The Promised Land. Bible Stories Retold, by Catharine Shaw

Author of "Suffer Little Children," "Long Ago in Bible Lands,"
"Stories from the Book of Books," Etc.

Some of the things we see now, in this life. Some of them we must be content to wait for, till we go to be with God in Heaven.

God says in Isaiah 64 that "Since the beginning of the world, men have not heard . . . neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside Thee, what He hath prepared for him that waiteth for Him."

But even in this life, if we love God, and watch to see the answers to our prayers, we shall see numbers of things which God our Heavenly Father helps us in—numbers of pleasures which He puts in our lives; numbers of dangers that He saves us from; numbers of times when He brings good out of what seemed to us to be only disappointment and trial.

You remember about his dreams and the jealousy of his brothers? You remember how he was sent by his father Jacob, quite a long journey, to carry messages to his brothers, and to bring back word whether they and their flocks were well and in safety.

Joseph was seventeen at this time, and he went, willingly enough, for he did not know that his brothers' hearts were full of hatred towards him.

At last he found the place where they were feeding their flocks; and as they saw him coming, they said to each other, "Behold this dreamer cometh!" And they at once began to plan his death!

Nothing was easier, all that long distance away from his father, in a wild uninhabited country where but few strangers passed, and where there were caves and pits in which evil deeds might easily be hidden.

But all this while, unknown to those cruel brothers, God was watching over Joseph.

When his eldest brother, Reuben, heard the others plotting to kill him, he advised their putting him into a pit, instead of taking away his life, intending to come back himself, and to take him out, and deliver him safely to his father.

But while Reuben was away tending his flocks, Joseph came to the rest of his brothers, and they at once stripped him of the beautiful coat his father had made for him, and then they cast him into an empty pit. But they sat down to eat a meal themselves!

Presently they saw a band of Merchants coming towards them on camels, and Judah said to his brothers, "Let us not kill Joseph, but let us sell him to these Ishmaelites!" So they drew Joseph up from the pit, and sold him for twenty pieces of silver.

Then the Ishmaelites passed on with their camels; but they did not know that they were carrying away one whom the holy God was watching over.

But when Reuben came back, and looked into the pit, and found it empty, his heart failed him.

He tore his clothes, exclaiming, "What shall I do?" For he knew how dearly old Jacob loved this boy of his, and how could he go back to his father and tell him the truth?

But the other brothers killed a kid and dipped Joseph's coat in the blood, and sent it to their father, saying that they had found it like this, and that probably some evil beast had devoured him.

Then Jacob grieved for his son, with bitter grief, and said he should go to his grave mourning for him.

Now God loved Jacob very much; and though He allowed him to pass through this great sorrow, yet He was, in His own way, preparing a great joy for him in the future. For that young lad who was carried away on those camels, down to Egypt, was bought by a kind master, and lived happily in his house for years.

It is true that after a time, troubles came; for Joseph was falsely accused, and was cast into prison for two years.

But God was with him there (as He is always with those who love and serve Him), and Joseph behaved so nicely, that the Keeper of the prison began to trust him, and at length gave him the care of all the other prisoners. Everything that Joseph did was prospered, because God blessed him so much.

By and bye Pharaoh, King of Egypt, had a dream which he could not understand, and as they all knew in the prison, that Joseph could tell the meaning of dreams, Pharaoh was told about him, and the Great King sent for him, and explained his trouble to him.

Then God told Joseph the meaning of Pharaoh's dream, which was, that there would be seven years of rich harvests, and then seven years of very poor harvests.

So Joseph advised Pharaoh to look out a wise man to save up all the corn in the plentiful years, so that the people might have food in the scanty years.

And Pharaoh chose Joseph to be over everything, and to see to the corn, and save it up; and Pharaoh dressed Joseph in beautiful clothes, and put a ring on his hand.

Joseph was very humble, and he loved God very much. He kept on telling Pharaoh that it was God who helped him to do all these wonderful things.

At length the seven years of plenty were over, and the famine came into all the countries round Egypt, and everybody came to Egypt to buy corn of Joseph. And among them his ten brothers came too!

You can read in your Bibles in the 45th and 46th Chapters of Genesis, how Joseph forgave his brothers, and how he told them how God had meant it for good to save much people alive.

Then he gave his brothers food; and sent wagons to Canaan to fetch his dear old father down to Egypt to live near him, and be taken care of.

And this was how God brought it about, that old Jacob saw his beloved son again.

II. JOSEPH AS A VICTOR

You have all heard of Joseph, and remember very well about his being Jacob's favourite son; and how jealous his ten brothers were that their father made him a beautiful coat of many colours.

Joseph was a kindly young fellow of seventeen, and he did not bear any grudge against his brothers, but talked to them and told them his dreams, as any boy would now-a-days.

But these dreams made his brothers even more angry than their father's love for him, and they hated him.

When people begin to cherish hatred in their hearts, it is not long before it comes out in their actions.

So when Jacob sent Joseph a long journey to see if all was well with his brothers and the flocks, they saw him coming from afar, and began to plan how they could get rid of him and his dreams.

But there was one thing those ten brothers did not think of. They had made a clever plan to murder their brother when he was so far away from home, but they did not remember that their father Jacob's God was Joseph's God as well; and that He was watching over that boy of seventeen, and had a glorious work for him to do by and by.

So God put it into Reuben's heart to advise that Joseph should not be killed, but be put into a pit; intending presently to take his brother back to their father.

But while he was away, a company of merchants came by on camels, and the brothers at once decided to take Joseph out of the pit and sell him as a slave.

When Reuben came back, the camels had passed on their way down to Egypt carrying Joseph with them. The pit was empty, Jacob's darling boy was gone!

And when the cruel sons brought the coat of many colours, all stained with the blood of a kid, Jacob felt sure some evil beast had killed Joseph, and that he should go down to the grave mourning for him.

We read afterwards how they said one to another in Egypt, when God brought their sin to their remembrance: "We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear." And how Reuben had answered them, "Did I not speak to you saying, 'Do not sin against the child,' and ye would not hear?"

So the Midianites and their camels came down to Egypt, and Joseph was sold to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and Captain of the Guard.

It would take too long to tell you here, and you can read it for yourselves in the beautiful account of it in Genesis, chapter xxxix, how God took care of Joseph in every way. How he was raised to favour in his master's house; how he was falsely accused and cast into prison; how again after being put in fetters and irons (as we read in Psalm cv. 18), he was brought into the favour of the keeper of the prison; how he listened to the prisoners' dreams, and told them the meaning of them; how, in consequence of the interpretation of these dreams coming true, he was taken before Pharaoh to explain to the great king his dream; and how God gave Joseph an insight into the future that made him know that there would be seven years of plenty, and then seven years of famine; and how he advised Pharaoh to lay up a store of corn for the scarcity that was coming.

Pharaoh was so pleased with Joseph, and found his advice so good, that he raised him to great honour. He put his own ring on Joseph's hand and dressed him in beautiful clothes, and gave him a chariot to ride in, and made him ruler over all the land of Egypt.

What Joseph had predicted surely came to pass; and when the scarcity came, all the nations around came to buy Pharaoh's corn, which Joseph had so carefully stored up; so that Pharaoh became very rich.

It was because God loved Joseph; he had been His faithful servant all his life. Because He had purposes of mercy not only to the brothers who had been so cruel, but to the world, in which a dreadful famine was coming; and also to the sorrowing father, who had lost the light of his eyes when Joseph was taken from him!

Ah! If we only look out for God's ways, and ponder over them, we shall understand more of "the loving-kindness of the Lord."

And now, because there was corn in Egypt, and because there was a fearful famine in the land of Canaan, it came to pass that the shepherd brothers went down to buy corn, and Joseph, the great ruler, instantly recognized them; and he sent them back with corn for their families, and by and by to fetch his dear old father to come to him till the famine was over. And that was how it was God gave His servant Jacob his heart's desire. You can just imagine with what joy Joseph set out in his chariot to meet his father!

Jacob, who was now a hundred and thirty years old, lived near his dear son Joseph for seventeen years, till his death.

Then the brothers were afraid, that now their father was gone, Joseph might requite the wrong which they had done him. So they went to him, and earnestly asked him to forgive them.

And Joseph wept at their words, and freely forgave them; and said that God had turned their thoughts of evil into good, to keep much people from dying of famine.

And this is how "the Children of Israel" came to settle down in Egypt for four hundred and thirty years.

III. THE GOOD LITTLE SISTER

YEARS and years ago, there was a little girl standing by the great River Nile, which as you know, runs through Egypt into the Mediterranean.

There she stood, quite alone, first glancing back to see if anyone might be coming that way, and then looking earnestly towards the river, fringed at that place with bulrushes, which sometimes grew as high as ten or twelve feet.

Why was the girl looking so earnestly at those bulrushes as they swayed in the breeze? Or why did she again turn anxiously to see if any Egyptian Soldier should be coming down to the River's brink?

Did she know of something which was hidden there? Something very, very precious?

Perhaps, wearied with standing and watching in two directions, Miriam sat down, and resting her elbows on her knees, looked only towards the river; and as she sat so silently and patiently there, her mind went over the past months of anxious fears, which had almost overwhelmed the family of Israelites of whom she was the only daughter.

She knew that about 400 years before, the Children of Israel, whom the Egyptians called the Hebrews, and we now call the Jews, travelled down from the land of Canaan (Palestine) to the land of Egypt.

They were the children of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob; and because of a great famine in all the countries round, these Israelites came down to Egypt to buy corn. You have all heard the story of Joseph who was sold into Egypt by his brothers? Well, God had sent this Joseph to Egypt, on purpose, to store up the corn for the famine which was coming.

So Joseph gave his brothers as much corn as they needed, and sent them back to fetch his dear old father Jacob. And that is how the Israelites came down into Egypt, and settled there with their flocks and herds, for they were Shepherds.

But by and bye the Egyptians began to get jealous of them. They increased in numbers so fast, and were so prosperous, because God blessed them abundantly, that the King of Egypt sent out a command that all the little boys who were born to the Israelites must be killed, and only the little girls saved alive.

This was a very cruel command, and the Israelitish women were very sorrowful at having all their baby boys thrown into the river.

At length, one baby boy was born, whom his Mother managed to hide in their little home for three long months; but he was a beautiful, strong child, and soon, his mother found that it was impossible to hide him.

She and her husband loved and served God, and we read in the 11th Chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews and the 23rd verse, that it was "by faith" that they hid him so long, looking up to God in Heaven to save their darling boy.

Then Jochebed made a sort of basket-cradle of the reeds from the River, and she daubed it with slime and made it water-tight. And then she called her little daughter Miriam to her side, and they laid the beautiful baby in his little bed, and Miriam took the basket and carried it down to the water's edge. And, when no one was looking, she hid it in the thick bulrushes which grew there. Then she sat at a distance and watched.

By and bye Miriam saw Pharaoh's daughter, the Princess, and her maidens, come down the road towards the water, and though her heart beat fast, and she was dreadfully afraid, she found they had only come to bathe in the river.

Then she saw as they walked along by the edge, that Pharaoh's daughter noticed something strange among the rushes, and sent her maid to fetch it. And when the Princess opened the basket, there was the beautiful baby crying, and Pharaoh's daughter was grieved to see it cry, and she said: "This is one of the Hebrews' children!" How all the maidens crowded round to gaze at the beautiful baby!

It seems as if Miriam had been coming nearer and nearer, till she stood among the group of maidens who were gazing down at the sweet baby; and she said, looking up into the Princess's face, "Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee?"

And here I notice two or three things about this young girl. First, I think she loved God, and like her Father and Mother, she trusted Him.

Next, I see that she was a patient little girl, and an obedient girl. She did what her mother had told her most faithfully. She also used the common sense God had given her; and in spite of her awe of the Princess, she bravely did the wisest thing she could have done.

She saw that Pharaoh's daughter had taken a great liking to her baby brother, and I think she thought this might be God's way of saving him from death.

So the Princess said "Go!" And Miriam ran, like an arrow from a bow, straight to her Mother, to tell her to come and see after her own baby!

You can think of that Mother's joy. God had seen the faith of that Hebrew Father and Mother, and had answered their prayers to save their child.

And when Jochebed hurried to the River side, and lifted the baby from its cradle into her safe arms, Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages."

There she took care of him till he was old enough to be taken to the King's Palace, where he was called "the son of Pharaoh's daughter." It was she who gave him the name of Moses, "Because," she said, "I drew him out of the water."

Long afterwards, when God chose Moses to bring the Children of Israel out of Egypt, his sister Miriam went with him.

IV. SAMSON

AFTER Joshua was dead, the Children of Israel began to be very slack in serving God; and worse than all, they set up other gods, and worshipped them, as the heathen did around them.

God was very longsuffering, and He raised up Judge after Judge who delivered them from their enemies; but soon the people fell into idolatry again.

At length, God was so grieved at their evil ways that He delivered them into the hands of the Philistines for twenty years. And then He raised them up another Judge.

There was a man who served God, whose name was Manoah; and he had a godly wife, but they had no children.

One day, the Angel of the Lord appeared to Manoah's wife, and he told her that she would have the joy of having a little son, who, when he was grown, should deliver Israel from the hands of the Philistines.

But the angel gave Manoah's wife very strict instructions. Neither she, nor her child, were to take any wine or strong drink, and the boy was not to have a razor come on his head from the day of his birth to the day of his death! He was to be what was called "A Nazarite unto God."

And Manoah prayed earnestly that God would send the angel to them again to tell them how to bring up the child who was to come to them.

And God listened to Manoah's prayer; and as the woman was in the field, the Angel came again to her; and she ran hastily to Manoah, and told him.

Then Manoah begged the man to let him dress a kid and offer him food-but the man said he would take no food, but they could offer a sacrifice to God, if they wished it.

And when the sacrifice was offered, and the smoke arose from the Altar, the Angel of the Lord went up toward heaven, and ascended in the flame from off the Altar.

But his wife argued from all that had happened, that if the Lord had intended to kill them, He would not have accepted their offering, neither would He have showed them all these things.

At length the child came, and they called him Samson. As he grew to manhood, he found that God was giving him wonderful strength.

One day a young lion came out and roared against him. And the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and he rent the lion, and killed him, just as he might have rent a kid; for he had no weapon in his hand.

When Samson next passed that way, he looked for the carcase of the lion, and there it was lying by the path, and the bees were swarming around, as they had built a honey-comb in the body of the lion.

So he ate some of the honey, and took the rest to his father and mother; but he did not tell them that he had killed the lion.

Then Samson made a great feast for seven days, for he had married a Philistine girl, to the great sorrow of his parents. And while they were feasting, he and the thirty young men who were his companions, Samson gave them a riddle to find out, promising that he would give a large prize if they could discover it; but if not, they were to give him a prize.

This was the riddle: "Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness."

The young men puzzled for several days, and at last they persuaded Samson's young wife to get the secret from him. And at length she begged so hard that he told her the answer.

When the seven days were up, the young men gave the answer: "What is sweeter than honey, and what is stronger than a lion?"

But Samson was very angry when he found that they had persuaded his wife; and he went down to Ashkelon and killed thirty Philistines, and brought the spoil and divided it among the young men who had answered his riddle. And then in fierce anger, he returned to his father's house.

But his wife was given to one of the companions who used to be his friend, and Samson never saw her again.

Samson judged Israel for twenty years, and by his great personal strength and courage, he gained many victories over the Philistines.

The Philistines at once took advantage of this, and promised a heathen Philistine woman great riches if she would find out, and tell them, the secret of his wonderful strength. In an evil moment, he told her that it was because he was a Nazarite, and that no razor had ever come upon his head!

So, when he was asleep, Delilah managed to cut off his hair; and then she sent for the lords of the Philistines, who hurried to the spot. They easily bound Samson because his strength was gone from him; and they put out his eyes, and sent him to grind in the prison-house.

It would take me too long to tell you how his hair began to grow again, and his strength began to return. Or how he was taken out to make sport for the Philistines, and how he begged the boy who led him to let him feel the pillars of the house where three thousand Philistines were watching him from the roof.

Samson asked God to give him strength for this, once more; and then he bowed himself with all his might, clasping the pillars in his arms, and the house fell, and he, and all the three thousand Philistines, were buried beneath the ruins.

V. THE CHARIOT OF FIRE

BUT now the time had come when the Lord was going to take Elijah up to Heaven in a whirlwind.

So Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal, and as they journeyed, he said to him: "Stay here, I pray thee; for the Lord hath sent me to Bethel."

When they reached Bethel, the sons of the prophets who lived there came out to meet Elisha, and they said to him: "Do you know that the Lord is going to take your master away from you to-day?"

And so it went on till they reached Jericho, and here again the sons of the prophets came to Elisha with their question: "Do you know that the Lord will take your master from your head to-day?"

Then Elijah said to him: "Stay here, I pray thee; for the Lord hath sent me to Jordan."

But Elisha gave the same answer to him as he had given before, that he would not on any account leave him. So they went on together.

