O’erflow thy courts; the Light himself shall shine
     Revealed, and God’s eternal day be thine! 
     The seas shall waste, the skies to smoke decay,
     Rocks fall to dust, and mountains melt away;
     But fixed His word, His saving power remains: 
     Thy realm forever lasts; thy own Messiah reigns!”

JEREMIAH.

ABOUT 629-580 B.C.

THE FALL OF JERUSALEM.

Jeremiah is a study to those who would know the history of the latter days of the Jewish monarchy, before it finally succumbed to the Babylonian conqueror.  He was a sad and isolated man, who uttered his prophetic warnings to a perverse and scornful generation; persecuted because he was truthful, yet not entirely neglected or disregarded, since he was consulted in great national dangers by the monarchs with whom he was contemporary.  So important were his utterances, it is matter of great satisfaction that they were committed to writing, for the benefit of future generations,—­not of Jews only, but of the Gentiles,—­on account of the fundamental truths contained in them.  Next to Isaiah, Jeremiah was the most prominent of the prophets who were commissioned to declare the will and judgments of Jehovah on a degenerate and backsliding people.  He was a preacher of righteousness, as well as a prophet of impending woes.  As a reformer he was unsuccessful, since the Hebrew nation was incorrigibly joined to its idols.  His public career extended over a period of forty years.  He was neither popular with the people, nor a favorite of kings and princes; the nation was against him and the times were against him.  He exasperated alike the priests, the nobles, and the populace by his rebukes.  As a prophet he had no honor in his native place.  He uniformly opposed the current of popular prejudices, and denounced every form of selfishness and superstition; but all his protests and rebukes were in vain.  There were very few to encourage him or comfort him.  Like Noah, he was alone amidst universal derision and scorn, so that he was sad beyond measure, more filled with grief than with indignation.

Jeremiah was not bold and stern, like Elijah, but retiring, plaintive, mournful, tender.  As he surveyed the downward descent of Judah, which nothing apparently could arrest, he exclaimed:  “Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the daughter of my people!” Is it possible for language to express a deeper despondency, or a more tender grief?  Pathos and unselfishness are blended with his despair.  It is not for himself that he is overwhelmed with gloom, but for the sins of the people.  It is because the people would not hear, would not consider, and would persist in their folly and wickedness, that grief pierces his soul.  He weeps for them, as Christ wept over Jerusalem.  Yet at times he is stung into bitter imprecations, he becomes fierce