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maintain him, that have the care and compassion of a father for him (Ps. ciii. 13); "and Ephraim is my first-born;" even Ephraim, who, having gone astray from God, was "no more worthy to be called a son," shall yet be owned as a first-born, particularly dear, and heir of a double blessing. If we take God for our Father, and join ourselves to "the church of the first-born," we may be assured that we shall want nothing that is good for us.

Text for the day, verse 3.

Friday, August 26th.

Jeremiah xxxi. 10 to 17.

Verse 10. God had dealt with Israel as a Father in punishing their sins, and He would now deal with them as a Father forgiving and restoring them. There is but one end of the journey when our faces are turned from God, and we soon come to the "husks" and the swine trough. On the other hand, there is but one end of the journey when our faces are turned toward God, and long before we reach home a running Father meets His returning child, and rejoices over the trembling words, "Father, I have sinned." May God give us grace that we may not wander and be of the scattered ones, but, if we should wander, may faith be given to make speedy return to such a gracious God, to such a loving Father, revealed to us in Jesus Christ His Son.

Verse 11. Redemption by blood, and redemption by power, march side by side in God's plan of saving His people. We must accept the first in order to know the second.

Verses 12 to 14. "Therefore" God acts in grace, only on the ground of redemption. Israel had grievously sinned, and had forfeited all claim to blessing under the law. What God could not do under law, through the atonement provided, He did under grace. "Being justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus" (Ro. iii. 24). To accept of redemption is to stand in grace, and have opened the door way for the incoming of every precious blessing God has to bestow. "They shall come and sing in the height of Zion." So in Ephesians we read, "Seated in heavenly places" (Eph. ii. 6). "Their soul shall be as a watered garden"; so Eph. i. 13. "After that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise." "My people shall be satisfied with my goodness." So Rev. xxi. 4. "God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes;" and Ps. xvii. 15, "Satisfied, when I awake with thy likeness."

Verses 15 to 17. This is one of the most beautiful figures in the Bible. Read Gen. xxxv. 15-20; Matt. ii. 17. We sow in tears, and reap in joy; our sons of sorrow are made sons of power; and when our case seems most hopeless, the God of hope speaks, "Thy work shall be rewarded," "There is hope in thine end, saith the Lord." So, let us hope to the end.

From Mr. Moody:

It is very important to have hope in the church; and it is the work of the Holy Ghost to impart hope. Let Him come into some of the churches where there have not been any conversions for a few years, and let Him convert a score of people, and see how

hopeful the church becomes at once. He imparts hope; a man filled with the Spirit of God will be very hopeful. He will be looking into the future, and he knows that it is all bright, because the God of all grace is able to do great things. If a man has lost hope, he is out of communion with God; he has not the Spirit of God resting upon him for service; he may be a son of God, and yet so disheartened that he cannot be used of God. Oh, children of God, let us not get discouraged; let us ask God to forgive us if we have been discouraged and cast down; let us ask God to fill us with His Spirit that we may be ever hopeful.

Text for the day, verse 16.

Saturday, August 27th.

Jeremiah xxxi. 18 to 25.

Verses 18 and 19. There is the sweet music of repentance, and the tender tones of a heart that has submitted to the will of God in these words. Note how God's hand is to be recognized in all of our afflictions and sorrows. "Thou hast chastised me." The Bible no where gives place to theories of second causes, but brings the soul face to face with God. "I was dumb, because thou didst it." Note the purpose of the chastisement, "I was chastised as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke." God, in our election and calling, puts the yoke upon us; then comes our discipline and training that we may patiently bear the yoke and become efficient in God's service in bearing it. How plainly the Christian can see as he looks back over the years of the past, that his entering into the service of Christ was very much like the untamed bullock, yoked up for purposes that he did not conceive, and to bear burdens that he had not thought of. Note the source of power for all true repentance: "Turn thou me, and I shall be turned." "After that I was turned, I repented." So Acts v. 31. "Him hath God exalted....for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins." Note the methods used by God to bring His children to repentance;-chastisement and instruction.

