"Baruch! Baruch!" he cried, in a tear-choked voice, and held him tight and stroked his head and kissed his forehead. The boy melted into tears in the man's almost crushing embrace, and his very soul went out to him in sympathy and love.
There in the twilight, the bond of friendship had been established between Jeremiah and Baruch, to be broken only in death!
Baruch attempted to comfort his friend, but he at once saw the hopelessness of the task.
Then he suggested to Jeremiah that they run away, that they go to
Babylonia, to Egypt, anywhere, to escape the horror of it all at home.
But Jeremiah showed him the uselessness of trying to run away from
duty's call:
"And if I say, I will not think of it nor speak any more in
His name,
Then there is in mine heart, as it were, a burning fire shut up
in my bones."
There was a fire burning within the heart of Jeremiah, impelling him to prophesy. He could not help himself! He would not escape it!
And, what is more, that day of woe and trial, and the night that followed, bound up Baruch's destiny with that of Jeremiah.
CHAPTER XIII.
Teacher and Pupil.
Wonderful is the love of teacher and pupil! There is no blood relationship to fuse that love. No selfishness enters into it. There is only the common interest of the spirit upon which it feeds and grows. It is, therefore, a love of the purest type.