without his head, they were seized with such fright, that, the children of Israel rushing upon them, immense numbers were slain, and the Lord wrought a great deliverance of His people by the hand of a woman.

Judith is a remarkable figure of the Blessed Mother of God. She offered herself to accomplish the deliverance of her people; and as it was said of the Blessed Virgin, 'Thou shalt crush the serpent's head,' so Judith cut off the head of the enemy of her people.

§ 73. Jeremias the prophet. His trials in public life, and his
prophecies of the Messias.

The judgments which God had foretold by the prophets Amos and Osee upon the kingdom of Israel, for the sins of its king and people in separating themselves from the altar and Temple in Jerusalem, had all now come to pass; and a similar judgment was hanging over the kingdom of Juda for the idolatries which the kings and people had brought into the holy city. But God never finally brings His wrath upon any person or people without first giving them the fullest warning, and enabling them even up to the last moment to avert the blow, by returning to a better mind and forsaking their sin. Before therefore bringing His heavy judgment upon Jerusalem, God sent them a prophet to give them His last warning; this prophet was Jeremias. Both king and people were hardened; but God said to His prophet, Speak all that I command thee; be not afraid at their presence; I will make thee not to fear their countenance; for, behold, I have made thee this day a fortified city, a pillar of iron and a wall of brass, over all the land, to the kings of Juda, to the princes thereof, to the priests, and to the people of the land. They shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail; for I am with thee, saith the Lord, to deliver thee.'

The long reign of Manasses had filled Jerusalem with innocent blood. Amon his son succeeded to the throne, and in his short reign the worst idolatries of Manasses were multiplied, and the sin of Juda greatly increased. When Jeremias was called to the office of prophet, the good king Josias, the son of Amon, sat on the throne. During his reign a copy of the law was found in the Temple; and the pious king was so terrified by reading the threats which Moses utters against disobedience to the law on the part of the people, that he summoned a council of the elders of the people, and the covenant of the whole nation with God was solemnly renewed. Josias was cut off, by falling in battle against Pharao king of Egypt; and the trials of Jeremias began under Joakim, a son of Josias, whom Pharao after his victory placed on the throne. Abandoning all Josias' holy reforms, Joakim began to build for himself a palace of cedar, and to live in great luxury. Jeremias was sent to reproach the king in public before the people, which he did, saying, ‘Lament not for Joakim, son of Josias. He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, rotten and cast forth without the gates of Jerusalem.' Then turning to the people, Jeremias said, 'Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, the

God of Israel, Make your ways and your doings good, and I will dwell with you in this place. Trust not in lying words, saying, The Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord. Go ye to My place in Silo, where My Name dwelt from the beginning, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of My people Israel. I will do to this house and to the place which I have given to you and your fathers as I did to Silo; and I will cast you away from before My face, as I have cast away all your brethren, the whole seed of Ephraim.' As Jeremias finished speaking these words, the people laid hold of him, saying, 'Let him be put to death!' Jeremias protested that 'in truth the Lord had sent him to speak all these words.' At length some of the aged men took his part, and Jeremias was suffered to depart in peace.

Jeremias, notwithstanding, patiently continued his mission as prophet; going at stated times into the house of the Lord, when the people were assembled in it, to rebuke them for their sins, and to warn them that God was about to give the whole land into the hands of the king of Babylon, who would burn the house of the Lord with fire, and carry the bulk of the people into captivity. On these occasions Jeremias was often handled very roughly, and at length the king had him imprisoned. Jeremias at first was very much cast down, lamenting and saying, 'The word of the Lord is made a reproach to me, and a derision all the day long; but at length, taking courage, he wrote all his prophecies on a roll, and gave them to Baruch the Scribe to read them in the Temple on the occasion of a public fast. The elders of the people were greatly affected, and said, 'We must tell the king all these words;' but when the roll was being read to the king, he seized hold of it, cut it with a knife, and burnt it in the fire that was burning on the hearth. Neither were the king or his servants afraid, nor did they rend their garments. The following year Nabuchodonosor, the king of Assyria, came with his army, and Joakim, heading a sally of the garrison, lost his life; and his dead body lay, as Jeremias had predicted, rotten and cast forth without the gates of Jerusalem. The Assyrian army after this was absent for about three months on an expedition to Egypt, when Nabuchodonosor returned to place Sedekias, a brother of Joakim, on the throne, and to carry great numbers of the people into captivity, as Jeremias had foretold.

