Lamentations 1:11

All her people sigh, they seek bread.

Grief at losses

I. It is awful for the godly to be grieved with and take to heart their worldly losses--

(1) Because the things of this life are God’s blessings.

(2) They are necessary to support us here, and (being well used) to make us the fitter to serve Him.

2. For the preservation of the life, we must be willing to forego the dearest of these outward blessings.

(1) Because life is the most precious of all earthly things, they being given for the use of it, and not it for them.

(2) God hath given greater charge to preserve it than them.

3. In all our miseries we must seek relief only at God’s hands.

(1) He hath so commanded (Psalms 50:15, etc.).

(2) All power to help is in His hands alone (2 Chronicles 20:6).

4. No extremity can drive the godly from trusting in God, and praying to Him (Job 13:15; Psalms 44:17). (J. Udall)

They have given their pleasant things for meat to relieve the soul.--

Surrender of luxuries for necessaries

Our forefathers gave five marks or more for a good book; a load of hay for a few Chapter s of St. James or of St. Paul, in English, saith Mr. Foxe. The Queen of Castile sold her jewels to furnish Columbus for his discovering voyage to the West Indies, when he had showed his maps, though our Henry VII, loath to part with money, slighted his offers, and thereby the gold mines were found and gained to the Spanish crown. Let no man think much to part with his pleasant things for his precious soul, or to sacrifice all that he hath to the service of his life, which, next to his soul, should be most dear to him. Our ancestors in Queen Mary’s days were glad to eat the bread of their souls in peril of their lives. (J. Trapp.)