Isaiah lived seven hundred and seventy years before Christ, of whom he so particularly wrote. Our Lord greatly honoured this prophet by preaching his first sermon out of this prophecy.

JEREMIAH.

Jeremiah lived nearer the time of which he prophesied, than did Isaiah. He saw the approaching decline of his country, and wept over it, while, as God taught him, he warned the people, and urged them to repent. He lived to see what he threatened come to pass-the destruction of the city and temple of Jerusalem, and the captivity in Babylon. He was persecuted very much for his faithful prophecies, and he was contradicted, as if he had been a false prophet. As a sign of the bringing of the people under the dominion of Nebuchadnezzar, Jeremiah wore a yoke around his neck. This yoke a false prophet named Hananiah tore off, and broke it, and prophesied of the speedy restoration of the Jews from their captivity. For this act God instructed Jeremiah to pronounce his speedy death, and Hananiah died

the same year.

After the princes and people were carried away captive with Jeconiah, Jeremiah wrote to them to comfort them; and he told them that, in seventy years' time, they should be restored, if they repented and turned unto God, and, till that time, they ought to submit themselves to God's decree, and make themselves as contented as they could in their captivity; for it is indeed of no use to fight against God. Jeremiah also told them how God would punish all the false prophets who should spring up among them in Babylon, and prophesy their more speedy delivery.

When Nebuchadnezzar was besieging Jerusalem, Jeremiah was imprisoned. When the siege was suspended, and Nebuchadnezzar had retired, Jeremiah was released; but he foretold that Nebuchadnezzar would return, and burn the city to ashes. At this time he tried to escape from Jerusalem, but he was discovered by an officer as he was going out of one of the gates, and was again thrown into prison, till the king ordered him to be set at liberty.

Nebuchadnezzar did return; and as the chief men of the city thought that Jeremiah's prophecies discouraged the people, they got leave from Zedekiah to cast him into prison; and they let him down with ropes, into a muddy well, where he must soon have perished, if God had not inclined the heart of Zedekiah to release him; and he was kept prisoner in the palace till Jerusalem was taken.

A little before this last fatal event, Zedekiah asked Jeremiah what he

should do. And Jeremiah, being instructed of the Lord, told him to give himself up to Nebuchadnezzar, and it would be better for him, and his family, and for the safety of the city; but if he persisted in opposing the Chaldeans, he and his family would be ruined, and the city wholly destroyed.

Zedekiah now respected the prophet, yet did not quite like his advice, and so following his own counsel, instead of believing the word of the Lord by Jeremiah, he tried to escape from Jerusalem by night, but was pursued by the Chaldeans, and being taken, his sons and nobles were put to death, his own eyes were put out, he was carried to Babylon bound in chains, and the city was burned.

Jeremiah was taken among the captives, but by order of Nebuchadnezzar, he was set free, and had the choice of going to Babylon or staying in Judea. Jeremiah chose to stay in his country. Here he was quiet till the rebellion against Gedaliah, Nebuchadnezzar's officer. When Jeremiah was then consulted whether it would be safest to stay in Judea or escape into Egypt, the prophet advised the people to stay. They, however, thought proper to refuse his advice, and even obliged him to go with them. Here he prophesied also against the King of Egypt.

Though Babylon was now in all its glory, yet the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah both foretold its future destruction. It was impossible for any human being unless God taught him-to foretell that so mighty a city and strong a power, should at last perish and come to nothing. Yet such is now the condition of Babylon. Its very name is perished, except in history, which informs us that it was, and that it is not.

In the thirteenth and fourteenth chapters of Isaiah, and in the fiftieth and fifty-first chapters of Jeremiah, you will read prophecies of Babylon, "the glory of kingdoms," that it should never more be inhabited-that wild beasts should dwell there-that it should be a dry land and a desert-and much more of the same kind. Having been taken by Cyrus, it gradually sunk into decay, and now, for sixteen hundred years, it has been nothing but a heap of ruins. Its canals are all dried up; fragments of bricks and tiles, which once formed its splendid buildings, are all that remain of their grandeur. There are many dens of wild beasts in various parts about the place, and it is the unmolested retreat of jackals, hyenas, and other noxious animals. The majestic river Euphrates still flows on, the willows grow on the banks, on which the Israelitish captives hung their harps: but the city, and the palaces, and the fields, and gardens, which once adorned it, have for ever disappeared! So at last shall the earth, and all the works that are in it, be burnt up, on account of the sinfulness of its inhabitants; for "every word of God is true."

THE LAMENTATIONS OF JEREMIAH.

