pends will be averted. To that end has Jehovah sent me. I am in your power. Put me to death if you wish. Only remember, that in slaying a God-sent prophet, you will bring upon yourselves and upon your city a grievous burden of guilt."

Influenced by the words and the calm demeanor of the prophet, the princes, seconded by the people, acknowledged the truth of his defense, and declared him unworthy of death. At this crisis also certain of the older and more experienced men recalled two well-known precedents: "In the days of Hezekiah, Micah, the Morashtite, in public predicted in equally unequivocal language the complete destruction of Jerusalem. Instead of putting him to death for blasphemy, the king and the people of Judah listened to his warnings, and the judgment which he predicted was averted. If we put Jeremiah to death we commit a heinous crime against our nation.

"You all shudder when we remind you of the fate of Uriah of Kirjath-jearim, who, a short time ago, uttered the same prophecy against this city and land. Prompted by a resentful spirit, Jehoiakim our king and his counsellors sought to put him to death. Hearing of it, Uriah fled to Egypt, but Jehoiakim brought him back and slew him, and cast his body into the potter's field. We have shed enough of the blood of the prophets."

By these arguments and through the powerful influence of his friend Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, Jeremiah was saved from death at the hands of the mob.KENT.

VII. His Faith in the Restoration of his People and his Purchase of Property. "During the final siege of Jerusalem, while Jeremiah was confined in the court of the

guard-house, his cousin visited him, with the request that he purchase a certain part of the family estate at Anathoth. Recognizing in this demand a divinely given opportunity for impressing his prophetic message in the presence of many witnesses, he caused a formal bill of transfer to be drawn up, and paid the stipulated sum, although the land was already in the possession of the besieging Babylonians. Then he gave command to Baruch to store away the deed where it would be preserved for many years. 'For,' as he added, 'Jehovah has revealed to me that land in Judah shall again possess a marketable value.'

"After the transaction had been completed, Jeremiah prayed this prayer: 'O Creator and Ruler of the universe, merciful and just, all-wise and all-powerful, faithfully didst Thou lead Thy people in the past. They, alas! sinned so grievously against Thee that their present woes are but their just deserts. What, therefore, O Lord, is the full significance of thy command to me to buy this land which already is in the hands of relentless foes?'

"Then Jehovah strengthened Jeremiah's wavering faith, declaring: 'Do you think, O prophet, that there is anything too difficult for Me, the supreme ruler of mankind, to accomplish? True, I will give the city over to the Babylonians, and they shall completely destroy it as a just punishment for the apostasy and persistent idolatry of its inhabitants. I will not, however, forget My people, but will gather them from the lands of their captivity, and cause them peaceably to inhabit those very cities which are now being laid desolate. More than that, they shall then unite in giving Me their sincere and reverential worship. Then also will I enter into a solemn covenant with them, promising to establish them permanently in the land, and

to bestow upon them all the blessings which My loving heart suggests. Then throughout all the territory of Judah, men shall again buy and sell the land now wasted by Babylonian armies, giving written contracts even as you have just done.'"-KENT.

The Great Prophet of the Exile

Lesson Passage: Isaiah 40.

The Babylonian Exile was a period of readjustment for the Jewish race. We have spoken of the long and “irrepressible conflict" between the two great elements of the nation—the Pagan and the Jehovistic. The appetite for idolatry had never been obliterated. All reforms were but partial. Side by side, these two forces had gone on for centuries struggling for ascendency. As we look back today we can see, better than they could, this living perpetual struggle. The pure faith of Abraham and Moses, of Samuel and David was ever face to face with the passion for idolatry and superstition. At last this struggle reached its climax in the Fall of Jerusalem, and then the Exile did what centuries of national independence had not accomplished. The nation that passed into captivity was tainted with the immoralities, the debased faith, the superstitions of Paganism; the nation that at last returned to Jerusalem, to rebuild the Temple and restore the worship of Jehovah, was a nation of believers. The great process of sifting and judgment was needed, and from that day onward there was no danger of a relapse into the idolatries of the past.

I. The Life of Babylon. The condition of the exiles was not one of particular hardship. Probably large masses of the Jews simply followed their inclination, and gave up their faith. The lukewarm, the worldly, found Babylon an agreeable place. They adjusted themselves to their sur

roundings, and were merged into the mass of the people about them. But on the other hand those who had in Palestine adhered to Jehovah kept their creed unshaken. If they had lost Jerusalem, they had all the more clearly found Jehovah and clung to the great spiritual truths of Israel. They suffered the persecution of ridicule, of contempt, and the Exile burned into their hearts and minds, as never had been possible before, those majestic truths and hopes for which the nation really stood. During this period the teachings of Jeremiah and Ezekiel were the source of comfort and strength. Ezekiel was the prophet of the earlier portion of the exile.

II. The Mission of the Prophet. It was his work to keep alive these religious instincts and hopes. So far as actual suffering went, there was little. They were free to live and carry on their work whatever it might be, but they needed as never before the work of the preacher. They were without a Temple, but this need was supplied by "the holding of religious meetings beside the streams of Babylon, where services of prayer were held and acts of ceremonial purification were performed. Probably in course of time fixed forms of worship came into use and houses of prayer (or Synagogues) were erected, in which the exiles met for the reading of the Law and public devotion." "Ezekiel may be regarded on the one hand as a preacher of penitence and a pastor of souls; on the other, as a prophet whose function it was to mould the thought and direct the aims of the future" (Ottley). The sins of the past were felt by him in all their darkness and shame. But to him God was a God of loving kindness and the future held an unlimited hope.

III. The Great Unknown. But the one supreme