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■^ MAY' b 1900 * 
 
 Om. 3Sl\5l 
 Sect.i \ \\ C- C-. 
 
 N.r 2-5 
 
THE PEEACHEE'S COMMENTAEY 
 
 ON THE 
 
 BOOK OF LAMENTATIONS. 
 
THE 
 
 |!re;ic|cfjs Complete Jmilcticnl 
 COMMENTARY 
 
 ON THE 
 
 OLD TESTAMENT 
 
 {ON AN ORIGINAL PLAN), 
 
 mi\) (^xiiizviX anti (JHxjjlanator^ 0otcs, Intiiccs, ^^c. v^r» 
 
 BY 
 
 VARIOUS AUTHORS. 
 
 RICHARD D. DICKINSON, 89 FARRINGDON STREET. 
 
 1891. 
 
A 
 
 HOMILETIC COMMEI^TARY 
 
 ON THE 
 
 BOOK OF LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 BY 
 
 REV. GEO. BARLOW, 
 
 AUTHOR OP "HOMILETIC COMMENTAKY ON THE BOOKS OF KINGS," ETC. 
 
 RICHARD D. DICKINSON, 89 FAERINGDON STREET. 
 
 1891. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Preachers appear to have shunned the Book op Lamentations, as if it lacked 
 suggestiveness for homiletic purposes ; and there are comparatively few sermons 
 based on texts selected from this portion of Holy Writ. It may be that the 
 undertone of melancholy, that runs so sadly through the five elegies of which the 
 book is composed, has created the impression that the theme is too monotonous 
 to admit of the freshness and variety expected from the pulpit of the present day. 
 A little patient study of the book in detail will correct that impression. The 
 predominating subject is indeed a story of desolation and sorrow ; but it is told 
 with a marvellous versatility of poetic imagery and with exquisite pathos. 
 
 The Lamentations are more than the lamentations of Jeremiah — more than the 
 lamentations of the Jews, who were the immediate and principal sufferers in the 
 disasters narrated : they are typical of a sorrow that is as universal as humanity. 
 Individuals or nations, brooding over conscious unfaithfulness and sin, and 
 smitten with the conviction that the misery in which they are whelmed is the 
 just and bitter fruit of their own reckless disobedience, will find in the Lamenta- 
 tions, as they cannot elsewhere, the most appropriate words in which to voice 
 their grief. We cannot conceive of any possible pliase of human misery that 
 may not be fittingly expressed in some portion of this remarkable book, and that 
 will not find some relief in being thus expressed. Trouble fills a large space in 
 our experience of life, and the homilete will find in the study of this tragic poem 
 the many varied forms in which the sufferer may give utterance to his distress, 
 Avhether in an individual or a collective capacity. 
 
 This Commentary contains 161 outlines, brief or more extended, of which 136 
 are original : the remaining 25 bear the names of their respective authors. 
 
 The comprehensive and lucid Introduction to this work is written by the Rev. 
 D. G. Watt, M.A. The Exegetical Notes at the head of each chapter are also 
 supplied by the same writer, and will be found not only a faithful exposition of 
 the text, but also, if studied in connection with each homiletic paragraph, a 
 suggestive help to the thoughtful sermoniser. 
 
 Great care has been exercised in the selection of the 262 Illustrations, and 
 it is believed that these will be regarded as not the least valuable feature in the 
 Commentary. 
 
 The Book of Lamentations is not the poem of despair. There is nothing more 
 dismally depressing than the monotone of unmitigated grief. Throughout the 
 eloquent wail of the Poet-Prophet the spiritualised ear detects the recurring notes 
 of a growing hope — timidly expressed at first, but gradually gaining strength and 
 confidence. The darkest period is not without shimmerings of coming light. 
 The morning of rescue dawns : despair gives place to hope, and defeat is followed 
 with the joy of triumph. 
 
 GEO. BARLOW. 
 
 Kendal, Juhj 1891. 
 
HOMILETIO OOMMENTAHY 
 
 THE LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Name. — All literatures — Hebrew, English, and the rest — bear witness to the 
 forces with which sorrowful emotions press for utterance. Hence comes the ancient 
 and widespread custom of making public recognition of the decease of famous or 
 beloved persons ; of the disasters of cities and countries. Speeches or orations 
 more or less eloquent, poems more or less deep-toned, are handed along the cen- 
 turies, and remind the readers that man's state in every land is shadowed by 
 clouds of dark and mournful hue. The Hebrew people were exposed to many 
 such sad and sunless times, perhaps more awful than have overtaken any other 
 people, and the "almost unalloyed expression of unrestrained anguish and litter 
 inconsolable desolation" given by this book may be taken as proof thereof. No 
 wonder that it is commonly called " The Lamentations" It is not classified in 
 ordinary Hebrew Bibles by this term. There it is denominated Aicah, the 
 Hebrew equivalent to " How," which is the first word of the book. Rabbinical 
 writers have styled it Qinoth. That is the word which denotes the ode com- 
 posed by David on the death of Saul and Jonathan (2 Sam. i. 17), as also similar 
 compositions elsewhere in the Old Testament. It is also employed in 2 Chron. 
 XXXV. 25, where it is recorded, And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah ; and all the 
 singing 7nen and si7iging ivomen spake of Josiah in their lamentations (qinoth) 
 unto this day ; and they made them an ordinance in Israel : and, behold they are 
 written in the lamentations (qinoth). Some expositors hold that the five elegies 
 collected in this book are those lamentations on Josiah's death. Others, seeing 
 the unlikelihood of this, aver that the fourth chapter is identical with the dirges 
 of Jeremiah. Against this stands the fact that that event, instead of being the 
 refrain of the elegy, receives but the slightest allusion, if it is an allusion at all 
 (chap. iv. 20). It seems more reasonable to suppose that the lamentations of the 
 prophet and singers over Josiah's death have not been transmitted to us, as other 
 portions of ancient Hebrew literature have not. For, assuredly, the references of 
 this elegiac collection are to casualties far more painful and depressing than the 
 removal of the noblest of kings, and truly fit to give the name to this book during 
 succeeding centuries. 
 
 Form. — The book is poetical and unusually technical in its framework. In 
 other Biblical poetical books the usual division into chapters and verses is not 
 always made according to the structure, and sometimes even breaks into the sense of 
 a passage. In Lamentations there are no untoward separations. Its five chapters 
 are five distinct odes or elegies, and each ode is divided into twenty-two parts 
 
 1 A 
 
nOMlLETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 regulated by the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet, the verses of the first 
 four chapters following, on the whole, tlie order of the alphabet. Thus : — 
 
 Chap, i. Each verse, while beginning with a word which has a letter of the 
 alphabet in its grammatical order, is constituted of three double clauses. 
 
 Chap. ii. Constructed similarly to chap i., except that the letter seventeenth in 
 the normal order is placed before the sixteenth — a course which is kept up in the 
 two succeeding chapters. 
 
 Chap. iii. Differs from the two preceding in having three double clauses, each 
 of which is made a verse in our English versions, beginning with the same letter 
 of the alphabet. 
 
 Chap. iv. Takes a structure like that of chap, ii., with the exception of having 
 only two double clauses in every verse. 
 
 Chap. v. Is divided as the others into twenty-two verses, but the verses do not 
 put their initial words in the order of the alphabet. 
 
 No satisfactory explanation has been suggested for the variation of the order of 
 the alphabet in chapters ii., iii., and iv. Difference from that order is found also 
 in Psalms xxxiv. and cxlv. 
 
 The technicality or artificiality of the form is plain. And it is as plain that it 
 would be next to impossible to present that formal structure in a translation, and 
 at the same time do justice to the original. Merely as an illustration of \j\iq funn 
 of the book, the first two verses of chapter iii. are appended : — 
 
 1. Affliction, by the rod of His wrath, I am the man that hath seen. 
 And He hath led me, caused me to walk in darkness, not in light. 
 Against me surely He turneth His hand, again and again all the day. 
 
 2. Broken my bones hath He, and made old my flesh and skin. 
 Builded against me hath He, and compassed me with gall and travail. 
 
 By dark places hath He made me to dwell, as those that have been ever dead. 
 
 Certain suggestions made to account for this technical form are hardly to be 
 entertained, e.g., that it is a sign of a simulated grief : a product of later and de- 
 generated taste or of a declining art : the resource of a poet who is inferior in 
 spiritual feeling : a means of joining in sentences thoughts which are only loosely 
 related to each other. Is it not rather the token that a grief, which had benumbed 
 the faculty of expression, has passed the emotional stage and begins to traverse 
 the reflective 1 There, in the effort to express itself in a peculiar form, it finds a 
 counteractive to its masterful depression. Why should we ascribe this to unreal 
 emotion, or to decadence of art, or to inferiority of faculty, any more than we 
 should ascribe the peculiar form of " In Memoriam" to either of these influences? 
 May not the intensest feelings find utterance in an elegy which employs the order 
 of an alphabet in the beginning of its lines, as well as in an ode of Horace which 
 uses long and short syllables in unvarying succession, or as in a sonnet of 
 Shakspere employing words of the same sound at the end of certain lines ] 
 Surely a deep sorrow can find a distraction in putting its phases into special 
 verbal form, whether that form shows itself at the end of lines, as in English, or 
 all through the lines, as in Latin, or at the beginning of lines, as in this and other 
 specimens of Hebrew literature. "Tersely and vividly, thought after thought 
 shaped itself round each letter of the alphabet in order, while in the effort the 
 writer found relief for his anguish." 
 
 Contents. — The Jewish historian Josephus makes the statement that " Jeremiah 
 composed a dirge for Josiah's funeral, which remains unto this day." Does this 
 prove that he identified that dirge with this series of dirges 1 It is, to say the 
 least, doubtful. If it is a valid proof, there can be little hesitation in regarding 
 Josephus as mistaken. Each chapter of the Lamentations might be adduced in 
 evidence that it was penned under the pressure of grief, not for a deceased 
 sovereign, but for a prostrated kingdom — for an utterly ruined metropolis; for the 
 2 
 
nOMILETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 covenant people disgraced, outraged, captives, in despair. Again and again are the 
 wretched conditions sketched in the most sombre colours, and, to the eyes of a 
 distant age, with a sort of monotony tending to irksomeness. For "sorrow is 
 distasteful to those who are not suffering it." A cursory glance at the several 
 chapters is all that is needed here. 
 
 In the first the lamentation is chiefly over the desolated city, and the people 
 plundered, starved, and carried into captivity amid the taunts and brutality of 
 the enemy. 
 
 In the second it is the wrath of Jehovah, taking vengeance upon the persistent 
 sins of His people, which is depicted. Herein the sweeping away of means of 
 worship, the terrible anguish of men and women, mothers and their little children, 
 the hopelessness of all human effort, and the imperious need of pleading the mercy 
 of the Lord, are pourtrayed. 
 
 In the third the form of the subject-matter is diverse from that of the other 
 chapters. A thoughtful reader will notice a characteristic feature, the bearing of 
 which he will desire to understand. It is that the writer seems to speak largely 
 of his own personal experiences, occasionally sinking his own under those of others. 
 He begins with the outburst, / ain the man that has seen affliction by the rod of 
 His ivrafh, and continues in the same manner to the verge of despair. Then, as 
 in a more illustrious case, he realises that when he is weak he is really strong, 
 and for a moment there is hojie, and a vision of a wider area : It is of the Lord's 
 mercies that ire are not consumed. His own case is again referred to (ver. 24), 
 only, however, as a momentary step towards embracing the Israel of God who 
 trust on Him (vers. 25-39). Here the impersonal is left, and again (vers. 40-47) 
 the associated community makes known its aims and hardships : Let us search 
 and try our ivays. Once more, to- the end of the chapter, it is the individual who 
 laments and implores recompense. How is this interchange of persons to be 
 accounted for, here as also in certain portions of other poetical parts of the Scrip- 
 tures 1 Assuredly by the supposition that the consciousness of the writer testifies 
 to him that his sufferings are representative of his nation's sufferings, or, as Cheyne 
 says, '* of those of the pious believers who formed the kernel of the Israelitish 
 people." Accepting this representativeness, we perceive why the expressions of 
 sadness and dismay are such as go beyond mere individual experience, or are such 
 as can be predicted only of an individual who felt as if the whole burden of the 
 tribulation was laid upon himself. It is ever thus with hearts that are sensitive 
 to the visitations of trouble which they share in common with others, and it 
 becomes hard to distinguish the personal from the collective sorrows and pains. 
 
 In the fourth gruesome details of the calamities which had overtaken all classes 
 — matrons and young children, princes and nobles, prophets and priests — are out- 
 lined : outlines which show the hand of an eyewitness. It concludes with an 
 appeal to and a denunciation of Edora, the age-long, bitter adversary of Judah. 
 
 The^/i!!/i begins with a prayer, and then proceeds to draw up something like 
 a list of the errors and outrages which had characterised the national history. 
 It closes with a hesitating call upon Jehovah to turn the people to Himself and 
 restore their ancient glory. 
 
 From such a view of the contents Keil suggests one may " readily perceive in 
 these poems a well-cogitated plan in the treatment of the material common to the 
 whole, and a distinct progress in the execution of this plan." This may be open 
 to doubts. If earlier expositors failed to affix the contents of the different elegies 
 to the different leading features of the Chaldean invasion— the siege, the capture, 
 the desolation of the Temple, city, and land — the attempt of Keil, or any other, 
 also fails to make clear a definite plan and progression moulding the whole. 
 Whatever be the connection of one chapter with another, it is the connection of 
 a common subject rather than a connection formed by the order of thought. 
 Besides that there seems no other clue needed to thread our way. The exposition 
 
 3 
 
HOMILETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 must be the exposition of separate poems ; at any rate not of a drama with five 
 acts, as the imagination of Ewald makes out tlie contents to form. 
 
 In contrast Avith opinions already refern^d to, regarding the poetical vigour of 
 this book, that of one who cannot be ranked as a poor judge of poetry — the late 
 Dean of St. Paul's, Milman — may be cited. In Ids " History of the Jews " he 
 says, " Never was ruined city lamented in language so exquisitely pathetic. 
 Jerusalem is, as it were, personified, and bewailed with the passionate sorrow of 
 private and domestic attachment. While the more general pictures . . . are 
 successively drawn with all the life and reality of an eyewitness." It may bo 
 interesting to present a specimen of the manner in which the Dean translates the 
 original (from chap. v.). 
 
 " Remember, Lord, what hath befallen, 
 
 Look down on our reproach : 
 Our heritage is given to strangers, 
 
 Our home to foreigners. 
 Our water have we drank for money ; 
 
 Our fuel hath its price. 
 
 Princes were hung up by the hand, 
 
 And age had no respect. 
 Young men are grinding at the mill, 
 
 Boys faint 'neath loads of wood. 
 The elders from the gate have ceased, 
 
 The young men from their music. 
 
 The crown is fallen from our head. 
 
 Woe ! woe ! that we have sinned. 
 'Tis therefore that our hearts are faint, 
 
 Therefore our eyes are dim, 
 For Zion's mountain desolate ; 
 
 Poxes walk on it." 
 
 Author. — The name of no author is attached to the book, or to any of its 
 separate elegies. In Hebrew MSS. and Bibles the book generally appears in the 
 third division of the canonical books of the Old Testament called K'thubim, 
 between Euth and Ecclesiastes. This is no criterion as to its authorship ; for 
 " the Lamentations, as being lyrical poetry, are classed, not with prophecies, but 
 with the Psalms and Proverbs," according to the understood arrangement of the 
 canon by the Jews. It is an old and concurrent tradition to name the prophet 
 Jeremiah as the sole author. This tradition is formulated by the Septuagint 
 translator. He prefaces the book with words which are not found in any extant 
 Hebrew MS., Audit came to imss, after Israel had been carried captive and Jeru- 
 salem teas desolated, Jeremiah sat iceeping, and lamented with this lame^itation over 
 Jerusalem and said, Uoio, &c. Whatever be the historical worth of this state- 
 ment, the ascription to Jeremiah is backed up by Josephus and the Talmudical 
 writers. Such testimonies have been accepted by subsequent students until a 
 comparatively recent period. Indeed, it is only within the present century that 
 anything like material objections have been made to the traditional belief. The 
 gravity of these objections may be measured by the consideration that it is prin- 
 cipally derived from the words and style of the poems/ And the operations of 
 such attempts are far from uniform. " The absence of certain specific Jere- 
 mianic peculiarities," which Schrader adduces, is counterbalanced by his own 
 acknowledgment of its afiinity in contents, spirit, tone, and language with Jere- 
 miah's prophecies. Keil represents Naegelsbach, in Lange's series, as having, 
 " with the help of the concordance, prepared a table of thot^o words and forms of 
 words found in Lamentations, but not occurring in the prophecies of Jeremiah," 
 and so concluding against the authorship of the prophet. On the other hand, Dr. 
 Hornblower, translator of Naegelsbach, and Keil present the evidence of passages 
 v4 
 
nOMILETlC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 in contradiction of Naegelsbacli's conclusion. Attributing the book to Ezekiel 
 may be looked on as an exhibition of ingenuity and not of convincing effect. 
 Besides this, there is extreme diversity of opinion regarding the composition of the 
 separate odes. Ewald maintains that "every competent judge will ascribe [these 
 five poems] to only one poet." Thenius assures us that chaps, ii. and iv. are 
 " undeniably from Jeremiah," cliaps. i. and iii. from some unknown resident in 
 Judsea, and chap. v. from the leader of a band of wanderers seeking an asylum. 
 Cheyne is sure that the first, second, and fourth chapters are not the productions 
 of Jeremiah ; that the third chapter is by a different author from these, probably 
 by one who was acquainted with Jeremiah's prophecies ; and the fifth chapter 
 "very certainly not by the author of any of the foregoing Lamentations," though 
 he regards it as probable that "Jeremiah was the favourite book of these poet^ 
 (next to the Psalter, so far as this book was in existence)." 
 
 To pronouncements on such precarious evidence there can be but one fair atti- 
 tude — that of suspense, until more definite contingents than those represented by 
 Avords and style are forthcoming. For this sort of evidence is by no means con- 
 clusive either for or against the genuineness of any writings. It may or may not 
 be important, as it is related to other conditions. It may betoken different 
 authors, or it may be the same author in altered circumstances of thought and 
 life. His age, new events, the limitations of his subject, his purpose in writing 
 — each one of these will be a modifying element in his choice and allocation of 
 words. It is therefore unwise and hazardous to assert positively whether Jere- 
 miah was the author or not, unless we can decide, approximately at any rate, how 
 he and his style would be affected by the points just referred to. This has not 
 been done, and, until something of this kind is done, the tradition that Jeremiah 
 is the author of all or chief part of the Lamentations is entitled to preference. It 
 is indeed little matter who the writer or writers might be when they are moved 
 by the Spirit of God. 
 
 There is one topic yet unnoticed which may be a difficulty in the way of accept- 
 ing the traditional belief, and it is raised by that artificial form of the Lamenta^ 
 tions already described. Could that form have been given them so close to the 
 occurrence of the fearful calamities as Jeremiah must have been? Could he, 
 with his intense sensitiveness to the sins and miseries of his fellow-countrymen, 
 have sat, as tradition reports, among the ruinous heaps of Jerusalem, and, in sight 
 of the fiery ordeal through which his ill-treated people were passing, busied 
 himself with the technicalities of poetic art? Must not the condition for the 
 composition of such poems be not that of perturbation but of reflectiveness 1 Are 
 not the mitigations of time requisite, has not the emotion already parted with 
 its overwhelming vehemence, before downcast men will care to express their grief 
 in peculiar forms? "We are recovering from love or grief or any other passion 
 when we are able to rhyme on it with elegance" {Daily News, in review of 
 " Poems of Afghanistan "). This may be true ; but there is another view. In 
 poignant trouble a short time may appear long, and the words, Wierefore dost 
 thou forsake us so long time ? (ch. v. 20), are not so decisive as to settle the 
 question whether a longer or shorter period had intervened between the desolation 
 of Jerusalem and the production of the elegies. "We should count time by 
 heart-throbs." In reference to this Cheyne quotes from "The Dream of 
 Gerontius " : — 
 
 ". . . time is not a common property ; 
 But what is long is short, and swift is slow. 
 And near is distant as received and grasped 
 By this mind .ind by that, and every one 
 Is standard of his own chronology." 
 
 Thus the element of time brings no ingredient to solve the riddle of authorship. 
 It cannot eliminate the claim of Jeremiah. He could have written the five poems 
 
 6 
 
nOMlLETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 so far as his intense sorrow was concerned. There is much force in a remark 
 made by Riehm : " In lyric poetry proper the employment of this artificial form 
 is naturally and intrinsically justified only when a single fundamental strain, that 
 fills the whole soul of the poet, — deep, strong, and sustained — seeks to die away 
 in many different forms of chords." 
 
 Date. — There is no chronological record as to the time of composition except 
 that which is involved in the fact that the awfulness of the desolation was fresh 
 in the writer's mind. And if he was not Jeremiah, he, or they who wrote, may be 
 supposed to have written under the impulse of "a great lyric movement," which 
 Ewald conceives took place "among the conquered Jews, as well those in Babylon 
 as those who remained in their much-loved home." And he believes the Lamen- 
 tations came into their existing form coincident with that movement. But beyond 
 all such considerations it is to be remembered that the thought which the writer 
 or writers wanted to present was in no sense dependent on a date. 
 
 The structure and contents of the Lamentations are seen to be unique. No one 
 of the collection of documents containing record of the unfolding of God's will to 
 His servants during centuries can be -compared with it. It makes infinitesimal 
 additions to history, and contributes next to nothing to dogmatics. It is at the 
 apex of the literature of sorrow, and reverberates with the thought that sins against 
 the living holy Lord bring condign punishment. The diverse peculiarities suggest 
 two questions which are not irrelevant, and may be considered briefly. 
 
 1. Why should a composition, so obviously technical, be a factor in the revela- 
 tion of God and His will? Or it may be put thus, Why should holy men of God, 
 moved hy the Holy Spirit, trammel or order their emotions by the demands of an 
 alphabet and metre? It was an old Greek and Roman belief that, "When the 
 gods spoke they spoke in verse " {Hatch). Why should not the only true God 
 make use of men who were born poets 1 If the susceptibility to, and expression 
 in poetic forms be an endowment He has bestowed; if there are abounding 
 materials in nature and the life of humanity fitted for such forms ; if the rudest 
 tribes and the most cultured nations appreciate them, as affecting the mind for 
 good and evil, for pleasure and pain, is it to be credited that He who made all 
 these capacities will refuse to employ them as a vehicle for the transmission of the 
 sublime truths of eternal righteousness and love 1 Surely the presentation of the 
 data requisite to poetic form will solve the question propounded. 
 
 Moreover, poetry, with its measured rhythm, is more likely to be remembered 
 than prosaic expression. With reference especially to the Jewish people it has 
 been said, "The obvious advantages of the poetic style and of a metrical struc- 
 ture are — the adaptation of both to the tastes and culture of the people ; and 
 especially the adaptation of the latter to the purpose of storing those compositions 
 in the memory from infancy upward. Tims it was that the minds of this — indeed 
 favoured though afflicted — people were richly furnished with religious and moral 
 sentiments, and thus was meditative thought nourished and suggested and 
 directed, and was made conducive to the momentous purposes of the individual 
 and of the domestic spiritual life. Too little do we now take account, in our 
 Biblical readings and criticisms, of this deep-going purpose of Hebrew poetic 
 Scriptures whicli, through centuries of national weal and woe, have nourished 
 millions on millions of souls ' unto life eternal.' " (Isaac Taylor.) 
 
 2. Cheyne remarks, " We cannot fail to see in this short elegaic book that 
 peculiar quality W'hich, in all its degrees of manifestation, the Jewish Doctors 
 agree with us in describing as inspiration." Granted. But are not inspiration and 
 the limitations of an alphabet and definite numbers mutually exclusive, or restrictive 
 at least? Was the soul of an inspired man but " as a flute through which the 
 breath of God flowed in Divine music " ? Or had that soul power over itself, and, 
 as a boat whose sails are tilled with a breeze, could take any course except dead 
 against the breath of God? Various solutions of the perplexity have been 
 
 6 
 
EOMILETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 attempted, but no one altogether satisfactory has been formulated, and the dis- 
 cussions still carried on prove that the premises for sufficient conclusions are yet 
 imsettled. It would help to the acquisition of such premises if, on all sides, 
 preconceived ideas of inspiration were resolutely thrown off, and the somewhat 
 obscure indications in the Bible itself were cleared up and harmonised so far as 
 could be. How did the Lord speak to men of old 1 How was it that a prophet 
 could know that it was His word loliich was in Jiis heart, as it tvere a burning fire 
 shut up in his bones 1 "What is it to speak from God, being moved by the Holy 
 Spirits What are the criteria of being in the Spirit? Such inquiries suggest 
 further questions. Was the realm of inspiration by the Spirit of the Lord so 
 closely interlinked with the region of His operations in the new birth that it 
 could not be known whence the afflatus came or whither it went ? If a prophet 
 was speaking in the old Church of Corinth, and one sitting by the speaker had a 
 revelation, what was it which enabled the others to discriminate that a fresh inspira- 
 tion had been vouchsafed and the first sjieaker was to keep silence 1 Is that dis- 
 criminating power withdrawn wholly % Are there not subtle tokens by which 
 a man in Christ even now may discern inspiration in himself and in another 
 brother ? The answer to those inquiries may never be definite, there is so much 
 unknown, but qualified research and devout patience may be taught, as God will, 
 to see some undetected aspects of inspiration, even if it be impossible to embrace 
 in one formula all the facts. So we may need to rest contented with the truth 
 tliat to one member of the body of Christ is given the discerning of spirits in the 
 one Sp)irit, but also be convinced that there is a wider range in which he that is 
 spiritual jiidgeth all the things of the Spirit of God. In that conviction we may 
 feel that the " quality " of inspiration is present throughout the technical con- 
 struction of the Lamentations, as also we can find in the form of a servant, Christ, 
 in whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knoioledge hidden. 
 
 Purport. — The elegies issue out of the preceding history of the Jewish people, 
 and thus stand related to other portions of the sacred Scriptures, even if the points 
 of contact appear to us under a haze. Tliey are resonant with chords formed by 
 the claims of God, who makes judgment the line and righteousness the plummet 
 in His dealings with men. They signify that moral decadence is in closest alliance 
 with religious compromises ; that rueful calamities seize on a nation which swerves 
 from its normal position ; that if a people favoured by God, Creator and King, 
 stand in the way of the knowledge of His saving health among all nations, down 
 that people must go, no matter what it has been in His procedure hitherto. This 
 result would be promoted by the repetitions of ideas and even expressions which 
 are frequent throughout the book. Such a feature certainly detracts from its 
 literary finish, but we must suppose that the author did not give heed to that. 
 He might have managed to improve its symmetry if he had tried. Obviously he 
 did not try. He had an end in view, which a finished literary form would not 
 liave brought him to so well as the redundant form he has adopted. And, if we 
 dare define what his aim was, we should say that he wanted to portray an im- 
 firessive picture of a country, people, worship, God-forsaken because God-forsaking. 
 The unusual structure of the book also would tend to deepen this impression. 
 Thus an enduring symbol was erected of that long course of scatterings and 
 wanderings, of insults and oppressions, which was to be trod by the Jewish tribes. 
 At any rate the Great Eevealer was opening up, by these outbursts of grief, some 
 fresh aspect of His character and purpose ; intimating that He had brought to 
 a further stage the discipline and development of Israel, with whom He had 
 entered into covenant, and was forging a new link, into which another link in 
 due course would be welded, so as to extend the outstretch of that chain which 
 sliould lift the world into a wider life. Then, ivhen the fulness of the time came, 
 Jesus Christ, who searched the Scriptures, as He directed others to do, found His 
 fympatliy stirred in unison with these Lamentations ; When He saw the city He 
 
IIOMILETIO COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 wept over it, because its enemies sliould not leave one stone upon another, and 
 because it knew not the time of its visitation. 
 
 The prophecies of Ezekiel, not a few of which must have been contemporaneous 
 with the publication of the Lamentations, have one ever-recurring refrain, Ai^d 
 they shall knoio that I am Jehovah. Since that was the goal towards which all 
 the changes of that time were leading men, and as this book pointed in the same 
 direction, we may have a valid presentiment that it helped towards the formation 
 of the new spirit which pervaded the Jews when the Lord turned again the cap- 
 tivitrj of Zion. They had voiced their laments here, their prayers in such a Psalm 
 as the seventy-fourth, and then followed their praise : The Lord hath done great 
 things for vs, whereof ive are glad. 
 
 Liturgical Use. — Jewish synagogues have recognised the bearing of the Lamen- 
 tations by appointing that they should be read on the anniversary day commemo- 
 rating the destruction of the first and second Temple. In the Christian Church 
 also their importance has been regarded. The Roman Catholic Church assigns 
 three portions of the book to be read as part of the ritual of each of the three last 
 days of Passion-week. In the German United Evangelical Church, adaptations 
 are made for liturgical use. In the revised Prayer Book of the Episcopal Church 
 of England, " portions are ordered to be read on the ^londay, Tuesday, and 
 Wednesday in Holy-week." The reasons for such use of these elegies may have 
 been (1) that a homeless nation and desolated city suggested the condition of 
 mankind far from God, and of a soul doomed to die in the bondage of sin ; and 
 (2) that the sorrows of the representative of the suffering people suggested the 
 Lamb of God who hears aioay the sin of the xcorld, and of whom we cannot but 
 think as enduring a sorrow like unto no other sorrow. 
 
 What one and another portion of the Lamentations has been for the expression 
 of emotion to the tried and troubled of many a country and age, none but God, 
 the all-knowing, can declare. Assuredly they still will be so used, even until the 
 Lord Jehovah shall toipe aicay the tears from off all faces, and the reproach of His 
 p)eople shall He take atvay from off all the earth. 
 
 JfoTE. — In the translation I have generally adhered to the Revised Version. 
 I have deviated from it where I aimed to express more literally what I consider 
 the representation of the Hebrew original. I offer no apology for always using 
 our time-honoured word Jehovah instead of the pedantic Yahveh. 
 
 D. G. AV. 
 
IIOMILETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 The Miseries of Jerusalem. 
 
 ExEGETlCAL NoTES. — This elegy may be divided into two chief parts. The first, vers. 1-11, 
 exhibits the mournful condition of an unnamed city, overtaken by various calamities, with a 
 break, at vers. 9 and 11, by an ejaculatory appeal to Jehovah. The second, vers. 12-22, con- 
 tains a bitter complaint from the city herself, or rather from the city personified by a sufferer. 
 
 Vers. 1 and 2 present the city as she is in sharp contrast with what she was, and as an object 
 of deep distress, on account of her sins and their penalties. The verses have a pictorial illus- 
 tration in the medal struck by the Ruman Emperor Titus in commemoration of the capture of 
 Jerusalem (a.D. 71). 
 
 (N) Ver. 1. How, not in interrogation, but in surprise and pain. This particle is unnecessarily 
 inserted twice in the Authorised Version. It is not again employed in the Hebrew of the book, 
 except in chaps, ii. 1 and iv. 1, 2, sitteth alone, in a posture of overpowering sorrow rather than 
 of utter isolation, like Nehemiah, who, when he heard of the doleful state of Jerusalem, sat down 
 and wept and mourned (i. 4), the city =; Jerusalem, as following verses prove. The fact that 
 the Chaldean captain left of the poor of the people, which had nothing, in the land of Judah (Jer. 
 xxxix. 10) suggests that a few waifs and strays might be still hanging round the ruined city, 
 while the reference (chap. ii. 10) to the elders of the daughter of Zion may intimate that some 
 of better means were also with them ; that was full of people. No known criterion exists by 
 which to estimate the population of ancient Jerusalem. An approximate guess even cannot be 
 made from the perfunctory census taken in David's reign. She is become as a widow, forsaken 
 and under the reproach of widowhood, seeing that she is not in communion with the Lord, her 
 Maker; but still she is not quite a widow ; there is to be a restoration, because for a small 
 moment have I forsaken thee . . . saith the Lord thi/ Redeemer (Isaiah liv. 6) ; that was great 
 among the nations, respected and powerful ; a princess over the provinces. The dominion 
 centered in Jerusalem is illustrated by the letter of Artaxerxes to his subordinates. There have 
 been might)/ kinfjs over Jerusalem, which have ruled over all the country beyond the river; and 
 tribute, custom, and toll tvas paid unto them (Ezra iv. 20). This jurisdiction over dependent 
 peoples was at its height in the reigns of David and Solomon, though after them there were 
 also kings whose rule embraced others beside the Jews. In sad contrast she is become a 
 vassal, generally shown by taskwork, not so often by money-p lyment, and expressing entire 
 subservience. 
 
 (3) Ver. 2. Intense grief overwhelms her, She weeps bitterly in the night; no temporary 
 oblivion comes to her ; the silent hours pass with her tears on her cheeks. For her there is 
 no comforter among all her lovers; all her friends, or neigli hours, have dealt treacherously 
 with her. The Babylonians and all the Chaldeans, Pekod and Shoa and Koa, and all the 
 Assyrians %vith them (Ezek. xxiii. 23), were alienated from her, while Egypt, Ammon, Edom, 
 Moab, disowned their alliance with her : they are become her enemies, and gloat over her 
 downfall (2 Kings xxiv. 2). 
 
 (3) Ver. 3. Judah, the populaticm of the whole territory, with that of Jerusalem, is taken 
 into exile, a subjugated, impoverished remnant being left. From affliction, the same expres- 
 sion occurs in Exod. iii. 17 and Ps. cviii. 4, and from much servitude, not, as might seem inti- 
 mated by the Authorised Version and Revised Version, that the Jews were led into captivity 
 because of the manumitted Hebrew servants being again subjected to bondage by their richer 
 brethren [v. Jer. xxxiv. 8-12) ; not that the Jews fled as voluntary emigrants to escape the 
 oppression of conquerors ; but that, from the low depth of misery into which they had been 
 brought by the invasions and exactions of foreign powers, from months of faction and coercion 
 and famine, they were taken into the lower depth of being made captives. In Babylon, in the 
 centre of old world civilisation, with its traffic and magnificence, she has not found rest. 
 Nebuchadnezzar employed "them upon those large works of irrigation and the building of 
 cities, for which his ambition required labourers, just where they were forced to share and con- 
 tribute to Babylonian life." 'J'hou didst show them no mercy; upon the aged hast thou very 
 heavily laid thy yoke (Isa. xlviii. 6). All her pursuers have overtaken her between the 
 straits ; they laid afHiction upon her when she was already pressed in by trouble ; hit her when 
 she was down. 
 
 (T) Ver. 4 introduces another view personifying the religious condition : not the banished 
 people, not the fallen city, but the dwelling-place of the Holy One of Israel is forsaken and 
 overthrown. The ways of Zion, not the streets in Jerusalem leading up to the Temple, but 
 the roads from all quarters of the land, which found their termini in the Holy hill, are 
 mournful, for they are entirely deserted ; being without those who go to a solemn assembly, 
 none come to appear before the Lord in His courts at set times, as He had enjoined His wor- 
 shippers to do ; all her gates, which Jehovah loveth, are desolate, broken down ; no one goes 
 up to or lingers about tliem. The Temple has lost its sanctity and is open to all intruders. 
 The glory has departed from it: her priests are sighing; her virgins are afflicted. "The 
 reason why the priests and the virgins are here conjoined is that lamentation is ma^e over the 
 
 V 
 
nOMILETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 cessation of the religious feasts. The virgins are here considered as those who enlivened the 
 national festivals by playins,', singing, and dancing (Ps. Ixviii. 26 ; Jer. xx.\i. 13) " (Keil). And 
 she is in bitterness herself, as if all was lost religiously as well as politically, 
 
 (n) Ver. 5. Her adversaries are become the head, as was threatened if unfaithful to the 
 Lord (Deut. xxviii. 44) ; her enemies prosper, are in peace, and rest secure, knowing that all 
 resistance is over, so completely has she been crushed. This was brought about not by their 
 might, but because Jehovah has aflaicted her for the greatness of her transgressions ; and 
 the sufferings befall the most innocent also ; her young children have gone captives, the mbst 
 ominous of all her disasters, driven like a band of the enslaved in Africa, before the adversary. 
 
 (•)) Ver. 6. She has not only been harried of her most precious and tender charges, also from 
 the daughter of Zion is departed all her beauty. God Himself, whose Shechinah made Zion 
 the perfection of beauty, no longer shined there ; no longer was there a worship of Him in the 
 beauty of holiness, and even her princes are become like harts that do not find pasture ; 
 enfeebled by the scanty diet of the close siege, they have lost vigour, and go without strength 
 when chased before the pursuer, so as to be easily caught. This is in evident allusion to the 
 flight and capture of the King and his men of war, within a few miles from Jerusalem, when it 
 was besieged by the Chaldean army (2 Kings xxv. 3-5). 
 
 (T) Ver. 7. Again a change of aspect is presented. Already the city ruined, the people exiled, 
 the holy mountain desecrated have been regarded. Now the poet gives the name of the city, 
 which he shrank from pronouncing before, and uses it as a generic, all-embracing term, Jeru- 
 salem remembers, adding an item of pungency to her deep sufferings, in the days of her 
 affliction and — a probable meaning of the following word is wanderings, as in margin of Revised 
 Version here. In chap. iii. 19, where the same word is again employed, the margin gives outcast 
 state as a fresh rendering. That of the Speaker's Commentary is to be preferred — homelessness, 
 describing the state of the Jews cast out of their homes and driven into banishment ; all her 
 pleasant things which were from the days of old. By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat 
 (ioun, yea, we wept tchen %ve remembered Zion. "Sorrow's crown of sorrow is remembering 
 happier things." When her people fell into the hand of the adversary, and there is no 
 helper to her ; the adversaries see her, they sneer at her cessations {desolations in Revised 
 Version). This last Hebrew word occurs only here. Its root means to cease, and so this 
 derivative is applied, as by Plumptre, to "the enforced Sabbaths of untilled land, and the 
 Sabbaths conspicuous for the absence of any religious rites." This seems far-fetched, except 
 as to the latter part, and this should be considered as but a portion of the Jewisii customs 
 which had been discontinued. If Romans derided the Jews for cessation from work on the 
 seventh day of the week, Babylonians would not. They may have mocked at the faith of Israel 
 in the supremacy of Jehovah, seeing they regaided Him as a subjugated national deity ; but 
 " it was no subject of wonder to the Babylonians that the Jews celebrated a weekly day of rest, 
 as they had one of their own (sabbatu)" — (Cheyne). 
 
 (D) Ver. 8. Jerusalem has sinned a sin, has broken the law of her God with determinate 
 will, and bears the natural penalty ; therefore she is become as an unclean one ; not as one 
 who has been removed (Authorised Version) as a captive from her native place, but as one set 
 aside because of impurity. All who honoured her despise her, for they see her nakedness ; her 
 evil is laid bare ; the very peoples who had respected her, and who had far less knowledge of 
 what was right and true than she, are now alive to the real character of her procedure, and 
 count it shamefully bad. Even Nebuzar-adan, captain of the Babylonian guard, could say, after 
 her overthrow. Because ye have sinned against Jehovah and have not obeyed His voice, therefore 
 this thing is come upon you (Jer. xl. 3). There was still a sensitiveness of conscience in the 
 ideal Jerusalem ; Yea, she sighs and turns backward, moaning, as if conscious of spectators 
 and mortified by her open shame, she is fain to screen herself, " as those in such case would do 
 that have any shamefacedness or spark of ingenuity at all in them." 
 
 (t2) Ver. 9. Her evil is very obvious, her defilement is in her skirts, not below, but manifest 
 on her long flowing robe ; she remembers not her latter end ; as she continued sinning, she paid 
 no regard to the issue of it all, and, in consequence of this want of forethought, she is come 
 down wonderfully, down to the lowest depth of misery, an astonishment to herself, and to all 
 around her ; there is no comforter for her. Her conviction of sin, and shame, and sorrow 
 impels her to go to her God, and she cries, See, O Jehovah, my affliction, for the enemy doth 
 magnify himself, the appeal is supported on two bases: (1) Her humiliation; and, (2) The 
 arrogant pretensions of her foes ; surely with some vague hope like that of the Psalm-writer, 
 Though I lualk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me ; thou shalt stretch forth thine hand 
 against the wrath of thine enemies, and thy right hand shall save me (cxxxviii. 7). 
 
 (1) Ver. 10. His hand the adversary stretches out upon all her pleasant things, treasures 
 of all sorts, thus described by Isaiah (Ixiv. 11, 12), Thy holy cities are become a wilderness, 
 Zion is become a xcilderness, Jerusalem a desolation. Our hdy and beautiful hoxixc, where our 
 fathers praised thee, is burned with fire, and all our pleasant things are laid waste. The plunder- 
 ing of the Temple was the most aggravating of all, for she has seen the nations enter her 
 sanctuary, whom thou didst command that they should not enter into thine assembly; 
 heatiiens, who were not admissible even into the congregation of the Lord — into religious com- 
 munion with Israel — had trod the ccmrts which were most holy to Jewish worshippers, and 
 
 10 
 
nOMILETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 where only priests could legitimately go, and they had pillaged tlie pleasant vessels of the house 
 of Jehovah, therewith to adorn the shrines of their idol deities. 
 
 (3) Ver, 11. In ver. 4 the priests sigh ; in ver. 8 Jerusalem sighs, and here one and all, because 
 in addition to the religious collapse, a terrible bodily hunger is universally felt, so all her people 
 are sighing, are seeking bread. This use of participles signifies that both the past and present 
 condition of the people is regarded by the writer. He saw that the scanty meals to which they 
 were reduced when beleaguered by the Chaldean army had not ended after the Temple had been 
 desecrated and despoiled ; they had parted and were parting with ornaments, jewellery, every 
 one of their valuables, merely to keep body and soul together ; they give their pleasant things 
 for food ; after a close siege of eighteen months, preceded by the overrunning of the country, 
 food-supplies must have been all but exhausted ; to restore their soul, to bring back life, to 
 t/iose who are drawn unto death (1 Kings xvii. 21), and spiritually to restore the soul (Ps. xix. 8). 
 There is bread of which if any man eat he shall live for ever, given by Him who gave His Jlesh 
 for the life of the world. Was there any undefinable longing for such bread in the following 
 appeal, similar to that of ver. 9, but somewhat intensified? See, Jehovah, and behold, for 
 I am become despised ! Would He take away her reproach 1 Thus a transition is made to 
 the lamentation and supplication of Jerusalem herself in the following half of this elegy. 
 
 Vers. 12-22. These verses form the second section of the poem. The city is represented as 
 complaining of its harassed condition, 12-16, and then as acknowledging her persistent sin in 
 sight of her righteous Lord, who will deal out justice to all transgressors, 17-22. 
 
 (p) Ver. 12. The curtness of the opening Hebrew phrase causes doubt as to its proper 
 explanation. Hence by some it is taken as an address to the wayfarers, and is paraphrased in 
 words like, "I pray all you," or "Oh, that my cry might reach all you." By others it is taken 
 as a question, and more reasonably ; so they explain it by words like, " Does not my misery 
 come to you?" or "Do you not observe what has befallen uie ? " In either case it conveys a 
 call, as from the weeping, solitary woman, sitting on the ground, to all travellers to consider 
 her deplorable state, and our English Versions have caught the right tone. Is it nothing to 
 you, all ye passers by the way ? Is there nothing in my condition to produce seriousness in 
 you instead of indifference or levity ? Nothing to warn you ? Nothing to call forth your 
 sympathy ? Behold and see if there is sorrow like my sorrow. The feeling of a troubled 
 present tends to make it loom before the sufferer as if there never was the like before, which is 
 done to me whom Jehovah has afflicted in the day of the heat of his anger. 
 
 The ascription, in religious addresses, which has been often made of this verse to the 
 sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ, is far from commendable. In a very real sense His 
 sorrows were unparalleled, but innocent of sin though He was. He made no attempt to call 
 attention to Himself as peculiarly afflicted. His thought was for others' sufferings. Weep not 
 for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. 
 
 (D) Ver. 13. Here begin references to various events which had contributed to her unequalled 
 sorrow. Fire, a net, sickness and a yoke are set forth. The figure presented in the last clause 
 of the preceding verse is now more fully traced. From on high he sent fire, Upon the wicked 
 He shall rain fire (Ps. xi. 6), into my bones, where pain is supposed to be most keenly felt. 
 She recognises that the cause, which is behind all visible causes, of her pain is in the spiritual 
 realm, and that in the face of the Eternal Righteousness her bones must be shrivelled up ; and 
 it overpowered them. The next figure is, He spread a net for my feet; he turned me 
 back. So entangled, she could not go away and escape capture. The third figure is sickness. 
 He made me desolate, all the day faint. The light of her life was quenched, and she was 
 constantly exhausted. 
 
 (J) Ver. 14. There follows a figure from agricultural pursuits. A yoke [formed] of my 
 transgressions is bound by his hand. The Hebrew verb here is of uncertain meaning, and 
 there is no rendering preferable to that which is given. She has made thongs or cords for the 
 yoke with her sins ; they are twisted together. Her misdoings have acted and reacted that 
 they are knit together, so as to constitute a thraldom which cannot be thrown off ; so inter- 
 twined they have come up upon my neck. A consequence of this enthralment by the knotted 
 yoke is, it has made my strength to fail, literally to stumble, i.e., to stagger from the weakness 
 and exhaustion incident to such a fearful yoke. The yoke of transgression is hard ; the yoke 
 of Christ is easy. The conviction is now expressed that the Divine Ruler is at work, atid a new 
 phase rises in the lamentation. The Lord has given me into the hands [of those that are 
 against me]. I am not able to stand up. She can do nothing but yield. Consciousness of 
 transgression paralyses body and mind. Note that it is the general, not the covenant name of 
 her God which she utters. This title occurs fourteen times by itself in this book, while in the 
 Prophecies of Jeremiah only along with the covenant name. The reason for this usage of Lord, 
 and of refraining from Jehovah has yet to be found. To say that the people, in their punish- 
 ment, felt the Lordship of the Deity more, and His covenant love to them less, is a statement 
 which is not confirmed by an examination of the passages in the Lamentations where each name 
 is found. 
 
 (D) Ver. 15. Inability to resist is associated with other fatal experiences. He has set at 
 naught all my strong ones ; not on an open battlefield, not in a struggle to hold an important 
 post, is it that her able-bodied men are counted for nothing before the Chaldean host ; losses 
 
 11 
 
ITOMILETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 they might have had, " the bubble reputation " attached to them, but not when cooped up in 
 the city, in the midst of me. He has convoked a solemn assembly against me ; it is the 
 Word used of the annual and other religious festivals, as in ver. 4, and intimates that to the 
 enemies of Jerusalem a call had been issued to gather at an appointed time and have such joy 
 as might be found in the ability to crush my young men, those who promised to be the 
 (strength of the nation in the generation following. And, to m.ake the overthrow complete, the 
 maidens, who had been carefully guarded from violence, the Lord has trodden as in a wine- 
 press the virgin daughter of Judah. The treading of the grapes in a wine-press, as illustra- 
 tive of the execution of divine judgment, is not unusual in the Scriptures (Isa. Ixiii. 5 ; Rev. 
 xiv. 19), and signifies both suffering and good results from sufifering rightly boine — 
 
 " Still hope and trust, it sang ; the rod 
 Must fall, the wine-press must be trod." 
 
 (V) Ver. 16. Having shown by the events how terrible her sorrow could not but be, Jerusalem 
 n^iterates her complaint with a flood of tears. Because of these things I weep ; mine eye, 
 mine eye runs down with water, so great is her trouble and so unalleviated, for far from me 
 is the comforter, the restorer oi my soul. My children are become desolate, and cannot 
 cheer me, for the enemy has prevailed. 
 
 (D) Ver. 17. The sobs of the weeper stifle her utterance. In the pause the poet himself 
 seems to take up the word, something like the part of the chorus in Greek tragedies, and 
 describes the state of the three personified objects — the Temple, the people, the city. He sees 
 that Zion, representing the house of prayer for all nations, stretches out her hands, as praying 
 in a land where no u-ater is, but in suspense ; there is no comforter for her. He sees that 
 Jehovah, her covenant God, has commanded concerning Jacob, representing the people whom 
 He chose for His heritage, that those round about him, the neighbouring nations, should be 
 his adversaries. He sees that Jerusalem, representing the government and national aspira- 
 tions, has become as an unclean one among them (ver. 8). 
 
 ()i) Ver. 18. During her pause the weeper has received new thoughts. Like the 3-onnger 
 son when feeding on husks, she has eomc to herself so far that she is ready to own the justice of 
 Jehovah in her sufferings. He is righteous, Jehovah, for I have disobeyed his voice, rejected 
 the words of His mouth. Yet she sorely wants human pity, and cries to them, Hear, I pray ; 
 all ye peoples, and see my sorrow ; the flower of her youth has gone into captivity. 
 
 (P) Ver. 19. She addresses Jehovah, and tells how her appeals to the friends of her prosperous 
 days have proved futile ; I called to my lovers ; they have deceived me, disappointed my hopes ; 
 .ami not only they have failed ; my priests and my elders have expired in the city, where they 
 had been high in position, the medium between God and His worshippers, and leaders in the 
 state, when they sought food for themselves to restore their souls, they were starving, like 
 the common people in the closely invested city, and made a strenuous quest for some means to 
 keep themselves alive in famine. 
 
 ("I) Ver. 20. Again she refers to Jehovah as to her forlornness and aggravated sin. See, O 
 Jehovah, for I am in distress, and this distress is felt : (1) Internally. My bowels are troubled, 
 my heart is turned within me ; agitation and anguish excite her, even her vital p.arts, as it 
 were, change their position. The reason therefor is not ascribed to man's neglect and in- 
 humanity to her, but, (2) to her disregard of God, for, she confesses, I have grievously dis- 
 obeyed. The penalty she undergoes is calamitous indeed ; abroad the sword bereaveth, she 
 is rentlered a mourner because of slaughter in the open country and in the streets ; at home ia 
 like death, as if nothing but the dead were in the houses — so overpowering was the exhaustion 
 from starv.ation and diseases. This somewhat halting explanation may be compared with the 
 free rendering of the Septuagint translator — at least there is no extant authority in the Hebrew 
 for an equivalent read'mg— Outside the sword made me childless as death in the house. 
 
 ([;♦) Ver. 21. A transition is made from unfaithful friends to open enemies, and they too are 
 denotuiced. The sounds of her grief have echoed far off among persons unnamed, they have 
 heard that I sigh ; again the refrain of this chapter is repeated, there is no comforter for me. 
 The freijuent allusions to a personal comforter, vers. 2, 9, 16, 17, 21, are worthy of cmsideration, 
 as if there was a feeling after a higher gift not yet distinctly perceived. All my enemies have 
 heard of my evil, and understand something of the imseen influences which produced it ; they 
 rejoice that thou hast done it. From Jer. xl. 2, 3, it appears that even foes recognised that 
 tlie calamitous state of the Jews proceeded from their disobedience to Jehovah, though their 
 joy may have been more because of her fall than for the cmifirmation given to the truth of the 
 Lord. Nevertheless, vengeance for their misdeeds was coming on. The Lord has .announced 
 a day of judgment on the heathen as well as on Judah, and the cup of wrath shall be drunk 
 fio:n ; thou bringest the day thou hast announced, and they shall become like me in suffer- 
 ing their penalties. 
 
 (n) Ver. 22. Jerusalem further formulates the wish that the retribution due to their guilty 
 jtctiona should not be put aside ; Let all their evil come before thee, and do unto them as 
 thou hast done unto me, for all my transgressions. The first natural cry of those that are 
 .punished is for justice all round. "If I suffer for-every wrong, make every other wrongdoer 
 
 12 
 
HOMILETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 Buffer equally with me ! " In this desire there appears the consciousness that Jehovah must 
 pass judgment upon every form of sin, and rightly, for He is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity ; 
 and also a grim expectation of revenge, under which Edom, Moab, Babylon, &c., disappeared. 
 We may say that confession of her own transgressions should have been accompanied with 
 sympathy and pity for other sinners ; but the time for that love of enemies did not arrive for 
 many a day. Her own sad state again moves her, For my sighs are many, and my heart is 
 faint. So Jeremiah felt (viii. IS). "With these words the sound of this lamentation dies 
 away." 
 
 HOMILETICS. 
 
 Grief for a Euined City. 
 
 (Verses 1, 2.) 
 
 There is a fine piece of statuary representing the figure of a Hebrew female in 
 a sitting posture, the head and shoulders slightly bent forward, the hair escaping 
 in disordered tresses from the neatly plaited fillets, the arms, carelessly crossed 
 over each other, resting helplessly in her lap, the eyes, moistened with tears, gazing 
 wistfully on the ground, and the face expressing in every feature the tenderest 
 pathos of sorrow. The whole figure seems to quiver with irrepressible emotion. 
 Every part is moulded with voluptuous grace, and is susceptible of the deepest 
 passion, but it is the passion of an inconsolable grief ! The genius of the artist 
 has thus sought to idealise unhappy Judah weeping amid the scattered fragments 
 of national ruin. It is a reproduction, by the art of the nineteenth century, of 
 the same sad image that appeared on the well-known medal of Titus, struck to 
 celebrate his triumph over Jerusalem — a woman sitting weeping beneath a palm- 
 tree, and below is inscribed the legend Judea capta. It is startling to observe 
 how exactly the heathen conqueror copied the poetic description by Jeremiah of 
 the forlorn condition to which his beloved country was reduced. These words 
 describe a pathetic picture of grief for a ruined city. 
 
 I. Because of its utter desolation. " How doth the city sit solitary that was 
 full of people" (ver. 1) There is a tradition that Jeremiah wrote these elegies in 
 a grotto that is still shown, situated in the face of a rocky hill on the western side 
 of Jerusalem ; and there is a freshness and versatility in the images employed, as 
 if every time he glanced at the ruins of the ill-fated city, full in his view, he was 
 unable to repress a new outburst of grief. He had seen Jerusalem in prosperit}', 
 its Temple thronged with worshippers, its commerce flourishing, its people content 
 and joyous ; but now all is changed ; the market-place is empty, the streets silent, 
 the princes and people in exile, and the Temple, which the Jew fondly dreamed 
 invulnerable, was a heap of ruins. Such desolation was unparalleled in the history 
 of the nation and in the experience of the prophet, and his heart was riven with 
 anguish. We may read about the decay of great cities without emotion ; but to 
 witness the demolition of our own city is a different matter. 
 
 II. Because of the loss of its beloved chief. " How is she become as a 
 widow ! " (ver. 1). A city is often described as the mother of its inhabitants, the 
 king as husband, the princes as children. When the king is gone, and not even 
 a representative is left, the city is widowed and orphaned indeed. The condition 
 of an Eastern widow is pitiable. Her hair is cut short, she strips off all her 
 ornaments, eats the coarsest food, fasts often, and is all but an outcast in the 
 family of her late husband. The image employed by the prophet would therefore 
 be painfully suggestive to the Jewish mind. 
 
 III. Because of its humiliating subjection. "She that was great among the 
 nations and princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary?" (ver. 1). 
 The older meaning of the word tributary refers not to a money-payment, but to 
 personal labour (Josh. xvi. 10). The city that ruled from the Nile to the 
 Euphrates is now reduced to slavery, and the few inhabitants who are left must 
 render bond-service to a heathen potentate. It is galling to a once proud and 
 
 .1.3 
 
nOMILETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 jirosperous people to be thus humiliated. They who will not serve God faithfully 
 must be compelled to serve their enemies. 
 
 IV. Because of its being cruelly betrayed. " Among all her lovers she hath 
 none to comfort her. All her friends have dealt treacherously with her ; they 
 have become her enemies " (ver. 2). Her allies, who made great protestations of 
 attachment when all was prosperous, not only forsake her when adversity comes, 
 but unite with her enemies in completing her destruction. It is a bitter irony of 
 human professions when love turns to enmity and friendship to treachery. " A 
 loose tooth and a fickle friend are two evils." The sooner we are clear of them 
 the better ; but Avho likes the wrench 1 If we lose the comfort of God, we are not 
 likely to find help in man. AVe can trust in no one if we cannot trust in God, 
 
 V. Is expressed with irresistible pathos. *' She weepeth sore in the night, 
 and her tears are on her cheeks" (ver. 2). It was a fine touch of poetic genius 
 Avhen the prophet selected a sorrowful woman as an emblem of a disconsolate city. 
 AVoman is never so fascinating, so tender, so bewitchingly irresistible in com- 
 manding sympathy as when she is in tears ! The hardest heart is melted, the 
 sternest enemy subdued. The sorrow of Judah was overwhelming because the 
 ruin was so unexpected and unparalleled. No city has been wept over like Jeru- 
 salem. The molancholy wail has been prolonged through the centuries, and is 
 reproduced to-day. The Lamentations are still read yearly by the Jews to com- 
 memorate the burning of the Temple. Every Friday, Israelites young and old, of 
 both sexes, gather at the wailing-place in Jerusalem, where a few of the old stones 
 of the Temple still remain in the wall, and, amid tears, recite these sad verses 
 and suitable psalms, as they fervently kiss the stones. On the 9th of the 
 month Ab, nearly our July, this dirge, composed about 600 years before Christ, 
 is read aloud in every synagogue over the world. Weeping is not repentance ; 
 but the tears of the contrite do not flow in vain. They are noted in heaven, and 
 God will help. 
 
 Lessons. — 1. The ruin of a once profiperoiis city is a sad and sttggestive 
 spectacle. 2. The miseries of others should rouse our compassion. 3. The greatest 
 grief finds relief in tears. 
 
 GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES. 
 
 Ver. 1. " How doth the city sit soli- reverses of fortune. 1. The ruler 
 
 tary that was full of people." A popu- becomes the ruled. 2, The free are the 
 
 lous city, 1. A busy scene of activity, conquered. 3. Wealth exchanged for 
 
 gaiety, sin, sorrow, and complicated poverty. 4. Life dependent on abject 
 
 experiences. 2. Produces a strange submission to those who were once our 
 
 sensation upon the belated visitor when inferiors. 
 
 it is hushed in the silence of sleep. Ver. 2. "She weepeth sore in the 
 
 3. Its ruin a subject of profound sorrow night, and her tears are on her cheeks." 
 
 and suggestive reflections to one who The pathos of tears. 1. A sublime 
 
 has known it in the flood-tide of its spectacle in the ideal woman. 2. An 
 
 prosperity. evidence of profound sorrow. 3. Gathers 
 
 — "How has she become as a widow, its significance from the character of 
 she that was great among the nations." the calamity it bewails. 4. A merciful 
 Widowhood. 1. Suggestive of loss — relief to an intensely sensitive nature. 
 loss of happiness, solace, guardianship, — *' All her friends have dealt trea- 
 affection. 2. Implies loneliness, dejec- cherously with her ; they are become her 
 tion, sorrow. 3. A painful experience enemies." The fickleness of human 
 when contrasted with a former state of friendships. I. Genuine friends are 
 allluence and grandeur. rare. They may usually be counted on 
 
 — "Princes among the provinces, how a thumb and finger ; the one is the wife 
 is she become tributary." The strange or husband, the other is the mother, 
 
 14 
 
EOMILETIC COMMENTARY : LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 who is father, mother, and a great deal 
 more. There is no folly so fanatical as 
 that "which flings away a real friend. 
 II. Friends are plentiful ivlien we do not 
 need their help. They depend on us 
 more than ever we had occasion to 
 depend on them. While we can help 
 them, their friendship is eff'usive and 
 their vows of fealty emphatic. When 
 our power declines, so does their attach- 
 ment : when our circumstances alter, so 
 do they. They are swallow friends, 
 fluttering merrily about us in the summer- 
 time of prosperity, but suddenly become 
 invisible when the winter of adversity 
 sets in. III. It is a sad proof of the 
 perversity of human nature when a friend 
 is transformed into an enemy. The 
 enmity is often the more rancorous 
 because of the intimacy of a former 
 friendship. The secrets confided in a 
 moment of familiarity are used against 
 us with a studied ingenuity of irritating 
 spitefulness. It is a painful shock to 
 an unsophisticated youth, and leaves a 
 wound that time cannot heal, when he 
 discovers for the first time the base 
 treachery of a pretended friend. 
 
 Illustrations. — Mutual sympathy 
 in sorrow. When Henry VII. heard 
 of the sudden death of his son Prince 
 Arthur at Ludlow Castle in 1502, he 
 said, " Send some one for the Queen ; 
 let me bear this grief with her." She 
 came and did her best to comfort him. 
 She then retired to her own room, was 
 overwhelmed with sorrow, and swooned 
 away. It was now his turn fo cheer 
 and comfort. On both sides it was, 
 "Let me bear this grief with her," and, 
 " Let me bear this grief with him." 
 And thus in their retreat at Green- 
 wich the King and Queen of England 
 mourned in silence for the loss of their 
 first-born son. 
 
 — It is the weeping cloud that 
 blesses the earth. 
 
 Grief useless that does not lead to 
 active help. We are sorry (for the 
 English are a kind-hearted people) for 
 the victims of our luxury and neglect ; 
 sorry for the thousands whom we let 
 die every year by preventible diseases, 
 because Ave are either too busy or too 
 
 comfortable to save their lives ; sorry 
 for the savages whom we exterminate 
 by no deliberate intent, but by the 
 mere weight of our heavy footstep ; 
 sorry for the thousands who are used 
 up yearly in certain trades in minister- 
 ing to our comfort, even to our very 
 luxuries and frivolities ; sorry for the 
 Sheffield grinders, who go to work as 
 to certain death ; sorry for the people 
 whose lower jaws decay away in lucifer- 
 match factories ; sorry for the d'Jseases 
 of artificial flower-makers ; sorry for 
 the boys working in glass-houses whole 
 days and nights on end without rest, 
 " labouring in the very fire, and weary- 
 ing themselves with weary vanity." 
 We are sorry for them all, as the giant 
 is for the worm on which he treads. 
 Alas ! poor worm. But the giant 
 must walk on. He is necessary to the 
 universe, and the worm is not. So we 
 are sorry, for half an hour, and glad too 
 (for we are a kind-hearted people) to 
 hear that charitable persons or the 
 Government are going to do something 
 towards alleviating these miseries. And 
 then we return, too many of us, each 
 to his own ambition, comforting our- 
 selves with the thought that we did not 
 make the world, and we are not re- 
 sponsible for it. — C. Kingsley. 
 
 The AH- seeing God and the lonely. 
 God sees you always. There is no 
 moment when He does not see you, 
 night or day, waking or sleeping, alone 
 or in company. It is told of Linnaeus, 
 the famous naturalist, that he was 
 greatly impressed with this thought, 
 and that it told upon his conversation, 
 liis writings, and his conduct. He felt 
 the importance of this so much, that he 
 wrote over the door of his study the 
 Latin words, Innocui vivite ; Numen 
 ad est. " Live innocently ; God is here !" 
 
 Christianity relieves the miseries 
 of great cities. Look at those noble 
 buildings which the generosity of our 
 fellow-countrymen have erected in all 
 our great cities. You may truly find 
 in them sermons in stones ; sermons 
 for rich and poor alike. They preach 
 to the rich, these hospitals, that the 
 sick-bed levels all alike ; that they are 
 the equals and brothers of the poor in 
 
 15 
 
nOMILETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 the terrible liability to sufTer. They 
 preach to the poor that they are, through 
 Christianity, the equals of the rich in 
 their means and opportunities of cure. 
 Whether the founders so intended or 
 not, tliese hospitals bear direct witness 
 for Christ. They do this, and would 
 do it even if — which God forbid ! — 
 tlie name of Christ was never mentioned 
 within their walls. That may seem a 
 paradox, but it is none ; for it is a 
 historic fact that hospitals are the crea- 
 tion of Christian times and of Christian 
 men. The heathen knew them not. 
 In the great city of ancient Rome, as 
 far as I have been able to discover, 
 there was not a single hospital, not even 
 a single charitable institution. Fearful 
 thought ! A city of a million and a 
 half inhabitants, the centre of human 
 civilisation, and not an hospital there ! 
 The Roman Dives paid his physician ; 
 the Roman Lazarus literally lay at his 
 gates full of sores, till he died the 
 death of the street dogs which, licked 
 those sores, and was carried forth to be 
 thrust under ground awhile, till the 
 same dogs came to quarrel over his 
 bones. The misery and helplessness of 
 the lower classes in the great city of the 
 Roman Empire, till the Church of Christ 
 arose literally with healing in its wings, 
 cannot, I believe, be exaggerated. — G. 
 Kingsley. 
 
 — When you hear a man praising 
 " the good old times," ask him how the 
 peasantry were then sheltered and fed. 
 
 The power of tears. A young lady 
 once visited a lunatic asylum, and was 
 led into a room where there was but 
 one patient, a young girl of the same 
 age as herself. She was standing in 
 the corner of the room, her face almost 
 touching the wall. In stony hopeless- 
 ness she stood. She neither looked nor 
 spoke. She might have been dead but 
 
 that she still stood on. It was a pathetic 
 sight. " Will you speak to her ? " asked 
 the doctor ; '* we can do nothing with 
 her. She has been thus for days ; but 
 one like yourself might move her." 
 The young lady stepped forward, and, 
 with an upward cry for Divine help, 
 laid her hand gently on the shoulder of 
 the listless form, and with tears in her 
 eyes spoke one sentence of yearning 
 sympathy and compassion. The spell 
 was broken. The poor patient turned, 
 gazed for a moment on the face of the 
 weeping visitor, and then burst into 
 tears ! The doctor exclaimed, " Thank 
 God, she may now be saved ! " The 
 visitor could never recall the worJs she 
 had used ; but, with the voice softened 
 with tears, they had done their work. 
 The still and cold indifference of the 
 patient gave way before the warmth of 
 a pitying heart and the magic touch of 
 a hand stretched out to help. The elo- 
 quence of tears is irresistible. 
 
 The friends of youth: Where are 
 they? 
 
 " I sought you, friends of youth, in sun and 
 shade, 
 By home and hearth ; but no I ye were 
 not there. 
 Where are ye gone, beloved ones, where ? 
 I said. 
 I listened, and an echo answered, Where ? 
 
 Then silence fell around : upon a tomb 
 I sat me down, dismayed at death, and 
 wept ; 
 
 Over my senses fell a cloud of gloom ; 
 
 They sank before the mystery, and I slept. 
 
 I slept, and then before my eyes there pressed 
 Faces that showed a bliss unknown before ; 
 
 The loved whom I in life had once possessed 
 Came one by one, till all were there once 
 more. 
 
 A light of nobler worlds was round their 
 
 head ; 
 
 A glow of better actions made them fair. 
 
 ' The dead are there,' triumphantly I said ; 
 
 Triumphantly the echoauswered, 'There.'!" 
 
 — Clive. 
 
 HOMILETICS. 
 
 TuE Judgment of Oppression. 
 
 (Yerso 3.) 
 
 T. The oppressor is in turn oppressed. " Judah is gone into captivity because 
 of affliction and because of great servitude." The prophet would probably have 
 16 
 
IIOMILETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. chap. r. 
 
 \\\ view the circumstances narrated in Jer. xxxiv., wliere the Jewish piiiicos and 
 people were threatened with captivity, because, in violation of the law, they with- 
 drew the grant of liberty made to their servants, and reduced them to their former 
 servitude, aggravated with increased exactions. It- is an oft-repeated charge against 
 the Jews that they robbed and oppressed their own countrymen ; and the day 
 came when they were robbed and oppressed by their powerful conquerors. It is 
 a cruel abups of power when it is used to injure the helpless. Every act of wrong- 
 doing carries witliin it the germ of future recompense. The boomerang rebounds 
 towards the man who threw it. 
 
 II. The judgment is constant, "She dwelleth among the heathen ; she findeth 
 no rest." The endless and impossible tasks imposed on others are now allotted 
 to the oppressors. There is no prospect of release — they dwell among the heathen ; 
 no prospect of abatement — they find no rest. Judgment knows nothing of pity : 
 while the sinner remains obdurate, its mission is to punish. There is no change 
 in the punishment until there is a moral change in the offender. Divine mercy 
 alone can break the entail of suffering, and that can be effected only by satisfying 
 the claims of justice. 
 
 III. The judgment cannot be evaded by flight. "All her persecutors over- 
 took her between the straits." Zedekiah and the princes of Judah strove to escape 
 fiom besieged Jerusalem, but the wary Chaldeans pursued and captured them 
 (Jer. Hi. 7, 8). The people fled to the mountain passes, but they were there con- 
 fronted by the enemy, and flight was impossible. Like hunted deer, whichever 
 way they turned, they found themselves within the toils of the invaders. The 
 conquerors held them as in a grip of steel. The day came when the Chaldeans 
 were similarly helpless in the hands of a superior force. Judgment perpetually 
 dogs the heel of the oppressor, and every possible avenue of escape is carefully 
 guarded. Oppression is the attempt of an imperious will to have its own way, 
 and it does not answer. " Not thy will but mine be done," changed Paradise into 
 a desert. "Not My will but Thine be done," changed the desert into Paradise, 
 and made Gethsemane the gate of glory. 
 
 Lessons. — 1. Oppression is a short-sighted policy. 2. The sjioils gained by 
 ojypression are loortldess. 3. Tlie law of retribution is always at work. 
 
 GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES. 
 
 Yer. 3, " Judah is gone into captivity Illustrations. — The oppressor pun- 
 because of afiiiction and great servitude." ished. There is an Eastern fable that 
 A time of trouble. 1. Should induce a wicked and oppressive king was once 
 careful self-examination, 2, Should kissed on either shoulder by the Evil 
 lead us to reflect whetlier we have caused One. Immediately there sprang there- 
 trouble to others. 3, Is a call to re- from two serpents, who, furious with 
 pentance and moral reform. hunger, attacked the man and strove to 
 
 — " She dwelleth among the heathen, eat into his brain. The terrified king 
 she findeth no rest." The changes of tried to tear them away and cast them 
 life. 1. Often bring us into the midst from him, when, to his horror, he found 
 of strange, imfriendly associations. they had become part of himself. So 
 2, Interfere with growth in personal is it with those who yield to anger or 
 piety, 3. Disturb the soul's peace, any other evil passion. The man who 
 
 — " All her persecutors overtook her tyrannises over others becomes by and 
 between the straits." The spirit of by the victim of his own tyrannical 
 perr^ecution. 1. Instigated by hatred temper, and all efforts to deliver him- 
 to the good. 2. Is vigilant and active self are in vain ; it has become a part 
 in its cruel pursuits. 3. Takes advan- ■ of himself. Wrong-doing carries with 
 tage of the- helplessness of its victims. it its own punishment. In its earlier 
 
 17 B 
 
CHAP. 1. 
 
 nOMILETIC COMMENTARY : LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 stages we fancy it will be easy at any 
 time to do right ; but wlieu we try, we 
 are lielpless. 
 
 The oppressor a selfish man. 
 
 " He pours no cordial in tlie wounds of pain ; 
 Unlocks no prison, and unclasps no chain. 
 His heart is like the rock, where sun nor dew 
 Can rear one plant, or flower of heavenly hue. 
 No thou<,'ht of mercy thei-e may have its birth, 
 For helpless misery or suffering worth. 
 The end of all his life is paltry pelf, 
 And all his thouLjhts are centred on himself. 
 The wretch of both worlds ; for so mean a sum. 
 First starved in this, then damned in that to 
 come ! " 
 
 A time of trouble. If God brings 
 us into difficulties, we may be sure He 
 will bring us out again ; but no such 
 confidence should be ours if we bring 
 ourselves into them. 
 
