do not shrink from it or refuse it, It is yours to enjoy because he made it; it is yours because it is his. The freedom of the earth is given to his true children. 'l.'herc is a sense in which it may be said of all out- ward good that they who know best how to use it aright have most right to it.a use. There is no "possession" of these things like that which springs from spiritual affinity and sympathy with him who gave them, and from the power to discern and appreciate their inner meaning. There is no" right" like that of Divine sonship. "All thin~s are yours," etc. (1 Cor. iii. 21-2'3). We dishonour our Christian faith when we move about in the world timidly or gloomily, as if we had no right to live in it, or as if it were a mere "house of bondage;" hedged in on all sides with painful restrictions, bound wi.th fetters of restraint; afraid to share with a free, hearty, childlike gladness any of its innocent delights. If this is" Emmanuel's land," have we not the range of all its delectable mountains? Is it a world that our Father's hand has made and filled with the tokens of his beneficence, and that has been trodden by the feet of the great Redeemer, and shall we throw over it the shadow of our discontent or fear (Neh. viii. 10; Eccles. ix. 7; 1 Tim. iv. 4, 5)? JI. THE IDENTITY OF INTEREST SUBSISTING BETWEEN THEM AND THE WORLD, "Seek the peace of the city," etc. Captives and bondmen as these Jews were, they were never- theless involved in all that affected the welfare of the Babylonian state. 'rhe administra- tion of its affairs for good or ill, for peace or war, must needs be a matter of great interest to them, since they would so largely share the consequences. (See illustrations in Joseph and his brethren, Daniel and the three Hebrew youths, Esther and Mordecai, etc.) The citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem have also an earthly citizenship to· main- tain, the bonds of which are not broken through their being raised spiritually to a higher level than that of the worldly life around them. Rather are those bonds cor- respondingly raised and made more sacred anu binding. Their Christian faith elevates the character of their earthly citizenship, invests it with a new dignity, attaches to it higher and diviner sanctions. "In the peace thereof shall ye have peace." All parts of the social system are so linked together by a !aw of mutual dependence and influence that the well-being of one is, in a measure, the well-being of all. "The eye cannot say to the hand," etc.; "Whether one member suffer," etc. We are all personally affected for good or ill by the political order and the general tone of the moral life .a.round us. There are deep rankling wounds in the body politic-ignorance, drunken- ness, roving beggary, domestic vice and violence, the systematic training of the young in crime, the oppression of the hireling in bis wages, etc.-which it is to the interest of us all most earnestly to seek to heal. No class of the community can escape the ill effect of these things; and religion does but bring us into the deeper sympathy with those who most suffer by such forms of wrong. III. THEm BESPONBIBlLITY TO LIVE FOR THE WORLD'S HIGHEST BENEFIT. " Seek the peace of the city, . . . ,and pray tcl't1he Lord for it." Real peace is the fruit of righteous- I1ess. There can be none while the i Dicvin'e ·order is violated and the Divine will set at nought. The gospel isin everyway,God's message'Of. peace to the world. The Church is called to be tbe "light of the world" and the" s~lt of the earth," as a witness for God's truth and rio-htedusness. 0 The Christian philanthropist alone has in his hands a thorough cure for tbe diseases and wounds of oilr humanity; a)ld' of all •the' weapons he can wield in bis conflict with them, none so mighty as pray,er,\lias!Iiuch·as tb:a.t unseals the fount of all blessing, a.nd brings down from heaven:-ihe'healing, savirlg pbwer. Well may a -Christian apostle enlarge and emphasize thb ·old prophetic message, saying, "I_ exhort therefore, first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercessions, thanksgivings, be' made for all men," etc. (1 Tim. ii. 1-4).-W. • •• ' ' • ' • ·' Ver. 1l.-Tho119hts of peaf.B, Such is the consoling word that God 118Ilds to his "banished ones" in their affliction.· He bids his servant "speak comfortably"''to them, even now that their "warfare" is only beginning, and they are'having 'their 'first ~ste of the bitterness of_ exile. Blendi~g :With the lamentations-of the we~ying:cap- t1ves as they "hung their harps on the willows by the we.t~rs of Babylon, . we 'Cl\h imagiue that this gracious word would have a more salutary effect, ur,-:,n them than the living voice of the propMt ever had; W_hat 11:1~sage has it for ils 1?.. • ·' ,. • oa. xxrx. 1-32.J THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 5 J7 1