I. Without doitbt thekb was much in their history that seemed to be VERT CONTRARY TO WHAT LOVE WOULD DO. "I have loved thcc with an everlasting love," said God. " What I " we can imagine a perjilexed soul exclaiming — " What I love, everlastiii'4 love, and Israel a scattered people, her throne overturned, her kings slain or in exile, her people perished by tens of thousands, her lemple and city burnt with fire, her lot so exceeding liard, bitter, and hopelessl Where is the love in all this? " And so it is still. It is Ijard to persuade men to believe in the love of God ; to understand how, under the omnipotent rule of a beneficent and loving G"d, these many things can be which we know by experience are — pain, loss, disaiipointment, death, and yet worse, moral evil, sin in all its forms ; and the darkness in which we continue in regard to all these. Who can imderstand all this, or adecju.itely explain the great mysteiiea of human life?
II. But nevertheless God's love is at the root of all thinqs. "I have loved thee with an everlasting love " was true for Israel and is true for us. For note in regard to Israel : 1. The purpose of Ood towards them was such as love only would cherish. What of honour and glory and blessing did God not design for his people 1 The whole of tlie Scriptures teem with his promises and declarations as to this. They were to be his people and he would be their God, in all the fulness of blessed meaning that such an assurance intends, 2. And there wah tut other way whei eby hi» gracioui
OK. XXXI. 1—40.] THE BOOK OP THE PEOPHET JEKEMIAH. 3S
ends could he secured, less painful tlian that which he had been constiained to adopt. We may be sure of tins ; for the same love that first formed the p;racious purpose would be certain to chooBe the most direct and hajjpy means to secure it. For : 3. It was in the power of Jsi ad — a power which they exercised with fatal effect for themselves — lo compel Qod to take circuitous routes to reach his designed end. The heart of a people cannot be dealt with as God deals with mere matter. The poWer of choice, the free-will of man, can baffle for a long time the benevolence of God, and delay and thwart not a little the accomplisliment of that on which his heart is set. They would try their own ways, and only when they hnd found how full of sorrow these were would they consent to God's way. And all this involved long weary years and much and manifold sorrow. 4. And what was true of Israel is true of manldnd at large. God has purposes of grace for man. He so loved the world, and loves it still. But sin can for a while baffle God, and compel the use of the pains and penalties which we see associated with it, in order to eruaicate the love of it Irom the heart of man.
III. No OTHER SET BO UNLOCKS THE FBOBLEM OF LIFE. If We find it hard at times even with this key, we shall find it much harder with any other. No malignant being would have implanted love in human hearts. The existence of that one Messed principle in man renders the word of the faithless servant, " I knew thee that thou wert a hard man," for ever glaringly untrue. A capricious being would not have established " the reign of love " which we find eveiy where. The settled uniformity of the principles on which God's univer.se is governed disprove that. An indififeient being, such as the Epicureans taught that the gods were, would not have contrived so many means whereby the ease and comfort of his creatures are secured. Only a God of love would be to man what we perpetually see God is to us. The innumerable and palpable proofs of his beneficence afSrm this, and when we regard the sorrows and ills of life as but love's sharp remedies, they will not disprove it.
IV. Our wisdom is to assume, even where we cannot prove rr, that this is bo. For thus we shall surely come to find more and more "the soul of good" that there is in even the most evil things, and we shall be able to " both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord." — 0.
Ver. 3. — GotTs will done at last. I. What b that iriLi,? To gather his children round him. God creates each individual soul only that he may have fresh objects on which to lavish his love. The " dower of blessed children " which God gives to us, he gives because he delights in the possession of children. And the Father of us all wants us to gather around him in the true home of our souls.
II. The motive of that will. Love. What else can it be 1
III. The form it assumes. Everlasting love. It wears not out, it " hopeth all things, beareth all things, endureth all things."
IV. Its exercise. Drawing men to himself. How perpetually and by what manifold a<j;encies this is being accomplished 1 " I, if 1 be lifted up . . . will draw all men unto me," said he who came to do the will of God.
V. The great power which that will employs. Loving-kindness. "With loving- kindness have," etc. Seen most of all in the attraction of the cross of Christ.
VI. The bksistance it implies. There is such resistance — sin.
VII. Its ultimate result. " I have drawn thee." The Father will be able to-say that of all his children when Christ's work is finished. " Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to his Father, that God may be all in all." — C.
Ver. 10. — The Scatterer the Oatherer, " He that scattered Israel," etc. It is possible that there should be a scattering which hAs vo gathering. Not seldom we see men squandering every gift and blessing God has endowed them with — time, health, opportunities, friends, etc. And such scattering has often no gathering to follow it, save of the appropriate harvest of ruin whose seed has been so diligently sown. But thi-re may be also a gathering which has never been preceded hy any scattering. The Father's house may never have been forsaken, the children therein may have grown up in his love and service, without a thought or wish for the far country whither prodigals love to go. As the former fact, the scattering that has no gathering, is the saddest of all, so this latter, the gathering which has known no scattering, is the most blessed
JEREMIAH H. B
M THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. £oH. xxxi. 1—40.
of all. It is that of those who have lived ever in the love of God ; it is that of the holy angels. But there ia a scattering which is followed ly a gathering. Such is spoken of in this verse (10). God was the Author of hoth in regard to IsraeL Let us take —