The sons of the prophets evidently knew that something very wonderful was going to happen, and as they saw the two men going towards Jordan, fifty of them gathered together and stood to view from afar.

So they came to the river Jordan, and Elijah wrapped his mantle together and smote the waters, and they were divided hither and thither, and they two passed over on dry ground.

Then Elijah said to Elisha: "Ask what I shall do for thee, before I am taken away from thee."

Elijah answered him that was a great thing he had asked, but if Elisha saw him when he was taken away, then he would know that his request was granted.

And as they were talking, there appeared a chariot of fire and horses of fire, and they were parted from each other; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into Heaven.

And Elisha saw it, and he cried: "My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof."

And he took Elijah's mantle that fell from him, and smote the waters of Jordan again, and they were divided before him, and he passed over.

Then the sons of the prophets begged to be allowed to go to search for Elijah, or to find his body, but Elisha was unwilling, and begged them not to go, for he knew it would be useless.

But fifty of them went out and searched for three whole days, but did not find him.

And now in the New Testament, nine hundred years after that chariot of fire, which took Elijah to Heaven, we read of him again on the top of a mountain talking to Jesus while He was on earth!

It was not long before our Lord's death on Calvary that He took His three disciples, Peter, James, and John, up to a high mountain and was transfigured before them.

You will perhaps ask: "What does transfigured mean?" It means—changed, altered—made exceedingly bright and beautiful.

The Lord Jesus had been on earth for thirty-three years. He had gone about when He was young like an ordinary boy, and afterwards like an ordinary man; except that He did no sin, and was perfectly holy and loving; and was full of mercy and kindness to every one He met.

But now the time had come for Him to suffer on the Cross, to bear the punishment of our sins. And our Heavenly Father wished to give those three disciples a glimpse of the glory which Jesus had left when He came to earth, and to which He was going back, when He had done all the work which His Father had given Him to do.

So when they reached the top of the mountain with Jesus, suddenly they found that His face was changed into a face of glory, and His clothes became white and glistening. And soon they saw that Jesus was talking with two men—Moses and Elijah—who had come down from the glory of Heaven to talk with Him about His death which would soon happen at Jerusalem.

Can we not imagine the joy of Moses and Elijah, and the adoring worship of their hearts, as they talked with their beloved Lord? No wonder that Peter said in one of his Letters afterwards in speaking of this scene:

"We . . . were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For He received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice from the excellent glory: 'This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased.' And this Voice which came from Heaven we heard, when we were with Him in the holy mount."

Then a bright cloud overshadowed them, and when it had passed away, Moses and Elijah were no longer there, but Jesus only!

And then as they went down from the mountain, He explained to them that He would very shortly have to die; but that they were not to tell of the Vision they had seen, till after He was risen from the dead.

Jesus said Himself to two of His friends after His resurrection: "Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?" And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He explained to them all through the Bible the things which were written there about Himself.

VI. IN THE CAVE

AFTER David had conquered the giant, and had brought his head to the king, Saul for a while was very proud of his young soldier, and made much of him in every way. And David behaved himself wisely; and Saul set him over his men of war, and he became very popular among the people.

Meanwhile Jonathan, Saul's son, thought there was no one in the world like David! He loved him as his own soul.

He took off his own beautiful clothes, which belonged to him as the king's son, and put them on David, even presenting him with his sword, his bow and his girdle.

He heard the women singing who came out to meet him from the cities, after David's slaughter of the giant, and these were the words they sang: "Saul has slain his thousands, but David his ten thousands."

This made the king very angry, and from that day forth, he determined to kill David.

So King Saul hunted David up and down the land. Jonathan was devoted to him, and helped him to escape many times. He endeavoured to be a peacemaker, and assured his father that David had no evil designs against him. But it was all of no use. Jealousy, which the Bible says is "cruel as the grave," had entered into Saul's heart, and it poisoned all his thoughts.

Then David again had a great victory over the Philistines, and Saul was so jealous that he threw his javelin at him. David, however, escaped, and the javelin went into the wall, where he had been sitting playing his harp to Saul.

He fled down to his house, but Saul sent men to watch for him and to kill him in the morning. So Michal, his wife, persuaded him to fly that night, for she was sure he would be slain.

Michal was Saul's daughter, and she loved David. So she let him down through a window, and he escaped.

Then Michal took an image, and laid it in the bed, and put a goat's-hair pillow for a bolster and covered it with a cloth.

But when the messengers came in, there was only an image in the bed, and David was far away!

So it went on, till David was hunted from place to place, all over the land, and driven, with the men of war who followed him, to live in the mountains, and among rocks and caves, to get away from Saul's vengeance.

One day, as Saul was pursuing hotly after David, who he heard was in the wilderness of Engedi, he was very weary with travel, and finding a large dark cave, he entered it, and lay down to get some sleep.

Little did Saul guess, that the man he had come to seek was close to him, and that in the darkness of the cave, and hidden by the jutting sides, David and his men were quietly watching him.

When Saul had fallen into a deep sleep, David's men whispered to him that the day had come when the Lord had delivered his enemy into his hand!

So David went forward, and as he approached Saul, he saw that his robe, with which he had covered his feet, lay partly on the ground. So he softly cut off the skirt of Saul's robe, and went back to his hiding-place.

But David's heart smote him, because he had cut off Saul's robe; and he hastily forbade his men to touch the king, for was he not the Lord's anointed?

Presently Saul awoke from his sleep and went out of the cave, and David followed him and called out to him, "My lord the king!"

And David said to Saul: "Why do you regard men's words, telling you that I seek your hurt? Look, how this very day the Lord has delivered you into my hand in the cave, and some bade me kill you; but my eye has spared you, and I said, 'I will not put forth my hand to hurt the Lord's anointed!' Moreover, see, my father, here is the skirt of your robe in my hand! Surely you know now that I have not tried to hurt you, and yet you have hunted my soul to take it! The Lord is judge between us; He will plead my cause, and will deliver me out of your hand!"

When David had said these gentle and brave words, Saul said: "Is this thy voice, my son David?" and Saul lifted up his voice and wept.

Then he said to David: "You have been more honourable than I have, for you have rewarded me with good, and I have rewarded you with evil. Therefore may the Lord reward you good for what you have done to me this day."

And then he went on to tell David that he knew he would be king one day, and he earnestly begged him to be merciful to his father's house and not let his name perish out of the land.

Saul later on again attempted to capture David, taking with him three thousand men.

David heard where Saul was camped, and taking Abishai with him, entered Saul's camp by night.

They found Saul asleep with his captain in a trench, with his men lying all around.

Abishai wished to kill Saul, but David refused, saying, "Destroy him not: for who can stretch out his hand against the Lord's anointed and be guiltless?"

So they took Saul's spear and water-bottle that was against his head and got away without anyone seeing them.

VII. MOSES IN THE LAND OF MIDIAN

MOSES grew up from that little babe who had been hidden in the flags or reeds of the Nile, and he had been educated in all the learning of the Egyptians, as if he had been the real son of Pharaoh's daughter.

God was watching over Moses all the time, and preparing him for the great and wonderful work he was to do.

Do we all sometimes feel it very hard to learn difficult tasks? Do we, as we grow older, sometimes wonder what work God is getting us ready to do for Him?

I remember when I was young, how I was asked to stay for a fortnight at a lady's house whom I had never seen, or heard of, before. She called on my father, and said she should like to know his two eldest daughters, and would he allow us to come and stay with her?

So we went; we were about nineteen and twenty at that time, and we felt very homesick and strange at first. But do you know? That was one of the best things that ever happened to both of us!

That dear, kind old lady, had a heart full of love to Jesus our Saviour; and she used her money, and her house, and her influence, to help young people to love Him too. And when we got to know her, we had such a happy time, and set to work ourselves to try to bring others to love Jesus. Well, that was God's love in training us for what He wanted us to do afterwards. So, with Moses; he went in and out of Pharaoh's Court, and learned many things which were most useful to him, all his life, in God's Service.

The Children of Israel, or the Hebrews as they were called at this time, were slaves in Egypt, and one day Moses saw an Egyptian using one of the Hebrews very badly. So Moses interfered, and killed the Egyptian who was ill-treating one of God's people.

So Moses fled, and by and bye, he reached the land of Midian, where he sat down by a Well, and rested himself.

This Well belonged to the Priest, or Prince of Midian; and he had seven daughters, who every day came to the Well, and filled the troughs for their father's flocks to drink.

But some shepherds came and drove the girls away, wishing, I suppose, to use the trough to water their own flocks, without waiting for the maidens to finish their task.

But Moses stood up and helped them, so that they watered their father's flock very quickly.

When they came home, their father asked them how it was that they returned so soon?

And they said: "An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds, and also drew water for us!"

In the East, people are very hospitable, and ready to entertain strangers; and directly Reuel (or Jethro) heard what his daughters said, he exclaimed: "Where is he? How is it that you have left the man? Call him, that he may eat bread."

So Moses was very happy to stay with Jethro, and soon he married one of Jethro's daughters, named Zipporah. And by and bye Moses and Zipporah had a little son, whom Moses named Gershom.

But while all this was going on in Midian, the plight of the Hebrews who were in Egypt grew worse and worse.

The King, who had wanted to kill Moses, had died, and the Children of Israel sighed under the cruel bondage that the Egyptians put upon them.

And God looked down out of heaven upon the poor, hardly-used slaves, and He came down from heaven and spoke to Moses about them.

And the words He said are full of the tenderest comfort to all who are in trouble. For God sees it, whatever it is. Also He listens to our cry, when things are too hard for us. But best of all, He knows just what is in our hearts, which nobody else can see or hear, and to this sorrow He says, "I, even I, am He that comforteth you."

So God said to Moses, "For I know their sorrows; and I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up into a good land ... flowing with milk and honey."

And God chose Moses, whom He had so wonderfully trained, to be His Servant, who should deliver the Children of Israel from their hard slavery.

Moses knew all about Egypt. He could speak the language of the Egyptians: he understood all about the Court of Pharaoh, and the customs of the Egyptians. So God sent him straight down to Egypt to deliver His people, and He gave him this great and beautiful promise to cheer his heart:

Then God explained to Moses that Pharaoh would not let them go, but that He would shew great wonders in Egypt by His Mighty Hand, and after that, Pharaoh would be so frightened, that he would let them go.

All this came to pass; for God sent plague after plague on the Egyptians, until at last, in a marvellous way, God delivered the whole of the Israelites, with all their possessions and flocks and herds, right out of the hand of Pharaoh. And God brought them through the Red Sea on dry land, while the great army of the Egyptians who followed hard after them, with their Chariots and horses, were drowned in the deep waters, so that there was not one left!

And afterwards, God led His people through the wilderness, and did bring them into the Land of Canaan as He had promised.

VIII. A GOOD REPORT OF THE LAND

THE Children of Israel—the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—had come down to Egypt in consequence of the seven years of famine. Joseph was there, and was great in the eyes of Pharaoh, and the king made old Jacob and his sons, with their families and their flocks, welcome to live in the land of Goshen.

For a time, they were very happy and prosperous, and God blessed them and they increased in numbers and riches.

But by and by, the Egyptians began to look round upon these Children of Israel, and jealousy of their success filled their hearts.

The Pharaoh who had made them so welcome for Joseph's sake, was dead. And another king arose who had forgotten all about Joseph, and he began to lay burdens on the Children of Israel, and to force them to build his palaces and cities.

At length, the cruelty and the burdens became intolerable, and the Lord God in Heaven saw their affliction, heard their groaning, and sent down to deliver them.

Moses was His chosen servant, and under him, after many wonderful deliverances, the people were brought right out and set free, and were taken back to the borders of the land which God had promised to give to Abraham and his children after him.

But the Children of Israel were disobedient, and forgetful of all the wonders that God had shown them, in delivering them from Egypt. He had made a way for them to walk dry-shod through the Red Sea; He brought water out of a rock for their thirst; and He sent down manna every day for their food.

But because of their murmuring, complaining spirit, God told Moses that He could not let them go into the land of Canaan just yet.

So He led them about in the wilderness; spreading His cloud over them in the day to shield them from the sun's scorching rays; and by night He put a pillar of fire to give them light and comfort.

At length, in the second year after they came out of Egypt, they reached the wilderness of Paran. And now God told Moses to take one chief man out of each of the twelve tribes of Israel, and he was to send them into the land of Canaan to bring back a report of what they found there.

There were twelve men chosen, but of these only two, Caleb and Joshua, were faithful to God all through.

The twelve men set out, and at the end of forty days they returned with their report of all they had seen.

They brought with them pomegranates and figs; and the grapes were so plentiful, that from one place called Eshcol they brought a bunch which required two men to carry it on a pole between them.

For God had promised when they left Egypt, that He would bring them to a land flowing with milk and honey, and that He would drive out all their enemies before them.

So the messengers began to tell their tale. They said that indeed it was a rich land, flowing with milk and honey. "And see," said they, "here is some of the fruit of it."

You can imagine for yourselves how Caleb and Joshua stood by, listening to the eager words of the other ten.

And now came another word, which made those two faithful men tremble—and it was an unbelieving, faithless word!

"Nevertheless," the ten spies went on, "the cities are walled, there are giants there, and numbers of enemies dwell on every side; we are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are!"

Then you can imagine Caleb and Joshua starting forward to still the people, and they cried: "Let us go up at once and possess the land, for we are well able to overcome it!"

But the ten spies persisted that they could not go up, and all the people mourned and wept, and told Moses that they had better return to Egypt, for they would die in the wilderness, and their wives and their children would be a prey for their enemies.

Oh, how sad is want of faith! They forgot the power of God and the promises of God! They let Satan whisper in their hearts that, after all, God would fail them, and though the land was beautiful and full of food and plenty—"Nevertheless" there were too many enemies to face.

God was very grieved at the unbelief of the people, and He said that none of those who had distrusted Him should enter into the land of Canaan, but their children should in due time enter in and possess it.

This is a solemn lesson for us all. There are right times to say "Nevertheless."

Peter said to Jesus: "Nevertheless at Thy word I will let down the net," and they got a great draught of fishes!

Paul said: Nevertheless the Lord stood by me, "and strengthened me," and he fought a good fight to the end!

God did not forget the faithfulness of Caleb and Joshua; for Joshua was chosen, years afterwards, to lead the people into the land and to fight the Lord's battles; and Caleb, "because he had wholly followed the Lord," entered with his children into the Promised Land, and had a happy possession in it.

IX. MOSES HIDDEN IN THE CLEFT OF THE ROCK

FOR forty years, Moses, the little boy who had been taken out of the water by Pharaoh's daughter, was brought up in Pharaoh's Palace in Egypt, where he learned the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in word and deed.

He evidently knew that he belonged to the Israelites or Hebrews, as they were called; but it was not till he had reached forty years of age that he began to look upon the sad plight of his own people.

The Egyptians had gradually made the Hebrews into slaves, and were using them with great cruelty; but at length Moses understood that God was going to deliver the people by his hand.

However, the first effort he made, was that he killed an Egyptian who was hurting a Hebrew man; and this came to the ears of Pharaoh, and he was so angry that Moses fled away, and never stopped till he reached the land of Midian.

Here he remained for another forty years. He married a wife and had two sons, and he tended the flocks of his father-in-law, and lived a very peaceful life.

But one day God came down and spoke to him. He told Moses that in Egypt, the condition of God's people was getting worse and worse, and that He had chosen Moses to be their deliverer.

God said that He would go with him, and help him through; and promised that they should all serve God on this very Mountain in Horeb, where God was now speaking to him.

It would take too long to tell you all the wonders that God had to do to set His people free from their bondage; but at length they escaped from Egypt—every one of them—they went through the Red Sea on dry land, because God kept back the water on each side of them; and as they passed in to the dry pathway God had made for them, He took His Pillar of Cloud, which used to lead them, and He put it behind them, so that it was between them and their enemies. And it was a cloud of darkness to the Egyptians, but it was a bright light to the Israelites, all night.

When they had passed over, God took the cloud away, and the Egyptians followed through the Sea, but God let the waters go back on Pharaoh and his host, and they were all drowned in the sea, and the Israelites were all safe on the other side.

This is a glorious lesson for us, to show us how God will conquer our great enemy, Satan, and will bring us safely through, if we trust Him.

When the Children of Israel came to Horeb, God called Moses up on the Mountain to receive His Commandments, and to listen to all that God wished him to do; but the people began to get restless and disobedient.

Moses had been on the Mountain for forty days, and they said to Aaron, the brother of Moses, who was the High Priest, "Up! Make us gods, which shall go before us, for as for this Moses we know not what is become of him!"

When Moses came down from talking with God, and found what had happened, he threw the slabs of stone on which God had written His law, over the edge of a precipice, and they were broken in pieces beneath the mountain.

The Lord was very grieved and angry at the disobedience of the people. And Moses besought the Lord to forgive them; and he even asked God to blot his name out of the Book where He had written it, sooner than that the whole Congregation should perish.

