he
storm-cloud of calamity was rising from this quarter or that long
before any suspicion of it had dawned on the citizens themselves.
Jehovah turns the hearts of kings and peoples as the rivers of water,
and He stirred up these hostile nations when His people were in need
of chastisement; He could wield their power as the axe which assails a
tree is wielded by the woodman; He could call the mightiest conqueror
to serve His secret purposes, as a man calls a dog to his foot.[17]
They did not know that they were being thus used. They had their own
designs, and their hatred and cruelty towards God's people were real
enough. They were even, after doing God's work on His people, to be
punished in turn for the animosity and violence with which they
performed it. But in the meantime the will of Jehovah was
accomplished, and the discipline of His providence wreaked on the sins
of the nation.

3. The third great element in these books is Comfort. Not
unfrequently, in delivering these predictions of approaching calamity,
the prophets had to put themselves into opposition to popular forms of
patriotism and incur the danger of being regarded as enemies of their
country. This was especially the case with Jeremiah, who was burdened
all his life with the sad task of proclaiming that the time for
repentance was past, and the Jewish state, with its capital, must be
destroyed. When the enemy was before the walls of Jerusalem, and the
heads of the state were rallying the citizens to the last and most
sacred duty of defending their hearths and altars, he had still to
predict that resistance was useless; and he was imprisoned as a
traitor, because his words were disheartening the soldiers. When at
last the city fell into the hands of the enemy, he was set free from
imprisonment and loaded with honours by the conqueror as one who had
been a valuable ally. Never was a position more equivocal occupied by
a patriot. Yet never has there beaten in a human breast a heart more
patriotic than Jeremiah's. Patriotism, strong as a man's passion and
tender as a woman's love, is the keynote of every chapter of his
prophecies. This is characteristic of all the prophets. They loved
Israel, and especially the city of Jerusalem, with an ardour of
affection such as has rarely, if ever, been bestowed on any other
country or city on earth. There was something natural in this passion;
for Palestine was a lovely country, whose fruitful plains and
picturesque va