Bitterness was added to the misery of the Jews when Chaldean slaves - advanced to eminence and power on account of their ability - were placed in authority over them. But there was no choice; resistance was impossible and deliverer there was none, In this respect the condition of the inhabitants of Jerusalem may represent that of sinful, helpless men.

I. A CRUEL BONDAGE. Sinners have yielded themselves up to obey the enemy of their souls, the foe of God. This is

(1) a usurper, who has no right to rule over men;

(2) a tyrant, who with unjust and unreasonable exercise of authority oppresses those beneath his power;

(3) a cruel master, whose service is slavery, whose stripes are many, whose wages are death and destruction.

II. A SEEMINGLY INEVITABLE FATE. The conquered Judaeans had looked hither and thither, in the crisis of their fate, for some friend and helper, but they had looked in vain. Similarly the captive of sin can find no earthly deliverer; his fellow men are his fellow sinners and fellow captives; there is no eye to pity and no hand to save.

III. A SOLITARY BUT SUFFICIENT CONSOLATION AND REFUGE. The restless waves answer their purpose when they toss the imperilled mariner towards the haven of refuge. Affliction and adversity, chains and dungeons, oppressors and torturers, may make the one only Deliverer welcome. The Lord God has revealed himself to us as the Saviour of all men. There is no prison from which he cannot set the captive free; there are no gyves and fetters he cannot strike off; there are no foes from whose hands he cannot rescue and deliver. - T.

The terms unfolded, When in the depths of our distress the iniquities of our forefathers come to our remembrance, at once they aggravate our sins and augment our sorrows (2 Kings 22:13; Daniel 9:16; Jeremiah 14:19, 20). When God comes to find sin successive in generations, the last shall be sure to drink deep of the cup of Divine vengeance (Nehemiah 9:34, 35, 38; Jeremiah 4:24, 25). When ancestors' sins are not our cautions (Ezekiel 18:14), it deeply aggravates the guilt of our souls (Nehemiah 13:18; Ezra 9:7; Jeremiah 16:11-13; Zechariah 1:4-6). The longer heaven's patience is abused, the greater and more dreadful is the wrath of God that is deserved (Romans 2:4, 5; Romans 1:18; Jeremiah 49:9-11). If we promote sin by indulgence, or by example in our posterities, we shall be sure to entail judgment upon our issue (1 Samuel 2:29, 34, 36). Children are many times executors, they enter upon their father's sins, and you know that in justice the executor may be sued, the debtor being dead. God may punish the sins of the parents upon the children, and yet the cause of the punishment may be in themselves (Hosea 4:12, 13). As if any being sick of the plague infect others, every one that dies, is said to die, not of others', but of his own plague. Had their parents been good, had they been pious and zealous for God, there would have been no ground, no cause for this complaint; they could not then have said, "Our fathers' iniquity is laid as a burden upon our shoulders." It is good to be good parents, parental holiness is advantageous to posterity (Psalm 102:28; Psalm 112:1, 2; Proverbs 14:26; Jeremiah 32:39).

1. Exemplary piety in the fathers makes an impression upon the children's hearts (Zechariah 10:7).

2. Heaven's benediction descends from the parents to the children (Acts 2:39).

3. Wicked fathers infelicitate their posterity (Job 5:3, 4). The Jews were very unhappy parents (Matthew 27:25). Children, plead if you can your ancestors' integrity before the Lord. The father's piety is the child's privilege (Psalm 116:16; Psalm 86:16; 1 Kings 8:23-25). Let us labour to be good ourselves, and to plant holiness in our families, that so we may have God's blessings estated upon our children (Genesis 18:19).

(D. Swift.)