his heart, and, though the stone was still on the mouth of the dungeon, his soul was free, and his life was safe, for he was redeemed in the coming Christ. If this be the meaning of the passage, does it not teach us that redeeming grace must always be our great help in trouble? If we are brought to the bottom of the pit, by sorrow, by sickness, by calamity, by the approach of death, or by the deep and painful sense of sin, all true source of strength must ever be in the great work of redemption wrought out for us by the Son of God. It is that which opens the way to the throne, and which enables us to rest in the assurance of the love of God. You may find many difficulties in the way of faith, and many drawbacks under the profound sense of your own unworthiness. But it is wonderful to find how they disappear before the cross of Christ; and if only you are enabled to say, ‘Thou hast redeemed my life,’ you will find in that one fact, a blessed, holy, peaceful resting-place, even though by outward circumstances or inward trial you may still be at the bottom of the pit. But whatever view we take of the expression, ‘Thou hast redeemed my life,’ one thing is perfectly clear, that the redemption was applied to Jeremiah’s soul at the bottom of the pit. If it is to be explained of deliverance it was when he was sunk into the mire at the bottom of the low dungeon that the deliverance was applied. And if it describes the application to his soul of the Lord’s redemption, and his acceptance of it as something already as sure as if it were perfected, it was when he was bowed down in the very depths of trouble that the blessed work was brought home with peace to his soul. Whatever meaning you give to the word ‘redemption’ in this passage, redemption was brought home to him at the bottom of the pit.