FALL OF JERUSALEM.

AFTER the death of the good King Josiah, the evil days of Judah began; the country was invaded, her kings deposed or led into captivity, and her people reduced to great misery. At length, during the reign of Jehoiachim, Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, besieged Jerusalem; and Jehoiachim, and his mother, and his wives and princes, surrendered themselves prisoners. Nebuchadnezzar took them in triumph to Babylon, carrying with them all the treasures of the king's house, and the sacred golden vessels which Solomon had made for the temple of the Lord, and ten thousand captives.

These captives were not only the choice warriors of Judah, but all the clever builders, smiths, masons, and the workmen whose skill had contributed to the wealth of the transgressing, and now devoted city. No one was left in Jerusalem but the old, and helpless, and the poorest sort of people, whom the haughty conquerors did not think sufficiently valuable even to sell as slaves.

Such was the punishment of long-continued idolatry and ingratitude; such was the ruin which a course of reckless sin brought on the once superb city of Jerusalem. In the ordinary course of events, severe visitations are, from time to time, known in all countries; but such a sad desolation as fell upon the once gorgeous city is happily but seldom witnessed. The Jews had so much to be grateful for at various periods; God had so often miraculously interposed in their favour, that when, at length, his wrath fell upon the guilty land, its effects were so awful and severe, as to become a solemn warning to all the nations of the earth. Not only was the gorgeous city made a heap of ruins, but the Jews remained captives in Babylon for a period of seventy years.