it again appears, even to our limited understandings, that he was peculiarly qualified for his sublime position. Just was he found, and faithful he remained, amidst all the trials of his faith. He established the rite of circumcision, to mark his posterity, and died, bequeathing the covenant to his son, in whose personal history there is little interest; but who appears to have served God to the best of his knowledge and abilities.

By divine appointment, the youngest son of Isaac became heir of the promises; and, by a series of occurrences, in which the hand of God is every where manifest, the son of the Canaanitish shepherd was attached to the throne of Egypt, and the chosen people became many and powerful on the banks of the Nile; too powerful; for, by their rapid increase, they were likely to have become the ruling race of the land. They were dangerous to the Egyptians, and therefore it was the policy of the Pharaoh to enslave them, and, by making their religion a cause of continual suffering, to drive or seduce them from it. "A new king arose, who knew not Joseph;" that is, who was not grateful for the services he had rendered. His plan was to crush and debase his new subjects by severe and unrequited toil; and, lest this should not thin their numbers fast enough, he commanded that all the male infants of the Hebrews should be cast into the Nile. In a word that comprehends the sum of human miseries, they were slaves. Their sufferings wrung from them a cry of distress that reached the throne of Jehovah, and he raised them up a deliverer; such a man as appears but once in ages, if, indeed, more than one such man has ever appeared; a man combining the zeal of a patriot, the military qualities of a warrior, and the wisdom of a philosopher and sage. Before Moses, there were governments of men and castes; but he was the first to institute a government of laws. His genius, with the direct aid of God, suggested remedies for all the evils wherewith the Israelites were afflicted, and raised them from the abjection into which they had fallen. He led them out of bondage and formed them into a republic; he first devised that form of government to which the march of mind, after the experience of three thousand years, has brought, or is fast bringing, all civilized nations of the earth. For sixteen

hundred years, crowded with events the most calculated to extinguish the little model association he created, sixteen centuries of suffering and persecution, it existed in all its integrity, till the hour foretold for the regeneration of the human race.

God did not take the rescued Israelites directly to Canaan, probably because their long servitude had abased the character of the then existing generation, and made them comparatively ignorant or heedless of the religion of their fathers. There is strong evidence of this fact in the first books of the Pentateuch. Before they came into contact with the nations of Canaan, it was necessary that they should have such proofs of the power and protection of their God as would inspire them with confidence for the unequal strife; and they were therefore long kept in training for the duties which awaited them and the position they were to take. The moral law was given in thunder from Sinai, and the tabernacle was reared by special direction from the pillar of cloud. At the same time, they were taught the necessity and wisdom of trusting in God, by constant displays of his power and goodness. All this was not sufficient for the first generation out of Egypt; they often broke into discontent and rebellion, and therefore were they suffered to be consumed in the wilderness. And then, a new race of men had sprung up, well instructed in their religion, and, his sublime mission accomplished, Moses died. No one has raised his monument; he did that himself. What mind has so deeply graven itself upon the human mind universal as his? Whose spirit has so deeply penetrated into all modern law, all modern policy, all forms of civilized society? Since the fall of the Roman empire, there has been no political system that has not borrowed, more or less, from that of Moses. Christianity and Islamism owe their chief elements to the revelation first promulgated by him.

Joshua was the worthy successor of Moses, and completed the work planned by him. He had no appointed successor; as long as the tribes remained in peace, their perfect organization required no leader. When war broke out the case was otherwise, and different persons were appointed to meet the exigency at different times; some of them by God himself.

But, during the rule of the Judges, the tribes retrograded. They suffered from civil dissensions and wars, and from the natives of the land, whom, in disobedience to the express command of God, they had neglected to drive out. Religion did not prosper; the worship of God was neglected. Samuel restored the affairs of the nation, when at their lowest ebb; and, had he been immortal, or had his virtues been hereditary, it might have gone on prospering; but the wickedness of his sons disgusted the people, and they clamored for a king. God gave them one.

Saul's prosperity was as the morning dew. Forsaking the Lord, he was forsaken of him, and the nation shared his misfortunes. A better monarch succeeded him—wise in council, bold in battle, and sincerely pious withal. Under him, the throne may be said first truly to have been established; the empire was widely extended, and religion occupied a proper portion of the public attention under his auspices.

