The analogy here instituted enshrines truths that are of universal application. They have their individual quite as much as their national beatings. Nowhere does the representative character of the house of Israel appear mere clearly than in this passage; nowhere do we get a more striking view of the general method of the Divine dealings with the human race. It suggests -

I. GOD'S ABSOLUTE SOVEREIGNTY OVER THE BEING AND LIFE OF EVERY MAN. The figure of the potter and the clay is one of frequent occurrence in Holy Scripture (vide Job 10:9; Isaiah 64:8; Romans 9:10). It vividly represents the subjection of our nature and our personal history to the Divine control. The fact of our moral freedom, the mysterious prerogative that belongs to us of choosing and following our own way, must needs make the comparison defective. There is some point at which all such physical analogies fail duly to set forth the realities of moral and spiritual life. But it is deeply true as suggestive of the power God has over us to mold us as he pleases. Free as our will may be, is not our whole nature as plastic material in the hands of him who made us? Free as we may be to pursue our own chosen course of life, can we ever escape the "Divinity that shapes our ends?" There is a hidden power, whether we acknowledge it or not, the mastery of which over thought, feeling, purpose, and action is the deepest reality of our existence.

II. HIS FORMATIVE PURPOSE. Distinguish between a sovereign power and one that is arbitrary and capricious. Complete as the Divine mastery over us may be, it is not lawless or purposeless. It has always a definite end in view, and that end is wise and holy and good. As the potter seeks to fashion the clay into some beautiful or useful form that his own brain has first conceived, so God, by his providential and spiritual control, seeks to work out a Divine idea in our being and life, to body forth in us some archetype of moral beauty that exists in his own eternal mind. He would fain fashion us into a noble form and fit us for some noble use. In God's "great house" there are many utilities. And even the vessel "unto dishonor" has its place and its purpose. Our faith in the infinitely wise and holy love that governs all leads us to rest in the thought -

"That nothing walks with aimless feet;
That not one life shall be destroyed
Or cast as rubbish to the void,
When God hath made the pile complete." But he who formed us for himself would not have any of us to be content with an inferior position and a lower aim. He would so mold and fashion us that we shall be "vessels unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the Master's use" (2 Timothy 2:21).

III. HIS LONG-SUFFERING PATIENCE. When the potter's work is marred, he presses the clay into a shapeless mass and casts it upon the wheel again. We are reminded of the various methods God employs in molding us to his will, and how if one fails he will often subject us to another. There are events that sometimes break up the whole form of a man's life; old ties are severed, old associations pass away; he beans an altogether new career, with new responsibilities, new moral tests, new possibilities of good. There are afflictions that change the whole tenor of a man's inward life; his spirit is crushed, wounded, softened, that it may the better receive Divine impressions. "God maketh my heart soft, etc. (Job 23:16). "My heart is like wax" (Psalm 22:14). Thus does God "humble us to prove us, to know what is in our heart, whether we will keep his commandments or not" (Deuteronomy 8:2). There may come a time when all these Divine methods fail and the soul is found to be reprobate. In Jeremiah 19:1-11 we have a figurative prophecy of the ultimate abandonment of the Jewish people to their fate. In this case the vessel has been baked in the fire; it is incapable of taking a new shape, and is broken so "that it cannot be made whole again." Such is the doom of the finally impenitent and intractable. But God's patience is very wonderful. In this world at least the door of mercy is always open. There is always the possibility of a new and nobler life. He "is long-suffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9). - W.

I. THE BEING AND CONDITION OF COUNTRIES AND COMMUNITIES, OF NATIONS AND KINGDOMS, ARE UNDER THE CONTROL OF THE MOST HIGH. To suppose Him watchful of the operations in the universe, and yet not active in the management of them, would seem irreconcilable with the inefficacy of all laws without His might; with the appearance of design in most events; with the effects of a sublime power which many of them display; and with the existence, on peculiar occasions, of some occurrences which have been departures from the ordinary course of nature. To believe any affairs to be under the guidance of His providence, and yet to imagine that the fortunes of whole countries and people are free from His observation and care, would be inconsistent with the variety and magnitude of the interests which are in those fortunes always involved. But it may be objected, if it is thus certain that the events of time are under the superintendence of God, why are there so great evils both in the natural and political world? To this it would be sufficient to reply, that in us beings of yesterday, who see but a few links of the vast chain in which the Almighty hath connected all occurrences in the universe; who with the utmost effort of our faculties are unable, in this our low position, to perceive the final results of any of His operations; it is vainly presumptuous to attempt to fathom the counsels of His mind; and worse than presumptuous, with the evidences which He hath vouchsafed to give us in His word and works, of His wisdom, goodness, and rectitude, to doubt that all His arrangements will terminate to the honour of His government, and the greatest possible benefit of His creatures. As the objection, however, is plausible, it may be well to observe further, that our estimate of what appears to be evil may often be erroneous. Somewhere I have seen it with striking force and beauty asked, whether the insect whose habitation the ploughshare overturns knows that its motions conduce to that fertility of the earth which is to sustain many intelligent creatures? In like manner, from the convulsions and terrible occurrences in the moral world, there may be educed by the Being who bringeth good out of evil, such results as will advance His purposes, and the general welfare.

II. THE GREAT CAUSE OF PERPLEXITIES AND TROUBLES, CALAMITIES AND RUIN, IN ANY REGION, IS THE PREDOMINANCE OF CORRUPT PRINCIPLES AND MANNERS. For the evils which the Divine Providence sends upon the world, there can be no other cause than the transgressions of the inhabitants thereof. The Scriptures again and again represent the calamities of a people as the punishment of their sins (Hosea 14:1; Jeremiah 5:9, 25; Jeremiah 18:9, 10; Habakkuk 3:12, 13; Psalm 75:9, 10; 1 Kings 9:7-9). Nor is reason less explicit upon this truth than revelation. Upon a little reflection she perceives that the Almighty, being perfectly holy, wise, and good, will approve and encourage virtue. This necessarily implies the condemnation and punishment of vice. In beings destined to exist hereafter, there is extensive opportunity for the fulfilment of the Divine intentions. Their immortality opens a wide field for the display of the justice of God. And hence it is, that in this present state vice does not always in the individual meet its retribution, nor virtue its reward. But nations and communities, as such, are not immortal. It should therefore seem reasonable that they should in their present existence enjoy the rewards due to their virtues, and endure the punishments which their vices deserve. To place the point beyond dispute, experience, weeping as she reviews her venerable annals, declares from them that the indignation of Heaven has frequently been brought upon whole communities by their sins: that debase. inert, calamity, and ruin have resulted to them from the predominance of depraved principles and manners.

III. BY A TIMELY REFORMATION OF THEIR PRINCIPLES AND LIVES, COMMUNITIES MAY AVERT THE DISPLEASURE OF THE ALMIGHTY. Contrition is estimable, and acceptable through the Redeemer, in an individual. It has turned away the wrath of Heaven from many an offender. But when a community, as one body, is roused by a sense of danger, or by the calls of the Most High, in alarming occurrences, in foreign examples, or in His holy Word, or by their own consciousness of a relaxed state of religion and morals, to "consider their ways," and turn with sincerity to God, to humble themselves before Him, and to express their earnest desire to be made objects of His forgiveness and favour: if ever He may be said to be taken with holy violence, it is by such an act.

(Bishop Dehon.)