 Trouble and the way out. An ex- 
 pedition started from Buenos Ayres to 
 explore the Pilcomayo River, South 
 America, with the view of establishing 
 a water communication between the 
 Argentine Republic and Bolivia. For 
 the first fortnight the explorers made 
 fair progress, but after that the naviga- 
 tion was difficult and slow, it being 
 necessary to construct dams across the 
 river below their vessel and wait till 
 the water accumulated sufficiently to 
 float it. At length they could proceed 
 no farther, and remained in the same 
 position for months. Having exhausted 
 all their provisions, and their ell'oits 
 at foraging proving unsuccessful, they 
 daily expected the arrival of a relief 
 ]iarty, and were daily disappointed. 
 When they were wasting with famine 
 and had given up all hope, they were 
 surprised one morning by hearing a 
 bugle blast, and knew they were saved. 
 Only those who have been in extremity 
 can realise how exquisite is the joy of 
 sudden and unexpected rescue. — Tlie 
 Scottish Pul2>it. 
 
 The changes of life. A mill-owner 
 was obliged to dismiss several of his 
 liands. Among them was a man whose 
 faith and trust in God always led him 
 to say, " The Lord will provide." One 
 day when he had eaten his last morsel 
 of food, and his faith was tried to the 
 utmost, some street-boys, opening his 
 door, flung in a dead raven, shouting 
 18 
 
 mockingly, " The Tord will provide." 
 He quietly took up the dead bird and 
 tenderly stroked its plumage. Suddenly 
 he felt something hard in the crop of 
 the bird, and wondering what it was, 
 he took a knife and opened it. To his 
 amazement he found there a gold chain. 
 He felt here was God providing for him 
 and his family. He went straight to a 
 jeweller, telling his story, and asked if 
 he would buy it. The jeweller saw it 
 to be a chain of great value, with initials 
 on it, and said, " If you could learn the 
 name of the owner, would you return 
 ifJ" "Certainly," replied the work- 
 man. " Well then," said the jeweller, 
 " it belongs to your late master." Hear- 
 ing that, the man set olF without delay 
 and put the chain into his master's 
 hands, who received it with great joy, 
 as he had on missing it accused one of 
 his servants of tlieft. Greatly struck 
 with his workman's honesty, he told 
 him he wished him to return to his 
 employment, as he could not part with 
 so honest a man. In the most trying 
 changes of life it is best to do what is 
 right. 
 
 Persecution. A sensation was caused 
 in Hungary by a certain Count, a large 
 landed proprietor, giving orders that 
 thenceforth no Protestant was to be 
 engaged in the service of his estate, and 
 that Protestants already employed were 
 disqualified from any further promotion. 
 Any officials who married Protestants 
 were to be at once dismissed. This 
 high-handed procedure was the more 
 remarkable as religious toleration was 
 recognised as a sujjreme political and 
 social principle, there being already 
 eight difl'erent Christian denominations. 
 Persecution and bigotry are weeds diffi 
 cult to eradicate, and there is no know- 
 ing into what eccentric and tyrannical 
 forms they may develop. — Tlie Scottish 
 Pulpit. 
 
 God the Helper of the persecuted. 
 Have faith, O you who sutler for the 
 noble cause, the apostles of a truth 
 which tiie world of to-day comprehends 
 not, warriors in the sacred fight whom 
 it yet stigmatises with the name of 
 rebels. To-morrow victory will bless 
 the banner of your crusade. Walk in 
 
HOMILEriC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 faith and fear not. That which Christ 
 has done, liunianity may do. EeHeve, 
 and you will conquer. Action is tlie 
 word of God ; thought alone is hut His 
 shadow. They who disjoin thought 
 and action seek to divide Deity, and 
 deny the Eternal unity. They who are 
 not ready to bear witness to their faith 
 with tlieir blood are no true believers. 
 From your cross of sorrow and persecu- 
 tion proclaim the religion of the epoch. 
 Soon shall it receive the consecration 
 of faith. From our cross of misery and 
 persecution we men of exile, the repre- 
 sentatives of heart and faith of the 
 enslaved races, of millions of men con- 
 strained to silence, will respond to your 
 appeal, and say to our brothers, The 
 allicmce is founded. Answer your perse- 
 cutors Avith the formula, God and the 
 peojile. They may rebel and blaspheme 
 against it for a while, but it will be 
 accepted and worshipped by the peoples. 
 — 3Iazzini. 
 
 The spirit of persecution inexorable. 
 A poor Anabaptist, guilty of no crime 
 but his fellowship with a persecuted 
 sect, had been condemned to death. 
 He had made his escape, closely pur- 
 
 sued by an officer of justice, across a 
 frozen lake. It was late in the winter, 
 and the ice had become unsound. It 
 trembled and cracked beneath his foot- 
 steps, but he reached the shore in safety 
 The officer was not so fortunate. The 
 ice gave way beneath him, and he sank 
 into the lake uttering a cry for succour. 
 There were none to hear him except the 
 fugitive whom he had been hunting. 
 Dirk Willemzoon, for so was the Ana- 
 baptist called, instinctively obeyed the 
 dictates of a generous nature, returned, 
 crossed the quaking and dangerous ice 
 at the peril of his life, extended his 
 hand to the enemy, and saved him 
 from certain death. Unfortunately for 
 human nature, it cannot be added that 
 the generosity of the action was met by 
 a corresponding heroism. The officer 
 was desirous, it is true, of avoiding the 
 responsibility of sacrificing the preservei 
 of his life, but the burgomaster of 
 Asperen sternly reminded him to re- 
 member his oath. He accordingly 
 arrested the fugitive, who, in the month 
 of May following, was burned to death 
 under the most lingering tortures, — 
 Motley's " Dutch Rejniblic." 
 
 EOMILETICS. 
 
 Lamentation over a Forsaken Sanctuary. 
 (Verse 4.) 
 
 I, Because its thoroughfares are no longer thronged with worshippers. 
 
 " The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn feasts ; ail her 
 gates are desolate." Those were happy days when the roads leading up to Jeru- 
 salem were crowded with eager worshippers, coming to the three great annual 
 festivals — the Passover, Pentecost, and Feast of Tabernacles. The city was 
 jubilant in song, and full to overflowing with life and movement. Now the very 
 roads are represented as mourning, as if they missed the tread of the pilgrims' 
 feet ; and the gates look in vain for the travellers they had so often welcomed. 
 "All her gates are desolate." 
 
 It is a dispiriting spectacle to see a closed sanctuary, with weeds and grasses 
 growing about the entrance ; the more so when we have seen the same sanctuary 
 tilled with delighted worshippers. When men forsake the house of God, God 
 forsakes it too, and it is then desolate indeed, 
 
 II, Because the office of the ministry is obsolete. " Her priests sigh " — sigh 
 not only for want of bread, because the ofl'eriugs, Avhich were their means of 
 livelihood, fail ; but because their life-work is useless, because the people lapse 
 into ignorance and sin, because the worship of Jehovah is neglected and dis- 
 honoured. The true minister is wholly consecrated to his sacred calling ; it is 
 the theme of his earnest prayers, his constant study, and exercises his best powers. 
 
 19 
 
CHAP. T. nOMlLETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 Life to him is bereft of its holiest motive, its sweetest relish, when it is baulked 
 of its loftiest purpose. " It is time to sigh when the priests, the Lord's ministers, 
 sigh." 
 
 III. Because the training of the young is neglected. "Her virgins are 
 afflicted." The virgins are mentioned because they took a prominent part in all 
 religious festivals (Jer. xxxi. 13; Exod. xv. 20; Ps. Ixviii. 25); and therefore 
 special notice is taken of the educative loss to them occasioned by disused ordi- 
 nances. Neglect in the religious training of the young means grave peril to the 
 moral stamina of the community. Religion is the mightiest force in the formation 
 of youthful character. The men and women of the future will be what the Clmrch 
 makes them in their younger years. It has been said — "People fancy that we 
 cannot become wise without becoming old also ; but in truth, as years accumulate, 
 it is hard to keep as wise as we were. Man becomes, in the different stages of 
 his life, a different being, but he cannot say that he will surely be better as he 
 grows onwards. In certain matters he is as likely to be right in his twentieth 
 as in his sixtieth year." The young will carry with them through life the 
 influences for good or evil that have been brought to bear upon them in their 
 early days. 
 
 IV. Because the city is deprived of religious ordinances. " And she is in 
 bitterness." It is a beautiful and touching conception to impersonate the metro- 
 jiolis of Judah as a disconsolate female, troubled with the evident cessation of 
 iJivine worship and the universal neglect of religious duties. As is the Church, 
 so will be the city ; as is the state of religion, so will be the people. The glory of 
 a city is gone when religious ordinances are abandoned. No loss should be 
 lamented more bitterly than the loss of religion. 
 
 Lessons, — 1. A dosed temple anywhere is a pifiahle sujld. 2. Where religious 
 jirivileges are tcithdrawn the peojple suffer. 3. Love of worship will ahcays crowd 
 the sanctuary. 
 
 GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES. 
 
 Ver. 4. " Her priests sigh, her vir- crew. "When found, only one member 
 
 gins are afflicted." A dispirited mini- of the crew was able to work. The 
 
 stry. 1. Because the sanctuary is captain, the first mate, the steward, 
 
 destroyed. 2. Because the worshipjiers and a seaman had. died. Five men 
 
 are scattered and uncared for. 3. Be- were lying helpless, thotigh still alive, 
 
 cause its maintenance is withdrawn, and the boatswain had gone mad from 
 
 4. Because the joyous song of the young the want of proper attention. The 
 
 is turned to sorrow. "Her virgins are "Guiding Star" was towed to liatavia, 
 
 afflicted." 5. Because of conscious im- where the survivors were placed under 
 
 perfections and unfaithfulness. medical treatment. Are there not 
 
 — " She is in bitterness." A city in Churches to-day that are morally in 
 
 sorrow. 1. Because its reputation is a similar plight — drifting hospitals, 
 
 dishonoured. 2. Because its resources officered with the deail and dying 1 It 
 
 are crippled, its peojile dispersed, its will be a mercy if they are spiritually 
 
 commerce interrupted, its institutions rescued before they become sepulchres, 
 
 destroyed. 3. Because the luiblic wor- entombing the hopelessly dead. — The 
 
 .ship of God is abandoned. 4. Because Scottish Pulpit. 
 
 its future seems hopeless. The true man superior to his sur- 
 roundings. — The scientist, while ad- 
 
 Illustrations. — Dead and dying mitting the influence of geographical 
 
 Churches. A barque on her voyage surroundings in shaping the history and 
 
 from Hong-Kong fell in with a British character of nations, admits that nothing 
 
 rliip, the "Guiding Star," helplessly would be more erroneous than to sup- 
 
 lioating about with a fever-stricken pose that Nature alone acts in determiu^ 
 20 
 
nOMlLETIC COMMEytTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 mg the conditions of life and of races. 
 Man's activity must be associated witli 
 ^Nature. A country may be prominent 
 and fertile, and yet occupied by a race 
 of men utterly unfit to develop its re- 
 sources. After all, man is greater tlian 
 Nature, and it is bis lofty mission to 
 subdue it. The energy of the Nether- 
 lands turned a swamp into a garden, 
 while their Spanish oppressors, with 
 inexhaustible resources in soil and 
 mineral, sank into decay. We are apt 
 to lay too much stress upon the opera- 
 tion of the law of environment, and to 
 ignore individual responsibility. Plant 
 within man the vital principles of Chris- 
 tianity, and he will soon change his en- 
 vironment. — The Scottish Pzilpit. 
 
 Ministers not only finger-posts, but 
 guides. There ought to be no hiatus 
 between our declarations and our spiri- 
 tual conduct. We must not only be 
 finger- posts, but guides, "Lest having 
 preached to others, we ourselves become 
 castaways." 
 
 " The love of Christ and His Apostles twelve 
 He taught, but tirst he followtid it liimself." 
 
 If we are the channels of good to our 
 fellows, it behoves us to clear away all 
 that might impede the flowing, and 
 defile the purity, of the stream of truth 
 from God. 
 
 Youth needs instruction. Narcissus, 
 a beautiful youth, though he would not 
 love them tliat loved him, yet after- 
 wards fell in love with his own shadow. 
 Ah ! how many young men in these 
 days, who were once lovely and hopeful, 
 are now fallen in love with their own 
 and others' shadows, with high, empty, 
 airy notions, and with strange, mon- 
 strous speculations, to tlieir own dam- 
 nation. A youth deprived of instruc- 
 tion and left to his natural development 
 is a pitiable object, and is menaced by 
 many jierils. 
 
 Work a remedy for misery. Nothing 
 is more remarkable in the Apostles than 
 their unbroken mental health. The 
 histories of religious communities are 
 full of instances of ecstasies and hys- 
 terical delusions ; but never do we find 
 among our Lord's followers anything 
 approaching to a spiritual craze. This 
 
 health of theirs came in great measure 
 from their being constantly employed 
 about matters of which their hearts 
 were full. The busy man has neither 
 time nor inclination to nurse delusive 
 fancies. Hard, honest, practical work 
 is a panacea for many ills. Underneath 
 a fresco of the 13th century discovered 
 at Cortona, in Italy, is inscribed the 
 motto, Sum misero nisi teneam ligonem 
 — I am miserable unless I hold a spade. 
 —The Scottish Puliyit. 
 The uses of suffering. 
 
 "Through lung days did Anguish, 
 And sad nights did Pain 
 Forge my shield, Endurance, 
 Bright and free from stain. 
 
 Doubt in misty caverns, 
 
 'Mid dark horrors sought, 
 Till my peerless jewel, 
 
 Faith, to me she brought. 
 
 Sorrow that I wearied 
 
 Should remain so long, 
 Wreathed my starry glory, 
 
 The bright crown of song. 
 
 Strife, that racked my spirit 
 
 Without hope or rest. 
 Left the blooming flower. 
 
 Patience, in my breast." 
 
 — Proctor. 
 
 Love in sorrow. Always through 
 the darkest part of every life there runs, 
 though we may sometimes fail to see it, 
 the golden thread of love, so that even 
 the worst man on earth is not wholly 
 cut off from God, since He will, by 
 some means or other, eternally try to 
 draw him out of death into life. We 
 are astounded now and then to read 
 that some cold-blooded murderer, some 
 man guilty of a hideous crime, will ask 
 in his last moments to see a child who 
 loved him devotedly, and whom he also 
 loved. We are astonished just because 
 we do not understand the untiring heart 
 of the Almighty Father, who in His 
 goodness often gives to the vilest sinner 
 the love of a pure-hearted woman or 
 child. So true is the beautiful old 
 Latin saying. Men/ere nos patitur, sed 
 iwn submer(jere Christus — Christ lets 
 us sink, may be, but not drown. — Edna 
 Lyall. 
 
 A city in sorrow. In 1576 Antwerp 
 Avas stormed by the Spaniards with fire 
 and sword. Never was there a more 
 
 21 
 
CHAP. I. 
 
 HOMILETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 monstrous massacre, even in the blood- 
 stained annals of the Netherlands. In 
 the course of three days eight thousand 
 human beings were murdered. The 
 Spaniards seemed to cast off even the 
 vizard of humanity. Hell seemed 
 emptied of its fiends. Night fell upon 
 the scene before the soldiers were 
 masters of the city; but worse horrors 
 began after the contest was ended. 
 This army of brigands had come thither 
 with a definite, practical purpose, for it 
 was not blood thirst, nor lust, nor re- 
 venge which impelled tkem, but greedi- 
 ness for gold. Torture was employed 
 
 to discover hidden treasure ; and, after 
 all had been given, if the sum seemed 
 too little, the proprietors were brutally 
 punished for their poverty or tlieir sup- 
 posed dissimulation. Women, children, 
 and old men were killed in countless 
 numbers, and still, through all this 
 havoc, directly over the heads of the 
 struggling throng, suspended in mid-air 
 above the din and smoke of the conflict, 
 there sounded, every half-quarter of 
 every hour, as if in gentle mockery, 
 from the belfry of the cathedral, the 
 t-ender and melodious chimes. — Motley's 
 " Dutch Republic" 
 
 HOMILETICS. 
 
 The Tantalising Indifference of the Enemies of the Church. 
 
 (Verses 5-7.) 
 
 I. They contentedly enjoy the fruits of their conctuest. " Iler adversaries 
 are the cliief ; her enemies prosper." Her foes have become her masters; her 
 enemies enjoy quiet prosperity — Geilde (ver. 5). Judea has become so utterly 
 crushed that her conquerors revel in their spoils without fear of resistance, or any 
 attempt at reprisals on the part of the vanquished. If we allow our vices to 
 become our masters, we have the chagrin of seeing them rioting in indulgence 
 while we are powerless to interpose. 
 
 II. They have no concern to know the cause of the Church's calamities. 
 " For the Lord hath afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions " (ver. 5). 
 What of that 1 It is no concern of theirs to pry into moral causes. The in- 
 vaders wish to strike a blow at imperious Egypt. Judah stands in the way, and, 
 becoming troublesome, must be crushed. They knew not, nor did they care to 
 know, that they were but instruments in the hands of a Higher Power to punish a 
 nation for its sins. It was brought home to Judah that her disasters were prO' 
 voked by her manifold transgressions, and it was an aggravation of her sufferings 
 that her enemies Avere utterly regardless and apparently ignorant of all this. Had 
 tliey understood it, they might have shown more pity. 
 
 III. They are indifferent to the sufferings they inflict. " Her cliildren are 
 gone into captivity. Her princes have become like harts . . . without strength 
 before the pursuer" (vers. 5, 6). The young children are driven before the adver- 
 sary, not as a flock of lambs which follow the shepherd, but for sale as slaves. 
 The princes are hunted down to exhaustion. In tlie ancient sculptures nothing is 
 more affecting than the mournful processions so often de2)icted of tender women 
 and young children driven in gangs as captives before their heartless conquerors. 
 In olden times the treatment of prisoners of war was characterised by the most 
 brutal cruelty. They were regarded as an encumbrance, and were often butchered 
 wholesale to save further trouble. They were subjected to degradations from 
 which deatli would have been a merciful relief. 
 
 IV. They make no allowance for the feelings of the conquered regarding 
 their losses. " From the daughter of Zion all licr beauty is departed. Jerusalem 
 remembered all her pleasant things that she had in the days of old " (vers. 6, 7). 
 In the midst of her distress Jerusalem remembered the happiness of former days, 
 
 22 
 
nOMILETIC COMMENTARY : LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 when the Temple stood out in all the beauty of its architecture, and as the symbol 
 of holiest worship ; when the throne was the centre of imperial power and mag- 
 nificence; when the land was prosperous, and the people united and content. 
 Kow the Temple is shattered past recognition, the most distinguished citizens are 
 in exile, the land is desolate, and the people plunged in misery. But all this is 
 nothing to her enemies ; they heed not Avhat their victims have lost ; they are 
 more interested in what their conquests have gained. 
 
 V. They make sport of the Church's utter discomfiture. " The adversaries 
 saw her, and did mock at her Sabbaths," her calamities, her ruined circumstances 
 (GeiJiie ; Henderson). The more literal meaning is her Sabhatisms. Foreigners 
 ridiculed the custom of the Jews in ceasing from labour every seventh day, and 
 attributed their ruin to what appeared to them a strange, fanatical practice. Oh, 
 had those Sabbaths been as faithfully observed in spirit as they were in form, 
 liow different would have been the career of Judah ! The Church is familiar with 
 the scoffs of unbelievers. While she is true to God, they are powerless to harm. 
 It is when she is conscious of unfaithfulness that they begin to irritate. 
 
 Lessons. — 1. It is a hard time fen' the Church xohen her enemies triumph. 2. 
 God is the refuge of the Church in time of trouble. He is never indifferent to her 
 sufferings, 3. Tlte Church should learn to make the best of prosperous times. 
 
 GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES. 
 
 Ver. 5. *' Her adversaries are the 
 chief ; her enemies prosper." New 
 masters : 1. Soon make evident their 
 newly-acquired superiorit}\ 2. Eule 
 with severity when actuated by a spirit 
 of enmity. 3. Enjoy without com- 
 punction the prosperity secured by the 
 ruin of others. 
 
 — '* Tlie Lord afflicted her for the 
 multitude of her transgressions." Sin : 
 
 1. Is a transgression of the law of God. 
 
 2. Has a tendency to multiply itself. 
 
 3. Is a prolific source of trouble. 4. 
 Is punished by the Being against whom 
 it is committed. 
 
 Vers. 5, 6. National disaster. I. In- 
 volves the suffering of innocent children. 
 " Her children are gone into captivity 
 before the enemy " (ver. 5), II. 
 Quenches the sjjlendojir of its reputa- 
 tion. " From the daughter of Zion all 
 her beauty is departed " (ver, 6). III. 
 Degrades and. harasses its most illus- 
 trious riders. " Her princes are be- 
 come like harts that find no pasture, 
 and they are gone without strength be- 
 fore the pursuer" (ver. 6). 
 
 Ver. 7. Sad memories. 1. "When con- 
 trasting present miseries with former 
 joys, 2. When reflecting on the sud- 
 denness and completeness of our cala- 
 mities, 3. When mingled with the 
 
 heartless mockery of the authors of our 
 misfortunes. 
 
 Illustrations. — Lessons from the 
 ■world's treatment. Three men are my 
 friends, He that loves me, he that hates 
 me, and he that is indifferent to me. 
 Who loves me teaches me tenderness ; 
 who hates me teaches me caution ; who 
 is indifferent to me teaches me self- 
 reliance. 
 
 Loose talk leads to loose conduct. 
 Indulgence in verbal vices soon en- 
 courages corresponding vices in conduct. 
 Let any one talk about any mean or 
 vile practice with familiar tone, and do 
 you suppose, when jthe opportunity 
 occurs for committing the mean or vile 
 act, he will be as strong against it as 
 before 1 It is by no means an unknown 
 thing that men of correct lives talk 
 themselves into sensuality, crime, and 
 perdition. Bad language easily runs 
 into bad deeds. Select any iniquity 
 you please, suffer yourself to converse 
 in its dialect, to use its slang, to speak 
 in the character of one who relishes it, 
 and I need not tell you how soon your 
 moral sense will lower down to its level. 
 Becoming intimate with it, you lose 
 your horror of it. To be too much with 
 bad men and in bad places is not only 
 
 23 
 
IIOMILETIC COMMEXTAIiY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 unwliolesonie to iiuiu's morality, but 
 unfavourable to his faith and trust in 
 God. It is not every man who could 
 live as Lot did in Sodoiu, and then be 
 tit to go out of it under G oil's convoy. — 
 The Christian Commonu-calth . 
 
 New masters : Tyranny not perma- 
 nent, liy the volcanic eruption among 
 the Tonga group in 1885, a new island 
 was formed. When it was visited a 
 few years after, the soil below the 
 surface was still hot, the temperature 
 at a depth of seven feet being 100° 
 Fahr., while at the surface it was only 
 74°. With the exception of two young 
 cocoa-nut trees, which seemed not very 
 hardy, there was no vegetation but a 
 few bunches of grass, and a moth and 
 small sandpiper constituted the animal 
 population. It is thought the island 
 will disappear in a few years, as the 
 waves are rapidly wearing the sliore-line 
 away. Such has been the history of 
 many a vaunted human tyranny. Its 
 policy was inaugurated with noise and 
 heat, and threatened to revolutionise 
 the existing order. But when it had 
 spent its force and cooled down, it 
 revealed its barrenness, and, worn away 
 with the ever-active waves of time, it 
 at length disappeared. — The Scottish 
 Puljnf. 
 
 Sin a poison. What poison one fang 
 of the old serpent will throw into our 
 moral system ! Look around and see 
 how many have been poisoned with the 
 desire for strong drink, with lust, with 
 avarice, with pride, with anger, with 
 unbelief. Fiery serpents are among us, 
 and many die of their venom. If we 
 tolerate the least sin, it is a burning drop 
 in the veins of the soul. One touch of 
 the fangs of this serpent will work im- 
 measurable sorrow, even if the soul bo 
 saved from death. It is only the power 
 of God that keeps us from being de- 
 stroyed by this viper. Had he his will, 
 lie is a spirit so malignant that no heir 
 of heaven would survive. O God, keep 
 Thine own ! Deliver us from the evil 
 one ! — C. II. Spurgeon. 
 
 Sin defies law. A woman named 
 
 Guerin, in a rage of jealousy, murdered 
 
 lier unfaithful husband. Going to a 
 
 villa where she learnt he was living 
 
 24 
 
 with another woman, she stood at the 
 door and called his name. Hearing 
 her voice, lie went out to speak to her, 
 and had scarcely crossed the threshold 
 when she stabbed him in the abdomen. 
 He staggered back into the house, and 
 after a few minutes crawled to the 
 window and said in a feeble voice, 
 "Kiss our child, for all is over." The 
 recital of this incident in the court in 
 Paris, told as a woman could tell it, 
 and she a principal actor in the scene, 
 and the evidence adduced that Madame 
 Guerin had borne an irreproachable 
 character and was an excellent mother, 
 so moved the jury that they acquitted 
 her without a moment's hesitation, amid 
 a storm of applause from the public in 
 court. A gush of sentiment -disarmed 
 the rigour of the law and choked the 
 voice of vengeance. One wrong does 
 not justify another. But sin defies 
 law and justice, and spreads con- 
 fusion wherever it reigns. — The Scottish 
 Pulpit. 
 
 Avoid the example of the bad. I 
 would desire all young men often to 
 remember the saying of Lactantius, 
 " He who imitates the bad cannot be 
 good." Young men, in these professing 
 times, stand between good and bad 
 examples, as Hercules in his dream 
 stood between virtue and vice, solicited 
 by both. Choose you must who to 
 follow. Oh, that you were all so wise 
 as to follow the best ! Life, heaven, 
 happiness, eternity, hang upon it. 
 
 Sad memories. A small boat was 
 picked up one morning on the nortli 
 shore at Troon. It had the appearance 
 of having broken away from a vessel 
 during a great gale in the Clyde. It is 
 a dangerous moment when a young man 
 breaks away from the happy associa- 
 tions of his early life, whether in cliurch 
 or home. Cliafing under restraint, he 
 plunges heedlessly into the wide world 
 in search of a larger liberty. Unac- 
 customed to self-control, he is swayed 
 by every varying current, drifts out 
 to sea, and is ultimately picked up a 
 partial wreck on some far-off shore. 
 Tlien it is that he is tormented with 
 painful memories ; he sees his folly, and 
 laments his reckless severance from 
 
nOMILETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. chap, t 
 
 the moral restrictions of a happier time. against melancholy. One was a bright 
 
 " It is good for a man that he bear fire, another to remember all the plea- 
 
 the yoke iu his youth." — lite Scottish sant things said to lier, another to kee]) 
 
 Pulpit. a box of plums on the mantelpiece and 
 
 Memory and music. Music touches a kettle simmering on the hob. She 
 
 every key of memory, and stirs all the thought this mere trifling at the moment, 
 
 hidden springs of sorrow and joy. We but did in after life discover how true 
 
 love it for what it makes us forget, and it is that these little pleasures often 
 
 for what it makes us remember. banish melancholy better than higher 
 
 Bewaxe of melancholy. Never give and more exalted objects, and that no 
 
 way to melancholy ; resist it steadily, means ought to be tliought too trifling 
 
 for the habit will encroach. A lady which can oppose it either in ourselves 
 
 was once given two-and-twenty recipes or others 
 
 HOMILETICS. 
 
 The Terrible Havoc of Six. 
 
 (Verses 8-11.) 
 
 I. In its revolting defilement. " Jerusalem hath grievously sinned, therefore 
 she is removed. Her filthiness is in her skirts" (vers. 8, 9). The expression 
 "grievously sinned" gives tlie idea of persistent continuance in wickedness. 
 This condition is not reached all at once. It began in trifling with the first 
 enticements to evih The entrance to the pathway of sin is gaily decked with 
 flowers, but they are flowers that wither as soon as they are plucked. It is over- 
 hung with tempting fruits, but they are fruits that turn to bitter ashes between 
 the teeth. It is sprinkled with subtle and delicious perfumes, but they are per- 
 fumes that distil the poison of the deadliest drug. The air around palpitates with 
 strains of bewitching music, but it is music that lures its charmed victim down 
 the dizzy slopes of irreparable ruin. The allurement may be presented in the 
 shape of a book, a picture, or a whispered word, that suggests more of evil than 
 it actually expresses, and the soul is blotted with a moral stain that rivers of tears 
 cannot wash away. Every act of sin increases the deiilement, and it becomes 
 the more exposed. 
 
 II. In sinking the soul to a state of abject degradation. "Therefore she 
 came down wonderfully; she had no comforter" (ver. 9). You have seen the 
 little snowflakes flutter about the railway track like lovely bits of down shook 
 from angelic wings, and you have seen with what ease the proud locomotive 
 scatters the fleecy morsels in the early stages of the storm ; but the falling atoms 
 increase with such rapidity and accumulative force, that the panting engine is at 
 length completely mastered, and, utterly exhausted, lies buried fathoms deep 
 beneath the crystal drift. So in the early stages of transgression, the soul deems 
 itself capable of throwing off every little temptation that beguiles, and, when it 
 is too late, discovers itself so comi)letely bound in their toils that all efforts to 
 escape are ineffectual. 1. Sin dishonours the soul in tlie estimation of others. 
 "All that honoured her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness" (ver. 
 8). The first step downwards is to sink in the estimation of others. Their 
 commendation sustained us and helped us to keep up to a certain standard of 
 conduct. Others may see the tendency of our sins before we see it ourselves. 
 "When others show their disapproval and despise us for our folly, it is time to 
 pause and reflect. 3. Sin disho7iours the soul in its oivn estimation. "Yea, she 
 sigheth and turneth backward " (ver. 8). It is a lower depth wlien a man sinks 
 in his own estimation, when he cannot courageously confront others, or even face 
 up his better self. Sin saps the strength of our manhood. To be conscious of 
 
 2& 
 
IIOMILETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 sin and asliamed of it are the first hopeful signs of re})entaiice ; hut if the repent- 
 ance is not prompt and genuine, the soul is in danger of becoming more thoroughly 
 demoralised. Such a critical moment comes in most men's lives (Ps. Ixxiii. 2). 
 
 III. In rendering the soul reckless as to consequences. " She remembereth 
 not her last end" — had not thought of the sure end of her sins (ver. 9). The 
 down grade is steep, and every step increases the momentum of the terrible 
 descent. One sin leads to another, and that to another in darker and deeper 
 gradations, until the light of hope is quenched, and the helpless victim gropes 
 about aindessly in the ever-deepening gloom of despair. The soul is now and 
 then haunted with the shadow of a coming reckoning day ; but it seems a great 
 way off, and may never come. The reckoning day does come. 
 
 IV. In its desecration of sacred things (ver. 10). Even the Jew was pro- 
 liibited from entering the innermost sanctuary, and now the prophet laments that 
 the heathen conquerors force their Avay into tiie holy place and plunder Jehovah's 
 Temple, that they may adorn with its sacred vessels the shrines of their false 
 deities. It was desecration to enter the sanctuary, and high sacrilege to rob it of 
 its "pleasant things." Sin knows no respect of persons or places. It obtrudes 
 ■with shameless effrontery into the holiest place, and is callous as to the havoc it 
 works. 
 
 V. In reducing a people to distress and want. " All her people sigh ; they 
 seek bread ; they have given their pleasant things for meat to relieve the soul " 
 (ver. 11). Famine follows in the train of war. A siege lasting a year and a half 
 exhausted the surrounding country, and the Chaldean army would have difficulty 
 in supplying its own commissariat. In the hope that the present scarcity will 
 pass away, the people dispose of the wealth and precious jewels that remain to 
 them for the merest trifles of food. Sin is the prolific cause of war, famine, and 
 the acutest forms of personal and national suffering. Money is valueless when it 
 can purchase nothing in exchange — it cannot prolong the life of the starving. 
 The best things are capable of the worst abuse. The very abuse may test the 
 value. 
 
 VI. Compels the soul to appeal to the Divine compassion. "0 Lord, 
 behold my affliction, for the enemy hath magnified himself" (ver. 9). "See, O 
 Lord, and consider, for I am become vile." I am despised (ver. 11). It is not 
 our vileness that can form a ground of appeal to the Divine consideration, but 
 the abject misery into which our vileness has brought us. God does not pity our 
 sins, but He does pity the distress they occasion, though that distress is the direct 
 result of our obstinate violation of His laws and disregard of His repeated warn- 
 ings. Suffering is a severe teacher. It is a mercy when the eyes of tlie sinner 
 are at length opened, and, seeing that his sins are the cause of his trouble, lie 
 cries to God for help. Long and patiently does God wait for such a cry ; and 
 then with what gracious speed does He hasten to our rescue ! 
 
 Lessons. — 1. Sin demoralises wherever it reigns. 2. Is the occasion of un- 
 sjyealiaUe suffering. 3. Can he cured only hy Divine remedies. 
 
 GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES. 
 
 Ver. 8. " She sigheth and turneth lusive in its beginning. 2. Hardens 
 
 backward." Conscious sin : 1. A the transgressor into reckless indilfer- 
 
 painful humiliation. 2. The first step ence, 3. Is certain to endin ruin, 
 
 in genuine repentance. 3. Should in- — Sin an implacable foe. I. Drags 
 
 duce the soul to seek immediate de- donm the soul to comfortless depths. 
 
 liverance. " "Wlierefore she came down wonder- 
 
 Ver. 9. "She remembereth not her fully; she had no comforter." 11, 
 
 lust end." The course of sin : 1. De- Exults over the misery of its victims. 
 26 
 
nOMILETIO COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 "The enemy hatli magnified himself." 
 See how 2>}'oudli/ the foe deals with me 
 {Geikie). III. Convinces the soul that 
 its only resource is in the Divine pity. 
 "0 Lord, behold my affliction." 
 
 Ver. 10. Heathenism a moral obli- 
 quity. I. Sees no sin in theft. " The 
 adversary hath spread out his hand 
 upon all her pleasant things." II. Has 
 no scruples iii desecratiyig the holiest 
 place. " The heatlien entered into her 
 sanctuary." III. Disregards the Divine 
 laws. "Thou didst command that 
 they should not enter into Thy congre- 
 gation." 
 
 Ver. 11. The extremities of famine. 
 
 I. A sorrowful craving for food. "All 
 her people sigh ; they seek bread." 
 
 II. Desperate efforts made to retain 
 life. "To relieve the soul" — to keep 
 them alive. III. The dearest treasures 
 readily sacrificed. " They have given 
 their pleasant things for meat." 
 
 Illustrations. — Sin the danger of 
 great cities. The spiritual destitution 
 of London is something appalling. 
 There are 10,000 prostitutes — a pro- 
 cession a mile long, walking double tile 
 — all somebody's daughters. There are 
 20,000 thieves — two miles more of that 
 dread procession, and there are 100,000 
 uncared for children, making the pro- 
 cession ten miles in length. These are 
 what John Bright called the residuum, 
 and Dr. Chalmers the lapsed classes. 
 In their abodes every breath is poison ; 
 they are so crowded together that 
 morality is impossible. Such a glimpse 
 of spiritual destitution ought to arouse 
 the heart, not only of every Christian, 
 but of every patriot. 
 
 Sin stupifies. Oh, how difficult it is 
 to awake some men to a sense of danger 
 or duty. Happening to be lounging in 
 the market-jDlace of a little seaport town 
 in France, I saw with some surprise 
 several men in a cafe inhaling the 
 fumes of opium through a tobacco-pipe. 
 By-and-by the wife of one of these men 
 called for her husband to return home 
 in their little market-cart. But he, 
 being in a poisoned slumber, was un- 
 conscious of her existence, and oblivious 
 of things about him. She lifted him 
 
 up and shook him, but he would not 
 awake till the honied-trance stupor was 
 ended. So some of lis are steeped in 
 the opium-lethargy of sin, and will not 
 awake. It is not that we cannot ; Ave 
 will not. 
 
 Sin a disease. A minister once met 
 a man in the street who was afflicted 
 with heart-disease, and said he could 
 not sleep, and that the doctor could 
 do nothing for him. " Ah ! " said the 
 minister, " the worst form of heart- 
 disease is sin. Yet people go about 
 with the disease ; they do not know it, 
 and they sleep quite soundly. Now, it 
 is my business to tell them how matters 
 stand, and to try to disturb their sleep, 
 for I can tell them of a physician who 
 can cure them. Have you been to 
 Christ with your sins'?" The man was 
 silent, but went away deeply impressed. 
 
 Sin and individuality. I remember 
 as though it were yesterday the moment 
 when the idea of individual identity 
 dawned upon my boyish mind. The 
 thought appalled me, for I had been 
 looking at a wretched little beggar-boy 
 with a crutch, a dirty face, and miser- 
 able rags for garments, and it had just 
 occurred to me that he was not to him- 
 self merely an unpleasant object, to be 
 sent away out of sight with some dole 
 of pennies or broken fragments of food, 
 but just the I that I was to myself, as 
 precious, as important; and I grew cold 
 from head to foot, and felt as though I 
 must do something to alter it all. After 
 all these years the horror abides Avith 
 me yet. I do not know whether others 
 feel it as keenly, but it is to me Avorse 
 than any ghost could be to remember 
 the Avretched people of the world — the 
 prisoners in their cells, convicts in their 
 chains, men doomed to die upon the 
 galloAvs at daAvn, Avomen who sell their 
 souls for bread or jewels, beggars gnaAv- 
 ing their crusts by the roadsides, suf- 
 ferers Avhose every breath is agony, 
 Avives Avhose hearts are broken by the 
 cruelty of the husbands Avho Avere once 
 their lovers, men Avho are plotting mur- 
 der and men Avho are committing it, 
 lepers in the cities of lepers holding out 
 their mouldering hands for alms as 
 strangers flee by their gates. To re- 
 
 27. 
 
IIOMILETW COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 ineniLer these, and many, many more, 
 "wicked or accursed, crushed beneatli 
 loads of crime and sorrow too heavy to 
 be borne, and to know when we clasp 
 our hands or drop a tear, and say with 
 a shudder, as we sometimes do, "And 
 it niiglit have been I : that it actually 
 is I to some one ! " It is a terrible 
 thouglit, and yet we should not set it 
 aside. Surtly notliing could prompt us 
 so strongly to do all we can for those 
 who sin or sufftir. 
 
 Sin a double defect. The verb used 
 ofteuest in the isew Testament, sin, 
 means literally to miss the mark. The 
 corresponding nouns have, of course, 
 similar meanings. The idea conveyed 
 is deviation from a standard at Avhich 
 men ought to aim, and whicli they ought 
 to reach. They may miss it by going 
 beyon<l, as well as by falling short. The 
 moral idea is the same as that of omis- 
 sion and transgression. — Tlie Scottish 
 Pulpit. 
 
 The course of sin. 
 
 " We are not worst at once. The course of 
 
 evil 
 Be<,'ius so slowly and from such slight source, 
 An infant's hand might stem its breach with 
 
 claj- ; 
 But let the stream get deeper, and philo- 
 
 sopliy shall strive in vain 
 To turn the headlong current." 
 
 Sin a foe, but not invincible. It is 
 
 said that the late Lord Ampthill, when 
 on diplomatic service in Rome, possessed 
 a boa-constrictor, and interested him- 
 self in watcliing its habits. One day 
 the monster escaped from tlie box where 
 he supposed it was asleep, quietly 
 wounel itself around his boily, and be- 
 gan gradually to tighten its folds. His 
 ])Osition became extremely perilous ; 
 but the consummate coolness and self- 
 possession which had enabled him to 
 win many a diplomatic triumph be- 
 friended him in this dangerous emer- 
 gency, lie remembered there was a 
 bone in the throat of the serpent which, 
 if he could lind and break, he would 
 save himself. He was aware that either 
 he or the snake must perish. Not a 
 inoment must be lost in hesitation, lie 
 deliberately seized the head of the ser- 
 pent, thrust his hand down its throat, 
 23. 
 
 and smashed the vital bone. The coils 
 were relaxed, the victim fell dead at 
 his feet, and he was free ! So in all 
 wickedness there is weakness, and it is 
 a grand thing to discern the vulnerable 
 spot, and be ready with the exact truth, 
 fact, or promise which deals death to 
 the foe. This insight and power are 
 given to all who prayerfullv study God's 
 Word. 
 
 Heathen worship a performance. 
 Marcus V'arro, the great Koaian anti- 
 quarian, wrote forty-one books on the 
 Pagan cultus. He speaks of three 
 orders of gods — the certain gods, the 
 uncertain gods, and the chief and select 
 gods. Referring to the worship offered 
 to these various deities, he arranges his 
 material under four divisions — Avho per- 
 forin, where they perform, when they 
 perform, what they perform. How 
 true it is tliat, apart from genuine 
 spiritual religion, all worship, and espe- 
 cially heathen worship, is but a scenic, 
 pantomimic performance I 
 
 Light for heathen darkness. The 
 simile "dark as a coal-pit" will soon 
 lose its meaning and become obsolete. 
 A colliery company has abolished the 
 miner's lamp and lit up one of their 
 pits with electric lamps, placed at inter- 
 vals of fifteen yards apart. Indeed, the 
 depths of earth and sea are now to be 
 illuminated. One of the difficulties of 
 the deep-sea diver has been the com- 
 parative darkness in which he has had 
 to go about his -work at the bottom 
 of the ocean. Now a French engineer 
 has constructed a lamp, supplied with 
 petroleum, Avhich burns as well under 
 water as in the open air. By an in- 
 genious contrivance it can be lighted at 
 the bottom of the sea, and with the aid 
 of its friendly light the diver is enabled 
 to discover his greatest treasures. So 
 the earnest missionary penetrates the 
 dark depths of heathenism, holding the 
 lamp of Divine truth, flaming with the 
 burning love of the world's Redeemer, 
 and picks up the most degraded victims 
 of idolatry, who, penetrated and refined 
 by the same Divine light that tirst found 
 them out, shall shine with the lustre of 
 the finest jewels.— T/^e Scnftish Pidjnt. 
 
 The horrors of famine. The besieged 
 
EOMILETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATWXS. 
 
 city of Leyden was at its last pasp. living herb was converted into human 
 
 Bread, malt-cake, horse-flesh, had en- food, but these expedients could not 
 
 tirely disappeared ; dogs, cats, rats, and avert starvation. The daily mortality 
 
 other vermin were esteemed luxuries. was frightful — infants starved to death 
 
 A small number of cows, kept as long on the maternal breasts which famine 
 
 as possible for their milk, still remained ; had parched and withered, mothers 
 
 but a few were killed from day to day, dropped dead in the streets with their 
 
 and distributed in minute proportions, dead children in their arms. A dis- 
 
 hardly sufficient to support life among order called the plague, naturally en- 
 
 the famishing population. Starving gendered of hardship and famine, now 
 
 wretches swarmed daily around the came, as if in kindness, to abridge the 
 
 shambles where these cattle were slaugh- agony of the people. The pestilence 
 
 tered, contending for any morsel which stalked at noonday through the city, 
 
 might fall, and eagerly lapping the and tlie doomed inhabitants fell like 
 
 blooii as it ran along the pavement, grass beneath its scythe. From six to 
 
 M'hile the hides, chopped and boiled, eight thousand human beings sank be- 
 
 Avere greedily devoured. Women and fore this scourge alone ; yet the people 
 
 children all day long were seen search- resolutely held out, women and men 
 
 ing gutters and dunghills for morspls of mutually encouraging each other to 
 
 food whicli they disputed fiercely with resist the entrance of their foreign foe 
 
 the famishing dogs. The green leaves — an evil more horrible than pest or 
 
 were stripped from the trees, every famine. — Motley's ^'' Dutcli Republic.''^ 
 
 HOMILETICS. 
 
 A DisTKESSED Nation. 
 
 (Verses 12-17.) 
 
 I. Utters a piteous appeal for sympathy. *• Is it nothing to you, all ye that 
 pass by 1 Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow," &c. (ver. 
 12). Sorrow craves sympathy. A crumb, an atom, however trifling, is eagerly 
 seized and fondly cherished. It matters not from what source it comes. It is 
 welcome from any casual passer-by, from anybody, from anything. The despair- 
 ing find comfort in a flower as it gracefully bends towards them ; in the mute 
 sympathy of a favourite dog. as it caressingly thrusts its nose into the limp hands. 
 It is easy to exaggerate our troubles and imagine there is no sorrow like our own ; 
 but a wider knowledge of the world's ills helps us to correct our magnified esti- 
 mate. There is only One — the world's Redeemer — whose sufferings are unique 
 and unparalleled, 
 
 II. Painfully conscious of the overwhelming nature of its sufferings (ver. 
 13-15). 1. In their fierceness. "From above hath He sent fire into my bones, 
 and it prevaileth against them" — subdues them (ver. 13). It is no earthly, but 
 heavenly fire which burns in the bones of Jerusalem (SpeaJiei-'s Commentanj). 
 It is a fact well established in osteology that inflammation in the bones is not 
 only extremely painful, but dries them up and renders them brittle and useless 
 {Henderson). 2. All attemjyts to escape from them are futile. "He hath s])read 
 a net for my feet. He hath turned me back : He hath made me desolate and faint 
 all the day" (ver. 13). Judea, like a hunted animal, endeavours to escape, but 
 finds every outlet blocked with nets, and recoils from them in terror, and a sense 
 of utter hopeles.sness and exhaustion. The only thing to flee from is sin ; the 
 only refuge to flee to is God. There is no relief from suffering till we are divested 
 of the coils of our sin. 3. Tliey are an unmistakable consequence of sin. " The 
 yoke of my transgressions is bound by His hand : tliey are wreathed and come 
 up upon my neck," &c. (ver. 14). The metaphor is taken from agricultural life, 
 
 • ' ■ ,29 
 
HOMILETIC COMMENTARY : LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 As the plougliman binds the yoke with cords so knotted and twined together that 
 they form a bunch upon the neck of the oxen impossi])le to sliake off, so does 
 God compel Judah to bear the punishment of her sins. The yoke thus imposed 
 by the hand of God, and securely knotted around the neck of Judali by the 
 entangled bonds of her own sins, bows down her strength by its weight, and 
 makes her totter and stumble beneath it. " He hath made my strength to fall " 
 — to stumble [Speaker's Coinnientarij). Sin by and by becomes an intolerable 
 burden, and is constantly reasserting its power over us. There is a lake in 
 Switzerland, shut in by high mountains, a solitary, lonely place, which few 
 travellers visit, and where few care to linger, so desolate and homeless is the spot. 
 Here, an old legend says, every night at midnight the watcher may see the ghost 
 of Pilate come to the shore and try with piteous lamentations to wash from his 
 hands some red stains that are upon them — the marks of the blood of Jesus. But 
 as fast as he washes them off they reappear. So is it with all our sins, small and 
 great. 4. They are an evidence of contemptuous and crushing defeat. " The 
 Lord hath trodden under foot all my mighty men in the midst of me," &c. (ver. 
 15). They had not fallen gloriously in the battlefield, but remained ignominiously 
 in the city, confessing their inability to fight. Irving once said, " With every 
 exertion, the best of men can do but a moderate amount of good, but it seems in 
 the power of the most contemptible individual to do incalculable mischief." The 
 governor-general of a Russian province was once mildly remonstrated with by his 
 secretary regarding a high-handed proceeding, producing at the same time a para- 
 graph from a state volume proving the illegality of the action. The angry governor 
 seized the book and sat upon it, shouting, " Where is the law now?" He then 
 pointed to his decorated breast, and continued in a pompous strain, " Here it is ; 
 I am the law ! " and the secretary had to beat a prudent retreat. It is very 
 humiliating to be in tlie grip of tyranny like this. 
 
 III. The most passionate expression of sorrow brings no relief. " For these 
 things I weep, &c. Zion spreadeth forth her hands, and there is none to comfort 
 her," &c. (vers. 16, 17). Spreading out the hands is a token of the deepest dis- 
 tress. There is no one to comfort — not God, for He is chastening ; nor man, for 
 all the neighbouring nations have become enemies (ver. 2). Tears are a sign of 
 weakness and helplessness. To give way to grief is not the way to conquer it. 
 God is the only refuge in distress, and His help, if sincerely sought, is not in vain. 
 The common cry of the Breton mariner is, "My God, protect me ! my bark is so 
 small and Thy ocean so vast." 
 
 "I am so weak, dear Lord, I cannot stand 
 One moment without Thee : 
 But oh ! the tenderness of Thine enfolding ; 
 And oh ! the faithfuhiess of Thine upholding ; 
 And oh ! the strength of Thy right hand : 
 That strength is enough for nie. 
 
 I am so needy, Lord, and yet I know 
 
 All fulness dwells in Thee ; 
 And hour by hour that never-failing treasure 
 Supplies and fills, in overflowing measure, 
 My least, my greatest need ; and so 
 
 Thy grace is enough for me." 
 
 Lessons.— 1. It is painful to icitness distress we are helpiless to relieve. 2. 
 National distress is the fruit of national crime. 3. National suffering should 
 purify the national life. 
 
 GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES. 
 
 Yer. 12. The sufferings of the classes of the human family. 2. Unicjue 
 ■world's Redeemer : 1. Appeal to all in their character and purpose. .3. 
 30 
 
UOMILETIC COMMENTAR Y : LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 CHAP. T. 
 
 Aggravated by the mysterious manifes- 
 tation of the Divine wrath. 4. The 
 hasis of the world's salvation. 5. 
 Should arrest the attention and engage 
 the prayerful thought of the sinner. 
 
 — Is it nothing to you ? I. The 
 sufferings of Christ upon the Cross ivere 
 wiparaUelecL 1. Because of the dignity 
 of His person. 2. Because of the per- 
 fect innocence of His character. 3. 
 ]5ecause there was such a conjunction 
 of griefs. 4. Because they were volun- 
 tarily undertaken and continued in. 5. 
 Because those for whom He died thus 
 voluntarily were His enemies. 6. Be- 
 cause they were expiatory. 11. TJie 
 sufferings of Christ have had a deep 
 interest in them for many. 1. Mul- 
 titudes have found in them a cure 
 for despair. 2. In others they have 
 wrought a complete transformation of 
 their lives. 3. Had power on men's 
 minds to gird them to heroic deeds. 4. 
 Men who love the suffering Saviour be- 
 come patient in their every-day suffer- 
 ings. 5. They learn to hate sin by 
 seeing the agonies by which redemption 
 was obtained. III. WJiat have you 
 to do loith. Christ? "Write down your 
 decision whether you will have Christ 
 or not. A poor, suffering girl, who had 
 long loved the Saviour, under a feeling 
 of depression, confessed to her minister 
 that she had deceived herself, and did 
 not love Him. The minister walked 
 to the window and wrote on a piece of 
 paper, " I do not love the Lord Jesus 
 Christ," and said, "Susan, here is a 
 pencil. Just put your name to that." 
 "iS^o, sir," slie said, "I could not sign 
 that." "Why not?" "I would be 
 torn to pieces before I would sign it, 
 sir." "But why not sign it if it is 
 true?" "Ah! sir," she said, "I hope 
 it is not true. I think I do love Him." — 
 C. H. Spurgeon. 
 
 — Our duty towards the Jewish 
 people. I. The facts on which the appeal 
 is founded. The unparalleled sorrow and 
 sutierings of the Jewish people. Where 
 is the nation that has been subject to 
 such universal contempt ? All mankind 
 seems to have conspired to despise the 
 Jews. They seem under the curse of 
 Heaven. 11. Tlie ajfpeal itself . "Is it 
 
 nothing to you?" That the world 
 should pass by we cannot wonder. 
 That the heathen or ^lohammedan 
 should neglect the Jew can excite no 
 surprise. That the mere self-loving 
 nominal Christian should heed him not, 
 is all natural ; but that the follower of 
 Christ should pass by may well excite 
 astonishment. It is an error to suppose 
 we need not care to labour among the 
 Jews because the Gospel is a Gentile 
 dispensation, and that the Jews are 
 shut out until the fulness of the Gentiles 
 be come in. The Gospel is as much a 
 Jewish dispensation as was the Law. 
 To them it was promised ; to them it 
 Avas given. By them it was proclaimed 
 to the Gentiles, and theirs it still is. 
 Zeal for the honour of Christ should 
 lead us to direct our first endeavours to 
 the Jewish people. — M'Caid. 
 
 Ver. 13. Divine punishment. I. 
 Marl'ed by great severity. " From 
 above hath He sent fire into my bones, 
 and it prevaileth against them." 11. 
 Admits of no escap>efrom its toils. " He 
 hath spread a net for my feet ; He hath 
 turned me back." III. Thoroughly 
 subdues the sufferer. " He hath made 
 me desolate and faint all the day." 
 
 Ver. 14. The galling tyranny of 
 sin. I. Oppressive. " The yoke of my 
 transgressions is bound by His hand ; 
 they are wreathed and come up upon 
 my neck." II. Exhausting. " He 
 hath made my strength to fall." III. 
 Reduces the soul to helplessness. "The 
 Lord hath delivered me into their 
 hands, from whom I am not able to 
 rise up." 
 
 — The misery of the penitent. 1. 
 When conscious of the burden of sin. 
 2. When realising his increasing help- 
 lessness. III. When abandoned to 
 reap the consequences of his transgres- 
 sions. 4. Can be relieved only by the 
 pitifulness of the Divine mercy. 
 
 Ver. 15. Inglorious defeat. I. The 
 veteran ivarriors are captured in the 
 midst of the city from tvhich they had 
 not courage to issue forth and defend. 
 " Tlie Lord hath trodden under foot all 
 my mighty men in the midst of me." 
 11. The combiriations of the foe were too 
 powerful for the bravery of the young to 
 
 31 
 
IIOMILETIC CO^fMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 resist. " He hath called an assembly 
 against mo to crush my young men." 
 III. llie defeat of the nation is ahjrct 
 and comjilete. "Tlie Lord hath trodden 
 the virgin, the daughter of Judah, as 
 in a Avine -press." 
 
 Vers. 16, 17. The helplessness of 
 despair. I. Tears and entreaties are 
 ill vain. "For these things I weep; 
 mine eye, mine eye runnetli down with 
 ■water. Zion spreadetli forth her hands, 
 and there is none to comfort her " (vers. 
 16, 17). II. Sin debases a j^^ople in 
 the estimation of God and man. " Jeru- 
 falem is as a mcnstruous woman " — hath 
 become a loatliing — "among them" 
 (ver. 17). III. There is no h 02)6 of escape. 
 " My children are desolate because the 
 enemy prevailed" (ver. 16). "The 
 Lord hath commanded concerning 
 Jacob that his adversaries should be 
 round about him" (ver. 17). 
 
 Tllttstrations. — A distresssd na- 
 tion: the havoc of war. AVhen tlie 
 French army invadetl Russia in 1812, 
 and penetrated as far as ]\Ioscow, Count 
 Rostopchin, the governor, thinking it 
 more glorious to destroy the ancient 
 capital of the Czars than suffer it to 
 harbour and protect an enemy, caused 
 it to be burned to the ground. Tlie 
 most heartrending scenes were wit- 
 nessed. The people, hastily snatching 
 np their most precious effects, fled be- 
 fore the flames. Others, actuated bj-- 
 the general feelings of nature, saved 
 only their parents or their infants, who 
 Avere closely clasped in tlieir arms. 
 Tliey Avere followed by their other 
 children, running as fast as their little 
 strength Avould permit, and, Avith all the 
 Avildness of childisli terror, vociferating 
 the beloved name of mother ! Tlie old 
 people, borne doAvn by grief more than 
 by age, had not sufficient poAver to 
 follow their families, and expired near 
 the houses in Avhicli they Avere born. 
 No cry, no complaint Avas heard. Boih 
 the conqueror and the conquered Avere 
 eqiially hardened. The lire, whose 
 ravages could not be restrained, soon- 
 reached the finest parts of the cit}'. 
 The palaces Avere enveloped in flames. 
 Their magnificent fronts, ornamented 
 32 
 
 with bas-reliefs and statues, fell Avith a 
 dreadful crash. The churches, witli 
 their steeples resplendent Avith gold and 
 silver, were destroyed. The hospitals, 
 containing more than 12,000 Avounded, 
 began to burn, and almost all the iu- 
 mates perished. A few who still lin- 
 gered Avere seen craAvling half burnt 
 amongst the smoking ruins, and others, 
 groaning under heaps of dead bodies, 
 endeavoured in vain to extricate them- 
 selves from the horrible destruction 
 Avhich surrounded them. From Avliat- 
 ever side vicAved, nothing Avas seen but 
 ruin and flames. The fire raged as if 
 it Avere fanned by some invisible poAA'er. 
 The most extensive range of buildings 
 seemed to kindle, to burn, and to dis- 
 appear in an instant. The Avild pil- 
 lagers precipitated themselves into the 
 midst of the flames. They Avaded in 
 blood, treading on dead bodies Avithout 
 remorse, Avliile the burning ruins fidl 
 on their murderous hands. Tlie signal 
 patriotism of sacrificing the city in order 
 to subdue the enemy actuated all ranks. 
 
 Affliction reveals our sins. So long 
 as leaves are on the trees and bushes, 
 you cannot see the bird's nests; but in 
 the Avinter, Avhen all the leaves are off, 
 then you see them plainly. And so 
 long as men are in prosperity and have 
 their leaves on, they do not see Avhat 
 nests of sin and lust are in their hearts 
 and lives; but Avhen all their leaves are 
 off, in the day of their afflictions, then 
 they see them, and say, " I did not 
 think I had had such nests of sins and 
 lusts in my soul and life." — Brid(/e. 
 
 Whose sorroAvs are like unto mine ] 
 O thou erring mortal, repine not. Our 
 Father has some great and Avise purpose 
 in thus afflicting thee, and Avilt tliou 
 dare murmur against Him Avhen He 
 removed the idol that He alone m;iy 
 reign? Pause and reflect. Examine 
 Avell thy conscience, and see if there 
 Avere not earthly attractions clinging to 
 thy soul and leading tliee to forget the 
 Creator in thy love for the creature. 
 Raise not thy feeble voice against the 
 ^lost High, lest He send upon thee a 
 still greater trial in order to teach thee 
 submission. Behold His noble exanijile 
 Avlieii pejsecuted by a Avhole. Avoild. 
 
IIOMILETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 Imagine Him, the God of the universe, 
 standing before the Jewish Sanhedrin, 
 condemned, buffeted, spit upon ! One 
 blazing look of wratliful indignation 
 would have annihilated that rude 
 rabble ; but, with all the beauty and 
 grace of self-abnegation, He bowed His 
 head and praj'ed, "Father, forgive 
 them ; they know not what they do." 
 Wouldst thou find relief for thy suffer- 
 ings? Contemplate the life of Him 
 who spake as never man spake. Fol- 
 low Him through all those years of toil 
 and suffering. Witness His deeds of 
 meicy and love, and then — go thou and 
 do likewise. — German Reformed Mes- 
 senger. 
 
 Self-sacrifice. An extraordinary ex- 
 ample of self-sacrifice was witnessed at 
 Chicago. A member of the brother- 
 hood of Knight-Templars was operated 
 upon for cancer, and a wound nearly a 
 foot square was left. The surgeon de- 
 clared that if the patient was to recover, 
 the wound must be covered with new 
 human skin. At once 132 members of 
 the brotherhood volunteered to allow a 
 small strip of skin to be cut from their 
 arms, so that the pieces thus obtained 
 might be transferred to the wound of 
 their comrade. The operation was per- 
 formed. Several of the brave fellows 
 fainted, but the majority bore the in- 
 cision of the surgeon's knife without 
 flinching. It is inspiriting to hear of 
 such heroic self-sacritice. Much of the 
 suffering of the Christian worker is 
 vicarious ; but no number of acts of 
 suffering on behalf of others can equal 
 the sublime sacrifice of Him- who 
 suffered and died for the whole race, — - 
 The Scottish Pulint. 
 
 Divine punislunent and pessimism, 
 Noah was a pessimist to the antedilu- 
 vian world; Moses was a pessimist to 
 Pharaoh in Egypt ; Samuel was a pes- 
 simist, and his very first prediction 
 foretold the downfall of the aged Eli 
 and his godless family, Jeremiah was 
 a pessimist, constantly foretelling evil 
 and danger ; Jonah was a pessimist, who 
 disturbed the peace of the city, crying, 
 *' Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be 
 overthrown." Nahum was a pessimist, 
 crying, "Woe to the bloody city!" 
 33 
 
 Micaiah was a pessimist when he fore- 
 told the overthrow of Ahab, the guilty 
 king, who complained that he never pro- 
 phesied any good of him. The Saviour 
 was a pessimist, for He foretold the 
 destruction of Jerusalem and the cala- 
 mities that were to come upon the 
 world. The Apostles Peter, James, 
 John, Jude were all pessimists, for they 
 were continually foretelling perilous 
 times, departure from the faith, and 
 the coming judgment upon the godless 
 world. The great preachers and poets 
 of the ages have been pessimists, for 
 they were ever warning men of present 
 evil and coming wrath, of predicted 
 calamities and judgments overhanging 
 the godless and profane. — Christian' 
 Repository. 
 Sin a slavery, 
 
 " There is a bondage which is worse to bear 
 Than his who breathes, by roof and floor 
 
 and wall 
 Pent in, a tyrant's solitary thrall : ' 
 
 'Tis his who walks about in the open air, 
 One of a nation who henceforth must wear 
 Their fetters in their souls." 
 
 — Wordsworth. 
 
 Discovery of the destructive work' 
 of sin. The steeple of the Church of 
 St. Bride, London, originally built by 
 Christopher Wren, was struck by light- 
 ning in 1764, and the upper part had 
 to be rebuilt, when it was lowered eight 
 feet. It was then discovered that an 
 old hawk had inhabited the two upper 
 circles, the open arcades of which were 
 filled Avith masses of birds' bones, chiefly 
 those of the city pigeons upon which it 
 had preyed. It would be well if more 
 frequent discovery could be made of 
 those wily hawks of society who prey 
 with such merciless and ingenious greed 
 upon the simple and unsuspecting, 
 Tiieir discovery is all the more difficult 
 when they make the Church of Christ 
 their hiding-place, and the clean-picked 
 relics of their numerous victims are all 
 the more sad to contemplate when one 
 at length finds out that the work of 
 plunder has been carried on under the 
 sacred garb of religion. 
 
 The misery of the penitent; how 
 cured. Five persons were studying 
 what were the best means for mortifying 
 
 c 
 
IWMILETrC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 sill. One said, to meditate on death ; 
 the second, to meditate on judg- 
 ment ; the third, to meditate on tlie 
 joys of heaven ; the fourth, to medi- 
 tate on the torments of hell ; the fifth, 
 to meditate on the blood and suffer- 
 ings of Christ ; and certainly the last 
 is the choicest and strongest motive 
 of all. If ever we would cast off our 
 despairing thoughts, we must dwell and 
 muse much upon and apply this precious 
 blood to our own souls ; so shall sorrow 
 and mourning flee away. — Brooks. 
 
 Remorse. Kemorse may disturb the 
 slumbers of a man who is dabbling witli 
 his first experiences of wrong ; and 
 when the pleasure has been tasted and 
 is gone, and nothing is left of the crime 
 but the ruin which it has wrought, then 
 the Furies take their seats upon the 
 midnight pillow. Eut the meridian of 
 evil is for the most part left unvexed ; 
 and when a man has chosen his road, 
 he is left alone to follow it to the end. 
 — Fronde, 
 
 Inglorious defeat — The retreat from 
 Moscow. Tlie annals of ancient and 
 modern warfare, in the vast catalogue 
 of woes which they record, do not pre- 
 sent a parallel to the sufferings of the 
 French on the retreat from Moscow — 
 sufferings neither cheered by hope nor 
 mitigated by the slightest relief. The 
 army in its retreat had to encamp on 
 the bare snow in the midst of the 
 severest winter that even Russia ever 
 experienced. The soldiers, without 
 shoes and almost without clothes, were 
 enfeebled by fatigue and famine. Sit- 
 ting on their knapsacks, the cold buried 
 some in a temporary, but more in an 
 eternal sleep. Those who were able to 
 rise from tliis benumbing posture, only 
 did it to broil some slices of horse-flesh, 
 perhaps cut from their favourite charger, 
 or to melt a few morsels of ice. In the 
 march it was impossible to keep them 
 in onler, as imperious hunger seduced 
 them from their colours, and threw their 
 columns into confusion. Many of the 
 French women accompanied the army 
 on foot, with shoes of stuff little calcu- 
 lated to defend them from the frozen 
 snow, and clad in old robes of silk or 
 the thinnest muslin; and they were 
 34 
 
 glad to cover themselves with tattered 
 pieces of military cloaks, torn from the 
 dead bodies of the soldiers. The cold 
 was so severe that men were frozen to 
 death in the ranks, and at every step 
 were seen the dead bodies of the soldiers 
 stretched on the snow. Of four hundred 
 thousand warriors who had crossed the 
 Niemen at the opening of the campaign, 
 scarcely twenty thousand repassed it. 
 Such was the dreadful havoc which a 
 Kussian winter caused to the finest, 
 best-appointed, and most powerful army 
 that ever took the field. 
 
 Christianity addresses the despair- 
 ing. Throughout all the ages which 
 have followed Christ's word, Christ's 
 message has rung in with power upon 
 men's lives just in proportion to their 
 dejection and despair. One of the 
 earliest attacks upon Christianity was 
 the censure that it was a word to the 
 miserable. Such indeed it is. If it 
 is censurable to move among men when 
 they are dispirited, when they have 
 come to the end of a civilisation, when 
 nothing but blank hopelessness and 
 no remedy lies in front of them, then 
 Christianity is censurable, Christ's mes- 
 sage is open to reproach. If that be 
 a fault, it is not faultless. It stands 
 condemned. If too you deem it blame- 
 worthy to go to the individual when he 
 has sinned, when he has flung away his 
 life madly, wickedly, passionately, to 
 stand beside him, nay, to bend over 
 him with aifectionate interest, when he 
 is lying ragged, beaten, hungry, and 
 filthy in tlie far country into which he 
 has gone, then neither Cliristianity nor 
 Christ can escape your blame. They 
 stand convicted of the crime of re- 
 ceiving sinners and eating with them, 
 of laying their hands on lepers who 
 are unclean, of seeking the society of 
 tlie demented and insane. — liev. H. 
 Rosa. 
 
 Crying to God. Several children of 
 a faiinly were once playing in a garden 
 when one fell into a tank. When the 
 father heard of it, he asked what means 
 they thought of to rescue their brother 
 from his perilous situation. Inquiring 
 of the youngest, he said, "John, what 
 did you do to rescue your brother ? " 
 
ROM I LET IC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 The boy answered, " Father, what cried as loud as I could." If we cannot 
 should I do ? I am so young that I bring a ladder or rope, all can cry, all 
 could not do anything, but I stood and can plead with God. 
 
 HOMILETICS. 
 
 The Bitter Fruits of Eebellion. 
 
 (Yerses 18-22.) 
 
 I. That rebellion is the violation of the law of a righteous God. "The 
 Lord is righteous, for I have rebelled against His commandment" (ver. 18). "I 
 have grievously rebelled " (ver. 20). A man may fight against God's will and 
 exalt his own ; but he cannot fight against the law by which obedience brings 
 peace, harmony, and joy to the soul, and disobedience brings unrest, pain, and 
 deadness. All things in God's universe proclaim the folly of the man who thinks 
 to oppose his will to the Infinite. He may to some extent succeed in thwarting 
 the Divine will ; but he cannot prosper. What may seem success will turn into 
 shame and ruin. The violation of law puts us out of harmony with God, Nature, 
 and man. 
 
 II. That rebellion is the occasion of great national disasters. 1. Hie young 
 are enslaved. "My virgins and my young men are gone into captivity" (ver. 18). 
 There is little hope for the future of a nation when its young people are in 
 degrading bondage. Christianity has created a just appreciation of the worth of 
 young life. A Japanese woman once came to a Christian lady in Japan with a 
 girl-baby which had been thrown into a ditch by its father, as thousands were, 
 because it was " only a girl." In begging the Christian lady to take care of the 
 naked child, covered Avith mud, the poor Avoman said, " Please do take little baby. 
 Your God is the only God tliat teaches to be good to little children." 2. Friend- 
 ships are demoralised. " I called for my lovers, but they deceived me" (ver. 19). 
 The confusion that springs out of rebellion is a severe strain on the fidelity of 
 professed friends. Promises made with the utmost solemnity are little regarded. 
 One brave and truthful action tells more than a million utterances of the mouth. 
 Genuine friendship is ever frank and true. Simplicity is not the absence of 
 intricacy, but its solution. The true friend, however much misunderstood in a 
 time of disorder, comes out scatheless. 3. The nation is ravaged by war, famine, 
 and death. " Abroad the sword bereaveth, at home there is as death " (ver. 20). 
 "My priests and mine elders gave up the ghost in the city, while they sought 
 their meat to relieve their souls " (ver. 29). Those who should have advised and 
 comforted the people were disabled by starvation, or were lying dead among the 
 slain. 4. The sufferings of the people are distressingly acute. " I am in distress ; 
 my bowels are troubled ; mine heart is turned within me " (ver. 20). My heart 
 is so violently agitated that it seems to have changed its position — to be over- 
 turned. It is difficult to conceive words that could more pathetically describe 
 the extremity of grief. Much of our trouble is intensified by forebodings as to the 
 future. God gives us strength to bear each day's burden as it comes. When we 
 stagger and fall because our burden has become too heavy, it is because we have 
 added of our own accord something of the future's weight to that of the present. 
 5. The enemies gloat over the national troubles. " They have heard that I sigh ; 
 there is none to comfort me. All mine enemies have heard of my trouble. They 
 are glad that thou hast done it" (ver. 21). It is the acme of cruelty and obduracy 
 of heart to chuckle over the miseries of the fallen. How different is the true 
 Christian spirit. Lord Shaftesbury earned the title of " the good Earl " by his 
 philanthropic endeavours to raise the most depraved. A costermonger who had 
 been a most notorious sinner was once asked, " Wliat did his Lordship say to you 
 
 35 
 
HOMILETIC COMMENTARY : LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 that made you a reformed man ? " " Oh, he didn't say niucli," was the reply. 
 " He just sat down by my side and said, ' Jack, we will make a man of you yet.' " 
 It was the upward gravitation of Christian manhood that helped Jack, and many 
 like him. 
 
 III. That every nation that rebels against God will be certainly punished. 
 " Thou wilt bring the day that Thou hast called, and they shall be like unto me. 
 Do unto them as Thou hast done unto me," &c. (ver. 21, 22). The projihet, in 
 terras that seem dictated by a spirit of retaliation, is but expressing in prophecy 
 what actually happened in the capture of Babylon — the destruction of the Chaldean 
 empire and of the neighbouring states by which the Jews had been ill-used. He 
 also expressed the general truth, so often exemplified in history, that the nations 
 that ignore God come to nought. 
 
 Lessons. — 1. The greatest troubles of a nation are the result of rebellion. 2. God 
 is not indifferent to the sufferings of a nation under ■punishment. 3. Obedience to 
 God is the only guarantee of national 'prosperity. 
 
 GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES. 
 
 Ver. 18. "The Lord is righteous, for 
 I have rebelled against His command- 
 ment." Divine justice : 1. Is publicly 
 acknowledged, 2. Must punish rebel- 
 lion. 3. Is ever mingled with mercy. 
 
 — "Hear, I pray you, all people, and 
 behold my sorrow." The voice of sor- 
 row: 1. Has a lesson for all classes. 
 2. Cannot express all that is felt. 3. 
 Excites sympathy among the most in- 
 different. 4. Sliould lead to inquiry 
 as to its cause. 
 
 — " My virgins and my young men 
 are gone into captivity." Young life : 
 1. The hope and strength of a nation. 2. 
 Should be placed in the most favourable 
 circumstances for development and cul- 
 ture. 3. Is crushed by the degradation 
 of slavery. 
 
 Ver. 19. "I called for my lovers, 
 but they deceived me." Human fickle- 
 ness : 1. A bitter disappointment when 
 shown by those we love, and who have 
 professed to love us. 2. Cannot bear 
 the strain of a great trial. Fails us 
 when we most need help. 3. A pure, 
 unselfish, faithful affection a rarity. 4. 
 Should teach us to trust alone in God. 
 
 Ver. 20. Sincere penitence : I. 
 ShowTi in a frank and full confession of 
 sin. "I have grievously sinned." II. 
 Experiences the most jmngent sorroiofor 
 sin. " I am in distress : my bowels are 
 troubled : mine heart is turned within 
 me." III. Appeals to G<kI alone for 
 mercy. " Behold, Lord." 
 36 
 
 Ver. 21. A spirit of enmity : I. h 
 
 coldly indiffereid to the troubles of others, 
 though cognisant of them. " All mine 
 enemies have heard of my trouble." 
 
 II. Exhibits a refinement of cruelty in 
 rejoicing over the distresses of its victims. 
 "They are glad thou hast done it." 
 
 III. Will meet with a day of retribu- 
 tion. "Thou wilt bring the day that 
 Thou hast called, and they shall be like 
 unto me." 
 
 Ver. 22. The punishment of Judah 
 a type of the punishment of all un- 
 faithful nations. I. Their sins are 
 fully known to God. "Let all their 
 wickedness come before Thee." II. 
 Theytcill be punished according to their 
 actual sins. " Do unto them as Thou 
 hast done unto me for all my trans- 
 giessions." III. They shall k)ioio loltat 
 it is to endure sorrow and exhaustion. 
 " For my sighs are many, and my heart 
 is faint." 
 
 Illustrations. — Rebellion — Dead 
 Sea fruit. — If Satan ever knows plea- 
 sure at all, it is of the foulest and most 
 unsatisfactory kind. Dust is his meat. 
 There is nothing satisfying in the plea- 
 sures of rebellion. He remains a dis- 
 appointed, restless being. The most 
 cunning error which he invents and 
 sustains by philosophy is no more than 
 dust. His wliole cause, for which ho 
 has laboured these thousands of years 
 with a horrible perseverance, will dis- 
 
IIOMILETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 CHAP. r. 
 
 solve into dust, and be l)lown away as 
 smoke. Still doth he feed himself on 
 dust. Let those who are servants of 
 Satan know assuredly that as they are 
 living in sin they will have to eat at 
 their father's table and learn the empti- 
 ness of all the pleasures of sin, and the 
 worthlessness of all the treasures of 
 evil. Everything that sin can bring 
 you is just so much dust — foul eating, 
 insufficient, clogging, killing. Though 
 you hoard up wealth, gold is nothing 
 but dust to a dying man. Though you 
 gain all earthly honour, it too di-ssolves 
 into dust. This is the misery of that 
 great sj^irit who is called the Prince of 
 Darkness, that he must eat dust all his 
 days. But what misery it must be to 
 be only some poor subject in that unhal- 
 lowed kingdom, and still to be doomed 
 to the same loathsome fare ! Dust 
 slialt thou eat all the days of thy life. 
 Note that right well ; and may God 
 deliver you from such feeding ! — Stur- 
 geon. 
 
 Fomenting reballion, a ruinous 
 policy. The rebellion in the Nether- 
 lands had already been an expensive 
 matter to the crown. The Spanish 
 army numbered more than sixty-two 
 thousand- men. Forty millions of dol- 
 lars had already been sunk, and it 
 seemed probable that it would require 
 nearly the whole annual produce of the 
 American mines to sustain the war. 
 The Transatlantic gold and silver, dis- 
 interred from the depths where tliey 
 had been buried for ages, were em- 
 ployed not to expand the current of a 
 healthy, life-giving commerce, but to be 
 melted into blood. The sweat and tor- 
 tures of the king's pagan subjects in 
 the primeval forests of the New World 
 were made subsidiary to the extermina- 
 tion of his Netherland people and the 
 destruction of an ancient civilisation. 
 To this end had Columbus discovered a 
 hemisphere for Castile and Aragon, 
 and the new Indies revealed their hid- 
 den treasures. The military expenses 
 alone of the Netherlands were more 
 than seven million dollars yearly, and 
 the mines of the New "World produced 
 an annual average of only eleven. 
 There was not a stiver left in the ex- 
 
 chequer, nor the means of raising one. 
 Such was the condition to which the 
 unrelenting tyranny and financial ex- 
 periments of Alva had reduced the 
 country. — Motlei/s ^^ Dutch Republic," 
 
 Sorrow does not regenerate. On a 
 May day in the French Revolution of 
 1848, a wretched-looking man was seen 
 dragging himself along by the help of 
 a stick, fleeing from the excited and 
 rushing crowd, till he entered a hall in 
 the Louvre, where was an exquisite 
 jiiece of sculpture, the Venus of Milos. 
 Before this statue the man broke down, 
 and bitter tears streamed over his face. 
 That man was Heinrich Heine, the 
 scoffing Israelite. Tliis one moment 
 disclosed a whole world of heartache. 
 "Deepest misery, thy name is Heine !" 
 was the passionate cry that escaped his 
 lips. The source of this misery was 
 the pleasure of the world. The goddess 
 before whom he lay prostrate entwined 
 the poet with the glowing arms of sense. 
 He had sacrificed all to her — body, soul, 
 conscience, reason, heart, and harp. 
 "Once," he groaned, "I fancied, Avilh 
 Hegel, I was a god ; now I know I am 
 a sick, forgotten Jew." Sixteen years, 
 filled with unexampled pains, followed, 
 but it was only a transitory glance of 
 faith to which the poet attained. On 
 the whole, affliction only excited him 
 to new blasphemies. — Otto FuncJce. 
 
 Justice and mercy. Terror is sub- 
 servient to love. As a skilful painter 
 fills the background of his picture with 
 his darker colours, so God introduces 
 the black thunder-clouds of Sinai to 
 give brighter prominence to Jesus, the 
 Cross of Calvary, and His love to the 
 chief of sinners. — Guthrie. 
 
 Youth. Youth and white paper take 
 any impression. The young are the 
 divinely-appointed heirs of the great 
 past, and the fathers of the sublime 
 future. 
 
 — Perhaps as the Creator looks down 
 on this world, whose wondrous beauty 
 beams on us more and more in proper^ 
 tion as our science would take it from 
 poetry into law, He beholds nothing so 
 beautiful as the pure heart of a simple, 
 loving child. — Lytton. 
 
 Human fickleness a disappointment. 
 37 
 
HOMILETIC COMMENTARY : LAMENTATIONS, 
 
 Astronomers tell us that temporary stars 
 attain their maximum brightness only 
 once and for all. They burst into 
 brilliance suddenly, come to a point, 
 continue at that point only for a short 
 time, and then vanish, either by ex- 
 ploding or by coming into collision with 
 another body. It is difficult to see the 
 reason for their existence at all, except 
 to show that the steady, dependable 
 light of the permanent star is of more 
 service in the heavens than the flashing 
 brilliance that dazzles only to confuse 
 and mislead. It is dangerous to be 
 star of any kind, whether pulpit star, 
 political star, or social star ; but to be 
 a temporary star is the most provoking 
 and disappointing of all. — The Scottish 
 Pulpit. 
 
 Human fickleness and its contrast. 
 At a trial in Anglesey the heroic devo- 
 tion of a wife and the base fickleness 
 and savagery of a husband were pain- 
 fully illustrated. The prisoner saved 
 his neck through the self-forgetful de- 
 votion of his wife, who sat at his side, 
 pale and suffering, through the trial. If 
 it had been known that the third bullet 
 fired from his pistol Avas even then 
 lodging in the body of his faithful wife, 
 nothing would have saved his life. It 
 was only after the miserable man had 
 been convicted of murder in a minor 
 degree that did not involve hanging 
 that she applied to a doctor, confessed 
 that her husband had shot her, and 
 tliat the bullet was still in her hip. 
 Who can fathom a woman's love and 
 •'evotion ? It is often strangely lavished 
 '^n those who deserve it least. — Ibid. 
 
 Penitence involves confession of sin. 
 Sometimes a prisoner is advised to plead 
 not guilty because his advocate has dis- 
 covered a flaw in the indictment, or a 
 weak place in the chain of evidence, 
 and he may get the benefit of the doubt. 
 Not so in the case of the sinner ; there 
 can be no doubt. The evidence is 
 cumulative. He is caught red-handed 
 in the act of sin. His only hope for 
 mercy is in a full and frank confes- 
 sion. 
 
 How enmity is manufactured. 
 "Right must right remain," says the 
 farmer, and goes to law with his neigh- 
 38 
 
 hour about a strip of pasture-land a 
 quarter of a yard wide, and enmity and 
 hatred exist between tlie two families 
 for whole decades, while a thousand 
 times the value of the disputed strip is 
 lost over it. But no matter ; " Right 
 must right remain." Nor is it only 
 among farmers, but among all kinds of 
 jteople that such foolish and unhappy 
 litigation takes place, just because no 
 one chooses to give way ; nay, not even 
 to submit to the judgment of an um- 
 pire. " Right must right remain," says 
 A, and passionately disputes in a large 
 party with B as to whether the train 
 
 Avliich ran two years ago to H in 
 
 the evening was an ordinary or an ex 
 press train ; and this wretched stub- 
 bornness in disputing about trifles 
 destroys the sociability of men who 
 ought to have brought light and salt to 
 each other. " Right must right remain," 
 says tins respectable man. He was 
 offended by the harsh words of another, 
 and has now passed him coldly by for 
 years. "He must first apologise," he 
 says, instead of saying, " Don't let us 
 please the devil by hating one another ; 
 here is my hand ; we arc brethren and 
 heirs of one heaven." No ! " Right 
 must right remain." — Otto FnucJce. 
 
 Retribution. The certainty that un- 
 repentant wickedness will be punished 
 may be argued — 1. From the principle 
 of moral causation. God has established 
 such a connection between character 
 and condition that misery must ever 
 spring from sin, and blessedness from 
 virtue. Our present grows out of the 
 past, hence our sins must find us out. 
 What we morally sowed yesterday we 
 reap in experience to-day, and so on for 
 ever. 2. From the operation of moral 
 memory, ^femory recalls sins, places 
 them before the eye of conscience, and 
 sets the soul aflame. 3. From the 
 declarations of Scripture. " The wicked 
 shall not go unpunished. The wicked 
 shall be turned into hell, with all the 
 nations that forget God." 4. From the 
 history of mankind. Nations are an 
 example — the Antediluvians, the 
 Sodomites, the Jews. Individuals are 
 an example. — Moses, David, Judas. — ■ 
 D. Thomas, D.D. 
 
nOMILETIC COMMENTARY : LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 CHAPTEE II. 
 
 The Punishment of National Sin. 
 
 In this second elegy the poet has his attention fixed on something that is beyond Chaldean 
 and Jew. He sees, what the eyes of the world do not see, that the hand of the invisible Governor 
 of all nations is directing both oppressor and oppressed, and is at work to show that no force 
 and no victory, no disaster and no shame, were aimless happenings. He is to be regarded as 
 the real agent in producing the various events referred to. His righteous judgments are not 
 deferred to a future state : they are issued in this life against all unrighteousness of men, and from 
 Him alone can relief and instruction be obtained. So throughout the song is heard the refrain 
 that the Lord Jehovah is supreme over all the forces of the world, and over all that those forces 
 seem to accomplish. In face of the great Babylonian power, boastful of its victories and material 
 grandeur, deeming itself at liberty to harry, enslave, kill for its own selfish interests ; in face 
 of his ruined cit}' and desecrated Temple, of starving children and slaughtered chiefs, the writer 
 holds up the fact that these are not independent potentates fixing their own terms ; that they 
 are but messengers of the Lord, who docth according to His will, in the army of heaven and among 
 the inhabitants of the earth, and who is preparing ways for the triumph of His free mercy and 
 unstained holiness. " This Hebrew was saved from the terrible conclusion that the selfish, cruel 
 force, which in his day carried all before it, was the highest power in life, simply by believing 
 righteousness to be more exalted still." {Smith), Every nerve may tingle with pain, everything 
 dear may be cut down, every step onward may seem to add another misery, but God's righteous 
 and loving will shall make all things work together for " the far-oflF divine " eveutualties towards 
 *' whicli the whole creation " is impelled. 
 
 Two principal divisions mark off the poem. The first, ver. 1-10, describes the palpable 
 effects of the subjugation on things and persons. Ascribing these to the Lord, he passes, in 
 the second section, to mournful utterances over the obvious desolations — harping, as grief is 
 prone to do, on the same note — and concludes with a call for prayer to the Lord, and the form 
 which that prayer would take in such dire straits. 
 
 (S) Ver. 1. The poet sees nature as if it were in commotion. A storm-cloud piles up over 
 Jerusalem, shrouding with its gloom even the most commanding summit. But it is not the 
 swirls of an inanimate force which he perceives, nor yet the rush of human passi<m in an army 
 of cruel men, it is the Supreme Ruler who hath His way in the whirlwind, and the storm of anger 
 and strife, and the clouds of disaster are the dust of His feet. How doth the Lord in His anger ; 
 anger is the acting quality which impresses its aspect on the writer's mind, as is shown by his 
 frequent references to it — twice here, and in vers. 3, 6, 21, 22, cf. ver. 2 : cover with a cloud 
 the daughter of Zion. Under this expression, and the similar ones which follow, daughter of 
 Judah, daughter of Jerusalem, is included inhabitants of all classes ; no principle but that of 
 poetic license apparently regulating the employment of either name. The storm-cloud has swept 
 across the land which was called the glory of all lands, and He has cast down from heaven 
 those arrow-like lightnings which have scathed, discomfited, and overthrown unto the earth 
 the glory of Israel. The election of Israel to be the covenant people of the living God had 
 given it a position as high above that of all other peoples as the heavens are higher than the earth, 
 and this position was represented by a visible shrine — the Temple. It was the holy and beauti- 
 ful house where our fathers praised Thee, and now it was burned up with fire. Nor did He recall 
 any past manifestations of His presence to stay His hand from working : He has not remem- 
 bered His footstool ; the footstool of our God is closely associated with the ark of the covenant 
 (1 Chron. xxviii. 2 ; Ps. xcix. 1, 5). The Cherubim stood over the cover of the ark, the mercy- 
 seat, and as God sitteth between the Cherubim, His feet would be on the ark, yet He let this holiest 
 of holy things be destroyed in the day of His anger — the day which broke amid the sounds of 
 Divine justice going to punish evil — <Ae ^rea< rfay o/ /eAoiaA, which Zephaniah predicted ... a 
 day of wrath ... a day of loastencss and desolation ... a day of clouds and thick darkness. 
 The poet " could not have better expressed to the people the heinousness of their sins than by 
 laying before them this fact, that God remembered not His footstool in the day of His anger " 
 (Calvin). 
 
 (3) Ver. 2. Faint adumbrations of the concomitants of a storm still flit across the field of 
 vision. As a sweeping torrent the Lord has swallowed up, and has not spared, all the habita- 
 tions of Jacob, including all sorts of country residences, and pasture-lands where men like 
 Jacob may dwell in tents and feed flocks ; all unfortified and unprotected places, as distinguished 
 from fortresses in following parallel line : He has thrown down in His wrath the strongholds 
 of the daughter of Judah ; the whole military power has gone under, also the governing power 
 he has cast to the earth, thus making them lick the dust and be trod upon by passers-by ; He 
 has profaned the kingdom, the royal house, and its princes : similarly it is said (Ps. Ixxxix. 
 b9), Thou hast profaned His crown {casting «'<] to the ground — the crown of His anointed, whom 
 he had cast off and rejected (ver. 38). The tenor of Bible-teaching is to the effect that men by 
 sin affect the materials which they use, and so not only the sinners themselves, but their 
 dwellings, their goods, their plots of grounj, their munitions, their governments, are scourged 
 
 39 
 
HOMILKTIC COMMENTARY: LAMENT ATIOXS. 
 
 by the wrath of God, in order to purify them from the pollution which has been infiltrated into 
 them by human guilt. 
 
 (J) Ver. 3. Three forms of disaster are specified. He has cut off in fierce anger every 
 horn of Israel : the horn being used as a symbol of strength or power, then all that was regarded 
 as a strength to the life of Israel, whether warlike men or arsenals of offensive and defensive 
 weapons, lias perished. Power of resistance is removed. He has drawn back His right hand 
 from the face of the enemy ; He does not jiluck it out of His bosom to help His people, and to 
 impede and rout the foes in their attacks. Aid is withheld. And He has burned in Jacob like 
 a blazing fire, devouring round about : His anger, as it were, kindled a ccmflagration which 
 h.%3 consumed all it touched. Consequent on strength gone and help refused, there is blank 
 devawtatii n. 
 
 (1) Ver 4. If a human enemy has wreaked his vengeance on Israel, the Lord Himself has 
 turned to be their enemy, and fought against them as an armed man. He has bent His bow as 
 an enemy standing, [as to] His right hand, as an. adversary. This ambiguous phrase seems 
 to convey the idea that the Lord, like a man of war, had taken a hostile attitude and operation, 
 so that He has slain all that was pleasant to the eye, everything esteemed was deprived of 
 their qualities to please. On the tent of the daughter of Zion He has poured out as fire His 
 fury. Jerusalem as the dwelling-place of its inhabitants has been searched and scorched with 
 the spirit of justice and spirit of burning. 
 
 The preceding highly metaphorical expressions are suggestive ; they show that the poet saw, 
 what the men of his day, what the men of later days have failed to see aright, that the course 
 of human life is aglow with the devouring fire of the holiness of God. The light of Israel is for a 
 fire and his Holy One/or afiamc. Jews might h.ive felt that the Chaldeans and others had made 
 their land as a desolate wilderness ; we might feel that, when we are worsted in "the struggle 
 for life," our "enviionment " has been unfavourable to us. Our ei/es are holden, and we do not 
 perceive that the righteousness of God is the grand factor in all defeats, all crashes, all panics, 
 all losses ; using bad things, as fuel is used, to produce a fierce heat which shall eat away all 
 that is burnable. Not only on the other side of death is the unquenchable fire scorching sin ; 
 that fire is kindled and burning here and now. No screen can ward ofif the indignation of the 
 just and iioly Lord ; the ashes of ruined fortunes, reputations, impurities, self-seeking-s, prove 
 that the breath of the Lord has lindled afire to run through human society as intense, as over- 
 whelming as a stream of liquid lava. For oxir God is a consuming fire. 
 
 (n) Ver. 5. Hostilities were continued in other methods. The Lord has become as an 
 enemy, has swallowed up Israel ; the national is submerged. This is indicated by material 
 evidence ; He has swallowed up all her palaces, the great houses of the daughter of Zion ; He 
 has destroyed all His strongholds, the fortified places which had been garrisoned by the people, 
 and He has multiplied in the daughter of Judah moaning and bemoaning. Two words, 
 wliich are derived from the same Hebrew root, and similar in sound, express the manifold and 
 intense sorrows which had been experienced. 
 
 {)) Ver. 6. The dwelling-place of Jehovah tm Mount Zion, which He claims as His own 
 pos.session, with all its appointed services, has shared in the tribulations. He has treated 
 violently, as a garden, His booth. The references in vers. 6 and 7 being to the methods of 
 Divine worship, the reference here will be to the Temple. He forsook tie tabernarle of Skiloh, 
 the tent which He j^laced among men, and instead of thi.s, in Salem was His tube inacle=: booth, 
 but it also had come to be only a temporary' habitation for the mighty God : that which He had 
 sanctified had been profaned by the inroads of unsanctified men. As a booth in a vineyard is 
 dismantled when the vintage is ingathered, so the stately Temple was contumeliously broken 
 down. The Septuagint reading. He tore up His tabtrnacle as a vine, harmonises with the idea of 
 the Hebrew phrase, viz., that the House of the Lord was laid waste. Consequent on this. He 
 has destroyed his [place of] solemn assembly, where He met with His people and blessed 
 them ; following this came awful manifestations of indifference even to the helps to serving the 
 Lord. The covenant God Jehovah has caused to be forgotten in Zion solemn assembly and 
 sabbath; the annual and weekly services were no longer in the minds of His professed people. 
 The old ritual was unavailable. Communion with one another and communion with God through 
 established religious forms were altogether in abeyance. They had to be taught that titat ichich 
 decayeth and wax'th aged is to be replaced by a new covenant in which the service of men, and 
 the service of God would not be by ordered rules, but by love in the spirit. The persons al-o 
 who had been officially prominent in Temple-services were swept off the stage ; He has despised, 
 set no store by, in the vehemence of His anger, king and priest. The priesthood was indis- 
 pensable to the Tenq)le- worship till there arisith another Priest, made not after the law of a carnal 
 commandment, but after the poxccr of an endless life. The connection of royalty with the Temple 
 is thus explained by Oehler : " The Israelitish kingdom, especially in David and Solomon, 
 bears a certain sacerdotal character, inasmuch as the king, at the head of the people and in their 
 name, pays homage to God and brings back again to the people the blessings of God." This, 
 however, is defective in statement. What was done by the king was not done in any priestly 
 capacity, but as being the chief member of the sacerdotal people. They were a kingdom of 
 priests unto Jehovah. Besides, it was done as representative of the Davidic monarchy, with 
 which the building and continuance of services in the house of the Lord were closely linked 
 
 40 
 
nOMILETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. chap. n. 
 
 (Jer. xxxiii. 21). Viewed in this light, the lamentation is, that Jehovah has rejected both the 
 ,ro5'al family of David and the Levitical priesthood. 
 
 (T) Ver. 7. There has been entire desecration of the holy places. The Lord has cast off 
 his altar, the appointed erection on which burnt-offerings and sacrifices were presented to Him, 
 and wliich should come up with acceptance there. There was no standing for such action now. 
 He had abandoned it — its fires were quenched and cold : he has abhorred his sanctuary, the 
 whole enclosure of the holy places. But there all is not still ; He has put into the hand of her 
 enemy the walls of her palaces, the crowning buildings of Mount Zion have been delivered 
 up to hostile people, and they have given voice in the house of the Lord ; a victorious multi- 
 tude made within the glory-hallowed precincts such a jubilant noise as [in] a day of a solemn 
 assembly, but the clamour was the clamour of ruthless conquerors, not of rejoicing worshippers. 
 
 (PI) Ver. 8. Jeremiah relates (chap. Hi. 14) that all the army of the Chaldeans, that were 
 with the captain of the guard, bralce down all the walls of Jerusalem round about. This was from 
 no mere chance of warfare, no shrewd decision of the commander of the invaders ; it was from 
 the predetermination of the God of Israel. Jehovah has purposed to destroy the wall of the 
 daughter of Zion. It was carried out according as He incited or restrained the agents of its 
 accomplishment ; he has stretched out the [measuring] line, and until His limitations were 
 reached he has not withdrawn his hand from overthrowing. Every division of the fortifica- 
 tions has suffered, and he has made the rampart and the wall to lament ; they languish 
 together. All calamities have their methods and boundaries fixed by the All-wise. They do 
 11' 't form a cliaos, brought about by natural forces or human power. Thev are in an exact order, 
 and proceed to a verge vvhich He has appointed. They are pregnant with gigantic issues. 
 
 (b) Ver. 9. Traces of the best constructed part of the wall ha\e disappeared, covered 
 with debris. Her gates have sunk into the earth ; the very means of fastening them are in 
 fragments ; he has destroyed and broken her bars. Like that had befallen the political and 
 religious barriers which separated her from other peoples. Her king and princes are among 
 the nations, swept away into exile. With the removal of civil authorities self-seeking and 
 anarchy had supervened. God's rule of life, which required Temple and altar for its material 
 symbol, exists no more for the people ; there is no law. Still more sad, the proofs of the Lord s 
 guidance had been withheld ; even her prophets find no vision from Jehovah to bring help and 
 comfort. Tliere might be prophets, but they received no burden of the Lord. He will put 
 aside for a time His means of grace, if they cease to answer Divine ends. 
 
 (>) Ver. 10. Two classes, who were exponents of the intelligence and joy of the people, 
 prostrated like the rest, are no longer capable of acting their parts. They sit on the ground, 
 are silent, the elders of the daughter of Zion ; they exhibit other profound tokens of over- 
 whelming sufferings. "Small griefs are eloquent— great ones are dumb." Also among the 
 ruins they hang down their heads to the ground, the virgins of Jerusalem ; the song, the 
 timbrel, the dance, have all been abandoned as vain tlnngs. 
 
 The retrospect of the poet, which had brought before him one sad scene after another in the 
 destruction of the Jewish state, and the desperate lot of various classes of its people, produced 
 a turnuiil of emotions in himself, ami appeals to men and God to join in his lamentations. 
 
 (D) Ver. 11. So exasperating is his misery that he feels as if organic parts f)f his body were 
 dismembered. My eyes fail with tears, my bowels are troubled, my liver is poured upon 
 the ground — an effect of terrible grief, showing how body and soul are sympathetic with each 
 other over the breach of the daughter of my people. This shattered condition was replete 
 with the harrowing details of suffermg, as when the young children and the sucklings faint 
 in the streets of the city. 
 
 (^) Ver. 12. His ears heard their piteous cravings, while to their mothers they are sa3ring, 
 Where is com and wine, solid and liquid nourishment. Even when listening, his eyes saw the 
 older children faint as the wounded in the streets of the city, and infants in arms poured 
 their souls into their mother's bosom, which could supply no aliment. 
 
 (D) Ver. 13. He is ready, as a servant of the All-merciful and All- wise, to speak on His 
 behalf, so as to alleviate the clamant wretchedness ; but he feels unable. What shall I testify 
 to thee ? No message is given to him from the Most High, and no resemblance to her condi- 
 tion is perceptible on tlie broad surface of past or present human life. "What liken to thee, 
 daughter of Jerusalem? The case is unparalleled, and there are no lessons applicable. What 
 shall I compare to thee and comfort thee [with], O virgin daughter of Zion ? For great is 
 thy breach like the sea. Who will heal thee ? Ruin had extended as far as to the horizon 
 of the people's existence, and to the deep springs of thought. True, there had not been wanting 
 men who professed to be commissioned by Jehovah to declare that all would be well. 2'Ae// 
 healed the hurt — the word here translated breach — of the daughter of my people lightly, saying. 
 Peace, peace, when there is no peace. 
 
 (3) Ver. 14. The Book of Jeremiah contains ample evidence as to who those viiserable com- 
 forters were. It shows that, during the period just preceding the overthrow of Judiea. there 
 were a number of persons who were accustomed glibly to say, The burden of Jehovah, but who 
 were mere pretenders to divine visions, who gave chaff and not wheat. The reason lay in the 
 character of the people, that formed its own instruments in politics and rengion. If a people 
 prefer to have sensational statesmen, such statesmen will appear. If prophets pn^phecy falsely, 
 
 .41 
 
TIOMILETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 it is because the people love to have it so. They sty unto the prophets, Prophesy not unto us rujht 
 thiu'is, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits. They got what they wanted. Thy prophets 
 have seen for thee, and the result is vanity and foolishness, unreal and unreasonable thini^'s. 
 They did not make known the will of God so as to expose the evil ways and doings of the people, 
 and prepare for amendment. They have not uncovered thine iniquity to turn away thy 
 captivity. Instead of that, their boasted visions tended to produce burdens of vanity and 
 causes of banishment. 2'hey prophesy a lie unto you, to remove you far from your land, and 
 that I should drive you out. 
 
 (D) Ver. 15. Casual strangers on their travels felt glad at sight of desolated Jerusalem. 
 They clap their hands at thee, all who pass by the way, and add scorn to gladness ; they 
 hiss and wag their head. They use sarcasm, Is this the city which they called the perfec- 
 tion of beauty, a joy to the whole earth? So the glorying of the Jews is turned into a 
 reproach and shame. 
 
 (Q) Ver. 16. A similar but wider view is presented than in the preceding verse. Not 
 strangers, but all thine enemies, filled with mockery and exultation, have opened their mouth 
 against thee. There is testimony in the Psalms as to how Orientals can belch out with their 
 mouth. Abrupt utterances follow, and intimate how excited and impassioned they were. We 
 have swallowed up. Hah I this is the day which we have expected, have found, have seen. 
 Now at length we see what we sought, get what we wanted. 
 
 (J?) Ver. 17. Whatever are the calamities suffered, whatever the taunts to which the people 
 are exposed in their ruined condition, they have not come from the onslaught of ruthless foes, 
 but from God, their own God. That was the final fact of the catastrophe which had over- 
 whelmed them. It is not the generalisations, called " laws," which make history what it is, 
 but the will of "the living Lord." He controls all existences, and His methods with them are 
 always definite and consistent. Not one faiUth. Jehovah has done that which he purposed ; 
 he has fulfilled his word which he commanded from the days of old. Compare Lev. xxvi. 
 14 ff ; Deut. xxviii. 15 ff. He keeps His word. His order has been faithfully carried out in the 
 overthrow of Jerusalem, and, giving entire power to boasting destroyers, he has exalted the 
 horn of thine adversaries. 
 
 (V) Ver. 18. Their heart cried unto the Lord. The cry is not to the God in covenant 
 with Israel, but to the ruler over all nations and all matter. Yet the pronoun their cannot 
 refer to the persons last spoken of. The adversaries were not likely to change their vaunts 
 into profound sympathy. It is appropriate to suppose that there was a part, at any rate, of the 
 downtrodden who would tell their heart-aches to the only Helper, and could not subdue the 
 longing to see all things around them express the tokens of keenest sorrow. O wall of the 
 daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a torrent day and night. Bold appeals to inani- 
 mate objects for signs of interest in human affairs are not strange to prophets of Israel, and 
 the call upon the shattered wall of Jerusalem seems grounded on the idea that it was regarded 
 as a mother embracing in its arms the city with its blighted hopes. It was not to be stemmed 
 and have respite ; let not the pupil [Heb. daughter] of the eye cease from shedding tears. 
 
 (p) Ver. 19. Sleep is to be interrupted in order to weep. Arise, cry loud in the night, and 
 as its hours pass on, rouse up at the beginning of the watches into which the night is divided. 
 Hearts that cried are to cast away all reserve before the Lord. They will have gone a long 
 wa}' towards receiving help when they recognise that He who "is strong to smite is also strong 
 to save." They will take the attitude of prayer. Lift up thy hands to Him, and tiie first 
 matter to request will be the life of thy young children, whose sad case is again mentioned, 
 faint for himger at the top of every street. Dying and dead little ones at every turn. A 
 sight for the Cr ator to consider 
 
 (1) Ver. 20. The prayer is put into words correspondent with the circumstiinces. See, 
 Jehovah, and behold to whom thou hast done this, to the city called thine, to the people 
 wiiom thou hast chosen to be a name and praise to thee. How shocking are the consequences I 
 See if women eat their fruit, the children whom they carried. The last word relates to 
 tliat which is spread — as infants on the knees or arms. The Revised Version translates it 
 dandled in the ha7ids, which, if expressing the idea, is too special. The awfid incident was a 
 punishment threatened (Deut. xxviii. ,'')6, 57 ; Jer. xix. 9). See if there are slain in the sanc- 
 tuary of the Lord priest and prophet. His own holy j>lace defiled with blood. If such 
 spectacles were common, as they were, will God not stay His hand ? 
 
 (f) Ver. 21. From the massacre in the Temple to the general slaughter of all ages and 
 both sexes is .another step in the dismal recital. The youth and the old man . . . my virgins 
 and choice young men, were killed. It was clear that they had to bear the anger of Jehovah 
 — that He was not only full of compassion, but in rif/httuunncss he doth judge and make war 
 upon evil. 
 
 (n) Ver. 22. Thou hast called as in a day of solemn assembly, summoning, as by 
 trumpet, all kinds of terrifying agencies — men, famine, tire, sword — m}' terrors on every side, 
 and there was none that escaped or remained in the day of Jehovah's anger. Then, in 
 motherly anguish, she laments again over the children she had carried and brought up, whom 
 the enemy had cruelly consumed. So " the poem concludes, like the first, with deep sorrow, 
 regarding which all attempts at comfort are quite unavailing." 
 42 
 
EOMILETIC COMMENTARY : LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 EOMILETICS. 
 
 The Fierceness of the Divine Anger. 
 
 (Yerses 1-5.) 
 
 IIow wierJ and sad is the lonely wail of the night-wind ! How depressing 
 the monotony of the sobbing sea ! How heart-rending the ceaseless moan of the 
 helpless sufferer ! All the varying cadences of melancholy seem gathered up and 
 interpreted in the sorrowful monody of the tender-hearted prophet. It is still tiie 
 voice of lamentation that we hear : the strain, like the theme, is the same. From 
 his elevated rocky grotto Jeremiah overlooked the ruined city, and it seemed im- 
 possible for him to turn away his gaze from the scene of destruction that fascinated 
 while it distressed him. In this chapter he describes, with vivid realism, the 
 harrowing circumstances connected with the siege and taking of the city. By a 
 lofty flight of prophetic imagination he descries the awful form of the Almighty 
 liovering over Jerusalem, wreaking vengeance on the obstinate and rebellious 
 citizens. In this paragraph we learn that the fierceness of the Divine a7iger — 
 
 I. Is a terrifjing reality. " The Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a 
 cloud in his anger, and cast down the beauty of Israel" (ver. 1). The darkening 
 cloud that portends the approaching storm tills the stoutest heart with alarm, and 
 all nature cowers with fear under the crash of the dreadful thunder. The prophet 
 sees the Divine anger settling upon Jerusalem like a dark thunder-cloud, and 
 breaking in a tempest, by which the Temple is levelled to the ground. It is not 
 the cloud that led the Israelites from bondage to freedom, but a cloud of wrath 
 sent to punish for the aggravated abuse of that freedom. The cloud no longer 
 guides and protects ; it is now charged with the thunderbolt of retribution. The 
 anger of God is all the Kwre terrible when manifested towards those who once 
 enjoyed His favour and compassion. 
 
 II. Is irresistible in its destructiveness (vers. 1-5). The beauty of Israel is 
 deformed, her pride humbled, her strength paralysed, her city reduced to ashes, 
 and her strongholds and inhabitants are remorselessly swept away Nothing caii 
 withstand the Divine power, and when that power is exerted in anger, it makes 
 short work of the most formidable opposition. Storm, earthquake, fire, war, and 
 all the forces of the universe, obey the bidding of the Divine Word. The enemies 
 of God will be completely overthrown by the fierceness of His anger (Exod. xv. 7 ; 
 Ps. ii. 2-5, xxi. 8-10, Ixxix. 6 ; Isa. x. 6 ; Jer. x. 25 ; Nah. i. 2 ; 1 Thess ii. 16). 
 
 III. Intensifies the misery of its victims. "He hath increased in the 
 daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation " (ver. 5). When our miseries 
 come upon us from our enemies, we are not surprised ; it is what we expected. 
 When we can trace them as the direct result of our own folly and sin, we know 
 they are deserved, and we strengthen ourselves to endure them as philosophically 
 as we can ; but when the truth dawns upon us that God is against us, and it is 
 His hand that smites us, we are startled at the discovery, and our distress is un- 
 speakably increased. It is a bitter ingredient in the suiferings of the disobedient 
 to know that he has provoked the anger of the God of love. The suffering Christ 
 turns away for us tlte fierceness of the Divine anger. 
 
 Lessons. — 1. I'ersistencrj in lorong-ihmig rouses the Divine anger. 2. WJien 
 the Divine anger is manifested, it icorks terrible havoc. 3. Timely repentance averts 
 the worst consequences of the Divine anger. 
 
 GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES. 
 
 Vers. 1, 2. The storm of the Divine the Lord covered the daughter of Zion 
 wrath: 1. Overshadoios the city ivhose with a cloud in his anger" (ver. 1). 
 sins call for vengeance. " How hath II. Shatters the sanctuary where wor- 
 
 43 
 
nOMILETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 ship has been j^f'o/aned. " Cast down 
 from heaven unto the earth the beauty 
 of Israel, ami remembered not his foot- 
 stool in tlie day of his anger" (ver. 1). 
 III. Destroys the homesteads and for- 
 tresses of a rebellious people. "The 
 Lord hath swallowed up all the habi- 
 tations of Jacob. He hath thrown 
 down in his wrath tlie strongholds of 
 the dangliter of Judah " (ver. 2). IV. 
 Dishonours the government that ignores 
 the claims of righteousness. "He hath 
 polluted (profaned, made it common or 
 unclean) the kingdom and the princes 
 thereof " (ver. 2). 
 
 Ver. 3. The defences of a nation: 
 I. Exp)osed to the ravages of the enemy 
 when the Divine protection is withdrawn. 
 "He hath drawn back his right hand 
 from before the enemy." II. DefnHved 
 of their strength when assailed by the 
 Divine anger. "He hath cut off in 
 liis fierce anger all the horn of Israel. 
 III. Utterly destroyed by the wrath 
 evoked by national sins. " He burned 
 against Jacob like a flaming fire, which 
 devoureth round about." 
 
 Vers. 4, 5. Jehovah as an enemy : 
 
 I. Formidable to all tvho obstinately 
 resist him. " He liath bent his bow 
 like an enemy. He stood with his 
 right hand as an adversary " (ver. 4). 
 
 II. Worlcs terrible destruction. " Slew 
 all that were pleasant to the eye. He 
 poured out his fury like fire. He hath 
 swallowed up Israel" (ver. 4, 5). III. 
 Means augmented distress to those he 
 punishes. "He hath increased in the 
 daughter of Judah mourning and lamen- 
 tation " (ver. 5). 
 
 Illustrations. — Neglect incurs 
 wrath. As the mariner takes the first 
 ■wind to sail, the merchant the first 
 opportunity of buying and selling, and 
 the husbandman the first opportunity 
 of sowing and reaping, so should young 
 men take the present season, the pie- 
 sent day, which is their day, to be 
 good towards the Lord, to seek Him 
 and serve Him, and not to put off the 
 present season, for they know not what 
 another day, another hour, another 
 moment may bring forth. That door 
 of grace that is open to-day may be 
 44 
 
 shut to-morrow ; that golden sceptre of 
 mercy that is held forth in the Gospel 
 this day may be taken in the next day ; 
 that love, that this hour is upon the 
 bare knee, entreating and beseeching 
 young men to break off their sins by 
 repentance, to return to the Lord, to 
 lay hold on His strength and be at 
 peace with Him, may the next hour be 
 turned into wrath. — Brools. 
 
 — Plutarch writes of Hannibal, that 
 when he could have taken Rome he 
 would not, and when he would have 
 taken Rome he could not. Many in 
 their youthful days, when they might 
 have mercy, Christ, pardon, peace, 
 heaven, will not ; and when old age 
 comes on they cannot, they may not. 
 God seems to say, as Theseus once said, 
 " Go and tell Creon, Theseus offers thee 
 a gracious offer. Yet I am pleased to be 
 friends if thou wilt submit — this is my 
 first message ; but if this offer prevail 
 not, look for me to be up in arms." 
 
 — "Whatever account you have to 
 settle witli God, settle it now. There 
 are two "nows" in Scripture which 
 should never be separated. One stands 
 out in the brightest rays, the other 
 retires into deep shadows. ^^ Now is 
 the accei)ted time." " Noio they are 
 hid from Tliine eyes." — Vaughan. 
 
 Judgment a surprise. There are 
 sometimes some sad awakenings from 
 sleep in this world. It is very sad to 
 dream by night of vanished joys, to 
 revisit old scenes and dwell once more 
 among the unforgotten forms of our 
 loved and lost ; to see in the dreamland 
 the old familiar look, and to hear the 
 well-remembered tones of a voice long 
 hushed and still, and then to awake 
 with the morning light to the aching 
 sense of our loneliness again. It were 
 very sad for the poor criminal to wake 
 from sweet dreams.of other and happier 
 days — days of innocence, hope, and 
 peace, wlien kind friends and a happy 
 home and an honoured or unstained 
 name were his ; to wake in his cell on 
 tlie morning of his execution to the 
 horrible recollection that all is gone 
 for ever, and that to-day he must die 
 a felon's death. But inconceivably 
 more awful than any awakening which 
 
nOMILETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 earthly daybreak has ever brought 
 shall be the awakening of the self- 
 deluded soul when it is roused in 
 horror and surprise from the dream 
 of life to meet Almighty God in judg- 
 ment ! — J. Caird. 
 
 Temporary storms. It is a dark 
 and cloudy day for you. A storm has 
 burst upon you; but you remember 
 liow, after the storm, the bow is set in 
 the cloud for all who look above to the 
 Hand that smites them. The storm has 
 come, and now we must look up and 
 wait and watch in prayer and faith for 
 the rainbow of promise and comfort. — 
 Ministering Cliildren. 
 
 Prolonged misery. When . water 
 takes its first leap from the top, it is 
 cool, collected, uninteresting, mathe- 
 matical ; but it is when it finds that it 
 has got into a scrape, and has further to 
 go than it thought for, that its chaiacter 
 comes out ; it is then tliat it begins to 
 writhe and twist, and sweep out zone 
 after zone in wilder stretchings as it falls, 
 and to send down the rocket-like, lance- 
 pointed, whizzing shafts at its sides, 
 sounding for the bottom, — Ruskin. 
 
 There is mercy in every storm. 
 Every stroke of the rod is but the 
 muffled voice of love ; every billow 
 bears on its bosom, and every tempest 
 on its wing, some new and rich blessing 
 from the better land. If the Lord were 
 to roll the Red Sea before us and mar- 
 shal the Egyptians behind us, and thus, 
 hemming us in on every side, should 
 yet bid us advance, it would be the 
 duty and the privilege of faith instantly 
 to obey, believing that, ere our feet 
 touched the water, God in our ex- 
 tremity would divide the sea and take 
 us dryshod over it. If for a moment 
 we leave the path, difficulties throng 
 around us, troubles multiply, the smallest 
 trials become heavy crosses, the heart 
 will sicken at disappointment, the 
 Spirit be grieved, and God disappointed. 
 — Winslow. 
 
 Goodness a nation's defence. Abi- 
 jah's goodness was towards the Lord; 
 his goodness faced the Lord ; it looked 
 towards the glory of the Lord. It is 
 recorded of the Catanenses that they 
 made a stately monument to two sons 
 
 who took their aged, parents upon their 
 backs and carried them through the fire 
 when their father's house was all in a 
 flame. These young men were good 
 towards their parents ; but what is this 
 to Abijah's goodness towards the Lord ] 
 He was good in the house of Jeroboam, 
 who made all Israel to sin ; yet Abijah, 
 as the fishes which live in the salt sea 
 are fresh, so, though he lived in a sea 
 of wickedness, he retained his goodness 
 towards the Lord. They say roses 
 grow the sweeter when planted by 
 garlic. They are sweet and rare Chris- 
 tians indeed who hold their goodness 
 and grow in goodness where wicked- 
 ness sits on the throne. To be wheat 
 among tares, corn among chaff, and roses 
 among thorns, is excellent. To be a 
 Jonathan in Saul's court, an Obadiah in 
 Ahab's court, an Obedmelech in Zede- 
 kiah's court, and an Abijah in Jero- 
 boam's court, is a wonder, a miracle. To 
 be a Lot in Sodom, an Abraham in Chal- 
 dea, a Daniel in Babylon, a Nehemiah 
 in Damascus, and a Job in the land of 
 Uz, is to be a saint among devils. The 
 poets affirm that Venus never appeared 
 so beautiful as Avhen she sat by black 
 Vulcan's side. Gracious souls shine 
 most clear when they are set by black- 
 conditioned people. Stephen's face 
 never shone so angelically, so gloriously 
 in the church where all were virtuous, 
 as before the council where all were very 
 vicious and malicious. So Abijah was 
 a bright star, a shining sun in Jero- 
 boam's court, which for profaneness and 
 wickedness was a very hell. 
 
 — A substantial fence has been 
 erected enclosing the relic of the Coven- 
 anter's stone on the summit of Duns 
 Law. On this historic spot the stan- 
 dard of the Covenanting army under 
 General Leslie was planted, and on the 
 stone a copy of the National League 
 and Covenant signed by the resolute 
 leaders on the 6th June 1639, At one 
 time the stone was prominently seen, 
 but it is now so much reduced by 
 the chipping and hacking of Vandalic 
 visitors as to be scarcely visible above 
 the green sward. Scotland has good 
 reason to be proud of the brave exploits 
 of its ancestors, who, whatever their 
 
 45 
 
EOMILETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 failings, were men of earnest purpose, is to ruin the souls of men, and that lie 
 and fought for those princii:)les of right does it in a deliberate, calm, systematic 
 and justice which helped to make pos- way. He walks about observing time.«, 
 sible the national life of to-day. The places, circumstances, characters — all 
 records and memorials of their deeds with a view to devour. He does as a 
 should be a constant stimulus to imi- lion, to whom he is compared. Observe 
 tate their noblest qualities. " Remove his gentle tread, his tiery, searching 
 not the ancient landmarks which thy eye, his subtle plans, his secret am- 
 fathers have set." — The Scottish Pulpit. bushes, his hidden schemes, his con- 
 Satan an enemy : but what of cealed name, nature, and character ; and 
 Jehovah ? Satan is the enemy of every when he spies one of whom he can 
 saint, and ho is an indefatigable enemy. take advantage, see how the lion-nature 
 He never tires in his temptations to is developed in the rush, the pounce, 
 ensnare souls to destroy them. He the seizure, the tearing, the destruction, 
 "walketh about seeking whom he may But what must it be to the sinner to 
 devour." This denotes his main object find an enemy in Jehovah ? 
 
 EOMILETIC S. 
 
 The Wreck of Religious Ordinances. 
 
 (Verses 6-9.) 
 
 I. The Temple is completely demolished (ver>. 6-8). In a city where there 
 are many temples the destruction of one creates only a temporary inconvenience. 
 Jerusalem, and indeed the Jewish nation, had but one temple, and it had the 
 special distinction of being the only temple in the world dedicated to the worship 
 of Jehovah. It was always in the past, and is to this day, reverently referred to 
 as the Temjile. It was idolised by the Jew, and was regarded as beyond the 
 reach of possible injury. It was encircled with the rampart of Omnipotence. 
 When menaced by the enemy, the people rallied round the sacred fane, prepared 
 to sacrifice everything in its defence. Here they made their last stand, and fought 
 with the fury of fanatics. But their zeal, bravery, and strategy were all in vain. 
 In their blind infatuation they saw not that the only invincible defence, the pre- 
 sence of Jehovah, was withdrawn. The Temple was doomed, and was reduced to 
 ruin with the same reckless indifference as a man would tear down a temporary 
 shelter in his garden (ver. 6). The gates, walls, palaces, altar, sanctuary, were 
 abandoned to utter destruction (vers. 7-9). The wreckage of such a temple was 
 not only a metropolitan, but a national calamity. Everything was gone when the 
 Temple was gone. 
 
 II. The religious services, formerly observed with uninterrupted regularity, 
 are now utterly neglected. " The Lord hath caused the solemn feasts and Sab- 
 baths to be forgotten in Zion " (ver. G). The annual and the weekly festivals are 
 no longer observed. " There is an intensive force in its being no longer Adonai, 
 but Jehovah, who lets them pass into oblivion. He had once instituted them for 
 His own honour, now He lets them lie forgotten." "When religion is neglected, 
 all days are alike ; there is nothing to mark off Sabbath-days from week-days, 
 sacred days from common days. Life is reduced to the dead level of dull mono- 
 tony, and the days drag on in the weary routine of comfortless and aimless labour. 
 
 "He liveth Ion<j who liveth well — 
 All else is being flung away ; 
 He liveth longest who can tell 
 
 Of true things truly done each day." 
 
 Intellectual pursuits and activity are a poor substitute for genuine religion. 
 Education not founded on religion is only a varnish. Abolish the Sabbath and 
 46 
 
HOMILETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. chap. ii. 
 
 the decay of religion begins. A poet calls the Sabbath " Heaven once a week." 
 Day of rest, of days the best. 
 
 III. The principal worshippers are in exile. "Her king and her princes are 
 among the Gentiles " (ver. 9). The prophet has been principally occupied with 
 the buildings of the city and Temple. Kow he turns to the people, and beginning 
 with their temporary rulers, he laments the sad fate of the king and princes who, 
 no longer seen taking their part in the Temple service, were, like many of their 
 people, captives in the hands of the heathen. With the best external aids it is 
 difficult to maintain the spirituality of worship ; but that difficulty is increased 
 when all external accessories are withdrawn, and man is placed in the midst of 
 irreligious heathenism. If he does not strive to propagate what religion he has, 
 he will lose it. To love and worship God we must know Him, and this we can- 
 not do till He graciously reveals Himself. The astronomer seeking to observe a 
 star, can do nothing till he directs his telescope towards the star. The dim light 
 of evening is with him, and by it he sets the telescope and guides it to the proper 
 point in the heavens. But when he has pointed it to the star, the light of the 
 star streams into the telescope, lighting it up with a new and brighter illumina- 
 tion. The soul of man is a telescope by which he is seeking to see and know God. 
 The general illumination of the heart is in the world. All pagans have it. But 
 when man has adjusted the lenses of the soul, God flashes down it, and produces 
 an image of Himself in the poor earthly tube. 
 
 IV. The Law and the Prophets are discredited. " The law is no more ; her 
 prophets also find no vision from the Lord" (ver. 9). The Jewish law, the 
 Torah, came to an end wlien it had no longer a local habitation. Its enactments 
 were essentially those, not of a catholic, but of a national religion, and the restora- 
 tion of the nation with a material temple was indispensable to its continued exist- 
 ence. It was only when elevated to be a catholic religion by being made spiritual 
 that it could do without ark, temple, and a separate people (Jer. iii. 16, xxxi, 
 31-34). With the Torah the special gift of prophecy also ceased, since both were 
 peculiar to the theocracy ; but it was not till the establishment of Christianity that 
 they M"ere finally witlidrawn, or rather merged in higher developments of grace. 
 Jeremiah now laments over the temporary removal of Judah's special privileges 
 before tliey had accomplished their office. At the return from exile they were 
 for the time restored. — Speaker's Covwi. 
 
 It is a grave calamity to church or nation to be deprived of men of insight and 
 inspiration. These men give direction and character to the best work we are 
 capable of doing. Much of the work of the world is done in a perfunctory man- 
 ner — done to get through with it, done to get it off one's mind, done to secure the 
 return which it promises. It is done without enthusiasm, originality, or con- 
 tagious zeal. The men who give their work character, distinction, perfection, are 
 the men whose spirit is behind their hands, giving them a new dexterity. There 
 is no kind of work, from the merest routine to the highest creative activity, which 
 does not receive all that gives it quality from the spirit in which it is done or 
 fashioned. The highest and best work is done when the soul receives its " vision 
 from the Lord " and is animated by His inspiration. 
 
 Lessons. — 1. Religion seeks jvadical expression in tcorsJiip and service. 2. 
 The loss of religious ordinances is a national calamity. 3. The abuse of religious 
 opportunities is punished hy their icithdrawal. 
 
 GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES. 
 
 Ver. 6. "He hath violently taken away Is but a temporary structure, however 
 his tabernacle, as if it were of a garden ; elaborately built. 2. Is desecrated 
 He hath destroyed His places of the when a false worship is ofTered. 3. 
 assembly." The earthly temple : 1. When defiled, is suddenly destroyed, 
 
 47 
 
nOMllETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 as a man may tear down in a few mo- 
 ments a fragile hut erected for his tem- 
 porary pleasure in a garden. 4. Its 
 destruction suggests reflections on man's 
 unfaithfulness and Gods anger, 
 
 — Perverted worship : I. Invoices the 
 loss of stated privileijes. "The Lord 
 hath caused the solemn feasts and Sab- 
 baths to be forgotten in Zion." II. 
 Houses the Divine displeasure. "The 
 indignation of His anger." III. Entails 
 re{jal and ecclesiastical dishonour. " And 
 hath despised the king and tlie priest." 
 
 Ver. 7. A despised sanctuary : I. 
 Its holiest places rejected ivitlt, disdain 
 bi/ an offended Deity. " The Lord hatli 
 cut ofi" his altar; he hath abhorred his 
 sanctuary." II. Comi^letehj abandoned 
 to destruction. "He hath given up 
 into the hand of the enemy the walls of 
 lier palaces." III. The tvild shouts of 
 its destroyers a strange contrast to the 
 exultant joy of farmer uorslnpipers. 
 " They have made a noise in the house 
 of tlie Lord, as in the day of a solemn 
 feast." 
 
 Ver. 8. The implacable destroyer: 
 
 I. Works ill harmony with a Jixed deter- 
 mination. " The Lord hath purposed 
 to destroy the wall of the daughter 
 of Zion." II. Carries out his purpose 
 with systematic thoroughness. " He 
 liath stretched out a line ; he hath 
 not withdrawn his hand from de- 
 stroying." III. Lays the stromjest de- 
 fences in lamentable ruin. " Therefore 
 lie hath made the rampart and the wall 
 to lament ; they languished together." 
 
 Ver. 9. National ruin complete : I. 
 When all public buildings are destroyed. 
 " Her gates are sunk into the ground ; 
 lie hath destroyed and broken her bars." 
 
 II. When the rulers are in exile. " Her 
 king and her jirinces are among the 
 Gentiles." III. Wheri religions ordin- 
 ances are stispended. "The law is no 
 more." IV. When religious teachers 
 are de^yrived of Divine inspiration. 
 " Her prophets also find no vision from 
 the Lord." 
 
 Illustrations. — Undercurrents 
 
 cause wrecks. A ship was stranded on 
 
 the island of Sanda, in the Orkneys. It 
 
 •was a invstery to the captain how the 
 
 48 
 
 vessel got there. Being foggy at the 
 time, he carefully consulted his chart, 
 and both he and the mate worked up 
 the position, their reckonings exactly 
 agreeing as to latitude, but differing 
 slightly in longitude. The captain had 
 navigated the ship for ten years with- 
 out any misfortune. He attributed the 
 accident to the force of an undercurrent 
 which carrietl him unknowingly out of 
 his course, and learnt afterwards from 
 fishermen in the locality that a current 
 was frequently felt in that sea as far 
 as sixty miles from land. The sea of 
 life is intersected with dangerous under- 
 currents, and the watchful student will 
 be careful to watch their tendency and 
 strength. While on the fringe of the 
 current, it is comparatively easy to 
 escape, but if we drift into the midst 
 of the irresistible swirl, we shall be 
 hurried on to inevitable disaster. You 
 have seen the tiny snowflakes flutter 
 about the railway track, like lovely bits 
 of down shook from angelic wings, and 
 you have seen with what ease the proud 
 locomotive scatters the fleecy morsels 
 in the early stages of the storm ; but 
 the falling atoms increase with such 
 persistent rapidity and accumulative 
 force, that the panting engine is at 
 length completely strangled, and, utterly 
 exhausted, lies buried fathoms deep 
 beneath the crystal mound. — llie Scot- 
 tish Pulpit. 
 
 Ordinances help religious life. Grace 
 is like a sjiark in wet wood, that needs 
 continual blowing. Would you have 
 and keep up ardent desires 1 Do as 
 they that would keep in the fire ; cherish 
 the sparks and blow them up to a flijme. 
 There is no man lives under the means 
 of grace and under the discoveries of 
 God and religion but has his good 
 moods and lively motions. The waters 
 are stirred many times ; take hold of 
 this advantage. Strengthen the things 
 that remain and are ready to die, anil 
 blow up these sparks into a flame. God 
 has left us enkindling means — prayer, 
 meditation, and the Word. Observe 
 where the bellows blow hardest, and ply 
 that course. The more supernatural 
 things are, there needs more diligence 
 to preserve them. A strange plant 
 
nOMILETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 needs more care than a native of the 
 soil. Worldly desires, like a nettle, 
 breed of their own accord, but spiritual 
 desires need a great deal of cultivating. 
 — Manton. 
 
 — The Christian is compared to a 
 merchantman who trades for rich pearls; 
 he is to go to ordinances as the mer- 
 chant sails from port to port, not to see 
 places, but to take in his lading, some 
 here, some there. A Christian should 
 be as much ashamed to return empty 
 from his traffic with ordinances as the 
 merchant to come home without his 
 lading. But, alas ! how little is this 
 looked after by many that pass for 
 great professors, who are like some idle 
 persons, that come to the market not to 
 buy provision and carry home what 
 they want, but to gaze and look upon 
 what is there to be sold, to no purpose ! 
 my brethren, take heed of this ! — 
 Gurnall. 
 
 The earthly temple and perverted 
 worship. There is a great difference 
 between religiousness and religion. 
 Man is a religious animal, he must and 
 will worship something. But the reli- 
 gion which the Bible teaches is a total 
 change of the heart, and of the aim and 
 purpose of life. — Calthroj). 
 
 — Believers are in danger of seduc- 
 tion into the sin and falsehood of the 
 world. The world threatens believers 
 not only with its enmity, but. evermore 
 with its temptations. Believers must 
 be warned to shun the idols th-e world 
 worships, and they are warned against 
 love to the world,- because love in that 
 way very easily gets associated with 
 sinful lusts, which are common in the 
 world. In false prophecy it is shown 
 that the devil, who was a murderer and 
 liar from the beginning, threatens the 
 Church, not only with the deadly 
 enmity of the world, but also with its 
 soul-destroying lies. We cannot show 
 brotherly love to false teachers without 
 running the risk of making ourselves 
 partakers in their sins. — Weiss. 
 
 — Means — the table of the Lord, the 
 pulpit, the pages of the Bible, the family 
 altar, the closet oratory — are of no value 
 unless as putting us in communication 
 with the Spirit of God, and used as the 
 
 49 
 
 kite which the philosopher sends up to 
 draw down the lightnings of the skies, 
 or the bucket which the cottager sends 
 down to draw up water from the well. 
 Then, powerless as they are in them- 
 selves, they become the- blessed and 
 mighty instrument of spiritual good ; 
 the sails that catch the wind and impel 
 the vessel on ; the concave mirror that, 
 placed before the Sun of Righteousness, 
 gathers His beams into its burning focus 
 to warm the coldest and melt the hardest 
 heart ; eagle-wings to raise our souls to 
 heaven ; conduits, like the pipes that 
 bring water to our city from these Pent- 
 land Hills, to convey streams of grace, 
 peace, and purity from their fountain 
 in heaven to our souls on earth. — 
 Guthrie. 
 
 A despised sanctuary. Those that 
 turn their backs on God's ordinances 
 and, in rebellion to His commandments, 
 live in sins against conscience, can they 
 wonder that He hides His face from 
 them when they turn their backs on 
 Him ? When we sin, we turn our backs 
 upon God and our face to the devil, 
 the world, and pleasure ; and can men! 
 wonder that God suffers them to melt 
 and pine away 1 Let us do as the 
 flowers do, turn themselves to the sun. 
 Let us turn ourselves to God in medita-* 
 tion and prayer, striving and wrestling 
 with Him. Look to Him, eye Him in 
 His ordinances and promises, and have 
 communion with Him all the ways we 
 can. Let our souls open and shut with 
 Him. When He hides His face, let 
 us droop as the flowers do till the sun 
 comes again. So, when we have not 
 daily comfort of the Spirit in peace of 
 conscience, let us never rest seeking 
 God's face in His ordinances and by 
 prayer, and that will cheer a drooping 
 soul as the sunbeams do the flagging 
 flowers. — Sibbes. 
 
 Retribution implacable. Fatalism 
 and Atheism are preached constantly 
 amidst the plaudits of ignorant English- 
 men. How many politicians deem the 
 matter a thing of the slightest conse- 
 quence ! Hume would never have set 
 cities on fire, beheaded or hacked to 
 pieces human beings, least of all the 
 refined, the noble, the educated; but 
 
 B 
 
nOMILETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 he must be reckoned among tliose who 
 sneeringly scattered smouldering embers 
 and bequeathed to others death by the 
 inevitable conflagration. Seldom has 
 the logic of events been more complete 
 than in the great French Revolution. — 
 Bampton Lecture. 
 
 — What a diabolical invention was 
 the " Virgin's Kiss," once used by the 
 fathers of the Inquisition ! The victim 
 was pushed forward to kiss the image, 
 when, lo ! its arms embraced him in a 
 deadly embrace, piercing his body with 
 a hundred hidden knives. The tempt- 
 ing pleasures of sin offer to the unwary 
 just such a virgin's kiss. The sinful 
 joys of the flesh lead, even in this world, 
 to results most terrible, while in the 
 world to come the daggers of remorse 
 and despair will cut and wound beyond 
 all remedy. — S2Mrgeon. 
 
 — Crime and punishment grow out 
 of one stem. Punishment is a fruit 
 that unsuspected ripens within the 
 flower of the pleasure that concealed 
 it. — Emerson. 
 
 National ruin. The whole history 
 of Christianity shows that she is in 
 far greater danger of being corrupted 
 by the alliance of power than of being 
 crushed by its opposition. Those who 
 thrust temporal sovereignty upon her 
 
 treat her as her prototypes treated lier 
 Author. They bow the knee, and spit 
 upon her ; they cry, " Hail ! " and 
 smite her on the cheek ; they put a 
 sceptre in her hand, but it is a fragile 
 reed ; they crown her, but it is with 
 thorns ; they cover with purple the 
 wounds which their own hands have 
 inflicted, and inscribe magnificent let- 
 ters over the cross on which they have 
 fixed her, to perish in ignominy and 
 pain. — Macaulay. 
 
 — Human society reposes on religion. 
 Civilisation without it would be liko 
 the lights that play in the northern 
 sky — a momentary flash on the face of 
 darkness ere it again settled into eter- 
 nal night. "Wit and wisdom, sublime 
 poetry and lofty philosophy, cannot save 
 a nation, else ancient Greece had never 
 perished. Valour, law, ambition, can- 
 not preserve a people, else Rome had 
 still been mistress of the world. The 
 nation that loses faith in God and man 
 loses not only its most precious jewel, 
 but its most unifying and conserving 
 force ; has before it a 
 
 '* Stygian cave forlorn 
 Where brooding Darkness spreads his jealous 
 
 wings. 
 And the night-raven sings." 
 
 — Fairbairn. 
 
 HOMILETICS. 
 
 Voiceless Woe. 
 (Verse 10.) 
 
 I. Too deep for words. "The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the 
 ground and keep silence." A graphic description of sympathy and sorrow. The 
 judges and magistrates, accustomed to occupy with dignity the judgment-seats, 
 the thrones of the house of David, and to discourse eloquently on important points 
 of law, now sit dejectedly upon the ground, without uttering a word. It was 
 thus that the friends of the afflicted Job silently expressed their sympathy (Job 
 ii. 13). There is a moment in the swing of a great sorrow when si^eech seems 
 impossible — when words, if spoken, would grate upon the ear as a harsh intrusion. 
 We prefer to be left alone and undisturbed till the pressure of the trial is relieved. 
 We are distraught, stunned, and want time to come to ourselves. The most 
 delicate and efi"ectual way in which our kindest friends can help us is to be silent. 
 No words can express our sorrow. Small griefs are eloquent enough, but great 
 ones are dumb. 
 
 II. Expressed in abject humiliation. "They have cast up dust upon their 
 heads; they have girded themselves with sackcloth." They are stripped of their 
 robes of state, and all their judicial dignities and prestige. They have lost their. 
 
 50 
 
SOMILETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS, 
 
 offices and their wealth. Greatness and prosperity are exchanged for sackcloth 
 and ashes. The loss of worldly goods brings sorrow to many. Aw old Latin 
 proverb says, " Genuine are the tears shed over lost property." Tliose who have 
 boasted most about their possessions, and carried their heads higli in times of 
 plenty, feel most keenly the humiliating straits of poverty. But how crushing 
 is the humiliation when we realise we have lost all — our wealth, our friends, our 
 national status, our religion, our God ! Such a woe is voiceless indeed. 
 
 III. Overwhelms the soul with conscious shame. •' The virgins of Jerusalem 
 hang down their heads to the ground." Time was when the haughty daughters 
 of Zion courted public admiration as they tripped mincingly along the streets of 
 Jerusalem, decked in richest apparel, and their every movement musical with- 
 tinkling ornaments (Isa. iii. 16); but now their pride is humbled, and they are. 
 boAved to the earth with conscious shame. And yet it is from this broken and 
 dejected condition we trace the beginning of better things. It is on crushed 
 grain that man is fed ; it is by bruised plants that he is restored to health. It 
 was by broken pitchers that Gideon triumphed ; on broken pieces of the ship that 
 Paul and his companions were saved. It was by the bruised and torn bodies of 
 the saints that the truth was made to triumph. When we examine the process 
 of moral reform in nations and individuals, we observe how effectually God has 
 used many broken things in the rebuilding of a shattered character — broken 
 earthly hopes, broken bodily health, broken fortunes, broken hearts. " A broken 
 and a contrite heart, God, thou wilt not despise" (Ps. li. 17, xxxiv, 18). 
 
 Lessons. — 1. The greatest sorrow is speechless. 2. A serise of sin is a sense of 
 2^erso7ial helplessness. 3, The grace of God can change the greatest woe into hope 
 and gladness. 
 
 Illustrations.- -The loneliness of 
 woe. You are tried alone, alone you 
 must pass into the desert, alone you 
 must be sifted by the world ; there are 
 moments, known only to a man's own 
 self, when he sits by the poisoned springs 
 of existence, "yearning for a morrow 
 which shall free him from the strife." 
 Let life be a life of faith ; do not go 
 timorously about inquiring what others 
 think, what others believe, and what 
 others say. God is near you. Throw 
 yourself fearlessly on Him. Trembling 
 mortal ! there is an unknown might 
 within your soul which will wake when 
 you command it. Every son of man 
 who would attain the true end of his 
 being must be baptized with fire. — F. 
 W. llohertson. 
 
 Dejection and despair. The more 
 sin and corruption grow, and the man 
 becomes fully conscious of it, the more 
 does dejection grow also, and this 
 changes at last into despair, which is a 
 state of entire hopelessness, where all 
 possibilities have vanished, all gates 
 and ways are closed to a man. There 
 is a despair for a hard fate, and it not 
 
 seldom happens that a man, in conse- 
 quence of a single severe stroke, makes 
 a sudden leap from his natural state of 
 security into a state of despair, be it 
 that he has lost a beloved human being, 
 or his means, or in any other misfor- 
 tune. Against this form of despair 
 even heathenism had a remedy — re- 
 signation, submission to the inevitable. 
 But the deepest despair is when a man 
 gives up hope, not merely for this or 
 that which he called his own, but for 
 himself as a moral being. There is one 
 sustaining and saving power — faith in 
 God. Despair may and should become 
 the transition to salvation, if the man 
 only despairs of himself, but does not 
 give up his God. In the expression of 
 entire inability, of deepest helplessness 
 — " O wretched man that I am " — there 
 is latent a hope of redemption, the hope 
 that what is impossible with man is 
 possible with God. — Martensen. 
 
 The ravages of suffering. After the 
 relief of the city of Paris, the strain 
 
 and fatigue through which M. had 
 
 gone told seriou-sly upon his health. 
 He could not forget the horrors he had 
 
 51. 
 
nOMILETIC COMMENTARY : LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 witnessed. His face began to look worn. is he amidst his lovely family ! I wou- 
 His hair became greyer. He looked der whether he has a coffin in any cup- 
 depressed. His usual cheerful and board." 
 
 buoyant energy disappeared, and he Solitude oppressive. When Thomas, 
 
 became listless, self-absorbed, and mel- the missionary to India, reached Cal- 
 
 ancholy. cutta, he was oppressed with a sense of 
 
 Depression. Just before George loneliness. He put an advertisement 
 
 Moore's entrance into his palatial house in the newspapers asking if there was 
 
 in Cumberland, his wife died. This another Christian in the country, and 
 
 brought an almost intolerable sense of begging for an interview. Eut there 
 
 loneliness. One day, going to see an was no answer ! 
 intimate friend, he said, "How blessed 
 
 EOMILETICS. 
 
 The Utter Exhaustion of Grief. 
 (Verses 11, 12.) 
 
 I. Because of the hopelessness of the desolation endured. " For the destruc- 
 tion of the daughter of my people" (ver. 11). The desolation is complete. Every- 
 thing is destroyed — Temple, home, army, nation, Avealth, food, and the very 
 capacity to rouse themselves from the torpor of despair. When the light of hope 
 is quenched it is impossible to put forth effort. Paralysis is destruction. 
 
 II. Because of the heart-rending spectacle of little children fainting in the 
 streets and dying in their mothers' arms, while they vainly moan for food. 
 " Because the children and the sucklings swoon in the streets. They say to their 
 mothers, ' Where is corn and wine '? ' when their soul was poured out into their 
 mother's bosom" (vers. 11, 12). The harrowing details here given are the most 
 affecting that have yet been depicted by the graphic and versatile pen of the pro- 
 jliet. The cry — an oft-repeated cry, as the tense means — of the children for 
 food, which the mothers were powerless to supply, only added to the tortures they 
 already suffered. So completely prostrate were they with their misery, that they 
 saw their children die with indifference, and could not conceal an unnatural relief 
 when they heard their last sob. Excessive grief blunts the edge of the finest 
 natural instincts. 
 
 III. Because all the powers for expressing emotion are completely spent. 
 " Mine eyes do fail with tears, my bowels are troubled, my liver is poured upon 
 the earth" (ver. 11). Jeremiah employs the terms in ordinary use, and as they 
 were popularly understood. As the heart was regarded by the Jews as the seat 
 of the intellect, so the liver, as the chief of the large viscera classed together under 
 the name of boicels, was supposed to be the seat of the emotions. By tlie pouring 
 out, therefore, of the liver upon the ground was meant that his feelings had 
 entirely given way under the acuteness of his sorrow, and he could no longer 
 restrain them. — Speake/s Comvi. The agony of grief was passed. It was quelled 
 by sheer exhaustion. He wept till he could weep no more. He grieved till he 
 w^as incapable of feeling his grief. A tearless sorrow is the most dangerous, and 
 the most difficult to cure. 
 
 Lessons. — 1. Jliere is a limit to the greatest human soirow. 2. Tliere is a 
 moment in the experience of the sufferer when death itself is icelcome. 3. The 
 greatest sorrow is a painful testimony to the desolating p)oicer of sin. 
 
 52 
 
nOMILETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS: 
 
 Illustrations. — Grief prostrating. 
 