No sooner was the Assyrian army gone back to Babylon than Sedekias and the princes who remained began to meditate a revolt from the Assyrians. For this end they consulted Jeremias, to know if God would be with them; but Jeremias answered, that God had given their city and Temple into the hands of the Assyrians. For this answer Jeremias was accused of being a traitor in the pay of the Assyrians; and Sedekias and his princes, giving no heed to the warning of the prophet, made their alliance with Egypt, and threw off the Assyrian yoke. This brought the Assyrian army back again to lay siege to Jerusalem. The appearance of an Egyptian army in the field caused the siege to be raised for a time; but here again Jeremias warned the people that the Assyrians would soon

return. For uttering this warning he was put in prison, and was with difficulty saved from being put to death.

God is long-suffering and patient; but at length the day of vengeance comes. The Lord God of their fathers had sent to Juda messengers, rising early, and daily admonishing them, because He spared His people and His dwelling-place; but they mocked His messengers, despised His words, maltreated His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against His people, and there was no remedy. After a siege of two years a fearful famine began to prevail; a breach was made in the walls, and the Assyrians made themselves masters of the city, and burnt the Temple to the ground. The remnant of the people was carried off into captivity in Babylon. It was on the occasion of this great calamity that Jeremias wrote the book of the 'Lamentations.'

To what shall I compare thee? or to | what shall I liken thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? to what shall I equal thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Sion? For great as the sea is thy destruction: who shall heal thee?

The Lord hath accomplished His wrath; He hath poured out His fierce anger; and He hath kindled a fire in

Sion, and it hath devoured the foundations thereof.

The kings of the earth and all the inhabitants of the world would not have believed, that the adversary and the enemy should enter in by the gates of Jerusalem;

For the sins of her prophets and the iniquities of her priests, that have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her.

Though Jeremias was mixed up even more than Isaias with the political affairs of Juda, he was not the less a prophet of Him who was to come. He foretells His birth from a Virgin. The Lord hath created a new thing upon the earth: a woman shall compass a man' (Jer. xxxi. 27). Then he describes a new covenant Messias would make with His people:

THE NEW COVENANT OF THE MESSIAS.

Behold, the days shall come, saith the Lord, and I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Juda.

And this shall be the covenant that I

will make after those days, saith the Lord: I will give My law in their bowels, and I will write it on their heart; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.

Afterwards he announces the birth of Messias from the family of David and then His mission as prophet of the Gentiles :

THE INCARNATION OF GOD IN THE HOUSE OF DAVID.

In those days, and at that time, I will make the bud of justice to spring forth unto David, and he shall do judgment and justice in the earth.

In those days shall Juda be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell securely; and this is the name that they shall call Him, THE LORD OUR JUST ONE.

THE MESSIAS A PROPHET OF THE GENTILES.

O Lord, my might and my strength, and my refuge in the day of tribulation; to Thee the Gentiles shall come from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have possessed lies, a nity which hath not profited them.

Shall a man make gods unto himself, and they are no gods?

Therefore, behold I will this once cause them to know, and I will show them My hand and My power; and they shall know that My name is the Lord.

Fourth Subdivision.-The Seventy Years' Captivity in Babylon.

§74. Daniel the prophet, and the dream of Nabuchodonosor. The history of the prophet Daniel falls in the 70 years' captivity in Babylon, which the Lord God of Israel inflicted on the people of Juda for their sins and idolatries.

Daniel was taken at an early age into the household of Nabuchodonosor. Here, because he and his companions, when mere boys, had been faithful to the law of Moses, and had refused to be defiled with the meats from the king's table, which were frequently such as had been sacrificed to the idols of Babylon, God gave to them such knowledge and understanding, that on all matters of importance the king consulted them, and found them ten times better than all the other wise men and diviners of his kingdom.

