CHAPTER XXV.

JEREMIAH'S BOOK OF PROPHECIES.

WHILE Nebuchadnezzar, probably on his way to invade Egypt, was marching upon the kingdom of Judah, many of the inhabitants retired for safety to Jerusalem. Among these were the Rechabites, who were originally Kenites from the land of Midian, and, as many suppose, descendants of Jethro the father-in-law of Moses. They had settled in the tribe of Judah, near the Dead sea. Their an

cestor Jonadab, who is thought to have lived three hundred years before, in the time of Jehu, commanded them to avoid cities and populous places, and to dwell in the open country in tents. He also forbade them to drink wine, or sow seed, or plant vineyards. Perhaps it was, in part, that they might be free from collisions with the people of the country among whom they resided.

At the command of God, Jeremiah brought the Rechabites into one of the chambers around the temple, and in this public place gave them wine to drink. But true to the solemn charge of their forefather, "they said, We will drink no wine," alleging that in every generation since the days of Jonadab, his whole posterity, men, women, and children, had abstained from its use; and that they were now

dwelling in Jerusalem only through fear of the Chaldean army.

This example of respect for the wishes of an ancestor Jeremiah holds up before the Jews, to rebuke their disobedience and neglect of divine admonitions: "Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Go and tell the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Will ye not receive instruction to hearken to my words? The words of Jonadab the son of Rechab, that he commanded his sons not to drink wine, are performed; for unto this day they drink none, but obey their father's commandment notwithstanding I have spoken unto you, rising early and speaking; but ye hearkened not unto me." The prophet, after denouncing heavy judgments against the Jews, is commanded to say to the Rechabites, "Thus saith the Lord, Jonadab the son of Rechab shall not want a man to stand before me for ever." Some branches of this family returned from the captivity. 1 Chron. 2-55.* How varied are God's methods to remind

* Wolff states that the Jews of Jerusalem and Yeman are still existing near Mecca. At Jalooka, in Mesopotamia, one was pointed out to him "dressed and wild like an Arab, holding the bridle of his horse in his hands." He could read both Hebrew and Arabic, and rejoiced to see the Bible in those languages. Wolff having asked whose descendant he was, he read Jeremiah 35:5-11. He said that his people resided in the deserts around Samar, Mecca, and Sanaa, and added, "We drink no wine, and plant no vineyards, and sow no

men of their guilt and win them to his service! "A son honoreth his father," but men would be ashamed to treat each other as they often treat the Author of their being and of all their mercies.

What a privilege is it to descend from a pious ancestry; and how wise are those who obey their counsels and follow their example! God is pleased with the veneration of departed worth, and will show mercy to the seed of the just to the latest generation.

Jeremiah was either restrained by an official order from delivering his messages in the temple, after the popular outbreak already noticed, or he did not deem it prudent to expose himself immediately to a similar danger. He therefore spent a season in seclusion.

The Chaldeans, meanwhile, had taken the city. This ought to have shielded him from the charge of maliciously denouncing evil against his country; but men who hate the truth are only made more bitter by any thing which shows that their opposition to it is groundless. The false prophets would be more hostile to Jeremiah than ever, now that the event had proved his predictions to be true, and theirs to be a lie of their own invention.

seed, and live in tents, as Jonadab our father commanded us. Hobab was our father. Come to us; you will still find sixty thousand in number, and you see thus the prophecy fulfilled: 'Therefore Jonadab the son of Rechab shall not want a man to stand before me for ever.'

The sins of his countrymen would not suffer Jeremiah to rest, without some attempt to save them from impending ruin. Perhaps he thought their minds would be more open to conviction now they had begun to be chastened for their apostasy. As he could not " go into the house of the Lord" and address the people publicly, as he had done for many years, he must seek out some other method to gain their attention. While he was in this state, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, "Take thee a roll of a book, and write therein all the words that I have spoken to thee against Israel and against Judah, and against all the nations, from the day that I spoke unto thee even to this day. It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which I purpose to do unto them; that they may return every man from his evil way; that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin."

Jeremiah accordingly dictated to Baruch all the words which the Lord had spoken unto him, and Baruch wrote them "upon a roll in a book." This book was composed of pieces of parchment or linen cloth, joined together and rolled around a stick.

How often God causes the wrath of man to advance his own glory! The rulers and the people, to prevent Jeremiah from accomplishing his work, stop his mouth; and thus they put his words into a permanent form for the benefit of mankind in all lands and in all ages. Had not Paul been driven

by persecution to a Roman prison, some of his most glowing epistles, rich in doctrines and Christian experience, might never have been written. He must be bound with a chain, or he would have been too much occupied in preaching, or perplexed with the "care of all the churches," to compose works which will direct the faith and enliven the graces of the family of Christ till the end of time. If Luther had not been confined to his Patmos by the rage of opposers, he had not translated the Bible into his own tongue, to extend and establish the Reformation, and be his crowning glory. If a licentious age, weary of the cutting rebukes of an illiterate tinker, had not kept him twelve long years under restraint, the Christian Pilgrim had never begun that journey to the celestial city which will attract so many of every clime to follow in his steps. Blot out the literature of prison growth, and how wide would be the chasm in the book of truth! Life from death is the great law of Providence in perpetuating and enlarging the church. "Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit."

When the roll was finished, as he was himself "shut up" and could not go to the temple, Jeremiah requested Baruch to read it to the people on a fasting-day, in the house of the Lord. It is supposed that this "fasting-day" was the anniversary