And God heard his prayer for the forgiveness of the people, and told Moses to go forward and lead them to the Land. And God said, "My Presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest."

Now Moses loved God very much, and he answered the Lord, "If Thy Presence go not with me, carry us not up hence, for wherein shall it be known here, that I and Thy people have found grace in Thy sight? Is it not in that Thou goest with us?"

And the Lord said unto Moses, "I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken."

And then Moses, emboldened by God's wonderful kindness in answering his prayer, made a yet further request. "I beseech Thee, show me Thy Glory!" he said.

And the Lord promised to shew Moses all His Goodness, and all His Mercy; but God told him he could not see His face, for the Glory of it would be too much. The Lord pointed out a place on the mountainside where there was a clift, or cleft, in a rock, and He told Moses he might stand within that cleft, and God would put His hand over him, so that the glory of His face should not be seen.

So Moses hastened into that cleft of the rock, and the Glory of the Lord passed by, and after He had passed by, Moses was allowed to see His back, but His face might not be seen.

It is a wonderful story; and I think it should dwell in our hearts, that the Holiness of God is great beyond what any words of ours can picture.

There is a prayer of the Lord Jesus in the Gospel of John, which is very comforting when we think with solemn awe about the Holiness of God.

"Father I will that they also, whom Thou hast given me, be with me where I am: that they may behold my glory, which Thou hast given me; for Thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world."

God gave His own beloved Son, Jesus our Lord, to wash away our sins, and make us fit to see his Glory by and bye.

And in the Book of the Revelation we are told, that in Heaven, God's servants shall serve Him, and they shall see His face.

X. AARON'S ROD THAT BUDDED

BEFORE we begin to talk about the pleasant happy story of Aaron's Rod, and how it came out into buds and flowers, there is a very dark and sorrowful story which we must think of first.

The Lord told Moses to make a beautiful Tabernacle or Tent, where He would speak to him face to face; and He appointed the different Tribes to pitch their tents round it.

God choose Aaron, the elder brother of Moses, to be the High Priest. Aaron was the head of the tribe of Levi, and his family were the only ones who were allowed to approach God in the offerings which were to be presented for sin; and to offer the sweet Incense on the Golden Altar of Incense, which was in the Holy Place in the Tabernacle.

God said this Incense was to be made in a special way, and no one was to make any like it. And the Lord warns the people that "the stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death."

Even Aaron's two elder sons, Nadab and Abihu, died before the Lord in the wilderness of Sinai, when they took their censers, "and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the Lord, which he commanded them not."

These things were well known, and understood by the Israelites; but so evil are men's hearts and so easily excited to jealousy, that three men named Korah, Dathan and Abiram, gathered together a number of the Princes of the Congregation, and came to Moses and Aaron with complaints, that Moses and Aaron were taking too much upon themselves, and that all the Congregation were equally fit to draw near to God, and to do those parts of the Holy Service, which God had appointed that only Aaron and his sons should do.

Then he told Korah and the Princes that they were to present themselves at the door of the Tabernacle on the following day.

He said to them, "This do: Take you censers, Korah and all his company, and put fire therein, and put incense in them before the Lord to-morrow."

But Moses warned them that the Lord would choose who was holy, and who should draw near to Him.

Korah and his company would not heed the warning. They had time to think over and repent of their sin, for the Lord is a God ready to pardon. But they went on in their proud arrogance, and oh! to what a dreadful end it led them.

So the next day Korah gathered all the Congregation together against Moses and Aaron, at the door of the Tabernacle. But Dathan and Abiram, who specially strove against the authority of Moses, would not come up, but remained in their tents.

Then the Lord told Moses and Aaron to separate themselves quickly from the Congregation that He might consume them all in His anger.

But once more Moses and Aaron fell on their faces, and interceded with the Lord for those people who had not joined in the rebellion; and the Lord heard their prayer, and told Moses to send the people to a distance, lest they should be consumed in the sins of these rebellious men.

And then God sent an earthquake, and the Earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up Dathan and Abiram, and their families and their tents.

And as the Congregation fled still further from the awful cry of them, a fire came out from the Lord, and destroyed Korah, and the two hundred and fifty Princes, who had offered Incense.

This is a very, very sad story; but it is written down in the Bible, to show that we must obey God's commands, and seek Him in the way He has provided.

In the Old Testament times, the way to approach God was by the Priests whom God had appointed to present the Offerings for sin, and to burn the Incense; but now, since God sent His dear Son, Jesus Christ, to make atonement for our sins, Jesus is the Way to God. He is "the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world."

After all these dreadful things happened, the Lord spoke to Moses again. God told him that each of the Princes at the head of the Twelve Tribes, was to bring a rod, with his name clearly marked on it, and Moses was to take the twelve rods and place them in the Tabernacle before the Ark of the Testimony.

Aaron the High Priest was the head of the Tribe of Levi, and his rod, with his name on it, was to be sent in with the others.

And God said, "The man's rod whom I shall choose, shall blossom; and I will make to cease the murmurings of the Children of Israel, whereby they murmur against you."

Moses did this, and went in on the morrow to look at the rods; and "behold the rod of Aaron, for the house of Levi, was budded, and brought forth buds, and bloomed blossoms, and yielded Almonds."

Then Moses carried all the rods out for the children of Israel to see, and the Lord said, "Bring Aaron's rod again before the Testimony, to be kept for a token against the rebels; and thou shalt quite take away their murmurings from me, that they die not."

XI. TO THE CITY OF REFUGE

WEARY and spent, the man ran; traversing the hot desert roads in the daytime; and hurrying on through the night if perchance there were a moon or stars to guide him; or else crouching in some corner behind some rock, till daylight enabled him to hurry forward once more!

Why was the man running over the ground at his topmost speed? Was he carrying a message, or bringing bad news, or what could it be?

For God's law was, that a man who had hated his neighbour and had planned to kill him and had carried out his purpose should surely be put to death.

So if any one was killed among the Children of Israel, at once "the Avenger of blood" hurried to the spot and seized the murderer, who was then examined before the priests and the judges; and witnesses were called to give evidence as to whether the prisoner had intended to kill his neighbour, so that the judges might decide whether he were guilty or not. God's law made it necessary that there should be more than one witness before a man could be condemned.

But if a death were caused by an accident, God provided a way of escape for the manslayer, and it is this way of escape that I am going to tell you about.

When the Children of Israel had wandered in the wilderness for forty years—for their murmuring and disobedience, as God had said—they came at length to the land of Canaan; and here God told Moses to divide the land among the different tribes, and instructed him to separate Six Cities in different parts of the land, three on one side of the River Jordan, and three on the other side.

These six cities were to be called "cities of refuge," and God told Moses to make good roads leading to them, so that if any one killed a man by accident or at unawares, he might flee to one of those six cities, at his utmost speed, and not lose his way in his haste; for when once there, he would be sheltered, and in safety, so that the Avenger of blood might not catch him and kill him.

You will find in the 19th chapter of Deuteronomy the wonderful directions which God gave Moses about these cities.

God said, that any one who killed his neighbour ignorantly, and had not intended to hurt him, might flee to the city of refuge, and be safe.

If a man and his neighbour went into a wood to cut down a tree, and the axe-head of one of them flew off and struck the other man, so that he died, then the manslayer as he was called could flee to one of those cities, and live! Or if a man let a stone fall upon his neighbour by accident, and it killed him, he could flee to the city of refuge, and live!

As soon as he entered the city of refuge, the elders of the city came forward and inquired into the circumstances which had made him fly there; and so soon as they were satisfied that the death of his neighbour was an accident, and that he was not worthy of death, they made him welcome to their city, and henceforward the city of refuge was to be his shelter.

But if any man hated his neighbour, and laid in wait for him, and rose up against him, and smote him mortally, so that he died, and were to flee into one of these cities, then the elders of his city should send and fetch him from there, and deliver him unto the hand of the Avenger of blood that he should die. These were the rules which God made.

The man who hurried to that city of refuge knew in his own heart whether he was guilty or not; and if he knew that it was an accident which had happened, then when he reached the city how gladly did he pass the gate, and get safely inside!

You can imagine how he sank down breathless and faint within that portal, and how thankful he was in his own heart that God had provided a way of escape for him!

In this city of refuge, he must stay; nor was he free to leave it for a single moment, till the death of the High Priest who might be living in those days. It might be many years, or it might be only a short time; but whether long or short there was no safety for him outside those walls. If he ventured out, if the Avenger should meet him, he would certainly be killed.

And it seems to me that there are one or two lessons which we may learn from this story, which God has written for our learning.

And if He is, shall we not, beneath the Sheltering Walls of His Salvation, be at rest from all our fears?

We read, in the 6th of Hebrews: "That . . . we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us."

And if we fly to Jesus Christ to get life, we find that He, Himself, is the Way—the plainly marked, loving path to safety.

How tenderly He says to us: "Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you Rest."

XII. THE LETTER THAT WAS LAID BEFORE THE LORD,
AND THE LORD'S ANSWER

HEZEKIAH, King of Judah, did that which was right in the sight of the Lord. He trusted in the Lord God of Israel; so that after him was none like him among all the Kings of Judah, nor any that were before him.

Immediately after he came to the throne, he destroyed all the high places where the people had worshipped false gods, and he broke their images; and he followed the commandments of the Lord with all his heart.

He defeated the Philistines, and rebelled against the yoke of the King of Assyria, and refused to serve him.

Meanwhile, however, Hoshea, who was then King of Israel, was very much harassed by the Assyrians, and God permitted them to come into the land of Israel and besiege Samaria for three years. They took it, and carried numbers of captives into the land of Assyria, because His people had transgressed His commandments.

The Assyrians, having gained these victories, turned their attention to the land of Judah, over which the good King Hezekiah reigned, and they fought against and took some of the fenced cities.

Then Hezekiah sent a present to the King of Assyria, hoping to bribe him not to pursue the war any further.

To make this payment Hezekiah cut off the gold from the doors of the Temple of the Lord, and sent all the money that was in the Treasury.

But the riches which were known to belong to the Kings of Judah and Israel were an immense attraction to their enemies: so that instead of turning back, the King of Assyria sent his greatest generals with a host of soldiers to surround Jerusalem and besiege it.

When they reached the conduit of the upper pool, which supplied water to the city, Rabshakeh called to King Hezekiah to come out to them.

Then Hilkiah, and Shebna, and Joah came forward to hear what Rabshakeh had to say.

And Rabshakeh's first words were full of pride and threatening: "Thus saith the great King, the King of Assyria, 'What confidence is this wherein thou trusteth? In whom dost thou trust? If ye say, "We trust in the Lord our God," Hezekiah has broken down His altars and told Judah they are to worship in Jerusalem!'

"Now therefore ... I will deliver thee two thousand horses, if thou canst on thy part put riders upon them!"

Then Hezekiah's messengers begged Rabshakeh to speak in the Assyrian language, and not in Hebrew, which the people understood.

But Rabshakeh was more insulting than ever; and told all who listened to him, that it was vain for Hezekiah to say "The Lord will deliver you!" Sennacherib had conquered other nations, and their gods had not delivered them! And the Lord would not deliver Jerusalem out of his hand.

But Eliakim told the people not to answer a word. Then they returned to the king with their clothes rent, and told him the words of Rabshakeh.

Then Hezekiah rent his clothes and put on sackcloth, and went up into the house of the Lord, and sent his messengers to Isaiah the Prophet, saying that it was indeed a day of trouble, and surely the Lord had heard the words of Rabshakeh.

But the Prophet Isaiah sent this message to Hezekiah: "Thus saith the Lord, Be not afraid of the words which thou hast heard, with which the servants of the King of Assyria have blasphemed Me. Behold, I will send a blast upon him, and he shall hear a rumour, and shall return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land."

So Rabshakeh returned, and when he found fresh troubles in his own land, he sent a message by letter to Hezekiah, saying they were not to rejoice that they had escaped their enemy! For they would surely come and fight against them another time!

Then Hezekiah received the letter and read it, and carried it up into the House of the Lord and spread it before the Lord. And he prayed to the Lord, and told Him it was quite true that other nations had been defeated by the cruel King of Assyria, but they had not the Lord God of Israel to trust in; and then he ended with these words: "O Lord our God, I beseech Thee, save Thou us out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know, that Thou art the Lord God, and Thou only!"

And then the Lord gave His long glorious answer: "Thus saith the Lord concerning the King of Assyria, He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor cast a bank against it. By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this city, saith the Lord. For I will defend this city, to save it, for Mine Own Sake, and for My servant David's sake."

"And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the Lord went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred and eighty-five thousand men: and when they arose early in the morning they were all dead corpses."

So Sennacherib, King of Assyria, departed and returned to Nineveh; and as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch, his god, his two sons smote him and killed him.

XIII. THE QUEEN OF SHEBA

WHEN David grew old, one of his sons, named Adonijah, exalted himself, to make himself king instead of his father.

He conferred with Joab the captain and with Abiathar the priest, and it was arranged that all the sons of the king should be invited to a great feast; but when the invitations were given, it was found that he had not included his brother Solomon, nor Zadok the priest, nor Benaiah the soldier, nor Nathan the prophet, who were all devoted friends of King David.

So Nathan the prophet spoke to Bathsheba, the mother of Solomon, and begged her to go to King David and tell him that Adonijah had set himself up as king; and to remind David that he had promised her that he would give the kingdom to Solomon his son.

David was very much troubled with what Bathsheba and Nathan told him, and he solemnly assured them that God had promised the throne to Solomon, and to no one else; and he then sent for Zadok, and he told him and Nathan to anoint Solomon King over Israel at once, and to blow with the trumpet and say, "Solomon is King!"

And he told them that Solomon was to ride on the king's own mule, and sit on the king's throne.

So they took a horn of oil out of the Tabernacle and anointed Solomon. And they blew the trumpet, and all the people said: "God save King Solomon!" And the people came up after him, rejoicing with music and great joy, so that the earth rent with the sound of them.

Thus Solomon was established in his kingdom, and reigned over all Israel and Judah.

One day he went up to the high place at Gibeon to sacrifice to the Lord there; and he offered a thousand burnt offerings upon the altar. And the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream; and God said:

Then Solomon thanked God for the great kindness which He had shown David his father, in giving him a son to sit on his throne; and acknowledged how David had walked before the Lord in uprightness of heart. And then he added: "O Lord my God . . . I am but a little child . . . give me therefore an understanding heart to judge Thy people; for who is able to judge so great a people?"

And the Lord was pleased with Solomon's request, and He told him that because he had asked this thing, and not asked for himself riches or honour or long life, God would grant his prayer for an understanding heart, and would add besides riches and honour, so that there should be no king like Solomon in all the world, nor ever would be again.

And then, after these gracious and wonderful assurances, the Lord God added this warning—and it seems to me that the warning comes home to every one of us now: "If thou wilt walk in My ways to keep My statutes and My commandments, as thy father David did walk, then I will lengthen thy days."

Then Solomon awoke from his dream, and he came to Jerusalem and offered burnt offerings unto the Lord there.

He at once set about ruling his kingdom and exercising the wonderful wisdom which God had given him.

And this was why, when he had built cities and palaces, and gathered gold and silver and spices in abundance; when he had been permitted to build a magnificent Temple for the Lord, the Queen of Sheba heard of his fame, concerning the Name of the Lord, and travelled many hundreds of miles from the south below Egypt, to prove Solomon with hard questions and to see the glories of his kingdom.

And Solomon answered all her questions, and showed her all his work and his riches. When she had seen the house he had built and the food daily spread on his table, and the number of his servants, and the ascent which he had built to go up to the House of the Lord, the queen seemed to have no more strength in her, and she exclaimed:

"It was a true report that I heard in mine own country, but the half was not told me!"

"Happy are thy men, happy are these thy servants, which stand continually before thee, and hear thy wisdom."

"Blessed be the Lord thy God, which delighteth in thee, to set thee on the throne of Israel . . . to do judgment and justice."

And she gave King Solomon gold, and a very great store of spices and precious stones, which she had brought on her camels from afar.

And Solomon gave her whatever she asked of him, besides the royal presents which, as a great king, he bestowed upon her unasked.

There is a verse in Isaiah and another in the Psalms which I love to read, which seem to remind us not only of the Queen of Sheba, but of that glorious day which is coming by and by for those who are the children of God through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ:—

"For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside Thee, what He hath prepared for him that waiteth for Him."

"Thou wilt show me the path of life; in Thy presence is fullness of joy: at Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore."

XIV. THREE COMMANDMENTS
ABOUT EARTHLY THINGS

V. "Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God hath given thee."

OUR best and most beautiful example of this loving, dutiful obedience is given us in the early days of our Lord's life on earth.

Jesus was twelve years old, and He knew that His Heavenly Father had given Him a great work to do here in this world. One day in Jerusalem He had stayed in the Temple talking to the learned Doctors of the Law, and Joseph and His mother missed Him from among the company who were journeying homewards to Nazareth; and when they found Him in the Temple, His mother said, "Thy father and I have sought Thee, sorrowing!"