 Late in the afternoon of a summer day 
 I entered a quiet graveyard where slept 
 one of my dearest friends. It occupied 
 the brow of a hill, which, with many a 
 knoll and graceful undulation, sloped to 
 the green meadow, watered by a wind- 
 ing stream, now catching, at its repeated 
 curves, the rays of the setting sun. On 
 the left was a pleasant wood, where the 
 sturdy pine and fruit-bearing beech 
 concealed narrow paths to cool caves 
 and mossy banks. White birches and 
 the trembling aspen, with the sweet- 
 scented willow, grew upon the right, 
 and from beyond rose the curling smoke 
 from the cottage-houses. A robin sang 
 its song of love and praise, a sparroAV 
 passed me bearing food to its little 
 progeny, and the chirp of the merry 
 grasshopper mingled with the hum of 
 hundreds of flitting insects. But for 
 this peace-breathing scene I had no 
 greeting. The wild storm, thunder, 
 rain, and darkness had been more wel- 
 come. Yielding utterly to my grief, 
 I threw myself upon the sod, and took 
 no heed of time. There came over me 
 a sense of utter and hopeless desolation ; 
 an agony like that of death turned to 
 bitterness the blessings of my lot. 
 
 — Grief is a flower as delicate and 
 prompt to fade as happiness. Still it 
 does not wholly die. Like the magic 
 rose, dried and unrecognisable, a warm 
 air breathed on it will suffice to renew 
 its bloom. — De Gasparin. 
 
 Misery makes indelible impressions. 
 The rapidity with which iduas grow old 
 in our memories is in a direct ratio to 
 the squares of their importance. Their 
 apparent age runs up miraculously, like 
 the value of diamonds, as they increase 
 in magnitude. A great calamity, for 
 instance, is as old as the trilobites an 
 hour after it has happened. It stains 
 backward through all the leaves we 
 have turned over in the book of life 
 before its blot of tears or of blood is 
 dry on the page we are turning. Did 
 you ever happen to see that most soft- 
 spoken and velvet-handed steam-engine 
 at the Mint 1 The smooth piston slides 
 backwards and forwards as a lady might 
 slip her delicate linger in and out of a 
 
 ring. The engine lays one of its lingers 
 calmly but firmly upon a bit of metal ; 
 it is a coin now, and will remember that 
 touch, and tell a new race about it, 
 when the date upon it is crusted over 
 with twenty centuries. So it is that 
 a great silent-moving misery puts a new 
 stamp on us in an hour or a moment — 
 as sharp an impression as if it had 
 taken half a lifetime to engrave it. — 
 Holmes. 
 
 Distress exhausting. Distress is 
 trouble of a mental kind, tending to 
 despair. Tribulation may be described 
 as the "fighting without," whilst dis- 
 tress may be described as the "fears 
 within." That kind of trouble is in- 
 dicated which comes upon a wrestler 
 when his antagonist has succeeded in 
 throwing him after a long struggle, 
 has got his foot on him, is holding 
 him down, and all seems to be up with 
 him. Before, when wrestling, he was 
 troubled, now he is distressed. Thus 
 we see that the afflictions contemplated 
 by the terms tribulation and distress 
 are no light ones ; and it is little wonder 
 that, under the strain of such untoward 
 circumstances of outward and inward 
 trouble, the Christian should lose heart 
 and fear the worst. 
 
 Grief excessively indulged. Ebenezer 
 Adams, an eminent member of the 
 Society of Friends, on visiting a lady 
 of rank, whom he found, six months 
 after the death of her husband, seated 
 on a sofa covered with black cloth and 
 in all the dignity of woe, approached her 
 with great solemnity, and gently taking 
 her by the hand, thus addressed her : 
 *' So, friend, I see, then, thou hast not 
 yet forgiven God Almighty." This 
 reproof had so great an effect on the 
 lady, that she immediately laid aside 
 her violent grief, and again entered on 
 the discharge of the duties of life. 
 
 The cure of excessive sorrow. A 
 pale mourner stood bending over the 
 tomb, and his tears fell fast and often. 
 As he raised his humid eyes to heaven, 
 he cried, "My brother ! my brother." 
 A sage passed that way and said, " For 
 whom dost thou mourn?" "One," 
 replied he, " whom I did not sufficiently 
 love while living, but whose inestimable 
 
 .53 
 
nOMILETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 worth I now feel." " What wouldst tunnelled Alps from the dark, cold, 
 
 thou do if he were restored to thee ? " stifling air, emerging on the broad light- 
 
 The mourner replied that he would> flooded plains of Lonibardy, it is often 
 
 never ofi"end him by an unkind word, by a way which they know not, gloomy 
 
 but would take every occasion to show and underground, that the convoy is 
 
 his friendship, if he could but come carried which God's Spirit is bringing 
 
 back to his fond embrace. " Then, to the wealthy place ; and your present 
 
 waste not thy time in useless grief," grief you will have no reason to regret 
 
 said the sage ; " but if thou hast friends, if it introduce you to God's friendship 
 
 go and cherish the living, remembering and to joys which do not perish in the 
 
 that they will one day be dead also." using. Affliction is God's message. — 
 
 — Like the passengers through the Hamilton, 
 
 HOMILETICS. 
 
 Inexpressible Euin. 
 
 (Verse 13.) 
 
 I. Is incomparable with any ordinary calamity. " What thing shall I take 
 to witness for thee? What thing shall I liken to thee? What shall I equal to 
 thee 1 " Great as may be our distress, it is some comfort, slight though it be, to 
 know there are others more or less unfortunate. But in this case, the prophet 
 lias no message from Jehovah to afflicted Judah, nor can he ofi"er the ordinary 
 human consolation of saying that others have had equal or worse sorrow to bear. 
 The lamentable condition of Jerusalem was unparalleled ; there had been nothing 
 like it. No city had been so highly privileged with Divine honours : no city 
 had been so signally punished. " Behold, and see if there be any sorrow like 
 unto my sorrow " (chap. i. 1 2). Jeremiah had exhausted all his powers of 
 description. Desperate indeed must be the state of Judah when such a master 
 of similes had to confess his inability to coin an adequate comparison. 
 
 II. Is measureless as the illimitable ocean. " For thy breach is great like 
 the sea." In his extremity to find some comparison, the prophet mentions the sea, 
 which, on account of its vast dimensions, its illimitable depth and breadth, could 
 alone furnish a fitting emblem of the magnitude of the devastation effected by 
 the Chaldeans. The indefiniteness of the figure thus used reveals at once the 
 straits to which the writer was reduced, and the utter ruin in which Judah was 
 overwhelmed. Thou hast a flood of afflictions, a sea of troubles, an ocean of 
 miseries. 
 
 III. Is beyond the power of human consolation and repair. " What shall 
 I equal to thee, that I may comfort thee, virgin daughter of Zion 1 who can 
 heal thee 1 " Human words fail ; human help is powerless. There is no comfort 
 in man, or in any number of men. If there is to be any relief or restoration, 
 it must come from God. He alone can change ruin into prosperity, misery into 
 joy, darkness into light. A traveller in Madeira set off one morning to climb the 
 summit of a lofty mountain to gaze upon the distant scene and enjoy the balmy 
 air. He had a guide, and they had with difficulty ascended some two thousand 
 feet, when a thick mist was seen descending upon them, obscuring the heavens. 
 The traveller thought there was no hope left but to retrace their steps or be lost. 
 But as the cloud came nearer and darkness enveloped them, the guide stepped on 
 before, penetrating the mist, calling out every now and then, " Press on, master, 
 press on ; there's light beyond ! " They did press on, and in a few minutes, 
 emerging from the thick mist, found themselves gazing upon a scene of tran- 
 scendent beauty. Above, the sky was bright and cloudless ; below, the almost 
 level cloud through which they had passed was silvered with the rays of the sun, 
 
 54 
 
nOMlLETIC COMMENTARt: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 like a field of untrodden snow. In the darkest experiences, if we will but listen, 
 we may hear the voice of our Divine Guide exclaiming, " Press on, press on ; 
 there is light beyond ! " 
 
 Lessons. — 1. Great indeed is the calamity that baffles human ingenuity to 
 describe. 2. The nation is utterly undone tvhen smitten by the hand of God. 
 3. God alone can repair the damage His righteous anger has inflicted. 
 
 Illustrations. — Drifting to ruin. 
 
 Two or tliree miles above the falls of 
 Kiagara an Indian canoe was one day 
 observed floating quietly along, with 
 its paddle on its side. At first it was 
 supposed to be empty. No one could 
 imagine a man would expose himself 
 to such well-known danger ; but a turn 
 of the current revealed an Indian lying 
 asleep at the bottom. The spectators 
 were shocked, and shouted to rouse 
 him, biit in vain. It seemed more like 
 death than sleep which held him. All 
 hope of rescue was gone, and they hur- 
 ried along the shore in alarm to see the 
 end. It soon came, for the torrent was 
 DOW rolling so rapidly that they could 
 scarcely keep pace with the object of 
 their interest. At length the roar of the 
 water, which had been hitherto almost 
 buried within the high banks below, 
 by a sudden change of the wind broke 
 upon them with double violence. This 
 dreadful noise, with which the Indian 
 ear was so familiar, did at last arouse 
 him. He was seen to start up and 
 snatch his paddle.. But it was too late. 
 The same dinning sound which had 
 roused him from insensibility told him 
 at the same time that it was in vain to 
 seek safety now by paddling, nor indeed 
 had he time to try. Upright as he stood 
 he was swept over the awful precipice, 
 and the boat and its occupant were seen 
 no more. 
 
 Euin and responsibility. Julian the 
 Apostate had for his coat of arms on his 
 escutcheon an eagle struck through the 
 heart with a shaft feathered from her 
 own wing, Avith the motto, " Our death 
 flies to us with our own feathers, and 
 our wings pierce us to the very heart." 
 The moral is, that if a man receives 
 injury, he alone has caused it, and is 
 alone to blame. 
 
 Unutterable ruin. Every man feels, 
 
 and not strangely, that there never werd 
 such experiences of life as his own. No 
 joy was ever like our joy, no sorrow 
 ever like our sorrow. Indeed, there is 
 a kind of indignation excited in us 
 when one likens our grief to his own. 
 The soul is jealous of its experiences, 
 and does not like pride to be humbled 
 by the thought that they are common. 
 For though we know that the world 
 groans and travails in pain, and has 
 done so for ages, yet a groan heard by 
 our ear is a very difierent thing from 
 a groan uttered by our mouth. The 
 sorrows of other men seem to us like 
 clouds of rain that empty themselves in 
 the distance, and whose long-travelling 
 thunder comes to us mellowed and sub- 
 dued ; but our own troubles are like a 
 storm bursting right overhead and send- 
 ing down its bolts upon us with direct 
 plunge. — Beeclier. 
 
 Ruin the punishment for sin. Fear- 
 ful it is to consider that sin does not 
 only drive us into calamity, but it 
 makes us also impatient, and embitters 
 our spirit in the sufi"erance : it cries 
 aloud for vengeance, and so torments 
 men before the time with such fearful 
 outcries and horrid alarms, that their 
 hell begins before the fire is kindled. 
 It hinders our prayers, and consequently 
 makes us hopeless and helpless. It 
 perpetually afi"rights the conscience, un- 
 less by its frequent stripes it brings 
 a callousness and an insensible damna- 
 tion upon it. It makes us lose all that 
 Christ purchased for us — all the bless- 
 ings of His providence, the comforts of 
 His Spirit, the aids of His grace, the 
 light of His countenance, the hopes of 
 His glory. — Jeremy Taylor. 
 
 — The pain, the disappointment, the 
 dissatisfaction that wait on an evil 
 course, show that the soul was not 
 made to be the instrument of sin, but 
 
 55 
 
nOMILETW COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 its lofty avenger. The desolated affec- 
 tions, the liaggard countenance, the 
 pallid and sunken cheek, the sighings 
 of grief, proclaim that these are ruins 
 indeed ; but they proclaim that some- 
 thing noble has fallen into ruin, pro- 
 claim it by signs mournful yet venerable, 
 like the desolation of an ancient temple, 
 like its broken walls and fallen columns, 
 and the hollow sounds of decay that 
 sink down heavily among its deserted 
 recesses. — Deicey. 
 
 Helpless ruin appeals to our sym- 
 pathy. Helplessness appealing to our 
 pity begets affection. In one of the 
 cottages of my country parish dwelt a 
 poor idiot child, horrible to all eyes 
 but her parents, and so helpless that, 
 though older than sisters just blooming 
 into womanhood, she lay, unable either 
 to walk or speak, a burden on her 
 mother's lap almost the whole day long 
 — a heavy handful to one who had the 
 cares of a family, and was the wife of 
 a hard-working man, and a most pain- 
 ful contrast to the very roses that flung 
 their bright clusters over the cottage 
 window, as well as to the lark that, 
 pleased wdth a grassy turf, carolled 
 within its cage. Death, in most in- 
 stances an unwelcome visitor, came at 
 length — to her and to their relief. Re- 
 lief ! so I thought ; and when the father 
 came with an invitation to the funeral, 
 so I said. Though not roughly, but in- 
 advertently spoken, the word jarred on 
 a tender chord; and I was more than 
 
 ever taught how helplessness begets 
 affection in the very measure and pro- 
 portion of itself, when he burst into 
 a fit of sorrow, and, speaking of his 
 beautiful boys and blooming girls, said, 
 "If it had been God's will, I would 
 have parted with any of them rather 
 than her." — Gufhrie. 
 
 No hope but in God. The ninth 
 capital in the Ducal Palace at Venice 
 is decorated with figures of the eight 
 virtues — Faith, Hope, Charity, Justice, 
 Temperance, Prudence, Humility, and 
 Fortitude, The virtues of the fourteenth 
 century are somewhat hard-featured, 
 with vivid and living expression, and 
 plain everyday clothes of the time. 
 Charity has her lap full of apples, and 
 is giving one to a little child, who 
 stretches his arm for it across a gap 
 in the leafage of the capital. Fortitude 
 tears open a lion's jaws ; Faith lays her 
 hand on her breast as she beholds the 
 cross; and Hope is praying, while above 
 is a hand seen emerging from sunbeams 
 — the hand of God, and the inscription 
 above is SjJ^s optima in Deo. This de- 
 sign is rudely imitated by the fifteenth 
 century workmen : the virtues have lost 
 their hard features and living expres- 
 sion ; they have now all got Roman 
 noses, and have had their hair curled. 
 Their actions and emblems are, how- 
 ever, preserved until we come to Hope 
 — she is still praising, but she is prais- 
 ing to the sun only : the hand of God 
 is Kone ! — Buskin. 
 
 HOMILETICS. 
 
 False Prophets. 
 
 (Verse 14.) 
 
 I. Are self-deluded. "Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things for 
 thee," Tlty prophets — they were certainly not God's prophets. Their authority 
 was self-assumed, and they ingratiated themselves into the favour of the people by 
 proi)hcsying only what was agreeable to their hearers. They indulged so lavishly 
 in lies and deceit, that they almost persuaded themselves that what they uttered 
 Avas truth. But they were deluded, and their delusion wms self-induced. An 
 inveterate habit of lying vitiates the moral sense ; it becomes difficult to appre- 
 ciate what is true, A lie poisons the atmosphere wherever it circulates. It has 
 no legs and cannot stand, but it has wings and can fly far and wide. 
 
 II. Have no insight into the real cause of national calamities, and their 
 teaching is powerless to prevent them. " They have not discovered thine 
 
 66 
 
EOMILETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. chap. ii. 
 
 iniquity, to turn away thy captivity." The Syriac renders the words thus : They 
 have not disclosed to thee thy sins, that so thou mightest repent, and I might have 
 turned aicay thy captivity. They were so demoralised by the habitual practice of 
 falsehood, that they were incompetent to judge the cause and drift of the national 
 troubles. They could not see that disobedience to God was at the root of the 
 general distress ; or, if they did, they saw so little evil in it, or danger from it, 
 that they did not deem it necessary to alarm the people by any words of warning. 
 Had they been able to read the signs of the times and to act with promptness 
 and fidelity in urging the people to repentance, Israel's chastisement might have 
 been averted. When responsible leaders are unfaithful, and abuse their trust by 
 deceiving others, the misguided nation rushes on to its doom. 
 
 III. Invent messages full of deceit. " But have seen for thee false burdens 
 and causes of banishment." The word burdens does not mean here prophecies 
 of a minatory character, for evidently the false prophets assured the people of 
 prosperity and deliverance. The word is used in a contemptuous sense. The 
 burdens, so different from the Divine message laid as a burden on the conscience 
 of. the genuine prophet, were, in this case, mere pretence, false, empty, and utterly 
 inadequate to remove " the causes of banishment." The false propliets, in their 
 attempt to account for the captivity, invented any cause but the real one — the 
 apostasy of the people. Deceit produces darker shades of deceit. One lie must 
 be quickly thatched with another, or it will soon rain through. The way of false- 
 hood is tortuous. A deaf and dumb boy being asked, " "What is truth ? " replied by 
 thrusting his finger forward in a straight line. When asked, " What is falsehood 1 " 
 he made a zigzag motion with his finger. The result of false teaching is disinte- 
 gration, banishment, a driving out. Every lie, great or small, is the brink of a 
 precipice, the depth of which nothing but Omniscience can fathom. The poet 
 Campbell calls it, "The torrent's smoothness, ere it dash below." 
 
 Lessons. — 1. The true prophet receives his commission directly from God. 
 
 2. While the prophet is faithful to his Divine calling he is preserved from error. 
 
 3. The false ptfophet deceives himself as well as others. 
 
 Illustrations. — A false prophet. at a village chapel, and endeavoured to 
 
 " The bigot theologian, in minute convince a large congregation that there 
 
 Distinctions skilled, and doctrines unreduced is no punishment after death. At the 
 
 To practice ; in debate how loud ! how long ! close of the discourse he informed the 
 
 How dexterous ! in Christian love, how cold ! ».„^„i„ !,„ ,„„„i i „„i, *i 
 
 TT- • -t 4.U J 1 people he would preach tliere acrain in 
 
 His vam conceits were orthodox alone. ^ ^ . -i i\ • \ ^ a 
 
 The immutable and heavenly truth revealed lO"'^ weeks, it tliey Wished.^ A respect- 
 
 By God was nought to him ; he had an art, able merchant rose and said, " Sir, if 
 
 A kind of hellish charm, that made the lips your doctrine is true, we do not need 
 
 ^^ \urned^'''^ falsehood ; to his liking ^^^ . ^^^ jf j^ jg f^j^^^ ^^^ ^^ ^^^^ ^^,^^^^ 
 
 The meaning of the text ; made trifles seem J^U. 
 
 The marrow of salvation ; False teaching dangerous when 
 
 Proved still his reasoning best, and his belief, mlxed with truth. Falsehood is never 
 
 '^''"'men'Kfams"" ^''"'''^' '''"'^ ^' '^^'^' ^° successful as when she baits her 
 
 Most rational! most Scriptural, most sound ; ^^^ok with truth. No opinions SO fatally 
 
 With mortal heresy denouncing all mislead US as those that are not wholly 
 
 Who in his arguments could see no force. wronfj, as no watches SO effectually 
 
 ^'^ Tolmd ^^^ """^^^^ ^^^'^ ^"* ^'' °''"' """^ deceive the wearer as those that are 
 
 At last his own most false— most false, sometimes right.— CoZ^ow. 
 
 because — Error is never so dangerous as 
 
 He spent his time to prove all others so." when it is the alloy of trutli. Pure 
 
 Pollok. error would be rejected ; but error mixed 
 
 False doctrine. A man holding with truth makes use of the truth as a 
 
 false and pernicious doctrines preached . pioneer for it, and gets introduction 
 
 67 
 
CHAP. IL 
 
 ffOMILETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 where otherwise it would J»v« none. 
 I'oison is never so dangerous as when 
 mixed up with food ; error is never so 
 likely to do mischief as when it comes 
 to us under the pretensions and patron- 
 age of that which is true. — Ctimming. 
 
 Faith in falsehood disastrous. — 
 When the English army under Harold, 
 and the Norman under William the 
 Conqueror, were set in array for that 
 fearful conflict which decided the fate 
 of the two armies and the political des- 
 tinies of Great Britain, William, per- 
 ceiving that he could not by a fair 
 attack move the solid columns of the 
 English ranks, had recourse to a false 
 movement in order to gain the victory. 
 He gave orders that one flank of his 
 army should feign to be flying from the 
 field in disorder. The officers of the 
 English army believed the falsehood, 
 pursued them, and were cut off. A 
 second time a false movement was made 
 in another part of the field. The Eng- 
 lish again believed, pursued, and were 
 
 cut off. By these movements the for- 
 tunes of the day were determined. 
 Although the English had the evidence 
 of their senses, yet they were led to 
 believe a falsehood. They acted in 
 view of it. The consequence was the 
 destruction of a great part of their 
 army, and the establishment of the 
 Norman power in England. It is an 
 incontrovertible fact that the whole 
 heathen world, ancient and modern, 
 have believed in and worshipped un- 
 holy beings as gods. In consequence 
 of believing falsehood concerning the 
 character of God, all heathendom at the 
 present hour is filled with ignorance, 
 impurity, and crime. — /. B. Walker. 
 Falsehood. 
 
 •' I scorn this hated scene 
 
 Of masking and disguise, 
 Where men on men still gleam 
 
 With falseness in their eyes : 
 Where all is counterfeit, 
 
 And truth hath never say ; 
 Where hearts themselves do cheat, 
 
 Concealing hope's decay." — Motherwell. 
 
 nOMILETICS. 
 
 The Heartless Triumph of the Scorner. 
 
 (Verses 15-17.) 
 
 I. Expressed in aggravated taunts (ver. 1 5). The conquerors heap insult 
 upon insult on the fallen city. They employ all the familiar signs expressive of 
 contempt and derision. They clap their hands, they hiss, they wag their heads, 
 and with a scornful curl of the lip they ask, "Is this the city that men call the 
 perfection of beauty, the joy of the whole earth?" Jerusalem had acquired a 
 world-wide renown. It was the pride of the Jew, the dread of its subject tribes, 
 the envy of surrounding nations. No city had been so signally honoured of 
 Heaven ; and now that it was prone in the dust, its foes united in a wild chorus 
 of^fiendish jubilation. How vividly does this verse remind us of the scene around 
 the cross of the world's Redeemer ! (Matt, xxvii. 39-44 ; Mark xv. 29-32 ; Luke 
 xxiii. 35-37). It is heartless and wicked to make sport of the miseries of others, 
 and is a cruel aggravation of those miseries. The triumph of the wicked is short. 
 Their hollow-ringing laughter is as "the crackling of thorns under a pot." Their 
 taunts and gibes fall back upon themselves. Our unkind words come home 
 to roost. 
 
 II. Savagely exults in the havoc that has been ardently desired (ver. 16). 
 The intensity of the enemy's exultation is shown by the heaping up of unconnected 
 words, with each of which its own proper object must be supplied. We have 
 found what we sought, have seen what we looked for ; our hopes and longings are 
 all fulfilled. — Speahefs Comme7itarii. The enemies of Zion eagerly watched for 
 her downfall, they earnestly desired it, they maliciously helped to bring it about ; 
 and now it had come, their maddened hilarity and scorn knew no bounds. The 
 truly brave never exult over the defeat of their worst foes. They have often been 
 
 58 
 
nOMllETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 known to weep over the devastation they have themselves created. It is inhuman 
 to chuckle over the sufferings of others. It is a depth of demoralisation reached 
 only by the cowardly and craven-hearted. 
 
 .II L The fulfilment of Divine threatenings against national unfaithfulness 
 (ver. 17). ^e Tniu of Jemsalem, over wiuch her adversaries so savagely rejoiced, 
 ■was no accidental or unforeseen event. It was the fulfilment of the Divine 
 purpose, of which Israel had been so often forewarned from the days of old. It 
 was distinctly foretold that if Israel forsook Jehovah and lapsed into idolatry, 
 they would be punished with all the miseries of a siege, ending in national over- 
 throw (Lev. xxvL 14-39 ; Deut. xxviii, 15-68). The contemptuous scorn of 
 their enemies emphasised their punishment, and testified to the exactness with 
 which the Divine threatenings against disobedience had been fulfilled. The 
 Divine word, whether in threat or promise, never fails. God is unchangeably 
 faithful both in mercy and in judgment. 
 
 Lessons. — 1. The ivicked ever gloat over the downfall of the good. 2. The gibes 
 of the scorner are a hitter ingredient in the punishmeyit of the unfaithful, 3. The 
 taunts of the ivicked have no 'power to injure the truly righteous. 
 
 GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES. 
 
 Vers. 15, 16. The world's treatment 
 of its suffering Redeemer : 1. A wild 
 tempest of unreasoning scorn, hatred, 
 and exultation. 2. A mournful evi- 
 dence of the intense acrimony of sin. 
 3. Does not prevent the unselfish work- 
 ing out of its sublime redemption. 
 
 Ver. 1 7. The Divine threatenings of 
 judgment : I. Unaffected ly the lapse 
 of time. " He hath fulfilled His word 
 that He had commanded in the days of 
 old." II. Are carried out ivith relent- 
 less certainty. " He hath thrown down 
 and hath not pitied." III. Always finds 
 agents willing to execute them. " He 
 hath caused thine enemy to rejoice over 
 thee ; He hath set up the horn of thine 
 adversaries." 
 
 Illustrations. — Triumph prema- 
 ture. During the reign of Henry 
 VIIL, the Pope, angry at the English 
 monarch's resistance, called a council 
 in Rome, at which it was resolved that 
 the Emperor of Germany should invade 
 England, and that Henry should be 
 deposed. So rejoiced was the Papal 
 party, that they illuminated Rome ; 
 cannons were fired, bonfires lighted, 
 and great bodies of men paraded the 
 streets shouting, " The Empire and 
 Spain." Already, in their eager expec- 
 tation, England was a second Nether- 
 lands, a captured province under the 
 
 regency of Catherine or Mary. How 
 bitterly these expectations were over- 
 thrown history too well declares. 
 Scorn, not to be dreaded. 
 
 " Ridicule is a weak weapon when levelled at 
 a strong mind ; 
 
 But common men are cowards, and dread 
 an empty laugh. 
 
 Betray mean terror of ridicule, thou shalt 
 find fools enough to mock thee ; 
 
 But answer thou their laughter with con- 
 tempt, 
 
 And the scoffers will lick thy feet." 
 
 — Tapper. 
 
 A scoffer nonplussed. On a certain 
 occasion, in the presence of a vast and 
 brilliant assemblage, a person more 
 noted for his self-esteem than for his 
 learning was speaking against the Chris- 
 tian religion in terms of the severest 
 scorn and derision. The celebrated Dr. 
 Belknap, overhearing the orator, stepped 
 up to him and asked, *' Well, sir, have 
 you found a religion that is better?" 
 The scofi'er, considerably abashed by 
 this unlooked-for question, was forced 
 to acknowledge that thus far he had 
 not. " Well," responded the Doctor, 
 " when you have, let me know, and I 
 will join you in adopting it." The 
 rebuke was as wise as it was just. 
 
 Sarcasm destroys friendship. Life 
 is full of paradoxes. There are some 
 slight causes which will destroy the 
 strongest friendship. Great causes will 
 
 59 
 
EOMILETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 not always impair it. A sarcastic and. 
 disparaging speeclx made by a friend 
 concerning liis friend in his absence, 
 and repealed by some miscliief-maker, 
 v'ill invariably disturb friendship; while 
 an angry altercation, or some injury to 
 person or to property, will often leave 
 friendship unharmed. When aliena- 
 tion begins, it increases at a very rapid 
 rate. I he rust spot multiplies apace. 
 The mildew spreads quickly. The rift 
 in the lute becomes longer and longer. 
 — S. Maiiin. 
 
 The Redeemer's sufferings unique. 
 Did Christ then merely suffer as any 
 other man lias done? Suffering is a 
 question of nature. The educated man 
 suffers more than the uneducated man ; 
 the poet probably suffers more than the 
 mathematician ; the commanding officer 
 suffers more in a defeat than tlie com- 
 mon soldier. The more life the more 
 suffering, the billows of sorrow being 
 in proportion to the volume of our 
 manhood. Now Jesus Christ was not 
 merely a man. He was man, and by 
 the very compass of His manhood He 
 suffered more than any mortal can en- 
 dure. Tlie storm may pass as fiercely 
 over the shallow lake as over the At- 
 
 lantic, but by its very volume the latter 
 is more terribly shaken. No other man 
 had come with Christ's ideas ; in no 
 other man was the element of self so 
 entirely abnegated ; no other man had 
 offered such opposition to diabolical 
 rule. All these circumstances combine 
 to render Christ's sufferings unique, yet 
 not one of them puts Christ so far away 
 as to prevent us finding in His suffering 
 unfailing solace and strength. — Dr. 
 Parker. 
 
 Divine punishment certain. Those 
 who :nade light of the invitation to the 
 supper mentioned in the Gospel were 
 shut out. The sceptical Pilate ended a 
 miserable, hopeless life by suicide. The 
 rich man went on living splendidly, 
 giving banquets, pampering his body, 
 until one day he died and was buried, 
 and awoke in torment to know its 
 reality at last. The people in Noah's 
 days lived securely and indifferent, 
 '' until the flood came and took them 
 all away." On the inhabitants of 
 Sodom the sun was shining when Lot 
 went out of the city ; but the same day 
 it rained fire and brimstone, and de-. 
 stroyed them all. 
 
 EOMILETICS. 
 
 A Call to Prayer. 
 
 (Verses 18, 19.) 
 
 I. Addressed to a city suffering the miseries of a desolating siege. "Their 
 
 heart cried unto the Lord, O wall of the daughter of Zion ! " (ver. 18). It sounds 
 strange thus to appeal to the wall of Zion — to pray so passionately that tears may 
 run down like a river. But this is quite after the manner of Jeremiah and other 
 sacred writers (comp. ver. 8; Isa. xiv. 31 ; Jer. xxii. 29 ; Hab. ii. 11 ; Luke xix. 
 40). Carried away with an outburst of sorrow, " the prophet suddenly addresses 
 the wall, which had so long been their shelter and defence, and bids it, as the 
 representative of the people who had dwelt secure under its protection, to shed 
 floods of tears on their behalf. Broken up by tlie enemy, it could be their guar- 
 dian no longer, but by its ruins it might still cry unto the Lord in their behali" 
 However great may be our distress, it is always wise to promptly obey the sum- 
 mons to pray. Prayer brings moral strength and brightens the hope of rescue. 
 
 II. To be mingled with much weeping. " Let tears run down like a river 
 day and night; give thyself no rest; let not the apple of thine eye cease" (ver. 
 18). Like a river, a brook, or torrent, rushing along furiously at one time and 
 afterwards dried up. In the nature of things weeping cannot be incessant. Like 
 a torrent, it gushes out in floods of tears, and, though ceasing at intervals, it is in 
 this instance to be often repeated. Keasous for frequent weeping will be found 
 
 6Q 
 
HOMILETIC COMMENTARY : LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 in the . prolonged continuance of the misery. Suffering is apt to stupify and 
 harden, if the heart is not softened with tears. Prayer is the more genuine when 
 accompanied with godly sorrow. 
 
 III. To be expressed -witli loud cries throughout the night-watches. 
 "Arise, cry out in the night; in tlie beginning of tlie watches pour out thine 
 heart like water before the face of the Lord" (ver, 19). At the beginning of 
 each night-watch means all the night through. There are crises in life, times of 
 trouble and peril, when the time usually devoted to sleep may be fitly employed 
 in earnest, agonising prayer. Such a time had come in the history of Judah ; 
 such a time comes to most. There is a pathetic tenderness of sorrow in the 
 night-moanings and cries of the soul, and it is then we are often conscious of the 
 special nearness of Divine help. 
 
 "Hours spent with pain and Tliee 
 Lost hours have never seemed ; 
 No ! those are lost which but might be 
 From earth for heaven redeemed. 
 
 For weeping, wakeful eyes 
 
 Instinctive look above, 
 And catch, through openings in the skies, 
 
 Thy beams, unslumbering Love ! " 
 
 IV. To be offered especially on behalf of perishing children. "Lift up thy 
 hands towards Him for the life of thy young children that faint for hunger at the 
 top of every street" (ver. 19). Among the most heart-rending miseries of the 
 siege was the spectacle of little children prostrate in the streets slowly dying of 
 starvation. You cannot enter a street in any part of the city but this sad sight 
 meets the eye. The lifting up of the hands is not only the attitude and symbol 
 of prayer, but indicates earnestness in supplication. The sufferings of helpless 
 children appeal to the hardest heart, and when it is impossible to render any 
 other help, we are called upon to pray for them. When our children are in ex- 
 tremity, so are we. Prayer is the only refuge, apart from which there is nothing 
 but wretchedness and despair. 
 
 Lessons. — 1. Our daily necessities are a constant call to prayer. 2. Misery 
 finds relief in prayer. 3. The young should ever be the subject of earnest prayer. 
 
 GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES. 
 
 Ver. 1 9. A night of prayer : 1, yoke in his youth ; " and they forget 
 
 Necessary in circumstances of special that that " yoke is easy " and that 
 
 peril. 2. Often characterised by in- " burden is light. " God hears children, 
 
 tense earnestness. 3. Familiar to many He called Samuel when he was but a 
 
 an anxious mother pleading for the child. We have had our Josiahs, we 
 
 salvation of her child. have had our Timothys ; we have seen 
 
 — Watch-Night service. I. It is those in early youth brought to the 
 
 never too soon to pray. There is no Saviour. Young man, it is not too 
 
 reason why you should delay to the soon. 11. It is not too late to cry to 
 
 morning light. " In the beginning of the Lord. If the sun be set and the 
 
 the night-watches pour out thine heart watches of the night have commenced 
 
 like water before the face of the Lord." their round, the mercy-seat is open. 
 
 How many young persons imagine that No shop is open so late as the House of 
 
 religion is a thing for age, or at least Mercy. The devil has two tricks with 
 
 for maturity ! They do not want their men. Sometimes he puts their clock a 
 
 young shoulders galled with an early little backward, and says, " Stop ! there 
 
 burden ; they do not think it is true is time enough yet ; " and when that 
 
 that " it is good for a man to bear the does not answer, he turns the hands on, 
 
 61 
 
cn.\p. IT. 
 
 EOMILETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 and cries out, " Too late ! too late ! " 
 Within another fifteen minutes another 
 year shall liave come ; but if the Siuiit 
 of God calls you this year, He will not 
 call you too late in the year. If to the 
 last second you should live, if God the 
 Holy Ghost calls you then. He will not 
 have called you too late. The darkness 
 of night is gathering ; it is coming on, 
 and you are near death. Arise, sleeper, 
 arise ! Thou art now taking the last 
 nap of death. III. We cannot pray 
 too vehemently. " Cry out in the night." 
 God loves earnest prayers. He loves 
 impetuous prayers, vehement prayers. 
 Let a man preach, if he dare, coldly 
 and slowly, but never let him pray so. 
 Those who cry with weak voices, who 
 do not cry aloud, must not expect 
 to get a blessing. When you go to 
 Mercy's gate, do not give a gentle tap 
 like a lady, do not give a single knock 
 like a beggar, but take the knocker and 
 rap hard till the very door seems to 
 shake. Rap with all your might, and 
 recollect that God loveth those who 
 knock hard at Mercy's gate. IV. We 
 cannot ^vay too sim/>Jy. " Pour out 
 your hearts before Him." Not pour 
 out your fine words, not pour out your 
 beautiful periods, but pour out your 
 hearts. " I dare not," says one ; " there 
 is black stuff in my heart." Out with 
 it, then; it is better out than in. "I 
 cannot pray as I could wish," says 
 another ; *' my crying out is a feeble 
 one." When you pour out water, it 
 does not make much noise. So you 
 can *' pour out your heart like water," 
 and it will run away, and you can 
 scarcely know it. There is many a 
 prayer uttered in a garret, down in a 
 cellar, or in some lonely place where 
 the cobbler sits mending his shoes be- 
 neath a window, which the world does 
 not hear, but the Lord hears it. Pour 
 out your heart like water by confessing 
 your sins, by begging the Lord to have 
 mercy on you for Christ's sake. And 
 when it is all poured out, He will come 
 and fill it again. Listen for one mo- 
 ment to the ticking of that clock. It 
 is the beating of the pulse of eternity ; 
 it is the footstep of death pursuing you. 
 Time is precious, and when we have 
 62 
 
 little of it, it is more precious. You 
 will soon enter another year. This 
 year will have gone in a few seconds. 
 Where will the next year be spent 1 — 
 C. H. S/mryeoji, 
 
 Illustrations. — A mute summons 
 to prayer. Venice may well call upon 
 us to note with reverence, that of all 
 the towers which are still seen rising 
 like a branchless forest from her islands, 
 there is but one whose office was other 
 than that of summoning to prayer, and 
 that one was a watch-tower only. — 
 — RiisMn. 
 
 Tearful intercession irresistible. 
 Miss Gratz — supposed to have been the 
 original of Rebecca in " Ivanhoe " — was 
 nursing her grandfather in his last ill- 
 ness. Calling her to him one day, he 
 said, " What can I do for you, ray dear 
 child ? " Turning upon him her beau- 
 tiful eyes filled with tears, she said ia 
 a tone of earnest entreaty, " Grand- 
 father, forgive Aunt Shinah." This 
 was a daughter who had been long 
 estranged because of her marriage with 
 a Gentile. The old man sought his 
 grand-daughter's hand, pressed it, and, 
 after a silence, said in a broken voice, 
 " Send for her." In due course the 
 lady came, received her father's forgive- 
 ness and blessing, and when, a fe^Y 
 days later, he breathed his last, the 
 arms of his long-estranged child were 
 about him, while Rebecca Gratz sat 
 silently at his side. 
 
 Prayer necessary for service. Bees 
 suffer sadly from famine during the 
 dry years which occasionally occur in 
 the southern and middle portions of 
 California. If the rainfall amounts 
 only to three or four inches, instead of 
 from twelve to twenty, as in ordinary 
 seasons, then sheep and cattle die in 
 thousands, and so do these small winged 
 cattle, unless they are carefully fed or 
 removed to other pastures. No flowers, 
 no honey ; no rain, no food. They who 
 teach others must themselves feed on 
 the truths they declare. Failure to 
 commune Avith God will give the 
 poverty-stroke to our endeavours to 
 bless man. 
 
EOMILETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS, 
 
 CHAP. IT. 
 
 Sorrow drives men to prayer. 
 
 " ' There is no God,' the foolish saith, 
 But none ' There is no sorrow ; ' 
 And Nature oft the cry of faith 
 
 In bitter need will borrow : 
 Eyes which the preacher could not school, 
 
 By wayside graves are raised, 
 And lips say ' God be pitiful, ' 
 
 Who ne'er said ' God be praised ! ' 
 Be pitiful, God ! " 
 
 — Mrs. Browning. 
 
 " Jesus, pitying Saviour, hear me ; 
 Draw Thou near me ; 
 Turn Thee, Lord, in grace to me ; 
 
 For Thou knowest all my sorrow ; 
 Night and morrow 
 
 Doth my cry go up to Thee, 
 
 Peace I cannot find : take rae, 
 
 Lord, and make me 
 From the yoke of evil free ; 
 
 Calm this longing never-sleeping, 
 Still my weeping, 
 
 Grant rae hope once more in Thee." 
 — Terstcegcn. 
 
 Sympatliy with youth. George 
 Moore, merchant and philanthropist, 
 was the constant resort of young men 
 wanting situations. If he could not 
 provide for them in his own warehouse, 
 he endeavoured to find situations for 
 them amongst his friends. He took 
 no end of trouble about this business. 
 After his young friends had obtained 
 employment, he continued to look after 
 tliem. He took down their names and 
 addresses in a special red book kept 
 for the purpose, and repeatedly asked 
 them to.dine with him on Sunday after- 
 noons. He usually requested that they 
 should go to some church or chapel in 
 the evening. 
 
 A mother's prayer. After Augus- 
 tine had lost faith in Manichseism, he 
 found himself in the same situation as 
 he was ten years before. There was 
 the same longing after truth, but linked 
 now with a feeling of desolation, a 
 bitter sense of deception, and a large 
 measure of scepticism. He was no 
 longer at ease in Carthage, and resolved 
 on a journey to Kome, where he ven- 
 tured to hope for a more brilliant and 
 profitable career as a rhetorician. His 
 mother wished either to prevent hi.s 
 going, or to go with him. While she 
 spent a night in the Church of the 
 Martyr, praying and wrestling with 
 God in tears to prevent the voyage, 
 Augustine sailed for the coast of Italy, 
 and his deceived mother found herself 
 the next morning alone on the sea-shore. 
 She had learned, however, the heavenly 
 art of forgiving, and believing also 
 where she could not see. In quiet 
 resignation she returned to the city, and 
 continued to pray for the salvation of 
 her son. Though meaning well, she 
 this time erred in her prayer, for the 
 journey of Augustine was the means 
 of his salvation. The denial of the 
 prayer was, in fact, the answering of it. 
 Instead of the husk, God granted rather 
 the substance of her petition in the con- 
 version of her son. " Therefore," says 
 he, " hadst Thou, God, regard to the 
 aim and essence of her desires, and 
 didst not do what she then prayed for, 
 that Thou mightest do for me what she 
 continually implored." — SchaJ'. 
 
 HOMILETICS. 
 A Prayer for Divine Compassion. 
 (Verses 20-22.) 
 
 I. Reminding Jehovah of His former favour to the sufferers. " Behold, O 
 Lord, and consider to whom Thou hast done this " (ver. 20). The prophet seems 
 to feel that if God would only look and recall to mind who they were who were 
 suffering, He would surely have pity. They are not the heathen, but His OAvn 
 people, the seed of Abraham, whom He raised from obscurity and endowed with 
 unexampled blessings. Their present misery was all the more painful to endure 
 when contrasted with their former affluence and power, and would surely move 
 the compassion of Him who had so often interposed on their behalf. It is a great 
 help in prayer to remind God of His former loving-kindness. Every blessing we 
 receive from God increases His interest in our welfare. Every act of disobedience 
 is a sin against Infinite Love. . . 
 
 63 
 
HOMILETIC COMMENTARY : LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 II. Uttered from the midst of appalling distress (vers. 20, 21). In tliese 
 verses we have a vivid description of the suffering and desolation occasioned by 
 the siege. In the extreme exigencies of famine the most horrible cannibalism 
 was practised : the pangs of hunger devoured maternal affection, and mothers 
 devoured their newly-born infants. Even this had been predicted as the fruit of 
 disobedience (Deut. xxviii. 53). How little do we appreciate the great goodness 
 of God in providing daily food for ourselves and our children ! Everywhere in 
 the city were visible the most ghastly scenes of indiscriminate massacre — " priest 
 and prophet, young and old, virgins and young men," lay in promiscuous laeaps 
 of the slain. If prayer can reach heaven, it must surely be when ascending from 
 the midst of anguish like this. The greater the distress we are in, the more urgent 
 and importunate shoidd be our prayers. 
 
 III, Wrung from a people terrified with startling proofs of the Divine 
 anger. " Thou hast called as in a solemn day my terrors round about, so that in 
 the day of the Lord's anger none escaped or remained" (ver. 22). Jeremiah had 
 often threatened the terrors of God's wrath in the destruction of the nation, if the 
 people persisted in idolatry ; but they heeded not. They made jests of his warn- 
 ings, and their earnest repetition only increased their ridicule. But when they saw 
 Jerusalem hemmed round by the victorious Chaldeans, and the utter ruin that 
 followed, they then saw the portentous meaning of " the terrors " that had been 
 so often threatened and so recklessly despised. The anger of the Lord became 
 to them a solemn reality, and, overwhelmed with confusion and fear, they cry for 
 lielp. Whatever impels the soul to pray is a blessing. The beginning of prayer 
 may rise from our fears ; but as we persevere, it will be actuated by nobler motives. 
 All that prayer can do is to bring our case before God. We must then leave it 
 there with Him, and say, " Thy will bo done." 
 
 Lessons. — 1. The final apjyeal of the helpless is to God. 2. Wlien distress 
 induces prayer, deliverance is at hand. 3. Jehovah is graciously moved to help by 
 human entreaty. 
 
 GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES. 
 
 Yer. 20. " Behold, Lord, and con- soaring eagle mounting upward in its 
 
 sider to whom Thou hast done this." flight, and with steady gaze pursuing 
 
 The Divine pity : 1. Earnestly 'im- the track till lost to all below. It is 
 
 plored by a suffering people. 2. In- the roving wanderer looking towards 
 
 voked on the ground of former kind- his abiding-place, where are all his 
 
 nesses, Avhich, it is. acknowledged, have treasures and his gold. It is the 
 
 been abused. 3. Is never appealed to prisoner pleading for release. It is the 
 
 in vain. mariner of a dangerous sea, upon the 
 
 A^er. 22. The tyranny of fear : 1. reeling topmast, descrying the broad 
 
 Realised when beset by a powerful and quiet haven of repose. It is the 
 
 enemy. 2. When the enemy is sum- soul, oppressed by earthly soarings, 
 
 moned and directed by One whom we escaping to a broader and purer sphere, 
 
 have consciously offended. 3. When and bathing its plumes in the ethereal 
 
 we are witnesses of cruelties we are and eternal. — IVells. 
 
 powerless to prevent. Yearning for God. — When my blood 
 
 flows like wine, when all is ease and 
 
 Illustrations. — Prayer. It is help- prosperity, when the sky is blue and 
 
 lessness casting itself on power. It birds sing and flowers blossom, and 
 
 is infirmity leaning on strength, and my life is an anthem moving in time 
 
 misery wooing bliss. It is the flight of and tune, then this world's joy and 
 
 tlie soul to the bosom of God, and the affection suffice. But when a change 
 
 spirit soaring upward and claiming comes, when I am weary and disap- 
 
 nativity beyond the stars. It is the pointed, when the skies lower into a 
 64 
 
HOMILETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 sombre night, when there is no song of 
 bird, and the perfume of flowers is but 
 their dying breath, when all is sun- 
 setting and autumn, then I yearn for 
 Him who sits with the summer of love 
 in His soul, and feel that all earthly 
 affection is but a glow-worm light coni- 
 jjared to that which blazes with such 
 effulgence in the heart of God, — 
 Beecher. 
 
 Divine compassion. "We often suffer 
 more on account of other's troubles than 
 they themselves do in those troubles, 
 for both love and sorrow take their 
 measure as much from the capacity of 
 the nature that experiences them as 
 from the power of the externally ex- 
 citing cause. How much one suffers 
 with or for another does not depend 
 altogether upon how. much that other 
 is suffering, but upon how much that 
 nature which sympathises has with 
 which to suffer. God feels with us, 
 so that our experiences throw their 
 waves upon the shore of His soul. He 
 carries us so near to His heart that all 
 our feelings which are of any moment 
 produce their effects in some degree in 
 His bosom. It seems very strange that 
 the Maker of all the earth should per- 
 mit Himself to be a participant in all 
 the petty experiences that belong to any 
 human life. No man would have dared 
 to conceive such an idea of God, and to 
 have believed any such thing as that, 
 if it had not been revealed in unequi- 
 vocal terms. 
 
 The compassion of Jesus. Luther 
 said, " I would run into the arms of 
 Christ if He stood with a drawn sword 
 in His hands." John Butterworth, 
 reading this, resolved to do likewise, 
 and found, as every venturing sinner 
 does, no sword in the hands of Jesus, 
 but open arms and a hearty welcome. 
 Christ's proclamation, for ever sounding 
 forth to every burdened heart, is " Come 
 unto Me, all ye that labour and are 
 heavy laden, and I will give you rest." 
 He demonstrated His marvellous com- 
 passion by dying for us. He will not 
 now repulse the approach or disregard 
 the cry of the needy. 
 
 The influence of fear. There is a 
 virtuous fear, which is the effect of 
 65 
 
 faith ; and there is a vicious fear, which 
 is the product of doubt. The former 
 leads to hope, as relying on God, in 
 whom we believe ; the latter inclines 
 to despair, as not relying on God, in 
 whom we do not believe. Persons of 
 the one character fear to lose God ; per- 
 sons of the other character fear to find 
 Him. — Pascal. 
 
 Slavish and filial fear. There are 
 two kinds of fear — one full of suspicious 
 watchfulness, of anxious apprehension, 
 of trepidation, terror, and dismay ; the 
 other such as can dwell in the same 
 heart with confidence and love, and is 
 but another form of reverence. Filial 
 fear of God is a duty ; slavish and ser- 
 vile dread of Him is a sin. Filial fear 
 shrinks from sin ; servile fear only from 
 the smart of punishment. Filial fear 
 keeps men from departing from the 
 living God, servile fear drives them 
 from Him. By filial fear men are made 
 like the man Christ Jesus; by servile 
 fear they may be scared from iniquity, 
 as the wolf from the sheepfold by the 
 shepherd's gun ; but it does no more to 
 make them holy than the fright does 
 to destroy the wolf's ferocity. Filial 
 fear animates us to avoid whatever 
 would be offensive to our Heavenly 
 Father, and, if the expression may be 
 allowed, to consult His feelings and 
 desires ; but servile fear, as it springs 
 from selfishness, causes us only to care 
 for ourselves, and at best makes us not 
 better, but only a little more prudent 
 than the devil. — Bertram. 
 
 The greatest fear. When a city is 
 compassed round about with a wall that 
 is impregnable, it will be opened still 
 towards heaven, and therefore cannot 
 be out of danger if God be an enemy. 
 For all their walls and bars, God could 
 rain fire and brimstone upon the Sodo- 
 mites out of heaven. Alexander asked 
 the Scythians what they were most 
 afraid of, thinking they would say of 
 himself, who Avas so victorious every- 
 where. But they answered scoffingly 
 they were most afraid lest heaven should 
 fall upon them. We, indeed, need not 
 fear anything but this only, lest the 
 heaven should fall upon us, lest God 
 should be our enemy. — J. Stoicghton. 
 
 E 
 
IIOMILETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 CHAPTER Iir. 
 An Ideal Eepresentation of National Sorrow. 
 
 The middle elegy is, not only in structure but also in tone, readily distinguished from the 
 other four. An element of personality is manifest in it which is not in them. The poet con- 
 centrates in himself all forms of the calamities which he laments. Some of these seem too 
 sharp and heavy to be experienced by a single individual, and the doubt is turned into a cer- 
 tainty when he associates himself once and again with others. He is a member of a body. In 
 this feature a significant proof is indicated of that unfolding form of prophecy in which the 
 whole community of Israel, or an undefined part of it, is regarded as represented by a special 
 person — the Servant whose experiences are hardly so much his own as those of his people. He 
 stands apart from them by the peculiarities of his condition, but he draws to himself all their 
 sorrows and pains, and that burden impels him to act as an advocate on their behalf before 
 Jehovah. As we read such things we are reminded of the resemblance which they bear to the 
 course of the prophet Jeremiah. He was "separated" from his nation, but became a partici- 
 pant of the terrible doom he announced. He would not stand off from his people when he 
 might have gone with the Babylonian Captain of the Guard. It was his p\ire conscience and 
 sensitive heart which realised the fierce anger of the Lord against the sins which had corrupted 
 the conscience and heart of his fellow-countr^-men. It was for their sakes, he said. My heart is 
 faint within me. . . . For the hurt of the datightcr of my 2XopIe am I hurt ; I am black. His 
 position was a forecast of that mightier Servant who came not to be served but to serve, and to 
 give His life a ransom for many. 
 
 The progress of the poem presents a strange tumult of thought. There is arraignment of 
 God's dealings and acknowledgment of His mercies ; impatience at his sufferings, which does 
 not crowd out his patience ; wonder why the Lord should send such punishments, and confes- 
 sion of sins with little hope that it would pave the way for pardon. Yet is not this a true 
 portrait of each soul that is striving against sin in himself and others ? Without fighting, within 
 fears. 
 
 The first part of the chapter sets forth the soul-suflerings of the godly in their cheerless 
 and hopeless misery (vers. 1-18) ; then it ascends to hope by meditation on the compassion of 
 God (vers. 19-39) ; next is the recognition of God's justice in the punishment, but the intensity 
 of which, through the malice of enemies, the Lord cannot pass by (vers. 40-54) ; and last, 
 prayer that He would send help and take vengeance on the enemy (vers. 55-66). 
 
 (^) Ver. 1. The author writes as if his own person was the object on which all the troubles 
 had been inflicted. I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. The 
 repression of the name of the wielder of the rod is remarkable in view of its reiteration in 
 Chapter II. That here it was of set purpose seems proved by the persistent omission till ver. 
 18, and is probably to be accounted for by the poet's wish to indicate a sort of climax to a soul- 
 struggle in which he could not take the name of Jehovah till all appeared lost. The rod signifies 
 the means by which the affliction was produced, and is illustrated by the phrase, 2'he Assyrian 
 is the rod of mine anger (Isa. x. 5). 
 
 Ver. 2. The unnamed had accumulated affliction. He has led and caused me to walk in 
 darkness and not in light, in perplexity as well as misery. 
 
 Ver. 3. And it was continuously carried on. Surely against me he turns his band again 
 and again all the day. 
 
 (3) Ver. 4. Details as to how the writer suffered. My flesh and my skin he has worn out, 
 he has broken my bones. Bodily exhaustion and racking pains consume the vital forces. 
 
 Ver. 5. Obstruction is placed so that I may not find a change. He has builded against me, 
 shut me in as if He was besieging me behind and before with hurting and wearying obstacles, 
 gall and travail. 
 
 Ver. 6. Darkness was added. He has made me to dwell in dark places, dismal and with- 
 out hope, as those in which lay the for ever dead, those who had gone into Sheol, and for 
 whom there is no way of return. 
 
 (3) Ver. 7. Freedom is taken away by close confinement and a heavy chain. 
 
 Ver. 8. Prisoner though I am, I can make entreaties for relief. I cry and call for help, 
 but no response is given ; he shutteth out my prayer ; he had used means to prevent the peti- 
 tions reaching him, as if the barriers were not fabricated by the sins of the petitioner ! 
 
 Ver. 9. As a traveller, I am brought to a standstill. He has fenced up my ways with hewn 
 stone, and there is a necessity to turn aside to crooked paths, wiiich lead to and fro without 
 purpose. 
 
 (1) Ver. 10. Difficulties had been embarrassing, but dangers were also added. In the crooked 
 paths the bear and the lion lurked, and he is there, like them, lying in wait for me. 
 
 Ver. 11. I wandered aimlessly. He has led me astray and then he has torn me in pieces, 
 has made me desolate, left me mangled and alone. 
 
 Ver. 12. Not only such rending as that by beasts of prey has distressed me, but also mal- 
 
 66 
 
HOMILETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 treatment by men. I have been treated as the quarry of a hunter. He set me as a mark for 
 the arrow. 
 
 (n) Ver, 13. There is no miss when God aims at a mark. He has made the sons of his 
 quiver to enter into my reins ; the central points of vital action were sore wounded. 
 
 Ver. 14. The figure is hardly changed. Perhaps a laughing-stock to all my people, their 
 song all the day, may be regarded as the shaft which went to the quick. Jeremiah calls a 
 deceiving tongue a deadly arrow (ix. 8). They who should have stood by him, as partaking of 
 the same afflictions, hurled at him bolts of ridicule in jaunty songs. Another reading ascribes 
 the mocking to all peoples, not to his fellow-countrymen. 
 
 Ver. 15. The nutriment and comfort which I needed were replaced by adversities which I 
 endured to the utmost extent bearable. He has filled me with bitternesses — dififerent kinds 
 of sufferings — and sated me with wormwood. 
 
 (1) Ver. 16. In respect to means of nourishment, I have been still further exasperated. Also 
 he has broken my teeth with gravel ; either that which was chewed was full of gritty sand, 
 or for bread he had stones given him. A strange tvork for the Father 1 He has covered me 
 with ashes, I am one \vho mourncth in bitterness. 
 
 Ver. 17. Notwithstanding all my afflictions, I might have been calm and hopeful, but the 
 culminating point of all I have to sustain is the conviction that I am put far from God. Is it 
 not a piteous condition which may extort complaint of Thj'self ? Thou hast cast off my soul 
 from peace. So dense is this outer darkness, that any recollection of ever being in comfort has 
 faded away, I forget good. 
 
 Ver. 18. This reads like an account of the climax to the trials undergone. I said, as if 
 talking to myself. My strength is perished, and my expectation from Jehovah. The future 
 is void of good. I am unable to look for anything from Him. In Jah Jehovah is everlasting 
 strength, but I do not perceive it. I have lost the direction towards Him. 
 
 This recalling of the name at last seems to turn the current of thought. I must not let go 
 trust in Him. I must tell Him the desires of my heart. 
 
 The soj'roiv according to God is a product of His wisdom and love. "Sorrow is God's last 
 message to man ; it is God speaking in emphasis. He who abuses it shows that he can shut 
 his ears when God speaks loudest. Therefore heartlessness or impenitence after sorrow is more 
 dangerous than intemperance in joy ; its results are always more tragic. . . . God's wrath is 
 an ennobling, not a stupefying doctrine " (Smith). Nor is it discouraging to leal-hearted men, 
 though menacing. 
 
 (t) Vers. 19-21^ The name of Jehovah is as a rallying-call to reject the rash expression of 
 despair just heard, and stirs up thoughts of what God's character is. The author begins to feel 
 that he can have recourse to a prayer to be remembered, and so these verses mark the passage 
 from hopeless bafflings with no small storm to the hopeful sound of a favouring breeze. 
 
 Ver. 19. Remember my affliction and my homelessness, the wormwood and the gall; 
 a reminiscence of salient points in the sufferings he had passed through, and which might evoke 
 the compassion and power of the All-merciful. 
 
 Ver. 20. The correct translation of this verse is uncertain, and preference is given to this. 
 Remembering, thou wilt remember all those things ; also [that] my soul is cast down in 
 me. I am heavy laden. I have no might. Either I shall be overwhelmed and sink into deep 
 mire where there is no standing, or else out of weakness be made strong by Thee. It would be 
 like Thee to make haste to help me. 
 
 Ver. 21. This I will bring back to my heart, this thought, that Thou wilt not be always 
 wroth, for the spirit would fail before Thee and the souls which thou hast made, has taken full 
 possession of my inner man ; therefore I will hope. There must be a blessing in store, for 
 God pities and God rules in exhaustless grace. Out of the darkest depression He can lift to a 
 light in which I may walk and never be ashamed of my hope. 
 
 (n) Ver. 22. The hopefulness which had begun to lift a desponding soul points to the 
 ground on which it may become secure. Its hazy outlook is seeming to clear, and, as in all 
 true ideas of human relationship to God, that which is felt as a privilege for the individual is 
 regarded to be a privilege for all souls also who seek the Lord. One voices the confession of 
 the remnant of Israel thus : Jehovah's mercies, not in one form, but in many forms they 
 affect men, and, whether shown to individuals or communities, they counteract the wasting 
 tendencies of evil. A striking proof of His varied graciousness is manifest in that we are not 
 consumed. More will follow. His continuous action is a token that His nature and name is 
 the All-gracious ; for his compassions fail not. 
 
 Ver. 23. Every day sees some renewal of them ; there is "daily help for daily needs," as 
 great is thy faithfulness. God is faithful to all that He has promised in creation and grace. 
 
 Ver. 24. This perception that the Lord is gracious, pitying, and trustworthy, leads on, not 
 merely to verbal profession of the knowledge of God, but to an acceptance of Himself as the 
 dear and only treasure of the heart. My portion is Jehovah. None in heaven for Him ; none 
 on earth desired with Him. 
 
 (t2) Ver. 25. Such an acceptance suggests more knowledge. Good is Jehovah to them 
 that wait for him, to a soul that seeks him. He is ready to respond to those who feel need 
 of Him and foster longings after Himself, 
 
 67. 
 
nOMILETIC COMMENTARY : LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 Ver. 26. So when the prncioupness of the Lord is perceived, and its proffers yielded to, blessed- 
 ness is not far off. Good it is both to wait and be silent for the salvation of Jehovah. There 
 is to be no striving, nor crying, nor causing the voice to be heard in the street. Confidence iu 
 His power to save hushes fears and doubts, and enables us calmly to meet the events of life. He 
 will in no %cise leave or forsake those who wait for Him. 
 
 Ver. 27. Good is it for a man to bear a yoke, that is, anything by which he will be trained 
 for his Owner, and to do his Owner's work. Teaching may do so ; affliction may do so. Both 
 the one and the other show to a man what he is — ignorant, weak, with more that is bad than 
 he had believed he had. God speaks in both methods as issues of His love, and to obtain 
 vessels itnio honour, snnctificd, meet for the Meisters %ise. The phrase in his youth does not 
 mean that the poet was still a young man. He might be an aged man, looking back on the 
 experiences of his life, and conscious of the value of the discipline he had been subjected to 
 when the dew of youth was upon him. He is blessed who, in earlier years, has been drawn or 
 driven to look into the face of realities, and to learn something of the afflictions of Chrixt 
 before he has been in grip with temptations from the clamant lusts of the flesh and of the 
 7?( ind. 
 
 (*) Ver. 28. A yoke is not of itself beneficial ; it must be borne along with desires and 
 efforts to reach to its purpose. " Since it is good for man that he should learn to endure suffer- 
 ing, let him sit still and bear it patiently ; ... let him sit solitary, as becomes those in sorrow, 
 and be silent without murmuring when God puts such a burden on him." — Keil. The fogs of 
 the world, if a man enters into them, may veil the waymarks of God. 
 
 Ver. 29. Let him put his mouth in the dust — significant of being humbled under the 
 mighty hand of Goel — indulging in no whimpers, framing no self-excuses, making no boa.'-ts, 
 only waiting to hear what God the Lord wUl speak, and by no means despairing of help for 
 every time of need. It may be there is hope. 
 
 Ver. 30. Let him give his cheek to him that smiteth him, as was similarly enforced in the 
 Sermon on the Mount (Matt. v. 39), and involving the wider application, when reviled not to 
 revile ar/ain. Exemplified by Job, by the prophetic Servant of Jehovah, by the greatest of all 
 Sufferers. The gradation is perceptible. " The sitting alone and in silence is comparatively 
 the easiest. It is harder to place the mouth in the dust and yet cling to hope ; it is most 
 difficult of all to give the cheek to the smiter, and to satiate oneself with dishonour" (Naegel.), 
 be filled full with reproaches. 
 
 (D) Ver. Si. For this silent waiting on the Lord, amid humiliations and scorn, there is all- 
 sufficient strength. It is in the Lord Himself, in the belief that He is at work ; that, what- 
 ever our tribulations are, however bitter ingredients we must drain out of our cup, whatever 
 the moral ci inflicts and self-condemnations we must pass through. He will not put us awa}'. 
 The Lord will not cast off for ever ; there will be an end of tears and isolation on account of 
 the absent Friend. 
 
 Ver. 32. His providences !nay distress us. Physical pains, social straits, national demoralisa- 
 tion, and inward unrest, blame, forebodings, may overwhelm us. These are goads by which 
 He is thrusting us from a wrong way into a right, but "it is love that bruises us." Yet he 
 will have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies. 
 
 Ver. 33. He would rather not produce suffering. His heart is not in doing so. He has a 
 distinct end in view to be reached through tribulation. For he afflicts not willingly, nor 
 grieves the children of men. Child and adult, Israelite and heathen, will meet trouble, 
 but not one is outside the sympathy of God. We can supplement this from a later teacher, 
 who tells us that our Father chastises for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. 
 
 (^) Vers. 34-36. The Lord does not afflict willingly, yet He is not indifferent to the injustice 
 of man to man. All the details of human procedure are regarded by Him, and he would have 
 men to know that He is on the throne judging right, that they may trust Him entirely, and 
 that there is no evil needing to be grieved over but sin. Such is the intimation in this triad 
 of verses, the three parts of which depend on the last clause : To trample under his feet — 
 the feet of the oppressor — all prisoners of the earth ; an allusion to the cruelties of the 
 Chaldeans. Jews in exile, Jews in prisons, yes, and outraged captives every where, are referred 
 to. He hears the sighing of the prisoner. To turn aside the right of a man, that which is 
 grounded in the far-reaching nature of things formed by the Righteous One, before the face of 
 the Most High. This phrase is illustrated by the wilderness legislation as to matters of tres- 
 pass, '1 he cause of both parties shall come before [God] Elohim, he whom Elohini shall condemn, 
 &c. (Exod. xxii. 9). The phraseology obviously designates judges as acting in place of the 
 Jiulge of all the earth, and is found used in later times (Ps. Ixxxii. 6). To subvert a man in 
 his cause, to act unfairly towards another in the ordinary pursuits of life, the Lord approveth 
 not. Questioning this translation, Keil renders, Doth not the Lord look [to such doings as 
 these] ? 
 
 CO) Ver. 37. The reason for not mentioning any name of God, as in vers. 1-17, is now 
 wholly dispensed with, and He is presented as conditionating all events. He observes man's 
 dealings with his neighbours. He provides that every transgression and disobedience receive a 
 just recompense q/" reward. No injustice is permissible. If a man or nation could devise and 
 carry out their own commands, then evil or good would come in spite of God. But who is he 
 
EOMILETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 that saith and it comes to pass, unless the Lord has commanded [it] ? His will is supreme. 
 So it follows : — 
 
 Ver. 38. From the mouth of the Most High does not the evil and the good come ? It is 
 a term of the age-lasting problem. He lets evil be done and punishes the evil-doer. He must 
 work out His will, for He works within us to will and do that which is good. In both good 
 and evil we are in close contiguity with God. 
 
 Ver. 39. The right interpretation partly depends on whether or not we read this verse as 
 one question. Both the Authorised Version and the Kevised Version take the former course. 
 The Hebrew renders this doubtful. It would warrant a division. For what should a living 
 man, one in life's school, and with all the possibilities of the education he is receiving from the 
 Lord, complain ? Let every one come to a more manly position, and they would see it needful 
 to sigh over their sins. Sin brings on men the evils really to be lamented, and the space given 
 should be tilled up with repentance. 
 
 (Z) Ver. 40. The remnant, who were referred to in ver. 22, carry out here the suggestion 
 just made, that sighing, not over sufferings but over sins, is the becoming utterance for every 
 one. The sorrows and pains endured were resultants from the sins of all the people, and thus 
 a joint resolve and confession is made. Only as men see that they have strayed like lost sheep 
 will they truly say, Let us search and try our ways, yet not delay in that effort, however 
 genuine it may be, but let us return unto Jehovah, tlie whole way back, with no halt half-way, 
 with no reserves for self. 
 
 Ver. 41. Such a return merges into soul-moving prayer — prayer that is not only " the motion 
 of a hidden fire trembling in the breast" or " the upward glancing of an eye," but also mani- 
 fests itself by some outwardness. The emotion is the chief element in any suitable external 
 gesture. Let US lift up our hearts with our hands unto God in the heavens, satisfied that 
 our help is not sent from any earthly sanctuary, but from within the veil. 
 
 Ver. 42. A vision of God throws a white light upon the dark records of past life. In that 
 light men are forced to pass God's judgment on themselves. / have brought up children, and 
 they have rebelled against me. God's rule and man's treason are confronted, and man is con- 
 demned to suffer. As for us, We have transgressed and rebelled ; as for Thee, Thou hast 
 not pardoned ; a phrase which intimates that He would scourge into the way of righteousness, 
 if no other method avails, and that Israel was then under His chastising rod. He is ready to 
 pard&n, and the withholding pardon is not His desire, but a " natural sequence " of bafHed 
 instructions and warnings — of a deadened spiritual faculty which turns His grace into a 
 penalty. 
 
 (D) Ver. 43. Thou hast covered with anger, whether Himself or us is not clear, but as 
 the nejct clause, and pursued us, mentions the latter, it may be preferable to regard the people 
 as wrapped round with a garment woven in the loom of wrath, and which marked them out as 
 the objects to be chased for punishment. 
 
 Ver. 44. There had been cries for relief (ver. 41), but unavailing, for Thou hast covered 
 Thyself with a cloud ; clouds and darkmess are round about Him when He displays His royal 
 righteousness and judgment in burning up His adversaries (Ps. xcvii. 2, 3). That cloud is a 
 barrier [preventing] prayer from passing through to His mercy-seat. 
 
 Ver. 45. Troubles are accumulated upon the nation. Rejected prayers signify condemnation 
 of their religiousness. It is not the act, but the motive and purpose which determine the rela- 
 tion of the worshipper to the Worshipped. Ritual may be punctiliously carried out, and hide 
 God instead of helping to reveal Him. When He hides His face, they are troubled, and, as if 
 He would exhibit a striking illustration before the world of what will result from disobedience 
 to His will, Thou hast made us the ofifscouring and refuse in the midst of the peoples. 
 Treated as worthless, like Paul and his brethren in Christ (1 Cor. iv. 13), but these were more 
 than conquerors through Him who loved them. 
 
 (S) Vers. 46-48 present significant intimations of their base condition. Enemies making 
 sport of them, fear and pitfalls surrounding them, and the oft-recurring feeling of utter 
 destruction instigating tears shed as copiously as rivers of water. 
 
 (1? ) Ver. 49. The excessive weeping is continuous. Mine eye poureth down tears, and that 
 without interruption. Nor will the sound of weeping be stanched, except when his under- 
 current of hope reaches its terminus. 
 
 Ver. 50. Till Jehovah looks down and beholds from heaven. When He sees the bearing 
 and result of afflictions on His Name's glory, then He hears the sighing of the prisoner. For 
 He will not contend fw ever, neither will He be always wroth. 
 
 y&T. 51. Beyond what the eye shows externally it exerts influence upon the inward part. 
 Mine eye hurts my soul: not in the rather jejune sense that the flood of tears had made the 
 eye painful, and that pain was felt in the soul ; but the soul was pained because of the eye 
 beholding the sad lot of the more delicate and defenceless part of the population, the daughters 
 of my city. 
 
 (V) Ver. 52. They have hunted me down like a bird is hunted when pursued with the 
 eagerness of those who are my enemies without cause, and who will not relax efforts till they 
 catch the quarry. 
 
 Ver. 53. He was haled to prison by them. They have cut oflf my life in the pit. Shut in 
 
 69 
 
CHAP. lit. BOMILETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENT A TIONS. 
 
 from all activities and society, he was as a man dead, as in a tomb over which they have cast a 
 stone on me. Taking such illustrations to be chiefly figurative, yet here the first clause is a 
 probable allusion to the treatment of Jereiniah (chap, xxxviii. 6), and the second may refer to an 
 unmentioned incident of the same time, for which corroboration may be fovmd in the case of 
 Daniel (chap. vi. 17.) 
 
 Ver. 54. The peril was aggravated by waters that flowed over my head ; the plural 
 perhaps indicating the influx of a spring and the condensation of vapour in the closeness of a 
 pit. In a state so desperate to the eyes of flesh, I said, I am cut off as a man that has no help 
 (Ps. Ixxxviii. 4), as He was who became sin for us (Isa. liii. 8). 
 
 The remaining verses of the chapter take the form of prayer, as at the close of Chapters I. 
 and II. In it there are thanksgivings for relief (vers. 55-58), an appeal because of the evil 
 which enemies had done and were doing (vers. 59-63), and a call for recompense therefor (vers. 
 64-66). 
 
 (p) Ver. 55. I called upon thy name, O Jehovah, asking with some true idea of what the 
 words and works of the God of Israel revealed concerning Himself, suggestive, too, of the 
 manner in which the Lord Jesus would have His friends to pray — Ask the Father in My name 
 — out of the depths of the pit into which he had been thrown. 
 
