structing him to ascribe this signal success to God alone; and by promises of further manifestations of the Divine favour, encouraged him in the course he had pursued. This led Asa to exert himself in rooting out the remnants of idolatry which still existed; and even to enter with his people into a solemn and public covenant "to seek the Lord God of their fathers with all their heart and with all their soul." Since the dedication of the temple, no greater day had been seen in Jerusalem than that on which the assembled people sware unto the Lord with a loud voice, and with shouting, and with trumpets, and with cornets." Nor was this a reluctant covenant on the part of the people; for "all Judah rejoiced at the oath; for they had sworn with all their heart." 2 Chron. xiv. 9—15 ; xv. 1—15.

The subjects of the neighbouring kingdom were not unobservant of the prosperity of Judah, and of the signal favours which the Lord had shown towards its king; and many of the best disposed among them hastened to place themselves under the happier influences by which such blessed results had been produced. As these valuable immigrants were necessarily without the means of acquiring lands in the territory

of Judah, they must, without doubt, have settled in the towns, and Judah probably received a large proportion of them. These new comers joyfully took part with the Judahites in their covenant to serve Jehovah ; and their presence must have added much to the solemnity of that great occasion. This defection of his own subjects gave much alarm to Baasha, king of Israel; and he invaded the north of Judah, and having taken Ramah, proceeded to fortify it as a frontier garrison to check the intercourse between the two kingdoms. Unhappily for Asa, he, instead of relying upon that high aid which had so wonderfully helped him against the Ethiopians, looked for help to the heathen king of Syria, whom he induced by a rich subsidy to make a diversion in his favour, by invading the north of Israel. The object so far succeeded, that Baasha was obliged to withdraw to defend his own dominions. this relief was dearly purchased, for not only were the treasures of the temple and of the palace squandered to secure the assistance of the Syrians, and public feeling outraged, by that people being thus taught, for the first time, to desire and to invade the inheritance of Abraham's children; but the Divine displeasure was

But

incurred, and was made known to Asa by the prophet Hanani. The consciousness of this great error, coupled with bodily disease, soured the temper of Asa, and begat the reckless and irritable course of conduct which, in the latter days of his reign, frequently made Jerusalem the scene of many cruel deeds and fierce excesses. Yet Asa, at his death, in consideration of his great services in upholding the Mosaical institutions and the true worship of God, was honoured with a distinguished funeral, and his remains were deposited in a sepulchre which he had prepared for himself upon Mount Zion. 1 Kings xv. 16-24; 2 Chron. xvi.

The reign of Jehoshaphat, although one of the most interesting in the annals of the kingdom of Judah, offers few facts bearing a special application to Jerusalem. We know, however, that the city must have prospered under his wise and beneficent rule; and as he paid much attention to building in other parts of his kingdom, we may conclude that Jerusalem was also improved and strengthened. This king paid much attention to the administration of justice in his dominions, and completed his measures by establishing a supreme college of justice at Jerusalem. A remarkable scene also took place

in the city, when Jehoshaphat, being alarmed at the unexpected invasion of his territories by the Arabian and other tribes, from the south-east, publicly, in the presence of the people, assembled "with their little ones, their wives, and their children," in the temple courts, cast himself upon the Divine protection, saying-" We have no might against this great company that cometh against us; neither know we what to do." A few days after, a very different scene was witnessed, when Jerusalem opened wide. her gates to receive the same king and people returning triumphant, "with psalteries, harps, and trumpets," and enriched with the spoils of that same terrible host, from which the Lord, in whom they trusted, had delivered them, and whose utter destruction they had been sent forth to witness. The rejoicing crowd, headed by the king, marched straight up to the temple, and there offered up their solemn thanks to the Lord for his great mercy. 2 Chron. xix. 8; XX. 1-29.

The great error of this good king lay in the alliance which he contracted with the house of Ahab, king of Israel, the history of whose reign forms so dark a page of the Hebrew annals. This error, which nearly cost him his life at the

battle of Ramoth-Gilead, entailed the most serious calamities upon his kingdom and his house after his decease. Jehoram his son had married Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, and she inherited, in abundant measure, all the stern and unwomanly qualities of her mother, combined with all her dislike of the Hebrew religion, without any trace of the imbecility of her father's character. Under her influence, the idolatries which the two former kings had taken so much pains to suppress, reappeared at Jerusalem, in the reign of her husband-or, rather, a more flagrant idolatry crept in, which her mother had introduced from Tyre into the neighbouring kingdom. This was the worship of Baal and Ashtoreth. Hitherto, the idolatries of the Israelites had, more or less, a seeming or alleged reference to Jehovah; but this was a foreign idolatry-not even pretended to involve any reverence for that great name; and the worship, therefore, amounted, on the part of the Israelites, to an open and avowed apostasy from the God of their fathers. Into this apostasy the great body of the ten tribes had fallen, so that, in the time of Elijah, there were but seven thousand in Israel who had not bowed the knee to Baal, or kissed