Stories of the Prophets Part 20

CHAPTER II.

_The Boy King._

It was interesting to see, the next morning, the effect upon the two boys when they discovered that instead of being in Josiah's bed in the palace in Jerusalem they were in Jeremiah's, at his home in Anathoth.

Josiah thought it was a great joke and laughed at the miracle, as he called it, that was performed during the night. Jeremiah, however, being two years older than his friend and of a more active mind and imagination, tried quietly to study out what had taken place.

Just as Josiah was figuring the miracle all out, Jeremiah's mother entered the room. The dear woman was choked up with tears and could not say a word. In reply to the volley of questions with which she was greeted, she merely pressed the two boys to her bosom and kissed them.

Her trembling arms made the lads feel that something had gone wrong.

They clung to her most affectionately. She told them to dress quickly; that it was already late in the day; that breakfast was waiting for them and, she added smilingly, that if somebody did not reach the breakfast room in a hurry somebody would be scolded.

At breakfast she unfolded the story of the tragedy at the palace very guardedly and with great care, so that the blow should not fall too heavily upon Josiah. When she finally told them that the King and Queen were dead, the boys broke out in loud weeping. It was all she could do to comfort and quiet them.

Just at this time, Hilkiah, Jeremiah's father, who had gone back to the city for news, returned. He related that Jerusalem was in a great uproar. The conspirators in the palace, who had proclaimed one of their number as king, were having a hard time of it with the army and the people.

It seemed that the a.s.sa.s.sins were not at all well organized and that the a.s.sa.s.sination was most unpopular. The army proved faithful to the royal house and the people sided with the army.

When Hilkiah had announced to the leaders of the army and the people that the whole of Amon's family was not destroyed, but that young Josiah was safe at Anathoth, there was great public rejoicing amid the mourning for the king. Within a few hours the army laid siege to the palace which was in the possession of the conspirators.

During the three days that followed the palace was besieged by a detachment from the army. Many of the leading men of Jerusalem and many of the army officers came to Hilkiah's home, in the meantime, to see the young prince and to pay homage to him as his father's successor on the throne; but Hilkiah would not permit them to see or speak to Josiah until the siege was successful and the usurpers put out of the way.

When the palace finally fell and the conspirators were put to death, a great concourse of people, headed by the king's guard, marched to Anathoth, gathered before Hilkiah's home and called for the Prince.

Hilkiah brought Josiah to a window in the second story of the house.

Upon seeing him a great shout went up from the crowd below:

"The king!"

"The king!"

The captains of the host then entered the house and consulted with Hilkiah while the crowd outside carried on happily over the survivor of the ancient dynasty.

After a little while the captains, surrounding Josiah who was sitting on Hilkiah's shoulders, reappeared. A shout of acclaim greeted them.

Then began a triumphant march back to Jerusalem.

At the gates the whole city of loyal people greeted them. The royal chariot was waiting. Instead of horses, picked young men drew it to the palace where Josiah was proclaimed king in his father's stead.

So it happened, in the year 639, that a boy eight years old reigned as king in Jerusalem.

CHAPTER III.

_Jeremiah's Call._

Josiah and Jeremiah pa.s.sed through the first great and vital experience of their lives together and the friendship between these two lads was thereby knit as closely as was that of David and Jonathan.

From the very beginning of Josiah's mounting the throne of Judah, this friendship promised even to outrival that of the king's great ancestor and Saul's son. Every day Hilkiah had to bring Jeremiah to the palace, because the young king was not permitted to leave Jerusalem and go to Anathoth.

One of the very first official acts of the king was to make Ebed-melech a freedman; but the young Ethiopian chose to remain at the palace in Jerusalem, to be at the right hand of his master, even to put the young king to bed, for many years after he was crowned, as he had done the baby prince.

This friendship of Josiah and Jeremiah had an unlooked-for effect upon the former; for, though teachers in all the subjects that pertained to the education of the young king were appointed, Hilkiah, the high priest, practically became the young monarch's guardian and father.

In fact, the older Josiah grew the more he understood the love of Hilkiah for him and the heroic act he had performed in saving him on that terrible night of the conspiracy.

So it happened that while the boy king was instructed by special tutors in the laws and intricacies of government, his religious and moral training came under the influence of Hilkiah. This meant that the moral qualities that make for manhood and character, and the principles of religious belief that were developed in Josiah, were identical with those that Hilkiah taught his own son.

