Men who are providentially entrusted with the care and training of the young, or with the probation of undisciplined members of society, often have reason to complain that their endeavors seem to be utter failures, that there is no response to the appeal which by language and by action they are constantly addressing to those who are placed beneath their charge. It is very instructive to all such to observe what was the result of Jehovah's dealing with Judah and Jerusalem. It is not to be disputed that the results in question were perfectly known to the Omniscient before they came to pass. Yet it seemed good to him, in dealing with moral agents, to afford them the means of repentance, and to furnish them with inducements to repentance. Lamentable is the record of what without irreverence we may term the Divine experience: "I have purged thee, and thou wast not purged."

I. DIVINE DISCIPLINE. There is presumed the need for such discipline. It is because the metal is mixed with dross that it is cast into the furnace. It is because the patient is sick that medicine is administered. It is because the wheat and the chaff are intermingled that the winnowing-fan is employed. And it is because the heart and life of the individual or the nation are contaminated with evil that the chastening hand of God intervenes to purge away the mischief - the dross, the chaff. The means employed is usually affliction in some one or more of the many forms it assumes. One heart is reached in one way, another by a way altogether different; one nation is humbled by pestilence or famine, another by defeat in war and privation of territory.

II. THE MOTIVE AND PURPOSE OF DIVINE DISCIPLINE. To the careless observer it may seem as if such experiences as those described were evidences of malevolence in the Governor of the world. But in fact it is otherwise. "Whom he loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every child whom he receiveth." The son does not always understand his father's treatment of him, and does not always accept that treatment with submission and gratitude; neither does he always profit by it as he might do. Yet the treatment may be wise and well adapted for purposes alike of probation and of education; and the time may come when, looking back with enlarged experience and maturer judgment, he may approve his father's action. So is it with God's dealing with his great family. The Father of the spirits of all flesh has at heart the welfare of his offspring, his household. He knows that uninterrupted prosperity would not be beneficial, that many lessons could never be acquired amid circumstances of ease and enjoyment, that character could not by such experience be formed to ripeness and moral strength. It is through trials and afflictions that true men are fashioned. And the same is the case with nations. Israel had to wander and to fight in the wilderness. England has only reached her present position by means of many generations of conflict and many epochs of adversity. God has "purged" his people, not because he is indifferent to their sufferings, but because he is solicitous for their welfare, which only through sufferings can be achieved.

III. THE APPARENT FAILURE OF DIVINE DISCIPLINE. There is a pathetic tone in the assertion, "I have purged thee, and thou wast not purged." The explanation of this failure is to be found in the mysterious fact of human liberty. An eminent philosopher has said that he would be content to be wound up like a clock every morning, if that would ensure his going right throughout the day. Determinism is mechanism; it reduces man to the level of a machine. But this is not the true, the Divine idea of man. God evidently designs to do something better with man than to constrain him. He even gives to man the prerogative of resisting the high motives which he in wisdom and mercy brings to bear upon him. And when he perceives that the purposes of discipline are not fulfilled, he laments, "I have purged thee, and thou wast not purged." Yet it is not for us to say that even in such cases there has been real failure. Ends may be answered of which we cannot judge; good may be done which we cannot see; preparation may be making for advanced stages which we are now incapable of comprehending. Doubtless in many cases the "purging" which is ineffectual here and now will be brought about hereafter, and perhaps above. It is open to us to believe, with the poet-

"That nothing walks with aimless feet,
That not one life shall be destroyed
Or cast as rubbish to the void,
When God has made his work complete." T.

1. Obstinacy in sin provokes God to the destruction of sinners. "Her scum shall be in the fire." Jerusalem shall be burnt, and why? "In thy filthiness is lewdness"; thou art obstinate, hardened in thy wickedness. All sin offends, some sins provoke to judgments, obstinacy provokes to destruction (Jeremiah 44:15).

2. In Scripture language, that is said to be done which God or men endeavour to do, though it be not done. "I have purged thee." God using means, and endeavouring, by His prophets, mercies, threats, and judgments, to purge Jerusalem from her sin, is called purging, though Jerusalem were not purged.

3. A people may have the means, and not improve the same for their good.

4. People may so slip the time of repenting, and turning to God, as that it may be too late for them to go about the same; they may sin away the time of mercy. Time present is the acceptable time (2 Corinthians 6:2).

5. Those who have had means, and not profited thereby, God will deal most severely with — there is no mercy, but altogether judgment for them. The fig tree in the vineyard had stood there three years, and was not better at last than at first; the influences of heaven, and fatness of the earth, had done it no good; and behold the severity of the owner: "Cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground?" (Luke 13:7).

(W. Greenhill, M. A.)