II. The fact of auoH a bevelation. Peace is revealed in Jesus Christ. In him there is the secret of a composure and a steadfastness unaffected by all the common causes of discord and instability. He had an unusual number of enemies, and this because he was so persistent in declaring righteousness ; and yet all the time he had that peace within which showed how outside forces only affected the mere shell of life. In this life there was ever the joint manifestation of peace and steadfastness, and the steadfastness was explained by the fact that he came from God, continued in God, did the will of God, and so, ever having this hold on the Eternal, and being held by the Eternal, the shaking influences of time did ever more and more both to reveal his strength and their own weakness. All the exhortations of Jesus with respect to faith are meant to reveal to us the abundance of peace and truth. With what pity Jesus must look on the abortive, melancholy attempts of men to trust in the untrustworthy ! and yet the unveiled magnificence of peace and truth is unseen. What we have to do is to look desiringly, hopefully, towards God's revelation ; for surely the complete reve- lation includes not only something gracious to be seen, but full insight to see it. The apocalypse to John in Fatmos came to one who " was in the Spirit on the Lord's day."— Y.
Vera. 10, 11. — The mournful stillness of the present, and the gladsome voice* of the future. L The peesent stillness. What makes it so painful ? Not all stillness is Iiainful; indeed, stillness is often very grateful, a thing to to sought, a timely refuge for those who are stunned and confused by the clamours of the world. The stillness of night is pleasant after the noise of day. The stillness of the mountain and the wilder- ness seems more still when one has come from the city's bustle. There is even some- thing suggestive of escape into everlasting peace when one looks at the stillness ef
8i THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [oh. xxxiil 1—26.
death as contrasted with all the power of sound in the previous life. But the stillneis here is painful, because it does not come in any noriuiil way ; it is stillness where there ought to be sound — sounds of trafBo, sounds of friendly intercourse, suunds of children playing, sounds of worship. To come into the individual life, it is the silence of the dumb, the silence of that which was made to speak, intended to speak, and can only be silent beoauhe of some inexplicable interference with natural constitutioa Dumbness ought not to be, and so the state of things here represented, when in the houses and streets of Jerusalem there was sound neither of man nor beast, was one which ought not to have been. There was no occasion for it in the very constitution of things. It came by man's own bringing of it. The present silence had been preceded by many voices that ought never to have been heard — voices of threatening, voices of greedy demand, voices of reveufie, voices of complaint and of indignant appeal against injustice. II. The voicbs of the futube. The sounds of life are to flow back into the now desolate streets, but they are to be the sounds of a different kind of life. Sounds springing from righteousness within and from a principle of obedience to Jehovah. Sounds that come from a universally satisfied people. Kot sounds of joy and gladness in palaces, and sounds of privation and despair in hovels ; but sunshine falling every- where, and everywhere the hearts of the people ready to break forth into song. In the eleventh verse there is first of all the general indication of gladness. Every one is full of healthy life, which, as a matter of course, breaks forth into joyful manifesta- tion. Then, as a very significant illustration, there is the gladness of the bridegroom and the bridei This signifies a stable society, a hopeful prospect, the joys of home life. Probably there was no joy so demonstrative as that connected with wedding festi- vities. Then the joy of religion comes in to crown and conclude all. Praise to Jehovah for his goodness and his enduring mercy, and offerings of thanksgiving in his house. If joy of this kind had been absent, the other joy would not long have lasted. From what God sends down into our lives as causes of abiding joy, we must send back tc him responses of intelligent and heart-felt praise. — Y.
Vers. 12, 13. — Returning flocks. In ch. xzsi, there has been mention of planting vineyards, and of God's goodness with respect to the corn, the wine, the oil. But agriculture was only one of the important industries of the land. To have set plough- men and vine-dressers to work again, and left shepherds unprovided for, would have meant only • partial restoration. God has a remembrance of all classes of the com- munity, and all varieties of the surface of the earth. Shepherds were not to go away into exile without a special promise to comfort them. By " causing the flocks to lie down " we may take to be meant that a sense of security and restfulness will be estab- lished ; and that " the flocks will pass again under the hands of him that telletb them " suggests their numerousness. There seems to be also a distinct remembrance of the places most appropriate for flocks. Nor must we let slip the spiritual sense of this prophecy when we call to mind the references to pastoral life in the New Testament It is the [)Ower of Christ, the Branch of righteousness growing up uuto David, who makes spiritual flocks and spiritual pastors to abound. And instead of the selection from the literal flocks for sacrifices, there is the self-presentation of every one in the spiritual flock as a living sacrifice. — Y.
Yer. 16.— The righteous Scion of David. Here is a great leading prediction, which enables u$ to interpret as to the time and mode in which the rest of the glorious pre- dictions connected with it were to be fulfilled. We know full well who this righteous Scion was, and when we look at his work, we can translate all the figurative language into spiritual realities. We no longer go looking for Israel and Jerusalem in any mere local way, and the vineyards and corn-lands and pastures of the restored people of God we understand to be only feeble indications of the spiritual satisfactions coming through Christ. Note —
I. The origin of this RKiHTEOus SoiON. He springs from David. According to the flesh, he is connected with a name su>!gestive of past days of prosperity and glory, David himself is emphatically to be reckoned as a righteous stock. That he fell into grievous backslidings is not to be denied ; but we know his aspirations, his sighingg and strugglings after conformity with the Law of God,
CH. xxxin. 1— 26,J THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. B6