Verse 20. This permits us a glimpse of the heart of God as He hears the confession of His repentant and returning children, and behold their contrite tears. "He is my son,-my dear son, my pleasant child. I do earnestly remember him still; I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the Lord." If there is a reader of these lines who has ever felt his sins, and found peace by looking to Christ, let him know that, however far away he may have wandered, and however grievously he may have sinned, this is the message of God to him.

Verses 21 and 22. "Set thine heart toward the highway, even the way which thou wentest." You have left the road, get back onto it, and when again upon it, "set up way-marks," that you may not wander again, and that others may be kept in the path.

Verses 23 to 25. Praises ascending to God,-love going out to their fellows,-the weary soul satiated and at rest in God, and the sorrowful soul replenished and comforted by His grace;-this is the happy description of restored Israel.

From F. B. Meyer:

Some one says to me: "If I always had to do with God, I would not mind. If it was disaster, shipwreck, fire, anything which I could trust to God, I hope I am Christian enough to bow to it. But what worries me, and makes me feverish and restless, is that things come to me from my fellow-men. I cannot say 'yes' to those." Ah, my friend, you must! You will never get rest if you do not. I tried that myself once, and I found that I had at last to come to this, and to make no distinction between what God appointed and what God permitted. His per mission and His appointments are equally His will. Jesus thought so, because when Judas came into the garden to arrest Him He said, "The cup that my Father giveth me to drink, shall I not drink it?" Though it had been brought to His lip by a Judas, it had been mixed by His Father.

Text for the day, verse 18.

Sunday, August 28th.

Jeremiah xxxi. 26 to 34.

Verse 26. It would seem from this verse that the Lord was speaking to Jeremiah by dreams and in visions by night (Job xxxiii. 15, 16). He awakens to reflect with rapture upon the fair visions that had passed before him and sleeps again that God may further instruct him, and confirm to him what he has already heard.

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Verses 27 and 28. For a long time everything should seem to go against Israel: all their attempts to stem the tide should be unavailing, strength exhausted they should drift on at the mercy of the stream; they might build,-but what they built should be overthrown; they might sow seed, but there should come no harvest. God would be against them. But suddenly there should come a change, prosperity should return; the clouds would pass from the sky, and the bright sunlight of God's smile would be over them, and His power would work for their good, as it had wrought for their overthrow.

Verses 29 and 30. They had counted it a hard thing that they should be punished for their fathers' sins, and yet this was God's covenant with their fathers, and they, indeed, were unwilling to forsake the sins of their fathers. We are all like Mr. Lowell, who said when suffering from gout be. cause his grandfather drank too much old port wine, "I had rather have inherited the cause than the consequences." He would have enjoyed the port, but not the portion of pain that the port must bring. All sin that men indulge in, is as disquieting and unsatisfactory to the soul, as sour grapes to the teeth.

Verses 31 to 34. See in Heb. x. 16, 17, that this "new covenant," is the covenant of grace in Christ, now enjoyed by all believers in its spiritual application, and soon to be extended to the Jews as a people. No new law is given, but a new heart is created that the old and eternal law of righteousness, the law of love to God, and love to man, may be fulfilled. "Think not I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill" (Matt. v. 17). Note that this new heart comes as a

consequence, and not as the cause, of forgiveness. God forgives; man believes; man is made a new creature.

From Matthew Henry:

The law shall be written in their hearts by the finger of the Spirit as formerly it was written in the tables of stone. God writes His law in the hearts of all believers, makes it ready and familiar to them, at hand when they have occasion to use it, as that which is written in the heart. Prov. iii, 3. He makes them in care to observe it, for that which we are solicitous about is said to lie near our hearts. He works in them a disposition to obedience, a conformity of thought and affection to the rules of the divine law, as that of the copy to the original. In order to this blessing, sin shall be pardoned. This is made the reason of all the rest. It is sin that keeps good things from us, that stops the current of God's favors; let sin be taken away by pardoning mercy, and the obstruction is removed, and divine grace runs down like a river, like a mighty stream. Text for the day, verse 34.

