IV. A DESTBUCTIVE JUDGMENT. " Baldncss is come upon Gaza ; Ashkelon ia cut off." Chreat cities are overthrown, the ruins of them testifying to this day to the violence they have undergone. The end of the broad way is destruction, " The wages of sin is death." Whatever be the exact character of the destruction and death, the analogy of national judgment and the known deadening effects of sin upon the spiritual, the intellectual, and even the physical powers lead us to expect that the fearful fate of sin continued, unchecked, and unrepented of through all stages of chastisement will be some destroying process.
V. An bhdubinq judgment. " Alas ! thou sword of the Lord, how long will it be ere thou be quiet?" (ver. 6). Philistia has never been restored. Some judgments appear to be irretrievable. All punishment must be sufSciently enduring to eli'ect its end. The punishment of the next world is always referred to as terribly enduring, as partaking of the awful duration of seoaa. How long such vague, vast ages will last none can say. May it not be the fate of any of us to make the experiment !
Vers. 6, 7. — 2%e tword of the Lord. I. The terror of man before the sword of THE Lord. (Ver. 6.) 1. Ood wields a sword. There are terrors in some of the doings of the Gk)d of love. "Our God is a consuming fire." It is foolish and wrong to blind ourselves to the stern side of God's government, and to represent him as almost soft and weak in his indulgence of his children. 2. God's sword may be seen in earthly calami- ties. It does not flash before us as when it was held by cherubim at the gates of Eden. It works in the form of natural calamities. It also makes use of human actions, wars, etc. Above the sword of man there flitters this terrible, irresistible sword. 'I'lius calamities in this world are sent by God or overruled by God. 3. God's sword may be restlessly active. It is not displayed for one fearful moment and then sheathed. Often there comes blow upon blow. Thus Job cries out beneath the wearjing strokes, " How long wilt thou not depart from me, nor let me alone till I swallow down my spittle ?" (Job vii. 19). 4. We cannot see the reason for the terrible work of the .sword of the Lora. We cry out in dismay before it. From a human point of view it may appear cruel and relentless. 5. We may naturally /eei/)% for those who suffer from this terrible sword. It is right, too, that we should intercede for them if it be possible for the judgment of Heaven to be stayed.
IL lia DrviKK mission of the sword of the Lord. (Ver. 7.) 1. The wielding of the Bword is necessary. "How can it be quiet?" There are moral necessities which even the Almighty Ood freely accepts. Justice must be done. Right must be established. Evil must be suppressed. The process may be painful, and such as God would not choose on its own account and can take no delight in. Yet for these high requirements, though his children suffer and his own heart is wrung with commiseration, he cannot sheathe the sword till its work is done. 2. The wielding of the sword is lor a good purpose. The necessity is not blind and objectless. The sword has its mission. To us who are in the thick of the battle this may not be discernible. The dust anu
OH. XLViL 1— 7J THE BOOK OP THE PROPHET JEEBMIAH. 225
heat, the rush and noise and confusion, the mingled cries of triumph and pain, are all we can observe ; the plan of the commander cannot be read through all the turmoil of the field. But he has a plan, and the whole battle is converging to it. 3. The sword cannot be sheathed fill its mission is accomplished. The mission is more important that the temporary comfort arising out of the immediate quieting of the sword. If this were to lie done before the end were obtained, where would be ithe use of all that was already suffered ? If the sword is stayed before victory is won, every drop of bloou spilt is wasted, every pang suflered is suffered in vain. If the discipline of life were to cease before its great purpose were accomplished, its earlier stages would be stultified. 4. When the mission of the sword is accomplished the sword will be sheathed. It is drawn for a definite object. " The Lord is a man of war " for a season and for a purpose, not by delight nor perpetually. He is essentially the God of peace. No one is more anxious to see the sword laidaside than he who wields it. His joy is in peace and in benediction. Judgment is temporary. The victory and rest that follow will be etemaL
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS.
Ver. 5. — 27ie sorrow of the tmgodly. The allusion is to a fashion common to the Philistines and other idolatrous nations in appealing to their gods. We perceive a similar tendency in the natural mind in its first moral concerns and spiritual troubles. It is the sorrow ot the world to which, as to the Philippian jailor, the injunction has t< be addressed, "Do thyself no harm." Notice —
I. The principle in human natubb. It is that self-inflicted suffering or depri- vation will be of spiritual advantage and secure Divine favour. This is the secret of penance, pilgrimages, monastic life, and asceticism in general. The saying, often uttered of losses or pains over which one has no control, " Ah, well 1 it will be set down to our credit!" witnesses to the same idea. Remorse is largely explained on the same principle.
II. That it ib rouNDKD oh a misoonoeiption of the DrviNB nature. Baal was a cruel god — a huge abortion and monstrosity. Not less cruel are the ideas of God's cha- racter entertained by many reputedly religious persons. 1. We gospel declares that " Ood is Imie." Such self-inflictions are but folly, and have no religious value in view of this great truth. "Sacriflce and offering thou wouldest not . . . Lo, I come ... I delight to do thy will, my God " (Ps. xl. 6—8; Heb. x. 6 — 7) ; " I will have mercy, and not sacrifice " (Matt. ix. 13 ; cf. Hos. vL 6) ; and " Wherewithal shall I come before the Lord, ... he hath showed thee, man, what is good ; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God ? " (Micah vi 6 — 8), — are the expressions of the spirit of true religion, which alone harmonizes with the doctrine of a loving God. 2. Ood himself in the person of his Son has "borne our griefi and carried our sorrows." The worship which is alone acceptable to the Father must begin with the recognition of this. There is a " godly sorrow," but its advantage consists in its moral influence on ourselves, making us hate sin and follow after righteousness, etc. 3. Everything which ignores the merit of Christ's sufferings and Ood's revelation of himself must needs be hateful to him, and bring upon its authors his wrath and curse. — ^M.