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. lxviii. 25); and therefore special notice is taken of the educative loss to them occasioned by disused ordinances. 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 Church 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. "And she is in IV. Because the city is deprived of religious ordinances. bitterness.' It is a beautiful and touching conception to impersonate the metropolis of Judah as a disconsolate female, troubled with the evident cessation of Divine 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 closed temple anywhere is a pitiable sight. 2. Where religious privileges are withdrawn the people suffer. 3. Love of worship will always crowd the sanctuary. GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES. Ver. 4. "Her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted." A dispirited ministry. 1. Because the sanctuary is destroyed. 2. Because the worshippers are scattered and uncared for. 3. Because its maintenance is withdrawn. 4. Because the joyous song of the young is turned to sorrow. "Her virgins are afflicted." 5. Because of conscious imperfections and unfaithfulness. -"She is in bitterness." A city in sorrow. 1. Because its reputation is dishonoured. 2. Because its resources are crippled, its people dispersed, its commerce interrupted, its institutions destroyed. 3. Because the public worship of God is abandoned. 4. Because its future seems hopeless. ILLUSTRATIONS. - Dead and dying Churches. A barque on her voyage from Hong-Kong fell in with British ship, the " Guiding Star," helplessly floating about with a fever-stricken crew. When found, only one member of the crew was able to work. The captain, the first mate, the steward, and a seaman had died. Five men were lying helpless, though still alive, and the boatswain had gone mad from the want of proper attention. The "Guiding Star" was towed to Batavia, where the survivors were placed under medical treatment. Are there not Churches to-day that are morally in a similar plight-drifting hospitals, officered with the dead and dying? It will be a mercy if they are spiritually rescued before they become sepulchres, entombing the hopelessly dead.-The Scottish Pulpit. The true man superior to his surroundings. The scientist, while admitting the influence of geographical surroundings in shaping the history and character of nations, admits that nothing would be more erroneous than to suppose that Nature alone acts in determin ing the conditions of life and of races. Man's activity must be associated with Nature. A country may be prominent and fertile, and yet occupied by a race of men utterly unfit to develop its resources. After all, man is greater than Nature, and it is his lofty mission to subdue it. The energy of the Netherlands 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 operation of the law of environment, and to ignore individual responsibility. Plant within man the vital principles of Christianity, and he will soon change his environment. The Scottish Pulpit. Ministers not only finger-posts, but guides. There ought to be no hiatus between our declarations and our spiritual 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 first he followed it himself." 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 that loved him, yet afterwards 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, monstrous speculations, to their own damnation. A youth deprived of instruction and left to his natural development is a pitiable object, and is menaced by many perils. 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 hysterical 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 Pulpit. The uses of suffering. "Through long days did Anguish, Faith, to me she brought. Should remain so long, The bright crown of song. -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, Mergere nos patitur, sed non submergere Christus-Christ lets us sink, may be, but not drown.-Edna Lyall. A city in sorrow. In 1576 Antwerp was stormed by the Spaniards with fire and sword. Never was there a more monstrous massacre, even in the bloodstained 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 revenge which impelled them, but greediness 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 their 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 tender 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 conquest. "Her adversaries are the chief; her enemies prosper." Her foes have become her masters; her enemies enjoy quiet prosperity-Geikie (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? It is no concern of theirs to pry into moral causes. The invaders 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 provoked by her manifold transgressions, and it was an aggravation of her sufferings that her enemies were utterly regardless and apparently ignorant of all this. Had they understood it, they might have shown more pity. III. They are indifferent to the sufferings they inflict. "Her children 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 adversary, not as a flock of lambs which follow the shepherd, but for sale as slaves. The princes are hunted down to exhaustion. In the ancient sculptures nothing is more affecting than the mournful processions so often depicted 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 death 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 her 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, 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 magnificence; when the land was prosperous, and the people united and content. Now 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 what 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 (Geikie; Henderson). The more literal meaning is her Sabbatisms. 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, how 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 for the Church when her enemies triumph. 2. God is the refuge of the Church in time of trouble. He is never indifferent to her sufferings. 3. The 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 superiority. 2. Rule with severity when actuated by a spirit of enmity. 3. Enjoy without compunction the prosperity secured by the ruin of others. "The 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. Involves the suffering of innocent children. "Her children are gone into captivity before the enemy (ver. 5). II. Quenches the splendour of its reputation. "From the daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed" (ver. 6). III. Degrades and harasses its most illustrious rulers. "Her princes are become like harts that find no pasture, and they are gone without strength before the pursuer" (ver. 6). Ver. 7. Sad memories. 1. When contrasting present miseries with former joys. 2. When reflecting on the suddenness and completeness of our calamities. 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 selfreliance. Loose talk leads to loose conduct. Indulgence in verbal vices soon encourages corresponding vices in conduct. Let any one talk about any mean or vile practice with familiar tone, and do you suppose, when the opportunity occurs for committing the mean or vile act, he will be as strong against it as before? 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 unwholesome to man's morality, but unfavourable to his faith and trust in God. It is not every man who could live as Lot did in Sodom, and then be fit to go out of it under God's convoy.The Christian Commonwealth. New masters: Tyranny not permanent. By 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 shore-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 Pulpit. 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 immeasurable sorrow, even if the soul be saved from death. It is only the power of God that keeps us from being destroyed by this viper. Had he his will, he is a spirit so malignant that no heir of heaven would survive. O God, keep Thine own! Deliver us from the evil one!-C. H. Spurgeon. Sin defies law. A woman named Guerin, in a rage of jealousy, murdered her unfaithful husband. Going to a villa where she learnt he was living with another woman, she stood at the door and called his name. Hearing her voice, he 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 confusion 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 north 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 associations of his early life, whether in church or home. Chafing 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. Then it is that he is tormented with painful memories; he sees his folly, and laments his reckless severance from |