Lamentations 1:8

"Handfuls of Purpose"

For All Gleaners

"Jerusalem hath grievously sinned; therefore is she removed" Lam 1:8

God does not inflict the punishment without giving the reason. He has no need to explain to men why punishment is awarded, yet he is condescending enough to say that punishment is the counterpart of iniquity. If we want to explain the punishment we have only to look at the sin; the punishment is from above, but the cause is from within: in proportion as a man looks at himself, studies his own nature and fully acquaints himself with the quality of his own motives, will he understand why it is that his life is troubled and torn and pained exceedingly. Any facts to the contrary are not sufficient in number or in quality to justify another conclusion. These facts have been recognised by the religious observers of all ages, and they have always been associated with another series of facts, to the effect that the triumph of the wicked was short, and the fatness of the unrighteous was as the fatness of oxen prepared for the slaughter. All nature testifies that only to goodness is reward given, and only to righteousness can heaven be promised.