calves, rather than absolutę rival deities, since the sons of Esau never seem entirely to have lost the old patriarchal faith. However, that the King of Judah should bow down to them and burn incense to them was an insult to the Lord, for which he was rebuked by a prophet. Very different was his answer now: "Who made thee of the king's counsel ?" The prophet said no more, save to utter a prediction of Amaziah's ruin.

The King then, by the advice of his evil counsellors, who had probably prompted his answer to the prophet, prepared his army and sent a challenge to Joash, probably intending to take vengeance for the ravages of the hired soldiers whom he had dismissed. There had not been war between the two sister kingdoms for more than a century, not since the wars of Asa and Baasha, and this foolish challenge of Amaziah laid the foundation of bitterness and enmity that did much to hasten the ruin of both. Joash had prospered and become a powerful king, and he replied to Amaziah's defiance with a scornful parable.

The thorn-rightly meaning the contemptible bramble-ventured to compare itself with the cedar of Lebanon, but while it was sending proposals of marriage to the majestic tree, it was itself trodden to pieces. Joash, with a wise man's view to the need of unity, advised Amaziah not to force him to be his destruction; but Amaziah, like Rehoboam before him, was full of vanity, and attended to his evil counsellors, rushing upon his own destruction. The battle was at Bethshemesh, on the borders between Judah and Dan: the presumption of Amaziah met its reward in a total defeat, and he was himself made prisoner. The later Jewish historian adds that he was carried to Jerusalem, and that Joash threatened to put him to death unless the city were surrendered, and this explains its being given up without a siege. He seems at that time to have had no son, and the house of David was very precious to the men of Judah. So Jerusalem was given up to Joash, who broke down a long piece of the northern fortifications, and carried away with him the treasures of the palace and the Temple, even those ancient vessels which had been with the ark in the house of Obed-edom.

So signally were Amaziah's inconstancy, idolatry, and presumption punished. He was released by Joash, but it is to be inferred

that he did not repent, for his kingdom continued in a very depressed state, and at last, like his father Joash, he was murdered by his own subjects at Lachish, about thirty-five miles from Jerusalem, whither he was brought back on horses, or rather in his chariot drawn by his own horses. He is the last of the three kings omitted in St. Matthew's genealogy, as being the three generations tainted by Athaliah's blood—Ahaziah, Joash, and Amaziah; and it is remarkable that all three died violent and shameful deaths, which they had brought upon themselves.

LESSON XLIX.

JEROBOAM II. AND THE PROPHETS.

B.C. 825.-2 KINGS xiv. 23-28.

In the fifteenth year of Amaziah the son of Joash king of Judah, Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel began to reign in Samaria, and reigned forty and one years.

And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD: he departed not from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin. He restored the coast of Israel from the entering of Hamath unto the sea of the plain, according to the word of the LORD God of Israel, which he spake by the hand of his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet, which was of Gath-hepher.

For the LORD saw the affliction of Israel, that it was very bitter for there was not any shut up,* nor any left, nor any helper for Israel.

And the LORD said not that he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven: but he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash.

Now the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, and all that he did, and his might, how he warred, and how he recovered Damascus, and Hamath, which belonged to Judah, for Israel, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?

COMMENT.-Joash of Israel was succeeded by his son, who bore the same name as the king who had "made Israel to sin." It was a bad sign, for it showed that this wicked man was now looked up to with honour as founder of the kingdom. The second Jeroboam was, however, heir to the promise that God would give Israel a Saviour and raise them up. They had been punished for their idolatry.

* In reserve.

