II. What this history suggests as to such character. It suggests: 1. Its nature. That it is a halting perpetually between two opinions — a condition of perpetual inde- cision 1 You never know where to find such men, or can be sure as to what they will do. They promise so well ; they turn out so ill. Like a chip on a stream, driven, tossed, turned hither and thither, entangled, engulfed at last — so is such a man. In secular matters it is ruin, in spiritual it is more disastrous still. 2. Its results. What a miserable man this Zedekiah must have been ! And so are all such. The debtor's pillow is proverbially a restless one, because of its wretchedness. Yet more so is that of the man who has no will of his own. And what sorrow he brings upon others I He drags them down into the same vortex in which he is himself swallowed up. What ruin is wrought by such men in all the circles to which they belong! 3. lis cause. Want of a guiding principle in life. Without this, having no fixed rules, secular life is ruined. But in things .spiritual this endeavour to serve God and mammon, this iivided heart, is absolutely fatal. In such men the surrender to Christ has never been thorough and complete. They are as the seed on the stony ground. 4. Its curt. Livinji
j3 the book of the PROPHET JEREMIAH, [oh. xxxit. 1— 22.
under the abiding realization of the presence of Christ. In armies that have begun to waver, the approach, the word, the eye of their leader has rallied them again and won them victory. So if, when tempted to waver, we feel the eye of Christ on vm, wt shall be firm. Therefore let him be the Lord of your souls. — G.
Vers. 8 — 22. — Playing fast and loose with Ood. See the history. Under fear occasioned by the prophet's earnest appeals and the obvious fact that the judgment of God was drawing near — for the Chaldeans were at the gates — the king and his people solemnly vow to release their slaves. They had no right to retain them ; they were sinning against Gud and them in so doing. Hence th%y let them go. But the fear departs, they thiuk their danger has disappeared, and they enslave their brethren again. It was an abominable wickedness, and the prophet denounces awful doom upon them for it. Now, concerning such playing fast and loose with God, note that —
I. This is a vert fbequent sin. Illustrations are Pharaoh, Balaam, Israel's whole career. And there are many such instances now. All insincere repentances are such. They may be : 1. Very general. This was so. All the people joined, high and low. Like the professed repentance of the people at John's baptism. 2. Very loUmnly entered upon. How deeply moved these people seemed I What vows they uttered ! 3. And some fruits meet for repentance may he produced. These people did for a while set free their slaves. There was a real reformation for the time. The evil spirit went out of the man. 4. Bui yet it is all worthless, fur the evil spirit returns, and with increased power. The repentance was so short-lived that it was as if it had never been. Yea, worse : " The last end of that man was worse than the first."
n. Its obiqin and cause are the unchanqed heart. Underneath the superficial soil there is, in spite of all the seeming repentance, the hard layer of rock. The motive was not the conviction of sin wrought by the Holy Spirit, but a craven fear and a desire, therefore, to buy off God's anger. And in this case it was a cheap way, for liberating their slaves was the best means of securing a strong addition to the forces by which they would defend their city and themselves. Hence, when danger ceased, as they thought, their repentance ceased along with it. What need we all have to be on our guard against the semblances of real religion which our evil hearts are ao prone to take up with ! And what need to pray that the Lord would show us if we be now self-deceived, and that he would perfectly renew our hearts within us I
III. Its guilt is vert great. What an outrage it is to God I We would not bear the like conduct from our fellow-men. What awful presumption it manifests I what hardness of heart! And its guilt is the more aggravated because such conduct so plainly shows that we clearly know and understand God's will, though we only make pretence of obeying it.
IV. Its doom is very terrible. See the burning words of the prophet here (vers. 17 — 22). And we have portents of that future doom in the hardening of the heart, the searing of the conscience, the being " given over to a reprobate mind," the audacity in wickedness which such conduct produces. How hard to bring such men to repentance ! or, if conviction of sin do come, into what depths of despair does it plunge the sinner ! All these are indications of the holy displeasure of God which rests on such sin. May he keep us from it. — C.
Ver. 17. — Slavery. " Ye have not hearkened unto me," etc. The Jews had become shamefully guilty of this sin of enslaving their brethren. They who had once been slaves them.selves, but redeemed by God ; they whose whole Law was a protest against it in its real forms of permanence and cruelty; they who were on no higher level than those they enslaved, all being on the same equality with God, members of the same race, worshippers of the same God ; — the slavery they were now practising was abhorrent indeed. Concerning slavery — the permanent and absolut* possession of a fellow-man, to buy and sell and do with him as he please — this is ever a great sin.
L Nature condemns it. 1. We have a moral nature, a conscience, and this plainly condemns the degradation of a human being to a mere chattel. 2. Think of ourselves as daves, and then how prompt we are to condemn. But if one man may be so held, then every man may. S. All are on an equality before Ood, and have equal rightH and responsibilities. 4. And chiefly because man is made in the image of Ood. Dai* we
OH. XXXIV. 1—22.] THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 93
make a chattel of him who bears the image and superscription of Deity ? At onca our heart condemns.