TTT Such as are not yet ra the visible Church. Amongst those whom we deem outside the Church, God has his chosen, whom one day he will call. Who, looking on the murderers of St. Stephen, would have thought that amongst them God had one of his choicest servants? This is the disjiensation, not of universal conversion — that is to come — but of calling out those who shall be the instruments of the universal ingather- ing. God is blessing his Church that " his way may be known upon earth." etc. We are then fure to despair of no nation, community, class, family, or neighbourhood. In all God has his hidden ones.
"O grace, into nnlikeliest hearii It is thy wont to come."
IV. The blessed dead. There is to be a manifestation of the sons of CM. Mean- while their " life is hid with Chii«t in God." " Wherefore comfort one another with these words." — C.
Ver. 28. — Disaster not defeat. What dismay must have filled the minds of those whc saw the book destroyed, and of those who heard of it — Baruch, Jeremiah, and others 1
L It was great disaster. The book was nmst precious. See its gracious intent See how it had already moved many for good. What might not be expected irom it?
ild THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. [ch. xxxVi. 1- -32
n. Am IT SEEMED IRRETRIEVABLE. There was no copy of it kept. No human memory could reproduce it. The word had not sunk into the hearts of the people so as to render it no longer needed.
III. But the disaster was not defeat. Qoi interposed, commanded the prophet to write again, enabled him to do so, supplied him with many more like words.
rV. By means or n more good was wrought. What endorsement of the Word did its remarkable reprodiiotioii supply ! How it would show the vanity of all human rage against the Divine will ! How the faith of the godly would be strengthened, whilst the daring of the wicked would be rebuked I
V. And this instance is but one out of myriads more. Read the history of tha Church, and see how perpetually out of seeming disaster God has brought real good and increased good. And so in our own personal histories, providential and spiritual alike. " lYust thou in the Lord at all times." — 0.
Ver. 3. — God's eye to every possibility. I. The thing which God greatly debibes. That man may repent, thus enabling him to forgive. He ever has his eyes on the ways of evil men, noticing the slightest sign of their weariness in them and dispo- sition to leave them. This is always a thing to be suspected and prepared for. That any man should suddenly become uneasy and hesitating in the midst of evil courses is nothing wonderful when we consider that man was made for goodness and holiness. Thus what else should we look for than frequent expressions of desire on the part ot God that man should again be found in the right way ?
II. God leaves nothing undone to bbing this about. There is something even touching about this word, " it may be." As if it were allowed that probabilities all |iointed in one unfavourable direction, but still not one of them was such a certainty that the contrary possibility should be excluded. As the common proverb says, " While there's life there's hope." Every instance of a rejected appeal and an abused I^rophet lessens the probability, but it does not destroy the possibility. God goes on bending his prophets. Each man comes with his own personality, his own peculiai emphasis, and thus with evermore the same message there is variety both in the messenger and the form of his message. And at last, when the messenger gets shut up, his words are written down and transmitted by another. We cannot get rid of the Word of God. There are a thousand channels to the heart of man, and the violent stoppage of some may only result in the enlargement and efficacy of others.
III. Thebe IB AN EXAMPLE FOB US IN GOSPEL WORK. Scripture shows us God using many ways in trying to get at the human heart. Surely the great princi[ile in this matter is that every way is right if it be not wrong in itself. We must not do evil that good may come ; but we must be all things to all men that we may save some.
IV. There mat be added guilt to those rejecting the gospel. It was one ol the worst elements in the guilt of Israel that it had been indifferent to so many appeals and such various ones. Giod did not send these people into exile upon one refusal or even upon a few. There was sufficient intimation of his demands and his desi<rus. And we may take it that there always is sufficient intimation. With the constant extension of gospel effort and the wider diffusion of Bibles, tracts, and all sorts of printed agencies, we may say that each generation gets more of light than the one before it. Indeed, we may lay it down as a general principle that when all the oppor- tunities of every human being are summed up, it will be found that he is without any excuse for pleading ignorance or doubt as to God's demands. — T.
Ver. 6. — " Thingi new and old." I. The old. The message itself was old. It had been proclaimed before in parts and on different occasions. There was not, indeed opportunity for anything new. The audience also was to some extent old. But then let it always be understood that God speaks according to the necessities of the case not according to the itching ear of man ever clamouring for novelty and relief from ennui. " If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead." There may come a time in every man's life when it is not the new but the old and neglected or misunderstood that will prove the necessity of thi soaL
OH. XXXYI. 1—32.] THE BOOR OP THE PROPHET JEEBMIAH. 119