where they were; which led the king, together with his chief captain, to solicit personally a reconciliation. “And Isaac said unto them, Wherefore are ye come unto me, seeing ye hate me?" they said "We saw certainly that the LORD was with thee, and we said, let there be an oath betwixt us and thee; and let us make a covenant with thee that thou do us no hurt."

Abraham having sojourned so long in the empire of the Chaldees, as to have given occasion to be considered a Chaldean by race, as well as by birth; we are pointedly informed that "SHEM was the father of all the children of Heber,” the head of the Hebrew nation, whose name they inherit.

Although as a Sovereign the LORD would not have acted arbitrarily in expelling the usurpers, he mercifully granted time and opportunity for their amendment, leaving the sins of an ungodly race to their own fatal reaction.

To Abraham it was intimated that he should be gathered to his fathers in peace-be buried in the Land, and that his children should be for a season in Egypt, from whence they should be delivered in the fourth generation, when "the iniquity of the Amorites" should be “full.”

When at length the LORD did conduct His people into the Land, He thus addressed them, "According to the doings of Egypt wherein ye dwelt; shall ye not do: and according to the doings of the Land of Canaan whither I bring you ; ye shall not do. Ye shall observe My statutes to keep MY ordinances, to walk therein: I AM the Lord your GOD."

After an enumeration of the evils which were to be shunned, it is added, "For all these abominations have the men of the Land done, who were before you; and their Land is defiled, and the Land being defiled, therefore do I visit the iniquity thereof upon it; and the Land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants."

Having contemplated the division of the earth into three shares, these having been appointed for the occupancy of the three sons of Noah throughout their generations, it may be asked, Had the Creator and disposer who is yet to be acknowledged as "the GOD of the whole earth," no ulterior design in reserving for some special purpose present to His foreknowledge, that vast transatlantic Hemisphere with which Christendom has but recently become acquainted?

Although not included in his design of appropriation, when the division to which allusion has been made took place, surely it was as a consequence reserved for some extraordinary emergency illustrative of the character and government of the Holy One of Israel.

Let us briefly glance at the history of the Hebrew people, after their admission to Palestine under Joshua, the successor of Moses. During the life of this faithful leader, they were loyal-hearted and blessed but after his decease and that of the generation which had been the eye-witness of so many noble manifestations of Almighty Power in their behalf their successors through the seducing wiles by which they were beset, fell into a toleration of, and compliance with the idolatrous worship and licentious manners of the surrounding nations.

This withdrawment from their National Head, who, in delivering them from the tyranny of Egypt, claimed at once their homage as their Creator, Redeemer, Guardian, and Governor, rendered the alienated people at once powerless and defenceless. Again and again, when under oppressive tribute, the spirit of their Judges was stirred up to call upon the LORD for help-but time obliterated these impressions, and new provocations called forth fresh calamities.

The rending of the Ten Tribes from the House of David, about seven hundred and forty years before the birth of the

Messiah, forms a marked epoch in the History of the Hebrews, and ought to be scrupulously attended to in all its aspects and bearings, in order that a correct estimate may be formed of subsequent and yet future events and promises which include "the outcasts of Israel," as well as the dispersed of Judah."

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The act of rending themselves in a spirit of atheistical democracy from the House of David-also separated them from the enjoined and indispensable statutes and ordinances which were part and parcel of the Theocratic Law of the Land.

The next step, for which this disloyalty to their King prepared them, was the substituting of representative objects of worship in direct violation of one of the great commands in the Law. This aggravated departure from the Fountain of Wisdom and Goodness necessarily resulted in demoralization which, in its re-action rendered them an easy conquest to the victorious Assyrian, who "plucked them up" out of the soil, transplanted them to the remote provinces of his dominion, and substituted in their stead a mingled colony from various parts of the Assyrian Empire.

Hosea, a prophet of Samaria, and belonging to the Ten Tribes, had been commissioned to warn and admonish the transgressors before their expatriation ;—fearlessly did he declare the consequences which their disloyalty was preparing for them-faithfully did he reproach their ingratitude to Him who had "been an Husband unto them" whose constant love and manifold gifts they had repaid with the basest wanderings of their heart and mind after the dumb vanities of the heathen. He is commanded to reprove and warn them by types and signs, religion having become in their minds confounded with visible representations and mediums.

An adulteress is summoned as the meet representative of their unfaithfulness. The prophet is instructed to call her first child Lo-Ruhama, signifying I will no longer have mercy.' The next was to be named Lo-Ammi,- Ye are not my people.' But, as if three millenaries were a parenthesis "a little moment," it is added:-" Yet shall the children of Israel be as the sand on the sea-shore which cannot be numbered nor measured; and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said "Ye are not my people,” it shall be said unto them "Ye are the sons of the living God," then shall the children of Judah and the children "of Israel appoint themselves one Head, and they shall come up out of the land, for great shall be the Day of Jezreel."

Their guilt is declared, their punishment is determined; but lest they should despair during that long season of banishment-and lest the nations (whose term of probation it should become) might, in the apparent success and maturity of their schemes, be induced to presume, the entail of the covenant closely follows the sentence of temporary banishment. "She was unconscious that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied the silver and gold wherewith she fabricated Baal. I will destroy her vines and fig-trees, whereof she hath said, these are my rewards which my lovers hath given me." Yet, (centuries being anticipated) it is added, "Behold, I will allure her, bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortingly unto her, and will give her from thence her vineyards, and the valley of trouble for a door of hope and she shall be disciplined there as in the days of her youth; and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt. And in that day thou shalt call ME my Husband, and shalt no more call ME my Lord, for I will take away the name of Balaam (Lord's) out of her mouth, and they shall

no more be remembered by their names: and I will betroth thee unto ME in faithfulness, and thou shalt know I am the LORD. And I will sow her unto ME in the Land, and I will have mercy upon her that had not received mercy, and I will say to those who were "not My people :”—“ My people," and they shall say "MY GOD."

To the prophet it was again said, "Go still love a woman who is beloved of her friend yet an adulteress, according to the love of the LORD toward the children of Israel, who look to other gods, and love their grape offerings." While to her it was said, "Thou shalt abide for me many days * thou shalt not be for another-so shall I also be for thee." For the children of Israel shall continue many days without King, without Ruler, without sacrifice, and without an image, and without Ephod, and without Teraphim: afterward shall the children of Israel return and seek the LORD God, and David their King, and shall fear the LORD and His goodness in the latter days."

Notwithstanding that in rending themselves from the House of David, they might be said virtually to have disclaimed and renounced the Messiah to be born from thence: they are graciously assured of their being included in the beneficent result of that atonement which (in being rejected as a Prophet,) He should make as their substitute and surety, and in the mediation which He should effect as their Advocate and Intercessor :-To which promise the prophet Isaiah thus responds, "All we like sheep have gone astray, and the LORD hath laid upon Him the iniquity of us all.”

In harmony with this testimony, the Good Shepherd declares, "Them also I must bring, and they shall hear My voice, and there shall be one FOLD and one SHEPHERD."

The adversary of the Messiah, having succeeded in tempting His degenerate people to forsake the Fountain of