 Ver. 56. A more true position is secured than that which was held previously (vers. 8 and 
 44). My voice thou heardest at tliat time when I besought thee with my spirit and voice, 
 Hide not — close not — thine ear at my breathing — my sighing for relief — at my cry. It is 
 questionable if the rendering, Ilide not thine ear for ray cry for relief, is not rather an explana- 
 tion than a fair version. 
 
 Ver. 57. Thou drewest near in the day I called upon thee. Only spiritual apprehension 
 of God as He who is behind all events and plenteous in mercy can bring a conviction of accepted 
 praj'er. The heart is then in a state to hear His comforting words. Thou saidst, Fear not. 
 
 (~1) Ver. 58. There were rights to be maintained, wrongs to be redressed, and in both help 
 was received from a presenit God. Thou, Jehovah, hast pleaded — contended for — the 
 causes of my soul. One thing had hurt his soul (ver. 51), but others also saddened and 
 weakened thought and effort, and the Lord had counteracted them. He had also interfered 
 when hope of living was cut off. Thou hast redeemed my life by Thy power over all. 
 
 Ver. 59. Trials are not things of the past only. Under their continuous pressure endurance 
 is sought for in the truth that the eye and ear of the Lord are ever open for all sights and 
 sounds. Thou, Jehovah, hast seen my wrong, that which is done to me, and that sight 
 forms a plea for the righteous sentence of Him who sitteth cm the throne judging right. 
 
 Ver. 60. There was the keenest of vengeance in the treatment to which the Lord's servant 
 was subjected, and there were devices against me ; but it was a certain fact that the All- 
 seeing One had observed every secret or open scheme. 
 
 (t^') Ver. 61. The revengeful, bad feeling expressed itself in reviling words. Thou hast 
 heard their reproach, Jehovah, and all the evil machinations they framed against me. 
 
 Ver. 6'2 is a variant expression of the idea of the former verse. Thou hast heard the words 
 of the lips of those that rose up against me, and their meditation, which occupied their 
 minds all the day. 
 
 Ver. 63. Their downsitting and their uprising behold thou, all their proceedings when at 
 rest, and when they got up to do what they resolve. In hilarious and scornful mood they taunt 
 and deride me ; I am their song. It was not a momentary outburst of passion, not one hour's 
 lapse into jocoseness, but the tenor of the life which was manifested. 
 
 (n) Ver. 64. The evil life cannot pass without condemnation. Thou wilt render a recom- 
 pense to them, Jehovah. A man may pray that revilings and machinations may be 
 thwarted, not from a desire for personal revenge, but from the knowledge that striving with the 
 Maker incurs guilt and fixes the destiny of the striver according to the work of their hands, 
 reaping what they sow (2 Tim. iv. 14). 
 
 Ver. 65. Thou wilt give them blindness [Heb. a covering] of heart, that which is turned 
 into a veil (2 Cor. iii. 14) by their not becoming sons of the light, by their walking in darkness 
 into the ditch. Thy curse to them. Cursed be the man u-ho makcth flesh his arm. 
 
 Ver. 66. Evil shall slay the wicked. Thou wilt pursue them in anger and destroy them, so 
 that the wicked may be no more in Thv dominion under the heavens of Jehovah, iio let thine 
 enemies perish, Jehovah, and thy will be done, as in heaven so on earth. 
 
 nOMILETICS. 
 
 The Man of Affliction. 
 
 (Verses 1-3.) 
 
 It is given to some men to catch and idealise the poetic instinct of a nation, 
 to gather to a focus the ideas that have heen dimly floating in the national mind, 
 70 
 
IIOMILETIC COMMENTARY : LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 and, in words of burning passion, to express what all have been vaguely feeling, 
 but none have been able hitherto to clothe in fitting speech. Another class of 
 men represent the chivalric and military characteristics of a nation ; another the 
 judicial and ruling types. Jeremiah, distinguished as poet, prophet, and patriot, 
 acquired immortal distinction in the annals of the Hebrew nation as the Man of 
 Sorrow. In him the unparalleled sufferings of Judea seemed concentrated and. 
 individualised. His mournful dirge, sung in the minor key, gave voice, with 
 lavish variety of imagery and felicity of phrase, to the overwhelming anguish of a 
 distracted and ruined people. In this sublime elegy the poet-prophet touches the 
 deepest woe of the sufferer in all ages, and provides it with adequate expression. 
 Ewald justly remarks : " Very probably the prophet draws much of what he says 
 from his own experience, but the whole that he sets forth is more than his own 
 personality ; it is the type and pattern of every individual. And here, therefore, 
 is the summit and turning-point of the whole Book of Lamentations." When the 
 soul finds words in Avhich to breathe out its sorrow, the oppression is already re- 
 lieved. The hope of deliverance begins to dawn. Observe in this paragraph — 
 
 I. That the man of afliiction regards his sufferings as the result of the 
 Divine anger. " I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of His wrath " 
 (ver. 1). It is the rod of His anger to chastise and' correct, not the sword to 
 utterly destroj'. Even in the manifestation of His wrath God seeks to restore the 
 sinner. The last stroke of His anger must be painful, alarming, crushing ; the 
 more so that it is felt to be so just. Behind the dark frown of the Almighty the 
 light of mercy shines. " He doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of 
 men." The most hopeful feature of affliction is the moment when the sufferer 
 recognises the hand of God in it ; when he acknowledges it as the fruit of personal 
 sin. Then it is that wrath gives place to mercy : punishment is disarmed by 
 pardon. Sin is antagonism to God, and merits nothing but wrath. A genuine 
 repentance is the open door of escape. 
 
 II. That the man of affliction is plunged into bewildering gloom. " He 
 hath led me and brought me into darkness, but not into light" (ver, 2). The 
 darkness of suffering had a realistic meaning for Jeremiah, as he remembered the 
 miseries of his incarceration in the dungeon (Jer. xxxvii. 15, 16; xxxviii. 6, 10- 
 13). But the language is a metaphorical description of afflictions in general, and 
 is frequently employed in Scripture. In the most graphic and explicit terms the 
 prophet foretold the experience he here describes (Jer. xiii. 15, 16). Suffering 
 is a dark enigma that baffles the wisest to solve. It is an aggravation of suffering 
 when it has to be endured in darkness. "VVe have heard of a strong man who had 
 braved all kinds of dangers by land and sea, who was absolutely afraid of being 
 alone in the dark : he had no fear of anything he could see, but was in mortal 
 dread of the unseen. Darkness overawes the most volatile. A party of courtiers 
 of Louis XV. were once gathered round Cassini to witness an eclipse from the 
 terrace of the Paris observatory, and were laughing at the populace, whose cries 
 were heard as the light began to fade, when, as the unnatural gloom came quickly 
 on, silence fell on them too, the panic-terror striking through their laughter. There 
 is nothing so distressing, so oppressive, so bewildering, so hopeless to contend 
 with, as darkness. 
 
 III. That the man of affliction is smitten with repeated strokes of the Divine 
 Hand. " Surely against me is He turned ; He turneth His hand against me all 
 the day" (ver. 3). It is not one stroke of affliction, but many, and these 
 frequently repeated. Trouble never comes alone ; it is often attended with a 
 crowd of ills. Before we can recover from one calamity we are stricken with 
 another. It may be difficult to find the kind heart behind the strong hand ; but 
 it is there. Not one blow more than is necessary will be permitted to fall. 
 The most prolonged and reiterated suffering will cease as soon as its purpose is 
 answered. While it continues there should be praverful searchings of heart. 
 
 71 
 
no MI LET IC COMMENTARY : LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 Lessons. — 1. The fact of suffering testifies to the fad of sin. 2. Much of our 
 suffering occasioned by witnessing the suff'erings of others. 3. Suffering is a bless- 
 ing when it brings us nearer to God. 
 
 GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES. 
 
 Yer. 1. Ecce homo. I. Consider 
 the generality of aJ/lictio7i in the nature 
 thereof. We met all generally in the 
 first treason against ourselves in Adam's 
 rebellion ; and we met all, too, in the 
 second treason — the treason against 
 Jesus Christ. All our sins were upon 
 His shoulders. All the evils and mis- 
 chiefs of life come for the most part 
 from this — that we think to enjoy those 
 things which God hath given us only 
 to use. III. Consider affliction as bear- 
 ing on man. " I am the man that hath 
 seen affliction." It was that man that is 
 denoted and signified in that name that 
 hath lain under affliction, and therefore 
 no kind of man Avas likely to escape. 
 Man carries the spawn and seed and 
 eggs of affliction in his own flesh, and 
 his own thoughts make haste to hatch 
 them and bring them up. \Ye make 
 all our worms snakes, all our snakes 
 vipers, all our vipers dragons by our 
 murmuring. III. Cojisidcr affliction in 
 its S2)ecial appliccdioji to one man. That 
 man the prophet Jeremiah, one of the 
 best of men. As he was submitted to 
 these extraordinary afflictions, we see 
 that no man is so necessary to God as 
 that God cannot come to His ends with- 
 out that man. God can lack and leave 
 out any man in His service. The best 
 of our wages is adversity, because that 
 gives us a true fast, and a right value 
 of our prosperity. Jeremy had it ; the 
 best of his rank must. No man is ex- 
 cused of subsequent afflictions by prece- 
 dent, nor of falling into more by having 
 borne some already. Our afflictions 
 are as beggars ; they tell others, and 
 send more after them. "When the hand 
 of God was upon Jeremiah he declared 
 God's handwriting ; not only to his own 
 conscience by acknowledging that all 
 these afflictions were for his own sins, 
 but by acknowledging to the world that 
 God had laid such and such afflictions 
 upon him. St. Ambrose, in a journey 
 from Milan to Eome, passed some time 
 72 
 
 one evening with his host, who bragged 
 he had never had any cross in his life. 
 Ambrose at once removed to another 
 house, protesting that either the man 
 was very unthankful to God that would 
 not take knowledge of His corrections, 
 or that God's measure was by this time 
 full, and would surely, soundly, and 
 suddenly pour down all together. IV. 
 Coiisider the weight and vehemence of 
 afflictions. 1. They are aggravated in 
 that they are the Lord's. They are in- 
 evitable ; they cannot be avoided ; they 
 are just, and cannot be pleaded against; 
 nor can we ease ourselves with any ima- 
 gination of our innocency, as though 
 they were imdeserved. 2. They are in 
 His rod. Our murmuring makes a rod 
 a staff, and a staff a sword, and that 
 which God presented for physic, poison. 
 3. They are inflicted by the rod of His 
 wrath. Though there be properly no 
 anger in God, yet God is said to do a 
 thing in anger when He does it so as 
 an angry man would do it. It is the 
 highest extent of affliction that we take 
 God to be angrier than He is. V. 
 Consider the comforts ice have in afflic- 
 tions. " I am the man that hath seen 
 affliction." 1. That we see our afflic- 
 tions, we understand, consider them. 
 We see that affliction comes from God, 
 and that it is sent that we may see and 
 taste the goodness of God. 2. That, 
 though afflicted, we still retain our 
 manhood. God may mend thee in 
 marring thee ; He may build thee up in 
 dejecting thee ; He may infuse another 
 manhood into thee, so that thou canst 
 say, " I am that Christian man ; I am 
 the man that cannot despair since 
 Christ is the remedy." 3. That the rod 
 of God's wrath is also the rod of His 
 comfort and strength (Micah vii. 14 ; 
 Ps. xlv. 6 ; Ps. xxiii. 4). — Donne. 
 
 — God and human suffering : L 
 Often brought into strange relationshij). 
 2. Suffering is a significant revelation 
 of how God views human sin. 3. Suf- 
 
HOMILETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 fering may draw man nearer to, or drive 
 him farther from, God. 
 
 Vers. 2, 3. The mystery of suffer- 
 ing. I. Impossible to solve by human 
 ^■^eculatio7is. " Into darkness, but not 
 into light." II. Increased by the diffi- 
 culty of accounting for the part God 
 takes in it. " He hath led me and 
 brought me into darkness, but not 
 into light " (ver. 2). III. Intensified by 
 the apjyarent persistency of the Divine 
 severity. " Surely against me is He 
 turned ; He turneth His hand against 
 me all the day " (ver. 3). 
 
 Illustrations. — God's anger man's 
 heaviest affliction. God's anger exerts 
 itself by embittering afllictions. Every 
 affliction is of itself a grievance, and a 
 breach made upon our happiness ; but 
 there is sometimes a secret energy that 
 so edges and quickens its afflictive opera- 
 tion that a blow levelled at the body 
 shall enter into the very soul. What 
 is the reason that David is sometimes 
 so courageous that "though he walks 
 through the valley of the shadow of 
 death, he fears no evil;" and, at another 
 time, God no sooner " hides His face, 
 but he is troubled " ? What is the cause 
 that a man sometimes breaks through a 
 greater calamity, and at another time 
 the same person fails and desponds under 
 a loss of the same nature 1 Whence can 
 this be, but that God infuses some move 
 grains of His wrath into the one than 
 into the other 1 — South. 
 
 — The Divine anger. Anger is the 
 whetstone of strength ; in an equality 
 of other terms, it will make a man pre- 
 vail. Nothing is able to stand before 
 a fire which is once enraged ; so is it 
 when the fire of the Lord's revenge 
 breaks forth upon the enemies of His 
 Son. Add hereunto our disposition and 
 preparedness for the wrath of God. Far 
 easier is it to make a print in wax than 
 in an adamant ; to kindle a fire in dry 
 stubble than in green wood. Wicked 
 men have fitted themselves f6r wrath, 
 and are procurers and artificers of their 
 own destruction. — Bislwp Reynolds. 
 
 Darkness and danger. Sailing once 
 along a coast where a friend had suffered 
 shipwreck, the scene which recalled his 
 
 danger filled us with no fear ; because, 
 while his sliip, on the night she ran 
 ashore, was cutting her way through 
 the densest fog, we were ploughing the 
 waters of a silver sea, where noble head- 
 lands, pillared cliffs, scattered islands, 
 and surf -beaten reefs stood bathed in 
 the brightest moonshine. There was 
 no danger just because there was no 
 darkness. — Guthrie. 
 
 Darkness precedes light. The Lord 
 ofttimes makes everything as dark as it 
 can become, just that presently the light 
 may shine more brilliantly. Ishmael 
 faints before Hagar finds the well. 
 Joseph is left in prison and oblivion 
 before being raised to dignity. The 
 Assyrian host surrounds Jerusalem ere 
 they are smitten by the angel. Jere- 
 miah sinks into the pit before he is 
 placed on a rock. Violent persecution 
 of the Christians preceded the triumph 
 of the Gospel. Mediaeval darkness pre- 
 ceded the dawn of the Reformation. — 
 Oosterzee. 
 
 Affliction ripens character. There 
 is a certain mellowness which affliction 
 sheds upon the character, a softening 
 that it effects of all the rougher and 
 more repulsive asperities of our nature, 
 a delicacy of temperament into which it 
 often melts and refines the most un- 
 gainly spirit. It is not the pride of 
 aspiring talent that we carry to heaven 
 with us ; it is not the lustre of a super- 
 iority which dazzles and commands that 
 we bear with us there. It is not the 
 eminence of any public distinction or 
 the fame of lofty and successful enter- 
 prise ; and should these give undue con- 
 fidence to man or throw an aspect of 
 conscious and complacent energy over 
 him, he wears not yet the complexion 
 of Paradise ; and should God select him 
 as His own, He will send some special 
 affliction that may chasten him out of 
 all which is uncongenial with the place 
 of blessedness, and at length reduce him 
 to its unmingled love and its adoxing 
 humility. The character is purified by 
 the simple process of passing through 
 the fire. " And when He has tried me, 
 I shall come forth as gold." — Chalmers. 
 Suffering a mystery. As the Egyp- 
 tian who carried something wound up 
 
 73 
 
IIOMILETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 ill his napkin answered him who de- pose kept from us, to the end that we 
 
 nianded what it was, that he covered it should not be too curious to inquire 
 
 to the end that no man should see it ; after it ; that it is far better to be 
 
 BO likewise must we learn that if there utterly ignorant herein than to have all 
 
 bo anything hidden and laid up in the the knowledge thereof that may be. — 
 
 works and dealings of God, it is of pur- Caicdray. 
 
 HOMILETICS. 
 
 The Bewilderment of Grief. 
 
 (Verses 4-9.) 
 
 I. Is accompanied with intense physical suffering. " My flesh and my skin 
 hath He made old ; He hath broken my bones " (ver. 4). The skin is wrinkled 
 and worn, in this case not with age, but with excessive grief ; and the suffering 
 Avhich in the preceding verses was represented as a slow wasting of strength, has 
 now reached the stage of acute pain, such as is caused by the breaking of bones. 
 It is a pitiable sight to see a nation or an individual growing prematurely old. 
 This is not done by hard, honest, healtliy work, but by sorrow and suffering. 
 The strongest and most beautiful physical form rapidly shrinks and withers under 
 the stroke of a great and overwhelming grief. A sudden calamity has been known 
 to turn the hair grey in a single night, and to impose the wreck of years on the 
 bewildered and moaning sufferer. 
 
 II. Is as of one immured in prison, from which all efforts to escape are 
 futile (vers. 5, 7, 9). The prisoner is enclosed and fenced in with a solid wall as 
 of hewn stone, but it is a wall of bitterness and weariness. There are paths, dark 
 and tortuous, and as he gropes along them with the dim hope of finding an outlet, 
 he finds himself in a maze which brings him back, after long and Aveary wandering, 
 to the place whence he started. Like Byron's Prisoner of Chillon — 
 
 " It was liberty to stride 
 Along my cell from side to side, 
 And up and down, and then athwart, 
 And tread it over every part ; 
 And round the pillars one by one, 
 Returning where my walk begun." 
 
 Grief fetters the soul as with a heavy chain. It may cliafe and fret and tug to 
 very weariness in the effort to obtain release ; but in vain : the bondage remains. 
 If we walk in the crooked paths of sin, we shall ultimately find ourselves enclosed 
 within the crooked paths of sorrow, from which we shall be powerless to escape. 
 
 III. Is as of one buried in a dismal sepulchre. " He hath set me in dark 
 places, as they that be dead of old " (ver. 6). Grief has worn down the sufferer to 
 the semblance of a skeleton, and he regards himself as a corpse laid in the dark 
 chambers of the grave — dead, buried, and forgotten. 
 
 " For all was blank and blfak and gray, 
 It was not night, it was not day, 
 It was not even the dungeon-light, 
 So hateful to my heavy sight. 
 But vacancy absorbing space, 
 And fixedness without a place ; 
 There were no .'^tars, no earth, no time, 
 No check, no change, no good, no crime ; 
 But silence and a stirless breath. 
 Which neither was of life nor death ; 
 A sea of stagnant idleness, 
 Blind, boundless, mute, and motionless ! " — Byron. 
 
nOMILETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 CHAP. iir. 
 
 Excessive grief darkens and dulls every faculty, and robs life of all its charm. 
 There are some sorrows from which death is a merciful release. 
 
 IV. The loudest calls for help are disregarded. "Also when I cry and 
 shout, he shutteth out my prayer " (ver. 8). The walls of his prison are so thick 
 that the loudest cries cannot pierce them ; they are unheard and unheeded. It 
 intensifies the bewilderment of grief when the most earnest cries for help bring 
 no relief. A short time ago the dead body of a stalwart Scotch shepherd was 
 found buried in the snow on the Ayrshire hills, within a short distance of his 
 own home. Two days before, when walking homewards, he was overtaken with 
 a snowstorm, and it is supposed must have been dazed by the fury of the tempest, 
 and lost his way. It is distressing to think of his desperate struggles for life and 
 his exhausting shouts for help, but all in vain. It is a painful phase in the 
 mystery of suffering when God seems so indifferent to our prayers, and so slow to 
 help. But even in this we are led by-and-bye to recognise the Divine justice and 
 mercy. 
 
 Lessons. — 1. The body sympathises with the sufferings of the soul. 2. Much 
 of the suffering of life must be borne alone. 3. It is the bitterest ingredient in 
 suffering ivhen there is no prospect of relief. 
 
 GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES. 
 
 Vers. 4-6. The ravages of sorrow : 
 I. Destroy the freshness and hloom of 
 youth. " My flesh and my skin hath 
 He made old." II. Inflict acutest jjain. 
 "He hath broken my bones" (ver. 4). 
 III. 02^press the soul with bitterness and 
 toil. "He hath builded against me, 
 and compassed me with gall and travel " 
 (ver. 5). IV. Overshadow the individual 
 life with the gluoni of (he grave. " He 
 hath set me in dark places, as they that 
 be dead of old" (ver. 6). 
 
 Vers. 7-9. A baffled sufferer : I. 
 He is enclosed and fettered. " He hath 
 hedged me about that I cannot get out ; 
 He hath made my chain heavy " (ver. 
 7). II. His cries for help are unavail' 
 ing. " Also when I cry and shout, He 
 shutteth out my prayer " (ver. 8). III. 
 He is in a maze of tortuous paths, from 
 u'hich there is no outlet. " He hath in- 
 closed my ways with hewn stone. He 
 hath made my paths crooked " (ver. 9). 
 
 Illustrations. — Causes of grief. 
 
 "We fancy that all our afflictions are 
 sent us directly from above ; sometimes 
 we think it in piety and contrition, but 
 oftener in moroseness and discontent. 
 It would be well, however, if we at- 
 tempted to trace the causes of them ; 
 we should probably find their origin 
 in some region of the heart which we 
 never had well explored, or in which 
 
 we had secretly deposited our worst 
 indulgences. The clouds that intercept 
 the heavens from us come not from the 
 heavens, but from the earth. — Landor. 
 
 A great sorrow. Henry I., on his 
 return from Normandy, was accom- 
 panied by a crowd of nobles and his 
 son William. The White Ship, in which 
 the prince embarked, lingered behind 
 the rest of the royal fleet, while the 
 young nobles, excited with wine, hung 
 over the ship's side taunting the priest 
 who came to give the customary bene- 
 diction. At last the guards of the 
 king's treasure pressed the vessel's de- 
 parture, and, driven by the arms of 
 fifty rowers, it swept swiftly out to sea. 
 All at once the ship's side struck on a 
 rock at the mouth of the harbour, and 
 in an instant it sank beneath the waves. 
 One terrible cry, ringing through the 
 stillness of the night, was heard by the 
 royal fleet, but it was not till the morn- 
 ing that the fatal news reached the 
 king. He fell unconscious to the 
 ground, and rose never to smile again / 
 
 Secret grief If the internal griefs 
 of every man could be read, written on 
 his forehead, how many who now excite 
 envy would appear to be objects of 
 pity ! — Metastasio. 
 
 Grief irksome, but needful. A friend 
 was asked concerning a beautiful horse 
 feeding on the pasture with a clog on 
 
 75 
 
CHAP. in. 
 
 IIOMILETIC COMMENTARY : LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 its foot, " W}iy do you clog such a 
 noble animal ?" The reply was, "I 
 ■would a great deal sooner clog him than 
 lose him ; he is given to leap hedges." 
 That is why God clogs His people. He 
 would rather clog them than lose them ; 
 for if He did not, they would leap and 
 be gone. — Spurgeon. 
 
 The sufferer baffled by temptation. 
 A time of alliiction is a time of tempta- 
 tion. Satan will not be wanting in 
 any opportunity or advantage of setting 
 upon the soul. When Pharaoh heard 
 that the people were entangled iu the 
 Avilderness, he pursued them ; and 
 when Satan sees a soul entangled with 
 its distresses and troubles, he thinks it 
 his time and hour to assault it. He 
 seeks to winnow, and comes when the 
 corn is under the flail. Reckon, there- 
 fore, that, when trouble cometh, the 
 prince of this world cometh also. Then 
 is the time to take the shield of faith, 
 that we may be able to quench his fiery 
 darts. If they be neglected, they will 
 inflame the soul. — John Owen. 
 
 Grief, its uses. What ! would you 
 choose that you alone may fare better 
 than all God's saints 1 that God should 
 strew carpets for your nice feet only, to 
 walk into your heaven, and make that 
 way smooth for you which all patriarchs, 
 
 prophets, evangelists, confessors, Christ 
 Himself, have found rugged and bloody ! 
 Away with this self-love, and come 
 down, you ambitious sons of Zebedee, 
 and, ere you think of sitting near the 
 throne, be content to be called unto the 
 cross. Now is your trial. Let your 
 Saviour see how much of His bitter 
 portion you can pledge. Then shall 
 you see how much of His glory He can 
 afford you. Be content to drink of His 
 vinegar and gall, and you shall drink 
 new wine with Him in His kingdom. — 
 Bishop Hall. 
 
 — As snow is of itself cold, yet 
 warms and refreshes the earth, so afflic- 
 tions, though in themselves grievous, 
 yet keep the soul of the Christian warm 
 and make it fruitful. Let the most 
 afflicted know and remember that it is 
 better to be preserved in brine than to 
 rot in honey. — Salter. 
 
 — After a forest fire has raged 
 furiously, it has been found that many 
 pine cones have had their seeds released 
 by the heat, which ordinarily would 
 have remained unsown. The future 
 forest sprang from the ashes of the 
 former. Some Christian graces, such as 
 humility, patience, sympathy, have been 
 evolved from the sufferings of the saints. 
 The furnace has been used to fructify. 
 
 BOMILETICS. 
 
 Jehovah as a Foe. 
 
 (Verses 10-13.) 
 
 I. Is aware of every effort to escape out of His power. " He was unto me 
 as a bear lying in wait, and as a lion in secret places" (ver. 10). The afflicted 
 one compares himself to a fugitive striving to escape from his miseries, but baffled 
 at every turn. Finding his way blocked up by a solid wall, he plunges into the 
 uncertain paths of the forest, only to find himself exposed to the rapacity of beasts 
 of prey. In every direction he is menaced with enemies ; to turn back is as 
 dangerous as to i)ress forward. Exhausted and bewildered, he is ready to sink 
 with terror and despair. Woe to the man who has made an enemy of Jehovah ! 
 His most frantic efforts to escape are in vain. He is everywhere threatened by 
 the law he has violated, and its penalties lie about his path like wild beasts, ready 
 to seize him as their victim. 
 
 II. Alarms by the suddenness and violence of His attack. "He hath 
 turned aside my ways, and jiulled me in pieces. He hath made me desolate " 
 (ver. 11). The figure of the lion is still maintained. Aware of its presence, the 
 startled fugitive turns aside, only to find himself suddenly pounced upon and torn 
 in pieces, .so that, stupified with terror and pain, he is powerless to flee. " He 
 
 76 
 
JIOMILETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 hath made me desolate" a favourite word with Jeremiah, occurring more than forty- 
 times in his Prophecy, and five times in Lamentations (ch. i. 4, 13, 16 ; iv. 5 ; v. 
 18). The root meaning of the word is appalled, astonied, stupified, struck 
 dumb with terror. The impenitent wicked are every moment in imminent peril. 
 The doom of destruction is already declared against the workers of iniquity, and 
 that destruction shall come '* unawares, as a whirlwind, suddenly and swiftly " (c/. 
 Ps. XXXV. 8; Prov. i. 27, x. 29, xxi. 15; 1 Thess. v. 3 ; 2 Pet. ii. 1). Christ 
 is the refuge of the sinner, immediately accessible, and in Him there is invulner- 
 able security. 
 
 III. Is an unerring marksman. "He hath bent His bow, and set me as a 
 mark for the arrow" (ver. 12). The simile of the lion naturally suggests that of 
 the hunter. When the smitten fugitive is under the paw of the lion, the hunter 
 comes, but not to deliver him. It is not the beast of prey, but the poor mangled 
 victim which is the mark for his arrows. The Mohammedan Caliph Aaly was 
 once asked, "If the heavens were a bow and the earth the cord thereof, if cala- 
 mities were arrows, man the butt for those arrows, and the holy blessed God the 
 unerring marksman, where could the sons of Adam flee for succour 1 " The Caliph 
 replied, " The children of Adam must flee unto the Lord." This was the state of 
 unhappy Judah ; this is the state of the man who wickedly defies God. There is 
 no escape but by a penitent return to Him whose bow is already bent to punish, 
 and whose arrow reaches its mark with unerring precision. 
 
 IV. Can inflict acutest pain. " He hath caused the arrows of His quiver to 
 enter into my reins" — m>/ heart (ver. 13). God has many arrows; they are swift 
 in their passage, unerring in their aim, and pierce deep. None can wound as God 
 can. In the region where the greatest sin against Him has been committed — in 
 the heart — tliere the arrows of His judgment penetrate and produce the keenest 
 anguish. "These immediate blows of God upon the soul seem to be those things 
 called in Psalm xxxviii. 2 God's arrows ; they are strange, sudden, invincible 
 amazements upon the spirit, leaving such a damp upon it as defies the faint and 
 weak cordials of all creature enjoyments. The wounds which God Himself makes 
 none but God Himself can cure." 
 
 Lessons. — 1. It is vain for the sinner to defij Jehovah. 2. Sin cannot evade 
 either detection or punishment. 3. The only hope of the sinner is to penitently 
 implore the mercy of Jehovah. 
 
 GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES. 
 
 Vers. 10, 11. The dangers of a sinful arrows of His quiver to enter into my 
 
 life. I. The agents of punishment are reins " (ver. 13). 
 always at hand. "He was unto me as 
 
 a bear lying in wait, and as a lion in Illustrations. — Jehovah a foe to 
 
 secret places" (ver. 10). II. There is all sin. God Himself, we have always 
 
 no escape from punishment for .sin. understood, hates sin with a most au- 
 
 " He hath turned aside my ways and thentic, celestial, and eternal hatred — a 
 
 pulled me in pieces" (ver. 11). III. hatred, a hostihty inexorable, unappeas- 
 
 The punishment for sin is sudden and able, which blasts the scoundrel, and all 
 
 appalling. "He hath made me deso- scoundrels ultimately, into black anni- 
 
 late " (ver. 11). hilation and disappearance from the 
 
 Vers. 12, 13. The certainty of punish- sum of things. The path of it is the 
 
 ment. I. Because God is Just. II. Be- path of a flaming sword. He that has 
 
 cause God is unerring in His treatment eyes may see it walking, inexorable, 
 
 of sin. " He hath bent His bow and divinely beautiful and divinely terrible, 
 
 set me as a mark for the arrow " (ver. through the chaotic gulf of human his- 
 
 12). III. The punishment ivill he pain- tory, and everywhere burning, as with 
 
 fully realised. "He hath caused the unquenchable fire, the false and the 
 
 77 
 
JIOMILETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 deadwortliy from the true and life- 
 worthy, making all human history and 
 the biography of every man a God's 
 cosmos in place of a devil's chaos. So 
 it is in the end ; even so to every man 
 ■who is a man, and not a mutinous beast, 
 and has eyes to see. — Carhjle. 
 
 The dangers of sin. The favourite 
 sport of Canada in winter is tobogan- 
 ning. Some of the slides are very steep 
 and look very dangerous, and the sensa- 
 tion of rushing down the hill on the 
 thin strips of basswood is one never to 
 be forgotten. " How do you like it 1 " 
 asked a Canadian girl of an American 
 visitor, whom she had steered down 
 the steepest slide. " Oh, I would not 
 have missed it for a hundred dollars ! " 
 " You'll try it again, won't you V " Not 
 for a thousand dollars ! " 
 
 — Mr. Euskin speaks in his " Love's 
 Meinie " of the little crake, a bird which 
 lays her eggs on an inartificially con- 
 structed platform of decayed leaves 
 or stalks of marsh plants, slightly ele- 
 vated above the water. " How ele- 
 vated I cannot find proper account ; 
 that is to say, whether it is hung 
 to the stems of growing reeds or built 
 on hillocks of soil ; but the bird is 
 always liable to have its nest overflown 
 by floods." 
 
 The degradation of sin. When the 
 followers of Ulysses degraded them- 
 selves by the misuse of pleasures until 
 they fell to the level of the brutes, it is 
 said that Circe, touching them with her 
 wand, turned them into swine. She 
 
 brought to the surface the inner ugliness, 
 revealed the animal that ruled within. 
 
 The bitterness of sin. There is 
 more bitterness following upon sin's end- 
 ing than ever there was sweetness flow- 
 ing from sin's acting. You that see 
 nothing but uell in its commission will 
 suffer nothing but woe in its conclusion. 
 You that sin for your profits will never 
 profit by your sins. — Dyer. 
 
 Divine judgment a painful reality. 
 That which comes immediately from 
 God has most of God in it. As the 
 sun when he darts his beams in a direct 
 perpendicular line does it most forcibly 
 because most immediately, there are 
 terrors upon the mind which flow im- 
 mediately from God, and are not weak- 
 ened or refracted by passing through 
 the instrumental conveyance of a second 
 cause, for that which passes through a 
 thing is contracted according to the 
 narrowness of its passage. The terrors 
 here spoken of, not being inflicted by 
 the intermediate help of anything, but 
 being darted forth from God Himself, 
 are by this incomparably more strong 
 and piercing. When God wounds a 
 man by the loss of an estate, of his 
 health, of a relation, the smart is but 
 commensurate to the thing which is 
 lost, poor and finite. But when He 
 Himself employs His whole omnipo- 
 tence, and is Himself both the archer 
 and the arrow, there is as much differ- 
 ence between this and the former as 
 Avhen a house lets fall a cobweb and 
 when it falls itself upon a man. — South 
 
 EOMILETICS. 
 Complex Phases of Distress. 
 
 (Yerses 14-17.) 
 
 I. The sufferer is the subject of ridicule. -" I was a derision to all my 
 people, and their song all the day " (ver. 14). Dropping the use of metaphor for 
 the nonce, the prophet plainly indicates in these words what the arrows Avcre that 
 pierced him to the quick. They were the darts of ridicule, sharpened with envy 
 and poisoned with rancour — a ridicule all the keener as coming from his own 
 people, and revealing the base treachery that had been all along cherished under 
 the mask of professed friendship. It is a deep wound to a sensitive heart to 
 discover the fickleness of perverse human nature. The very people who smile 
 upon and flatter us in our prosperity are the first to curl the lip of scorn and to 
 join those who make sport over our misfortunes. The idol of the crowd to-day 
 78 
 
HOMILETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. chap. iit. 
 
 may be the execration of the crowd to-morrow. It is a part of the suffering of 
 the unfaithful to have to endure the contempt of God and man, and the sting of 
 the distress is the consciousness that it is self-induced and richly deserved. 
 Where shall he look for sympathy and help ? ^ot from man. His only refuge 
 is in God, 
 
 II. The sufferer is satiated witli pain and sunk in abject humiliation. 
 " He hath filled me with bitterness, He hath made me drunken with wormwood. 
 He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones, He hath covered me with 
 ashes" (vers. 15, 16). He is as one glutted with hitter food and stupified with 
 nauseous drinks. An Arabic poet describes a man grievously afflicted as " a 
 pounder of wormwood." His food is so mingled with the grit of the ashes in 
 which it is baked that his teeth are broken in eating it, and he is himself smothered 
 with the ashes into the midst of which he has been thrown down. To the 
 Oriental mind this is a graphic description of acute suffering and shame. Vanity, 
 pride, and disobedience end in humiliation and trouble. " It seems appointed," 
 says Lange, " that much of the highest instruction should come to us, even in the 
 Bible, through the sufferings and struggles of individual men." The anguish of 
 the prophet was a type of the sufferings of a rebellious nation. 
 
 III. The sufferer is robbed of happiness. " Thou hast removed my soul far 
 off from peace" (ver. 17). Peace in Hebrew has the wider signification of wel- 
 fare, happiness. Hence it was their salutation in life, " Peace be to thee," and 
 in death was engraved upon their sepulchres, " In peace," Peace with God is the 
 source of permanent and overflowing happiness, and its possession is conditioned 
 on the obedience of faith, for " being justified by faith, we have peace with God, 
 and rejoice in hope of the glory of God." How great is the loss when our peace 
 is gone and our happiness takes wing ! It is the loss of that we most highly 
 prize and diligently seek after, for happiness is the object of universal search. 
 Rob a man of his peace, and what is there left to live for 1 The soul, unloosed 
 from her old moorings, is tossed about like a helpless ship in the troubled sea 
 which cannot rest. Life is an intolerable burden, and, swung in a whirl of black 
 despair, the soul cries out with the distracted patriarch, *' Oh, that I might have 
 my request," &c. (Job vi. 8-10). 
 
 IV. The sufferer loses the very idea of good. " I forgot prosperity " 
 (ver, 17). I forgot what good is, lost the very idea of what it means. There is 
 no enjoyment in the present ; there is no hope in the future. It is impossible to 
 conceive a more pitiable and forlorn condition. The prophet has surely reached 
 the bottom of his despair ; there is no lower depth. This is the fate of the man 
 who tries to live without God. His views of right and wrong, of liberty and 
 bondage, of prosperity and adversity, are utterly confounded. It is a dangerous 
 experiment for any man to try. Christ is the Hope of humanity. To be without 
 Him is to be without God, and to be in the condition of the Ephesians of a former 
 age, " Having no hope and without God in the world " (Eph. ii. 12). 
 
 Lessons. — 1. It is a painful exi^erience to meet ivith scorn ivliere we expected 
 sympathy. 2. Thefre is always something to modify the hapjnness of life. 3. It 
 is one of the saddest results of suffering when the soul loses faith in goodness. 
 
 GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES. 
 
 Vers. 14, 15. Ridicule: 1, Is hard Ver, 17. The loss of happiness: I. 
 to bear when coming from our enemies. Is the loss of peace. IL Is the loss of 
 II. Has a special aggravation when it is true notions of goodness. III. Is the 
 exultingly employed against us by those fate of the obstinately unbelieving, 
 we had loved and trusted. III. Over- 
 whelms its victim by its bitterness and Illustrations. — Triumph over ridi- 
 ceaseless outflow. cule. A pious poor man was much 
 
 79 
 
nOMILETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 ridiculed on account of his religion. 
 Being asked if these daily persecutions 
 did not make him ready to give up 
 his profession, he replied, " No ! Our 
 minister once said in his sermon that if 
 ■\ve were so foolish as to permit such 
 people to laugh us out of religion till at 
 last we dropped into hell, they could 
 not laugh us out again." 
 
 — What would the nightingale care 
 if the toad despised her singing 1 She 
 would still sing on, and leave the cold 
 toad to his dank shadows. And what 
 care I for the sneers of men who grovel 
 upon earth ? I will still sing on in the 
 ear and bosom of God. — Beecher. 
 
 Treachery has no pity. Sir Anthony 
 Kingston, the provost-marshal of the 
 Protector, the Earl of Hertford, sent 
 word to the mayor of Bodmin that he 
 Avould dine with him. He had a man 
 to hang too, he said, and a stout gallows 
 must be ready. The dinner was duly 
 eaten and the gallows prepared. " Think 
 you," said Kingston as they stood look- 
 ing at it, " think you is it strong 
 enough 1 " " Yea, sir," quoth the mayor, 
 " it is." " Well, then," said Sir An- 
 thony, " get up ; it is for you." The 
 mayor, greatly abashed, exclaimed and 
 protested. " Sir," said Kingston, 
 " there is no remedy ; ye have been a 
 busy rebel, and this is appointed for 
 your reward ; " and so, without respite 
 or stay, the mayor was hanged. 
 
 Suffering and its compensations. 
 Should the Empress determine to banish 
 me, let her banish me ; " The earth is 
 the Lord's and the fulness thereof." If 
 she will cast me into the sea, let her 
 cast me into the sea ; I will remember 
 Jonah. If she will throw me into a 
 
 burning fiery furnace, the three children 
 were there before me. If she will throw 
 me to the wild beasts, I will remember 
 that Daniel was in the den of lions. If 
 she will condemn me to be stoned, I 
 shall be an associate of Stephen, the 
 proto-martyr. If she will have me be- 
 headed, the Baptist has submitted to 
 the same punishment. If she will take 
 away my substance, " naked came I out 
 of my mother's womb, and naked shall 
 I return to it." — Chrysostom. 
 
 The best work comes out of distress. 
 The people of Verona, when they saw 
 Dante in the streets, used to say, " See, 
 there is the man that was in hell ! " 
 Ah yes ! he had been in hell — in hell 
 enough, in long severe sorrow and 
 struggle, as the like of him is pretty 
 sure to have been. Commedias that 
 come out divine are not accomplished 
 otherwise. Thought, true labour of 
 any kind, highest virtue itself, is it 
 not the daughter of pain ? Born as out 
 of the black whirlwind ; true effort, in 
 fact, as of a captive struggling to free 
 himself : that is thought. In all ways 
 we are to become perfect through 
 suffering. — Carhjle. 
 
 Happiness depends on God. Solon 
 said, " Xo man ought to be called happy 
 till he dies, because he knows not what 
 his life is to be." But the Christian 
 may always call himself happy here 
 because wherever his tent is carried, he 
 need never pitch it where the cloud 
 does not move and where he is not 
 surrounded by a wall of fire. " I will 
 be a wall of fire round about them, and 
 their glory in the midst." They cannot 
 dwell where God is not householder, 
 warder, and bulwark of salvation. 
 
 EOMILETICS. 
 
 The Dawn of Hope. 
 
 (Verses 18-21.) 
 
 I. Begins to appear when the soul has reached the verge of despair. " I 
 
 said. My strength and my hope is perished from the Lord " (ver. 18). When things 
 get to the worst they begin to mend. Eor some time the affairs of the prophet 
 had been sinking into ever-deepening gloom. His peace and happiness had departed, 
 the memory that they ever existed had perished, and now dark doubts about the 
 Divine goodness had finished the degenerating process. It was a critical moment. 
 80 
 
UOMILETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 The soul oscillated between utter collapse and the beginning of recovery. It is a 
 mercy the soul is not left to itself in its weakest moments. Help was at hand, 
 and hope began to dawn. All the time the soul was expressing the utmost 
 despondency, it was struggling against despair, and feeling for some ground of con- 
 fidence and hope. It begins to appear that, after all, trouble is God's method of 
 making known His righteousness and love. A way out of the dungeon is opening. 
 
 II. Indicated by the prayer of the soul for the Divine pity. " Eemem- 
 bering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall" (ver. 19). 
 Remember. It is a prayer to Jehovah, beseeching compassion for the soul that 
 has supped its fill of misery, which it has found as bitter as wormwood and gall. 
 There is hope for man, for the worst of men, when he begins to pray. It is the 
 first step upward in the pathway of deliverance. It may seem a cry of despair, 
 but it is a cry that appeals to the Divine pity, and not in vain. The powers of 
 Omnipotence are put into operation for the soul's rescue. 
 
 III. Evident by the fact of the soul's voluntary humiliation. " My soul 
 hath them still in remem])rance and is humbled in me " (ver. 20). It is borne in 
 upon the sufferer that his extraordinary afflictions are the consequences of sin. 
 The mind oppressed and crippled by a morbid contemplation of its miseries is now 
 transferred to a consideration of their cause, and reflection upon its transgressions 
 bows the soul in conscious shame. A change of theme is a relief to the mentally 
 distressed. The moment the soul becomes concerned about its sins, it becomes 
 anxious about their removal. This anxiety is the dawn of hope. 
 
 IV. Strengthened by the recollection that prayer and penitence are the 
 conditions of deliverance. "This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope" 
 (ver. 21). He has seen his e-rror in murmuring against the bitterness of his 
 adversity. Complaints only increased his misery, but did nothing towards remov- 
 ing it. He now recalls how a sight of his sins had humbled him, and led him to 
 pray for mercy, and knowing that God hears the cry of the sincerely penitent, he 
 begins to cherish the hope of pardon and deliverance. It is in this way that God 
 deals with the sinners of to-day. While men concentrate their thoughts upon 
 their misfortunes, and rail against the Providence Avhose laws they have so reck- 
 lessly broken, they shut themselves off from God and from hope ; but when they 
 acknowledge and grieve over their sins, and pray to God for the mercy provided 
 for all men in Christ Jesus, they receive not only the hope, but the assurance of 
 salvation. 
 
 Lessons. — 1. Hope is the last link between sanity and utter mental collapse. 
 2. The greatest sufferer is never wholly without hope^ 3.. All true reform must 
 begin in hope. 
 
 GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES, 
 
 Vers. 18, 19. Lost hope restored. I. hope. Memory is very often the ser- 
 
 Hope has its highest realisation in God. vant of despondency. She stands like 
 
 II. When sin divorces the soul from a handmaiden, clothed in sackcloth, 
 
 God, its hope perishes. III. Only as the presenting to her master a cup of 
 
 soul returns to God is its hope restored. mingled gall and wormwood. Like 
 
 Vers. 20, 21. The office of memory: Mercury, she hastes with winged heel 
 
 I. Plays an important part in our men- to gather fresh thorns with which to fill 
 
 tal and spiritual history, II. Helps us the uneasy pillow, and to bind fresh 
 
 to realise the nature and aggravation of rods with which to scourge the already 
 
 our sins. III. Should lead us to a bleeding heart. There is, however, no 
 
 wise and timely humiliation on account necessity for this. Wisdom will trans- 
 
 of sin. IV. Prepares the way for a form memory into an angel of comfort, 
 
 brighter and more hopeful future. She need not wear a crown of iron ; she 
 
 Ver. 21. Memory, the handmaid of may encircle her brow with a fillet of 
 81 P 
 
CH.vr. III. 
 
 IIOMILETIC COMMENTARY : LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 gold, all spangled with stars. We lay 
 it down as a general principle, that if 
 ■\ve would exercise our memories we 
 might, in our darkest distress, strike 
 a match which would instantaneously 
 kindle the lamp of comfort. I. Apply 
 this principle to the believer in deep 
 trouble. The chapter contains a list 
 of matters the recollection of which 
 brought comfort to Jeremiah. 1. The 
 fact that, however deep our affliction, it is 
 of the Lord's mercy loe are not consumed. 
 When you are kindling your household 
 fire, before which you hope to sit down 
 with comfort, you do not expect first to 
 kindle the lumps of coal, but you set 
 some lighter fuel in a blaze, and soon 
 the more solid material yields a genial 
 glow ; so this thought, which may seem 
 so light to you, may be as the kindling 
 of a heavenly fire of comfort to you who 
 are now shivering in your grief. 2. 
 His compassions fail not. This again is 
 not a very high step, but still it is a 
 little in advance of the other, and tlie 
 weakest may readily reach it. 3. 
 The Lord is my portion. One of our 
 kings, high and haughty in temper, had 
 a quarrel with the citizens of London, 
 and thought to alarm them by a dread- 
 ful threat that would cow the spirits of 
 the bold burghers, for if they did not 
 mind what they were at, he would remove 
 his court from Westminster. Where- 
 upon the doughty Lord Mayor begged 
 to inquire whether his Majesty meant 
 to take the Thames away, for so long 
 as the river remained, his majesty might 
 take himself where he pleased. Even 
 so the world warns us, you cannot hold 
 out, you cannot rejoice ; this trouble 
 shall come and that adversity shall be- 
 fall. We reply. So long as you cannot 
 take our Lord away, we will not com- 
 plain. We have now advanced to some 
 degree of hope, but there are other steps 
 to ascend. 4. The Lord is good iinto 
 them that wait for Him, to the soul that 
 seeketh Him. Let Him smite never 
 so hard, yet if we can maintain the 
 heavenly posture of prayer, we may 
 rest assured that He will turn from 
 blows to kisses yet. Bunyan tells 
 us that when the city of Mansoul 
 was besieged, it was the depth of 
 §2 
 
 winter and the roads were very bad ; 
 but even then prayer could travel them. 
 No enemy can barricade the road to the 
 King. We are getting into deeper 
 water of joy ; let us take another step. 
 
 5. It is good that a man should bear the 
 yoke in his youth. Why should I dread 
 to descend the shaft of affliction if it 
 leads me to the gold mine of spiritual 
 experience 1 Why should I cry out if 
 the sun of my prosperity goes down, if 
 in the darkness of my adversity I shall 
 be the better able to count the starry 
 promises with which my faithful God 
 has been pleased to gem the sky. Many 
 a promise is written in sympathetic 
 ink, which you cannot read till the 
 fire of trouble brings out the charac- 
 ters. One step more, and surely we 
 shall then have good ground to rejoice. 
 
 6. The Lord will not cast off for ever. 
 Who told thee that the night would 
 never end in day ? Who told thee that 
 the sea would ebb out till there should 
 be nothing left but a vast tract of mud 
 and sand? Who told thee that the 
 winter would proceed from frost to frost, 
 from snow, and ice, and hail, to deeper 
 snow and yet more heavy tempest? 
 Knowest thou not that day follows 
 night, that flood comes after ebb, the 
 spring and summer succeed to winter? 
 Hope thou then ' Hope thou ever, for 
 God fails thee not. Thus memory may 
 be, as Coleridge calls it, " the bosom- 
 spring of joy." IL To the doubting 
 Christian who has lost his evidences 
 of salvation: 1. Call to remembrance 
 matters of the past. At the south of 
 Africa the sea was generally so stormy 
 when the frail barks of the Portuguese 
 went sailing south that they named it 
 the Cape of Storms ; but after that cape 
 had been well rounded by bolder navi- 
 gators, they named it the Cape of Good 
 Hope, In your experience you had 
 many a Cape of Storms, but you have 
 weathered them all, and now let them 
 be a Cape of Good Hope to you. 2. 
 Recall the fact that others have found the 
 Lord true to them. 3. Remember that 
 if you look ivithin you will see some faint 
 traces of the Holy Spirit's hand. The 
 complete picture of Christ is not there, 
 but cannot you see the crayon sketch, 
 
HOMILETIO COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 the outline, the charcoal marks 1 Where 
 God the Holy Ghost has done as much 
 as that, He ■will do more. 4, Recollect 
 that Jesus Christ came into the ivorld to 
 save si?iners. If I am not a saint, I am 
 a sinner ; and if I may not go to the 
 throne of grace as a child, I will go as 
 a sinner. III. A few words to seekers. 
 Oh, that I had a voice like the trumpet 
 of God that shall wake the dead at last ! 
 If I might only have it to utter one 
 sentence, it would be this one, *' In 
 Christ is your help found." As for 
 you, there never can be found anything 
 hopeful in your human nature. It is 
 death itself, it is rottenness and corrup- 
 tion. Turn, turn away your eyes from 
 this despairing mass of black depravity 
 and look to Christ. — C. U. Spurgeon. 
 
 Illustrations. — The misery of hope- 
 lessness. Abraham Lincoln, when a 
 young man, was subject to terrible fits 
 of depression. In one of his letters he 
 writes : " I am now the most miser- 
 able being living. If what I feel were 
 equally distributed to the whole human 
 family, there would not be one cheerful 
 face on earth. Whether I shall ever 
 be better I cannot tell ; I awfully for- 
 bode I shall not. To remain as I am 
 is impossible ; I must die or be better." 
 
 Hope presupposes faith. They can- 
 not exist apart. Hope is the balloon of 
 the soul, soaring majestically into the 
 heavens, scanning scenes of beauty and 
 grandeur never beheld by our earth- 
 bound senses, and faithfully reporting 
 to the soul the state of affairs in the 
 skies ; but it is a captive balloon, and 
 the connecting cords are firmly held in 
 the hand of faith. The loftiest flights 
 and the swing of what may seem the 
 most eccentric gyrations of hope are 
 held in check by the friendly, the sym- 
 pathetic, and unswerving grasp of faith. 
 " My dear Hope," says Faith, " it is very 
 
 nice for you to be up there basking in 
 the cloudless sunshine and drinking in 
 the melody of the ascending lark as it 
 ripples up the heights ; and I like you 
 to be there. I could never get there 
 myself; and you tell me of things I 
 should never otherwise know, and they 
 do me good. But remember, I cannot 
 let you go. We are necessary to each 
 other, and cannot do without each other. 
 If you were to break away from me, you 
 would vanish like vapour into space, and 
 I should be left forlorn and powerless." 
 
 Hope clings to us to the last. When 
 John Knox lay dying, one of the friends 
 around his death-bed asked the ques- 
 tion, " Hast thou hope ? " The veteran 
 reformer was too weak to speak — the 
 moment for speech was gone ; but the 
 expiring saint raised his finger and 
 pointed upwards, and so passed triumph- 
 antly to the skies. 
 
 Prayer a preparation for conflict. 
 A soldier in the Confederate army was 
 once asked what was the secret of Stone- 
 wall Jackson's influence over his men. 
 " Does your general abuse you, swear 
 at you to make you march ] " " Swear ! " 
 answered the soldier. " No ; Ewell 
 does the swearing ; Stonewall does the 
 praying J When Stonewall wants us to 
 march, he looks at us soberly, just as if 
 he were sorry for us, and says, ' Men, 
 we've got to make a long march.' We 
 always know when there is going to be 
 a long march and right smart fighting, 
 for old Jack is powerful on prayer just 
 before a big fight." 
 
 Memory of victory inspiring. Dur- 
 ing the last days of William IV. the 
 anniversary of the battle of Waterloo 
 occurred. Eousing himself upon re- 
 membrance of it, the dying King 
 requested that some of the French 
 standards taken there should be brought 
 to him, which when he looked at and 
 handled he said, " I feel much better.'' 
 
 EOMILETICS. 
 
 The Divine Faithfulness. 
 
 (Vers. 22-24.) 
 
 I. Evidenced in our preservation in the midst of the greatest affictions. 
 is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed" (ver. 22) 
 
 It 
 
 The same Divine 
 S3 
 
IJOMILETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 power that called us into being is exerted every moment to sustain that being. 
 The enemies of our life threaten us every moment. AVe walk in the midst of 
 secret and unsuspected dangers, A whitf of subtle and mysterious vapour, and 
 the throb of life is for ever stilled; the crumbling of a few inches of shale 
 beneath our feet, and we are precipitated into the abyss of death ; the slightest 
 overbalance on the slippery deck, and we are immersed in a watery grave ; the 
 accidental divergence of the knife or firing of the rifle, and we receive our death- 
 wound ; the horse stumbles, and the rider lies dead at its feet; the lightning 
 flashes, and the unsuspecting passer-by is stricken into a livid corpse ; the careering 
 locomotive leaves the metals, and many homes are darkened with desolation and 
 sorrow ; the volcano opens its treacherous side, and thousands are swallowed into 
 the depths of its burning lava. How unfathomable is the mercy and how un- 
 deviating the faithfulness that have spared us to this hour ! " One shall be taken 
 and another left;" but how is it that others are taken and we are left? How is 
 it that we have been to so many funerals, and no one has yet been to ours ? 
 
 II. Revealed in its greatness by the daily renewal of the Divine mercies. 
 " They are new every morning ; great is thy faithfulness " (ver. 23), Our wants 
 are constant ; so is the Divine provision. The arrest in the outflow of Divine 
 mercies for a single day would mean unspeakable suffering to millions. The 
 Divine supply is ever ahead of our daily needs. Every Divine blessing has the 
 freshness and the fragrance of the morning about it. "They are new every 
 morninr'" — unfailing as the morning dawn, bright and joyous as the morning 
 sunshine, brilliant and sparkling as the morning dew, sweet and invigorating as 
 the morning air. Every new day, as it pours its cornucopia of gifts upon the 
 Avorld, is an infallible witness to the Divine faithfulness. 
 
 III. Is the assured foundation of the soul's hope. " The Lord is my portion, 
 therefore will I hope in Him " (ver. 24). The hope of the prophet began to dawn 
 amidst the deepest gloom wheji he remembered that God answered prayer (ver. 
 21) ; but now it is strengthened and confirmed when he is assured of the con- 
 stancy of the Divine mercy. Israel's hope of help from Egypt, or from any of 
 her professed allies, was shattered, that she might be taught to seek refuge alone 
 in God. Amid the wreckage of all earthly hopes the soul finds a sure foundation 
 for hope and confidence in the unchangeable mercy and faithfulness of God. 
 
 Lessons. — 1. Affliction ichich reveals the fickleness of earthly thiiigs also reveals 
 the unchanging faithfuhiess of God. 2, Daily mercies are co7istant reminders of 
 the Diviim fait! i fulness. 3. Tlie Divine faithfulness is at once the hope a?id satis- 
 faction of the said. 
 
 GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES. 
 
 Yers. 22, 23. The views of a saint But for the daily renewal of God's 
 
 in his afflictions. He contemplates — mercy to His people they would have 
 
 1. The lightness of his affliction in been utterly cut off. His faithfulness 
 comparison of his deserts. to the covenant was great beyond all 
 
 2. The multitude of the mercies yet human parallel. No new day would 
 continued to him. ever brighten and glow over the cowed, 
 
 3. The unchangeahleness of God under comfortless, half- relenting remnant of 
 all His dispensations. the holy seed, but for God's readiness 
 
 4:. The bea^ity of religion as displayed to forgive. They had sinned away 
 
 in these views. their covenant birthright, but God's 
 
 They compose the mind, elevate the compassion hovered near to restore it 
 
 soul, and honour God. — Simeon. again. And is it not ever so with 
 
 Ver. 23. Dayspring mercies. I. God's people? In times of chastise- 
 
 These words seem to speak of the iji- ment and in times of prosperity alike 
 
 exhaustible wealth of God's forgiveness. they need to be ever encircled by God's 
 84 
 
EOMtLETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 forgiving grace. Close by one of tlie 
 great cities of the East there is a large 
 stretch of grass that is always green. 
 Sometimes the showers are rare and 
 scanty, and the thermometer mounts to 
 an appalling height, and one wonders 
 to see the grass green and lush as 
 though it were growing in some English 
 meadow. It is kept so by a heavy dew 
 that never fails to fall in the night- 
 time. And so with our life of conse- 
 cration. There is no dawn without 
 the dew of abounding love and com- 
 passion descending to keep it green, 
 II. These words seem to suggest the 
 resourcefulness of Divine Providence. 
 The mercy that is ever fresh to pardon 
 is ever fresh to guide and shape the 
 circumstances in the midst of Avhich 
 the pardoned life is spent. The text is 
 in direct conflict with the clock-work 
 theory of the universe. Providence 
 glories in freshness and originality — it 
 abhors unintelligent routine. The tied- 
 up helm and the sail square-set to the 
 wind are no types of God's providential 
 methods of dealing with us. Life is 
 full of bends and rapids and shallows 
 and whirlpools, and an automatic pro- 
 vidence will not meet the terrific emer- 
 gencies of its swiftly passing moments. 
 Sail and helm alike are in His hand, 
 and answer to His touch through every 
 flashing second. Astronomers at one 
 time puzzled themselves over a problem 
 in solar physics. How was the heat of 
 the sun maintained % It seemed a 
 natural inference that, as it was always 
 giving off heat in stupendous volumes, 
 ultimate exhaustion must one day come. 
 Within recent times the suggestion has 
 found wide acceptance that the sun is 
 constantly drawing meteors, asteroids, 
 and comets to itself, and that the heat 
 is maintained by the impact of these 
 bodies as they fall into the sun. Things 
 come to us from time to time that seem 
 out of all accord with the harmonies 
 around us. Strange difficulties, stum- 
 bling-blocks, tribulations, start up in 
 the path of our daily life. These things 
 are drawn into the circle of God's con- 
 trol and government for their solution, 
 and it is in this way that the very 
 glory of God's providence is maintained. 
 
 III. These words seem to suggest the 
 unfailing truth and faithfulness of God 
 in His relation to His people. God's 
 renewed mercies are linked with the 
 morning because the return of the day 
 is one of the most perfect and intel- 
 ligible symbols of constancy to be found 
 in the economy of Nature. The rains 
 may come and go upon a system to 
 which science has found no clue. 
 Winter sometimes pushes itself far on 
 into the spring. A late spring and an 
 early autumn may squeeze out the sum- 
 mer. A flood may quite change the 
 face of a country. Islands have been 
 known to disappear in some of the con- 
 vulsions of Nature. The mariner has 
 looked for his landmark, and it is gone. 
 Empires may rise and perish with no 
 hope of a resurrection other than an 
 ignoble disinterment at the hands of 
 the archaeologist. But no ill chance can 
 befall the day-spring. And as infallibly 
 as the welcome day-dawn steals at its 
 own hour into our homes, so infallibly 
 do the Divine compassions arise upon 
 the lowly and the contrite. God 
 reflects the benignity of His own face 
 into the flush of dawn, and makes it 
 the parable of a faithfulness upon which 
 you can always count. IV. These 
 words suggest the unfailing promptness 
 of God's ministrations. "His mercies 
 are new every morning ; " that is, just 
 as soon as, or even before, we begin to 
 need them. We receive our salvation, 
 guidance, and defence, not of our own 
 work, but of His free love. If it were 
 of our own work, we must needs wait 
 for the nightfall before we could receive 
 any recompense. Wages are paid at 
 sunset. But it is all His gift. So the 
 mercy in which we rejoice comes to us 
 with the dawn, before we have done a 
 solitary stroke of work. The regula- 
 tions of the court at Pekin are so framed 
 as to give to the Chinese Empire an 
 example of promptness and despatch. 
 The emperor always receives his cabinet 
 ministers and councillors at three or 
 four o'clock in the morning — long before 
 day-dawn. And so God awaits His 
 servants with new pardons, new coun- 
 sels, new honours in His kingdom, 
 long before the day-dawn. An iu- 
 
 85 
 
nOMlLETIC COMMENTARY : LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 genious botanist, by watching the hours 
 at which certain flowers opened, liit 
 upon the pretty conceit of constructing 
 what he called a flower-clock. God's 
 matchless mercies, like circles of thick- 
 set bloom that break into splendour 
 with a rhythm that never halts, are 
 measuring out the successive hours of 
 our life. No winter comes to blast the 
 flowers, and the clock is never behind 
 time. V. These words suggest the per- 
 petual freshness of the Divine Nature. 
 God's compassions are unceasingly new 
 because they well, pure and fair, out 
 of the stainless and infinite depths of 
 His Fatherhood. They have the ever- 
 renewed and living sweetness of His 
 own spring-like nature in them. His 
 daily mercies come to us clothed with 
 the enkindled grace of His own match- 
 less smile, and full of the light of an 
 immortal May-time. He cannot give 
 or do without putting the buoyancy of 
 His own untiring and eternal youth 
 into each boon and act. — T. G. Selhy. 
 
 Ver. 24. (Compared M'ith Deut. 
 xxxii. 9). Choice portions. I. The 
 Lord's portion is His people, 1. The 
 Church of God is the Lord's otcn peculiar 
 and special property. As a king may 
 have ample possessions, to all of which 
 he has undoubted right, but still has 
 royal demesnes and crown-lands which 
 are in a very special sense his own, so 
 hath the Lord of all a peculiar interest 
 in His saints. They are His by sove- 
 reign choice, by purchase and by con- 
 quest. 2. The saints are the objects of 
 the Lord's especial care. The Lord is 
 the eternal watcher of the universe and 
 never sleeps ; yet in a very distinct 
 sense He is the guardian of His Church. 
 3. The Church is the object of the Lord's 
 special joy. I do not read that God 
 delighteth in the cloud-capped moun- 
 tains or in the sparkling stars, but I do 
 read that He delighteth in the habitable 
 parts of the earth, and His delights are 
 with the sons of men. 4. God's 2'>eople 
 are His everlasting possession. He will 
 never sell His people at any price, nor, 
 if He could have better people instead, 
 would He change them. They are His 
 for ever. II. The Lord is my portion. 
 1. True believers have the Lord as their 
 86 
 
 sole portion. St. Augustine was wont 
 very often to pray, "Lord, Give me 
 thyself." A less portion than this 
 would be unsatisfactory. 2. As God is 
 our only portion, so He is our own por- 
 tion. Do not be satisfied with generals ; 
 come to particulars. Men go to hell 
 in bundles, but they go to heaven 
 separately. 3. Tlie Lord is to His 
 people an inherited portion. "We owe 
 it to the fact of our birth — a child of 
 God by being born in the image of His 
 son. 4. This heritage is ours by choice. 
 We have chosen God to be our portion. 
 Better to have Christ and a fiery faggot 
 than to lose Him and wear a royal 
 robe. 5. God is His p)eople's settled 
 portion. The covenant of day and 
 niglit may be broken, the waters may 
 again cover the earth, sooner than the 
 decrees of grace be frustrated. Tlie 
 Lord is my all-sufficient p)ortion. God 
 fills Himself. If He is all-sufficient in 
 Himself, He must be all-sufficient for 
 us. — C. U. S^mrgeon. 
 
 Illustrations. — Divine faithful- 
 ness. Visiting a dying Christian 
 woman. Dr. John Brown once said 
 to her, "What would you sa}'-, Janet, 
 if, after God has done so much for 
 you. He should let you drop into hell ? " 
 She calmly replied, "E'en as He likes; 
 but He'll lose more than I will." 
 
 — You may be faint and weary, but 
 my God cannot. I may fluctuate and 
 alter as to my frames and feelings, but 
 my Redeemer is unchangeably the same. 
 I might utterly fail and come to nothing 
 if left to myself ; but I cannot be so 
 left to myself, for the Spirit of Truth 
 hath said, " I will never leave thee, nor 
 forsake thee." He will renew my 
 strength, either by changing my weak- 
 ness into strength, or by enduing me 
 with His own power. He is wise to 
 foresee and provide for all my dangers. 
 He is rich to relieve and succour me in 
 all my wants. He is faithful to perfect 
 and perform all His promises. — Ambrose 
 Serle. 
 
 Divine Providence. It is the fault 
 of the present day to think and to act 
 as if man could do everything, and to 
 forget God's special providence. Hence 
 
HOMILETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. chap. hi. 
 
 that busybodiness which distinguishes served God faithfully," he would say 
 the religious world, and prevents that when night found them supperless iu 
 depth of piety which is the result of the waste. " Look at the eagle over- 
 sober, calm reflection, and which shows head ! God can feed us through him, 
 itself in doing calmly and unostenta- if He will ! " — and once, at least, he 
 tiously, not what seems likely to be owed his meal to a large fish that the 
 attended with the greatest results, but scared bird let fall, 
 simply the duty our hand findeth to Want anticipated. The wood- 
 do. — Dean Hook. piercing bee will make a tunnel in a 
 
 — Those believers who watch provi- tree-trunk twelve or fifteen inches long 
 
 dences will never lack providences to and half an inch wide, which is divided 
 
 watch. — Flavell. into ten or twelve cells. An egg with 
 
 Divine supply in emergencies. St. a store of pollen and honey is deposited 
 
 Cuthbert of Lindisfarne was often in in- each cell, so that as soon as the 
 
 great poverty and pinched" for food. young bee is born it has its dinner 
 
 " Never did man die of hunger who awaiting it ! — Ruskbi. 
 
 EOMILETICS. 
 
 Three Grades of Goodness. 
 
 (Vers. 25-27.) 
 
 I. There is the goodness of Jehovah to those who cling to Him. '* The 
 
 Lord is good unto them that wait for Him, to the soul that seeketh Him " (ver. 
 25). God is absolutely and supremely good — good in Himself, good in all things, 
 good at all times. If He is good to all, then He must be especially so to those 
 who wait on Him in conscious dependence and earnestly supplicate His help. 
 There are mysteries about the Divine procedure which we cannot fathom, and 
 we are sometimes tempted to question the goodness of God. But clearer light 
 dispels our doubts, and the more completely we trust in Him the more real and 
 tender and potent does His goodness become. "We never know God aright till we 
 trust Him fully. 
 
 II. There i% the goodness of patient and uncomplaining waiting for God's 
 time of deliverance. "It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait 
 for the salvation of the Lord " (ver. 26). To indulge in querulous complaints 
 only increases the irritation of our sufferings. Murmuring begets murmuring, 
 and we are apt to blame every one but ourselves. The more we grumble, the 
 farther are we away from goodness. It is only when we are silent and abstain 
 from complaining that we begin to see that our deliverance must come from God, 
 and that it is our wisdom to, bide His time and humbly submit to His method. 
 The soul attains goodness by exercising an active and larger faith in the Divine 
 goodness. A clearer apprehension of goodness in God begets a corresponding 
 goodness in the soul that sees it. 
 
 III. There is the goodness of being accustomed to the burden of suffering 
 early in life. " It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth " (ver. 
 27). Youth is the period of enjoyment, and it has a pleasure all its own, with 
 its bright and gay romancing, its poetic dreams of beauty and delight, its relish- 
 able love of work, its daring enterprise and bold ambitions, its soaring hopes and 
 confident prophecies, its sparkling wit and brimming fun — brilliant and harmless 
 as tropical lightning ; buoyant, radiant, joyous youth-time, when every sense is 
 steeped in the intoxicating nectar of innocent rapture, when the whole world 
 shines with the golden glory of perpetual summer, and when life is one long, 
 sweet poem, set to the enchanting movements of exquisite music. But youth has 
 
 87 
 
nOMILEfIC COMMENTARY : LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 also its burdens and responsibilities, and its happiness is not destroyed but inten- 
 sified when it learns to bear with bravery the disappointments and afflictions of 
 life. The youth who has known little of suffering is ill prepared for the stern 
 realities of ordinary life. Early sorrow brings early comfort and peace and 
 strength. The best that is in man is tested and perfected by misfortune. 
 
 Lessons. — 1. God is good in Himself inherently and essentiallij. 2. Man is 
 good only in the degree in ivhich he receives Divine grace and submits to the Divine 
 discipliJie. 
 
 GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES. 
 
 Ver. 25. The Divine goodness. 1. 
 
 A grand reality. 2. Continually mani- 
 fested. 3. Specially revealed to the 
 earnest seeker. 
 
 Yer. 26. The advantages of a state 
 of expectation. 1. It seems implied 
 that our incapacity of looking into the 
 future has much to do with the produc- 
 tion of disquietude and unhappiness. 
 2. And yet the possession of this power 
 of anticipating the future would be in- 
 calculably more detrimental. 3. Our 
 ignorance of what shall happen stimu- 
 lates exertion. We are so constituted 
 that to deprive us of hope would be to 
 make us inactive and wretched. 4. It 
 is for our advantage that salvation, in- 
 stead of being a thing of certainty and 
 present possession, must be hoped and 
 quietly waited for. 5. If true believers 
 were withdrawn from earth at the mo- 
 ment of their becoming such, the in- 
 fluences of piety which now make 
 themselves felt through the mass of a 
 population would be altogether de- 
 stroyed, and the world deprived of 
 that salt wliich alone preserves it from 
 total decomposition. 6. No fair ex- 
 planation can be given of the text 
 unless you bring into the account the 
 difference in the portions to be assigned 
 hereafter to the righteous. 7. The 
 continuance of the justified on earth 
 affords them opportunity of rising 
 higher in the scale of future blessed- 
 ness. 8. Being compelled to hope and 
 to wait is a good moral discipline, so 
 that the exercises prescribed are cal- 
 culated to promote holiness and ensure 
 happiness. 9. It is good as aifurding 
 time in which to glorify God. 10. 
 Religion gives a character to hope of 
 which otherwise it is altogether desti- 
 tute. Hope is a beautiful meteor ; but 
 88 
 
 nevertheless this meteor, like the rain- 
 bow, is not only lovely because of its 
 seven rich and radiant stripes ; it is the 
 memorial of a covenant between man 
 and his Maker, telling us that we are 
 born for immortality, destined, unless 
 we sepulchre our greatness, to the 
 highest honour and noblest happiness. 
 — Henry Melville. 
 
