Evangelical Meditations

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1858 edition. Excerpt: ... the jews consulting jeremiah. Jeeemiah xlii. 1--xliil. 4. After having long warned, long entreated, long threatened, the Lord had at length smitten. Judea invaded, Jerusalem taken and laid waste, the royal family massacred, the king himself deprived of his sight and carried by the conquerors to the banks of the Euphrates, along with a multitude of his subjects, captives like himself, --such had been God's judgments on a rebellious people. A small number of Jews had been left in Judea, colonists, as it were, on their native soil, paying rent to the sovereign of Assyria for the lands they cultivated, --aliens on the spot where they had lately been citizens. They were no longer ruled by national authorities. An officer of the king of Babylon governed them in the name of his prince. Amid this deep abasement, however, amid the universal bondage that levelled all ranks, one individual, a Jew, who had remained, governed, by his words, at least, and from a position higher than any that political power could confer, that conquered and unfortunate nation. One individual had remained, in whom the ancient dignity and pristine glory of the Jewish people were preserved unimpaired, and towards whom, all with respect, and many with hope, raised a timid look This individual was Jeremiah, already long familiarised with the prospect of martyrdom, already long a victim of the ingratitude of his countrymen, and, nevertheless, the object of their involuntary veneration. No less respected by the conquerors themselves, he might have followed them to Babylon, where public consideration and distinguished honours awaited him. There, a freeman among captives, he might have lived in quiet, and--humanly speaking, with more satisfaction, than his ungrateful countrymen.