A great concourse of citizens of Jerusalem and pilgrims to the city gathered for the debate. Jeremiah, much older looking than his years, was the center of attraction. He was tall and erect. His face was somewhat drawn and showed wrinkles of worriment. He was dressed in an unadorned brown mantle that singled him out among the holiday-attired priests and prophets with whom he was conversing. Evidently this was to be a friendly argument, without ill-feeling on either side. Jeremiah was the first to speak. As soon as he began it was plain to be seen that his worry was not fear of the arguments with which his opponents were about to attack him, but that it was deeper-seated. He started by informing his hearers that he was well acquainted with the things that were being preached in Jerusalem as the word of God. "I hearkened and heard, but they spake not aright. No man repenteth him of his wickedness, saying, 'What have I done?' Everyone turneth to his course as a horse that rusheth headlong into battle. "Yea, the stork in the heavens knoweth her appointed time; the turtle dove and the swallow and the crane observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the law of the Lord." "Is that so?" queried one of the Jerusalem prophets, with a sneer. In his reply, he pointed out that both the laws of the religion and the laws of the State were known to the priests and prophets, in whose charge were the Temple and the government, and were obeyed by them and the people. With sweeping gestures he emphasized the prosperity of the people and the peace of the country. "Thou art the disturber of the peace," he concluded hotly. "Leave the Temple and the State to the wise men, the scribes, the priests and prophets in Jerusalem, and all will be well." "The same kind of argument," thought Jeremiah, as he listened attentively to the speaker. "They always fail to grasp the vital things that God demands of them." In his rejoinder, therefore, Jeremiah came back forcibly: "How do ye say, 'We are wise and the law of the Lord is with us!' But, behold, the false pen of the scribes hath made falsehood of it. The wise men are put to shame. Lo, they have rejected the word of the Lord. "And what manner of wisdom is in them? Every one, from the least even unto the greatest, is given to covetousness; from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely. "And they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, 'Peace, peace,' when there is no peace." Instantly there came to Jeremiah's mind the story of the Kingdom of Israel with its deceitful priests and false prophets, who, at Bethel and Shiloh, taught and preached untruths about God--and the sad end of them all. They, too, had thought everything was well with them and their sanctuary and the peace of the land. So Jeremiah continued: