not only in the rare case of a protracted siege, when at last rich and poor both suffer from the severities of famine, that we may see some who once fed delicately wandering desolate in the street. All who have gone down into the haunts of the very poor and have investigated the severest cases of wretchedness know how many of the most abject
OH.IV. 1— 22.J THE LAMENTATIONS OP JEREMIAH. 6S
paupere have enjoyed wealth and Inzniy in former years. Even in an orderly society snob as our own the number of these violent reverses of fortune is appalling. Let no one boast of his assured comfort.
XL Bevbrbeb of fortune abb most PAmFUL. We rarely miss what we have never known. There is, therefore, much mitigation to the hardness of the lot of those v> ho are bora in the most miserable circumstances, arising from the fact that they have never experienced anything better. But the greatest distress is in coming down from af9uence, comfort, and honour to poverty, distress, and shame.
in. Beveeses or fortune are frequently merited. We must beware of the error of Job's friends. The innocent may and often do suffer from a most grievous succession of calamities. Still, those three men had much to say tor their view. Their mistake was in making it universal in its application. It is rarely that the seed of the righteous man has to beg for bread. Good men may have a humble lot and sometimes may have to suffer considerable loss. But usually the greatest degradation and misery follows the folly or sin of the sufferer. Probably the one vice of intemperance is the cause of more than half the cases of the very worst reverses of fortune.
IV. Reverses of fobtxtne should exoite peculiar oommiseratiom. The happy and prosperous should look out for such cases. The most sad among them are often the hardest to find. They hide in shame and misery. Especially when the degradation is moral it becomes a Christian work to seek to restore the fallen. The Son of man came, not so much to preserve the prosperous nor to raise those who had never known bettmr things, as to seek and to save the lost sheep of the house of Israel, i.e, those who had once been piivileged and had fallen from their first estate.
V. Reverses of fortune do not justify loss of faith in God. They tempt men that way. " Curse God, and die," a voice whispers into the ear of the despairing man. But it is the voice of folly as well as of sin. For : 1. We must expect to be governed in many viysteries by the great and all-wise God. It may be rational to disbelieve in the existence of God ; bat it cannot be rational to believe that he is, and yet to doubt his wisdom or goodness. 2. The reverie ia often due to the fault of the sufferer. 3. It may he ovmtruledfor hit good.
YI. Reverses of fortune uay be revebsed. So was it in Job's case ; the end of the patriarch's life was even brighter than the beginning of it. 1. This may happen on e*rth. In suffering we are too ready to lose heart. We paint the future in diark shades manufactured solely from present experiences. But there are more resources in the world than we dream of. 2. It will surely come in the next world to all who trust in Ood. Then the second reverse will be as joyous as the first was miserable. For the same principle will'apply in both cases, and the great change will heighten the sense of (be new condition. Happy are they who, in Christ, though suffering and despised, are looking forward to this glorious reverse of their present dark fortunes.
Yer. 12. — Incredible calamities. Not only had Jerusalem believed herself invincible, but she had been so long preserved in safety and so signally delivered in extreme danger, as in the Assyrian invasion when Hezekiah was king, that neighbouring nations had come to look upon her as secure from harm, and to regard such calamities as those which came in the wake of the Chaldean invasion as incredible. There are men whoso condition in the eyes of the world is as safe as that of Jerusalem was to the kings of the earth, and who nevertheless may fall into a greater ruin than the overthrow of Jerusalem.
L The causes of fofulab disbelief in appboaohing calamities. 1. Self-eonfidence. Jerusalem believed herself to be safe. Proud in the favour of Heaven, she scorned to fear danger. This attitude of assurance impressed her neighbours. They thought there must be good ground for such loud bravado, or they did not think but simply acquiesced in the opinion of herself which the boastful city published abroad. Thus does the world often take men at their own estimates of themselves, not troubling to test these partial verdicts. 2. Previous security. Jerusalem seemed to bear a charmed life. She had braved many a fierce storm. The enemy had swept up to her very gates. But there they had been flung back by mysterious interventions of Providence. So the world believes in the prosperity of the prosperous. She indolently takes for granted that what has been will be.
70 THE LAMENTATIONS OP JEREMIAH. [oh. iv. 1—22
II. The folly op popdlab disbelief in approachinq calamities. 1. Insufficient evidence. The grounds of this notion are irrational. It is foolish to take people at their self-valuation; hut it is more foolish for the people thus accepted to take the popular voice, which is only the echo of their own vanity, as a justification for it. And when the past security engenders confidence, they who do not know what subsequent changes of circumstances have taken place cannot reasonably give security fqr its con- tinuance. 2. Ignorance of the real sources of prosperity and danger. The heathen kings knew not the God of Israel. They knew nothing of the secret of Jerusalem's safety in the days of her prosperity, nor did they see the sure presages of her ruin. Worldly men, who do not understand wherein the safety of a soul cunsists, are pooi judges of that soul's prospects.
III. The danqeb of popular disbelief in affboaohing oalauitt. Though it n foolish it is influential, because it is readily accepted as an agreeable solace to fear. Thus Jerusalem was deluded by the flattery of her neighbours. When there is a general opinion that all is well it is hard for individual souls to see and feel their danger. In a condition of worldly ease the prophet of repentance is opposed by the mocking indifference of popular opinion, and souls are lulled to sleep with a hollow security that says, " Peace, peace," when there is no peace. The antidote to this dangerous anodyne of conscience must be sought in the Word of God, which speaks of judgment, and warns us to flee from the wrath to come for refuge where only safety can be found, not in the flattery of our neighbours, but at the cross of Christ.