II. These Divine limitations abe felt to be ieksomb to us when oub will IS IN conflict with God's will. All finite beings must be hedged about by their natural limits. Angels must be within the fence of their powers and rights. Pure spirits are under the law of God. But to these beings the barriers cannot be irksome. They must be submitted to with meek and happy complacency. No wistful gaze is cast beyond into forbidden pasture, no covetous greed vexes with longings for the unattainalile or the unlawful. But we men on earth live in frequent conflict with our heavenly Father's will. We find the walls to be hard because we fling ourselves upon them. Our chain galls us because we chafe and fret ourselves against it. The wander- ing sheep is torn by the hedge, while the quiet obidient sheep knows nothing of the briars. When we rebel against God we murmur at his restraints. But, it is said, ii not the bondage the same while unfelt? and is it not ignominious to be blivious of it? and is there not something noble even in th<8 hopeless blow that is struck for freedom f The most subtle spiritual temptation of the devil takes this form, and it tempts to the most wicked Bin— rebellion against God for its own sake. And it is a delusion. Foi
38 THE LAMENTATIONS OF JEREMIAH. [ch. iu. 1—66
the highest obedience is not the restraint of our will before God's will, but the assimi- lation of the two. We learn to will what God wills. Then we keep within the Divine limitations, and yet they cease to be limitations to us. They never touch us because we never attempt nor wish to cross them. Here lies the secret of peace as well as of holiness. So lofty an attainment can only be reached through that one- ness with Christ of which he speaks when he prays that his disciples may be one with him and the Father, as he is one with the Father (John xviL 21).
Ver. 18. — Strength and hope perished. The sufferer feels as though his strength, or rather in the expressive word of the Hebrew, his " sap " were destroyed, and with it his hope also ; and he attributes this desperate condition to the action of God. It is a con- dition of spiritual afSiction the pathology of which demands careful investigation, for it is symptomatic of a great progress of inward trouble.
I. It indicates that external calamities have produced INTBRNAL DISTBBSa.
Every calamity assails tho soul. But for a while the citadel holds out. Without the storm beats furiously. Within there is security and comparative quiet. At length, after a certain force of trouble is attained, in the addition of wave upon wave as in Job's case, or in the access of some one overwhelming disaster as in the destruction of Jerusalem, the defence fails, the enemy enters the breach and pours in a flood over the whole fortress. Sorrow of heart follows the loss of wealth, sickness, or other trouble of outer life.
II. It indicates that distress of boul has undermined the powers of ENDURANCE. The " Sap " perishes. For a time a man holds on bravely, though with bleeding heart. But as the grief grows upon him he " breaks down," he can stand it no more, he says he cannot bear it. In one sense he can bear any amount of trouble that does not extinguish his being. He can pass through it and come out of it alive. But to bear trouble in the sense of keeping self-possessed and calm under it may be no longer possible. Wild and reckless anguish takes the place of sober, patient grief. The strength of soul is gone. The spirit that bore up against the blast is broken. Crushed and helpless, the sufferer no longer contends with the storm, but permits himself to be tossed and dashed about at the sport of the cruel waves.
III. It indicates that the loss of strength has ended in despair. Hope also perishes. A broad line must be drawn between sorrow that is lightened by hope and sorrow without hope. So long as the faintest ray still glimmers on the horizon the prospect is not utterly dark. W hen hope goes the soul is indeed abandoned to its dis- tresses. The most acute pain may be boine with comparative equanimity so long as there is prospect of relief. Directly that prospect is destroyed a much smaller trouble becomes unendurable. Now and again we meet with a soul that has lost hope ; we see it drifting on the wild sea of life without rudder or compass, a mere wreck of its former self.
IV. It is an internal condition that should not be taken as indicative of corresponding external facts. We need not assume that there will be no bright future, for the desponding despair is not its own justification. It is often irrational, almost insane. It springs from grief that is big enough to hide all prospect of better things, but not to destroy the possibility of their ultimate arrival. The very fact that the trouble is traced to God — this trouble is " from the Eternal " — should help us to dis- trust the doleful prophecy of despair. If God our Father sends trouble, it is well. He will surely bring good out of it. For one who has faith in Christ no distress should be allowed to end in despair.
Vers. 19 — 21. — Ood taking notice of man's affliction. In his distress the sufferer cries to God, calling upon his great Helper to note his condition and remember it. Then he is calmed by prayer, and rests in the assurance that God does not forget his trouble. Eecalling this thought to mind, he recovers hope.
I. The oby for God's notice. 1. It is to Ood. At first it seems as though God had forgotten his afBicted child. The vision of the Divine countenance is clouded; no voice speaks out of the darkness. Desolate and despairing, in misery that is bitter as wormwood and gall, the troubled soul seems to be deserted of God in the hoar of gnatesc ue«d. Then tlie sufferer cries out to God. Here is instinctive wisdom. We may oi
oa. III. 1—66.] TH£ LAMENTATIONS OF JEBEMIAB. 81
we may not be observed by our fellow-men, and though human sympathy ia a conso- lation, and indifference an additional bitterness, still in the heaviest trouble man can do little. It is not his notice that we should be most anxious to attract. The clamour of the afflicted for ])ity is an indication of weakness. But we do need God's sympathy ; this is true healing balm. To him let the cry of trouble ascend. 2. It it for Qod'i notice. It is not for relief, but for remembrance by G-od. There is good reason to trust that the remembrance will result in the relief. Nevertheless, the first and chief necessity isthat God would take notice of us in trouble. If he do so we can leave the rest to him. It would be well if our prayers implied more simple reliance on the goodness of God, without perfect definitions of what we desire him to do for us.