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THE FALL OF JUDAH.

"The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold,
And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold;
And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea,
When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.

"Like the leaves of the forest when summer is green,
That host with their banners at sunset were seen;
Like the leaves of the forest when autumn hath blown,
That host on the morrow lay wither'd and strewn.

"For the angel of death spread his wings on the blast,
And breath'd on the face of the foe as he pass'd,
And the eyes of the sleepers wax'd deadly and chill,
And their hearts but once heav'd and for ever grew still.

"And there lay the steed with his nostril all wide,
But through it there roll'd not the breath of his pride;
And the foam of his gasping lay white on the turf,
And cold as the spray of the rock-beating surf.

"And there lay the rider, distorted and pale,

With the dew on his brow, and the rust on his mail;
And the tents were all silent, the banners alone,
The lances unlifted, the trumpet unblown.

"And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail,
And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal;
And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword,
Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord."

BYRON.

NEXT evening, when we had taken our usual places, one of us-I do not recollect who it was-asked grand

father how many years the ten tribes of Israel were governed by kings of their own.

Grandfather. For two hundred and fifty-four years. In the year of the world 3029 they revolted from the house of David, and chose Jeroboam for their king. In the year 3283 Shalmaneser carried them into captivity. He does not seem to have supplied the land with inhabitants in their place, at least it was thinly peopled until the time of Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, who sent colonies there from different parts of his dominions. These colonists were idolatrous people. Some of them worshipped the sun, some worshipped the lower animals, or images in the shape of them; some had gods in the form of a pillar, and some in human likeness ; others kept fire continually burning on their altars, to which they did homage. Vile deities these were, and vilely were they served. The poor ignorant people took their own children and burned them in the fire, and things even more abominable still they did in honour of their gods. Because of their wicked idolatrous practices, the Lord sent lions into Samaria, who killed some of them.

Marianne. Why did lions come among them? They did not know any better. The Israelites did know better, and no lions annoyed them, though they worshipped idols.

Grandfather. True, they did, but not like these people. They professed to regard the God of their fathers, though they did not worship Him as they ought.

The idols they looked on as something between them and Jehovah. These nations who now inhabited Samaria were entirely ignorant of the true God, and shewed their ignorance by speaking of Him as the God of the land. They sent to tell the king what a grievance the lions were to them—what terror they kept them in-and what havock they had done. They said that they knew these lions had come upon them because they knew not how to serve the God of the land. They wished the king to send a priest to teach them to worship him. Here was a people sunk in debasing idolatry seeking to be instructed in the truth. Let us learn from them to value the instruction with which we are favoured, and try to extend the knowledge of the true God to those who as yet know Him not. The king of Aspeople, sent a cap

syria, agreeably to the request of his tive priest to teach the Samaritans to worship the God of Israel. They attended to the teaching, and did homage to the Lord, but not as to the one living and true God. They worshipped him along with their own false gods. It was long before their idolatry was entirely overthrown, but in the end it was so. Two hundred years after, the Samaritans no longer worshipped idols. Josephus tells us that when the Jews were prosperous these people claimed kindred with them, but they were careful to deny all connection with them when they were in a low state.

Marianne. That is very bad, if it is true. Are there any of these people now?

Grandfather. There are very few, only two or three hundred people like the Jews, they worship in the synagogue every Sabbath day.

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George. I have been expecting a battle. It is long in coming to-night.

Grandfather. We have come now to war. In the fourteenth year of Hezekiah, son of Ahaz and king of Judah, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, came up against him, and took the walled towns. Hezekiah, in great fear, sent to offer to pay anything the king of Assyria might ask. Sennacherib demanded three hundred talents of silver, and thirty talents of gold, which is nearly two hundred thousand pounds in our money. To raise this large sum Hezekiah was obliged not only to take all the treasure out of the temple, but even to take the gold plates off the doors and the pillars.

Marianne. Then Hezekiah had been a bad man, when he stripped the temple of its gold.

Grandfather. He was not a bad man. He was one of the best kings that ever reigned in Judah. He purged the land of idolatry, and caused all the people to come up to Jerusalem to worship. The character given of him by the sacred historian is this-"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, for he clave to the Lord, and departed not from following Him, but kept His commandments which the Lord commanded Moses."

Marianne. Why then did he take the gold and silver

out of the temple, and why were the Assyrians allowed to come against him?

Grandfather. The gold that he had taken off the doors and pillars of the temple he himself had put on, and he would intend to restore it when the means were in his power. As to why the Assyrians were suffered to come against him, trouble, we know, sometimes comes on those who sincerely seek God, that their faith may be strengthened, and their hearts purified. Yet we may regard the invasion of the Assyrians as a punishment on the king of Judah, who, a short time before, had displeased the Lord by ostentation, of which you will read an account afterwards; and a punishment, too, on the people of Judah, who, though they were obliged outwardly to appear devoted to the true God, still loved idols in their hearts. The Assyrian who came against them was a rod in the hand of God to punish a hypocritical nation, as Isaiah tells us.

George. Well, did Sennacherib take the bribe and go away?

Grandfather. He took the bribe certainly, but he did not go away. Hezekiah made himself poorer, but not safer, by parting with his gold. Sennacherib sent a large army, under three of his generals, to complete the conquest of Judah. Hezekiah held a council, and it was agreed to prepare for defence. They repaired the walls of the city-made weapons of war, darts and shields, in abundance-enrolled the people-and instructed them in military operations. Besides, to annoy the

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