vessel from the pliant clay. As it was too much marred in the workman's hands to be fit for the use originally designed, he moulded it into another shape, and devoted it to a different purpose. This incident, in the mouth of the prophet, became a lively emblem of God's power over the destiny of nations, sparing the penitent, and crushing those that fail of the end for which they were distinguished by his favor. The moral cut the Jews to the heart. They formed devices against Jeremiah, saying, Come, and let us smite him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words."

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Jeremiah was now ordered to take an earthen bottle and go with witnesses to the valley of Hinnom, where men were accustomed to sacrifice young children to Moloch. After denouncing ruin to the nation, he broke the bottle, and returned to the temple, where he repeated his message. As the hardened clay when broken could not be restored to its shape, so the overthrow of the Jewish commonwealth by the Chaldeans would be complete.

Pashur the governor of the temple smote the prophet, and put him in the stocks, in a public place, where he was left through the night to suffer the pain and mortification of this disgraceful punishment; though some think that the prophet was only put in prison.

Tortured by an acute sense of the ignominy to which he had been subjected, in the bitterness of his soul, Jeremiah complains to the Lord for drawing him into a work which was attended with trials so severe and unremitting. "O Lord, thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived; thou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed. I am in derision daily; every one reproacheth me." As if suffering beyond endurance, he resolves that he will speak no more in the name of the Lord. But soon the message which he forbears to deliver, becomes a fire in his bones. Neither conscience, nor the honor of God, nor compassion for his countrymen, nor indignation at their apostasy, will suffer him to be silent. famed by many, exposed to dangers on every side, his most unguarded intercourse watched by false friends to find him guilty of some misstep, he gathers courage from a returning sense of the divine presence. Now he is confident that confusion will cover his enemies. Now, in the triumph of victory, he exclaims, "Sing unto the Lord, praise ye the Lord; for he hath delivered the soul of the poor from the hand of evil-doers."

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CHAPTER XXIV.

JEREMIAH'S FIDELITY.

WE have already stated, that on the decease of Josiah his eldest son was superseded by a younger brother, whom the people put into his place. The conduct of Jehoiakim, after he became king, showed that there was good reason for deviating from the regular order of succession. He exhibited in his reign a total want of the qualities that become a prince. Irritated by the preference of his brother to himself, and upheld on the throne in opposition to the wishes of the people, by a foreign power that would not be strict to mark his misdeeds, so long as he continued firm in his allegiance, he could give free range to all the bad passions of his nature. He was oppressive; not only to the stranger, the fatherless and the widow, who are usually the first to feel the heavy hand of tyranny, but to any of his subjects whose services or wealth could minister to his pleasures. He was unjust; exacting labors from the people for which he refused to give the promised wages. He was selfish and destitute of patriotism; imposing burdensome taxes on the country to pay the tribute levied by Pharaoh-Necho, while he spent large revenues raised by extortion in erecting a splendid palace. Covetous of the

possessions of others, he lavished his own to gratify sensuality and pride. He was cruel, distinguishing his reign by deeds of blood. He had already slain Urijah for prophesying against the "city and against the land, according to all the words of Jeremiah;" and the latter could not long expect to escape his vengeance, unless protected by the arm of Jehovah.

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It was to such a monarch that the prophet, hardly recovered from the mortification and suffering sketched in the previous chapter, was sent with a message which, for pungent personal rebuke, is not surpassed by any other on the sacred record. was not to speak it at the temple, or at some place of public resort, in the absence of Jehoiakim, but in the palace itself, and in the presence of the king and court. Thus saith the Lord, Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and say, Hear the word of the Lord, O king of Judah, that sittest on the throne of David, thou and thy servants, and thy people that enter in by these gates. Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong; that useth his neighbor's service without wages, and giveth him not for his work; that saith, I will build me a wide house and large chambers; and cutteth him out windows; and it is ceiled with cedar, and painted with vermilion. Shalt thou reign, because thou closest thyself in cedar? Did not thy father eat and drink, and do

judgment and justice, and then it was well with him? He judged the cause of the poor and needy;

then it was well with him: was not this to know me? saith the Lord. But thine eyes and thy heart are not but for thy covetousness, and for to shed innocent blood, and for oppression, and for violence, to do it. Therefore, thus saith the Lord concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah; They shall not lament for him, saying, Ah my brother! or, Ah sister! they shall not lament for him, saying, Ah lord! or, Ah his glory! He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem."

When Nathan said to David, "Thou art the man," he addressed a pious though erring monarch, who felt that for the righteous to smite him was a kindness. When Isaiah came with a rebuke to Hezekiah, he spoke to one who feared God and bowed to the authority of his messenger. When Daniel stood before the thousand lords of the Babylonish empire, in the banqueting-hall, and told Belshazzar to his face, "Thou art weighed in the balance and art found wanting," the haughty monarch, divinely subdued by the hand on the wall, had become harmless as a child. But Jeremiah had to deal with an abandoned apostate, a bloodthirsty idolater, whom judgment had not yet humbled, and whom neither shame nor conscience would restrain from putting him to instant death.