And His gentle answer is a pattern to all of us: "Wist ye not—" (Did you not know)—"that I must be about My Father's business?" He was reminding her then of God, Who had sent Him, His only begotten Son, into the world to save sinners.

But with all that in His heart, the Bible goes on to tell us, "Jesus went down with them to Nazareth, and was subject unto them." That means that He was perfectly obedient in His earthly home.

Her husband was dead. But Ruth was devoted to her mother-in-law, and when Naomi wished to return to the land of Israel, though all Ruth's friends lived in Moab, she entreated to be allowed to take that long journey with Naomi, and to stay with her always.

And as you can read for yourselves in the Book of Ruth, she was wonderfully blessed through her goodness to her mother-in-law. God watched her sweet and dutiful behaviour, and He gave her the great honour of being one of the ancestors of King David, and then, through him, of the Lord Jesus Christ, who was born at David's city, Bethlehem, thirteen hundred years afterwards.

What is murder? It is hatred in the heart, cherished and unpardoned, unconfessed to God, which ends in a cruel deed.

If we find in our own hearts an unforgiving spirit—a grudge against any one—a wish, perhaps, to do them harm or pay them back—let us beware!

Our Lord says: "When ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have aught against any one!"

David, as you know, loved God very much; but he had grown very rich and powerful, and he had begun to value earthly things more than God's Commandments.

He wanted to get rid of one of his soldiers, who was at the war fighting for him. Why did he want to get rid of him? Because David had taken from him something which that soldier valued beyond all other things! I will tell you what that thing was afterwards.

So David told his great captain, Joab, to set this soldier, called Uriah, in the forefront of the battle, and then to retire from him, so that he should get killed. So Joab, who was an unscrupulous, untrustworthy man, did as the king commanded him. Then he sent back word to David at Jerusalem about the great battle, and mentioned that Uriah was killed.

The precious possession which David had taken for himself, while Uriah was at the war, was Uriah's dearly loved wife: and David had broken two of God's direct commands—one was, "Thou shalt do no murder," the other was:

Then there came another messenger to David. Not from the battlefield, where Uriah lay dead, but a message from God Himself, sent by the Prophet Nathan to the king.

And the Prophet told David this story: "There were two men in one city: one was rich, and the other poor."

"The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds: the poor man had only one little ewe lamb, that he had brought up at home, and that played with his children and drank out of his own cup."

"And a traveller came to see that rich man; and the rich man grudged to take any out of his own flocks to feed the traveller, but took the poor man's ewe lamb!"

When David heard this story he was very angry with the rich man, and told Nathan he ought to be punished.

"Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord, to do evil in His sight? Thou hast killed Uriah with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife."

Then David was dreadfully sorry. He saw his great sin in the sight of the Lord, and he earnestly asked to be forgiven.

And the Lord did forgive him; but David had to bear the effects of his sin the whole of his life afterwards.

XV. THREE COMMANDMENTS
ABOUT OUR HANDS—OUR TONGUES—AND OUR HEARTS

PERHAPS you draw back, and say, "Steal! Surely no one would think I would steal!"

But when we come to think it over, there are a good many ways of stealing; or being tempted to steal. There are little unfairnesses that many practise, without in the least realizing that they lead to dishonesty. A boy who cheats over his lessons goes very near the mark! A girl who borrows from her class-mate a sixpence to buy a hair ribbon, and does not return it, goes very near the mark too!

She had a very hard life to make both ends meet. And one day, the person who was lodging with her left her purse on the table.

The woman would never have thought of opening the purse and taking out her neighbour's money! Oh no!

The dear woman went to move the purse to a place of safety, and it was very full of money, and fell open, and the contents in a moment lay scattered on the floor: shillings, sixpences, half-crowns!

Then Satan saw his opportunity. As the dear woman stooped to gather the money, the thought crossed her heart: "She would never miss one of these coins! And I do need them so—"

And then the dreadfulness of the temptation came upon her, and she fell on her knees.

"Dear Lord, forgive me!" she murmured, and hurried to gather up the money, and to restore the purse to its owner. God had helped her to be brave!

Was it not that he was a thief, and had the bag, and carried about with him what was in it?

He thought if the chief priests would give him those thirty pieces of silver, he would be a rich man all his days instead of a poor man!

There was a boy I heard of lately, who was tempted: and he took an orange from a greengrocer's shop. But his heart smote him; and that evening he wrote this letter to the greengrocer's wife in a round, boyish hand:—

"Dear Madam,—I am very sorry for stealing an orange from you yesterday, while in your shop. I must apologize as I am a Christian, but was tempted."

Signed . . .

"I enclose a penny stamp for the cost of same."

That confession must have cost that boy a great deal to do! But he was "more than conqueror through Him who loved him!"

How did the wicked queen Jezebel manage to get Naboth's vineyard for her husband? It was by means of false witnesses!

She sent letters sealed with the king's seal to the nobles and elders who were in the city where Naboth lived, and ordered them to proclaim a fast, to set him up on high where all the people could see him, and to get two wicked men to give false witness against him, to accuse him of blaspheming God and the king. Then he was to be carried out of the city and stoned.

So the elders did as Jezebel told them, and poor Naboth, who had done no wrong, was cruelly killed.

X. "Thou shall not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shall not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is his."

Covetousness is one of the sins that hides deep in a man's heart, and if given way to may spoil all his happiness.

King Ahab had a palace at Jezreel; and near to the palace was Naboth's vineyard, which was his family possession.

As the king passed to and fro, he began to covet the vineyard of Naboth in order to make himself a garden; and at length he asked Naboth to exchange his vineyard with him for another better one, or offered to buy it from Naboth for money.

This seemed at first sight a reasonable offer; but Ahab knew perfectly well that no Jew would sell his father's inheritance, and that he valued it almost like his own life.

So Naboth refused, and the king went back to his palace heavy and displeased, and went and lay upon his bed and would not eat.

When Jezebel found out what was the matter, she begged Ahab to get up and eat; and she promised that she would get the vineyard for him!

And this was how it came to pass that those false witnesses swore away Naboth's life!

When Ahab knew that Naboth was dead, he went down to take possession of the vineyard.

"Thus saith the Lord: Hast thou killed, and also taken possession? Thus saith the Lord: In the Place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth, shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine."

It is a very solemn thing to break God's commands. Shall we not pray, as we think of them: "With my whole heart have I sought Thee: O let me not wander from Thy Commandments!"

XVI. TAKEN FROM THE BROOK

A GREAT Giant had come out of the land of the Philistines to fight against the Israelites.

He was about 11 feet high-that is higher than a tall doorway, and no ordinary man could attempt to fight with him, with any hope of victory, be he ever so brave.

This Giant, Goliath of Gath, appeared every day for forty days, defying the Armies of Israel, and challenging them to send out a man to fight with him.

Now there was a youth named David, ruddy and beautiful, who was on the Mountains of Palestine, tending his father's flocks.

As he sat watching the sheep, the Holy Spirit taught him many of the Psalms we all love, such as, "The Lord is my Shepherd."

One day a lion came out of his lair and took a lamb of the flock, and David, knowing that God was his strong Helper, went out after the lion, and smote him and got the lamb out of his mouth, and when the lion turned on him, David caught him by the beard and killed him. And a bear came in the same way, and he killed him too.

One day David's father, Jesse, sent him to see how his brothers, who were at the war, were getting on; and when he reached the Camp, the first thing that he heard was the news of this dreadful Giant, who was defying the Israelites every morning and every evening.

And David said, "Who is this heathen Philistine, that he should defy the Armies of the Living God?"

David's eldest brother was angry with him for what he said; but David's words were heard by the other soldiers, and they repeated them to King Saul.

And Saul sent for him, and when David came into his presence, he said to the King, "Let no man's heart fail him because of the Giant, I will go and fight with him!"

Then David told the King about the lion and bear, and he said, "The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, He will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine."

So Saul agreed to his going, and put some armour on him; but David told the King he could not go with these, for he was not used to armour.

Then David took his staff in his hand, and went to the brook and chose out five smooth stones, and he put them in his shepherd's bag that hung at his side.

Before we go on to what David did with those stones, there are two or three interesting things in this story which we shall do well to notice; for they will be, if we think of them, a great help to us in our own lives.

We all have, like David, a tremendous enemy to face. This is Satan; and he comes to us every day, like the Giant Goliath, and he tries to make us afraid. He wants us to live without thinking about God; he wants us to forget that there is a great Helper for us in every time of need.

But David truly loved God with his whole heart, and he was very brave; but it was in God's strength that he had determined to meet the Giant.

So he went to the brook, and chose some of the smooth stones that he was accustomed to use.

It was a very simple weapon; and doubtless he had often practised slinging stones, as he sat watching his sheep, and knew how to aim well.

And, if we want to conquer Satan when he tempts us to do wrong, we must take the weapon God has given us to use—which is His own word. Just say, "Lord, help me!" or "Lord, save me!" and Satan will be driven away.

I shall never forget being called to comfort a dear dying girl, who was much worried by Satan's suggestions. I stood by her bedside and quietly repeated these words of God to her, from Isaiah 59.19: "When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him."

In a moment the cloud of sorrow and fear passed from her face; and God never let Satan worry her again!

So you will find God's words will be just like David's smooth stones, when he went up to meet the Giant!

And Goliath said, "Am I a dog that thou comest to me with staves? Come to me, and I will give thy flesh to the fowls of the air, and to the beasts of the field!"

Then David answered, "Thou comest to me with a sword and with a shield, but I come to thee in the Name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel whom thou hast defied. This day will the Lord deliver thee into my hand . . . and I will smite thee, and take thy head from thee. For the battle is the Lord's."

So, as the Giant came forward towards David, David ran to meet him, and put his hand into his bag and took a stone, and slang it, and it hit the Giant on his forehead, so that he sank down on the ground on his face. Then David ran, and took Goliath's own sword, and cut off his head with it.

And when the Philistines saw that their Champion was dead, they fled, and the Israelites followed after them and the Victory was won.

XVII. THE FIRST AND SECOND COMMANDMENTS:
AND HOW THEY WERE BROKEN

"I am the Lord thy God, Which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage."

II. "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God."

THE Children of Israel had left Egypt. God had brought them out with a strong hand. They had left their enemies the Egyptians, some of them dead in their houses, for all the firstborn were dead; and some of them overwhelmed in the Red Sea, where they had attempted to follow the Israelites, for whom God had made a way on dry ground, through the midst of the waters.

And now God had led them about in the wilderness, for they were obstinate and disobedient, and He could not let them go into the Promised Land of Blessing, because their hearts were too hard to learn His great lessons.

In the third month after leaving Egypt, they came into the wilderness of Sinai, and the whole congregation camped before the mount.

Then God called Moses to come to Him to the top of the mountain; and here God spoke to him, and sent him down to repeat to the congregation all the words which He had told him.

And God told Moses that it was a very solemn thing for Him to speak in their hearing, so they were to set bounds round the mount, that no one should come too close.

God said that He would come to Moses in a thick cloud; but that the people should hear His Voice when He spoke, and should believe Moses for ever.

While God was telling Moses all these Commandments, on the top of the mountain, there were thunderings and lightnings, and the voice of a trumpet exceeding loud, so that all the people in the camp trembled.

Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the Lord Jehovah descended upon it in fire; and even the mountain trembled at the Presence of the Holy God.

I heard the other day of a terribly injured soldier, who sent this message to one who had written to sympathize in his great deprivation: "Don't pity me; the sacrifice has been worth it; for I have found God!"

Now we come to the Second Commandment—"Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image."

When the Children of Israel stood round that mount, and heard God say that, if they would obey His voice, they should be a peculiar treasure to Him, they promised that they would faithfully keep all that the Lord said.

But I am sorry to tell you that they soon forgot their promises, and did the very thing God had told them not to do. And this was how it all happened.

Moses was up on the mount with God for forty days and forty nights, and God gave Moses the two Tablets of stone, on which God Himself had written His Ten Commandments.

But forty days and forty nights seemed a long time to the thousands of people waiting below on the plains; and they "gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said, Up! make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him!"

Then Aaron bade them bring him gold from their ornaments, and he cast the gold into the fire, and it melted down into a great piece of gold, which looked like a calf.

Aaron took a tool and moulded it, and the people said, "These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt!"

Then they offered sacrifices to the golden calf, and feasted, and rose up to dance.

"And the Lord said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for the people have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. Now, therefore . . . let Me alone, that I may consume them!"

But Moses besought the Lord most earnestly to turn from His anger, and asked Him to remember His servants, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; and begged Him to forgive the sin of His people.

So Moses went down the mountain with God's Law in his hands. But when he and Joshua, who was with him, saw from the mount what had happened, and that the people had already broken God's two first commandments, Moses cast down the two Tablets which God had written with His own Hand, and they fell beneath the mountain and were broken to pieces.

And the Lord sent a sore punishment to the people who had sinned, and three thousand of them died.

The next day Moses went up to the Lord again, and his words of entreaty are most touching—

"Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold. Yet now, if Thou wilt forgive their sin—; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of Thy Book which Thou hast written."

"And the Lord said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against Me, him will I blot out of My Book."

This is an awfully solemn story. We do not read that the people themselves repented—if they had, the Holy God would have forgiven them out and out.

"Let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon."

XVIII. THE NEXT TWO COMMANDMENTS:
AND HOW THEY MAY BE KEPT

III. "Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord My God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh His Name in vain."

THINK of the name of the person whom you love the best in the world, and then think how you would feel if you heard any one speak against that name. Would not you feel grieved? Would you not turn away from the one who spoke against that loved name? And say: "I cannot hear you speak like that—I love that name above any on earth."

And if we feel so about an earthly love, and an earthly name, what ought we to feel about that "Name which is above every name"?

No wonder God says in His Holy Law: "Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain!"

"Our Father, which art in Heaven, Hallowed be Thy Name!" It is the first request of that wonderful prayer.

Do you see the baby boy in your home? He has hurt himself, or got into some difficulty. He can just say one single word, and that word is the only name he knows; and you hear him calling out in his distress, "Mother! Mother!" Over and over, till she comes running in, and in a moment he is in her arms!

And this brings me to a text I am very very fond of: "The Name of the Lord is a Strong Tower! The righteous runneth into it and is safe."

A few years ago a sister of mine was walking on a lonely road, and just as she was crossing a railway bridge between two brick walls a man sprang out and seized her watch and chain.

No one was in sight, and she knew she was utterly helpless, and that the man's strength would soon wrench the watch away.

Then she bethought herself of the Name of Jesus! And she called to Him aloud, "Lord, help me!"

In an instant the man relaxed his hold, dropped the watch and chain, and made off as fast as he could, and she saw him no more! Surely to her the Name of the Lord had been a strong tower, she had run into it and was safe!

And this is only one instance of very many that I have known, when the Holy Name of our God, or of our dear Saviour, is all-powerful to help us in our greatest need.

If we hallow the Name of our God in our lives now, there will be a time when we shall see His Face, and His Name shall be in our foreheads, as a token that we are His for ever.

IV. "Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God . . . For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth . . . and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it."

What are we to remember? A father goes out in the morning, and as he turns away, he says, "Remember, children, what I have told you to do!"

So our Heavenly Father says to each one of us, about the Sundays that come every week: "Remember! This is My Day—it is the Sunday of the Lord thy God!"

Then let us rejoice that such a day is given us. A rest from our lessons; a rest from our work; a time when we can read a nice book in which we find something to help us about pleasing God.

Sunday is given us to do good in. Think how our Lord, when He was on earth, went about healing and comforting on the Sabbath Day! And He told the people "it was lawful to do good on the Sabbath Day."

If we look out for opportunities, we can think of things to do that will help others. We can paint texts to send to invalids or to cottages; we can put sacred pictures, if we have any, into scrap-books for the Children's Hospital, or we can paste some white paper on a used picture post-card, and write neatly a verse or two of a hymn, and send the cards, when done, to cheer the wounded soldiers! Such a hymn as "Fight the good fight," or "Jesu, Lover of my soul," or "I heard the voice of Jesus say."

An elder sister, perhaps, can show the little ones a Bible picture-book, and tell them some simple stories about Little Samuel or Joseph. Or she can read aloud a Sunday story-book to the others, while they paint or chalk some outlined texts.

As you begin to "remember" to make God's Day a holy, happy one, you will find that there are things to do in it, for His sake, that will make you happy, too.

It is a day for worship, for rest, for peace, and for loving ministrations for others, and you will find that "in keeping His Commandments there is great reward."

XIX. THE POTTER'S VESSEL

THOSE who have visited the East tell us that even to-day the potter still sits at his work, making jars and jugs to carry the precious water from the wells.

Now we must suppose ourselves entering the little courtyard where the potter sits at work, or bending our heads to enter the shady little building or shed, where the rays of the mid-day sun cannot reach him.

He has just brought a lump of clay, and placed it on the middle of his wheel, and with his feet, he gives the wheel a twist, and begins to mould the great lump of clay into a round sort of mass.

