n. A JUST VEBDIOT. The evidence may be clear, yet the decision may be unjust if the judge is partial or corrupt. It is the comfort of one who makes the highest appeal that God not only knows all, but will decide righteously. " Judge thou my cause," says the troubled soul. God will judge all causes at the great tribunal of the judgment-day. Injustice can only live till then. Should not the oppressed bear his brief wrongs with calmness when he knows that they will soon be righted ? It is interesting to see that " the day of the Eternal," which the Jews anticipated as the great judgment-day, was not regarded by them with terror, as it is often regarded by Christians. This fact may be, perhaps, partially due to a duller sense of personal sin. But surely it is chiefly owing to the grand Hebrew love of righteousness. We see strange mysteries of inequality and injustice that are at times perfectly bewildering. The judgment of Heaven will set all right. And even now God may do much for his children by his providence.
m. A riBH EXECUTION. The sufferer prays that God will "render unto them a rwompense." A Christian spirit should deliver us from the thirst for vengeance that was too pronounced even in the most devout Hebrew. But we must beware of a weak quasi-himianitarianism that would sacrifice justice and wholesome retribution to a one- sided gentleness. 1. It is necessary that justice should be done in action as well as that a just sentence should be pronounced in word. 2. It is for the good of all con- oemsd — the victim, the public, and even the wrong-doer, that guilt should be chastised, S, It is well to transfer vengeful feelings which we cannot utterly destroy into a passive resignation of our case to God. We are not to avenge ourselves, if only because God iuts laul, " Vengeance is mine ; I will repay."
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS.
Yw. 1. — AfflMed hy Ood. Every child of God, nay, every son of man, lias endurad aflSiction. Jeremiah and the city which he here personifies and represents may be said to have experienced affiiction in an extraordinary degree. A fact so uni- versal cannot be without special significance in human Ufe. But not all the afSicted discern this underlying and profitable meaning.
L Affliotiom leads some to doubt the EXISTENCE OF GoD. It is not uncommon fw people to say in their hearts, what some even venture to say with their lips, " If there were a God, I should not be suffered to pass through misfortunes and sorrows so distressing and so undeserved."
II. Affliction leads some to doubt God'o benbvolbnoe and kindly interest a HUMAN BEINGS. Not denying the existence of Deity, these afflicted ones question his moral attributes. They ask, "If God were a Being of boundless benevolence, would he suffer us to go through waters so deep, flames so fierce ? His kindness and com- passion — were such attributes part of his nature — would interpose on our behalf and deliver us."
III. Sous WHO BELIEVE THAT GOD PERMITS AFFLICTION UISINTEBFEET IT AS A
HON OF HIS WBATH. This it may be ; this it wets in the case of Jerusalem. Yet Ghtd in the midst of wrath remembers mercy ; he doth not keep his anger for ever. And tber* SM instances in which no greater misinterpretation conic' be possible than tha
4B THE LAMENTATIONS OF JEBEMIAH. [ch. hi. 1—66,
▼tew tliat sufTering is mere penalty, that thow who suffer moit are necessarily sinnerg above all their nfighbours.
IV. Affliction shouu) be beoardbd bt tjm fious and submisstvb ab a pboof OF Divine merct and as meant fob theib oooo. Scripture represents suffering as the chastening of a Father's hand. The experience of many a Christian is summed up in the languapie of the psalmist : " It was good for me that I was afflicted."
V. Affliction mat thus become, ih the experience of the pious, the occasion FOB DEVOUT THANKSGiviNO. How often havc mature and holy Christians been heard to say, " I wonld not, upon looking back, have been without the ruggedaess of the nwd, the bitterness of the cup " I — T.
Vers. 7 — ^9. — TTie roay tf life Mged and hiUt up. The man who enjoys prosperity seems also to enjoy liberty; bis way lies straight and level and open before him. But it often happens in human life that liberty is changed into restraint, that every path that is smooth and peaceful is closed, that, in the figurative language of this passage, a hedge is planted, a fence is staked out, a wall is built across the traveller's way.
I. Man's delight is natubai.lt in liberty and prospebitt.
II. 'Fboyidential cibcumstanoeb sometimes completelt depritb hih or mroH UBBBTT AND PBOBPEBITT. 1. One may miss the object of his heart's earthly desire. He may have set his affection upon some object, he may have directed his aspiration towards some aim, he may have purposed some course in life ; and all these expectations and hopes may come to nothing ; circumstances may conspire against the fulfilment of such desires and intentions. 2. Another may find great delight in the service of God ; and suddenly health may fail and such service may consequently be forbidden, or powers of mind may be enfeebled, or means may be reduced, or fellow-labourers, apparently necessary, may be removed by death.
III. ThBBB is DANQBE LEST IN SUCH A POSITION EVEN GOOD PEOPLE SHOULD BECOME
IMPATIENT AND REBELLIOUS. Believing that the Almighty has power to remove every obstacle, and to make plain the roughest pnth, they are tempted to question the interest, the care, the benevolence of the Supreme, and to give way to fretful ness and mur- muring, and to ask " Why should not God make light my heavy chain, pluck up the cruel hedge, break down the impenetrable wall ? "
rV. Yet IN SUCH oieoumstanobs the path which God has appointed should bs becognizeo as tee bight fate. Resignation to his will, waiting for his time of deliverance, confidence in his goodness, — such is the attitude of heart in which true consolation and ultimate prosperity will be found. — T.
Ver. 8. — Unheard prayer. There were seasons when It seemed to the prophet that God not only refused to interpose in bis behalf, but refused even to listen to his prayer. In such faithless and yet not unnatural imaginations and fears many truly pious natures have participated. Complaints are made by the afflicted that they have prayed, but have prayed in vain ; that God has " shut out" their prayer.
L There is fbayeb which God does shut out, t.e. the prates of selfishness AND SIN. Men ask and receive not, because they ask amiss. They ask for gifts which God has never promised to bestow and which he has never encouraged them unre- servedly to desire. There are bad things which men ask God for and which it would harm the supiiliants to receive. There are things not bad in themselves, the bestowal of which, however, upon certain persons and in certain circumstances would be spiritually harmful. Such gifts are withheld, not in malevolence, but in mercy.