II. Those whom he gathers. The Lord's compassions fail not. To the yonng, the •trong, the healthy, those perfect in body, nothing was needed but to say, "The time is come for return. Make your start." But then all were not so placed. The weak- lings have ever to be considered, and God considers them, as it were, first of all. There are the blind — God will keep them in the way ; there are the lame — God will provide that they be conveyed and sufficiently helped; there are women, witii all their peculiar anxieties, who need to be dealt with very tenderly, and all grounds for alarm taken out of their way as far as possible. Well, God specifies these cases as representative of the provision he makes for every sort of weakness. It is the mark of Gud's way for men that it is a way for the weak, a way in which provision is made for every sort of infir- mity. Tiiere are ways in the world which are only for the strong ; the weak soon get pushed aside. And God can bring all these weak people along, because the right spirit is in them. They come in weeping and in prayer. You can be eyes to a blind man, if he admits his blindness and is willing to be guided; but if he insists upon it that he can see, what are you to do with him? This is the only means by which God's true people can be gathered into one way, moving with one purpose towards one place, namely, that they be each one of them from the very heart submitted to the Divine will and control.
III. The spirit in which God gathers. The spirit of a father. Israel must needs go into exile and chastisement for a while; but the place left vacant is the child's place, and none but the child can fill it. It is the evidence of a father's tenderness that he cares for the blind and the lame and the weak. The house of Israel had said to a stock, "Tliou art my father; and to a stone. Thou hast brought me forth." And their delusion had borne fruit in banishment and captivity. But the true Father remembered tliem all the time ; and with the power of the true God and in the spirit of the true Father, he gathered them and guided them home. — Y.
Ver. 10. — The Scatterer also the Gatherer. I. God as the Soattbreb. Seeing that the Scatterei becomes the Gatherer, it is evident that scattering is used to describe his action by a sort of accommodation. Outwardly it looks like scattering ; but there is a spirit and a purpose and a regulative principle in the action which makes it to be really only a stage in a more complete gathering worthy of the name. It is, perhaps, worthy of note that there is in the Hebrew woid something of the idea of scattering even as seed is scattered. Now, when seed is scattered, it is with a perfect knowledge of th« large gathering which will result. Seed is not flung at random, and then left for ever.
OB. XXXI. 1—40,] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 43
Beforehand theie is preparation and afterwards there is expectation. And so we see that when God uses the same name for an action that we do, it by no means follows that he is doing just the same thing as we should indicate by the name. Note also that in this very prophecy here there is a reference to a very old intimation of the distresses that might come on Israel in the event of disobedience, " I will scatter you among the heathen " (Lev. xxvi. 33).
II, God as the Gathebeb. What a difference here between man and God I Often times it is easy for man to scatter ; but how shall he gather again ? One fool can undo in a few hours what wise and diligent men have taken years in building up. But since God scatters upon principle, he knows where every fragment is, and continues to super- intend aiid guide it as part of the whole. We see only disjointed parts, and so there is something very nondescript and puzzling and ineffectual-looking about their operations. God, however, sees the whole. Hence the insistence in apostolic teaching upon unity. Christians could not be kept in one place. Persecution drove them apart ; the needs of the gospel sent each apostle into his own field ; and Christians sprang up in many far- separated places. But though scattered and separated in appearance, they were still one, because the one Spirit was in them. The gathering prmciple is, in Christians, a principle that rises dominant over all earthly distinctions. Men cannot be kept per- manently together unless the Christian spirit is in them ; and if the Christian spirit is in them, there is no power that can keep them permanently separated.
III. God as he who keeps his people fbom a second scattebino. We cannot put too much force into this thouglit of God keeping his people as a shepherd does his flock. What a significance it adds to the way in which Jesus speaks of himself as the good Shepherd! Who shall scatter when it is God's will to gather and to unite in an abiding company ? Who shall scatter when he who gathers has in liim not only the spirit of a khepherd, but also the power to keep his sheep from all danger ? And what a warnin i to us againat lil needless separations I Men are betrayed into danger to themselves by pushing individual liberty to extremes. The shepherd will keep every member of the flock so long as it holds to the fiock. God will only keep us so long as we are in his iray, within his boundaries, subject to his directions. — T.
Vers. 12—14. — Praise waiting for Ood in Zion. I. The place of fbaibe. To speak of Zion was to speak of the dwelling-place of Jehovah. To sing in the height of Zion, therefore, was to sing, as it were, at the door of God's own house. While Goil ever visited idolatry with the severest punishment^, he yet localized his presence by the sanctities connected with the ark. It was the holy of holies that made Zion a sacred place, and if the people were helped in praise and worship by assembling there, then there is every reason for mentioning Zion as the great place of national rejoicing. But we must take care not to consider any literal fulfilment of this prophecy as suflScient. The word is one taking our thoughts to that Mount Zion, which is part of the city of the living God, of the heavenly Jerusalem. The days of earthly localization are for ever past. The principle of assembly now is that, wherever two or three are gatherer I together in the Name of Christ, there he is in their midst.