Monday, August 29th.

Jeremiah xxxi. 35 to 40.

Verses 35 to 37. This is a most impressive and solemn affirmation on the part of Jehovah as to His purposes of grace toward Israel in the fulfill. ment of the everlasting and unchangeable covenant made with Abraham and David. See something of the same nature in Dan. xii. 7. Note the force of this as brought out in Heb. vi. 13 to 18. Faith on our part is a simple trust that God will keep His word. The slightest reflection as to the character of God, and as to what is due to Him from His crea tures, will show the dishonor done to Him if we do not thus trust Him. "He that believeth not God hath made Him a liar" (1 Jno. v. 10). “O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!" (Luke xxiv. 25). May God give to each of us such a revelation of Himself as manifested in His Son, that we shall be delivered forever from our unbelief. Three things God uses to illustrate His faithfulness to Israel: the heavens,-the sea,-and the earth. He who builded the firmament of the heavens, and keeps by His ordinances, the sun and moon, and the millions of the stars in their courses will build again the nation of Israel. When the covenant was made with Abraham, God told him his seed should be as numerous as the stars (Gen. xv. 5), here it is promised that they should endure as the stars. The restless sea is introduced as illustrating the power of God in checking and holding back all that rages against His will. He who has kept the oceans in their places for ages, can keep His people safe from their enemies. The impossi bility of measuring the heavens above and fathoming the mysteries that exist in the earth beneath is used to strengthen the affirmation that God will never cast off the seed of Abraham.

Verses 38 to 40. We cannot,in view of these verses, apply what has gone before to the church. See in Neh. iii. 1 how he followed this exact order in rebuilding Jerusalem. All expositors agree in

calling attention to that as a partial fulfillment of the prophecy. The full fulfillment has to do with a literal Israel, and a literal Jerusalem, just as much as did the partial fulfillment (Ro. xi. 1, 2).

From C. H. Spurgeon:

It has been said that he who understands the two covenants is a theologian, and this is, no doubt, true. I may also say that the man who knows the relative positions of the law and of the gospel has the keys of the situation in the matter of doctrine. The relationship of the law to myself, and how it condemns me; the relationship of the gospel to myself, and how if I be a believer it justifies methese are two points which every Christian man should clearly understand. The law must stand in all its terrors to drive men away from self-righteousness and constrain them to fly to Christ. They will never accept grace till they tremble before a just and holy law; therefore the law serves a most necessary and blessed purpose, and must not be removed from its place. "For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled" (Matt. v. 18).

Text for the day, verse 35.

Tuesday, August 30th.

Jeremiah xxxii. 1 to 15.

Verses 1 to 5. Here we have the situation of Jeremiah, when the word of the Lord came to him, and the circumstances that led up to the prophecy. The fall of Jerusalem and of the Jewish state was rapidly approaching; it was the tenth year of Zedekiah's reign, and the city fell in the eleventh year. Jeremiah was shut up in prison because of his continued prophesying that the Lord had given the city to the king of Babylon, and that the Jews should not prosper in fighting him, and that King Zedekiah should go as a prisoner to Babylon. Now while in prison, a word comes from God for his comfort, and for the comfort of the righteous remnant who were about to go into captivity.