 Hope and patience. I. What i-i 
 meant by the salvation of the Lord ? 
 God's salvation is used very frequently 
 in the Bible for His interposition to 
 save the soul of man from sin. It is 
 not this salvation which is here spoken 
 of, for though a man may be encouraged 
 to hope, he cannot be urged quietly to 
 wait for it. The language of the chapter 
 is not that of a man ignorant of God. 
 It is the salvation which a man needs 
 in any crisis of life, where he suffers 
 under trial, or is threatened with it. 
 Our strength and resources, all possible 
 expedients, have been brought into 
 exercise. The last reserve has been 
 thrown into the battle, and yet it goes 
 against us. It is then the case rises 
 distinctly into the salvation of the Lord. 
 A man who has faith only in worldly 
 resources is powerless here. He must 
 give up in despair, or cast himself on a 
 blind chance. But, for a believing 
 man, there is still a duty and a stay. 
 When he cannot take a step farther in 
 human effort, there is a pathway to the 
 skies, and his heart can travel it. II. 
 ^V]lat is meant by these exercises of the 
 sold toivards God's salvation — to hope 
 and quietly wait? 1. The foundation 
 of hope lies in desire. But desire may 
 pursue things that can never be objects 
 of hope to us. We can only hope for 
 that Avhich is felt to be possible and 
 reasonable. The next element is faith. 
 
IIOMILETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 CHAP. Ilti 
 
 But we believe in many things in 
 regard to which we do not hope, Hope 
 is faith with desire pointing out the 
 objects. A third element to make our 
 liope strong is imagination. While sin 
 has made this world a charnel-house of 
 corruption or a storehouse of vanities, 
 purity can fill its treasury with divine 
 aspirations which are as grand as they 
 are transcendently real. II. Quiet icait- 
 ing. It is termed in the Bible patience. 
 It is the part of hope to seek the 
 future ; it is the duty of patience to 
 rest calmly in the present, exercising 
 faith, and giving calm attention to 
 duties. Tlie tamest and most insignifi- 
 cant of daily duties may be made noble 
 and divine when the thought of God 
 and the will of Christ are carried into 
 them. III. Consider the benefit of unit- 
 ing these — hoth to hope and qiiietly wait. 
 1. The one is needful to save the other 
 from sinking into sin. 2. To raise the 
 other to its full strength. 3. It is good 
 now in the depth of the soul, in the 
 conscious assurance that it is better to 
 rest in the hardest of God's ways than 
 to wander at will in our own. 4. It is 
 good in the enhancement of every bles- 
 sing for which we have to wait. Be- 
 tween your use of the means and the 
 result which you desire there is still a 
 gulf of separation, on the brink of 
 which Patience must sit and look 
 across, Avaiting God's time and way to 
 pass it. — John Ker, D.D. 
 
 Ver. 27. Youth the proper season of 
 discipline. I. In the principles of 
 true religion. II. In the arts of honest 
 industry. — Berriman. 
 
 The best burden for young shoul- 
 ders. The bullocks have to bear the 
 yoke. They go in pairs, and the yoke 
 is borne upon their shoulders. If the 
 bullock is not broken in when young, 
 it will never make a good ploughing 
 ox. So it is good for us when young 
 to learn obedience, to acquire know- 
 ledge, and to encounter difficulties and 
 troubles. I. It is good to he a Christian 
 while you are young. 1. The man whose 
 heart is conquered by Divine grace 
 early is made happy soon. 2. Is saved 
 from a thousand snares. 3. Is saved from 
 having his shoulders galled with the 
 
 devil's yoke. 4. Gives him longer time 
 in which to serve God. 5. Enables 
 him to be well established in Divine 
 things. II. It is good for young Chris- 
 tians that they hear the yoke of Jesus. 
 1. They render to Jesus complete obe- 
 dience from the very first. 2. They 
 attain clear instruction in Divine truth. 
 3. They serve Christ early. 4. It is 
 good to meet with difficulties and per- 
 secution in youth. III. Practically ive 
 are all of us in our youth. 1. Bearing 
 the yoke, the old Adam is kept in 
 check. 2. We are helpful to others 
 who have known affliction. 3. Will 
 make heaven all the sweeter. — Spurgeon. 
 
 Illustrations. — The goodness of 
 God experienced. A German just con- 
 verted was greatly surprised at the 
 goodness of God to him, which he now 
 realised. One day he was overheard in 
 prayer saying, "0 Lord Jesus! I did 
 not know Thou wert so good ! " How 
 general is this ignorance ! 
 
 Patience conquers. Twenty -five 
 years ago the founder of a college fur 
 negroes in America was hunted like a 
 wild beast through the region where 
 his name is now spoken by men of all 
 parties with reverence. Lloyd Garrison 
 was nearly murdered by an infuriated 
 mob for championing the emancipation 
 of the slaves, and years afterwards, in 
 the same city, was made the recipient 
 of its highest honours. Time fights 
 against every tyranny, and in favour 
 of the tyrannised. To endure is to 
 conquer. 
 
 Fellow-suffering silences complaints. 
 During one of the campaigns in the 
 American civil war, when the winter 
 weather was very severe, some of Stone- 
 wall Jackson's men, having crawled 
 out in the morning from their snow- 
 laden blankets, half-frozen, began to 
 abuse him as the cause of their suffer- 
 ings. He lay close by under a tree, 
 himself covered with snow, and heard 
 all this ; but, without noticing it, pre- 
 sently crawled out too, and, shaking 
 off the snow, made some jocular remark 
 to the nearest men, who had no idea 
 he had ridden up in the night and lain 
 down amongst them ! The incident 
 
 89 
 
CHAP. HI. nOMILETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 ran through the army in a few hours, so boldly, insomuch that they -would 
 
 and reconciled his followers to all the sometimes from the walls beseech the 
 
 hardships of the expedition, and fully Achseans to retire for a while and be 
 
 re-established his popularity. quiet spectators of their fight with the 
 
 Skill acquired in youth. Livy says Koman guards, 
 that at the siege of Same one hundred A brave youth. "William Hunter, a 
 
 slingers were brought from .^geum, London apprentice, was in 1555 ordered 
 
 Patroe, and Dymae. These men, accord- by a priest to attend mass. He refused, 
 
 ing to the practice of that nation, were and one day was found reading the 
 
 exercised from their childhood in throw- Bible in Brentwood Church. He fled, 
 
 ing with a sling into the open sea the His father -was seized, and to release 
 
 round pebbles which strew the shore. him the boy returned and surrendered. 
 
 Being accustomed to drive their missiles He was imprisoned for nine months, 
 
 through circular marks of small circum- then ofl'ered a bribe by Bishop Bonner 
 
 ference placed at a great distance, they if he would recant. To all he opposed 
 
 not only hit the enemy's heads, but a courageous resistance, and Avas burned 
 
 any part of their faces they aimed at. at the stake in his native village, re- 
 
 These slings checked the Sameans from taining to the last his religious sturdi- 
 
 sallying out either so frequently or ness and bravery. 
 
 HOMTLETICS. 
 Designation. 
 (Vers. 28-30.) 
 
 I. Should be borne in silence, recognising the hand of God in affliction. 
 " He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because He hath borne it iipon Him " 
 (ver. 28). It is difficult for an active spirit to settle down contentedly and in 
 silence in any kind of circumstances. We cannot rid ourselves of the idea that 
 something is to be done, and we must do it. If our misfortunes come as the 
 result of our own foil}', Ave feel we must do something to repair the damage, little 
 dreaming how utterly useless are all our endeavours. When at length the truth 
 dawns upon us that God is at Avork in connection Avith our sufferings, the seal is 
 at once subdued into silence and patiently waits the issue. Something like this 
 Avas once the experience of the Psalmist (Ps. xxxix. 9). 
 
 II. Should be borne with reverential humility, knowing there is hope of 
 deliverance. "He putteth his mouth in the dust, if so be there may be hope" 
 (ver. 29). The putting the mouth in the dust indicates how completely the soul 
 is prostrated before God in humility and reverential silence. The soul can bear 
 any burden Avhen it knoAvs that the hand of God imposes it, and that He has still 
 hold of it. While we are conscious God is in touch Avith our burden, there is 
 always hope of its removal. It is when God leaves us to our fate that hope 
 dies. Resignation is no evidence of hopelessness, but rather an evidence how 
 firmly our hope is grounded. We could not so completely cease from all personal 
 effort Avere Ave not so fully assured of Divine deliverance. 
 
 III. Should be borne without resentment, not shrinking from the bitterest 
 dregs of the cup. " He giveth his cheek to him that sniiteth him ; he is filled 
 full Avilh reproach" (A'er. 30). We are to be resigned, but not insensible; sub- 
 missive, but not apathetic. We are keenly alive to the rejiroaches heaped upon 
 us by our enemies, Our very resignation is offensive to them, and is made a 
 handle of scorn. It is hard to bear the jeers of others Avithout retaliation. When 
 our sufferings come through our felloAV-nien, it is but human to resent their attacks 
 Avith indignation — to meet scorn Avith scorn. But Avlien Ave are sensible our 
 troubles come from God, we can more readily submit, and we have grace given to 
 
 90 
 
EOMILETIO COMMENTARY : LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 bear, without resentment, all that it may please Him to impose upon us. Behind 
 the divine severity there is unspeakable gentleness. 
 
 Lessons. — 1. The greatest sorrow must he home alone and in silence. 2. Mur- 
 muring and resentment will increase, hut not relieve our sufferings. 3. A sjjirit of 
 humble resignation secures the Divine compassion and help. 
 
 GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES. 
 
 Vers. 28-30. Silent suflFering. I. 
 
 Not the less acute because endured in 
 silence (ver. 28). II. Is bearable when 
 the soul has a glimmering of hope (ver. 
 29), III. Shows that the sufferer has 
 exhausted every possible ground for 
 complaint (ver. 30). 
 
 Ver. 28. Retirement and silence. 
 
 "What then should be a sinner's course ? 
 Silence to all save himself and his God. 
 
 And so also our Lord ' became dumb ; ' 
 He still waited upon his Father ; 
 
 He made as if He had nothing to say. 
 How much more should we be silent in otir 
 guilt ! 
 Thou hast sinned in compan}', 
 Learn to do without company at all. 
 
 Thou hast dealt rudely with thy God, 
 Be content to be rudely dealt with. 
 
 Thou hast forsaken Him, 
 Be content to be forsaken. 
 
 Thou hast sinned in talk, 
 Be content to keep silence. 
 
 Thou hast sinned in selfish ways. 
 Be content, nay be glad, to be overlooked, 
 
 To be disappointed — forgotten. 
 The less thou art able to retire at fixed times, 
 Be the more watchful to do so at occasional 
 times. 
 Thou hast sinned in boasting, 
 Be sometimes silent, even from good words. 
 
 Thou hast sinned by cowardice, 
 Force thj'self to speak — in truthfulness to 
 
 confess. 
 Accept bereavements, separations, estrange- 
 ments, 
 As opportunities of penance assigned by 
 Him. 
 That He may open thy mouth at last. 
 
 To shew forth His praise. 
 And nothing but His praise." 
 
 — Kehle. 
 
 Illustrations. — Resignation to the 
 will of God. A remarkable instance of 
 Christian resignation was discovered on 
 one particular occasion in the conduct 
 of Archbishop Fenelon. When his 
 illustrious and hopeful pupil, the Duke 
 of Burgundy, lay dead in his coihn, and 
 the nobles of his court, in all the pomp 
 of silent sadness, stood around, the 
 
 Archbishop came into the apartment, 
 and having fixed his eyes for some time 
 on the corpse, broke out at length in 
 words to this effect — " There lies my 
 beloved prince, for whom my affections 
 were equal to the tenderest regard of 
 the tenderest parents. Nor were my 
 affections lost ; he loved me in return 
 with all the ardour of a son. There he 
 lies, and all my worldly happiness lies 
 dead with him. But if the turning of 
 a straw would call him back to life, I 
 would not for ten thousand worlds be 
 the turner of that straw in opposition 
 to the will of God." 
 
 Soul-growth aided by silence. Some 
 of the best and most beautiful works 
 are perfected in silence. In the making 
 of plate-glass the process of pouring the 
 melted material is so delicate, requiring 
 such care and steadiness, that the men, 
 impressed with the great danger of 
 carelessness, usually preserve silence 
 during the process. 
 
 Humility a help to knowledge. 
 When the recent military expedition 
 went to Lower Egypt, it was found that 
 only the smallest boats could go great 
 distances up the Nile. There are some 
 truths that are only revealed to those 
 who grow in loneliness and self-for- 
 getfulness — secret teachings which are 
 reserved for those who are intensely 
 childlike in spirit. " Blessed are the 
 poor in spirit." 
 
 Heroic endurance. One of the 
 secrets of Victor Hugo's power over the 
 French people was their memory of the 
 following. When the disasters of the 
 Franco-German war were falling thickly, 
 and the iron band was closing round 
 Paris, word came that Victor Hugo was 
 coming to the city. He came at the 
 very moment that the investment was 
 complete, with the last train, the last 
 breath of free air. On the way he had 
 
 91 
 
HOMILETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 seen the Bavarians, seen villages burned ovation was given him by the people, 
 witli petroleum, and he came to im- and they never forgot his voluntary 
 prison himself iu Paris. A memorable sharing of their sulicrings. 
 
 HOMILETICS. 
 
 The Tenderness of God. 
 
 (Vers. 31-33.) 
 
 I. Seen in the limitation of punishment. "For tlie Lord will not cast off 
 for ever" (ver. 31). God has no delight in inflicting punishment. His righteous- 
 ness imposes on Him the necessity of punishing sin. But punishment has its 
 limits ; and when those limits are exceeded, justice degenerates into cruelty. 
 The tenderness of God is a universal safeguard against unduly prolonged punish- 
 ment (Ps. Ixxvii. 7-9). 
 
 II. Seen in the abundant manifestation of mercy. "But though He cause 
 grief, yet will He have compassion according to the multitude of His mercies " 
 (ver. 32). Even in chastisement mercy triumphs over justice. Mercy provides 
 a means of escape, not from justice, but from the worst consequences of trans- 
 gression. " All the souls that were, were forfeit once ; and He that might the 
 vantage best have took found out the remedy." " God be merciful to me a sinner," 
 is the leading idea of inscriptions on thousands of gravestones in the stately 
 cathedral and the village churchyard, and bear silent testimony to the deepest 
 convictions of mankind. The mercy of God will be conspicuous to the universe, 
 and the theme of endless adoration. 
 
 III. Seen in the reluctance with which He inflicts chastisement. "For 
 He doth not alllict willingly nor grieve the children of men " (ver. 33). God 
 never afflicts willingly — lit, from his heart. The heart of God is love, and love 
 has no pleasure in the sufferings of others, and is not eager to impose suffering. 
 That God afflicts at all, and that He does it with so much reluctance, should 
 intensify the conviction that, not only is chastisement necessary, but that it is 
 evidently intended to lead to a greater good. The prophet dwells on the tender- 
 ness of God to enforce complete resignation to the Divine arrangements. 
 
 Lessons. — 1. God never punishes heyond the absolute necessity of the ca^^e. 
 2. He sympathises tciih the sufferer His justice compels Him to chastise. 3. He 
 is ever slow to urath. 
 
 GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES. 
 
 Yers. 31-3G. Comfort for the sor- ship He sustains to His people. He is 
 
 rowful. I. A cheering assurance given. their father. An earthly parent has to 
 
 1. That God's abandonment of His chastise his offspring, but He does it 
 
 ]ieople is only temporary. " For the with reluctance. 3. Their sufferings 
 
 Lord will not cast off for ever." 2. are attended with many alleviations. 
 
 That the favour with which He will Had He any pleasure in punishing us, 
 
 visit them will be signal and abundant. so much mercy would not be mingled 
 
 " But though He cause grief, yet will with judgment. 4. The object He has 
 
 He have compassion according to the in view in afflicting His children: it 
 
 multitude of His mercies." II. An is for their profit, that they may be 
 
 important reason adduced. "For He partakers of His holiness. 5. His 
 
 doth not afflict Avillingly." This may readiness to remove His chastening 
 
 be inferred: 1. From His character. He hand when the visitation has answered 
 
 is a God of love. 2. From the relation- the end intended. III. A gracious 
 92 
 
IIOMILETIC COMMENTARY : LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 limitation subjoined. Wlienever God 
 afflicts, it is : 1. Within the bounds of 
 moderation. To "crush" expresses 
 what is extreme and destructive (Isa. 
 xxvii. 8; Jer. x. 24, xlvi. 28). 2. Never 
 in violation of the principles of equity. 
 "To subvert a man in his cause the 
 Lord approveth not." He is the 
 righteous Lord, who loveth righteous- 
 ness, and all He doeth is in accordance 
 therewith. — Expository Outlines. 
 
 Vers. 31-33. Aflaictions not acci- 
 dental. This apparent contradiction 
 between the Divine compassion and 
 our human griefs, between what we 
 desire and need and what we feel to be 
 real, is to-day what it has been from 
 the beginning, the standing problem, 
 the bitter tragedy of human life. It 
 has but one solution. There is a mis- 
 chief in man's nature producing discord 
 in his condition, begetting the necessity 
 and the mercy of a Divine chastening; 
 and this, both in the end it contem- 
 plates and in the methods it employs, 
 is a providence of compassion. I. The 
 fact that griff is the heritage of man. 
 Life is still the natural history of sor- 
 row — man's life the bitterest of all. 
 There are troubles that belong to the 
 lot of individual man, and in this form 
 they are the impartial inheritance of 
 the race. There are troubles which 
 afflict the community, which fall upon 
 the mass in its aggregation of families, 
 neighbourhoods, communities, and na- 
 tions. The great and good, the beau- 
 tiful and the wise, the aged and the 
 young, all races and all conditions of 
 men, have gone down under this terrible 
 Euroclydon of grief. Tliese facts are a 
 difficulty to the Christian philosopher, 
 but they are equally so to the sceptic. 
 II. Divine compassion in its relation to 
 suffering. 1. All human suffering comes 
 within the foreknowledge and is under 
 the control of God. 2. Many of our 
 troubles, probably most of them, have 
 their causes in ourselves. 3. There are 
 troubles and afflictions, and these not 
 few, which we must consider only as 
 the punishment of sin. Strife is 
 the essence of sin. It is self-will 
 pitted in avowed antagonism to God. 
 God will not vacate His sovereignty 
 
 because man rebels. He cannot be de- 
 feated or bribed, or bought off from His 
 purpose, even by prayer. The bitter, 
 bitter cup must be drunk ; the chas- 
 tisement must come. But with all this, 
 there comes also the presence of an 
 infinite compassion. He succours His 
 children while the law oppresses them. 
 He delivers them speedily when its 
 mission is accomplished. — J. Burton. 
 
 Vers. 32, 33. God the consolation 
 of the afflicted. I. A revealed fact. 
 " God doth not willingly afflict the 
 children of men." This fact rests upon 
 another fact — the teaching of Scripture 
 regarding the providence of God. A 
 particular and special providence is the 
 sole ground of prayer ; prayer being the 
 basis of all true religion. When the 
 mind dwells upon the special providence 
 of God, it learns the more difficult task 
 of submitting to all afflictive dispensa- 
 tions with thanksgiving. II. The 2ias- 
 sage ap)pears to stand ojiposed to the 
 omnipotence of God. God is Almighty, 
 but He has willed to set limits to the 
 exercise of His omnipotence. He abides 
 by the laws He has himself enacted. 
 The law connects life and happiness 
 with obedience. But the law would 
 cease to exist if life and happiness were 
 dispensed also to the disobedient. The 
 law was magnified when God Himself, 
 in the person of His Son, yielded 
 obedience to it. God will not by His 
 omnipotence overrule or supercede the 
 freedom of the human will. If we be 
 not true to ourselves. He will at length, 
 after trial, leave us to our own devices. 
 It is an awful thought that a man may 
 outlive the day of grace. He may re- 
 main a thing upon earth to subserve 
 some purpose in the providence of God, 
 but as a person his trial may have ceased. 
 If one of the purposes of affliction is to 
 correct and amend us, one of the means 
 of avoiding affliction must be to en- 
 deavour to shape our lives according to 
 the law of God. When afflictions do 
 come, it is an ineffable consolation to 
 be assured all things are ordered by 
 God for our good. III. The histories 
 of good men illustrate the truth of the 
 text. We learn why afflictions were 
 imposed upon them. Study the lives 
 
 -93 
 
IIOMILETIC COMMENTARY : LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 of Jacob, Joseph, David, Job, and Psalms he could never understand till 
 
 Christ.— TF. F. Hook, D.D. he had been afflicted. Rutherford 
 
 declared he had got a new Bible through 
 
 Illustrations. — Chastisement a the furnace. Hard weather tries what 
 
 proof of God's tenderness. It is true health we have ; afflictions try what 
 
 to be struck once in anger is fearful. sap we have, what grace we have. 
 
 God's displeasure is more than His Withered leaves soon fall off in windy 
 
 blow. Fear not ; these stripes are the weather ; rotten boughs quickly break 
 
 tokens of His love. He is no son that with heavy weights, 
 
 is not beaten, yea, till he smart and cry, Auctions overruled. Artists and 
 
 if not till he bleed. No parent corrects composers have often been helped in 
 
 another's child ; and he is no good their studies by their physical infir- 
 
 parent that corrects not his own. rod mities. Bach's blindness, Beethoven's 
 
 worthy to be kissed, that assures us of deafness, making society and social 
 
 His love, of our adoption ! — Bp. Hall. distractions almost impossible, drove 
 
 "Heaven is not always angry when He t^em in upon their own genius, and 
 
 strikes, compelled them to listen to the voice 
 
 But most chastises those whom most He of God within them. Some beauties 
 
 1 es. omjre . ^£ character and achievement can only 
 
 AflBiction God's messenger. Luther be secured by retirement and solitude, 
 
 used to say there were many of the and affliction often compels to this. 
 
 HOMILETICS. 
 
 God and Human Wkong. 
 
 (Vers. 3i-36.) 
 
 I. God approves not wanton cruelty towards prisoners of war. " To crush 
 under His feet all the prisoners of the earth" (ver. 34). Jeremiah was probably 
 a daily witness of cruelties suffered by the captives. One of the greatest horrors 
 of ancient warfare was the inhuman treatment of prisoners. Any exception to 
 this, history does not fail to record as a remarkable example of clemency and 
 forbearance. Few men can be trusted with unrestricted power. Where there is 
 no fear of immediate consequences to himself, man rapidly develops into a 
 monster of cruelty. The helplessness of captives appeals to the pity of the 
 tyrant. Every act of inhumanity God not only disapproves, but will certainly 
 punish. 
 
 II. God approves not the base attempt to procure an unjust sentence 
 before any legal tribunal. "To turn aside the right of a man before the face of 
 the IMost High " (ver. 35), of a superior, or before a legal tribunal acting in the 
 name of God (Exod. xxi. 6 ; xxii. 8, 9). An oppressor who would hesitate to 
 commit an act of cruelty in public does not scruple to stoop to the basest arts in 
 secret to pervert the course of justice. Happy is the nation where the judgment- 
 seat is beyond the reach of corruption. 
 
 III. God approves not the perversion of justice in any case, or in any 
 degree. " To subvert a man in his cause, the Lord approveth not " (ver. 3G). 
 No act of wrong, whether open or secret, can escape the All-seeing Jehovah, nor 
 can it escape punishment. Tyranny is not supreme, and its reign is always short- 
 lived. God is the implacable foe of all injustice; and the oppressed everywhere 
 are sure to be relieved and vindicated. 
 
 Lessons. — 1. Man's inhuiaanity to man malies countless thousands mourn. 
 2. God is not an indifferent spectator of the icrong inflicted by one man upon 
 anotlier. 3. God ivill cei'taiidy interfere to redress all human xvrongs. 
 
nOMILETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES. 
 
 Vers. 34-36. The Divine character. 
 1. Gives dignity and significance to 
 every legal tribunal. 2. Is a perpetual 
 protest against every act of cruelty and 
 injustice. 3. Is a guarantee that justice 
 will be ultimately triumphant. 
 
 Illustrations. — The beginning of 
 wrong. -An old writer says, "A man 
 who goes to law finds the court full of 
 invisible hooks. First his cloak, tlien 
 the skirts of his coat, then his sleeves, 
 till everything is torn from him, and, 
 like a gypsy, he escapes because there 
 is no further hold upon him." The 
 youth who crosses the threshold of the 
 court of vice will find those invisible 
 hooks sharper and in greater abundance 
 than in courts of law. Once caught, 
 he Avill be hooked in every direction. 
 One tempter will succeed another, each 
 handing him over to the next. Thus 
 snared and dragged from vice to vice, 
 imtil denuded of every virtue, he will 
 at last, in all probability, perish in un- 
 utterable woe. — Dr. Wise. 
 
 Justice expedited. Juvenalis, a 
 widow, complained to Theodoric, king 
 of the Romans, that a suit of hers had 
 been in court three years. The king 
 being informed who were her judges, 
 gave orders that they should give all 
 expedition to the poor woman's cause, 
 and in two days it was decided to her 
 satisfaction. Theodoric then sum- 
 moned the judges before him, and in- 
 quired how it was that they had done 
 
 in two days what they had delayed for 
 three years. *' When I put you iu 
 office," said the king, " did I not con- 
 sign all pleas and proceedings to you ? 
 You deserve death for having delayed 
 that justice for three years which two 
 days could accomplish." He commanded 
 them to be beheaded. 
 
 Injustice and anger. There is air 
 anger that is damnable : it is the anger 
 of selfishness. There is an anger that 
 is majestic as the frown of Jehovah's 
 brow : it is the anger of truth and love. 
 If man meets with injustice, it is not 
 required that he shall not be roused to 
 meet it ; but if he is angry after he has 
 had time to think upon it, that is sin- 
 ful. The flame is not wrong, but the 
 coals are. — Beech er. 
 
 Suffering preferred to injustice. 
 While Athens was ruled by the thirty 
 tyrants, Socrates was summoned to the 
 senate-house and ordered to go with 
 some other persons to seize one Leon, 
 a man of rank and fortune, whom they 
 determined to put out of the way that 
 they might enjoy his estate. The com- 
 mission Socrates flatly refused, and, not 
 satisfied therewith, added also his 
 reasons for such refusal. " I will never 
 willingly," said he, " assist iu an un- 
 just act." Cherides sharply replied, 
 "Dost thou think, Socrates, to talk 
 always in this style and not to suffer?" 
 " Far from it," added he, " I expect to 
 suffer a thousand ills, but none eo great 
 as to do unjustly." 
 
 EOMILETICS. 
 
 Tee Divine Eule Absolute and Universal. 
 
 (Vers. 37-39.) 
 
 I. That nothing happens without the Divine knowledge and sanction. 
 
 " Who is he that saitli and it cometh to pass when the Lord commandeth it not ? " 
 (ver. 37). The curse causeless does not come. Somehow, somewhere, and for 
 some purpose, there is running all through the seething mass of what appears to 
 us little else than a complex of sorrowful accidents, the activity of a prescient 
 foreknowledge, a permissive providence, a governing will. " We see only results. 
 To God, the beginning, with its antecedents all hidden and remote, is a presence. 
 The wildest freaks of chance, as they seem, the most exorbitant anomalies in 
 
 95 
 
riTAP. iTi. nomiETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 nature, the sliglitest incidents in the constitution of mind or matter, storm, 
 earthquake and fires, the shoot of an avalanche, the dropping of a leaf, the 
 wanderings of a comet, the birth, life, histor}^ and death of a man, all come 
 •within the foreknowledge and are beneath the sovereign sweep of the purposes 
 of God." 
 
 II. That the mingling of adversity and prosperity is in harmony with the 
 administration of infinite wisdom. "Out of the mouth of the Most High 
 proceedeth not evil and good ? " (ver. 38). If the life of man was an uninter- 
 rupted series of calamities, we might gravely question the wisdom and goodness 
 of the Great Ruler ; but the evil and the good are so nicely balanced one over 
 against the other, that when God has finished His work there shall be no just 
 ground for complaint (Eccles. vii. 14). The old divines used to say, "God is too 
 wise to err, too good to be unkind." 
 
 III. That, while life is continued, man should not murmur over his 
 punishment, but repent of the sins which made that punishment necessary. 
 "Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sinsi" 
 (ver. 39). The word livmg is emphatic, and implies that while God spares man's 
 life he has no room to murmur. Life is a boon that transcends in significance 
 any amount of temporary suffering. Life is a grand opportunity for repentance, 
 reform, and the accomplishment of noblest purposes. Every moment in life 
 spent in comjilaining is worse than wasted. When we understand how com- 
 pletely the Divine mind is governing everything, we begin to grasp the true 
 significance of life. 
 
 Lessons. — 1. The government of the world is in the hands of a wise and 
 loving God. 2. Affliction when used aright may he an uns^eakahle blessing. 3. 
 Life is a gift fraught with great moral issues. 
 
 GERM NOTES ON THE VEESES. 
 
 Yer. 39. Complaint under affliction. Illustrations. — Spiritual insight 
 
 1. Some complaints allowable. 1. It is into the Divine rule. Tiiere seems to 
 lawful to express what we feel and be in religious men a prophetic faculty 
 suffer in those ways Nature prompts us. of insight into the true bearings of 
 
 2. May complain to friends, relations, outward things — an insight which puts 
 and acquaintances. 3. To God as well to shame the sagacity of statesmen, and 
 as to men. II. Comjilaints 2'^'>'ompted claims for the sons of God, and only 
 by impatience tcith God's dealings con- for them, the wisdom even of the 
 demned. 1. It is long before God takes world. Those only read the world's 
 the rod in hand to correct. 2. He is future truly who have faith in principle 
 soon prevailed with to lay it aside. 3. as opposed to faith in human dexterity; 
 He lays no more on us than our sins Avho feel that in human things there 
 deserve. 4. We enjoy many mercies lies truly and really a spiritual nature, a 
 in the meantime by which the bitter- spiritual connection, a spiritual tendency, 
 ness of affliction is allayed. 5. God Avhich the wisdom of the serpent cannot 
 has a sovereignty of power and do- alter and scarcely can affect. — Fronde. 
 minion to deal with us as He pleasetli. Submission to God's, will. Stone- 
 III. Complaints may be silenced: 1. wall Jackson was once asked, " Sup- 
 13y keeping alive in your heart a sense pose, in addition to blindness, you were 
 of God s love in every dispensation. condemned to be bedridden and racked 
 2. By labouring to have a fresh re- with pain for life ; you would hardly 
 membrance of your sins. 3. By con- call yourself happy then 1 " He paused, 
 sidering the extreme danger of quar- and said with great deliberateness, 
 rolling with and opposing God. — "Yes, I think I could. My faith in 
 ■Conant. the Almighty wisdom is absolute, and 
 
 96 
 
nOMILETW COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 Avliy should this accident change it ? " A life well lived. Tyndale's work 
 Touching him upon a tender point — was done. He lived to see the Bible 
 his impatience of anything bordering no longer carried by stealth into his 
 on dependence — the test was pushed country, where the possession of it was 
 further. "If, in addition to blindness a crime, but borne in by the solemn 
 and incurable infirmity and pain, you will of the king — solemnly recognised 
 had to receive grudging charity from as the Word of the Most High God. 
 those on whom you had no claim, what And then his occupation in this earth 
 then ? " There was a strange reverence was gone. His eyes saw the salvation 
 in his lifted eye, and an exalted ex- for which he had longed, and he might 
 pression over his whole face, as he depart to his place. He was denounced 
 replied with slow deliberateness, " If to the Kegent of Flanders ; he was en- 
 it was God's will, I tliink I could lie ticed by the suborned treachery of a 
 there content a hundred years ! " miserable English fanatic beyond the 
 Evil overruled. Henry the Eighth's town under whose liberties he had been 
 divorce of Queen Catherine, and the secured; and, with the reward which 
 refusal of the Pope to sanction it, led has been held fitting by human justice 
 indirectly to the English Eeformation for the earth's great ones, he passed 
 and to the flinging off of the Papal away in smoke and flame to his rest, 
 temporal ecclesiastical power. — Froude. 
 
 EOMILETICS. 
 
 Eepentance. 
 
 (Vers. 40-42.) 
 
 L Begins in strict self-examination. "Let us search and try our ways" 
 (ver. 40). The discovery of ourselves is the discovery of sin. We never know 
 how sinful we are till we thoroughly investigate our own hearts. The more we 
 search, the more we see, and the conviction of our sin becomes an intolerable 
 reality. 
 
 II. Involves a turning to God. "And turn again to the Lord" (ver. 40). 
 The preposition is forcible, implying "Let us go back; not half way, but the 
 whole." A repentance that spends itself in emotions and tears is ineffective. 
 Sorrow for sin is but a symptom of repentance. Genuine repentance prompts to 
 immediate and active moral reformation. Sin drives us from God : repentance 
 brings us back to Him. 
 
 III. Is accompanied with earnest prayer. "Let us lift up our heart with 
 our hands unto God in the heavens" (ver. 41). In real prayer the outward form 
 is the expression of the feeling of the heart. The heart lifts up the hands, and 
 then with them rises in prayer to God. Deep emotion will find its own way of 
 expression. Eepentance reveals the need of help and forgiveness, and prayer is 
 the expression of that need. 
 
 IV. Includes confession of sin. "We have transgressed and have rebelled" 
 (ver. 42). The spell of hardness with which the soul was bound is broken when 
 it is brought to the point of full and free confession of sin. There is often much 
 humbling to be done before this point is reached. Confession of sin is an 
 important proof of the genuineness of repentance, especially when attended with 
 the other signs referred to. 
 
 V. Must be genuine and complete to secure forgiveness. "Thou hast not 
 pardoned " (ver, 42). Why ? Not because God is not merciful ; not because He 
 is unwilling to forgive ; not because the opportunity is inappropriate : but because 
 there is a lack of reality and sincerity in the penitent. The prescription of 
 repentance is a revelation of forgiveness. God does not mock the sinner -by 
 
 97 G 
 
IIOMILETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 urging to repentance and then withholding forgiveness. If there is no eagerness 
 for forgiveness, it is because there is something radically defective in the 
 repentance. 
 
 Lessons. — 1, Suffering sliould lead io reflection. 2. No amount of repentance 
 can merit forgiveness. 3. God pardons onhj the penitent, not because of their 
 penitence, hut for His mercy's sake. 
 
 GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES. 
 
 Ver. 40. The duty of self-reflec- 
 tion. I. Its usefulness. 1. Teaches 
 us to know ourselves. 2. We discover 
 our sins. 3. Provides good company 
 and comfortable employment. IL Its 
 neglect mischievous. 1. Hardens the 
 heart. 2. A daily increase of sin. 3. 
 Renders a man the more unwilling to 
 reckon with himself. Ill, Demands 
 diligence. 1. There is a natural reluc- 
 tance to attend to the duty. 2. Many 
 sins not easily discovered, unless dili- 
 gent search is made. 3. A convenient 
 time should be set apart for the work. 
 
 4. Affliction a time for heart-searching. 
 
 5. Let not the difficulty of the work 
 discourage you. 6. A work that must 
 be often repeated. IV. Leads to re- 
 pentance. " Turn again to the Lord." 
 Sin is an aversion and turning away 
 from God ; repentance is a returning to 
 Him. 1. Repentance must be speedy. 
 2. Thorough. 3. Resolute and stead- 
 fast. — Conant. 
 
 Ver. 4L The sublimity of devotion. 
 The finest and most sublime sensations 
 of which the soul is susceptible are con- 
 nected with the principle of devotion. 
 I. The suhlimest hooJis existing are those 
 from lohich we learn our faith. The 
 writings of the inspired penmen abound 
 with passages for which no parallel 
 can be found in the productions of 
 mere genius. Rousseau once exclaimed, 
 " The majesty of the Scriptures fills 
 me with astonishment ; the holiness of 
 the Gospel speaks to my very heart. 
 Behold the books of the philosophers, 
 with all their pomp, how little are they 
 in comparison ! Is it possible that a 
 book at once so wise and so sublime 
 should have been the production of 
 mere men ? " IL Some of the situations 
 of real life 2Jf'ove the intimate connection 
 hetiveen devotion and the sources of sub- 
 lime feeling. 1. In studying the char- 
 98 
 
 acter of God and the works of K"ature. 
 2. In the changing circumstances of 
 life, in adversity or prosperity, the pro- 
 per operation of religious thought is to 
 call up sublime and fervent feelings. 
 III. Consider the subject of a/loratiun — 
 God, 'whether ivorshipped in private or 
 in public. If it be objected that in 
 such an account of the effects of devout 
 feeling, we place religion too much 
 under the dominion of the imagination, 
 it may be answered that though the 
 abuse of a thing is dangerous, we are 
 not therefore to relinquish its use. It 
 is the soul that truly feels ; imagination 
 is the effort of the soul to rise above 
 mortality. Imagination as well as 
 reason is frequently appealed to in 
 Scripture. — Nares. 
 
 Illustrations. 
 confession. 
 
 Repentance and 
 
 Father, I scarcely dare to pray, 
 
 So clear I see, now it is doue, 
 Tnat I have wasted half my day, 
 
 And left my work but just begun : 
 
 So clear I see that things I thought 
 Were right or harmless were a siu ; 
 
 So clear I see that I have sought, 
 Unconscious, selfish aims to win : 
 
 So clear I see that I have hurt 
 
 The souls I might have helped to save ; 
 
 That I have slothful been, inert. 
 Deaf to the calls Thy leaders gave. 
 
 In outskirts of Thy kingdom vast, 
 Father, the humblest spot give me 
 
 Set me the lowliest task Thou ha^^t. 
 Let me, repentant, work for Thee. 
 
 Repentance and forgiveness. No 
 repentance is acceptable with God, but 
 what is built or leans on the faith of 
 forgiveness. "We have a cloud of wit- 
 nesses to this truth in the ScrijDture. 
 Many there have been, many are re- 
 corded, who have been convinced of 
 sin, perplexed about it, sorry for it. 
 
EOMILETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 who have made open confession and 
 acknowledgment of it, who, under the 
 present sense of it, have cried out even 
 to God for deliverance, and have yet 
 come short of mercy, pardon, and ac- 
 ceptance with God. The cases of Cain, 
 Pharaoh, Saul, Ahab, Judas, and others 
 might be insisted upon. — John Owen. 
 
 Deathbed repentance. The English 
 proverb says, " The river past and God 
 forgotten," to express with how mourn- 
 ful a frequency He whose assistance 
 was invoked — it may have been ear- 
 nestly — in the moment of peril, is re- 
 membered no more, so soon as by His 
 help the danger has been surmounted. 
 And the Italian form of it sounds a 
 still greater depth of ingratitude : " The 
 peril past, the saint mocked " — the 
 vows made to him in peril remaining 
 unperformed in safety. — Trench. 
 
 — There is one case of death-bed 
 repentance recorded, that no one should 
 despair, and only one, that none should 
 presume. — Augustine. 
 
 Repentance must be sincere. Lor- 
 enzo de' Medici lies dying in the city 
 of Florence ; in the terrors of death he 
 has sent for the one man who had 
 
 never yielded to his threats or caresses 
 — the brave Savonarola. Lorenzo con- 
 fesses that he has heavy on his soul 
 three crimes — the cruel sack of Volterra, 
 the theft of the public dower of young 
 girls, by which many were driven to a 
 wicked life, and the blood shed after 
 the conspiracy of Pazzi. He is greatly 
 agitated, and Savonarola, to keep him 
 quiet, keeps repeating, " God is merci- 
 ful," « God is good." " But," he added, 
 " there is need of three things." " And 
 what are they, father?" "First, you 
 must have a great and living faith in 
 the mercy of God." "This I have, the 
 greatest." " Second, you must restore 
 that which you have wrongfully taken, 
 or require your children to restore it for 
 you." Lorenzo looks surprised and 
 troubled ; but he forces himself to com- 
 pliance, and nods his head in sign of 
 assent. Then Savonarola rises to his feet, 
 and stands over the dying prince. "Last, 
 you must give back their liberties to 
 the people of Florence." Lorenzo, sum- 
 moning up all his remaining strength, 
 disdainfully turns his back, and, with- 
 out uttering another word, Savonarola 
 departs without giving him absolution. 
 
 HOMILETICS. 
 
 The Tension of Prolonged Suffering. 
 
 (Yerses 43-47.) 
 
 I. Fosters exaggerated views of God's unpitying anger. "Thou hast 
 covered with anger and persecuted us ; Thou hast slain, Thou hast not pitied " 
 (ver. 43). The people had acknowledged their sin and repented; but no relief 
 came. Not only Avere they not pardoned, but it seemed as if the Divine wrath 
 was more relentless than ever. The Chaldeans are still wrecking the holy city, 
 and the citizens are being ignominiously dragged into captivity. The cloud of 
 the Divine anger, instead of vanishing, thickens into darker threatenings of ven- 
 geance. This is one of the unvarying phases of continued suffering — every afflic- 
 tion is magnified into disproportionate dimensions. 
 
 II. Induces the hasty conclusion that prayer is useless. "Thou hast 
 covered Thyself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass through " (ver. 44). 
 A deity so densely veiled is unapproachable. The veil is a cloud of wrath, and 
 the suffering suppliant is stricken with terror and dismay. Prayer can never 
 pierce so dense a cloud, and it is useless to try. The tension of prolonged suffer- 
 ing is apt to shake one's confidence in the utility of prayer, and suggest the doubt 
 whether God is after all a prayer-hearing God. It is a great calamity when the 
 soul restrains prayer. 
 
 III. Creates the impression that the sufferer is utterly despised and 
 scorned, " Thou hast made us as the off-scouring and refuse in the midst of the 
 
 99 
 
CHAP III. 
 
 HOMILETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 people. All our enemies have opened tlieir mouths against us " (vers. 45, 4G). 
 There is nothing so depressing as suffering, and the suflferer is often the prey of 
 self-depreciation and false imaginings, haunted with the idea that he is the sport 
 and laughing-stock of others. It is the effect of sin to lower us in our own 
 estimation, and it is a part of its punishment that we sink in the estimation of 
 others. 
 
 IV. Intensifies the feeling of hopeless ruin. " Fear and a snare is come upon 
 us, desolation and destruction " (ver. 47). The light of hope, that flickered for a 
 moment (ver. 21), is extinguished, and the sufferer relapses into dull, dead hope- 
 lessness (ver. 11). The enemy has completely hemmed in the city with his forces ; 
 his grip tightens, strategy and bravery succeed, the city falls, and is abandoned 
 to riot and destruction. The protection of Jehovah is withdrawn, and, what is 
 the most disheartening revelation of all, He now appears as an angry foe. Hope 
 perishes when we discover that God is against us. 
 
 Lessons. — 1. Excessive suffering is apt to impair the moral vision. 2. It is a 
 calaynity to lose faith in prayer ichen we most need its solace. 3. TJie outlook is 
 not always so desperate as it apjpears to the despondent sufferer. 
 
 GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES. 
 
 Vers. 43-47. The pitilessness of the 
 Divine anger : I. As it appears to the 
 abject sufferer (ver. 47). II. Seen in 
 its relentless persecution (ver. 43). III. 
 In its apparent indifference to human 
 entreaty (ver. 44). IV. In abandoning 
 its victims to the contempt and derision 
 of others (vers. 45, 46). 
 
 Illustrations. — Anger restrained 
 more terrible. "Writing upon the 
 symbolical carvings of the ducal palace 
 at Venice, Mr. Euskin remarks that 
 there is a figure of Anger represented 
 by a woman tearing open her dress at 
 her breast. Giotto represents this vice 
 under the same symbol, but it is the 
 weakest of all the figures in the Arena 
 Chapel. The Wrath of Spencer rides 
 upon a lion, brandishing a firebrand, his 
 garments stained with blood. Rage, or 
 Furor, occurs subordinately in other 
 places. It occurs to me very strange 
 that neither Giotto nor Spencer should 
 have given any representation of the 
 restrained anger which is infinitely the 
 most terrible ; both of them make him 
 violent. God's forbearance of sin is 
 restrained anger — not therefore less, 
 but more terrible. The future retribu- 
 tion is not less, but more awful, since 
 it is the wrath of the Lamb. Anger 
 now restrained will be direr when once 
 revealed. Long-suffering is a sign of 
 suppressed indignation. 
 100 
 
 Perverted views of suffering. That 
 extraordinary sufferings indicated extra- 
 ordinary sins was contradicted by the 
 Book of Job. So also consistent Phari- 
 saism saw in the lowliness of Jesus His 
 unworthiness, in His defencelessness 
 His guilt, and after having crucified 
 Him, in His cross His curse ; whilst 
 Jesus recognises therein His own glori- 
 fication and the salvation of the world. 
 The clouds that are the precursors of a 
 storm do not appear so black to us 
 when they hang immediately over our 
 heads as when we see them rising up 
 at the edge of the horizon. It is easier 
 to know the worst than to dread the 
 worst. All misfortunes appear more 
 formidable at a distance than when we 
 actually come to grapple with them. 
 
 Unjustifiable depression. In a fit 
 of dejection Dean Hook once wrote — 
 " My life has been a failure. I have 
 done many things tolerably, but no- 
 thing well. As a parish priest, as a 
 preacher, and now as a writer, I am 
 quite aware that I have failed, and the 
 more so because my friends contradict 
 the assertion." 
 
 God does hear prayer. There is no 
 such thing in the long history of God's 
 kingdom as an unanswered prayer. 
 Every true desire from a child's heart 
 finds some true answer in the heart of 
 God. !Most certain it is that the prayer 
 of the Church of God since creation has 
 
HOMILETIO COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 not been the cry of orphans in an empty He spoken in ignorance of God or of 
 
 liome without a Father to hear or an- His brethren when He says, " Ask and 
 
 swer. Jesus Christ did not pray in receive, that your joy may be full." — 
 
 vain or to an unknown God, nor has Norman Macleod. 
 
 nOMILETICS, 
 
 A Sympathetic Nature. 
 
 (Verses 48-51.) 
 
 I. Is pained by the evidences of national distress everywhere visible. 
 
 " Mine eye aflfecteth mine heart because of all the daughters of my city " (ver. 
 51). What I see I feel I see nothing but misery, and I feel nothing but pain. 
 Amid the general suffering, the tender heart of the prophet mourned over the cruel 
 fate of the Jewish maidens. This is a subject to which he often refers (ch. i. 4, 
 18; ii. 10, 21; v. 11). "Jeremiah suffered not in his own person, being under 
 the protection of the Divine Being ; but though he dwelt securely from the hand 
 of mortality, yet he was filled with the bowels of sympathy. Though he wrote 
 of the Jews' desolations, yet he named them Jeremiah's Lamentations." 
 
 II. Is aggravated in its grief because God, who sees the calamity, does not 
 at once remove it. " Till the Lord look down and behold from heaven " (ver. 
 50). Millie the Lord looks down. He sees all this suffering ; every feature of 
 it is fully known to Him. Why does He not interfere ? How can He be so in- 
 different to the agonies of His people ? The prophet's heart is breaking, and it is 
 a mystery and an addition to his pain that Jehovah does not haste to the rescue. 
 Sympathy is not always wise. Our emotions are apt to swamp our judgment. 
 God knows infallibly how much suffering is necessary, and when the right moment 
 is come for Him to interpose. 
 
 III. Expresses its sorrow in a copious outflow of tears. " Mine eye runneth 
 down with rivers of water, without any intermission " (vers. 48, 49). The measure 
 of our being is our capacity for sorrow or joy. A certain traveller states that the 
 shadow cast by Mount Hermon at some periods is as much as seventy miles long. 
 A sensitive nature is susceptible of great sorrow, and has manifold ways of express- 
 ing the same. While the cause of sorrow remains, the sympathetic heart will 
 mourn. 
 
 Lessons. — 1. Callous indeed is the heart that ca7i witness suffering ivithout 
 emotion. 2. Tlie heart that loves intensely suffers intensely. 3. A sym;pathetic 
 nature finds a merciful relief in tears. 
 
 GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES. 
 
 Ver. 51. Sin the cause of suffering : Gifts from the hand are silver and gold ; 
 
 I. To the patriot, as he sees its effect but the heart gives that which neither 
 
 upon the nation. II. To the philan- silver nor gold can buy. To be full of 
 
 thropist, as he observes the mischief goodness, full of cheerfulness, full of 
 
 it works in the world. III. To the in- sympathy, full of helpful hope, causes a 
 
 dividual believer, as he is conscious of man to carry blessings of which he is 
 
 its presence in his own heart. himself as unconscious as a lamp of its 
 
 own shining. Such an one moves on 
 
 Illustrations. — The power of sym- human life as stars move on dark seas 
 
 pathy. Happy is the man who has to bewildered mariners ; as the sun 
 
 that in his soul which acts upon the wheels, bringing all the seasons with 
 
 dejected as April airs upon violet roots. him from the soutL — Beecher. 
 
 101 
 
CHAP. III. EOMILETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 Grief leaves its mark. Sir Walter " Had I been there with my brave 
 
 Scott says of himself after a sore be- Franks, I would have avenged His 
 
 reavement, "I was broken-hearted for wrongs." 
 
 two years ; and though handsomely The relief of tears. A maniac while 
 
 pieced again, the crack will remain to listening to a thrilling recital was moved 
 
 my dying day." to tears. Lifting her withered finger 
 
 Practical sympathy. When St. she exclaimed, " Do you see that tear 1 
 
 Remy was preaching before King Clovis It is the first tear that I have shed 
 
 of France, telling with passionate pathos for seven years, and it will relieve 
 
 the story of Christ's suffering and death, my poor burning head. I have often 
 
 the monarch suddenly sprang from his wished that I could weep, but I could 
 
 throne, and, grasping his spear, cried, not." 
 
 HOMILETICS. 
 
 A Faithful Pkophet in Trouble. 
 
 (Verses 52-58.) 
 
 I. Cruelly treated by his enemies. " Mine enemies chased me sore like a 
 bird, without cause : I am cut off" (vers. 52-54). In these verses, and to the 
 end of the chapter, Jeremiah deals with his own personal afflictions. Without 
 the least provocation, he was treated with the most malignant enmity. He was 
 harassed, as a bird is tired out, and at length run down by continuous pursuit. 
 He is overwhelmed with trouble, and is as one imprisoned in a dungeon, shut off 
 from the current of active life. He acknowledged the righteousness of the Divine 
 dealings, but he was keenly alive to the unrighteousness and undeserved cruelty 
 of his persecutors. Had he been the aggressor, he might have expected retalia- 
 tion, but he was oppressed without cause. His enemies were actuated by sheer 
 hatred. His only fault was his faithfulness to God and to his own conscience. 
 Simple goodness often rouses the wanton animosity of the wicked. 
 
 II. Seeks refuge in prayer. "I called upon Thy name, Lord; hide not 
 Thine ear at my cry" (vers. 55, 56). It is a relief to turn from the cruelty of 
 man to the compassion and power of God. The soul is never so helpless but that 
 it can pray. When we can do nothing else, we can pray. Prayer is the language 
 of need, and we are comforted with the assurance that God will hear, and not only 
 hear but help. It seemed at one time that prayer was useless (ver. 44) ; but better 
 thoughts prevailed, and the soul discovered that the cry for help was not in vain. 
 " Prayer is the breath of the new man, sucking in the air of mercy in petitions 
 and returning it in praises ; it is both the evidence and the maintenance of the 
 spiritual life." 
 
 III. Rescued by Divine aid. " Thou drewest near in the day that I called 
 upon Thee ; Thou saidst, Fear not. Lord, Thou hast pleaded the causes of my 
 soul ; Thou has redeemed my life " (vers. 57, 58). When we draw near to God 
 in prayer, He draws near to us. Our troubles are overwhelming when God is 
 absent and we are left to ourselves. With His manifested presence our troubles 
 vanish, and we are inspired with strength to endure and to triumph. 
 
 Lessons. — 1. Fidelity makes many enemies. 2. The nation that ill-uses its 
 best men courts its own ruin. 3. The Lord is ever on the side of the faithful. 
 
 GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES. 
 
 Vers. 54-57. The eflELcacy of prayer, spondency. II. The remedy open to 
 
 I. These words show to what a state them. Prayer expressed in cries, 
 
 God's most favoured servants may be groans, breathings, sighs. III. The 
 
 reduced — extreme suffering, tears, de- efficacy of that remedy whenever it is 
 
 102 
 
nOMILETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 CHAP. IIT. 
 
 applied. '• Thou drewest near in the 
 day that I called upon Thee ; Thou 
 saidst, Fear not." In these words we 
 hear the consolatory voice of God. 
 Marvellous condescension ; certainty of 
 help and deliverance. — Simeon. 
 
 Ver. 57. A wonder explained 1)7 
 greater wonders. I. An explanation 
 of this wonder. God doth draw near 
 to men. 1. Men have ever been in the 
 thoughts of God. 2. God came tenderly 
 near in nature. 3. The Lord Jesus was 
 specially near in the days of His life on 
 earth. 4. He came still nearer to us 
 in His death. 5. In heaven He is per- 
 petually near us. 6. Jesus may well 
 come near to His people, for there is a 
 mystical union which ensures it. II. 
 Consider the tconder itself. I. By no 
 means is this wonder at all contrary to 
 expectation. 2. God draws near by 
 strengthening us to bear up under pres- 
 sure. 3. By vouchsafing a doubly 
 vivid sense of His love. 4. By grant- 
 ing a sensible assurance of His sym- 
 pathy. 5. By speedy and remarkable 
 deliverance out of trouble. 6. The 
 text indicates surprise concerning the 
 memorable graciousness of God. 7. The 
 promptness of God. 8. The extreme 
 tenderness of God. — C. H. Spurgeon. 
 
 Ver. 58. God pleading for saints 
 and saints pleading for God. I. The 
 Divine pleading. 1. The Lord pleads 
 our cause in the court of Providence by 
 silencing enemies and by raising up 
 friends for His people. 2. He pleads 
 for them in the court of Divine law. 
 3. In the court of conscience. 4. In 
 the court of heaven. 5. And at the 
 last great day of judgment. II. If 
 the Lord hath pleaded the causes of our 
 soul, ice shoidd plead His cause tvhile we 
 have breath to pray. 1. This is the 
 life-work of the Christian. 2. Should 
 be done in witnessing for Christ by our 
 consistency of conduct. 3. We can all 
 plead for Christ in a private way. Be 
 it mine to weep for the sins of the 
 time and prophesy against them. Be 
 it yours in your own private walk and 
 conversation to rebuke private sin, and 
 by your loving earnestness to make 
 Jesus Christ dear to many souls ! — G. 
 H. Spurgeon. 
 
 Illustrations. — Faithfulness in 
 service. If you and I show that we 
 attach importance to the solemn per- 
 formance of even the slightest duty 
 connected with our dear Master's ser- 
 vice ; that we consider even the office 
 of doorkeeper in His house an office of 
 honour; that, convinced of His pre- 
 sence, we are as devout in offering the 
 prayers when only two or three are 
 present as when there are two or three 
 hundred — we shall find His blessing at- 
 tending us, and we shall be the means 
 of converting others. — Dean Hooh. 
 
 — A carpenter was once asked, 
 Why he troubled to finish off a certain 
 magistrate's bench so carefully 1 His 
 reply was, " I can't do otherwise ; be- 
 sides, I may have to sit on it one of 
 these days." 
 
 Faithful to death. When Commo- 
 dore Joseph Smith saw by the first 
 despatch that reached Washington from 
 Fortress Monroe that the Congress, on 
 which his son Avas commander, had 
 shown the white flag, he said, " Then 
 Joe's dead." It was so. 
 
 Prayer an ever- open refuge. St. 
 Cuthbert was once in a snowstorm that 
 drove his boat on the coast of Fife. 
 " The snowstorm closes the road along 
 the shore," mourned his comrades ; 
 " the storm bars our way over the sea." 
 *' There is still the way of heaven ; that 
 lies open,'' said the devoted saint. 
 
 Divine aid works a marvellous 
 change. Probably there is nowhere on 
 the globe so marked a climatic boun- 
 dary as that of the Cascade Mountains in 
 both Washington Territory and Oregon. 
 West of this boundary the winters 
 are mild and the summers cool and 
 showery ; east of it the winters are 
 sharp and dry and the summers very 
 hot. On one side are gigantic firs and 
 cedars, while on the other all are of 
 poor size and condition. Even the 
 flowers are of new species, and all the 
 atmospheric conditions are changed. 
 The line that lies between the unsaved 
 and the saved, once crossed,what changes 
 are manifest! "If any man be in 
 Jesus Christ, he is a new creation ; old 
 things have passed away ; lo, all things 
 have become new." 
 
 103 
 
CHAP. in. EOMILETW COMMENTARY : LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 HOMILETICS. 
 
 A Confident Appeal to Divine Justice. 
 
 (Verses 59-66.) 
 
 I. That Jehovah recognises the wrongs suffered hy His servants. " Lord, 
 Thou has seen my wrong; judge Thou my cause" (ver. 59), It seemed at times 
 as if the chosen people were forgotten and left to the mercy of their oppressors. 
 Years passed away, and still there was no prospect of rescue. The valiant stand 
 made by the prophet involved him in great and unjust suffering, and it seemed as 
 if Heaven was indifferent to the issue. But things are not what they seem. All 
 the time the eye of Jehovah was watching the struggle and noting every act of 
 injustice and wrong. Every pang of suffering is faithfully registered. "When the 
 soul is conscious that Jehovah is cognisant of its distress, it is nerved with courage 
 and patiently waits God's time of deliverance. 
 
 II. That Jehovah infallibly observes the cruel plottings and malicious 
 reproaches of His people's enemies. " Thou hast seen all their vengeance. Thou 
 hast heard their reproach, Lord, and all their imaginations against me," &c. 
 (vers. 60-63). Not a single movement, not a word of scorn of His enemies 
 escapes the eye and the ear of Jehovah. How vain and foolish their opposition 
 appears to Him ! Their cleverest combinations are but the work of helpless 
 imbecility ; their wildest rage is but a momentary flash of aimless malignity. In 
 a moment their schemes are shattered and their revilings for ever silenced. God 
 is so strong in conscious righteousness that He can afford to bide His time. It is 
 a mistake to regard His long-suffering patience as a sign of apathy. 
 
 III. That Jehovah will vindicate the wrongs of His servants by punishing 
 their oppressors. " Render unto them a recompense, Lord, according to the 
 work of their hands," &c. (vers. 64-66). The imprecatory form of these words 
 are uttered by Jeremiah in his prophetical character. He calls for the vengeance 
 upon his enemies which their iniquities have deserved, and which Divine Justice 
 is certain to render. The versions and the Targum all render these verses not as 
 imperatives, but as futures — Thou slialt render unto them a recompense, ^-c. It 
 is an unalterable principle of the Divine government to punish all evil-doers. 
 The sufferings they have inflicted on others shall be meted out to them with swift 
 and terrible retribution. " Under the heavens of the Lord " there is no place of 
 escape for, the workers of iniquity. The wrongs of God's servants shall be re- 
 dressed, and His honour and justice universally vindicated. 
 
 Lessons. — 1. The Divine patience with evil-doers must not he construed as 
 meaning indifferejice. 2. It is an aggravation of suffering when tve hww it is 
 unjust. 3. Vengeance against all workers of iniquity may he safely left in the 
 hands of God. 
 
 GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES. 
 
 Yers. 59-63. The Divine slowness with God. A pure manhood is in har- 
 to punish. I. Does not arise from in- mony with all that is Godlike in thouglit 
 difference to humaji wrongs. "Thou and sentiment, and with all that is 
 has seen my wrong " (ver. 59). II. Is Christly in character and work. It is 
 720^ from tcant of knoiuledge of all the in harmony with the works of God, with 
 actions of the icicked (vers. 60-63). all that is beautiful in nature. It is 
 III. Indicates that God is so strong in harmony with the providence of God, 
 and man is so loeah IV. Affords every with all that is happy or sad in the 
 opportunity for' the exercise of mercy to discipline of life ; and supremely it is 
 the trxdy penitent. in harmony with the inspired truth of 
 
 Ver. 63. A godly life the music of God as revealed in history, character, 
 society. I. Like music, a godly life and precept. 2. It is in harmony with 
 is harmonious. 1. It is in harmony itself. All the truer sympathies of a 
 104 
 
nOMILETIO COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 devout heart, all the higher faculties of 
 a pure mind exist in a condition of self- 
 harmony. Living in communion with 
 the Supreme Being, the good man ob- 
 tains true concord in the exercise of 
 prayer. And thus attuned by devo- 
 tion, every power of his soul joins 
 in the hymn of life. 3. It is in har- 
 mony with the highest good of the 
 race. A godly man is ever the foremost 
 to aid any philanthropic enterprise 
 for the real welfare of others. All 
 the strongest impulses of his nature 
 prompt him to sympathetic action for 
 the unfortunate. Consequently his 
 time, money, and influence are made sub- 
 servient to the common good of men. 
 II. Lilie music, a godly life is cheer- 
 ing. When we have been oppressed 
 with care, when the great mystery of 
 life has come heavily upon our souls, 
 what hope and comfort have been im- 
 parted by contact with a happy, pious 
 spirit. III. Like music, a godly life 
 is inspiring. When men would have 
 given up the conflict of life in despair, 
 how often has the word and life of a 
 Christian filled them with new courage ; 
 and how frequently are careless souls 
 awakened to a sense of duty by the 
 moral earnestness of the godly around 
 them. IV. Like music, a godly life is 
 calming. What a quieting influence 
 has the life of a good man upon 
 those around him. His presence sub- 
 dues anger ; by his smile the deepest 
 unrest is removed. He calms the 
 passions of the unholy and soothes the 
 sorrow of the troubled. V. Are our 
 lives morally musical ? Are they in 
 harmony with God and all His works 1 
 Are our dispositions in the home, in 
 business, and in the varied scenes of life 
 kindly ? If so, then are we the joy, the 
 inspiration, and the quietude of many 
 lives around us that might otherwise be 
 sad, monotonous, and unpeaceful. — The 
 Lay Preacher. 
 
 Vers. 64-66. Divine punishment : 
 I. Is proportioned to human sin. "A 
 recompense according to the work of 
 their hands " (ver. 64). II. Afiicts the 
 chief instrument of Imman sin. " Give 
 them sorrow of heart " (ver. 65) — blind- 
 ness of heart, obstinacy, hardness. 
 
 III. Is an appalling reality. " Perse- 
 cute and destroy them in anger " (ver. 
 
 Ver. 65. God can entangle the head 
 that thinks itself clearest, and sink the 
 heart that thinks itself stoutest. 
 
 Illustrations. — It is best always 
 to do justly. AVriting on the question 
 of just treatment between the Southern 
 and Northern States of America, and 
 especially of the black race, G. W. Cable 
 said : " But it is sometimes said. Will not 
 this tend eventually to amalgamation ? 
 Idle question ! Will it help the matter 
 to withhold men's manifest rights'? What 
 can we do better for the remotest future 
 than to be just in the present, and leave 
 the rest to the Divine Eewarder of 
 nations that walk uprightly 1 " 
 
 Justice between man and man. The 
 doctrine which bases all the relations of 
 employer and employed upon self-in- 
 terest is a doctrine of the pit ; it has 
 been bringing hell to earth in large in- 
 stalments for a great many years. You 
 can have hell in your factory, or you can 
 have heaven there, just as you please. 
 If it is hell that you want, build your 
 business on the law of hell, which is — 
 Every man for himself and the devil 
 take the hindmost. Out of that will 
 come fightings perennial and unrelent- 
 ing. If it is heaven that you want, 
 then build your business on the laAV 
 of the kingdom of heaven, which is — 
 Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 
 That will put you in the path of peace. 
 
 Religion and justice. In the year 
 813 the Doge Angelo Participazio took 
 vigorous means for the enlargement of 
 the small group of buildings which were 
 to be the nucleus of the future Venice. 
 For the offices of religion he built the 
 church of St. Mark, and on or near the 
 spot where the Ducal Palace now stands 
 he built a palace for the administration 
 of justice. Observe that piety towards 
 God and justice towards man have been 
 at least the nominal purposes of every 
 act and institution of ancient Venice. 
 — Ruskin. 
 
 Wrong- doing brings its own retri- 
 bution. Cosimo I., of Florence, was a 
 ferocious, cruel tyrant, munlering his 
 
 105 
 
nOMILETIC COMMENTARY : LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 own son in the presence of his mother. 
 After a few years he married a wicked 
 Lut beautiful woman, who had been 
 a former partner in sin with him, 
 and in his last days, broken with 
 decrepitude, was helpless in her des- 
 potic hands. For two years after 
 the palsy had deprived him of speech 
 or movement, he lay dying, bereft of 
 everything but a torturing memory of 
 his cruelty and wickedness. 
 
 — The Jews have a tradition that 
 Cain was doomed to carry Abel's corpse 
 for a hundred years. 
 
 The just and the unjust. Such 
 being our unjust man, let us place by 
 his side a man of true simplicity and 
 nobleness, resolved, as ^schylus says, 
 not to seem, but to be good. "We must 
 certainly take away the seeming ; for 
 if he be thought to be a just man, he 
 will have honours and gifts on the 
 strength of this reputation, so that it 
 will be uncertain whether it is for jus- 
 tice's sake or for the sake of the gifts 
 and honours that he is what he is. 
 Yes, we must strip him bare of every- 
 thing but justice, and make his case 
 the reverse of the former. Without 
 being guilty of one unjust act, let him 
 have the worst reputation for injustice, 
 so that his virtue may be thoroughly 
 tested and shown to be proof against 
 infamy and all its consequences ; and 
 let him go on to the day of his death 
 steadfast in his justice, but with a life- 
 
 long reputation for injustice. They 
 who prefer injustice above justice will 
 say that in such a situation the just 
 man will be scourged, racked, fettered, 
 will have his eyes burnt out, and at 
 last, after suffering every kind of tor- 
 ture, will be crucified ; and thus learn 
 that it is best to resolve, not to be, but 
 to seem just. — Plato's Republic. 
 
 Injustice not to be hastily resented. 
 When Aristides, the Athenian general, 
 sat to arbitrate a difference between two 
 persons, one of them said, " This fellow 
 accused thee at such a time." To whom 
 Aristides answered, " I sit not to hear 
 what he has done against me, but 
 against thee." That was a noble reply 
 of Philip the Good when urged by his 
 courtiers to punish a prelate who had 
 done him great injustice, he declined, 
 saying, "It is a fine thing to have 
 revenge in one's power ; but it is a finer 
 thing not to use it." 
 
 God frustrates the schemes of the 
 wicked. All the plots and contrivances 
 of wicked men, all their turning of 
 things upside down, are treated as the 
 potter's clay ; for when they think they 
 have brought all to maturity, ripeness, 
 and perfection, when they look upon 
 their business as good as done, on a 
 sudden all their labour is lost ; for God, 
 who stands by all the while and looks 
 on, will, with one small touch, with the 
 least breath of His mouth, blast and 
 break all in pieces. — Edlin. 
 
 106 
 
BOMILETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Zion's Pitiful Estate. 
 
 The first half of thia chapter is occupied with details connected with the ruthless overthrow 
 and harrowing incidents in the conquest of Jerusalem. Distinct and vigorous expression is 
 thereafter given to the intense conviction that the terrific disasters were traceable to the 
 iniquities of the people, and especially of the ruling classes. They suffered from the anger of 
 the Lord ; but He would not contend for ever. There is hope that, after meting out justice 
 to oppressors. He would arise and have mercy upon Zion, for the time to favour her : yea, the 
 set time had come. The shadows of the night were very dense, but streaks across them betoken 
 to the spiritual eye that day is breaking, the day of restoration. 
 
 (N) Ver. 1. How is the gold dimmed. Not a mere diminution of its brightness, but a tarnish- 
 ing which lowered the estimate of the ore. The most pure gold changed ; something more 
 than an alteration in the appearance of the purified metal is observed. The alteration is not in 
 its substance, but in its depreciated value. The stones of the sanctuary — not only were 
 precious stones worn on the garments of the High Priest, but the Temple also v/a,s garnished for 
 beauty with them — are poured out at the head of every street. If this is regarded as having 
 reference to the costly stones of the House of the Lord, the objection naturally arises that no 
 enemy would be so reckless as to strew such precious material all over the city. Rather the 
 whole verse is to be considered as a figurative representation of the sad lot of Jerusalem, not of 
 its buildings but of its inhabitants, which will be told of in some verses following. A similar 
 comparison is made by the prophet Zechariah, who foretells that the sons of Zion shall be as the 
 stones of a crown, only not cast down, as here, but lifted on high (Zech. ix. 16). 
 
 (2). Ver. 2 defines the objects of which the preceding verse was an illustration. The 
 precious sons of Zion, grouping all the people together, a kingdom of priests, an holy nation, 
 comparable to, weighed in one scale against fine gold in the other, he is astonished to see as 
 in utter contrast with what they were. Three varieties of gold are mentioned — gold, pure gold, 
 fine gold — as if the sons of Zion were precious beyond the most precious things ; but the contrast 
 between the high estimate and the degraded reality, between what the Lord formed them to be 
 and foes had reduced them to, forces out the cry. How are they reckoned as earthen pitchers, 
 made from ignoble materials by human hands, and easily broken to pieces (Jer. xix. 11). 
 
 Their humiliating condition is evidenced in children, adults, nobles, and mothers. 
 
 (3). Ver. 3. Beasts of prey show affection for their brood. Even the jackals draw out — 
 present — the breast ; a familiar fact, testifying that they were true to their instincts, they 
 suckle their whelps ; but in miserable contrariety to this, the daughter of my people has 
 become otherwise ; unwilling to give nourishment to their babes, they show themselves cruel, 
 like ostriches in the desert. This arraignment of the wild birds is according to ideas current 
 at the time, and reported in the Book of Job. She leavetk her eggs on the earth . , . she is 
 hardened against her young ones, as if they were not hers (chap, xxxix. 14, 16). Later observa- 
 tions require some modification of this account of the habits of the ostrich ; but the writers 
 of the Sacred Scriptures had not a knowledge of Nature beyond their times. 
 
 This fearful, unnatural result of the extreme trials of the Israelites had its correlated feature. 
 
 (1). Ver. 4. The tongue of the sucking child cleaveth to the roof of his mouth, because 
 of getting no milk. The young children ask bread, and no one divides to them the cakes in 
 which form it was made. 
 
 (n) Ver. 5. Adults also are distressed. They that did feed delicately, in the fastidiousness 
 of luxury, are desolate in the streets, with no one to serve them, with no means to satisfy 
 hunger, perishing. They that were brought up in scarlet, those of the wealthy classes, 
 accustomed to use the most expensive cloth, lay themselves, in sheer despair, on the dirt-heaps 
 which have accumulated in the ruined city. Like Dives, clothed in purple and fine linen, faring 
 sumptuously every day, they too are in darkness — only they in the visible, he in the invisible 
 world. 
 
 (1) Ver. 6. Those awful distresses were due to the way in which the people had lived. The 
 crying wickedness of Sodom is again and again denounced by prophets as a warning to the 
 Israelites. Here that wickedness is minified, and, from the long drawn out sufferings of the 
 latter, it is implied that the iniquity — not the punishment of the iniquity, a translation which 
 has not been established from the usage of the two corresponding Hebrew words elsewhere — of 
 the daughter of my people is greater than the sin of Sodom. The Cities of the Plain had 
 not the advantage which the Jews had, who were intrusted with the oracles of God, and their guilt 
 was less. The supreme authority of Jesus Christ stands behind the declaration that it would 
 be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for those who refused 
 the light of life. Moreover, Sodom was destroyed by a sudden stroke — no protracted sufferings, 
 no starved, wailing children, no mothers eating their own infants, overthrown as in a moment, 
 and by forces in which no human agency had any part ; hands did not encircle her. No 
 enemies brandished their swords against her inhabitants, investing her on every side. God 
 can paralyse all industries and destroy a community without man's aid. The ground of this 
 
 107 
 
CHAP. IV. nOMILETIO COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 preference of Sodom is that a trouble direct from God is more bearable than one inflicted by 
 man, and was expressed by King David, Let me fall into the hand of Jehovah . . . let me not 
 fall into the hand of man (1 Chron. xxi. 13). 
 
