XXII.]

THE DANGER NOT EXTINCT.

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wrought in the land; he could never have followed their

mischiefs up to their source.

Brethren, I may speak to you hereafter of Jeremiah as the teacher of Israel in the reigns of Jehoiakim and Zedekiah. Let me speak of him to day as the teacher of us, the English priests, and prophets, and people, in the reign of Queen Victoria. Or, if there are some thoughts rising out of this subject, too sacred and awful to dwell upon in any public assembly, then let me beseech you to desire for your own sakes, and for ours, that we may think of them when we are not discoursing to others, but are alone with our own hearts and with God. Let me call upon you very solemnly not to regard the follies and sins which you discover continually in those who minister to you as light things, which you may make a jest of; which you may dwell upon, as proofs that those who are bound by holy professions are not better than others; which you may exult in because they cause any evils or falsehoods of yours to look less black. Be assured that if we are trivial, the whole land becomes infected with triviality; if we are insincere in our dealings with God, that insincerity will be reproduced in all the ordinary relations of life. If the priest draws nigh to the altar with an unbelieving heart, you will find the statesman base and treacherous in the council chamber and the senate; if the prophet or preacher speaks words in God's name merely to please or injure men, the clerk and the shopkeeper will be fraudulent likewise. Is there a danger that we shall play with the most dreadful words as if they were counters, shall use the names of Heaven and Hell, and of God himself, as if they were instruments of our trade? Is there a danger that there shall be nothing answering in our acts to our words, that we shall be more

394

THE HELP AGAINST IT.

[Serm. XXII. grovelling than ordinary men in the one, in proportion as we are more magnificent in the other? An infinite danger, a danger to be averted by no contrivances, not by flying from the world that we may be above it, not by mixing with it lest we shall be puffed up with spiritual pride. God only knows which course is the safer or the more perilous; in general it seems wiser to take that which the tradition of our country suggests, because it implies least of self-will and self-dependence. But either way we shall be tempted to vanity, servility, untruth. Oh! if you have ever learnt any truth, or received any nobler impulse from any of us; or if, wanting that personal motive, you care for the well being of your country,-ask of Him who has promised to hear, that He will give us firmer wills, more childlike hearts, greater boldness in denouncing evil because it is hateful to God and destructive of men; greater tenderness for the evils of others because we feel them bitterly in ourselves. Ask that our lips may be silent if we cannot speak words of health, and that we may not call upon you to make sacrifices, if we are not willing to offer ourselves as sacrifices in His name who is the High-priest of the whole family in Heaven and Earth.

SERMON XXIII.

THE POTTER'S WORK.

LINCOLN'S INN, SUNDAY AFTER ASCENSION.-MAY 23, 1852.

JEREMIAH, XVIII. 1—6.

The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there will I cause thee to hear my words. Then I went down to the potter's house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hands of the potter; so he made it again another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make it. Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Oh house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the Lord. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand, Oh house of Israel.

I HAVE spoken of the two signs by which Jeremiah was instructed in the gradual and certain fulfilment of God's purposes and in the woe which was coming upon His people from the North. There are other signs scattered through the book, some merely addressed to the prophet himself, some which he was to shew to the people or to make use of as parables for their instruction. A girdle which he hid in the hole of a rock till it was marred and profitable for

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THE GIRDLE.

[Serm.

nothing, taught him how close and intimate had been the bond between God and His people, and how, through their own act, all fellowship between Him and them had been destroyed.

In each of these cases, in the last especially,-much pains are taken to impress the force of the sign upon the prophet's mind. He must actually wear the girdle; he must take a journey to the Euphrates to hide it. He is not allowed to think of it as a fancy which has struck him and which he may let go or exchange for some other. He must exhaust the full meaning of it before he has done with it. The study of it must be a serious occupation, suspended perhaps for a time, but to be taken up again; the first thought suggested being part of a chain to which the last is linked. I apprehend this was a very wonderful education of a man's spirit, one which may supply very precious hints to ourselves for the discipline of our own. What we want in every occupation is some means of preserving the continuity of our thoughts, some resistance to the influences which are continually distracting and dissipating them. But it is especially the student of the events of his own time, of the laws which regulate them, of the issues which are to proceed from them, who has need to be reminded that he is not studying a number of loose unconnected phenomena, but is tracing a principle under different aspects and through different manifestations. A sensible illustration, if we would condescend to avail ourselves of it, would often save us from much vagueness and unreality as well as from hasty and unsatisfactory conclusions.

Jeremiah's studies in the potter's house were commenced like those of which I have spoken, deliberately. He felt that he was commanded to go down to it. He was

XXIII.]

SIGNS REQUIRE MEDITATION.

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to consider the whole course of the potter's work as one which contained a meaning that he could not dispense with. If not as unsightly an image as the marred girdle, it had at least nothing picturesque to recommend it. An orator would never choose such an instance for the purpose of making an impression on his audience; still less for the purpose of exhibiting his own skill and liveliness. It must be for business, not for amusement, that such a process is observed. Let us consider what Jeremiah's business was, and how the potter might help him in understanding and performing it.

Josiah had been as thorough a reformer as it was possible for a king to be. The prophet, it would seem, remained silent while he was carrying on his work; speech was not needed when there was such vigorous and consistent action. It might have been expected that when the task was completed he would again open his lips in a song of triumph upon its success. But there were prophets enough to perform that service.

Those who had followed Manasseh in

raising altars to Baal and the Queen of Heaven, learned with great rapidity to talk of the Temple of the Lord, when Josiah had restored it to be the centre of worship; to boast that they had a perfect law when it was brought out of its obscurity and when the king trembled as he heard the words of it. It was wonderful to hear how these converts caught the tones and phrases of the old prophets now that they were the favourites of the court again; how they could utter their "burden" just as Hosea or Isaiah had uttered his. But the tones and the phrases were all which could be copied. The actual burden of the old seer was a warning of ruin which the sins of the land must bring forth; the burden of the new seer was Peace, Peace.