slay the reigning monarch with all his family. So Jehu headed a rebellion, "and slew Ahab, and all his great men, and his kinsfolk, and his priests, until he left none remaining; according to the saying of the Lord, which he spake unto Elijah." Ahaziah, king of Judah, who was visiting his kinsman, the king of Israel, was slain also. Jehu at first professed to be a worshipper of Baal, and ordered a great sacrifice in his honour, to which his priests throughout the kingdom were summoned. But as soon as they were assembled, he ordered every one to be slain, and tore down the temple of Baal, and burnt his image. Yet he by no means fulfilled the hopes of Elijah; for he manifested no faith in Jehovah, and publicly worshipped the golden calves of Egypt, which Jeroboam had set up. The kingdom of the revolted ten tribes had a struggling and troubled existence. They were enfeebled by civil commotions, and by frequent wars with Syria and Judah. When the powerful Assyrians attacked them little more than three centuries after David, they found Israel an easy prey, and they carried off the inhabitants into a captivity from which they never returned. The smaller kingdom of Judah, though they had Solomon's temple, and an established priesthood, were very unsteady in their reliance on Jehovah. Scarcely two kings in succession sustained his worship, and it was very evident that the popular mind was never really elevated to a genuine and strong belief in one invisible Deity. Prophets constantly taught that it was impossible for God's chosen people to meet with any disasters, unless as a punishment for some sin they had committed; and that the worship of foreign gods was great above all other sins. In times of prosperity, the people adored Baal and Ashtoreth, and kissed their hands to the stars. If famine or pestilence came, they ran back to the God of their fathers, and like terrified children inquired what they should do to abate their punishment. But as soon as the panic subsided, they resorted to the groves again, and the prescribed festivals in honour of Jehovah were neglected. Joash, the son and grandson of two idolatrous kings, began his reign at seven years old, an orphan, under the tutelage of the High Priest. He manifested his zeal for Jehovah's worship, by ordering funds to be collected to repair the temple on Mount Moriah, which had then stood about one hundred and thirty years. All the dedicated gold was to be used for this purpose, a tax was likewise levied on the people, and the priests were instructed to obtain voluntary donations. Seven years passed on; the priests continually received contributions from the people, but the temple was not repaired. That the king distrusted the integrity of the priests, is implied by the fact that he forbade them to receive any more money. He ordered a box, with a hole in its lid, to be made and placed near the altar; and whatever the people chose to give, they dropped into the orifice. At stated times the royal secretary, in conjunction with the High Priest, took out the money, counted it, and hired masons and carpenters to execute necessary repairs. After the death of the Pontiff, there was a feud between the king and the priests. It is not stated whether it was because he had doubted their honesty, or because they were offended with him for taking golden vessels out of the temple, to bribe the king of Syria, when he threatened to attack Jerusalem. It is recorded that he and his companions "left the House of the Lord, and served groves and idols." The Lord sent prophets to remonstrate with them, but they would not listen. One of these messengers was stoned to death, by order of the king, who was soon after assassinated in his bed. Amaziah, his son, "did what was right in the sight of the Lord" in the beginning of his reign; but when he returned from a victory over the Edomites, he bron: with him some of their images, and "set them up to his gods, and bowed down himself before them, and burn-d incense unto them." Uzziah, his successor, "did that which was right in the sight of the Lord;" and his son Jotham was also a pious prince, who built a gate to the temple. But Ahaz, the grandson of Uzziah, "sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree.” When the Syrians defeated him in battle, he worshipped the Syrian gods, and raised altars to them in every city of Judah, and every corner of Jerusalem; giving as a reason that deities must be powerful who thus protected the people that trusted in them. Having been pleased with au altar he saw in Damascus, he caused one to be made after the same pattern, and placed in the temple at Jerusalem. He removed the twelve brazen oxen from under the great brazen tank; probably because he needed the brass to pay the king of Assyria for helping him in the wars. Finally he shut up Solomon's temple, and made images of Baal, which he caused to be worshipped. The ceremony of passing through fire, as an emblem of higher purification than water, formed a part of the worship of Baal, who is sometimes called Moloch. Some suppose that parents carried children on their shoulders through the