43 THB LAMENTATIONS OF JEBEMIAH. [oh. m. 1— 6Si
spoken of as s time of pleasure. Older people do their best to damp the joyousness ol the young by telling them that these are their hnppy days, soon will come the dark days of trouble, let them enjoy the bright time while it lasts. Even if such a view of life were correct, the wisdom of thrusting it forward is not easy to discover. Why spoil the feast by pointing to the sword of Damocles ? Why direct the walk on a fair spring day to the graveyard? Surely it were wiser to say, " SufHcient unto the day is the evil thereof." But this view is false. It arises from the disturbed imagination of later years. Grown morose with care, men look back on the earlier days of their life and imagine ihem to have been far brighter than those they now enjoy ; but they only do so by that common trick of memory that selects the plensant pictures and drops the unpleasant ones. L Youth is a time of restraint. With all their lightness of heart, children feel the bonds of authority and long for the time when they shall be their own masters. It is difficult for grown men who have the free command of their own actions U> under- stand tlie irksomeness of the necessary bonds of childhood. Bestrained in the nursery and in the schoolroom under law and supervision, liable to ignominious rebuke, many children feel themselves in slavery. Wiser treatment gives more liberty ; but still it necessarily continues many restraints. And in fuU-grown life, when the bondage is more galling, young men commonly have to obey and submit to direction more than older men. 2. Youth is a time of toU. Men generally have to work hard in their younger years. The hours of labour are longest; the tasks imposed are the most disagreeable ; the wages paid are the lowest. Most men as they advance in years work for shorter hours at more agreeable tasks and for greater rewards.
II. The tokb is good fob yodth. We have seen that it is incorrect to regard youth as a time of exceptional pleasantness. For a normal life the day brightens as it lengthens, at least till the meridian is attained, and even later the soft light of evening is to many a source of deep, calm joy unknown in the feverish excitement of youth (see Words- worth's poem on the superiority of the quiet September songs of the birds to their wild, restless spring songs). Nevertheless, the very yoke of youth is good. 1. If it must be borne at all, the yoke can he best borne in youth. The mind is then most supple to shape itself to the unwonted burden and pressure of it. Then a man can yield to authority with most pliancy and face hard labour most confidently. 2. The yoke it necessary for youth. It is a good thing to bear it in youth. (1) Restraint is then necessary. Liberty would be abused. Until an independent conscience has been developed, instructed, and strengthened, the external conscience of authority is needed. (2) Work is also good for youth. Even the discipline of unpleasant tasks is wholesome. It con- quers self-will and the idle love of pleasure, and trains in self-denial. 3. Later years are benefited by the yoke of youth. Even if the years during which it is borne arc not so happy as they might be, the man himself is better in the whole of his life. He profits by the discipline. He learns habits of self-restraint and industry. He is able better to appreciate the privileges of advancing stages of life.
VeM. 31 — 33. — Chastisement only for a season. L Tms fact that chastisement IB ONLY FOB a SEASON. God doos " cast off" and "cause grief." His love does not nullify his wrath. When grieved and disowned by God the soul feels utterly desolate. But the terrible judgment is only for a season. It will end in reconciliation and com- passion. This great truth gives an entirely new complexion to our views of life and providence. We see at times the severe side. But we misjudge if we take that as a sample of the whole. Indeed the very severity prepares the way for mercy ; for Qoi can show compassion afier chastisement to a degree that would not be good before the wholesome discipline. The sunshine, which would wither the plants before the storm, coming after it helps them to grow and flourish on the water it has brought to their roots. 1. This fact is no grou/nd for reckhss indifference. For (1) the wrath is terrible enough while it lasts ; (2) it must endure as long as impenitent guilt is persisted in ; and (3) sin that presumes on mercy is the most gross and culpable ingratitude. 2. This fact should be a consolation in trouble. Hope may buoy up the sufiferer. And resort may be had to prayer. It seems as though the soul were abandoned. But if God has aot cast it off for ever, he must still feel interest in it, and may therefore be appealed to ibr mercy. 3. This fact is an encouragement to repentance. Endless punishment dis- courages repentance. It acts in the opposite way from that of all useful puniahmeuti
OH.in. 1— 66.] THE LAMENTATIONS OF JEREMIAH. 43
It tends to confirm sin. It is the prospect of mercy that softens the heart and prompts feelings of peniteDce.