The Song of Solomon : and the Lamentations of Jeremiah

I40 THE LAMENTATIONS OF JEREMIAH
chemical analysis of his cup of woe before uttering an
exclamation on its quality ; and if it should be that
the burning taste induces him to speak too strongly of
its ingredients, we who only see him swallow it without
being required to taste a drop ourselves should be slow
to examine his language too nicely. He who has never
entered Gethsemane is not in a position to understand
how dark may be the views of all things seen beneath
its sombre shade. If the Divine sufferer on the cross
could speak as though His God had actually deserted
Him, are we to condemn an Old Testament saint when
he ascribes unspeakably great troubles to the enmity
of God ?
Is this, then, but the rhetoric of misery ? If it be
no more, while we seek to sympathise with the feelings
of a very dramatic situation, we shall not be called
upon to go further and discover in the language of the
poet any positive teaching about God and His ways
with man. But are we at liberty to stop short here ?
Is the elegist only expressing his own feelings ? Have
we a right to affirm that there can be no objective truth
in the awful idea of the enmity of God ?
In considering this question we must be careful to
dismiss from our minds the unworthy associations that
only too commonly attach themselves to notions of
enmity among men. Hatred cannot be ascribed to
One whose deepest name is Love. No spite, malignity,
or evil passion of any kind can be found in the heart
of the Holy God. When due weight is given to these
negations very much that we usually see in the practice
of enmity disappears. But this is not to say that the
idea itself is denied, or the fact shown to be impossible.
In the first place, we have no warrant for asserting
that God will never act in direct and intentional oppo-