THE BABYLONIAN CAPTIVITY. And be not ye like your fathers, and like your brethren which trespassed against the Lord God of their fathers, who therefore gave them up to desolation, as ye see.” 2 CHRONICLES XXX, 7. ELLEN. OH, Anne, the copse is full of dead leaves ! We have had a nice brisk walk, but the park looks quite melancholy. Just as we were coming through the swing gate leading into the beech wood, we saw the poor old woman whom the village children make such game of, tottering along with a large bundle of sticks, which seemed almost too heavy for her to carry. ANNE. You mean that very old to bring us water-cresses! woman who used Yes. ELLEN. LYDIA. And we saw a woodman and his dog, that put me in mind of Cowper's -"leaving unconcerned The cheerful haunts of man; to wield the axe HARRIETTE. I wish I had been with you! ANNE. You know, my dear Harriette, it would have been imprudent for you to have gone out on such a cold day, so poorly as you are. It might have laid you up for the rest of the autumn. LYDIA. I will sit with her now, Anne, if you like to go down stairs. ANNE. Do so, and I will return in half an hour.` LYDIA. Well, Harriette, how have you been amusing yourself while we were out? HARRIETTE. I have been reading some of those little Scripture Stories which mamma wrote for us a long while ago. LYDIA. What was the subject of the story? HARRIETTE. The Babylonian Captivity. After Solomon died, there were many other Jewish kings, but they were almost all wicked, excepting Hezekiah and Josiah. I believe the people followed the bad example of their kings; and as they would not attend to the warnings of the prophets which God sent to them from time to time, he at last punished them very severely. But here the story was left unfinished. Will you continue it for me? LYDIA. With great pleasure, as far as lies in my power. One of the last Jewish kings was called Jehoiakim, and he did evil in the sight of the Lord, as his fathers had done before him. In those days, the prophet Jeremiah lived; and he employed a man named Baruch, to write all his prophecies on a scroll, foretelling that the Jews would be carried away as prisoners into another country; and he made Baruch read them to the people, that they might take warning, and repent. When the chief rulers heard of what he had done, they sent for Baruch, and desired him to read the scroll to them; and when they heard the prophecies, they were very much alarmed. However they took away the scroll from him, and advised him and Jeremiah to go and hide themselves in some safe place. Then they told the king what Jeremiah had prophesied, and he commanded that the scroll might be read to him; but as soon as he had heard the contents of three or four leaves, he cut it to pieces, and threw it into the fire. HARRIETTE. That was both foolish and wicked; was it not, Lydia? LYDIA. Yes; it was certainly wicked to destroy, in that contemptuous way, a message which God had commanded his prophet to publish, as a warning to his people; and it was foolish too, as it could not prevent the misfortunes which Jeremiah had foretold, from coming to pass. You shall hear. Very soon after this, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came up against Jehoiakim, with a large army, and took him and the chief persons among the Jews prisoners, three thousand in number. Among them was the prophet Ezekiel, who was then very young. You might think these misfortunes were enough to make the Jews repent of their wickedness, but they had no such effect. Two other kings ruled over them in succession, after Jehoiakim's death, Jehoiachin and Zedekiah, and they both did evil in the sight of the Lord, and refused to pay attention to Jeremiah, the prophet. Not only the kings, but the people, and even the chief priests committed many sins, even in the very temple itself; and they continued to mock the messengers of God, and despise his words, and ill-treat his prophets, till there was no hope of their amendment; therefore the punishment which they might have escaped by repenting, fell on them. HARRIETTE. Do you mean they were taken to Babylon as prisoners? LYDIA. Yes, after great resistance on their part. They were besieged for eighteen months, |