first hunter we have mentioned in the Bible. Note in Ezek. xlvii. 9, 10, the same expression, "fishers and hunters," as describing those who should bring Israel back to their land-enemies carrying them away and enemies bringing them back. In the New Testament we have our Lord Jesus making "fishers of men" out of His disciples to bring life and deliverance instead of judgment (Luke v. 10). In verse 18, "their sin double," might be rendered, "I will recompense once and again," referring to the two captivities-Babylonian and Roman. Verses 19 to 21. Judgment upon the Jews leads to the conversion of the Gentiles, and this in turn to the conversion of the Jews, so the end of the day of affliction for God's people is bound to come, and it shall be an end of peace. From C. H. Spurgeon: It is well to draw upon the bank of hope as well as upon the bank of experience. When thy cup is full of sorrow, and thy face is covered with shame, and not a ray of light falls on thy dreary path, remember that there is a history full of grace behind us; and it is all wrapped up in the name of Him who is the hope of every contrite heart. But take good heed that your hope is not a vague hope. See to it that you believe in God firmly, and that you lay hold upon an actual promise of His word or some statute of His kingdom very tightly: for then you may hope to your heart's content. Though you cannot see the way of deliverance, you can feel that the Lord holds you by the hand. Now plead with Him: "Lord, thou art my only hope. Thou knowest I have no hope anywhere else. I am clean driven to despair except thou look upon me in grace." This is good pleading. Every one has a hope somewhere. To the miserable there remains no other medicine. Deprived of this the sufferer would grow desperate, and his melancholy would drive him to the verge of madness; but there is a hope of some kind in every man's bosom. Text for the day, verse 21. Friday, July 22d. Jeremiah xvii. 1 to 8. Verses 1 to 4. The inveterate love of the Jews for idolatry is expressed by this figure. The names of heathen gods were wont to be written on their altars (Acts xvii. 23). Sin written upon the heart indicates inward propensity; sin written upon the altar indicates outward exhibition. See in 2 Cor. iii. 3 what God would have written upon the heart -Christ imparted by the Spirit. The words in verse 3, "My mountain in the field," means Jerusalem. Verses 5 and 6 is a rebuke to Judea for seeking help from Egypt. It is also a warning for each one of us personally. The tendency is universal in man to trust in what he can see,instead of trusting in the unseen, the living God. In verse 6 heath means a plant. It was, according to Pliny, excluded from religious uses because it had neither fruit or seed and is never sown or planted. Verses 7 and 8. This is much like the first Psalm where the blessing is promised to believers. Note the contrast between the believer and the unbeliever -"shall not see when good cometh." The believer "shall not see when heat cometh." The one without God is blinded to that which is good, the one with God is not troubled by that which is evil. The believer not only bears fruit, but has a green leaf in bearing the fruit: not only doing good, but doing good in a good way-made attractive to men. From Donald Fraser: This new covenant of promise is a national cove. nant with Israel and Judah only, as the former covenant had been; but its blessings are just those which the church in this dispensation enjoys, and which are free to Jews and Gentiles alike through Jesus Christ. These are the blessings of: (1) Regeneration, the law of the Lord being put into the inward parts and written on the heart. (2) Fellowship with God. (3) Divine teaching, so that all shall know the Lord; and (4) Complete and unconscious pardon. What a feast of fat things! What precious promises! And these are ours in Christ. We embrace in faith the blessings of His Testament, and so, out of the mournful pages of Jeremiah, we derive the joyful tidings of a great salvation. Text for the day, verse 7. Saturday, July 23d. Jeremiah xvii. 9 to 18. Verses 9 and 10. "Deceitful"-This word comes from a Hebrew root meaning supplanted. It is illustrated by what is said of Jacob as a supplanter in Hos. xii. 3. "The heart is deceitful," and we should believe what God says and not trust to our own hearts, either in regard to our sinfulness, or in regard to our forgiveness and acceptance with God in Christ. Trust God's word, not your own heart. Verse 11. "Gathereth young which she hath not brought forth"-seems to be the meaning of this word. As we are not to trust to deceitful hearts, so we are not to trust in uncertain riches. Verse 12. Here we have the one and only object of the believer's hope and trust-the eternal God upon His eternal throne. Verse 13. Jeremiah turns readily and easily from exhortation to prayer and