Stories of the Prophets Part 29

_Teacher and Pupil._

Wonderful is the love of teacher and pupil! There is no blood relationship to fuse that love. No selfishness enters into it. There is only the common interest of the spirit upon which it feeds and grows. It is, therefore, a love of the purest type.

Such a love was that of Jeremiah and his pupil, Baruch. Just as the friendship between Josiah and Jeremiah was lasting, because as boys they pa.s.sed through the same danger at the time of the death of Josiah's father, and just as the friendship between David and Jonathan before them was knit closely together at the time when David was in flight before the anger of King Saul, so Jeremiah and Baruch were closely bound together in friendship and love from the very first night that they spent outside of Anathoth together, when the pupil saved his teacher's life from the conspiracy of his relatives.

Who knows what would have happened to the despondent, disgraced, heart-broken old man that day had not Baruch warned him of the fate that awaited him in his home town!

Yes! At fifty Jeremiah was an old man. His beard was gray, his hair white, his shoulders prematurely bent. Deep wrinkles, lines of care and woe, were furrowed in his face. Only at times, when he delivered his fiery addresses to the people or when he courageously faced an enemy like Pashhur, would he straighten up to his full height and show a semblance of his gaunt form and strong physique.

Teacher and pupil pa.s.sed many days and nights together in the foothills, undecided on the next step for Jeremiah to take. Just then he dared go neither to Anathoth nor to Jerusalem--and Baruch would not leave him.

Fortunately, for both of them, old Ebed-melech, who had followed Jeremiah from the pillory to Pashhur's chamber and from there, at a distance, when he started for Anathoth, brought them food and drink late that first night of their hiding, and continued to do so every night.

For the present Jeremiah had little hope of returning to his task in Jerusalem. He, therefore, often prayed to G.o.d in behalf of his people; but always the answer came back to him:

"Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?

Therefore pray not thou for these people, Neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, Neither make intercession to me, For I will not hear thee."

But the effect of prayer is mightier upon the persons who pray than upon those prayed for. While Jeremiah's prayers could not bring back the people of Judah to just and righteous lives without effort on their own part, and while Jeremiah knew well enough that G.o.d could not save these people simply because he prayed for them, yet the very act of praying brought comfort and consolation to the distracted and despondent prophet and to his loving pupil who clung to him.

After some days spent in discussing various plans for returning to Jerusalem, an inspiration came to Jeremiah. He would write out the addresses he had previously delivered in Judah and Jerusalem and add such new thoughts as occurred to him, exactly as the Prophet Amos had done when he was driven out of Bethel to Tekoah!

Many weeks were then spent by Jeremiah in dictating, and by Baruch in writing down the prophecies. At last, when the scroll was completed and Baruch looked up into Jeremiah's face, as if to ask "What now?"

Jeremiah took the young man by the shoulders and looking straight into his eyes, said to him:

"I cannot go into the house of the Lord; therefore, go thou, and read in the roll, which thou hast written from my mouth, the words of the Lord in the ears of the people, in the Lord's house upon the fast-day; and thou also shalt read them in the ears of all Judah that come out of their cities.

"It may be they will present their supplication, before the Lord, and will return every one from his evil way; for great is the anger and the wrath that the Lord hath p.r.o.nounced against this people.

"It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which purpose to do unto them; that they may return every man from his evil way; that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin."

This suggestion, or rather command, for the moment stunned Baruch. He was not prepared to devote his life to the work of G.o.d in behalf of his people, as his master had done. The son and heir of Neriah, Baruch had a splendid future before him. He was a young man, full of hope that his country's trouble would end, and full of ambition to become a great man in Judah's history; but he knew that if he accepted the mission that the prophet was entrusting to him, he might as well give up all thought of such a future. The same fate that had overtaken Jeremiah would probably overtake him, too.

All this Baruch had told Jeremiah with hesitation and a trembling voice. Jeremiah, both his hands resting on the young man's shoulders, listened very sympathetically. He knew that the great ambitions of his pupil could never be realized. The country was doomed to destruction, unless a great religious and moral revolution should change the character and the lives of the people.

For a moment Jeremiah looked straight into Baruch's eyes with the tenderness of a mother. Then, embracing him tightly in his arms, he pressed him to his heart and said:

"O Baruch! Thou didst say, Woe is me now! for the Lord hath added sorrow to my pain; I am weary with my groaning--and I find no rest. Thus shalt thou say unto him, Thus saith the Lord: 'Behold, that which I have built will I break down and that which I have planted I will pluck up; and this in the whole land.'

"'And seekest thou great things for thyself? Seek them not; for, behold, I will bring evil upon all flesh,' saith the Lord; 'but thy life will I give unto thee for a prey in all places whither thou goest.'"

