so frequently to a temporary servitude; as often indeed as either a pride in their own strength, or a love of Canaanitish vices, withdrew them from God, and left them exposed to Evil Powers.

In these detailed portions of the history, the mind which has once entered into the spirit of this mode of teaching, will have no difficulty in decyphering the signs in which it has been conveyed; - but in those minuter acts and shades of character, which we have omitted, for the reason already stated, greater carefulness is required. In some instances, it is shown in a single act of a whole reign. In some, the life of the monarch is comprised within a few sentences. It is then probably set forth in the good or evil tendency of his dominion. In some, it is displayed in the intervention of a prophet;—in a promise of good, or a denunciation of evil. In others, as in the cure of Naaman-the sinner healed, through faith, in the waters of truth-it is manifested in some act, extrinsic to the Jewish history; but indicative of the principle of God's Love and Providence over the Gentile, as well as over the chosen and favored race of Israel. The reader, however, will not fail to remark the singular fact, that throughout the regal government, the actors in all the events recorded are placed in continual opposition and contrast to each other. They revolve perpetually on the two centres of action - good and evil. The good monarch of Judah, is opposed to the idolatrous king of Israel. The evil Ruler of Judah, is held in contrast with the righteous prophet who is sent to reprove him. If the monarchs both of Judah and Israel combine in an alliance, so that

they form but one principle, then are they contrasted with the king of Babylon, or to the king of Syria, who stands out in a character diametrically opposed to them. It was the design of God, in the fluctuations of their history; in their occasional triumphs when obedient; in the oppression of their enemies, when in revolt against His Law; - it was His design to give instruction by these things, even to the humblest of mankind, and to the most distant generations. It was not because they were monarchs; nor because they were placed in a state, both by prophetic and miraculous agency, above that of every other nation in the world, that their acts were handed down to us; - but because they contained a system of truth within them,—a series of universal principles — which the lowest and most unlearned might for ever adopt; and appropriate as his own. Hence the continued contrast which exists in the actions of the chief men of Israel;—it is a war of principles, and even in those reigns which seem the most meagre, and the most barren of events, a sound, though secret, wisdom may sought in the opposition of the several agents.

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The grand object however on which the attention fastens itself, after the death of the early monarchs of the two kingdoms, is their Captivity. A more sublime moral spectacle has never perhaps been exhibited, than the departure of the nation from their own land in the several trains of their Heathen conquerors. The splendour of their Revelations - the presence of Deity amongst them during so many ages; their exaltation in the scale of nations, springing as they did from one solitary progenitor;

and he a stranger in the land; - their brilliant victories; - the glorious promises of which they were the heirs; -the thought of these things; and the knowledge that they had sunk into this most abject state of slavery, solely because they had forsaken their God, makes this judgment the most impressive, as it is the greatest of their history. In its figurative sense, it is the same, though on a larger and more extended scale, as the bondage under Pharaoh. The nation fallen from the Truth, has again become the emblem of the natural mind alienated from God, and subject to his wrath. The lesson, so forcibly given in the early part of their career in Egypt, was no longer remembered. They grew wanton in their prosperity; and God by a terrific stroke of his severity, again impressed on the mind of the world to all ages of its existence, that Sinning against the Light- an abuse of His divine Gifts as it is the most abhorrent in his sight, so is it the most fatal to the offender. In this state of humiliation and suffering, we might expect, in accordance with Scripture usage, that in addition to the promises of future release and consolation which God invariably poured forth to them in their adversity by the mouth of prophecy, a living type and emblem of deliverance would be presented to them; which, leading their minds to meditation on the secret counsels of God's Providence by the means of a well recognized law of revelation, would both keep alive their hopes more powerfully, and induce them to adopt, with greater care, that mode of conduct which would best conciliate his favor. We might look into the annals of the captivity, with almost a certainty of finding that

peculiar form of revelation extended to them in their distress and exile, which had spoken to them so impressively and so feelingly in the day of their prosperity. Nor should we be disappointed in our thought. In the book of Daniel are recorded two of these remarkable symbols; both of which are couched in such singular terms, that the mind the least inclined to behold the predetermined counsels of God in what it may esteem the natural and ordinary course of events, must yet, we should think, be struck with the preternatural quality of these, and at least admit the possibility of their containing higher properties within, than pertain to the common transactions of history. The first of these we dismiss with a few words. It is the dedication of the

golden image in the plain of Dura.

The golden idol is the world. The monarch who raised it, and urged all nations and languages under his dominion to worship it, stands in this transaction, in the mind and figure of Satan. The Jews, like his own subjects, having forfeited the favor of God, are in subjection to him. They are under the dominance of evil; - and are commanded to worship the idol on which Satan bases his power. Certain however of their number, Shadrach, Mesech, and Abednego, refuse to obey the command of the tyrant. Though fallen under his power by reason of their alienation from God, in their hearts they renounce the world, and in repentance and in faith pray continually for a return of the divine favor. The thing speedily becomes known to the whole kingdom. The Jews, who are equally interested with the three champions for the truth, and equally placed, for the

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time, under the tyranny of Sin, see in it a trial of strength. The result will be a triumph or the most utter despair. God will yet have mercy upon them; will yet deliver them; - or he will leave them to their sin, and for ever renounce them. Their minds are worked up to the highest pitch of anxiety.

The trial comes. The might of Satan is exerted against the heart in reliance and in unity with God. The furnace is heated. The arm of violence is put forth. The king's own subjects are sacrificed without mercy in his hatred to the subjects of the living God. The fire slays all the instruments of his wrath. But on the objects of his hate?—It is harmless. It cannot touch them. In the spirituality of their minds they are beyond the reach of aught that is gross and material." The fire had no power, nor was an hair of their head singed; neither were their coats changed, nor had the smell of fire passed on them."* Nay more than this; no sooner had his arm been stretched forth against them; - no sooner had they been thrown into the furnace of trial and persecution for conscience sake, than a fourth form was added to their number, sustaining, and comforting, and delivering them; -" and the form of the fourth was like THE SON OF GOD." A symbol of such simplicity need not delay us. It speaks for itself. The king, astonished and alarmed, confessed at once a Power Superior to his own. The spirit of the Jews revived. It spoke home to their inmost feelings. The decree went forth that the God of Israel was the One true God; and religious

* Dan. iii. 27.

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