praise, and from prayer and praise to exhortation. These sudden transitions have an explanation in remembering that the prophet had always a sense of God's presence with him. The words "written in the earth" mean consigued to oblivion. Words written in the dust are obliterated by a very slight wind. Contrast with this the sentence in Lu. x. 20, "Your names are written in heaven." Verses 14 to 18. Jeremiah's personal prayer: "Heal me." "Save me." "Be not a terror unto me." "Let me not be confounded." "Let me not be dismayed." Amen. From Matthew Henry: When men say in their hearts (that is, suffer their hearts to whisper to them) that there is no God, or He does not see, or He will not require, or they shall have peace though they go on; in these and a thousand similar suggestions the heart is deceitful. It cheats men into their own ruin; and this will be the aggravation of it, that they are self-deceivers, self-destroyers. Herein the heart is desperately wicked; it is deadly, it is desperate. The case is bad indeed, and in a manner deplorable and past relief, if the conscience which should rectify the errors of the other faculties is itself a mother of falsehood and a ringleader in the delusion. What will become of man if that in him which should be the candle of the Lord give a false light, if God's deputy in the soul, that is entrusted to support His interests, betrays them? Such is the deceitfulness of the heart that we may truly say, Who can know it? Text for the day, verse 14. Sunday, July 24th. Jeremiah xvii. 19 to 27. This prophetical message was delivered in the days of Jehoiakim, who had destroyed the good effect of Josiah's reformation, especially in regard to the Sabbath. Note here four things: First, source of message, from the Lord. Second, to place of delivery-where the kings pass by and in all the gates of Jerusalem. God's proclamation is to be given wide publicity. Third, substance of the message-hallow the Sabbath. This was made distinctively a mark of obedience to God on the part of the Jews as His earthly people. Fourth, treatment of the message "They obeyed not, neither inclined their ear." Verses 24 to 26. Wonderful promise of rich reward for obedience. Man's happiness on this earth, or anywhere in God's universe, is dependent upon his harmony with God his Maker. Verse 27. Destruction and desolation for disobe. dience. From Joseph Parker: Let no man think he has sounded the whole depth of God's providence in this matter of punishment or of benediction and blessing. History has recorded nothing yet; history is getting its pen ready for the real registration of divine ministry in human affairs. No judgment has yet befallen the world worth naming compared with the judgment that may at any moment be revealed. They say that the earth was once drenched and drowned: it was but a sprinkling of water compared with the infinite cataract that God could pour down. We have seen streamlets, little silver rills of water trickling down the hillsides: we have not seen the hidden floods. Do not tempt them: there they are, locked up amid the rocks of eternity. What God could do if He pleased, if His anger were excited! "It is a fearful thing to fall in the hands of the living God." Do not say we have had the rain, and there is no more to fall. There is a flood that no ark could ride. Text for the day, verse 22. Monday, July 25th. Jeremiah xviii. 1 to 12. Verses 1 and 2. To come to a potter's house,-to be instructed in the ways of God,-would be beneath the dignity of many in our day who aspire to be recognized as God's ambassadors. It is by knowledge and use of the common things of life that common people are reached in the teaching of the truth. What most preachers need is to come in contact more intelligently with the toiling men and women in the world around about them, and to seek to understand what they are doing and how they are doing it, and thus find homely illustrations for spiritual truths. Verses 3 to 6. The potter would have made from his lump of clay an ornamental pitcher, perhaps; he breaks the handle and then changes his mind and makes a bean-pot. The application of the lesson is very humiliating to man's pride. Each of us in God's hands are like clay in the hands of the potter. (See application Rom. ix. 21.) Verses 7 to 12. As God deals with individuals so He deals with nations-"to build up and to plant, to pluck down and to destroy," according to His own will. From C. H. Spurgeon: Begin first by confessing your guilt. Come, my dear hearer, there can be no benefit in trying to conceal anything, therefore acknowledge your transgression. God can see it all; but there will be great benefit in your seeing it and confessing it before Him. Do not try to patch up a righteousness of your own. Jesus Christ is never sweet to any but to sinners. You have to prove that you are a sinner, not a saint; for Jesus gave Himself for our sins, not for our merits. Remember, when Christ comes to fill us, the first thing that we need to know is our own emptiness. Do not, therefore, go upon the tack of trying to make any kind of defence; but acknowledge your sins, and say, "My iniquities testify against me." Some of you could not make out a plea for righteousness if you were to try: your life-long actions would confound you if you at tempted it. When people come in here who have never heard the gospel before, they are often brought speedily to receive Christ, because when God blesses the Word to such, it is not difficult to convince them of sin. Text for the day, verse 2. Tuesday, July 26th. Jeremiah xviii. 