III. The man that has seen affliction has sained knowledge of some of THE DEEPEST FAOTS OF LIFE. We do not know life till we have felt pain. Buddha, while kept from all suffering in bis palace, was ignorant of the world and of man. Suffering opens the eyes to the facts of life and breaks up many idle dreams. Mere skow and pretence are then felt to be vain and mocking. True friends are discrimi- nated from idle acquaintances. The value of inward things is discovered.
IV. The KAN THAT HAS BEEN AFFLICTION HAS EXPERIENCED A TALUABLK DIBCI-
FLINE. This is a useful " means of grace." It may be sent to punish sin and check the thoughtless sinner on his road to ruin. Or it may be to remind the sarelesa Chris- tian of his declension. Or it may be like the pruning of the fruitful branch, a stimulus to make the fruitful Christian more fruitful. Various ends may be served. But in all cases the suffering is meant for our good. Nevertheless, the enjoyment of the advan- tage aimed at in the providential arrangement depends on the use we make of our trouble. We may receive this grace in vain. If we harden our heart under it it will be useless to us. Such a result is doubly disappointing, for we do not escape the pain, yet we come out of the ordeal worse instead of better.
T. The man that has seen affliction is a ttpe of Chbist. Like " the Servant of the Eternal," in the latter part of " Isaiah," this unnamed sufferer of the Lamen- tations seems to foreshadow the unique distress of the Man of sorrows. Christ claims our attention by his suffering, and the more that he suffered for us. He did not nmply imagine his distresses to be great. He never posed for pity. But never was sorrow hke unto his sorrow. He entered deeply into human experience by his sufferings, and became a High Priest touched with the feeling of our infirmities. Made perfect by suffering, he gives to us the fruits of his cross and passion as more than a " means of grace "—as bread of life and blood of redemption.
Ver. 6.—" Dark placet." The sufferer feels as though he were in the dark places ol the dead, in the everlasting house which no tenant ever quits.
I. God bometimbs bets his people in dark places. He permits the light of gladness to fade and the vision of truth to be dimmed and the conscious brightness of his presence to be lost, so that the soul is plunged in black depths of sorrow, doubt, and loneliness. Then the dismayed sufferer feels himself lost, well-nigh dead. But he is not dead, nor even deserted by God. The very fact that he admits that Ood has set him in the dark place is a confession that the hand of God has been with him. Beal death and utter desolation come from the desertion of the soul by God ; the chastiso- ment that he directly imposes evidences his presence and energy, and it therefon promisM M»,
M. 111. 1—66.] THE LAMENTATIONS JF JBBEMIAH.
n. While in the light we should be pbepabed fob the dark places. W« stumble in the dark, ami are teirified and confounded by it because we do not know it and are not in readiness for it. Like Adam in ' Paradise Lost/ we are surprised at th« first coming on of light. Because we expect the night and know that a new day will follow, we can contemplate the deepening gloom of evening without apprehension. Th« miner, prepared for the darkness of his subterranean work, takes his lamp with him. Every soul should be warned that it is likely some day to be plunged into spiritual darkness. If ready with the quiet inward light of faith, it need fear nothing. While we know that God's rod and staff are with us to comfort us, we shall not be dismayed, though we shall be saddened, at being called to walk through the valley of the shadow of death.
III. Souis leaen lessons of light in dark places. In s deep well the stars above are visible at noon. In deep humiliation heavenly light is seen that is lost in the garish show of earthly commonplace life as well as on tht; heights of pride and pro- sumption. Tears of sorrow purge the vision of the souL It is well sometimes to ba alone in the dark with God.
IV. There are dark places or spiritual death that are more awful than THE ABODE OF DEPARTED SPIRITS. To the old-woild view Hades was a realm of sinless gloom. But worse than the darkness of this Hades is the darkness of those who are dead in trespasses and sin. Such men carry hell within their own breasts. The blackness of death broods over their spiritual natures so that they feel no qualms of conscience, and are awake to no voices from heaven. These darkest places are never assigned by God to his creatures. If they are found in them it ia because they bam plunged into them of their own will.
Ver. 7. — Hedged about. I. Evert life is surrounded bt Divine liuitationb. God hedges all of us about. Some have a narrow fiaU of freedom and others a widei field. But every man's field is fenced in. Within certain limits we have scope for choice and will. Yet even there choice is fettered. For there is not only the hedge that bounds our area of action, there is the chain on our own person that hampers our movements. Free-will is far from being unlimited. Or, if the will is not fettered, th« txecution of it ii. Note some of the things that make up the hedge which God plants about us. L Physical limiiations, laws of nature, circumstances of our habi- tat, the measure of our bodily powers, special hindrances in external events that go con- trary to us, and, with some, disease, maiming, or other bodily impediment beyond our control. 2. Mental limitations. There is a limit to what we can think of, imagine, or desire. Our knowledge is limited— both knowledge of ends and knowledge of means. As one who finds himself a stranger in a mountainous country is shut in on all sides because he does not know the passes, our ignorance fetters us and hinders us. 3. MortU limitations. God fences our way with his Law. There are forbidden fields which no material barrier shuts off, yet from which the mysterious, invisible bands of righteous- ness keep us back. Thus the man whose conscience is awake is often aware of being hedged in and chained down where one of duller spirituality feels free to roam «t pleasure.