If he ever was tempted to it when he was
young, and began to fancy himself a very grand person, who had a
right to look down on his neighbours, because God had called him and
set him apart to be a prophet from his mother's womb, and revealed to
him the doom of nations, and the secrets of His providence--if he
ever fancied that in his heart, God led him through such an education
as took all the pride out of him, sternly and bitterly enough. He
was commissioned to go and speak terrible words, to curse kings and
nobles in the name of the Lord: but he was taught, too, that it was
not a pleasant calling, or one which was likely to pay him in this
life. His fellow-villagers plotted against his life. His wife
deserted him. The nobles threw him into a dungeon, into a well full
of mire, whence he had to be drawn up again with ropes to save his
life. He was beaten, all but starved, kept for years in prison. He
had neither child nor friend. He had his share of all the miseries
of the siege of Jerusalem, and all the horrors of its storm; and when
he was set free by Nebuchadnezzar, and clung to his ruined home, to
see if any good could still be done to the remnant of his countrymen,
he was violently carried off into a heathen land, and at last stoned
to death, by those very countrymen of his whom he had been trying for
years to save.
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