13 to 23. It is one of the singular facts in the history of men that when error has been implanted it is harder to uproot than truth. India, China and Africa all cling to forms of idolatry, and hold fast teaching received centuries ago. God here declares it to be a most horrible thing that Israel had forsaken Him. He had been to them as the snow of Lebanon and cold flowing waters." He had marked out the way of blessing for them, but they had "turned from the ancient paths to walk in paths, in a way not cast up." (See chap. vi. 6.} Jude 13: "Faith once for all delivered unto the saints," is the way God has cast up. Many in oar day turn from the Bible to walk in other ways Let us, as Spurgeon says, "Keep to the crown of the causeway." To forsake God's paths is to forfeit His protection; to turn from the light of His truth is to wander in darkness and make trouble and torment our portion. Verse 18. They would not repent of their transgressions, and would therefore put to death the faithful servant of God, who reproves their evil. If men are not willing to kill their sins, they will always seek to kill the prophet that reproves them. Verses 19 to 23. There is no spirit of personal revenge in this prayer; it is prophetical of the judg ments of God that were coming upon an impenitent people. From Donald Fraser: He was a man of tender feeling, keenly alive to the evils and woes of the time; and it must have been peculiarly trying to such a man to be "set over nations and kingdoms, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to overthrow; to build, and to plant." But him the Lord commissioned, touching his mouth with the divine haud, and making him firm as "an iron pillar, and brazen walls, against the whole land." When we consider the tenderness of Jeremiah's spirit, we are all the more struck by the boldness of his appeals and the severity of his reproaches. He had no wife or child; and his affectionate nature, having no such private outlet, brooded the more anxiously over his nation. Yet his love was ill-construed and requited. Text for the day, verse 14. Wednesday, July 27th. Jeremiah xix. Verses 1 and 2. Here we have another object les son. The breaking of the potter's vessel and throwing of the fragments into the valley of Hinnom,and the burial of these fragments in Tophet, is made a symbol of what God is about to do with the nation. The valley of Hinnom was the place of Molech worship. Abominable idolatries were here practiced. The scene of their guilt is chosen as the scene of punishment. Verses 3 to 10. An awful and overwhelming indictment against Judea for their treatment of Jehovah, and the awful deliverance of the details of the forewarned punishment. It is a thrilling scene as we contemplate it. The inspired prophet surrounded by his enraged and yet frightened countrymen, fearlessly denouncing their sins and warning them of their doom. We can see him as he throws the potter's vessel and shatters it to fragments upon the ground as he closes his address. Verses 11 and 13. These words were uttered after the breaking of the bottle, "Thus will I do unto this place." Verses 14 and 15. It was great boldness in the prophet to go and give his message in the courts of the Lord's house. We do not read that God sent him there in the same plain way that we read that he was sent to Tophet. It may be that the trouble that came upon him might have been avoided if he had gone no further than the Lord had commanded him. We admire him all the same for the courage that led him to go to the temple and speak the message there also. From Matthew Henry: For thus saith the Lord of hosts, who is able to make His words good, I will bring upon this city, and upon all her towns, all the smaller cities that belong to Jerusalem the metropolis,all the evil that I have pronounced against it. Note, whatever men may think to the contrary, the executions of providence will fully answer the predictions of the Word, and God will appear as terrible against sin and sinners as the Scriptures makes Him; nor shall the unbelief of men make either His promises or His threatenings of no effect or of less effect than they were thought to be of. The contempt of