and one of the great moral lessons of his recorded life comes to us in the generally steadfast purpose of his spirit, despite of the weakness and occasional waverings of his flesh in this stern moral trial.

CHAPTER II.

This chapter, and the first five verses of the third, seem to constitute one message. Unlike most of Jeremiah's special messages, this stands without date. The question of its date involves difficulties. In favor of dating it among the very earliest of his prophecies, say in the thirteenth year of Josiah (1: 2, and 25: 3), are its location first in order in the book; the implied apostasy of the people from God, which is such as the very long and very wicked reign of Manasseh must have induced; and the adaptation of such a message from the Lord's prophet to promote the great reformation which the good Josiah commenced in earnest but one year previously. It should be remembered that Josiah, "in his twelfth year, began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from their idol groves and images" (2 Chron. 34: 3). These points of evidence, internal and external, favor this early date.- -In favor of a much later date as some suppose in the reign of Jehoiakim-are the allusions (2: 16, 18, 24) to their seeking political help from Egypt; whereas Josiah, at least in the latter years of his reign, was in alliance, not with Egypt, but with the empire on the Euphrates, for he met his death in his attempt to prevent the king of Egypt from passing through his country to fight Charchemish. To this it may be replied, however, that Josiah's death was nineteen years after Jeremiah began to prophesy, and that the chapter before us implies that the national policy had vacillated between Egypt and Assyria, sometimes seeking alliance with one and then with the other. The prophet rebukes the people for trusting at all in these foreign alliances, assuring them that the result could be only shame and ruin.-I incline to the earlier date.The chapter exposes and rebukes the great sins of an apostate people.

1. Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 2. Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the LORD; I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown.

3. Israel was holiness unto the LORD, and the first-fruits of his increase: all that devour him shall offend; evil shall come upon them, saith the LORD.

The Lord tacitly compares his own covenant relation to the

last clause of v. 17, the full force of the original would be better expressed by rendering, "Be not dismayed at their faces, lest I dismay thee before them." Suffer no fear of them to touch your heart, lest I make you afraid with real cause to fear. The verb is the same in each clause.- -We now have before us the prophet's call to his prophetic work. The manner in which the Lord made his will known was obviously such as to leave no sort of doubt on the prophet's mind of the reality of his call. Then it remained for him to make up his mind whether or not to obey it. On this point the flesh was weak; but we love to note that the spirit was willing. The prophet entered on his work with no gainsaying. At one or more subsequent points, the strain caused by trial and suffering became most severe. We shall see that he seemed for the moment to falter, yet, on the whole, his own Lord sustained him according to the promise here given.- This call at once opened a new life before this young man. It promised nothing on the score of comfort, competence, ease, or honor (of the sort that comes from men). On the contrary, the Lord plainly assumed that his life-work would be bitter, toilsome, thankless, repulsiveresisted at all points by those to whom he was sent with the word of the Lord; and the only consideration presented to offset so much hardship and suffering was, "I am with thee." Go at my bidding, and bide my time for thy reward.--There is great wealth of precious instruction and inspiration in the example which such a case presents. Let all the servants of the living God take note of it. Does it profit a man to serve the Lord on such terms? Is it truly a wise policy to give up the whole of one's life upon such a call?-to forego all that earth can give for what the Lord of heaven can give and will? How does Jeremiah think of his choice to day? Has any really faithful servant of the Lordonce through and home to his rest-ever repented of his fidelity, as if he had overdone his work, and overpaid for the consideration he gets in return?And yet, this is not the most pertinent form of present test. Let us rather ask, Has any really faithful' servant of the Lord ever failed of being amply rewarded all along on his way heavenward by the bliss of Jehovah's presence, by the peace of a good conscience, by the reacting satisfaction that comes home to the soul from self-sacrificing benevolence? Does not the Lord pay his servants for the most part as they do their work, so that they have abundant occasion to be satisfied and to glory in their tribulations and in their infirmities, since thereby all the more shall the presence of Christ be with them and his grace abound in their behalf?

There is another yet more pertinent form of putting this great practical question. Did not Jeremiah hold his heart to the one simple yet sublime purpose, to obey the manifest will of God whether he could see any reward coming from it or not? Did he not learn to trust God to do all things wisely and lovingly, however dark the visible indications might be?- -The Lord is wont to put his children to the test on this point. He put Jeremiah to this test;

and one of the great moral lessons of his recorded life comes to us in the generally steadfast purpose of his spirit, despite of the weakness and occasional waverings of his flesh in this stern moral trial.

CHAPTER II.

This chapter, and the first five verses of the third, seem to constitute one message. Unlike most of Jeremiah's special messages, this stands without date. The question of its date involves difficulties. In favor of dating it among the very earliest of his prophecies, say in the thirteenth year of Josiah (1: 2, and 25: 3), are its location first in order in the book; the implied apostasy of the people from God, which is such as the very long and very wicked reign of Manasseh must have induced; and the adaptation of such a message from the Lord's prophet to promote the great reformation which the good Josiah commenced in earnest but one year previously. It should be remembered that Josiah, "in his twelfth year, began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from their idol groves and images" (2 Chron. 34: 3). These points of evidence, internal and external, favor this early date.In favor of a much later date as some suppose in the reign of Jehoiakim-are the allusions (2: 16, 18, 24) to their seeking political help from Egypt; whereas Josiah, at least in the latter years of his reign, was in alliance, not with Egypt, but with the empire on the Euphrates, for he met his death in his attempt to prevent the king of Egypt from passing through his country to fight Charchemish. To this it may be replied, however, that Josiah's death was nineteen years after Jeremiah began to prophesy, and that the chapter before us implies that the national policy had vacillated between Egypt and Assyria, sometimes seeking alliance with one and then with the other. The prophet rebukes the people for trusting at all in these foreign alliances, assuring them that the result could be only shame and ruin.-I incline to the earlier date. The chapter exposes and rebukes the great sins of an apostate people.

1. Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 2. Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the LORD; I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown.

3. Israel was holiness unto the LORD, and the first-fruits of his increase: all that devour him shall offend; evil shall come upon them, saith the LORD.

The Lord tacitly compares his own covenant relation to the

Jews with that most tender and precious of all human relations, the marriage state. Then, with a happy allusion to the warmth of interest and affection common to the recently betrothed or wedded, he says, "I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thy betrothal," i. e., the love shown by the people when they followed his leadings through that ancient wilderness of Sinai. There the people mostly walked by faith, and followed the Lord and his servant Moses. To the great proposition made by the Lord to the whole people, "If ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure to me above all people," they "all answered together, and said, 'All that the Lord hath spoken we will do'" (Exod. 19: 5-8). Forty years they followed the standard of the Lord their God-that pillar which was cloud to them by day and fire by night, but, day or night, the symbol of Jehovah's presence and leadership. With some murmurings, indeed, and some sad and shameful apostasies into idolatry, especially among the older class of people, yet, in the main, and especially as to those not past twenty years of age when they came forth from Egypt, they seem to have walked humbly before the Lord their God. The generation that went under Joshua into Canaan, whose characters were formed not in Egypt, under its pupilage of oppression and idolatry, but around Mount Sinai, and under the wing of that pillar of cloud or fire, and overshadowed by the sanctuary where Jehovah dwelt, were the best generation known in Hebrew history. Then truly "Israel was holiness to the Lord." As the first ripe fruits were sacred to God, and not by any means to be taken for common use, and as these fruits are often sought after with fresh and keen appetite, and are accounted specially rich, so the Lord could speak of the new and fresh religious life of this people as the "first-fruits of their income" to him-his first reward for his labor and love in his moral culture of this nation.- -This is an exquisitely touching view of the interest which the Lord felt in those early fruits of faith and love among his recently consecrated people. Does it not show how intensely the Lord loves his Zion, and how surely he will appreciate at its full value all the love and obedience his people ever render him?- -"All that devour him shall offend," shall be held as offenders. God will take them in hand as guilty and worthy of punishment. He watches over his obedient, trusting people so carefully, and with such love, that no adversary who harms them can hope to escape due punishment. The Psalmist sung (105: 14), "He suffered no man to do them wrong; yea, he reproved kings for their sake."-All unlike this state of love on their part, and protection on his, was the case when they were in revolt from him. Then he suffered every enemy to come in and scourge them.- -Remarkably, those enemies seem to understand why they prevailed so easily against a people who yet were in covenant with a God of so much power. Thus, as said by Jeremiah (50: 7), when the Lord's people were wandering afar on distant mountains, "All that found them de

voured them," and their adversaries said, "We offend not, because they have sinned against the Lord.". -These great truths-the nation protected while obedient, and, when disobedient, unprotected and scourged, with impunity to their chastisers-fill out the whole history of the covenant people. We may fitly note how beautifully and winningly this reference to the early love existing between the Lord and his covenant people stands at the head of the expostulations and rebukes that so largely fill this book of Jeremiah. The Lord would have them understand how gladly he would welcome the nation back to the early warmth of their love, and no less to the eternal warmth of his!

4. Hear ye the word of the LORD, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel.

5. Thus saith the LORD, What iniquity have your fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain?

6. Neither said they, Where is the LORD that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, that led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and of pits, through a land of drought, and of the shadow of death, through a land that no man passed through, and where no man dwelt?

The fathers of the generation then living had begun this fearful apostasy from their God into idolatry, and now God appeals to their children to say if it were for any fault of his, and if any, for what? They, not God, had broken covenant. They should not have done it unless there was something wrong on the side of their God. Could they charge any wrong upon him? What perverse thing had he ever done to justify them in turning aside at all from the path of humble, honest obedience? What had their God done that they should turn away from him to go after mere wind and emptiness, and become so utterly foolish ?—This last phrase "walking after vanity and becoming vain"-occurs somewhat frequently. It most fitly describes the supreme folly and guilt of turning from the living God to dead idols, mere nothings, unsubstantial as a puff of air. This is the thought in the verb here used. (See 2 Kings 17: 15.)-Yet another element in their guilt was that they had forgotten the glorious Savior of their nation, who had made them all they ever were as a nation; who found them under the cruel yoke of Egypt; who broke that yoke and burst those bonds, and with a high hand brought them forth to freedom and national life; who led them safely, guided them visibly, fed them miraculously, all through that dreary, terrible wilderness, never traversed before or since by such a host. But the people did not say, Where is that great God who has done all this for our nation? Yet those were things they should never have forgotten. God's own hand had wrought the very warp and