nt writer[22] to "a Puritan living in the age of the Stuarts,
to a Huguenot living in the age of the Medici, or a Savonarola living
in the age of Pope Alexander VI." He was born in Anathoth, a little
village of Judaea, and being the son of a priest was consecrated to the
priesthood from birth.

[Footnote 22: Lyman Abbott in _Hebrew Prophets and American Problems_.]

He was still very young when it was borne in upon him that to be loyal
to God he must stand forth and speak the truth more boldly than other
priests were doing. Shrinking from such a task, he besought God to
spare him. "Ah, Lord God! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child."

And this, writes Jeremiah, is the answer he received:[23] "Say not, I
am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and
whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak. Be not afraid of their
faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord. Then the
Lord put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the Lord said unto
me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth. See, I have this day set
thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull
down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant."

[Footnote 23: Jeremiah, chapter i. verses 6-10.]

Thus Jeremiah became a prophet, and from that time on his life was
"one long, hopeless protest against folly and crime." Earnestly he
besought his people to return to God before it was too late: "O
Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be
saved;"[24] but prayers and threats were alike of no avail, and
misfortunes began to afflict the land. Then Jeremiah shows himself a
true patriot. Though his people refused to hear him, he still loves
them and pleads their cause. In the horror of famine, he prays to God
in their behalf.

[Footnote 24: Ibid., ch. iv. v. 14.]

[Illustration: JEREMIAH. _Sistine Chapel, Rome._]

There are times even in the midst of disappointment when Jeremiah has
some gleam of hope for the future. He predicts the days when "a King
shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the
earth."[25] Such times he himself was never to enjoy. He lived to see
the Babylonian invasion, Jerusalem besieged and laid waste, and his
people taken captive. The reward of his faithful warnings was to be
cast into prison by the ungrateful King Zedekiah. Finally he was
carried by the remnant of his people into Egypt, where he died in a
sad and lonely old