At the very time when the Chaldeans surrounded Jerusalem, and when the sword, famine and pestilence had desolated the land, Jeremiah was commanded by God to purchase a field, and have the deed of transfer legally sealed and witnessed. This was a strange purchase for a rational man to make. Prudence couldn't justify it, for it was buying with scarcely a probability that the person purchasing could ever enjoy the possession. But it was enough for Jeremiah that his God had bidden him, for well he knew that God will be justified of all his children.

He reasoned thus: "Ah, Lord God! you can make this plot of ground of use to me; you can rid this land of these oppressors; you can make me yet sit under my vine and my fig-tree in the heritage which I've bought; for you did make the heavens and the earth, and there's nothing too hard for you." This gave a majesty to the early believers, that they dared to do at God's command things which carnal reason would condemn. Whether it be a Noah who's to build a ship on dry land, an Abraham who's to offer up his only son, or a Moses who's to despise the treasures of Egypt, or a Joshua who's to besiege Jericho seven days, using no weapons but the blasts of rams' horns, they all act upon God's command, contrary to the dictates of carnal reason. And the Lord gives them a rich reward as the result of their obedient faith.

Would to God we had in the religion of these modern times a more potent infusion of this heroic faith in God. If we'd venture more upon the naked promise of God, we should enter a world of wonders to which as yet we're strangers. Let Jeremiah's place of confidence be ours—nothing is too hard for the God that created the heavens and the earth. July 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th, 21st, 22nd, 23rd, 24th, 25th, 26th, 27th, 28th, 29th, 30th, 31st