And the potter looks up, with a half-smile, as he answers: "I am going to make a lovely jar," and then his feet twist the wheel round and round, and the visitor stands by watching.

The potter puts his thumb into the place where the neck of the jar will be, and as he twists and moulds, the visitor sees before his eyes the ugly bit of clay coming into an elegant shape.

At length the jar is done, and the visitor asks another question. "What will you do, now?" he says.

"Then I shall put it into the oven and bake it, so that the shape and the colours will stand fast."

The visitor hesitates. At length, he asks, "You do not make them all alike? Some are plain and homely; some are beautiful, and I suppose costly?"

"Well, sir," he says, "it's just as I choose to make them! Some are so precious in my eyes that I love to look at them; some turn out so badly, that I have to mould the clay over again. Just as I like, sir; just as I like! It is my clay, and my work; but I want the pieces that I make, to come out beautiful and lovely."

So the potter takes another lump of clay, and goes to his wheel again; and the visitor, thanking him very much for his kindness, turns away thoughtfully.

"Yes," he said to himself at length. "It was in Jeremiah, and when I get back to my Hotel, I will look it up."

And he found what he wanted, in the 18th Chapter of Jeremiah, where the Lord told the Prophet to go down to the potter's house, that He might tell him there, what he was to say to the Jewish people, who at that time were sadly disobedient, and had turned away from God.

So Jeremiah went down to the Potter's house; and behold, he was making something on his wheel.

But as he made it, the vessel which he was moulding was marred, or spoilt, under his hand; so he turned, and made the piece of clay into another shape, as it seemed good to the potter to make it.

Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, and the Lord told him he was to go to the people of Israel and tell them His message. That if they continued in their evil ways, He would take them out of their own land, and from their beloved City, Jerusalem, and He would send them to be Captives in a distant land.

And God said, "O house of Israel, cannot I do with you, as this potter has done with his clay?"

For God loved the Children of Israel, and He wanted to make them good and beautiful, like the potter wanted to make his jars.

But the Children of Israel rebelled against God; and though He had sent great deliverances many times, and brought them right out of the bondage of Egypt, and into the beautiful land of Canaan, they very quickly forgot Him again.

They forgot all His love towards them, and began to serve other gods, which they made with their own hands; and they even sacrificed and burned their own sons on their altars.

So God sent Jeremiah with His message to them—that if they would turn away from their evil ways and come back to Him, He would forgive them and give them every blessing; but if they refused, then Jerusalem should be destroyed, and God would send those who were left after the battles into a far country where they should be Captives for seventy years.

Yet even with all these solemn warnings, the Children of Israel—the Jews—refused to obey God; and very shortly those things came to pass which Jeremiah had told them.

But God has given great promises to the Jews, and He is very patient and longsuffering.

By and by after seventy years, He brought them back in a wonderful way to their own Land, which they again inhabited, and built cities and lived in them.

But it was not very long before they again began to depart from God's laws; they ceased to obey those things which were plainly written in the Old Testament Scriptures; and at last, when Jesus Christ came to earth to be their Messiah and King, they did not remember all God had said in the Bible about Him, and they rose up against Him, and crucified the Lord of Glory!

And so, again the Heavenly Father, who calls Himself the Potter, has had to send the Jews out of their Land, and He is moulding them now by trials and sorrows, so that by and by they may be purified and restored to His favour.

For when Jesus comes back to Earth, as He surely will, "they will look on Him whom they have pierced," and will turn to Him, and be saved.

XX. JEHOSHEBA, THE GOOD AUNT

Her son Ahaziah only reigned one year in Jerusalem, and she was his counsellor to do evil. But at the end of the year he was slain by Jehu, and the Throne of Judah became empty.

Then Queen Athaliah determined to destroy all the Royal Princes, and ordered all the sons of Ahaziah to be killed, in order to reign over the Kingdom herself.

But while these terrible scenes were happening, and the Princes of Judah were being killed one after another, there was a Princess, Ahaziah's sister, who made a brave resolve, and carried it out most successfully.

She knew that one of the King's sons, whom Athaliah had intended to kill, was a baby of a year old, and she determined that she would do her utmost to rescue him from the soldiers who were ordered to carry out this wicked scheme. This Princess was called Jehosheba, and she was the wife of the High Priest, and evidently could go into the outer rooms of the Temple.

So while the shouts of the soldiers, and the cries of those who were being murdered, were filling the air with terrible sounds of confusion, Jehosheba stole swiftly to the place where she thought she should find the baby boy, and hiding him under her beautiful robes she bore him into the Temple, far away from the noise and turmoil, and she hid him in a bedchamber, under the care of his trusted Nurse.

The bedchamber was probably a little room where the mats and bedding for the priests who lived in the Temple, were kept, and at night they were brought out and laid upon the floor in the larger chambers; for that is the custom in the East.

No one missed the little child, for Athaliah believed that all the Royal Princes were slain. So she immediately put herself on the Throne, and reigned over the kingdom, practising all her wicked ways as before, in defiance of the Commands of God.

You will not wonder that she came to a very sorrowful end, as we shall hear presently.

Meanwhile, Joash, the little heir to the throne, was kept hidden safely in the Temple. You can picture to yourselves how Jehosheba would have often gone to that far-off bedchamber to play with her little nephew, and how she would teach him all she could, to prepare him for the Kingdom.

It is evident also, when we read the accounts, that her husband, Jehoiada, the High Priest, was often with the child: for by and by when six years had passed away, and little Joash was seven years old, Jehoiada determined that he should be crowned King.

So he called the Captains of the army, and they started out all over the land of Judah, and gathered the Levites from all the cities, and the chief fathers of the people, and they all came up to Jerusalem.

Jehoiada shewed them the little King, and made arrangements for their guarding him on the Coronation Day. He also armed them with spears and shields and bucklers which had been King David's, and said to them, "Behold the King's son shall reign, as the Lord hath said of the sons of David."

So the Captains and the Levites did exactly as Jehoiada told them, and stood on guard about the King, with their weapons in their hands.

Then Jehoiada brought forward the little son of King Ahaziah, and put the crown on his head, and the roll of the Testimony in his hand, and they made him King, and Jehoiada and his sons anointed him; and those about him clapped their hands with joy, and said, "God save the King!"

But when Athaliah, the wicked Queen, heard the shouting and rejoicing, she hurried into the House of the Lord, and when she saw the King standing by a pillar, and the Princes and the trumpeters around him, and all the people rejoicing, and sounding the trumpets, she rent her clothes and cried, "Treason! Treason!"

But Jehoiada quickly commanded the Captains to seize Athaliah, and take her out of the Temple, and to kill her with the sword outside the Courts; and there she was slain.

Then Jehoiada made a covenant with the King and all the people, that they should be the Lord's people, and not idolaters any more; and they went into the house of the idol Baal, and broke it down; and they broke up the altars of Baal, and his images into small pieces, and killed the priest of Baal.

So all the people rejoiced greatly, and they brought the King to the King's house, and he sat on the Throne of Judah.

As long as the faithful High Priest lived, Joash was a good King. Jehoiada was his counsellor and friend, and under his advice Joash did much to repair the Temple of God.

But when Jehoiada died, Joash fell into evil company. The Princes of Judah came and persuaded him to go to the Groves and Idols; and the end was, that he brought misery on himself, and also on the Kingdom which he ruled.

God sent Prophet after Prophet to implore the people to return to the Lord, but Joash went on in his wrong-doing, even to killing the son of Jehoiada, his old friend and protector.

Joash fell very sick at this time, whether from wounds or from illness, the Bible does not say; but the servants who waited on him conspired against him, and killed him in his bed.

Oh! What a sorrowful death! No love, no tender pity, but hatred for all the evil he had done to the Kingdom, over which he might have reigned so gloriously, had he only kept close to the Lord God, who would surely have established his throne.

XXI. GOD FEEDS ELIJAH

ELIJAH was a great Prophet of the Lord; and to him were given more wonderful honours than were conferred on any other Prophet.

We talk much now-a-days about deeds of bravery, and about the honours which are given to the men who have thus distinguished themselves; and these honours are given them by our King, and the brave deeds are spoken of from one end of the world to the other!

He was allowed to go to Heaven without dying; and he was allowed long afterwards to come back from the glory to talk with the Lord Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration.

These wonderful "distinctions" were not given him by any earthly king, but by God Himself; and as we follow out the story of Elijah's life, we shall ourselves, perhaps, have a peep into that glory which Jesus is even now preparing for those who love and follow Him.

I have read that Elijah's name means "My God is Jehovah!" and it seems to me that this is a brave motto for each one of us, "My God is Jehovah!" "For in the Lord JEHOVAH is everlasting strength."

The first mention we have of the Prophet Elijah, who came from the land of Gilead, was in the reign of King Ahab.

God chose Elijah, who was very brave, to rebuke the king for his many acts of wickedness. We read that Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God than any of the other kings before him.

One day Elijah went to Ahab and told him: "As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before Whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word."

This loss of rain was doubtless sent as a great punishment for the idolatry and sin into which the whole people of Israel had fallen.

Then the Word of the Lord came to Elijah, saying, "Turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Cherith that is before Jordan."

God did not forget His faithful servant in the famine that was coming; and He told him He had commanded the ravens to feed him, and that he would be able to drink of the brook.

Here, amidst the rocks and fastnesses, he was safe from the wrath of Ahab and of Jezebel, Ahab's wife, who hated Elijah with all her heart.

And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening, and he drank of the brook.

But when the hot days came the brook began to grow less and less, because there had been no rain, and at last the brook dried up; and then the Word of the Lord came to him again: "Arise and go to Zarephath, near Sidon: I have commanded a widow woman to feed thee there."

So Elijah went the long journey to Zarephath, and just outside the gate he saw a woman gathering sticks; and, too thirsty to wait till he reached her side, he called to her: "Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water to drink!"

And as she was going to fetch it, he called again: "And bring me a morsel of bread in thine hand!"

But she quickly answered: "I have not any bread! I have nothing but a little meal in the bottom of the barrel, and a little oil in a cruse; and I was gathering a few sticks to bake a little loaf for me and my son, that we may eat it and die!"

The famine was so bad in the land that this was the last bread that poor widow would be able to get.

"Fear not," he said; "go and do as thou hast said: but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and for thy son. For thus saith the Lord God of Israel: The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth."

And she went and did as the Prophet told her, and he, and her house, had enough to eat all the while the famine lasted.

And since then there are many widows, and many distressed and anxious families, who have found the God of Elijah the same loving, providing God that this poor widow did.

But by and by there came a still harder trial to that widow's heart. Her precious little boy, who had been kept alive all through the famine, was very ill, and died.

Then the poor widow was utterly hopeless, and she blamed Elijah and said it was his fault that this dreadful sorrow had come to her.

Doubtless Elijah had told her much about the Holy God who cannot bear sin, and she began to look at her past life, and one particular sin came up before her! She told him that he had come to bring this sin to remembrance, and to slay her son!

But Elijah said, "Give me thy son." And he took him out of her bosom and carried him up to the loft where he lived, and laid the child upon his own bed.

And Elijah cried to the Lord. (You see he was a man who lived in close touch with God!) And he said: "O Lord my God, hast Thou brought evil upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by slaying her son?"

Then he stretched himself upon the child three times. And again he cried to the Lord God, and said: "O Lord my God, I pray Thee, let this child's soul come into him again!"

"And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah, and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived."

"And Elijah took the child, and brought him down . . . and delivered him unto his mother, and said, 'See! Thy son liveth!'"

"And the woman said to Elijah, 'Now by this I know that thou art a man of God, and that the Word of the Lord in thy mouth is truth.'"

XXII. RUTH

In the time of the Judges of Israel, before Saul or David had been made kings, there was a man living at Bethlehem whose name was Elimelech. He had a wife called Naomi, and two sons called Mahlon and Chilion.

But there came a famine in Bethlehem, and Elimelech and his wife and two sons went out of Canaan and journeyed into the land of Moab.

But Elimelech died, and Naomi was left with her two sons. These sons married wives in Moab, but both of them died, and Naomi was then left a desolate widow.

By and by she heard that the famine was over in the land of Canaan, and she started with her two daughters-in-law to return to Bethlehem.

But after they had set out on their journey, Naomi advised Orpah and Ruth to go back to their mothers, and prayed that, as they had been so loving and kind to her sons who had died, God would take care of them, and bless them in Moab.

Then she kissed them, and they all wept together. And they said, "Surely we will go back with thee to thy people!"

But Naomi did everything she could think of to dissuade them, and at last, with many tears, Orpah wished her good-bye; but Ruth clung to her.

Then Naomi used another argument: "Behold, thy sister-in-law is gone back to her people and to her gods—return thou after her."

But Ruth said: "Entreat me not to leave thee or to return from following after thee, for whither thou goest I will go; thy people shall be my people, and thy God shall be my God!"

So Ruth chose the God of Israel to be her God. And that God Whom she had chosen, watched over her all her life long, and gave her great happiness and honour, as I shall tell you by and by.

When Naomi found that Ruth was determined that "naught but death" should part them she left off persuading her, and they two journeyed on till they came to Bethlehem.

The arrival of strangers at a little town in those days was a great event, and all the people flocked out of their houses to see who it could be.

But Naomi's heart failed her. She had gone out with husband and sons, and she had returned desolate; and in her grief she said, "Do not call me 'Naomi'" (that meant pleasant), "but call me 'Mara'" (which means bitter), "for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me!"

Poor Naomi! She forgot her sweet daughter Ruth; she forgot the God of Israel whom they both trusted. For a little while her grief swept over her.

There lived in Bethlehem a rich man, whose name was Boaz, and he was a relation of Naomi's husband, Elimelech.

When they found that the barley harvest had just begun, Ruth said to her mother-in-law, "Let me go into the fields to glean corn!"

And when she reached the fields she happened on a field belonging to Boaz; but Ruth did not know that he was her relative.

When Boaz saw Ruth among the women who had come out to glean, he asked his servant who was set over the reapers whose damsel she was? And the servant told him that she had come from Moab with Naomi, and he had let her glean among the reapers.

So Boaz spoke kindly to Ruth, and bade her keep near his maidens; and if she were thirsty she was welcome to take some of the water which his young men had drawn.

Then Ruth bowed herself to the ground, and thanked Boaz for his kindness to a stranger.

But Boaz told her that he had heard all about her love to her mother-in-law, and how she had left father and mother to come to a strange land. And then he asked the Lord God of Israel, under Whose wings she had come to trust, to bless her, and to give her a full reward for all she had done.

So Boaz told her to come at meal-times and share the food they had; and he gave her parched corn, some of which she saved to carry to her mother-in-law; and when she had had sufficient, she went back to her gleaning. And Boaz told his young men to let fall handfuls on purpose for her, so that by evening she had gathered quite a good quantity.

When Naomi heard all the kindness of Boaz, she told Ruth that he was a near relation, and she realized that, after all, the Lord had not forsaken her, though in her grief she had almost thought He had!

She told Ruth to keep fast by the maidens of Boaz. So day after day, till the harvest was over, Ruth did as Naomi bade her; and as Boaz went to and fro among the reapers, he saw the modest and sweet behaviour of the young stranger girl, and he determined to ask her to be his wife. So they were married; and by and by a dear little son was given to them.

And the women said to Naomi: "Bless be the Lord, which hath not left thee without a kinsman, that his name should be famous in Israel."

So Naomi was comforted, and became a nurse to the babe who was so precious to her.

And his name was famous! For the child was called Obed, and he was in due time the father of Jesse; and Jesse was the father of David, and through David, years afterwards, came our Blessed Lord!

Do you not remember how the blind man cried out?—"Jesus, Thou son of David, have mercy upon me."

XXIII. ON MOUNT GILBOA

As David left Saul, and went back to his stronghold at Engedi, he said to himself: "I shall one day perish by the hand of Saul! There is nothing better for me than that I should escape into the land of the Philistines, and Saul will cease to look for me."

So he went with the six hundred men who followed him, and dwelt with Achish, the king of Gath, for a year and four months.

But, after a time, the Philistines determined to go to battle against the Israelites, and as David and his men were very friendly with Achish, they marched in the rear of the army which was gathered together against Saul.

But when the princes of the Philistines found David and his men among the warriors, they very much objected, telling Achish that when the battle was joined, David would go over to the other side and fight against the Philistines.

Achish tried to persuade them that David and his men were their friends, but the lords of the Philistines would not consent; and David had to go back to Ziklag. It would take too long to tell you here how he found that other enemies had invaded his home, or how he and his men went after them, and how the Lord helped them to recover their wives and children and all the spoil that those enemies had taken.

But it seems very wonderful that, in the great battle of the Philistines in which Saul was killed, the Lord had sent David far away in another direction!

So the Philistines gathered themselves to the battle, and Saul and his sons and all the men of Israel came out against them.

But the night before the battle Saul had gone to a witch at Endor, and asked her to bring up Samuel to speak to him. Both he and the witch were very frightened when Samuel came up—an old man wrapped in a mantle—and Samuel told Saul that God had given the kingdom to David, and that he and his sons would be killed on the morrow.

