perpetuated ; that has not perished, whatever else may have. And there results frotn all this the formation of a certain spirit and type of character. There aie family like- nesses, not in feature and form only, but in mental, moral, and physical characteristics as well. And these enlarge and become chnracteristics of whole tribes, races, nations. It is evident, therefore, that, in the institution of the family, there is present a propa- gating power for whatever moral and spiritual forces the heads of such family may be themselves possessed with. Abraham, God knew, would be sure to "order his house- hold " after him. And to this day the characteristics of the Jewish race are discernible everywhere. Mural and spiritual forces travel along this road rather than any other. It is Qod's great highway for those principles which, when fully embraced by men's hearts, shall bring in the kingdom of God itself. And it is by the natural increase ot the family that God designs his truth should spread and his way come to be known upon earth, and his saving health amongst all nations. But ere this be accomplished the family will have developed into —
II. The Chubch. This will be the further step in the coming of the kingdom of God. When one and another household are possessed of a common spirit, share a common faith and hope, and render obedience to one Divine law, it is in accordance with all spiritual instincts that these should meet together for their mutual com Tort, edification, and support. " Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another." And so strong has been in all ages the force of this spiritual instinct, that no fear oi persecution, no terror that their enemies could inflict, has been able to deter those who believed in God from thus meeting together. There need have been no martyrs, or scarce any, if the faithful would but have individually kept their opinions to them- selves. But spiritual force cannot be dammed in and held back. It will be sure ere long to burst through all restraints and barriers and go its own way. But this irre- pressible instinct has been the cause and creator of the Church. And such holy convocations have reacted on the family and deepening the hold of those sacred principles which first drew the members of the Church together have made more firm the ifaith and hope which already existed. Thus by the Church the spirit of the family is not only preserved, but strengthened, and its perpetuation and reproduction made more certain In the future. And the process goes on. Divine principles, faith in God, fear and love of his Name, established in the family, expand and develop into the Church, and there slowly, with ever-accelerating force, surely and irresistibly, they make their way until at length it will be seen that the godly seed has the start of the seed of the wicked one, and is ever pushing it out of the way, driving it forth from its long - held but usurped dominion. In illustration of this see how the Christian races do even now inherit the earth. The Puritans of America, the colonies that are ever being founded by our own people. See, too, how the Jews have ever held their own — what tenacity of life, what spiritual force, are inherent in them. These are but illustrations, and but feeble ones, of how spiritual lorce, if it take possession of the family, will live and spread and grow until the mustard shall become the goodly tree. And thus — rather than by occasional conversions from the ranks of the worldly — does it seem God's mind and will tliat the coming of —
III. The kinqdom of God should be brought about. "There la an established hereditary moral connection between parents and their offspring, and every known principle of reason, of justice, and of holiness suggests that this connection exists for purposes of good, anil not exclusively for purposes of evil." " The character of the t'aniily lies at the very foundation of all permanent moral improvement in the human race generally, and in Christian Churches in particular; and until it be intelligently, and, under the influence of right principles, practically attended to, all the preaching and all the religious machinery with which we are furnished will fail, as they have hitherto failed, to improve materially the moral condition of the world." As Baxter says, " The preaching of the Word by public ministers is not the first ordinary means of grace to any but those that were graceless till they came to hear such preaching ; that is, to those on whom the first appointed means — godly nurture in the family — hath been neglected or proved vain. 1 duubt not to a£Srm thai a godly education is God'a first •nd ordinary appointed means for the begetting of actual faith and other graces in the children of believers. Public preaching is appointed for the conversion of those only that have miaaed the blessing of the first appointed means." leg; let God be tk*
CH. XXXI. 1 -40.] THE BOOK OF THE PBOPHET JERliMIAH. 31
God of our familes, and he will soon become the God of our nation, the God of tha whule liuiiiaii race, and his kingdom will have come, and his will be done on earth as it is doue in heaven. — C.
¥6^2. — Troubles h-sened by increase. "The people which were . . . wilderness." Tlie sword by which Israi'l had been decimated, her ranks thinned, her homes desolated ■—what a trouble was th^t ! And now it is to be followed by " the wilderness " — that "waste howling wilderness'' so vividly described by Moses (Deut. i. 19; viii. 15; ixxii. 10). Tliis would seem another, a new, a sore trouble, but it was to be the means of healing the wound caused by the first. Cf. " I have given the valley of Achor for a door of hope " (Hos. ii. 15).
I. The meaning of these words. It is not easy to say certainly what sword and what wildenit'ss the prophet had in liis mind when he thus wrote. Perhaps the sword of I'haraoh and tlie wilderness of Sinai. Yet more likely the sword of their Babylonian conquerors ; and the wilderness, that great Syrian desert across which they must travel on their homeward way — a wilderness far more deserving of the dread epithets which Moses applied to the wilderness of Sinai. Or the wilderness may mean the whole condition of the Jews in their exile, tlje deep sorrow, shame, and distress which their captivity seemed to threaten them with.