have sacrificed the greatest prophet that had appeared since Elisha, the greatest statesman since Samuel, the greatest poet since David, if Isaiah alone be excepted.  No wonder he was driven to a state of despondency and grief that reminds us of Job upon his ash-heap.  “Cursed be the day,” he exclaims, in his lonely chamber, “on which I was born!  Cursed be the man who brought tidings to my father, saying, A man-child is born to thee, making him very glad!  Why did I come forth from the womb that my days might be spent in shame?” A great and good man may be urged by the sense of duty to declare truths which he knows will lead to martyrdom; but no martyr was ever insensible to suffering or shame.  All the glories of his future crown cannot sweeten the bitterness of the cup he is compelled to drain; even the greatest of martyrs prayed in his agony that the cup might pass from him.  How could a man help being sad and even bitter, if ever so exalted in soul, when he saw that his warnings were utterly disregarded, and that no mortal influence or power could avert the doom he was compelled to pronounce as an ambassador of God?  And when in addition to his grief as a patriot he was unjustly made to suffer reproach, scourgings, imprisonment, and probable death, how can we wonder that his patience was exhausted?  He felt as if a burning fire consumed his very bones, and he could refrain no longer.  He cried aloud in the intensity of his grief and pain, and Jehovah, in whom he trusted, appeared to him as a mighty champion and an everlasting support.

Jeremiah at this time, during the early years of the reign of Jehoiakim, the period of the most active part of his ministry, was about forty-five years of age.  Great events were then taking place.  Nineveh was besieged by one of its former generals,—­Nabopolassar, now king of Babylon.  The siege lasted two years, and the city fell in the year 606 B.C., when Jehoiakim had been about four years on the throne.  The fall of this great capital enabled the son of the king of Babylonia, Nebuchadnezzar, to advance against Necho, the king of Egypt, who had taken Carchemish about three years before.  Near that ancient capital of the Hittites, on the banks of the Euphrates, one of the most important battles of antiquity was fought,—­and Necho, whose armies a few years before had so successfully invaded the Assyrian empire, was forced to retreat to Egypt.  The battle of Carchemish put an end to Egyptian conquests in the East, and enabled the young sovereign of Babylonia to attain a power and elevation such as no Oriental monarch had ever before enjoyed.  Babylon became the centre of a new empire, which embraced the countries that had bowed down to the Assyrian yoke.  Nebuchadnezzar in the pride of victory now meditated the conquest of Egypt, and must needs pass through Palestine.  But Jehoiakim was a vassal of Egypt, and had probably furnished troops for Necho at the fatal battle of Carchemish.  Of course the Babylonian monarch would invade Judah on his way to Egypt, and punish its king, whom he could only look upon as an enemy.