n. Compensations for the loss of benbe. Loss of vision is a serious matter to oiw whose intellect is full of life and activity. So Milton seems to have felt, judging from his touchini; references to his blindness in his poetry. But this makes it all the more needful to recollect the other side. The blind have exemptions from some pains. They do not see the painful sights of the streets : the drunkard, the ragged beggars, the weary faces— weary with incessant struggling for a position or a livelihood. They can guess much of the trouble of the world, but many of the manifestations of that trouble they only know when they are told. Wo do well to keep in mind and rightly estimate the compensations for natural losses.
in. Responsibility fob the eight use op oitb natubal powebb. The expresdon of the projihet here indicates that he was in the right way. To have looked on such a scene with indifference or only mild regret would have argued a very wrong state of mind indeed. Surely in the judgment the question to many will be, " What use did you make of your eyesight ? Did you gather up impressions which made you feel how deep is the spiritual sickness of the world, how certain it is that only Christ can make the world better ? And further, did you lend practical help to bring men within reach of the saving power of Christ? " To this extent it will be better in the day of judgment for many blind than for those who have gone through the smitten world with both eyes open and yet as if they did not see. — Y.
Yer. 65. — Jeremiah calling ovt of the dungeon. This is no mere figure for a great extremity, as we are made to feel when we read ch. xxxviii. of the prophecies. It was not from amid mere restraint that the prophet cried, but firom miry depths, most perilous, painful, and disgusting. Note —
I. The putting into the dungeon. God does not stretch forth his hand to prevent his servants from being put into such dreadful circumstances. He looks on whUe they are haled to prison and even to death. For a lesson has to be taught with regard to the limitations of human power. Jeremiah's enemies might say to him, while down in the miry pit, " Where is now thy God ? " but this was because they estimated God's favour to men according to the presence or absence of certain outward things. God's favour is not shown by preserving us in certain external possessions. Even life may have to be yielded for his sake. God does not interfere miraculously, even with the conduct of wicked men, unless there is some very special reason. What he says is, " You shall really be safe whatever men may do." He who allowed his Son to be put to death, did then open wide, so that no man can shut it, the gate that leads to eternal life.
n. The taking out of the dungeon. This was in answer to prayer. And the prayer came from a spirit of trust that no gloom and discomfort of the pit could destroy. If Jeremiah had allowed himself to say that his conjunction with Jehovah had been a mere delusion, then he might have been left in the pit. And even with all his faith he might have been left in the pit. But then there would have been a clear assurance that death was better than life. And, indeed, it is probable that, if God had allowed his servant to go out of the world at the hands of his enemies, he might have been spared a great deal of pain and sorrow. What is to be looked to in these matters is, not the present ease of the individual, but the best way in which his life can be used for the good of men and the glory of God. Prisons are no prisons, pits are no pits, if God chooses to give to his servants liberty and continue to them tiieir natural life. In one way or another he brings his servants out of the horrible pit and out of the miry clay. — Y.
Vers. 80 — 66. — Jeremiah and his enemies. I. TifK prooebdinob op thebb ekeiiieb. The spirit of vengeance is in their hearts. Jeremiah has spoken steadily against them what Jehovah had laid on him to say. They know the language in which they have been described. It was, of course, just the thing to be expected that bad men should cherish vengeful purposes. And Jeremiah had to bear the consciousness of this— the very painful consciousness that he was the cause, however innocent, of showing up the worst passions in the hearts of others. This spirit of vengeance manifested itsuf in two ways. 1. Beproach. He was called all sorts of names, held up to derision and execration. He indeed had to reproach, but then there was a measure and dignitgr is
CH. 111. 1—66.] THE LAMENTATIONS OF JEREMIAH. 6S
the words he employed. His reproaches were meant to call the reproached odm to repentance. But the reproaches from his enemies meant immediate danger to Ww - danger from the populace on the one hand, and the authorities on the other. 2, Plotting. Society was just in the state when plots could be carried out with raeeess. Jeremiah did not make one enemy or a few enemies, but many. They were wicked men, and doubtless had subordinates ready to hand for any knavery that was going on.
n. Jeremiah's belief that God'b ete was upon these enemies. " Thou hast seen." It is a great matter to feel that God has his eye upon all human wickedness. We may suffer greatly from it, and yet see only a very small part of what he sees. We are for ever running into extremes, exaggerating or palliating, magnifying the reality or else diminishing it. We look at things too much in reference to our individual selves, and as they concern us. But QoA sees things as they truly are, in all their relations and possibilities. Some things are worse than we think them, others better. And so we are enabled to feel that all wickedness is kept within comparatively innocuous limits. The mischief only reaches the outside of what is attacked, for the same God who watches the wicUed watches the good at the same time.
III. The pbateb or Jebemiah. (Vers. 64 — 66.) The vehemence, the almost savageness of these words sta<^gers us. But then, we are not to expect the gentleness of a Christian from an old Jewish prophet. We are not required to justify every petition of God's servants. We have to distinguish between the prophet taken out of himself by inspiration and the man of like passions with ourselves, who has to pass through a long discipline before he can pray as he ought to pray. We may feel here that a silent waiting upon God would have been better than any imprecations of ven- geance, and yet, at the same time, we must acquit Jeremiah of anything like personal malice. He wished that the wicked might be recompensed according to the work of their hands. The wicked wished Jeremiah to be treated according to the ferocity oi their own hearts. — Y,