At the suggestion of Hilkiah, a cousin of the young king, named Zephaniah, a member of the Prophetic Party and follower of the teachings of Isaiah, was appointed Josiah's religious instructor. The king, therefore, grew up in total ignorance of the idolatrous religious beliefs and practices introduced by his grandfather, Mana.s.seh, and practiced by his father, Amon.

Josiah was so busy with the many things relating to the government of his kingdom that he had no time to study his religion very deeply, but the moral influence of Zephaniah and Hilkiah was very apparent in his development and showed their effect in his later years.

Jeremiah, on the other hand, received an education on much broader and more general lines. Not burdened with cares of state, he studied first of all the history of his own people and his own religion, and the history and religion of the other peoples with whom his country came in contact. In his religious training he was grounded deeply in the religious history of now almost forgotten Israel as well as of Judah.

He paid special attention to the moral and religious condition of his country and of its people and made himself master of his father's ideals, which meant the ideals and hopes of the older prophets.

As Jeremiah advanced in years and Josiah took the reins of government more and more into his own hands, the former's visits to the palace became less and less frequent.

Jeremiah delighted to stay in Anathoth. He spent many hours studying in his own room. He roamed among the barren hills near his village from which, looking down the ravine, a view could be had of the blue waters at the north end of the Dead Sea.

He often came across the many altars that had been erected on the high hills and in thick groves in imitation of the heathen. Even in the city of Jerusalem, the religious legacy left by King Mana.s.seh had not been destroyed. The Temple Courts were desecrated by images and the Temple itself defiled by idolatrous practices.

The teachings of his father and the religious influence of his home were great factors in turning Jeremiah's mind to view these abominations with alarm for his people. Idolatry and heathen worship led the people to practice vice and commit crimes that were abhorrent to the religious ideas and ideals taught by such men as Amos, Hosea and Isaiah in the days gone by, and by Zephaniah and Hilkiah in Jeremiah's time.

Now Jeremiah knew very well that when Josiah reached the age of manhood the influence of Zephaniah and Hilkiah upon him would tell. He felt quite sure that, in due time, religious and moral reforms would be introduced into the country by the king. He was convinced, nevertheless, that a movement for reform of some kind must come from the people at large as well as from the king.

Sometimes he thought that the people ought to be prepared for the reforms that Josiah would surely introduce. Often, therefore, he felt the voice of G.o.d speaking within him, urging him on to go down into the city and there speak to the people of the living G.o.d, of His love for them and of His religious and moral demands upon them.

One day, in the early spring, while roaming among the hills, meditating upon the thoughts that consumed all his waking hours, he stopped before an almond tree. It was just beginning to shoot its earliest leaves. He contemplated this wonderful miracle of nature. He saw the hand of G.o.d working through that tree; he saw that G.o.d must be very watchful over the things He created; he saw in that tree a symbol--G.o.d's message to him that the immoral and unG.o.dly people of Jerusalem and Judah could be awakened to a new life, even as the almond tree was blooming into new life.

At another time he was watching carelessly a boiling caldron. A wind unexpectedly came up from the north, so strong that Jeremiah thought the caldron would turn over and empty its contents upon the ground. In this, too, Jeremiah saw a symbol--a call from G.o.d to warn the people of Judah against the oncoming of the Scythian hordes that were roaming at large over the once great a.s.syrian empire, even reaching the little states along the Mediterranean.

One night, in his room, Jeremiah was thinking over these and similar incidents that had been happening to him quite frequently of late.

Though ready to retire, he knew that he could not sleep, because a terrible restlessness was consuming his mind and heart.

Noiselessly, he stole out of the house into the open. It was one of those wonderful full-moon, spring nights, when the sky is clear blue, unclouded and studded with myriads of stars, stars, stars.

Jeremiah breathed in deeply and tramped out into the hills. He walked lightly, as on air, without fatigue. A strange feeling, as if he wished to get away from himself, drove him on. Finally, he reached a point from which he could discern the most northerly corner of the Dead Sea. For awhile he stood in his favorite spot and meditated, though he could not, for the world of him, say what was pa.s.sing through his mind.

He pressed his temples with his open palms, hoping in that way to clear up the jumble of thoughts tumbling about in his head. He clenched his fists. He beat the palm of his left hand with the fist of his right. He raised his arms to heaven, as if pleading for advice and guidance. He was, evidently, pa.s.sing through a great, inward struggle.

Then he heard a voice, clearly and distinctly, saying over and over again:

Before I formed thee, I knew thee; Before thou camest forth, I sanctified thee.