The Song of Solomon : and the Lamentations of Jeremiah

-2S THE LAMENTATIONS OF JEREMIAH
that the national sins of Israel must be followed by
come dreadful disasters ; and when the war-cloud was
Covering on the horizon Jeremiah saw in it the herald
of approaching doom. Then the thunderbolt fell ; and
the wreck it caused became the topic of this Book of
Lamentations. After such a preparation, what was
more natural, and reasonable, and even inevitable, than
tliat the elegist should calmly assume that the trouble
complained of was no more than was due to the afQicted
people ? This is clear enough when we think of the
ration as a whole. It is not so obvious when we turn
cur attention to individual cases ; but the bewildering
problem of the sufferings of innocent children, which
constitutes the most prominent feature in the poet's
picture of the miseries of the Jews, is not here
revived.
We must suppose that he is thinking of a typical
citizen of Jerusalem. If the guilty city merited severe
punishment, such a man as this would also merit
it ; for the deserts of the city are only the deserts
of her citizens. It will be for everybody to say for
hiinself how far the solution of the mystery of his own
troubles is to be looked for in this direction. A humble
conscience will not be eager to repudiate the possibility
that its owner has not been punished beyond his
deserts, whatever may be thought of other people,
innocent children in particular. There is one word
that may bring out this aspect of the question with
more distinctness— the word "living." The poet asks,
''Wherefore doth a living man complain ? " Why does
lie attach this attribute to the subject of his question ?
The only satisfactory explanation that has been offered
is that he would remind us that while the sufferer has
his life preserved to liim he has no valid ground ot