Now in His mercy God would try whether prosperity would win them to Him. So Jeroboam II. was a great conqueror, who not only rescued the kingdom of Samaria from the Syrians, but carried the war into their country, and conquered the two Syrian cities of Hamath and Damascus, which had belonged to Judah in the great days of David and Solomon. Jeroboam's reign was remarkable, too, as the beginning of the great prophetic times. There had been prophets ever since Samuel, but what they had written had been either historical records, or else Psalms for the Temple service. Now, however, about five-and-twenty years after the death of Elisha, there arose no less than five prophets, two of whom date their books by the reign of Jeroboam II., and one is actually mentioned in the history of his time. These are: Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, and Jonah. At the very time when Israel seemed to be strongest, reviving from her decay and spreading her power further than ever before, God was sending warning upon warning of her approaching ruin. She would not repent, and therefore her fall should be piteous, and yet never without hope.

*First then Hosea was called, and was bidden to choose a wife whose faithlessness to her husband would be like in some measure to the faithlessness of Israel to their God. The nation with whom God had made a covenant were in a manner bound to Him as a wife is bound to her husband, and their going after other gods was like a wife a leaving her husband. Now Hosea's own name meant "Salvation": it is the second part of the name Jehoshua-JoshuaJesus. Therefore he and his faithless wife were to represent God Himself and the Israelitish congregation. When their first son was born

The LORD said unto him, Call his name Jezreel; for yet a little while, and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and will cause to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel.

And it shall come to pass at that day, that I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel.

And she bare a daughter. And God said unto him, Call her name Loruhamah: for I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel; but I will utterly take them away.

But I will have mercy upon the house of Judah, and will save them by the LORD their God, and will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, by horses, nor by horsemen.

*Not for the little ones.

Now when she had weaned Lo-ruhamah, she bare a son.

Then said God, Call his name Lo-ammi: for ye are not my people, and I will not be your God.

Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God.

Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered together, and appoint themselves one head, and they shall come up out of the land for great shall be the day of Jezreel.

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Jezreel was the name of Ahab's city, the scene of Jehu's cruelty, which was now to be avenged. Jezreel means The Lord will scatter,” and the child being so called implied that scattering and destruction should fall on the children of faithless Israel in the valley of Jezreel itself. Their bow should be broken; as if alluding to Jehu's bow which shot Joram in that very valley, in the success he used so ill.

Then when the daughter was born she was called Lo-ruhamah, Not pitied nor favoured." For Israel had sinned beyond endurance, and the time of judgment, not of mercy, was coming-though faithful Judah should find mercy. And when a second son followed, his name, Lo-ammi, meant "Not My people," for Israel should be cast off, and God would be no more their God.

Yet in two more verses comes a wondrous promise, renewing that to Abraham that his children should be as the sand of the sea for multitude; and more, that they should be the children of the living God. St. Paul knew this true meaning of the prophecy, and brought it home to those whom he was making the sons of the living God by baptism (Rom. ix. 24—26) :—

Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles.

As he saith also in Hosea, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved.

And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living

God.

St. Peter knew it too, when he wrote to his converts : "Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy" (1 Pet. ii. 10). These two were true sons of Judah and Israel, who had indeed

appointed themselves one Head, even Christ, the Head of the Church. And great shall be the day of Jezreel-the Lord hath scattered; then should He gather together. Or again: Naboth's blood was shed at Jezreel. There shall be a great day when all the innocent who have been slain shall rise, and vengeance shall be done on their enemies; and full compensation for all their wrongs shall be theirs. Great shall be the day of Jezreel.

LESSON L.

HOSEA'S SONG OF THE FORGIVEN WIFE.*

HOSEA ii. and iii. (abridged).

ABOUT B.C. 820.-In the happier days of Israel, Solomon had sung of the congregation of Israel, the Church, as the bride bound to her heavenly spouse, God Himself. Now Hosea is taught to put forth a poem in which the unfaithfulness of the wife often pardoned by her husband is made a figure of the manner in which the people bound to God by covenant again and again deserted Him. His punishment and His mercy are both shown.

For she said, I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink.

Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns,

And make a wall, that she shall not find her paths.

And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake

them;

And she shall seek them, but shall not find them:

Then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband;

For then was it better with me than now.

For she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal. Therefore will I return, and take away my corn in the time thereof, and my wine in the season thereof, and will recover my wool and my flax given to cover her.

Not for the younger ones.