---

By the mouth of His prophet, Jeremiah, God upbraids His people for their impiety; but it is worthy of notice that He reproaches them not for their forgetfulness of His miraculous deliverances, but for their heedlessness of His regular kindness to them. It is not that they are neglecting Him who saved them from the wrath of the Egyptians by the marvels of the Red Sea passage; it is that they are failing to honour Him who has always been keeping the sea in its bed.

I. GOD'S CONSTANT KINDNESS TO US.

1. In keeping in check the destructive forces upon the earth (ver. 22). The sea at rest, kept within its bounds, is an object of surpassing beauty; its surface is the great highway of the nations. But when it breaks its bounds, it causes terrible destruction. As with the sea, so with the air. The pure air we breathe is life itself; the soft breeze is refreshment and invigoration; the wind aids us in our industries and carries our ships across the water. But the cyclone, the hurricane, is danger, destruction, death. The occasional storm reminds us of the continuance from week to week of that balance in the atmospheric forces which the wisdom and the power of God sustain, and which makes possible and practicable our pleasant lives. This also holds with the interior of the earth. Beneath a thin crust of rock are stored and hidden great central fires. What if they were loosened! The earthquake and the volcano are the reminders that there are forces beneath our feet and of which we have no control whatever; but a mightier hand than ours has shut them in, and keeps us in safety and in peace.

2. In putting into exercise productive powers (ver. 24). God has been fulfilling His promise, and neither seedtime nor harvest has failed from the earth. There have come droughts and storms: our trust and our patience have been tried; our intellectual resources have been developed, and our character has been disciplined thereby; adverse material conditions have been strengthening and quickening our manhood; the culture of the field has been the culture of the race; the method of God's giving has greatly enhanced the value of His gift. Divine wisdom has accompanied Divine bounty at every step.

II. OUR HUMAN RESPONSE. Too often it has been —

1. That which is our reproach. Men have taken everything from the God of their life, and they, have —

(1) Denied His existence; or(2) Questioned His interest in His children's well-being; or(3) Practically disregarded the operation of His hand, and rendered Him no thanks; or(4) Contented themselves with bare formalities from which all genuine feeling has been left out. But prophet and psalmist and apostle invite us to a response —

2. Which is becoming and acceptable.

(1) Reverence. "Fear ye not Me?" Have we no adoration for this Lord of all power and wisdom, who keeps the sea in its place and who covers the barren soil with a golden harvest?

(2) Gratitude. Shall we not "bless the Lord," who "filleth our mouth with good things"?

(3) Service. He who gives us the bread which nourishes our body has placed us under a far greater obligation in that He has given us the Bread of Life. Eating of the one, we live a lower life for "a few more years"; but partaking of the other, we live the larger and higher life for evermore (John 6:58).

(C. Clarkson, B. A.)

---

---

KJV: Declare this in the house of Jacob, and publish it in Judah, saying,

WEB: "Declare this in the house of Jacob, and publish it in Judah, saying,