Jeremiah 17:11 - Homiletics

Partridge-nests.

I. ILL - GOTTEN RICHES BETOKEN AN UNNATURAL CONDITION Of SOCIETY . It is not natural that strange eggs should be found in a partridge-nest. Violence and fraud and more subtle sharp-practice are proofs of a disorganized state of society.

II. ILL - GOTTEN RICHES MAY BE MINGLED WITH JUST GAINS . It may not be that all the eggs are strange. The business man who is dishonest in some transactions may be honest in others; but his very correctness may be only a cloak for his fraud.

III. ILL - GOTTEN RICHES MAY PROSPER FOR A TIME . The eggs are hatched. Schemes of fraud succeed. The wicked prosper.

IV. ILL - GOTTEN RICHES WILL ULTIMATELY BE LOST . How often does the ablest device of dishonesty fail of ultimate success! The swindler is taken at the height of his prosperity. If he is not discovered he cannot take his wealth with him when he dies.

V. ILL - GOTTEN RICHES LEAVE THE POSSESSOR OF THEM CONVICTED OF FOLLY . He thinks himself supremely clever, and smiles with contempt on his credulous victims. But he is really the greatest dupe of his own devices, since in the end all his labor is wasted and his ultimate condition ruinous ( Luke 12:20 , Luke 12:21 ). "Honesty is the best policy" in the long run, though, as has been shrewdly observed, no man is truly honest who only acts on this maxim.