So the battle took place the next day on Mount Gilboa; and the Philistines followed hard upon Saul and his sons, and Saul was sore wounded by the archers.

Then Saul besought his armour-bearer to kill him with his sword lest his enemies should come and mock him. But his armour-bearer would not, for he was sore afraid.

Then King Saul took his own sword and fell upon it and died. And when his armour-bearer saw that he was dead, he fell upon his sword too, and died with him.

When the rest of the army who were on the other side of the valley and on the other side of Jordan saw that Saul and his sons were dead, they fled, and forsook their cities, and the Philistines came and dwelt in them.

On the next day, the Philistines came to the battlefield to strip the slain, and when they found the king and his sons, they cut off Saul's head and stripped off his armour, and sent the news to all the country round; and they published it in the houses of their gods and made a great rejoicing.

They hung the dead bodies of Saul and his sons on the wall of Bethshan; but when the inhabitants of Jabeshgilead heard of what the Philistines had done, all the valiant men arose and travelled all night and took the bodies of Saul and his sons down from the wall; and the men of Jabesh burnt the bodies, and buried their bones under a tree in Jabesh, and made a great mourning for their fallen king for seven days.

This is a very sorrowful story. Saul had set out well, and he had everything in life before him.

He was a great warrior; he had fought many battles against the Philistines and other enemies on every side; but he spoilt all by one great sin. This was the sin of disobedience. He had disobeyed God's direct command.

Not long after Saul was made king, God told him to go and utterly destroy the Amalekites, leaving none behind, not even flocks and herds, or anything that was theirs.

But though Saul went, and gained a great victory over them, he disobeyed God in the end; for he saved alive the king and the best of the flocks and herds, and all that was good, he kept.

Then the Lord sent Samuel to Saul. And Saul hastened to meet him with the words: "Blessed be thou of the Lord! I have performed the commandment of the Lord!"

And Saul answered: "The people spared the best of the flocks to sacrifice to the Lord."

And Samuel said to Saul: "Stay, and I will tell thee what the Lord has said to me this night."

"When thou wast little in thine own sight, wast thou not made head over the tribes of Israel? And the Lord sent thee on a journey, and said, 'Go and utterly destroy the sinners the Amalekites, and fight against them until they be consumed.'"

"Wherefore then didst thou fly upon the spoil, and didst evil in the sight of the Lord?"

"Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord?"

"Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, He also hath rejected thee from being king."

This is the reason why God gave the kingdom to David, and allowed Saul to be killed on Mount Gilboa.

XXIV. ABSALOM

He was the third son of David, and his mother's name was Maachah, who was the daughter of the King of Geshur.

He inherited great beauty from both his father and his mother, and was evidently the idol of David's heart. But with all his fascinating beauty, he was not a good man.

His mother was a heathen princess, and Absalom had not been taught in her home the justice, the purity, the forbearance, the love, and the fear of God, which ought to be the ruling-spring of our lives.

His one thought was how to please himself, no matter what impediments stood in his way.

By and by he had cause to be angry with his half-brother Amnon, who had acted very wickedly; but instead of bringing him to be judged by the law, Absalom secretly plotted to kill him.

For this purpose, he invited all the king's sons to be present at a great feast; and he gave his servants orders to set upon Amnon and kill him, when he gave a sign to do so after supper.

When the rest of the king's sons saw this dreadful deed, they all fled on their mules in hot haste; but while they were on their way back to Jerusalem, the tidings reached David that all his sons were dead!

The sorrowful king tore his clothes, and lay upon the earth, and all his servants stood by with their clothes rent.

But Jonadab, David's nephew, tried to comfort the king, by assuring him that only Amnon was dead.

While Jonadab was persuading the king that it was not as bad as had first been told him, they saw a great company coming down the hillside, and Jonadab said to the king:

Then all David's sons wept for the sad thing which had happened, and David and his servants wept very much.

But Absalom had fled, and had gone to his mother's relatives at Geshur, where he stayed three years. And David mourned for his son every day.

At length Joab, the captain of the host, saw that David's heart was bound up in Absalom, and he persuaded David to send for him to Jerusalem. But though David allowed him to return, he did not see his face for two whole years.

This made Absalom very angry, and because Joab would not carry his messages to the king, Absalom told his servants to set fire to a whole field of Joab's wheat: at last Joab consented to speak to the king, and finally Absalom was allowed to see his father: and David kissed him.

He sat in the gate of the city and told the people who passed in and out, that if he were king he would see that every grievance was righted; and he kissed the people as they came and went, and stole their hearts!

Then Absalom asked permission to go to Hebron, and he sent spies all through the land to tell every one that at the sound of the trumpet every one was to say, "Absalom is King in Hebron!"

Thus the conspiracy grew and grew; and I cannot tell you how many sorrowful and wicked things were done while Absalom tried to get the kingdom!

David was indeed at his wits' end; but he remembered that the Lord was his Refuge, and he prayed that the Lord would defeat the counsel of those who were plotting against him.

At length Absalom came out against his father with a large army. There was a great battle: but the people begged David not to go to the battle himself, but to let them fight for him, and for the kingdom.

So David sat in the gate: and as his armies passed through ready for battle, he said to Joab, and to all the captains of the host: "Deal gently with the young man, even with Absalom!" And the people heard him.

So the soldiers went forth into the country, and by and by the battle was chiefly fought in a large wood, where many of Absalom's army were killed.

As Absalom was riding quickly in the wood to escape from the soldiers, he went under an overhanging tree in his haste, and his head caught in the boughs and he could not extricate himself. The mule went on and he was left hanging there.

Some one hurried to Joab and told him, and Joab, disregarding the earnest entreaty the king had given him, took three darts and thrust them through Absalom's heart.

So he died, and they put his body in a pit in the wood and threw a great heap of stones upon it.

Absalom had built himself a great tomb in the King's Dale, but he was never laid in it. Oh, the sorrow of that ending!

When the messengers came in from the battle, as David sat near the gate and watched, his first question to each runner was: "Is the young man Absalom safe?" And when they broke it to him, that Absalom had died and the victory had been complete, David turned from them, and made his way up, weeping, to the chamber over the gate, and as he went, he said:

"O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son!"

XXV. THE DISOBEDIENT PROPHET

LONG ago, soon after the Children of Israel came out of Egypt, they asked Aaron to make a Golden Calf for them to worship, which could be carried in front of them, and would, they hoped, lead them into the Promised Land. But we know how dreadfully they sinned in this.

And five hundred years after that, Jeroboam, King of Israel, made two Golden Calves, and built two altars, one in Dan at the North of Palestine, and the other in Bethel at the South of his Kingdom.

He told the people of Israel that it was too far for them to go to worship at Jerusalem, three times in the year, and that they could go instead to worship his Golden Calf, and could offer sacrifices upon the altars he had built.

Now God had told the Jews that Jerusalem was the place He had appointed for Worship; and also that only God's Priests, the sons of Aaron, were to offer either Sacrifices or Incense to Him.

One day, when King Jeroboam was himself offering incense on the altar he had made in Bethel, a Prophet of the Lord was sent to him with a message from God.

And this was the message—That one day, on this; very altar, the priests whom Jeroboam had made from the lowest of the people, should be offered, and their bones should be burnt upon this altar.

God gave a Sign, by which King Jeroboam should know that the Prophet's words were true, and that he had been sent by God.

This was the Sign. This altar of Jeroboam's should be rent—torn in pieces—and the ashes should be scattered on the ground.

King Jeroboam was very angry at the message, and he tried to seize the Prophet, but his hand dried up, and he could not use it.

And the Sign came to pass at once, for the altar fell to pieces and the ashes were scattered.

Jeroboam was very frightened, and begged the Prophet to ask the Lord to restore his hand.

Then the King pressed the Prophet to come in to refresh himself, and to receive a reward.

But the Prophet answered that the Lord had strictly forbidden him to eat bread or drink water in that place. So he turned away, to go back by another road, as the Lord commanded him.

For as the Prophet was turning away from Bethel, an old Prophet who lived there, thought he would ask him to come back and rest at his house. He had heard how the Prophet had cried against the Altar, and he longed to hear all about it.

But the Prophet again explained that the Lord had forbidden him to eat and drink in that place.

Then the Old Prophet lied to him, and said that an Angel had told him he was to ask him home to refresh him.

So the Prophet listened to his fellow-prophet, instead of obeying God, and he turned back and went in, and ate and drank.

But when he had finished the meal, the Word of the Lord came to the Old Prophet, with a terrible message to the disobedient man.

"Forasmuch as thou hast disobeyed the Lord, and hast not kept the Commandment which the Lord thy God commanded thee . . . thy carcase shall not come to be buried in the sepulchre of thy fathers."

So the Old Prophet gave the message, and he sorrowfully saddled the ass of the disobedient Prophet, and sent him forth on his return journey. But very soon a lion met him in the way, and slew him; and his body lay by the roadside, and the lion and the ass stood by, but the lion did not eat either of them.

By and by people passed that way, and they hastened to the city to tell what they had seen.

Then the Old Prophet told his sons to saddle his ass, and he hurried along the road until he came to the spot where the dead Prophet lay. And he found all as he had been told, and saw that the Lord had not allowed the lion to touch the dead man, or the ass.

Then the old man laid the body of the Prophet on his ass, and brought him back to bury him in his own grave; and he mourned bitterly for him, for he knew he had tempted him, and had been the cause of his death.

He charged his sons, that when he came to die, they were to bury him in the same grave with the Prophet; and he added a solemn assurance that the words of God which the Prophet had uttered against King Jeroboam's altar in Bethel, and against the other idolatrous places which he had built, should surely come to pass.

All this was literally fulfilled three hundred years after, in the reign of Josiah, the good young King. We read the account of it in three verses in 2 Kings 23.15-18.

But King Jeroboam, knowing of this Prophecy, remembering as he must that his withered hand had been healed by God, did not set his heart to seek God and to find forgiveness.

He went on in his evil ways all his life, until at length we read in the Bible the name by which he was known after his death, "Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin."

The God who commands will enable us to obey. Let us seek Him with all our hearts: let us learn His will in the Bible, and then the promise to each one of us will come true—

XXVI. THE LORD ANSWERS ELIJAH BY FIRE

THEN after a long time, the word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year of the famine, saying to him, "Go, show thyself to Ahab; and I will send rain upon the earth."

So Elijah went back from Zarephath, and came down to Samaria to show himself to Ahab; and the famine was very sore there.

Ahab had a trusted servant called Obadiah, who was governor of his house; and this man "feared the Lord greatly."

That meant, he did that which would please God, and earnestly obeyed Him in all things. Once, when the wicked queen, Jezebel, tried to kill all the Prophets of the Lord, Obadiah took fifty of them and hid them in a cave, and fed them with bread and water, and so saved their lives.

So because the famine was very terrible in Samaria, Ahab called Obadiah, and told him that they would both go out into the country with the horses and mules and find all the brooks and streams that were left, where a little grass might be growing, to save the horses alive.

Ahab went one way and Obadiah another, and as Obadiah was seeking for water, he met Elijah, who was on his way to Ahab, as the Lord had told him. When Obadiah saw him, he bowed himself to the earth before God's Prophet; and then Elijah said, "Go and tell thy lord that Elijah is here."

Obadiah hesitated very much to carry this message, as he was afraid that the Spirit of the Lord might carry Elijah away, so that he could not be found. He reminded Elijah that he had "feared the Lord" since he was a child, but that Ahab would certainly slay him if he carried such a message to him as that!

Then Elijah promised him, that he would surely show himself to Ahab that very day.

And Elijah answered, "It is thou and thy father's house that have troubled Israel, because ye have forsaken the Lord's commandments and have worshipped Baal!"

Then he told Ahab to gather together the people, and all the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal, and the four hundred prophets of the grove, who sat down daily at Jezebel's table, and to take them to Mount Carmel, and meet him there.

So a number of the people, and all the prophets of Baal, came together to Mount Carmel.

And Elijah came to the people, and he said, "How long do you mean to halt between two opinions? If the LORD be God, follow Him! but if Baal, then follow him."

Then Elijah said, "I am the only Prophet of the Lord, and Baal's prophets are four hundred and fifty. Let them therefore give us two bullocks, and let them choose one for themselves and slay it, and dress it, and put it on the altar, with no fire under."

"And I will slay and dress the other bullock, and put it on the altar, and put no fire under. And the God that answereth by fire, let Him be God!"

So the priests of Baal took their bullock and did as Elijah had said; and they cried unto the name of their god from morning until noon, saying, "O Baal, hear us!"

But there was no voice nor any that answered. And they leaped upon the Altar which was made.

Then Elijah mocked them, and told them to cry aloud, as their god was talking, or on a journey, or asleep, and must be awaked! And they cried aloud, and cut themselves with knives. And thus they went on till the time of the evening sacrifice. But there was neither voice, nor any to answer, nor any that regarded.

And he repaired the Altar of the Lord that was broken down, and built it up with twelve stones for the twelve tribes of Israel; and he cut a deep trench round the Altar, and put the wood in order, and cut the bullock in pieces and laid him on the wood.

Then he told the men to fill four barrels with water, and to pour it on the burnt sacrifice and on the wood; and this he ordered to be done three times, so that the water ran all about the Altar; and he filled the trench with water.

Elijah knew what his God, Jehovah, was going to do, and what a glorious ending there would be!

So at the time of the evening sacrifice Elijah drew near to the Altar and prayed: and he said, "Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that Thou art God . . . and that I am Thy servant, and that I have done all these things at Thy word."

"Then the fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench."

"And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces: and they said, The Lord, He is the God; the Lord, He is the God!"

"And Elijah said unto them, Take the prophets of Baal, let not one of them escape! And they took them and brought them down to the brook Kishon." And they were all killed. The children of Israel had acknowledged their God at last!

Then Elijah turned to Ahab the king, who, like the people, had cast himself in awe and reverence upon the ground. And he said to Ahab, "Arise, and eat, for there is a sound of abundance of rain!"

XXVII. JOSHUA'S COURAGE

After the death of Moses, when the Lord, Himself, had buried His faithful servant, the Lord came to Joshua and told him that he was to be the one who should lead the Children of Israel into the Promised Land.

He shared the glorious triumph when the Children of Israel were brought out of Egypt; and soon after that, Moses chose Joshua to lead the people to fight against Amalek.

Next we hear of him as the trusted servant (or minister, as it is called in the Bible), who went up with Moses to the Mountain called Sinai, when Moses received the Ten Commandments from God.

Joshua did not go all the way with Moses, but waited somewhere on the mountain till Moses should come down from talking with the Holy God.

And as they went down again, it was he who saw the Children of Israel worshipping the golden calf below.

Next, Joshua was one of the twelve spies who were sent to search out the Land; and you will doubtless remember that ten of these spies brought a bad report, and only two of them, Caleb and Joshua, brought a good report.

He trusted God with all his heart, and the Lord was his sure Refuge and constant Helper.

And it is very wonderful to remember, that among the Israelitish men who came out of Egypt and wandered in the Wilderness for forty years, the only two who entered the Promised Land were Caleb and Joshua, the two faithful spies! All the rest of the Israelitish men who came out of Egypt died in the Wilderness for their disobedience, and only their children entered the Promised Land.

So as I said, the Lord came and spoke to Joshua, and told him he was to lead the people into the Land of Canaan.

One day soon after this, Joshua sent two spies to bring back word what kind of a land it was which he had to conquer. When they came to Jericho they came to the house of a woman named Rahab, and lodged there.

But the King of Jericho heard of it, and sent to Rahab to give up the men to be killed.

But Rahab had heard of all the wonders that the Lord had done for His people, in bringing them out of Egypt; how He had dried the Red Sea for the people to pass over, and of other great victories; and instead of giving up those two Israelites to the King of Jericho, she quickly hid them on the flat roof of her house, under a lot of flax stalks, and when the messengers from the King came, they did not find them, and Rahab told the King's soldiers that they had better seek the men on the road to Jordan, as quickly as they could.

So the King's men went away to look for them, and the City gates were shut, and all was quiet again.

Then Rahab went up to the roof and told the spies that they must escape at once; and she begged them to promise her faithfully, that when God had given them the Victory, which she was sure He would do, that they would save her life.

So the men told her to bind a scarlet cord in her window which was on the outer wall, that they might recognise the place; and she let them down in the night through this window, and they got away.

All this the men faithfully carried out, and we read in the 11th of Hebrews, written nearly 1500 years after, that it was by faith that Rahab saved the spies, and by this saved her own life too.

God loves for us to have faith in Him! And it was this faith in God which made Joshua courageous all his life.

So Joshua and the people crossed the Jordan and entered into the Land, and came to Jericho; and one day when Joshua was standing viewing the strength of the City, suddenly he found Someone by him with a drawn sword in His hand.

So Joshua went to him at once, and asked "if he were going to fight for the Israelites or for their enemies?"

Then Joshua fell on his face and worshipped, for he knew that this was the Lord Who was speaking to him, and Who had taken the Supreme Command!

