Naaman, the captain of the army of the King of Syria, was afflicted with a dreadful disease called leprosy. By the advice of a little Israelite maiden, who was a captive in his house, he went to ask the help of Elisha, or rather the help of the Lord God of Israel, through Elisha's means. He was ordered to wash seven times in Jordan, and when he did this his leprosy departed from him. But I have not space here to tell you of all the great deeds Elisha did while he lived in Israel. Great indeed was the power intrusted to him by the Almighty, and nobly did he use this power to exalt the name of the Lord, until the day came when the Lord took him to Himself. Even then, some of the spirit that had been given to Elijah remained with him; for afterwards, when a dead man was interred in his sepulchre, the dead man was restored to life when his body touched the bones of the good Elisha.

A world that sin o'erclouds,

A world from grief ne'er free,
Cannot for God's own children
A rest eternal be.

No; seek a better land,

Press towards a happier home,

And set your best affections
On blessings yet to come.

THE ISRAELITES' SIN AND CAPTIVITY,

For through the anger of the Lord it came to pass in Jerusalem and Judah, until he had cast them out from his presence, that Zedekiah rebelled against the King of Babylon.

II. Kings, xxiv. 20.

It is difficult to say whether the kings of Israel or the kings of Judah were the worse, the more idolatrous, or the more entirely forgetful of the commands of the Lord. In reading their history, we here and there meet with one who was better than the rest, and who served the Lord himself, and tried to make the people obedient also; but in general the kings set the very worst example to the people, encouraging them, and in some instances compelling them to idolatry and sin.

Whenever one of the kings showed a wish to do what was right, and to obey the commands of the Almighty, we always find that the goodness and mercy of God were extended to him in a very remarkable manner. Over and over again did the Lord pardon the sin of the kings and of the people, and turn away His judgments from them when they repented; but,

alas! repentance was always of short duration, and was each time followed by a relapse into wickedness. The people seemed determined to weary out the Lord by their rebellion and evil-doing; and as the Lord had prophesied to them many years before by the mouth of Samuel, the kings whom they had so ardently desired became a curse to them instead of a blessing, until at last the Lord was weary of them and their wickedness.

One of the kings of Judah, who formed a contrast to most of the rest, was Hezekiah the son of Ahaz. The wicked Ahaz had not only been given to idolatry, but had plundered the temple of the Lord. Now Hezekiah trusted in the Lord God of Israel, and kept His commandments. He was the greatest of the kings of Judah. Therefore the Lord was with him, and caused him to prosper, and made him victorious over the Philistines, and over the Assyrians who came up against him. Sennacherib the King of Assyria came up with a mighty host, and tried to make the people revolt. Hezekiah was alarmed at this; but the great prophet Isaiah was sent to comfort him, and to tell him that Sennacherib should be put to confusion, and should fall by the sword in his own land. And this is the great destruction that came upon the Assyrian army. In the night, as they lay encamped upon the plain, the

angel of the Lord went out and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred fourscore and five thousand. In the morning they lay dead upon the plain, killed by the power of the Lord.

*

For the angel of death spread his wings on the blast,
And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed,
And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill,
And their hearts but once heaved, and for ever were still.

The tents are deserted, the banners alone,

The lances unlifted, the trumpets unblown,

And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword,
Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord.

Another time the mercy and loving-kindness of the Lord were strikingly shown to Hezekiah. The king fell sick, and Isaiah was sent to tell him that he should die; but the king prayed so earnestly that his life might be spared, that the Lord sent Isaiah again to him with the following gracious message: "Thus saith the Lord, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee: on the third day thou shalt go up unto the house of the Lord. And I will add unto thy days fifteen years; and this sign shalt thou have of the Lord. And He [the Lord] brought the shadow ten degrees back

ward by which it had gone down in the dial of Ahaz." Josiah was another king who followed the precepts of the Lord. He was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem thirty-one years. He repaired the temple of the Lord, which some of the kings had sadly neglected, and which others had even plundered. In the temple was found a book in which was written the covenant of the Lord; and the good Josiah wept and rent his clothes when he thought how the covenant of the Lord had been disregarded, and how disobedient the people had been. He caused this book to be publicly read to the people, and he solemnly burnt the vessels that had been used in the idolatrous worship of Baal. And he put down the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah, and in places round about Jerusalem, and those also that burned incense unto Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of heaven. He also made the people keep the Passover, which had been neglected during the reigns of the wicked and idolatrous kings.

As Josiah thus served the Lord with his whole heart, God delayed the great punishment which was to fall upon the rebellious people until after the death of