I. We may describe every real affliction which comes upon the Christian as a captivity. To be in a condition which we should never voluntarily have preferred, or to be held back by the power of something which we cannot control, from that which we eagerly desire to do is not that the very thing in an experience which makes it a trial? This is the case with bodily illness, with business perplexities; sometimes even with providential duties. Every captivity of which the Christian is the victim will have an end. In the fatherland above we shall work without weariness, and serve God without imperfection. So in the prospect of that home we may well be reconciled for a season to the discomforts of our present exile.
II. But while there is much in this view of the case to sustain us, we must not lose sight of the moral end which God has in view in sending us into our captivity. He sees the result from the beginning, and all the afflictions which He sends are but like the hammer-strokes of the sculptor, each of which removes some imperfection or brings some new loveliness to view. How many of our idolatries He has rebuked and rectified by our captivities! How many portions of His word have been explained to us by our trials! How many of us might say with truth that we had never really prayed till God sent us into captivity.
III. If we would have such results from our captivity, there are certain important things which we must cultivate. I mention: (1) a willing acceptance of God's discipline and patient submission to it; (2) unswerving confidence in God; (3) fervent prayer.
W. M. Taylor, The Christian at Work,June 20th, 1878.
References: Jeremiah 29:11. T. Gasquoine, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxi., p. 403; S. Cox, Expositions,2nd series, p. 434.Jeremiah 29:12; Jeremiah 29:13. H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit,vol. ix., p. 394.Jeremiah 29:13. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xxii., No. 1313, and vol. xxv., No. 1457; Pulpit Analyst,vol. iii., p. 702.Jeremiah 30:11. Christian Chronicle,March 20th, 1884.