 (l) Ver. 7. Men under religious vows could not have been so numerous as to form a con- 
 spicuous element in the population. Nor is there any reason to suppose that they were noteii 
 for a fine physique. Besides, the Hebrew word is not confined to those who are professed 
 Nazarites, but applies to such as were distinguished from others. So Joseph, in Jacob's dying 
 forecasts, is described as him that was nazin, separate from [marg. that is prince among] his 
 brethren (Gen. xlix. 26). Her nobles were purer than snow, &c. Still another feature char- 
 acterised them, they were more ruddy in body than rubies. " The white and red are to be 
 understood as mixed, and shading into one another, as our popular poetry speaks of cheeks 
 which 'like milk and purple shine ' " (Delitzsch) ; My beloved is tohite and ruddy (Cant. v. 10) ; 
 "My love is like the red, red rose" (Scottish song). Sapphire was their polishing [lit. 
 figure]. The comparison, however, can only be with the brilliancy of the gem, not with its 
 shape. The appearance of the nobles, as here described, indicates that their faces were not 
 bronzed and seamed by exposure to all kinds of weather ; no engrained dust from toiling day 
 after day darkened their complexion. They looked as those who live delicately in kinr/s courts. 
 But now — 
 
 (n) Ver. 8. Darker than blackness is their visage ; they are not recognised in the 
 streets as members of the aristocracy ; nothing marks them off from the labouring classes. 
 Their skin cleaveth to their bones, they are emaciated and shrivelled through hunger and 
 anguish, and the skin is become dry as wood. 
 
 (D) Ver. 9. One melancholy contrast suggests another, i.e., between those who are dead and 
 those who are tortured by want. Better are the slain by the sword than the slain by hunger. 
 The next clause is more descriptive of the condition of the former than of the latter. The 
 advantage of less prolonged and gnawing pains is with those who pine away [lit. flow away, 
 as sinking from loss of blood gushing from ghastly wounds], pierced through at a time when 
 there was no lack of food from the fruits of the field. 
 
 (>) Ver. 10. A more dreadful fact is relatt-d in regard to the little ones than that in vers. 
 3 and 4. The hands of tender-hearted women — not servants or hirelings, but themselves — 
 have boiled their own children ; they became meat for them in that climax of sufferings, the 
 destruction of the daughter of my people. Moral duty is sacrificed, and unnatural crimes 
 coiiimitted at the shrine of physical cravings. 
 
 (D) Ver. 11 is a conclusion from the immediately preceding verses,, as ver. 6 is from those pre- 
 ceding it. Jehovah has accomplished, i.e., has put forth a full measure of, His fury ; has poured 
 out the fierceness of His anger, and one method of its action is He has kindled a fire in Zion, 
 and has devoured her foundations. The scenes of horror which have been depicted show the 
 meeting-place of Zion's guilt and its Divine punisher. God's fierce wrath is the blast which 
 consumes flagrant iniquities. The entire demolition of the former principles dominating the 
 Israelites is thus symbolised, and so i^ignifies that room is made for the new spirit which shall 
 possess the restored captivity when they lay again the foundations of the House of the Lord. 
 
 A change of features is to be presented now by sketching, not so much the disasters on 
 classes of the people, as the causes by which they were produced, and the baffled hopes ensuing. 
 
 (^) Ver. 12. The kings of the earth — men who might be considered experts — believed not, 
 neither all the inhabitants of the world — men who were moved by appearances and common 
 hearsay — that an adversary . . . should enter into the gates of Jerusalem. This belief 
 cannot be merely "a deep subjective conviction." Whether or not the city was previously 
 taken is a matter of no importance. What is stated is a general opinion. The unverified belief 
 would be grounded on the knowledge of the strong situation and careful fortifications of 
 Jerusalem, which, with the means of siege then at command, might be considered almost im- 
 possible of capture. It was invested a year and a half before capture by the greatest warriur 
 of the age. Besides this, there may well have been, since the remarkable repulse of Sennacherib, 
 a wide-spread supposition, as when the tribes emerged from the desert, that the God of Israel 
 was very mighty in the defence of His worshippers, and would not let His sacred city be 
 subjugated. 
 
 ("d) Ver. 13. It is needful to connect this verse with the last by words like, This incredible 
 thing came to pass, because of the sins of her prophets, the iniquities of her priests— the 
 position which these two classes assumed in the polity of Jerusalem is indicated in various 
 strong terms by Jeremiah, the prophet of this period, and especially in his references to the 
 treatment which he himself received at their hands (chap, xxvi.) — who shed in her midst the 
 blood of the righteous. They are branded as instigators and leaders of the evil, and, like 
 other occupiers of usurped power, their jealousy and anger at those who crossed them in any 
 way urge them to the extreme measure of dooming to death the faithful witnesses for God. In 
 thus declaring the causes of the calamity to Judah, there is once more uplifted the moral stan- 
 dard which has made the Bible to be the impulse to all ethical revivals, the rebuker of wrong 
 by whomsoever committed, the unswerving asserter of the rights of God in the face of man's 
 injury to man. 
 
 (3 □) Vers. 14 and 15 seem applicable to tlie condition of prophets and priests after the city 
 
 108 
 
HOMILETIC COMMENT A R Y : LAME NT A TIONS. chap. iv. 
 
 had been taken. They were panicstricken. They staggered [as] blind men in the streets ; an 
 effect accounted for in other parts of Scripture as a punishment of sin. They make haste to shed 
 innocent blood , . . therefore we grope for the wall like the blind, yea, we grope as they that have 
 no eyes (Isa. lix. 7 and 10). Their sin found them out ; its marks were palpable ; they were 
 defiled with blood when the command to go into exile arrested them. So they were avoided ; 
 [men] could not touch their garments. In their blood-stained aspect they were met with the 
 shout which was enjoined upon leprous persons. That it was the leper who was to cry unclean 
 is of little consequence where "poetical license " is exercised. Away unclean one [men], cried 
 to them, away, away ; and so such as had, in spiritual pride, said, Come not near me, I am 
 holier than thou, are abhorred by the people they contemned. The just judgment of God was 
 manifest, so that, as proscribed offenders, When they fled away and staggered blindly as before 
 in the city, they found that, even in other places where they sought ease and rest for the soles of 
 their feet, the natives would not allow them to stay ; [men] said among the nations. They 
 shall no longer sojourn [among us]. These references, in all probability, are made to real 
 occurrences. 
 
 (D) Ver. 16. The circumstances of those fugitives are ascribable to Jehovah. Wherever they 
 went, the face of Jehovah had not disappeared ; in anger, not in grace, lifted up upon them, it 
 has scattered them, and will no more regard them. This fact was verified on their treat- 
 ment by the peoples to whom they had gone. There no respect was paid, no favour shown, on 
 account of office, occupation, or age. 
 
 {]}) Ver. 17 refers to the persons remaining in the city, who, notwithstanding that God's 
 righteous judgments had so afflicted propiiets and priests, yet thought longingly of human 
 defences ; Still our eyes failed [looking] for vain help. This is explained in the succeeding 
 clause. We eagerly watched for a nation that could not save, trusting that Egypt, that broken 
 reed, or perhaps some other equally unsatisfactory auxiliary, would appear to rescue them, 
 
 (V) Ver. 18. Whatever their expectations might be, they were under constant pressure from 
 the besieging army. They hunted our steps ; every movement was closely watched, so that 
 we could not go in our streets, there, liable to be laid hold on at every turn, all seemed to be 
 over. The final ces>ation of their independence was but the question of an hour, our end is 
 come, our national life extinguished. 
 
 (p) Ver. 19. Flight from the city was of no benefit. Fugitives were promptly and hotly 
 followed, whether they betook themselves to the cavernous retreats of the everlaUing hills, or to 
 waste and lonely places. Swifter were our pursuers than the eagles of heaven; on the 
 mountains they chased us, in the desert they laid wait for us. So the deportation to Babylon 
 is prepared for, and proof given of the complete break-up of the organised community of Israel, 
 
 (-)) Ver. 20. The crowning evidence of the collapse was the seizure of the head of the State, 
 who is considered to have been, not King Josiah but Zedekiah, by most commentators. The 
 breath of our nostrils, the token of our life, is the monarch. An idea like this was prevalent 
 among ancient peoples, and a noticeable confirmation of it is quoted from Seneca, De Clementia : 
 " He (the sovereign) is the vital breath which so many thousands (of citizens) draw." In his 
 life tlie nation views the representative of its life. " God made David king, and his posterity, 
 for this end that the life of the people might, in a manner, reside in him ;" and so long as he 
 was among them, there seemed to be a pledge of the favour of God, and so of their continued 
 existence as a separated nation. Zedekiah might be irresolute and weak, but it is not personal 
 character, it is office which is regarded— the anointed of Jehovah. "We must observe that 
 these high terms properly belong to Christ only, for David was not the life of the people except 
 as he was a type of and represented His person . , . and hence we learn that the Church is 
 dead when separated from its Head " (Calvin), The representative of this earthly life of the 
 nation had disappeared, was taken, "like a wild animal driven into a pitfall," in their pits. 
 His capture by the hostile forces is related in Jer. lii. 7-11, and was achieved about a month 
 prior to the sack of Jerusalem. It was the prelude to the conviction that their last hopes were 
 being crushed. Of whom we said. Under his shadow we will live among the nations. As a 
 captive to Babylon, there was not the ghost of a chance to rally round him, and no sort of pro- 
 spect of existing as a semi-independent people in any foreign land. The end had come, 
 
 (K') Ver, 21. The children of Edom had exulted over the destruction of Jerusalem, and 
 urgently called for its completeness. They said. Ease it, rase it, even to the foundations 
 thereof (Ps. cxxxvii. 7). Now they are addressed in bitter irony. Rejoice and be glad, 
 daughter of Edom, take a full measure of your malicious joy, but with all that your triumphing 
 will be short ; you cannot escape pungent woes, however extended your territory may be, that 
 dwellest in the land of Uz, a district of country bordering on Edom's land, and which seems 
 to have been overrun by Edomites. To thee also shall the cup pass, the cup of the wine of the 
 wrath of God which is mingled in His anger. 
 
 The strong feelings of indignation, which were almost hereditary among the Israelites, 
 against the Edomites, may be partly accounted for from the idea that variance with one's own 
 kith and kin is often expressed by more bitter terms than variance with strangers, and partly 
 by the consciousness which Israel had of its spiritual calling which the "profane" nature of 
 Esau's descendants tended to render inoperative. 
 
 (n) Ver. 22. No hint marks the transition from the grim scenes of calamity in which the 
 
 109 
 
CHAP. IV. HOMILETIC COMMENTARY: LAMESTATIOSS. 
 
 Jews had been involved to this glimpse of light and renewal. The abruptness must be due to 
 the conviction that, as Israel is the people with whom Jehovah has entered into covenant, all 
 cannot be over with them, however they are pressed down by adversity. If they forsake Him, 
 they will be chastised till they acknowledge and repent of their apostasy. Then He will have 
 pity for His name's sake. Punishment will come to a termination ; Ended is thine iniquity, 
 daughter of Zion. The consequences following an evil procedure would, as it were, drain to 
 the dregs the cup of wrath and grace would begin to appear. *' A Messianic hope " is created. 
 He will no more carry thee into captivity, by the Chaldeans, at any rate. This promise is 
 dependent for its fulfilment upon the righteous state of Israel. Avoiding the sins which had 
 brought the present term of punishment, they would not be subjected to such punishment 
 again. The exiles who returned from Babylon were greatly purified and elevated by the trials 
 which had been passed through, and if there had been due progress in spiritual things, as the 
 prophet Malachi declares there was not, no further casting out of the land of promise would 
 have taken place. But they crucified the Lord of glory. Their house is left unto them desolate, 
 and they are scattered over the earth till they turn again to the Lord. The allotment to Edom 
 is a contrast ; He visits thine iniquities, daughter of Edom ; He discovers thy sins. He sees 
 they are persisted in, and shame and woe follow the exposure. " God covers sin when He 
 forgives it (Ps. xxxii. 1-5). He discovers or reveals it when He punishes it " (Job xx. 27). 
 The safety of God's people connotes the destruction of His enemies (Rev. xxijc and xx.). 
 
 EOMILETICS. 
 
 Moral Degradation. 
 
 (Yerses 1, 2.) 
 
 The destruction of Jerusalem was an event so unexpected, so unparalleled, so 
 astounding, that it seemed as if it could not be sufficiently lamented. The grief of 
 the prophet is not yet exhausted. Once more he looks upon the fated city as it 
 gradually but inevitably collapses in the tightening grasp of the relentless besiegers, 
 and as he sees the miseries of his countrymen in their direful extremity, he renews 
 his doleful elegy. He reiterates the doctrine that the sufferings of Judah are the 
 just punishment of her sins, and not until the chastisement has had its proper 
 effect is there any hope of her restoration. These verses describe the moral 
 degradation and wretchedness of the sufferers, and suggest the following re- 
 flections. 
 
 I. That moral degradation is the more evident when compared with a 
 former condition of superior excellence. The people of God are called "the 
 precious sons of Zion," and their moral excellence is compared to " the most fine 
 gold," and to the hallowed " stones of the sanctuary." Judah was a chosen and 
 consecrated nation, and enjoyed unexampled privileges. She was raised not only 
 into temporal affiueuce and splendour, but was intended to represent the lofty 
 type of a moral and spiritual commonwealth. She was the custodian and teacher 
 of spiritual blessings that were to enrich the world. She was the medium through 
 which Jehovah sought to express His gracious purpose of salvation to the whole 
 human race. No nation had been so exalted and so honoured. "While she 
 remained faithful to her calling, Judah was supreme and invulnerable among the 
 nations. She shone with the lustre of the most fine gold, and her position was as 
 secure as that of an impregnable fortress. But when she sinned she fell, and 
 her fall was the more notable when contrasted with her former greatness and 
 grandeur. 
 
 II. That moral degradation is a loss of character and stability. The moral 
 reputation of Judah was tarnished — the gold was dimmed, the most fine gold 
 changed. Three kinds of gold are mentioned in these verses — gold, most fine 
 gold, and fine (or solid) gold. The precious metal not only lost its brilliancy but 
 also its massiveness : it became thin and hollow. The religious character of God's 
 people, which was compact and strong as the solid building of the sanctuary, is 
 shattered, and lies in a heap of ruins, like the stones of the demolished Temple 
 
 110 
 
EOMILETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 that now block the streets of Jerusalem. Its moral value is destroyed. It is 
 now of no more worth than a piece of brittle earthenware, which the swift hands 
 of the potter can easily put together and as easily break. Sin is a great dis- 
 integrator of character. The external form may appear unchanged long after 
 decay has set in ; but the mischief is slowly and surely working, and the final 
 collapse is inevitable. Nothing is safe wbere righteousness is ignored, whether 
 in individuals or in nations. 
 
 III. That moral degradation is the occasion of painful lamentation. " How 
 is the gold become dim ! How is the most fine gold changed ! How are they 
 esteemed as earthen pitchers" (vers, 1, 2). Even the most callous are sometimes 
 moved to pity as they witness the downfall of excellence which they often envied 
 and could not reach. Misfortune softens the hard-hearted. But who can sound 
 the depths of anguish of the soul that realises the greatness of the disaster occa- 
 sioned by the fall of morality and religion ! It is the loss of personal righteous- 
 ness, happiness, and peace ; the loss of national prestige ; the loss of all the 
 safeguards of social life ; the loss of untold blessing to the world ; and, greatest 
 of all, the loss of the favour and smile of God ! In the midst of moral wreckage 
 and ruin, it is a hopeful sign when even one is left who sincerely mourns and 
 laments the catastrophe. The tears of such an one shine with the lustre of the 
 goodness whose loss he deplores. 
 
 Lessons. — 1. Religion only can make a nation truly illustrious. 2. When 
 religion declines, the glory of the nation is obscured. 3. The loss of religion should. 
 he not only lamented, but should lead to diligent search after its recovery. 
 
 GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES. 
 
 Yers. 1, 2. Moral character : I. Is 
 
 the basis of individual worth. II. Gives 
 reputation and stability to individual 
 life. III. Needs to be carefully guarded. 
 
 Illustrations. — Lack of moral 
 sense. It is no exaggeration to assert 
 that Napoleon I., strangely called the 
 Great, had no moral sense. Carlyle 
 tells the story of a German emperor 
 who, when corrected for a mistake he 
 made in Latin, replied, "I am King 
 of the Romans, and above grammar." 
 Napoleon's arrogance was infinitely 
 greater. He thought himself above 
 morality, and really seems to have be- 
 lieved that he had a perfect right to 
 commit any crime, political or personal, 
 that would advance his interests by an 
 iota ; and indeed he did commit so many 
 it is almost impossible to recount them. 
 
 Moral degradation affects work. 
 The corrupted Papacy of the fifteenth 
 century so injuriously aftected the art 
 •world, that from that time there was a 
 serious decline in all the arts of paint- 
 ing, sculpture, and architecture. The 
 degradation of religion first touched 
 public morality, and then spread to all 
 
 the arts. Character tells on skill. 
 Where the heart declines, the hand 
 will soon disclose it. The "work of 
 our hands " is only established as " the 
 beauty of the Lord is upon us." — RiisJcin. 
 
 Degeneration. In the Central Park 
 Museum, at New York, there is the 
 skeleton of a huge bird, now extinct. 
 It is 14 feet in height ; and by its side 
 is a stuffed specimen of another bird 
 not more than 14 inches. The latter 
 is the nearest living representative of 
 the former, which once abounded in 
 New Zealand. 
 
 Degeneration of character. Rarely 
 does a successful merchant who comes 
 to New Orleans as a young man from 
 the cooler latitudes leave a son who 
 inherits the father's energy. One gene- 
 ration is enough to change character. 
 A city that lies below the level of the 
 river which washes its wharves, and 
 only a few feet above the poisonous 
 swamps surrounding it, and which has 
 six sweltering summer months, must 
 always continue to draw upon the 
 north for new men to carry on its 
 larger business activities. — Smalley. 
 
 Moral degradation of drink. It i^ 
 111 
 
nOMILETW COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 in the spiritual realm that the ravages 
 of strong drink are most terrible. Many 
 a mother observes, with a heart that 
 grows heavier day by day, the signs of 
 moral decay in the character of her son. 
 It is not the flushed face and heavy 
 eyes that trouble her the most ; it is 
 the evidence that his mind is becoming 
 duller and fouler, his sensibilities less 
 acute, his sense of honour less com- 
 manding. She discovers that his loyalty 
 to truth is somewhat impaired, that he 
 deceives her frequently without com- 
 punction. Coupled with this loss of 
 truthfulness is the weakening of the 
 will, which always accompanies chronic 
 alcoholism. Then comes the loss of self- 
 respect, the lowering of ambition, and 
 the fading out of hope. It is a mourn- 
 ful spectacle — that of the brave, the 
 ingenuous, high-spirited man sinking 
 steadily down to the degradation of 
 inebriety ; but how many such spec- 
 tacles are visible all over the land ! 
 
 A good character a blessing. When 
 Peter Cooper, the ISTew York Philan- 
 
 thropist, held a reception at the Women's 
 Art School shortly before his death, a 
 most impressive testimony was given of 
 the high regard in which his character 
 was held. It was interesting to note 
 the various manners of the crowd who 
 approached him. "Mr. Cooper, we 
 must put our little boy's hand in 
 yours," said a young couple, with a 
 child five or six years old at their side. 
 Then a group of boys would come along 
 and stand curiously regarding him from 
 a short distance. *' That's Mr, Cooper," 
 they whispered in an undertone. And 
 so the evening wore away, and ten 
 thousand people had come and gone 
 through the great bright halls and 
 schoolrooms, and Mr. Cooper's presence 
 had put a good thought or feeling into 
 everybody's heart. I can see him now, 
 with his smiling face and interested 
 look, and his soft white hair waving 
 over his shoulders, amid flowers, lights, 
 and cheerful music, whilst his presence 
 brooded like a benediction over the 
 swaying and surging crowd. 
 
 HOMILETICS. 
 
 The Extremity of Suffering. 
 
 (Verses 3-10.) 
 
 I. Deadens natural affection (vers. 3, 4). Maternal instincts are demoralised 
 in the straitness of the siege. Little children are left to perisli, without any 
 effort to relieve their wants or soothe their sufferings. In vain they ask for 
 bread ; no attempt is made to allay their hunger and thirst. Absorbed in their 
 own intolerable miseries, the wretched mothers sink below the instincts of the 
 wild beasts, for even the jackals suckle their young. They are become like the 
 cruel crocodile, which, after laying its eggs in the sand, abandons them without 
 further care. The infants pine to death, unheeded and unmourned. Excessive 
 sufi"ering denaturalises man and woman. 
 
 II. Drags down all classes to one level (ver. 5). The wealthy are now even 
 as the poor. They who fared sumptuously, and whose tastes were pampered with 
 the most delicate viands, are now sullenly starving to death with the crowd. 
 They who were clothed in scarlet, and accustomed to every refinement from their 
 infancy, are now content to stretch themselves on the dirt-heaps of the city, and 
 eager to devour any offal they may pick up amid the general scramble for food. 
 All men find a universal communism in suffering. Human extremity knows no 
 distinction in ranks and titles. Hunger drags every one to the same level. 
 
 III. Prefers a swift to a lingering punishment (ver. 6). The destruction of 
 Sodom, which filled a large space in the Jewish mind as an example of the 
 terrible judgment of Heaven on extreme iniquity, was regarded as light com 
 pared with the sufferings of Jerusalem. The punishment of Sodom was sudden, and 
 came direct from God ; but the punishment of Judah was by the hands of the 
 
 112 
 
nOMILETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 Chaldeans, and was slow and lingering. David preferred to be dealt with 
 directly from God, and chose pestilence rather than injuries inflicted by human 
 hands (2 Sam. xxiv, 14). But the iniquity of Judah was greater than the sin of 
 Sodom, and the punishment was therefore more severe. There is a point in 
 sutTering when we yearn for a speedy release ; when death is welcome. 
 
 IV, Reduces the healthiest from beauty to hideousness (vers. 7, 8). The 
 !Nazarites, because of their temperance, were remarkable for health and personal 
 beauty, and were held in veneration because of their religious devotion (comp. 
 Num. vi.). Their complexion was ruddy as coral, and the beauty of their physical 
 form was as exact and faultless as is the cutting of a sapphire. But the most 
 distinguished of the population, whether !N^azarites or of the aristocracy, are 
 involved in the general calamity, and suffer with the rest. Their rosebud com- 
 plexion is turned to blackness, their frame is shrunk and distorted, and their skin 
 is shrivelled and dry. Famine plays havoc with beauty, and brings the strongest 
 down to helplessness. 
 
 V. Recoils not from the most horrible means of appeasing the irresistible 
 pangs of hunger (vers. 9, 10). Such were the sufierings of the famished, that they 
 who were slain with the sword were deemed happier than those who were pierced 
 with the dart of unappeased hunger. So extreme was the famine, that cannibalism 
 became common, and women who were known as tender-hearted mothers actually 
 boiled and ate their own children (comp. 2 Kings vi. 28, 29 ; Lev. xxvi. 29 ; 
 Deut. xxviii. 5G, 57; Josephus's "Wars," cap. x. 9). It is a fearful experience 
 when the animal in human nature gains the mastery over every other instinct. 
 
 Lessons. — 1. Extremity makes strange revelatiojis of human nature. 2. The 
 restraints of civilisation are very superficial. 3. Sin acquaints the soul ivith the 
 lowest depths of degradation. 
 
 GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES. 
 
 Vers. 3-10. The rigour of war. souls of beasts, mortal and corruptible 
 
 I. Demoralises maternal aflection (ver. with their bodies ? — Hooker. 
 
 1). IL Involves innocent children in There have been those — 
 
 suffering (ver. 2). IIL Reduces all " Who, in the dark dissolving human heart, 
 
 classes to poverty and distress (vers. 5, And hallowed secrets of this microcosm, 
 
 7, 8). IV. Prolongs the misery of its Dabbling, with shameless jest, a shameful 
 
 victims (ver. 6). V. Is attended with ^ band, . . „ 
 
 .1 1 ^i e c ■ / c\ -\r\\ Encarnalised tneir spirits, 
 
 the worst results oi lamine (vers. 9, 10). ^ 
 
 Ver. 6. Graduated punishment. I. Importance of food. Temperature 
 
 Is proportioned to the character and has less influence in inciting the migra- 
 
 degree of the sin committed. II. Its tion of birds than failure of food ; for a 
 
 severity implies the enormity of the few even of the regular migrants will 
 
 offence. III. Cannot be charged with linger throughout the winter at sheltered 
 
 injustice. localities, where food remains accessible, 
 
 Vers. 7-10. The horrors of famine, safely daring the severest cold. Hunger 
 
 I. Changes strength into feebleness and means loss of heat and life, and it 
 
 beauty into deformity (vers. 7, 8). II. is this the birds primarily flee. No 
 
 Is more cruel than the sword (ver. 9). attraction to Christians like spiritual 
 
 III. Debases the most refined into can- food. "Tie them up by the teeth," as 
 
 nibals (v. 10). Mr. Spurgeon says. 
 
 Necessity a teacher. "Life and 
 
 Illustrations. — Degradation. Is it the necessities of life are the best philo- 
 
 not wonderful that base desires should sophers, if we will only listen honestly 
 
 so extinguish in men the sense of their to what they say to us ; and dislike the 
 
 own excellency, as to make them willing lesson as we may, it is cowardice which 
 
 that their souls should be like to the refuses to hear it." — Froude. 
 
 113 H 
 
EOMILETIC COMMENTARY : LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 — The wife of a certain chieftain who Many must have died had not a large 
 
 had fallen upon idle habits, one day ship filled with produce been wrecked 
 
 lifted the dish-cover at dinner, and re- off Coffin Island. The news spread 
 
 vealed a pair of spurs ; a sign that he like wildfire. The population turned 
 
 must ride and hunt for his next meaL out, and from the cargo of a shipwrecked 
 
 Help in extremity. In the Magdalen vessel drew a new lease of life. 
 
 Islands, off the Newfoundland coast, the Man's extremity is God's oppor- 
 
 means of livelihood is almost entirely tunity. It is a current saying, " That 
 
 found in the fisheries, and if these fail, the darkest cloud precedes the dawn," 
 
 life becomes a burden. In 1883 a and that " Every dark cloud has a silver 
 
 famine occurred which came near to lining." Early risers tell us that the 
 
 decimating the population. The fish- lowest temperature immediately pre- 
 
 eries failed ; the ship which Avas ex- cedes the sun-rising. These things serve 
 
 pected to bring the winter's supply to illustrate God's kingdom of grace, 
 
 before the ice formed foundered in a " Before honour is humility." " Thou 
 
 storm. By the time spring came, star- has lifted me up and cast me down." 
 
 vation stared the people in the face. " How long, Lord, hoAV long 1 " 
 
 HOMILETICS. 
 The Destruction of Zion. 
 
 (Verses 11, 12.) 
 
 I. Was thorough and complete, " The Lord kindled a fire in Zion, and it 
 devoured the foundations thereof" (ver. 11). The holy city, the pride of the 
 Jews and the envy of their enemies, was utterly overthrown. Not only were its 
 walls, towers, palaces, and Temple demolished, but its very foundations were dug 
 up and scattered : one stone was not left upon another. It was degraded and 
 spurned by the resolute destroyers as a heap of useless rubbish. It was im- 
 possible for the rage of man to make a more complete ruin. In the intention of 
 the irate Chaldeans it was destroyed for ever. And yet the Divine Guardian of 
 the holy city allowed all this ! 
 
 II. Was undeniable evidence of the reality of the Divine angar. " The 
 Lord hath accomplished His fury : He hath poured out His fierce anger " (ver. 11). 
 There was more of the righteous anger of Jehovah against the obstinate sin of His 
 people in the destruction of Jerusalem, than there were skill and ferocity in the 
 Chaldean army. The enemy would have been powerless to pierce the city bul- 
 warks if the people had remained true to Jehovah, and sheltered themselves in 
 humble trust beneath His all-powerful defence. But the wrath of God was 
 provoked beyond the limit of further endurance, and the Chaldeans were used as 
 the instruments of His vengeance. Surely the eyes of the suffering people were 
 at last opened to see in the utter destruction of their beloved city that Jehovah 
 was indeed angry with them. 
 
 IIL Was a result deemed incredible by the nations. "The kings of the 
 earth, and all the inhabitants of the world, would not have believed that tlie 
 adversary should have entered into the gates of Jerusalem" (ver. 12). Jerusalem 
 was so strongly fortified, not only by massive walls and bulwarks, but by the 
 strength and heroism of its inhabitants, that it was deemed impregnable to all 
 warlike forces of that day. Moreover, it was regarded as the dwelling-place of 
 the Great King, who had hitherto bafiled all attempts to capture it. The recent 
 defeat of Sennacherib, one of the greatest warriors of the age, was fresh in the 
 memory of the people. The belief gained general currency that the city could 
 not be taken. It was invested for a year and a half by the Chaldean forces, 
 furnished with the most powerful engines of assault, before it was actually 
 114 
 
HOMILETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 captured. Its fall was the amazement of the world. What was believed 
 impossible had come to pass. Otliers saw, what the Jews were slow to acknow- 
 ledge, that their God had deserted them and given them up to the destroyer. 
 
 Lessons, — 1, The holiest place mmj he polluted by sin. 2. Persistent sin 
 provokes Divine vengeance. 3, Divine ivrath is not poured out till every oppor- 
 tunity is given for repentance. 
 
 GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES. 
 
 Yer. 11. Tlie Divine anger. 1, Will 
 
 accomplish all it threatens. 2. Is ter- 
 rible in its active manifestation, 3. 
 May well be dreaded by the impenitent. 
 Ver. 12. A world's wonder. 1. 
 That a divinely guarded city should 
 fall. 2. That it should fall by the 
 hands of the godless. 3. That some 
 great sin must have been committed to 
 make such a catastrophe possible. 
 
 Illustrations. — Terrible destruc- 
 tion. One of the officers at Fredericks- 
 burg says : — " Howard, who was with 
 me, says I exclaimed, ' Oh, great God, 
 see how our men, our poor fellows, are 
 falling ! ' I remember that the whole 
 plain was covered with men prostrate 
 and falling. I had never before seen 
 fighting like that — nothing approaching 
 it in terrible uproar and destruction. 
 As they charged, the artillery fire would 
 break up their formation, and they 
 would get mixed ; then they would 
 close up, go forward, receive the wither- 
 ing infantry fire, and those who were 
 able would run to their houses and do 
 all they could ; then the next brigade 
 coming up in succession would do their 
 duty, and melt. It was like the snow 
 coming down and melting on warm 
 ground." 
 
 Concentration of power destroys. 
 
 In the eighteenth century an immense 
 burning- glass was constructed in France, 
 in which all the heat falling on a great 
 lens was then concentrated on a smaller 
 one, till at the focus such was the heat 
 that iron, gold, and other metals ran 
 like melted butter. Another one, made 
 in England by Parker, fused the most 
 refractory substances, and diamonds 
 were by it reduced to vapour. 
 
 The Divine sovereignty. "God is 
 free because no causes external to Him- 
 self have power over Him ; and as 
 good men are most free when most a 
 law to themselves, so it is no infringe- 
 ment on God's freedom to say that He 
 must have acted as He acted ; but rather 
 He is absolutely free because absolutely 
 a law Himself to Himself." — Froude. 
 
 The curse of sin. It is the Trojan 
 horse ; it hath sword and famine and 
 pestilence in the belly of it. Sin is a 
 coal that not only blacks, but burns. 
 Sin creates all our troubles ; it puts 
 gravel in our bread, wormwood in our 
 cup. Sin rots the name, consumes the 
 estates, buries relations. Sin shoots 
 the flying roll of God's curses into a 
 family and kingdom (Zech. v. 4). It 
 is reported of Phocas, having built a 
 wall of mighty strength about his city, 
 there was a voice heard, " Sin is in the 
 city, and that will throw down the wall." 
 
 HOMILETICS. 
 
 Unfaithful Eeligious Leaders. 
 
 (Verses 13-16.) 
 
 I. Ignore the sacred duties of their high office. " The sins of her prophets 
 and the iniquities of her priests " (ver, 1 3), The leaders, whose first duty it was 
 to explain and enforce the Word of God, were the prime movers in the attempt to 
 silence that Word. Their utter dereliction of duty, and the bitter rancour with 
 which they were actuated, were evident in their repeated efforts to put Jeremiah to 
 
 -115 
 
HOMILETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 death, the only man Avho had the courage to lift np his voice for Jehovah amid 
 the general defection. Had they rallied round the faithful prophet and round their 
 king, who was more weak than vicious, they might have saved the city and the 
 nation from ruin. AVhen the servants of the Lord and the religious guides of the 
 people are false to their sacred vows, the nation is grievously misled, and disaster 
 will follow. 
 
 II. Become intoxicated with slaughter. " That have shed the blood of the 
 just in the midst of her ; they have wandered {reeled) as blind men in the streets ; 
 they have polluted themselves with blood " (ver. 13, 14). They have lost the art 
 of persuasion, even to do wrong, and, like all baffled tyrants, adopt the bloody 
 policy of the sword. The people are coerced into rebellion against God and their 
 best interests by brute force. Having once tasted blood, they revel in it, and reel 
 through the city blinded by their insatiable lust of slaughter. They who ought 
 to be holy, as God's ministers consecrated to His service, are defiled with blood, 
 and that the blood not of enemies, but of their own countrymen. There is no 
 fury so maddening and imgoveruable as the thirst for blood. 
 
 III. Are shunned and abhorred by God and man (vers. 15, 16). They are 
 denounced by the people they had oppressed, and hounded out of the city only to 
 find themselves abhorred by the heathen to whom they fled for shelter. They 
 were hated at home and abroad. "The anger of the Lord divided them," scat- 
 tered them, and wherever they wandered, the people despised and shunned them. 
 They were outcasts of God and men. They had sown to the wind, and they 
 reaped the whirlwind. Such is the fate of the faithless and cruel. There is no 
 punishment too severe for unfaithful ministers of God's Word. 
 
 Lessons. — 1. False teachers are the curse of any community. 2. They are 
 utterly reckless both as to ichat they say and do. 3. Tliey involve the i:>eoiJle in 
 much siiffeiHjig. 
 
 GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES. 
 
 Vers. 13-16. False ministers of an unknown Spirit, and preach a state 
 
 God. 1. Are the authors of the vilest of holiness and fellowship with Christ, 
 
 sins (ver. 13). 2. Are capable of the and a glory and a blessedness which are 
 
 most revolting cruelty in accomplishing wholly unknown to them, and perhaps 
 
 their wicked ends (vers. 13, 14). 3. will remain unknown through all eter- 
 
 Are the execration of the people they nity. He must indeed be a heartless 
 
 oppress (ver. 15). 4. Are divinely pun- preacher who has not himself in his 
 
 ished (ver. 16). own heart the Christ and the grace that 
 
 Vers. 15, 16. The tactics of the he declares. Alas ! that all scholars in 
 
 wicked. 1. Recoil upon themselves. our universities might well ponder this. 
 
 2. Render them the abhorrence of all — Baxter. 
 
 classes. 3. Are defeated and punished Unbelief and ministerial ineffi- 
 
 by the vengeance of Heaven. ciency. There are dangerous signs at 
 
 the present day of a relaxation of moral 
 
 Illustrations. — Unctualified tone in the literature of free-thinking. 
 
 ministers. It is the great wide- spread There is a tendency to palliate the 
 
 evil of the Church that it has unrenewed offences of vicious characters and to 
 
 and inexperienced pastors ; that so treat every sin as atoned for by intel- 
 
 many become preachers before they be- lectual brilliancy. But it would be in 
 
 come Christians, and are consecrated as the highest degree unjust to throw the 
 
 priests at the altar of God before they whole blame of his error upon every 
 
 are made holy to Christ by the offering individual who may happen to be the 
 
 of the heart to Him ; and thus they victim of unbelief. We are all bound 
 
 worship an unknown God and proclaim up together in this matter ; and the 
 
 an unknown Christ, and pray through sins, the unfaithfulness, the lack of 
 116 
 
IIOMILETIC C03IMENTART: LAMENTATIONS'. 
 
 moral energy among Christians them- 
 selves contribute, to a great extent, to 
 ■weaken the testimony to our faith. 
 The ministers of God's "Word must bear 
 their share in this responsibility. So 
 far as they fail to exhibit the moral 
 truth and spiritual force of that "Word, 
 so far as they harden it, or obscure it, 
 or misrepresent it, they contribute to 
 "weaken its appeal to the hearts and con- 
 sciences of their fellows, and the result 
 is seen in many an indirect and distant 
 injury to faith. It is the mission of 
 the Church and its ministers to carry 
 on the work of the Apostles by bearing 
 witness to certain truths and revela- 
 tions ; and if that witness be in any 
 instance unworthily delivered, the force 
 with which the truth appeals to the 
 soul of man is proportionately weakened. 
 Wace : Bmnpton Lectures. 
 
 Priestcraft. The whole system is 
 one of Church instead of Christ ; priest 
 instead of Gosj^el ; concealment of truth 
 instead of manifestation of truth ; igno- 
 rant superstition instead of enlightened 
 faith ; bondage where we are promised 
 liberty — all tending to load us with 
 whatever is odious in the worst meaning 
 of priestcraft, instead of the free, affec- 
 
 tionate, enlarging, elevating, and cheer- 
 ful liberty of the children of God. 
 Bishop JlPUwaine. 
 
 Penalty of murder. Thales Milesius, 
 one of the wise men of Greece, being 
 asked what was the most difficult thing in 
 life, answered, "Fora tyrant tolive to old 
 age." The application may be extended 
 to the cruel, bloodthirsty, and murderers. 
 
 The triumph of the wicked. The 
 triumph of the wicked is always short. 
 "When they feel themselves secure from 
 evil and begin to boast of their triumph, 
 then judgment overwhelms them. So 
 it was with Belshazzar, Herod, and the 
 fool of the Gospel. How soon Abel's 
 blood called for vengeance of Cain ! 
 AVe cannot sin so quickly but God seeth 
 us as quickly. How many have been 
 stricken while the oath had been in 
 their mouths, as Jeroboam was stricken 
 while he spoke, that they might see they 
 were stricken. Though a man sin often, 
 and steal his sins as it were without 
 punishment, yet at last he is taken nap- 
 ping, even wliile the wickedness is in his 
 hand, and his day is set when he shall 
 pay for all, wliether it be twelve months 
 or twelve years. " When it cometh, it 
 will be soon." 
 
 HOMFLETICS, 
 
 The Last Hours of a Doomed People. 
 
 (Verses 17-20.) 
 
 I. Every hope of rescue is disappointed. " Our eyes failed for our vain 
 help : we have watched for a nation that could not save us " (ver. 17). Israel 
 had been prone to rely on the help of Egypt, and was often bitterly deceived. In 
 this instance the deluded inhabitants looked eagerly, till their eyes were weary, for 
 the coming of a relief force from Egypt, but in vain. That treacherous kingdom, 
 Avhich had failed them so often before, again failed them in their extremity. 
 "Whatever aid they might expect from the neighbouring kingdoms with which 
 Judah had been in friendly alliance, it did not come. When the soul is alienated 
 from God, every reliable source of help is cut off. "When God will not help us, 
 man cannot. 
 
 II. Every avenue of escape is closely guarded. " They hunt our steps, that 
 we cannot go in our streets. Our persecutors are SAvifter than the eagles ; they 
 pursued us, they laid wait for us" (vers. 18, 19). The enemy was drawing his 
 lines more firmly round the city ; the investment was complete, and slowly but 
 surely he was gaining the mastery over the city. Impatient with the little pro- 
 gress made and enraged with the stubborn resistance of the besieged, the Chaldeans 
 missed no opportunity to do damage. Every stray wanderer in the streets was a 
 
 117 
 
CHAP. IV. BOMILETIC COMMENTARY'. LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 mark for their arrows, and those who attempted to escape from the festering city 
 were at once seized. 
 
 III. There is a deepening conviction that the end is near. •' Our end is 
 
 near; our days are fulfilled, for our end is come" (ver, 18). The sight of the 
 towers erected by the besiegers advancing in height filled the citizens with terror. 
 Weakened with famine and disease, distracted with divisions among themselves, 
 and alarmed with the steady encroachments of the enemy, they felt that further 
 resistance was useless ; they waited in sullen helplessness for the end. The end 
 soon came. 
 
 IV. The last vestige of hope is destroyed in the capture of their king. 
 " The anointed of the Lord was taken in their pits " (ver. 20). Feeble as Zedekiah 
 was, he was still their king, "the anointed of the Lord." "And now that'the 
 state was falling, he was the very breath of life to the fugitives, who would have 
 no rallying-point without him ; whereas if he escaped, they might with him 
 have found a refuge among some of the neighbouring nations, and as long as they 
 had a king of David's line all hope of prolonging their national existence would 
 not seem lost." But the seizure of Zedekiah in his desperate attempt to escape, 
 and the cruelty of his infuriated captors in putting out both his eyes, quenched 
 the last lingering hope of the doomed people. Their king was a sightless, helpless 
 prisoner, and all was over. The national life was extinguished. We cannot but 
 admire the dogged bravery of the people in their resolute defence of king and 
 country ; but it was the bravery of desperation and despair. The fiat of destruc- 
 tion had gone forth, and it was now fulfilled in every detail. 
 
 Lessons. — 1. The nation that rebels against God is defenceless. 2. The 
 threatenings of God against disobedience are not meaningless. 3. Betioeen the 
 threatening of doom and its accomplishment there is ample oppoHunity for repent' 
 ance and reform. 
 
 GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES. 
 
 Ver. 17. The weary watcher. 1. for many years a desire to see that city. 
 
 Eagerly longs for much-needed help. In the city of Genoa he was seized with 
 
 2. Impairs his eyesight with the in- paralysis, was unable to proceed farther, 
 
 tensity of his vigil. 3. Is bitterly dis- and died there, never having looked 
 
 appointed when he looks for help in upon the longed-for sight, 
 vain. A clever escape. When Mazzini 
 
 Vers. 18, 19. The helplessly baffled. fled from France, he had to risk being 
 
 I. Are everywhere menaced icith danger, seized by the French police at Mar- 
 
 " They hunt our steps, that we cannot seilles. He refused to be hidden as a 
 
 go in our streets" (ver. 18). II. Re- stowaway, and when they came to look 
 
 treat is cut off in every direction. " Our for him, they passed without notice a 
 
 persecutors are swifter than the eagles " man in his shirt-sleeves coolly washing 
 
 (ver. 19). III. Sullenly subinit to the bottles in the cook's kitchen. 
 inevitable. " Our days are fulfilled, for A sad end. Cardinal Pole, suspected 
 
 our end is come " (ver. 18). even by Queen Mary, whom he had 
 
 Ver. 20. Royalty. 1. Is the symbol liked to serve, was on his death-bed 
 
 of government and protection. 2. Is when she died. Among the last sounds 
 
 the representative of national life and that fell on his ears must have been the 
 
 character. 3. Its degradation involves bells of Westminster ringing the knell 
 
 national disaster. of the cause to which he had sacrificed 
 
 his life ; and before the evening he too 
 
 Illustrations. — Disappointment, had passed away, a blighted, broken- 
 
 When Daniel O'Connell, on account of hearted man, detested by those whom 
 
 his ill-health, was ordered to leave Eng- he had laboured most anxiously to 
 
 land, he started for Rome, having had serve. 
 118 
 
nOMILETiC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 Attachment stronger than death. 
 
 On the 18th of December 1851, Turner 
 the painter died in the front room of 
 119 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, fronting 
 the Thames. To an upper window, no 
 longer able to paint, too feeble to walk, 
 he had been wheeled every morning 
 during those last days, that he might 
 lose no light of the December sun on 
 his beloved Thames. 
 
 The last parting. 
 
 " How shall we know it is the last good-bye ? 
 The skies will not be darkened in that hour, 
 No sudden blight will fall on leaf and 
 
 flower, 
 No single bird will hush its careless cry, 
 And you will hold my hands, and smile or 
 
 sigh 
 Just as before. Perchance the sudden tears 
 In your dear eyes will answer to my fears ; 
 But there will come no voice of prophecy ; 
 No voice to whisper, ' Now, and not again. 
 Space for last words, last kisses,, and last 
 
 prayer, 
 For all the wild unmitigated pain 
 Of those who, parting, clasp hands with 
 
 despair.' 
 ' Who knows ? ' we say ; but doubt and fear 
 
 remain. 
 Would any choose to part thus unaware I"' 
 
 A good king a blessing. Speaking 
 of the reign of Leopold I. of Tuscany, 
 
 as compared with the despotism of the 
 Medicis, Mr. Howells says: — "I con- 
 fess that it has a great charm for my 
 fancy. It is like a long stretch of sun- 
 light in that lurid, war-clouded landscape 
 of history, full of repose and genial, 
 beneficent growth. For twenty-six 
 years,, apparently, the good prince got 
 up at six o'clock in the morning and 
 dried the tears of his people. In his 
 time, ten years passed in which no drop 
 of blood was shed on the scaffold. The 
 hospitals that he founded, the order and 
 propriety in which he kept them, justly 
 entitled him to the name of Father of 
 the Poor. He was happy because he 
 saw his people were happy. He be- 
 lieved in God." 
 
 Uncertainty of royal favours. 
 
 "Vain pomp and glory of this world, I hate ye ;. 
 I feel my heart new opened. Oh, how 
 
 wretched 
 Is that poor man that hangs on prince's 
 
 favours ! 
 There is betwixt that smile we should 
 
 aspire to, 
 That sweet aspect of princes, and their ruin, 
 More pangs and fears than wars or women 
 
 have ; 
 And when he falls, he falls like Lucifer, 
 Never to hope again." — -Shakespeare. 
 
 HOMILETICS. 
 
 The Fate of the Malevolent. 
 
 (Verses 21, 22.) 
 
 I. Their malicious joy over the unfortunate is brief. " Rejoice and be glad, 
 daughter of Edom" (ver. 21). Edom, though related to Judah, was her most 
 relentless enemy. It was the enmity of inveterate envy. Judah had outdistanced 
 Edom, and rose to superior greatness and power. This was the offence Edom could 
 never forgive. She watched the downfall of Judah with a savage delight, and when 
 the catastrophe came, which she did her best to accelerate, she gloated over it with 
 a fiendish joy (Ps. cxxxvii. 7 ; Jer. xlix. 7-22). The prophet now ironically calls 
 upon Edom to take her fill of her unnatural merriment, for it would soon be silenced 
 and changed into a song with a different tune. Having made common cause with 
 the enemies of God's people and become their aiders and abettors in oppression, Edom' 
 must share in the calamities that overwhelmed them. Edom is the type of the ene- 
 mies of the Church in all ages, who, instigated with " envy, hatred, malice, and all 
 uncharitableness," exult in the misfortunes of God's people. What a revelation is 
 this of the possible wickedness of the human heart ! Well might Vianny write, 
 "The heart of the wicked swarms with sins like an anthill with ants. It is like a 
 piece of bad meat — full of worms." But the triumph of the morally bad is short. 
 
 II. They will be certainly punished for their wickedness. 1. It loill he 
 a punishment involving suffering and disgrace. . "The cup also shall pass through 
 unto thee: thou shalt be drunken, and shalt make thyself naked" (ver. 21). 
 
 119 
 
nOMILETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 " 21 lull, too, shalt he drunk luith the shame of ruin: thou, too, sltalt expose thyself 
 to contempt." — Geikie. The wine-cup of the Divine wrath will by-and-bye be 
 placed in the hands of His enemies, and they must drink it — drink it till they are 
 infatuated with the intoxicating draught, and commit follies and sins that sink 
 them into utter contempt, liow they know something of the bitterness of the 
 suffering over which they had gloated when others were the victims. 2. It toill 
 he a righteous pimishment. " He will visit thine iniquity, O daughter of Edom ; 
 Ho will discover thy sins" (ver. 22). To uncover and expose sins is equivalent 
 to punishing them. Edom was punished not arbitrarily and from caprice, but 
 because of her iniquity. The Divine chastisements are in harmony with the law 
 of universal righteousness. God knows exactly the time and the measure of pun- 
 ishment. The cup of His wrath is not passed on to, either individual or nation 
 until it is full. The wicked cannot escape. 
 
 III. Their punishment will be intensified by the deliverance of the people 
 whose miseries they ridiculed. "The punishment of thine iniquity is accom- 
 plished, O daughter of Zion : He will no more carry thee away into captivity " 
 (ver. 22). Judah shall not be exiled again for the iniquity, the guilt of which is 
 now expiated. It would be unjust to punish twice for the same offence. She 
 has borne the punishment : it is finished ; and she is now free — free to enter upon 
 a course of obedience which will secure promised blessing. The tables are now 
 turned. Judah is free : Edom is the sufferer ; and it adds sharpness to the thorns 
 that now distress her to know that her hated rival is delivered and is again in the 
 ascendant. Envy gives the soul no rest, and deteriorates its capacity for nobler 
 feelings. 
 
 " The cankering rust corrodes the brightest steel ; 
 
 The moth frets out your garment, and the worm 
 
 Eats its slow way into the solid oak : 
 
 But Envy, of all evil tilings the worst, 
 
 The same to-day, to-morrow, and for ever, 
 
 Saps and consumes the heart in which it works." — Cumberland. 
 
 We should be careful not to exult over the miseries of others, as we know not 
 how soon we may be in the same plight, and the memory of our inhuman conduct 
 Avill increase our own suffering. 
 
 Lessons. — 1. O71I1/ the wilfully malicious can rejoice over the distresses of 
 others. 2. Inveterate tvickedness is sure to receive its just recompense. 3. Punish- 
 tnent is concerned only with the guilt already incurred. 
 
 GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES. 
 
 Vers, 21, 22, Two kinds of joy, the contents of its mingled cnp. " Thou 
 I. The joy of the envious. " Rejoice shalt be drunken, and shalt make thy- 
 and be glad, daughter of Edom" self naked " (ver. 21). III. Is sure to 
 (ver. 21). 1, Is full of malice. 2. Is overtake the transgressor. "The cup 
 cruel. 3. Is unreal — the dry chuckle also shall pass through unto thee " (ver. 
 of the scornful. II. The joy of the 21). IV. Does not cease till its mis- 
 free. *' The punishment of thine ini- sion is fulfilled. " The punishment of 
 quity is accomplished, daughter of thine iniquity is accomplished, O 
 Zion" (ver. 22). 1. Indicates relief daughter of Zion " (ver. 22), 
 from suffering. 2. Despair has given Ver. 22. A message from God to 
 place to hope. 3. Has the ring of thee, I, Our first message is one of 
 grateful reality, comfort. 1. A joyous fact. "The pun- 
 Punishment. I. Discovers and ex- ishment of thine iniquity is accom- 
 poses sin. " He will visit thine ini- plished." Christ hath for His people 
 quity, O daughter of Edom ; He will borne all the punishment which they 
 discover thy sins " (ver. 22). II. deserved. 2. To whom this message is 
 Stupifies and degrades the victim with sent. To the sinner conscious of his 
 120 
 
IIOMILETIO COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 sin. 3. A precious promise. " I will 
 no more carry thee away into captivity." 
 Thou art in captivity now, sorrowing 
 on account of sin ; but it is the last 
 thou shalt ever have. In the world to 
 come there is no captivity for thee. 
 II. A burden of woe. " He will visit 
 thine iniquity, daughter of Edom," 
 1. The daughter of Edom dwelt care- 
 lessly in the land of Uz, as if secure from 
 danger. 2. Made merriment over the 
 sorrows of others. 3. Cherished a 
 vain hope, a self-sufficient confidence. 
 4. "Was very proud. III. TF/iy are 
 there these different messages? 1. The 
 reason of the message of mercy is sove- 
 reign. 2. Of the message of woe, 
 Divine justice. IV. Wliat claim have 
 these messages on our faith ? To be 
 devoutly believed, because both mes- 
 sages are plaiidy revealed in the Word 
 of God. — C. H. Spurgeon. 
 
 Illustrations. — Malice. 
 
 " For malice will with joy the lie receive, 
 Report, and what it wishes true, believe." 
 
 — Yalden. 
 
 Reproof of malice. St. Augustine is 
 saiil to have had these two lines in- 
 scribed on his table to remind his 
 guests of his wishes — 
 
 " Whoever loves an absent friend to jeer, 
 May hence depart, no room is for him here." 
 
 A malevolent tongue. The tongue 
 of the slanderer is a devouring fire, 
 which tarnishes everything it touches ; 
 which exercises its fury on the good grain 
 equally as on the chaff, on the profane 
 as well as on the sacred ; which, wher- 
 ever it passes, leaves only desolation 
 and ruin ; digs even into the bowels 
 of the earth and fixes itself on things 
 the most hidden ; turns into vile ashes 
 what only a moment before had ap- 
 peared to us so precious and brilliant ; 
 acts with more violence and danger than 
 ever in the time when it was apparently 
 smothered up and almost extinct ; 
 which blackens what it cannot con- 
 sume, and sometimes sparkles and de- 
 lights before it destroys. — Massillon. 
 
 Wickedness. There have been men 
 splendidly wicked whose endowments 
 threw a brightness on their crimes, and 
 
 wliom scarce any villainy made per- 
 fectly detestable, because they never 
 coidd be wholly divested of their ex- 
 cellences ; but such have been in all 
 ages the corrupters of the world, and 
 their resemblance ought no more to be 
 preserved than the art of murdering 
 without pain. 
 
 — I have seen men who, I thought, 
 ought to have a whole conversion for 
 each one of their faculties. Their natures 
 were so unmitigatedly wicked that it 
 cost more for them to be decent than 
 for other men to be saints. — Beecher. 
 
 Sin will find you out. Men's sins 
 often find them out, though no visible 
 sign or token may betray this fact to 
 the world. All may outwardly stand 
 fair ; there may be no breach in the 
 Avorldly prosperity ; nay, this may be 
 ampler, more strongly established than 
 ever ; while yet there may be that 
 within which forbids to rejoice, which 
 takes all the joy and gladness out of 
 life — the memory of that sin which was 
 nothing when committed, but which 
 now darkens all — the deadly arrow 
 poisoning the springs of life, which will 
 not drop from the side, Avhich no force, 
 no art of man's device can withdraw. 
 To such Dr. Trench's advice is, to turn 
 the tables on our sins, to find them out, 
 and to take them all to God to be con- 
 demned, pardoned, and subdued ; " con- 
 demned by Thy righteous judgments, O 
 Father ; pardoned by the precious blood 
 of Thy dear Son, and subdued by the 
 mighty operation of the Holy Ghost." 
 This is the good, old-fashioned preach- 
 ing of Apostles and preachers of the 
 very oldest times. 
 
 The downward career of evil. In 
 the Rabbinical books of the Jews they 
 have a curious tradition about the 
 growth of leprosy, that it began with 
 the walls of a man's house ; then, if he 
 did not repent, entered his garments, 
 till at last the disease covered his whole 
 body. And thus it is with the growth 
 of sin. It begins with neglect of duty ; 
 it may be of prayer, or the warn- 
 ing voice of conscience is unheeded. 
 Habits of sin are formed, till at last the 
 soul that lets God alone is let alone by 
 God. — Pilkingto7i. 
 
 121 
 
CHAP. V. nOMILETIC COMMENT A R Y : LA ME NT A TIONS. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Eecapitulation of Zion's Calamities and Prayer. 
 
 The verses of this chapter are not arranged according to the order of the alphabet, yet their 
 number corresponds to its number. More distinctly than the preceding chapters this one shows 
 the " parallelism " of Hebrew poetry, in which one clause of a verse is closely related by senti- 
 ment and construction to the other. The contents suggest that the circumstances of the writer 
 impelled him to take a retrospect of what had befallen his fellow-countrymen, and to found, on 
 the variety and intensity of their sorrows, a hope that their iniquities would be pardoned, and 
 that they would receive from the Lord's hand tokens of His restored favour, according to the 
 days wherein He had afflicted them. 
 
 Ver. 1. Remember, O Jehovah, what has happened to us — an application not to one who 
 had forgotten, but to One who could consider their auction and pain with a view to forgive all 
 their sins and redeem Israel out of all his troubles; a prayer which is not so much an utterance 
 concurrent with the nature of God, as concurrent with the partial knowledge and felt needs of 
 the worshipper ; behold, and see our reproach, the reproach of Thy servants . . . wherewith 
 Thine enemies have reproached, Jehovah, the footsteps of Thine anointed. 
 
 Ver. 2 begins to describe the substance of the reproaches. Our inheritance, the land which 
 was promised to Abraham, and of which his descendants had held possession for generations, 
 is turned over unto strangers. Indeed, all their property had passed into other hands ; 
 our houses unto aliens. Even if any small houses were left standing, after the Chaldeans had 
 destroyed every important building in Jerusalem, besides breaking down the city walls, they 
 were at the disposal of those foreigners. 
 
 Ver. 3. No recondite application of the terms of this verse — as that, " We are abandoned by 
 Thee, our Father " — need be considered. The note of a Targum sufficiently defines them, 
 "We are like the most desolate of beings." We have become orphans, without a father. A 
 devastating war, a merciless capture of Jerusalem, a banishment to a far country of thousands 
 of the population, must have caused reports of many among the " bread-winners " being dead 
 or missing ; hence it could be said virtually, if not really. Our mothers [are] like widows, the 
 words being true of other families as well as of those whose head had perished. 
 
 Ver. 4. Not only are they orphaned and desolate, but they are cruelly mulcted. Our water 
 for money we have drunken. The bitterness of the act was that water, perhaps from their 
 own wells and cisterns, had to be paid for, and similarly to that, Our wood has come for a 
 price. Held in such durance that they could not get the requisites for personal and domestic 
 comfort, to which they had free access formerly, unless by bribing their custodians. 
 
 Ver. 5. It is best to suppose that the phrase. On our necks we are pursued, means, our 
 pursuers keep so close as to be, as it were, holding our necks ; yet, tired out by such persecu- 
 tion, no rest is for us. 
 
 Ver. 6. Judaga was on the verge of famine through the foragings of the invaders, and, under 
 the ominous shadow of starvation, To Egypt we have given the hand, i.e., imploring supplies 
 of food, as is signified by the parallel clause, to Assyria to be satisfied with bread. The 
 people appealed to a supposed friendly and to an openly hostile government ; for the Babylonian 
 empire, even in the height of its power, was occasionally spoken of as Assyria (Jer. ii. 18), into 
 whose dominion it had entered. 
 
 Ver. 7. Our fathers have sinned ; they are not in the land of the living. The hour of 
 punishment had not come in their time. The measure of iniquity was not yet full ; but the 
 consequences of their doings, ifhich were not good, had not been buried with them. The dis- 
 ruption of civil and religious order, by which we have so fearfully suffered, results from the 
 guilt which was incurred by preceding generations. We have borne their iniquities. This 
 truth is stated again and again in the Old Testament Scriptures (Exod. xx. 5 ; Num. xiv. 18 ; 2 
 Kings xxiii. 25, 26) ; it is, however, only half a truth, and becomes an error if understood to say 
 that the descendants were not also guiit^'. This other half was beginning to dawn upon Israel. 
 It is noted in ver. 16, and was boldly announced by the prophets of this period, Jeremiah (chap. 
 xxxi. 29, 30) and Ezekiel (chap, xviii.). Yet God strikes the sins of forefathers with penal 
 judgments on their children only when the children persist in sin, as their predecessors did. 
 But such vicarious suffering placed them in a position like sin-bearers, and becomes ground of 
 appeal for the exercise of Divine compassion. 
 
 Ver. 8. Servants have ruled over us. Who they were may be uncertain. It is a far- 
 fetched supposition that they were the conquering chiefs, because "the Babylonians in general 
 might be called slaves in comparison with the kingdom of priests and sons of Jehovah." The 
 suggestion rather is that the galling yoke was made doubly galling by the insolence and brutality 
 of menials, "dressed in the brief authority of office," slaves in Oriental countries often rising to 
 places of power. A parallel is mentioned by Nehemiah, who says (chap. v. 5), Even their (i.e., 
 the governor'.^) servants bare ride over them ; there was no deliverer from their hands. 
 
 Ver. 9. With our lives we get our bread — they jeopardised their lives when going to gather 
 a scanty harvest, or to take from provisions which had been stowed away— because of the 
 122 
 
BOMILETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 sword of the desert, wielded by the predatory Bedawin, who would plunder and even kill 
 those who were in possession of food. So Gideon had to get his wheat in secret, lest the 
 Midianites should seize it (Judges vi. 11) ; and the ten men who bought their lives from the 
 robbers and murderers of Gedaliah (Jer. xli. 8) drew from concealed stores of victuals. 
 
 Ver. 10. The bread, which was obtained at the risk of their lives, was not enough in quantity 
 to nourish them. Our skin is hot like an oven ; the feverishness is because of th«^ burning 
 heat of hunger. " Hunger dries up the pores of the skin, so that it becomes like as if it had 
 been exposed to the burning heat of the simoom." 
 
 We must not fancy that the several distressing things alluded to befell every one of all 
 classes. We should rather believe that some troubles were felt by one portion, while another 
 portion had to bear different troubles. So the author proceeds to record what sufferings wer3 
 endured by particular divisions of the population. 
 
 Ver. 12. The most gentle were outraged, and princes were hanged up by their hand — not 
 the hand of the foe is referred to, though by him the cruel deed was perpetrated ; still less is 
 the reference to compulsory suicide, as Calvin surmises ; but the hand of the princes was the 
 leverage by which their bodies were lifted up. Whether they were first killed and then sus- 
 pended, or were tortured by such suspension when every nerve and muscle was vibrating with 
 life's waves, is a question to which no sure reply can be given ; but probably the latter is hinted 
 at. The bodies of Saul and his sons were fastened to the wall of Beth-shan (1 Sam. xxxi. 
 10-12); and more recent commentators refer to "Records of the Past," i. 38, in which an in- 
 scription of Sennacherib is quoted as saying of the people of Ekron, " The chief priests and 
 noblemen I put to death ; on stakes all round the city I hung their bodies ; " and the practice 
 seems to have been not uncommon among Assyrians and Babylonians, Still, impalement after 
 death does not correspond distinctly to the atrocity mentioned here. The faces — persons — of 
 elders were not honoured. Not only men high in rank, but also those who held responsible 
 positions among the people — aged persons are spoken of after this — were treated with indignity 
 in the insolence of conquest. 
 
 Ver. 13. The choice portion of the nation were forced to be nothing but mere burden- 
 bearers. Young men bare the mill. They had to carry about, and no doubt to turn, the 
 hand-mills to grind corn for their military masters, thus doing the work of women or of slaves ; 
 while the fuel, for cooking and other purposes, was laid on shoulders ill able to bear a load. 
 Boys stumbled [under] a burden of wood. 
 
 Ver. 14. Entire collapse of interest in the common ways of life was shown by the abandon- 
 ment of public meetings and social pastimes. The elders ceased from [frequenting] the gate. 
 They had gone thither as to the usual gathering-place ; they adjudicated, advised, had general 
 intercourse, and received the marks of respect suggested by the law — Thou shall rise up before 
 the hoary head and honour the face of the old man (Lev. xix. 32) ; but that resort was no longer 
 theirs. Moreover, the buoyancy of youthful spirits was crushed down. Young men ceased 
 from their music, accompanied by instruments. 
 
 Ver. 15. The iron had entered the soul. Ceased is the joy of our heart, and past pleasures 
 had become a pain ; turned into mourning our dance. 
 
 Ver. 16. Fallen is the crown from our head. That which was their honour has gone — the 
 crown with which the Lord Jehovah had decked His chosen nation. I fut ... a beautiful 
 crown upon thine head . . . and thy renown went forth among the nations for thy beauty ; for it 
 u-as perfect through my majesty, which I had put upon thee (Ezek. xvi. 12 and 14). Now it is 
 in the dust, set at nought by all those who had admired it. So, as if in irrepressible acknow- 
 ledgment that they themselves were responsible for the dismal change, the exclamation bursts 
 forth. Woe unto us ! for we have sinned — sinned not against a ritual or a code of law, but 
 against a living Person — Maker, Monarch, Eather. This second clause is in correlation with 
 ver. 7, and expresses the share which their own iniquities had in the guilt which had drawn 
 down such condign suffering as they were subjected to. Like their fathers, they had disowned 
 truth and righteousness, and addicted themselves to false and unholy practices. This view of 
 themselves, and confession of its evil nature, opens the eyes of the heart to look for the throne 
 of grace. 
 
 Ver. 17. How depressing is the conviction of personal sin. For this our heart has become 
 faint. Many sorrows had surged over them and exhausted the faculty of external and mental 
 vision. For these things our eyes are darkened. 
 
 Ver. 18. The depression of heart meets its most striking symbol in that which, once the 
 glory of the land, is now its reproach. As to Mount Zion — regarded as embracing both the 
 dwelling-place of Jehovah and the precincts of the sacred city, which is desolate ; jackals 
 roam in it. These animals live in waste places, and avoid man's presence, so their wandering 
 upon Zion proves that it has become a ruinous area, without inhabitant. The place of the 
 tabernacle of thy glory, the hill and the watch-tower, are turned into dens for wild beasts. 
 
 Ver. 19. Nevertheless, whatever be the low estate of His sanctuary and people, the living 
 God is and reigns. Thou, Jehovah, abidest for ever. Not only is His continual existence 
 denoted, but also that Jehovah sitteth as Icing for ever (Ps. xxix. 10), the same verb being used 
 in this clause as in the Psalm quoted, and the next clause carries on the thought, Thy throne 
 from generation to generation. Enemies may destroy the ten-pie made with hands; they 
 
 123 
 
HOMILETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS'. 
 
 are powerless to injure the kingdom of Ilitn who inhabits eternity. Generations come and go 
 with their rises and falls, b^U 2'hou art the same, and Thy years shall not fall. 
 
 Ver. 20. The perpetuity of God's rule, amid all earthly changes, frames an appealing prayer. 
 Reigning supreme over the army of heaven, it is impossible that He can renounce authority 
 over the things of earth and man ; then. Why dost Thou forget US for ever, forsakest us for 
 so long ? Is it not time for Thee to pluck Thy right hand out of Thy bosom and bring relief in 
 the lifetime even of this generation ? How bluntly petitioners address God when troubles press 
 upon them ! How ready to suppose His thoughts and ways must be like their own ! How 
 prone to fancy that, because their observation does not perceive His working, God can hardly 
 care so much for His kingdom's honour as they do ! 
 
 Ver. 21. Turn us, Jehovah, unto Thee, and we shall be turned ; a prayer which proves 
 that a new heart has been given to those in whose name the writer speaks. Affliction has been 
 a means of showing the blunders and sins of the past, and that the only remedy for them is in 
 Jehovah Himself. They see that the reconciling power does not originate with themselves, but 
 with Him ; that He must draw them by a continual influence if they are to walk in the light of 
 His countenance. We do not consider this request as merely for the restoration of their native 
 land ; we need to put a deeper meaning into it, which will, at least, indicate that they wanted 
 to become true worshippers of the Lord God of their deliverances. The succeeding clause, 
 however, se^ms to imply that they did not expect to attain to their desires unless they were 
 repossessed with their former national organisation. Renew our days as of old ; re-establish 
 the gracious relations in which thou stoodest to us ; let us again have country, city, and temple, 
 priest, prophet, and king. Cause every man to sit under his vine and under hisfg-tree, and none 
 make them afraid. 
 
 Ver, 22. The two initial Hebrew particles of this verse signify that it is not a fact which is 
 stated, but the elements of a hope, and may be introduced with. This will come to pass, unless 
 Thou hast utterly rejected us ; art wroth against us exceedingly. The under-thought is, 
 But this cannot be the case. Thou wouldst not so disgrace the throne of Thy glory. Thou 
 wouldst not so falsify the promises made to our fathers. Thou wouldst not always give occasion 
 for the mocking heathen to say, Where is noiv your God? 
 
 " This conclusion entirely agrees with the character of the Lamentations, in which com- 
 plaint and supplication continue to the end, not without an element of hope, which, as Gerlach 
 says, ' merely glimmers from afar, like the morning star through the clouds, which does not 
 indeed itself dispel the shadows of the night, though it announces that the rising of the sun is 
 near, and that it shall obtain the victory ' " {Keil). 
 
 HOMILETICS. 
 A Piteous Appeal to Jehovah. 
 
 (Verse 1.) 
 
 Once more, and for the last time, the prophet returns to his sorrowful theme. 
 There is a fascination in it he cannot resist. Grief, unduly indulged, is apt to 
 make us selfish, and so to accustom us to a grievance that we never wish to be 
 without one : we coax and caress our troubles rather than seek to be rid of them. 
 But the sorrow of the prophet arose from no mere personal distress. He was the 
 mouthpiece to express the lamentations of the best spirits of his day over a national 
 and world-wide disaster. His poetic and prophetic insight fitted him the more 
 clearly to grasp and weigh the magnitude of the calamity. The profound and 
 passionate grief with which he recited the leading incidents in the national catas- 
 trophe tended to stamp them with indelible distinctness upon his memory. He 
 could never forget them, and it would seem as if he could not cease talking about 
 them. As if with a clinging fondness for the theme and loathe to dismiss it, he 
 passes in slow and final review the chief features of the siege and capture of Jeru- 
 salem. "Thus wailed the genius of Hebrew poetry over the desolation of Judah 
 and Jerusalem ! Other cities and countries have had their minstrels to lament 
 tlieir public sorrows, but the national elegies of the Jew alone have spread among 
 all races of the earth, and remain fresh after twenty-five centuries. Nor are they 
 even yet without deep and practical interest, recording as they do the catastrophe 
 that awaits any community, however highly favoured, which forgets that public 
 and private righteousness alone secures permanent prosperity " (Geikie). This 
 fifth and last elegy begins and ends in prayer. It is a hopeful sign when trouble 
 124 
 
nOMILETIO COMMENTARY: L AMEN TAT lOXS. 
 
 liriiigs us to our knees. We are then in the way of receiving comfort and deliver- 
 ing help. This verse is a piteous appeal to Jehovah. 
 
 I. Rising from the hearts of a suffering people. " Kemember, Lord, what 
 is come upon us." The trouble is not simply threatened and approaching : it is 
 upon us ; we are now in the midst of it, and cannot be in a worse plight than we 
 are in already. Our nation ruined, our city gone, our Temple gone, and the spiked 
 heel of the oppressor even now presses us in the dust. If Thou canst do anything 
 for us, Lord, do it now. The cry of real suffering has an irresistible pathos 
 about it : there is the sound of tears in it. Such a cry never fails to reach the 
 ears of Jehovah, and His pitying heart yearns to help the suppliant. 
 
