Bible Commentaries

Verse 11

A BROKEN VESSEL

‘A potter’s vessel, that cannot be made whole again.’

Jeremiah 19:11

I. An earthen vessel is a true emblem of human life, so frail, so brittle.—But there is something frailer yet in our resolutions and efforts after holiness. And when once these have failed us, we can never be again what we were. Always the crack, the rivets, the mark of the join.

II. In Gideon’s days there was a light within the earthen vessels, and when these were broken it shone forth.—There is, therefore, a breaking of the vessel which is salutary and desirable. And it is of this that Miss Taylor sings:—

‘But Thou art making me, I thank Thee, sire,

What Thou hast done and doest, Thou knowest well,

And I will help Thee; gently in Thy fire

I will be burning; on Thy potter’s wheel

I will whirl patient, tho’ my brain should reel;

Thy grace shall be enough the grief to quell,

And growing strength perfect through weakness dire.’