Verses 7 to 15. This was a remarkable transaction, and must have caused great discussion among the troubled Jews. They could but recognize the probability, as they looked from their walls upon the army of Babylon that surrounded them, that Jeremiah's words would be fulfilled and that the city would be taken, the temple be destroyed, and the people be carried far away into captivity, as the ten tribes had been one hundred and thirty years before. Under these circumstances, real estate in the suburbs of Jerusalem (the "field at Anathoth' may at this time been a camp of Nebuchadnezzar) would be at a low figure. For Jeremiah to make the investment he did, was a striking manifestation of his faith in God, not only in the execution of His judgments, but in the fulfillment of His covenant of grace. Jeremiah believed what he declared in verse 15, and banked on the promise of God. Hanameel, his nephew, either did not believe, or, was forced by famine to part with his inheritance. It may be that this may have come about through the enmity of the Jews, as a test of Jeremiah's faith,

with the intention of discrediting his words with the people if he had not made the purchase. A key to the meaning of Rev. v. is found in this transaction. "The book" of Rev. v. is the title deed to this earth, like the title of Jeremiah to the field of Anathoth, placed in an earthen vessel, until the Redeemer should appear with a duplicate copy, and take possession.

From Mr. Moody:

In the second century, they brought a martyr before a king, and the king wanted him to recant and give up Christ and Christianity, but the man spurned the proposition. The king said: "If you don't do it, I will banish you." The man smiled and answered: "You can't banish me from Christ, for He says He will never leave me nor forsake me." The king got angry, and said: "Well, I will confiscate your property and take it all from you." And the man replied: "My treasures are laid up on high; you cannot get them." The king became still more angry, and said: "I will kill you." "Why," the man answered, "I have been dead forty years; I have been dead with Christ; dead to the world, and my life is hid with Christ in God, and you cannot touch it." And so, let persecution and opposition come, we can rejoice continually; for our inheritance is sure, reserved for us unto the day when He who is our life shall appear, and we shall appear with Him in glory.

Text for the day, verse 15.

Wednesday, August 31st.

Jeremiah xxxii. 16 to 25.

Verse 16. Note from verses 24 and 25 that the prophet was led to make this prayer by the perplexity in his own mind as to the transaction in which he had been engaged. In view of the land being given to the Chaldeans of what value was his purchase? Was he to have the same trial that Jonah bad, and after being persecuted for denouncing judgment upon Jerusalem was he to be put to shame by God changing His purpose? Undoubtedly the false prophets who were telling the people that the city should not fall, made great use of Jeremiah's having made this purchase, as showing that he did not believe in his heart that the city would be taken. O that in all of our perplexity over the word of God, or over try. ing circumstances, that we might with Jeremiah, "pray unto the Lord."

Verses 17 to 19. The man who uttered these words had his eyes upon God, and had learned to know God. He magnifies His power: "There is nothing too hard for thee." He magnifies His grace: "Thou showest loving kindness unto thousands." He magnifies His wisdom: "Thine eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons of men." He magnifies His unchanging justice, and eternal righteousness: "To give every one according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings."

Verses 20 to 24. All of that for which he had magnified God for, as being the essential elements of His character and being, he now shows had been illustrated in God's dealings with the children of Israel. His power had been shown in their deliver

ance from Egypt. His grace in His long suffering with them in the wilderness and in bringing them into the land. His wisdom,-"What thou hast spoken is come to pass; and, behold, thou seest it." His justice, "They have done nothing of all that thou commandest them to do; therefore thou hast caused all this evil to come upon them."

Verse 25. "Though the city is given into the hands of the Chaldeans," is the marginal reading. The awful realities of present judgment, "sword, famine and pestilence," with the certainty of impending defeat and captivity, so impressed Jeremiah, that he could not take in the meaning of the intimation of coming mercy and deliverance to follow.

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good of, but the case of his people, for whom he was still a kind and faithful intercessor, and he was willing to hope that, if God had so much mercy in store for them hereafter as He had promised, He would not proceed with so much severity against them now as He had threatened. Before Jeremiah went to prayer he delivered the deeds that concerned his new purchase to Baruch, which may intimate to us that when we are going to worship God we should get our minds as clear as may be from the cares and incumbrances of this world. Jeremiah was in prison, in distress, in the dark about the meaning of God's providences, and then he prays. Prayer is a salve for every sore. Whatever is a bur den to us, we may by prayer cast it upon the Lord and then be easy. Whatever trouble we are in, we may comfort ourselves with this, that God sees it and sees how to remedy it.

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