Page images
PDF
EPUB

there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon" where Josiah received his death-wound.

He was permitted to breathe out his pure spirit in Jerusalem, and was entombed in the sepulchres of David on Mount Sion; and who can doubt that the solemn requiem composed on this occasion, and sung as an ordinance in Israel, as would appear, even after the captivity, gave the key-note to that book of Lamentations in which it was contained, and tinged even with a more sombre melancholy than before the swanlike strains of the last of the bards? How much of that dirge has come down to us in the book of Lamentations, as we now have it, it is impossible to say. One plaintive stanza of the elegy none can fail to recognise :

"The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the Lord, was taken in their pits, of whom we said, Under his shadow we shall live. among the heathen "."

Zech. xii. 9-11.

$ 2 Chron. xxxv. 25, "to

this day," can scarcely admit of any other meaning.

t Lam. iv. 20.

Tracts for the Christian Seasons.

FOURTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY.

JEREMIAH AND HIS MISSION.

THE years have rolled along since, sitting in his retirement, the royal prophet poured forth his latest strains. The mingled streams of judgment and of mercy, of warning and of comfort, which then began to flow, have continued ever since to run their course, and men and nations have been aroused or consoled by their hoarse or their melodious murmurs. And now the more immediate judgments which Isaiah prophesied are at hand, and a new prophet is called forth to declare them.

Born of the priestly lineage, and a native of Anathoth in Benjamin, which had been set apart by Joshua for the use of the priests, the descendants of Aaron, Jeremiah had

No. 66. THIRD SERIES.

3 U

1305

undoubtedly those educational advantages which fell to that race.

It was in the thirteenth year of the reign of Josiah that he was called to the prophetic office, (B.c. 629,) and he probably died in Egypt about 588 B.C., or somewhat later a. He thus appears to have exercised his awful ministry for about forty years.

It is impossible not to compare the characters of these two "greater" prophets as manifested in the circumstances of their election. The weakest of the two seems to have been exposed to the severest trials. To Isaiah, calm, lofty, self-sustained, was granted very early in his ministry a most encouraging vision. He saw the heavenly temple, heard the sound of the everlasting song, and beheld the blaze of the seraphim. His lips were touched with a live coal from the altar, and his humility was turned into strength. He went forth unhesitating, strong, and calm, and his whole life was in accordance with that beginning. To Jeremiah, a feeble stripling, with a pensive mind and

a Some think that Jeremiah dwelt many years longer in Egypt after the captivity.

a most sympathizing nature, the call came, but without those accompaniments of power which had been granted to his elder brother in the prophetic ministry. In a vision, or perhaps without one in the first instance, the voice of God aroused him. Who can wonder that when only fourteen years old, for this must have been about his age, he should have shrunk from the call? who can wonder at his words, "Ah, Lord God! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child "."

And mark the substance of the call. He was to be "a prophet unto the nation." We are aware now of the full meaning of that title, and the mighty perils which it involved. We know something of what the state of the outer world at that time was, and what too was the terrible internal state of Judah and Jerusalem. Jeremiah, from his sacerdotal descent and more learned education, must have known this too. We can therefore the more readily sympathize with his shrinking reply when God called him to that arduous ministry. But we shall understand even this the better if we con

b Jer. i. 6.

sider still further the multiplied terrors of the work which he was to do.

First is given the vision of "the rod of an almond-tree." This was to denote an early period, for the almond-tree blossoms earlier than all its fellows: there was little time for preparation. Then comes the vision of "a seething-pot towards the north." This is to denote the fiery troubles that are to arise and darken the nations towards the north of Judah. Then comes the gathering together of the heathen powers against Jerusalem. And when the youthful prophetic scholar is labouring with these announcements, he is told that he is to be the central figure of all these mighty convulsions, and that to those which come from the heathen without are to be added those which will arise from his own countrymen within. "And thou, therefore, gird up thy loins, and arise and speak unto them all that I command thee: be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound thee before them, for behold I have made thee this day a defenced city and an iron pillar and brazen walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, and against the

« PreviousContinue »