THE Preacher's Complete Homiletical COMMENTARY ON THE OLD TESTAMENT (ON AN ORIGINAL PLAN). With Critical and Explanatory Notes, Endices, &c., &c BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. New York FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY LONDON AND TORONTO 1892 A HOMILETIC COMMENTARY ON THE BOOK OF LAMENTATIONS. BY REV. GEO. BARLOW, AUTHOR OF "HOMILETIC COMMENTARY ON THE BOOKS OF KINGS," ETC. New York FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY LONDON & TORONTO PREFACE. PREACHERS appear to have shunned the BOOK OF 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 Lamentations, as they cannot elsewhere, the most appropriate words in which to voice their grief. We cannot conceive of any possible phase 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, whether 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, July 1891. |