kingdom of Judah; the other ten tribes were called the kingdom of Israel.

These ten that rebelled, went and took for their king a young man of the name of Jeroboam. Now Rehoboam was a bad king; but Jeroboam was much worse. I will tell you how wickedly he acted. The very first thing he did, was to draw his people away from the worship of the true God, and to lead them to worship idols instead. He took two golden calves and set them up, one in Bethel, the other in Dan; which were two towns at the different ends of his kingdom; Bethel being in the south, and Dan in the north, of the kingdom of Israel. And he persuaded the people, that Jerusalem was too far off for them to go up there to worship the unseen God in his holy temple; and that, therefore, they had better worship the golden calves which he had set up; as if they were the gods that had brought them out of Egypt. Jeroboam's real reason for doing this, was that he feared that, if the people went up to Jerusalem every year to worship, they would soon have left him, and returned to their proper king; afraid, no doubt, that the sight of their beautiful temple would touch their hearts, and remind them of their sins against God and their king.

What great wickedness was this! To throw away the souls of his people for the sake of preserving his crown! Better far would it have been for Jeroboam to have lost his crown and all that he had than to have committed this great sin, for which his name has been covered with reproach and shame even in the book of God itself: for he is never afterwards spoken of in Scripture without a mention of his wick

edness; it is always "Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin."

E. Mamma, I am very sorry that the children of Israel did not keep all together, and serve God as one people, as they used to do. Are not you sorry for it, mamma?

M. Yes, my love; it is melancholy to see this people, who were descended from the patriarch Jacob, and who had for so many years formed but one great nation or family, under the particular care of heaven, now dividing among themselves, and becoming two separate kingdoms, likely to be enemies to one another. But there is no doubt that the good providence of God allowed it so to be, and that he did so partly to fulfil the threat which he had made to Solomon. You remember how he had told Solomon, that the kingdom should be taken away from his son and given to an enemy of his, because he had forsaken him in his old age, and turned away his heart after other gods. It was a great mercy in God, that he had still any patience with a people who had so often provoked him by their rebellion, and that he did not at once cut off the whole nation from his favour, and cast them away from being his people for ever.

But for David's sake was God pleased to continue the whole kingdom to Solomon, and a part of it to his children after him, because he had served God faithfully with a perfect heart.

Besides this, we must keep in mind that our Lord Jesus Christ was to be born in the family of David, and for his sake it was, far more than on David's account, that the kingdom was not allowed to go altogether out of his family. For you may remember,

how Jacob, on his death-bed, foretold that the tribe of Judah was to continue with a government of its own, until the Shiloh or Christ should appear among them.

Here, my love, I shall break off for to-night, that you may the better remember this important part of the history of the Jews.

EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY EVENING.

THE DISOBEDIENT PROPHET.

E. MAMMA, have you any thing more to tell me about that wicked Jeroboam ? Did he enjoy his crown when he got it? I do not think God would have allowed him to be a happy king.

M. No, my love; he so provoked the Almighty to anger by his great wickedness in drawing away his people to worship false gods, that the Lord brought evil upon his house. A prophet was sent expressly to tell him of his sins, and of the anger of God against them. This man of God met him at the altar of Bethel, where he was burning incense, and there he told him the message of God. But this wicked man, instead of feeling sorry for his sins, was enraged with the prophet, who declared God's anger against them, and he stretched forth his hand to seize the holy man.

Wicked, foolish man! soon was he to feel the power of that God, whom he had dared to offend. The hand which had been raised so boldly agains

his laws ? If they are not punished in this world, how dreadfully, in the world to come, will they feel the anger of the Almighty !

The prophet of whom we have been speaking had been particularly commanded by God not to stay at all in Bethel, after he had delivered his message to Jeroboam, but to hasten away from the idolatrous place, not even waiting there to refresh himself, but to return immediately by another road to the place from which he came. The prophet did not, perhaps, understand all or any of God's reasons for this command; no doubt, if he had, he would have found them wise and good, and intended even in kindness to himself.

But unfortunately he obeyed them only in part. He did indeed refuse the invitation of Jeroboam; who, thankful for his healed arm, begged the prophet to go home with him, and refresh himself, and receive a reward. Then, indeed, he answered well, saying to the king, “ If thou wilt give me half thine house, I will not go in with thee, neither will. I eat bread nor drink water in this place; for so it was charged me by the Lord.” Happy would it have been for the holy man, if he had replied thus to every one who wished to stop him on his way. But as he returned by another road to his own place, a prophet, who dwelt in Bethel, came after him, and entreated him to return home with him and eat bread, and told him that an angel had directed him to invite him to his house.

This was not true; and the man of God ought not to have been led, even by the lips of a prophet, to disobey a clear command which he had received from