218 BOYS OF THE BIBLE.

men well could be. One was the prophet of tears, the other
the prophet of mystic dreams. At the thought of Israel’s
sorrows, Jeremiah’s tears broke forth as from a fountain; but
Ezekiel had no tears to shed; you might have ground him
to powder, but you could not have crushed him to tears.

These men were both sons of priests; they lived in the
same age; they prophesied to the same people; they taught
substantially the same truths; the voice of Jeremiah was
tremulous with emotion; the voice of Ezekiel rung out like
a bell with the clear-cut tones of strong conviction.

Jeremiah was the son of Hilkiah. Hilkiah was a priest,
and lived at a little village named Anathoth, a pleasant
wooded region embosomed amongst the hills of Benjamin.
This quiet rural district was not more than about three miles
from Jerusalem, and was mainly inhabited by priests and
their families. You see, it was conveniently near Jerusalem,
not more than an hour’s pleasant walk from the temple.

To this boy, Jeremiah, son of Hilkiah the priest, when not
more than fourteen or fifteen years old, came the voice of
God calling him to the great work of his life. How the
voice came we are not told with any accuracy. Perhaps in
a dream of the night, and perhaps in a dream of the day.
Who can tell? We have seen how God came in dreams to
Jacob, and to Joseph, why should he not come to Jeremiah
along the same mystic pathway?

You have all read of Joan of Arc, the Maid of Orleans,
how in her young days she heard in the fields and highways
of Domremy strange voices—voices heard by none beside her-
self—and these voices charged her, maiden though she was,
to awake the slumbering zeal of her countrymen, and free
France of the foeman’s thrall. Whatever those voices were,
they made a majestic woman of her; they inspired her with