the prophecies is here the sin charged upon them, as the procuring cause of this judgment. It is because they have hardened their necks, and would not bow and bend them to the neck of God's commands, would not hear my words, that is, would not heed them and yield obedience to them. Text for the day, verse 11. Thursday, July 28th. Jeremiah xx. 1 to 6. Verses 1 and 2. This was a shameful indignity to Jeremiah from a brother priest, one belonging to the same order as himself. To be smitten with the fist in a public place, and to be confined for twelve or more hours in the stocks at one of the gates of the city, to be derided by the people, was a cruel indignity to be visited upon so holy and faithful a man. The stocks were an instrument of torture: five holes, one for the neck, two for the hands, and two for the feet; the body thus kept in a crooked and painful position. We think of Paul, the Apostle, confined at Philippi in the same manner. (Acts xvi.) Verses 3 to 6. The meaning of the name "Pashur," is "security on every side." The new name that Jeremiah gives him means "fear round about." Pashur had governed the temple; he had used his power to keep Jeremiah twelve hours in the stocks; but he could not make him afraid, for God was with him, and upon his deliverance he continues to boldly speak for his God. Soon Pashur should be delivered to his enemies for life-long servitude, and should be filled with terror, for God would not be with him. He had kept his position by prophesy. ing lies. When the end came, those to whom he had prophesied lies would curse him and mock at the suffering that had come upon him. From Joseph Parker: Prophets must not accept a flesh wound as a period to their function, as an exhaustion of their prerogative; while the poor flesh smarts under the stinging blow the soul must rise to the occasion, and the smiter himself must be struck with a deadlier hand than his own. Thus a prophet has a bad time of it in the world. We pray that a prophet may rise. Yet who dare say, Amen? He would have a hard time of it! We need him much. The Lord hath forsaken me utterly if at this moment the church does not in all her departments and com. munions need a prophet, a terrible man, a man of iron lips, a man of throat of brass, a man too strong for patronage, yet weak in the presence of all tenderness, necessity and helplessness. Let him come, O living God, with his potter's earthen vessel, and break it before us. Yet how dare we ask Thee to send that man. We should ill-use him. Yet we need him very much. Text for the day, verse 6. Friday, July 29th. Jeremiah xx. 7 to 18. Verses 7 to 8. These words must be taken as the meditation of a man at midnight in the stocks. His sufferings and shame, the derision of his enemies, the loneliness of the long night, kept sleepless by his painful position, had almost overcome him. "Jeremiah's complaint," not unlike that of Job, breathing somewhat of human infirmity, in consequence of his imprisonment: "Thou didst promise never to give me up to the will of my enemies, and yet thou hast done it." He had misunderstood God's promise. God had not said that he should not suffer. but He had said He would deliver him out of his suffering. Verse 9. Here we have the Spirit of God filling the man and compelling him to give out God's message. So Peter before the council at Jerusalem, and Paul at Athens. Oh, that all might thus witness for Christ, that His word might be as a burning fire, and that we could not but speak in rebuke of sin and bring men to repentance. Verses 10 to 13. After looking around and taking full note of the circumstances that surrounded him while in the stocks, Jeremiah looks up and begins to praise God. We can always have the same deliverance and find abundant material, whatever our trials, for the same song and praise. Verses 14 to 18. Here again we have the man of God cast down and failing in the flesh. We cannot defend this utterance, but we should hesitate in thinking of ourselves as more likely to have been submissive and to have been kept from complaint than this devoted man of God: "Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall." From C. H. Spurgeon: False prophets abounded in Jeremiah's day, and they may be met with still. I could indicate where they are, but I advise you not to go after them. They are to be found in several places of worship in London, but you had better leave them alone. There is a flatterer in your own bosom, namely, proud self. Another flatterer often crosses your path, and is eager to destroy your soul; I mean Satan. If by any possibility you can be beguiled to put up with something which looks like healing, but which is not, you shall have all the art and craft of hell to help you in it. If it be possible the very elect shall be thus deceived: instead of faith, they shall have presumption; for regeneration, they shall have