No wonder that when Joshua was old, and knew he was going to die, that he called all the Israelites together, and rehearsed all the wonderful doings of the Lord; and that he begged them with all his strength to serve and obey the Lord with all their hearts.

And Joshua set up a great Stone to be a Witness to them, that they had promised to love and obey God; and he said the Stone would remind them, lest they should forget their promise and turn back from serving God.

So the Israelites promised to be faithful, and while the elders who outlived Joshua were alive, they did follow the Lord. But after a time they began to forget, and this brought a great deal of sorrow upon them.

Perhaps you think within yourselves, "I should like to obey God, and follow Him! I wonder how I could begin?"

Think of Joshua. He followed the Lord wholly—which meant with all his heart. That was the first thing. So you can pray, "Take my heart, Lord Jesus, and help me to follow Thee!"

Then he obeyed whatever God told him to do. And whatever Command you find in the Bible, as shewing you God's Will—do it!

XXVIII. THE FIERY FURNACE

NEBUCHADNEZZAR'S dream of the Great Image had been explained to him by Daniel and his three companions; but the king soon forgot the wonderful interpretation which God had sent him, containing such an unfolding of the future which, in due time, has come to pass.

One great dynasty after another—Babylon, the Medes and Persians, Greece, and Rome, have arisen and passed away, till at length, up to now, only the Feet of the Vision of the Great Image wait to be accomplished.

And when history shows us that all has been fulfilled except the Feet of iron and clay, we know that we must be very near to the coming of the Wonderful Stone, which by and by is to fill the whole earth.

You will some of you understand what I mean when I say that this is Symbolical language. That means, that it is a picture of Heavenly Things which is to teach us about earthly things.

That Stone is a symbol of our Lord Jesus Christ when He comes back from Heaven to reign over the whole earth. We read in the seventh chapter of Daniel these words: "I saw in the night Visions, and behold one like the Son of man came with the clouds of Heaven . . . and there was given Him dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all people, nations and languages should serve Him: His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed."

King Nebuchadnezzar remembered the part of his dream of the Great Image that applied to himself—he knew he was the head of gold.

This probably made him think of making a real image, and setting it up in the plain of Dura for every one to worship.

So the heralds went forth and told the people that at the sound of any musical instrument they were instantly to fall down and worship the Golden Image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up.

And in order to force compliance, this mighty king made a terrible threat, that whoever refused to worship it, should be cast into a burning fiery furnace.

The most mighty men in his army were to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

But the Chaldeans, who were very jealous that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego had been set up over the affairs of the kingdom, came near and told Nebuchadnezzar that the Jews refused to bow down and worship the Golden Image which he had set up.

Then Nebuchadnezzar in his rage and fury commanded to bring Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego before him.

So he asked them: "Is it true that you will not worship the Golden Image which I have set up? If you are ready to worship, well; but if not, you shall be cast the same hour into the midst of the fiery furnace. And who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hand?"

But the three young men were strong in the might of their God, and they answered—

"We are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us out of thine hand, O King. But if not, be it known unto thee, O King, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the Golden Image which thou hast set up."

Then Nebuchadnezzar was full of fury, and he ordered that they should heat the furnace seven times hotter than usual, and that the most mighty men in his army were to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and to cast them into the fiery furnace.

And because the king's command was urgent and the furnace exceeding hot, the flames killed the men who had to throw Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego into the fire.

The king was watching the dreadful scene; but suddenly a great fear shook him, and he turned to his counsellors with the question, "Did not we cast three men, bound, into the fire?"

Then King Nebuchadnezzar said: "Lo! I see four men, loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God."

Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the mouth of the furnace, and he said: "Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come forth and come hither!"

And the Princes, Governors, and Captains, and the King's Counsellors, who were gathered together watching, saw these men upon whom the fire had no power; nor was a hair of their heads singed, neither were their coats changed, nor the smell of fire had passed on them.

Then Nebuchadnezzar spake and said: "Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, Who hath sent His angel and delivered His servants who trusted in Him, and have changed the king's word, and yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god except their own God."

So Nebuchadnezzar made another decree, that if any one said anything against the God of these three young men, he should be cut in pieces and his house destroyed—"because there is no other god that can deliver after this sort."

And the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon.

This is a glorious chapter of one of the greatest deliverances of the Bible; and there are plenty more!

XXIX. QUEEN ESTHER'S REQUEST

ESTHER was a very beautiful girl, and Ahasuerus the great King of the Medes and Persians chose her to be his Queen, and he loved her very much.

She belonged to the people of God, called the Jews, who had been carried away captives from Palestine, and were now living in Persia.

Among these Jews was a man called Mordecai, who was much respected for his goodness, and he sat in the King's Gate.

When Esther's father and mother died, Mordecai took the little girl and brought her up as his own daughter. He taught her about God, and Esther was very obedient, and loved Mordecai very dearly.

Then Esther was made Queen, and things went on peacefully; until one day Mordecai heard that there was a plot forming to kill King Ahasuerus. He at once secretly told Esther, and she told the King; and the two conspirators were both hanged. But the King forgot to thank Mordecai, though it was written down in the Chronicles of the Kingdom.

About that time the King took a great fancy to a man called Haman, who hated the Jews, and especially Mordecai, because he did not bow down to him when he passed.

So Haman obtained leave from the King to fix a day when all the Jews should be killed in the whole Kingdom.

But the City Shushan was much perplexed; for they knew, though the King did not, that his beloved Queen was a Jewess!

When Mordecai found out all that was happening, he was bitterly grieved, and sent an urgent message to Esther, and implored her to go in and tell the King, and beg him to spare her people.

But Queen Esther sent back a message to Mordecai, to remind him that if anyone ventured to go in to the King's inner Court, that person would certainly be put to death unless the King should hold out his Golden Sceptre.

So Mordecai sent another urgent message to tell Esther that perhaps she had come to be Queen, to do this very thing. But if she did nothing, then she and all the Jews would perish!

Then Queen Esther begged Mordecai to gather all the Jews together who were in Shushan, and to bid them fast and pray for three days; and she and her maidens would fast too; and at the end of that time, she said, "I will go in to the King, which is not according to the law, and if I perish, I perish."

Esther was brave because she knew that she had God on her side; and she believed that He would answer the prayers they were all offering up.

So on the third day Queen Esther put on her Royal robes, and went into the Inner Court and stood before the King.

When King Ahasuerus saw his beautiful young Queen standing there so meekly, he held out the Golden Sceptre which was in his hand. And she drew near and touched the top of the sceptre.

And when he asked her what request she had to make, the King must have been astonished at her reply, for she only asked that the King and Haman should come to a banquet which she had prepared for them. So when they came to the Banquet, the King asked the Queen again what her petition was? And she said if the King and Haman would come to a Banquet with her, again to-morrow, she would then tell the King what her request was.

So Haman went out from Queen Esther's Banquet very proud; and he told his wife and his friends of his second invitation, but he said that nothing was any pleasure to him, so long as Mordecai, the Jew, sat in the King's Gate.

Then his wife and his friends advised him to make a gallows fifty feet high, and to get the King to let him hang Mordecai on it.

But that night the King could not sleep, and one of his servants fetched a roll of the Chronicles of the Kingdom, and he read to him how Mordecai had once saved the King's life.

And in the morning the King asked Haman what would be suitable to do to "the man that the King delighted to honour?"

But Haman little thought that when he proposed to set the man on the King's own horse, dressed in the King's Royal clothes, that it would be Mordecai who was to be honoured, and not himself!

But the King told Haman to lead Mordecai round the town, and to proclaim: "Thus shall it be done to the man whom the King delighteth to honour."

After this Haman went to the Banquet that Esther had prepared. He little knew what the Queen's request was going to be! For Esther told the King that a great plot had been made to destroy her and all her people, and that this wicked Haman was the one who had planned it all!

You can picture the anger of the King, and when he was told of the gallows which Haman had prepared for Mordecai, he ordered that Haman should be hanged there at once.

Then the Queen begged that letters might be sent to stop all the Jews being killed, and Ahasuerus sent urgent posts on mules and horses and swift dromedaries to tell the Jews that they might stand up for their lives, and destroy any enemies who rose up against them.

Thus God answered the prayers of that young Queen and her maidens, and of the Jews who joined with her in fasting and praying, and sent them a great deliverance, the remembrance of which has been handed down from generation to generation ever since.

XXX. A GREAT RAIN, AND A TIRED PROPHET

So Ahab ate and drank—but Elijah went up to the top of Carmel, and cast himself upon the earth with his face between his knees, and he said to his servant: "Go up now and look towards the sea."

Then Elijah said: "Go—" seven times. And when he came back the seventh time, he said he could see a little cloud in the sky, no bigger than a man's hand.

So Elijah hurriedly sent a message to the king, to prepare his chariot, and get to his home quickly, or the rain which was coming would stop him!

And as he spoke, the heavens became black with clouds, and there was a great rain. And Ahab rode and went to Jezreel.

And the hand of the Lord was on Elijah, and he ran before Ahab's chariot, right to the entrance of Jezreel.

But when Ahab told his wife, the wicked queen, Jezebel, that all her prophets were dead, Jezebel sent a message to Elijah that she would kill him, as he had done the prophets of Baal, by that time the next day!

And now, Elijah, who had been so wonderfully strong and full of faith for this great scene, fled for his life when he heard the threat of Queen Jezebel!

Hungry, thirsty, tired-out, he fled till he had passed Beersheba, and had gone a whole day's journey into the desert, before he felt he might be safe from Jezebel! Here he cast himself under a juniper tree, and asked the Lord to let him die!

Poor Elijah! For one brief moment his faith failed him! If God had answered his prayer, Elijah would have missed the great honour of going up to Heaven in a Chariot of Fire without death at all!

It seems to me that we are encouraged to tell God everything; and then we are wise to leave the choice with Him: asking Him to do that which, in His wisdom and love, He knows to be best for us.

So the poor wearied Prophet prayed that he might die; and then overpowered with fatigue, he fell asleep. And meanwhile God was preparing for him, while he slept—as He does so often for His faithful, and sometimes faithless, children—and behold! An angel touched him, and said to him: "Arise and eat!"

And when he looked up, there was a little cake of bread, freshly baked, and a cruse of water standing ready by his pillow!

And he ate and drank; and then, still so weary that he could hardly hold up his head, he slept again!

Then the angel of the Lord came the second time and touched him, and said: "Arise and eat; because the journey is too great for thee!"

Oh, the compassion of God, Who knows just how we feel! So Elijah obeyed; and he went in the strength of that food, for forty days and forty nights, till he reached Horeb, the Mount of God, where he found a cave and lodged there.

By and by he heard a Voice from the Lord speaking to him, and it said: "What doest thou here, Elijah?"

Then Elijah said: "I have been very jealous for the Lord, but now the Children of Israel have forsaken my God, and I, even I, am the only one left, and they are going to kill me!"

Then the Lord passed by, and a great wind tore the rocks and the mountains, and there was a great earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake nor in the fire that came afterwards; and then there was a still, low voice. And when Elijah heard that voice, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood by the mouth of the cave.

Then the voice spoke to him again: "What doest thou here, Elijah?" And again Elijah said that he was the only Prophet left!

But the Lord told him that He had seven thousand Israelites who had served Him faithfully, and had never bowed down to Baal!

Then the Lord told him to go and anoint two kings; and also to anoint Elisha, the son of Shaphat, as a Prophet instead of himself.

So Elijah went to Abelmeholah, and found Elisha ploughing in the fields; and as he passed by him, he cast his mantle upon him.

Then Elisha left his oxen and ran after him, and said: "Let me go and kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow thee!"

But I think Elisha knew what the Prophet had meant by casting his mantle upon him!

So Elisha took a yoke of oxen, and with the ploughing instruments for his fire, he boiled their flesh, and gave to the famine-stricken people to eat, and then he went after Elijah and became his devoted servant.

Then many years passed on, and there were great wars between Ahab and the King of Syria.

But Ahab did not leave off his wicked ways, and at length God sent Elijah to Samaria to warn him that God's judgment would come upon him in the very spot in which he and Jezebel had sinned against Him.

I have not space to tell you here about Ahab coveting Naboth's vineyard, nor how Jezebel had Naboth killed in order that Ahab might possess it.

But God's judgments always come true, and though Ahab was killed by a chance bow-shot in a great battle, yet, as God had said by Elijah, "dogs licked up his blood" in Naboth's vineyard, which was close by the king's palace in Samaria, where the men were washing out his chariot after the battle!

XXXI. SOLOMON'S WISDOM
AND SOLOMON'S TEMPLE

Solomon loved the Lord; and when he was made king, the Lord appeared to him in a dream, and told him he might ask for anything he wanted.

And the Lord was very pleased with Solomon's choice; for he asked that God would give him an understanding heart, that he might have wisdom to rule the people over whom he reigned.

So God abundantly answered his prayer, as he was the wisest king who had ever reigned; but God gave him besides, riches and honour and everything that could make him happy. At the same time the Lord warned him to walk in His ways, and keep His commandments that it might be well with him all his days.

Then Solomon awoke from his dream; and he hastened to Jerusalem and stood before the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings to the Lord, Whom he loved and worshipped.

Very soon the young king had to use the wisdom which God had so freely given him.

As he sat with his servants and soldiers round him, ready to judge anything that was brought to him, there came two women before him to plead their cause.

"And the one woman said, 'O my Lord, I and this woman dwell in one house, and we were together; there was no stranger with us in the house, save we two in the house. And this woman's child died in the night because she overlaid it.'"

"'And she arose at midnight, and took my son from beside me, while I slept, and laid it in her bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom. And when I arose in the morning to feed my child, behold it was dead; but when I had considered it in the morning, behold it was not my son!'"

"And the other woman said, 'Nay; but the living is my son, and the dead is thy son.' And this said, 'No; but the dead is thy son, and the living is my son!' Thus they spoke before the king."

"Then said the king: 'The one saith, This is my son that liveth, and thy son is dead; and the other saith, Nay; but thy son is the dead, and my son is the living.'"

"And the king said, 'Bring me a sword.' And they brought a sword before the king."

"And the king said, 'Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the other.'"

Then the woman, who was really the mother of the living baby, said to the king, for she was heart-broken to think that her child should be killed, "O my Lord, give her the living child, and in no wise slay it!"

Then the king turned to the first woman, and gave his verdict: "Give her the living child," he said, "and in nowise slay it: she is the mother thereof!"

And all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had judged; and they saw that the wisdom of God was with him to do justice among them.

His fame spread to all the nations round about; and his wisdom exceeded all the wisdom of the East. He was the author of three thousand proverbs and many songs. He was learned in trees—from the great cedars of Lebanon to the hyssop that springs out of the wall.

He understood all about beasts and birds and insects and fishes. He knew what those words in the hundred and eleventh Psalm meant: "The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein."

By and by Hiram, King of Tyre, who had always loved David, on hearing that David's son was king, sent his servants to convey his greetings to Solomon.

Then Solomon sent back a message to Hiram, asking him to allow his servants to help him in hewing cedar trees from Lebanon, as he was purposing to build a beautiful Temple for the Lord.

He explained to Hiram that it had been in David's heart to build the Lord's House; but he had been a man of war; and though the Lord accepted the desire of David's heart, He told him that his son Solomon should be a man of peace, and should build Him a House.

But the Lord had allowed David before his death to collect a vast number of materials of all sorts, as we read in the 22nd chapter of the First Book of Chronicles.

David had employed clever masons to hew wrought and polished stones; he had prepared iron in abundance for the gates and hinges, and brass without weight.

Then Hiram sent abundance of cedar and fir trees, for as David had said, "The House that is to be builded for the Lord must be exceeding magnifical."

That is a long and a strange word, and it is only used that once in all the Bible! But it conveys this one lesson to us—that if we want God to dwell in our hearts, we must spare no pains to make them ready for His abode!

Jesus says: "If any man love Me, My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him!"

So Solomon began to build with all his heart, and such a Temple as he raised to the Lord was a glory and a joy to all beholders.

XXXII. JEHU—THE ELEVENTH KING OF ISRAEL

WE read of Jehu first in the time of Elijah, when God commissioned the Prophet to anoint Jehu as a future King of Israel, and announced that he would be used to punish Ahab and the Children of Israel for their idolatry and departure from the Lord.

For some reason which is not told us in the Bible, it was not Elijah, but Elisha, who was in the end sent to anoint Jehu. We read the story of this in the 9th chapter of the Second Book of Kings.

One day he said to one of the younger prophets with whom he lived: "Prepare yourself for a journey, and take this box of oil in your hand, and go to Ramothgilead."

"When you get there, find Jehu, the son of Nimshi, and ask him to come with you into an inner chamber away from the rest of the company, and when you are there, take the box of oil and pour it on his head, and say: 'Thus saith the Lord, I have anointed thee king over Israel.' Then open the door and flee, and do not wait a moment."

So the young man went to Ramothgilead, and when he got there he found all the captains of the host sitting round Jehu.