The Lamentations of Jeremiah are closely connected with his prophecies, and seem to have been written after the destruction of Jerusalem, and with a design to bring the people to a state of repentance on account of their sins, which had been the cause of their desolate condition.

EZEKIEL.

Ezekiel was of the race of the priests.

He was carried away captive

into Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar, with Jehoiachin, king of Judah, of whom you have read at the end of the reigns of the kings. He prophesied twenty years. Ezekiel, as well as Isaiah and Jeremiah, prophesied of the destruction of Jerusalem.

Ezekiel also foretold the ruin of many nations and cities which had been

enemies to the people of God, and were base idolators, pronouncing the doom of the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Edomites, and Philistines; of Tyre, Sidon, and Egypt.

Let us just notice, in particular, Egypt.

Egypt was once a mighty nation. No nation was more learned and skilled in arts. Some of its monuments even remain to this day, and its huge pyramids are the wonders of the world. There are three of them, in particular, which attract notice. They are supposed to have been the tombs of some kings. The largest of these is a great deal higher than St. Paul's cathedral, and is reckoned to have been built with six millions of tons of stone! The Egyptians had many grand cities, and had made great conquests in neighbouring countries.

But Ezekiel, in the words of the Lord, prophesied of this nation which had made Israel slaves, and been a great foe to the people of God, "It shall be the basest of the kingdoms, neither shall it exalt itself any more above the nations; for I will diminish them, that they shall no more rule over the nations." This has come to pass. The Egyptians are the most enslaved of people. Tyrants rule over them. There are a very few men who are great, and all the rest are miserably poor, and ignorant, and wretched, and subject to the most cruel and oppressive lords. The ruins of splendid temples and palaces yet remain, but nothing but mud-walled cottages surround them. At this moment there is a ruler who has gained a little power; but Egypt is still among the basest of the nations. It was two thousand four hundred years ago, when the prophet foretold what it should be, and when it was most unlike what it now is. Who taught Ezekiel to describe its condition in the year eighteen hundred and forty-five, the time when this is written? The answer must be-God, to whom there is none like, "declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done."

DANIEL.

Daniel was one of the captives carried away into Babylon with Jehoiachin, as you read at the end of the Books of Kings. He was one of the royal blood of Judah.

Daniel prophesied in a remarkable manner, of the ruin of the four great monarchies of the world, even before they had all risen to power: that is, the Babylonian; the Medes and Persian—which were united in Cyrus, his father being a Persian and his mother a Mede, and to whom, after his uncle's death, the whole monarchy fell by right; the Macedonian, or Grecian; and the Roman.

These arose to greatness one after the other, and each new one swallowed up the old. The Babylonians were destroyed by the Medes and Persians; the Medes and Persians by the Greeks; and the Greeks by the Romans.

This explanation describes an image which Nebuchadnezzar saw in a dream, and which was a prophecy of what should happen in the kingdoms of the world, till the kingdom of the Messiah, or Christ, should be set up in the world, and he should reign over the hearts of men.

The interpretation of this dream brought Daniel into honour and great notice in the Babylonian court.

Daniel went in to the king, and explained all that he wanted to know. And he made Daniel ruler over the whole province of Babylon, and chief of the wise men.

You must remember that the Babylonians were idol worshippers; and Nebuchadnezzar in his pride set up a very fine image of gold for the people to worship. This image, from the description given of it, must have been fifteen times larger than a man. So the king commanded all the great men everywhere throughout the provinces of his vast dominions to assemble together at a certain time; and he made proclamation by a herald, that, at a certain signal made by his bands of music, every one should fall down and worship this golden image. The command was obeyed, and men of all nations and languages who had been brought under his dominion, fell down before the idol; for, if any refused so to do, they were to be cast into a burning fiery furnace for their disobedience.

Now Daniel and his three companions, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, being Jews, placed in situations of eminence, were likely to be sufferers by the king's decree, for, being sincere followers of the true God, they would not worship a dumb idol. Daniel, however, escaped at this time; he was either too much in favour for any to venture to accuse him, or else he was engaged at a distance on business of sufficient importance to excuse his absence. Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, could not escape, and they attended with the rest, in obedience to the king's orders; but when the multitude fell down before the idol, they did not.

Some of the Chaldeans, who were jealous of the honours of these men who were exalted with Daniel, went and told the king, that the Jews, whom he had exalted, had not regarded him. This was so told, as to make their disobedience appear worse, after the rank he had conferred upon them.

Then Nebuchadnezzar sent in a rage for these men, and asked them, "Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego; do not ye serve my gods,