d avert the doom he was compelled to pronounce as an ambassador of
God? And when in addition to his grief as a patriot he was unjustly made
to suffer reproach, scourgings, imprisonment, and probable death, how
can we wonder that his patience was exhausted? He felt as if a burning
fire consumed his very bones, and he could refrain no longer. He cried
aloud in the intensity of his grief and pain, and Jehovah, in whom he
trusted, appeared to him as a mighty champion and an everlasting support.

Jeremiah at this time, during the early years of the reign of Jehoiakim,
the period of the most active part of his ministry, was about forty-five
years of age. Great events were then taking place. Nineveh was besieged
by one of its former generals,--Nabopolassar, now king of Babylon. The
siege lasted two years, and the city fell in the year 606 B.C., when
Jehoiakim had been about four years on the throne. The fall of this
great capital enabled the son of the king of Babylonia, Nebuchadnezzar,
to advance against Necho, the king of Egypt, who had taken Carchemish
about three years before. Near that ancient capital of the Hittites, on
the banks of the Euphrates, one of the most important battles of
antiquity was fought,--and Necho, whose armies a few years before had so
successfully invaded the Assyrian empire, was forced to retreat to
Egypt. The battle of Carchemish put an end to Egyptian conquests in the
East, and enabled the young sovereign of Babylonia to attain a power and
elevation such as no Oriental monarch had ever before enjoyed. Babylon
became the centre of a new empire, which embraced the countries that had
bowed down to the Assyrian yoke. Nebuchadnezzar in the pride of victory
now meditated the conquest of Egypt, and must needs pass through
Palestine. But Jehoiakim was a vassal of Egypt, and had probably
furnished troops for Necho at the fatal battle of Carchemish. Of course
the Babylonian monarch would invade Judah on his way to Egypt, and
punish its king, whom he could only look upon as an enemy.

It was then that Jeremiah, sad and desponding over the fate of
Jerusalem, which he knew was doomed, committed his precious utterances
to writing by the assistance of his friend and companion Baruch. He had
lately been living in retirement, feeling that his message was
delivered; possibly he feared that the king would put him to death as he
had the prophet Urijah. But he wished to make one more attempt to call
the people to repe