a

charge; but the officer took him to the princes, who smote him and cast him into prison. They were glad of a plausible pretext for treating the prophet in this manner. Often annoyed by his predictions and reproofs, they would busily report from mouth to mouth, that Jeremiah had been caught in an attempt to join the enemies of his country; just as the profane and profligate nowadays eagerly lay hold of any slander, however improbable, against the ministers of Christ.

The eastern prisons are not, as with us, public buildings erected for that purpose, but a part of the house in which their criminal judges reside. The prophet remained a prisoner in the house of Jonathan many days. At length the king sent for him to the palace, and inquired of him privately, "Is there any word from Jehovah?" Perhaps Zedekiah thought the prophet might be more tractable, after so long confinement. Jeremiah knew his answer might enrage the king, but he unhesitatingly replied, "There is; for he hath said, Into the hand of the king of Babylon shalt thou be delivered." He then preferred a petition, that the king would change his place of imprisonment, as he could not long survive in his present dungeon; at the same time asserting his innocence, and demanding of the king, "Where are now your prophets that prophesied unto you, saying, The king of Babylon shall not come against you, nor against the land?" Zed

ekiah, softened by the words of the prophet, and perhaps admiring his firm adherence to truth in the face of danger and death, ordered him to be removed to a more comfortable prison in the palace, and bread to be given him as long as there was any in the city.

CHAPTER XXIX.

JEREMIAH'S SUBSEQUENT LIFE.

THE siege of Jerusalem was carried on with vigor. The inhabitants, shut within the walls and deprived of their usual supplies from the country around, were suffering from famine. Pestilence, its attendant, began to rage, and many habitations were filled with the bodies of the victims. The engines of the enemy, from the tops of the mounts they had cast up, were battering down the houses of the people, and the palace itself; and dismal forebodings spread a dark cloud over the city. Confined within the court of the royal prison, Jeremiah, anticipating the speedy destruction of the government and temple, must have shared in the general gloom.

But, "unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness." The Lord disclosed to the prophet the glories in reserve for his country in the latter day. "Again there shall be in this place, which ye say shall be desolate without man and without beast, the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voice of them that shall say, Praise the Lord of hosts; for the Lord is good; for his mercy endureth for ever; and of them that shall bring the sacrifice

of praise into the house of the Lord."

"In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely; and this is the name wherewith she shall be called, The Lord our righteousness."

With these bright visions of future blessings for his country, and the visits of Jehovah to cheer his loneliness, the prophet might calmly await the issue of the siege, the apprehension of which overwhelmed his persecutors with dismay.

Abandoned as the Jewish nation was at this time, there were undoubtedly some who had not bowed the knee to idol-gods. When these resorted to the prophet, notwithstanding the hazard, he continued to speak to them the message of life and of death which he had been directed to deliver. Jer. 21:8, 9. They repeated his words to others, and thus he could preach to the people indirectly, even while "a prisoner of the Lord." Determined to silence Jeremiah by extreme measures, since he was not frightened into silence by imprisonment, the princes besought the king that he might be put to death. They alleged that his words discouraged the men of war from defending the city, and that he sought not the welfare of the people, but their hurt. Zedekiah knew that this charge of a traitorous intent in Jeremiah was false, but he had not courage enough to avow his conviction. The irresolute monarch, with a mean sacrifice of conscience and principle to his fears, replied, "Behold, he is

in

your hand; for the king is not he who can do any thing against you."

Armed with this power, the princes seized Jeremiah; but afraid even now to kill him outright, they cast him into a deep miry dungeon, where they expected he would soon perish. Lam. 3: 52-58. They hoped in this way to escape the odium, if not the guilt, of murdering a prophet of the Lord. They did not apprehend that the king, whatever misgivings he might have for yielding up Jeremiah so tamely, would venture to order his reprieve; nor that any of the chief men would interfere for his relief. They felt that the prophet was at last in their grasp, and were exulting over his ruin.

But, "out of the mouth of babes and sucklings," God can ordain strength "to still the enemy and the avenger." In his hands, a feeble instrument sometimes becomes more powerful from its very weakness. If none of the courtiers will sue for the life of Jeremiah, God will effect that service through some humbler medium. The Jews may stand by in silent apathy or terror, while a messenger of Jehovah is put to a cruel death; but God is able of the stones to raise up children unto Abraham. Ebed-melech, an Ethiopian of some distinction in the royal household, approaches Zedekiah. He does not, after the cowardly manner of that monarch when about to perform a good deed, shrink from public view; but "in the gate of Benjamin," where