Ethiopian said unto Jeremiah, Put now these old cast clouts and rotten rags under thine arm-holes under the cords. And Jeremiah did so. So they drew up Jeremiah with cords, and took him up out of the dungeon: and Jeremiah remained in the court of the prison." This good action of Ebed-melech is distinctly declared by God to have been a work of faith. He was not a Jew outwardly, but, which is far better, he was a Jew inwardly—a believer in the God of Israel in heart and in spirit. And his reward was treasured up for him against an evil time; for when Jerusalem was taken, this promise of mercy to Ebed-melech the Ethiopian was not forgotten by God: "I will deliver thee in that day, saith the Lord: and thou shalt not be given into the hand of the men of whom thou art afraid. For I will surely deliver thee, and thou shalt not fall by the sword, but thy life shall be for a prey unto thee: because thou hast put thy trust in me, saith the Lord." His faith in God had emboldened him to espouse the cause of the afflicted prophet at the hazard of punishment; he was now recompensed with that which to every man is the dearest of all things-his own life. He had been the means of sparing Jeremiah; now the Lord spares him, while the king and thousands of Jews perished by war and famine or went into captivity. Beautifully is that truth exemplified in Ebed-melech's case"Blessed are the merciful; for they shall obtain mercy."

There was another favorable circumstance in Jeremiah's situation-namely, that he had a personal friend-one like-minded with himself—in the prophet Baruch. Probably he was younger than Jeremiah; certainly he stood in the relation of the prophet's assistant, for when Jeremiah was shut up in prison, he dictated the word of the Lord, and Baruch wrote it in a roll of a book. This roll contained most awful threatenings against the king, princes, priests and people of Jerusalem. It was carried and read to the king Jehoiakim. He in his rage, as soon as three or four leaves had been read, cut it with a penknife and cast it into the fire; after which Jeremiah indited a second roll to Baruch,

the same with the first, but with additions full of lamentations and mourning and woe. Jeremiah and Baruch were in no small danger on this occasion, the king having commanded to seize them; "but," it is significantly added, "the Lord hid them.”

These two prophets, brethren in faithfulness and affliction, seem to have been likewise of a kindred temperament-prone to sadness. This may be inferred from the short but pointed message sent to Baruch by the Lord and pronounced by Jeremiah. We read, "The word that Jeremiah the prophet spake unto Baruch the son of Neriah, when he had written these words in a book at the mouth of Jeremiah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, saying, Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel, unto thee, O Baruch; thou didst say, Woe is me now! for the Lord hath added grief to my sorrow; I fainted in my sighing, and I find no rest." The Lord then confirms all his threatened judgments, pleading with Baruch in these striking words: "And seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not." Possibly Baruch might have pleased his mind with high notions, following as he did in the train of a great prophet, and delivering messages, although severe ones, in kings' palaces. If he imagined himself to be of some importance, or that he was treading the paths that lead to honor, a greater mistake he could not have committed. However this may have been, Jeremiah was directed to teach him humility in good earnest. Baruch was required to put aside every ambitious, self-exalting thought -a rule proper at all times for the servant of the Lord, but never more so than in seasons of public calamity. Meanwhile the same mercy was promised to Baruch as to Ebed-melech ; when the whole nation came to ruin, he was to be safe: "Thy life will I give unto thee for a prey in all places whither thou goest."

There is another circumstance to be noted in the history of Jeremiah, proving how gracious the Lord can show himself to his devoted servants. When the king of Babylon had taken

Jerusalem, it is related that he "gave charge concerning Jeremiah to Nebuzar-adan, the captain of the guard, saying, Take him, and look well to him, and do him no harm; but do unto him even as he shall say unto thee." And, consequently, "all the king of Babylon's princes" interested themselves about this poor prophet: "Even they sent and took Jeremiah out of the court of the prison, and committed him unto Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan, that he should carry him home: so he dwelt among the people." The Lord made him to be pitied of all those that carried away the nation captive into Babylon.

Concerning the writings of Jeremiah, it may be observed that, having originally been addressed to backsliding Israel, they are peculiarly adapted to comfort, restore and establish those who for a season have departed from the Lord, but are longing to return to him. This book and the prophecy of Hosea together form a treasury inexpressibly valuable and consolatory to penitent backsliders.

We may observe further that it would be a great error to impute to Jeremiah anything like pusillanimity; so far from it, he was on all proper occasions remarkable for courage. Nowhere shall we find more energetic descriptions of what a prophet ought to be than in the twenty-third chapter of his prophecy; and what he described, he himself was. "Mine heart within me," he says, "is broken because of the prophets; all my bones shake." Then, challenging these blind guides of Israel, he bursts out into the noblest language of encouragement, urging himself and all likeminded with him faithfully to discharge their arduous duties: "The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the Lord. Is not my word like as a fire? saith the Lord; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?"

W

XXXII.

EZEKIEL.

HO dare claim kindred with Ezekiel, the severe, the mystic, the unfathomable, the lonely, whose hot, hur

ried breath we feel approaching us like the breath of

a furnace? Perhaps the eagle may, for his eye was as keen and as fierce as hers. Perhaps the lion may, for his voice, too, sounded vast and hollow on the wilderness wind. Perhaps the wild ass may, for his step was, like hers, incontrollable. Or does he not turn away proudly from all these, and looking up, demand as associates the most fervid of the burning ones—those who, of the angelic throng, stand the nearest, and yet blench the least, before the throne of God? Does he not cry, as he sees the seven angels holding the seven last vials of divine wrath, and coming forth from the "smoke of the glory of God," "These are my brethren;" be mine to mingle with them, to be clean as these, and to bear a like "vessel of the Lord" with these? Does he not wish to stand apart even from Isaiah, Daniel, Habakkuk and John?

The comparison of a comet, often used and generally wasted, is strikingly applicable to Ezekiel. Sharp, distinct, yet nebulous, swift, sword-shaped, blood-red, he hangs in the Old Testament sky, rather burning as a portent than shining as a prophet. It is not his magnitude or solidity, so much as his intensity and strangeness, which astonish you. It is not the amount of light he gives which you value so much, as the heat, the excitement