L Thekb are things in bevelation which appear to indicate misanthboft. When God utters his voice he does not always speak in dulcet notes. We may hear harsh, grating thunders of Sinai. The message is not always pleasant. It makes us feel uncomfortable, exposes our worst characteristics, and has no pity on our little con- trivances for putting the best face on our conduct. It stays our hand in many a favourite occupation. It cries " vanity of vanities " to our pet schemes. It puts a veto on our proud ambition. It frowns at much of our pleasure. For the future it threatens judgment and bitter penalties. When we fancy we have found some neat plan of escape, it exposes the rottenness of our hope and plunges us for the moment into blank despair. Such is the work of certain parts of revelation, and being so, it is not unnaturally regarded by some as misanthropic. Bearing this fact in mind, we must not be surprised at the aversion that the irreligious feel to religion. Judging from this standpoint, they may regard their best frieml as their enemy, and imagine that the angry voice of God indicates nothing; but his settled wrath against them.
11. This misanthropy is only apparent. Jeremiah was the best friend of Jerusalem, and the fanatical leaders of resistance her most fatal foes. His advice was really wise and patriotic. The Bible, which to some is a gloomy Book, darkening the aspect of human life, contains the secret of its true blessedness. The religion of the Bible may be sombre in the eyes of some when compared with the sunny religion of Greece. Bin the Hellenic faith could not save its followers from utter moral corruption and ruin. Through the sterner faith of the Jew and the Christian we are led to that one satisfying: brightness of life which comes from the rising upon ns of the Snn of rigliteousness. We must judge of words by their aim, not by their sound. The Bible contains threais oi terrible doom, but as we discover the purpose of them we see that they are not curses but warnings. God often opposes us, stays our course, puts up the red signal, only to save us from rushing to some fatal calamity. Elijah, Jereuiiah, John the Baptist, Savonarola, and John Knox were regarded by their contemporaries as misanthropic. Now we see that they were the salt of the earth, true saviours of society. Even Christ uttered words which might seem to indicate misanthropy, but all with the intention of leading men to escape from the evils he deplored and find salvation in his grace.
Ver. 11.—" Old cast clouts and old rotten rags," L There is a use fob everything. These rags were possibly thrown aside as useless. Yet they were found to serve a distinct purpose. Amongst the wonderful combinations of invention and economy in the present day, noue are more remarkable than those which turn waste materials to serviceable ends. There is a mission for every life. No man is so low, so worn, so worthless, but that he may find some way in which to serve God and his fellows. If a rag has a mission, shall a soul find none ?
II. If we cannot attain the highest object aimed at, we SHOaLD NOT NESLEOT
THAT which is WITHIN OUR REACH. The rags may once have been prince's robes. Now they are only fit for the lowest uses. Then let them be so used. There is an impractical idealism which paralyzes all effort. Because a thing cannot be turned to the highest account we will not use it at all. So there are those who refuse to do anything because they can do nothing very great, or who, being compelled to give up a work of honour, are too proud to undertake a more lowly task. We should remember Goetlie"! maxim, " Do the thiug that lieth nearest thee." Thus a useful rag may he a rebuke tu a useless man.
III. The GREATEST MAN MAY HAVE NKED OF THE MOST COMMONPLACE APPUANCE8. A
prophet finds comfort from a rag. We are none of us emancipated from relation to the lowest things. This should humble those who make the dignity gf their natuie -
184 THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEllEMUH. [««• xxxViii. 1— 28.
reason for despising the offices of lowly things and persons. It should encourage those who have but small means. They may be of material comfort to some far above them. Great and small, we are linked together for our mutual helpfulness.
IV. Deeds op kindness should be performed in a kind manner. Carelessness and roughness of demeanour may spoil half the efiect of the most well-meant offices oi charity. There are philanthropists who would lift the prisoner from the pit, but with hard, coarse ropes, without any consideration for his sore and weary body. The purpose is gracious, but the manner is brutal. Christians should not be mere patrons, wounding the feelings of those whom they help in other respects, but the brethren of the dis- tressed, aiding them carefully, gently, courteously. This is the manner of God's great deliverance of mankind; it i.s by a Saviour who " shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. A biuised reed shall he not break, and the smoking Qax shall he not quench " (Isa. zlii. 2, 3).
Vers. 19 — 23. — The fear of ridicule. I. The pbab of ridicule is a oommoh failtng OF WEAK MEN. Zedeluah is a weak man. His first thought when he contemplates the possible effects of obedience to the Divine command is that it may result in his being delivered into the hands of the captives at Babylon to be mocked by them (ver. 17). This he dreads above all things. Many men who would stand up without flinching to be shot at cower before a laugh. Let them understand that their conduct is weak and foolish and wrong.
II. The fear of eidiculb is a frequent cause of neglect of dutt. This is one of the chief weapons of persecution and temptation exercised in our own day. The rack and the stake are out of fashion ; the sneer and the gibe have taken their place. Milton's Satan has been superseded by Goethe's Mephistopheles. The young are specially sensitive to ridicule. They especially should seek grace from God to stand firm against it.
III. The pear of bidiculb provokes ridicule. Jeremiah showed the king that ■ disobedience coming out of his dreai of being mocked would result in worse mockery.
Fearing the laughter of captive soldiers, he would be mocked by women ; dreading the contempt of strangers, he should meet with that of his own house (ver. 22). Face a laugh, and you foil its spiteful intention ; quail before it, and you give it the victory and furnish occasion for fresh contempt. The young man who sneaks away from his religious principles because his companions in business laugh at him for them is only despised for his contemptible weakness, while that young man who quietly holds his ground unmoved by senseless ridicule wins the secret respect of observers, and makes them inwardly ashamed of their folly.