Jeremiah: A Character Study [Updated and Annotated]

“My hope is that a more careful and thoughtful study will make it forever impossible for us to speak jestingly or to think carelessly about the tears of Jeremiah.”

Jeremiah is the most misunderstood of all the great men in history. To be one of the healthiest of men and to be thought morbid, to be one of the strongest and to be thought weak, to be one of the bravest and to be thought fainthearted, to be a giant and to be thought small, has been his hard fortune.

We Americans, with our national temperament and popular philosophy, find it nearly impossible to understand Jeremiah. To truly understand him implies such a profound insight into human character, into the lessons of the past and the facts of the present, into the religious history of the race and the perils of today, as our happy circumstances and prosperous material civilization with difficulty allow.

Unselfish grief over the ruin of individuals, of generations, and of nations refines the soul, dignifies it, gives it steadiness under temptations, gives it earnestness in the work of life, and brings it into sympathy with Him who wept over Jerusalem. To understand Jeremiah is to understand the world’s need of Christ.