Solomon perfected the work of his father. During the reigns of these two monarchs, the Hebrew empire reached its zenith, enjoying a degree of prosperity and commanding an extent of territory unknown at any former period of its history. The people enterprising and industrious -the land richly cultivated foreign foes held in abeyance—justice dispensed with an even hand — all the legitimate wants of the people supplied want and disease almost unknown the twelve tribes linked together in the bonds of a common brotherhood, and placed under one compact and wisely-administered government - but, above all, the worship of Jehovah, and the pompous ceremonial with which it was celebrated-established the. Hebrew empire in the respect and admiration of surrounding nations, and made it the most powerful and flourishing monarchy in Western Asia. The conquests of David had greatly extended the kingdom, and produced a salutary awe on the neighboring nations; consequently, the reign of Solomon was peaceable. The predominant tribe of Judah lay as a lion which no one ventured to rouse up. (Gen. Ixix. 9. Numb. xxiii. 24; xxiv. 9.) From the Mediterranean Sea to the Euphrates, from the river of Egypt and the Elanitic Gulf to Berytus, Hamath,

and Thapsacus, and eastward to the Hagarenes on the Persian Gulf- all were subject to the sway of Solomon. The warlike and civilized Philistines, the Edomites, Moabites, and Ammonites, the nomadic Arabians of the desert, and the Syrians of Damascus, were all tributary to him. The encouragement given to commerce, and the enterprising spirit of Solomon brought immense wealth into the country; and the arts and sciences were patronized and fostered by him. Many foreigners, and even sovereign princes, were attracted to Jerusalem to see and converse with its illustrious monarch. (1 Kings v. 9—14; x. 1—13.) The good order observable in all departments of the state the systematic despatch of public business the arrangements for security from foreign and domestic enemies the splendid equipage and retinue of the king the pomp and etiquette of his court- the army, the cavalry, the armories, the chariots, the palaces, the temple, the priesthood, and the effective administration of civil and ecclesiastical affairs, excited as much admiration as the wisdom and learning of the Jewish monarch. But these days were not to last long. Intestine feuds-foreign wars -the oppression and misrule of tyrannical princes—the idolatry and wickedness of the people, consummated by the rejection of the Messiah, involved them in a series of calamities, through a period of more than 900 years, to which history furnishes no parallel.

At the death of Solomon, the empire suffered a fearful paralysis. The rulers assembled at Shechem, the capital of the powerful tribe of Joseph, which had always been the jealous rival of Judah. They represented to Rehoboam, the heir to the throne, that the people were groaning under a weight of taxation, and wished to stipulate with him, that he should alleviate the burdens which Solomon, his father, had imposed upon them. Rehoboam required three days to deliberate on their proposal; and, at the expiration of that time, instead of granting their request, as the older and more prudent of his counsellors urged him to do, he rashly refused, and threatened to lay on them a heavier yoke, and to govern them in a more arbitrary manner than his father had done. This brought on the national crisis; ten of the tribes renounced their allegiance, and erected them

selves into a separate kingdom under Jeroboam, the son of Nebat. The tribes of Benjamin and Judah, adhering to Rehoboam, formed what was afterwards called the kingdom of Judah, and of which Jerusalem was the metropolis. Jeroboam ruled over ten tribes, together with all the tributary nations as far as the Euphrates; and this was now called the kingdom of Israel. The kingdom of Judah comprised all the southern parts of the land, including the allotments of Benjamin and Judah, together with so much of the territories of Dan and Simeon as were intermixed with that of Judah. To this division also belonged Philistia and Edom; but the whole of the territory which now constituted the kingdom of Judah scarcely amounted to a fourth part of the dominions of Solomon.

It is remarkable that the kingdom of Israel had not so much as one pious king. The curse of Heaven followed the revolted tribes, and the kingdom they had set up, monarchs and people, were alike degenerate. Having departed from God, they were abandoned to idolatry and the worst of vices; and of nineteen kings who reigned in Israel, from Jeroboam, the first, to Hoshea, the last, the Scripture character appended to each is, that "he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, and departed not from the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who caused Israel to sin." The accumulated calamities that befell them in consequence of their crimes, failed to effect a general and permanent reformation. The impression produced by the repeated judgments of Jehovah was fitful as the morning cloud, and transient as the early dew. At length, in the reign of Hoshea, the measure of their iniquities being full, the wrath of an offended God came upon them to the uttermost, and they were given as a prey to the Assyrians. Hoshea, though not in all respects so degenerate as his predecessors, made no stand against idolatry; and his kingdom had been so rent and weakened by intestine broils during the nine years of anarchy that preceded his accession to the throne, that he was unable to withstand the Assyrian power. When, therefore, Shalmaneser invaded him, he was obliged to become tributary; but, about five years after, he imprudently attempted to shake off the yoke, and regain his independence. For this purpose, he formed au