In the second year of his reign, Nabuchodonosor had a dream, and his spirit was terrified, and his dream went out of his mind. The king called together all his diviners and wise men, and required from them the interpretation of his dream. They replied, 'O king, live for ever; tell to thy servants thy dream, and we will declare the interpretation thereof.' The king answered, 'The thing is gone out of my mind; but unless you tell me the dream and the meaning thereof, you shall be put to death, and your houses shall be confiscated.' The wise men replied, that none could be found to answer the king, except the gods, 'whose conversation is not with men.' Nabuchodonosor, in his fury at not having his dream told to him, commanded all the wise men to be put to death.

Daniel, hearing of this cruel command from Arioch, the general of the army, who was charged to put it in execution, went in and requested of the king to give him time to solve the question, and declare it to the king. Daniel returned to his house and told the matter to his companions, Ananias, Misael, and Azarias, bidding them to ask the mercy of the God of heaven concerning the secret, that they might not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. The same night the king's dream was revealed to Daniel in a vision, and he returned thanks to God.

When Daniel was brought before the king, he said to him, 'Thinkest thou that thou canst tell me the dream that I saw, and the interpretation thereof? Daniel answered, 'This secret is revealed to me, not by any wisdom that I have more than all men, but there is a God in heaven that revealeth mysteries, who hath shown thee, O king, what is to come to pass in the latter times. Thy dream and the visions of thy head upon thy bed, are these:'

THE DREAM OF NABUCHODONOSOR,

Signifying the four kingdoms, 1. of Babylon, 2. of the Medes and Persians, 3. of the Greeks, and 4. of the Romans, to be followed by that of the Catholic Church. Thou, O king, sawest, and behold | tall of stature, stood before thee; and there was as it were a great statue : the look thereof was terrible. this statue, which was great and high,

The head of this statue was of fine

gold; but the breast and the arms of silver, and the belly and the thighs of brass,

And the legs of iron, and the feet part of iron, and part of clay.

Thus thou sawest, till a stone was cut out of a mountain without hands; and it struck the statue upon the feet thereof that were of iron and of clay, and broke them in pieces.

Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of a summer's thrashing-floor, and they were carried away by the wind; and there was no place found for them; but the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.

This is the dream we will also tell the interpretation thereof before thee, O king.

Thou art a king of kings; and the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, and strength and power and glory, And all places wherein the children of men and the beasts of the field do dwell; He hath also given the birds of the air

But in the days of those kingdoms the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed; and His kingdom shall not be delivered up to another people, and it shall break in pieces and shall consume all these kingdoms; and itself shall stand for ever.

According as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and broke in pieces the clay, and the iron, and the brass, and the silver, and the gold, the great God hath shown the king what shall come to pass hereafter; and the dream is true, and the interpretation thereof is faithful.

King Nabuchodonosor on hearing these words fell on his face before Daniel, and said to him, 'Verily your God is the God of gods and Lord of kings, and a revealer of hidden things, seeing thou couldst discover this secret.'

After this Daniel was made chief magistrate over all the wise men in Babylon.

$75. Nabuchodonosor the king sets up his golden image.

The Babylonians, finding that Daniel was thus daily gaining ground, began to fear for the safety of their idols, and to spread the report that the king was becoming a Jew. So, in order to get rid of Daniel and his companions, they persuaded Nabuchodonosor to set up an image of gold, sixty cubits high and six broad, in the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon, and to issue a royal decree by a herald: 'To you it is commanded, O nations, tribes, and languages, that in the hour that you shall hear the sound of the trumpet, of the flute, of the harp, of the sackbut, and of the psaltery, and the symphony of all kinds of music, ye fall down and adore the golden statue which king Nabuchodonosor hath set up. But if any man shall not fall down and adore, he shall the same hour be cast into a furnace of burning fire.'

On the day that the people assembled in the plains of Dura, it happened as Daniel's enemies had calculated. Sidrach, Misach, and Abdenago,' Daniel's companions, refused to fall down and adore. This was