We studied in the last lecture the remarkable faith of Jeremiah. We found how he redeemed the field in Anathoth at the very time that Jerusalem was invested by the Chaldeans, and he himself was predicting the certainty of its destruction: but in that moment of hopelessness he had such entire trust in the promise of restoration, and such assurance in the validity of the title, that he purchased the field as readily as he would have done had everything been at the height of prosperity. We saw in such conduct the practical acting of faith. But it is very interesting also to look at the hidden life of faith, and to know, while he was thus acting, what was secretly passing in his soul. I think that this passage may throw great light on the subject. From ver. 55 it is clear that he referred to a time when he was in the low dungeon: ‘I called upon thy name, O Lord, out of the low dungeon.’ We are not informed to which imprisonment he referred. It may have been the imprisonment in the courts of the prison which was in the court of the king’s house, during which he redeemed the land of Hanameel, or it may have been the much more severe imprisonment which subsequently followed, as described Jer. xxxviii. 6, when they let him down by ropes into a deep, damp pit, called the dungeon of Malchiah. The expression ‘the low dungeon,’ seems rather to describe this latter captivity, and we may picture to ourselves God’s faithful servant left alone in a deep, dark pit, standing up to his waist in the mire, without a comfort, without a friend, and without even a fellow-prisoner to share his trouble. His title-deeds to the field in Anathoth would not do much to help him there. But he was a man of trust, and afterwards, when he was still in sore trouble, and deeply grieved at the ruin of the city, he could look back on that time and say, ‘Thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul, thou hast redeemed my life.’ Let us study then this remarkable record of his intercourse with God during this time of his deep trouble. There was nothing done. It was not a time for doing. He could not climb out, he could only stand and wait. What then was passing in his soul? What transactions took place between him and God? To these questions I think this passage supplies an answer. There are three things that seem perfectly clear.