II. This bofi ooheb raou ooNsiDEBiNe the bioet THwaB in thi bioht bpibit.
5S Tfi£ LAMBNTAMONS Ot* JEBEMiAil. [oh. ili. 1— 66
As the expression may be rendered, there must be " a taking to heart." Loss of hop« comes from taking to heart the sad side of human life. The same things are, of course, before us all. There is enough mysterious misery in the world to oppress any human heart that thinks of nothing else, but then along with this we should ever have before us, as things to be searched into with all earnestness, the great facts of the loving revelation of God in Christ Jesus. The resurrection of Jesus, rightly considered, will give a hope rooted deep below the most discomposing powers of this world. It is not enough to place the great facts before us ; they must be dealt with as being very dear and necessary to the heart. — Y.
Vers. 22, 23. — The unfailing compassions of Jehovah. Here indeed is a full retrac- tation of the reckless falsehooit recorded in ver. 18. He who had hinted that God was a Destroyer, that he delighted, as it were, in reducing his children.to despair, is now found glorying in the same God as the great Preserver, the one effectual Guardian of man's existence and peace.
L Note the desteoting powbes that beset human life. Gkid's mercies are the only guarantee against our being consumed. How great, then, must be the perils of life 1 Jeremiah had nothing to do but look back on his own experience, and then he would be filled with wonder to think he had got so lar. Think of the vivid way in which Paul summed up the perils of his life. It is indeed true that we do well not ta think too much of such perils. All the comfort would be taken out of life if we thought of them too much. But there they are, and times do come when it is useful to pass them before the mind. And espeeially we should note those perils which are perils because they have temptation in them. One of the greatest perils of life is to make an inadequate estimate of perils. The greatest of all perils is to be false to truth and goodness for the sake of life or even of temporal prosperity. Our passions, our fears, and our pride are all ready to league with the great enemy of God and of mankind.
II. Note the only adequate defence against these desteoying poweu. 1. That defence is to ht found in Jehovah. With him alone is the might and the power requisite to make due provision. Man is ignorant and prejudiced, continually going into the way of death, under a firm conviction that it is the way of life. If Jeremiah had been left to himself, to his own prudence and his own notions of safety, the chances are he would have been a dead man in no long time after he had begun prophesying. The true wisdom is to put ourselves into the hands of God. Then the way of duty becomes the way of safety. We are no longer misled by appearances. We suffer from the lesser danger and escape the greater. We discover how true it is that a man may lose his life, and yet in the very losing find it. 2. The compassion and faithfulness of Jehovah are specially insisted on. We ask constantly why men do things, and what motives are at the bottom of their doings. And we must ask the same things with respect to God. From the thing done we may. rise to understand the heart of the doer. And then, knowing what his character is, we may confidently calculate what sort of things he will do in the future. God's mercies are new every murning — light after darkness, strength after sleep, conscious life with all its large endowments after hours of unconsciousness. And great is his faithfulness. The irregularities and forgettings of human procedure are not to be found in the dealings of God. And this is just the responsibility that comes to us from all the attainments of science, that the deeper we search into the constitution of the universe, the more we should be impressed with the greatness of God's iaithfulness. — Y,
Ver. 24. — l^ose who have Jehovah for their Portion. I. Eveet mas hab his POB- TiON. That which is his capital, which constitutes his resources, and out of which he has to build up the results of his life. It was only natural that an Israelite should make a great deal of portions. Israel had a portion, divinely secured and wonderfully packed with the raw materials of wealth. Each tribe had its portion, given by lot, so that there was no ground of complaint, and so to each household in due time there came a portion. In Israel, as in every other nation, there were the rich and the poor — those with great possessions and those with none at all. Thus there are inequalities, and not the least of them are those which inhere in the constitution of the individual. Our portion depends, not on what we legally possess, but on what we have the energy
CH. III. 1—66.] THE LAMENTATIONS OF JEREMIAH. 69
»nd the skill to nse. The greatest of a man's natural resources are in himself. Other-> wise lie may sit among large possessions which are of no mora use to him than are his hoards to a miser.
II. EVEBT HAN HAS IT IK HI8 OWN FOWKB TO BEMOTB THK nrBQUALTmSS OF HIS FOB-
itON. Jeremiah shows us how. Whatever his natural portion may have heen, it had well-nigh vanished through the hatred of his people and even of his own acquaintance. Nor must we forget that he was speaking in the midst of a desolate land. Many por- tions had gone and left their owners not knowing which way to turn. But now Jere- miah both assures us of his own resources and advises us where to seek ourselves, by saying, " Jehovah is my Portion." Thus he turns away the mind from mere external property. It is the dreadful character of all mere external wealth that there is only so much of it, and therefore, just in proportion as some grow rich, others must become poor. Besides which there is to be considered that moment when riches will take to themselves wings and flee away, and that still more serious moment when flesh and heart will fail. Thus we see that the complaint about the inequalities of life has more plausibility than force. All purely natural portions are reduced to the same vanity at last, and the man who trusts in them has but wasted his time and procured for himself the deepest disappointments. Whatever we may lack, we need not lack that portion which consists in the promises of God made to them who truly trust in him.