reformation; for holiness, moralty; for purity, cen. soriousness; for zeal, fanaticism; for grace, fancy; and for Christ and His cross, human works and their merit. Many who profess to love you will aid the general deceit, and pnff you up with the idea of being what you are not. Text for the day, verse 13. Saturday, July 30th. Jeremiah xxi. 1 to 7. Pashur, not Verses 1 and 2. This is another Pashur the priest,son of Immer. The presence of the king of Babylon before the walls of Jerusalem had proved Pashur the priest and his followers, who had derided Jeremiah, to be liars. Zedekiah, the king, had known in his heart that they were liars and unfaithful to God. Now, when trouble has come, the true prophet and the faithful man of God is sought for. It will ever be so. Men, while in health and prosperity, unwilling to accept the cross of Christ, will seek for ministers who will flatter and soothe them, and speak lying words to them as to salvation without repentance, and deliverance from wrath without true faith in Christ. When sickness comes, and the shadow of death is over them, they send for faithful ministers who have spoken truth. and whom they have hated through life because they have spoken the truth. Note in verse 2, the words, "If so be that the Lord will deal with us ac cording to all His wondrous works." Zedekiah hoped that the Lord would deliever him as he had delivered Hezekiah, but the wondrous works of the Lord would lead to just the opposite. Zedekiah and all Jerusalem were in an apostacy from God and His justice demanded their chastisement. Verses 3 to 7. The sentence of doom had gone forth. No flattering words or hypocritical pretense of repentance could change God's purpose. Instead of fighting for Jerusalem the sword of Jehovah was turned against the city, and He was fighting against them. Jerusalem was to be destroyed, Zedekiah, his sons and servants were to be slain. From Donald Fraser: Our Bible cannot be taken to pieces, or dissolved into its elements. Here are many books-and yet the book is one "With the eternal heraldry, And signature of God Almighty stamped, Happy they who recognize the stamp, and while giving due weight to the historical evidences of the Canon, know the Bible true by an inward moral conviction and spiritual witness-who appreciate the character of its contents, "The heavenliness of the matter, the efficacy of the doctrine, the majesty of the style, the consent of all the parts,and the scope of the whole, which is to give all glory to God"; that elevated tone which it has received from no other book, but with which it has influenced minds and books innumerable; and its singularly penetrating living power over the human heart. Text for the day, verse 5. Sunday, July 31st. Jeremiah xxi. 8 to 14. Verses 8 to 10. "I have set before you a way of life and a way of death." Jeremiah probably bad in mind the words of Moses in Deut. xxx. 19. We have here the figure of gospel salvation, of safety upon surrender, and wrath and judgment upon those who should abide in the place of impenitence and sin. Those of the Jews who should surrender to the Chaldeans were to save their lives, and those who remained in the city and fought against Nebuchadnezzar were to perish. Jeremiah occupies a singular position among the prophets of Israel, for without exception their messages to the people were to fight against and resist the enemies of God and their country; he alone of all the prophets had this counsel of surrender to give. Verses 11 and 12. This is a personal message to Zedekiah and the princes of Judah. Even after the destruction of Jerusalem, if they sought God in sincere repentance there should be a mitigation of their punishment. God delights not in visiting His wrath upon His children, but delights in mercy, and in the midst of wrath is merciful. Verses 13 and 14. Jerusalem is here personified and spoken of as a "forest," which means a dense mass of houses built of cedars, all of which were burned by Nebuchadnezzer. From Matthew Henry: But those are least safe who are most secure. God soon shows the vanity of that challenge, Who shall come down against us? when He says (v. 13), Behold, I am against thee. They had indeed by their wickedness driven God out of their city when He would have tarried with them as a friend; but they could not by their bulwarks keep them out of their city when He came against them as an enemy. If God be for us, who can be against us? But, if He be against us, who can be for us, to stand us in any stead? Nay, He comes against them not as an enemy that may lawfully and with some hope of success be resisted, but as a judge that cannot be resisted; for He says (v. 14),I will punish you by due course of law, according to the fruit of your doings, that is, according to the merit of them and the direct tendency of them. 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