As Messianic dreams her bosom whirled
With hopes maternal. Even so, 'tis now
In titled ones who sway the regal rod,
And sit on earth vicegerents of high God,
That men read queenliness: but Heaven knows how

To blend the twain beneath one stately brow,

To join with earthly majesty its own, And place maternal virtues on the throne, Forming a crown whereat both men and angels bow. MAURICE DAVIES.

"Weep ye not for the dead,

Neither bemoan him:

But weep ye sore for him that goeth away: For he shall return no more, Nor see his natiye country."-Jer. xxii. 10. HIS exquisite little elegy, which was sung for many years in the city of Jerusalem, has a music and a pathos which even the least instructed and least thoughtful reader can hardly fail to recognise. Quite apart from their meaning, the mere words have a charm. They sound like a song. The very tone and rhythm of them might well move a sensitive heart to pensive reflection. Musical in themselves, they readily ally themselves with music; and, indeed, there is one of Mendelssohn's "Songs without Words," to which they go as naturally as though he had had these words in his mind when he wrote the song.*

**

And yet I can remember the time when I used to look at them with a kind of despair, feeling a beauty in them for which I could not account, conscious of a meaning in them, and a sadness, that I could not fathom. Who was "the dead" man for whom no lament was to be sung? Of whom did the prophet speak as "him that goeth away?" and where did he go? and what was the tragic fate that overtook him? and what was there in him and in his fate that a whole nation should lament and bemoan him?

To some who read this paper, perhaps, these questions may still be as perplexing as they once were to me. You too may feel the beauty of this most musical and pathetic elegy; but your enjoyment of it may be marred by your partial or entire ignorance of the historical facts which it so melodiously laments. Of these, then, let me give you what account and explanation I can. From the time of Solomon downwards, the Hebrew State was divided into two great political parties, one of which stood faithful to Jehovah and looked to Him for succour, while the other fell away to the service of heathen gods, and sought to ally themselves now with Assyria and now with Egypt. On the whole, the pagan party prevailed, More than once, indeed, the downward course of "Lieder öhne Worte," Book V., No. 3.

the Hebrew Commonwealth was arrested; as, for example, by the reforms of Hezekiah and Josiah : but these feeble barriers were soon swept away by the swelling tide of idolatrous vices and corruptions. During the long reign of Manasseh, the grandfather of Josiah, the very Temple itself was desecrated with the statues, altars, and licentious ritual of heathen gods; foreign alliances were courted, foreign exactions submitted to; and in the very streets of Jerusalem the leading statesmen of Judah might be seen clothed some in the Assyrian and some in the Egyptian garb, ostentatiously parading, by their "foreign apparel," their leanings to this alliance or to that.*

66

But though the great bulk of the people were vicious and corrupt, and most of their statesmen still more corrupt, there remained a faithful remnant which listened to the voice of the prophets, held fast their allegiance to Jehovah, and struggled against the growing corruption of the nation at large. Hated and oppressed, driven to hide themselves in holes and corners during the long tyranny of Manasseh, they came forth, and held up their heads with joy, when the pious Josiah ascended the throne. Josiah proved himself a sincere patriot, zealous for the honour of "the God of the Hebrews." Led by him, the people cleansed the Temple of its pollutions, destroyed the high places on which sacrifices had been offered to idols, and the groves which had been profaned with their dissolute rites. Once more a pure offering was made in a pure Temple; foreign alliances were discarded; the national patriotism was evoked; the law of Moses was sternly enforced; and Jehovah returned and dwelt among His people. The provinces, torn from the kingdom of Judah by neighbouring foes, were reconquered; commerce flowed in wider channels than before; for a time the people tasted the sweets of security, abundance, peace: it almost seemed as though a new day of hope were dawning on the land.