fire; others think the priests led them through, or simply waved a child over the flame, to signify that he was consecrated to the God of the Sun. To avert some great calamity, children were sometimes consumed as burnt-offerings to Moloch. King Ahaz caused his own son to pass through the fire; but he could not have been materially harmed by the process, for he afterward succeeded his father on the throne. How completely the worship of images was mixed up with faith in Jehovah, is shown by the fact that the prophet Hosea, who lived in the reign of Ahaz, enumerates images and teraphim [household gods] among the desirable apparatus of a religious state. He prophesies sorrowful times, when "the children of Israel shall abide many days, without a king, without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without a teraphim. Afterward they shall return and seek the Lord their God." Hezekiah, son of Ahaz, endeavoured to lead the people back to Jehovah, giving as a reason that while the temple VOL. I.-38 on Mount Moriah had been shut up, their sons had fallen by the sword, and their wives and children had been taken captive. "He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves." When he found the children of Israel burning incense to the brazen serpent Moses had made, he brake the image in pieces, calling it Nehushtan, which means a brass bauble. He opened Solomon's temple, and summoned the priests and Levites to sanctify themselves and the house, and make preparations for a great public sacrifice. The people, in obedience to royal command, brought up to the temple seventy bullocks, a hundred rams, and two hundred lambs, for a burntoffering to the Lord. "And when the burnt-offering began, the song of the Lord began also, with the trumpets, and with the instruments ordained by David, king of Israel. This continued till the burnt-offering was finished, when the king and all present with him bowed themselves and worshipped. And Hezekiah rejoiced that God had prepared the people; for the thing was done suddenly.” After that, proclamation was made, and messengers sent to all the children of Israel, wherever they could be found, to come up to Jerusalem to keep the great feast of the Passover. The neglect into which the laws of Moses had fallen, is implied by the statement, "for they had not done it of a long time, in such sort as it was written." The people flocked to Jerusalem in great numbers, and "the king gave the congregation a thousand bullocks, and seven thousand sheep; and the princes gave one thousand bullocks, and ten thousand sheep; and a great number of priests sanctified themselves. So there was great joy, for since the time of Solomon there was not the like in Jerusalem." Manasseh, son of Hezekiah, reversed all his father had done. "He built up again the high places, which had been broken down. He reared altars to Baal, and made groves, and worshipped the host of heaven. He observed times, and used enchantments, and dealt with wizards, and set a carved image in the House of God." Afterward, when he was in severe affliction, by reason of the Assyrian armies, he took the idol out of the temple, pulled down the altars he had built to foreign gods, and offered sacrifice and prayer to the God of Israel. But after his death, his son Amon set up the carved images again, and sacrificed to them. Josiah, son of Amon, succeeded to the throne at eight years of age, and it is said he even then began "to seek after the God of David." In the eighteenth year of his reign, he sent orders to the High Priest to count over the sums of money which had from time to time been dedicated to the temple of the Lord, and apply the sum to necessary repairs. His messenger returned and announced that the High Priest had obeyed the royal mandate, and had likewise sent by him the Book of the Law, which he said had been found in the temple. It is a very singular fact, and one for which commentators are puzzled to account, that the pious young king seemed entirely ignorant of the existence of such a book. When it was read to him, and he learned that the worship of images was declared to be a great sin, which Jehovah was sure to punish with fierce anger, he rent his clothes with grief and terror. Hulda, a famous prophetess, then dwelt in the college at Jerusalem, and priests were sent to her, to inquire concerning the words of the book. She returned answer to the king that the Lord would surely punish the people for burning incense to other gods; his wrath was kindled against them, and would not be quenched. But she promised that he should not witness the evil, because he had humbled himself before the Lord, and rent his garments, when he heard the denunciations of the Law. Yet if the chief magistrate of the nation was ignorant of the existence of such laws against idolatry, the people surely were not likely to be better instructed than their monarch. Josiah forthwith commenced the work of atonement with great zeal. The image of the goddess Ashtoreth was brought out from Jehovah's temple, burned, stamped to powder, and strewn on the graves of those who had sacrificed to her. The |