IIL But such a record was absolutely neoessart. For if the existence of God be allowed, and that it is his desire to reclaim men from their sin and to bring them back to himself, it may be asked : 1. Eow could this be done accept hy his revealing himself to men f They must be enabled to know him, and to know him in such manner as would be likely to move them in the direction desired. 2. But if it be granted that a revelation was a necessity, how could that revelation he of use to mankind at large unless it were put on record t For all events are related to time and space ; they must have happened — God's revelation of himself amongst others — somewhen and somewhere. But how, except by a record, could those who dwelt in other generations and in other parts of the world know of this revelation? But for that it may as well not have been. 8. And so long as the Divine ideas are conveyed to our mind, what does it matter alnmt the means employed f All the magnificence of nature — the Alpine heights, the starry universe, etc. — serve us only as they convey true and worthy ideas, as they wake up in OS fit and appropriate thoughts. If they faU in this, they migh t as well not be so far
OH. XXXVI. 1—32.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. 115
w we are concerned. But there are many who never have opportunities of beholding the magnificence of nature — ^their lives are one long round of sordid toil in scenes dark and squalid ; and others who have such opportunities are too little educated to learn from them what they assuredly have to tell. The road that leads from nature up to nature's God is a thinly travelled one ; few go that way. But now, if by the written Word, which can be carried everywhere, perpetuated, multiplied, and is everywhere and at all times accessible — if by this there can be conveyed to the mind fit, true, and heart-moving ideas about God, what an advantage this is I Instead of bein^; a cause of scorn, it should awaken our gratitude. 4^ And those features in this record which seem to some unworthy of its great mission, these really are of great service. No doubt there is much of home- liness and of trivial and seemingly insignificant detail in this record. It is a very plain, prosaic book in many parts. But is not this a great boon ? Had God's revelation of himself to us been accompanied by a blaze of splendour, with such manifestations of Divine power to the senses or to the intellect as some seem to desire, the revelation would have been lost in the record ; no one would look at the picture, their attention being so much occupied with the setting. Hence it is good for us that we live so long after the times of the Bible. It is expedient for us that Christ has gone away. For in proportion to men's nearness to those times " events having God in them took * more forcible hold upon their mind than God in the events." The atmosphere of time is needed in order to our right viewing of the marvellous &cts of the Bible.
IV. Our one question ib — Is tee becobd faithful ? 1. As to the facts them- selvet—in their main substance and meaning. This question is quite apart from inspira- tion. Nothing but honesty and intelligence are asked for here. Of course, if any start with the assumption that the supernatural is not, and hence miracles are by their very nature impossible, and the belief of them absurd, such a one will refuse all credence to this record. But first let his assumption be proved ere doubt be thrown on either the honesty or the intelligence of the writers of the Bible. 2. As to the interpretation and meaning of the facts they record. " Just as on gazing at a picture of Raphael's we should rejoice to have at hand a companion who had familiarized himself with the spirit of the great artist and acquired an insight into his genius, to furnish us with such brief notices as might assist us to a comprehension of the profounder ideas expressed by the painting, for want of which it would lose very much of its intellectual mean- ing; so with the memoirs of Christ before us, as the spiritual revelation of God to our religious sense, we require, in order to adequate instruction and profit, the com- ments of . . . those who shall be qualified to point it out to our duller vision. What poets are to the natural exhibition of Qod in his works, these men will be to the moral exhibition of God in his Son." Kow, that the sacred writers answer to this need is shown by the fact that they " commend the truth to every man's conscience in the sight of God." In this commendation to our conscience is the evidence that they have read aright the facts they record. And to this we may fearlessly appeal. We do not assert this of men's theologies and divinity schemes — too many of them outrage the conscience and trouble the moral sense ; but we do assert it of the great Terities of the faith, as taught in the Scriptures, and of the doctrines which the Bible as a whole plunly teaches,
"Within this ample volume lies
The mystery of mysteries.
Happiest they of human race
To whom their God has given grace
To read, to fear, to hope, to pray.
To lift the latch aiid force the way ;
And better had they ne'er been bom
Than read to doubt or read to scorn.*
Qt oa ihk whole sabject Miall's ' Bases ot Belie£'— a
Yer. 8. — " It may he." We can understand the prophet thus speakfaig, Imt itow am there be anything uncertain or contingent with God? And yet it is he who here qieaks and says, " It may be." We are accustomed to say, "God knows all the past, and all ti^ present, and all the future " (cf. Isa. xlvi. 9 — 11). Reason and Scriptan alik*
ll« THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, [oh. xxivi. 1— 32
Beem to iay that there can be nothing prohable with God. But yet this is hi$ word Why does he thus speak ? Perhaps —
I. Because there was no law, no decbee, against the people's eepentahok. He had made no such law, and man had not. There is no decree of reprobation.
II. It mat be consistent, after all, with the truth op things fob God thus to SPEAK, though we CANNOT SEE HOW. We infer certain conclusions from what we read and learn about God, and these conclusions seem to deny the possibility of there being any " it may be " with him. But we may be wrong after all, and the fact that he does tlius speak lends to the suspicion that we are.
III. Because it would be ill fob us were he to beyeal thk obbtaintibs of THINGS. If they were to be such as we would desire, we should cease to labour for them. If otherwise, we should sit down in despair. But God desires us to labour and pray, and therefore hides the future from our eyes. Presumption and despair are both great evils ; therefore to prevent them, God speaks after the manner of men, if not after the manner of God.