But the evil was too deep-seated for cure. It could only be checked and delayed. From the first the prophets had foreseen that the reform

• Zeph. i. 8.

more than thirty years, indeed, Josiah waxed stronger and stronger; but even during these years of reform many signs of adverse change were visible. The barbarians swept down from the Scythian wilds and overran the East. The mighty empire of Assyria was crippled and dismembered; its vassals and its enemies rose up against it. Above all, Egypt, which had suffered and lost much by the Assyrian supremacy, bestirred itself. Rejoicing for the time in a singularly able and energetic dynasty of kings, Egypt conquered and annexed many of the Assyrian territories; and, at last, advanced toward Nineveh itself. On his way thither, Pharaoh-Necho, the Egyptian despot, seized some fortified cities in the north of Palestine. Josiah felt himself menaced and endangered. He marched boldly against the Egyptian forces, encountered them on the broad plain of Galilee, on which the fate of Palestine has so often been decided, and was mortally wounded in the field, from which he was carried half dead. He expired of his wounds; and, with him, the last hope of Israel seemed to be extinguished. As man, as king, as "the hope of Israel," Josiah lived long in the affections of his people, who never saw his like again. The day of his death was commemorated for many years; and on this day the singing-men and singing-women of Israel publicly chanted elegies composed in his honour by Jeremiah and other of the prophets.

In the Old Testament there are no less than three references, in three different books of Scripture, to this annual lamentation and to the elegies which were sung at it. In the Book of Chronicles, we are told that " Jeremiah lamented for Josiah; and all the singing-men and singingwomen speak of Josiah in their lamentations to this day, and have made them an ordinance in Israel." In the Book of Lamentations,t one of these elegies is recorded,-a very sweet and pathetic verse: "The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the Lord, was taken in their pits, of whom we had said, Under his shadow we shall live among the heathen." And it is these elegies which Jeremiah, in the verse before us, now bids the people sing no more. They are no more to "weep for the dead" king; they are no longer "to bemoan him," lovely as he was in life, and heroic in death. A new and deeper tragedy demands their tears.

That we may see what this more recent and moving tragedy was, we must complete our story of that troubled time. After his victory over Josiah in Galilee, then, the King of Egypt, instead of advancing against Jerusalem, turned north

2 Chron. xxxv. 25.

+ Lam. iv. 20. Whether this be the elegy of Josiah is, however, doubtful Many hold it to be that of Zedekiah. In any case it is worth quoting as a specimen of the elegies which the ancient Hebrews sang year by year.

3

ward, and conquered Damascus, Hamath, and other Syrian towns. The city of Jerusalem thus obtained a brief breathing-space; there was an interval in which her statesmen might decide on the course they would take. As I have said, there were two political parties in the city, the one heathen, the other Hebrew. Each was now headed by a son of Josiah. Eliakim, the elder son, was at the head of the heathen party; Shallum, a younger son, was at the head of the party which stood faithful to the laws and traditions of Israel. At first, while the memory of Josiah was still fresh, and his servants held the reins of power, they had no great difficulty in placing Shallum, although he was a younger son, on the throne of his father. Dissolute and oppressive, a doer of evil, Shallum was nevertheless lavish and ambitious, qualities which commonly win popular liking and applause. Moreover, unworthy as he was of the honour, he was the head and leader of the national, the patriotic, party, and was not himself, I think, without patriotism, though he is denounced as an evil-doer and oppressor. Raised to the throne by the national party, Shallum naturally set himself strongly against making terms with Egypt; "his voice was all for war." By some unexplained stratagem, however, he was enticed into visiting the Egyptian camp in Syria. Here he was treacherously seized, thrown into chains, and sent a prisoner into Egypt. And so, after a reign of only three months, he disappears from history in the darkness of an Egyptian dungeon, in which, "bound in misery and iron," he sadly wore away his life.

In the prophet's conception, this was a far worse fate than death, a fate worthy of a far more passionate lamentation. And, therefore, he bids the people cease their lamentations for Josiah, and sing an elegy for Shallum, his son. "Weep ye not for the dead, neither bemoan him: but weep ye sore for him that goeth away: for he shall return no more, nor see his native country." And he assigns as a reason for his command, and a sufficient reason: For thus saith the Lord touching Shallum the son of Josiah King of Judah, who reigned instead of Josiah his father, who went forth out of this place; He shall not return hither any more: but he shall die in the place whither they have led him captive, and shall see this land no

more."

The brief reign of Shallum was the last gleam of hope that lit up the sky of Israel. When he was carried away captive, the heathen party regained its ascendency in Jerusalem, and made their leader, Eliakim, King. Eliakim, a luxurious and godless prince, an utterly base and unworthy son of the good Josiah, willingly became the vassal and tributary of Egypt. And from that time onward, till the sacred land was swept clean from its