According to the margine.l rendering of both the Authorized e.nd Revised Versions, the ne.tion was "not desirous," i.e. posses8ed no longing after Jehovah, hie Law, or worship, but hRd fors~ken him, and sworn by them that are no gods (Jer. v. 7), offering up sacrifices and pourmg out drink offerings unto other divinities in the open streets, and even setting up their abominations in the temple (Jer. vii. 17, 18, :JO). For e. oat.ion no more than for an individual is it possible to remain in a state of irreligious neutrality or indifference. The people whose aspirations go not forth al'ter him whs is the King of nations as well as King of saints will sooner or later find themselves trust- ing in "lying vanities," or creating divinities out of their own foolish imaginations (Rom. i. 23). Between theism and polytheism is no permanent he.If-way house for either humanity as a whole or man a.~ an individual. 2. Shameless. This translation (Grotius, Gesenius, Ewald, Keil and Delitzsch, Cheyne, and others) depicts the moral and spiritual hardening which results from sin long continued, passionately loved, and openly gloried in, as Judah's apostasy had been (eh. iii. 5). A whole diameter of moral and spiritual being lies between the shamelessness of innocence (Gen. ii. 25) and the shamelessness of sin (Phil. iii. 19). The former is beautiful and excites admira- tion; the latter is loathsome and evokes reprehension and pity. "A generation," says Pressense, "which can no longer blush is in open insurrection against the first principles of universal morality" ('The Early Years of Christianity,' iv. 392). 3. Hateful. So the Authorized Version, followed by Pusey. The degenerate nation, addicted to idolatry and sunk in immorality, was not desired or loved by God; but, on sccount of its wickedness, was an object of aversion to God. No contradiction to the truth elsewhere stated that God still loved the people and desired their reformation (Jer. ii. 2; iii. 14); neither is it inconsistent to preach that" God is angry with the wicked every day" (Ps. vii. 11); and that, nevertheless, "he willeth not that any should perish, but that all should turn to him and live" (2 Pet. iii. 9). II. THE DUTY OF THE NATION DEFINED. To "gather themselves together." The :figure, derived from the gathering together or collecting of stubble or dry sticks, "w-hich are picked np one by one, with search and care" (Pusey), point.a to that work of self-examination which, in nations as in individuals, must precede conversion, and must be conducted: 1. With resoluteness. Being a work to which their hearts were naturally not disposed, it could not be entered upon and far lees carried through with- out deliberate and determined personal effort. Hence the prophet's reduplication of his exhortation. To make one's self the subject of serious introspection, never easy, is specially difficult when the object is to detect one's faults and pronounce judgment on one's deeds. 2. With inwardness. A merely superficial survey would not suffice. An action outwardly correct may be intrinsically wrong. Hence the individual that would conduct a real work of self-examination must withdraw himself as much as possible from things eternal, take his seat on the interior tribunal of conscience, and gather round him all that forms a part of his being, in addition to his spoken words and :finished deeds, the feelings out of which these have sprung, the motives by which they have been directed, the ends at which they have aimed, and subject the whole to a calm and impartial review. 3. With minuteness. The things to be reviewed must be taken one by one, and not merely in the mass. Words and deeds, motives and feelings, when only glanced at in the heap, seldom reveal their true characters; to be known in their very selves they must be looked at, considered, questioned, weighed separately. All about them must be brought to light and placed beneath the microscope of conscientious investio-ation. 4. With thoroughness. .As each word, act, feeling. motive, so all must ~ taken. None must be exempted from scrutiny. Nor will it suffice that they be passed through the ordeal of examination once; the process must be repeated and re-repeated till the exact truth is known. "For a first search, however diligent, never thoroughly reaches the whole deep disease of the whole man; the most grievous sins hide other grievous sins, though lighter. Some sins flash on the conscience et one time, some at another; so that few, even upon a diligent search, come at once to the knowledge of all their heaviest sins" (Pusey). lII. THE DANGER OF TRF. NATION DECLARED, Unless the duty recommended and prescribed were immediately and heartily entered upon and carried through,, the j,,<lgment already lying in the womb of God's decree would come to the birth, and the <Ly of his fierce anger would overtake them. 1. The event was near. Should Juda.b. :m. 11. 1-16.] THE BOOK OF ZEPllANIAit 37
conliAue unrepentant, the hour of doom would be on her before she wa.s aware. It wns rnpidly approaching, like chaff driven before the wind. So will the day of the Lord come upon the wicked unawares (Luke xvi. 34). 2. The issue was certain. Like chaff bofore the wind, too, her people would be driven away to pitiless destructi0n. 'l'he like fate is reserved for ungodly men generally (Ps. i. 4; Job xxi. 18). Nothing can avert the final overthrow of the unbelieving and impenitent, whether nation or individual, but repentance and reformation, not outward but inward, not seeming but real, not temporary but permanent. Learn: 1. The reality of national no less than of individual wickedness. 2. The responsibility that attaches to nations as well as men. 3. The necessity of self-exami 4