veh. And so for two thousand years Nineveh remained undisturbed in the grave her sins had dug for her, but where that grave lay was unknown. Tradition said that it was somewhere on the banks of the Tigris, a thousand miles away from the tracks of ordinary travel. At length 'a French savant and a wandering English scholar, urged by a noble inspiration, sought the seat of the once powerful empire, and, searching till they found the dead city, threw off its shroud of sand and ruin, and revealed once more to an astonished and curious world the temples, the palaces, and the idols; the representations of war, and the triumphs of peaceful art of the ancient Assyrians. The Nineveh of Scripture, the Nineveh of the oldest historians; the Nineveh-twin-sister of Babylon-glorying in a civilisation of pomp and power, all traces of which were believed to be gone; the Nineveh in which the captive tribes of Israel had laboured and wept, was, after a sleep of twenty centuries, again brought to light. The proofs of ancient splendour were again beheld by living eyes, and, by the skill of the draughtsman and the pen of antiquarian travellers, made known to the world.' We cannot venture upon the subject of the Ninevite relics. The gigantic statues, the sculptured slabs, the idols, the royal records, the jewels, and other longburied treasures that have been exhumed, and borne across the great desert and over the great

sea to our shores, to be gazed upon with deep emotion by the lover of sacred history. The theme is an inexhaustible one, interesting alike to the antiquarian, to the historian, and to the Biblical student.

To return to unhappy Judah. Her hour was come, but her good king Josiah must be safely sheltered in the peaceful home of the blessed before the storm burst. Easily was the silver cord broken, though the vigorous body, still in its prime, promised many years of health and strength. In the thirty-first year of Josiah's reign, PharaohNecho came up out of Egypt to war against Babylonia. The king of Judah thought it his duty to oppose the march of the Egyptian army, and for this purpose met the swarthy host in the valley of Megiddo, and at once prepared to give them battle. He was disguised in his war-chariot, and as he was arranging his troops, an arrow shot at random by an Egyptian struck him. 'Have me away, for I am sore wounded,' he exclaimed to his servants. He was removed to another chariot, in which he died. His corpse was taken to Jerusalem, and was buried in his own sepulchre,' the obsequies being performed, Josephus says, with extraordinary honours. Whatever the relief of the hypocritical portion of Josiah's subjects may have been at the removal of so zealous a defender of the only true worship, the grief of the nation generally was beyond expres

The pro

sion. Jeremiah lamented for Josiah.'1 phet wrote an elegy on the death of the king, which was appointed to be sung at the periodical mourning for the loss of so religious, just, and virtuous a prince. It is to be deplored that this elegy, in which the Hebrews joined with such heartfelt anguish, is not now extant. Near the spot where Josiah was wounded (Hadadrimmon) the mourners assembled to chant the funeral obsequies of the lamented Josiah, and to bewail the national calamity. So bitter were the lamentations, that, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon,' became a proverb to express the most violent sorrow. Too well did the inspired servants of God know how much cause there was for fear and anxiety, now that the shield which had been held up between Judah and the sword of vengeance was laid in the dust.

CHAPTER III.

PS lamenting the death of Josiah, we are introduced by the sacred chronicler to the loving, sensitive, devout, sympathising, and, at the same time, bold and intrepid Jeremiah,-prophet, priest, patriot, and poet. Such a conspicuous part did Jeremiah take in the fearful death-struggles of his country, that in tracing the rapid downfall of Judah after she lost her last pious king, we unavoidably compile the touching and deeply interesting biography of her second great prophet. Before he was born the Lord had sanctified Jeremiah, and had ordained him a prophet unto the nations ;'1 and when he was but a youth, he received his commission from the Most High. With the meekness and humility for which he was ever noted, he pleaded his inability to speak publicly on account of his youthfulness. Ah, Lord God! (he exclaimed) behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child.' But the Lord said, '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.' The Almighty then put touched the lips of the timid,

forth His hand and chosen one, saying, words in thy mouth.'

'Behold, I have put My Jeremiah then received his

sad commission. The Lord revealed to him the secret of his future career. A life of martyrdom lay before the newly ordained one, a struggle against kings, priests, and people. 'Thou, therefore, gird up thy loins, and arise, and speak unto them all that I command thee: be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound thee before them. For, behold, I have made thee this day a defenced city, and an iron pillar, and brazen walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against the princes thereof, against the priests thereof, and against the people of the land. And they shall fight against thee; for I am with thee, saith the Lord, to deliver thee.'3 And this revelation was made at the time when the reformation throughout the land was being carried on so vigorously by the zealous Josiah. Jeremiah shrank not from his melancholy office; he at once took the burden of his country's woes upon his shoulders, though for the next eighteen years he was not called upon to stand forth, in her defence. Born at Anathoth, a city of the priests, it is very probable that he, till trouble pressed heavily upon his beloved country, resided in the home of his fathers. His name