Yen. 19—22. — The only resowce acknowledged to ht in God. It will lie felt that this prayer is a fitting conclusion to the book. What could be more proper than that these people, having looked all around with an ever-deepening sense of loss and humiliation, should now look above t Upon earth, in strength or skill of man, there is nothing to be looked for ; if anything is to be got, it is by looking to heaven.
L Ajud all these changes the continuance of Jehovah is perceived. Zion has become desolate, but the true throne of God is not there. That God lives, unchange- able, unaffected by our lapses and losses, is the last safeguard of hope, and it is an impregnable one. Much is it to be desired that, amid all the vicissitudes of life, we should have this sense of something imchanging.
IL The sense of bepabation frou God. This was the crown of troubles to some of the people, that God seemed to have forgotten them and forsaken them. But whei. God remembered them and manifested his presence, all that the people in general did was to take his gifts and think nothing of the Giver's will and purpose. God, of course, had neither forgotten nor forsaken. What the people called forgetting was only a different kind of remembering. What they called forsaking was only a closer presence.
IIL The unqdenchable hope of those who take the bight view of God. This chapter has had in it the tones of penitence and contrition. It is admitted that the cause of all this desolation is the people's turning away from God. And now there is the petition which results from a full self-discovery. Inward weakness is discovered. The last cry of the book indicates that the turning of men to God is the great thing to be desired. Not a restoration to external possessions and comforts, but a turning to God consequent on his turning to us. The results that come from our being turned to Qod bjr his power will one d«y be seen to justify all the loss and pain needed M bring them about.— T.
EOMILETICAL INDEX
10
THE LAMENTATIONS OF JEEEMIAE
CHAPTER L
THEHI
rA«i
rAOB
"No Vision" Zr. «.
•••
21
The Solitary City ... « »,
8
The Vision of Falsehood and Folly
...
22
Comfortless ... nt —
4
The Triumph of the Foe ...
...
22
The Abandoned Feasts ... „
S
Ruin from God
...
23
Her Beanty departed from Zion ...
6
A Cry to God in the Night Watches...
24
Pleasant Things in the Days of Old ...
6
The Anger of the Lord
...
25
Sorrow nneqaalled, yet nnheeded ...
7
Retribution in Church and Stat*
...
25
Fonrfold Trouble from God...
7
Law and Prophecy suspended
M.
26
The Eighteonsness of God confessed...
8
Commiseration
...
26
The Contrasts of Adversity... ...
9
The Glory and Shame of Jerusalem
...
87
The Decline of National Beligion
9
The Entreaty of Anguish ...
...
27
Monmfal Memories .„ ...
10
Consideration besought
87
Spoliation and Profanation ... ^
10
The Manifestation of Jehovah's Wrath
Unparalleled Woe ... m ...
11
against Israel ...
...
28
"TheLordisRighteoiiB" ,„ ...
11
Jehovah reckoned as an Enemy
M.
28
The Cry of the Contrite
12
The Prophetio Office suspended
M.
29
Widowhood . . . the Emblem of Loneli-
The Silence of the Elders ...
M.
80
ness
12
The Suffeiing of the Children
...
80
Nights of Weeping explained
13
The Share of the Prophets in mining
Zion forsaken as a Beligious Centre ...
14
Jerusalem
...
U
The Eeal Need of the Soul made
The Completeness of Jehovah's Visita-
manifest
14
tion M* Ma .M
tM
SI
The Observation of Sntfering
IS
The Acknowledgment that Bnfiering
is deserved ... ... ...
16
CHAPTER m.
A Wicked Qladnesi m —
16
"The Man that has seen Af3iotion"
•H
85
" Dark Places " ...
—
86
CHAPTER IL
Hedged about ... ...
.M
37
Strength and Hope perished
...
88
God not remembering his Footstool ...
19
God taking Notice of Man's Affliction
88
The Lord as an Enemy
20
The Unceasing Mercies of God
M.
39
The Rejected Altar m m.
