The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-12-17
THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL LESSON.
Dee. IS, 1s9s-Jeremiah lii, Ill.

The siege and capture of Jerusalem by Nebuch-
adnezzar marks a urid and frightful page of his
tory. In spite of the added horrors of pestilence
and famine, the besieged held out with desperate
persistence for eighteen months. Only the great
natural advantages of their situation and the i'm
pregnable strength of their Notifications enabled
them to do so. But they were resisting invincible
might and the most approved weapons and meth
DDS of the times. The Seventy-fourth Psalm gives
a vivid description of the scene. There was an
unearthly din. The noises were much more con-
fused and piercing than in modern warfare. Inc
shouts Of the hand hand combatants the clang
of the catapult, the whir of the missile Thine
enemies in the midst of thy congregations
The brazen columns and vessels too large to be
carried away were broken in pieces. '"They
broke down the carved work with axes and ham,
mers. The air thick with ignited darts
They have cast fire into thy sanctuary. If the
garrison had been put to the sword at once and
the city sacked there would have been less re-
fnement OF cruelty. The princes not ac-
corded a soldiers DEATH but executed like
CRIMINALS, and after whole months respite the
city and temple were deliberately and utterly
ruined. Why such cruel fate to such apparently
patriotic and courageous defenders? Why did
God disgrace the throne OF His glory? This was
no hasty or irrascibe judgment. Gods people
had had line upon line precept upon precept
Israel had gone into captivity first that Judah
might not 60 The path she TOOK was made hard
for her that she might the more be inclined to
forsake It, Destruction had been repeatedly avert
ed. The city had been previously besieged, par
TALLY despoied, and some of the people deported:
two kings were already in captivity; three proph-
cts simultaneously warned and entreated Gods
messages were numerous emphatic unmistak-
able one startling object lesson followed an
other. What more could God have done that He
did not do in order to have ii produce the fruits
of repentance and reformation.
MOSAIC FROM COMMENTARIES
Zedekiah: The twentieth and last king of
Judah. whose reign presents vivid picture of a
king and people sinking deeper and deeper into
an abyss; and whose struggles TO rise from it to
normal freedom prove them slaves and tyrants
at heart.-Maurice.
Did evil: He was more weak than evil.-Gray.
Rebelled: Threw off him dependency on the king
of Babylon relying on the support of Egypt.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT Remarkable man. conqusror
and ruler. Nine-tenths of the bricks found in
Babylon stamped with his
Came: His third invasion, conducted in person.
Jameson.
Forts: Movable wooden towers provided with
battering rams.-Cook.
Carried him to Babylon: zedekiah could not ex-
pect mercy, but did not anticipate the severity of
judgment, worse than death.-Kitto.
THE TEACHERS LANTERN.
First-At superficial glance the revolt against
Babylon justifiable and patriotic as our
American Revolution and from human stand
point not more desperate in view of the prohered
aid of Egypt. But there was one fact sufficient
to cover it with infamy and insure defeat 1t was
directly contrary to the expressed will of God.
And there is no concord between impiety and
patriotism.
Second-Judah persisted in setting up idols until
the very sanctuary defiled. What Ezekiel
in the temple,
when by the vision led
His eve surveyed the dark idolatres
OF alienated Judah
would justify the awful cataclysm of the siege
and capture
Third-Gods fail fell upon the nation. But
after the pitiless threshing the wheat wfnnowed
from idolatry was gathered in the remnant that
returned from exile.
Fourth-EVen war must bear its witness to the
increase Of the humane spirit. A commander
suppresses the victorious cheer of his out of
consideration for their dying enemies. and the
nation at its own expense sends the vanquished
army home.