THE SEVENTY YEARS’ CAPTIVITY.

309

word of the Lord; I will watch | Egypt shall be destroyed, and you

over you for evil, and not for good;

shall know whose word shall stand,

all the men of Judah in the land of | yours or mine.”

oo
a

 

CCVIII.

yp HE PEVENTY yJEARS PAPTIVITY.

SSJHEN we read this story
{| about the rebellion of the
| Vp people of Judah, what
8! should we learn from it?
Learn the very great
wickedness of the heart. The heart
of every man, and woman, and
child, not renewed by the Holy
Spirit, is as full of rebellion and
self-will, and ingratitude, as the
hearts of the people of Judah were.
Has your rebellious heart been
made new? If not, the frown
of God is upon you; and if you
die as you are now, you must be
sent away from Him for ever.
What can you do? It is not yet
too late to have your sinful heart
made new and clean. The Holy
Spirit is willing to cleanse you. Go to
God, and say as David did, “ Create
in me a clean heart, O God, and re-
new aright spirit in me ;” and then
your prayer will be heard, and God
will pardon and bless you.

But what became of the good
prophet Jeremiah? The Bible does
not tell us how or where. he died;
but we read in history, that the
wicked rebellious Jews in Egypt

 
 
 

 

grew so tired of his faithful warn-
ings, that at last they put him to
death. Jeremiah could warn them
no more. The Jews in Egypt lost
then their best earthly friend; and
they lost him by their own folly,

and rebellion, and sin. But the
day of his death was a happy,
glorious day to Jeremiah. It was
the end of all his sorrows and suffer-
ings, and the beginning of his ever-
lasting joy in Heaven. He then
received what God promises to all
who shall truly serve Him to the
end, when He says,—“Be thou
faithful unto death, and I will give

thee a crown of life.” Rev. ii. 10.

The wicked Jews could silence
the holy prophet by putting him to
death, but they could not prevent
God from fulfilling His threaten-
ings. Soon after, the powerful king
Nebuchadnezzar, who had _ con-
quered Judah, came to Egypt, and
subdued that country too. And —
then God’s words to Jeremiah were
fulfiled. The wicked Jews were
almost all slain with the sword;
very few of them escaped to tell the
sad story of their sin and their pun-
ishment.

All this time, the prisoners, whom
Nebuchadnezzar had taken from
Judah, were in sorrow and suffering
at Babylon. There they had no
temple, no sacrifices, no priests.
Those around them were worship-
pers of idols; and when the poor
captives remembered how far away
their own beloved home was, where
they had once prayed, and sung
praises to the true God in peace and