But when the time came for the children of Israel to be delivered from Egypt, as they escaped from their cruel task-masters, in all their hurry and confusion, Moses remembered to take the bones of Joseph with him; and as the Children of Israel wandered in the Wilderness, they bore that coffin with them, till at last they reached the land of Canaan which God had promised to give them. Here Joshua, who led the people after Moses' death, buried the bones of Joseph in Shechem, in a piece of ground which Jacob had bought before he was carried down into Egypt at the time of the famine. Thus the prophecy uttered hundreds of years before was fulfilled to the very letter. PROPHECY OF THE CAPTIVITY. Jer. xxv. 12.—Dan. i. 1-3.—Ezra i. 1-6. Many years had passed away, during which the Children of Israel had been governed by judges, and by the kings of Judah and Israel; but gradually the people got slack; they forgot the Lord that brought them out of the land of Egypt, and forsook His commandments and fell into idolatry and dreadful sin. At length God told the Prophet Jeremiah that the sins of the people were so great that He must send Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, to carry them away captives, and that they would serve him for seventy years, while the land of Canaan should be a desolation, and enjoy her Sabbaths. We read in the first chapters of Daniel about this captivity. Meanwhile God was very pitiful to His people whom He had had to punish, and He sent them this message through Jeremiah:— "For thus saith the Lord, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon, I will visit you, and perform My good work toward you, in causing you to return to this place." God told Jeremiah to tell them to build houses and make families during that seventy years; to pray for their enemies, and to ask God to send them peace. And God heard their prayers; and when the seventy years were accomplished, He fulfilled the prophecy in a very wonderful way, by raising up Cyrus, King of Persia, to send the Jews back to rebuild God's Temple at Jerusalem. And Cyrus helped them in every way, even giving them back the sacred vessels of the House of God which Nebuchadnezzar had taken; and by encouraging his people to help the Jews by giving them silver and gold, and beasts to carry the treasures, and all that they needed. Thus God fulfilled His own word, and the people returned at the end of the seventy years. IX. "Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord" Isa. xl. 3.—Matt. iii. 3.