And when Jehu understood that the secret message was to him, he went into a private room.

So the young prophet did as Elisha bade him, and anointed Jehu king of Israel, telling him that God had appointed him to execute His judgments against the house of Ahab, and that the dogs should eat Jezebel in Jezreel, as the Prophet Elijah had told Ahab years before.

So Jehu came back amongst the other captains, and they inquired: "Why did this mad fellow come to you?"

So Jehu said he expected that they knew the errand. But they assured him they did not, and asked what the news was.

Then Jehu told them the young man's solemn message, and that he ended by saying: "Thus saith the Lord, I have anointed thee king over Israel."

Then the soldiers and those around him spread their garments for him to step on, in token that they accepted him as king, and they blew a special blast of the trumpets, saying "Jehu is King!"

So Jehu charged the soldiers that no news should be carried to Jezreel, where King Joram was lying to be healed of his wounds received in battle against Hazael, King of Syria.

Then Jehu rode in a chariot, and hastened to Jezreel, and there he found Ahaziah, King of Judah, who had come to visit the wounded king.

Now on the Tower of Jezreel there stood a watchman who told Joram: and as Jehu came fast in his chariot, Joram sent a messenger to meet him with these words: "Is it peace?"

But the watchman said: "The messenger has not returned; he came to them but has not come again. And the driving is like the driving of Jehu the son of Nimshi, for he driveth furiously."

Then Joram got into his chariot, and Ahaziah got into his, and they started to meet Jehu. But they only got as far as the vineyard of Naboth when they met Jehu face to face.

And Jehu answered: "What peace can there be so long as thy mother Jezebel and her wickedness remain?"

And Jehu took an arrow and drew the bow to its full strength, and aimed it at Joram's heart. So Joram sank down in his chariot.

Then Jehu told Bidkar his captain to throw the king's body into the field of Naboth, "for remember that when I and thou rode with Ahab his father, the Lord laid this burden upon him."

Then Jehu followed after Ahaziah and smote him, and he was carried in his chariot to Jerusalem and died there, and was buried in his own sepulchre.

So Jehu came into Jezreel, where Jezebel lived; and when she heard all that had happened, she painted her face and put ornaments on her head, and came and looked out of a window.

And as Jehu entered in at a gate she tauntingly said: "Had Zimri peace, who slew his master?"

And they threw her down, and some of her blood was sprinkled on the wall, and on the horses, and he trode her underfoot.

Then Jehu came in, and he ate and drank; and when he rose up from table he said: "Go, and see now this cursed woman, and bury her; for she is a king's daughter."

And they went to bury her, but found nothing left of her body but the skull and the feet and the palms of her hands.

"This is the Word of the Lord, which He spake by His servant Elijah the Tishbite, saying, In the portion of Jezreel shall dogs eat the flesh of Jezebel: and the carcase of Jezebel shall be as dung upon the face of the field in the portion of Jezreel: so that they shall not say, This is Jezebel."

XXXIII. A STORY OF VICTORY

The Prophet Samuel had set his heart on this first King of Israel, and he grieved terribly that the Lord had reject him. So he went down to his house and mourned over all that had happened.

But at length the Lord spoke to Samuel and He said words like these: "How long will you mourn for Saul? Take your horn of oil and go to Bethlehem, for I have provided me a king among the sons of Jesse the Bethlehemite."

So Samuel did what the Lord commanded, and took with him a heifer for a sacrifice to the Lord, and called Jesse and his sons to share in the sacrifice.

Samuel did not know which of Jesse's sons was to be the king, and as one and another passed before him, the Lord told him that He had not chosen that one.

So David was sent for, and the Lord said to Samuel: "Arise, anoint him: for this is he."

By and by the Philistines, who were enemies of Israel, gathered their armies together to battle, and Saul and the men of Israel went out to meet them; and the two armies stood on two mountain sides, opposite to each other with a valley between them, ready to begin to fight.

Then the Philistines sent out a great giant as a champion, and he defied the armies of Israel, telling them to choose one of their men to fight with him; and promising if their champion was able to kill him, then the Philistines would be their servants: but if he killed their champion, the Israelites would have to serve the Philistines.

When Saul and his soldiers heard these words, they were dismayed and greatly afraid.

And day after day for forty days, the giant came out and defied the Children of Israel.

David's father, Jesse, had three sons at the war, and one day Jesse told David to go and see how his brothers were, and to carry a present of food to the captain of their thousand.

When David got near to the trench, he found that the armies were preparing for a battle.

Then his brothers told him about the giant and his threats, and how Saul had made great promises to any one who should be brave enough to kill him.

And David said indignantly to every one he met: "Who is this Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?"

At length Saul heard of the words that David had said in the camp, and he had him brought before him; but when he saw how young he was, he told him it would be impossible for him to fight the giant.

But David said: "When I was keeping my father's sheep, there came a lion, and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock. I went after him, and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth: and when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew him . . . The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, He will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine!"

So Saul offered him some armour, but when David had tried it, he took it all off, and chose instead five smooth stones out of the brook, and with his sling in his hand, he went to meet the giant.

You can imagine that great, tall man with his heavy armour, looking down on the young and beautiful youth before him, and disdaining him!

So the giant came on and drew near to David, and he said to him: "Am I a dog, that you come to me with stones? Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the fowls of the air, and the beasts of the field!"

"Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the Name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. This day will the Lord deliver thee into mine hand! And I will smite thee, and take thine head from thee: and I will give the carcases of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and the beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. And all this assembly shall know, that the Lord saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the Lord's!"

Then he ran swiftly towards the giant, and put his hand in his bag and took out a stone and slung it, and it struck the Philistine in his forehead, so that he sank down on the ground with his face to the earth.

So David ran and stood upon the giant, and took the giant's sword from its sheath and slew the Philistine, and cut off his head.

Then the men of Israel arose and shouted, and pursued the Philistines till they reached the gates of Ekron. Then they returned and took all the spoil from the tents of their enemies.

No wonder that King David in after years wrote in the 18th Psalm: "I will love Thee, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower. I will call upon the Lord . . . so shall I be saved from mine enemies!"

XXXIV. THE GREAT FEAST

BELSHAZZAR was the last King of the Chaldeans, and though he little suspected that this was the last Feast he would ever make, the time had suddenly come when his proud reign was ended, and his enemies would be victorious.

But all this was among the hidden things of the very next day. It is only God who knows the end from the beginning, unless He makes it known to His own servants, who serve and love Him.

So it came to pass that Belshazzar made a great Feast to a thousand of his lords, and he drank wine before his lords.

While he was drinking the wine, he thought that he would show off some of the Holy Vessels, which Nebuchadnezzar had brought from God's Temple at Jerusalem.

And Belshazzar knew very well that these Vessels had been made entirely for the Service of the Great God, the King of the whole earth.

But knowing this, he went on in his profane determination to have the Vessels brought into the feast; and he and his princes, and his wives and concubines, drank wine in them, and praised their gods of gold, and of silver, and of brass, and iron, of wood and of stone.

But there fell a sudden hush on the great assembly, for without the slightest warning, there appeared the fingers of a man's hand which were writing on the plaster of the Wall, just above the candlestick of the King's Palace; and the King saw the part of the hand that wrote.

Then his face grew white with fear, and his knees trembled and smote one against another, for he could not control his terror.

So he called aloud to fetch the soothsayers, and promised, that if any one could tell him the meaning, he should be clothed in purple, and have a chain of gold, and be made the third ruler in the Kingdom.

Then all the wise men hurried in, but they could not read the writing, nor give the interpretation.

Belshazzar was very frightened. Then the Queen hastened into the Banqueting Hall, and told him not to be frightened, as there was one man in his Kingdom who could tell dark sayings, and in whom there was the spirit which, she supposed, could only come from the gods.

She little knew that this man of whom she spoke, loved and served the only True and Great God, who lives in Heaven.

So Daniel was brought in before the King, and Belshazzar asked him if he were one of the Captives whom Nebuchadnezzar had brought from Jerusalem? And the King hurried on to tell him of all the gifts which he should receive, if he could tell him the meaning of the writing.

Then Daniel answered before the King: "Let thy gifts be to thyself, and give thy rewards to another; yet I will read the writing to the King, and make known the interpretation."

Then Daniel went on to explain to the King that the God who lived in heaven had given Nebuchadnezzar a Kingdom and majesty: but when his heart was lifted up with pride, he was deposed from his throne, and he had to live with the wild beasts, till he knew that the most high God ruled in the Kingdom of men, and gave it to whomsoever He willed.

And then Daniel went on to say that Belshazzar had not humbled his heart, but had lifted up himself against the Lord of heaven, and had even taken His holy vessels to be used at the feast, and had praised the gods of silver and gold "which see not, nor hear, nor know." And Daniel added these solemn words: "And the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified."

MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN—

"This is the interpretation of the thing: MENE—God hath numbered thy kingdom and finished it."

"TEKEL—thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting."

"PERES—Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians."

Then Belshazzar commanded his servants to clothe Daniel in scarlet, and to put a chain round his neck, and make a proclamation that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom.

But in that very night, Belshazzar, the King of the Chaldeans, was slain, and Darius, the Mede, entered into the City and took the kingdom.

That writing on the wall, written more than two thousand years ago, contains a living lesson to all of us to-day.

It was God who sent that message to Belshazzar: "Thou art weighed in the balances and art found wanting." For God judges every one's life. We read in the Revelation, "There shall in no wise enter into His presence, anything that defileth."

But there is another Writing, not like the one on Belshazzar's Wall—and that is in a Book in heaven, which is called "The Lamb's Book of Life."

It is the name of each one who has come to "The Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world."

Let each one of us ask God to wash away all our sins, and to write down our name in that Book of Life.

XXXV. DANIEL IS A CAPTIVE

THE people of Israel—the Jews—had so departed from serving and obeying God, that at length, in the reign of Jehoiakim, God allowed the King of Babylon to come up against Jerusalem with a great army and to besiege it, and eventually to take the city. He carried away not only Jehoiakim, the king, but afterwards Zedekiah (whom Nebuchadnezzar had set up in Jerusalem instead of Jehoiakim), and with him, he took all the nobles who were not killed in the siege, and every smith or craftsman who might be useful in Babylon.

He carried away also the whole of the sacred and precious vessels from the Temple of God, and put them into the house of his own idol in Babylon.

Thus the city of Jerusalem and the Temple were completely destroyed; and none were left in the land but the very poorest of the people.

So now you must picture to yourselves how Nebuchadnezzar instructed his lords and officers to choose, out of the ten thousand captives whom they had brought to Babylon, all the best of the young men: all that were skilful in wisdom or clever in science, who should be brought into the king's palace and should be taught the learning and language of the Chaldeans.

These young men were given into the charge of Ashpenaz, one of the king's trusted chamberlains, and Nebuchadnezzar ordered them to be fed from the king's table, and nourished, so that at the end of three years, they should be able to stand before the king.

Now among these high-born young men were four, whose names in Judah had been Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah; but Ashpenaz named them afresh, and called them Belteshazzar, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

So you will now understand why these young men were sometimes called by one name and sometimes by another in the Book of Daniel.

When the orders came, and Daniel was told that he and his companions were to be fed with the king's food, Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with it, nor with the wine which the king drank.

The reason of this was, that the food was not prepared as the Jews' food was; for God had given them strict rules as to how their meat was to be killed; and also, the wine of these heathen kings was often offered to their idols before they tasted it themselves, and thus, in the Jews' sight, was defiled.

So Daniel spoke to Ashpenaz, and begged him earnestly to excuse him and his companions from eating the king's food.

Now God Himself, Who was watching over His servants, these captives in Babylon, had great purposes which they were to carry out, not only for the Jews, but by and by for the whole world.

But as God takes care of the little things as well as the great things, He had softened the heart of Ashpenaz, so that he tenderly loved Daniel.

And when he heard Daniel's request, he did not speak roughly to him, as those great princes generally did in those days, but explained to him how difficult it would be for him to comply with what he asked.

He told Daniel that if he did not give them the king's food, they would not look as well fed or handsome as the other captives, nor as the king would expect them to look; and if he yielded to Daniel's request, he might endanger his own head to the king! For in those days, life was of no value in the eyes of the great sovereigns. They did exactly as pleased them at the moment.

Then Daniel explained it all to Melzar, who was the man whom Ashpenaz had set over them to control these smaller matters, and asked him to "prove" them by allowing them to have only "pulse to eat, and water to drink"; and if, after ten days, they looked less well than the others who were having the rich food from the king's table, then Daniel and his friends would do what Melzar wished.

And so it proved; for at the end of ten days their countenances appeared fairer and fatter than the others did, who ate the king's meat. And Melzar took away the wine and the good food, and gave them pulse and water, as they had asked.

As for these four young men, God gave them skill to learn; and He gave Daniel the power to understand visions and dreams.

So at the end of the three years the prince of the eunuchs brought them, and a number of the other captives, in before King Nebuchadnezzar; and the king communed with them; and among them all, he found none like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. So they remained near the king, and when anything was wanted of them, they were there to do it.

The king found, when he talked with them, that their wisdom and understanding was far beyond that of any of the others, and ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in his kingdom.

These four young men, captives in a strange land, eating and drinking nothing but bread and water, were brave, faithful and obedient.

"They had set the Lord always before them." Their one aim was to please Him; and as we go on with their story, we shall see that God was with them, and enabled them to be "more than conquerors through Him Who had loved them."

XXXVI. THE SECRET IS REVEALED TO DANIEL

IN those days, dreams and their meanings were much thought of, and great kings had their soothsayers and sorcerers, their magicians and astrologers, who were always at hand to explain doubtful or hard questions, and to pretend to look into the future.

Many of them were extremely clever, and from long practice and observation, many of their answers and explanations seemed very plausible.

So when Nebuchadnezzar, the great king, had a perplexing dream, which worried him very much, he sent for these soothsayers and magicians; and they at once, of course, asked what the dream had been, so that they might furnish the interpretation.

But Nebuchadnezzar had to confess, that though the dream troubled him, he could not recall what it was!

So the magicians were greatly alarmed; as they said, no king would ask his magicians to tell the dream, as well as the interpretation!

But the king was angry and furious; and at length sent out an order that all the magicians and soothsayers in Babylon were to be destroyed.

So the decree went out that all the "wise" men, meaning astrologers and soothsayers, were to be slain: and with them, Daniel and his companions would perish!

Then Daniel with gentle wisdom, which God gave him, said to Arioch, the captain of the king's guard, who was sent out to kill the wise men: "Why is the king's decree so urgent?"

So Arioch explained to Daniel that the king wanted not only the explanation of his dream, but the dream itself! And that the magicians could not tell it.

But Daniel went in and asked the king to give him time, and he would show the king the interpretation.

Then he went to his house, and told Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, and asked them to pray to God to show them this secret, so that they and all the wise men in Babylon should not perish.

We must pause here for one moment to remember that God gives wonderful answers to "united prayer"! We see it over and over again throughout the Bible; and we see it over and over again in our own experience, when we trust Him!

He blessed the God of Heaven! He thanked Him for giving him wisdom to understand, and that He had made known what they had desired of Him.

Then Daniel went to Arioch, and told him the good news, and he brought him to the king in haste, saying: "I have found a man among the captives of Judah, who will tell you the interpretation!"

So the king said to Daniel: "Can you make known the dream, and the interpretation?"

And Daniel answered: "The secret which the king requires, the astrologers and magicians cannot answer. But there is a God in Heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to King Nebuchadnezzar what shall happen in the latter days."

And then he added: "This secret is not revealed to me for any wisdom that I have . . . but for their sakes who make this interpretation known to the king, and that the king may know the thoughts of his heart."

We see here an evidence of Daniel's humility; no wonder that God could trust him with Vision after Vision about the future, which we read in the later chapters of this wonderful Book of Daniel.

"The king saw a great Image whose brightness was excellent and his form terrible."

"The king looked at this Image till a Stone, cut without hands, smote the Image upon his feet, and brake them to pieces. Then the whole Image fell to pieces, and was scattered like chaff before the wind, and the pieces were carried away, so that they could not be found."

"And the Stone which smote the Image became a Great Mountain, and filled the whole earth."

Then Daniel went on to say: "This is the dream—and we will tell the interpretation of it."

"Thou, O King, art this head of gold! And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee; and another third kingdom of brass. And a fourth kingdom which shall be strong as iron; and the toes of the feet shall be part of iron and part of clay."

"And in the days of these kings shall the God of Heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed . . . and it shall stand for ever."

"The great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure."

Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell on his face before Daniel and said: "Your God is a God of gods, and a Lord of kings, and a Revealer of secrets!"

Then the king gave Daniel great gifts and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon, and chief of the governors over all the wise men of Babylon.

And Daniel asked the king to remember his three companions, and Nebuchadnezzar set Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego over the affairs of the province of Babylon.

But Daniel sat in the gate of the king—which was evidently a place of great honour.

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The Project Gutenberg eBook of The promised land

THE PROMISED LAND

I. THE SLAVE BOY