 IL Is expressed by a people who regard their sufferings as a reproach. 
 " Behold our reproach." We are sunk from dignity and greatness to abject humi- 
 liation and shame, from affluence to poverty. We are the people of Jehovah, 
 chosen by Him and publicly acknowledged by Him before the world. He has 
 wrought miracles of power on our behalf, and we thought we were lifted above the 
 possibility of change and decay to which other nations were liable. But now we 
 are abandoned by our Divine Protector, and have become objects of scorn by our 
 oppressors. Our calamities reflect upon the name and honour of Him who has 
 done so much for us : our reproach is His reproach. So they thought ; and so 
 think the privileged in all ages when trouble overtakes them. They are apt to 
 blame any one but themselves, and are slow to see that their distresses are the 
 fruits of their own sins. 
 
 III. Is uttered with the confidence that His help will be graciously afforded. 
 " Remember, consider, behold." Kemember what is past, the sufferings we have 
 had j and behold and consider the present, the sufferings under which we at this 
 moment writhe. Is this nothing to Thee, God of our fathers? Is it a matter 
 of indifference to Thee that Thine own children are in such abject woe 1 It cannot 
 be. Our fathers sinned and so have we ; but we repent. We are still the heirs 
 of the promises. Lord have mercy, and fulfil Thy word unto Thy servants. It is 
 a great help to prayer to believe that God not only sees and commiserates our 
 miseries, but that He is able and willing to help us. 
 
 Lessons. — 1. God is not indifferent to the suffhings of His p)sople. 2. The 
 suffering heart ff,nds relief in prayer. 3. Prayer is the first stage in the process of 
 religious reform. 
 
 GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES. 
 
 The hopefulness of prayer. 1. When All things that live from God their sus- 
 
 it is the cry of distress. 2. When it , tenance wait, 
 
 "'ill J ,. , And sun and moon are beggars at His Efate. 
 
 encourages a humble and reverential °^ —Trench 
 
 familiarity with God. 3. When it is 
 
 an earnest appeal from the weak to the Prayer in trouble. Sinking times 
 
 strong. 4. When it is based on the are praying times with the Lord's ser- 
 assurance that God knows all about our vants. Peter neglected prayer at start- 
 case and is willing to succour. ing upon his adventurous journey, but 
 
 when he began to sink, his danger made 
 
 Illustrations.— The need of prayer. ^^^^ ^ suppliant, and his cry, though 
 
 late, was not too late. In our hours of 
 " '^^^0^8^^^'' delights the least, then learn ^^^^^^ p^^j,^ and mental anguish we find 
 Soul, now^s greatest need that thou shouldst ourselves as naturally driven to prayer 
 pray. as the wreck is driven upon the shore 
 
 Say what is prayer, when it is prayer indeed? by the waves. The fox hies to his hole 
 The mighty utterance of a mighty deed. fQ^ protection, the bird flies to tlie wood 
 
 The man is praymg who doth press with /•iii. ^ i-Lx-i-L 
 
 mio-ht "^ for shelter, and even so the tried be- 
 
 Out of his darkness into God's own light. liever hastens to the mercy-seat for 
 
 125 
 
HOMILETIC COMMENTARY : LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 safety. Heaven's great harbour of 
 refuge is All-prayer. Thousands of 
 weather-beaten vessels have found a 
 haven there, and the moment a storm 
 comes on it is wise for us to make for 
 it with all sail. — Spurgeon. 
 
 Prayer should be importunate. 
 Prayer pulls the rope below, and the 
 great bell rings above in the ears of 
 God. Some scarcely stir the bell, for they 
 pray so languidly ; others give but an 
 occasional pluck at the rope ; but he who 
 wins with Heaven is the man who grasps 
 the rope boldly, and pulls continuously 
 with all his might. — Biblical Treasury. 
 
 God answers prayer. I once saw a 
 grand procession in which an Oriental 
 monarch, surrounded by a thousand 
 life-guards, moved to the sound of all 
 kinds of music. Some unknown sub- 
 ject had a request to urge. He knew 
 the utter impossibility of ever break- 
 ing through the guards that day and 
 night surrounded his majesty. That 
 humble person perhaps had some dear 
 friend in prison, who, according to 
 Oriental custom, could never be tried or 
 freed while the prosecutor's malice or 
 purse held out. They have no Habeas 
 Corpus law among nations without the 
 Bible. This poor creature took the only 
 possible way known to one unable to 
 bribe the officers, and flung his petition 
 over the heads of the guards, and it fell 
 
 at the feet of the sovereign. In a 
 moment one of the life-guards pierced 
 it with his bayonet and flung it back 
 into the crowd. Alas ! the proud, 
 pleasure - loving monarch, amid the 
 luxuriant splendours of his court, 
 palace, army, and plans of reaping re- 
 nown, never so much as dreamed of 
 noticing the prayer of that broken 
 heart and crushed spirit. Not thus 
 does the King of kings treat the hum- 
 blest suppliant who seeks His help. — 
 Van Doren. 
 
 — I never was deeply interested in 
 any object, I never prayed sincerely 
 and earnestly for anything, but it came ; 
 at some time, no matter how distant a 
 day, in some shape, probably the last 
 I should have devised, it came. — Adoni- 
 rani Judson. 
 
 Prayer brings deliverance. Prayer 
 procures deliverance from trouble just 
 as Naaman's dipping himself seven 
 times in Jordan procured him a deliver- 
 ance from his leprosy ; not by any 
 virtue in itself adequate to so great an 
 efi"ect, you may be sure, but from this, 
 that it was appointed by God as the 
 condition of his recovery, and so obliged 
 the power of Him who appointed it to 
 give force and virtue to His own insti- 
 tutions beyond what the nature of the 
 thing itself could otherwise have raised 
 it to. — South. 
 
 HOMILETICS. 
 The Miseries of the Disinherited. 
 (Verses 2-5.) 
 
 I. To see their possessions enjoyed by foreigners. "Our inheritance is 
 turned to strangers, our houses to aliens " (ver. 2). The land of Canaan was God's 
 gift to the Jews. It was promised to them long before they entered into posses- 
 sion. There was a time when it seemed they would not be permitted even to look 
 upon their Beulah-land. But God kept His Avord, and, after long wandering and 
 many disappointments, the tribes received their allotted inheritance. In beauty 
 and fruitfulness they found the land all that it had been represented. For many 
 happy years they sat under their own vine and fig-tree, none daring to make them 
 afraid. It was a bitter disappointment to find themselves violently ejected, and 
 their loved inheritance occupied by their enemies. The possessions of earth are 
 liable to strange and sudden changes ; but the heavenly inheritance is indefeasible, 
 and can never be wrested from the faithful. 
 
 II. To be reduced to the condition of widows and orphans. ""We are 
 orphans and fatherless ; our mothers are as widows " (ver. 3). Their misery was 
 
 126 
 
nOMlLETIO COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 comparable to the sad and lonely desolation of fatherless orphans and wives just 
 bereaved of their husbands. The guardian, guide, and support of family life is 
 taken away, and they are left to battle with the cold, unpitying world, surrounded 
 with heartless and cruel enemies. It is a painful experience for any family to be 
 reduced by a single stroke from affluence to penury and friendlessness. If God 
 did not help the widows and the fatherless, their condition would be unbearable. 
 The competition of life is keen enough to the most favoured ; but it is a terrible 
 struggle to the lonely and friendless. The luxury of former years unfits many for 
 the fierceness of life's conflict, and thousands go down into untimely oblivion. 
 
 III. To be compelled to pay for the food and fuel produced on their own 
 property. " We have drunken our water for money ; our wood is sold unto us " 
 (ver. 4). The bitterness of the complaint is intensified in not merely that they 
 must pay for the necessaries of life, but that it is their own property which they 
 have to purchase. The water in their own house cisterns is taxed ; the wood in 
 their own forests must be paid for — and they paid dearly for every fagot. " The 
 captives were doubtless closely watched, and not allowed to stray from the place 
 where they were detained in preparation for their removal to Babylon, and thus 
 could obtain wood and water only by paying for them " (Speakei-'s Commentary). 
 How would they long now for the sticks their little children used to gather for the 
 fires in which they idolatrously baked cakes for the queen of heaven ! (Jer. vii. 
 18). It is in the hardships of life that we lament the wanton waste of more pros- 
 perous times. 
 
 IV. To be harassed by incessant toil. *' Our necks are under persecution : 
 we labour and have no rest " (ver. 5). We were pursued so actively that our ene- 
 mies seemed ever so close upon us as to be leaning over our necks ready at once 
 to seize us. We were tired out with being thus chased incessantly, and no oppor- 
 tunity was allowed us of refreshing our weary frames {Speaker's Commentary). 
 Labour is necessary for health, for sustenance, for happiness. There is nothing 
 servile in honest and necessary work, whether by hand or brain. Abraham fed his 
 own flocks. Moses kept sheep in the desert. Paul stitched canvas tents while 
 labouring as a pioneer among the Gentiles. The fathers of the Eoman Republic 
 ploughed their own fields, sowed the seed, and reaped their harvests Avith their own 
 hands. But there is neither nobility nor pleasure in forced labour, especially in 
 labour unrelieved by necessary rest. Life becomes one long, weary, monotonous, 
 and depressing grind. And this is often the fate of the disinherited. 
 
 Lessons. — 1. It is a great hardship to see our rightful inheritance violently 
 transferred to strangers. 2. The loss of icorldly property is not always the greatest 
 calamity. 3. The truly good have an inheritance that is incorruptible, undefiled, 
 and that fadeth not away. 
 
 GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES. 
 
 Vers. 2-5. The sudden reverses of Ver. 3. Bereavement. 1. One of 
 fortune. 1. From wealth to poverty the great curses of war. 2. The inevit- 
 (ver. 2). 2. From social happiness to able lot of humanity. 3. Brings pun- 
 loneliness (ver. 3). 3. From freedom gent sorrow to somebody, 
 to galling exactions (ver. 4). 4. From Vers. 4, 5. The loss of liberty. I. 
 ease to excessive toil (ver. 5). Is painfully realised hy the imposition 
 
 Ver. 2. Property. 1. Knows nothing of unjust exactions. " We have drunken 
 
 of absolute ownership. 2. Is constantly our water for money ; our wood is sold 
 
 changing hands. 3. Its loss by robbery unto us" (ver. 4). II. Is followed by 
 
 and pillage a great hardship. 4. Its oppression. " Our necks are under per- 
 
 fickle tenure contrasts with the im- secution" (ver. 5). III. Subjects to the 
 
 perishable character of spiritual posses- slavery of incessant labour. *' We labour 
 
 sions. and have no rest " (ver. 5). 
 
 127 
 
HOMILETIC COMMENTARY : LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 Illustrations. — The sadness of 
 national decline. " Since first the 
 dominion of men was asserted over the 
 ocean, three thrones, of mark beyond 
 all others, have been set upon its sands 
 — the thrones of Tyre, Venice, and 
 England. Of the first of these great 
 powers only the memory remains ; of 
 the second, the ruin ; the third, which 
 inherits their greatness, if it forget their 
 example, may be led, through prouder 
 eminence, to less pitied destruction. 
 The exaltation, the sin, and the punish- 
 ment of Tyre have been recorded for 
 us in perhaps the most touching words 
 ever uttered by the prophets of Israel 
 against the cities of the stranger. Her 
 successor, like her in perfection of 
 beauty, though less in endurance of 
 dominion, is still left for our beholding 
 in the final period of her decline, a 
 ghost upon the sands of the sea, so 
 weak, so quiet, so bereft of all but her 
 loveliness, that we might well doubt, 
 as we Avatched her faint reflection in 
 the mirage of the lagoon, which was 
 the city and which the shadow." — 
 Rusliin. 
 
 Bereavement has its consolations. 
 A little boy once went out in the early 
 morn, and was greatly delighted Avith 
 the little globes formed by the dew on 
 the brambles. He hastened back, and 
 led his father out to see these miniature 
 Avorlds ; but when the father and son 
 arrived, the sun was up, and had drawn 
 up in vapour the globes that had hung 
 on the brambles, and so displeased the 
 child. The child cried, and said, "The 
 angry sun has taken them all up." Tlie 
 father looked up and saw the beautiful 
 rainbow on the bosom of the cloud, and 
 said, "There, my child, the sun has 
 taken up the bramble globes, and they 
 lielp to form that beautiful bow on the 
 cloud." Ah ! my friends, God has taken 
 up some of our friends, and have we 
 not murmured 1 But where are they ? 
 
 Ah ! do they not form the beautiful 
 bow round the throne of God ? 
 
 Industry secures independence. He 
 that hath a trade hath an estate, and he 
 that hath a calling hath an oflace of 
 profit and honour ; but then the trade 
 must be worked at and the calling 
 followed. If we are industrious, we 
 shall never starve, for at the working 
 man's house hunger looks in but dares 
 not enter. Nor will the bailiff or the 
 constable enter, for industry pays 
 debts while despair increaseth them. — 
 Franldin. 
 
 Compassion for the needy. King 
 Oswald of Northumbria accompanied 
 the monk Aidan in his long missionary 
 journeys as interpreter. One day, as 
 he feasted with the monk by his side, 
 the thegn, a noble of his war-band, 
 whom he had set to give alms to the 
 poor at his gate, told him of a multi- 
 tude that still waited fasting without. 
 The king at once bade the untasted 
 meat before him be carried to the poor, 
 and his silver dish he divided piece- 
 meal among them. Aidan seized the 
 royal hand and blessed it. " May this 
 hand," he cried, " never grow old." 
 
 Persecution defeats itself. The 
 cruelty of Mary's reign and the lurid 
 fires of Sraithfield had only worked in 
 Londoners a fiercer conviction of the 
 error and falsity of the Eoman Catholic 
 religion, and Avhen Elizabeth came to 
 the throne, the people thronged the 
 streets and greeted her with acclama- 
 tion, as though her coming were as the 
 rising of the sun. 
 
 — Speaking of the persecutions and 
 martyrdoms in the time of Queen Mary, 
 Mr. Froude says, " Every martyr's trial 
 was a battle ; every constant death was 
 a defeat of the common enemy ; and 
 the instinctive consciousness that truth 
 was asserting itself in sufiering con- 
 verted the natural emotion of horror 
 into admiring pride." 
 
 EOMILETIGS. 
 
 Humiliating Subjection. 
 
 (Verses 6-9.) 
 
 I. Personal liberty is surrendered for a livelihood. "We have given the 
 hand to the Egyptian and to the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread" (ver. 6). 
 128 
 
nOMlLETlC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 Absolutely it was Babylon that had just destroyed their national existence, but 
 Jeremiah means that all feelings of patriotism were crushed, and the pole care 
 that remained was the selfish desire for personal preservation. To secure this tlie 
 people would readily have submitted to the yoke either of Egypt or Assyria, the 
 great powers from which in their past history they had so often suffered (SjJeaker's 
 Cominentari/). Life is sweet, and it is appalling to think how many there are 
 ready to sell their conscience, their souls, their friends, their country for bread ! 
 The sting of want demoralises the soul. It is matter for unspeakable thankfulness 
 when men are lifted above the degrading temptations of poverty. 
 
 II. The penalty of continuance in sin. " Our fathers have sinned, and are 
 not ; and we have borne their iniquities " (ver. 7). It is a frequent practice of the 
 unfortunate to blame the past. Here the sufferers complain that their predeces- 
 sors, who commenced the national apostasy, had died before the punishment began, 
 and that they are left to bear alone the fatal consequences which previous trans- 
 gressors had escaped. It was some time before the truth dawned upon their minds 
 that they had adopted and continued with aggravated obstinacy the sins of their 
 forefathers, and that there was quite sufficient guilt .in their own iniquity to merit 
 the chastisement they suffered. The course of sin is downward, ever downward, 
 and plunges its victims into the most humiliating subjection. 
 
 III. A painful experience to a high-spirited people when domineered over 
 by inferiors. " Servants have ruled over us : there is none that doth deliver us 
 out of their hands" (ver. 8). Among the things for which "the earth is dis- 
 quieted and which it cannot bear," the proverb saith, " For a servant when he 
 reigneth" (Prov. xxx. 21, 23). In Oriental countries slaves often rose to high 
 office, and there were no doubt such in the Chaldean army. The rule of such is 
 often maintained with unnecessary rigour. They seem to think that they can gain 
 respect and reverence only by severity. The Jews fretted and chafed under the 
 petty tyranny of men whom they regarded as in every respect their inferiors except 
 in their cruel bondage. Virgil has said — 
 
 " Since slaves so insolent are grown, 
 What may not masters do? " 
 
 The Jews had rebelled against the wise and gentle rule of Jehovah and His servants 
 the prophets. Now they are ruled by the tyranny of their enemies and of their 
 slaves. The sinner cannot escape the operation of law. He only exchanges rulers, 
 
 IV. The victims are compelled to snatch their food at the peril of their 
 lives. " We gat our bread at the peril of our lives, because of the sword of the 
 wilderness " (ver. 9). Though they were willing to surrender their liberty for 
 food, its supply was very uncertain and precarious. " This verse apparently refers 
 to those who were left as delvers and vine-dressers in the land, and who, in gather- 
 ing in such fruits as remained, were exposed to incursions of the Bedaween, here 
 called the sicord of the desert." Every morsel of food they ate was snatched as 
 from the mouths of wild beasts. The next forage for food may cost them, not 
 only their independence, but their lives. They had indeed to eat their bread with 
 quaking and carefulness, as it had been predicted (Ezek. xii. 18, 19). There is 
 no advantage in selling our souls for bread ; it is a bad bargain. Honour is more 
 precious than food, or than life itself. 
 
 Lessons. — 1. War imposes great degradations on the conquered. 2. Sin is at 
 the root of all liumiliation and suffering. 3. Subjection is intolerable to those who 
 have tasted the siceets of freedom. 
 
 GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES. 
 
 Vers. 6, 8, 9. The intense love of freedom for food (ver. 6). 2. Subjects 
 life : 1. Tempts men to barter their to the oppressive tyranny of inferiors 
 129 I 
 
CHAP. V. 
 
 HOMILETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 (ver. 8). 3. Will run great risks in 
 the struggle for maintenance (ver. 9). 
 
 Ver. 7. Sin and punishment : 1. Are 
 closely linked together. 2. The sins, 
 like the virtues, of one generation pass 
 on in their consequence to the next. 
 3. Suffering on account of others is 
 taken into account in God's dealing 
 Avith individuals and with nations. 4. 
 Every offender is punished only accord- 
 ing to his own sin. 
 
 Illustrations. — Mistaken views of 
 life. Two old men, amateur naturalists, 
 who had devoted their whole lives, one 
 to ferns and the other to orchids, tra- 
 velled together for many hours. At 
 the end of their journey he who had 
 cultivated ferns said to his companion 
 with a sigh, " I have wasted my life : 
 if I had it to live over again, I should 
 devote it to orchids." 
 
 Life divinely ordered. Our life is 
 a web woven by the hand of God, the 
 thread reaching from our birth to our 
 death. The woof is trouble, but still 
 runs with it a weft of interwoven com- 
 forts. — Adams. 
 
 Sin in man. In man there will be 
 a layer of fierce hyena or of timid deer 
 running through tlie nature in the most 
 uncertain and tortuous manner. Xero 
 
 is sensitive to poetry and music, but not 
 to human suffering. Marcus Aurelius 
 is tolerant and good to all men but 
 Christians. The Tlascalans of Mexico 
 loved, and even worshipped flowers, but 
 they were cruel to excess, and sacrificed 
 human victims with savage delight. 
 The good and the evil lie close together, 
 the virtues and the vices alternate, so 
 is human power accumulated ; alter- 
 nately the metal and the rags, a terrible 
 voltaic pile. In the well-bred animal 
 the claw is nicely cushioned ; the old 
 Adam is presentable. — A. F. Russell. 
 
 Humiliation. It is with us as with 
 the reeds which grow by the river-side ; 
 when the waters overflow, the reed bows 
 its head and bends down, and the flood 
 passes over without breaking it ; after 
 which it uplifts its head and stands 
 erect in all its vigour, rejoicing in re- 
 newed life. So is it with us ; we also 
 must sometimes be bowed down to the 
 earth and humbled, and then arise with 
 renewed joy and trust. 
 
 Submission. Let us not charge God 
 over-hastily with the untoward inci- 
 dents of life. In the main we are the 
 manufacturers of our own life -material. 
 If you give the weaver none but dark 
 threads, he can only fashion a sombre 
 pattern. — Halsey. 
 
 EOMILETICS. 
 
 The Galling Tyeanny of Conquest. 
 
 (Verses 10-13.) 
 
 I. There is the physical suffering occasioned by starvation. " Our skin is 
 black like an oven because of the terrible famine " (ver. 10). The human body 
 can bear a great deal, but it cannot resist, nor can it survive, the ravages of famine. 
 The bloom of health fad^s from the cheek, the eyes shine with an unnatural lustre, 
 and then lose all expression ; the flesh is dried and parched, the skin becomes 
 "fiery red like an oven, because of the fever-blast" of famine, and the Avhole 
 frame becomes skeletonised. During one of the famines in Ireland there was a 
 form of face which came upon the sufferers when their state of misery was far 
 advanced, and which was a sure signal that their last stage of misery was nearly 
 run. The mouth would fall and seem to hang, the lips at the two ends of the 
 mouth would be dragged down, and the lower parts of the cheeks would fall, as 
 though they had been dragged and pulled. There were no signs of acute agony, 
 none of the horrid sym})toms of gnawing hunger. The look was one of apathy, 
 desolation, and death. The agony of want was past. Nothing could save. 
 
 II. Social purity is outraged. " They humbled the women in Zion, and the 
 maids in the city of Judah " (ver. 11). History records revolting examples of the 
 
 130 
 
HOMILETIO COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 excesses committed by a brutal soldiery in the mad delirium of conquest. War 
 brings in its train Avorse consequences than "wounds and death. There is a fouler 
 lust than the lust of military glory. Tlie pure and unoffending are dishonoured. 
 The sanctity of social life is invaded, and its sacred laws violated. 
 
 III. Rank and age are treated with indignity. " Princes are hanged up by 
 their hand : the faces of elders were not honoured " (ver. 1 2). See exegetical 
 notes on this verse. It was a barbarity of ancient warfare that the conqueror paid 
 so little regard to the feelings of the conquered. To the humiliation of defeat was 
 added whatever could pain and degrade the vanquished. The princes of the royal 
 blood and magistrates avIio had grown old in their lengthened term of office were 
 treated with scant courtesy. The conqueror seemed to glory in parading the most 
 illustrious of his captives under the most ignominious conditions. There were 
 noble exceptions to this rule, but they were so rare that history has not failed to 
 chronicle them. 
 
 IV. Young men and children are forced into the performance of the most 
 menial and exhausting tasks. "They took the young men to grind, and the 
 children fell under the wood" (ver. 13). To grind the corn in the hand-mill was 
 the work of female slaves. It was a great blow to the self-respect and ambition 
 of the young men who were of legal age for military service to be condemned to 
 this menial work. The little Jewish children, whose tender years should have 
 been a sufficient protection against such cruelty, staggered under the loads of fire- 
 wood they were compelled to carry for the Chaldean soldiers, who indulged in 
 inhuman sport at the brave little fellows as they fell exhausted under their crush- 
 ing burdens. Many of the children would be crippled for life. It is one of the 
 praiseworthy features of nineteenth-century civilisation that so much care is shown 
 in the protection and healtliy development of child-life. 
 
 Lessons. — 1. Woe to the people icho fall into the hands of a heartless con- 
 queror / 2. There are loorse sufferings than the sense of being vanquished. 3. 2'he 
 tyrant conqueror has no respect for sex, or rank, or age. 
 
 GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES. 
 
 Ver. 10. The sufferings of famine, thrive in their shadow, kept the ground 
 
 1. Apparent in their ghastly physical open, and held the water in countless 
 
 results. 2. Reduce all ranks to a com- natural wells for the use of the soil in 
 
 mon level. 3. Are intensified by con- droughts. But all the undergrowth 
 
 scious defeat and humiliation. dying when its protecting forests were 
 
 Vers. 11-13. The atrocities of war. felled, the scanty showers percolated 
 
 1. The pure and defenceless are defiled into the streams at once, causing rare 
 
 (ver. 11). 2. Princes and aged coun- floods and frequent droughts. The 
 
 sellors are treated with contempt and droughts yielded no harvests, and no 
 
 cruelty (ver. 12). 3. The spirit of the harvests were followed by famine, pes- 
 
 young is crushed with overpowering tilence, and death, 
 
 burdens (ver. 13). The fascination of lust. You will 
 
 go on in your lust and your sins, de- 
 
 Illustrations. — The cause of famine, spite warnings, despite advice, until 
 
 For unknown years the Persians have you perish in your guilt. How worse 
 
 been cutting off their trees, and dimi- than children are grown-up men ! The 
 
 nishing their rainfall thereby. Nay, child who goes for a merry slide upon 
 
 not only has the removal of the forests a pond, if he be told that the ice will 
 
 decreased the supply, but it has wasted not bear him, starts back affrighted, or, 
 
 whatever rain fell. For the roots of if he daringly creeps upon it, how soon 
 
 the trees and of all the innumerable he leaves it if he hears but a crack upon 
 
 shrubs, bashes, vines and ferns that the slender covering of the water ! But 
 
 131 
 
TIOMILETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIOXS. 
 
 you men have conscience, which tells 
 you that your sins are vile, and that 
 they will be your ruin. You hear the 
 crack of sin as its thin sheet of pleasure 
 gives way beneath your feet ; ay ! and 
 some of you have seen your comrades 
 sink in the flood and lost, and yet you 
 go sliding on. Worse than childish, 
 worse than mad, are you, thus pre- 
 sumptuously to play with your ever- 
 lasting state. — Spurgeon. 
 
 Age dishonoured. 
 
 " I have lived long enough. My way of life 
 Is fallen into the sere and yellow leaf : 
 And that which should accompany old age, 
 As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends, 
 I must not look to have." — Shakespeare. 
 
 Helplessness appeals to our pity. 
 
 Thus was the heart of the rough sailor 
 touched when, tossing with other cast- 
 aways in an open boat on the open sea, 
 he parted with a morsel of food, which, 
 hidden with more care than misers hide 
 their gold, he had reserved for his own 
 last extremity. Around him lay men 
 and women, some dead, with glassy 
 
 eyes, some dying, and these reduced to 
 ghastly skeletons ; but none of these 
 moved him to peril his own life for 
 theirs. The object of his noble and not 
 unrewarded generosity — foras if Heaven 
 had sent it on purpose to reward the 
 act, a sail speedily hove in sight — was 
 a gentle boy, that, with his face turned 
 on hers, lay dying in a mother's arms, 
 and between whose teeth the famished 
 man put his own last precious morsel. 
 — Guthrie. 
 
 The atrocities of war. I look on 
 war with a horror which no Avords can 
 express. I have long wanted patience 
 to read of battles. The thought of 
 man, God's immortal child, butchered 
 by his brother, the thought of sea and 
 land stained with human blood by 
 human hands, of women and children 
 buried under the ruins of besieged cities, 
 of the resources of empires and the 
 mighty powers of nature all turned by 
 man's malignity into engines of torture 
 and destruction — this thought gives to 
 earth the semblance of hell. I shudder 
 as among demons. — Cliamiinj. 
 
 H0MILETIC8. 
 
 Business and Eecreation. 
 
 (Verses 14, 15.) 
 
 I. Are necessary in all organised communities. Commercial activity and 
 prosperity lead to a more highly organised condition of social life. To prevent 
 the clashing and confusion of the multiplicity of interests generated by an increas- 
 ing commerce, certain rules are laid down for general observance. It is only thus 
 that law and order can be maintained. It is soon recognised that business and 
 pleasure must be judiciously combined in order to develop a healthy and vigorous 
 people. Incessant labour would grind down and destroy the force of the national 
 character, and an uninterrupted round of pleasure would weaken and dissipate its 
 enterprise and energy. The happy medium in promoting what is best in both 
 individual and national life is found in the wise alternation of work and recreation. 
 
 " Run if you will, but try to keep your breath ; 
 Work like a man, but don't be worked to death." 
 
 II. Are evidences of a happy and contented people. The gate of an Eastern 
 city is the common rendezvous of the citizens for both business and recreation. 
 There the venerable counsellors sit in repose and dignity to discuss and settle dis- 
 putes. There the traders vend their wares. There the young life of the city ex- 
 presses its exuberant joy in song and dance. Here we have a picture of prosperity, 
 peace, and happiness. No people will be long content where there is not a thriv- 
 ing commerce, a reverence for law and age, ample employment and food, and the 
 opportunity for innocent recreation. 
 
 132 
 
HOMILHTIC COMMENT A R Y: LAMENT A TIONS. 
 
 III. Their absence a pathetic sign of general desolation. " The elders have 
 ceased from the gate, the young men from their music. The joy of our heart is 
 ceased ; our dance is turned into mourning" (vers. 14, 15). The aged magistrates 
 no longer frequent the gate, the bazaars of the merchants are deserted, the busy 
 murmur of buying and selling is hushed, the instruments of music are laid aside 
 unstrung, the voice of singing is no longer heard, and the spirits of the youthful 
 dancers are crushed. Eusiness and pleasure alike are abandoned. The joy of 
 happier times is turned into mourning. The prophet could give no more graphic 
 a picture of the desolation and ruin that had settled down upon the land. 
 
 Lessons. — 1. The character and condition of a nation may he read in its 
 commerce and recreations. 2. Work and play are alike necessary in the develop- 
 ment of national life, 3. Wlien the spring of eriterprise is hrolcen, a nation sinks 
 into decay. 
 
 GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES. 
 
 Vers. 14, 15. The extinction of 
 national life : 1. "When the wise and 
 aged are no longer interested in public 
 affairs. 2. When the voice of mirth is 
 hushed. 3. When youth has lost its 
 elasticity and hope. 
 
 Illustrations. — The dignity of 
 labour. It is time that the opprobrium 
 of toil were done away. Ashamed of 
 toil, art thou ? Ashamed of thy dingy 
 workshop or dusty labour-field, of thy 
 hard hand, scarred with service more 
 honourable than that of war, of thy 
 soiled and weather-stained garments, on 
 which Mother Nature has embroidered, 
 amidst sun and rain, amidst smoke and 
 sleam, her own heraldic honours 1 
 Ashamed of these tokens and titles, and 
 envious of the flaunting robes of im- 
 becile idleness and vanity ? It is treason 
 to Nature, it is impiety to Heaven. Toil 
 — toil either of the brain, of the heart, 
 or of the hand — is true nobility. 
 
 Business not to absorb all our time. 
 Who gave thee leave, Christian, to over- 
 lade thyself with the encumbrances of 
 life 1 Is not God the Lord of thy time, 
 as of everything else ? He does indeed 
 allow thee a fair portion for the lower 
 employments of the body, but did He 
 ever intend to turn Himself out of all '? 
 This is as if the sailors, who are allowed 
 by the merchant some small adventure 
 for themselves, should fill the ship, and 
 leave no stowage for his goods ; or as if 
 a servant should excuse himself to his 
 master, when reproved for neglecting 
 his duty, by saying he could not do it 
 because he was drunk. — Gurnall. 
 
 Business and religion. Piety does 
 not retreat from business, but it seizes 
 business, sanctifies it, and makes it 
 sacred. If I understand religion, it is 
 to open a shop, it is to freight ships, it 
 is to keep accounts, it is to write u]> 
 your ledgers, it is to wear an apron till 
 it be as holy as a bishop's sleeve, and 
 to wield a spade as responsibly and 
 devoutly as a monarch sways a sceptre. 
 The true characteristic of religion is to 
 go down into everything, rise up to the 
 highest, till, like the atmosphere, it em- 
 braces all in its beneficent and beautiful 
 folds. — Oiimming. 
 
 Recreation. Lute-strings sound all 
 the sweeter for being sometimes let 
 down ; and fields sowed every year be- 
 come barren. So it is with body and 
 mind. 
 
 — A primitive Christian playing with 
 birds vindicated his conduct by com- 
 parison with the bow, which, if con- 
 stantly bent, becomes useless. Recrea- 
 tion is a second creation. 
 
 Pleasure itself unsatisfying. George 
 Moore, Avhen a wealthy man, wrote in 
 his diary — " After this we kept a great 
 deal of company. The house was looked 
 upon as a work of art. All our friends 
 expected to be invited to see it and 
 partake of our hospitality. We accord- 
 ingly gave a large dinner weekly, until 
 we had exhausted our numerous friends 
 and acquaintances. But happiness does 
 not flow in such a channel. Promiscuous 
 company takes one's mind away from 
 God and His dealings with men ; and 
 there is no lasting pleasure in the ex- 
 citement." 
 
 133 
 
CHAP ^. nOMlLETtC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 EOMILETICS. 
 
 The Loss of Honour. 
 
 (Verse 16.) 
 
 I. Honour is the crown of individual character. Honour is moral rectitude, 
 tlie crown and dignity of the true man. 
 
 •'Say what is honour? 'Tis the finest sense 
 Of justice which the human mind can frame, 
 Intent each lurking frailty to disclaim, 
 And guard the waj' of life from all offence 
 Suffered or done." — Wordsicorth. 
 
 Moral rectitude is not a natural possession ; it is the gift of Divine grace. It 
 must be humbly and penitently sought, gratefully received, and strengthened and 
 increased by incessant exercise. It is all of grace, and this grace sheds a glory 
 and lustre upon the soul. As the diamond in the ring, so is grace to the soul. A 
 heart beautified with grace has the picture of the King of heaven hung in it. It 
 is dignified with the reflected splendour of the Divine majesty. 
 
 II. When honour is lost, man is discrowned. " The crown is fallen from our 
 head." Israel not only lost their national king, and with him their national 
 independence, but they lost their moral kingship, their personal righteousness ; 
 and this they lost before they Avere deprived of their earthly king. All that had 
 given them rank and honour was tumbled in the dust. 
 
 " Better to die ten thousand deaths 
 Than wound my honour." 
 
 " Mine honour is my life ; both grow in one ; 
 Take honour from me, and my life is done." 
 
 HI. Honour is lost when righteousness is abandoned. " Woe unto us that we 
 have sinned." Afflicted Judah is getting clearer light. In the seventh verse they 
 still cling to the idea that their national calamities were to be ascribed to the sins 
 of their ancestors. Now they see the enormity of their own sins, and acknow- 
 ledge that they deserved chastisement. Man is invulnerable to the assaults of the 
 enemy and to the heaviest blows of misfortune and suffering while he retains his 
 integrity. He is fenced round with the unconquerable protection of the God in 
 whom he trusts. It is when he is untrue to himself, to his highest sense of 
 honour, that he is untrue to God, and, falling away from righteousness, he becomes 
 discrowned, and sinks into disgrace and misery. 
 
 Lessons. — 1. Righteousness confers dignity. 2. That man suffers unspealiahle 
 loss who does not act up to his holiest im2ndses. 3. Wheii a man loses a sense 
 of honour, he may sink to any depth of infamy. 
 
 GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES. 
 
 Ver. 16. The degradation of sin: abhorrence. 3. The third woe is God's 
 
 1. Begins in personal unfaithfulness. leaving us. 4. The fourth woe is all 
 
 2. It is undignified to sin. 3. The kinds of punishment — an Iliad of evils, 
 course of sin ends in misery and in — Bishop Ussher. 
 
 Avoe. 
 
 A series of woes. " AVoe unto us Illusteations. — True dignity. 
 
 that we have sinned." 1. The first ..m r -4. • • ^ u„ v,i„«-, 
 
 . Ti • r J.V, 11 ■ " True dignity IS never gamed by place, 
 
 woe IS the polluting ot the soul by sin. ^„j ^ever lost when honours are with- 
 
 2. The second woe is God's hatred and dia.vfn."—3Iassinger. 
 13i 
 
HOMILETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 " Ye proud, ye selfish, ye severe, stands SO little the nature of God that 
 
 How vain your mask of state ; j^^ understands not himself ; and yet, 
 
 1 he good alone have loy sincere, , i i j i i i , i ,• n i • 
 
 The good alone are great."-^ea«te. troubled by the contemplation of his 
 
 own condition, he boldly pronounces 
 Fallen greatness. that it is beyond the power of God 
 
 to qualify him for this connection. — 
 " I have ventured, Pascal 
 
 Like little wanton boys that swim on bladders, _,, " ^ j • -i. mi 
 
 This many summers in a sea of glory, The EgOny of dishonour. The most 
 
 But far beyond my depth: my high-blown pride terrible blow that General Grant ever 
 At length broke under me ; and now has left knew was when the bank in which he 
 
 was a partner had suspended payment. 
 
 me. 
 
 Weary and old with service, to the mercy >t i. i i. ■ ^ ^ ■ \ 
 
 Of a rude stream, that must for ever hide me. ^^^^ fnly was he rumed, his SOUS and 
 
 Vain pomp and glory of this world, I hate ye ! " daughters penniless by reason of all their 
 
 — Wolsey. savings invested in it being lost; but 
 after a few days there came out a 
 
 Degradation. That which renders horrible story of craft and guile, and it 
 
 men so unwilling to believe themselves was seen that his honoured name had 
 
 capable of union with God is but the been used to entice and decoy hosts of 
 
 sense of their own degradation. I friends, to their own injury and Grant's 
 
 would gladly be informed whence discredit. Imputations were even cast 
 
 this creature, who acknowledges him- on the fame that belonged to the coun- 
 
 self so weak, obtains the right to try, and this blow was worst of all : the 
 
 measure and limit the Divine mercy as shock of battle was less tremendous, 
 
 his own fancy suggests. Man under- his physical agonies less acute. 
 
 HOMILETICS. 
 
 PiELiGious Declension. 
 
 (Verses 17, 18.) 
 
 I. Evident in the desolation of the sanctuary. "The mountain of Zion, 
 which is desolate, the foxes walk upon it" (ver. 18). The foxes or jackals were 
 very likely attracted to the ruinous site of Zion by the bodies of the slain, which 
 they devoured for food and, finding how completely the place was deserted, they 
 remained in undisturbed possession. How different from the time when the 
 Temple services were in full swing and the city crowded wilh happy worsliippers ! 
 Religion is at a low ebb when the house of God is neglected and its services dis- 
 regarded ; it is lower still when the sanctuary is closed and its mouldering stones 
 are covered with mosses and lichens ; but it has got to the lowest deptli when the 
 building is demolished and scattered in ruins. To this pass had all the pretentious 
 religionism of Judah now come. 
 
 II. Is a reason for depression and sorrow. " For this our heart is faint ; for 
 these things our eyes are dim " (ver. 17). The Jews of all ranks and classes would 
 lament the national disasters — the loss of national honour in the fall of their king, 
 the loss of wealth and influence, the loss of independence and liberty ; but the 
 pious Jews would lament most of all the loss of religion. They sorrowed till their 
 hearts became faint and their eyes grew dim with tears. We may well grieve 
 over the loss of property and friends, of worldly comforts and necessities, but 
 the devout heart sorrows most of all over the decline of religion and the cessa- 
 tion of the worship of God. 
 
 III. Should lead to much heart-searching as to its cause. " For this — for 
 these things — because of Zion which is desolate " (vers. 17, 18). To the Jewish 
 mind the Temple was the residence and throne of Jehovah, the symbol of worship, 
 the embodiment of the national religious life. The destruction of the Temple 
 
 135 
 
nOMILETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 carried with it the doom of religion : no Temple, no religion. It is true that 
 genuine religion is independent of temples and buildings, but as a matter of fact 
 it does not exist long without them. Individual piety may flourish without a 
 material temple, but collective and organised religion can be maintained only by 
 continued association and intercourse, and the sanctuary becomes a necessity of 
 associated religious life. Those who talk so grandiosely about worshipping God 
 in the temple of Nature rarely worship Him at all anywhere. Where there is no 
 recognised sanctuary there is no rally-point for worshippers, and religion is dis- 
 organised and depressed. The same result ensues when the house of God is 
 habitually neglected. 
 
 Lessons. — 1. Religious declension is at the root of national decay. 2. The 
 people of God slioidd be always deeply concerned in religious extension. 3. Religious 
 declension is sincerely lamented by the good. 
 
 GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES. 
 
 Vers. 17, 18. The disasters of the 
 Church : 1. Create profound concern 
 in the hearts of the good. 2. Should 
 be deplored by every member of the 
 commonwealth. 3. Mean that there 
 has been gross unfaithfulness some- 
 where. 
 
 Ver. 18. A deserted sanctuary: 
 1. A pathetic and suggestive sight. 2. 
 An evidence of inditierence and sin. 
 3. A reproach that should be promptly 
 wiped away. 
 
 Illustrations. — Religious declen- 
 sion. The consequences wliich Moses 
 foretold (Deut. xxix. 24, 25) as the 
 result of the religious defection of the 
 people were such as no human wisdom 
 could foresee or experience suggest. 
 The practice of idolatry did not prevent 
 the aggrandisement of ancient Rome, 
 nor any mere statesman ensure the ac- 
 complishment of a prophecy that mili- 
 tary success should always attend the 
 worship of the one true God, and that 
 military discomfiture should always 
 follow idolatry. It is evident that 
 Moses derived his accurate knowledge 
 of futurity from immediate inspiration 
 of God. 
 
 Religious sham. A religion that 
 does not take hold of the life that now 
 is, is like a cloud that does not rain. 
 A cloud may roll in grandeur and be an 
 object of admiration, but if it does not 
 rain, it is of little account so far as 
 utility is concerned. And a religion 
 that consists in the observance of mag- 
 nificent ceremonies, but does not touch 
 136 
 
 the duties of daily life, is a religion of 
 show and of sham. 
 
 Church-going not the end of religion. 
 I fear there are some who imagine that 
 church-going is in itself the aim and 
 end of all religion. No mistake can be 
 more deplorable or pernicious. It is a 
 blunder as egregious as it would be for 
 a visitor to a manufactory to suppose 
 that the machinery was all set in motion 
 merely to be gazed at, and to keep em- 
 ployed the people who are engaged in 
 tending it. The manufacturer who lays 
 out his capital in such costly apparatus 
 would find but an unsatisfactory return 
 at the end of the year if there had not 
 been a given quantity of finished goods 
 for profitable sale in the market. So it 
 is with church-going. It is wretched 
 work if the worship of the house of 
 God begins and ends with the prayers 
 uttered there. — Hooper. 
 
 Mercenary religion. One of the 
 causes that led to the overthrow of 
 religion in Ephesus was the growing 
 wealth attached to the Temple of Diana. 
 The priesthood established deposit 
 banks. Kings and private individuals 
 intrusted their money to the care of 
 the goddess, and the priests reinvested 
 this for a profit. But gradually the 
 idea of religious sanctity gave place to 
 that of commercial enterprise, and the 
 temple became fair game for attack and 
 robbery. 
 
 Decay of religion. The most curious 
 phenomenon in all Venetian history 
 is the vitality of religion in private 
 life, and its deadness in public policy. 
 
ROM r LET 10 COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 Amidst the enthusiasm, chivalry, or commerce. She calculated the glory of 
 fanaticism of the other States of Europe, her conquests by their value, and esti- 
 Venice stands from first to last like a mated their justice by their facility, 
 masked statue ; her coldness impene- While all Europe around her was wasted 
 trable, her exertion only aroused by by the fire of its devotion, she first cal- 
 the touches of a secret spring. That culated the highest price she could exact 
 spring was her commercial interests — from its piety for the armament she fur- 
 this the one motive of all her important nished, and then, for the advancement 
 political acts or enduring national ani- of her own private interests, at once 
 mosities. She could forgive insults to broke her faith and betrayed her re- 
 lief honour, but never rivalship in her ligion. — Ruskin. 
 
 EOMILETICS. 
 
 An Earnest Peayer for E-estoration. 
 
 (Verses 19-22.) 
 
 I. Acknowledges the eternal sovereignty of Jehovah. "Thou, Lord, 
 remainest for ever; Thy throne from generation to generation " (ver. 19). The 
 throne of Judah is fallen, but not so the throne of God. Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, 
 Israel, and all the nations of the earth may rise and fall, but God is unchanged. 
 The fact of the perpetuity of the Divine government of the world forms the basis 
 of a hoj^e that, however desperate may be the condition of His people, God can 
 restore them. If the throne of God was like the fickle governments of earth, 
 there would be no prospect of recovery. All true prayer has the assurance of 
 being heard and answered in the fact of the righteousness of an unchangeable God. 
 
 II. Deprecates the continued absence of the Divine favour. " Wherefore 
 dost Thou forget us for ever, and forsake us so long time?" (ver. 20). If Thy 
 government is continuous, why are we forgotten and abandoned 1 If Tliy 
 throne in heaven is immovable, why is Thy throne in our earthly Zion over- 
 thrown 1 Thou didst once care for us and love us, and the memory of that 
 happy time still keeps our hope alive. Thy favour was the joy and the sunshine 
 of our lives ; its absence is at the root of all our misery. Low as we have sunk, 
 it cannot be that Thou hast utterly and for ever given us up. Cast us not away 
 from Thy presence, and take not Thy Holy Spirit from us. Eestore unto us the 
 joy of Thy salvation. The soul that yearns in prayer for the Divine favour is on 
 the brink of a glorious vision. 
 
 III. Supplicates the grace of genuine repentance. "Turn Thou us unto 
 Thee, Lord, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old " (ver. 21). Kepent- 
 ance is a turning about. For some time the course of Judah had been in one 
 direction — wandering from God, and sinking into ever lower depths of sin and 
 misery. Now there is a thoughtful pause, an arrest of the downward career. 
 What has brought this about 1 Prayer ; and that prayer becomes more eager and 
 earnest as it becomes more evident that rescue is at hand. True prayer recognises 
 that God alone can give repentance and renew the glory of the golden days of 
 old. When the heart is changed, our outward circumstances soon alter for the 
 better. When Judah regained the favour of God, she also regained lost temporal 
 blessings. 
 
 IV. Is urged with the assurance that God cannot utterly reject the truly 
 penitent. "But Thou hast utterly rejected us; Thou art very wroth against us. ' 
 Unless Thou hast utterly rejected us, unless Thou art very icroth against us. This 
 is stated as a virtual impossibility. Geikie translates the verse, " Thou wilt not 
 surely wholly forget us? Thou wilt not be angry Avith us beyond measure?" 
 The miserable results of their repudiation by Jehovah become the ground of a 
 
 1S7 
 
IIOMILETW COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS, 
 
 confident appeal to Him. He heard the prayer, and at the end of seventy years 
 the Jews were restored to their own land. The Book of Lamentations ends, as it 
 begins, with a wail ; but tlie concluding wail, unlike the first, has in it a joyous 
 strain of hope. In many ancient MSS. the twenty-first verse is repeated after 
 the twenty-second, to make a more agreeable finish when the book was read in 
 the Synagogue ; but Jeremiah did not think this arrangement necessary. He 
 concludes with the refrain of what had been the burden of his sorrowful mono- 
 logue, because he is so confident of help and restoration. " The message of God 
 to the soul, even in threatenings, is ever in truth one of comfort." The darkest 
 night of sufi'ering and sorrow is followed by the tranquillising hope of the golden 
 daybreak. 
 
 Lessons. — \. When the Church begins to pray there is hope of revival. 2. 
 True prayer is ever accompanied ivith repentance. 3. God not only hears, but 
 answers the prayer of the contrite. 
 
 GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES. 
 
 Yers. 19, 20. The unchangeable 
 God. I. His government is in perpetual 
 activity. "Thou remainest for ever. 
 Thy throne from generation to genera- 
 tion" (ver. 19). II. He cannot forget 
 His peojyle. "Wherefore dost Thou 
 forget us for ever 1 " (ver. 20). III. He 
 toill not for ever stand aloof from His 
 people. " Wherefore dost Tliou forsake 
 us for so long time ? " (ver. 20). 
 
 Vers. 21, 22. A prayer for repent- 
 ance. I. Recognises that reijentance is 
 a Divine act. "Turn Thou us unto 
 Thee, O Lord ; renew our days as of 
 old" (ver. 21). IL When God gives 
 repentajice it is effectual. " And we 
 shall be turned" (ver. 21). IIL When 
 God gives repentance it is evident His 
 wrath is loithdraicn, and He again ac- 
 cepts us. "Unless Thou hast utterly 
 rejected us ; unless Thou art very wroth 
 against us " (ver. 22). But this cannot 
 be, for He gives repentance. He " re- 
 news our days as of old." 
 
 Illustrations. — The eternity of 
 God. Would you gain some idea of 
 the eternity past of God's existence ? 
 Go to the astronomer and bid him lead 
 you with him in one of his walks 
 through space ; and as he sweeps out- 
 ward from object to object, from uni- 
 verse to universe, remember that the 
 light from those filmy stains on the 
 deep pure blue of heaven now falling 
 on your eye has been travelling space 
 for a million of years. — Mitchell. 
 138 
 
 Prayer the melody of misery. 
 
 " Oh, hearts that break and give no sign, 
 Save whitening lip and fading tresses, 
 Till death pours out his cordial wine. 
 
 Slow - dropped from misery's crushing 
 presses : 
 If singing breath or echoing chord 
 
 To every hidden pain were given, 
 What endless melodies were poured, 
 As sad as earth, as sweet as heaven ! " 
 —0. W. Holmes. 
 
 Suffering prompts prayer. Afflic- 
 tions make us most frequent and fer- 
 vent in pouring forth our supplications 
 unto God. In our prosperity we either 
 utterly neglect this duty, or perform it 
 carelessly and slothfully ; but Avhen we 
 are brought into calamities, we flee to 
 Him by earnest prayer, craving His aid 
 and help. And as the child, fearing 
 nothing, is so fond of his play that he 
 strays and wanders from his mother, 
 not so much as thinking of her, but if 
 he be scared or frighted with the sight 
 or apprehension of some apparent or 
 approaching danger, presently runs to 
 her, casts himself into her arms, and 
 cries out to be saved and shielded by 
 her, so Ave, securely enjoying the 
 childish sports of worldly prosperity, 
 do so fondly dote on them that we 
 scarce think of our Heavenly Father ; 
 but when perils approach and are ready 
 to seize upon us, then we flee to Him and 
 cast ourselves into the arms of His pro- 
 tection, crying to Him by earnest prayer 
 for help in our extremity. — Doivname. 
 
 The value of prayer. If the whole 
 
HOMILETIC COMMENTARY: LAMENTATIONS. 
 
 world in which we live is but a con- 
 tinual temptation, if all around appears 
 to agree with our inward corruptions to 
 weaken and seduce us> if riches bribe 
 and indigence sours, if prosperity ele- 
 vates and afflictions abase us, if busi- 
 ness dissipates and rest enervates, if 
 the sciences exalt and ignorance be- 
 Avilders us, if commerce exposes us too 
 much and solitude leaves us too much 
 to ourselves, if pleasure seduce us and 
 holy works make us proud, if health 
 awakens the passions and sickness pro- 
 duces murmurings — in a word, if since 
 the fall of man all that surrounds us 
 and all that is in us is perilous, in so 
 deplorable a situation, my God, what 
 hope of salvation remains for usl If 
 our sighs do not incessantly ascend 
 from the depth of our misery towards 
 the throne of Thy mercy, until Thou 
 
 deignest to assist us and to rescue us 
 from our fallen state. — Massillon. 
 
 God answers prayer. When poor 
 men make requests to us, we usually 
 answer them as the echo does the 
 voice — the answer cuts off half the 
 petition. We shall seldom find among 
 men Jael's courtesy, giving milk to 
 those that ask water, except it be as 
 this Avas, an entangling benefit, the 
 better to introduce a mischief. There 
 are not many Naamans among us that, 
 when you beg of them one talent, will 
 force you to take two. But God's 
 answer to our prayers is like a multi- 
 plying glass, which renders the request 
 much greater in the answer than it was 
 in the prayer. — Bishop Reynolds. 
 
 " More things are wrought by prayer 
 Than the world dreams of." 
 
 — Tennyson. 
 
 139 
 
INDEX TO HOMILETICS. 
 
 Advantages of a state of expectation, 88 
 Afflicted, God the consolatiou of the, 93 
 AiBiction, the man of, 70 
 Afflictions, views of a saint in his, 84 
 
 not accidental, 93 
 
 Anger, the Divine, 115 
 
 the fierceness of the Divine, 43 
 
 the pitilessness of the Divine, 100 
 
 Appeal to Jehovah, a piteous, 124 
 to Divine justice, 104 
 
 Baffled, the helplessly, 118 
 Bereavement, 127 
 Bewilderment of grief, 74 
 Burden for j'oung shoulders, 89 
 Business and recreation, 132 
 
 Call to prayer, 60 
 Character, moral. 111 
 
 the Divine, 95 
 
 Choice portions, 86 
 
 Church, the disasters of the, 136 
 
 iudiiference of the enemies of the, 22 
 
 City in sorrow, 20 
 
 a populous, 14 
 
 grief for a ruined, 13 
 
 Comfort for the sorrowful, 92 
 Complaint under affliction, 96 
 Conquest, the galling tyranny of, 130 
 
 Dangers of a sinful life, 77 
 Dawn of hope, 80 
 Dayspring mercies, 84 
 Declension, religious, 135 
 Defeat, inglorious, 31 
 Defences of a nation, 44 
 Degradation, moral, 110 
 Despair, the helplessness of, 32 
 Destroyer, the implacable, 48 
 Destruction of Zion, 114 
 Devotion, the sublimity of, 98 
 Disinherited, the miseries of the, 126 
 Distress, complex phases of, 78 
 Divine anger, the, 115 
 
 the fierceness of the, 43 
 
 the pitilessness of the, 100 
 
 character, the, 95 
 
 compassion, a prayer for the, 03 
 
 faithfulness, 83 
 
 goodness, 88 
 
 justice, 36 
 
 ■ a confident appeal to, 104 
 
 pity, 64 
 
 punishment, 31, 105 
 
 rule absolute and universal, 95 
 
 slowness to punish, 104 
 
 threatenings of judgment, 59 
 
 wrath, the storm of the, 43 
 
 140 
 
 Duty of self-reflection, 98 
 to the Jewish people, 31 
 
 Ecce Homo, 72 
 Enemies of the church, 22 
 Enemy, Jehovah as an, 44 
 Enmity, a spirit of, 36 
 Expectation, advantages of, 88 
 Extremity of suffering, 112 
 
 Faithful prophet in trouble, a, 102 
 Faithfulness, the Divine, 83 
 False ministers of God, 116 
 Famine, the extremities of, 27 
 
 the horrors of, 113 
 
 the sufferings of, 131 
 
 Fate of the malevolent, 119 
 
 Fear, the tyranny of, 64 
 
 Fickleness, human, 36 
 
 Foe, Jehovah as a, 76 
 
 Fortune, the strange reverses of, 14, 127 
 
 Friendship, the fickleness of human, 14 
 
 God and human suffering, 72 
 
 wrong, 94 
 
 pleading for saints, 103 
 
 the tenderness of, 92 
 
 the unchangeable, 138 
 
 Godly life the music of society, a, 104 
 Goodness, the Divine, 88 
 
 three grades of, 87 
 
 Grief for a ruined city, 13 
 
 the bewilderment of, 74 
 
 the utter exhaustion of, 52 
 
 Happiness, the loss of, 79 
 Heathenism a moral obliquity, 27 
 Hope, the dawn of, 80 
 
 and patience, 88 
 
 Honour, the loss of, 134 
 Humiliating subjection, 128 
 
 Indifference of the enemies of the Church, 22 
 Is it nothing to you ? 31 
 
 Jehovah, a piteous appeal to, 124 
 
 as a foe, 44, 76 
 
 Jewish people, our duty towards the, 31 
 Joy, two kinds of, 120 
 Judgment of oppression, 16 
 
 the Divine threatenings of, 59 
 
 Justice, Divine, 36 
 
 a confident appeal to, 104 
 
 Lamentation over a forsaken snnctuaiy, IQ 
 Leaders, unfaithful religious, 115 
 Liberty, the loss of, 127 
 Life, the intense love of, 129 
 the changes of, 17 
 
INDEX TO HOMILETICS. 
 
 Life, the dangers of a sinful, 77 
 
 young, 36 
 
 Loss of happiness, 79 
 
 of honour, 134 
 
 Lost hope restored, 81 
 
 arALEVOLENT, the fate of the, 119 
 Man of affliction, the, 70 
 ]Masters, new, 23 
 Memories, sad, 23 
 Memory, the office of, 81 
 
 the handmaid of hope, 81 
 
 Mercies, dayspring, 84 
 Message from God to thee, 120 
 Ministry, a dispirited, 20 
 Miseries of the disinherited, 126 
 Misery of the penitent, 31 
 Moral degradation, 110 
 
 Nation, a distressed, 29 
 
 the defences of a, 44 
 
 National disaster, 23 
 
 life, the extinction of, 133 
 
 ruin, complete, 48 
 
 Night of prayer, 61 
 
 Oppression, the judgment of, 16 
 Ordinances, tlie wreck of religious, 46 
 
 Tatience, hope and, 88 
 Penitence, sincere, 36 
 Penitent, the misery of the, 31 
 People, last hours of a doomed, 117 
 Persecution, the spirit of, 17 
 Pity, the Divine, 64 
 Prayer, a call to, 60 
 
 a night of, 61 
 
 for Divine compassion, 63 
 
 the hopefulness of, 125 
 
 • for repentance, 138 
 
 the efficacy of, 102 
 
 I'roperty, 127 
 Prophets, false, 56 
 I'uiiishment, Divine, 31, 105 
 
 of Judah a type, 36 
 
 the certainty of, 77 
 
 - — - graduated, 113, 120 
 sin and, 130 
 
 Kebellion, the bitter fruits of, 35 
 Recreation, business and, 132 
 Redeemer, the sufferings of the world's, 30 
 Religious declension, 135 
 
 ordinances, the wreck of, 46 
 
 Repentance, a prayer for, 97, 138 
 
 Resignation, 90 
 
 Restoration, an earnest prayer for, 137 
 
 Reverses of fortune, the strange, 14 
 
 Ridicule, 79 
 
 Royalty, 118 
 
 Ruin, inexpressible, 54 
 
 Rule, the Divine, 95 
 
 Sanctuary, lamentation over a forsaken, 19 
 a despised, 48 
 
 Sanctuary, a deserted, lo6 
 
 Saints pleading for God, 103 
 
 Scorner, the heartless triumph of the, 58 
 
 Self-reflection, the duty of, 98 
 
 Service, watch-night, 61 
 
 Silent suffering, 91 
 
 Silence, retirement and, 91 
 
 Sin an implacable foe, 26 
 
 the cause of suflFering, 101 
 
 conscious, 26 
 
 tlie course of, 26 
 
 the degradation of, 134 
 
 the galling tyranny of, 31 
 
 and punishment, 130 
 
 the terrible havoc of, 25 
 
 Society, a godly life the music of, 10 1 
 Sorrow, a city in, 20 
 
 the voice of, 36 
 
 the ravages of, 75 
 
 Spirit of persecution, 17 
 
 of enmity, 36 
 
 Subjection, humiliating, 128 
 Sufferer, a baffled, 75 
 Suffering, God and human, 72 
 
 • the mystery of, 73 
 
 the extremity of, 112 
 
 ■ the tension of prolonged, 99 
 
 Sufferings of the world's Redeemer, 30 
 Sympathetic nature, a, 101 
 
 Tears, the pathos of, 14 
 
 Tenderness of God, the, 92 
 
 Tension of prolonged suffering, the, 99 
 
 Temple, the earthly, 47 
 
 Trouble, a faithful prophet in, 102 
 
 a time of, 17 
 
 Tyranny of sin, 31 
 of conquest, 130 
 
 Unfaithful religious leaders, 115 
 
 Views of a saint in his afflictions, 84 
 Voice of sorrow, 36 
 Voiceless woe, 50 
 
 War, the atrocities of, 131 
 Watcher, the weary, 118 
 Watch-night service, 61 
 
 the rigour of, 113 
 
 Wicked, the tactics of the, 116 
 
 Widowhood, 14 
 
 Woe, voiceless, 50 
 
 Woes, a series of, 134 
 
 Wonder explained by greater wonders, 103 
 
 World's wonder, a, 115 
 
 treatment of its suffering Redeemer, 59 
 
 Worship, perverted, 48 
 Wrath, the storm of the Divine, 43 
 Wreck of religious ordinances, 46 
 Wrong, God and human, 94 
 
 Young life, 36 
 
 Youth the season of discipline, 89 
 
 ZioN, the destruction of, 114 
 
 Ul 
 
INDEX TO ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Affliction reveals our sir, 32 
 
 ripens character, 73 
 
 God's messenger, 94 
 
 Afflictions overruled, 94 
 Age dishonoured, 132 
 Anger, the Divine, 73 
 
 injustice and, 95 
 
 restrained, more terrible, 100 
 
 Attachment stronger than death, 119 
 
 Batj, avoid the example of the, 24 
 Bereavement has its consolations, 128 
 Pest always to do justly, 105 
 Bitterness of sin, 78 
 Business not to absorb all our time, 133 
 and religion, 133 
 
 Chastisement a proof of God's tenderness, 94 
 Christianity addresses the despairing, 34 
 
 relieves the miseries of great cities, 15 
 
 Church-going not the end of religion, 136 
 
 Churches, dead and dying, 20 
 
 City in sorrow, a, 21 
 
 Cities, siu and danger of great, 27 
 
 Compassion, Divine, 65 
 
 • of Jesus, 65 
 
 for the needy, 128 
 
 Concentration of power destroys, 115 
 Conduct, loose talk leads to loose, 23 
 Crying to God, 34 
 Curse of sin, the, 115 
 
 Dangers of sin, 78 
 Darkness and danger, 73 
 
 precedes light, 73 
 
 Death-bed repentance, 99 
 Decay of religion, 136 
 Defeat, inglorious, 34 
 Defence, goodness a nation's, 45 
 Degeneration, 111 
 
 of character, 111 
 
 Degradation, 113, 135 
 
 of sin, 78 
 
 Dejection and despair, 51 
 Depression, 52 
 
 unjustifiable, 100 
 
 Despairing, Christianity addresses the, 34 
 Dignity, true, 134 
 Disappointment, 118 
 Dishonour, the agony of, 135 
 Distress exhausting, 53 
 
 the best work comes out of, 80 
 
 Divine aid works a marvellous change, 103 
 
 anger, the, 73 
 
 compassion, 65 
 
 faithfulness, 86 
 
 judgment a painful reality, 78 
 
 ■ providence, 86 
 
 142 
 
 Divine punishment certain, CO 
 
 and pessimism, 33 
 
 supply in emergencies, 87 
 
 Doctrine, false, 57 
 
 Drink, moral degradation of, 111 
 
 End, a sad, 118 
 
 Enmity, how manufactured, 38 
 
 Escape, a clever, 118 
 
 Example of the bad, avoid the. 24 
 
 Evil, the downward career of, 121 
 
 overruled, 97 
 
 Faith in falsehood disastrons, 58 
 Faitliful to death, 103 
 Faithfulness, Divine, 86 
 
 in service, 103 
 
 Falsehood, 58 
 
 Famine, the horrors of, 23 
 
 the cause of, 131 
 
 Fear, the influence of, 65 
 
 slavish and filial, 65 
 
 the greatest, 65 
 
 Fellow-suffering silences compliant, 89 
 Fickleness a disappointment, 37 
 
 and its contrast, 38 
 
 Food, importance of, 113 
 
 Friends of youth, where are they? 16 
 
 Friendship, sarcasm destroys, 59 
 
 God the helper of the persecuted, 18 
 
 yearning foi', C4 
 
 the eternity of, 138 
 
 answers prayer, 139 
 
 does hear prayer, 100 
 
 frustrates the schemes of the wicked, 106 
 
 God's anger man's heaviest affliction, 73 
 Good character a blessing, 112 
 
 king a blessing, 119 
 
 Goodness a nation's defence, 45 
 
 of God experienced, 89 
 
 Greatness, fallen, 135 
 Grief, causes of, 75 
 
 excessively indulged, .53 
 
 • irksome but needful, 75 
 
 its uses, 76 
 
 leaves its mark, 102 
 
 • — - secret, 75 
 
 useless that does not lead to help, 15 
 
 prostiating, 53 
 
 Happiness depends on God, 80 
 Heathen worship a performance, 28 
 
 darkness, light for, 28 
 
 Help in extremity, 114 
 Helplessness appeals to our pity, 132 
 Heroic endurance, 91 
 Hope presupposes faith, 83 
 
INDEX TO ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Hope clings to us to the last, 83 
 
 none but in God, 56 
 
 Horrors of famine, 28 
 
 Humiliation, 130 
 
 Humility a help to knowledge, 91 
 
 Individuality, sin and, 27 
 Industry secures independence, 128 
 Injustice, suffering preferred to, 95 
 
 and anger, 95 
 
 not to be hastily resented, 106 
 
 Intercession irresistible, 62 
 
 Jehovah a foe to all sin, 77 
 Judgment a surprise, 44 
 
 a painful reality, 78 
 
 Just and the unjust, the, 106 
 Justice and mercy, 37 
 
 expedited, 95 
 
 between man and man, 105 
 
 Labouk, the dignity of, 133 
 Life divinely ordered, 130 
 
 the changes of, l8 
 
 mistaken views of, 130 
 
 ordinances help religious, 48 
 
 well lived, 97 
 
 Lonely, the All-seeing God and the, 15 
 
 Love and sorrow, 21 
 
 Lust, the fascination of, 131 
 
 Malice, 121 
 
 reproof of, 121 
 
 Man superior to his surroundings, 20 
 
 Man's extremity God's opportunity, 114 
 
 l^Ielancholy, beware of, 25 
 
 Memory and music, 25 
 
 Memories, sad, 24 
 
 Mercenary religion, 136 
 
 Mercy, justice and, 37 
 
 in every storm, 45 
 
 Ministers not only finger-posts but guides, 21 
 
 unqualified, 116 
 
 Misei'y, work a remedy for, 21 
 
 ■ prolonged, 45. 
 
 ■ makes indelible impressions, 53 
 
 of hopelessness, 83 
 
 Moral sense, lack of. 111 
 
 • • degradation atfects work. 111 
 
 Moscow, the retreat from, 34 
 Mother's prayer, a, 63 
 Murder, penalty of, 117 
 
 Nation, a distressed, 32 
 
 National decline, the sadness of, 128 
 
 ruin, 50 
 
 Necessity a teacher, 113 
 Neglect incurs wrath, 44 
 
 Oppressor a selfish man, 18 
 
 punished, 17 
 
 Ordinances help religious life, 48 
 
 Patience conquers, 89 
 
 Parting, the last, 119 
 
 Penitence involves confession of sin, 38 
 
 Penitent, misery of, how cured, 33 
 
 Persecution, 18 
 
 inexorable, the spirit of, 19 
 
 defeats itself, 128 
 
 Persecuted, God the helper of the, 18 
 
 Pleasure itself unsatisfying, 133 
 
 Practical sympathy, 102 
 
 Prayer, 64 
 
 a preparation for conflict, 83 
 
 Prayer, a mother's, 63 
 
 a mute summons to, 62 
 
 an ever-open refuge, 1U3 
 
 brings deliverance, 126 
 
 God answers, 126 
 
 in trouble, 125 
 
 necessary for service, 62 
 
 should be importunate, 120 
 
 sorrow drives men to, 63 
 
 the need of, 125 
 
 the melody of misery, 138 
 
 Priestcraft, 117 
 Prophet, a false, 57 
 Providence, Divine, 86 
 Punishment and pessimism, S3 
 certain, 60 
 
 Rebellion, 36 
 
 fomenting, 37 
 
 Recreation, 133 
 
 Redeemer's sufferings unique, the, 60 
 Religion and justice, 105 
 Religious declension, 136 
 
 sham, 136 
 
 Remorse, 34 
 
 Repentance and confession, 98 
 
 and forgiveness, 98 
 
 must be sincere, 99 
 
 Resignation to the will of God, 91 
 Retribution, 38 
 
 implacable, 49 
 
 Ridicule, triumph over, 79 
 
 Ruin appeals to our sympathy, 56 
 
 and responsibility, 55 
 
 ■ • drifting to, 55 
 
 the punishment for sin, 55 
 
 unutterable, 55 
 
 Rule, spiritual insight into the Divine, 96 
 
 Sanctdakt, a despised, 49 
 Sarcasm destroys friendship, 59 
 Satan an enemy, 46 
 Scoffer, nonplussed, a, 59 
 Scorn not to be dreaded, 59 
 Self-sacrifice, 33 
 Selfisli man, the oppressor a, 18 
 Sin a disease, 27 
 
 a double effect, 28 
 
 and individuality, 27 
 
 a foe, 28 
 
 a poison, 24 
 
 a slavery, 33 
 
 defies law, 24 
 
 discovery of, 33 
 
 in man, 130 
 
 stupifies, 27 
 
 • the danger of great cities, 27 
 
 the bitterness of, 78 
 
 the course of, 28 
 
 the dangers of, 78 
 
 the degradation of, 78 
 
 will find you out, 121 
 
 Skill acquired in youth, 90 
 Solitude oppressive, 52 
 Sorrow, a great, 75 
 
 a city in, 21 
 
 does not regenerate, 37 
 
 drives men to prayer, 03 
 
 love in, 21 
 
 the cure of excessive, 53 
 
 Sorrows, whose like unto mine? 32 
 Soul-growth aided l)y silence, 91 
 Sovereignty, the Divine, 115 
 Spirit of persecution inexorable, the. 19 
 
 143 
 
INDEX TO ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Storms, temporary, 45 
 Submission, 130 
 
 to God's will, 96 
 
 SufFerer baffled by temptation, 76 
 Suffering a mystery, 73 
 
 and its compensations, 80 
 
 perverted views of, 100 
 
 prompts to prayer, 138 
 
 the ravages of, 51 
 
 the uses of, 21 
 
 Supply in emergencies, 87 
 Sympathy in sorrow, 15 
 
 the power of, 101 
 
 with j'outh, 63 
 
 Tears, the power of, 16 
 
 the relief of, 102 
 
 Temple and perverted worship, 40 
 Terrible destruction, 115 
 Tongue, a malevolent, 121 
 Treachery has no pity, 80 
 Triumph premature, 59 
 
 over ridicule, 79 
 
 Trouble, a time of, 18 
 
 Truth, false teaching dangerous when mixed 
 
 with, 57 
 Tyranny not permanent, 24 
 
 Unbelief and ministerial inefficiency, 1 16 
 Uncertainty of royal favours, 119 
 Undercurrents cause wrecks, 48 
 
 Value of prayer, 138 
 
 Victory, memory of, iuspiring, 83 
 
 "Want anticipated, 87 
 "War, the atrocities of, 132 
 
 the havoc of, 32 
 
 Wicked, the triumph of, 117 
 
 AVickedness, 121 
 
 "Woe, the loneliness of, 51 
 
 Work a remedy for misery, 21 
 
 World's treatment, lessons from the, 23 
 
 Worship, the earthly temple and perverted, 49 
 
 Wrath, neglect incurs, 44 
 
 Wrecks, undercurrents cause, 48 
 
 Wrong, the beginning of, 95 
 
 Wrong-doing brings retribution, 105 
 
 Yearning for God, 64 
 Youth, 37 
 
 a brave, 90 
 
 needs instruction, 21 
 
 skill acquired in, 90 
 
 synipathy with, 03 
 
 the friends of, 16 
 
 144 
 
 THE END. 
 
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