I. God sanctions the tempebancb vow. (Of. ver. 18.) How many and manifold are these sanctions 1 By tlie rewards of obedience thereto; by the doom which follows disobedience to the laws of temperance; by his providence and his Spirit speaking within ; by the laws of health, of thrift, of social well-being, of conscience; by sanctions negative and positive alike ; by the example of some of the foremost and best of men, and by his Word ; — by all, he witnesses in favour of the temperance vow.
II. And thbbb is sorb need for it. " If I were to tell you," says one, " that there Is in the British Isles a being into whose treasuries are annually poured in unpro- ductive consumption more than one hundred and forty millions of our national wealth ; whose actions crush year by year more victims than have been crushed for centuries together by the car of Juggernaut; whose unchecked power causes year by year horrors incomparably more multitudinous than those which the carnage of any battle-fields can present; if I were to say that the services wrought by this being were, if any at all, which is an open question, yet almost valueless in kind, infinitesimal in extent, while, on the other hand, the direct admitted indisputable miseries he inflicts were terrible in virulence and vast in ramification ; if I were to say that at his right hand and at his left, as eager and ever active ministers, stood Idiocy and Pauperism, Degradation and Bru- tality ; and at that point you were all to rise up at once and cry aloud, 'Tell us the nam* of this being, that we may drive him with execration from the midst of us, and that every one of us may strive to extirpate his power and expel his polluting footsteps from our
100 THE BOOK OF THE PEOPHET JEREMIAH, [ch, xxxY. 1— 19.
soil ; ' and if I were to say that, far from doing this, we all as a nation, and nearly all ol us as individuals, crown him with garlands, honour him with social customs, introduce him into gladdest gatlierings, sing songs in his glory, build myriads of temples to his service, familiarize our very children with his fame and praise ; — were I to say this, then sentence by sentence, clause by clause, word by word, it would be literally true, not of a man, but of a thing, and that thing intoxicating drink."
III. How MAT WK FURTHBE THE TBMPEBANOB CAUSE? Certainly there is no help equal tu that of taking this vow ourselves. If, wherever we are, we will touch not, taste not, handle not, on the ground that we regard it as the curse of this land, that entire abstinence will speak more eloquently than aught beside. And besides this, train your children as Jonadab trained his; command them, sayinj;, "Ye shall drink no wine." A generation so trained, what a difference they would make on the siis of temperance and all that is good 1 Never allow a sneer at those who have taket the temperance vow. Strike at the aids and abettors of intemperance, such as badly drained, ill-lighted, comfortless, unveatilated houses ; lack of means of reasonable recrea- tion and amusement ; want of education and leisure, etc. Never treat drunkenness, however grotesque and absurd its forms, as a thing to be laughed at. We never really hate that at which we laugh. And let each one be sure that he does something in this great cause, that he comea " to the help of the Lord against the mighty." — 0.
Ver. 14. — The children put to ihame iy the ttranger. The men of Judah were the children, inmates of God's house, members especially of his family. These Bechabites, a wandering tribe of the desert, were the stranger. But their fidelity to the command laid upon them by their ancestor Jonadab is contrasted with and rebukes the shameful disregard of the laws of God, of which the men of Judah were so guilty. For near three hundred years the Rechabites had, out of regard for their father's ordinance, adhered to their self-denying customs, and were adhering to them still, whilst God's own people had set at nought all his counsel and would none of his Law.
I. Obsebve this contrast. 1. In the motives for obedience which existed on either side. The one was an earthly father, the other Divine ; the one man, the other God. The one, long dead, and whose right to control the actions of his descendants had there- fore lapsed ; the other, the ever-living God, whose right is as eteinal as himself. The one had given an arbitrary command against which much might have been urged ; the other had given commands which reitson, conscience, and experience alike consented to as wise and good, 2. In the nature of the obedience rendered. The one was full of sell- denial — ^a hajd, stern law ; the other contemplated life in a land flowing with milk and honey, and its ways were ways of pleasantness, and all its paths peace. 3. In the results 0/ obedience. In the one, obedience had kept together a small, hardy tribe ol half-barbarian herdsmen, without home, friends, religion, wealth, or any marked earthly good. In the other, obedience had been crowned with every blessing, so that all men confessed, " Blessed is the man that ieareth the Lord." And yet, notwithstanding the service of the Lord was every way better, that service was disregarded by his people, whilst the ill-requited obedience to a long-deceased ancestor had been so faithfully maintained.
II. And such contrast still exists. Look at the obedience rendered to the laws of the Kor&n by the followers of Mahomet ; to the laws of honour, of trade, of human masters ; everywhere we may see human law obeyed, whilst Divine are set at nought. The world can command the prompt, implicit obedience of her votaries ; but God calls, and no man answers.
III. Explain such contrasts. It is because to those who faithfully obey human laws the transient and inferior are as if they wore eternal and supreme, whilst to those who profess to be bound by Divine laws the eternal and supreme are as if they were transient and inferior.
IV. What do such facts bat to us ? Seek the purged vision, that we may clearly see the relative values of things, that our estimates may be corrected, and so we may come to regard as " first " the kingdom of God and his righteousness, knd " all other things " M secondary thereto. — C.
?«, 15. — (Of, homily on The Divine long-tufiering worn out, toL 1, p. 204.) — CL
OH. XXXV. 1—19.] THE BOOK OF THE PliOPHET JEREMIAH. 101
Vers. 18, 19. — Rewardt of filial piety. We have an instance hero. Literally, th« promise annexed to the commandment, " Honour thy father," etc., was fulfilled ; foi their " days were long in the land which the Lord their God gave them." Now—
I. There abb buch bewards. 1. Promised in God's Word (cf. paatim), 2. Yimble in happy home life. 3. Perpetuated in prosperous communities, nations, etc. 4. Sanctioned by the laws of nature, of man, and of God.