For a long time Baruch's head was buried in Jeremiah's arms. Neither spoke a word. Finally, when Jeremiah released Baruch from his embrace, the young man's knees were shaking and he would have dropped to the ground but for the support of Jeremiah's hands.

Tears streamed down his face. Baruch kissed his master's hands again and again and cried out that he would go, that he would do Jeremiah's bidding, which was G.o.d's bidding. "And Baruch, the son of Neriah, did according to all that Jeremiah, the prophet, commanded him," and he went down to Jerusalem and "read in the book, the words of the Lord, in the Lord's house."

CHAPTER XIV.

_Baruch's First Venture._

It was the year after, that is 603, the fifth year of the reign of Jehoiakim, and the ninth month, that Baruch took the completed scroll and went down to Jerusalem.

He had timed his coming so as to arrive at the Temple on a great fast-day, when many people were in the Temple courts attending to their sacrifices.

The young man met very few whom he knew and was practically lost in the crowd. Standing at the new gate in the upper court of the Temple, the one built by Josiah, Baruch was wondering what to do. The day was rather cold and everyone was hurrying about his duties, personal or religious, or else seeking a place of warmth and shelter.

Baruch could see no chance of gathering a crowd, to whom to read from his scroll. Like every young man who is about to attempt a big and unusual thing, Baruch hesitated. Then he decided to give up for the present and try again some other time. He tucked the scroll under his arm and prepared to go down from the Temple Mount into the city.

Just as he turned to pa.s.s through the gate, however, he ran into no less a prominent personage than Gemariah, son of Shaphan and brother of Ahikam, who had defended Jeremiah during his trial at this very gate.

Gemariah knew Baruch and greeted him most kindly. Baruch, too, was delighted to find someone he knew. After Gemariah had inquired about Anathoth and Baruch's family, he asked "What is that scroll?" Baruch replied that it was something he desired to read to the people a.s.sembled in the Temple.

Gemariah laughed affectionately, slapped the young man heartily on the shoulder and asked whether it was some new poem or tale of adventure that he had written. Baruch replied simply that it was something he desired to read in the hearing of the a.s.sembled people. Gemariah laughed again and very generously offered him one of the chambers above the new gate for his purpose. Then he actually sent out a crier to a.s.semble a crowd for the young author. With expressions of good wishes Gemariah left Baruch and proceeded to the place of the king, where, in the chambers of the chief scribe, a meeting of the king's counselors had been called to discuss Jehoiakim's proposed revolt from Nebuchadrezzar.

Before long, Gemariah's chamber was overflowing and Baruch was reading from the scroll. His voice was clear and strong. He was evidently very well acquainted with his text, for he emphasized and enthused over particular pa.s.sages with all the power of an orator:

Thus saith the Lord:

"Cursed is the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord. For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh, but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, a salt land and not inhabited.

"Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord and whose trust the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, that spreadeth out its roots by the river, and shall not fear when heat cometh, but its leaf shall be green; and shall not be anxious in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit."

Then Baruch turned to a pa.s.sage of a different character. He was following a pre-arranged program. He aimed at interesting his audience first with selections of poetic charm and beauty. So he read:

"The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly corrupt; who can know it? I, the Lord, search the mind, I try the heart, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doing. As the partridge that sitteth on eggs that she hath not laid, so is he that getteth riches, and not by right; in the midst of his days they shall leave him, and at his end he shall be a fool."

These beautiful figures of speech brought Baruch a round of applause.

He now had his audience; so he proceeded, and, with the fire and fervor of a Jeremiah, delivered the following:

"The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond: It is graven upon the tablet of your heart, and upon the horns of your altar.

"Thus saith the Lord of hosts:

"'Because ye have not heard my words, behold I will send and take all the families of the north,' saith the Lord, 'and I will send unto you Nebuchadrezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about; and I will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and a hissing, and perpetual desolations.

"'Moreover, I will take from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the lamp. And this whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon.'"

Ah! The young man, then, was a prophet! This was evident to everyone.

He was speaking as did the Prophet Uriah, whom the king had put to death, and as spoke the Prophet Jeremiah who, last year, had been pilloried and driven out of Jerusalem!

Murmurs of astonishment and of pity arose from the audience. Men whispered to each other about the brilliant young man's probable arrest, punishment and, perhaps, death. Baruch felt instinctively the drift of the conversations, and smiled. With a well-selected pa.s.sage he brought the talkers back to attention by the power and forcefulness of his oratory. He was a transformed man, cool, collected, eyes ablaze and peering at the very souls of his hearers. He held them and swayed them and finally moved many to tears and to ask, "Wherefore hath the Lord p.r.o.nounced all this great evil against us?" "What is our iniquity?" "What is our sin that we have committed against the Lord our G.o.d?"

Now Baruch told them who he was and whose the addresses were. And in answer to the questions put to him he quoted from Jeremiah: