the Lord? 21 The young and the old lie on the ground in the streets: my virgins and my young men are fallen by the sword: thou hast slain them in the day of thine anger; thou hast killed, and not pitied. 22 Thou hast called, as in a solemn day, my terrors round about; so that in the day of the Lord's anger none escaped nor remained: those that I have swaddled and brought up hath mine enemy consumed.

Note. Sometimes all that we can do is to spread out our piteous case before the Lord, and without presuming to make any request, to leave the disposal of it in his hands.

Jeremiah's confession and complaint.

Lamentations iii. 41 Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens. 42 We have transgressed, and have rebelled: thou hast not pardoned. 43 Thou hast covered with anger, and persecuted us thou hast slain, thou hast not pitied. 44 Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass through. 45 Thou hast made us as the offscouring and refuse in the midst of the people. 46 All our enemies have opened their mouths against us. 47 Fear and a snare is come upon us, desolation and destruction. 48 Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people. 49 Mine eye trickleth down, and ceaseth not, without any intermission, 50 Till the Lord look down, and behold from Heaven. 51 Mine eye affecteth mine heart, because of all the daughters of my city. 52 Mine enemies chased me sore, like a bird, without cause. 53 They have cut

off my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me. 54 Waters flowed over mine head; then I said, I am cut off.

55 I called upon thy name, O Lord, out of the low dungeon. 56 Thou hast heard my voice; hide not thine ear at my breathing, at my cry. 57 Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee: thou saidst, Fear not. 58 O Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul; thou hast redeemed my life. 59 O Lord, thou hast seen my wrong; judge thou my cause. 90 Thou hast seen all their vengeance, and all their imaginations against me; 61 Thou hast heard their reproach, O Lord, and all their imaginations against me; 62 The lips of those that rose up against me, and their device against me all the day. 63 Behold their sitting down, and their rising up; I am their musick. 64 Render unto them a recompence, O Lord, according to the work of their hands. 65 Give them sorrow of heart, thy curse unto them. 66 Persecute and destroy them in anger from under the heavens of the Lord.

Note. It is no unusual thing for God's people in distress to be divided between faith and sense. In the foreground of all their prayers at such seasons, therefore, let this prayer be found, "Lord, increase our faith."

The Church's prayer of complaint.

Lamentations v.-1 Remember, O Lord, what is come upon us; consider, and behold our reproach. 2 Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens. 3 We are orphans and fatherless, our mothers are as widows. 4 We have drunken our

water for money; our wood is sold unto us. 5 Our necks are under persecution: we labour, and have no rest. 6 We have given the hand to the Egyptians, and to the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread. 7 Our fathers have sinned, and are not; and we have borne their iniquities. 8 Servants have ruled over us there is none that doth deliver us out of their hand. 9 We gat our bread with the peril of our lives, because of the sword of the wilderness. 10 Our skin was black like an oven, because of the terrible famine. 11 They ravished the women in Zion, and the maids, in the cities of Judah. 12 Princes are hanged up by their hand: the faces of elders were not honoured. 13 They took the young

men to grind, and the children fell under the wood. 14 The elders have ceased from the gate, the young men from their musick. 15 The joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is turned into mourning. 16 The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, that we have sinned! 17 For this our heart is faint; for these things our eyes are dim. 18 Because of the mountain of Zion, which is desolate, the foxes walk upon it. 19 Thou, O Lord, remainest for ever; thy throne from generation to generation. 20 Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever, and forsake us so long time 21 Turn thou us unto thee, O Lord, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old. 22 But thou hast utterly rejected us; thou art very wroth against us.

Note. Here we have lamentation and prayer mingled. Lamentation and complaint to God without prayer expressed or implied, is sin.

EZEKIEL.

Ezekiel deprecating the Lord's judgments. Refused.

Ezekiel ix.-8 And it came to pass, while they were slaying them, and I was left, that I fell upon my face, and cried, and said, Ah Lord God! wilt thou destroy all the residue of Israel in thy pouring out of thy fury upon Jerusalem ? 9 Then said he unto me, The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceeding great, and the land is full of blood, and the city full of perverseness: for they say, The Lord hath forsaken the earth, and the Lord seeth not. 10 And as for me also, mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity; but I will recompense their way upon their head.

Note. It well becomes sinners saved by grace to be full of pity for suffering sinners; nor is God displeased with this pity, provided it runs not into murmuring and rebellion against His righteous judgments.

Ezekiel deprecating judgment.

Ezekiel xi.-13 And it came to pass, when I prophesied, that Pelatiah the son of Benaiah died: then fell I down upon my face, and cried with a loud voice, and said, Ah, Lord God! wilt thou make a full end of the remnant of Israel?

Note.-God's people may plead that sinners be brought to repentance, and not destroyed in their sins. Pelatiah was cut off in his sins; was it to be so also with all the offending remnant of Israel?

Ezekiel's complaint.

Ezekiel xx.-45 Moreover, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, 46 Son of man, set thy face toward the south, and drop thy word toward the south, and prophesy against the forest of the south field; 47 and say to the forest of the south, Hear the word of the Lord; thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee, and every dry tree; the flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burnt therein. 48, And all flesh shall see that I the Lord have kindled it : it shall not be quenched. 49 Then said I, Ah, Lord God! they say of me, Doth he not speak parables?

Note.-Let us study to be so true in all things that when men misunderstand or misrepresent us, we can appeal to God.

DANIEL.

Daniel and his companions for a revelation of the king's dream. Answered immediately.

Daniel ii.-14 Then Daniel answered with counsel and wisdom to Arioch the captain of the king's guard, which was gone forth to slay the wise men of Babylon: 15 he answered and said to Arioch the king's captain, Why is the decree so hasty from the king? Then Arioch made the thing known to Daniel. 16 Then Daniel went in, and desired of the king that he would give him time, and that he would shew the king the interpretation. 17 Then Daniel went to his house, and made the thing known to Hananiah, Mishael, and