SO
The Secret of Hop* m
»•
M
INDEX.
ftmm MOB
Quiet Waiting m m ... *1
Tonth ... ... ... „. 41
Chastisement only for a Season ... 42 How Evil and Good both proceed from
God ... ,., M. ... 43
Self-Examination ... ... ... 44
God corering himself with a Olond ... 44
Tears which only God con wipe away 45
"Fear not I" ... ... ... 46
The Great Appeal... »• ... 46
Afflicted by God ... ... ... 47
The Way of Life hedged and boilt
np ... ... ... ... 48
TTnheard Prayer ,., ^ ... 48
Prosperity forgotten ... m. 48
Remembering ASiiotion ,., m. 49
Hope reviving ... m ». 49
Sparing Compassion m« m. SO
"New every Morning" „, m. 60
The Portion of the Godly ... „. 51
Waiting for Salvation .n ... 51
The Yoke in Tonth ... „. 52
The Cheek to the Smiter ... ... 62
Divine Benignity ... ... ». 62
The Sonrce of Evil and of Good ... 53
Why mnrmnr t ^ ... ... 53
Bepentanoe m* .m ... 64
"SnrsnmOordal* «. m. 64
Sympathetic Sorrow »• m. 64
The Cry from the Dnngeon... ... 55
n»yer heard and answered] ... 65 The Lord's Knowledge of his People's
Sufferings and Wrongs ... ... 66
Bighteoos Becompense ... ... 56
The Snm of a Terrible Experience ... 67 How Hope rises from the Depths of
Despair ... ... .„ 67
The Unfailing Compassions of Jehovah 68 Those who have Jehovah for their
PoitioB ... ... ... 58
flod's Goodness to the Hopefnl and
the Patient ... ... ... 69
The Discipline of Tonth ... ... 60
Qod's Good Pnrposes in canaing Pais 60
Approaching God in Sincerity ... 61
The Eye and the Life ... ... 61
Jeremiah calling ont of the Dnngeon... 62
Jeremiah and his Enemies ... ... 62
The Hoaio of the Wicked ... ^ 63
Tka Frinoipla of Betribntioa «• 63
CHAPTER IV.
THBIn FAOI
Fine Gold dimmed ... 67,72
The Violation of Maternal Instincts ., 68
Reverses of Fortnne ... :.. 68
Incredible Calamities „, w 69
Blindness ... m« m. 70
Contamination ... ,m m. 71
The End of Punishment ... ... 71
" Preciona Sons . . . Fine Gold . . . be- come Earthen Pitchers" ... ... 78
The Horrors of Famine ... ... 78
The Impregnable taken ... ... 73
The Degradation of the Prophets and
the Priests ... ... ... 74
Vain Help and Hope m* m. 74
The End is come I ... »• m. 75
Fallen Reputation ... «. 76
Natural Affection gone Mt m. 76
Social Revolution ... »• w. 76
The Sin of Sodom... «. m. 77
Sword and Hunger ... m. 77
A Seeming Impossibility achieved ... 78
Shedding the Blood of the Just ... 78 A Disappointed Confidence and aDese-
ocated Sanctity ... ... m 99
CHAPTEE y.
m, 81 ... 81
A Prayer of Distress m
The Lost Inheritance ...
Orphanage and Widowhood ... ... 82
Children suffering for the Sins of their
Parents ... ... ... 83
Consolation in the Supremacy of God 84
Questioning God ... ... ... 84
Renewal ... ... ... ... 85
The Lord's Bemembrance besonjht ... 86
The Moral Continuity of Nations ... 86
None to Deliver ... ... m. 87
The Cesaation of Joy «• n. 87
The Degradation of Sin «• w. 87
The Eternal Throne m. m. 88
"Turn ns again!" ... ... 88
The Fate of Inheritance and Honses... 89 The Sin of the Fathers and the Suffer- ing of the Children ... ... 89
The Occupation of the Elders gone ... 90
Discrowned Jerusalem ... ... 90
The Faint Heart and the Dim Eyes ... 91 The Only Resource acknowledged to
be in God m «• n> 91